Let’s be honest. There’s a reason you create content: To get your message out there so you’re visible and relevant. Of course that’s why. After all, you need people to notice you if your business is going to be a success.

But no one will to pay attention to your content if that’s the approach you take with it. It’s time to grab a new agenda and make your content about your audience. Not you and your products and services.

No matter who you’re marketing to, online business owners have very little time. So if you want them to consume your content, you need to make it worth their while.

Every year is the year I’m going to declutter and minimize the “stuff” I have hanging around in my house. And every year…it doesn’t happen.

As a business owner, I’m in the same boat. I want to reduce the number of services I offer so I can simply focus on what I love (but I love it all). I want to stop being so busy and start getting more done (but there’s so much to do). Sigh.

I’ve read all the books and pretended to do all the homework, but yet nothing changes. So when I heard about the book Essentialism, I knew I needed to check it out. And you know what? I just think I might have gotten some key takeaways that can help me get to a more essentialist mindset.

After hearing again and again that every business needs a blog, you finally took the plunge and added one to your website. You published some posts, and waited to be flooded with awesome new leads.

But nothing happened.

What went wrong? A blog isn’t “Field of Dreams.” Just because you built it, doesn’t necessarily mean anyone will come.

Welcome back to Off the Shelf, friends! We’re trying something a bit different with Off the Shelf in 2017. Instead of me posting reviews each month, an entrepreneur friend and I will be trading reviews of the same book. This month features a review from my editorial colleague Liz Thompson of House Style Editing. | The Happiness Equation By Neil Pasricha 

You already know the phrase “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Unfortunately, we all still judge books by their covers. Design impacts our buying decisions all the time, but today I want to talk to you specifically about the importance of a good book cover.

But first, let’s think about your book like a food truck. You could buy Joe’s Tacos out of a beat-up, red van without a name on it. Or, you could buy Joe’s Tacos out of a shiny, teal-and-yellow-striped taco truck. Same tacos, but which one are you more interested in? Your book content is the same, but a book cover may attract or repel readers!