On Monday night I braved the streets of Belgravia, getting increasing lost as I found (eventually!) my way to The Star Tavern for An Evening with Emma Jones. Organised by Julie Hall from Women Unlimited, the event was a chance to network with other female entrepreneurs and hear business tips from Emma, herself a serial entrepreneur, founder of Enterprise Nation and Bitsy, a small business market place, CEO of StartUp Britain, and author of many business books including ‘Spare Room Start Up’.

Emma has a refreshing take on business and start-ups which seeks to dismiss the 'high cost/high skill' myth of starting a business and I wanted to share three of her ideas on the blog today and how digital can help facilitate them.

1. Go Niche (or Micro-Niche)

In her years advising and talking to start-up businesses, according to Emma, the one common factor that made a business a success was having a clearly defined niche and sticking to it. She gave the example of NannyNumbers - a payroll service for nannies, a truly niche service. In discussions with the company, Emma told us that they were considering widening their reach to run payroll services for other professions but she cautioned against this. 

With a niche (or micro-niche) business, you can get your opinion out on social media easily. You can become the go-to expert or service provider in your field. With a niche, content creation becomes easier as you have a focus for your efforts. A colleague shared an excellent video with me this week on generating 40 blog post ideas in 5 minutes - easy to do with a niche!

2. Do What You Do Best, Outsource The Rest

Emma is a fan of growing businesses, but suggested an alternative to growing them in the traditional way of hiring lots of staff and paying for office space. We all know the importance of working on your business and not just in the business, but when you are up to your eyes in admin, it's hard to find the mental space to do what you do best.

With the UK in recession, the current government talk a lot about job creation, but unfortunately the red tape and requirements for hiring staff do not make it easy for small businesses to grow. A better way to work and to build and grow a business is to create flexible work for other freelancers which still contributes to the economy without the stress for the business owner.

Emma asked that we focus on what we do best in our business and outsource the rest. From products to services, there is nothing you can't outsource these days with the web. If you sell products online, why not outsource fulfilment and shipping? Instead of struggling with your bookkeeping, outsource this to an online professional. Don't have time to blog, update your Facebook page or your website? Outsource this to my freelance Digital Assistants. Need design or writing services? Try online platforms such as Elance or PeoplePerHour. Use the power of digital to have a remote team working on distinct parts of the business rather than sitting in your office costing you money

3. Go Global Early

"Focus on niche, achieve global reach". Emma Jones

The internet has shrunk the world. We can now connect with potential customers in any country and market our products and services on a global scale.

Having a defined niche or micro-niche, can help us go global faster as we can attract our true fans from a wider pool of people. Social media, Skype and easy payment systems such as PayPal, mean that we can run a global business from our kitchen table. If we start to think about our business in global terms early on, we can create new markets and a more sustainable business in the long term.

Thanks to Emma and Julie for a wonderfully inspiring evening. If you are interested in finding out more about Women Unlimited and their Moxie Business Club, do have a look at their website today.

[image with thanks to fsse8info via CC]

The beginning of the week saw me in Glasgow speaking on a panel at the Independent Street Arts Network biennial conference. The theme of the conference, Resilience and Brilliance reflected the challenges that the outdoor arts sector (performance work that takes place outside traditional theatre spaces) is facing with Arts Council and Local Authority funding cuts, but also the exciting opportunities for the sector with London 2012 fast approaching and growing interest in the artforms.

I was speaking on a panel about Being Resilient and of course took my starting point, how producers and artists working in outdoor arts can use technology to be both resilient and brilliant, and I wanted to share some of those thoughts on the blog today.

Being Resilient

The arts sector as a whole is going through tough times. The main funders of the sector, Arts Council England and Local Authorities have faced significant cuts from central government which in turn has affected the support extended to the sector. Many outdoor arts festivals around the UK have either been shelved entirely or lost a great percentage of their funding as Councils are under pressure to cut non-essential services. In these tough times, arts organisations need to be as resilient as possible.

Three areas where technology can help arts organisations ‘be resilient’ and save costs are: cloud computing, working environments, and people.

The lack of knowledge about current IT solutions in smaller arts organisations can end up costing the organisation money but also time. Cloud computing is becoming more ubiquitous in the commercial sector with organisations as big as GM moving their systems from local, server based setups to the cloud using Google Apps. Arts organisations should consider moving systems to the cloud using applications such as Gmail, Dropbox and online CRM systems such as Highrise which can result in significant cost savings and nearly no downtime.

Office space, business rates and utility bills can be a substantial part of a smaller arts organisation’s annual budget. However, today’s employees increasingly want to work flexibly, either from home or from shared co-working spaces. Companies in the commercial sector are realising that having dedicated desk spaces for employees, especially in large urban areas, is a false economy as these spaces are only used 45-50% of the time.

The arts have always been ahead of the curve in terms of expanding and contracting project teams, with performers, writers and designers hired as necessary for projects. But the arts has yet to embrace outsourcing of core functions such as producing, administration and finances, still preferring to employ a small core team on a permanent basis. Why not use remote working to outsource all the core work of the organisation? Arts organisations have busy periods and fallow ones and yet staff are employed year round. With many commercial organisations seeing their staff as portfolio workers rather than permanent staff members, the arts in the future will have to embrace this as well. Portfolio working is something arts workers are very good!

Being Brilliant

As well as saving time and money, digital can also help outdoor arts organisations be brilliant and produce brilliant work. Three ways digital can facilitate this is: crowdfunding, mobile and social media.

Crowdfunding is a way of raising finances for a project through individual donations. Kickstarter was the first crowdfunding platform in the US and since its inception, many others have followed. In the UK, popular ones for funding the arts are WeFund, WeDidThis and Sponsume.

The outdoor arts have not yet utilised these platforms but I think they are perfectly poised to take advantage of them. Many of the festivals or artists have large, engaged followings that could be harnessed, one of the key ingredients of a successful crowdfunding campaign. Other key ingredients are not being too ambitious in terms of the amount asked for (many crowdingfunding platforms require that you raise 100% of the funds or return the cash) and having different levels of ‘goodies’ for your donators (The Age of Stupid film offerings ranged from £10 for a credit to £500 for a part in the film). The last essential ingredient is running a social media campaign alongside your crowdfunding pitch – just uploading your crowdingfunding video isn’t going to get you the cash, you need to engage your network and get them to tell their friends about it.

Mobile is an area that has great potential for ‘brilliance’ in outdoor arts both in terms of creativity and engagement. Gaming platforms such as SCVNGR enable you to build attractive experiences for your audience that they can access on their smartphone. Or use WordPress and one of the free or low cost mobile web apps to build project specific mobile websites where you can ‘push’ content to audiences or even use micropayments to raise funds on thr ground.

Lastly, the outdoor arts are not making enough of social media to promote their work, engage audiences and increase their profile. It’s not enough to just slap up a Facebook page and YouTube channel. As a visual medium, these platforms are the place to be, but you have to have a strategy for engaging your audience and pushing your content out. Be consistent. Post regularly and respond to comments. Make social part of your everyday workflow and it will become a habit.

What have I missed? What are you thoughts on how digital can help the arts be more resilient and brilliant?

[image with thanks to ArtsAgenda]

As a digital well-being coach and trainer, I often get rather blank looks when I say what I do for a living. "Digital well-being? Sounds interesting, but what does it mean?"

To me, digital well-being is the intersection of the things I believe in and that get me out of bed on cold winter days (like today); making the most of digital, work-world balance, and having freedom and flexibility in my business.

I believe that the World Wide Web and internet have given us unprecedented opportunities as business owners, workers, and people, but that we do not always make the most of them. Digital Well-being is about harnessing the awesome power of the internet to fulfil your work and life objectives and to design your business to suit your lifestyle.

Even since I picked up Tim Ferriss' The 4-Hour Workweek, I have been convinced that it is possible to create new business models and new ways of working from digital. Businesses no longer need their staff to be sat behind a desk from 9 to 5 yet this still remains the status quo even through flexible working improves employee productivity and happiness.

With digital we can increasingly choose who we work for and how we create value and meaning in our work. It's never been easier to use the social web to set up your own microbusiness - all the tools are free, you just need a good idea. A digital microbusiness can enable you to work on something you are passionate about rather then having to leave your values at the door when you go to work.

With digital we can choose where and when we work. With faster broadband speeds, cloud computing and communications technologies such as Skype, you can choose to work from any where you like - your front room, your local cafe or another country. After the success of Amsterdam last winter and as someone who tries to practice what she preaches, I am relocating to Lisbon for five weeks in December/January to write, hang out and get a fresh perspective for 2012.

In the UK, we seem to be working longer and longer hours and our digital friends of mobile, laptop and iPad mean that we are never far from our work. When you receive hundreds of emails each day, it's tempting to spend our evenings on the couch head buried in our device instead of being with our family. Digital Well-being is using the web to work better, not longer; making smart digital choices that work for you. It's about taking control of your email inbox, making your social media into a fun habit not a time suck, and using the right digital tools and platforms so you can be super effective.

Digital Well-being is about recognizing that we live in a world full of ‘screen time’ and having the awareness and skills to balance our on and offline worlds. Getting offline is essential, for our health and for our relationships.

If you want to learn more about how you can improve your digital well-being, then do join me and a small group of friends for a cosy morning at The Hub Islington (with it's roaring wood fire) on Thursday 1 December. It will be 100% offline and great coffee is assured!

Early Bird tickets end today at midnight.

Last night I attended a fascinating debate at the RSA in London to launch the new book by Steve Fuller, chair in social epistemology at Warwick University. The book, entitled Humanity 2.0: What it Means to be Human, Past, Present and Future looks at the question of what does it mean to be human in the 21st century? 

It was an extremely enjoyable evening with contributions from Dr Rachel Armstrong, co-director of AVATAR (Advanced Virtual and Technological Architectural Research) in Architecture & Synthetic Biology, author China Miéville, and Dr Sarah Chan, deputy director, ISEI (Institute for Science, Ethics and Innovation). 

Human beings have always been very good at re-making the human and the natural world to suit ourselves and to reflect our position as fundamentally different from other life forms. Historically, this can be seen in technological advances such as animal and plant breeding, to genetic modification, to the development of prosthetic devices such as glasses or artificial limbs.

Humanity 2.0 is not in the future, I would argue that it is already here. We use computers on a daily basis to enhance and amplify ourselves. I outsource my spatial knowledge to Google Maps on my iPhone, my memory to Evernote and my knowledge to Google Search.

But some would argue that we have already started to lose our humanity.

Many of us lead complex online lives with profiles and personas to cultivate and augment (I am including myself in this group!). We place huge importance on these online interactions and feel valued when we are retweeted, linked to or name checked online. As the number of our connections increase through social networks and email, we feel busy and important. 

We can become addicted to our screens and neglect our bodies, our family and ourselves. We are no longer present but are constantly drawn towards our online world. I found it amusing last night that the first thing we were asked to do was to tweet about the event. But what's the point? Anyone who has tried to tweet and listen to a debate will know it's pretty tough to do, so why would we take away from our enjoyment and learning to send a few sound bites to our followers? When did having your head down in a screen become a social norm at events?

There are also issues of access and ethics. We can already see a digital divide between those who have access to the internet and those who don't, but this will be nothing compared to the divide when the rich can enhance their brains and the poor cannot as envisioned in Steve Fuller's future.

For me, the benefits of the technological advances of the Humanity 2.0 we already have far outweigh the costs. But we need to retain our humanity and make the most of new advances without being overwhelmed by them. 

We are still in a learning stage. The Internet, social media and smartphones are still relatively new technologies - we are still figuring out how to use them and I am sure we will be experiencing teething problems for a while yet. 

The web and social media allows us to find our tribe and connect with others, reducing social isolation and expanding our social circles. As businesses and individuals we can connect with a global market and audience. But let's not get caught up with valuing online connections more than the person in front of us.

Through Google, blogs and epublishing, knowledge and learning is becoming democratised. Anyone with access to a computer and the net can learn and improve their situation. What we need to do is to ensure basic access for everyone to these technologies through programmes such as Sugata Mitra's Hole in the Wall project in the developing world and digital inclusion projects such as RaceOnline here in the UK.

In the olden days, writing was uncommon so you would have to use up a lot of brain power just remembering things. I love the story in William Powers' Hamlet’s Blackberry (a fantastic book by the way about balance in the digital age) about Hamlet’s use of the ‘new technology’ of tables – a pocket-sized book that came with specially coated paper that could be wiped and reused. An amazing innovation at the time. Similarly, today by outsourcing our memory and knowledge to the web and our devices, we could leave more space for higher level thinking so let's not waste this potential.

I am optimistic and positive about Humanity 2.0. What are your thoughts?

[image with thanks to garrette via CC]

Mottainai (pronounced moht-tai-nai) is a Japanese word meaning "a sense of regret concerning waste when the intrinsic value of an object or resource is not properly utilized". There is no direct English translation, but it is similar to the idea of 'waste not, want not' and making proper use of resources.

In my Toolkit workshops, I often come across people who are already using some of the digital tools, platforms and apps I recommend. But rarely are they using them to their full capability.

Today, in the spirit of Mottainai and using things properly, I wanted to share 5 lesser known functions of 5 popular tools to encourage you to make the most out of your digital life.

1. TweetDeck: New Followers

TweetDeck is a third party Twitter application that you can use to manage all your social networks from one place. Whether you are using TweetDeck on your phone, your desktop or on the web, TweetDeck is a time-effective way of staying up to date.

A little know feature of TweetDeck is the ability to set up a New Followers column. By default, when you set up a Twitter account, you're sent an email every time you have a new follower. Exciting at the beginning, annoying when you start to have more followers. By setting up a New Followers column in TweetDeck, you can view the person's photo and bio and decide whether to follow or block (if they are spam) them straightaway.

To set up the column go to Add New Column > Core > New Followers.

2. Dropbox: Getting More Space

Dropbox is a neat tool that creates a 'mini-server' for your documents accessible from your desktop, the cloud and your phone. Your free account comes with 2GB of storage and you can increase this (250MB each time) by using your referral code to invite friends to join the service.

But did you know that there are other ways of easily increasing your storage? This article from LifeHacker suggests ways of increasing your storage by 768MB by social sharing on Twitter and Facebook, following Dropbox on Twitter, and by giving feedback to the Dropbox team.

To sign up for your free account, visit Dropbox today.

3. LinkedIn: Get Introduced Through a Connection

I am sure you are familiar with LinkedIn - the social network of choice for professionals. There are too many great features of LinkedIn to mention here, but one underused feature I wanted to flag up is the ability to get introduced to someone through an existing connection.

To contact someone through LinkedIn, you either have to have worked with them or know their email address. However, if the person you wish to connect with is connected to one of your 1st connections, you can ask your connection to forward a message to them.

I have used this successfully in the past to contact potential speakers for events I have run. I think that if a request comes through a trusted connection, this can be much stronger than an unsolicited email.

First search for the person you wish to connect with in the People Search box. If they have a 2^nd connection beside them, have a look at who connects you to them (see screenshot).

Then click on ‘Get introduced through a connection’ and fill out the required details. You can also leave a message for your LinkedIn contact so they know why you are trying to contact this person.

The more you build your LinkedIn connections, the more potential people you can have access to, and the more useful this feature becomes, so start building those connections today.

Start by connecting with me - I know lots of people ; )

4. Gmail: Keyboard Shortcuts

Gmail is my email platform for choice because of its powerful features that allow me to get through my Inbox super fast and get on with my important work.

An often overlooked feature of Gmail is the extensive keyboard shortcuts. Using these shortcuts and my computer mouse allows me to process email quickly and get on with more important things.

The shortcuts I use the most are:

# = delete. Use this shortcut to read/delete quickly.

e = archive. If you have set up Filters to add Labels to your emails as they come in (recommended), than use 'e' to quickly read/archive.

! = marks as Spam and removes this email from your Inbox.

s = stars the conversion.

To turn shortcuts on, go to the Gear icon > Mail Settings > General > Keyboard Shortcuts On.

5. WordPress: Schedule Posts

WordPress is the powerful content management system that allows you to build static and blog based websites like my website 8fold. (Do check out the free WordPress eCourse on the website if you want to know more.)

When you write a blog post, it is dated by default on the day you write it. However, you can use the date function in WordPress to schedule posts to run in the future. This can be incredibility useful if you know you are going to be particularly busy one week and miss your posting schedule; or if you have a run of inspiration and write three posts at a time; or if you are going away on vacation.

What are your favourite 'hidden' features of these popular tools? Do share in the comments.

Google Analytics (GA) is the industry standard for getting data about your website. There are many other solutions, some of them in real time such as Clicky, (GA has a 1.5 hour delay) but GA is easy to set up and use and gives plenty of information to know more about your website and it’s visitors. 

An important point to make at the outset is to remind ourselves that GA is not about looking just at how many people have visited your site or even admiring the pretty coloured graphs. The data is useless unless we do something with it.

The key thing with GA is not to look at numbers but to use the data to make better business decisions. For example, if you have a high bounce rate (someone visiting your site and leaving almost immediately) from your home page, perhaps the information on this page is confusing. If you are spending a lot of time on social media (Twitter, Facebook) but are seeing little traffic from these sources, then maybe you need to reconsider your marketing strategy.

Getting Started with Google Analytics

Sign up for a free account at the Google Analytics site. You will generate a little piece of code that will have to be manually inserted into each page of your site that you want tracked. If you have a WordPress site, there are a multitude of plugins that do this automatically for you. Ultimate GA is the one I use.

Set Up Goals and Conversions

Next, set up some Goals. Goals are useful to measure whether visitors are interacting on your site they way you want them to. For example, a goal could be to measure how many people sign up to your mailing list or how many visitors click on a Buy Now button.

To set up a Goal, visit the Settings button (the little gear icon on the right) and choose the Profile you want to set up a Goal for. Click on Goals and then set up your desired Goal. The screenshot below shows a set up for a mailing list subscribe. The destination URL is the URL of the subscribe confirmation page. 

You can also set up sales funnels to see where in the process your potential customers are dropping off. For example, do they get to the payment page and then leave? Perhaps you are not offering the right payment plan or perhaps this page looks unsecure. Use your analytics data to ensure you don’t loose potential revenue.

Learn More About Your Visitors

You can use GA to analyse data on demographics, specifically location and language. If you are seeing a lot of visitors from a certain country, it might be worthwhile having parts of your site translated.

Behaviour is an interesting addition to GA. This tracks if visitors are new or returning. You can then break this down by secondary criteria such as traffic source (see screenshot). This way you can see if there are any influencing factors to people returning to your site. You can also look at Engagement and see how long people are staying on your site.

Use the Browser and Mobile data to see what web browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer etc) and mobile platforms people are using to view your site. Sort by bounce rate to highlight any potential problems with certain browsers or mobiles.

Look at where your Traffic is coming from. Apart from search and direct traffic, what are your top referring sites? For me it tends to be this blog, Twitter and Facebook or LinkedIn.

Have a look at your top Landing Pages. Where are people seeing their first page? Are these pages doing your business justice? Are there clear calls to action for new visitors?

You can track email links (for example in an email newsletter) using Google’s URL Tool. Do a / b testing on your email blasts and see which one is driving more traffic to your website.

Troubleshooting with Google Analytics

Use GA to highlight page level problems. If you're seeing a high bounce rate from a particular page, have a think about why? Is there information missing?

Use GA to highlight unusual activity. Set up Alerts and you will get an email if an event is triggered. For example, if traffic is less than usual this might highlight that your site is down or if numbers are up, that sales are through the roof!

Use the data from GA to experiment with changes to your website. See if changes to navigation, content or design make a difference to the number of visitors or conversions. Do a before and after and analyse the data.

Final Thoughts

We are all guilty of checking our GA stats obsessively (I know I am) but instead of obsessing over just the numbers, spend a few minutes drilling down into the data and start to see the bigger picture for your business.

[thanks to SEO and web expert Malcom Coles for the inspiration for the post - I attended a great workshop on this last night - thanks Malcolm!]

Fast broadband, mobile technologies and social media have completed changed the way freelancers and small business owners work and communicate. We can (technically) work from any where with a laptop and wifi; we can collaborate with people on the other side of the world; we can use the web to create new incomes streams for ourselves. But these digital technologies can result in a daily digital deluge leaving less time to get things done and less time to focus on our core work.

Here are 5 tools and tactics to help you harness the power of the web to stay focussed, get more done and work effectively.

1. Gmail Priority Inbox

One of my favourite finds last year was the new feature from Gmail, Priority Inbox which has helped my transformation into an email ninja.

Priority Inbox learns which are your most ‘important’ emails and 'prioritises' them by posting them at the top of your inbox. Next are your 'read' and 'starred' emails i.e. those you have read and designated as actionable/important/stuff I must read etc. Lastly, comes everything else - 'unimportant' messages or important messages that have already been read.

I find that Priority Inbox allows me to see at a glance what needs to be responded to first and what can ‘go hang’ for a while. Gmail is fairly intuitive but you can also teach it by using the ‘important’ and ‘not important’ buttons. This way I can designate any emails directly addressed to me as ‘important’ and any emails I am copied into as ‘unimportant’, along with any newsletters or notifications.

Priority Inbox is a great way of ensuring that those important client emails or exciting opportunities do not get buried in your inbox.

2. Use Filters

In our increasing digital world, I am a big fan of using filters (see "F" in my free ebook From Apps to Zen: 26+ Ideas for Building A Business with Balance) to reduce the number of information streams coming into the day.

Filters are experts in your area who read and filter and best information about an area of interest. For example, a great social media filter is Pete Cashmore from digital blog Mashable. He consistently delivers the most up to date news and features on social media, online tools and the web. If you're interested in location independent living, Cory McKibben from Thrilling Heroics is a great person to follow.

Find out who your filters are in your niche and follow them on social media.

3. Equanimity App

Equanimity is a neat little app for the iPhone. Set a meditation time, for example 5 minutes, and a Tibetan bowl will ring once. Sit quietly, eyes closed and focus on your breathing. Focus on the sound of the breath as you inhale and exhale. Feel the cool air of the in-breath and warmer air of the out-breath as you breathe. After your time is up the bowl rings three times and it’s time to get back to work.

A great way to refresh, take a few minutes away from your screen, and refocus during the day.

4. Work in a Distraction Free Zone

Shutting down your distractions will help to focus your attention and supercharge your productivity, so shut off your email, turn your phone to silent and close down any social media if you have an important piece of work to focus on.

Brower extensions such as StayFocused for Chrome or LeechBlock for FireFox can limit your access to certain programmes such as Gmail or Facebook if you don't yet have the discipline yourself. For writing try WriteMonkey for PCs or OmmWriter for the Mac to provide an application free writing space.

5. Use Evernote to Combat Information Overload

We all suffer from information overload. The daily deluge of blog posts, email newsletters and useful links. You know the scenario where you take a short digital break from your work. One interesting blog post leads to another, and before you know it, two hours have past and you’ve wasted your morning. Sounds familiar? But how do you keep track of information that might be useful in the future without getting sidetracked in your day-to-day work?

Enter Evernote. Evernote’s CEO, Phil Libin likens Evernote to having an external brain – it remembers things so you don’t have to. Essentially Evernote is an information capturing and organization system .You can use it to type a text note, to clip a web page, snap a photograph of something, or record some audio. Evernote is cloud-based. So the information that you add from the web, or from your smartphone is automatically synched to your desktop. So you can capture information on the go, as well as at your desk.

Registration on Evernote takes minutes. It’s free, and you can watch a short, and funny, video explaining how to get started.

What tools and strategies do you use to work with the web not against it?

If you want to learn about more tools and tactics for supercharging your digital productivity, join me for my two-hour Build Your Productivity Toolkit workshop at The Cube in east London on Wednesday 21 September 2011.  

It’s been a year since I started blogging here at From Apps to Zen. There are a few posts that pre-date August 2010, but I started taking the blog seriously a year ago this month. To be perfectly honest, I avoided starting a blog for a long time as I knew just how much work it would be. I am also a crazy reader of some of the best bloggers in the world and the thought of trying to make an impact with my words was daunting.

But the nagging question remained: if I was to help others with their blogging, how could I not blog myself?

And so I started. And it's been an amazing journey and a steep learning curve.

Here are 9 lessons that I want to share from my year of blogging:

1. Writing a blog is a great way to find your voice.

Before I started the blog I wasn't sure exactly what I had to say. I was interested in digital technologies, social media, the purpose of work, productivity and women's issues. Could I fit that all in one blog? And if so, what exactly did I have to offer my readers in terms of new thinking on well-worn subjects? I'll admit the early days of blogging were a bit hit and miss (go check out some of the earliest posts!). But writing a blog consistently, week in, week out has been the best way I have found of discovering my niche and honing my thoughts and ideas about my work.

2. Know why you are writing your blog.

Many people I speak to think they must write a blog as everyone else is doing it. But I don't agree. Writing a blog takes a lot of work, so I would only recommend it if you see a clear business benefit. A blog can be useful to drive traffic to your website and to highlight what you do, but it's only worthwhile if you have something to say. I've seen people try to write blogs about the most mundane of subjects such as electricity tarrifs. Not sure there is a huge readership for that.

Writing is also a skill and not everyone is a natural writer. There are other ways of getting your message out there such as video and podcasts that could work better for you.

3. Having a regular posting schedule is crucial.

I made a decision early on to post one article on the blog every Friday morning. OK, so that's not a lot - many 'pro-bloggers' will post every day or 2/3 times a week, but once a week seemed manageable to me. Having a regular schedule has made blogging into a habit. It's not something I have to remember to do; it's ingrained in my weekly routine. If you read blogs about blogging the one consistent piece of advice is: have a schedule and stick to it. Chris Guillebeau from The Art of Non-Conformity and the author of The Unconventional Guides started by posting every Monday and Thursday. Even when no-one was reading, he stuck religiously to his schedule and he credits this as contributing to his success today.

4. Make the most of guest blogging.

When you start to find your voice and are comfortable with your writing style, get guest posting. This is a great way of building your audience and driving traffic to your blog. Most blog owners I have approached have been thrilled to have a guest post. Do some research and find out who is in your niche or who shares a similar audience and approach them with a pitch. Glen from Vipechill.com has probably written the best guide to guest blogging that's out there.

And get others to guest post on your blog. I have been lucky to have three fantastic contributors on this blog, Harry, Lucy and Leila.

5. You need to promote your posts.

Writing a blog is not enough. 'Build it and they will come' will work to an extent, but promoting your blog is essential to start to drive traffic and get subscribers. Promote your posts on social networks (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+), highlight posts in your email newsletter, and include your latest blog post in your email signature using Wisestamp.

Make it easy for visitors to subscribe to your posts. Set up your Feedburner feed properly and make sure that you have both options of subscribing by RSS and email clearly displayed on your blog. Periodically have a clear 'ask' at the bottom of one of your killer posts and ask people to subscribe.

6. Have a way of capturing ideas for blog posts.

This could be as simple as a spreadsheet on your computer, a digital task manager, or a simple paper notebook of ideas. I have tried all of these options but have found the one that works for me is the Notes function on my iPhone as I always have it on me.

When you think of an idea for an article, write it down and if possible flesh out some notes. The amount of times I have looked at a note and not remembered why I thought it would make a good blog post! Inspiration can come from anywhere - reading, having conversations, or just random ideas. Ensuring you have a way of capturing them will make sure you never run out of ideas.

7. Write in a distraction-free zone.

Writing is tough. And having a multitude of distractions makes it even harder. I find my best writing comes when I have no other distractions - email and phone are off and using WriteMonkey or OmmWriter gives me a web-free writing space. Tech futurist Cory Doctorow has a great article on writing in the age of distraction.

8. Starting a blog is the best way to learn about blogging.

There are so many great resources on blogging out there from blogs such as Problogger and Copyblogger to courses such as Viperchill's CloudBlogging and Leo Babauta's  A-List Blogging Bootcamp. These are all great and I would recommend you get as much knowledge as possible. But the best way to learn is by doing.

So just start.

9. Don't give up.

The early days of a blog are disheartening. Your only subscriber is your Mum, no-one comments on your posts and your RTs are ignored. Don't give up! If you write consistent great work and promote it, your readership will grow. It does take time.

In my year of blogging I don't have thousands of subscribers but my posts are read hundreds of times. Sometimes I get no comments, but when I meet people in real life they tell me how much they enjoy reading my blog. So there are they, the readers, they are just sometimes a bit quiet. So don't give up, keep going.

A big thanks to all my readers, quiet and loud : ) - here's to the next 12 months of From Apps to Zen!

[image with thanks to mariareyesmcdavis via CC]

 

This week I was asked to give a talk on digital marketing to a group of entrepreneurial young women in east London. All are participants on the Ladies Who L-Earn project started by social entrepreneur Asma Shah.

Doing the prep for the talk had me thinking about digital marketing and the different avenues and forms it takes. With so many channels to choose from, and some more obvious than others, sometimes we can get stuck in one way of doing things, so I thought I would make this week's blog post into a Digital Marketing Refresher.  

What is Digital Marketing?

Firstly let's define what we're taking about. Digital Marketing is probably best defined by looking at what it is not i.e. radio, television and all types of print. Essentially digital marketing revolves around delivery via the internet whether that's on a PC, a mobile phone or a tablet such as the iPad.

Why use Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing, like traditional marketing, must be tied to a business objective. This is an important point to remind ourselves of now and again. There's no point in writing a blog or maintaining a Facebook Page if it does not fulfil a business objective.

The main aim of digital marketing is to drive people to your website where you have your products and/or services clearly outlined and where there are clear calls to action.

What are the Digital Marketing Channels?

Here is a quick refresher of the major digital marketing channels that are accessible to small businesses:

Website

A website is essential to provide a 'base' to drive potential leads and customers to. Gone are the days of paying thousands of pounds to a web developer when you can get a WordPress website up and running in less than an hour. (If you need a website, do sign up for my free WordPress eCourse).

Blog

A blog can be a great way of demonstrating your expertise in a particular area and increasing your profile on the social web. WordPress can function as a blog as well as a 'static' website or microblogging services such as Posterous (like this blog) or Tumblr can be used to host an external blog. Or do like design and simplicity consultants minimoko and integrate your Posterous blog into your website.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

SEO is the process we use to appear as high as possible in search engine rankings (generally Google) by organic or natural search (as opposed to paid search - see Advertising below). Your WordPress site can be configured with plugins such as All in One SEO Pack that does the hard work for you or premium themes such as DIYThemes' Thesis come already optimised for SEO out of the box.

For advice on SEO and how to improve your rankings, have a read of this blog post on 9 SEO Insights.

Email Marketing

A sometimes overlooked medium in this world of social media, email marketing can be your strongest marketing channel if used correctly. They say 'the fortune's in the list' and I agree that a well cultivated and engaged email list are far more likely to buy from you than your social media followers.

With so many free (and paid) options for email marketing software, I don't think there's any excuse for sending email blasts through your Gmail or Outlook contacts. Using an email marketing platform will ensure you keep on the right side of data protection (with many having double opt-in and easy unsubscribe) as well as having a ability to embed a sign up form on your website and send great looking emails.

My top three recommendations are Mailchimp, Madmimi or Aweber.

Social Networks

Social networks can be a great way of getting your marketing message out there but have to be used in subtle way. Think of social media like a cocktail party, no-one wants to speak to the bore in the corner who only talks about himself!

The holy trinity of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have been joined by new kid on the block, Google+. My recommendation to clients is to pick one or two to focus on and do them well rather than trying to be everywhere at once.

And don't forget the power of social sharing. People are more likely to sign up for something or buy if their friends have recommended it, so do make sure your content is easily sharable via social media buttons etc.

Video

Video is an underutilised channel by many small businesses. With YouTube being owned by Google, a keyword optimised video can be a great way of getting to the top of the search results. Video is also a good way of connecting with your audience as they get to see (or hear) the person behind the brand.

Recording video can be as simple as using the inbuilt camera on your laptop or investing £100 in a mini HD recorder such as the Kodak Zi8 or The Flip. Editing can be done for free using Windows Movie Maker or iMovie or, for a more professional finish, use Camtasia. Host and share your videos on sites such as YouTube or Vimeo for free.

Podcasts

Another underutilised area is podcasts. I follow several (all US based) podcast shows on small and online businesses and think it's a really effective marketing channel as the listener can subscribe to the content and it builds trust with the podcast host.

Recording podcasts on Audacity or GarageBand for the Mac is easy and free. Submit your podcasts to the iTunes store and you have yourself a show!

Advertising

The early days of online business were all about advertising especially using banner ads and Pay Per Click through Google Adwords. I think they have been slightly taken over by social sharing (see above).

However, a well targeted Adwords or even LinkedIn or Facebook Ads campaign can be a good way of driving targeted traffic to an event or promotion. Just don't let a campaign run for ever without measuring and tweaking the outcomes. Set yourself a budget and give it a trial. 

Affiliates/Partners/Joint Ventures

Affiliate marketing is well known as a business model for internet business - it works by recommending a product or service in exchange for a percentage of the cost. If you are running an event via Eventbrite, you can set up partners with a referral link who can then promote your event for you. Using the web and the power of your networks can be an inexpensive way of widening your marketing reach.

Mobile/Location-Based

With many of us carrying around a GPS enabled mini-computer in our pocket everyday (it's your mobile), mobile marketing and especially location-based marketing is on the rise. This can be as simple as SMS (text messaging) or using location-based services such as FourSquare or Facebook Places to connect with potential customers.

There are other ways of using mobiles and tablets to connect especially with Apps, however without being a developer, I think much of this is out of reach to small businesses.

What does your digital marketing mix look like at the moment? Are you missing any potential opportunities? What are you currently doing that is not delivering any value?

Do let me know in the comments below.

 

Last weekend, Alex and I travelled to a tiny community called Angsbaka in central Sweden to a conference/festival on living sustainably.

I was there to give a talk on how digital is changing the way we work and also to give a workshop on my programme Mindful at Work (which took place in a round strawbale house - lovely energy!).

The tagline of FuturePerfect was 'an adventure in living well' so I took as my starting point how we can 'work well' especially how digital can facilitate this.

Here in the UK, but increasingly in Sweden as well, the way we are working isn't working. We create lifestyles and behaviours for ourselves that are unsustainable for our planet and that don't make us happy in the long term. The price of maintaining a certain type of lifestyle is having to work long hours or stay in a job you hate but pays well.

“There is more to life than just increasing its speed.”   Mathatma Gandhi

A second issue is that when we are working, many of us are not working very effectively. We create mountains of busywork to keep us from doing our Great Work. Increasing emails, social media and our 24/7 connected culture through our mobile means that we never really switch off from work.

But instead of digital being part of the problem, I see its potential to be part of the solution.

With digital we can increasing choose who we work for and how we create value and meaning in our work. It's never been easier to use the social web to set up your own microbusiness - all the tools are free, you just need a good idea. A digital microbusiness can enable you to work on something you are passionate about rather then having to leave your values at the door when you go to work.

With digital we can choose where and when we work. With faster broadband speeds, cloud computing and communications technologies such as Skype, you can choose to work from any where you like - your front room, your local cafe or another country. You can downshift to the country without having to worry about finding work in rural communities or downshift in the city and work less.

With digital we can choose who to work and collaborate with. We can connect with people on the other side of the world and expand our market globally.

And this is only the beginning. The internet is barely 20 years old and we are only now starting to see some of it's potential.

The overall consensus at FuturePerfect was that by living sustainably we can actually live better and happier lives and I think that our working practices have a huge part to play in this. Everyone has to make a living somehow, but if more people can transition to having a freer and more flexible working life that creates value for others, then we are on the right track.

Digital can be a real enabler of this: an adventure in working well.