Every art school student is very familiar with the the reality of peer critique. Each project comes with an opportunity to hang your work on the wall and learn what your fellow students think. As an art student, walking away from one of these critiques in tears is considered a right of passage. This isn’t always the case for a blogger.

As a blogger, peer critique is a foreign concept. We are used to writing, editing, and publishing very quickly. But what if we made peer critique a part of our normal blogging routine?

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Create beautiful Click To Tweet boxes in your blog posts.

Today we are proud to release a brand new Click To Tweet plugin for WordPress!

You may have seen this plugin before as a regular feature on our own blog posts. Now, we are pumped to be releasing it for all of the world to use. The concept is pretty simple – create beautiful Click To Tweet boxes anywhere in your blog post.

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Congratulations! You’ve been invited to write as a guest author on someone else’s blog. But easy there, tiger! Before you start typing up that perfect guest post, there are a few things you will certainly want to learn first.

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Have you ever heard of the The Furrow?

It is a customer magazine that has been published by the John Deere corporation since 1895. It is now available in more than 40 countries and in 12 different languages, and is widely considered one of the earliest examples of content marketing. The truth is, though, that that magazine was not alone when it came to content marketing.

One of the earliest examples of content marketing is The Furrow. Here is an issue from 1959.

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Hopefully, this Mother’s Day will be a celebration of mom because she’s a great parent, and not because she’s your only blog reader. While it’s great if your mom loves what you’re writing, here’s hoping she’s not your only reader. And if she seems to be?

Why is it that only mom is a loyal reader? Where are the rest of the readers?

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For a blogger, defining the competition isn’t always an easy thing to do. At first glance, it would seem we’re competing against other bloggers. More often than not, that isn’t the case. That would be far too simple. Our real competition is all of the other things that our readers could be doing. Playing games on their iPhone, watching television, or heck, even sleeping.

How do we outshine such a massive field of competition? One of the most reliable methods is to develop a sprit of learning.

Yes, learning. A spirit of learning is one of the most important tools that a blogger needs for success, and it comes in two very different froms.

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You can’t rely on luck to get your blog posts read.

We’ve talked about having a good mix on your blog, and how you should create a regular blog schedule that takes into account different types of content. This time, we’re not talking about types of content, but the way in which you write the actual post.

There are four methods of approach for any topic or content piece, and understanding how best to use these four methods can make or break your blogging (and guest blogging) career. Readers will read your blogs based on your ability to use these four methods, not on luck.

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It’s spring. The weather is warming up, people are out and about, and that can only mean one thing for homeowners in a quiet neighborhood – door-to-door salesmen.

This weekend, I was approached by the second salesman making a quick pitch for a home security system. As an entrepreneur I can respect the hustle of door to door sales, but in reality, it feels like the worst version of the cold call. It appears to miss the boat on so many levels, so why is it that it can actually work?

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Most of the information you find online regarding negative publicity is how you should respond to it if it is directed towards you. What do you do, however, if it is directed towards a competitor?

Everything is a response, now, even a non-response.

What do you do when a competitor has a stumble in the public eye?

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I’ve probably watch the video of Steve Jobs unveiling the original Macintosh a dozen times. Every time, I am still in awe of what it says about products, and the people who sell them.

The best part is almost certainly the wide grin that Steve Jobs displays at the 4:18 mark. He was busting with pride. He loved the Mac, like a father loves a son.

Isn’t this how it should be for all of us? Shouldn’t we love the things that we are selling? Shouldn’t we love our content?

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