Author Archive for Patsi Krakoff – Page 91

Find Out What Readers Want But Avoid Faulty Assumptions

By Patsi Krakoff
Monday, June 9th, 2008

Question_key
We recently asked our ezine subscribers (Savvy eBiz Tips) if they prefer to get it weekly or every two weeks. The results were amazing…and misleading.

At first we got a lot of responses from readers who raved about the ezine, and how valuable the tips were, and how ours was one of the few they read every week. It would have been easy to smile, give ourselves a pat on the back, assume we were doing a good job and continue on our merry way.

After a few days we got other responses, about half of them saying weekly, then half of them voting for bi-weekly. And after about a week, the tally was clearly in favor of bi-weekly.

We realized that even if our voting tally was accurate, our survey would never be an accurate gauge of what all our readers wanted. With email, you have to account for the readers who don’t open your message and don’t answer the survey. Those are people that probably suffer the most from email overload, which was what we wanted to measure.

Read More→

Categories : Content Marketing, Email Marketing Tips, Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks

Ask Readers What to Write About

By Patsi Krakoff
Thursday, June 5th, 2008

Scribit
Use the Skribit voting poll on the right to tell me what you want me to write about. I’m experimenting with this new free voting tool.

It’s fairly simple and easy to install on your blog. There are two options, one where readers have to register and log in to submit a suggestion, and the one here that allows anonymous suggestions. Click on the title "What Should I Write About" to make the box below active, type in your suggestion, hit submit and you’ll see your suggestion appear.

We’ve installed a similar Skribit widget over on BizTips Blog, Denise’s blog about Internet Marketing. But you’ll have to register and log in to submit a suggestion or vote over there. We’ll see which version works the best.

Of course, like any free tool on the Web, making it available to anonymous posters leaves your poll wide open to spammers, unscrupulous marketers who leave their own URLs, etc. We’ll see how long it takes for this poll to be ruined! But I don’t think any of my readers will abuse it, they’re too savvy!

Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing, Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks

French Open Tennis: More Business Lessons

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, June 4th, 2008

Dementieva
Playing on clay courts means the ball doesn’t always bounce predictably. What a great lesson for doing business! You can say/write/do the exact same thing with a different client and get completely different results.

So in business, just like on clay courts, be prepared for the unexpected. Be nimble, be quick and react to surprises with calm.

Example: when we wrote our Better Business Blogging special report, we really wanted to deliver quality information that people could go and apply to better blogging. It wasn’t written to sell anything.

We wanted to teach best business blogging practices. But we did say
that somewhere later on we’d put together a comprehensive multi-media
program to teach more in detail.

Most people who previewed it wrote to give us positive feedback. So we thought we had a successful report to give out. But not everybody saw it that way.

Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Coaching/Personal Development, On Writing Better, Writing Better Ezines, Writing Great Blog Content

5 Blog Writing Lessons from the French Open Tennis Championships

By Patsi Krakoff
Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008

NadalI don’t know if Rafael Nadal will win the French Open this year again, but I do know that every time I watch the top players compete, I learn something about blog writing.

Seriously, these are the kinds of things I think about when I go online to post on one of our blogs:

  1. You’ve got to keep moving. When a topic is hot, you see a few hundred other posts about it, and you realize it’s time to move on to something else.
  2. Keep your eye on the ball. Never forget why people read your blog and why you started your blog in the first place. Stay on topic, deliver the winning shots.
  3. Start strong with a fierce serve. Your first sentence may be the only thing a reader sees in a feed. Make it compelling.
  4. Mix it up. If you’re always being positive and cheery, write a few negative posts and criticize some commonly held practices or beliefs. People won’t keep reading if you don’t surprise them.
  5. Never give up, stay in the game. Success is half persistence, half sweat. Your ability to refocus your writing and get back on track even when you don’t feel like it, will pay off in the long run.
Categories : Content Marketing, Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks, On Writing Better, Writing Better Ezines, Writing for the Web, Writing Great Blog Content

How to Start a Blog Post or an Ezine: Avoid the Yawn Factor

By Patsi Krakoff
Sunday, June 1st, 2008

Start strong. Please don’t bore me. Do you realize that even if I do subscribe to get your blog feed, if you don’t start out strong, I’ll just delete you?

Here’s a feed I got this morning:

Sleepy
"The summer season is almost here, and with it comes a lot of excitement about the outdoors. …XYZ is a great place to share your fun with the world. Read on for the latest highlights!"

I may be a bit negative on this, but really, I can’t get excited here. I can’t remember the last time I got excited about the summer season.

Remember your first paragraph sentence may be the only thing someone sees.

If you’ve got something you’re excited about, then I want to know but it better be real. I won’t believe you when you say something like this. You just went from someone who has something to say to someone who is trying to sell me something. What does it mean to "share your fun with the world?"

The purpose of the first sentence is to get someone to read the second sentence. I’ll bet the real reason this person started with the summer season is to try to connect with readers on common ground. But they fail because it’s a ploy to get them to read on for the "latest highlights" = i.e. our products for sale.

Why can’t marketing people be more authentic?

We talk about this in our Better Business Blogging report: download a free copy at www.betterbizblogging.com.

Categories : Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Writing Better Ezines, Writing Great Blog Content

Books and Blogs: Happily Ever After

By Patsi Krakoff
Tuesday, May 27th, 2008

Lnav_pma_logo
This week I’m in Los Angeles with Denise preaching the Blogspell to eager authors and publishers who want to master book blogging. For the last 3 years The Blog Squad has been teaching at the Independent Book Publisher’s Association just prior to the big Book Expo America, BEA. PMA prides itself on offering vital information for authors and publishers.

We’re presenting in two workshops and will be explaining how important blogs are for both authors and publishers.

Here’s the info, in case you’re in the neighborhood:


2008 PMA Publishers Marketing University, Los Angeles
 
The Blog Squad presents:
*  May 28, 2008, 2:00 p.m.: Optimize Your Web
Site to Convert Visitors to Customers.
*  May 29, 2008, 8:30 a.m.: Blogging Basics for
Authors and Publishers

Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing

4 Ways to Boost a Business Blog: new free report

By Patsi Krakoff
Friday, May 23rd, 2008

Business_blogging_3d
The Blog Squad releases our free report today: Better Business Blogging: 4 New Concepts for Getting Spectacular Results.

This is a great way to review your business blog for 4 key elements we call the CODA Blogging System:

The CODA System consists of:

  1. Content: writing quality posts that educate, engage, and enrich the lives of readers
  2. Outreach: building relationships with other bloggers to become part of a larger community
  3. Design: the little things in a blog design that contribute towards creating trust and connection with readers
  4. Action: getting readers to respond through
    persuasive writing, encouraging a conversation, and converting readers
    to loyal fans and clients

Better Business Blogging: 4 New Concepts for Getting Spectacular Results, is available for free at www.betterbizblogging.com.

(Whew! Denise and I have been working for such a long time to get this out the door. Can we hear a big Yahoo!!? Be sure to download your report today, it’s worth the read. We’d love to get your feedback too.)

Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing, Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks, On Writing Better, Writing Great Blog Content

Better Business Blog Writing Class: Lessons for readers from your story

By Patsi Krakoff
Thursday, May 22nd, 2008

I love teaching blog writing because I always learn so much preparing for the class. And even afterwards, I’ll be reading something and think, "Oh, I need to show the class this paragraph: it’s a perfect example of such-and-such!"

Problogger
This morning I finally got the chance to open up Problogger, the new book out by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett, two of my favorite blog writers. It’s subtitle is "Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income." But I’m reading it for another reason: clues to how both Darren and Chris mastered blog writing.

Here’s a prime example of what I posted yesterday about the importance of putting you and your personality into your business blog. The book starts out with Darren’s story, then Chris’.

I didn’t know that Darren started his career as a minister! But never mind that, (be sure to get a copy of the book and read it for more juicy stories!) I want you to read this passage, after Darren tells his story, because it is a prime example of why the word "because" is most important in blog writing:

Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Writing Great Blog Content

Putting the YOU in Business Blogging: 5 tips for getting personal

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, May 21st, 2008

In_the_news
If you’re writing for your business, how much of yourself should you include? Everyone agrees that blogs are a place to have a conversation. How personal should you be? How do you keep the YOU in Business Blogging and still make it work for business?

There’s a new trend to be personal with business communications. Rohit Bhargava’s written a whole book about it, filled with examples of how companies are successfully using personalities to market their business products and services: Personality Not Included.

I get  emails from a professional who writes about arguments with her husband. I can’t help myself, I’m drawn into reading the damn things. And sure, she’s promoting a program…And there’s only a loose tie between the story about the husband and the program she’s promoting! But she tells the story so well, you don’t care!

I can’t stop myself from reading her emails. Why? As a psychologist, I can tell you why: we’re hard wired to connect with others, especially about family stories, and we all relate to each other’s predicaments.

So, the dilemma remains: how do you do this successfully without
embarrassing yourself – or worse – incurring the wrath of a family
member?

Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Writing Great Blog Content

Morning Writing Ritual: Using your right brain

By Patsi Krakoff
Monday, May 19th, 2008

Ist1_2776388_coffee_cup
The third thing I do in the morning when I get up is write on one of our blogs. (First, brew a pot of Cafe de Olla; second, feed Huey and Dewey.) So when clients ask, "How do we find time to post on all our blogs?" it’s kind of a non-problem.

Here are 5 more tips for being more creatively productive with your writing tasks.

  1. Write first thing before you open email or your list of things to do. Any writing task should have priority over other tasks in the morning. Why? Writing uses your right brain, needs clarity, without those little gnawing distractions.

    Writing is mostly a right brain activity. Beware the left brain that wants to spoil your creativity by reminding you of things "to-do." When you first wake up, you’re functioning in your right brain. Use it immediately for improved creativity.

Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks, Writing Great Blog Content
« Previous Page
Next Page »

Content for Coaches and Consultants

Serenity Virtual Assistant Services

Social Buzz Club

get your bright idea known