Archive for blog writing – Page 8

How Blogging Is Like Playing Tennis

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, May 11th, 2011

Blogging for your business is like playing tennis: you read the environment, deliver key shots, get ready for the next post, respond to feedback, and try to stay on target.

I play tennis with an “excuse champion.” Every time she misses a shot, she blames her racquet, or her strings, the ball, the sun, wind, or some body part. She’s quite creative.

I often wonder what would happen if that creativity were channeled into focused attention to the ball and her strokes. If you’re thinking about all those other things, surely you can’t be ready for the next shot…

I’ve got clients who are excuse champions. The biggest excuse they use for not blogging enough is they don’t have enough time. While that may be true, (who does?) but it’s also true they don’t blog enough because they don’t have a journalist’s mindset.

A journalist is curious about people and events and can’t wait to share information with others. I just read a fabulous article over at The Content Factor and here’s what they wrote about why some professionals stop blogging and why they shouldn’t: Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing, E-Books
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Content Marketing Tip: Use Ready-to-Publish Articles

By Patsi Krakoff
Thursday, April 28th, 2011

Content marketing is easier when you can outsource some of the writing and researching to qualified writers. A great way to short-cut the time needed to research, write and publish quality online content is to find a good writer to supply articles.

For example, as a former executive coach and psychologist, I write for other coaches and consultants who are too busy with clients to write their own newsletters and blogs. You can find good writers in just about any field.

While this has created a good business for me, doing what I love, I don’t see many people using other people’s content for optimal results. Furthermore, when they do use writers, they don’t personalize it to make it their own.

Content marketing can’t work well without unique and personalized copy. I get frustrated because people use canned articles ‘as is’. They don’t take the time to add their own stories, to explain how it is for them in the work they do.

You need to connect the dots for readers.

  • Tell them why this article and these ideas are important to them.
  • Tell them about the work you do with your clients.
  • Tell them how they can learn more about what you’re publishing.

In my ebook Content Marketing with Blogs, I talk about the 4 Es: educate, entertain, engage and enrich the lives of people each time you write and publish on your blog. When you write, think about elements of each goal: Read More→

Categories : Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, How to...Tips, Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks, Writing for the Web
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What’s Missing in Content Marketing: Who and Why

By Patsi Krakoff
Monday, April 25th, 2011

Storytelling and personalization is the biggest missing piece in content marketing as I see it. People are good at writing about what they know. They aren’t as good about expressing who they are and why they do what they do.

If you’re not writing real stories, your content – on your blog, in your newsletter, on your web pages – runs the risk of being boring. You may be excited about what you do as a professional, but your clients will get bored or overwhelmed if you just throw information at them.

In the Content Marketing Webinar last week, I talked about communicating your back-story… the background about the why and who of your business. It’s especially important in service businesses where people hire you to help them solve a problem.

I once asked a guy who founded an online training service what his back-story was, and he didn’t know what I meant.

He thought I would see the obvious, that there was a gap in what was available online and an opportunity to make money. Okay, that’s exciting… to you and your spouse for sure.

But there’s always more to the story than that: Why did he personally spend considerable time, energy and money creating what he did?

There has to be drive, passion and love. He had to care. That’s the story people need to know. Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Attracting Clients, Brain Based Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Teleclasses & Seminars
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Content Rules: Secrets of Writing Compelling Content

By Patsi Krakoff
Monday, April 11th, 2011

Marketing nowadays requires writing and publishing great content in multiple ways. That’s why there’s a tsunami of information online about content marketing.

But the hard question comes when you sit down to a blank computer screen and outline what sorts of pieces of information, web pages and blog posts, need to be published for your business. What exactly is going to interest your ideal readers and clients?

Many experts echo: tell stories. All good films and good fiction are about a compelling, conflict-driven story. But you run a business, maybe you’re a professional who offers services such as coaching, health care, financial planning, speaking? You’re not selling widgets or software. Some people just tell it like it is:

“Here’s what I do. I solve these problems. Here are some of the customers who say we’re great. Now please go sign up for my newsletter. I’ll send you more of my propaganda/information. I hope you’ll call me one day and hire me for my services.”

Sadly this classic marketing approach is everywhere. And, it gets multiplied on websites, blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and videos on YouTube, to the point that people tune out.

How can you introduce storytelling into your marketing mix? How can you make your writing interesting, more like a good movie or book? I wish I knew, but like great art, it’s hard to define.

I’m reading a book by Ann Handley and C.C. Chapman, Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars and More that Engage Customers and Ignite Your business (John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2011). Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Attracting Clients, Content Marketing
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Content Checklist: Don’t Publish Without It

By Patsi Krakoff
Thursday, April 7th, 2011

I love checklists because I’m always forgetting things. Once I published a post without a title. Yesterday I almost forgot to hyperlink anything in a post. Fortunately, before I publish I run an analysis for how a post will score with the search engines using Scribe, a great tool.

Scribe catches everything and tells me things like “there are no primary keywords found.” Yeah, I know that’s ridiculous. But if you don’t use Scribe you could be publishing stuff that search engines don’t grasp.

Here’s a great checklist, just published over at the Content Marketing Institute, authored by Ahava Leibtag.

The checklist is designed for digital content creators and marketing teams, but it can and should be used by anyone writing a business blog or other content for the Web. It defines valuable content using five benchmarks:

  1. Findable                               
  2. Readable
  3. Understandable
  4. Actionable
  5. Shareable

If this image is too small, go to the post over at the Content Marketing Institute and download the PDF version.

This is a great checklist to keep handy for anyone creating content for blogs.

For example, there’s a difference between “Readable” and “Understandable” and both are important. Readable refers to formatting, bullet points, etc.

Understandable means you take time to re-read your post with the eyes and brains of your typical readers and take out any ambiguity.

As you can see in this checklist, it’s also important that your content be actionable and shareable. This is similar to what I write about in my ebook, Content Marketing with Blogs. If you haven’t downloaded that yet, be my guest, click here.

Categories : About Blogs, Attracting Clients, Content Marketing
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Content Curation: How to Become a Thought Leader

By Patsi Krakoff
Thursday, March 31st, 2011

Here’s an important post from Joe Pulizzi’s Junta42 blog, Content Curation Grows Up, Original Content Still Key . I share these key points with anyone who struggles with writing online for their business and needs ideas for what to write.

I first heard the term content curation is this post by Rohit Bhargava back in 2009.

Rohit positioned that, as more corporations and individuals create content, the role of the content curator is needed.  Rohit describes this position as:

Someone whose job it is not to create more content, but to make sense of all the content that others are creating. To find the best and most relevant content and bring it forward.

I know many of my readers and clients who want to become thought leaders in their field. The thing is, Joe and Rohit are absolutely right: you don’t have to be the one with all the ideas. But you do need to gather all that’s relevant and being said in your field and summarize the key points that are most important to your audience.

And, you do need to add your point of view. That’s what makes you unique and a thought leader.

Here’s what else Joe says in his post: Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Online Marketing, Writing Great Blog Content
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Punk Chihuahua Reveals 4 Secrets to Better Blogging

By Patsi Krakoff
Thursday, March 10th, 2011

How’s your content marketing with blogs? Are you brilliantly blogging several times a week?

There comes a time when we all run out of things to say (or at least most of us!). The blog must be fed anyway. Treat your blog like a prized chihuahua… feed it well and it will do wonders to attract readers…

But if you don’t feed it and take care of it, it will turn nasty, and bark and growl for attention. All of which will end up biting you in your traffic stats.

It’s not that we run out of things to say. I’ve got plenty to say about most things. It’s that it’s hard to perform on queue. It’s hard to be creatively brilliant when you want to be, in the time you’ve got available.

But I’ve got a lot of cheat cards up my sleeve. Here are my favorite tips for coming up with a blog post when you’d rather be out playing tennis:

  1. Start with a picture. iStockPhoto.com has some amazingly creative photos and drawings you can use for just about any topic. An unusual photo, like a punk chihuahua, can be used as bait to draw readers’ eye into your blog post. Just be sure you can follow up with good tips or content that’s relevant to your readers.
  2. Start with a shocking title. Use the checkout stand at the grocery store to review the latest National Enquirer or other tabloid headlines: “5,000 Year-old Man Frozen in Ice Had Affair with Palin.” The idea is to use shock and humor and turn it into valuable content for your readers.
  3. Start with a video. Turn on your web cam and talk to your readers from the heart. Sometimes this comes spontaneously, other times it might require a little thought and scripting. Some people are better at this than others. (For myself, by the time I get my hair and makeup and the lighting right, I’ve forgotten what was so important to say…)
  4. Start with OPC… other people’s content. Go find a brilliant post by one of your favorite authors, say for example, one you can easily find on AllTop.com. Use excerpts but add your own opinion and perspective.
Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing, How to...Tips, On Writing Better, Writing Great Blog Content
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Business Blog Writing and Content Marketing:
Come on, light my fire!

By Patsi Krakoff
Monday, February 14th, 2011

Why is content marketing and persuasion so difficult, and what can you do to set people on fire? When it comes to writing content for a business blog, most professionals start from their point of view. Of course, who wouldn’t?

“We’ve got a state-of-the-art 128-bit secure site, offering the best rates on the Web.”

While this business understands that its customers want security and low prices when ordering services online, they fail to ignite passion or spark action in readers.

Stories of real people connect with readers in a way that data and words on a screen can’t. In his best-selling book Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting, published in 1997 by Harper-Collins, master screenwriter Robert McKee argues that stories “fulfill a profound human need to grasp the patterns of living—not merely as an intellectual exercise, but within a very personal, emotional experience.”

There are two ways to persuade people.

The first is by using conventional marketing rhetoric, which is what most professionals use. It’s an intellectual process  in which you write, “Here’s our company’s biggest advantage, and here is what you need to do.” You build your case by giving statistics and facts and quotes from authorities. But there are two problems with this rational approach.

First, the people you’re talking to have their own set of experiences. While you’re trying to persuade them, they are arguing with you in their heads. Second, if you do succeed in persuading them, you’ve done so only on an intellectual basis. That’s not good enough, because people are inspired to act by emotions.

The other way to persuade people—a more powerful way—is by uniting an idea with an emotion. The best way to do that is by telling a compelling story.

In a story, you not only weave in a lot of information, but you also arouse your reader’s emotions and energy.

Persuading with a story is hard. It demands vivid insight and storytelling skill to present an idea that packs enough emotional power to be memorable.

In the sample quote I used about a “128-bit secure site,” wouldn’t it be more interesting if the business blogged about a client who had a bad experience using an unsecured website? Or, better yet, what if they featured a video clip of a client who saved “X” amount of dollars by coming to them instead?

Stories connect us to what really matters most in ways that rhetoric and facts can’t.

Categories : About Blogs, Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Online Marketing, Online Persuasion, Writing Great Blog Content
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When Business Blogging Works Too Well…

By Patsi Krakoff
Thursday, February 10th, 2011

Blogging for your business works like this:

  1. You blog about the problems you solve for your clients
  2. You get found on the Web by the people who need your services
  3. People get to know you, like you, trust you
  4. They email or call and hire you

But then your business grows, you get busy, and what happens to the blog? I’ve seen hundreds  of blogs written by smart professionals that haven’t been posted since last November.

Here’s my own example. I think I enjoy blogging for other people more than I do for myself! The more work I’m getting ghost blogging for executive coaches, the more interesting my writing becomes, and the more fun I’m having. It’s all good, really, except for a few problems…

I am quite simply more excited about creating content that markets for other professionals than I am for myself and my own  business. I have long since stopped worrying about being “normal,” so that doesn’t bother me in the slightest.

But here are some problems… All the while, my ranking on the Top 42 Content Marketing blogs is slipping. I went from #4 to #10 to #17…to #45. I may soon be off the list entirely. Yikes! Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing, Online Marketing
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Business Blog: 4 Reasons to NOT Write Your Own

By Patsi Krakoff
Monday, February 7th, 2011

(Guest post by Adam Kosloff)

You’re swamped.

You barely have time to scan the headlines of your favorite news feeds. Probably the only reason you clicked on this article was to check out whether it might provide instant value to you. Can this article save you time and/or money and/or hassle?

Hopefully, it can. And not because this article will tell you anything you don’t already know – rather, it will remind you of business principles that you already apply in your everyday professional work but which you forgot once you started marketing online.

Here’s the message, loud and clear: 99% of busy business professionals and attorneys should not – repeat, not – waste their precious productive hours writing their own blog posts and website content. If you are guilty of this practice, stop it. You will burn yourself out, and your business will suffer – even if you enjoy doing the writing.

Not convinced? Consider these four arguments.

  1. You earn the most money – and generate the most productive return on your time – when you stay in your “area of strength. The more time you blog, the less time you will have available to serve your clients. Let’s do the math. Say you’re an attorney who bills out at $250 an hour. Currently, you write three blog posts a week. It takes you about an hour to write each post. $250/hour X 3 hours = $750.This means you are investing a whopping $750 every week into your blog. Are you really getting a return on that investment that justifies this practice?
  2. You are not a professional blogger.You have been trained as an attorney, corporate executive, or entrepreneur. Even if you consider yourself a master writer and communicator, web writing is its own very cagey animal.Creating ongoing, tonally accurate, riveting web content requires specialized skills that you must hone over years of practice. Undoubtedly, you could learn how to write more effectively for the web. But why bother? Your time and resources are extremely limited. You must husband them for the crucial tasks of operating your core business. Read More→
Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing, Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks
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