Writing On The Web

Blogging Services: Content Marketing for Coaches

Written on September 2, 2010 by Patsi Krakoff in About Blogs, Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, Online Marketing

Here’s my latest video about my executive coach blogging services produced by iFlashVideo.com. I think they do a good job, but unfortunately, because they are a monthly service with a one minute limit, the voice is a little rushed.

Instead, they could have edited out a few words to make it a little calmer, in my opinion. But since they are a standardized service, they don’t do any editing or make suggestions. They just deliver what you give them, even though as clients, we aren’t always knowledgeable about what the results will be like. What do you think?

I have several executive coach clients for whom I ghost write and manage their blog updates, including updates to social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn groups.

I absolutely love doing this, since I’m writing about leadership development, organizational change, and human behaviors. It keeps me on my toes with reading Harvard Business Review and the best business books around.

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Tags: Attracting Clients, blog content, blog writing, content for coaches and consultants, content marketing with blogs, Dr. Patsi Krakoff, executive coach blogs, ghost blogging

Content Marketing with Emotions: Write with Feeling

Written on September 1, 2010 by Patsi Krakoff in Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Online Marketing, Online Persuasion

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Are you writing with feeling? Does your blog trigger emotional reactions? Next time you review your writing, try to identify possible feelings in the reader.

Content marketing that doesn’t resonate emotionally can’t do a good job of building relationships, inspiring trust, and moving people into taking action.

Blog writers need to step away from their anonymous masks and get real, get emotional. It doesn’t mean you get all new-agey, touchy-feely. It means unless you get real with readers, readers won’t respond to you. You can still be professional and reveal your true feelings.

Emotions are either positive or negative. There are relatively few pure emotions:

Anger
Sadness
Fear
Enjoyment

These elemental feelings are universal. Specific facial expressions for fear, anger, sadness and enjoyments are recognized by people across diverse cultures.

Emotions can be complicated because they get combined, like primary colors. Jealousy may be a mix of anger and sadness. Guilt may be a combination of enjoyment and fear. Fascination may be an excited version of curious.

Authors Dan and Chip Heath, in Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard, mention

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Tags: Attracting Clients, blog content, blog writing, business blogging, content marketing with blogs, persuasion, persuasion triggers

Brain-Based Blogging: The 4 F’s of Action

Written on August 30, 2010 by Patsi Krakoff in Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Online Marketing, Online Persuasion, Writing Great Blog Content

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How is blogging and online content marketing like psychotherapy?

One of the things I like about blog writing and publishing content on the Web is the connection to people. While “real life” connections put you face-to-face with people you know, publishing content on the web connects you distantly with people you don’t know.

You get a chance to poke the brains of strangers within a certain niche. The only thing that makes your readers similar may be their interest in the niche you are writing about, because you solve problems they have, because you share interests and passions with them.

And yet, in our mammalian brains, we all react to similar things, even when we’re brought up in different cultures across the globe. There are similar persuasion triggers, similar drives, similar emotional hot buttons.

Although I no longer work as a psychotherapist, I apply psychology and knowledge about the brain and human responses to everything I do and write. Let me share some thoughts I had this week about how people respond when they read online.

In the brain, emotions are closely linked to action. In our mammalian past, they were the single most important function of our brains. Our survival depended on quick action. If we had to think first, we’d be some tiger’s lunch before we decided where to jump.

Feelings do not require reflection or thought. We feel, we act. We think later and justify our actions based on input from our more highly advanced reasoning brain.

Strong feelings are hot-wired into the brain’s action centers, provoking any one of the “F” actions:

Feeding
Fleeing
Fighting
Fornicating

Emotions are simple and clear so that action is easy and fast. We wouldn’t be here talking about content marketing if our ancestors hadn’t become good at all four “F” actions, especially the last one.

How does this translate to Web usage?

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Content Marketing Tips from Computer Games

Written on August 26, 2010 by Patsi Krakoff in Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Online Marketing, Online Persuasion, Writing Great Copy

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What can we learn from online computer games about content marketing for business? A lot, apparently. If you write content designed to trigger action in readers, pay attention to this.

My husband, Attila the Honey, plays World of Warcraft, an online game that’s part of the multi-billion dollar gaming industry. If you think computer games are just for kids or young people with too much time, think again. Money spent on games has now surpassed movies and books.

(He swears that his online gaming is market research for his company Razerzone.com, but I don’t buy it.) I do believe it’s true that online games are good for your brain as we age. He’s speaking this weekend at the local Lake Chapala Society about this.

I just watched Seth Priebatsch, a Princeton dropout (something he’s proud of), who’s chief ninja at SCVNGR (“scavenger”), on the online speakers site TED.com. If he’s speaking at a TED conference in Boston, he’s got to have something important to say, right? You can watch it here. (A big thanks to Susan Weinschenck for this link.)

Here are three dynamics we can learn from online games that can be applied to content marketing:

Appointment dynamics: this persuasion trigger is probably what Cialdini would call the scarcity or urgency factor. There’s no greater example than Happy Hour in bars: show up at a certain time, you get rewarded. It’s also at play in the game Farmville, a popular game that already has 70 million players. How can you use this to persuade readers to take action? Think about your business and how you could include an appointment dynamic to urge responses. (Like all things, there’s a cool way to do this, and a way NOT to do it!)
Influence and Status dynamics: When games confer a red badge or gold or virtual money to players, their ego and pride causes them to continue playing. What ways can you inspire loyalty and engagement with your readers/ clients /prospects? What’s in it for them? How can you use the status trigger to persuade people to use your services or products?

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Tags: blog marketing, blog writing, computer games, content marketing tips, content marketing with blogs, persuasion triggers, web marketing

Mental Skills Make Better Content Writers

Written on August 25, 2010 by Patsi Krakoff in About Blogs, Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Online Persuasion, Writing Great Copy, Writing for the Web

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Content marketing, even with a strategy and a plan, has a lot of decision points along the way. It’s easier with a map and a system, but there’s still a million choices that need to be made.

How do you decide what to write about? You’re a busy professional, you have a lot to say, you read a lot, you think a lot. You probably work with a lot of clients and they have problems that you try to help them solve. All that is good stuff to write about and publish on the Web so you’ll get found, get known, get clients.

Wait a minute, let me be clear about what I’m really asking you. The question is how do you decide, how do you make a decision? Do you experience options in your mind, preview consequences, and decide?

Do you observe your mental processes as they unfold? Some people do, and others don’t, they just operate impulsively and intuitively.

There’s no right or wrong answer here. But I think the ability to stand back and watch your mental processes unfold is interesting and informative.

For one thing, if you know a few things about how you make a decision, you can also imagine what goes on in the minds of some of your clients and readers. Not everybody’s exactly like you, but some of them are. This gives you insight into possibilities.

This is important when you’re writing on the Web, when your composing blog posts. And you already know how important it is to get in the shoes of readers when you’re composing a sales or landing page.

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Tags: Attracting Clients, blog content, blog writing, Content Marketing, content marketing with blogs, decision-making, Online Marketing, persuasion, Writing for the Web

Blogger’s Block Strikes Blog Squad…Blogger Bites Back

Written on August 24, 2010 by Patsi Krakoff in About Blogs, Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Writing Great Blog Content

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Grrrrr…

I’m going nuts. This hasn’t happened in a long time. I’ve been sitting at the computer for the last 2-3 hours wondering what to write about. I’m the gal who says blogging is easy, 1-2-3, done in 20 minutes.

I admit lately it’s been taking me more than hour to post. Some days longer. And I call myself The Blog Squad…I’ve even got a great little package you can have called Time Saving Tips for Smart Bloggers, audio, transcript, PDF handouts. You can solve your blogging blues with all the tips in this program.

Have I changed my mind about how nifty blogging is? No. Am I stuck? Yep.

Solution? Start writing about where I’m at, and then tie it in with something useful and relevant to readers.

Source of problem? I’ve been blogging so much lately for my clients that I’m dried up and stale for my own blog.

So what? I’ll bet some of you have the same problem or similar. You give your all to your clients, then when it comes time to do your own content marketing you’re as dry as toast without butter.

It’s no wonder the cobbler’s children have no shoes.

What to do? Just do it, just start writing and see what comes out. You may surprise yourself. One of my clients tells me he doesn’t write that much anymore. He finds it easier to hook up the Web cam and post a video clip. Hmmm…wait a sec.

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Tags: blog content, blog writing, blogging, business blogging, Content Marketing, content marketing tips, content marketing with blogs, diagrams, how to start blogging, images, Patsi Krakoff, writers block, writing on the web

Ghost Blogging for Executive Coaches

Written on August 23, 2010 by Patsi Krakoff in About Blogs, Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, Executive Coach Ezine Article Topics, Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks, Online Marketing, Writing for the Web

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If you’re a busy professional, you know how hard it is to run your business and provide quality services to clients, and have enough time to take care of your online marketing and publishing tasks.

You may be a thought leader in your field, but if you’re not publishing content on the Web, you’re not going to get found, get known, and get clients.

You need to be blogging 2-3 times a week, submitting articles to directories, participating on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook… impossible for one person to manage and still have a life.

Somethings like social media updating and article submissions can be handled by a V.A. But others, like blog writing, needs to be very good so that it sounds like something you’d say, professional and informed.

There are a lot of outsourcing solutions but very few good ones. When it comes to quality content for executive coaches, I don’t recommend you hire anyone who doesn’t have experience in your field, a thorough understanding of your clients and target market and good Web knowledge and experience.

Good help is hard to find, as they say. If you’re an executive coach, let me know if I can help you. If you’re in another field I probably can’t write for you, but I can revise what you’ve written, edit it, make it suitable for Web publications.

Click here for more information.

Tags: Attracting Clients, blog content, blog writing, blogging, Content Marketing, content marketing with blogs, online content, Writing for the Web

Working at Home: Desperate House Bloggers

Written on August 20, 2010 by Patsi Krakoff in About Blogs, Content Marketing, Fun and Irrelevant Things About Patsi, Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks, On Writing Better, Patsi's Story

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Some days I feel scattered, like maybe I’ve got a bad case of Attention Deficit Disorder. Or, maybe my brain isn’t aging well. Here’s what happened yesterday and how it all worked out.

It’s not that I forget things, although that happens too, but it’s more like I remember too much, all at once, and start doing one thing, realize I haven’t finished the other thing, etc.

If you work at home, and on the computer, you probably have days like these. The door bell kept ringing. Thursdays I have help here in the house to keep it clean and functioning.

Gaby, my housekeeper from Jocotepec, knows not to bother me when I’m writing on the computer, but she came in because the dryer went out, so we had to call a repairman. As soon as he got here, of course it started working again.

Nevertheless, it needed a revision, so he went to work. Meanwhile the builder arrived to work on some screen doors. And Juan, the gardener, needed pool chemicals. Then the man came to fill the gas tank for the house. The painter came to repair some moldy walls.

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Tags: Attracting Clients, blog writing, Content Marketing, content marketing with blogs, personal stories, personal values, stories, writing on the web

Blogging for Business: Persistence Pays

Written on August 18, 2010 by Patsi Krakoff in About Blogs, Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, Writing Great Blog Content

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Is your blog like my tennis, a hit or miss? Are you writing posts that are clear winners for your readers? Are you steadily delivering valuable, relevant content within the lines of your readers’ needs?

This week I’ve been watching the world’s best players battle it out on the courts in Cinncinati, Toronto, and Montreal. I’ve noticed a few things that applies to content marketing.

In one match, Marty Fish and Gilles Simon had a rally that lasted 33 shots. They exchanged power shots from the back court, until finally, one of them blinked and missed the line. Fish won, 7-6, 7-5.

Persistence and control is the name of the game. With me, I get impatient in a rally, and with a burst of aggression I’ll end the point with a whopping drive… clear out of the court.

I know people who blog like that. They write 600-900 words every few weeks, then wonder why they aren’t getting search traffic.

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Tags: Attracting Clients, blog content, business blogging, Content Marketing, content marketing with blogs

Content Marketing Tips: Seth Godin on Tim Burton

Written on August 17, 2010 by Patsi Krakoff in About Blogs, Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Writing for the Web

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Are you finding writing slow and tedious? Is your content marketing and blog writing as creative as possible? Are you discovering your unique genius as you go?

What can we learn from really creative people like Tim Burton and Seth Godin? First of all, we know they are really creative because they produce a lot of unique products – films, books, and blog posts that grab our attention.

Both these two professionals are examples of people who’ve found their genius. But we wouldn’t know that if they didn’t “ship.” If they didn’t complete projects and get them out the door.

And that’s the difference between wanna be’s, also-rans, and those who get noticed. In order to be successful, you have to get it out the door. Publish. Produce. And publicize.

My husband, affectionately known as Attila the Honey, decided to write a book about 18 months ago. I watched him do his first novel…then a second. And I just finished editing the third book. His book blog is here.

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