Archive for Writing for the Web – Page 8

Biz Blog Writing: It’s time to make money.

Bwe08day3031
"Business blogging is not about ‘do you have time to write?’… but do you have time to make money!" said wise man Des Walsh at the Small Business Blogging panel at Blog World Expo 08.

The best business partner in the world, Denise Wakeman, was on one of the best panels there, How to Plan, Build and Promote a Small Business Blog. You can read notes on Twitter.com by clicking on the link.

And, to help you learn even more, here are the handouts the panel provided:

Download small_business_blog1.pdf

Download small_business_blog2.pdf

The other panelists were Rich Brooks of Flyte New Media and John T. Unger, the Typepad Hacks guy. These are two of the savviest guys around when it comes to blog knowledge.

So then the big question most of us ask about blog writing, how do you turn readers into buyers? My deceased great-grandmother, an ancient purveyor of wisdom, used to say, "Slowly, slowly… catchee monkey!"

Read More→

8 Writing Steps Yield $18,000 in a Month

Dollars_rain
What are the writing tasks involved in order to promote a major teleseminar program on the Internet? Obviously, you have to write a sales or landing page. But that’s only one part of it. There’s so much more.

Recently Denise and I along with colleague Kathleen Gage promoted a 4-week teleseminar called The Law of Action 2.0: Attract Clients and Build a Money-Making Business on the ‘Net. We started by promoting a free teleseminar called The 5 Traps of Internet Marketing. We got about 1,000 people to register for the call.

From that, we promoted the paid program, registering 94 participants and netted $18,000. The program is delivered in four 90-minute sessions and includes a private Facebook group, learning guides and many resources.

But it would be a gross exaggeration to say we’re earning $3,000/hour with the 6 hour program, although some Internet marketers would certainly use that calculation as bragging rights.

The truth is we spent considerable time writing the promotional materials and distributing our content in various forms all over the Internet long before the free program on June 24.

Denise is outlining all the promotional steps we did over on BizTips Blog this week. As a companion piece, I’m writing on this blog a series of posts to show you every piece of content marketing that was involved in the success of this program.

Read More→

5 Blog Writing Lessons from the French Open Tennis Championships

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.

Men with Pens Squeaks Out 1 Point Victory in Blog Match Up

Champ_boxing
In a hard and close battle, this blog lost by a measly 1 point to those big bad Men with Pens, Harry McLeod and James Chartrand. (Just because they are prolific bloggers with a huge archive of valuable posts and a community of raving fans who adore them…really!)

John Hewitt of Writers Resource Center is doing the equivalent of March Madness of writing blogs, pitting two blogs against each other, and generating valuable feedback on how to make blogs better.

I can’t disagree with anything he said about this blog, and will take his suggestions for improvement to heart. You can read his critique of Writing on the Web here.

John has been so generous in sharing his wisdom and perspective. On top of which we all had a great time leaving trash talk comments about the contest on each others’ blogs.

Here’s James’ and Harry’s report out of the contest from the victory box. Good luck to Men with Pens in the next round where their blog is matched-up against Brian Clark of Copyblogger.

Here’s what else I learned from John Hewitt of Writers Resource Center:

Read More→

Wishy-Washy Writing: Just delete these 5 words

Delete_key
This is worth reading and not just because it echoes my thoughts every time I read someone’s blog writing that’s too wishy-washy: 5 Words You Can Cut Out, from the Daily Writing Tip:

  1. just
  2. really
  3. quite
  4. perhaps
  5. that

I have to add two:

  1. maybe
  2. very

Every time you re-read your writing, be on the look-out for these wishy-washy offenders and make your writing stronger, better.

Content Marketing: An easier, softer way to snag clients

Watching_tv
Six months ago I hadn’t heard the term ‘content marketing,’ but I liked it immediately. So much so, I put it in the tag line of this blog when I redesigned it: How to Use Content Marketing to Attract, Sell and Profit Online.

Most people I talk to guess that content marketing means writing, publishing, and distributing content that ultimately sells your services or products.

Joe Pulizzi, of Junta42 blog, defines it like this:

Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.

Understandably, you may not be clear what that really means or how important it is for your business yet. Quite frankly, I’m not sure anybody can really tell you what that specifically means for you. You might have to do some serious thinking…like, for example:

Read More→

Be a Journalist: Great Marketing Advice for 2008

"Kid_journalistBecome a journalist," advises John Jantsch, of Duct Tape Marketing. That’s his best marketing secret shared on Anita Campbell’s blog Small Business Trends.

ā€œ… no, Iā€™m not really suggesting that you join the staff of some publication, but the acceptance of new media tools like blogs and podcasts has turned the marketing tables – so take advantage of the allure of a reporter and start a blog and podcast and request interviews with industry leaders, community leaders, authors and maybe even your biggest prospects.

Instead of asking for a meeting to demonstrate your product, ask to feature your prospect in your next blog or podcast episode. You will automatically change your status in their eyes, increase your role as an expert and create great content for your marketing materials.ā€

This is something Denise and I have done over the last six years. We interview experts on both free and for-fee teleseminars.

Next week, for example, we’re interviewing Steven van Yoder, about how to Get Slightly Famous, his trademarked message and book, for our Blogging and

Read More→

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.

Who and Why? 2 Questions Your Site Should Answer

Anonymity
A client asked for feedback on their blog the other day. I visited and was amazed. While the content was definitely oriented to reader benefits (earn more money, have more time off, create a dream life) –always a good first step –the content was simply signed, "The Team."

There was no ‘about’ page or anywhere on the site to say who was authoring the content. There was a company but no company bio or any personal names at all. No way to know who was "speaking" to the reader.

When I suggested that they identify themselves, the client explained it wasn’t necessary since people come to the site through a link from someone and they would know who sent them there.

The two biggest questions people ask when they read a page is

  1. Who is speaking to me? (and, Why should I believe anything they say to me?)
  2. Why should I stay and read this?

You can’t hide behind a company name, or be vague if you want to create credibility and trust.

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!