One of the reasons I had my website redesigned recently was to integrated my blog with my primary site for greater search engine optimization. It worked. More people are finding and visiting my site–and more spammers are leaving comments filled with links on my posts.

Fortunately, my web designer was able to tweak the spam controls so most of those comments go straight to the spam category and I don’t have to deal with them. I know I’m risking not seeing a legitimate comment, but that’s a choice I’m making to avoid having to spend time every day sifting through the junk.

Yesterday, Gerhard Gschwandtner, founder and publisher of Selling Power magazine, provided a good laugh about the issue of blog comment spam. Read his blog: “It Is Time To Shame Spammers Publicly!” I doubt that it’s going to solve the problem, but I’m cheering Gerhard for his effort.

On a serious note: If someone promises to increase your search engine rankings by providing you with a vast quantity of backlinks in a short amount of time, they’re more than likely spammers. If you have a legitimate business and a legitimate website, your best approach is a legitimate search engine marketing strategy. When you have something of value to offer, such as a link to another blog post or a site with relative information, you’ll find that most bloggers welcome both text and links in their comments. Yes, this is a time-consuming way to build your site’s rank, but it works and you’ll never be subjected to public shame because of it.

Jacquelyn Lynn is a business writer and ghostwriter who write books, ebooks, articles, blogs, social media copy, white papers and more for a wide range of clients. Let her help you develop and implement an effective blogging strategy.

Using a ghostwriter is a smart move for busy executives, professionals and subject matter experts who need to publish material but don’t have the time and/or writing skills to do it themselves. One caveat: If you decide to hire a ghostwriter, be sure you know and approve what he/she is publishing under your name.

What prompted me to write about this? A former client of mine (why “former” is a story for another time) posted a Valentine’s message on the corporate blog. This is a law firm and the message was under the byline of the senior partner. First, there was a typo in the headline (“you” instead of “your”). And it went downhill from there. Here’s the opening paragraph:

Valentine’s Day is a Day for celebrating Romance and Love.  With this said, people who have not found that “special someone” yet may dread this day.  We say “don’t fret!”  There are other ways to celebrate Valentine’s Day!!!

Beyond the obvious incorrect capitalization and excessive use of exclamation points is the generally poor writing and questionable subject matter. Certainly it’s okay to have fun with your blog and occasionally go off-topic, but you still need to do it in a way that is consistent with your image and message. Here’s more:

Here at [name of firm] we are in a standard “Office Setting,” which means that we are here from 8am to 5pm (or late) unless of course it is a National Holiday.

What does that mean? I don’t think even correct punctuation and capitalization could have made that sentence relevant to the blog.

And one more excerpt:

We encourage all of you to show your love and appreciation to those who are close to you like family members, co-workers, and friends. We are going to continue to show our gratitude and love to the people we serve, today, and all the days to come.

Really? I don’t know about you, but I’m not looking to my lawyer for relationship advice or love.

More issues with this particular post: It was too short and lacked keywords–it’s not going to rank on key search terms this firm’s prospective clients use. I’m not identifying the firm to avoid embarrassing the senior partner and his marketing director, but this blog is a textbook example of what to do wrong when blogging.

Blogs are great tools for content marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), and online reputation management (ORM). But effective blogging takes skill and effort. If you’re going to do it, do it right. Develop a content plan that will keep readers coming back (or subscribed) and a search engine strategy that will generate high rankings. And if you’re not writing your blogs yourself, be sure you know what’s being written on your behalf.

Jacquelyn Lynn is a business writer and ghostwriter who write books, ebooks, articles, blogs, social media copy, white papers and more for a wide range of clients. Let her help you develop and implement an effective blogging strategy.

I can’t count the number of press releases I’ve written over the years in my career as a business writer–and it’s almost as hard to count the number of times I’ve had to explain to my clients why it’s critical for their releases to be well-written, accurate and actually contain news.

Thanks to the internet and search engines, press releases can work harder and do more than ever before. You can design releases to target a range audiences: the media, existing customers, prospective customers, investors, suppliers, and more. And you can send out thousands of them with a few clicks.

But if your press releases are sloppy, inaccurate and clearly self-serving, you’re wasting your time–or worse, you’re damaging your reputation.

Henry Stimpson wrote a great post on how to write a bad press release. It’s short, funny and absolutely spot-on! Read it: 13 Ways to Fail in PR: How to Guarantee Your Press Releases Will Be Completely Ignored. Pay special attention to #13: “Apply a similar philosophy to your website, brochures, advertisements, email, newsletters and presentations…” To this I add: social media.

For 13 ways to succeed, just do the opposite of Stimpson’s list.

My advice for writing press releases that are worth sending:

• Have a clearly defined purpose and audience for every release.
• Write with the audience in mind.
• Use correct spelling, punctuation, capitalization and grammar.
• Avoid jargon and buzzwords.
• Write a headline that is both catchy and clear.
• Use a subhead to further draw in the reader.
• Lead with the facts–no hype, no selling.
• Keep it short.
• Include complete contact information.
• Proof read and fact check. Then do it again.

Jacquelyn Lynn is a business writer and ghostwriter who creates written content in the form of books, ebooks, articles, blogs, press releases, social media copy, white papers and more.

If it’s been more than a year, it’s been too long.

You may know that JK Harris & Co. was my client (I was the ghostwriter for JK Harris’ books Flashpoint, Sales Flashpoint, and IRS Tax Secrets, and handled additional business writing and content marketing projects). When the firm filed bankruptcy, I was one of thousands of unsecured creditors. I doubt that I’ll ever see a penny of what the company owes me. But it could have been worse.

I was paying attention to what was going on with the company, and was aware that fewer and fewer suppliers were being paid. Consequently, I took steps to reduce my risk: I terminated my contract when the amount due reached the maximum I was willing to lose.

Just because a company has paid its bills on time in the past doesn’t mean it will do so in the future. It’s good business practice to do a full credit review of every customer at least annually and always be on the alert for signs that a customer is in trouble.

Some red flags include:

• Slowdown in payments
• Increased returns of merchandise
• Difficulty getting answers to your payment inquires

Even a sharp increase in ordering could signal trouble. Companies concerned that they may lose their credit privileges may try to stock up while they can.

Something else to monitor is a major change in your customers’ product line(s) or customer base. These are issues that could affect their cash flow and ability to pay.

Most customers understand routine credit reviews and accept them as sound business practice. A customer who objects may well have something to hide—and that’s something you need to know.

Jacquelyn Lynn is a business writer and ghostwriter who creates written content in the form of books, ebooks, articles, blogs, social media copy, white papers and more.

1. Provide appropriate promotional materials in advance. Find out if the host organization has a newsletter, when it goes out, and the preferred content submission format. Send a brief description of your presentation, your bio, and a photo well ahead of the deadline. Make it clever and catchy, and be sure the reader sees a benefit in attending. Remember that most organizations post their speaker info online these days, so include your targeted keywords in the copy. And remember your complete contact information.

2. Find out how much time you have and stick to the organization’s schedule. You can always offer to stay after the meeting closes to answer questions one-on-one.

3. Let the host know ahead of time what sort of equipment (projector, screen, white board, other resources) you need. Don’t walk in the door five minutes before the meeting starts and expect to have those items available—as a speaker did to me a few months ago.

4. Write your own introduction and hand it to your host. You can also send it ahead of time, but bring a copy with you. It should briefly establish you as the expert you are and appropriately set the stage for your talk. If you let the host come up with your introduction, there’s no telling what will be said—or left out. Most hosts will read exactly what you give them. And if your name is tricky to pronounce, include a phonetic spelling.

5. If you have a book or other products you want to sell, ask about the host organization’s policy in advance. Some are liberal; others very strict about how sales are conducted. Non-profits may appreciate a cut of your sales. Never assume.

6. Get the numbers and demographics of the audience. Before you book the event, ask about the group’s demographics so you don’t waste your time or theirs with an inappropriate presentation. Also find out how many people will be there so you’ll be sure to have sufficient hand-outs and/or products. It’s also worth asking if the organization will make the attendance list available to you for follow-up. Most won’t, but they may allow you to collect business cards or use some other strategy such as a raffle to capture contact information.

7. Make your hand-outs memorable and usable. A thick pack of information will likely get left behind or tossed as soon as folks get home or back to their offices. Coach Jenn Lee attaches her business card to a rubber duck and makes the duck part of her presentation. I’ve got that duck sitting on my desk.

8. Don’t read, engage. Don’t just stand at the front of the room and read a speech from paper—or even worse, throw up a PowerPoint presentation and just read what’s on the slides. Use notes to keep yourself on track, but have a conversation with the audience. If time allows and the venue is appropriate, take questions. Hang around after for individual chats.

9. Keep your promises. If you offer to send follow-up materials, do it promptly. If you agree to meet with someone, make it happen.

Need help writing your books, ebooks, hand-out materials? Hire a great ghostwriter. Call me!

Jacquelyn Lynn is a business writer and ghostwriter who creates written content in the form of speaker introductions, hand-outs, books, ebooks, articles, blogs, social media copy, white papers and more.

But when insurance is provided by the employer, privacy becomes a major issue. Individuals may have lifestyle and other health-related issues they’d rather people at work didn’t know about.

Orlando Sentinel columnist Beth Kassab says she is getting “used to” companies asking for more information about their employees—information that was in years past considered private.

Instead of going down this slippery slope, why not disconnect health insurance from employment? Why should employers be responsible for funding our healthcare? Better to let companies focus on their core business and encourage individuals to take responsibility for their own health and wellness.

What are your thoughts?

Jacquelyn Lynn is a business writer and ghostwriter who creates written content in the form of books, ebooks, articles, blogs, social media copy, white papers and more.

It’s easier than ever to get clients over the internet—and easier than ever to become a victim of an online fraud. One common online con is the overpayment scam.

It works like this: A prospective client—who seems normal in every other way, even down to a little price haggling—makes an offer that you’re willing to accept. He asks if you’ll accept a money order or cashier’s check as payment. You agree and then he gives you some pretext for sending the money order in an amount larger than the fee you’ve quoted. He asks you to cash it, keep your fee, and send the difference to him via wire transfer.

If you agree, the money order will likely arrive by an overnight courier service and is followed up by an e-mail reminding you to get to the bank, cash it, and send the excess funds as agreed and perhaps even nudging you to get the work done. You do what you promised—and you never hear from the client again. But then you get a notice from your bank that the money order or cashier’s check has been returned unpaid and marked counterfeit, and your account has been charged the amount of the item plus a service fee.

The numbers might look like this: You agree on a fee of $5,000. He sends you a money order for $7,000 and asks you to send him $2,000 (less the necessary fees) by wire transfer. When the money order comes back as bogus, you’re out the wire transfer fee of about $100, the bank service fee of $20 or $30, and the $1,900 you sent him. And if you did the work, you’re out the value of that, too.

If you receive a bank check, cashier’s check, money order or similar form of certified funds, don’t spend the money or ship the merchandise until you are absolutely certain the document is real. One quick and easy way is to call the issuing bank—but don’t call a number printed on the check, look up the number yourself. Remember, just because your bank accepts the deposit doesn’t mean you’re in the clear. Even if the bank doesn’t realize until weeks later that a check is bogus, your account can still be charged back.

Update 1/25/2012: The KEL Law Firm is now under investigation by the Florida Bar for internal practices that may have made it vulnerable to a scam of this nature.

Jacquelyn Lynn is a business writer and ghostwriter who creates written content in the form of books, ebooks, articles, blogs, social media copy, white papers and more. Fortunately, she’s never received a counterfeit check.

Paul VanDevelder says when his family doctor told him his PSA levels spiked, he panicked. If that’s true, I wonder why that doctor didn’t explain there was no reason to panic. In any case, VanDevelder decided to get educated about prostate cancer (which he does not have) and shared that information in his essay. Good that he decided to educate himself, but too bad he missed some critical elements of the diagnosis process: a biopsy.

Reading VanDevelder’s essay makes one think that men with elevated PSA levels go directly from blood test to surgery (radical prostatectomy). That’s not the way it happens. The next step is to consider what may have caused the PSA results and, if appropriate, perform a biopsy to determine if cancer is present. Only after a definite cancer diagnosis does the patient need to make a decision on treatment options, which can range from doing nothing (appropriate for older men with slow-growing cancers) to radiation therapy to surgery (appropriate for aggressive cancers). VanDevelder also fails to make note of the tremendous advances in surgical techniques that have significantly reduced the post-prostatectomy risk of impotence and incontinence.

There are plenty of reasons a man’s PSA could rise. Competent urologists explore all of those reasons (which include prostatitis, urinary tract infections, vigorous exercise, ibuprofen, having sex) as well as the patient’s medical history and other risk factors before making a recommendation on how to respond to the test results. A healthy, athletic, sexually-active man with no family history of prostate cancer should be very comfortable taking a wait-and-see approach to an elevated PSA. In contrast, a man who is not physically or sexually active and who has a family history of prostate cancer is a strong candidate for a biopsy when his PSA goes up.

VanDevelder notes that 7 out of 8 men with elevated PSAs are cancer-free. Because he also criticizes mammogram screening for breast cancer, let’s add that 8 out of 10 breast tumors are benign. These stats are good news for the majority and can be comforting while waiting for biopsy results. But 1 out of 8 and 2 out of 10 are still significant numbers—especially if you’re the one who happens to fall into one of those groups.

An estimated 1 out of 6 men will get prostate cancer in their lifetime. They will make their treatment choices based on a wide variety of issues, including their age, overall health, the type of cancer (aggressive or not) and whether it cancer has spread, and recommendations of medical professionals.

A huge benefit of screening techniques is that they give us baselines (benchmarks in business terms) we can use to measure changes and identify health issues that need further examination. PSA tests, done at the appropriate time, for the appropriate reasons, and in conjunction with other screening techniques, should be part of the overall healthcare strategy of informed men.

Jacquelyn Lynn is a business writer and ghostwriter who creates written content in the form of books, ebooks, articles, blogs, social media copy, white papers and more.

Of course, that knowledge will only get you in the door. There may be a honeymoon for a while, but at some point, you’re going to be expected to perform as well or better than anybody else out there. So keep these critical points in mind:

• Your relationship with the company has changed. You’re not an insider anymore.
• As a supplier, you may be dealing with different people, perhaps higher up on the corporate ladder, than you did before. You may have some perceptions that will need to change for you to be effective.
• Some of your former co-workers may see you as a threat to their own job security. Also, their bosses may not be entirely comfortable if you have overt personal relationships with company employees, so you may need to stop or cut back on socializing with former co-workers.
• No matter how solid your relationship has been, don’t expect to be able to neglect the account and continue to retain it.

Do you have a former employer on your client roster? How did the sales process compare?

When an employee is unexpectedly absent, you have to pay direct costs (the salary or wages paid to absent employees) and indirect costs (overtime pay for other employees, hiring temporary workers, and supervisory time spent rearranging work schedules).

The problem is that traditional sick-leave plans do not address the issues that drive employee absenteeism. The solution is to figure out why your employees are taking unscheduled absences, then develop time-off programs that truly fit the needs of both your workers and your company.

An effective absence-control program is a paid time off (PTO) system, which provides employees with a “bank” of hours to be used for various purposes instead of traditional separate accounts for sick, vacation, and personal time.

If you decide to implement a PTO system, it’s critical that employees understand you are not taking away their sick time or vacation time, but that you are giving them the same amount of paid time off but adding increased flexibility and privacy to the program.

Other programs that have proven effective in small businesses include job sharing, flexible scheduling, allowing leave for children’s school functions, emergency child care, and a compressed work week.

How are you handling employee absenteeism in your organization? Share your thoughts on what works or doesn’t work.

Need help effectively communicating a change in program to your workforce? Contact me.