Archive for blog writing – Page 4

Epic Business Blog Content: 2 Questions Every Blog Owner Must Ask

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, September 25th, 2013

Epic-Content-Joe-PulizziIf you’re in business and have a business blog, you’re frequently challenged by what to write. There’s always a lot you can say about your products and services, but how many different ways can you write about them before your regular subscribers get bored?

In my ebook Content Marketing with Blogs, I suggest business blog posts should be written with the 4 E’s as a guide: What you publish on your business blog should:

  1. Entertain
  2. Educate
  3. Engage
  4. Enrich

As anyone who runs a blog knows, that’s a tall order, and if you score high in one or two of these qualities, you can feel pretty good. But is it enough?

I recently purchased Joe Pulizzi’s new book Epic Content Marketing: How to Tell a Different Story, Break through the Clutter, and Win More Customers by Marketing Less. It’s full of examples from big businesses but all his advice is great for small businesses and individuals as well. Joe is known as the godfather of content marketing as he has been a long-time promoter of quality content for marketing purposes. He founded the Content Marketing Institute.

The book is a treasure of information about the value of content marketing throughout all channels (blogs, e-newsletters,  videos, podcast, and social media). Two questions stood out for me as key for any small business owner who wants to (needs to!) publish quality content on their blog: Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing, Online Marketing, Writing Great Blog Content
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Business Blog Writing: Must You Write It Yourself?

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, July 31st, 2013

Content-Matters-Blog-Writing-TipsDo you do all your own blog writing? If you’re a lawyer, financial adviser, doctor or consultant, should you write your own blog? Or can you outsource it to writers and guest bloggers? One of the main reasons to have a blog and publish frequently is because it helps you get found, get known, and get clients. Yet professional service providers are often pressed for time.

Visitors to your blog want to know more about you, your expertise, your talents and focus. They expect to read what you write to get familiar with you before they call or consider hiring you. This means you will need one or two hours each time you write a fresh post. And a good blog has fresh content at a minimum once or twice a week. How can you ensure you’ve got the time for blog writing so that you build up quality readership?

The solutions: The systems I’ve found to work best with the clients I serve involves a combination of learning to write quick posts, getting contributions from qualified guest authors, and using an appropriate content subscription service. I’ll explain each. Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Buying Content, Content Marketing, How to...Tips, Writing Great Blog Content
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Better Business Blogging: 7 Lessons from Liberace

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, July 24th, 2013

LiberaceLiberace was well-known for his flamboyant lifestyle both on and off stage. During the 1950s-1970s he was the highest paid entertainer in the world. That’s pretty amazing considering he was a pianist. His career spanned five decades. I just saw the HBO film “Behind the Candelabra,” with an amazing performance by Michael Douglas in the starring role, with Matt Damon as his lover. (And, yes, these two actors do kiss in the movie!)

Why do you think Liberace was so popular? I loved the movie, and found myself strangely attracted to this character. I remember my stepmother gushing over Liberace and wondering why. I think it’s because we love drama, and we love it when people are excessive.

What can we learn from Liberace about better business blogging? Although he was a master at expressing himself through music, Las Vegas shows, records, TV, and concerts, he didn’t write. Had the Internet been around, however, he would have skillfully used it in the same way he employed public relations expertise to deny his homosexuality and project “family values.” Remember, this was a time where no one was openly gay.

How can you make your business blog a little more flamboyant or sexy? Here’s how you can take away some of Liberace’s style and wisdom and apply it to your business blog:

  1. Add color: Liberace began his career as a classical pianist. At the time, everyone wore black tuxedos and played black pianos. He saw that as boring. So he started wearing a lot of white… then he added glitter… and then he took costumes to an extreme and added furs. Does your business blog “wear black?” Dress it up appropriately, without being gawkish. Use compelling photos and images. Read More→
Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing, Writing Great Blog Content
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Blog Content: 4 Ways to Make Your Blog Unique

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, July 17th, 2013

Weird-Blog-ContentWant to make your blog stand out? Try finding unusual facts and weird blog content. Give your blog a unique look and feel by publishing unusual blog content. With such an abundance of content available on the Internet, how can you make your blog unique?

By providing information that is uncommon enough to intrigue a visitor. Where can you find this unusual blog content?

1. Infographics – Infographics are a popular trend when supplying facts. Normally, they are based on real information and designed in a way to give it visual appeal. Proper developers of these factual images cite their sources which you are able to verify yourself. Be wary of false imagery, however. Anyone can build a so-called infographic without using true information. It’s always better to research the source for these facts in order to remove doubt and prevent damaging your reputation. Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Writing Great Blog Content
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Better Blog Writing: Attract Clients,
Make Sure Your Posts Get Read!

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, June 12th, 2013

Blog-Attraction-NetworksYou want to Engage your Blog Readers and encourage them to subscribe to your blog and become regular visitors. Ideally, you want to attract a large number of hungry customers who are interested in partaking of this written food for the soul, but how can you rise above the constant online buzz to attract attention to your blog post?

The Internet may be constantly chirping with activity, but that doesn’t mean that all content is worthy of users’ attention in the same manner. According to Neilson.com, there were 181 million blogs around the world at the end of 2011. (In 2006, there were 36 million in existence.)

Don’t let these numbers put you off; it doesn’t mean that all of these blogs are in your niche or that they are producing the same quality content that you are putting out in the blogosphere. If you’re in business, you already know you have competition and that you need to focus on what you offer that is better or different if you are going to attract a customer’s attention or find the best talent.

Your first priority should be to write a high-quality blog content that will help your readers in some way.

First, capture a reader’s interest with a compelling headline. One technique is to appeal to the reader’s fear that they may miss out on something important by failing to read your post. Use compelling words to effectively to draw in your audience by giving them a taste of what your post will be about, and make sure that you deliver the content as promised. Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Attracting Clients, Content Marketing
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Your Business Blog:
Guest Blogging Etiquette

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, June 5th, 2013

EtiquetteLast month, we contributed a post asking if guest blogging is really a necessary element to a good blog. The answer was a pretty resounding “yes.” In light of that, I thought I should elaborate on a few tips for how to be a good guest blogger.

First, reciprocal guest blogging can be a great opportunity for all. It helps bring new readers to each blog that is involved.

Set standards/boundaries – make sure that before you begin a guest blogging relationship, that all parties involved know what is expected of them. Setting standards for things like post length, how often the swap will occur, and how much editing the host blogger can do is important. If you are used to posting 350-400 word posts, but the blog you will be guest posting for has an average of 800 words per post, it’s important to decide which standard you will adhere to for guest posts.

Guest blogging isn’t for sales – usually guest blogging relationships are NOT geared towards direct sales. While there can be exceptions to this rule, it’s a good idea to assume that you are not using someone else’s blog as a forum to pitch your products. This is something that you and the host blogger should discuss before you begin a relationship – how much of a sales feel would they like for your posts to have (or not have)? Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing
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Guest Blogging: Just How Important Is It?

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, May 22nd, 2013

Guest-BloggingHaving guest bloggers post content for your blog can be a great tool to get more readers to visit your site. Typically, guest blogging involves a good deal of cross-promotion, which can be beneficial for all parties involved. Guest blogging has recently become much more common, likely because bloggers are seeing the good things that can come to their blog when they invite others to share.

A guest blogging relationship can be as basic or as involved as you and your guest blogger would prefer. You may just want to invite one or two writers to write posts that are their take on content that you typically share. You may want to consider a long term relationship with one or more guest bloggers, trading posts with them on a weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis. Many bloggers who are willing to contribute to your blog are likely to want you to reciprocate. Again, this can be beneficial for everyone, because interlinking between the two blogs/sites can help your search engine and page ranking.

So how do you find guest bloggers? You can start out simply. Think about some of your favorite blogs to read. Do any of them publish content that is directly related to your business, or that could fit in with your posts? Chances are you can probably think of at least a few blogs like this immediately. Consider emailing the blog’s author and inquire about a guest post or blog swap. However, when you write the email, you need to make sure you write a compelling email offer, one that is personal.  You will receive a better response if you do so.  Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing, How to...Tips, Writing Great Blog Content
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7 Content Marketing Questions to Ask
BEFORE You Write a Word

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, May 15th, 2013

QuestionsHere are some key marketing questions to ask and answer before you write a single word of content, if you want to get good content marketing results.

When you outsource writing for your blog, newsletter, video or any type of content marketing, be very clear about your content marketing goals. In fact, it doesn’t matter if you’re outsourcing to another writer or doing it all yourself.

1. What do you want your visitor to do after reading or viewing your article, blog or video?

For example, do you want them to buy a product? Call a phone number?  Register on a form with their email address? You should have a specific action you want your visitor to take after reading your article or watching the video.

2. Who’s your target market or audience?

Be very specific here, for example you could say, “My target market is new real estate agents who want to generate more leads.”

3. What makes you better than your competitors? Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Article Ideas, Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Writing Great Blog Content, Writing Great Copy
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Bloggers: Brush Up on Your Writing Skills

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, April 10th, 2013

Content-Matters-Blog-Writing-TipsBusiness bloggers: just how good are your writing skills?

Most bloggers and those who run small businesses that publish blogs are not natural-born writers, or even trained writers. Most businesspeople studied things such as marketing, communication, or business.

It’s not often they’ve studied English or creative writing. Yet it’s becoming expected that businesses have a well-written blog, as well as expertly-written content on their website.

Some businesses can afford to hire professional writers to author their blog and/or website. This is great, if you can handle the expense. Many small businesses are not willing or able to pay a writer when first starting out. So how can you brush up on your writing skills in order to maintain a professional blog and website for your company?

There are lots of resources for business bloggers available in many different mediums. Here are some ideas:

  1. Books: Good old fashioned reading can definitely help you to review grammar and sentence structure rules. There are many good books out there on writing. A search on Amazon for “writing skill reference books” turns up many titles that are well-reviewed by customers. Most can also be purchased in an eBook format for reading on the go. You could certainly purchase one of these books and read it when you have a few free moments. Any effort you put into learning more about writing well will show in your material. Read More→
Categories : Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Online Marketing, Writing for the Web
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Oscar Wilde: Advice on Better Blogging

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013

OscarWildeYou know that your blog is a key part of your search strategy, but do you know how to get the most out of it?  What would Oscar Wilde advise for better blogging?

Thousands of blog guides exist, but do they really help or just cloud the issue further?

This is what you need to know when it comes writing to a better blog, one that’s really readable.

  • There’s no such thing as ‘blog style.’ However, the easier it is to read the better. Break it up, make it easy for the reader. That means short, sharp paragraphs and the same with sentences. If a paragraph is more than five lines, you’ve gone too far.
  • People don’t want to read blogs. At least, not ones that have no value. Put your point across early on, and they’ll read the rest of it.
  • The key to achieving a better blog, whether you measure that by how many people read it, share it on social media, or comment on it, is to make everything as clear and as simple as possible.

Cut It Out

Oscar Wilde once said that you should never use a long word if there is a short one available that means the same thing. Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Attracting Clients, How to...Tips, On Writing Better
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