Kelly McCausey of Solo Smarts posted her top 10 blog items of 2014 and put out an end-of-year challenge to her readers to create our own Best of the Blog list. I thought it would be fun to review my blog posts of 2014, select my faves and participate. So in answer to Kelly’s challenge, I chose the posts that include tips, tricks, tools and resources for small business owners because those are the items that I write about most and what I benefit most from as a reader. So here are my favourite blog posts of 2014 that contain information to help you to simplify, save time, get organized and run your business as efficiently as possible!
First, some free business tools:
1) Don’t Waste Your Time! Here’s One Simple Tool To Help You Succeed About a simple little tool to help you stay on task.
2) Clean Up Your Messy Code With DirtyMarkup About a tool that cleans up html code when what you see isn’t always what you get.
3) Using Images To Enhance Your Articles About my fave ‘go to’ free image sites.
Next, ways to reduce stress and save time:
4) Inbox Zero: Less Stress, Guaranteed How to deal with too many emails and how freeing “inbox zero” can be.
5) Where Does The Time Go? Identifying And Dealing With Your Time Wasters How to find out where your time is going and get control of it.
Some inspiration and tips for writers:
6) 5 Easy Ways To Come Up With Article Ideas Where to get ideas for articles.
7) Fast Article Writing: Tips For Getting Your Content Ready Under A Deadline How to get content written quickly.
8) Article Writing Tactics That Can Help Your Business Grow How to write valuable content.
And finally, all important networking and customer service tips:
9) The Best Time To Outreach The best and the worst times to post on social media (courtesy of online payroll service, SurePayroll )
10) Customer Service Quotations To Inspire And Motivate 50+ Free Quips, Questions, and Comments to Inspire and Motivate (courtesy of Business Training Works, Inc.)
I hope you enjoyed my ‘Top Ten’ Do you have a favourite?
Thanks for accepting my challenge Jennifer!
Wow, can’t wait to browse through those posts, looks like you have some very valuable information on your blog. I especially can’t wait to read How to Come Up with Article Ideas. Thanks for the quick links.
Thanks Karen, I hope you found some useful tips for what to write about. My favourite is to keep an “Ideas File” to pull from when I’m stuck. If you would like more tips, feel free to sign up for my ezine which is full of tips, tricks, tools & resources every month: http://tinyurl.com/HomeSweetHomeOffice
Such great tips! I really wish I could conquer my inbox problem. When my provider “upgraded” me and we spent nearly an hour on the phone getting my emails to show up, all my emails were lost! I was sure that was my turning point but I’ve got too many “important, must be saved” messages in my inbox again. Love the timer tip.
Thanks for visiting and commenting, Beth. I know for me the inbox is an ongoing struggle for me & my clients which is why I’m always researching and sharing new tips & tricks I find. And like you, sometimes inbox zero just ‘happens’ and it’s out of our control. Hopefully with the timer tip you can keep the numbers down!
Love the customer service piece. If only more business people took it seriously. I had a disappointing run-in recently with a vendor. I mean “former vendor.” As a result of that experience, I took my business elsewhere.
Hi Jackie, Thanks for your comments. It proves that bad customer service doesn’t pay. Not only will you no longer do business with your former vendor, you will also not recommend them.
Thanks for sharing all the great favourite posts with so many valuable ideas and tips, Kelly. Having explore a lot of free image sites, I still love Pixabay the best. And just last night, a friend I hadn’t seen in a year offered me an idea he was interested in as a possible blog topic. Ideas and resources as everywhere, and as a writer, I am constantly listening and reading and finding interesting tidbits that don’t seemingly go together, however, always seem to for me. Look forward to checking out more of your resources and appreciate all the valuable info you shared in this post!
Hi Beverley, Thanks for your comments. Yes, I really love Pixabay too! I’m just compiling a new updated list of my fav free image sites and it’s still one of them, plus adding a few new tidbits about images for a future article in my ezine/blog post. This came as a result of a VA on my clients team needing more image resources for a project. Article ideas are everywhere. I find it helpful to keep an “Ideas File” to pull from for those times when I’m stuck with what to write about. If you would like more tips, feel free to sign up for my ezine which is full of tips, tricks, tools & resources every month: http://tinyurl.com/HomeSweetHomeOffice
I like the idea of listing my top 10. I’ve only been blogging a year with 1 weekly and it has been an interesting journey. As I’ve gotten more comfortable, I have written on some interesting topics as they relate to jewelry. I want our readers to get a sense of who we are, our abilities and reach, not just admire our lovely necklaces.
Yes, I thought this was a great challenge to pick my top ten. It’s interesting to go back thru earlier posts and see what you’ve written about and yes, so important to put a bit of who we are into our writing as well. Thanks for commenting, Roslyn.
These are some really cool tools, Jennifer! The one that has caught my eye is the Dirty Markup tool considering that I don’t know much about coding and do like my mails to be clean. Thanks for sharing these resources.
Thanks for commenting, Vatsala! Yes, Dirty Markup is a great too. I use it regularly and it prevents a lot of glitchy issues by cleaning up code before a newsletter or email sends. If you would like more tips, feel free to sign up for my ezine which is full of tips, tricks, tools & resources every month: http://tinyurl.com/HomeSweetHomeOffice 🙂
Who doesn’t love tips, tricks, tools, and resources?
My takeaways:
Inbox Zero – I’m in the thousands category and feel completely trapped. I’m just going to have to do the delete. Amen.
Fast Article Writing. Here’s a keeper that makes total sensse,so I’m likely to follow it.
Many thanks, I’ll be back for more!
Thanks for your comments, Jane. And glad to hear you’re getting some freedom from the inbox trap! Happy writing. I find it helpful to have a format to follow when putting an article together too. Feel free to sign up for my ezine which is full of tips, tricks, tools & resources every month: http://tinyurl.com/HomeSweetHomeOffice 🙂
Wow, so many great resources in a single post. Thanks, Jennifer! I think the most interesting at this point would be the Customer Service Quotations to Inspire and Motivate. It looks like a really good one to have handy.
Thanks for your comment, Delia, Yes, for sure, our customers/clients are our business. It’s easier to retain great clients than to continually struggle to attract new ones!