Promotional Resources

Would your readers like to get a promotion, earn more money, gain an “expert” reputation, have oodles of followers, become one of the “in” crowd, help people, or get the family to really listen? All of it can be done with the right “people skills” and practice. Now is the perfect time to learn and write about this topic. You may want to include a few of these in your blogging schedule:

• 9 ways to build your self-confidence
• Create an active listening tips list or checklist
• 7 things that make people likeable
• How to talk so people listen
• The difference between empathy and sympathy and when to apply each
• 5 ways to make people feel good about themselves
• Tips to mirroring a person's communication style
• What are communication styles and how they will help you
• 7 tips to getting rid of a bad mood

National Safe at Home Week (Aug 22-26) is the perfect time to talk about home safety. Whether your blog is focused on business, babies, cooking, health, or even lawnmowers, this is one of those topics that you can easily work into multiple articles and niches. Use these ideas “as is' or give them a unique twist to meet your needs.

• 9 home safety tips for home business owners
• De-cluttering your home office
• Keeping your inventory safe (online or off line)
• What you should include in an emergency plan
• Special safety considerations for home businesses owners with kids
• 7 commonly overlooked kitchen hazards
• Is your home adequately insured?
• How to stay safe for the accident prone
• 5 ways to make your lawn or garden more safe
• Keeping your home office safe for clients (indoors and out)

Oh, boy! Money, money, money. What a topic! As far as blogging goes, this topic is endless. No matter what niche you are in, this is a hot topic. Here are a few ideas you can use for your posts during World Money Week, Aug 16-20 or any time.

• How to save money
• How to make money
• Safe eCommerce practices
• Business practices which encourage sales
• How to make business accounting easy
• Share your favorite accounting software
• Is paperless banking really better?
• Understanding money conversion rates
• What you should know about offering/shipping products to “out of country” customers
• Teaching kids about money management
• Collecting coins (or bills) from other countries
• Money Math – tips or sheets for kids
• Tips for keeping track of your expenses
• Considerations when deciding if you should borrow money

Depending on where you live, August is the month when you are constantly reminded that the kids are going back to school soon. BUT…you don't have to have children or grandchildren for back-to-school time to make an impact on you or your business! Here are a few prompts to help you include “back-to-school” on your blog.

Back to School Marketing

• Share how parents can easily earn money with your product or service while the kids are in school.
• Describe several ways your readers can network at schools.
• Write about the negative emotions involved with going back to school. Describe how your product or service can turn those feelings around.

Back to School for the Unemployed or (Under-employed) Reader

• Give tips on how to start an online business.
• Share online or offline training courses.
• Share ideas of how to ease adults fears of going back to school or attending training classes.
• Write about problems (and solutions) associated with re-training.
• Give tips on how to limit the stress of “changing horses in mid-stream” for those who need to change careers.
• Share ways your readers can save money when going back to school.

Back to School for Boomer and Senior Readers

• Suggest ways grandparents can help their grandchildren with back to school issues.
• Share local or online courses that are especially for older adults.
• Write about the problems older adults face when going back to school. Include solutions.

This is a great topic for everyone! From business bloggers to pet bloggers and ever niche in between, your readers are looking for a way to simplify their lives. Check out these suggestions to see if they spark an idea for your blog or website.

How to organize your business tasks
Is your website a lean, mean, selling machine? Organize it for better results.
When should you say no to customer requests?
Learning to say no without guilt
Identify the things that complicate your life. Tell how to avoid these.
Complications – What are they really doing to your health?
Teach your kids how to do things the simple way.
Simple living – what you can learn from your kids.
Scheduling tips to simplify your life
What the Amish, country living, Grandma, Col. Sanders, etc. can teach us about the simple life
How-to tips for getting back to basics

This time of year can be exciting yet stressful for parents of kindergarteners and the children. Here are a few things you can blog about to help them.

• Tips to prepare the parent
• Tips to prepare the children
• How to make getting ready fun
• Special services or products that business owners can contribute to the school or classroom
• Associate and discuss a product (your own or an affiliate's) that will help in the “getting ready” process
• How kindergarten is advantageous to the business mom (or dad)
• Business owners – creating a new schedule

Whether your readers are business owners or have a j-o-b outside the home, National Recreation & Parks Month is well worth blogging about. Here are some ideas you may want to incorporate into your July posts.

• Have you seen your local parks? – How to play the out of town tourist in your local area.
• Make a bucket list of the local and national parks you'd like to visit. Share it with your readers.
• Ways parks can inspire and expand your business
• Business at the park. Talk about ways you can take care of business while enjoying the atmosphere or attractions.
• Associate one or more of your products with day trips or parks. Discuss how your product can help.
• Give tips for organizing a company's Family Day at the park.
• Share activities that parents and kids can do together at a park
• Share a checklist or two for packing for a day trip or weekend trip to a park

You can't go anywhere without seeing someone talking on a cell or working on an electronic communication device. During Cell Phone Courtesy Month, it's important that business owners (and everyone) respect those around them and follow proper etiquette. Here are some things you may want to consider writing about.

• How business owners can be negatively affected by their poor cell/device etiquette
• Dos and don'ts of cell phone/device use for business owners
• Do you really need to be “connected” in the doctors waiting room?
• Consider your surroundings – things to keep in mind before you turn your device on
• What to do when someone else's call/activity disturbs you
• What your device use says about your business ethics

For more on this topic visit the founder of the month, Jacqueline Whitmore.

When you were doing your target market research, you probably learned about Baby Boomers and maybe about Gen X. Did you know about the Sandwich Generation? This generation consists of people who find themselves taking care of their children and aging parents. If you didn't take this demographic group into account, you may be missing out.

Here are some things you can blog about to help this group and businesses who serve them.

• Balancing your time.
• Tips for finding in-home child care and elder-care providers
• How to enlist family and friends to help
• Finding time for yourself
• Dealing with doctors and special needs
• Coping with stress
• Avoiding feeling guilty or torn between parent and child

For more resources and info visit SandwichGenerationMonth.com

Audiobooks have been popular with kids for a long time in the form of read along books but now audiobooks are just as popular with busy adults. June, Audiobook Month, is a great time to talk about audiobooks and include them in your business products or services. Here are a few things you may want to blog about on the topic.

How to create an audiobook
Great and/or free programs and software for creating an audiobook
Dos and don'ts of recording an audiobook
How to include audiobooks in your niche related products
What you should include in an audiobook
Where to find people to help create your audiobooks or recordings
Discuss audiobook needs for specific niches
How audiobooks can boost sales
Tips for choosing audiobooks for adults or kids
Audiobooks as a stand alone product
Pros and cons of selling audiobooks and digital (or physical) books together