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Modern SEO is all about data. Rankings can change overnight, user behavior as well, and search engines increasingly use AI to power the search results. To be able to respond, your decisions should be dictated by real, measurable insights. This article offers a practical way to turn SEO data into actionable insights. Table of contents The role of data in modern SEO Turning data into insights An example: Addressing brand performance in LLMs Tools and techniques to get data insights Iterative optimization and reporting Towards a data-driven SEO strategy The role of data in modern SEO The search landscape is more complex than ever, so you need all the help you can get. By analyzing data, SEOs and business owners can learn and understand what works and what doesn’t. Metrics from tools like Google Analytics and Search Console provide glimpses of how visitors behave, keyword usage, and page performance. Using data to make decisions takes the guesswork out of the SEO work. Good data gives you a clear picture of user engagement. For instance, tracking engagement time, engagement rates, and click-through rates will reveal whether content meets audience needs. These are crucial data insights that uncover gaps that might hinder performance. Data-driven insights help you understand what to focus on and what to prioritize. Data doesn’t just identify issues, but also opportunities. Trends in keyword performance or a shift in traffic sources can lead to new content ideas or a new market to target. This is data-driven marketing, as you are making decisions based on evidence instead of hunches. These insights will lead to strategies focused on real user behaviors, which should lead to better results. The goal isn’t to find interesting stats — it’s to find what you can do next. In SEO and AI-driven search, the data that matters is the data that leads to action: fix this page, shift that content, change how you’re showing up. If your insights don’t lead to decisions, they’re just noise. Carolyn Shelby – Principal SEO at Yoast A Yoast example Let’s take a simple example from Yoast. We noticed one of our articles (What is SEO?) was gradually losing traffic and slipping in the rankings for key terms. The content hadn’t been updated for a while, so we took a closer look. We analyzed the search results and compared our article with those from competitors. We looked at intent, structures, relevance, and freshness. It was easy to see that our article lacked depth and context in key areas. We wrote a good brief for the article and detailed the work needed. Then, we rewrote sections, updated examples, improved internal linking, and made it generally easier to read. We also added new custom graphics and on-topic expert quotes from our in-house Principal SEO, Alex Moss. After republishing, the article quickly regained visibility. Plus, it climbed back towards the top of the search results, which brought in extra traffic. This was a clear reminder for us; when data shows a drop, improving the quality of the content backed by a good analysis can still win. Turning data into insights You need a process to quickly and systematically turn raw data into valuable insights. Eventually, you’ll get these insights once you ask the right SEO questions, gather the data, analyze it, and plan accordingly. Start with your goals, then ask: what’s holding us back? Actionable insights live in the gap between where you are and where you’re trying to go. That gap is different for every site and that’s what makes good analysis so powerful. Carolyn Shelby – Principal SEO at Yoast Step 1: What do you want to know? Start by writing down the SEO questions you want answered. Do you want to improve performance, get more organic traffic, or better engagement? Analyze a traffic drop? For instance, an online store owner might want to understand why certain product pages don’t convert as well as expected. Thinking these things through before you start digging into the data makes it easier to focus on the metrics that matter. Step 2: Gather the relevant data Collect the data you need using tools like Google Analytics, Semrush, Wincher, Ahrefs, or other platforms that can power your data-driven SEO strategy. If you’d like to investigate a product page with subpar performance, you’ll look at page views, click-through rates, average engagement times, and engagement rates in GA4. Data like this should give you an idea to find and address the issues. Step 3: Analyze and spot trends Dive into the data and try to spot patterns and trends. For example, an educational site might notice that articles on a particular topic get a lot of traffic but low engagement. Digging deeper might find that the titles of the articles attract visitors, but for some reason, the content doesn’t keep them interested. Trends like these help turn that data into insights that you can act upon. You can also use things like segmentation to find differences between groups of people from specific regions, who could engage wildly differently with your content. Step 4: Turn findings into actions Once you’ve pinpointed the issues, it’s time to decide what you want to do. For instance, if you’ve found that an article has a low engagement rate because of the time it takes to load the page, you could fix the images and scripts on the page. Or, if you find that some keywords get traffic, but no conversions, you might need to improve the CTA on the page. Or it might be a search intent mismatch to fix. This is the thing that turns the insights from data into actionable insights. This is a nicely structured way of getting the insights needed to inform your data-driven SEO strategy. You can use every piece of information you find to improve your work as you go. This will not only help you understand the data but also make it easier to make the improvements needed to reach your SEO and business goals. An example: Addressing brand performance in LLMs For this example, think of a tech publisher named Digital Mosaic. It’s a reputable source for in-depth news from the tech industry. Recently, their marketing team noticed something off. Users interacting with AI search engines and large language models (LLMs) like Google Gemini or ChatGPT rarely saw mentions of the Digital Mosaic brand. In other words, even when asked for the latest tech insights, the AI-driven sources and answers often omitted Digital Mosaic in favor of other options. After finding the issue, the team started analyzing data from various analytics platforms, brand mention trackers, and user surveys. They found their SEO and content work was pretty good, but the content was not properly optimized to help LLMs surface it. The data showed that their content lacked the language and brand signals needed to help LLMs understand the brand’s authority. When they found this, the teams got to work to improve how LLMs perceive their content: Improving brand signals The content team added clearer brand signals to their content, and each post received better metadata and structured data. The goal was to clearly tie the brand to the content to help LLMs recognize the sources. Changes in content Next, the team restructured certain articles to include branded segments, such as “Digital Mosaic Exclusive Analysis” or “Today’s Tech Insights by Digital Mosaic”. This makes the brand more visible to users and gives LLMs a chance to associate the content with the brand, coming from a trusted source. Investing in partnerships and collaboration The publisher set up a series of collaborations with well-known tech influencers and other outlets. They made co-branded content and were mentioned in many podcasts and webinars. This helped improve the brand’s presence in online conversations. LLMs love to look for what’s available on third-party sites about brands while generating responses. Rinse and repeat The team reviewed the changes’ performance to see if the LLMs would improve brand mentions. They used AI tools, like AI brand monitoring tools, to monitor and simulate the LLM outputs to see if the work was effective. Based on their findings, they would fine-tune their work and continue to improve performance. Within a few months, the results were encouraging. LLMs were increasingly showing content from and mentioning Digital Mosaic, and the brand’s footprint in LLMs was steadily improving. This did not just help visibility and increase the brand’s authority in the industry, but also led to a new source of traffic from AI search interfaces. This fictional example shows how a publisher can use data insights to overcome a very specific challenge. Mixing traditional SEO solutions with new technologies helped Digital Mosaic turn data into actionable insights. Not only did it help the brand’s visibility right now, but it also prepared it for the AI-powered future. Read more: How to optimize content for AI LLM comprehension using Yoast’s tools. Tools and techniques to get data insights You need the right tools to turn data into actionable insights. This will be a mix of the tools we all know and love, and more specific ones to understand user behavior and site performance. We all start with Google Analytics 4 and Search Console. GA4 tracks many metrics, including user engagement, event counts, and traffic sources. Properly set up, it gives you a good overview of how users use your site. Search Console shows how your site performs in the SERPs, including keyword rankings, indexing status, and crawl errors. Tools like Ahrefs and Semrush provide information about backlinks, rankings, and search trends. These search marketing tools also have many features for competitive analysis and keyword research. You’ll get a big database of historical data, so you can spot and interpret trends over time. This data helps you with your data-driven marketing on all fronts. Advanced techniques and technologies The are so many options to dive ever-deeper into your data to find the insights you need. Beyond the basics, you can use: Segmentation: It could help to break up your data into specific audience segments. For instance, you could look at visitor behavior based on demographics, location, or the type of device they use. Segmenting data helps you understand why certain groups behave differently. For instance, if mobile users show lower engagement than desktop users, there might be something wrong with your mobile site. Trend analysis: Don’t just focus on looking at data for a specific day. It’s often better to look at metrics over different time periods. Look at the monthly or quarterly performance. This gives you an idea of the long-term impact of changes. Build dashboards to visualize data: Make a dashboard with data from various sources. Use tools like Looker Studio to combine Google data with SEO tools like Semrush and Ahrefs. This will give you reports that will show all key data at a glance. A dashboard makes it easier to understand data and communicate it with other team members or management. Big data: Big data is becoming increasingly important for data-driven SEO. Huge data sets can provide insights that smaller sets can overlook. They allow you to examine user behavior, search trends, and site performance at scale. With machine learning and automation, you can use big data to get better and faster results to inform your SEO strategy. Iterative optimization and reporting SEO is an ongoing process, and you’ll have to adjust course regularly. Don’t treat your site’s performance as a snapshot, but as something dynamic that evolves over time. Regularly looking at your data keeps you on top of things, from changes in user behavior to emerging search trends. Make it a routine Schedule when you review data. This might be daily checks for urgent work or weekly to track short-term changes. For long-term trends, do monthly or quarterly deep dives. Route analysis helps you spot patterns that might not be so obvious at first glance. Test and experiment With an iterative optimization approach, you test what works. For example, you could A/B test different page layouts, CTA buttons, or various meta titles. You might also try different content formats to see what gets more engagement. These tests will get you the data and insights needed to make the most of your SEO work. Feedback loop A true feedback loop helps validate your improvements. After turning data into actionable insights, implement the changes in your content or technical SEO work. Keep updating your data to see if you need to refine your strategy. If a new tactic works, adopt it as a standard practice. But if it doesn’t work as intended, find out why and try a variation of it. Measuring trial and error and adopting your tactics makes you flexible and responsive. Towards a data-driven SEO strategy Using the knowledge you gain from turning data into actionable insights can greatly improve your SEO performance. Be sure to structure the data-gathering process: ask the right questions, collect the right data, analyze the trends, and create a system that turns those insights into action. What you change on your site isn’t even that important; it might be updating metadata, improving content, or diving into technical SEO aspects. If only what you do is the correct answer to the questions you wanted to have answered. Every insight can lead to big improvements in rankings and user engagement. Use this data-driven marketing approach to make the right decisions that will keep your SEO strategy effective in the future. The post Turning data into actionable insights: a data-driven SEO strategy appeared first on Yoast. View the full article

Business leaders love to talk about innovation. But for all the energy poured into frameworks and strategy decks, most teams rarely experience what innovation actually feels like. Real innovation is uncertain, emotional, iterative, and profoundly human. That’s why Cliff has spent the past several years guiding organizations through songwriting experiences—yes, literal songwriting—to unlock the emotional and relational capacities that innovation demands. And as someone who works at the intersection of story, leadership, and transformational design, Tony sees this as more than a clever workshop: it’s a reorientation. The same skills it takes to write a compelling song—lateral thinking, storytelling, empathy, collaboration, and creative risk-taking—are the ones we need to build bold, resilient cultures. Songwriting teaches us more than how to think differently; it teaches us how to be different together. Innovation Is an Emotional Skill Innovation is often framed as a technical challenge. But research suggests the opposite: it’s emotional first. According to McKinsey & Company, organizations with the highest innovation scores also rank highest on soft skills like trust, emotional intelligence, and psychological safety. Meanwhile, Gallup data shows only 29% of employees say they’re expected to be creative at work, and just three in ten feel they have the chance to do what they do best every day. The problem isn’t a lack of ideas. It’s a lack of environments where risk, play, and expression are welcomed, let alone expected. This is where songwriting changes the game. In the space of a single facilitated session, teams cocreate something meaningful from nothing. They navigate ambiguity, listen closely, reframe messages—and yes, make something that sings. Not because they’re professional musicians, but because they’re immersed in a process that demands trust, presence, and creative momentum. The Seven Innovation Skills, As Told by Songwriting Too often, we treat creativity as a side activity. But songwriting isn’t an extra. It’s a mirror for the innovation journey itself. Here’s how it maps directly to seven essential innovation skills and why it works: 1. Lateral Thinking → The Metaphor. Innovation means getting out of the obvious. Writing metaphors trains the brain to think sideways, to turn literal ideas into poetic ones. It’s not just a creativity hack—it’s a neurological shift. Stuck thinking begins to loosen. 2. Creativity → The Verse. Creativity isn’t magic; it’s a method. Writing verses requires sequencing, voice, and structure. It’s storytelling in rhythm. For teams, this becomes practice in shaping ideas with intention and clarity, something we should emphasize in narrative strategy sessions. 3. Communication → The Chorus. A chorus carries the emotional center of the song. It must resonate, repeat, and land. Similarly, every great innovation needs a core message that sticks. The chorus teaches teams to distill complexity into coherence and find the line people will remember. 4. Empathy → Observation. To write lyrics that land, you need to observe deeply. What’s unsaid? What’s felt? Songwriting strengthens the skill of attunement—the ability to read emotional subtext, a fundamental asset for human-centered innovation. 5. Collaboration → Cowriting. Cowriting is the innovation lab in miniature. There’s friction, refinement, and co-ownership. Innovation isn’t about consensus. It’s about staying in creative tension long enough to find something better than anyone could create alone. 6. Risk-Taking → Vulnerability. Sharing lyrics out loud is deeply vulnerable. Singing them? Even more so. But when teams experience structured creative risk in a psychologically safe space, their tolerance for ambiguity expands, and their courage grows. 7. Diffusion → Performance. A song doesn’t live until it’s shared. Performing it completes the arc. Like any innovation, it’s not enough to build something—you have to deliver it. Performance transforms creativity into connection. It makes the work matter. One Team’s Transformation When Cliff leads a songwriting program, participants are never told beforehand they’ll be writing and performing a song. Why? Two reasons. First, it avoids the anticipatory resistance that creative work can trigger. Second, the moment they discover what’s coming, it unlocks a kind of flow state—one where fear and distraction give way to full presence. At a recent offsite for a Fortune 500 company, one participant, a former prison warden, started out stone-faced and silent. But when the group chose “80s metal ballad” as the genre for their song, he lit up. Not only did he contribute lyrics, but he also sang lead vocals at the end. His transformation from skeptic to center-stage performer reframed how his team saw him and how he saw himself. Culture as a Creative Practice In our work, we both see this truth: innovation isn’t just a process to manage. It’s a culture to curate. And culture doesn’t change through mandates. It changes through meaning. It changes when teams gather around a campfire, share a personal story, or sketch the opening lyrics of something no one’s ever made before. That’s why we design offsites around nature walks and story circles—not because they’re trendy, but because they’re necessary. Creativity needs conditions. Songwriting creates them. When leaders make space for art, ritual, and emotion, they’re not just encouraging creativity. They’re building the emotional infrastructure innovation requires. Your next strategy session doesn’t need more slides; it might just need a chorus. We don’t teach songwriting to turn executives into musicians. We teach it because songwriting is a shortcut to the human skills of innovation. It’s experiential, connective, and brings people back to what it feels like to make something that matters. And more than anything, it reminds teams that creativity isn’t far away. It’s already in the room—waiting to be invited in. View the full article

Israeli PM accuses British, French and Canadian leaders of siding with Hamas after they called for end to Gaza offensiveView the full article

Neri Karra Sillaman is an adviser and speaker who was recently recognized on the Thinkers50 “Radar” list for 2024 as one of the top 30 emerging management thinkers. She is an adjunct professor and entrepreneurship expert at the University of Oxford, and founder of Neri Karra, a global luxury leather goods brand that has been manufacturing for leading Italian labels for over 25 years. A former child refugee, she brings a powerful perspective on resilience, cultural innovation, and ethical business to her work. Her insights have been featured in Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, Forbes, and Fortune. What’s the big idea? It’s no coincidence that immigrant-led businesses have better survival and long-term success rates. Common threads of the immigrant experience tend to naturally strengthen the necessary skills to build a thriving business. Qualities such as personal resilience, commitment to a greater purpose, and authentic community building give many immigrants an edge as entrepreneurs. Below, Neri shares five key insights from her new book, Pioneers: 8 Principles of Business Longevity from Immigrant Entrepreneurs. Listen to the audio version—read by Neri herself—in the Next Big Idea App. 1. Start with who you are, not just what’s missing Most entrepreneurs are told to scan the market for gaps to fill. But immigrant entrepreneurs often do something radically different—they begin by looking inward. They build businesses rooted in their personal stories, cultural legacies, and lived experiences. When Jan Koum, co-founder of WhatsApp, remembered the fear of phone surveillance in Soviet Ukraine and the costs of calling his family from America, he didn’t just see problems—he envisioned a solution. WhatsApp became a free, ad-free, encrypted service that now connects nearly three billion people. This principle of “inside-out” entrepreneurship isn’t just more human—it’s more resilient. When the origin of your idea is deeply meaningful, your motivation is more sustainable. You’re not chasing trends. You’re building what only you can build. 2. Necessity is the fuel of endurance Immigrants often don’t start businesses because they want to. They do it because they have to. This is what I call necessity entrepreneurship. “Companies started by immigrants tend to grow faster and survive longer.” Necessity isn’t a disadvantage. It’s a source of grit. When you’ve fled war, rebuilt your life from nothing, or supported your family with little more than hope, you develop a drive that doesn’t quit when things get hard. This endurance often makes immigrant-founded businesses outlast their peers. In fact, companies started by immigrants tend to grow faster and survive longer. In a world where 90% of startups fail, that kind of staying power is worth paying attention to. 3. Community is the business model Long before “stakeholder capitalism” was a buzzword, immigrant entrepreneurs were practicing it. Many come from collectivist cultures or grew up relying on informal networks of support. That mindset shows up in how they build companies. Take the story of my own business: we got out of a refugee camp in Istanbul thanks to a distant relative who took us in. Today, her children are my factory manager and accountant. We didn’t just build a brand—we built a family business, sustained by trust. Community is not a “nice to have.” For many immigrant founders, it is the secret to longevity. They succeed because they lift others as they rise. 4. Build with legacy in mind, not just profit Immigrant entrepreneurs tend to have a long-term lens. Perhaps it’s because they’ve witnessed how quickly everything can disappear. Or because they’ve felt the weight of what’s been lost and the responsibility to create something that endures. “Companies that last are the ones rooted in purpose.” Luis von Ahn, founder of Duolingo, grew up in Guatemala, where access to education was limited. He didn’t just build a tech company; he built a free tool to democratize language learning worldwide. That’s what legacy looks like. Profit is important. But the immigrant entrepreneurs I interviewed showed again and again: the companies that last are the ones rooted in purpose. 5. Connection is the true currency of success Success stories are often told in isolation, but nobody does it alone. Immigrant entrepreneurs understand this better than most. They’ve seen how invisible networks—family ties, community trust, shared experience—can shape their futures. In the book, I write: “Forests appear to be made up of individual trees, but each one thrives only because of the vast, interconnected root system below.” That’s what I’ve found in immigrant-led businesses, too. Whether it’s a factory built with childhood friends or a mentorship that changes everything, the unseen connections are what make a business resilient. They’re also what make it human. This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission. View the full article

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. That means campaigns about anxiety, burnout, depression, and trauma will pop up in schools, offices, billboards, and magazines across the country. But few of those campaigns will mention a force that fuels all of those conditions—a force so normalized, it hides in plain sight. That force is Car Brain. Car Brain is an affliction that causes people to justify or ignore antisocial behavior that involves an automobile. It’s when someone who respects others in nearly every context suddenly becomes selfish, reckless, or even hostile just because a car has become part of the interaction. Once you start looking, you’ll see it everywhere, online and IRL. Car Brain is a dangerous but normalized condition that needs a spotlight during Mental Health Awareness Month. It’s a kind of cultural psychosis. It’s why someone who would never shove an elderly person out of the way has no problem speeding past a crosswalk while an elderly person inches across the street. Car Brain is why so many Americans experience a constant state of low-grade anxiety, sensory overload, and chronic stress—without realizing it’s rooted in something deeper than work or home life. It’s rooted in their daily environment, which has been designed around machine speed instead of human need. Every day, more than 100 Americans are killed in traffic crashes. Far more survive with catastrophic injuries—amputations, traumatic brain injuries, permanent disability. These aren’t all “accidents.” A high-speed collision on a downtown street that changes a group of people’s lives forever isn’t an oopsies. Most severe crashes are the logical result of antisocial choices baked into a car-first culture: ● Speeding through school zones because you’re late for work. ● Running red lights because “it was barely red.” ● Parking in a bike lane because “they can just go around.” ● Failing to yield at crosswalks because “didn’t I already tell you, I’m late for work!” These common and seemingly minor decisions have enormous consequences. What starts as personal entitlement often ends in someone else’s hospital stay—or funeral. The emotional weight of a car-centric world Mental health experts know that your surroundings shape your mood and behavior. Environments that are loud, fast, and disconnected from human interaction put us into a constant state of alert. What’s the dominant environment in most American communities? Roads that prioritize automobile travel and an ever-present sense that one wrong move could be deadly. Children can’t safely bike to school, so they get chauffeured instead—losing both independence and physical activity. Seniors become prisoners in their own homes if they can no longer drive. People in poverty are forced to spend thousands of dollars they don’t have just to participate in society. And all of us find ourselves stuck inside vehicles that make us more anxious, more aggressive, and more isolated. The dependence on personal vehicles leads to thinking of them as an extension of ourselves, or at least a vital part of our lives. So any perceived inconvenience ignites Car Brain, causing us to commit or justify behavior we’d otherwise condemn. In any other context, these antisocial behaviors would be signs of a serious problem: ● Yelling at someone who walked slower than you in the grocery store. ● Swinging nunchucks at a crowded playground. ● Storing your spare fridge on a public sidewalk. But do all of that with a car? And suddenly it’s just “the price of modern life.” That’s the power of Car Brain: it’s so culturally embedded that it looks rational. Speeding, running red lights, tailgating, parking in bike lanes, parking in bus lanes, parking on sidewalks, blaming dead pedestrians for not being dressed like Christmas trees—these are all harmful cultural norms that need to be shamed and met with severe consequences. There’s an unspoken belief that driving is natural, necessary, and morally superior. It’s why cities spend millions expanding roads while underfunding buses. It’s why “congestion” is treated as a crisis, but 40,000 annual road deaths are met with a shrug. The most dangerous part of Car Brain is that we don’t see it for what it is—a mass delusion that enables harm, excludes millions, and degrades mental and physical well-being. The path to wellness Mental Health Awareness Month shouldn’t just be about personal coping strategies and mindfulness reminders. It should include a reckoning with the systems that make us sick in the first place. The alternative is to design neighborhoods where walking, cycling, and taking transit aren’t signs of poverty or punishment, but signs of liberation. That requires us to stop treating streets as high-speed pipelines for cars and start treating them as places of connection—places for living, meeting, playing, and being human. Be ready to confront your own Car Brain, which whispers that anything slowing down a driver must be wrong—even if that “wrong” thing is a child trying to cross the street. Admitting what we’re capable of will make it easier to stop excusing antisocial, dangerous behavior just because it happens to involve a motor vehicle. The first step in healing is recognizing we’re all breathing the same polluted cultural air. View the full article

In the past several years, the trend of “going direct” in public relations has gotten trendy. Broadly, the idea is that certain companies—mainly tech startups—stand a better chance of advancing their own narratives by sidestepping traditional PR and media altogether. Instead, the company founder, fellow executives, and partners would post content to the internet and social media to directly communicate with their customers. There’s naturally been a lot of consternation in the media and PR industries about how effective this kind of approach is, the real value of traditional PR, and whether a company can really chart their own path without some kind of third-party validation. It’s not my intent to wade into that debate (though if you’d like a deep-dive exploration, I hosted a panel on the topic at the Consensus conference). It is, however, an undeniable trend that’s caught fire the last few years. Now AI is poised to throw gas on that flame. The next evolution of going direct I was struck by this after reflecting on my conversation with Scrunch AI CEO Chris Andrew on The Media Copilot podcast. Scrunch specializes in placement in AI search. Its customers are mostly brands who want to ensure their content is crawled, analyzed, and summarized when someone asks a chatbot about the brand or its area of focus. The idea is conceptually similar to SEO (search engine optimization), though the industry hasn’t yet settled on a name for it (AIEO, LLMO, and GAIO are all contenders). As Google has just aptly demonstrated in its push this week to elevate AI Mode as a standard feature in search, the purpose of an AI search is to give answers, not links. That’s a huge problem if your product is information, which is exactly why much of the media industry is locked in a legal battle with the AI industry over copyright. But if you’re a company just trying to sell something, an AI summary that informs a user about your brand is a win whether they click through to your site or not. If they do, there’s information to suggest they’ll be much more inclined to engage further and even transact. And if they don’t, you’ve effectively hit them with an ad by having the brand mentioned in the summary. On the media side of things, the click-killing aspect to AI search has many outlets throwing up defenses on their content against crawlers. They’re configuring their robots.txt file to say “no” to bots, putting up other digital defenses, and denying access to their content unless AI companies pay up—either through licensing agreements or pay-as-you-go frameworks. A recent story in A Media Operator, which covers the business side of the media industry, showed that many media companies have begun to wake up to the rapidly growing presence of AI crawlers. An executive from Cloudflare, an internet infrastructure company, said over 800,000 websites have activated Cloudflare’s most aggressive protection setting. There’s an obvious disconnect between the incentives of the media versus brands in AI search, and that creates an opportunity for an AI upgrade of the go-direct strategy. AI search engines still need to provide answers to queries, and if credible journalism about those topics is blocked, something has to fill the void. Brands that give unfettered access to their content to crawlers (because why wouldn’t you?) will have an advantage. This goes double if the company can execute on a multichannel content strategy that gets their brand cited across multiple sites or domains. One important difference between AI search and SEO, pointed out by Andrew in the podcast, is that citations count more to AI crawlers than links. That means if a brand can seed the web with consistent facts and brand citations across multiple sites, it will help ensure AI search engines “learn” from their preferred narrative. You can imagine a scenario where a major company, with enough resources, could theoretically pull off a version of what Russia has done with respect to advancing their preferred narrative on the war in Ukraine, thoroughly examined by a NewsGuard investigation. Except in Russia’s case, it was done mainly via sketchy-looking sites clearly created to “spam” AI crawlers with propaganda. A company could do this out in the open, with a content strategy that amplifies their storytelling across blogs, podcasts, social media, and more, published across multiple domains. Humans would easily be able to tell it’s all marketing, but AI engines just see it as more data—data that can have a large amount of influence in what appears in summaries. How the media can chart a smarter course There’s still hope to steer away from a future where corporate propaganda is dominant. It starts with media sites adopting a sophisticated approach to blocking, something I outlined in my newsletter last week. Blanket bans are understandable—publishers still feel burned by Big Tech’s platform dynamics of the past—but shutting off access entirely is a short-term defense with long-term costs. A more strategic approach would involve selectively exposing certain types of content: meta descriptions, older articles, multimedia, and more. This allows media companies to remain visible in AI search while still protecting core value. But beyond technical solutions, the real hope is in what consumers of information actually want. Review sites like PCMag and The Wirecutter didn’t become popular because they were algorithmically boosted. They emerged because people didn’t like getting fed the company line. Similarly, if AI-generated answers start to feel like corporate brochureware, consumers will notice. Credible, independent journalism isn’t just good ethics; it’s a market advantage—if it’s accessible. In the end, AI engines that optimize for this balance will win out, too. It’s right there in ChatGPT’s model spec: the chatbot is designed to “seek the truth together” with the user. It can’t do that without including independent perspectives and weighing them appropriately against a barrage of go-direct content. AI may be dramatically altering the ways people get information, but audiences also hate being misled. If the public has a way to find reporting they can trust—even in an AI-mediated environment—they’ll take it. But the burden is on both the media and AI platforms to keep that path open. View the full article

Sale heralds end to two years of uncertainty over future of the 170-year-old British titleView the full article

Boost to Labour government as it tries to tackle high cost of livingView the full article

It’s four answers to four questions. Here we go… 1. Should I tell my job I’m going to quit if they don’t deal with my horrible coworker? I’ve been at this job for over 15 years. My coworker, Sally, has been here for less than three. She has questioned my experience and knowledge from the start, despite my seniority, but it got worse in late 2024. Among other things, she has slept at her desk every day since I started noticing it last year (not exaggerating). She talks down to everyone she works with, but especially me. She has made awful comments about people’s bodies and talks about her own bodily functions far more than is appropriate. My schedule was changed so I work almost the same hours as Sally. I’m no longer allowed to work from home, in the name of “fairness,” as she’s not allowed to work from home due to her sleeping. We work in a small office with no privacy so I can’t even avoid her. I have to watch as she messes around, barely doing her own job, making our department look bad, and gossiping with other coworkers. Our supervisor took longer than she should have to address it, but HR is finally involved, and they’ve done nothing to fix the problem. I am so stressed that I’m exhausted and anxious every hour I’m in this office, and I can’t escape. I cry most days, throw up from panic attacks most mornings, don’t sleep well, and have no energy for anything but work. My work has gone down in quantity and quality. I have taken to ignoring Sally’s existence just to make it through my day, only communicating with her over email if she needs something from me. I’ve been told for six months that I “just need to be patient” until they finally fire her. I have a possible lead on another job where I would be more appreciated, but doing things other than my specialty, which I am less excited about. This is what I wanted my career to be and I’m not sure that’s possible anymore. Especially because they aren’t even paying me well, and my last “raise” was pathetic. Is there some way to communicate to HR/management that I am burned out and at my limit and they will lose me within the next few weeks if they don’t do something? My supervisor already knows and supports me when she can. Just going back to my old schedule would make a huge difference, but I’ve asked about it and received no answers or explanations. The thing that jumps out at me about your letter is that you’re giving a huge amount of power to someone who has no real power over you! It does suck to work with someone rude and lazy like Sally, and it sucks even more to have your own schedule changed and your flexibility removed because she can’t handle it — but you’re not responsible for her and she’s not responsible for you, and your reaction to her is pretty intense! You can’t make your crappy management suddenly become competent, but is there any room for you to just … care less about Sally? Because that’s the part that’s most in your control, and you actually don’t need to have any feelings whatsoever about her. But to your question: ultimatums in this situation don’t usually work, and they’re not likely to fire her just because you explain that you’re at your limit. Whatever has kept them from firing her so far is still going to be in place. However, you said your manager knows where you’re at and supports you when you can, so one option is to tell her that you feel like you’re at the end of your rope and need something to change immediately, even if it’s just going back to your own schedule. I would not say they’re going to lose you if they don’t (unless you are 100% prepared to follow through on that) but a halfway decent manager should be able to read between the lines and understand what you’re saying. Related: can I ask my manager to fire my coworker? 2. Two bosses in a row couldn’t tell me why they were unhappy with my work I was at one company and doing well, I thought, in a communications role. An important client I had worked with had requested me for future engagements. The VP of marketing praised my biggest project at a sales conference. But at my first annual review, my supervisor said my work was awful and I’d be getting no raise. What confused me was that I asked what she didn’t like: my work was on time and on budget and clients like me. She just shook her head and said, “I don’t feel you really take charge of a project.” I asked her calmly what more I could do — I wanted to improve! She admitted she had no specifics — nothing about errors or not putting in enough time. She simply said it was a “feeling” that I wasn’t in control and she trusted her feelings. She had no instructions for improving and said the clients’ approval and VP’s praise were “irrelevant.” I eventually left, even though I liked the work. Another job: Again, I thought I was doing well. I got on with everyone, again in a communications role, this time for a membership association. I worked closely with members. I started a new newsletter my supervisor praised. An important member even told me in private he thought I should be running the department. (I mentioned that to no one!) But again, my supervisor told me my work was suboptimal — the new newsletter didn’t make a difference even though she liked it. There would be no annual raise. She agreed my work was prompt and accurate, but that I could “do better.” I asked what she meant by that — more detailed? More serious? More amusing? She shrugged and said she had nothing specific — just “better” and it was up to me to figure it out. Again, I left although I liked the work. For future use, is this something that happens often or am I just unlucky? I can understand disagreeing with a boss about competence. I’m not saying I’m perfect. But what happens when bosses can’t even tell you WHY they’re unhappy with you? Is this a “code” for something else? All I can think is that in both jobs I was a happy family man and both my bosses were going through bitter breakups with partners. Do such personal situations make a difference? I just want to know what to watch out for in the future. It’s definitely true that you can do well in some areas but still need to improve in others … but two managers in a row who said your work was bad without being able to give any specifics, combined with getting positive feedback from others, is pretty odd. I wouldn’t think it was a happy family man vs. bitter breakup situation (assuming you weren’t making judgmental comments about it or something, which I’m assuming you weren’t). But it’s weird. I’m curious about your job history before this — any patterns there or were these two aberrations? Can you get feedback from other people you’ve worked with? (Also, important to check: did they literally say your work was “awful” or was that your interpretation from them saying they wanted you to do better? If it was the latter, and if you left on your own rather than being pushed to leave, that would paint a different picture than if they explicitly said you were doing a bad job.) 3. Job requires relocation, and I’m hoping they’ll change their minds A company reached out to me for an exciting role at a company I would be thrilled to work at. In the first communication, the recruiter was explicit that the role would require relocation and be in the office five days per week. I decided to still hear more about the role and the approach to being in office. After speaking with the recruiter, she told me that the role would need to be in the office initially, but determining the go forward plan for the company is part of the priorities for this role. I am continuing to talk to them knowing I won’t be able to relocate. The company is 2.5 hours from where I live and I’m hoping that if I get an offer, I can say that while I was considering relocation before, my circumstances have changed and I won’t be able to, but that I’d be open to commuting to the office Tuesday-Thursday each week. I know from the recruiter that the CEO does this and this role reports to the CEO. You can do that if you want, but it seems like a really, really bad idea to offer to commute 2.5 hours each way three days a week. And even if you’re okay with that, they’re likely to be concerned that you’ll quickly tire of it. If anything, I’d think you’d be better off agreeing to stay in their area (and so be in-person) for the first few weeks, with the understanding that you’d be fully remote after that. If they won’t agree to that, it’s not the right match. 4. How do you get time off work for weekly therapy appointments? How do people balance weekly therapy appointments with their work schedules, and do so in a way that minimizes how much private health info they share with their employer? I’m especially interested in hearing about how this works for folks who are hourly or who have other job constraints that make it impossible to just quietly slip out for an appointment without telling others and/or logging it on their time card. At least where I live, I’m not going to get a therapist if I can’t have business hours availability for appointments. Are folks using sick time for their appointments, or are they making up that time elsewhere in their week? (I don’t get nearly enough sick time to cover a year’s worth of therapy, let alone all the other stuff sick time is meant to cover.) How do I indicate a weekly recurring appointment on my calendar for which I may or may not use sick time without my boss asking or guessing what it’s for? (While it’s probably fine, there can be such a stigma about mental health care, and I don’t know how to do this without being forced to overshare with people I don’t want to know my personal business.) Is this something I should apply for intermittent FMLA for? I know that won’t cover me financially, and it feels drastic just for therapy, but for a weekly appointment maybe it’s good to have some official protection in case my employer decides they don’t like me missing that hour a week of work, indefinitely. I just don’t get how the average person swings the logistics of it if they work full-time. I’ve put this off for years for these reasons, and while it feels like I can’t do that anymore, the same life circumstances that necessitate the therapy are the ones that make it feel nearly impossible to find time in my life to get therapy. Some people are using sick time, and some people are flexing their schedules. Treat it the exact same way you would if you needed a weekly medical appointment for anything else — allergy shots, physical therapy, whatever. That means you say to your boss, “I am going to have a recurring weekly medical appointment for the foreseeable future. I’ll need to leave about an hour early every Thursday for it. Could I come in early on those days so my hours balance out?” If your boss asks what it’s for — which she shouldn’t — you can respond with, “It’s nothing to worry about, just something I’ll need to deal with weekly for a while.” FMLA is an option too, although it will require you to disclose more info to your employer, so you might prefer to start with the above and see if that gets it taken care of. The post should I say I’m going to quit if my job doesn’t deal with my horrible coworker, 2 bosses in a row couldn’t say why they disliked my work, and more appeared first on Ask a Manager. View the full article

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Key Takeaways Blogging as a Business: Blogging has evolved from a hobby to a legitimate business with multiple income-generating opportunities, making it accessible for everyone, from seasoned writers to beginners. Niche Focus: Identifying and targeting a specific niche is crucial for attracting a dedicated audience and building a strong brand presence, with popular niches including personal finance, health, travel, and technology. Diverse Monetization Strategies: Successful bloggers can explore various income streams such as affiliate marketing, sponsored content, ad revenue, subscription models, and online courses to diversify their earnings. Quality Content Creation: Providing high-quality, relevant content that addresses audience needs is essential for engaging readers and building a loyal following, which is pivotal for business success. Effective Tools and Platforms: Utilizing the right blogging platforms (like WordPress, Wix, or Squarespace) and SEO tools (such as Google Analytics and SEMrush) can enhance visibility, streamline operations, and promote growth. Continuous Marketing Efforts: Regularly updating your blog and employing digital marketing strategies, including social media promotion and email marketing, are vital for driving traffic and increasing engagement. In today’s digital landscape, blogging isn’t just a hobby—it’s a thriving business opportunity. With millions of blogs out there, you might wonder how to carve your niche and turn your passion into profit. Whether you’re a seasoned writer or just starting out, the right blogging business ideas can set you on a path to success. Imagine sharing your expertise while generating income from it. From affiliate marketing to offering online courses, the possibilities are endless. You’ve got the chance to connect with a global audience, share your unique voice, and create a sustainable income stream. Dive into the world of blogging business ideas that can transform your writing into a lucrative venture. Popular Blogging Business Ideas Blogging offers numerous opportunities to generate income and build a small business. Here are some popular blogging business ideas that can help you establish a profitable venture. Niche Blogging Niche blogging involves focusing on a specific topic or audience. This approach helps you create targeted content that attracts dedicated readers. By identifying your interests and conducting market research, you can pinpoint a profitable niche. Popular niches include personal finance, health and wellness, travel, and technology. As an entrepreneur, you can build a strong brand around your niche, engage your target audience, and develop a loyal following. Affiliate Marketing Affiliate marketing allows you to earn commissions by promoting products or services from other companies. As a blogger, you can integrate affiliate links into your content, earning money each time a reader makes a purchase through your link. Choose products that align with your niche to maximize conversions. Build trust with your audience through authentic recommendations, and use SEO strategies to enhance visibility. As your traffic grows, your affiliate earnings can significantly increase, contributing to your business model. Sponsored Content Sponsored content provides a way to partner with brands and monetize your blog. Companies pay you to create content featuring their products or services. This arrangement benefits both parties: you earn income, while brands gain exposure to your audience. Developing a strong media kit can attract potential sponsors, and maintaining transparency with your readers is essential. Use social media and email marketing to promote sponsored posts, increasing their reach and driving engagement. By exploring these blogging business ideas, you can create a robust strategy that enhances revenue streams while connecting with your audience. Monetization Strategies You can leverage various monetization strategies to turn your blog into a profitable small business. Focus on maximizing your revenue potential through methods such as ad revenue, subscription models, and online courses. Ad Revenue You generate income through ad placements on your blog. This method works by displaying ads that pay you based on clicks or impressions. Integrating popular ad networks like Google AdSense can boost your earnings as it monetizes your traffic effectively. Your blog’s audience size directly influences your ad revenue, so growing your readership is essential for maximizing this income stream. Subscription Models You can create a membership or subscription-based model to enhance profitability. This strategy involves offering exclusive content such as articles, webinars, or reports to paid subscribers. For instance, Ryan Levesque’s “Orchids Made Easy” site charges $9.95 per month, generating $18,000 monthly from 1,800 members. A subscription model fosters community and encourages consistent revenue, making it a desirable option for small business bloggers. Online Courses You can monetize your expertise by offering online courses related to your niche. This business model allows you to package your knowledge into a structured format, providing significant value to your audience. Utilize platforms like Teachable or Thinkific to host your courses effectively. By focusing on quality content and marketing your courses through social media and email campaigns, you can attract your target audience and drive sales, contributing to your overall business growth strategy. Building a Successful Blog Creating a successful blog requires a well-thought-out approach, especially for small business entrepreneurs. Focus on key elements to build a robust foundation. Selecting Your Niche Identify a specific niche that aligns with your business goals and resonates with your target audience. Conduct thorough market research to understand customer needs and preferences. Tailoring your content to meet these demands enhances your blog’s relevance and attractiveness. For instance, if you’re in e-commerce, blogging about product trends or tips can establish your authority and engage your customers. Content Creation Tips Prioritize high-quality content to capture attention. Use effective digital marketing strategies, such as SEO and email marketing, to attract readers. Regularly update your blog with valuable information that addresses your audience’s pain points and interests. Implement a content calendar to plan and schedule posts. Try to incorporate various formats, such as videos or infographics, to diversify content and improve engagement. Leverage social media to promote your blog and connect with your audience. Ensuring excellent customer service can also lead to higher customer retention and more repeat visits. Engaging content combined with consistent marketing efforts builds a loyal readership, ultimately driving sales and contributing to your small business success. Tools and Resources Utilizing effective tools and resources can streamline your blogging business and enhance growth potential. Accessing the right platforms and tools not only supports content creation but also optimizes your marketing efforts. Blogging Platforms Selecting a blogging platform forms the foundation of your online business. Popular platforms include: WordPress: Offers flexibility and scalability, ideal for small businesses planning to grow over time. Blogger: A user-friendly option great for beginners focusing on basic blogging features. Wix: Provides easy drag-and-drop website building with built-in SEO tools, perfect for entrepreneurs without extensive technical skills. Squarespace: Combines robust design capabilities with e-commerce functionalities for those aiming to sell products directly from the blog. Evaluate these platforms based on your specific needs, target audience, and growth strategy. SEO Tools Incorporating SEO tools boosts your blog’s visibility and helps you reach your market effectively. Essential tools include: Google Analytics: Tracks user behavior and site performance, enabling better marketing decisions. SEMrush: Offers competitive analysis and keyword research tools, essential for optimizing your content strategy. Ahrefs: Provides backlink analysis and content gap insights, helping enhance your blogging strategy. Yoast SEO: A WordPress plugin that guides you in optimizing each blog post for search engines. These tools facilitate smart marketing strategies, improve your online presence, and drive customer acquisition by ensuring your content aligns with user search intentions. Conclusion Embracing the blogging business landscape opens up a world of opportunities for you. Whether you’re a seasoned writer or just starting out there’s a niche waiting for your unique voice. By leveraging strategies like affiliate marketing and online courses you can transform your passion into profit. Focusing on high-quality content and effective marketing will set you apart in a crowded space. The right tools and resources can streamline your efforts making it easier to connect with your audience. Remember to stay adaptable and keep exploring new ideas as the digital landscape continues to evolve. Your blogging journey can lead to sustainable income and a fulfilling career if you approach it with creativity and determination. Frequently Asked Questions What is the main focus of the article? The article discusses the transformation of blogging from a hobby to a viable business. It highlights the importance of selecting a niche and provides various monetization strategies like affiliate marketing, online courses, and sponsored content to help bloggers generate income. How can I monetize my blog? You can monetize your blog through several methods, including affiliate marketing, ad revenue, sponsored content, and online courses. By leveraging these strategies, you can turn your blog into a sustainable income source while engaging your audience. What is niche blogging? Niche blogging focuses on a specific topic or theme, attracting a dedicated audience interested in that subject. This strategy can enhance engagement and establish your blog as an authority in that niche, ultimately increasing traffic and revenue. Why is SEO important for blogging? SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is crucial for increasing your blog’s visibility in search engine results. Effective SEO strategies help attract organic traffic, improve rankings, and ensure your content meets the needs of your target audience. What blogging platforms are recommended? Popular blogging platforms include WordPress for flexibility, Blogger for beginners, Wix for ease of use, and Squarespace for e-commerce. Each platform has unique features tailored to different user needs, allowing you to choose one that best fits your goals. How do I create engaging content? To create engaging content, focus on high-quality writing, use diverse formats (like videos or infographics), and maintain a consistent posting schedule. Understanding your audience’s interests and preferences will also help shape relevant and appealing content. What tools can help streamline my blogging business? Essential tools for blogging include Google Analytics for performance tracking, SEMrush for competitive analysis, and Yoast SEO for content optimization. These tools help enhance your blog’s visibility and support effective marketing strategies. How often should I update my blog? Regular updates are vital for maintaining audience engagement and improving SEO. Aim for a consistent posting schedule, whether it’s weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly, to keep your audience engaged and your blog relevant. Image Via Envato This article, "Innovative Blogging Business Ideas to Turn Your Passion into Profit" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Key Takeaways Blogging as a Business: Blogging has evolved from a hobby to a legitimate business with multiple income-generating opportunities, making it accessible for everyone, from seasoned writers to beginners. Niche Focus: Identifying and targeting a specific niche is crucial for attracting a dedicated audience and building a strong brand presence, with popular niches including personal finance, health, travel, and technology. Diverse Monetization Strategies: Successful bloggers can explore various income streams such as affiliate marketing, sponsored content, ad revenue, subscription models, and online courses to diversify their earnings. Quality Content Creation: Providing high-quality, relevant content that addresses audience needs is essential for engaging readers and building a loyal following, which is pivotal for business success. Effective Tools and Platforms: Utilizing the right blogging platforms (like WordPress, Wix, or Squarespace) and SEO tools (such as Google Analytics and SEMrush) can enhance visibility, streamline operations, and promote growth. Continuous Marketing Efforts: Regularly updating your blog and employing digital marketing strategies, including social media promotion and email marketing, are vital for driving traffic and increasing engagement. In today’s digital landscape, blogging isn’t just a hobby—it’s a thriving business opportunity. With millions of blogs out there, you might wonder how to carve your niche and turn your passion into profit. Whether you’re a seasoned writer or just starting out, the right blogging business ideas can set you on a path to success. Imagine sharing your expertise while generating income from it. From affiliate marketing to offering online courses, the possibilities are endless. You’ve got the chance to connect with a global audience, share your unique voice, and create a sustainable income stream. Dive into the world of blogging business ideas that can transform your writing into a lucrative venture. Popular Blogging Business Ideas Blogging offers numerous opportunities to generate income and build a small business. Here are some popular blogging business ideas that can help you establish a profitable venture. Niche Blogging Niche blogging involves focusing on a specific topic or audience. This approach helps you create targeted content that attracts dedicated readers. By identifying your interests and conducting market research, you can pinpoint a profitable niche. Popular niches include personal finance, health and wellness, travel, and technology. As an entrepreneur, you can build a strong brand around your niche, engage your target audience, and develop a loyal following. Affiliate Marketing Affiliate marketing allows you to earn commissions by promoting products or services from other companies. As a blogger, you can integrate affiliate links into your content, earning money each time a reader makes a purchase through your link. Choose products that align with your niche to maximize conversions. Build trust with your audience through authentic recommendations, and use SEO strategies to enhance visibility. As your traffic grows, your affiliate earnings can significantly increase, contributing to your business model. Sponsored Content Sponsored content provides a way to partner with brands and monetize your blog. Companies pay you to create content featuring their products or services. This arrangement benefits both parties: you earn income, while brands gain exposure to your audience. Developing a strong media kit can attract potential sponsors, and maintaining transparency with your readers is essential. Use social media and email marketing to promote sponsored posts, increasing their reach and driving engagement. By exploring these blogging business ideas, you can create a robust strategy that enhances revenue streams while connecting with your audience. Monetization Strategies You can leverage various monetization strategies to turn your blog into a profitable small business. Focus on maximizing your revenue potential through methods such as ad revenue, subscription models, and online courses. Ad Revenue You generate income through ad placements on your blog. This method works by displaying ads that pay you based on clicks or impressions. Integrating popular ad networks like Google AdSense can boost your earnings as it monetizes your traffic effectively. Your blog’s audience size directly influences your ad revenue, so growing your readership is essential for maximizing this income stream. Subscription Models You can create a membership or subscription-based model to enhance profitability. This strategy involves offering exclusive content such as articles, webinars, or reports to paid subscribers. For instance, Ryan Levesque’s “Orchids Made Easy” site charges $9.95 per month, generating $18,000 monthly from 1,800 members. A subscription model fosters community and encourages consistent revenue, making it a desirable option for small business bloggers. Online Courses You can monetize your expertise by offering online courses related to your niche. This business model allows you to package your knowledge into a structured format, providing significant value to your audience. Utilize platforms like Teachable or Thinkific to host your courses effectively. By focusing on quality content and marketing your courses through social media and email campaigns, you can attract your target audience and drive sales, contributing to your overall business growth strategy. Building a Successful Blog Creating a successful blog requires a well-thought-out approach, especially for small business entrepreneurs. Focus on key elements to build a robust foundation. Selecting Your Niche Identify a specific niche that aligns with your business goals and resonates with your target audience. Conduct thorough market research to understand customer needs and preferences. Tailoring your content to meet these demands enhances your blog’s relevance and attractiveness. For instance, if you’re in e-commerce, blogging about product trends or tips can establish your authority and engage your customers. Content Creation Tips Prioritize high-quality content to capture attention. Use effective digital marketing strategies, such as SEO and email marketing, to attract readers. Regularly update your blog with valuable information that addresses your audience’s pain points and interests. Implement a content calendar to plan and schedule posts. Try to incorporate various formats, such as videos or infographics, to diversify content and improve engagement. Leverage social media to promote your blog and connect with your audience. Ensuring excellent customer service can also lead to higher customer retention and more repeat visits. Engaging content combined with consistent marketing efforts builds a loyal readership, ultimately driving sales and contributing to your small business success. Tools and Resources Utilizing effective tools and resources can streamline your blogging business and enhance growth potential. Accessing the right platforms and tools not only supports content creation but also optimizes your marketing efforts. Blogging Platforms Selecting a blogging platform forms the foundation of your online business. Popular platforms include: WordPress: Offers flexibility and scalability, ideal for small businesses planning to grow over time. Blogger: A user-friendly option great for beginners focusing on basic blogging features. Wix: Provides easy drag-and-drop website building with built-in SEO tools, perfect for entrepreneurs without extensive technical skills. Squarespace: Combines robust design capabilities with e-commerce functionalities for those aiming to sell products directly from the blog. Evaluate these platforms based on your specific needs, target audience, and growth strategy. SEO Tools Incorporating SEO tools boosts your blog’s visibility and helps you reach your market effectively. Essential tools include: Google Analytics: Tracks user behavior and site performance, enabling better marketing decisions. SEMrush: Offers competitive analysis and keyword research tools, essential for optimizing your content strategy. Ahrefs: Provides backlink analysis and content gap insights, helping enhance your blogging strategy. Yoast SEO: A WordPress plugin that guides you in optimizing each blog post for search engines. These tools facilitate smart marketing strategies, improve your online presence, and drive customer acquisition by ensuring your content aligns with user search intentions. Conclusion Embracing the blogging business landscape opens up a world of opportunities for you. Whether you’re a seasoned writer or just starting out there’s a niche waiting for your unique voice. By leveraging strategies like affiliate marketing and online courses you can transform your passion into profit. Focusing on high-quality content and effective marketing will set you apart in a crowded space. The right tools and resources can streamline your efforts making it easier to connect with your audience. Remember to stay adaptable and keep exploring new ideas as the digital landscape continues to evolve. Your blogging journey can lead to sustainable income and a fulfilling career if you approach it with creativity and determination. Frequently Asked Questions What is the main focus of the article? The article discusses the transformation of blogging from a hobby to a viable business. It highlights the importance of selecting a niche and provides various monetization strategies like affiliate marketing, online courses, and sponsored content to help bloggers generate income. How can I monetize my blog? You can monetize your blog through several methods, including affiliate marketing, ad revenue, sponsored content, and online courses. By leveraging these strategies, you can turn your blog into a sustainable income source while engaging your audience. What is niche blogging? Niche blogging focuses on a specific topic or theme, attracting a dedicated audience interested in that subject. This strategy can enhance engagement and establish your blog as an authority in that niche, ultimately increasing traffic and revenue. Why is SEO important for blogging? SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is crucial for increasing your blog’s visibility in search engine results. Effective SEO strategies help attract organic traffic, improve rankings, and ensure your content meets the needs of your target audience. What blogging platforms are recommended? Popular blogging platforms include WordPress for flexibility, Blogger for beginners, Wix for ease of use, and Squarespace for e-commerce. Each platform has unique features tailored to different user needs, allowing you to choose one that best fits your goals. How do I create engaging content? To create engaging content, focus on high-quality writing, use diverse formats (like videos or infographics), and maintain a consistent posting schedule. Understanding your audience’s interests and preferences will also help shape relevant and appealing content. What tools can help streamline my blogging business? Essential tools for blogging include Google Analytics for performance tracking, SEMrush for competitive analysis, and Yoast SEO for content optimization. These tools help enhance your blog’s visibility and support effective marketing strategies. How often should I update my blog? Regular updates are vital for maintaining audience engagement and improving SEO. Aim for a consistent posting schedule, whether it’s weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly, to keep your audience engaged and your blog relevant. Image Via Envato This article, "Innovative Blogging Business Ideas to Turn Your Passion into Profit" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

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Growing up, dinner table conversations at our house weren’t just about what we learned at school that day. My mom, Jill, was a CEO for my entire life, leading a nonprofit that made meaningful community impact while she simultaneously raised a family. Our dinner conversations included recaps of board meetings, talk of juggling multiple personal and professional roles, and advice for her kid (me!) on how to do right by others. My mother’s daily examples of leadership showed me that career success and personal fulfillment don’t compete with each other—they’re complementary. Now, as I help lead Guild’s efforts, partnering with companies to invest in employee career development and talent pipelines, those early lessons continue to guide me. It is possible to find balance My mom taught me important lessons about balance that I use today. First, she taught me that having a meaningful career and making a positive impact aren’t mutually exclusive. People talk about “doing well by doing good” as an abstract concept, but I saw it firsthand every day. There was never a doubt in my mind that I would pursue the same. I was also lucky enough to have a role model who showed it was possible to have both a thriving professional and personal life. Being a wife, mother, a (literal) boss, and an engaged community member were identities she wove together. It wasn’t always easy, but watching her showed me that these identities were equally important for fulfillment. Often people—especially women—are presented with binary choices: Career or children? Devoted partner or independent social life? Many grapple with these decisions, but we don’t have to. There isn’t any shame in prioritizing one thing over another one day, and changing the next. My mom taught me not to feel guilty about this balancing act. This ripple effect of positive modeling extends beyond the family. I’ve seen it through stories of Guild learners, like Sherry from Oklahoma, who works at Tyson Foods. Sherry finished high school, got promoted to plant manager, and became an advocate for our program among her colleagues. She’s an example of how leaders can effectively balance everything important to them: career, family, community outreach, and learning. It’s never too late (or early!) to start a second act My mom grew up in the 1950s and 60s with three brothers and limited resources. She was a natural athlete, but didn’t have the privilege of formal training in her earlier years. Decades into adulthood, as her career entered its final chapters and she had more free time, she embraced the transition to her next chapter in life. At 50, she started playing senior women’s basketball. Fast forward 25 years, and she’s now a multi-titled senior Olympian at 75. Some of her best friends came through basketball, and she serves as a board member and advocate for senior women’s sports. My mom taught me that building skills later in life is more than fulfilling—it keeps you young! It increases cognitive function, improves memory, and enhances emotional well-being. There’s urgency here on a global scale, as the half-life of professional skills is less than 5 years (less than 2.5 years in technology fields). The workforce needs people willing to be nimble and adapt to the skills their field requires, just as our personal lives benefit from constant learning. We can take lessons from people who grew to be the best in their field, too. Vera Wang designed her first dress at 40, and Toni Morrison wrote her first novel after a long career in publishing. I’ve been inspired by people who pivot, learn, and succeed, and my admiration for people with this skill absolutely bleeds into the workplace. I like to bet on potential and give people opportunities beyond what their experience suggests, with faith that lifelong learners can figure things out with the right mindset and support. I believe that most career paths aren’t linear, and I have benefited from this myself, like in a previous role. A cofounder was the first person to really take a chance on me. He truly let me run by giving me a role that, on paper, wasn’t congruent with my experience but leveraged my skills in a meaningful way. You’re a role model—whether you know it or not Another lesson I learned from my mom is something I observed from her actions, not something she intended to share. She was, and is, a role model to me and many others without asking for the title. She modeled behavior, like taking initiative on difficult problems, championing innovation, or methodically pursuing ambitious goals, that those around her naturally emulated. I’m again reminded of Sherry from Tyson, who not only completed her own education and rose through the ranks, but then supported her husband as he continued his education. Her son now works at Tyson too, and is pursuing his degree simultaneously. Her drive to better herself was contagious and positively impacted her family’s trajectory. Other high-achievers come to mind as natural role models, too. Take four-time Paralympian Matt Stutzman, who competed in the recent Paralympics for archery. He’s using the same drive that took him to Paris to pursue a career transition that will support him and his family post-games. The examples are endless. It takes courage to take on new challenges or champion change, especially when countering established norms. Whether pitching a fresh approach to customer research or volunteering to test a new platform, lifelong learners blaze trails for others to follow, and we have the power to be those leaders for others. Your continuous growth will have a ripple effect on others The most powerful lesson from my mother’s journey—from CEO to senior Olympian—is that our growth journeys create ripples far beyond our own lives. When we commit to continuous learning and development, we become living examples of what’s possible. For business leaders, this means investing in growth while creating cultures where employee development is prioritized. For professionals at any career stage, it means embracing opportunities that stretch you beyond your comfort zone. For parents, it means focusing your energy where it’s needed most—at the boardroom or dinner table. The result? More resilient organizations are populated by adaptable individuals who find deeper fulfillment in both personal and professional realms. More importantly, you’ll inspire others along the way—perhaps even your own children, who might someday write about the dinner table lessons that shaped their leadership journey. Rebecca Biestman is chief marketing officer of Guild. View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. If you’ve been eyeing workout-friendly earbuds that don’t flinch at sweat or bounce, the Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 are a great way to go. Originally released in February as a long-awaited follow-up to the first-gen Powerbeats Pro, these earbuds normally cost $249.99, but right now you can get a near-mint, refurbished pair on sale for $174.99 through StackSocial. They ship in “Grade A” condition, which means they may have barely-there scuffs and should look and work pretty much like new. These are workout-first earbuds. The new nickel-titanium alloy hooks are flexible, lighter, and less clunky than before, keeping the buds in place without pressing too hard. They’re also IPX4 water-resistant, which is good enough for sweat or light rain, and you get a physical button to manage playback—a small detail, but one you’ll appreciate if your hands are wet or gloved. Wireless charging is now included, and you get around 8–10 hours of playback on a single charge, depending on whether ANC is on. That’s nearly double what most in-ears in this category offer (handy for fitness-first users who’d rather skip mid-run charging anxiety). As for the caveats, the headline heart rate sensor sounds great on paper, but it underdelivers, especially if you're hoping for smartwatch-level accuracy. And while the H2 chip (same as in AirPods Pro 2) helps with automatic pausing and connectivity, you're still locked into Beats’ signature bass-heavy sound with no real way to tweak it through the app. If that’s your jam, you’ll likely love them, but if you prefer dialing in your own sound profile, you may feel boxed in. That said, for gym-goers or runners who want a solid, sweat-resistant set with long battery life and physical media controls, this refurbished deal hits the right balance between value and performance. View the full article