Archive for Getting Read – Page 2

A Quiz: Test Your Content Marketing and Blog Writing Knowledge

A Quiz: Test Your Blog Writing KnowledgeQuality blog posts are key to your business getting found on the Web. While that may sound obvious – (“Of course, why would I write something ho-hum boring?”) it’s harder than you might think. Not everyone agrees on what quality content is.

Quality content scores high with readers, your target clients, and with search engines. If you want to get found, get known and get clients online, you need to write and publish quality blog posts that resonate with your readers.

Two weeks ago I posed the question, “what makes you mad?” This can be a great first step in uncovering a hidden drive – what motivates you. It can also help identify what drives your readers; what content resonates with them. Read More→

Blogging Tips: Unique Ideas to Boost Your Blog

Ideas to Boost Your BlogI feel like we hear a lot of the same blogging tips over and over again. While it is definitely useful to know your blogging basics and how to boost readership, how about we change it up a little and offer some ideas on how to boost your blog in ways that you’ve maybe not thought about before?

Here are a few ways that you can get new (and old) eyes on your blog and keep them engaged. Read More→

Great Blog Content: What Makes You Mad?

DrivenIf you want to write great blog content, tap into what makes you mad. Or, what makes your readers mad? Either way, we don’t get mad about things we don’t care about.

Great blog content is always about what your readers care so much about it keeps them up at night. It makes them angry. Blood-boiling, foot-stamping, screaming mad! Read More→

The ABC’s of Business Blogging:
Create Shareable Content – Don’t Be a Bore

Create Shareable ContentIn the world of business blogging and content marketing, there’s nothing worse than a bore.

I know we’ve all seen bad content marketing – blogs that are irrelevant, outdated, full of incorrect information, typos, rambling rants and silly drivel. But what I find to be the worst is mediocrity. Read More→

The ABC’s of Business Blogging:
How to be Heard above the Noise

Concept Vector Graphic- Leader & Workers Talking(speech Bubbles)Let me ask you a couple of questions about your business blogging. When you’re competing online with other experts in your field, what makes you stand out? How are your prospects (and clients) finding you among all the other blogs and sites online?

Independent professionals who use the Web for marketing their services can learn a lot from big businesses with big budgets. They hire professional writers to create compelling headlines and creative content to attract audiences to their sites. You can too.

It’s not expensive, but it does require some creative thinking. Here are some tips for good business blogging, simplified, as simple as ABC.

The ABC’s of Great Blogging

A. A great headline
B. Be original and offer insight
C. Create shareable content – Don’t be a bore

Read More→

Content Marketing Graphic:
What’s Missing in this Visual?

Content-Marketing-StepsI ran across this great slide share about how content marketing works on Vizedu from Sandeep Arora, but there’s something missing. Don’t get me wrong, I love this explanation of what content marketing is, how it works, and the difference from traditional marketing.

In order for your readers to find you, read your content, and remember you, you’ve got to grab their attention, spark an emotional engagement, and get them to take action.

How do you do this? Read More→

Expert Ebooks: Getting Reader Research Right

Research-ReadersI’ve been sharing about how to start your expert ebook project right, by being clear about who your readers are and what they most want to know.

How should you go about reader research? For example, if you wanted to know how seniors are using the Internet, you could look at the Pew Research site.

How else can you research your readers so that you get this important first step right: How do you focus your expert ebook content on readers’ frustrations and challenges by discovering what those are?

The truth is it doesn’t matter how much of an expert you are or how much you know about your field. You still need to research beyond what you already know or assume.

Don’t skip researching your readers simply because you already have 20-30 years of working with people like them. I don’t care if you’ve got a Nobel Prize in Economics.

Do you think Daniel Kahnemann rests on his ground-breaking work in Behavioral Economics? No, he does not. He is continually researching and discovering more about how  theories apply to real people in the real world. His bestselling book Thinking Fast and Slow is written (and priced) for readers, not academics. Read More→

5 Ways to Make Your Business Blog Remarkable

Blog-VisibilityHow do you make your business blog really remarkable? Like, fascinating?

The main goal of writing a blog, whether for business or otherwise, is to get people to read what you write. Seems pretty simple. But attracting readers to a new blog (or even an established one) is easier said than done.

So how do you build a readership base and continuously gain new readers to keep your blog and your business going. Here are a few ways to make your business blog one to watch.

1. Keep up with current events – while you shouldn’t always write about what’s going on in the world, using relevant examples and anecdotes lets your readers know that you are knowledgeable.

2. Pay attention to your social media networks – what are people talking about on your social media pages? What are they asking you as a business? Consider using these questions and discussions for blog topics. You’re more likely to engage your customers by writing on topics they clearly are interested in than developing your own. Read More→

Business Blogging: How to Optimize Older Posts

Link-to-older-postsClearly, one of the most important things that you can do when it comes to a business blog is to share new content. But what about those older blog posts that are hanging out on your blog somewhere?

Why not make good use of older content? Make it easy for your blog readers to learn more about your solutions to their problems. This requires that you do more than just write an article from the heart. Yes, writing with passion is great, but as long as you’ve got readers on your blog, lead them to older posts.

For business blogging, you’ll need to become keyword-savvy, and use a plugin or two will help make it easy and automatic.

The screen-capture image at the top is a sample from Chip Scholz’ LeaderSnips blog showing how at the end of each post you can provide suggestions for related posts. It uses the YARPP plugin.

Business blogs can be tricky creatures. While it seems like blogging should be pretty straightforward, there are a lot of nuances to building a successful business blog that your potential clients can actually find. Read More→

How Blog Readers Find You – A Diagram

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again:  a business blog is the best way to get found online, the best way to connect with potential clients, and the pathway to turning readers into clients.

So, what’s your favorite excuse for not blogging for your business?

I keep hearing the same reasons, over and over.

Top 3 Excuses for Not Blogging:

  • “I don’t have time to blog.”
  • “My clients aren’t surfing the Web reading blogs.”
  • “Oh, that means I’ve got to write about my business every week?”

There are over a billion people connected to the Internet. I’m willing to bet my lunch money that quite a few of them fall into the category of “your ideal clients.”

It’s not likely they go online looking for you, your business or your blog. I’m not saying that. But they do go to search engines and they type in questions with keywords.

And they do go to Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Here’s what this looks like, how readers find your blog, in this Smart Draw diagram I did:

How Readers Find Your Business Blog

Read More→