Archive for Writing Great Blog Content – Page 16

Blogging Naked: Personality Is Included

By Patsi Krakoff
Sunday, May 11th, 2008

Personalitynotincluded
I’m reading Personality not Included  by Rohit Bhargava right now. And I’m having pangs of inadequacy.

I think I must have been somehow traumatized by the ‘in-crowd’ kids in school who were hanging out in packs and talking about having a ‘cool personality.’ (I know, but in those days we had somewhat archaic language for bad-ass, and ‘cool’ was it.)

Personality: I never got it then, and probably still don’t. I know I’ve got one, just not sure that it’s all that ‘cool.’

Recently I’ve been filming The Blog Squad video clips of myself talking about blog writing tips. Have you ever had a chance to see yourself on film? It’s revealing for sure… omg, as the kids say.

(Dialog inside my head: "I think I come across as a dork. I seem unsure of myself, modest (not a good trait for a marketing expert), and somewhat shy. Definitely not cool…")

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Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing, Online Marketing, Writing Great Blog Content

5 Ways to Enrich Your Blog Posts

By Patsi Krakoff
Friday, May 9th, 2008

Business blog authors love writing on blogs since it’s so quick and easy. You can usually post in 20-30 minutes and be done with it. That’s a great use of your marketing time, and you provide readers with valuable content to market your business.

Rodin_s_thinker_statue
But while ‘quick and easy’ is great, sometimes it’s not enough. Denise and I recommend you write at least one rich and meaty post a week. Stimulate your readers to think. Be profound. Go deep.

“Oh no,” you might be saying. “More time to spend on blogging!”

It gets even worse: here’s another “E” writing tip! Enrich your blog posts! First it was the 3E’s – Educate, Entertain and Engage readers.

Now there are 4 E’s! Educate, Entertain, Engage and Enrich with your blog posts!

How do you enrichen your post? Here are 5 ways. But don’t expect to be writing and posting in 20 minutes. This takes time to read, research, find quotes, and to link back to sources.

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Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Writing Great Blog Content

4 Questions a blog post should ask and answer

By Patsi Krakoff
Thursday, May 8th, 2008

Question_cube
This is a follow up to yesterday’s post Educate Your Readers, about the four different learning styles of blog readers.

Why this is important: Because you want your blog posts to educate, entertain, and engage readers of your business blog. What do you need to remember when writing a post that’s designed to educate?

According to the 4MAT system on www.aboutlearning.com, when you are educating people you need to appeal to four different kinds of learning styles:

  1. Imaginative learners
  2. Analytic learners
  3. Common sense learners
  4. Dynamic learners

How does this translate into blog writing for your business? Think in terms of the questions each type of learner would be asking as they read your blog post:

  1. Why?
  2. What?
  3. How?
  4. What if?

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Categories : Content Marketing, Writing Great Blog Content

Educate your readers: 4 ways people learn

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, May 7th, 2008

Science_professor
Remember the 3 E’s of Better Business Blogging? It’s my short hand memory checklist before publishing a blog post: Educate, Entertain, & Engage readers.

You write to educate, entertain and engage readers when you want to build readerships and get great results with your blogging.

When it comes to educating readers, it’s important to take a page out of teachers’ notebooks. Teachers know that not all people learn the same way.

Most of us teach in the style we’re most familiar with: our own learning styles. If you’re analytical, you’ll teach using data. Your blog readers will understand and learn well if they’re like you.

But not all readers are the same. Denise is an active experimenter. She wants to know how to do something and needs to try it out before she learns something.

I’m probably more of a conceptualizer: I’ve got to sit and think about something a while. It also helps when there are visuals so I can see how it works.

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Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing, Writing Great Blog Content

Brian Clark and the Secret to Life

By Patsi Krakoff
Tuesday, May 6th, 2008

Copyblogger_tagline If you haven’t read Copyblogger Brian Clark’s story The Snowboard, the Subdural Hemotoma and the Secret to Life yet, do so now. This is what I refer to as telling your story and capturing the hearts of readers. But be prepared to be moved…

Categories : Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Writing Great Blog Content

Cornerstone Content for Better Business Blogging

By Patsi Krakoff
Monday, May 5th, 2008

Building_houses Do you know what I think most business blogs are missing? A clearly defined key post that explains:

• what the blog author’s core message is
• what the blog author’s story is and why they are blogging
• what the blog author really values and cares about
• what the blog author gets angry about

I call this Cornerstone Content. Others call it pillar posts, flagship content, core content.

It needs to be featured on special stand alone page(s). You announce it in a side-bar notice and link to it so that first time visitors know exactly where they can read your cornerstone message.

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Categories : Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Writing Great Blog Content

Negative Business Blogging: Just don’t bore me…

By Patsi Krakoff
Monday, April 28th, 2008

Ist1_665933_who_gave_her_decaf
How can you create better business blog posts? This isn’t always easy to do. How many different ways can you write about your expertise with enough pizazz to create buzz or at least a few reader comments? Here’s a suggestion:

Go negative. Take something someone said and rigorously disagree with them. People love reading an argument. It’s human nature. But there’s a right way to do this…

Easier said than done if you want to maintain good relationships with colleagues and peers, if you ask me. One person who gets it right is Leesa Barnes, Podcasting Expert. Last week she disagreed with someone over the environment. I thought I’d share this excerpt and link to her post. She knows how to "go negative" in a way that is cool and stirs up the conversation.

Today, April 22nd, is Earth Day and I’ll be honest. I don’t care about the environment. Actually, I do care about the environment, I just don’t care about all the hype surrounding it. It seems that people care about the environment only when it’s cool to do so.

Read her full post and then see how you can use  negativity to create an interesting post for your readers. Of course, you can always disagree with me and start an argument about this…;-)

Categories : Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Writing Great Blog Content

Hypnotic Phrases: Why they work

By Patsi Krakoff
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008

Hypnotic
You might be curious if you read my previous post about Joe Vitale’s book Hypnotic Writing. I don’t think I did a good job of explaining why and how hypnotic phrases actually work for you when writing copy and blog posts.

You’re probably savvy enough to spot the hypnotic phrases I used towards the end of the post as examples. I used them to illustrate tongue-in-cheek how to implant the suggestion of going over to buy the book on Amazon. But I know that much is lost on the Web when it comes to subtle attempts at humor.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how and why using certain phrases really do work to persuade readers. This is important stuff for anyone who wants to develop relationships with clients through writing, especially on the Web.

Here’s why hypnotic writing works for your business:

It’s about connecting with readers (almost intimately).

In person, you would think about establishing rapport through non-verbal behaviors and using your eyes and face.

In writing, you express how your reader is responding to what you write, what they might be thinking and feeling. And sometimes you are only guessing and suggesting…

Every time you use the word ‘you,’ you are connecting with your reader.

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Categories : Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Writing Great Blog Content, Writing Great Copy

Blog Writing: How to find the time…

By Patsi Krakoff
Friday, April 18th, 2008

Question_mark
We asked about your questions concerning better blog writing, and even though comments on this blog have been sparse, we got a ton of responses over on LinkedIn, a social networking site that many professionals participate on.

The number one question was, "How do I find the time to write on my blog?" Is ‘finding time’ an issue for you when it comes to writing?

For me, you can never "find" time because there’s only so much of it – and never enough. You can, however, schedule time. Since I know that this blog needs updating 2-3 times a week,  I know that every other day I must post.

If I schedule 20-30 minutes first thing in the morning, it gets done. It’s not difficult but it can be tricky. For example, if I open email first, it doesn’t get done. The trick is to post on your blog first, before you get captured by any other task.

I don’t think time is really the issue. It’s seeing results. You don’t have to "find the time" for something that’s important for business. You certainly find time to deposit checks into your bank account, so why would you wait to post "when you have time?"

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Categories : About Blogs, Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks, On Writing Better, Writing Great Blog Content

Blog Contest: We face off against Men with Pens

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, April 9th, 2008

Arm_wrestling_business_vs_sports
What’s a little blond girl to do when her blog faces off in a match-up contest against the big bad Men with Pens?

We’re being judged in a fabulous contest that pits two blogs against each other, mano-a-mano. This is the brain child of John Hewitt at Writers Resource Center that was hatched as part of a March Madness event.

We’ll I’m not racing off to bake cookies for the judges. What you see is what you get. I didn’t even change out of my jammies and slippers.

I’m a little concerned though, cuz even though Denise and I dish out blog critiques to our clients, it’s hard to take a dose of your own medicine. Here are some of the points this blog will be matched up against those big guys Harry and James, the Men with Pens…

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Categories : About Blogs, Blogs We Love, Writing Great Blog Content
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