Mike Consol is president of MikeConsol.com, which provides business writing seminars, Web 2.0 strategies and media training to midsize and large companies. Consol spent 17 years with American City Business Journals, the nation’s largest publisher of metropolitan business journals with 40 weekly newspapers across the United States.

One of the most misused forms of sales and marketing is the testimonial. This is a shame because it’s also one of the most powerful things you can do to promote your business to prospects. It’s not...

There’s a big contradiction to the writing process, and it is this: While we seek to optimize our creativity when writing, the inert nature of the task works against the brain’s ability to perform at ...

Would you like to design an outstanding new one? One of the best things you can do is find an outstanding model to emulate. Let’s take a look at one of the finest websites on the internet and do a po...

Give a business person the task of making a presentation of any kind and they almost invariably turn to PowerPoint or a similar presentation software program. Why? Two reasons – one good and one ba...

Most CEOs won’t even consider spending time blogging. Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers used to be one of them. But that has changed. Chambers is now a blogger, and we’ll examine three blog-related de...

There are many stagnant and sluggish blogs out there. Many bloggers run out of story ideas to keep their blogs vibrant or even alive. The key to finding many good topics to write about is connecting...

For all the fancy new technology mediums we’ve developed over the past century, writing remains the core skill that feeds all other forms of communication. No fast-talking moviemaker, radio personal...

Regardless of the power of online networking, good networking techniques at live events remind us again and again that there’s no substitute for getting face-to-face with business people – provided ...

The careers of most executives advance or stall based on how well they communicate. Public speaking performances are the riskiest of all, but they also give you a chance to make a very big impact. B...

If you’re spending so much time networking online that you’re offline networking skills have rusted, you’ve done yourself a big disservice. Then again, many people never did acquire good interperson...

If you’re still not sure what a podcast is don’t feel bad. You are one of millions of intelligent, informed people who are missing this piece of the New Media puzzle. Having excused you, now permit ...

Ayn Rand – the legendary philosopher and author of the classic tomes “The Fountainhead” and “Atlas Shrugged” – produced huge amounts of cherished writing because she understood the techniques invol...

The next five years will bring more changes to the advertising business than the previous 50 years. That’s the conclusion of an IBM study of consumers and advertising experts. Read about the four ma...

Newspaper legend Joseph Pulitzer – the father of writing’s famed Pulitzer Prize – summed up the essence of good and powerful writing in one 34-word quote. This article reviews the famous quote and ...