Guest post

A certain faction of the business world has basically given up on business cards, and this is really too bad, because business cards still work. Cards are still an important part of the social world of business for a wide range of reasons:

Not Everyone Has an iPhone
People who have given up on business cards tend to make this assumption: “Who needs paper cards when you can check your address book on your phone?” However, not everybody has an iPhone or Android. Some people just aren’t interested in what these phones can provide. Many people in the business world like to simply disconnect when they leave their hotel room and step out on the convention floor.

Typing in Addresses and Names Can be a Hassle
On a crowded convention floor, nobody wants to stop and type in your name and email and phone number and what your business does and so on. A business card changes hands and there you go: Instant exchange of information, faster than any digital medium will ever achieve.

Business Cards are Tangible
Part of the charm of business cards is that they’re tangible, they’re real,

they’re printed on card stock and they can be held in your hand. You can’t hold an email address or a banner ad, but you can hold a business card. This triggers a little something in your brain and tells you that this business card will lead you to a real person, a real company. Furthermore, it’s a memento of a real meeting, a real event in the person’s life. Even if all they did was grab it off the counter at a coffee shop it’s still going to be attached to a real memory, and that can be very useful.

Business Cards Have Personality
Finally, a business card actually has a lot more personality to it than a name in a digital rolodex. The cardstock you choose to print on, the color of ink you use, the font, the spacing between the letters, whatever image or logo you might want to put on it, and the watermark all carry some message or other regarding who you are and what you do. All of this stuff tells a story, a story that simply cannot be told with a name and an email address alone.

A lot of your leads will come from the web, a lot of your new business partners and clients will come from the web, but when you do meet someone in person with whom you might be able to strike up an interesting business relationship, you don’t want to be caught without a card to slip into their hand.

For premium design and business card printing see Snap printing Brisbane. They’ll work with you to create a unique card to represent your business and help you stand out from the crowd.

More on Business Cards:

• Avery Business Cards for Inkjet Printers, Matte, White, Pack of 250 (08371)
• MagnaCard Magnetic Business Cards, 50 Count (MC50)
• Samsill Regal Leather Business Card Wallet, Holds 25 Cards of 2 x 3.5 Inches, Black (81220)

Image: Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Whether you are in the business of selling goods or services, you no doubt want to tell your target market all about it. Through your marketing efforts, you want to promote your goods or services in a way that captures your target audience’s attention, educates them about the benefits your goods or services offer and hopefully entices them to make a purchase. Communicating your message effectively is key to getting the end result you want, which likely is greater sales. Here are five key steps to communicating your business marketing strategy more effectively:

Define Your Target Audience 
Every type of company has a unique target audience who their services or goods appeal to. Defining who this target audience is for your company is a critical component of communicating your marketing strategy. This is because your actual message needs to be delivered in an appealing way to that specific audience, and it needs to be delivered using a media format that will be most visible for them. Defining a target audience involves determining who the main audience may be as well as any smaller market segments that may find your goods or services appealing.

Develop a Strategy
After the target audience has been determined, the next step involved is developing a marketing strategy. A solid marketing strategy may have multiple messages, but the messages will be fairly consistent in their content. When developing a strategy, it is best to brainstorm the many benefits your goods or services offer. In addition, focus on the aspects of your goods or services that set them apart from the competition. Are your goods and services higher in quality, lower in price, enhanced with quality features or something else?

Create a Focused Message
Once you have determined exactly what it is that you want to say to your target audience, you can then create a focused message. This is often done in conjunction with the next step, which involves considering your delivery options. What you say specifically to your target audience may vary based on the delivery option being used. However, all messages will carry a specific theme or will deliver the same overall message to your target audience. They will be in line with your marketing strategy.

Consider Your Delivery Options
There are many different delivery options that can be utilized to deliver your message to your target audience. Media options include TV commercials, radio spots, banner ads on the Internet, social media sites and more. A sound marketing strategy may make use of multiple delivery options to reach out to your target audience in different ways. However, to enjoy the best results, you should use delivery methods that your target audience uses regular.ly For example, social media marketing may be ideal for younger or middle aged adults. Radio ads run in the morning may be well-suited for professionals who are commuting as well as stay-at-home parents who are carpooling kids to school.

Deliver Your Message Repeatedly
In order for marketing efforts to be effective, they have to be delivered to a target audience repeatedly. It is not enough to run a single TV commercial at the same time every day for a month. Instead, such efforts may be combined with direct mail, social media marketing and more. Consider how you may best reach out to your consumer in the most direct and cost-effective way so that your message is reiterated to your target audience regularly.

By following these tips, you can most effectively communicate your marketing strategy.

This is a guest post by Tracy Hills, a freelance writer for PaydayAdvance.us — helping consumers receive a payday advance online absolutely hassle-free.

More About Marketing:

• The New Rules of Marketing & PR: How to Use Social Media, Online Video, Mobile Applications, Blogs, News Releases, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly
• Guerrilla Marketing, 4th edition: Easy and Inexpensive Strategies for Making Big Profits from Your Small Business
• Smashwords Book Marketing Guide – How to Market any Book for Free (Smashwords Guides)

Guest post

Choosing the right brochure printing service for you and your business can be difficult.  It is best to go with a company that has a full service printer.  They should have a lithographic printer which means they are not just going to print off your work on an inkjet printer.  They should have the machinery to produce the highest quality for you and your business.  When designing your brochure, there are three things you should be aware of.

Know what you want

Ask yourself what the objectives are for printing brochures.  Is it to take with you to a marketing event? Have you got a new product you want to sell and promote? Do you have a new brand that you have redesigned for your business? If you set yourself objectives before you embark on a fairly expensive marketing push, you will be able to keep focused and ensure budget is spent wisely and there is a return on investment which can be measured.

Allow for bleed

Design your brochure so that it has an extra 1 – 2 cm of coverage beyond each edge.  This taked into account the print bleed.  Brochures are printed in sheets and then sliced into single units.  When cutting thousands of sheets, the location of where the blade cuts can fluctuate slightly. Therefore to ensure that your brochures are all the same size, make sure the artwork has a bleed area.  If not, the brochures may end up being different sizes.

Use High Quality Photos

If you are using images on your brochure, please ensure they are high resolution.  They will need to be at least 300 dots per inch or dpi.  Online, most images online are 72dpi as 300dpi takes up a lot memory. If you have your own images, then you will not need to worry about copyright.  However if you need an image, there are lots of royalty images available on line from companies such as shutterstock. The price of each photo depends on the size, the larger the photo, the more expensive it will be.

Attraction Attention

Before you start budgeting for brochure printing, look and see what the other competitors are doing.  You need to make sure that your brochure stands out from the crowd.  It has to be something different that people will want to pick up and read your brochure and then want to buy your product or service.  Make sure that it adheres to the brand guidelines, ensuring there is consistency throughout your marketing material.

There are many different printing services throughout Australia. The east coast of Australia offer printing in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. Visit your nearest centre to get the best rates for your business.

Image: Master isolated images / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

More on Creating Brochures:

• The Best of Brochure Design .07 (v. 7)
• Brochure Design That Works: Secrets for Successful Brochure Design
• Brochure And Flyer; If You Want To Create an Effective Brochure and Flyer, then This Guide To Flyer and Brochure Design, Brochure Printing, Brochure Folding, … Money With Brochure and Flyer Is For You!

If you’re an Amazon Prime Member, my book, 21 Ways to Promote Your Book on Twitter, is free for the next couple of days.  Go to the free promo.

Guest post

Lately, the internet marketing world and many marketers have been rocked by changes that Google has made to its algorithm. First, we heard of headline news when JC Penny’s rankings diminished for a plethora of different keywords because of underhanded techniques used by their SEO firm to manipulate their positions in the SERP’s. Then there was the “Panda Update” that saw “content farms” like article directories receive heavy penalties and a considerable deterioration in rankings.

It seems Google are taking an aggressive stance toward certain types of websites and methods used to manipulate the system.

What exactly does Google want and what do these changes mean to you as an internet marketer?

Google’s main goal is to give a search engine user what they want in the quickest time possible. So, if you search for the keyword “SEO tips”, Google wants you to find the information you are seeking as rapidly as possible.

Where precisely do you think you going to find this information in the quickest time possible? Do you think you going to unearth this information on a 5 page website that is exclusively designed to sell a product or do you think you going to uncover the information you are searching for on a website that is dedicated to SEO and has thousands of pages relevant to your search term?

You are obviously going to find your information and much more on the site that is dedicated to SEO. This logical frame of thought lends a clue to what Google wants and which types of sites are going to receive favour in Google’s eyes.

Google despises thin sites that are low on content, and they feel larger sites that syndicate a large portion of their information from other sites are also worthless. What Google is looking for are authority sites that are loaded with unique, value-adding content. This is precisely what Google loves. They feel – and rightly so – that larger sites that specialize in a specific niche and is run by authority figures are more likely to provide the information a user is seeking.

What does this mean for internet marketers?

As an internet marketer you will be well advised to build sites that are focused, sites that deliver value, and provide a substantial amount of unique content. Establishing an authority site that can evolve into a recognized brand is the solution for you to receive the Google love that every internet marketer yearns for.

You need to be long-term focused and you need to align yourself with Google’s goals if you intend receiving the bulk of your traffic from the organic results. But it will also be advisable to diversify your traffic sources. Placing all your eggs in Google’s basket is a risky strategy, because Google’s algorithm will never be perfect. False positives do occur each time Google tweaks its algorithm and sites that offer infinite value can sometimes feel the wrath of Google. But if you invested your time building a brand, even the Google slap can’t affect you because many visitors will not depend on the search engines, but rather, they will visit your site directly.

This post has been provided by Neil, the owner of eMobileScan. A business dedicated to offering their customers the very latest in mobile technology and on demand printing, they are doing this by providing units like the Motorola ES400 and Zebra GK420t which are industry leading solutions that help to cut costs and increase productivity.

More About Google:

• In The Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives
• I’m Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59
• What Would Google Do?: Reverse-Engineering the Fastest Growing Company in the History of the World

Image: imagerymajestic / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

There’s writing for free, and then there’s writing for free. What I mean is, there is a difference between exposure for exposure’s sake, and backlinks. We all write for free these days occasionally, but there is usually a good reason for it. You’re guest posting to get backlinks, you’re doing a favor for a blogger friend, you’re promoting your book or blog, etc. After all, much of what happens on a virtual tour is free writing in the form of guest posts on other people’s blogs.

But then there’s the notion of exposure, and that’s what I want to talk about here. The other day I saw a note on one of those places where writers look for resources and interviews, and this person posted about needing “contributors” for their “upcoming magazine issue.” What I found made me mad. Let’s talk about it.

Pay in the Form of Exposure

It took me several clicks at the magazine’s site to discover that they were strictly an online mag that charged a hefty monthly fee to subscribers. Nothing wrong with that, and at first I thought it was encouraging because with a large fee they must pay their writers. Right?

Wrong.

They paid in the form of “exposure.” Their site looked terrible, so maybe they were a startup. Still, though, they were going out to recruit writers for several free articles for their magazine for February in a variety of categories.

Now, the question is, should you write for them? What’s the difference between doing a virtual tour or guest post, and writing for exposure?

Virtual Tours

I want to focus on virtual tours for a minute because so many authors are doing them, and I can attest that they are valuable if you have a book to sell. They give you plenty of backlinks that stay long after the “tour” is over. In many cases on these tours you’re writing specifically about something related to your book, so you get to talk about it, link to it, and get readers interested in it.

Is this worthwhile for writers? Absolutely.

Guest Posts

Guest posts are trickier, in my opinion. I still do them occasionally, especially for other bloggers that I’ve gotten to know or people I’m trying to get to know. For example, when I first started writing about friendship, I was asked to do a couple guest posts from other friendship bloggers. (One was about understanding about your girlfriend’s healthy problems at Girlfriendology and the other was about “What I Know Now” about friendship at Girlfriend Circles.

These bloggers were “competitors” of mine to a degree, but we decided to band together and help each other out. (Which is just one reason I love other bloggers. They get that we can all benefit from helping each other.) Another scenario with guest posting is when you’re trying to just get some backlinks, or get to know other bloggers, or establish your name in the area in which you write.

Is something like this worthwhile? You bet.

Before You Do Guest Posts

Before you do a guest post, however, you need to be clear about your goals, and this is where the distinction will come in when you’re comparing guest posting to writing for exposure only. In guest posting (virtual tours, etc.) you’re able to link to your website (and if you’re not, why the heck are you doing it!), you’re able to give a short bio of yourself, you’re probably blogging about a subject you have chosen and really enjoy, you’re probably able to talk a little bit about something near and dear to your heart, and on and on. You need to decide what the value is in a guest post for you.

For example, when I first started out as a freelancer I needed to accomplish a couple things. I needed people to come visit my website and I needed to establish my name as a serious blogger. I wasn’t a hobby blogger, but no one knew it back then because no one knew me. I’m not famous now (that’s not what I’m talking about), but I do have a reputation as being a serious blogger and freelance writer. One thing that helped me establish that was guest posting on various places where I could show that I was an expert in things like lifestyle and relationships. I made sure that the sites I chose were getting decent amounts of traffic, and had an influence of some sort with the audience I was trying to attract. If I wrote a guest post that helped me with the criteria I wanted most, I did it.

Writing for Exposure

Magazines or sites that hire, search for, and recruit writers to work solely for exposure, though, are tricky. They are more tricky than guest posts, because if “exposure” is all you’re looking for, you need to make sure that the site is really going to give it to you. As I said, when I clicked through to that online magazine in question, it was obvious they were new and probably didn’t have much traffic. Will that get you exposure? Doubtful.

Also, if exposure is what you want (and that’s not a bad goal), you can always get it other ways than just guest posting. Think about offering yourself up as an expert for radio or TV shows, get exposure in your community by volunteering to teach a class at your community center, enter a reputable awards contest, get interviewed by another blogger, and on and on. There are a lot of ways you can promote yourself if you want exposure.

Getting Experience

The other argument with writing for a rinky dink magazine for free is that you get “experience” and writing credentials. Well, yes and no. I did this too when I first started out, and anywhere I wrote for free didn’t hold a lot of weight with the people I was trying to get a paid job for. If you write for a non-profit for free, that’s something different. What I’m talking about are those magazines who actively recruit writers on job boards and on places like HARO for work, promise a lot, and don’t deliver. It can be difficult, especially when you’re new, to protect yourself against them.

• Before you take a job writing for free, ask yourself:
• Is this an opportunity that is better (traffic-wise, pay, connections) than if I posted on my own blog?
• Will doing something for free for this person help me get other paying jobs? (In other words, is the editor really connected where they would hire you again for a paying gig down the line? Do some checking.)
• Will doing this gig establish that I’m willing to write for free. (That’s a hard precedent to break.)
• Will doing this gig take too much time away from promoting myself in other ways?

More on Guest Posting:

• How To Market Your Business With Guest Blogging
• Guest Posting Secrets-Building Business With Guest Posting On High Traffic Websites-AAA+++
• Virtual Book Tours

Image: Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I’ve done quite a few interviews over the past few years, and most of them are really great. As an introvert myself, I’m amazed at people’s abilities to chat away in a carefree manner, to interrupt people (when they need it), and to basically think aloud. During a radio or TV interview, those are important skillsets (which I definitely don’t have.) But there have also been interviewers that have veered off-track during the course of our time together. So then what? Do you as the interviewee interrupt them? What do you do to get things back on track?

Why Things Veer Off Course

Some people are chatty by nature, and this means they happily chirp out their thoughts without much regard to whether or not what they’re saying is related to their show. This isn’t a bad thing, because sometimes you can get spontaneous moments that leave an impact. As an interviewee, though, you can’t afford to have your host chat happily away from your topic.

Other times a host may veer from the pre-determined topic based on something that happened in the news recently. That happened to me with a radio show I did last year. It was a live show for the top-rated morning show in Atlanta. The producer asked me to prepare three points (related to the topic of online dating) to talk about, and when I came on to do the interview, the host completely changed the topic based on something she heard on the news that morning.

Don’t Panic!

In the example with the Atlanta radio show, I didn’t panic. Whenever I do radio or TV, I tell myself to go with the flow no matter what happens. That sometimes means I’m not “on” with promoting my book, but willing to chat about other things if they come up. The reason I’m open to this (and I do really have to psyche myself up about this ahead of time) is that I believe when you make an appearance of any kind, you are selling yourself, your brand, and your book, just by showing your personality. If you show that you’re knowledgeable but also willing to loosen up and have fun, you’ll leave much more of an impression, and chances are people will look you up. At the very least, they will remember you the next time another piece of your overall marketing puzzle shows up (like a Tweet or blog post).

In the case of this Atlanta radio show, I chatted about the topic she wanted to talk about, and then related it to my own topic. I answered her questions, and then said:

“I’m happy you brought this up. I think it relates to the dating world very well because…”

and then brought it back to my topic. In the end, we managed to hit some topics related to dating, but not the ones the producer asked me to prepare. (Yet another reason you need to be an expert in your topic if you go on radio or TV.)

Avoid Saying “In My Book”

You might be tempted to try and get things back on topic by talking about the real reason you’re doing the interview: your book. (Or blog, or whatever else you’re trying to promote.) Be very cautious about this, because if you bring up your book too much, you’ll turn people off and they won’t listen to you anymore.

Instead, avoid saying “in my book” at all, and instead say “I always tell people,” or “I would advise people to” and then talk about points relevant to why you’re there.

This might sound confusing, so let me give you an example. In one TV interview I did on the subject of Internet dating, the interviewer chatted with me before air time. She asked me the one thing that everyone who has never dated online seems to ask, which was “Do people lie online?” I said no, for the most part I thought people were who they said they were.

When the cameras came back on and we went live, however, she said (right into the camera) “We’re talking here about why people lie.” Then she turned to me, “Why are so many people dishonest in the world? They cheat on their taxes, they lie to their husbands… why do you think this happens?”

Uh…..

I was a newbie at interviewing back then and probably looked like I was caught in the headlights. Why did this happen? I assumed it was because the interviewer had a lot going on and couldn’t remember what we were there to discuss. (Or, she was just a moron.) Either way, I wasn’t going to miss out on TV time when it came to discussing my topic.

If I wanted to be obnoxious (which I’ll admit was very tempting considering how the rest of the interview went) I would have said, “Well in my book I talk about that. In my book, which is why I’m here, I mention that it’s an urban legend how much people lie on their profiles. In my book, which you should read because you obviously know nothing about this subject…”

But I didn’t do that. Luckily, I recovered, and said:

“I don’t know why some people lie, but in the online dating world, which I do know a lot about, I’d disagree that people are dishonest.”

Suggest a Question

Another tactic to use if the interviewer gets totally off-track is to suggest a question related to your topic. This happened to me once when someone was interviewing me about my diabetes book for a radio show, and asked me about being a Green Bay Packer fan. I happily answered questions about it (because I certainly don’t hide the fact that I love football), but then the interviewer went off on every trade and bad call he’d witnessed in the last ten years.

It got worse. He then started talking about salary caps in the game, and that led to lost draft opportunities, and before I knew it the talk was totally about football and not about diabetes.

When he finally took a breath, I just pretended that we had been talking about my topic all along. I said, “Oh, it’s true, so many frustrating things when you’re a fan that you have no control over. When you’re a diabetic, there are also things you can’t control. One question diabetics typically ask me is…” and then brought it back to the subject I was there to discuss.

I paused to see if he would pick up on the hint, and he did. (Hey, interviewers are human, and if they go off on an unrelated rant, forgive them! But do bring it back to your topic.)

Don’t Get Ticked

I’ve had quite a few interviews where the person seemed to interview themselves more than they did me. I usually find this hysterical, which is good because a happy interviewee comes off better than a ticked off one. You might have flown or driven to the TV station, carved out time in your precious schedule, and even created special questions or topics to chat about (all of which will be a “waste” when your interviewer gets off track), but don’t sweat it. If you get pissed, your anger will come through and not your message.

Instead, laugh it off. Pretend that you’re having a great time anyways and eventually you will. Don’t look at it as a lost opportunity, because I promise you that good things build slowly from the interviews you do, no matter how much you get to talk about your book. They do make an impact, even if you don’t realize it at the time.

Remember that Atlanta station I mentioned? I kept my cool even though the topic got twisted on me, and after the interview another station (who had listened to it) called me up to be on their station. I got a second interview that was much more on point, just because I was able to roll with things with the first one. Things like that happen all the time. Look at the interviews you do as building blocks. Some of them will get you immediately book sales, while others will just be a piece you use to secure your brand. Either way, you can’t lose.

More Ways to Promote Your Book:

• 21 Ways to Promote Your Book on Twitter
• Virtual Book Tours
• Publicize Your Book (Updated): An Insider’s Guide to Getting Your Book the Attention It Deserves
• The Frugal Book Promoter: Second Edition: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher.

Image: Danilo Rizzuti / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Have you used Help a Reporter Out (HARO)? It’s such a great resource. I’ve used it to get interviews for an article I wrote on midlife dating  and I’ve also responded to calls for experts. The service works great, but if you’re just trying to promote your book at any cost or get an interview no matter what, you probably won’t find it as useful. Here are some tips that will help you get the most out of HARO.

Be Specific in What You Ask For

Are you looking for tips you can use instantly? An interview to get more info? Be specific, otherwise you will receive back emails from people pitching things to you. I found that out quick enough the first time I put out a request and received back quite a number of pitches, rather than the info I was looking for. I realized I hadn’t been very clear.

Where Will Your Article Be Placed?

You can post anonymously on the site, or you can share where you’ll be posting the blog or article. In my opinion, it’s better to share where the article will appear. You should also let someone know if you’ll be using their tips anonymously or sharing their name and website. In my midlife dating article, for example, I let everyone know that I was going to make everything anonymous. That way it made people open up more about their past dating mistakes.

Let People Know Once the Article Is Up

I’ve provided quite a few tips for people to use with HARO, but only a few have responded back to me once the article was up. That’s why when I was on the flip side of things, I made sure I held onto all the emails from sources that I had used, and let them know when the article was live. Each one of them thanked me for it, and I think it’s because when you take the time to answer someone’s question, you want to make sure it was time well spent.

Don’t Get Too Sales-y When Responding

If you’re the one answering calls for tips or interviews, be careful about how you respond. If someone asks for the answer to a specific question, feel free to answer it and then provide a short bio and link. It’s up to them to use it, but if you make it easy for them they probably will.

However, if you respond back with sales-y copy meant to sell your book only, you won’t have as much success. When I sent out the call for my midlife dating article, I got back several responses that were nothing more than a pitch for me to buy a book. I hit delete instantly on these, because they weren’t helpful and they were annoying.

The right way to respond is to answer the question or tip fully, and then add if someone would like more information to contact you. Then provide a short (under 100 word) bio for them to understand your level of expertise a little bit better. I had one person do that and then went on to interview them for a different article I was working on.

Sherri Rabinowitz has done several guest posts here at Working Writers, and we also talked with her before about her books. But I wanted to bring her back because her book Fantasy Time Inc. has just been released as an ebook, and I think that’s always an exciting time for authors. It’s also an opportunity to revamp your book sales.

I’m going to talk more about this subject (of ways to recharge your book marketing efforts) in the upcoming year, but for now, here are a few things I asked Sherri about her new ebook project.

Your book has just been released as an ebook. This is a good opportunity for authors to ramp up their promotion efforts. What are some of the things you’ve done to get attention for your ebook?

Thank you, it’s all new to me. I am doing interviews and guest blogs. I also have new announcement on several websites and a new ad.

Do you find that more people are reading ebooks or books these days? Have your book sales changed at all with regard to so many people having e-readers?

It seems to be an ebook world. I have been getting more sales since the ebook hit the market. My friend explained that it was because it can contain many books in a small space and its easier to carry on a plane if you travel a lot. I can understand that, because a lot of books in bag would cost a fortune these days on plane.

What are some of your favorite ways to market your book?

I use Twitter a lot. I also love to do guest blogs and interviews.

What’s been the best feedback that you’ve received about your book so far?

I had two wonderful reviews of the book. I also was asked if I would write a sequel three times because they wanted to know what happened to these characters next.

First let me say, I love hearing from you all. I really do. You are all so passionate and knowledgeable, and you blow me away with your emails and comments. But in addition to all the wonderful readers that contact me here, I also hear from other folks: PR people, authors, editors, marketing people, and on and on, and some of them aren’t such great communicators. I’m not going to pick on them, but I do want to point out a few things they do that we can all learn from.

Over Communicating

Being on top of things is great, but when you send me an email, then another one the next day to ask if I got the previous one, then a note on Facebook, then a ping on Skype to find out if I received your emails… you’re pushing it. I get several hundred emails a day, and answer them in the best way possible. I prioritize them, so if you didn’t get a response immediately, give it a day.

Over communicating is just as bad as not being thorough enough because it implies impatience and unwillingness to be respectful.

Spacing on Details

Here’s another favorite scenario. You ask me to schedule a date, and then a week later you’ll send me an email saying, “What are we doing again?” If this happens once in a while, it’s understandable. But if you continually refuse to write things down or remember them, you’re not leaving a good impression. Eventually people will get tired of dealing with you.

Repeatedly Telling Me How Busy You Are

Recently I had someone who asked if she could interview me. Great, I responded, and we agreed on a date that would work, which turned out to be two months in advance. She said she’d get me the questions, but… sigh…. she was so busy.

Being told how busy someone is tends to annoy me. I think it’s because we are all so busy. I don’t know of a single person that isn’t busy. My days are jam packed, too. I feel for people, because I wish we could all slow down, but then again if we are stuck in this mode where we have to bring it up to others, it just wastes more valuable time.

So needless to say a month went by and I still hadn’t received the questions from this woman, but I did get another email that told me… sigh…. she was so busy… sigh… and she would work on the questions and get them to me.

But you guessed it, another month went by, and now we were edging up on the date of the interview. She actually sent me another email to tell me that she normally isn’t so busy… because she’s just so busy…

But I still hadn’t received the questions. Sure enough, she sent them to me at the last minute, and I had to turn around and answer them right away so I could get them back to her in order for the post to go ahead as scheduled.

I can’t help wondering if she would have just sat down and did the questions (instead of sending emails to tell me how busy she was) that this would have worked out a little better. More than that, now her lack of preparation required me to hurry up and drop other things in order to accommodate her. Not cool.

Sending Me Random Things Not Appropriate to My Blog

It’s pretty obvious that this blog is related to the writing world. The topics are fairly open (anything having to do with running a small business, freelancing, writing, creativity, and the like are all things that work here), but even with that, I get a fair amount of emails that suggest things that aren’t related at all.

I know people are busy, but you’ve got to get to know a blog a little bit before pitching. Right?

Unorganized

I have quite a few people that schedule guest posts or author interviews, but are so unorganized I constantly need to follow up. If I have to repeatedly ask you about where a post is (that you asked me to provide room on my editorial calendar for), then you aren’t doing your job. If you contact me and want me to schedule something for you, I’ll happily do it, but then follow up and don’t make more work for me by forgetting what you asked for.

Those are some of my communication pet peeves. But like anything, I’ve learned from them. When I see myself doing something that would drive me crazy if the tables were turned, I try and mend my ways. What are some of your pet peeves? Have the way people communicated with you changed the way you email people yourself?

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