Category Archives: Writing for the Web

Starting a Business Blog? Read Me First

I hear it all the time:  smart professionals, who are great at what they do, don’t have enough time to blog, or even start a business blog. Recently someone shared with me how they had started blogging with great gusto – they put in a lot of time – but got stuck, and never went…

7 Blog Writing Steps BEFORE You Check for Keywords

This is a little story I share with new blogging clients who get hung up about keywords. One client in particular (let’s call him Ted) had written about 10 blog posts which were saved as drafts because he was worried about keywords. Let me say that there’s a learning curve involved in writing for your…

Does Your Blog Post Answer These 4 Questions?

This is important: You want your blog posts to educate, entertain, engage, and enrich readers of your business blog. Aim for all four of these goals when blog writing, and you can’t go wrong. What do you need to remember when writing a post that’s designed to educate? I wrote about that here: Educate Your Readers, about…

How to Avoid Problems with Hyphens and Dashes…

Have you ever encountered this problem when blogging or writing content marketing? Because of the informal nature of writing on a blog, or for online ezines, people now write like they speak – you know what I mean? Instead of commas or semi-colons, everyone uses dashes to interject phrases – just like the way we…

7 Writing Tips to Connect Emotionally with Readers

How do you create an emotional connection with your readers? More importantly, how do you get them so inspired they want to take action, like join your list, opt-in, comment, or buy something? Here are some psychological secrets to keep in mind. When writing on the web – either in a blog post, an ezine…

Are Your Content Readers Thinkers or Feelers?

Have you ever read an e-newsletter or blog post and got a feeling of disappointment? Maybe it was just too subjective, airy-fairy and touchy-feely? If so, then you may be like me, a thought-processing person who wants facts and data when reading content online, an e-newsletter or blog post. Several years ago, my friend John…

Serial Writing Formula: 1=5+2=7+1

I’m no math genius, nor do I even think remotely like that in analytical terms. But once in a while I stumble upon something that makes sense, saves time, and produces exponential results. I’m talking about serial writing. You take one main concept, break it down into a list of 5 key elements, write an…

How to Start a Blog Serial Writing Project

 If you’ve been reading my blogs for any length of time, you know about my problem with writing:  I love to write, and I can write too much.  Anyone with a doctorate suffers from the same disease. Dissertation-itis. Nobody has time to read all those words anymore, especially not online. Then, at some point…

7 Ways to Format Blogs to Engage Readers’ Brains

What are the two most important parts (a.k.a. opportunities to engage readers) of your business blog post? Most experts will tell you this: The headline The call to action The headline is what gets read and spread. It’s your “shout-out” on social media sites, in feed readers, and email updates. It’s the bait on your…

4 Content Marketing Goals for a Coach Website

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…