Archive for Content Marketing – Page 74

Marketing on a Budget: An open letter to entrepreneurs

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Recently I was contacted by a client who was frustrated that her marketing efforts were not producing results like she expected. In an attempt to address her concerns, I realized how many other professionals are in the same boat. What follows is an open letter to professionals everywhere who are struggling to attract new clients and make money online.

Dear Entrepreneur and Professional:

First, let’s address the issue of finances. I understand fully what it is like to invest in your own business, work hard, and see little income.

Sometimes it seems as if you work for pleasure, and indeed there is much pleasure involved. It’s not unusual for entrepreneurs to be passionate about their business and services and many would do what they love for free.

But it can’t work that way, and you must see the money or your business will perish. After a couple of years of trickle income, Denise and I are now seeing great results in our own online business, and are making a very comfortable living solely from information and services sold over the Internet.

So let me offer some advice about the process…

It takes time. And it involves having lots of digital information products people can download instantly.

You must have a powerful web presence and be easily findable to the millions of people who search on the Web for solutions to their problems.

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3 Must-Do Business Keys: Marketing, Speaking & Success Principles

We’ve got an opportunity for you to spend an hour with
the fantastically successful speaker and Internet marketer Tom Antion
on Thursday, August 14, at 5:00 PM Eastern Time.

Can’t make it? Register anyway and we’ll email you a link to the recording.

Tom, our marketing mentor, will be discussing his new concept
seminar "Fusion" where he is mixing Internet Marketing, professional
level speaking and timeless success principles.

Fusion_banner_2

This
interview will NOT be just a sales pitch for Tom’s seminar. Tom is
known for his high content. We’re sure he wants you to attend his
event, but we’ve known him for years and there is no way he’ll get on a
call without giving you great tips.

Tom has been our mentor for the past two years and he’s helped us bring in well over $300,000.00 since we’ve met him.

Don’t miss listening to him Thursday, August 14. We’ll be discussing with him what it takes to be successful on the Internet and in your business.

Visit http://www.blogsquadteleseminars.com/fusion/ to register for the call. There’s no charge and you’ll get a copy of the audio program if you cannot attend the live event.

P.S.
Tom is in the top 1 percent of speaker income in the world and only
speaks 5 or 6 times a year. We’re going to make sure he tells you the
exact methods he’s used to get and stay there.

Check out Denise’ video about how Tom Antion has helped The Blog Squad

Press Release: Expert Click.com

What Do Readers Really Want? Some personal musings…

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I am writing this off the top of my head and from the depths of my heart. The truth is I’m not sure where I’m going with this post, but I know I have some worthwhile nugget for you.

Yesterday when I wrote the post about blog ideas, it’s true, I’d been struggling with finding good topics for this blog, and for keeping my focus on how to write good content on the Web that informs and markets for you.

This morning, I was still struggling. My blockage is coming from an interview we did last week with Yvonne DiVita of Lip-Sticking Blog. I wrote about her ideas for writing quality posts over on BuildaBetterBlog.com, Blog Content Ideas, What’s the best source? Yvonne has had tremendous success with her blog, and it’s established her as an expert and thought leader when it comes to marketing to women online.

She says her success is due to always writing what readers want.

And that’s my problem. I’m never sure what readers want. Oh, I’m very grateful for the lovely comments and feedback, especially since most readers seem to agree with me (;-0)…

But let’s face it: there aren’t a whole bunch of comments or emails flooding in. And people aren’t in dire pain, begging me to please – oh please, tell me how to write a blog post, or an email promo…!

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Blog Post Idea Farm…

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How many different kinds of blog posts are there? If you’re wondering how you can spice up your postings, think about these:

There are:

  1. The link and bait, the ‘me-too’ copy and paste post
  2. The ‘stir-up-the-pot’ post (also known as ‘outrageously oppositional and intentionally contrarian’ post)
  3. The ‘how-many-ways-can-I-repeat-my-core-message’ post
  4. There are email questions from clients
  5. Tutorials & how-to’s
  6. Toot-my-own-horn
  7. Piggy-back post off of current affairs, politics & celebrity gossip
  8. Sports analogies
  9. Outrageous tabloid headlines reworded for your niche

What else? Give me some ideas here… hit the comment link and tell me your favorite short cuts to creating blog content.

Press Release: How to Jazz Up Your Announcements

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Are you using the power of online press releases to promote your events, products or services? Anyone who uses the Internet to market should be posting as many press releases online as possible. They’re easy to write, and they contribute to getting found on the Web. You also benefit from links back to your site.

I recently posted about all the different kinds of writing tasks required when you promote an event or product. These include sales pages, email promotional messages, survey questions, video clip scripts, curriculum and messages on Facebook and Twitter.

Press releases are essential. The more you announce your event or product in different ways the better.

For example, we posted three different press release in the two weeks prior to an event start date. We didn’t just write an announcement about what we were doing. A press release to say we’re doing a teleseminar is boring. Who cares?

The focus of all three press releases was on the problems our audience faced.

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Build a Better Blog: Going out of print…

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In 2005 we published the first edition our premier blogging ebook: Build a Better Blog: The Ultimate Guide for Boosting Your Business with a Professional Blog. Later in 2005 the 2nd edition was introduced.  And now, we’re taking the ebook off the market. Gone. No more copies available…

Build a Better Blog (BaBB for short), and it’s companion of 25 Interviews with Successful Bloggers, has become one of the best known guides for setting up and optimizing a business blog with TypePad.

The current edition will be updated soon with new material. After Thursday, July 31, Edition 2 will not be available for sale. We suggest you get it now. Essentially you can pre-order the 3rd edition, because when you buy the BaBB ebook at the old price, you’re entitled to free lifetime upgrades.

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Writers Wanted: You can’t do it all yourself

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"Where can I find someone to write and edit my blog posts?" a colleague asked me this morning. That’s a smart question. You can’t do it all yourself. You can, but there’s probably not enough time to service clients, make money, run a business and write on your blog. Get help.

The colleague who asked me this question is a great and prolific writer. He has more ideas and content than he has time to write up. A professional editor could turn his articles into dynamic blog posts that would make a huge difference in his search engine traffic.

But this takes time and energy. You have to look at keywords and be strategic with headlines.

Get someone who:

  • Knows blogging (your platform system, whatever that is)
  • Knows how to write
  • Knows something about content marketing and writing to persuade
  • Knows what a good headline is
  • Is keyword savvy
  • Knows something about your niche
  • Has impeccable grammar and editing knowledge
  • Has a journalist’s nose for news
  • Has personality and can be conversational in writing

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Writing Survey Questions: 3 Things to Ask

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You need to survey your readers to find out what they want, what they need, and what their biggest challenges are. This is crucial information you need to know before promoting any event or teleseminar or informational product.

When we promoted our Law of Action 2.0 mentoring program, we used a survey to help us define what people wanted to learn the most when it comes to marketing their business online. We wanted to keep the survey short so people didn’t have to spend time filling out irrelevant information. We included 3 items:

  1. One broad question with 10 choices where they were asked to rate degree of severity on a scale
  2. One open ended question where they could write in anything they chose
  3. One demographic question to define the number of years using Internet marketing

Writing survey questions can be tricky. There’s a reason most graduate schools require you to take a year of statistics. Unless you understand the pitfalls of surveys, you risk getting answers that tell you nothing. Keep it simple and make your questions as clear and neutral as possible.

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Is Your Content Marketing Working for You? How do you know?

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How do you know if your content is working for you? Everybody says they want more traffic, but quite frankly, traffic stats leave me scratching my head and saying "So what!"

Maybe it’s because I’m not an analytical type, I prefer big picture thinking and gut feelings and intuition. But if I had a metric I could look at and be able to tell if my content is working, then maybe I’d become more analytical.

You know how those yearly physical exams give you a print out of your lab test and tell you if you’re in the "normal" range or not? Why can’t they have those for blogs? Or for ezines? Or for overall Web content marketing?

On Monday mornings, for example, you log into your Content Marketing Analytical Account and get a print out of how well your content has been doing:

  • Ezine: …75%
  • Blog: …82%
  • Articles…56%
  • Landing pages…
  • White Paper…
  • Free Report… etc. etc.

This software would compile all the results from your content including sales, referrals, downloads, subscriptions, and inquiries and give you an overall success rating. It would also tell you where you needed to make improvements.

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Video Content Marketing: Learn how to create video

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How to Use Videos to Boost Your Business
A 2-part teletraining with our colleague Leesa Barnes
July 23-24, 2008, 8 p.m. Eastern Time

Use VIP coupon VID723 to pay only $20 for the program

If you want to learn how to create videos for your business without blowing your budget, then check out Leesa Barnes’ program now. She’s got a lot of knowledge when it comes to creating awesome video on a budget.

I’ve sign up for this to learn more about how to save time and energy with video.