Insights

Five Simple Tips to Create Compelling Articles

Five Simple Tips to Create Compelling Articles

Do you want to make your website informative and attractive to your visitors? Adding articles to your site is an infallible solution. Articles are meant to provide your audience or target market more information not only about your products or services, but your industry, as well. Keep in mind that imparting knowledge to your potential buyers and clients is one way of catering to their needs aside from selling what you offer.

If you have the necessary background in content creation and you have the time to write articles, it will be much easier for you to supply information to your audience. Moreover, there are simple tips you can follow in order to ensure you will create compelling articles, such as these:

Discuss a topic in your unique way. It is useful to check other similar sites’ content to find inspiration and research what they usually discuss. However, it is not advisable to emulate what they have written. 

For instance, if you would be discussing the advantages of using artificial turf in your home, you may add information based on your actual clients’ experiences. This would give your audience a distinctive take on the topic.

Check forums for people’s thoughts and concerns. If you are lacking ideas on what to write about on your website, it is best to study what people talk about in forums. Forums are places where your clients and potential customers initiate honest discourses. If the topics are their consternation, at the very least, you will be able to write about possible solutions for them.

If your business is concentrated on supplying computer-related products, then checking out people’s concerns over usual hardware or software problems could give you ideas on articles to create.

Pack a punch in the beginning. Your headline and introductory paragraph are highly crucial if you want to keep your audience reading your article. If you can ask questions that your readers would likely ask themselves in the beginning, it could be a good approach.

Moreover, giving them reason to read the article’s body further in the beginning should be your goal. For instance, if you are promising them quick solutions to their lack of website traffic, then you should indicate that you will be listing out search engine optimization-related answers they could follow.

Discuss a tapered topic. Do not create content with a broader perspective. If you can narrow a topic down, it would be much more useful to your audience. 

One good example is when you discuss how to start selling products online. You would help your audience more if you could tackle platforms they could choose from for product selling. On the other hand, it could be a great help if you could give them tips on optimizing their product information for more exposure to buyers. For instance, adding keywords to the product description for higher chances of appearing on top search pages.

Make it short but worthwhile. Digital content is no longer about providing long blogs. Your articles would be more effective in short paragraphs, bulleted lists, and straightforward substance.

Most people would not take time to read several pages of an article. This could increase the possibility of them leaving it unfinished. If you could create content that could address the topic in a few minutes, the better it is.

With the aforementioned simple tips in creating compelling articles, you could practice the right ways of making your website more informative to the audience. It may take time but it would certainly be rewarding to your business.

How to Maintain Responsiveness at Work

How to Maintain Responsiveness at Work

Responsiveness at work is one of the most crucial factors when reporting from home. Since communication is the foundation that both client and employee rely on when coordinating online, without responsiveness, there would definitely be nothing to be accomplished.

If one does not reply promptly regardless of the platform, such as e-mail, SMS, or call, one would not be able to collaborate with a co-worker properly. Questions would not be answered, ideas would not be shared, and even issues would not be resolved.

Should you want to sustain seamless cooperation with both your client and team members even while working from home, responsiveness is a major matter you should concentrate on. There are basic ways you could practice starting today, such as the following:

Logging in your accounts on multiple devices. If you want to ensure that you would not miss any e-mail, message, or call, it is best to log in your accounts not only on your PC or laptop, but also on your phone. 

Be reminded that you may overlook notifications on your PC or laptop due to being focused on other tasks. Hence, another device that would advise you of important messages would be a great help.

Set your notification sounds. It would be useless if you keep your devices silent when working, if it is supposed to alert you of messages or calls.

You may simply set the notification sounds during your shift and ascertain that these are at the right volume. This is to guarantee that even when you leave your workspace for a while, you will still hear urgent notices.

Utilize various communication platforms. Working with e-mail alone would never be effective. It is always best to use messaging platforms to ensure that you would be reachable, whenever necessary.

If you are working in a team, setting a group chat for all the team members would be most beneficial. 

There are times that one does not open their e-mails on their phones, but logs in his or her messaging apps instead. If emergencies arise, one could opt for a messaging platform for a quick response.

Set auto-reply if you are unavailable. It is always best to leave an auto-generated e-mail or message, whenever you can, especially if you would be on leave or absent for a certain period. In such a way, your co-workers would not guess where you are. At the very least, they would think of an alternative immediately if they were not able to obtain an important input from you.

This goes the same with a call. If you can direct your contacts to a voicemail, that would be most advantageous, such as when you are currently in a meeting. This will give people the idea to call you back at a later time or leave the message they want to convey instead.

Do not categorize messages as important and less important. No matter how significant a message or not, it is always professional to respond on time. Simply put yourself in the shoes of the one sending you the missive. Who would want to obtain a response way too late, especially concerning work? There may be exceptions, such as when you are totally occupied or become offline due to emergencies, but still, whenever you can, respond to messages right away.

You would never know if your reply is of great importance to your co-worker and may delay his or her tasks. 

By starting to apply the aforementioned practices during work, you would have much easier time working with your client and co-workers. Being responsive is not about being professional alone, but also about showing care to your team members. It implies active cooperation for the achievement of the organization’s goals.

Five Quick Ways to Stay Organized at Work

Five Quick Ways to Stay Organized at Work

Staying organized at work is one of the things that you should focus on in order to avoid delays in accomplishing your tasks. Be reminded that without your working materials or references in order, you may spend more time looking for the inputs you need than doing the activity itself.

Fortunately, there are quick ways to stay organized and keep yourself focused on your goals. Here are a few that could help you step up your game in the workplace:

Make a list. A list would keep you organized in a way that you would not be distracted by other activities apart from your priority ones. By creating a priority list, you would be able to identify even your high and low priority tasks. This would direct you where to start.

You can make daily, weekly, or monthly lists. This would keep you guided on what to do next every time instead of carrying out things impulsively.

Take a break. Being organized at work also requires concentration, and you would not be able to attain this without being fueled regularly. You also need to take a break to recharge your energy and keep your mind focused.

Without doing so, you may have the impulse to multitask to accommodate your handful of activities, which is never effective. Take note that doing things simultaneously would take more time instead of one after the other.

Make use of technology. If sticky notes have been your friend previously to stay organized, you have more options with the advanced technology today. You may use calendar applications, which will make your schedule well planned out. 

Apart from calendar apps, you may also use digital notes on your desktop, which will keep you reminded of various things you need to pay attention to.

There are also time trackers, which you may utilize to ensure you are spending considerable time for every task you have.

Practice setting aside distractions. Setting your workspace either in the office or at home requires getting rid of the distractions. If you are fond of television, it is best to place it far from your office to ensure you would stay focused while working. On the other hand, if social media is what keeps you from working productively, then it is best to log out from your accounts while on your shift.

Declutter your space. Maintaining a clean workspace is one way of staying organized. If you mostly work on paperworks, then you should file your documents orderly. Use cabinets and filing systems, if necessary. 

Apart from your office itself, your PC or laptop should be free from clutter, as well. Make it a routine to delete corrupted, old, and nonessential files. This goes the same with your mail inbox. It is best to delete redundant and unneeded messages to free more space for your new mails.

With the provided ways, you would be able to start a better routine at work. It is a process that you should practice to see results. Simply be persistent and you will see how beneficial it is to stay organized.

Seven Best Practices in Scheduling a Virtual Meeting

Seven Best Practices in Scheduling a Virtual Meeting

Meeting via web would always be part of a virtual assistant’s professional life, given the fact communication is a foundation for his or her work. Apart from e-mails and written messages, meeting either via call or video conferencing is one way to coordinate tasks, clarify matters, ask questions, and even share ideas with your co-workers.

Nonetheless, scheduling a virtual meeting is not as easy as selecting a date and time on the calendar. There are also considerations to make for both parties. Be reminded that meetings would be part of a worker’s schedule. Hence, it is imperative that it would not affect any of the person’s commitments, projects, and daily tasks.

There are best practices in scheduling a virtual meeting, which you could apply right away, such as the following:

Identify if a meeting is indeed necessary. According to The Muse’s survey, executives view over 67 percent of meetings as failures. This is despite how much time and money are spent on meetings. The said survey also found out that over US$37 billion is spent on these valueless meetings.

Given the fact, you should consider whether a meeting should be scheduled or otherwise. There may be another way to coordinate the agenda of the conversation, which may take less time. For instance, an e-mail may be sent instead with detailed information of the concern. At the very least, one can check it out without having to dedicate a chunk of time, which could have been allocated for more important tasks.

Schedule meetings in advance. Always consider that the persons involved in the meeting would need time to prepare for the discussion based on the agenda. Setting a meeting at least a couple of days, in advance, could be very helpful. This would even keep the people from scheduling other commitments that may coincide with the meeting.

Consider the opportune times for all the meeting attendees. If you want to make the meeting efficient, it is best to schedule it at a time that is convenient to all. Avoid the end of the work week for this is the time that most are trying to keep up with their deadlines. 

You should also consider if Mondays are indeed friendly for all, for some may find the start of the week the busiest, while the others do devote it to touch-base communication.

Never forget the preferred platform of attendees. It is best to settle with a communication platform that works for all. For instance, some may prefer using Skype, while others are used to Zoom conferencing. If you will schedule a virtual meeting, always inquire what application works best for all, if not, for most.

Invite only relevant people for the discussion. There are meetings that require a lot of workers in attendance without actually giving a reason for their participation. At the end of the day, they become an audience to a discussion they would not be a part of, instead of spending their time on more important activities.

The goal of a meeting is to clarify concerns, solve problems, and check the status of activities within the organization. The persons involved in the meeting should be the ones that could provide input and collaborate. With key attendees, the objective of the meeting would be met much more easily and quickly.

For instance, if the Assistant Manager is in attendance instead of the Manager himself or herself, it is likely that some matters may still need to be clarified with the latter right after the meeting. Time could have been saved if the Manager was in attendance in the first place.

Always include the agenda in the meeting schedule. Do not simply send a calendar invite when scheduling a meeting. It is best to include the agenda in the event description. Should there be materials involved, these should be attached, as well. Sending the files separately may actually bring confusion and cause attendees to miss it.

Set short meetings. Lengthy meetings could keep the participants from being involved. The longer a meeting is, the more the attendees could be anxious about other tasks they are working on. If you could set a meeting that is 30 minutes the longest in duration, then you should do so. This could be done without complications as long as there is an agenda in place.

Designating a schedule for a meeting could either make or break one’s day at work. With the practices provided above, you would be able to schedule virtual meetings more effectively without compromising anyone’s productivity. If there are statistics showing that meetings are unproductive, it does not mean that you should let it be that way in your organization. They can also be meaningful and constructive, as long as they are managed appropriately.