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As an entrepreneur, you have to be willing to self-promote and build your own personal brand (alongside that of your business brands, of course). And while there are hundreds of ways to do this, blogging is still one of the best.

The Perks of Building Your Own Blog

As an entrepreneur, you have lots of different avenues available to you for building your brand and establishing connections. However, blogging remains one of the best options. Here a few of the top reasons why:

1. Strengthens Your Online Presence

Having a strong online presence is important. And blogging is one of the best ways to increase your visibility and ensure that potential clients, partners, and investors can easily find you. Your blog will allow you to create multiple entry points for people to discover your personal brand and business.

A blog acts as a hub for all your thoughts, ideas, and expertise. It gives people a central place to learn about you and your business, beyond what’s on your social media profiles or website landing pages. Each blog post you publish is another opportunity to attract visitors to your site, showcase your knowledge, and demonstrate your value.

Plus, a blog allows you to maintain control over your narrative. Unlike social media, where algorithms can change and limit your reach, your blog is your space. You decide the content, the message, and how you engage with your audience.

2. Establishes Authority

Regularly blogging about topics related to your industry is one of the best ways to establish yourself as an expert in your field. 

When you share your knowledge through well-researched, insightful blog posts, you’re not just helping your readers – you’re building credibility. Over time, your audience will start to see you as a go-to resource for industry-related information. This authority can translate into more business opportunities, as people are more likely to trust and engage with someone who demonstrates expertise.

Being seen as an authority in your field also opens doors to speaking engagements, guest appearances on other platforms, and collaborations with other experts in your industry. It can even help you gain media attention, as journalists often look for authoritative sources to quote in articles.

3. Drives Organic Search Traffic

One of the biggest benefits of blogging for entrepreneurs is the opportunity to attract organic search traffic. Every blog post you write is an opportunity to optimize for search engines, helping you rank higher on Google and other search platforms. This is especially important if you’re just starting out and don’t have a huge marketing budget.

By focusing on SEO-rich content  – content that’s optimized with relevant keywords, meta descriptions, and internal/external links – you can naturally bring in readers who are searching for information related to your business or industry. For example, if you’re a fitness entrepreneur, a blog post about “how to stay fit while working from home” could attract people searching for fitness tips, who might then learn more about your products or services.

As you publish more content and your blog starts gaining traction in search results, you’ll notice an increase in organic traffic, which means more eyes on your brand and business without spending extra money on ads.

4. Builds and Fosters a Community

Blogging gives you a unique opportunity to directly engage with your audience and foster a sense of community around your brand. When you write blog posts that resonate with your readers, they’re more likely to interact with your content – whether by leaving comments, sharing your posts on social media, or subscribing to your newsletter.

This type of engagement allows you to build a loyal following of people who not only support your business but also feel connected to you personally. The more you interact with your readers, the stronger that connection becomes. Blogging also opens up the opportunity for valuable feedback. Your readers might leave comments that inspire new blog topics, help you improve your products or services, or give you insights into what your audience is most interested in.

5. Natural Promotion for Your Products

One of the most effective ways to promote your products and services without being too salesy is through blogging. Rather than directly pitching your offerings, you can write informative, helpful content that naturally ties back to what you sell.

For example, if you run an online store that sells eco-friendly products, you could write blog posts about the importance of sustainability, offer tips for reducing waste, and highlight the benefits of using green products. Throughout the post, you can subtly mention your products and link to them as part of the solution.

This approach positions you as someone who cares about educating your audience, rather than just pushing a sale. And when readers see the value in what you offer, they’re more likely to trust your recommendations and make a purchase.

6. Keeps You Relevant and Adaptable

Blogging keeps you relevant in your industry. It gives you a platform to share your thoughts on the latest trends, discuss emerging technologies, and offer insights on current events that affect your niche. By staying active in the conversation, you show that you’re not only knowledgeable but also adaptable.

As your industry evolves, your blog can evolve, too. It’s a flexible tool that can grow with your business and help you stay ahead of the curve. Whether you’re launching a new product, expanding into a new market, or simply shifting focus, your blog can reflect those changes and keep your audience informed.

Putting it All Together

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution to building your brand as an entrepreneur. However, certain strategies pack more punch than others. Blogging is one of them. By starting a blog, you can enjoy many of the benefits highlighted in this article and give yourself a better chance to be successful in the months and years to come!

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As a creator, you know that you’ve got to be consistent to make it in the content game. But consistency isn’t enough on its own. In order to stand out from the crowd, your consistently produced content has to be quality. You’ve got to make stuff that your target audience will genuinely enjoy, find helpful, or, ideally, both. To do this on a regular basis, you need your content to work harder. Here are a few tips you should know.

Transform Your Videos

Repurposing content is one of the fundamental ways to make your content work harder. It can also be one of the easiest and most straightforward. Rather than create entirely new content every time, transform work you’ve already done to use it in new ways. This could be as simple as clipping key moments from your YouTube videos and editing them into a Short. You can then repurpose that same Short again by posting it on Instagram and TikTok.

Take it one step further by turning your videos into written content. You can create an article from a video using AI technology that can summarize the info. Include the video in the article itself to give your audience the option to watch your content, read it, or both. With this strategy, you get at least two pieces of content for little more than the work of one.

Go the Extra Mile With SEO

As you expand the written content you have available, it’s crucial to ensure your SEO is up to snuff. Optimizing SEO involves various strategies to enhance your website’s visibility and ranking on search engine results pages. This includes keyword research to identify relevant terms users are searching for, optimizing meta tags to accurately describe content, improving website speed and mobile-friendliness for better user experience, and earning backlinks from authoritative sites to increase your credibility in the eyes of search engines (and your audience).

To go the extra mile with SEO, you can implement more advanced strategies. Make sure you’re creating high-quality, in-depth content that thoroughly addresses user queries and provides unique insights. Conducting competitor analysis to identify gaps in their SEO strategies and capitalize on opportunities they may have missed can also be beneficial. Continuously monitoring and analyzing performance metrics, and adjusting strategies accordingly, ensures improvement over time.

Create Evergreen Content

Speaking of longevity, jumping on the bandwagon of a niche or industry-specific trend can be great for getting short-term exposure. After all, there’s always that chance you ride the crest of that wave and go viral. However, if trend-chasing is all you do, your content isn’t going to be able to stand the test of time. This is true no matter how big one post gets. 

For your brand to be useful, informative, and engaging in the long run, the content you produce must be too. So focus on creating helpful content like tutorials and how-tos, or address frequently asked questions on subjects of your expertise. Case studies, spotlights, and product comparisons can also serve as anchors to inform and empower your audience. The bandwagon is  great to jump on now and then. But, as a professional creator, keep producing quality content that lasts as your primary focus.

Influence Your Audience

You can create the best content in the world, but no one will care if they can’t see it. Besides quality and consistency, visibility is one of the greatest challenges for any content creator. Now, optimizing your SEO will always help. But you need to be more proactive to truly get your feet off the ground. Try expanding your reach and your audience by piggybacking off someone else’s. 

Identify individuals whose expertise or industry aligns with your niche. Then reach out to those influencers to collaborate or otherwise share and repurpose content. This could look like guest posting on an industry expert’s blog for free, for example. They get free, high-quality content to post, and you get more eyes on your work. Or you could do a true collaboration, working together to produce something new. The key thing here is to provide real value to the person you’re reaching out to so you both benefit. 

Actually Engage Your Audience

As your content-creation career matures, you may begin to lose sight of your audience. Remember that, like a good conversation, content creation is a two-way street. And producing content without paying attention to your audience’s reaction to it is like lecturing someone during a “conversation.” So be sure to redouble your efforts to engage with your audience.

This can be as simple as including a comments section on your blog and thoughtfully responding as much as possible. It could involve creating and hosting events via a community Discord server or Twitch stream. You could even crowdsource content ideas by conducting polls to see what your audience wants next. As the creator, you’ll always be the one driving the car when it comes to content creation. But, as the driver, find ways to engage your audience to ensure they’re actively enjoying the ride. 

Harder and Smarter

Being a content creator can be one of the best jobs in the world. But, at the end of the day, it’s still a job. It’s important to make sure you and your audience are getting the most value out of everything you’re producing. 

In this light you want your content to work harder for you. Be smart about what kind of material you’re producing and how your audience receives it. Find social networking opportunities to leverage. And, no matter what, always ensure you’re producing quality content as consistently as possible. 

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Artificial intelligence is no longer a buzzword. It has earned its place in the digital sales and marketing world. This is partly due to its ability to analyze, predict, and respond to large quantities of information in a matter of seconds. But also, as more companies are leaning into AI-powered marketing efforts, others are following suit. 

Nearly every part of the marketing process can benefit from AI. So whether your focus is lead generation, content creation, or campaign optimization, using AI can improve your strategy. Curious to learn how? Below are three ways to use AI that will revolutionize your marketing approach. 

1. Data-Driven Insights

One of the many benefits of utilizing AI technology is unlocking data-driven insights. You can tap into real data that will inform how you operate. So rather than guessing which months of the year will be busiest for you, you can know exactly when to ramp up. Or, you can forecast when demand surges will occur based on historical information and react preemptively. These examples are part of predictive analytics, the use of mathematical methods including artificial intelligence and machine learning to better predict the value of something in the future. 

Hawke points out that predictive analytics can be seen as a “roadmap for future actions.” Unlike traditional analytics, which tells businesses how they performed last month, predictive analytics suggests how you’ll perform next month. By analyzing patterns and prior performance metrics, you’re able to make more data-based decisions for your business. 

Moreover, predictive analytics powered by AI can reduce costs, increase margins, and even reduce your environmental impact. It can also help you see which customers you might be at risk of losing. Knowing this information, you can use specific marketing techniques to re-engage and bring them back into your sales wheel. The more you use predictive analytics, the more you’ll learn about your business. And with this, the more you’ll be able to predict — rather than react — to various circumstances. 

2. Personalized Customer Experience  

Personalized marketing is here to stay. Customers expect to receive offers that match their specific needs, ones that will entice them to make a purchase. They want your brand message to feel like it was tailored just for them. While personalization isn’t a new marketing strategy, AI is enhancing how companies are able to better meet their customers’ expectations. 

AI is able to leverage your customer’s privacy-safe data to suggest new content and targeted offers. With so many marketing messages bombarding your target audience every day, standing out is key. More times than not, a standardized call-to-action isn’t going to cut it. Instead, customers are looking for a message that speaks directly to them. It meets them where they are in discovery or searching mode, whether that is in their email inbox or on social media.

An example of AI personalization marketing in work is a “recommended products” or “customers also purchased” section on an e-commerce site. These recommendations should be based on past purchasing habits as well as demographic and behavioral data. While this is a use-case of personalized website content, personalized email content is also a worthy tactic. AI can ensure the right email message is sent to the right customers through more advanced segmentation and granular optimization.

3. Advanced Digital Media Buying 

Another beneficial way to utilize AI in marketing is through your media buying strategy. Even if you are currently optimizing campaigns based on performance, you still may not be maximizing your ROI. Again, AI technology can predict which ad placements are likely to perform the best for you. It can also forecast how to best reach your target audience for various campaigns. 

Another huge benefit of AI is its ability to automate processes — something that can significantly enhance the media buying process. Typically, media buying is a manual, time-consuming process. It involves looking at different publishers and deciding which platforms are worth your investment. But with AI, the process is more streamlined as historical data is analyzed and future trends are considered. Every ad dollar spent is therefore maximized. 

But the power of AI doesn’t stop once you launch a campaign. As your campaign is running, AI tools will help optimize each ad’s performance. The campaign is monitored and areas of improvement are recommended or automatically adjusted based on your parameters. Because campaigns are optimized in real-time, you aren’t losing out on a potential customer lead. 

Takeaways

The capabilities of AI are vast. Marketers today are arguably just scratching the surface of leveraging this tool to its fullest potential. As of now, the tool is being used for individual tasks with a single end goal. Because of this, AI shouldn’t fully replace your marketing team or replicate their knowledge base entirely. Instead, AI should be seen as an advantageous tool in your marketing toolbox. 

As you begin to implement AI, take some time to think about how the tool can best serve you. If you’re struggling in audience segmentation, use AI to better find your audience based on interest and behavior insights. If you’re looking to drive more sales from current customers, then perhaps your personalization tactics can be supplemented with the help of AI. Using AI strategically will serve you well as you make smarter decisions and improve your ROI across your marketing initiatives.

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In the last year, much has been written about how artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to upend virtually every industry you can name. Some see it as the “silver bullet” they’ve been waiting for on their quest to work smarter, not harder. Others fear that it may be a technological innovation that we ultimately cannot control – one that will eventually replace human jobs with automation to the detriment of us all.

While it’s difficult to say how AI will play out in the long-term, in the near future, artificial intelligence should be seen for what it really is: a productivity adrenalin shot in the best possible way. This is particularly true in terms of real estate investing, which is a notoriously time-consuming affair.

Think about everything one must devote themselves to for a successful real estate career. They need a deep understanding of the market – including not just where it is but where it has been and where it might be going. They need to wade through countless property listings until they find the right ones that meet their unique investment strategies. The list goes on and on.

Artificial intelligence can help with all of this, freeing up valuable time for real estate entrepreneurs so that they can focus on more important matters. In fact, AI is already empowering those entrepreneurs right now in a wide range of different ways, all of which are worth a closer look.

Actionable Information at Your Fingertips

One of the major ways that AI in real estate empowers young entrepreneurs has to do with the wealth of information it gives them access to in real-time.

Think about the sheer amount of human error you could be exposed to when performing something as seemingly straightforward as market analysis. Not only do you have to make sure your data comes from high-quality sources, but you also have to interpret it correctly. You need to be in a position to act on it, and you need to make informed choices when doing so.

AI algorithms can analyze massive volumes of data – far more than a human ever could. Not only will they be able to quickly verify trends and patterns in terms of things like property values, but they’ll do so with greater accuracy than even a team of people likely could.

You’re left with instant insight, illuminating the path you need to take to accomplish your investment goals. Is it impossible to get to this point without AI in real estate? Absolutely not – but it’s far easier and more efficient to lean into what technology has to offer.

Incredible Time-Savings

Another major way that AI in real estate empowers entrepreneurs is due to the sheer amount of time it can help someone save.

Think about how inherently complicated a traditional real estate transaction can be. Now, double that amount of effort within the context of wholesale real estate. This is because you’re now working with a buyer and a seller, as opposed to just one or the other.

If you already have a seller and know about the property in question, AI in real estate can help you finely target your marketing to get it in front of the people who are most likely to be interested as quickly as possible. In a situation that already has razor-thin profit margins, artificial intelligence can save as much time – and thus money – as possible. This helps to not only create that perfect situation that is beneficial to all parties, but it does so in a more cost-effective manner than ever. This preserves as much money as possible to go directly into your own pocket as profit.

The Property Management Advantages

There are those investors out there who are in it for the long game. They’re not just trying to buy a property to flip. They want to own, rent, and manage it to create passive income for themselves or boost their portfolio. This is another area where AI in real estate can absolutely come in handy.

Using sophisticated artificial intelligence-driven systems, it’s never been easier to monitor the conditions of a property. You can even see things on a unit-by-unit basis if you’re talking about a multi-family home like an apartment. You can predict maintenance requirements to fix small problems now before they become larger, more expensive ones later. You can take steps to reduce energy use and related costs, creating more profit for yourself. You can even allow AI to help with customer service to create a better tenant experience – something that will keep people satisfied, vacancies low, and your return on investment ultimately as high as it can go.

AI: Another Tool in Your Toolbox

In the end, it’s important to remember that in real estate, in particular, the one thing you’ll never be able to automate is a relationship. If you’re a seller, you need to find the right buyer and get them to trust you. If you’re a buyer, you need a seller. Wholesale real estate professionals need to forge two relationships to create a single positive outcome for everyone. All the innovative real estate software in the world will never change that.

But by freeing up their valuable time, artificial intelligence is ultimately empowering seasoned real estate entrepreneurs to do precisely that. They don’t have to spend countless hours pouring over historical data to determine which trends are on the rise and which are about to fizzle out. They don’t have to sink hours into examining properties until they find the best match for what they’re trying to accomplish. AI can do this with a fraction of the time and effort it used to require, all while generating results that are more accurate than a human is likely capable of.

This doesn’t mean real estate investment gets easier or that you can run your career on autopilot. It simply means that you’ve been gifted with more hours in a day to focus on what matters most: creating those mutually beneficial relationships. That’s an exciting position to be in regardless of how long you’ve been investing, and it’s something that was only possible thanks to the advent of artificial intelligence as we know it.

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If you’re looking for a fulfilling, lucrative career in tech, you can’t do much better than being a web developer. There’s just one issue: It’s extremely competitive. To snag your dream job, you’ll need more than just skills and desire. You’ll need to differentiate yourself during the entire interviewing process from making sure your resume gets noticed to wowing interviewers and employers into making an offer. 

Despite the challenges of landing a web development position, it can be well worth the effort to try. The U.S. News & World Report has listed “web developer” as the seventh-best STEM sector occupation and the ninth-best overall career. And those rankings aren’t likely to wane anytime soon. Employment opportunities for web developers are expected to grow significantly until at least 2031. At an average salary range of around $81,000, that’s a reason to get into the web developer game.

Ready to stand out as you pursue the web developer path? Put these innovative techniques into motion and you’ll position yourself for the outcome you want.

1. Ditch your old-style, single-template resume.

You might already know that plenty of companies rely on software programs to sift through the resumes they receive. Typically, those programs evaluate applicants on how well their resume information matches the job description. Resumes that contain appropriate keywords and candidate data will be more likely to reach human eyes.

In other words, your resume needs to be carefully tweaked every time you apply for a role. Yet it can be very time-consuming to rework your resume to fit each job opening. That’s where you can leverage the power of AI-fueled software. For instance, you might want to apply to one dozen or more web developer roles. Rather than manually updating and optimizing each one, turn to free software like Teal to do it for you. 

Teal offers job seekers a comprehensive platform that makes it easy to build your resume with AI and customize it to match closely with individual job descriptions. The company’s core SaaS product also provides users with a dashboard where they can track their customized resumes. Haven’t written your resume yet? No worries — Teal can make suggestions and keep your resume from falling through the cracks or being denied by an algorithm “gatekeeper.” 

2. Create an impressive portfolio.

Even if you’re somewhat new to web development, you’ll be expected to showcase your technical abilities. This is best done in an online portfolio that can be shared with potential employers. However, you don’t want to clutter your portfolio with junk or make it difficult to evaluate. Your portfolio should be streamlined and contain just enough samples to entice someone to ask for a first or second interview. (Or make you an offer!)

What belongs in your web developer portfolio? You should have some examples of projects that relate to the job you want. For example, let’s say an organization is looking for someone with extensive coding capabilities. Your portfolio should contain two to three examples of pages or site elements that you wrote the code for. Don’t just share the code. Describe the goal, talk about how you met the goal through coding, and illustrate the end result. This will paint a clear picture of the talents you’re bringing to the table. 

You can host your portfolio on any site you like, including on a read-only Google doc. Just be sure that you link to your portfolio on your resume. Don’t be afraid to include the link in your cover letter and, if applicable, your application form. Over time, be aware that you’ll need to update your portfolio and replace dated experiences with fresh ones.

3. Use social media to your benefit.

As with any field, web developers have online communities, forums, and groups. Consequently, you should become visible in these social communities. Present yourself as both a thought leader and an eager learner. For example, you might want to answer questions posed by others and post some questions yourself.

Publishing articles on LinkedIn can be another wait to gain some credibility among other IT professionals and corporate leaders. The same is true for posting, sharing, and commenting on Facebook and X, too. The more people you engage with in the IT sector, the higher your likelihood to hear about job openings — and get noticed. 

What if you’re comfortable in front of the camera or talking to a crowd? Setting up your own YouTube or Twitch channel devoted to web development could make sense. The higher your following, the more authority you naturally acquire. Plus, you may be able to make a little money on the side by coding live. Small-time Twitch streamers with 100+ viewers can net up to $1,500 monthly. That’s not exactly peanuts.

4. Stay up to date on the industry.

The world of technology is expanding and evolving at a faster-than-ever pace. In a flash, your knowledge can become outdated if you’re not keeping up. Therefore, it may be wise to invest in certificates or degrees, and the occasional coding bootcamp. (As a side note, bootcamps will offer the chance to meet peers and expand your network, which is a bonus advantage.)

Not sure where to start? There are many places that offer training to current and aspiring web developers. Some are well-known institutes of higher learning like Arizona State University and Capella University. However, other programs are run by companies known for web development. A helpful site for discovering short-term and long-term web development classes is Coursera. While Coursera offers some options that are branded to itself, others are through partnerships with universities and companies. For instance, Coursera features classes for learners at all levels from IBM. 

As you advance your continuing education credentials, be sure to add them into your resume as well as your LinkedIn profile. This step can be easy to forget, but it’s essential if you’re trying to highlight exactly what makes you a more appealing, well-versed candidate than someone else.

Web development might be a crowded field, but that doesn’t mean you can’t edge your way in. Just take a little time upfront to plan out your career strategy. Then, go forward with gusto. Someone has to land every job that’s available — and the next person who hears “You’re hired!” could be you.

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