On Writing Better | Writing On The Web by Patsi Krakoff, The Blog Squad

Writing On The Web by Patsi Krakoff, The Blog Squad

Content Marketing Strategies for Smart Professionals

Archive for On Writing Better – Page 38

Summarize Your List & Ask Readers

By Patsi Krakoff

Thursday, May 17th, 2007

After you’ve written daily on your blog about each main point in your article, you need to review, summarize, and ask your readers for something.

For example, on Monday I introduced my formula for a serial writing project:

1 concept = 5 points + intro + summary = 7 articles + 1 PDF report

On Tuesday, I made my confession about why I love serial writing (saves time and energy, produces multiple articles, blog posts and special reports).

On Wednesday, I revealed the "Make a List" tip for breaking down any article into doable chunks.

This post is reviewing the steps for serial writing and summarizing. Remember that your summary serves a greater purpose than just reminding readers what they have learned so far.

Here are two real reasons a summary is important:

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

Make a List of 5 Key Points

By Patsi Krakoff

Wednesday, May 16th, 2007

The key to writing multiple articles for your blog, ezine, web pages and marketing purposes is to start with a good list of 3-5 key points. My previous two posts on this explained the time and energy saving advantages.

This is not to mean you don’t have to do any research or reading on your topic. It depends on how well you know your subject. If you know the topic well, it’s easy to break down a concept into 3-5 elements.

Here’s my 5 point list for any serial writing project:

Start with an idea that will benefit your readers
Break it down to 3-5 steps or key elements
Write an introduction to the article that includes the problem/solution, benefits to the reader, and your list
Post about each point in your list on your blog
After the final point, summarize and review, and remind readers why this is important to them and what they can do next

That’s it. Writing the points as a daily blog post helps you to be short and to the point. Also, blog writing tends to be more informal and personal. For me that helps stay away from academic jargon or language that’s formal or convoluted.

Posting daily breaks the full article down into doable chunks. This helps you avoid writing blocks or procrastination because you have a writing plan: you have your list.

At the end of a week, you have several chunks you can gather together to form a full article.

Serial Writing Formula: 1+5+2=7+1

Confessionals of a Serial Writer

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

Confessions of a Serial Writer

By Patsi Krakoff

Tuesday, May 15th, 2007

I’m not sure when it began or who’s to blame, but at some point in my writing career I got lazy. Or maybe I got smart. I started skipping the long research on a topic and reading up on its history. I just started making a list of main points and then writing out a couple of sentences on each item.

I think I got the idea from Jeff Herring, The Article Guy, who said if you can write a 7 item grocery list, you can write a good article. Now Jeff teaches article writing for people who struggle with writing and have a hard time coming up with stuff.

That’s not my problem. I love writing – but my problem is writing too much. Anyone with a doctorate suffers from the same disease. Dissertation-itis. Nobody has time to read all those words anymore, especially not online.

That’s when I fell in love with the "Make a List" writing school. Their theory is anything worth reading can be written in a list of bulleted points.

I confess, I’ve taken the list building approach to an extreme. I’ve become a serial writer.

I wish I could say that it’s the cure for writer’s block, or that it’ll turn your work into Internet gold. I will proclaim it to be a rousing success for saving you time and energy whenever you’re faced with writing for your ezine, blog, web pages, press releases, and even white papers.

Here’s how to start a serial writing project: (in list form, of course)

Categories : Article Ideas, On Writing Better, Writing Better Ezines, Writing Great Blog Content

Serial Writing Formula: 1=5+2=7+1

By Patsi Krakoff

Tuesday, May 15th, 2007

I’m no math genius, nor do I even think remotely like that in analytical terms. But once in a while I stumble upon something that makes sense, saves time, and produces exponential results.

I’m talking about serial writing. You take one main concept, break it down into a list of 5 key elements, write an introductory overview, write a concluding summary, and here’s what you get:

7 stand-alone articles to post on your blog and to submit to article directories
1 longer article you can include on your website, ezine, and format into a PDF special report to sell or give away as a bonus.

1 idea = 5 points + intro + summary = 7 articles + 1 PDF report

Here’s why I like to do this:

Categories : Article Ideas, Email Marketing Tips, Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks, On Writing Better, Online Marketing

Compelling Offers & Converting Visitors to Clients

By Patsi Krakoff

Monday, May 7th, 2007

This is step 4 in our 6-step formula for getting clients and making money with your business online. This is the bridge between writing for your business and getting results. How well you write irresistible offers to your readers will persuade them to buy. But without a seamless sales process to reinforce your credibility as a business, the sale will fall through.

Step 4: Make a Compelling Offer and Convert Your Visitor to a Client

Some say it takes 7-12 contacts with a prospect before he/she is ready to buy. Others say it takes much more than that when the only contact you have with the prospect is through written words on a Web page.

Why? Because your words lack the credibility and trustworthiness of a human face or voice. You can understand the popularity of audio and video blogging for just that reason: people trust people they like and feel an affinity to. It’s hard to do that with words on a page.

This is why copywriters earn such large fees. They aren’t writing about ideas or features or even painting a rosy picture of whatever it is you’re selling. They are connecting on an emotional level with your prospects.

Categories : Email Marketing Tips, On Writing Better, Online Marketing

CoachEzines: About Writing Better Ezines, Blogs and Web Content

By Patsi Krakoff

Monday, May 7th, 2007

If you’ve landed here through StumbleUpon or some other way, I hope you’re looking for tips on writing better for your online business. I’m Patsi Krakoff and I write about online writing for ezines, business blogs and marketing on the Web.

Want to learn more about the best way to get your business found on the Web? Let me send you our free White Paper: The Great Internet Marketing Challenge: register here. You’ll learn a few things for sure, just sign up at www.onlinemarketingchallenge.com and we’ll send it to you immediately.

Be sure to subscribe using the Feedblitz sign up form in the upper left corner. You’ll get an email notice each time I write new stuff about writing online.

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

Content that Convinces: 4 Tips for Email Marketing

By Patsi Krakoff

Monday, May 7th, 2007

We’ve been reviewing a 6 step formula for online success over on our sister blog, Next Level Biz Tips. If you’ve missed the first parts, you can read them there:

6 Steps for Successful Online Marketing for Your Business
Step 1: Attract the right people
Step 2: Give People Something for Free to Grow Your Database

Step 3: Write Content that Convinces People You Are a Savvy & Trustworthy Person

Once people opt in to your list, you must stay in touch with them through email. Email marketing is an art and a science because you must be respectful, give plenty of value and still let people know you have products and services for them.

Chris Baggott’s new book Email Marketing By the Num8ers lays it all out for anyone wanting to learn how to market using email. (Shameless plug: I contributed to chapters 2 and 7!)

How do you write content for your email marketing messages? Many marketers focus on getting the results they want: a purchase, a registration, a new client.

If you go about it like a drunken frat boy at a party, you’ll get the door slammed in your face. Both Baggott and Seth Godin (Permission Marketing) say to approach your marketing like you would woo your future spouse.

Here’s a short list to guide you when writing a follow-up email message to people on your list. Make sure you:

1. Focus on the reader
2. Focus on the benefits to the reader of what you are offering
3. Write to inform and educate, not to tell or sell
4. Write to build a long-term relationship not a one-night stand

Why are your email messages so important?

Categories : Email Marketing Tips, On Writing Better, Online Marketing

Writng for Money, Spiders, or Ego?

By Patsi Krakoff

Tuesday, May 1st, 2007

Words = Money

I just read an email from one of those AdSense traffic guys – you know, the ones that put up multiple web sites with keywords built into the content solely for the purpose of getting traffic and click-throughs on ads?

I think they call them ‘black hat specialists’ for their less than natural ways of trying to game Google.

In any case, these guys are making money using words on a web page. Sometimes it’s $2 or $4/a day, but if you put up enough of these sites, you can generate $2000 to $4000 a month. And, it’s not like ‘real’ work either. So who am I to criticize?

Do you make money with your words? Here’s what I see among the different kinds of people writing on the web: There are those who write for the spiders, write for their egos, and those who write for money.

Categories : On Writing Better, Online Marketing, Writing for the Web

Unblocking Writing Blocks

By Patsi Krakoff

Monday, April 23rd, 2007

It’s been a while since I’ve had writer’s block, but I do have times during the day when I block myself from writing. I won’t write in the late afternoon or evenings because it hurts. I get that fingernails-on-blackboard feeling in my brain when I try to write when I’m tired.

Jurgen Wolff’s Time to Write blog talks about ways to override negative subconscious messages in order to unblock your writing.

His story about science fiction writer Cory Doctorow illustrates how "our subconscious mind can work for us and against us. It provides us with great ideas, works while we sleep or are thinking of other things, and gives us great joy. Sometimes, though, it can also trap us in negativity or repetitive thoughts and behaviours."

The message I tell myself about not writing late in the day is a negative one. I’d like to get rid of it, since we are having an increase in writing assignments due to business thriving. Maybe it’s as simple as "just doing it," just getting rid of that belief and replacing it with another.

What beliefs do you have about your own writing that may stop you from being creative or writing?

Categories : On Writing Better

Archive for On Writing Better – Page 38

Summarize Your List & Ask Readers

Make a List of 5 Key Points

Confessions of a Serial Writer

Serial Writing Formula: 1=5+2=7+1

Compelling Offers & Converting Visitors to Clients

CoachEzines: About Writing Better Ezines, Blogs and Web Content

Content that Convinces: 4 Tips for Email Marketing

Writng for Money, Spiders, or Ego?

Unblocking Writing Blocks

Content for Coaches and Consultants

Serenity Virtual Assistant Services

Social Buzz Club