13 Super-Useful Articles to Help You Work Smarter

It’s the end of July, and guess what?

You did something awesome this month.

You ran a business. You kept running a business. And yeah, maybe you got a little stressed or freaked out along the way. But you stuck with it and pushed through, and that is an amazing thing. So take some time today to give yourself a high-five and brag to someone. Because you’re doing something that you should be really, truly, hugely proud of!

Of course, running a business takes a lot of time, energy, trial, and error. Which is why it’s always good to see what advice is out there in internet-land that can help us work smarter and better while making fewer mistakes (and maybe having a little more time for ice cream and relaxing in the evenings).

But before we dive into all the helpful, interesting things the internet has to share with us this month, a quick reminder:

I’m still looking for a few guest posts for the fall! If you’ve got advice to share about running your own business (and want to create a little extra buzz for your own blog or biz), I’d love to feature you! 

13 Links to Help You Work Smarter So You Have More Time for an Actual Life

Thinking of launching a blog for your business? Or creating a business from your blog? Then you’ll want to read what these 37 experts have to say about their biggest blogging mistakes first!

By now, we all know SEO is important. But we still don’t all know how to do it right. Are you making one of these five common SEO mistakes? (I see #1 and #5 all the time!)

The realest advice you’ll hear about being successful this year, including A lot of people aren’t willing to give up anything. People want to change the world, but they don’t want to change the time they wake up. Must-read.

Highly recommended for anyone with an online store: a complete guide to ecommerce marketing. (I am SO glad #5 is in there!)

And, related: how hiring a journalist can help your marketing strategy. (Or, you know, a professional copywriter with journalistic experience! Just sayin’.)

This is written for content providers, but it’s great advice for anyone thinking about partnering with a complementary business.

Finding a good partnership is a lot like dating. You’re not going to run off to Vegas to get married the first night you go out. And if you do, you’re going to end up getting the partnership version of an annulment. Network with other providers, but take things one project at a time until you get a good feel for how you work together. There’s nothing worse than getting into a contractual relationship with someone whose business practices you don’t respect.

They’re not the be-all, end-all of blogging (or even the best measure of success) but they look and feel good: how to write a blog post that gets tons of comments.

Marketing mistakes that we all should learn from. Yup.

Why geography matters for your SEO, especially if you’re a small business!

In many cases you will need to compromise between search volume and ranking. There is little point in being on page 7 of Google for a highly popular search term. You will likely get more website visitors from being on page 1 for a less popular term.

Have lots of goals, but feel like you never achieve them? You might need to adjust your mindset before you can make progress.

Plus a few things around here you might have missed:

how small business owners can successfully pitch a guest post + this small change can help you get more out of your Facebook ads + the often-overlook page that your website is missing

What great advice have you learned this month?