Writing On The Web by Patsi Krakoff, The Blog Squad

Content Marketing Strategies for Smart Professionals

Email Marketing is Not Dead: Part 1

Email Marketing is Not Dead: Top 10 Reasons to Publish an Ezine

Email marketing is far from dead, despite the fact it can be a challenge to build an opt-in list of email addresses. Even with the popularity and ease of publishing on blogs, an ezine should be a standard in your online marketing toolbox. Ezines are easy, accessible, inexpensive, instant, and interactive

Here are ten reasons to publish an ezine:

1. Gain name and fame; become widely known as an expert in your field to people you might not ever see or meet. You establish yourself as a thought leader and demonstrate your expertise in a way you could never do on a website or brochure.

2. Cultivate a relationship with your readers; establish trust and credibility. Your ezine is an opportunity to teach, to share interesting information, and to share your philosophy and real life experiences. Readers get to know you. Show them what you know, and also that you care. (There is that old adage that says ‘people don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care!’)

3. Create quality content for your website. When you post your ezines on your website, you increase the chance of search engines picking up your site because you have more pages and more content.

Stay tuned for 4 more reasons to publish an ezine…

Patsi gets a new back.

By Patsi Krakoff in Newsletter Nuggets Ezine

Newsletter Nuggets – Octuber 19, 2006

…tips and tricks for writing great ezines and blogs

To meet the demands of today’s fast-paced and competitive business environment, people at all levels are being asked to step up and assume leadership behaviors. As retired Harvard Business School Professor John P. Kotter explains in the Summer 2004 issue of strategy+business, this means we must “create 100 million new leaders” throughout society.

Leadership isn’t just for leaders anymore. Top companies are beginning to understand that sustaining peak performance requires a commitment to developing leaders at all levels. Management experts Drs. Paul Hersey and Kenneth Blanchard have defined leadership as “working with and through others to achieve objectives.”

Categories: Leadership, Coaching, Careers

http://snipurl.com/LdrshpNov06

Featured Article for October: How Do You Develop Leaders? Practice, Practice, Practice

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This newsletter will be short, however. The main point today is to check out the new article available for you November newsletters on leadership development.

In fact, I might just be working more over the next few months, as I sure can’t be out on the tennis courts until next Spring!

I will be recovering for the next 6 weeks, and I’ll be able to sit up and use a computer in a few more days.

Thanks to automated business systems, I am able to carry on with some parts of my work. Of course, I wrote this newsletter before going into the hospital, and put it into my KickStartCart broadcasting system to go out today.

I am lying in a hospital bed right now, down for the next few days. On Tuesday Oct. 17 I had surgery on my back, to relieve pressure on the sciatic nerve. No gory details here. I just wanted to let you know that I won’t be responding to emails right away. If you need anything – either for your newsletters, blogs, or Internet marketing, please contact Denise@blogsquad.biz.

A note from Patsi –

1. A Note from the Hospital… Patsi gets a new back.
2. Featured articles for November: How Do You Develop Leaders?
3. What’s New on the Blogs?

Table of Contents

Back to Work Later: Double Entendre

By Patsi Krakoff in Fun and Irrelevant Things About Patsi

"Back to work later" has new meaning for me, folks. In about 2 hours, I’m going under the knife at Kaiser Hospital in San Diego for back surgery to repair a couple of vertebrae. They are going to do a laminectomy at L-4/L-5 to relieve the pressure on the sciatic nerve.

Playing tennis almost daily has had a jarring effect on my spine. On the one hand, tennis has been the best thing for my health, mentally and physically. And I don’t do things half-way. I hope to be back on the courts and playing by Spring or Summer.

So I’ll be out of the office for a while. I’m guessing a week, but we’ll see. My goal is to be back to the computer on Sunday Oct. 22. Whether or not my brain will be competent or still under the influence of pain meds is another story.

If you need anything, please contact Denise at BlogSquad.biz. See ya!

What No One Ever Tells You About Blogging

By Patsi Krakoff in Teleclasses & Seminars

Conversations with Experts Teleseminar:
Ted Demopoulos, Demopoulos Associates

What No One Ever Tells You About Blogging and Podcasting – How to profit whether or not you blog or podcast

Blogs and podcasts can help almost any business, even businesses that aren’t online! There are plenty of ways to benefit, both somewhat traditional and very innovative, as Ted Demopoulos found while interviewing hundreds of people who successfully use blogs and podcasts for his latest book. Conversely, some people put a lot of effort into blogging with little success.

Ted Demopoulos, author of What No One Ever Tells You About Blogging and Podcasting and co-author of Blogging for Business, will give you practical advice on how to harness the power of blogs and podcasts for your business pursuits.

Simple Newsletters Better

By Patsi Krakoff in Writing Better Ezines

In today’s crowded inboxes, email newsletters should be short and to the point. One point is ideal, rather than two or three articles. Worse is the brain dump ezine where the professional writes a term paper and showcases his/her knowledge.

This ezine tip comes from Michael Katz’ E-Newsletter called "Simply Put…Simple Sells," Oct. 13, 2006. (To subscribe, email ContactUs@BluePenguinDevelopment.com.)

Here’s an excerpt:

The problem with most E-Newsletters is "too much." Too much detail, too many points being made, too many words being used. Too much, too much, too much.

Few people have time or interest in learning everything you know about your chosen profession. Even if they did, that’s not why you publish a newsletter. You do it to position yourself as expert, make a human connection with your readers and stay top of mind, so that when a prospective client has a need that you can satisfy, you get the call…

Writing a Bio: 3 Tips for Marketing

By Patsi Krakoff in How to...Tips, Online Marketing, Writing Better Ezines

"How should I write my bio?" New clients to Customized Newsletter Services who are setting up their first newsletters always ask me what should go in the bio section.

It used to be that the bio section was like a mini-resume. You included your education, publications, company role and client list…. all about you and what you’ve done.

Today that would be considered ineffective. Your bio or resource box, or author blurb, (whatever you call it) should work for you as a marketing tool. The modern bio is all about them, the readers.

Here are 3 questions to answer to help make writing this a breeze:

Who are you writing for? Who is your target audience?
What benefits do readers/clients derive from reading or working with you?
Who are you?

Ezine Open Rates

By Patsi Krakoff in Getting Read

They say the larger the list of email addresses, the more powerful your marketing will be. But whether your list is 1000, 5,000, or 50,000… you need to consider your actual open rates, how many of your emails are actually being opened and read. With an HTML ezine, you can monitor this percentage.

Here’s a recent post from Rick Brooks of www.flyteblog.com about an open rate survey conducted by Constant Contact, a leading email provider.

According to an article at Constant Contact called "Understanding Open Rates: How Open Rates Are Measured and Tips for Increasing Yours," B2C (business to consumer) emails get opened 30% – 39% of the time, while B2B emails are opened a paltry 10% – 29%.

Learning with Laughter…

By Patsi Krakoff in Teleclasses & Seminars

Do you know the way to San Jose? If you are in the neighboorhood of the Dolce Hayes Mansion, come say hello. The Blog Squad is doing their thing with a large group of smart and savvy entrepreneurs.

Kelly O’Neil, of UpLevel Strategies, has put together this 3-day work-fest, called the UpLevel Intensive! But my guess is, that it won’t be all 100% work intensive! Always time to play when you have a group together…

Anyway, they say the best learning occurs with laughter.

My request of the week, dear readers: got any good blogging or computer jokes to share with us, that we can take with us? Clean of course!

Meet the Masters of Marketing Qi (say chee)

By Patsi Krakoff in Online Marketing, Teleclasses & Seminars

You’ve probably heard the term *Qi* (say *chee*).

It’s an ancient Asian term that means one’s vital energy. The Chinese knew that if your Qi was blocked or stagnant, illness was sure to follow.

It’s no different with your business…

…if your Marketing Qi is blocked or slow, you are headed for trouble.

How to Pitch Bloggers & Get Media Attention

By Patsi Krakoff in About Blogs, Online Marketing, Teleclasses & Seminars

If you missed our teleseminar a couple of weeks ago about how to pitch bloggers to get more publicity for your business, you’ll be glad to know the CD and transcript is now available. We got excellent reviews on this program and it’s a hot topic in the blogosphere. If you’re one of the first 3 to order, your CD will be in the mail today (Monday October 9)!

How to Pitch the Best Bloggers and Create a Publicity Explosion
Featuring The Blog Squad and Joan Stewart, The Publicity Hound, in a one hour program.

Gone are the days when we had to rely only on the media to spread the word about our products and services. Today’s smart promoters know how to reach thousands and sometimes millions of people online. They pitch influential bloggers, who are in a position to spread the word far and wide on the Internet.

You will learn:

Why ignoring bloggers means you might be ignoring journalists who are in a position to cover you
7 tips on pitching bloggers…follow these steps and you’re increasing your chances for them to spread the word about you
3 things you might have that you should never mention in your pitch…and two great ways to let the bloggers know what they are without appearing clueless

PLUS 30 more tactics to get more publicity for your business.