Author Archive for Patsi Krakoff – Page 10

Better Blog Writing: Getting Hooked by Your Own Hook

Social engineering conceptIt must have been the coffee. But there I was at 5 a.m. looking for a “hook,” a magnetic headline that would draw readers into my client’s blog like bees to honey. The client needed a post that day, and I needed to write and edit what she’d given me quickly. After all, my morning tennis partners were waiting for me.

Eureka! I cried as I found a cleverly compelling hook, saved my post as a draft and ran off to the tennis courts. Only, when I returned to the office two hours later, my client had a left a message, “Uh, …it’s great except for the headline and lead. Call me back.”

I blame it on the coffee. The hook was indeed inspiring, only it had little to do with the message my client was trying to convey. But a little caffeine and dopamine in the brain can fool you into thinking your writing’s great – and never mind it’s missing the point. Read More→

Blog Writing Tips: How to Become Productive and Prolific at Those Tasks You Hate

Manage-Your-TimeHow can you develop more productive blog writing habits? When are you going to stick to your content marketing calendar? What’s it going to take?

I know many small business owners who purposely procrastinate on writing and finance tasks they hate. Are you one of these professionals who work better when you have too much to do and not enough time to do it in? Think about it. Read More→

Creative Work, Blogging, Writing and Resistance

Blogging-Creative-Work-ResistanceEver get stuck? Everyone encounters resistance when it comes to blogging, writing, and creative work. It’s so easy to give in, isn’t it? When it comes to doing work – putting words on the page… or electrons on a screen – you can’t escape getting stuck.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a scientist, blogger, CEO or rock star. Work requires you to actually do something. When you sit down to do it (or stand up, whatever), you experience stuckness – a state of mental morass punctuated by mind chatter and an inability to move. Read More→

Key Content Marketing Strategy: Answer Readers’ Questions

What You Need To KnowDoes your website answer readers’ questions? This is a key element of a smart content marketing strategy. You must devote a few key content pages to answering readers’ questions about your business products and services.

Otherwise you’re not helping them solve their problems. You won’t keep visitors on your site for long; it will be “click and bye-bye.” Read More→

How to Research Content
for Your Expert Ebook

Research-ContentHow should you research content in order to write your expert ebook? This is a huge question for most writers, and a major reason why some ebooks never get written or finished.

The field of online research methods is new and expanding rapidly. Using social media is a new opportunity for gathering information, but it’s complex and time consuming.

In some ways, research has never been easier. The Web is a goldmine. But it’s also a sink hole into which many writers fall, never to be seen again. Some writers die from an overdose of information, others simply disappear and give up, telling themselves there’s simply too much already written. Read More→

Research Before You Write an Expert Ebook

KDSuite-Amazon-Research-ToolsIf you want to write an expert ebook that sells well on Amazon, you need to research first to find out:

  • What’s already been published in your field of expertise?
  • What titles are selling well?
  • Where are the gaps in what’s already been published and what hasn’t yet been covered?
  • What do readers seek out the most?
  • What prices, what lengths, what covers are best?

I’ve been experimenting with ebook research software and I’m pretty impressed with what the developers have come up with. In particular, there’s a group of programs that can help Amazon authors get the information they need from Amazon sales: KDSuite.

KD-Suites-ProgramsThis software has the ability to pull up data from ebooks in categories so you can compare sales info. It provides information on bestsellers, marketing, and keywords. There’s an additional program which creates ebook covers. Read More→

Bloggers Block? How to Get Your Creative Writing Mojo Back

Beautiful woman with thoughtful expression and blog words aboveEver get stuck with blogger’s block? Can’t get a spark of creativity going? Fingers just lay there on the keyboard like wet noodles… How can you get your creative writing going again?

Finding yourself in the horror of a creation-less void is never good. Your mind empties of anything that seems worthy of being said, and you feel helpless.

Writer’s and blogger’s block is a completely natural event experienced by writers, usually as a side-effect of writing for a deadline. Everyone has experienced it, and it’s not uncommon to panic a bit when it happens.

Here are some suggestions from a writer who’s been around the block…

Read Read More→

Content Marketing Adventures in Mexico: Stuck on My Own Roof

IMG_0428I’ve got a Mardi Gras parade dancing down my street right now, in my sleepy little village of Ajijic, near Guadalajara in Mexico. It happens three or four times a year, always because of religious fiestas: the whole village dresses in costumes on floats with music blaring as loud as possible.

It’s so loud it’s hard to think. I couldn’t finish my content marketing project for a client, so to get a good view, I went up on my roof to watch. It seemed like a great idea at the time.

And it was great… until I wanted to come down. I realized that dropping over one roof top ledge to another is easy enough. Not so when you’ve got to go back up and over the ledge and it’s just out of reach. Read More→

Ebooks for Experts: 10 Questions to Ask Before You Write

Shortcuts Expert EbookI’ve been blogging recently about how experts need to publish their own ebooks as part of their strategy to get found, get known, and get clients through online content marketing.

Here are 10 questions to ask yourself before you write a single word of your expert ebook:

Download the questionnaire here: www.Ebooks4Experts.com.

Over 10 years ago, professionals started using blogs to communicate to clients. As co-founder of The Blog Squad, I proclaimed blogs to be ‘the best darned marketing tool on the planet!’

To some extent they still are, but the key for experts is to excel with quality content. A blog is only one channel for online content marketing, along with social media networking sites. Another key communication channel is publishing expert ebooks. Read More→

Expert Ebooks: Relax and Write

Suit-and-Tie-WritingIf you want to write well, you’ve got to strip down and get real: write relaxed. Nobody wants to read an expert ebook if your words are wearing a three-piece suit and a tightly buttoned shirt and tie.

Too many executives who want to write an expert ebook are in love with syllables, syntax and sycophants. When you write words to impress, you don’t write well. You don’t impress.

Instead, relax and write. Take off the tie, relax and write as authentically as possible using words any high school student can understand. You’ll impress many more people and get your message heard by those who actually need your wisdom.

Highly educated readers can sniff out academic or business jargon and won’t be impressed but simply annoyed. Even geniuses like things spelled out for them in clear language. Leave them some room to think about big ideas, not wade through your big words.

I’m not suggesting “dumbing down.” It actually takes intelligence to write clearly so that anyone can understand.

Less educated readers like being invited to understand complexities with easily accessible words and sentences. Don’t leave them out by using insider terms, acronyms, and cryptic allusions.

In the work I do with executive coaches and consultants, they often become so entrenched in industry-specific business jargon, they aren’t clear to a global audience of working people. When seasoned professionals want to write their book, what may seem common sense to them isn’t clear to the world at large.

This is where an experienced editor and writing coach can help. Often, the pre-work to writing an ebook hasn’t been done.

What I call the “pre-work” to writing an expert ebook is becoming clear not only about the desired message, but clear about who you’re are writing for:

  • Who are your readers?
  • What problem or pain can you fix?
  • How will you change your readers’ lives for the better?
  • What’s in it for them?
  • What’s your message and what do you want them to do?

If you’d like to learn more, I’ve prepared a 10-question worksheet that will help you get started writing your expert ebook. You can get it (free) by going to www.Ebooks4Experts.com and requesting it.