Top 5 Inbound Marketing Articles of the Week: Blogger Frustration

Our top inbound marketing article this week refers to the affliction as blogging frustration, and it's what keeps bloggers far and wide unable to think of fresh ideas for new blog articles ...

1. Blogging Frustration! 10 Simple Tip to Keep You From RIPPING Your Hair Out

Author: Mark Hayward on Problogger

Because those who blog consistently are constantly pressured to come up with fresh content, it's no surprise that frustration is a common blogger emotion. Mark's article understands this well and offers 10 useful tips to help bloggers deal, relax and then get back to the drawing board.

Some of his suggestions include avoiding panic, closing all distractions, taking a break, listening to music, exercising, and browsing blogs completely unrelated to your niche for new ideas.

Marketing Takeaway: Take a break, relax, and try new techniques to help inspire you before you start pulling out your hair from blogger frustration.

2. Decision-Making: The Lifeblood of Business

Author: Chris Brogan on OPEN Forum

Brogan's article discusses the importance of decision-making in business, specifically focusing on making decisions about online marketing . He walks readers through the types of online marketing decisions small businesses must make, from what to include on your website to which social media sites to get involved with (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) to other tools like email marketing.

Brogan also talks about his recommendations for how to split your time doing online marketing, advising 25% of your time spent on listening, 5% on connecting and 25% on publishing/creating content.

Marketing Takeaway: Take some time to think and make decisions about your online marketing programs before you start doing them.

3. 6 Pitfalls to Avoid When Choosing a Domain Name

Author: Rohit Bhargava of Influential Marketing Blog

Choosing the right domain name is important, yet Rohit writes that while most people understand its importance, many continue to fall victim to the same mistakes when choosing a URL. He urges business owners to avoid the following 6 pitfalls:

Automatically using your business name
Not reading it together without caps
Assuming the best URLs are taken
Thinking people can spell, or that they all spell the same way
Not registering common alternate versions
Failing to use relevant keywords in a URL

Marketing Takeaway: Don't underestimate the power of a carefully chosen domain name for your business.

4. Metrics to Measure Your Personal Brand

Author: Pete Kistler on Personal Branding Blog

It may not seem obvious, but personal brands are indeed important to a company's overall business brand . Want to make sure your personal brand is measuring up?

Pete offers several useful marketing metrics to help you evaluate your online visibility and engagement, which include comparing your content creation effort to leaders in your field, using various grading tools to measure your engagement, and setting goals for yourself.

Marketing Takeaway: Begin building your personal brand by starting small and setting concrete, achievable goals.

5. Does Your Company Twitter? 10 Tips to Become A Great Business "Twit"

Author: Nick Leroy on Search Engine Journal

We've written many times about the business and marketing benefits of Twitter. So maybe you've created an account -- now what? Nick's article shares several useful tips to help you generate a following and maximize your business' presence on Twitter .

Some of his words of wisdom include basics like optimizing your username, profile, image and background but also extend to advice about thinking before you tweet, not spamming your followers, being social and tweeting about more than just your business/products.

Marketing Takeaway: Successful use of Twitter involves a healthy balance of optimization, content promotion and social interaction.

Photo by Martin Kingsley