I shared a bit of news with a friend a few days ago. I told her that I’m pregnant. Unplanned, but sometimes babies like to beat the odds.

What amazed me was how fast word got out. A few days later the father of one of my daughter’s friends asked me about it. The girls had been friends in preschool but were now separated. The friend I told was the mother of a kindergarten friend.

Makes me really curious as to the path the rumor took. So far as I know, those two people don’t know each other.

I don’t mind word getting out that way, but I did find it amusing.

If only it were that simple to get word of mouth marketing going for a business. As a rule, it’s not. How many products get people talking the way word of a coming baby does? How many blog posts do that?

Of course, it can be done. That’s the whole idea of viral marketing. You create something that people want to talk about, that they want to share with all their friends.

It’s quite the challenge, although you can take a look at the various social media sites and see things that have taken off well in that area. These are a little different from things that get talked about in the real world but similar principles do apply.

Humor can work. Then again, it can fail miserably. That’s just how it goes. But people like to laugh and if you can make them do that they may tell their friends.

Extremely useful items also get talked about. That’s what gets people going on about their favorite new gadgets or even a cleaning product that works really well.

Engaging people’s enthusiasm matters. People are generally enthusiastic about babies, whether they be their own or someone else’s. Think about what really gets you really enthusiastic.

It’s not easy to get people to talk about your business but you can do it. Look at things from the customer’s view and figure out what there is to rave about to other people.

Some people are fans of article marketing. Others aren’t. This may be due to concerns about their articles being stolen, duplicate content penalties or even just a dislike of article writing.

Could it be? Is article marketing a waste of time?

In my experience, no, it is not. I get traffic and backlinks from articles I’ve written. I get better search engine rankings. It works for me.

Why doesn’t it work for everyone?

The first reason article marketing doesn’t work for everyone is that not everyone goes at it right. They try submitting private label articles or don’t spell and grammar check their work. They submit thinly disguised ads as articles.

In short, they don’t think about what article publishers will want to use or what people will want to read.

What helps make an article stand out?

Article writing doesn’t have to be laborious. If you know your topic well it may take only 10 minutes or so to write a reasonable quality article.

If you want to stand out more, you may need to do some research or be more detailed in what you write about your topic. The articles that really stand out are the ones that provide the best information to readers. This will help you to stand out as well.

Lists are said to work very well. You can do a top 10, 20 or more with some pretty good results. Shorter lists work well if you give details as to why you picked each item for your list.

Humor can also work. Humor is often some of the hardest writing to do, but when it’s working it’s a lot of fun. You may run the risk of offending people and you need to think about what impression a humorous article will give of your business. It may not be the one you mean to make.

Submitting your articles to the right sites helps.

While you can submit your articles to smaller article directories, the bigger ones such as eZine Articles are more important. But that doesn’t mean smaller ones are good for nothing. If they are choosy about the kinds of articles they accept, your work may only be associated with other good articles.

Many article directories accept pretty much every article, and your work is hidden by junk and spam. If you’re submitting by hand, skip this kind of directory.

Niche directories are a good choice as well. This can keep your article with other relevant content. Your odds of being read by people interested in the topic may go up.

And of course submit articles to relevant webmasters who accept article submissions. This can go a long way toward developing a relationship with another webmaster. You don’t want a competitor so much as a complementary site.

It’s making the extra little efforts that will help your work to stand out. People who fail in article marketing most often do so because they aren’t working hard enough on it. Don’t fall into that trap.

I find it quite amusing that my last post was about keeping your home business going while sick. A part of why I haven’t posted lately is… umm… I got sick.

And wasn’t prepared. Shoulda taken my own advice.

Really there’s a bit more to it than just me getting sick along with the kids. Lots of family stuff going on and the complete and utter drain of some seriously hot weather. But I just have to laugh at myself for being caught so off guard professionally immediately after writing about avoiding it.

But these things happen. Call it an example for why you should do as I said and make plans.

Sad part is, I did have some articles I could have posted. Just lacked the energy when I was home most of the time to bother with it. The days just kept on adding up, until I suddenly realized weeks had snuck by.

I do plan to work out a better plan for next time. Probably try something like a spare article a week until I have a good backlog on all blogs. Maybe teach my husband how to post in my place. After all, it’s not just having things ready, it’s the doing that gets you there.

There’s a lot to think about with your home business, but one factor often gets overlooked. What happens if you get sick?

I mean seriously, can’t get to the computer sick. Not just “I have a cold” sick.

This is something that is going to happen to pretty much everyone at some point. And it’s not just you getting sick that can be a problem It could be a family crisis that keeps you away. A natural disaster could knock you down. What do you do?

One of the nice things about running a website is that your earnings are often not tied directly to the work you do. If you freelance or sell things that you need to ship this can be another matter entirely.

You should always have somebody you can rely upon to do at least a basic takeover if you need them to. It could be your spouse or other family member, but if you’re seriously ill they may be distracted by this as well.

One good option is to have a virtual assistant who can help you out. You may not feel the need to have one regularly, but if you have a file ready and a virtual assistant who would be willing to take you on as a client, you have a start.

Work up a list of the vital functions that someone would need to take care of if you weren’t able to. This can include dealing with customers (even if they can’t do your job themselves, someone else can at least explain to customers what the situation is), responding to emails and doing basic updates to your site.

Your file should include all basic logins needed for this.

One thing I keep on one of my sites is a page that has a list of all my sites and resources. I use this on a daily basis rather than having all my login pages bookmarked. This also means that if someone needs to access my sites for me, they will have a fairly easy time finding them. All they’ll need is the login information for that page, and for the pages they’d need to access.

Since we’re including a consideration for natural disasters as a problem, you may want to have your virtual assistant be in a different area so that you probably won’t both be knocked out by the same situation.

If you blog, you’ll want some basic posts ready so that the blog can keep going, or at least allow someone to post that you’ll be back when things get better. You don’t want your readers to think you’ve jumped ship on them. You can also put out the call for guest bloggers.

Similarly you’ll want someone able to handle any forums you may run. A good forum will keep itself running, but will need a moderator to control the spam and any issues that may arise between users.

It’s never too soon to start thinking about “what if” so that you can keep your home business running. A little planning now can save you a lot of stress later.

Despite the people you hear about making a delightful living as bloggers, it’s not an easy way to make money for most people. It’s hard work. Coming up with post ideas can be time consuming. And it can really be frustrating if you aren’t getting feedback or you get a lot of negative feedback.

And yet you cannot let that stop you.

Finding Post Ideas

One of your best resources for blog post ideas can be other blogs in niches related to your own. You don’t want to copy them, of course, but you can be inspired to do your own take on the topic. Just give credit where credit is due and make sure your opinions stand out. Writing a post that says, in essence “I think exactly what this other blogger thinks” isn’t going to make much of an impression on your readers.

Keep up with news stories related to your topic as well. Subscribe to appropriate RSS feeds for your news. Google News can make this pretty easy, for example.

Relate your own experiences to the things you blog about. I posted recently about how freebie marketing worked in getting my daughter interested in karate classes.

And of course, brainstorm. A single concept can explode into dozen of posts if you just start thinking about it. Many people like to use mind mapping while others do more of a free association. However you do it, just get going and write it all down. Don’t do it in your head; you’ll forget too much.

Finding Readers

This is the part I’ve always found most challenging. With so many new blogs started every day it takes a lot of effort to build your readership.

The very first thing you should do is make it easy for your readers to subscribe to your blog feed, so they keep coming back. Have both an email and an RSS version available. Not everyone knows about RSS even if they use it in their My Yahoo or feed reader, so give them the options.

Then get the word out. Comment on other blogs. Good comments, not just “Great post” as every blogger sees all too often. Many sites will just delete such comments, as they add nothing to the conversation. And the conversation is a big part of what makes a blog interesting.

Network too. I’ve had some great interactions with other bloggers on Twitter, for example. It’s amazing how many bloggers are on there. It’s very casual sort of conversation much of the time, and it can be easier to make a quick (140 character) tweet to someone than to meet them other ways. Your tweets still have to give some value to get people interested, but it can really work well.

Coping with Negative Feedback

Negative feedback will happen, no matter how good your posts are. It doesn’t matter what you do, you cannot please everyone. And that’s a key thing to remember.

There are also people who simply delight in saying horrible things to people online just because it can all be anonymous. It can be ridiculous, but there it is. Don’t let yourself be drawn into heated exchanges with people. It’s better to keep your temper and learn to dismiss the people who are only trying to make you angry.

Genuine criticism, on the other hand, can be quite useful. If someone catches you with incorrect information, thank them. Hopefully they will at the same time point you to a better resource for information.

Your Own Doubts

It’s easy to doubt yourself, especially if you start comparing yourself with other bloggers in your niche. They can sound so knowledgeable!

If you aren’t sure, you can even ask questions in your posts. Questions can be a great way to get readers participating, and no one will think poorly of you for asking. Most of us feel uncertain pretty regularly. We know we don’t know everything and odds are there are others who know a lot more. But you still know a lot more about your topic than other people too, right?

Don’t Give Up

It takes a long time to succeed as a blogger in most cases. The blogger who appears to be an overnight success may have been working at it for years. They may have had several failed blogs. They’ve definitely been working hard to gain the knowledge that is interesting their readers now. Nice as it would be to succeed so quickly, for most it takes a bit longer. Be prepared for that and keep trying.