Archive for Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks – Page 11

Quick and Easy Blog Writing Tips

By Patsi Krakoff
Friday, September 14th, 2007

Keyboard
When Denise and I teach business blogging, professionals often worry about finding the time for writing on their blogs. We understand and struggle with this challenge ourselves. With 10 blogs between us, you know there are a few neglected ones…

So here are some tips to save you time and effort, and maintain a posting frequency of 2-3 times a week.

  1. What are you doing in your business this week that you could post about that would make your readers’ lives better? (Example: we’ve started a 4-week teleseminar on Branding and Blogging, and for the class, I wrote an outline about blog writing tips; so I’m sharing that with readers here.)
  2. Look at that idea for a post and see how you can make a list of 5-7 tips. Don’t post the entire list in one blog post. Break it up into a series of posts for the whole week.
  3. You can write the series all at once and post-date the publications; or write them up individually and post each day, whichever suits your schedule. (Stay tuned: over the next few days, I’ll post 11 tips for writing easily and quickly so you can save time, energy and money.)

You should be able to post on your blog in 20-30 minutes. That’s not a lot of time to spend on a marketing task that will bring you great results.

Writing on your business blog should always contain information that is relevant and valuable to your readers; you have plenty of that in your head right now, so get it out into a list and start posting. Your readers will appreciate that and your business will grow.

Categories : About Blogs, How to...Tips, Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks, Online Marketing

Automate Your Business: The Shopping Cart Queen on Radio Show Blogging and Beyond

By Patsi Krakoff
Tuesday, August 28th, 2007

Microphone_in_hand
Blogging and Beyond with The Blog Squad, Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D., and Denise Wakeman

With Guest Expert: Christina Hills, aka The Shopping Cart Queen 

How to Automate Your Business with the World’s Best "Cart"
August 30, 2007, 3:00 p.m. PT (6 p.m. ET)

Ever wondered how the online super gurus manage everything they do?
They all use an automated database management and e-commerce system
rolled into one.

The Blog Squad interviews shopping cart "Queen,"
Christina Hills on how to get your business systems automated. "The
Cart" can manage your leads, list building, autoresponders, email
broadcasting, affiliate program, AND handle purchases and follow-up
marketing.

Related Post
Shopping Cart Systems (3 part article)

Categories : Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks, Online Marketing, Podcasts, Teleclasses & Seminars

List Building & Segmenting with Autoresponders

By Patsi Krakoff
Saturday, August 25th, 2007

Cat_fishing
Let’s suppose you want to build a list of people interested in one part of your business related to a product you sell or a service you provide. Offer a 7 part mini-course or tutorial on how to accomplish a certain task.

The reason to do this is obvious: you shouldn’t be overtly marketing a product on your blog that is designed to inform and build relationships to a broader audience.

You make an offer on your blog or in your ezine: those people interested in learning more about how to do "XYZ" can go to a landing page, register their email address and get the 7 step tutorial.

Deliver the tutorial over the span of a week via autoresponder. Make it informational and helpful, including the benefits of your own product or services related to the task.

At some point in the tutorial you’ll want to start offering a call to action to actually buy the product or contact you.

After the tutorial is over, follow-up with related content that allows you to repeat the call to action. The key is to continue to offer value combined with your offer. Don’t send too many email messages, however, be respectful of people’s time and tolerance for promotional material.

To see an example of how I wrote a series of autoresponders, go here and sign up for a 7 part series on writing successful ezines.

To learn and use autoresponders, I recommend KickStartCart.

Categories : Email Marketing Tips, List Building Tips, Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks, Online Marketing

Ezine Alternatives: Which one gets the job done best?

By Patsi Krakoff
Friday, August 24th, 2007

Shocked_girl
Lately I’ve been wondering about ezines and subscriber lists: how much energy should you spend on this?

Obviously, if you’ve got a large list, publishing a regular ezine makes sense; also if your list is small but your open rates are 40% or more. Your ezIne should get your message out to people who want it and who are prospects for your business.

There are alternatives to publishing an ezine, and readers may be more inclined to register their email addresses for these:

  1. An email autoresponder series such as a tutorial or mini-course: people are more likely to sign up for a 10-point tutorial or a 7-day e-course that is specific and has a start and end point.
  2. A white paper: a well-written white paper that informs and educates can work well to generate leads.
  3. A blog that readers can subscribe to and get updates via email: because blog posts are usually short and to the point, readers may prefer to read them over lengthy newsletters.

I have all three of these plus two ezines. Not every professional has time to do all. As far as effectiveness in getting your message out to prospects and building a list, which method do you think works the best for you and your business?

To read a recent discussion of ezines vs blogs, go here.

Categories : Email Marketing Tips, Getting Read, Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks, Online Marketing

Core Message of this Blog: Writing Great Ezines & Blogs

By Patsi Krakoff
Monday, August 20th, 2007

Keyboard_world
Writing for your online business is one of the
most important tasks you have. The style of writing is always evolving for the
Web, and it’s important to learn how to write effectively for your
business. No other marketing task will involve you as much as writing
for your business.

One of the things we teach in our blogging and online marketing classes is to know your audience and know your core message. I am student for life and have always found the best way to learn something is to teach it. So I am always learning these things over and over and each time I go a little deeper.

When I started this blog (September 4, 2004), it was to have a platform to write content for an ebook, Secrets of Successful Ezines. Since then, I discovered the power of blogs for professionals who want to get their message out to people. Blogs or ezines, blogs AND ezines – it doesn’t matter if you do one or both, as long as at least one is a blog!

In the next phase of evolving an online business, I realized the importance of interesting, relevant, keyword-rich content: articles, information products such as special reports, tips, white papers, and ebooks.

Online marketing must include other pieces of writing for the web: landing pages, sales letters,

Read More→

Categories : Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks, On Writing Better, Writing Better Ezines, Writing for the Web, Writing Great Blog Content

Got a New Subscriber? 7 tips for writing a great first message

By Patsi Krakoff
Thursday, August 16th, 2007

Sign_up
What do you say to a new subscriber to your ezine? That first email may be one of the best times to communicate to a new prospect. It’s certainly one time they open and read your message.

My advice? Skip the canned and expected confirmation message that everyone sends and write in an original voice. Be friendly and clear about what they can expect next, and give them an unexpected bonus.

Here are 7 other tips from the Email Experience Council:

1. Use a recognizable "from" line and a subject line that includes the brand name.

2. Fulfill email subscriptions quickly.

3. Be clear on "what comes next" in terms of content and frequency.

4. Ask them to add your address to their address book.

5. Offer something of value for signing up.

6. Use a series of onboarding emails to introduce them to your offerings.

7. Don’t be afraid to include promotional content in welcome emails to capitalize on the high read rates.

Categories : Email Marketing Tips, Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks, Writing Better Ezines

Copywriting & Sales: Leading Challenge for Web Writers, Poll Results Show

By Patsi Krakoff
Monday, July 30th, 2007

Buy_it_keyboard
Writing sales copy is the biggest challenge in our informal poll of writing challenges, after a week of open voting on this blog.

    1. Writing sales and promo copy:                         30.8%
    2. Writing articles, newsletters, & white papers:  23.1%
    3. Writing news/press releases & web pages:       15.4%
    4. Writing blog posts:                                           7.7%

    What does this mean? This is far from a scientifically valid survey because voting is only from readers of this blog who may have biases and are not a representative sample of the general population. But we’re not interested in the general population, anyway.

    My purpose in running this survey was to be able to direct some information to readers that would be most helpful to them, and address my readers’ biggest needs.

    And you know what? I can do that now. Copywriting and sales or promotional messages can be one of the most difficult writing tasks a business person faces. Even more so now that many of us write our own sales copy for the Web, not having big budgets to hire expensive copywriters.

    There are many sites on the web that sell copywriting courses and provide information for that purpose. I have a big problem with many of them, and I don’t know if you do too, but here’s my beef:

    The big names in Internet copywriting are all very good marketers: that’s how they got to have big names and big salaries. But they all have big egos that go with it and I am fed up with all the ego-centric hype that goes with the terrain.

    Read More→

    Categories : Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks, On Writing Better, Online Marketing

    Voting Polls Are Open: Writing and Blog Tasks

    By Patsi Krakoff
    Monday, July 23rd, 2007

    As you can see to the left, writing sales copy leads as the most challenging of writing tasks. Personally, I agree, although if more voters knew about what goes into writing a white paper, that too would get plenty of votes.

    Vote
    What about blog challenges? Denise and I are running a poll over on Build a Better Blog to find out what your most challenging tasks are with business blogs. Why don’t you go vote for your 2 biggest blog concerns?

    Categories : Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks, On Writing Better, Online Marketing

    Writing: how the first sentence is like the serve in tennis

    By Patsi Krakoff
    Thursday, July 19th, 2007

    Tennis_player_serving
    There’s a moment just before the serve in tennis that I stand tall, take a deep breath, and look squarely at my opponent. In that second, I say to myself "I’m a good player; I’ve got a great serve: here goes one of my best serves now." In microseconds, I replay the entire body and racket movements as I toss the ball high in front and to my right. It seems to work, at least some of the time.

    I always say if you’ve got a great serve, your other strokes don’t matter as much. And with writing, if you’ve got a great opening – headline, first sentence, first paragraph – the rest will flow. If your opening is strong then the rest doesn’t matter as much.

    I’ve always done some version of mental imagery, but was recently inspired to renew this physical and mental meditation when I saw the film "The Way of the Peaceful Warrior." In it, the young gymnast stands tall with a fist extended in the air before he begins his routine. In that moment, you can see his confidence and determination as he mentally begins his work.

    I’m now starting to apply this exercise to writing when faced with tasks that are not appetizing to me. News releases are the most difficult, probably because they tend to be more routine and less creative.

    If I can sit tall, face the computer screen with an air of confidence and then repeat some affirmation, it will be easier: "I’m a good journalist; I love writing news releases. They inspire creativity in me. I’m writing a good one now."

    Your turn: what gets you going when faced with a challenging writing task?

    Categories : Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks, On Writing Better

    Writing tasks: they just keep growing

    By Patsi Krakoff
    Tuesday, July 17th, 2007

    When I started out in 1999, there were only 2 ways I wrote for the web: updating my website (through someone else) and writing email.

    Today, I’ve got a list of writing tasks to do:

    1. Blog posts for 4 different blogs
    2. Weekly ezine Savvy eBiz Tips
    3. Articles for directory submissions
    4. Article for my Customized Newsletter Services
    5. White paper for Blog Squad
    6. Sales copy for new Blog Squad group coaching
    7. Email promotion copy for new group
    8. 6 press releases to announce client successes

    Does this seem a lot to you? It seems if you’re trying to do business online, a major part of what you do is write for a living. Am I the only one whose list of writing tasks is growing?

    Take our new poll to the left and let us know which tasks are the most challenging for you.

    Categories : Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks, On Writing Better, Online Marketing, Writing for the Web
    « Previous Page
    Next Page »

    Content for Coaches and Consultants

    Serenity Virtual Assistant Services

    Social Buzz Club

    get your bright idea known