Archive for On Writing Better – Page 31

Authors Can Make Money – Online more than in bookstores

Authors waste too much time worrying about the wrong things when it comes to selling books online.

Missing on many author sites are a gold mine of free articles, a link to a content-rich
blog, pages optimized for the search engines, and a way to capture email addresses.

Witty
Tom Antion and Adam Witty would rather authors take care of their Internet presence… Like which web pages pull in the most traffic. Or which pages
lose the most visitors. Or how to blog about their topic. Or how to
manage their own websites without having to rely on expensive techies
who take two days to fix one lousy typo.

Antion2
Tom, an internationally acclaimed expert at Internet marketing, and
Adam, founder and CEO of Advantage Media Group, a leading publishing
house, want authors everywhere to stop relying only on bookstores to
sell the bulk of their books. They want you to know about their
"three-pronged attack" for making books fly out the door, thanks to a
website that goes ka-ching, ka-ching.

Denise and I have bribed them to be our guests during a complimentary teleseminar for
authors and aspiring authors. It will be from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Pacific Time on
Thursday, January 31, 2008. It’s called "How Authors Make Money on the
Internet…FOR REAL."

Curious? Sign up for this complimentary teleseminar at http://www.blogsquadteleseminars.com/click

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Conversations, not Advertising Hype

Talking_gently
If you’re writing about your company or your services and products with a conversational tone, you’re right on track. An article in Business Week tells why. Advertising: Now a Conversation by Ted Shelton Business Week Jan. 18, 2009:

In today’s environment where independent information about a product is plentiful, traditional one-way messages to consumers no longer work… in the post-industrial world, reputation, relationships, and recommendations can come at any time from anywhere to affect a purchase decision.

Blog authors and content marketers who embrace the fact that consumers are going online to find out about products and services are finding that joining the conversations is more effective.

But what if you’re a small business owner or independent professional? There may not be any conversations to join. You must start the ball rolling. Create a conversation with your readers. Engage with them about their challenges and frustrations. Provide free information and solutions.

Find out more about how to write blog content effectively by joining us for February’s course: www.boostyourbusinessblog.com.

This requires a new style of writing that many marketers and professionals quite simply don’t know. How do you have a conversation on your 

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42 Top Content Marketing Blogs: We made the list at #25!

Junta42_top_blog This blog has been included in a list of 42 Top Content Marketing Blogs, that Joe Pulizzi has compiled. I tell you this because I’m glad and proud, of course. But there’s another reason: there are some very good blogs on this list that you should familiarize yourself with.

If you’re writing for your business, you should visit some of these blogs to learn how to do content marketing better.

I struggled for a while to define the purpose of this blog because it started out as a platform for me to compose content for an ebook on writing ezines and newsletters. But in the last 3 years, I’m writing about other forms of communication for business: press releases, articles, white papers, even sales copy. It’s all about Content Marketing.

It’s all about learning to write for your business on the web in a way that builds relationships with prospects and clients: Content marketing. Joe Pulizzi runs an expert blog on the subject, Junta42Blog, well worth the visit.

Want to know about this subject? Get Content, Get Customers is an excellent free ebook written by Joe and Newt Barrett.

Writing Better: Going to the crossroads down Mexico way…

Ajijiccourtyardjuly06
I have an expatriate’s heart. When I moved to Paris in the early 70s I had no idea I would stay until 1989. I moved back to San Diego long enough to get my doctorate and meet my husband. Then we took off to live in Ajijic, in Jalisco, Mexico in 2002.

I’m leaving tomorrow to check on our house down there, and to reconnect with friends in the village. I tell you this because it has everything to do with writing better.

You must read Brian Clark’s recent post The Content Crossroads: Supernatural Success at the Intersection of Ideas . It’s one of those, you know… wish I had written this! posts you want to keep for inspiration.

It weaves a story of Robert Johnson, the blues guitarist, the Medici Family in Florence Italy, and Richard Dawkins, the evolutionary biologist who coined the term "meme" for the natural selection process of speading ideas. Here’s one of the suggestions Brian makes for improving your writing:

Travel: One of the great benefits of online business is freedom from the tyranny of geography. And the more we see of the world and different cultures, the more our minds open up and see limitless connections and possibilities. One of the worst things we do to ourselves in terms of creativity is to stay within the realm of the familiar.

So that’s my story, and a good excuse for sneaking away to Mexico for a week… If you’d like to see our house, please visit this photo tour here.

Copywriting Makeovers: Watch a Pro in Action

I don’t know about you, but one of the best ways I learn about writing – especially writing sales copy – is by looking over the shoulder of a pro while they edit and tweak content to make it more effective.

When my first editor at the San Diego Union-Trib sat down with me and with a red pencil slashed through my first by-lined feature article, I rapidly learned how to make copy better. I remember fighting back the tears at the time, but boy did I learn quickly.

Lorrie_mo
Now here’s a chance to look over the shoulder of Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero as she tweaks copy in order to improve sales results. And, it’s free. It all happens Tuesday January 22 at 2 p.m. ET. Here’s where to register: http://snipurl.com/copymakeovers.

Here’s why you should register: copywriting is THE most important skill you need to acquire when using the Internet to grow your business. Writing on the web involves copywriting skills, even when you’re not writing a sales letter per se. That’s because on the web, all you have are your words: they are your customer representatives and relationship managers. You must learn to write well.

Read more about this Copywriting Makeover Webinar presented by Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero of Red Hot Communications:

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Sex Appeal: Do your blog posts have it?

Sexandthecity
When you write, do you try to seduce people?

Psychologists will tell you there are four basic temperaments, each with it’s own particular emotional triggers. Most TV sitcoms have characters who are prime examples of these.

Take Sex in the City. Each of the four women embody different personality styles:

  • Carrie serves as the Humanistic hub that brings all the others together, and she discusses and writes about her feelings and relationships
  • Samantha, the here-and-now, “I’ll try anything,” confident hedonist, represents the Spontaneous temperament
  • Miranda’s hard-edged, skeptical, career-minded “voice-of-reason” perspective corresponds to the Competitive temperament
  • Charlotte’s more traditional, conservative concern for “The Rules” marks her as a Methodical

Jeff Sexton writes a great guest post on Copyblogger entitled The Hidden Key to Cosmo Headlines: Sex and the City? He asks if as a blog writer, do you take into consideration each temperament when you write your headlines?

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Great Content vs Marketing: What do I write about?

Orange_man_thinker
So now you realize that you need to publish content to get found online and use the Internet to grow your business; then there’s that big question looming like a dark cloud: What do I write about?

Brian Clark writes If Content is the New Advertising, What Does Your Advertising Say About You?

  • You need to attract attention and make people aware of who you are and what you do.
  • You then need to transform that attention into revenue or some other measurable benefit.

The plain truth is, great content is the most effective way to advertise online, because to be considered great content, it can’t look anything like what we consider advertising.

Great content naturally shows readers that you’re knowledgeable about your field of expertise, and that’s why it works so well.

Here’s an example. When you tell a story about a client with a problem and how you provide help, people are drawn into it. Especially if it is a common problem, people are identifying with the character in the story, and visualizing the results as you reveal how you solved the problem.

By engaging people through your story or anecdote, you are stimulating their own thought processes and imagination. They become one step closer to hiring you or to buying your product.

When I was starting my therapy business and needed clients, the first place I advertised was a family magazine. I bought space to write stories of people 

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3 Tips for Blog Writing When You’d Rather Not…

New_year_2008_and_old_2007_2006So far, looking at the poll results, it looks like readers want to master writing information products and blog posts for marketing success in 2008. I suspect many people haven’t voted yet, as some are still away on Holidays.

(Then again, if you’re like many people, reading blogs and surfing the Internet has a big appeal after spending a series of days with the relatives!) My blog traffic didn’t go down over these last few weeks, even though I haven’t been posting as frequently. But that’s another story…

Here’s a few quick tips to help you quickly get into the swing of writing good blog posts. I myself struggle with "writing rhythm:" when you’re hot, you’re hot, and when you’ve been away from it for a few days, you’re likely to write with the passion and enthusiasm of a librarian on Valium.

"Get-back-to-writing" tips:

  1. Go check with what your readers want to know. (See first paragraph above…and run your own poll.)
  2. Go check with what your competitors and/or peers are writing. (Then do something different!)
  3. Make a list of 3 helpful tips to help readers solve a problem that interests them.

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New Poll: What Do You Need to Master for 2008?

Computer_gold
I’d like you to vote on which writing tasks you feel you need to learn to master the most, if you want to explode your Internet marketing results in 2008.

As you may have noticed, I’ve changed the name of this blog so that I can cover all the different ways writing is used to grow and market your business online. I need to know what topics interest you, the readers, the most so I can make this blog as useful and relevant to you as possible.

The poll is on the right side bar. You can pick two out of this list. If you don’t find what you want on this poll, hit the comment link and tell me what you need to learn the most. Thanks, and all the best for 2008!

Writing on the Web: New Blog Name

Here’s why I’ve changed this blog’s name from CoachEzines, to Writing on the Web: I started in 2004 primarily focusing on writing great ezines and blogs, but today’s Internet marketing includes many more ways to communicate. If you want to leverage the Internet to Attract, Sell, and Profit, you must learn new ways of Writing on the Web.

Read this page if you want to know more: Why Writing on the Web is Key to Internet Marketing