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December 3, 2016  

The Basics of Blogging

by Cheval John

I want to tell everyone that I will be accepting guest post to be featured here for the first Saturday of every month starting today.

So if you are interested in guest posting, you can send an e-mail to cheval@vallanomedia.com.

Today’s guest post is from Sarah Smith, who is a blogger and is the promoter for Karen Evans of startbloggingonline.com.

Sarah put together this infographic about the basics of blogging

You can follow them on Twitter @startblog101.

Without further ado, here is Sarah

No matter how easy blogging seems to be for many, the journey to coming up with your own can actually be a challenge.  In fact, you will realize the demands and blockades arise when you actually begin doing your blog.  In short, blogging surely has its own birth pains and every blogger learns from his or her mistakes.

As you learn along the way you will realize that it is also important to minimize the mistakes you commit as much as you can.  Hence, it can be helpful to know the most common mistakes that beginning bloggers are prone to commit.  Besides it can be so helpful and time-saving to take advice from those who have gone through the same beginner path as you plan to do.

Some of these mistakes you can avoid ahead of time as you start your blogging journey include trying to be perfect and failing to promote your site.  Others also commit the misstep of wanting to save money by getting a free website without realizing that you would still end up getting a domain and host account in the near future.

It is about time to show the world what you are capable of writing and sharing through a blog.  Besides, if you are not going to start now, then when? Decide to be consistent with your own comfortable blog work schedule and begin today.

Check out this practically made infographic that will help you get started as a blogger without getting to commit the most common mistakes you are most likely to encounter along the way:

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November 26, 2016  

The Basics of Using Twitter

By Cheval John

The world of social media has changed over the last few years.

What remained are the dominant players: Facebook and Twitter.

LinkedIn is still an important platform for many entrepreneurs, business professionals and college graduates who are looking to get hired at a new company.

However, LinkedIn is now part of Microsoft due to the purchase earlier this year according to the Wall Street Journal

With rumors earlier this year of executives trying to sell Twitter, one could wonder if the social media platform is still viable for people trying to build a business or a personal brand?

Heck Yes

Though Twitter have about 320 million active users according to Adweek, you can still interact with people you admire in “real time”

The problem is many businesses see these social media platforms as a place to promote themselves for free and not interact with their customers.

On the flip side, small businesses understand the importance of social media and are being profitable in the process

I created a video below that explains the basics of using Twitter as my free gift to you for #smallbusinesssaturday.

The advice I share can apply to Facebook, Pinterest and LinkedIn because all of these platforms should be used to build trust with your audience.

Below this video are the twitter chats (conversations around a hashtag like #bizheroes of Paper.Li) I mentioned in the video:

Madalyn Sklar’s #twittersmarter Thursdays at 1 p.m. eastern, noon central: www.madalynsklar.com

Hootsuite’s #hootchat Thursdays at 3 p.m. eastern, 2 p.m. central : www.hootsuite.com

Chelsea Krost’s #millennialtalk Tuesdays at 8 p.m. eastern, 7 p.m. central: www.chelseakrost.com

Bonus: Applebee’s #livelunch Fridays 1 p.m. eastern, noon central: www.applebees.com

What are your favorite Twitter chats and how are you celebrating #smallbusinesssaturday?

November 20, 2016  

Creating A Winning Culture In Your Company

By Cheval John

November 19th, 2016

The #HTownTakeOver reignited after the University of Houston (UH) football team defeated then No.5 Louisville 36-10 in front of a record 42,822 fans at TDECU Stadium on Thursday night.

The football matchup was broadcast in front of a national television audience on ESPN and a national radio audience on ESPN Radio.

This Tweet by KPRC 2 sports reporter, Lainie Fritz, who captured the storming of the field after UH’s victory.

And ESPN had one of the best live streaming thursday night viewership this season due to this matchup

The campus has been a scene of a winning culture since Houston’s coach Tom Herman took over the team in December of 2014.

Since Herman’s arrival, UH has a record of 22-3 with an American Athletic Conference championship and a Peach Bowl win over Florida State University.

What is more impressive is that UH’s success has taken over the city of Houston

In a city that has plenty of professional sports teams, UH has found a way to get their football team into the spotlight.

UH has had success under previous football coaches like Kevin Sumlin and their softball team have been extremely successful since they began in 2001.

However, the recent success of UH’s football team seems to be in another level.

One could argue that UH’s recent rise to prominence started when they achieved the Tier One Status in 2011 by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education under the leadership of Chancellor Renu Khator.

With the Tier One status, UH were able to bring in world class professors and recruit future college students who were elite in their respective high schools from around the world.

From there, they were able to secure the funds to build the 40,000 seat TDECU stadium over the same grounds of the demolished Robertson Stadium in time for the 2014 football season.

That first year in the new stadium, Houston finished with an 8-5 record.

However, the season was considered disastrous due to the inaugural home opening loss to UTSA resulting in the firing of Tony Levine.

UH administration understood that if they wanted to take their football program to the next level in their new stadium, they had to bring in leadership who would bring in a culture of winning.

That was why they hired coach Herman to lead their football program because he played a role in helping Ohio State win a national championship under the new College Football Playoff format as an offensive coordinator for coach Urban Meyer.

Coach Herman instilled a winning culture at UH and the entire university community was onboard with the #htowntakeover movement.

The average home attendance at TDECU stadium have increase from 33,980 in 2015 to 38,953 this year.

UH administrators are trying to keep their coach from leaving the football team as major collegiate football teams are trying to hire him away from their school.

University of Texas seems to be the front runner to poach coach Herman away according to this ESPN report that the Longhorn’s most powerful boosters are trying to get Charlie Strong fired

Though UH have already increased coach Herman’s salary to $3 million a year, it seems like the money will not be enough.

The UH fans can hope that coach Herman will stay due to the stability of the UH administration who only want the best for their faculty and staff.

The above story showcases that as a business owner, you must:

1. Create a winning culture in your company

2. Allow your employees to shine in their respective roles

3. Avoid a power struggle (like the University of Texas boosters) that could tear your company apart

When you create a culture that allows your employees to shine in their roles, you will end up winning in the long term because they will go out of their way to promote you.

In the same manner as UH, customers will see your company as a place where people can grow their skills and positive recognition from outside sources will find you.

Have you created a winning culture like UH? You can leave your comments below.

November 1, 2016  

I Decided To Participate In #NaNoWriMo2016

By Cheval John

For the entire month of November, I will be blogging everyday as part of Nina Amir’s National NonFiction Writing Month also known as #nanowrimo2016.

#NaNoWriMo2016 is an annual challenge for aspiring authors to blog a book in 30 days during the month of November.

About two years ago, I participated in the #nanowrimo challenge and blog my second book, “8 Lessons Every Podcaster Needs To Learn,*” which became an Amazon Best-Seller.

I decided that since the Super Bowl 51 will be occurring here in Houston next year, I wanted to write a book that will be beneficial for an estimated 1 million people who will be visited the fourth largest city in the USA.

Since many will be going out to eat during the Super Bowl, I decided to blog about the top food and coffee restaurants that are locally based in Houston that most people don’t know about.

I know that once people check out these local restaurants, they will truly fall in love with the hidden food and hospitality scene that Houston has to offer.

So to keep up with this challenge, you can subscribe to this website to see the preview about the restaurants of houston and even help me decide the name of this book.

Happy blogging.

*That is my second book connected to Amazon

August 20, 2016  

Choose Your Social Media Platforms Wisely

By Cheval John

It seems like every few months we see the next big social media platform that would benefit us.

It’s a mad rush to jump onto that social media platform because of the fear of missing out.

In the last year and a half, live streaming platforms like Periscope, Snapchat, Blab have changed the game of how many businesses market themselves.

Then Facebook’s subsidiary, Instagram “created” Instagram Stories” about three weeks ago to rival Snapchat.

And recently, Google announced that they are shutting down Google + Hangouts On Air and moving their users to YouTube Live starting on September 12th.

It is understandable of why so many people are jumping onto live streaming platforms.

The advertising dollars are now in live streaming according to this New York Times article.

You might hear from many telling you that you need to be on this live streaming platform or that live streaming platform because many of your fellow entrepreneurs or professionals are there.

So a person can wonder which live streaming/social media platform should they or their business be on.

The answer is “it depends on where your audience is and which live streaming/social media platform you feel comfortable using.”

For example, the Sam Houston State University athletic department are only on Youtube, Instagram (Facebook) and Twitter because their audience want to see highlights from the sporting matchups that their teams participate in.

Ashley Johnson, owner of Mouth Marketing, LLC, told me on my show, What’s The Word, that she is not using Instagram Stories because they integrated Snapchat like features in their platform.


Ashley also said that she does not use Snapchat and was getting used to Instagram.

And for myself, I only use Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube and LinkedIn because I feel comfortable using these platforms above.

Plus, I am trying out the live streaming platforms like Firetalk and Huzza.io to see which one works well for my podcast recordings (I was using Blab before they shut down their live streaming platform last weekend).

You do not want to jump onto the next big live streaming platform because other tells you to.

What you should do is focus on the social media/live streaming platform that works well for your business and your personal brand.

If you try to be great at all of the social media platforms, you will wind up burning yourself out and create a bad digital trail of your social media presence.

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