Yes! Blogging is absolutely still relevant in 2022. In fact, roughly 450 million internet users read about 22 billion blog pages monthly. This is why 55% of marketers prioritize blogging as their primary content marketing strategy

Here are some crucial tips for your Blogging

1. Identify Your Content Target
Before starting your blog , determine what subject matter your audience would find imporant, relevant and interesting.  Before you begin, don't forget these 3 questions. Make certain you answer “sure” to all 3:

• Will my blog content benefit my target audience? (Your article needs to have a good takeaways for the reader.)
• Do I have some thing new or intersting to share on this topic? (“new” can be your very own experience. Tell a story about your experince or how you helped someone to provide them a better experience. 
• Do I have a clear understanding of who my audience is? (Keep the profile of your target market in mind. Write as if you were talking to a member of your target audience one on one and in person.)

2. Write a Capivating Headline
How do you get people to begin reading your article?  Pull them into your article with an effective headline.
The headline is where the journey begins. Your intention is to get the reader to travel down your article to the closing statement and Call to Action.  Remember that your  published blog headline is the primary hook people will see and make a decesion to read further.  It will be the breadcrumb that will be seen in:

• Your website blog archives
• Social media
• Search Engine Results
• Emails sent out to promote the blog.

A capivating headline works in any channel in which on your potential targeted readers discover them. There are a few specific techniques to help craft the best headline. You won`t need to use all of those with each headline. 

Here are some successful headline writing strategies:

Benefits Focused headline - When a person discovers your headline via a website browser search or social media share.  If they see that the information can provide them some benfit or advantage, there`s a very good chance they will click on in your hyperlink to discover ans read your blog.
Dog lovers are going to click on headlines like “Airline Travel Tips for Traveling with Your Dog” Another headline used in popular bolgs about dogs may be "People Foods That are Healthy Choices to Supplement Your Dog's Diet"

Question Focused headline -
Using a question like “What Should You Do if Your Dog Has Eaten Chocolate?" sparks interest and curiosity. Questions are even more powerful when they are written as if talking to one individual. I’m a big proponent of using the word “you” in blog copy. 

Choose Power Words -
There are certain  words which have been used to capture people`s interest for many years.  Free remains a powerful word in a headline, due to the fact getting some thing for nothing creates an automated reaction in many humans.

Here are some more Power Words to make your headlines more capivating:

• Secrets –always alluring to people. We want to know what others don’t know.
• Easy – people are obviously attracted to the path of least resistance. “3 Easy Steps” attracts readers` in. 
• Discover – Who doesn`t like to “discover” things? Whether it`s a buried treasure or a brand new life hack you didn`t know that will  make your life easier, this phrase works.

These Power Words can be used to create a a detailed phrase of controversy or debate. In reality a controversy  can pull in readers. You might not consider this at first, however bloggers that try and please every body  get less readers. Many successful bloggers will take a controversial stance on a subject but making sure to back-up their position with good examples and facts.

3. Creating the Opener
Your headline has captured your target audience and they are beginning to read your blog. There are strategies you can use to insure they read the entire article. 

One is to again write a compelling question….same approach as using a question in your headline. Just don’t use this one if you already have a question in the headline. That feels redundant.

Sales professionals, both in-person reps and copywriters, use a method recognized as “Getting your prospect to YES ”.  What I mean by a YES question is asking the reader something that pretty much guarantees the reader will say yes—“Do you want to make more money next month?” or “Are you ready to find the success you deserve?” These are two examples.
Yes questions grow enagemnt of the reader to the contnet of your article, encouraging readers to continue.If you plant numerous YES questions via your copy, the reader may be a great deal greater receptive on your CTA.

Another approach to kicking off your article is by springing a surprise on them—say something unusual or share a story about a topic you don’t discuss much—“We found the greatest dod when we heard our neighbor's dog had puppies" grabs the reader with a personal story. As long as your opener relates to the topic of the article, your reader will read on.

You could also start with a benefit that your reader will want to know. Finding the right benefit requires an understanding of your blog audience. The more you research your target audience, the quicker you will know their needs.

At some point you will want to test opening your article with a statistic or two. If I started out a blog post with “3 out of 4 Bloggers Succeed Using this Little Known Tool,” you would likely want to read more.

Of course, there’s a reason why most blogs include a eye-catching image at the beginning…photos and illustrations grab attention. If you find a photo that compliment the topic and is interesting your article will be a winner.

4. The Close: Finish Strong

Getting your article off to a great start is important….and so is how you finish.  Hooking your reader into a post and then losing them half way hurts the success of the blog. 

Know Your Article's Goals - Do you know what you want to achieve before you start writing? This really helps your writing process if you begin with the end in mind. 

Ask yourself these questions to help pinpoint the goal of the article:

• What’s the main point to communicate?
• What do you want the reader to do after they finish reading?
• What emotions do you want the reader to feel?
• What’s the take away your reader gains from this post?

Close with a Call to Action - CTA

Thing of CTAs as  friendly reminders and helpful encouragements. Some  bloggers don’t understand how a call to action works and how to put them into their blog article. When the blogger learns  the skill of treating readers with respect and friendliness, they discover many of their readers are happy to respond to their requests…

• More comments on your blog post? Ask readers to comment.
• Taking an informal survey about something blog related? Ask readers to participate in the survey.
• More email subscribers? Encourage readers to opt-in.
• Have something to sell? Share with them the benefit to buying now. Include a deadline to create urgency or make a special offer of some kind to get more interest.

Your call-to-action should has these traits:

• Stays on target with your blog post goals
• One or maybe two calls to action.  Don't use more then two!
• Keep the CTA simple. A complicated call to action gets few results.
• Make your CTA have impact. Use a larger font. Even bold it.  Treat it like a subhead of headline.
• Try different locations in your artile for your CTA.  Many times the call to action works well at the end. But occasionally place it in the middle or even up front so it doesn’t become predictable and easily ignored.

Once your CTA is finished and then you have edited and proofed your article to satisfaction… Publish it. Share it every where you have potential readers, colleagues and influencers who may share it with their networks.  Then get planning on your next blog.

With the on going Pandemic, is your Business training your Employee's in Proper Workplace manners and your Customers in this Lawsuit happy climate we all live in.  Have your Checked your Liability Coverages lately, many of the coverage are not written to cover the Covid exposure to your business and your Customers.  This coverage is covered by your General Liability Coverages, and Professional Liability Insurance Policies.  Employers must provide employees with 8 kits per person, Is this covered by your Health Plan, some do some dont. 

The DC Administration, has made this a requirement to provide all employees with at least 8 Covid Home Test per month.  You certainly want to have this included in your Liability Coverages and Health Plans. 

If you travel overseas, You need to have a Travel Policy that includes Covid coverage,  All the Travel Policies we sell all include Covid coverage and testing,  if you are not a citizen of that Country you are in, That country does not have to provide Covid testing or treatment for non citizens , they take care of their Citizens 1st, and if you dont have coverage for Covid, well lets not let that happen .

Insurance is all about Protection against Risk, Let us at ABM be your Risk Manager , so you are not left out in the Cold sands, like what just Happened in Tonga, outside of New Zealand, after the Volcano eruption in the ocean. 

Call us anytime, Ask for Taylor Thornton or Mike Alexander Jr .. Be Prepared where ever you are. 

at 281 448 3040  or 800 362 2809

• Are you a business owner or sales professional who needs more referrals?
• Are you frustrated generating leads?
• Do you hate making cold calls?

If you answered yes, to these questions, then Network in Action is for you!

Network in Action is a coalition of like-minded business owners who come together to help each other grow our business through networking. Relationships through NIA helps you to get known, get connected, and get paid!

Here are 7 ways networking can help you to grow your business:

1. Connect you with like-minded entrepreneurs.
2. Build real relationships that last a lifetime.
3. Create a community to support you when entrepreneurship gets hard.
4. Get more warm referrals that close more often.
5. Technology that keeps you connected between monthly meetings.
6. Become a franchisee or a group leader.
7. Help more people get what they want to get what you want.

When building a business, you have a few choices. You can cold call, purchase expensive social media ads or you can learn to network and build relationships to grow your business. Network in Action can help you to reach your goals and ultimately change your business and your life!

NIA is growing globally. Learn how NIA pays you to be a leader, a connector, and a center of influence that inspires others to help one another to grow.

For more information on becoming a member or a leader of an NIA
network, contact me today! 

Toni Harris Taylor | NIANortheastHouston.com
713.387.9273 | Toni@NetworkinAction.com

Your website is very important, not only because it is a marketing tool, but because it reflects on the brand of your company. Anyone who tells you otherwise is living in the past. Of course, there are many different types of websites, and if you are running a small business you may have a small budget and limited resources to really grow the website. But there are still simple actions you can take to improve your web presence.

Here are three basic things you can do to improve your website’s reputation with customers and search engines.

One: Secure all the URLs of your website.

This may super technical, but it doesn’t have to be. You can enlist the help of your web hosting company to assist you with this.

Remember that little lock icon in the browser? Have you ever visited a site that says “not secure” in the top corner of the browser? If your site is one of them, that is not a good look. As technology has continued to upgrade, especially on the computer and browser level, security standards have just become stricter. It doesn’t matter if you don’t sell anything directly on your site; you need security even if you do not have an e-commerce catalog.

The goal here is to get the nice little “secure” indicator to glow for your site, no matter which page in the site people visit. To do this, you need SSL installed on the hosting server. Most of the time, the hosting company you use provides this service. Just contact them to order an SSL certificate and get the process started.

The other half of the process is to ensure the configuration of your website is actually recognizing the new SSL security certificate and making your primary URL for the site begin with https:// in front. That little “s” is very important. With URLs that only begin with http://, the site is lacking security encryption and will not be detected as “secure” by any browser. If your website software doesn’t have a settings area to automatically change to the secure URL, you might need to request the help of your web developer to tweak it.

The result is well-worth it: customers will be able to visit your site without errors, and search engines will favor the site over non-secure sites.

Two: Customize Your Homepage Meta Tags

To search engine optimization professionals, this is a basic step. But it is very common to see thousands of websites that still have poorly written meta tags on their homepage. That’s not surprising to me, because many content management systems for websites have a simple template approach to auto-generate these tags. The result – the homepage title is just “Home” or “Home – Business Name”. And the meta description will be similar or missing entirely.

The meta title and meta description tags influence what you see in the search engine listing for a page. The title impacts search engine rankings and visitor conversion. Think about it: Would you be compelled to click on a link that just says “Home”?

If you are using a self-manageable content platform like WordPress or Shopify, edit these meta tags ASAP.

Customize the meta title to include a solid description of your business with a good keyword for your service or product. Nix the word “Home” completely. Based on current standards, I recommend keeping the length of this title to 70 characters.

Make sure the meta description field is not blank, and fill it out with a unique description of the web page. This size of this description can aim for about 150 to 160 characters.

As you grow and acquire help from an SEO specialist, they can help you rewrite quality meta tags for all of your pages.

Three: Audit Your Content and Delete the Duplicates

There are some nifty tools available that help you scan the Internet for any content that is copied from your site. One example tool is Copyscape. The scanning results will show you if there is any content from your site considered “duplicate” to another website. Sometimes it is just a business directory that has an exact template of your bio pasted into it. Other times it is a site you are not familiar with (maybe even a competitor) that has copied your blog content.

Duplicate content is very frowned upon. Search engines like Google want to see that your website contains unique content that is relevant to the people you serve. Therefore, you need to regularly check up on this and prune your website as necessary.

If the sites that have copied content are editable by you, such as a Linkedin profile or a directory, you may choose to edit the information on those sources and leave your original website unedited.

But if there are third party sites that you cannot control with duplicated articles on them, it may be best to unpublish them from your site and start a new revised version.

With these three goals achieved, your website will have a stronger foundation for your online reputation.  Learn more about these areas of technology and marketing from our digital agency, WEBii.

On average, twice as many children are killed while walking on Halloween compared to the rest of the year. And with drugged driving on the rise, hazards are even greater.  Here's what to know and share.

Why is drugged driving so dangerous?

• It's a growing problem. The Governors Highway Safety Association found that 44% of fatally-injured drivers tested positive for drugs, up from 28% just 10 years ago.
   
• It's deadly. Almost half of drivers who were killed in crashes and were tested for drugs, tested positive.
   
• It's widespread. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration tracks over 400 drugs that cause impairment and almost 50% of Americans have used at least one prescription drug in the past month.

How could an umbrella with excess UM/UIM help protect your insured?

• An umbrella can protect assets and pay for medical and legal expenses beyond the homeowners/renters and auto policies if they’re at fault.
   
• Excess UM/UIM helps with accidents when the other driver is at fault and doesn't have any — or enough — coverage.
   
• It can take care of things like medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering and emotional distress — for the insured and any passengers.

Thank you to our Partner PersonalUmbrella.com for providing this valuable information.

Jeanna Bumpas             

832-527-8402       

JBumpas@HelixInsuranceGroup.com

How can you build muscle naturally?

Fitness and nutrition go hand in hand. If you incorporate exercise and a balanced diet in your daily routine, you will enjoy increased energy levels, a stronger immune system, be in control of your weight, prevent chronic lifestyle diseases, and improve your overall well-being.

Now, attempting to gain muscle mass is why some people go back to the gym. For men, it makes them feel stronger and attractive to women. But building muscle is not a walk in the park. It takes time and effort.

But how do we build muscle effectively?

Gaining muscle requires a combination of diet and exercise. And if one of them is not efficient, the results won't be as expected. Therefore, some folks who are under the impression of doing the right thing don't progress as fast as they would like.

1. Craft Your Workout Plan- Consult a fitness trainer if need be.

Incorporate both strength training exercises and aerobics. For example, yoga is great, but you should not count it as part of your strength training exercise. You need to add more challenging exercises to your routine if you want to see results. Here, no pain no gain makes more sense than ever.

Also, target for those exercises that work multiple joints and muscles at once because they help you lift more weight. Make sure to engage all major muscles in the body each week. Some of the exercises that must be in your routine are squats, bench presses, push-ups, lunges, chin-ups, pull-ups, dips, reverse crunches, and planks.

Your workout routine needs to be carefully planned because exercising too much might lead to muscle injury. Take it slowly at the beginning. The goal is to build up your fitness level and let your body rest from time to time to prevent injuries. Keeping track of your progress and it is essential not to let your body get accustomed to a certain routine and not to over-exercise because such a mistake can prevent you from gaining muscles fast.

2. Diet

A balanced diet is important too. It can help your body perform better and recover faster after each workout. Optimal nutrient intake before exercise will not only help you maximize your performance but also minimize muscle damage.

A diet for a bodybuilder must include plenty of proteins because they are the ones that build muscle mass. Good fats and good carbohydrates are also important. To gain muscles, you need around 3000 calories a day split into more than three meals to ensure an appropriate level of energy during the entire day. A larger portion of it though should be proteins.

3. Hydrate

Drinking plenty of water also is a hack to increase muscle faster. Water flushes away toxins and keeps the muscles properly hydrated.

4. Get enough rest

Sleep is also important because it offers your body the recovery time it needs.

5. Join a Fitness Community online or locally

Joining a supportive fitness group can help you stay motivated and achieve your goals because you don’t want to be the first one to quit. You’ll also see what is working for others. If you have posted on Facebook about your fitness journey for example, you have so many people watching and you can’t afford to quit and disappoint everyone including yourself. This will force you to work towards your goal.

6. Work with a Fitness Coach.

If you have the budget for it, this is the best route to take. You want to work with someone with vast experience. They will help you reach your goal faster because they know what works, what doesn’t and can help personalize your program.

Follow these guidelines and soon you’ll start smiling every time you’re near a mirror.

Have you Heard of the PPC (Patient Physician Cooperative ).

This Cooperative has been in Business since 2005.  It is owned by a group of Physicians in Houston, Texas and Portland Oregon. 

If you use the cooperative Primary Care Doctors, your Office Visit, Lab, Xrays and Imaging (MRI, PetScans, Cat Scans) are covered at 100%. You also have a Prescription Drug Plan, and a Dental & Vision program is included also.  They also have a Group Insurance program with an A + rated Carrier to cover hospital and surgery up to 5 million.  Affordable Coverage for Individuals & Companies.  Rates from $109 Per Person to $296, depending upon coverage Selections.   This is NOT Obamacare, and the Plan Has No Deductible, and Out of Pocket Cost are capped at $7330 or Less per year.   All Pre Existing Conditions. are covered and a Full Time Patient Advocate is provided to assist individuals to get the Best Care Possible and a Health Care Debit Card is provided Allowing you to See any Specialist.  (the Health Debit Card Contributions, can be as Low as $30 per month, and are Tax free contributions, that Can be used Tax Free,   A good Way to Shelter money from Taxes.  As You Know Taxes are Going UP for everyone, so the HRA, account can help you or your Business save $$$$ .

For more Information about the Co Op Contact Mike Alexander at ABM Insurance and Benefit Services Inc at 800 362 2809 

Digital Marketing takes many forms, however, one of the most used formats has been retargeting online. When someone visits your website tagging them with a cookie is common so when they go back out on the web you can show them a nice image ad. Cookies are going away as privacy concerns and abuses have increased. Consumers shy away from sites that may compromise their personal information and need assurance their private information stays private.

Enter FLOC or Federated Learning of Cohorts which is a secure aggregated method for marketers to use first-party data from their customers to help fill in the gaps as well as take advantage of the latest Google technologies. Later this year when many browsers and operating systems on phones and computers begin to block cookies you will need to be ready.

Google made a cartoon strip to help explain this new technology. When you have about 15 minutes take a look and if you have questions, please contact US Marketing, Inc. We'll be happy to help.

Schedule a Meeting with me