Turn your clients on to blogs.

Not everyone “gets” blogging.  If you’d like to introduce your clients to blogs, why not give them a pre-populated list of blogs that are relevant to them and their business area — heck, include some blogs that reflect their personal interests, favorite hobbies, sports teams, etc.  Make sure it includes yours, of course.  Here, from Steve Dembo, is a quick way to do it:

If you go into Bloglines, click on My Feeds and scroll down to the bottom of the left hand frame, you’ll see a link called “Tell a friend”. Clicking on it allows you to enter in a list of email addresses and to pick among blogs you currently subscribe to. It will send out an email with a link to bloglines that will allow someone to register a new account at bloglines prepopulated with your chosen blogs!

Wow, I wish I’d known about this the last few times I got people started on bloglines. MUCH easier than having them jump from place to place to place subscribing to blogs without really understanding what it’s all about yet.

It’s kind of like a personal gift that keeps on giving.  It is like you are introducing your client to dozens of people that could directly help their businesses.  That’s pretty powerful relationship building.

If you use this tip, though, at least promise me you’ll include the [non]billable hour in the list. ;-)

Here is last year’s resolution:

Pick the three computer programs you use the most (or should use the most), and learn how to use them better.  Set aside an hour per week to spend reading the manuals and playing around with the software.  Better yet, get a “Dummies” book and read it through.  You will be amazed at the amount of time you can save just learning the in’s and out’s of most computer programs.  You would also be wise to make the rest of your office (especially staff) do the same thing.