Category Archives: Writing for the Web

Bloggers: Brush Up on Your Writing Skills

Tweet Business bloggers: just how good are your writing skills? Most bloggers and those who run small businesses that publish blogs are not natural-born writers, or even trained writers. Most businesspeople studied things such as marketing, communication, or business. It’s not often they’ve studied English or creative writing. Yet it’s becoming expected that businesses have…

Better Content Marketing:
Words and Numbers Matter

Tweet As a psychologist, I’m fascinated by how our brains work. When writing online content, I try to apply neuroscience to understanding why some copy outperforms others. When writing for business, i.e. content marketing, you want to get the words right, so that  your web pages, blogs and e-newsletters get results for your business. Words…

SEO: 3 Things Journalists and Bloggers Can Learn

Tweet From what I see, many bloggers aren’t using hyperlinks when they publish blog posts. Worse, in some cases, they aren’t teaching writers about this in online writing courses. I just attended a week-long writer’s conference in San Miguel. and although there were a few workshops on blogging and online creative non-fiction writing, not one…

5 Reasons to Hire a Content Marketing Writer for Your Business

Tweet “Content is king.” Bill Gates said it, so it must be true. Gates uttered this one-liner way back in 1996, but the flurry of updates to Google search algorithms during 2012 has ensured that his words still resonate. Most businesses (be they blog owners, start-ups, or established brands) now know that if they want…

My Business Website: Content for Customers… or SEO?

Tweet Should my business website focus on keywords and getting search engine results? Or quality content for customers? Perhaps a more important question is “How do I make the most of each of my web pages so that my business and I get found, get known, and get clients?” The challenge: You want to make…

Keyword Research: What Smart Professionals Know

Tweet We have at least two audiences when we write on the web: people and search engines. My clients tell me it feels hard to write well for both, and in my experience, it’s because they’ve skipped the first step in the process: Keyword research. (Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net) If I were to optimize my web copy…

Using a Business Blog:
Are You Hard to Find on the Web?

Tweet Have you ever tried to find yourself on the Web? No, I don’t mean by searching for your name or the name of your business – that would be too easy. Try searching for a solution to the kind of problems your business solves, using keyword phrases your typical client might use. (Image: Freedigitalphotos.net)…

The Ladder of Emotional Values: Pleasure Reigns

Tweet What emotions are people seeking to satisfy online? What can we understand about human motivations and values in order for content marketing to work? Maslow’s famous hierarchy of needs tells us we are motivated to satisfy our basic needs first (food, shelter, clothing), before we seek to obtain satisfaction for social, intellectual and spiritual needs. A…

4 Content Marketing Goals for a Coach Website

Tweet How should content marketing be used on the home page of your website? What makes good website copy? More specifically, if you’re a professional service provider, like an executive coach, a consultant, a lawyer, health care or financial adviser… how do you create a website that attracts clients and gets potential new leads? No matter what business you’re in,…

Content Marketing Tasks: Practice Makes Progress

Tweet If you’ve spent your career avoiding certain marketing tasks because you don’t think you’re any good at them, you struggle each time you try, and you end up with weak results, take heart. Persistence has been touted by poets for a reason. Your brain learns a lot each time you try something, even if you fail….