Author Archive for Patsi Krakoff – Page 56

Why Content Beats Conversations

By Patsi Krakoff
Friday, December 4th, 2009

Why Free is Good, Done Right

Carnival-barker  I
work with a lot of coaches, writers, and consultants. Some of them are
doing well, in spite of the recession. Others are struggling. I often
wonder what the difference is between those who stay afloat in a
downturn and the others. I think it's their marketing savvy more than
their talent or education, but who really knows?

One of my
favorite clients, a successful executive coach with a Ph.D., emailed
this week to say how frustrating it is in the coaching field these
days. It seems everyone's a coach. People take an Internet coaching
course and market themselves by giving away free sample coaching
sessions.

As a trained organizational psychologist with
licenses and years of experience, he doesn't feel he should be giving
away free sessions. I don't blame him. And yet, I was thinking…

The
problem is universal. How do you attract new clients without standing
on the sidewalk like a carnival barker, begging people to come into
your tent?

I guess this is why Chris Anderson author of The Long Tail, has written a new book called Free: The Future of a Radical Price.

Free Works

Read More→

Categories : Coaching/Personal Development, Content Marketing, Online Marketing

Content Marketing Favorites: Fishing for Business

By Patsi Krakoff
Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

Marketing with Blogs: Fishing for Business, or Catch-and-Release?

Catching_with_money
I had the best grilled salmon last night in one of my favorite
restaurants here in Ajijic…which got me thinking about fishing…

I
view business blogging as an attraction strategy, rather than an
activity that earns income via ads. A blog is like a fishing net that
you throw out onto the World Wide Pond to catch new leads, who nibble
on your words like fish on bait.

I believe a blog is a powerful
client magnet when done the smart way. It reverses the client chase.
But few bloggers have a grasp on how to write effective posts on a
business blog and what kinds of content make sense for their readers.

Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, On Writing Better

Content Marketing Favorites: 6 Good Article Hooks

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

This week I'm on vacation, and repeating some of my older yet evergreen posts because they are worthy of being repeated. This one was published in September 2009.

Linkbait Content: 6 Ideas for Article Hooks

Fishing_businessman As you might have read, I'm doing some blog improvements with Easton Ellsworth and his Visionary Blogging program. One of the things we talked about was creating what he calls "linkbait content" for my executive coach marketing site, ContentforCoachandConsultants.com.

I'd like to share his linkbait ideas and some of mine, because these ideas for content are good and easy to translate for any niche.

Unless you are a techy-type, and into search engine optimization, you might not be clear on what "linkbait" really means to you and your online content marketing efforts.

Wikipedia defines Linkbait like this:

Link bait is
any content or feature within a website that somehow baits viewers to
place links to it from other websites. Matt Cutts of Google defines
link bait as anything "interesting enough to catch people's attention."
Link bait can be an extremely powerful form of marketing as it is viral
in nature.

Here's why this is important:

Read More→

Categories : Article Ideas, Content Marketing, How to...Tips, On Writing Better

Content Marketing Favorites: Brain Based Blogging

By Patsi Krakoff
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

Lessons from Neuroscience for Content Marketing

Subconscious
 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.

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. This
is built into our brains for very clear reasons of survival as a race.
We wouldn't be here talking about content marketing if our ancestors
hadn't become good at all four "F" actions.

Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing, On Writing Better

Content Marketing Favorite Posts: Mediocrity Makes Me Mad

By Patsi Krakoff
Monday, November 30th, 2009

While away on vacation, I'm posting some of favorite posts. You may agree or not, but I enjoyed writing these and thought you might not mind my recycling them since the message is evergreen…

Boring, Banal, and Full of Bull-Shitake
Originally posted September 21, 2009

Sleepy I spent the weekend doing research…well,
not entirely, I played tennis, went to the movies, watched HBO and
laughed a lot with my hubby. But work wise, I've been visiting a lot of
blogs and sites lately, researching what makes for good content
marketing and bad.

Newt Barrett does a terrific job of highlighting sites that get Content Marketing right as well as those who miss the boat over on his Content Marketing Today blog. I always learn better when I can see samples of what works and what doesn't work. I'm sure you do too.

However,
I am a little stymied in my quest to find bad samples of content
marketing on blogs. Why? It's not that there aren't bad sites and bad
content on the Web. There's a lot of garbage. But mostly what I find is
mediocrity.

Many bloggers are writing reasonable content. And they're probably getting some results.
Most blog writers are just barely scraping the surface of what needs to
be said. I believe most of you can do better than that.

Mediocrity Sucks

Read More→

Categories : Content Marketing, On Writing Better

You Probably Didn’t Know This About Yourself…

By Patsi Krakoff
Thursday, November 26th, 2009

Do you realize what you give me? Just by being here, to read these blog posts?

Lake2 Every morning before the sun comes up over Lake Chapala here in central Mexico, I sit down to my trusty Alienware computer and compose a post on this blog. If you didn't show up at some point during the day or week as a reader, the motivation wouldn't be there.

Thanks, guys!

Not only have you been coming here to read, but many of you retweet what I have to say. I know, because I see you over on Twitter, see your retweets. Sometimes I take time to thank you personally, but most of the time, I don't.

Read More→

Categories : Uncategorized

What Is Content Marketing?

By Patsi Krakoff
Thursday, November 26th, 2009

I found this little clip through a link on Wikipedia…it’s really neat, don’t ya think? It’s created by VizEdu…

Categories : Content Marketing, Online Marketing

Darwin’s Origin of Species’ 150th Anniversary

By Patsi Krakoff
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

Charles_Darwin Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species on November 24, 1859, just 150 years ago. As college zoology major, I'm a big fan. One of my favorite Darwin quotes is this:

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.

To celebrate his wisdom, I share with you here some selected quotes…

A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.

A man's friendships are one of the best measures of his worth.

A moral being is one who is capable of reflecting on his past actions and their motives – of approving of some and disapproving of others.

A scientific man ought to have no wishes, no affections, – a mere heart of stone.

Read More→

Categories : Content Marketing, Fun and Irrelevant Things About Patsi, In the News...

3 Defining Content Marketing Goals Before You Write

By Patsi Krakoff
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

Goal Before you write one word of copy for your online content marketing, you must first:

  1. Know your objectives
  2. Know your target audience 
  3. Know your product or service

Objectives?

I know this seems so common sense it's not worth spending time on, but the time you take to write down a few notes on each of these things will be well worth it.

For example, writing on the web can have several objectives, besides making a sale. What is it you'd like readers to do? Contact you for more information? Sign up for a digital report? Leave a comment, watch a video, fill out a survey?

Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Online Marketing

Where Do You Find Ideas for Fresh Blog Posts?

By Patsi Krakoff
Monday, November 23rd, 2009

Fresh-ideas-sign-in-the-sky How do you continually come up with fresh blog posts, fresh material? Many of us sing the same old song, when it comes to writing content.

Here are some ideas for finding  fresh Content Inspiration…

  1. Find out what others are talking about. Open up the Internet and go to an aggregation site where you can get the latest news. Choices: any news site, Twitter, any social site, or your news feed reader to look at your favorite blogs. I use Alltop.com, and in particular my own Alltop page where I can aggregate my favorite blogs on a variety of topics.
  2. Look outside your field. You may find something inspiring in your field of expertise. But I often find an inspiration in an outside topic, then find a creative way to apply it to my own particular niche.
  3. Find relevancy to your audience. After spending some time reading other people's blog posts, come up with your own unique spin, and write it on your own blog post. Save as a draft and re-read it and edit it after letting it rest for a while. Ask yourself this question: "So what?" Answer for your readers, explain why this is important.
  4. Edit twice, once for relevancy to your readers, and once for entertainment value. Re-write your post with fresh eyes, usually later in the day. This will ensure that your writing is sharper, removing excess words, adding brilliant metaphors, finding ways to make it more relevant and entertaining to your readers. This will also give you additional ideas for other posts.

This last tip can be hard to do, but here's how to make it simple:

Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing, How to...Tips, On Writing Better
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