Writing On The Web by Patsi Krakoff, The Blog Squad

Content Marketing Strategies for Smart Professionals

How Professionals Build Trust on the Web:
“What I Believe Is…”

By Patsi Krakoff in About Blogs, Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, Online Marketing

What’s the best web or blog site you’ve seen lately that does a good job of representing a professional?

For me, it’s the site of Dr. Frank Lipman, MD.

I love this site because right away, in the first seconds, you are drawn into reading his key quotes, and you know exactly what kind of man this is, and what business he’s in.

This site is well done. This is how professionals can build trust on the Web. This is good content marketing for the professional service provider.

If you’re in any kind of service business, if you’re a doctor, lawyer, coach, consultant, author, speaker, you know how important the trust factor is. People want to know you, first, then more about your business options.

Trust is one the hardest things to build into the “blink” factor on a web site. It’s one thing to grab readers’ attention with great headlines and clever tag lines. It’s another level of challenge when the stakes are serious like health, wealth, and life satisfaction.

Does anyone know how they did that revolving banner at the top? Please let me know, because I want one for a client. Read More→

How to Retire Early in a Downturn and Make Money on the Web

By Patsi Krakoff in Coaching/Personal Development, Fun and Irrelevant Things About Patsi, Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks, Patsi's Story

People often ask why we moved to Mexico. The question always seems funny to me, sort of like, “Why do you want to live in Paradise?”

But some people are afraid of Mexico and imagine dire poverty, filth, and drug crime violence. The truth lies closer to the Paradise side of things, and all places have their problems.

Some of you wonder if there’s a way to leave the rat race behind in favor of a more peaceful, creative way to live.

You may have an idea to make money using the Internet, but wonder if that’s realistic. I’m telling this story here and you can make up your own minds about how to do this for yourself. It may be much more possible than you think!

Free Content Marketing? Gated, Non-Gated…What’s Smart?

By Patsi Krakoff in Content Marketing

I’m throwing this question out to professionals working on the Web:

How should professionals balance the need for free content vs. the need to have content that produces good leads? For that matter, what about the right balance of for-fee informational products?

It’s all well and good to be generous with one’s knowledge and expertise. But at some point, there has to be a return on investment, no?

It’s smart for a plumber to publish complete directions on how to change a toilet, because chances are most people won’t want to do this themselves.

Published content should help readers make a decision. What’s your opinion on how much of it should be completely free, or in exchange for email or even a fee?

I asked my contacts over on LinkedIn and here are what some smart professionals offered as their point of view:

LinkedIn Question:

Content Mktg “?”- How do you balance free content vs need for lead generating content? Do you always require email in exchange for content?

Joe Pulizzi wrote:

Hi Patsi…we use the majority of our content to attract prospects to our site. Then we use conversion blogging or landing pages for them to sign up to additional gated content (blog RSS/email, white paper, etc.) so we can nurture them. So, about 99% of our content is free and sharable.

Our 1% where we require email is for our big content packages (newsletter, white paper, ebook). We feel this model works the best rather than limiting the majority of your content because – gated content is not shared in social media and without giving them a taste of what you can offer, it’s hard to get them to even think about giving up email/personal information.

Here’s some more take on this from David Meerman Scott: Tear Your Content Walls Down, Why Gated Content Might Not Make Sense.

Hope that helps.
Joe Pulizzi
Read More→

What to Do When People Ignore Your Web Words

By Patsi Krakoff in Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, Online Marketing

“In one study reported by Nielsen and Loranger, web users spent on average less than 2 minutes before deciding to abandon a site.” Letting Go of the Words, by Ginny Redish

In another report from this same study, the average home page visit lasted 25-35 seconds. Talk about the “blink” affect… wow, that’s not much time to grab their attention.

I can think of two ways for grab people’s attention when they land on your site, your blog, or any page you’ve published on the web:

Animated pictures
Asking questions

The first one means either adding drawings, like a cartoon (which may not be appropriate for your audience) or a video with moving pictures. Let’s face it, even the most serious adult eye is attracted to cartoons and movies.

The other choice for capturing attention is to ask really good questions, like a survey,poll or quiz (and not, how-do-you-like-me? type questions). Everyone has an opinion and wants to express it.

But what’s a busy professional without staff or big bucks to do? Here one suggestion: Use video clips and a survey. Read More→

Tags : Attracting Clients, video marketing, web marketing

Writing on the Web: Letting Go of the Words

By Patsi Krakoff in About Blogs, Attracting Clients, Books, Content Marketing, Writing for the Web

I think the Web is fascinating, don’t you? Yet frustrating. So much information, so many ways to entertain yourself, so many ways to get sucked into a time machine fantasy world.

Twelve billion web pages… and most of them talking about themselves, saying nothing that’s easy to understand in a blink…

It’s not unlike Alice in Wonderland, it can be anything you want it to be. I’m reading a good book called Letting Go of the Words, by Ginny Redish.

This is a really good book for anyone charged with writing on the Web. In fact, it’s a must-read for anyone with a website or blog. If you’re a fan of usability and you’d like to improve your site’s performance with better writing, definitely get this book.

Here’s what two really smart people who know the web well say about this book: Read More→

Search Engines Are Stupid… Help Them Out

By Patsi Krakoff in About Blogs, Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, Online Marketing, Teleclasses & Seminars, Writing for the Web

Are you spread too thin? Over-committed? Is your blog too confusing, too many topics, too many choices for readers to make?

Oh, and by the way, how are your search engine results? Do you come up on the first page when people do a search for the problems you solve?

I’ve been told by someone who knows business blogging that I’m “diluted.” No, not “deluded,” in the psychological sense, although that might also play into it. “Diluted” in that it’s not clear. At least, I think that’s what he means.

I don’t think I’m the only self-employed entrepreneur that suffers from the problem of trying to cover too many bases, of trying to attract too many kinds of people, of offering too many products and services.

The key point my expert was trying to drive home is that online, you can’t afford to be “all over the map.” Why? Because search engines are stupid. They don’t understand variety and nuances. Read More→

How to Win a Blogging Award

By Patsi Krakoff in About Blogs, Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Promoting Your Ezine +/or Blog

Can you claim your blog to be award-winning? What kind of prize do you think you’d get if they put you on a best blog list? Most original? Best resource for time-saving tips? Most helpful, profound, smart? Funniest?

The first time I got onto Joe Pulizzi’s Top42 Content Marketing Blogs, back in 2007, I was kinda surprised. And extremely flattered, since I was in the company of some of the top blogs I look up to for inspiration, like Copyblogger, Online Marketing Blog, Conversation Agent, and Web Ink Now.

Now, 3 years later, the pool has quadrupled, and I’m still in the top ten… This quarter, this blog ranks #5. I’m very proud, but more than that, I’m grateful. Being on this list has added more than a few smart readers to the subscriber list, and put me in contact with some great people.

It is also makes getting up early to write everyday worth it, it contributes to my motivation and inspires me to write better.

I want to share with you what the benefits of being on an award list, and what I’ve done since to try to stay on the list. I think there are some good lessons for other bloggers. Read More→

7 Fascinating Content Marketing Triggers

By Patsi Krakoff in About Blogs, Attracting Clients, Content Marketing

Sally Hogshead has written a captivating book that I’m still reading, called Fascinate.

David McGraw, a member of Leading Coaches, wrote a great review of her book on the Leading Coaches’ Center, which you can check out HERE.

There’s also a cool website where you to answer 28 quickie questions and get back instant results on your fascination score (or F Score as she calls it) and how to use it in your marketing. Very interesting…

It turns out my primary trigger is Mystique. I’m not sure being mysterious is a top quality for someone doing marketing, but hey, maybe I can intrigue and pique your curiosity! Mystique and Prestige are the two triggers I seem to gravitate towards, according to her F test.

In other words, when I’m writing on the web for content marketing purposes, I’m often trying to fascinate you by appealing to your sense of wanting to know more, and becoming the best you can be at blogging or marketing, (or at least getting you to look like you’re the best.)

For example, I’m really proud to have been named #5 Top Content Marketing Blog by Joe Pulizzi’s organization. I’m hoping to leverage that blogging award not just to impress my readers and friends, but to try to show you how you can also gain prestige with your own blogs. I want you to be the best in your field, and I want your blogs to show it.

Which triggers are you using in your business to persuade and captivate not only prospective clients, but current clients? Have you ever thought about this?

You have seven potential fascination triggers: Read More→

Invisible Content Marketing: Is Your Attitude Showing?

By Patsi Krakoff in About Blogs, Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, Online Marketing

When I work with smart, successful people it’s usually to help with their blogs, newsletters, social media and content marketing strategies. And often there’s more to marketing than meets the eye. Much more that the actual words you use…

Most content marketing elements are easily visible. That’s a good thing, because it’s easy to see what’s been done and what works. (Also, what stinks, so to speak.)

But the stuff behind the visible stuff counts a lot. I call it the Invisible Content Marketing. It’s what’s inside the person doing the marketing and the writing that matters. You can’t write without bringing out your character, especially if you’re writing in the first person about things.

Invisible Content Marketing is your attitude. It’s your “tone of voice” on paper or the screen. It’s your personality and your values and …all that stuff that makes you attractive, or arrogant, or sweet, or bitchy, or whiny, or cool, really cool.

Of course you don’t have to be a trained psychologist like I am to know that what’s inside a person really matters, nor do you need a graduate degree to pick up on the attitudes and values of someone when they “speak” to you on the Web.

Every time you write content for your business, people are “listening” to your tone of voice, trying to pick up your attitude, values, and trust-worthiness. Read More→

Tags : blog writing, Content Marketing

Convince & Convert: #1 Content Marketing Blog

By Patsi Krakoff in About Blogs, Content Marketing

Congratulations to Jay Baer who writes the Convince & Convert Blog. He tops the list of Top 42 Content Marketing Blogs published quarterly by Joe Pulizzi. I took a look at Jay’s blog and I can understand why he’s #1 on a list that carries some excellent content marketing blogs.

Here’s what impresses me with his blog.

The name says clearly what he’s writing about, what his goals for the readers are.
His tag line for the blog, “Social Media Consulting & Coaching” says what he’s all about, what he’s in business for.
His banner has both his name and photo in it, so it becomes personal right away (no wondering, who’s writing this)
There are several offers made clear through the navigation bar and right-hand column: Speaking, free Social Media Tools, Newsletter, etc.
It’s not confusing, it’s very clear what Jay’s expertise is and how he works.

I love the work that Joe Pulizzi and his team put into finding great content marketing blogs for us. I also love that I’ve made the list consistently now for three years since it’s inception.

And I’m very proud to be named #5 this time! I’m especially honored because I’ve maintained a strong presence on this list which has grown from 81 to 353 possible contenders over the last 3 years. Thanks, Joe & Junta42 team!

Here are the criteria for selection: Read More→

Tags : blog writing, Content Marketing, great blogs, top blogs