Contributed Post | Mike McRitchie | Resume and LinkedIn Profile Writer | Telecom Marketing Content Writer

7 Types Of Sponsored Content For Your Blog

May 23, 2024 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

Sponsored content is one of the most effective ways of making money from your blog. It involves companies and individuals paying you to promote their product or service. While this could take the form of a heavily promotional ad piece, sponsored content doesn’t always have to be this obvious. By exploring more sly forms of sponsored content, you can get paid without putting off readers. Below are a few examples of some of the best forms of sponsored content.

Product reviews

There are companies out there that will pay you to write reviews of their product. If you already review products on your blog, a sponsored product review is unlikely to look out of place. Just be certain to consider your integrity and the wishes of the sponsor. Do they want you to write a glowing review with no criticisms? Could this affect your reputation as a serious reviewer? To maintain a balance of honesty and client satisfaction, consider only accepting sponsored reviews of products that you’re certain you and your audience will like.

Listicles

Another form of sponsored content to consider could be a listicle. For example, this could be a listicle of the best pink matte lipsticks – this could feature several pink matte lipstick brands including one that is sponsored. The sponsor may want you to include certain competitor products, or they may ask you to choose other products to feature in the listicle. Such listicles can come across as less obvious forms of promotion because you’re also promoting other products. Just make sure that when discussing other products, these don’t outshine the sponsored product.

How-to guides

Another form of sponsored content to consider could be a how-to guide. For example, this could be a guide on how to clean bathroom tiles. This guide could revolve around a sponsored product. Such content can be made to look informational rather than promotional. Just make sure to choose sponsors that are relevant to your blog’s theme.

Brand mentions

Some companies will pay you simply for mentioning their brand in a post. The post could be about anything so long as the brand is mentioned. Of course, the brand should be mentioned in a positive light. In some cases, a sponsor may also ask that you provide a link. These are often some of the most flexible and non-obvious forms of sponsored content.

Affiliate links

Affiliate marketing works differently to regular sponsorship. Instead of being paid a flat fee to mention a brand, affiliate sponsors instead only pay you for every client that your post generates. This usually involves publishing a post containing a link to a webpage in which readers can buy a sponsored product – the sponsor is then able to use web analytics to determine every visitor that arrives via that link. There are variants of this such as this payday loan affiliate program in which you must embed a form directly into a post and you are then paid for every client this form generates. This pay could be a flat fee or a commission percentage of the sale (which can make affiliate links to high value products like cars or vacation packages very profitable)

Infographics

Some sponsors may pay you simply for featuring an infographic in one of your posts. This infographic will have been created by the sponsor and will usually need to be published with some form of credit – the intention being to help build credibility for the sponsor. You will usually have the freedom to write the post about whatever topic you like providing that it relates to the infographic. And of course, you should try to make sure the infographic is relevant to the rest of the content featured on your blog.

Videos

Finally, you may find some sponsors out there that are willing to pay you to embed a video in a blog post. Such videos are typically created by the sponsor. Paying you to feature this video could be a way of helping to generate some extra views. It could be up to you as to what kind of article you feature this video in, but it must be relevant to the video in some way. And of course, the video must relate to your blog in some way (don’t try to feature a video on how to lay laminate flooring on a travel blog).

How Small Business Owners Can Reduce Stress and Anxiety

April 29, 2024 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

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Stress and anxiety can strike anyone at any time and may or may not have a definitive reason. However, for small business owners, the likelihood increases somewhat. 3 in 5 small business owners have admitted to experiencing anxiety, while 35% of those surveyed admitted to feelings of depression.

It goes without saying that those living with and working with high-stress levels don’t perform at their best. While some stress levels can be good for boosting productivity, high and ongoing levels can be detrimental to physical and mental health.

These tips can help you reduce stress in your life by bringing some calm to an otherwise hectic mind.

Find A Support System

You need to have a good support system you can rely on when things get tough and you need to help with anything. It can be family, friends, peers, or mentors who understand what you’re going through. Whether you need practical help or advice or just a shoulder to offload onto, you need a good support system to help through when times get tough.

Share your cares and worries, and allow them to give feedback, share their thoughts, and give you different views and perspectives that might be of value to you.

Practice Mindfulness

Mindfulness is the practice of fully concentrating on the task at hand. It doesn’t matter what it is you need to clear your mind of, the act of focusing on what you are doing at the exact moment, be it eating, watching a TV show, listening to a podcast, or anything else. Studies have shown that mindfulness effectively reduces stress and anxiety by allowing you to clear your mind and focus on one thing at a time without intrusive thoughts, thus giving you the mental clarity you need to help you focus and get things done.

Take Time Out

It doesn’t matter how or where you find the time; it’s just that you do. It might be that you need to take a few 10 minutes of bread throughout the day to sleep, turn the phone off, and simply do nothing but lie back and close your eyes. Or you might feel that setting boundaries such as no work post 6 pm at night or between 10 pm and 8 am works better for you.

Whatever you can do, schedule downtime to help you rest and relax. The more you keep going, the greater the risk of burnout and the more intense your stressors will seem. A good idea is to find some essential oils or homeopathic remedies that can help you relax, such as Magnesium, lavender, valerian root, pure and potent Phenibut HCL, or ashwagandha, which are known to have relaxing properties, which can help you to unwind during your downtime.

Sleep

If doctors would prescribe a good night’s sleep, chances are most of them would. Sleep can be one of the most restorative activities you can do, and while stress and anxiety can impact your ability to sleep, the catch is it can also improve it. The better quality sleep you get, the fresher you will feel and ready to tackle your problems head-on. So try to work out a good sleeping schedule for you, be it going to bed at the same time each night and waking up at the same time each day, removing electronics from the bedroom, or using sleep aids that can help you fall into a deeper night’s sleep easier.

Embrace The Journey: The Joy Of Lifelong Learning

April 25, 2024 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

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Throughout our years, we have to make sure that we get plenty done. If we just sit around for decades, we will feel as though we have wasted our time. We have so many responsibilities to take care of and so much to experience. This planet provides plenty of opportunities, so we have to take them with both hands. One of the best ways to do this is to constantly stay switched on and to constantly learn new things. It’s also a good idea to discover your personal learning style along the way. Things open up all of the time when you take on new challenges and become wiser. You get to live the life of your dreams if you simply put in the time and effort. In this post, we are going to be talking about lifelong learning and what it can do for you.

For a lot of people, the idea of learning new things is quite tedious. They feel as though they did all the learning when they were kids in school and that they don’t have to do that kind of thing anymore. This can be very detrimental to the rest of your life, however. If you aren’t exercising your brain in the right way, you will lose intellect. Life is so much better and more rewarding when you take on new challenges and learn new things. Here are just a few of the benefits:

Exploring Curiosity Forever

Keeping your mind curious allows you to feel as though there is so much to explore in this world. The truth is that there is so much to learn, and you will never know absolutely everything. This kind of thing is exciting because you know there’s so much potential out there. We get out of bed quickly every morning when we know there are exciting things to discover and experience. If you feel as though you don’t need to learn things, that motivation dies.

The Power Of Adaptability And Thriving In Change

This life is full of change and we constantly have to adapt to all kinds of things. Obviously, this isn’t the most pleasant experience, but it is inevitable. The more you learn, the better you become at dealing with change. You’ll begin to thrive in these kinds of situations and you will feel as though there isn’t anything you cannot handle.

Becoming A Master And Celebrating Achievements

There is something so satisfying about being able to achieve lots of different things. When you dedicate yourself to learning, you will become a master in so many different aspects of life. Being able to celebrate lots of different achievements gives us the motivation to get out of bed in the morning. It doesn’t matter whether you’re taking on HVAC/R training or learning how to code in a new language, your life becomes enriched greatly.

Building Connections And Communities

Life is nothing without a good community around us. The more you delve into, the more like-minded people you will meet. This makes life a much more positive experience. You may feel connections that can serve you very well in the future and even some that enhance your personal life. Again, it’s a case of exploring what’s really out there for you.

4 Ways To Improve The Quality Of Your Employees’ Work

April 25, 2024 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

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If you want to get more out of your employees, there are always so many ways that you can go about this and hope to achieve it, and it might actually be easier than you think to do so. The truth is that improving the quality of your employees’ work is one thing you can focus on here, and one which is probably going to be particularly important for you to consider. In this post, we’ll discuss some of the best ways to improve the quality of your employees’ work considerably, quickly and for good.

Give Them Responsibility

The more responsibility that you give your employees, the more attuned they are going to feel with their work, so this is something that you are definitely going to need to think about here. If you want to make sure that you are giving your employees the right level of responsibility, a good rule of thumb is that you can generally give them more than you assume. And you’ll find that people really appreciate it, because it means they feel valued and more likely to actually give their work their all.

Offload The Boring Tasks

Rather than giving your employees too many of the more boring and repetitive tasks, you might want to consider outsourcing them instead. This will mean that you are improving the quality of the experience for your employees, which will result in their own work being so much better too. And you will still get everything done that needs to be done, whether you do that by hiring a virtual data entry assistant or you even do some of it yourself. It will make for a happier and more engaged workforce in no time at all.

Give Clear Requests

Your employees really need to have as clear an idea as possible of what you want from them, so this is something that you should make sure you are thinking about here too. This means that you need to make sure you are giving them clear requests every time, so that they know what they are meant to be doing. Most employees would agree that knowing specifically what their manager wants from them is hugely important, and allows them to do the best work they can. So make sure that you are communicating this as clearly as possible, and it will really make a noticeable difference.

Avoid Micromanaging
Few people appreciate it when their line manager is over their shoulder all the time, so you should make sure that you are doing all you can to avoid micromanaging. If you are able to do this, it should mean that they feel more in control of their own work, and the result there is always going to be that they produce work of a high quality, and which is going to be so much more a result of their own hard work. This is obviously what you want to be aiming for above all.

Beyond the Initiation: Getting an Employee Ready for Their Role

April 12, 2024 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

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Starting a business relies on so many different components coming together that, when the time comes to start bringing more people into the fold, there is a lot that we should bear in mind. It’s more than just getting them ready in terms of skills; they need to be able to hit the ground running. Preparing an employee for a role within your business shouldn’t just be about the initiation process, but actually a whole lot more.

Assessing Their Current Fitness

Mentally and physically, a candidate should have the ability to perform the duties, ensuring they can meet the essential requirements of the position without posing risks to themselves or others. In industries such as the railway medical examinations can be fantastic tools to detect a variety of risk factors. This is not meant to deter an employer, but rather allow them to make fair and reasonable accommodations or preventative measures to protect employees’ health while also reducing workplace risks. This, in turn, has a positive impact on lowering the employer’s exposure to a variety of other problems, such as workers’ compensation claims or lost productivity.

Developing Soft Skills

There is one often-bemoaned component of Generation Z workers: they don’t have the same level of communication or problem-solving capabilities as their older counterparts. Of course, this can be a broad generalization, but when we look at the fact that many younger employees have grown up in a more isolated way due to social media and the internet in general, we should provide training on essential leadership skills like problem-solving, decision-making, and communication. We should also encourage the employee to take on assignments to practice these soft skills within a supportive environment and empower the employee to take initiative and solve these problems. This won’t just give them the skills to do their job, but will make them a far more rounded individual.

Address Skill Gaps

Determining the key skills needed for the target role is one component, but we also need to look at the employee’s current capabilities and provide targeted support, either in the form of coaching, training, or mentorship, to help them build the necessary skills. There will always be skill gaps, but in the current job application market where there are more applicants than there are roles, employers can be picky and choose someone who is nearly 100% perfect. However, this can be very myopic because if they end up picking someone who is perfect for the role but not necessarily a good cultural fit, it’s very likely the hunt will be on for a new employee in six months to a year.

Aligning Development Plans With Employee Goals

Understanding what the employee’s career aspirations are should be one of the first conversations we have, and giving them responsibilities and projects that help them achieve their professional goals while also aligning their development plan accordingly can mean you are not just getting an employee ready for their role right now, but you are giving them the space in which to develop and stretch themselves.

Getting an employee ready for their role is not just a workplace induction; in fact, it is a whole lot more!