It’s not an easy answer but we’ve demystified the process with some of our best tips.

Headlines that contain these elements do well:

1.  Use Numbers: It’s much easier for people to skim a numeral rather than a spelled out number. When you use a number it clues people into exactly what they’ll get. It’s also more likely to be reposted and shared on sites like Twitter that have a short character limit.

Example: 10 People From Your Past Who Will Haunt You On Facebook

2.  Make Lists: Lists are easy to skim and make information digestible. Make each point into numbered or bulleted list with subheadings. Lists tell readers exactly what they’re going to get.

Example: Free eBook Tells You 12 Secrets to a Greener Lawn

3.  Ask Questions: When you ask a question it makes people want to read to get an answer. It works well on Facebook or blogs because people can comment and give their input.

You can ask a leading question that sells your business. Let’s say you coach people on setting up an ecommerce business. You could ask a question such as: “Would You Like 2011 to Be the Year in Which You Build the Foundations of your Ecommerce Business for Long-Term Wealth?”

Example: Is Buying a Home Worth it?

4.  Use Emotion: I always thought using emotions meant that you wanted to tug at people’s heart with a heartwarming story. A better way to look at it is how you want your customers to feel when they use your product. You can help them feel sexy, loved, smart, accomplished, important, rich, or good looking. Or, you can associate with negative emotions people want to avoid, such as shamed, embarrassed, incompetent, lazy, etc.

By associating your product with emotions you create a more powerful response that motivates people to read more. Use strong words. The word “remarkable” is better than “great.” Stating that something is catastrophic is more dramatic and unexpected than just saying it’s “scary.”

In this example from Copyblogger, the emotional payoff of taking command of a meeting is that you feel respected.

Example: How to Take Command of Any Meeting

5.  Be Humorous (plays on words, cliches with a twist, etc): To me the best kind of humor is to state the unexpected. It disarms people and piques their curiosity. If you make them laugh you have made an impact.

Example: 4 Things You Love to Discuss that No One Cares About

6.  Promise a solution to a problem: If your product solves a problem that a lot of people have you have a market. Everyone has problems in life and business. They are looking for solutions. Since we’re trying to solve these problems, we’re compelled to read if there’s a promised solution in the headline.

Example: Little Known Ways to Get More Twitter Followers

If you were to write a “creative” headline for this blog post what would it be? Or, share a tip you’ve learned from writing headlines.

Contest! Win one of 5 great prizes from Publicity Spark!

First Place: The Ultimate PR Distribution List (Value $47)

Second Place: How to Create an SEO Press Release Ebook (Value $47)

Third Place: How to use Keywords in Press Releases (Value $37)

Fourth Place: Social Spark Service (Value $27)

Fifth Place: Affiliate Marketing for Bloggers Ebook (Value $7)

Simply tweet or comment below on your most pressing SEO question (or publicity question, or press release question) with hashtag #publicityspark!

Winners will be chosen according to content, and notified on Friday August 12, 2011

You can also still enter Monday’s contest to win Publicity Spark’s Ultimate Online PR Kit (Value $97)! See the details here.

To add some extra spark to the tour, we’re hosting a contest giveaway on Monday and Wednesday. We will announce the winners on Friday. There will also be one grand prize winner at the end of the Blog Spark Tour which we will draw from all the blogs in the tour. To learn more about our Blog Spark Tour and where we’ll be each week, check out our schedule.

Don’t let these mistakes hurt your SEO!

• Not including any links in your posts: Even if you are posting on a site that does not allow clickable links, you can still spell out your site in order get it out to your readers. Some sites will remove anchor links in your posts, so including the complete http://www.XYZ.com link in your post is crucial to generating more clicks to your page.

• Making “click here” your anchor text: Searching click here on Google will result in over 3.1 billion results.  Don’t let your links get lost in the crowd. Make sure your links have some description of what they are linking to, ideally a keyword or phrase that will also increase your SEO.

For Example: Instead of inserting your link like this, “Nike released new running shoes this week, click here to check them out”, change your anchor text so that the link appears like this “Check out the new Nike running shoes, released earlier this week”.

When you use a keyword phrase with a link to a related page it helps that page rank higher in search results for that page. In the above example, if someone typed “Nike running shoes” into Google, the nike.com home page should come up higher on the list of sites.

• Stuffing your post with links: Adding too many links into your post makes it look spammy and will automatically place your release on the editorial hold list on many sites. To avoid this delay, limit your links to 1 per 100 words of text. This will increase to value of the links you choose to include, increase their click-through rates, and stop search engines from assuming your post is spam and devaluing it.

Have a question about our article? Did you learn a new tip? Do you have your own tip to share? Please comment below. We’re looking forward to keeping the dialogue open all week long.

Contest Announcement! Enter to Win The Ultimate Online PR Kit (Value $97)!

Deadline date: Thursday, August 11, 2011 at 11:59 pm Eastern Standard Time.

Contest Rules

You must adhere to all the rules as stated. Shall a winner be chosen who did not complete these rules, he/she will not be eligible to win. To be eligible to win you must be 18 years of age or older.

You must comment below telling us why you want to win the Ultimate Online PR Kit.

For Additional Entries

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Each comment below designates an entry number. Create a new comment for each entry requirement you complete. We will use Random.org to pick a random winner from the total number of comments below. The winner will be contacted by email. If no response is received in 48 hours, another winner will be chosen. Confirmed winners will be announced in each Friday’s blogpost and on our blog at PublicitySpark.com

Honestly, it’s so awesome to NOT have to wonder at 5pm what to make for dinner (and let’s face it, at that time it’s either pasta or take out).

However, I do struggle with this because I LOVE to eat yet the rest of my family are picky eaters. Plus I need a recipe to make everything so that takes extra time to look through my cookbooks or online cooking sites.

BUT…I’m done with excuses! With the help of Laura from the Organizing Junkie I am determined to get this part of my life organized – especially since school ends in 2 days.

Monday – pancakes & scrambled eggs
Tuesday – hamburgers & hot dogs with baked beans & roasted potatoes
Wednesday – last day of school – homemade mac & cheese (kids’ favorite)
Thursday – dinner at Grandma & Grandpa’s
Friday – chicken breast sandwich on sour dough bread with cheese & sundried tomatoes
Saturday – dinner out for hubby’s birthday
Sunday – spaghetti with turkey meatballs

Pretty awesome that I get 2 nights off from cooking! Didn’t even realize until I wrote it all down.

If you’d like to join the fun of Menu Plan Monday, click here for the details & to add your site to Laura’s page.

The Benefits of Summer Reading Programs For Kids

In the kids’ eyes, there are a huge number of benefits to taking part in this type of program. Although most kids don’t like the idea of being forced to “work” during their holidays, they do like the idea of the rewards they can get by taking part in reading programs! Most reading programs offer incentives and rewards such as gift certificates, bookmarks or school supplies. And it’s also a good opportunity to spend time with other kids.

You can also turn your summer reading program into a themed event to make it more fun and enticing. Try reading all the books by the same author, reading a specific series, or books in the same genre but written by different authors. Follow your kids’ directions and let them be the guide.

My 9 year old is a horse lover and her grandmother found a series of books called Canterwood Crest by Jessica Burkhart. At first I thought they might be a little bit old for her since the characters seem to be in middle school but she is flying through these books! She got the first ones in the series in February as a birthday gift and she’s nearly done with #5. I promised her #6 would be for her good report card so we’ll be making a trip to the book store this week.

For schools, there are many additional benefits to encouraging students to join a reading program. For a start, it keeps kids learning during the long weeks in which they’re away from school. It helps to keep kids in the habit of reading regularly, which in turn will help them absorb new words and knowledge, which in turn helps cut down on the amount of review needed in September. And, by using organized programs, kids can often get the books for free from their local library, with a reading schedule that’s already laid out for you in advance.

For parents, the new books and incentives will keep the kids busy during the day so we can get some work done! Set up 30 minute increments using the kitchen timer so you can check your emails or write an article while they’re reading. Personally, I work much more quickly under deadline and it’s amazing how much I can do in 30 minutes before the timer goes off!

Finding Local Summer Reading Programs For Kids

The best place to start is with your local library. Find out if they’re offering any reading programs and, if so, for what age groups. Do this ahead of time so that your child can join in from the very beginning. Other places to check with include your child’s school and local universities.

Some of the larger bookstore chains also run summer reading programs for kids. They’re free to join but their meetings, or story times, are inside the store so your kids might start asking to buy new books as opposed to borrowing them from the library. That could also serve as an incentive to sticking with the summer reading program: a brand new book to add to their bookshelves at the end of the summer.

For those kids who prefer to use an ereader, you don’t need to go broke buying books for download. If your library has a website, they most likely have a way to “borrow” ebooks. As always, be diligent with what titles your child downloads, even from the library. My teen’s favorite author writes very dark, depressing books and even though they’re bestsellers, we put a limit on how many she can read.

Life is hard enough without filling your free reading with depressing stories, don’t you think? Especially when the main characters are her age and getting into all sorts of awful trouble.

Starting Your Own Summer Reading Program

If you live in an area without a library or any summer reading programs for kids then you may consider starting your own if there is enough interest among your neighbors and friends. You’ll need to choose a place to meet, and decide how long you want the reading program to last (usually up to two months).

Before you get going, decide on the specific books you’ll want to include in your reading program. Go online to find summer reading lists if you’re not sure where to begin. You could offer rewards to kids who read all of the set books, or it could be less formal and simply a time to discuss what they’ve read, similar to a book club meeting.

You could also keep things very informal within your family and let your children determine how many books to read and the titles. My kids give me LOTS of resistance if I get too bossy and lay out the rules so this is something you could easily put them in charge of. They can make progress charts, keep track of their progress by using colorful stickers from the dollar store, and they can give you a weekly update on their progress while you eat dinner.

Certainly summer reading programs are not just limited to the children! Since kids often imitate their parents’ behavior, why not make a point of choosing a book to read and lead by example? I know that’s tough when you’re trying to get work done but instead of watching television at night, dedicate 20-30 minutes before bed as family reading time.

Even if you choose a cookbook to read for your weekly meal planning, the kids will still see you reading.

Making summer reading fun is important but whatever you do, you’ll be offering great value to the kids by creating your own version of a summer reading program.

Here are some more free resources for summer reading programs:

Family Literacy & You
Scholastic Summer Challenge

10 Proven Ways to Optimize Your Facebook Page

By: Terri Seymour

Social media marketing is absolutely essential in today’s online business world. It has taken the internet by storm both professionally and personally. Social media marketing means to market your business with the use of social networks, blogs, message boards, discussion groups, online communities and other such media. Some of the most popular social network sites are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn.

Social marketing involves a lot more than just signing up and pasting up your page. You need to maximize your page’s effectiveness and keep it fresh, updated and alive. Below are 10 things you can do to optimize your Facebook page to make sure your business is getting the maximum benefits.

1. Create an Effective Profile – Do not use a half-done profile. Fill in your profile completely. This is for your business so be professional yet show people you care about your customers and will be there for them. Make sure your photo (if of yourself) is professional. You could also use your logo. Let people know what your business can do for them. Write an effective mission statement. Let your visitors know why they should do business with you but be careful what you reveal for security reasons.

2. Get Your Visitors Involved in Discussions – This is a great way to get your visitors to “Like” you and to keep coming back. Start helpful and informative discussions about topics related to your products or services. For example: if you sell home décor, start discussions about home decorating ideas, budget decorating, home improvement, etc. Encourage people to join the discussions and leave their business signature for more exposure.

3. Customize Your Page – Don’t let your page be one of the cookie cutter pages like everyone else. Customize it to fit your business needs and the needs of your visitors. Use images that brand you and your business and make it enjoyable and memorable.

4. Events and Contests – Keep your page alive and active with special events and contests. Each time a fan RSVP’s the event, it shows up in his profile. And so on and so on. Thus creating a ripple effect for your business.

5. Special Offers and Sales – People are always looking for good deals and special offers so don’t disappoint. Show your visitors you want to give them the best possible deal on your products/services.

6. Multi-Media Integration – Use audio and video content for your page. Audio and video can be extremely effective in capturing and holding the attention of visitors. According to webnox, video is 58% more effective than just using plain text!

7. Make Your Tabs More Memorable – Facebook does allow you to change the usual boring tabs to more suit your needs. Make them unique to your page and business. You can also change the order in which you present your tabs. You can find easy to follow online tutorials on how to do this.

8. Utilize Your Sidebar – Take advantage of your sidebar space. This is a great place for testimonials or newsletter sign-up forms. You can also use this space for affiliate links, a survey for your visitors to help improve your page/business. Add links to your main website or special offers you may have going.

9. Add a Poll to Your Page – People like knowing their opinion matters so add interest to your page with a poll. You can add them using a free poll creator from Vizu. Polls can attract attention and encourage your visitors to interact with your page.

10. Post Regularly – I cannot stress this enough! Do not start your page and then let it sit for weeks at a time. You have to be there every day updating, adding new content, checking things over, and finding ways to improve your page. I recently started using social marketing and unfortunately need to take my own advice on this one. I have just not been involved enough with my Facebook page but that will soon be changing. The hold that social media has on the internet is astronomical so do not be left out in the cold!

So far I am involved with Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn so feel free to come over and see me. I would love to see your page as I am learning more about this phenomenal marketing tool. I hope we all can use these types of sites to help each other improve our business and increase our sales!

Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com

Terri Seymour has over twelve years online experience and has helped many people start their own business. Visit her site for resources, $1 and $2 resell ebooks & software, articles, and affiliate programs. Sign up for the RSS Feed for a free business ebook with MRR. www.SeymourProducts.com

This article may be reprinted for free so long as the author’s resource box is kept intact and all links remain live and clickable. The Article Source must also be included. All rights are reserved by the author.

A few weeks ago I had both my email inboxes well under 10 each. I can’t remember how low they both got, but it was probably 5 or under. It was AWESOME! I have two gmail accounts and I forward all my emails to these accounts. I came off of a very productive month of February and hit March by getting that inbox down. It was so easy to open my email and figure out exactly what needed attention. But somehow in the last 2 weeks it’s back to somewhat out of control. Not fully, but it’s not in a manageable state.

Thankfully Tishia Lee posted how awesome her inbox count was on her status. Yes, my first thought did include a swear word and I possibly even had to rewrite my first comment so it didn’t sound snarky instead of funny like I meant it. Then it hit me that this was possibly a direct correlation of how my last week of working has gone. I’ve let it overwhelm me.

Since I use gmail I dove in and cleaned up. I’m not down to where I want to be, but I started at 8:30pm and I really didn’t want to stay up too late working on it. How’d I work on getting a grip on it all?

1. UNSUBSCRIBE! This is always one of the first things I do when I notice my inbox is starting to add up. If there is an email list I recognize I don’t open regularly before deleting or hasn’t peaked an action from me in a while then I click the unsubscribe button.

2. Label and Archive. This is a major one for me and one I battle with. Of course it’s easy for me to label things that are directly site related, but I’ve had one of my gmail accounts for so many years that I worry about putting emails into labels and not coming back to them. If you have a suggestion for that I’d love to hear it.

3. DELETE! This one is such a hard one and I wish I didn’t take weeks to come to the decision that I am not going to act on an email. Typically these will be emails from a company that I’m an affiliate for and I mean to put up a post about the special or the new product. I need to set up a better system of adding a quick post (whole other story) or deleting quicker. I’m working hard at deleting emails about new products I really would like to buy. Needed products are purchased immediately, wants seem to end up holing up in my inbox.

These are my tops for instantly downsizing your email inbox. Sure they can be basic and things that you already have in place. But if you have over 20 emails in your inbox regularly then you are procrastinating on them. I know I’ve signed up for a few ecourses recently and have gotten overwhelmed now that I’m behind. Once it clicked in my head that my email was getting out of control, it dawned on me that this is a direct correlation to a week that I felt overwhelmed. I know that this month is going to finish strong because I’ve caught this much quicker than normal. I’m trying to burrow out from it and I’m on the way now. I have to prepare for spring break next week and much less time online!

Scott Stratten gives lots of case study examples, which help you to understand the context of each chapter (there are over 50 of them). His funny and entertaining style keeps your attention from the first page to the last. Learn about viral marketing, strategies to treat your customers well and turn them into long-term prospects. Social media, such as Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin are covered. The book is filled with lots of great advice and top tips on what works in today’s marketing world and what doesn’t.

Overall, if you are interested in reading up on Scott Stratten’s successful, modern marketing approach of engaging with your customers, Unmarketing would be a great asset to your business library.

photo © 2009 Joe King | more info (via: Wylio)

Here are seven free advertising ideas for small businesses.

#1 Register your website on free listing directories like DMOZ which would help increase the online traffic.

#2 Utilize classified ad sites. Create ads to advertise a specific product or service. Make sure to create your ad like you would any other paid ad. Solve a problem. Create a compelling headline. Offer a call to action.

#3 Add your business to local search engines like Google Places, Local Yahoo, Local MSN and so on. Add reviews to your profile. Make sure the address and contact information is consistent with what you have published on your site. Also add a few local keywords to your website SEO strategy. For example, if you’re located in Austin Texas and your website is about fitness training, then you might choose “Fitness training Austin Texas.”

#4 Publish ads on social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace. Don’t go crazy with the advertising. Simply publish them on your profile page or include them occasionally in your posts.

#5 Swap advertisements with relevant websites. For example, if you’re a fitness trainer and you know a nutritionist, you can each publish an ad for the other on your website. It’s a simple advertising partnership. You can also publish ads in each other’s newsletters.

#6 Participate in industry forums that allow you to promote your business. You can create advertisements specifically for your forum audience. Also come up with interesting signature lines for your profile.

#7 Use free listing sites like Craigslist to advertise for your business. Create the advertisements like you would for any other medium. Have a captivating headline, copy that provides a solution to a problem and then a call to action.

You can also print flyers and brochures and leave them around town. And while it’s not free, you can also print your website on stickers or magnets and place them on your car. These types of ads generally don’t cost much and they can have a good return on investment – particularly for local businesses.

Free advertising opportunities are all around you. It just takes a bit of creativity to recognize and capitalize on them.

photo © 2006 noricum | more info (via: Wylio)

1) Manage your time. First and foremost, if the task seems overwhelming, set a timer and limit yourself to just 15 minutes of decluttering at a time. You’ll be amazed at how much you can get done in just 15 minutes. I use this tip for all housecleaning when I find I’m ignoring major tasks.

2) Put up or give up. Clear your desktop and put back only what you use every day. Store everything else in drawers, on shelves, or in your supply closet. If you never or seldom use something, get rid of it. Give it away to someone who could make good use of it. Put anything that doesn’t belong on your desk in a pile. When the timer goes off, put all of those things away in their proper places.

3) No more “misc.” Don’t keep a “miscellaneous” file. Sort papers into files labeled specifically for the action needed. For example, keep a file for bills to pay, receipts to enter, papers to shred, etc. Anything that cannot be filed this way is not important enough to keep. Maintain virtual folders (and subfolders) the same way.

4) Organize your drawers. Arrange like items in each drawer. For example, put all of your office supplies in one drawer, stationery and notepads in another. That way, you won’t waste a lot of time searching for a pen when on the phone or looking for printer paper just before a deadline.

5) Clean out your virtual inbox. Declutter your virtual desk by deleting old emails that require no further action on your part. To store email you need to save, create a folder for it on your hard drive. Do not print emails unless you absolutely have to.

6) Use simple organizational tools. Bundle related papers together with clips, use trays for current papers or files (labeled “next week,” “this week,” etc.), and keep pens in a cup.

7) Take a moment. Whenever you have a lull in the day, take a moment to trash or shred old paperwork you don’t need anymore.

End the day clean. At the end of each day, before you step away from your desk, clear it off and put everything away in its proper place. Wipe off your desk with a cleaner or just plain water.

Now that your desk is clean, you can get down to business! A clutter-free desk makes for a clutter-free mind.

It’s a little of both in this case. I’ve been ignoring how much energy a project is taking over everything else. Not in a good way, it’s taking more energy than it’s worth and much more mental energy than I’m getting paid for. It’s time to end that project and pass on future projects in this area. It’s been a detriment to other clients and all of my own projects for over 2 weeks now.  And I take full responsibility for that.

I’ve been too busy because of constantly having this project in the back of my mind. It’s not going smoothly and it didn’t from the start. Trying to force things to work isn’t working. I’m wasting so much energy on emails, working things out in my head even when not working on the project and then trying to decipher communication between parties.

Today I put it in quick perspective. This client is x amount of hours retained a month. I’m spending more than x hours thinking about it a WEEK! I’m making “y” amount of money a month on the retainer, but lost over 1/2 of “y” amount last month from not working on a site of mine like I should be.  That’s just money lost from ONE site I’ve ignored.  Let alone the blog posts that haven’t been getting up and promotion that hasn’t happened for another site that could be leading to lost income.

This is where Kelly’s post really has stuck with me about the working on your own projects and having clients. I’m trying to do too many things. I know why and at first it was necessary. I’ve transitioned to being home and I wanted to replace lost income as fast as possible. Paying bills is a good idea right? lol However, paying bills at all costs is not good over the long run. As I said, I’m now getting into the point where I’m making a little in one direction, but losing some in another. This means evaluating exactly where I need to push my focus back towards and looking at a few things and seeing if they are working or not. OR seeing if I even want them to work. Is this a direction I even want to take?

Having the kids home for the summer meant I had to put my precious time to better use. Getting clients work done is a priority, then figuring out what projects I can work on during a busy week really starts putting it in perspective. If a project isn’t getting the attention when I’m crushed for time, then maybe that project isn’t a big priority to me like I thought it was.

Projects on hold, clients that aren’t a good fit and projects that aren’t really a passion anymore are all mental energy drains. These can lead you to being unproductive and lose motivation. If you find yourself staring at the computer screen, cringing when you see an email pop up, or hiding offline it’s time to take a look at your business and see what is going on. Chances are something is taking up more time than it’s worth.