Writing On The Web by Patsi Krakoff, The Blog Squad

Content Marketing Strategies for Smart Professionals

Blogging & Beyond: Attract, Sell, Profit

Tune in this Thursday, February 15, at 11 a.m. ET for The Blog Squad’s sixth Internet radio show on VoiceAmerica channel:

Email Is Dead, Long Live Email

By Patsi Krakoff in Email Marketing Tips, Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks, Online Marketing, Teleclasses & Seminars, Writing Better Ezines

Blogging and Beyond with The Blog Squad: Patsi Krakoff and Denise Wakeman, Internet Radio Show

"Email is Dead, Long Live Email!"
With guest Chris Baggott of Exact Target
Thursday, February 8 at 11:00 a.m. ET on Voice America

Why you need a newsletter and how it works with your other marketing tools: The Blog Squad reveals essential information to make writing, formatting and sending out an electronic newsletter (ezine) easy and effective. Guest expert Chris Baggott of Exact Target discusses issues affecting deliverability and ezine results and best practices. In the second half of the show, we’ll work with Ideal Client Erik Feder on how to optimize his email newsletter.

If you have a question for Chris Baggott, please use the Comment link below and we’ll do our best to get it answered on the show.

Recipe for an Ezine: Name It

By Patsi Krakoff in How to...Tips

Yesterday we started an 8 part series on key elements to an effective newsletter for your business. Today, we start with picking a title.

Ingredient #1: Start Smart: Name Your Ezine

Before you name your ezine (electronic newsletter), you must get clear about its purpose, the purpose of your business, and why you care. In our Quick-Start Ezine Guide, we suggest writing down two purpose statements:

1. What is your business purpose? (Sell more products, get clients, for example)
2. What is your “higher” purpose? (To provide the best products or services, to help others to achieve something, to make lives easier, etc.)

These two layers of purpose will connect your passion to the realism of making your business successful. By articulating your true values and your business goals you will discover more energy when it comes to writing your ezine.

This will help you find an appropriate name for your ezine. Ideally, like naming anything, your title should be clear, clever and compelling. However, never sacrifice clarity in order to be clever. You want readers to know what your ezine is about just by its name, if possible.

Recipe for an Ezine: 8 Key Ingredients that Get Results

By Patsi Krakoff in Email Marketing Tips, How to...Tips, Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks, Writing Better Ezines

In our work with clients, we often hear this question from entrepreneurs who want to leverage the Internet and start marketing online: “Should I publish a newsletter?” As part of our Customized Newsletter Services program, we have reviewed hundreds of e-newsletters, or ezines, and can spot common errors immediately.

We have found ezines that work well for attracting new clients usually have these eight key ingredients:

1. A great name that defines the topic
2. A defined audience and clear purpose
3. A compelling headline or subject line
4. Valuable information readers can use
5. A call to action
6. A customized template or plain text formatting
7. A bonus incentive for subscribing
8. CAN-SPAM Compliance and a privacy statement

You will notice that the first five ingredients refer to the actual content of the ezine; the last three elements refer to how it is delivered. Each element contributes to the overall effectiveness of a newsletter for growing your business.

First, are newsletters really necessary for a strong online marketing system?

Should You Publish an Ezine?

Writing Better Headlines: The Power of 3

By Patsi Krakoff in Writing Better Ezines, Writing Great Blog Content, Writing Great Copy, Writing Great Press Releases

The purpose of a headline is to get people to start reading. That’s it. Your headline (or subject line in email) is crucial.

I recently read a good post on Michel Fortin’s blog about headlines and his 3 X 3 Rule:

The best headlines are those that start a story, make a shocking statement, tease a bit, offer a benefit or prepare the reader for what’s to come.

That is, your headline should cater to:

The three greatest human goals: to make or save time, effort or money
The three greatest human desires: lust, greed or comfort
The three greatest human teasers: curiosity, scarcity or controversy

How simple and clear is that? When you think about it, in a marketing perspective, you are trying to save people time, effort or money. So you appeal to their lust, greed or comfort…

Oh, that’s interesting because I just recognize that I usually only appeal to their comfort – something

10 Most Misused & Misspelled Words in Blogs

By Patsi Krakoff in Grammar & Common Usages, Writing Better Ezines, Writing Great Blog Content, Writing Great Copy, Writing Great Press Releases

I see these spelling mistakes all the time, not only in blogs, but in word docs, PDFs and PowerPoint presentations. No spell checker will pick them up, because they aren’t misspellings, simply misuses.

1. Your – You’re
2. Then – Than
3. Its – it’s
4. To – Too – Two
5. Were – Where – We’re
6. There – Their – They’re
7. A – An – And
8. Off – Of
9. Here – Hear
10. Lose – Loose

The list comes via Steve Rubel, via Dave Krug’s 901am blog, and originated with Johan Holmberg’s blog The Probabalist which had 121 comments to it! Seems people notice these everywhere and they are more annoying than you might think.

Which brings me to the point: if you’re blogging about something important to you, don’t let these easy errors distract your readers from paying attention. Although some bloggers pride themselves on being spontaneous, that’s no excuse for not re-reading a post for errors before you publish. Or after you publish – as all blog posts are easily edited.

What about you? What other errors have you notices on blogs?

Dave Taylor Is Really Clear About Why Blogs Are Good for Business

By Patsi Krakoff in About Blogs

Anyone doing business on the Internet should be blogging. Don’t listen to just me, or Denise. Listen to Dave Taylor. After all, Dave has published over 19 books on tech and business issues, and he’s been around since the start of the Internet. He says it clearly in a way even the most naive, non-techie person can understand. Here it is: straight from the horse’s mouth…

Blogging and Beyond: Episode 4
Why You Really Need a Blog for Your Business
Guest Dave Taylor of AskDaveTaylor.com

Links to sites referenced in the program
Where to Find Parking Blog – Dave Taylor gave some great feedback and coaching on how Erik Feder can optimize his blog
Technorati – blog directory
Wordtracker’s free keyword suggestion tool
Dave Taylor’s blogs: AskDaveTaylor, The Intuitive Life Business Blog, Attachment Parenting Blog

A Good Business Blog: Why You Really Need One

By Patsi Krakoff in About Blogs

This is a late post cuz I’ve been down with a virus – not the good viral marketing kind, but the sniffly coughing kind. But better late than never. In a few minutes, we broadcast live on Internet radio our Blogging and Beyond interview with Dave Taylor, guest expert, on the Findability Factor.

Don’t miss the show: it’s on VoiceAmerica channel at 11 a.m. ET. If you do miss it, it will be posted in a couple of hours on our show blog, Blogging and Beyond. You’ll hear lots of good tips about Growing Your Business with Google (which is the title of one of Dave’s many books).

Book Authors Learn Internet Marketing

By Patsi Krakoff in Teleclasses & Seminars

Children’s book authors are a fun bunch of writers, and they will make fine bloggers, for sure. Denise and I preached the blog gospel this weekend at the Santa Barbara Mission Retreat Center. There shouldn’t be a problem with generating content for these authors.

Their books cover topics of monsters, history, unruly little girls, and Walter Kitty. Conversations were rich in imagination and adventurous. When asked if they every thought about writing adult books, they invariably laughed and said "no way!" I think they are having too much fun with kids lit.

Only one participant had started blogging yet, Greg Pincus, www.gottabook.blogspot.com. He caught the blog bug and ended up with a viral success that caught the attention of SlashDot.com. His story is very inspiring, so Denise and I will host him soon on a special case study interview. Stay tuned.

RSS Feeds: We need your feedback

By Patsi Krakoff in Podcasts

I just set up a new poll over on Build a Better Blog. We want to know if you prefer getting a full feed or a partial feed when you subscribe to get blog update. Take the poll and let us know!