Why You Should Post In OUR Site

When you join The Network Of Consulting Professionals, YOU want to

• Show you care personally about your clients and colleagues
• Support, Strengthen & help your clients & network to Succeed
• Show our audiences how uniquely valuable The NCP is
• Build YOUR profile within and outside The NCP
• "Invite & Incite" prospects, clients & colleagues to keep visiting

Read the guide below, it is written to make it EASY for you to post on this site and to reap the benefits.

Choose A Topic Important To Your Market & Your Business

Remember your post is not a hard-sell ad, neither for you nor for The NCP. YOUR POST MUST ADD VALUE to its audience: business owners (be they clients, prospects or NCP members/future members

The easiest way to avoid the writer's block and provide great content is to follow this basic recipe:

• Think of what is relevant to your target market and The NCP community
• Select a topic that You know well and love
• Start from your market focus & understanding
• Showcase positive outcomes connected to your own expertise (not necessarily delivered by your/your "dream-team" yet)
• Consider building unique content on material you have previously written/published

Decide Which Post Category It Best fits

You have 5 options:

• Testimonials - telling a good story, from a client or from you
• Blog - Events & your comments on market news
• Support - especially solopreneurs, start-ups....
• Strengthen - a struggling or a healthy organisation of any size and age
• Succeed - as a business or as a business person

Write A Great Draft

The 7 pillars of your post:

• Original content only- Add value, showcase Your approach, extend beyond any earlier post. If it is not original, Google will penalise us and you. You can quote an earlier post, yours or someone else's, quotes are good when clearly a quote and kept short.
• Style - engaging, conversational, simple sentences, clear, actionable; short paragraphs
• Length - minimum 300 words, ideal 500-600 words, maximum 900 words (if more, split it)
• Content structure - plan the story, Use at least 2 sub-headers that build up the story
• Quote - at least 1 short quote that grabs attention
• 1 Key word - For Search Engine Optimisation; Include it in your post title, at least 1 sub-header
• Information about you - Needed if it is your first contribution to the site, or if you are changing your business focus, or you want to zoom in on a specific aspect of your practice

Does it still feel "too hard" to do? Here are 3 options to make it easier:

• Team Post - share the load with other members working on a common project (perfect for a case study)
• Interview a client on a topic beneficial to other business owners or to set up a client testimonial/case study...
• Interview - The NCP Editor can interview you on the topic of your choice (we structure it together)

Provide Great Images OR videos (If Applicable)

• Testimonials - Your own portrait:
• A high resolution image that can be manipulated to fit into the NCP hexagon.
• If you don't have an image with a coloured background, I will aim to add one (results vary depending on the original image).
• Make sure it is recent and reflects the professional image you want to have.
• If possible choose one that is different from portraits you use on your own website and in social media.
• Eye contact is important, face the camera. No profiles!
• Testimonials - Your client:
• The NCP hexagon will be used, preferably with the portrait of the person giving the testimonial.
• If they don't provide a suitable photo, we will look at using their logo (or graphic device part of it) or an image representing their core business activity. Let's review then.
• Images illustrating the text of your blog post:
• We have only featured the contributor's portrait (in the NCP hexagon). An additional image is not mandatory but can be very useful for some topics.
• The images used in the site are deliberately not standard business images. They are conceptual royalty free stock photos bought and edited by The NCP Editor or owned by a member who allows The NCP to use/edit the shot. We can help you find one.
• You can also use a diagram, a simple infographic that you own.
• Format = jpg or png or psd files.
  Landscape is ideal; square or portrait are ok if needed.
• Ideal size: 800px x 418px, e.g a ratio of 1:1.91. If you need help with cropping/editing the image we can help.
• We will make your image light-weight by "saving for the web" in photoshop<./li>
• Other Audiovisual Additions:
  We can also embed YouTube videos (give us the link), or other short videos or audio recordings (give us the files).

Get It Published

• Advise The NCP Editor early via the contact form
• Agree details and the post schedule with The Editor
• Send your draft 5 days before the publication date
• If appropriate, we may suggest or ask you for an addition/change
• Send any applicable addition/revision as discussed with the Editor 2 days prior to publication
• We publish as scheduled

Promote Your Post on Social Media

Promoting your posts on this site benefits you and The NCP

• It is additional exposure on top of your current posts on your own website and your typical social media posts
• Use the social media you normally use (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook)
• Further Build the internet presence of your own website with publishing in it a complementary blog post about the same topic and linking the 2 posts. If you set you social media feeds well, you'll multiply your chances to be seen on LinkedIn etc
• Tell your clients, email your business contacts with a link to your post on The NCP website

Post Regularly

It is not a big effort; the more post contributors, the less pressure on any member to churn out lots of posts

• Plan your contributions: Select your topics, schedule posts around your workload and any event you may want to promote.
• IMPORTANT NOTES:
• An "event" can be a market event, your public speaking event, seminar or course, a new product/service (by you or by a team of NCP members), an exciting project... For example "We can't Wait" involves a number of members of The NCP and is certainly a good base to write a series of interesting posts on project logistics, influencing, persuasion, managing a not-for-profit, funding, marketing etc etc etc. This is only 1 example, many members are involved in pro bono, volunteer work for worthwhile causes. Most of these activities can be viewed through a business-value-adding lense.
• However good our website becomes, it is not focused on your unique approach. So your posts in The NCP website will be very helpful to you BUT do NOT see them as a substitute for having your own website and writing posts in it. If you have not got a dynamic website, it is time to take the plunge! Then you can use your posts in The NCP website to boost traffic to your site.
• "Think NCP success & Win-Win". It is a mindset. Once you have acquired it, you have no trouble finding topics dear to your heart and writing passionately about it. The hard bit will be to keep you posts under 1000 words! When your passion about your topic is evident and when we "SEO it", it becomes an easy Win-Win