Writing On The Web by Patsi Krakoff, The Blog Squad

Content Marketing Strategies for Smart Professionals

Quality Blog Writing: Theme of the Week

By Patsi Krakoff in About Blogs, Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Writing Great Blog Content

Here are links to great posts this week about writing better blog posts:

Quality Blog Content for Your Business: The Great Challenge – Build a Better Blog

Time to Think: the missing ingredient in quality blog writing – Build a Better Blog

2 + 5 Formula to Improve the Quality of Your Writing

The 10 hallmarks of outstanding content – Daily Blog Tips by Skellie Wag

9 Steps to Better Blog Post Ideas by Stephen Ward, Daily Blog Tips

10 Questions Every Blogger Should Ask Themselves Before Posting by Damien Van Vroenhoven

The Secret Key to Killer Content: Taking Time to Think by James Chartrand

Your weekend homework: take a little time to work on one quality post for the coming week. And if you know about other posts on this, please share by using the comments link.

2 + 5 Formula to Improve the Quality of Your Writing

By Patsi Krakoff in Content Marketing, How to...Tips, On Writing Better

There are two things that will guarantee success with your writing, even if you don’t consider yourself a professional author:

Expertise

Passion

You can even make a typo or a grammatical error and most readers won’t mind as long as you deliver valuable information readers can use with enthusiasm and conviction. (I don’t suggest you ignore these blights; get them quickly edited out.)

But if you are writing with energy, and you know what you’re talking about, don’t sweat the rest. You can’t fake expertise and passion, but you can certainly find it within yourself and learn to bring it out onto the paper or screen.

Those two things, expertise and passion, will guarantee you a home
run blog post, article, or newsletter. Nevertheless, here are five additional things that will improve the quality of your piece:

Include some statistics (use the web to do a little background search)
Include a quote from a well-known author or expert
Include a paragraph from a book you’ve read on the topic
Include historical background that affects your clients today
Include a prediction about this topic and how it will affect your clients in the future

More Brain Power: keep those feet moving!

By Patsi Krakoff in Coaching/Personal Development, On Writing Better, Online Marketing

Every year, Harvard Business Review publishes a list of breakthrough ideas for the workplace of the future. Here’s one idea that gets my vote:

1. Treadmills are installed in offices; people are encouraged to take exercise breaks.

2. Workstations include stationary bicycles that fit under the desks; people keep their legs moving while answering email.

3. Instead of suits, people wear stretch, cool-fitting gym clothes.

Here’s why: Exercise improves the blood’s access to specific brain regions and stimulates learning cells to make a neurotropic factor which works like Miracle-Grow for the brain.

You learn 20% faster and better during and after exercise than sitting still. Okay, that’s good for reading or listening to teleseminars on my iPod…if only I could figure out how to compose on a keyboard while on the bike or cross trainer…hmmm!

Anybody got a source to those under-desk treadmills?

Blog Face Lift: It’s official…

By Patsi Krakoff in Content Marketing, Online Marketing

It’s taken a couple of years to evolve this blog, change the name a couple of times, and finally get a domain and banner that is targeted to an audience wanting to learn how to write content for online marketing.

With this press release, it’s official: we have lift off on our face lift! Well, this blog’s face lift, that is; I’m sticking with my own face for now….

For immediate release:

The Blog Squad’s Co-founder Gets a Blog “Face-Lift”

San Diego, CA – March 10, 2008 – Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D., has a newly revamped blog at WritngontheWeb.com. Dr. Krakoff’s blog about writing online has greatly expanded since its early days.

To continue reading this press release, click over to ExpertClick.com.

Facebook for Business: How to justify your addiction

By Patsi Krakoff in Online Marketing, Teleclasses & Seminars

I’ve ignored just about every other social networking site except for LinkedInBloggers and Facebook. To tell the truth I need fewer distractions in my life, not more. If I want a social life, I’ll go to the tennis courts. But somehow, Facebook’s got me hooked.

So I’ve decided to learn how to use it for business. Denise and I’ve invited Mari Smith to spill the beans on Facebook next Monday, March 10, at 5 p.m. ET. The teleseminar costs $20 to attend but like all of our Blogging and Beyond Mentor Teleseminar series, you can attend for free if you’re a member (a trial membership only costs $9.95.)

Go visit Denise’s blog over on BizTipsBlog and see the video tutorial Mari did about Facebook privacy settings. Then go register for the class here, or join the mentor program here. Then, go invite me to be your friend on Facebook, I could use a new friend!

What Does a Dentist Know About Success in Business, Life, and Family?

By Patsi Krakoff in Coaching/Personal Development, Online Marketing

Our colleague Kathleen Gage has been instrumental in the production and marketing of a very special book, What Can a Dentist Teach You about Business, Life and Success? Discover Secrets to Achieving Total Success! by Dr. Joe Capista.

Denise has written about it over on BizTipsBlog, and has included a video book trailer. I’ve read 2-3 chapters so far, and it’s worth getting – very inspirational, and who can’t use a dose of inspiration these days! Plus, if you get it today, you will get bonuses from some people I respect.

Be sure to read all about it at BizTipsBlog and get the book on Amazon today.

Ezine Success Stories: Newsletters still get results for business

By Patsi Krakoff in Content Marketing, Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks, Online Marketing, Writing Better Ezines

Blogs haven’t replaced ezines. Even though you may be tempted to put all your time and energy into maintaining your business blog, you would be wrong to ignore your newsletter.

Don’t take my word for it. Ask other professionals if they’re getting results from sending out an emailed newsletter, and then judge for yourself if it’s worth the time and effort (and money).

LIsten to these success stories, and you’ll find out why ezines are not dead…

Patsi,

Just this morning I had another woman say to me, "It’s great to hear from you each week through your ezine. It helps me stay connected to you, your work and it (the ezine) provides me with thought provoking ideas, and useful tools to be successful in my life."

Ezine Success: No, the ezine is not dead

By Patsi Krakoff in Content Marketing, Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks, Online Marketing, Writing Better Ezines

Ever since blogs became such a powerful marketing tool for communicating, people have been asking about newsletters:

Should I keep doing my ezine?
How should the content that I email be different from my blog content?
If I’m new to online marketing, which is more important, a blog or an ezine?

I’ve been asked to contribute to a book about networking tactics for business success, in particular for a chapter on newsletters. The author, Liz Lynch asked me for some examples of ezine success. So I asked people on my list.

Wow, did I get a barrage of emails from colleagues and clients who claim huge successes due to sending out a newsletter. I think we can clearly state:

Ezines are alive and thriving!

Here’s how a few people answered my question, "Have you had success with your newsletter?"

Top Ten Reasons to Do an Ezine AND a Blog

By Patsi Krakoff in Content Marketing, Email Marketing Tips, Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks, Online Marketing

Yesterday I wrote about this article published in 2005. I’m republishing it here for you to consider whether these reasons are still valid today in 2008. Hit the comment link and let me know what you think.

Top Ten Reasons to Publish an Ezine AND a Blog
By Patsi Krakoff and Denise Wakeman, The Blog Squad (c) 2005

Blogs are the hottest thing going these days when it comes to marketing on the Internet. A blog is a way of delivering your messages and articles to clients. They are a like personal web sites, easy to create and far less expensive than traditional web sites.

Just when you thought you were mastering the tasks of ezines and newsletters, along comes blogging, and you have to ask yourself:

• Do I really need a blog?
• Isn’t an email ezine or newsletter doing the same thing?
• Should I do both?
• Are these two marketing tools going to eat up all my time, energy and money?
• What’s the best way to spend my resources here so that I can get clients and results out of my marketing efforts?

Here are ten reasons why you should pay attention to this new blogging revolution and do both an ezine and a blog.

Newsletters & Blogs: Marriage or Divorce?

By Patsi Krakoff in Content Marketing, Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks, Online Marketing, Promoting Your Ezine +/or Blog

Several clients asked me the same question this week: If I start a business blog, do I still need an emailed newsletter?

This is a good question you should be asking yourself if you have a business online and want to use the Internet to get new leads, create relationships with prospects and sell your services or products.

In the past, Denise and I always said, Yes, you should do both. We even wrote a special report in 2005, Top Ten Reasons to Do an Ezine AND a Blog. You can get it when you subscribe to Newsletter Nuggets over at my site Customized Newsletter Services.

Since things change rapidly in online marketing, I reviewed those top ten reasons to see what’s changed about this issue since 2005.

Surprisingly, these are still ten very good reasons to do both an ezine and a blog for your business.

I would add that if one is taking up too much time and you must
discontinue one in favor of the other, my vote is to keep on blogging
and dump the ezine.