Entries Tagged 'blog' ↓

Deciding to start a blog is the easy part. Coming up with consistently great ideas for posts is another matter entirely.

Let’s take a step back. What got you interested in blogging in the first place?

You probably have a few blogs you read regularly and it’s more than likely their content that has inspired you to have a go. But how can you emulate the success of your blogging heroes?

OK, let’s stop there for a moment. You can’t and shouldn’t emulate them. If you want to create a following for your blog you must make it your own through its content, style and voice.

No one is going to want to read a copy-cat blog.

For many new bloggers the intense desire to be the greatest blogger known to man can stifle creativity and natural flare. You are you (there’s nothing like stating the obvious) so make sure that comes through your writing.

Five ways to become a better blogger:

1. Whatever you do, don’t compare yourself to others

If you try to write in the same style as your favourite blogger you’ll create something that barely registers on the ‘OK’ scale.

Every one is different and everyone likes to read different styles. You only have to look at your local bookshop to realise how many different genres and styles of writing there are out there.

You are an individual and your blog posts are your opportunity to show that individualism. Use your personal style to carve out a niche for your work. You won’t please everyone but those that do enjoy your writing will become dedicated followers.

2. It’s not a closed club

If you take a look around the blogosphere you’ll spot several big hitters who seem to be everywhere. ‘How can I possibly be as good as them?’ you may ask. Well don’t. As I said before you are you, so make sure that comes across.

The blogging club is not closed to new members and there’s nothing to stop you from becoming a ‘name’ too. Bloggers come and go all the time so get your name out there and see what happens.

3. Be unique

There is only one you so use that to your advantage.

No one else thinks like you, writes like you, or conveys a message like you. It is that uniqueness that is your blogging secret weapon so use it.

Your experiences, personality and ideas will shape the way you write in a way no one else can emulate. By making your work your own you will attract readers.

4. Fresh topics

Looking at the millions of blogs out there you may think it is impossible to come up with a constant stream of fresh topics no one else has written about. And you’d be right.

But the trick is not to be led down the path of repetition. If you want to write about SEO find an angle that no one else has covered before. Relate your topic to your own world and experiences to be sure your information is completely unique.

It is this constant re-shaping of information that makes the world of blogging so interesting.

5. Stand out

There is one simple thing you can do to make your writing stand out from the crowd—incorporate your own personality. If you naturally write in a humorous way use that to your advantage. Most people read to be entertained in some way, so keeping your writing light will help convey your message.

Be true to yourself.

Is it tough constantly coming up with new angles and topics?

Yes.

Is blogging for you?

If you want to get your ideas ‘out there’, if you enjoy writing, if you want to have a worldwide voice, yes, blogging is for you.

Give it a try—you’ve got nothing to lose.

Sally Ormond – freelance copywriter and blogger

Today’s guest post was contributed by James Adams, a writer with CartridgeSave covering the latest releases of Canon supplies.

5 Tips for Writing Effective Copy for Products

If you’re running an ecommerce store, then you know that there are two main pillars to your success: get relevant traffic to your store, and then convert that traffic into sales. One of the best ways to do both is to learn how to write not just good sales copy for your products, but sales copy that compels prospects to buy. Ideally, you would like to have compelling sales copy that encourages people to buy, but which is also search engine optimized so that it sends more traffic your way. Let’s take a closer look at 5 tips for writing effective copy for products of any kind.

1. Focus on Benefits

As you browse different ecommerce sites, you will notice that some sites emphasize the benefits of the product, while other sites might merely list all of the features. In all likelihood, the site that emphasizes benefits is making more sales. People don’t purchase a product because they are impressed by the list of features: They want to know what those features will do for them. They want a product that satisfies some of their needs and wants, or they want a product that will better satisfy a frustration that they are currently experiencing. If you are selling a pair of boots, for example, you might want to let the customer know that it has double Teflon-sealed soles. However, there is a good chance that your potential customer doesn’t even know what Teflon is, so it would be much better to tell him that the double Teflon-sealed sole will keep his feet dry even if he gets caught in a rainstorm or steps into a puddle.

2. Know the Audience

When you list the benefits of a product, it is important to know who your target audience is. If you are selling a cell phone, there will be a world of difference between what a teenager and what a business man is looking for. A teenager may want to send text messages to his friends, watch YouTube videos, and play video games. A business man wants a phone that will handle multiple email accounts, allow him to take notes at meetings, and allow him to manage his stock portfolio. Even if a single phone is more than capable at handling all of these tasks, you will want to emphasize a different set of benefits depending on which demographic most often shops in your ecommerce store.

3. Describe Your Prospect Using the Product in the Future

If you can get the prospect imagining himself using the product, then you are halfway to the sale. If you think to all of your own purchases both online and offline, you will realize that you never bought a product unless you could picture yourself using it in the future. It’s an essential part of the human decision making process. You can help your potential customer get there by describing him in a scenario of your own making. If he couldn’t picture himself using the product before, he definitely can now.

4. Weave in Your Keywords

Once you’ve written your sales copy, it is time to work in some keyword phrases so that you can get some additional traffic from the major search engines like Bing, Google, and Yahoo. Excellent sales copy is important, but if no one sees it, then you aren’t going to achieve any sales. However, you should incorporate your keyword phrases in such a way that they don’t distract from your copy. If it sounds stilted, then you should take a few of the keywords out. It’s a good idea to write your copy without the keywords in mind, and then to go back and add them in later. If your sales copy is pretty long, then you can target several keywords. However, if it is only 60 or 70 words long, then you should probably just focus on one keyword phrase.

5. Always Test and Track

It’s a good idea to always have two different versions of sales copy for each product that you sell. You can use various tracking software, including free software provided by Google, to alternate between the two versions of your sales pages and to track the results. After tracking for a month, you can keep the version of copy that converts better and construct a new one to test against it. By doing this, your product conversion will continuously improve, and you will become continuously better at writing copy. You shouldn’t worry too much if you don’t get it right the first time.

Writing great sales copy can be a tough skill to learn. In fact, it is one of the most valuable skills in all of sales and marketing. If you have mastered it, then you should be able to sell nearly anything. Despite its difficulty, there are a few proven techniques that you can incorporate into your product copy.

If you follow this blog regularly you’ll know I’m a huge fan of blogging as a way of boosting your online presence. As a copywriter I’ve been using this method for several years now and it works.

Through the power of blogging you have the potential of driving a huge amount of traffic to your main sales site as part of your search engine optimisation strategy.

In an earlier post I looked at how to give your blogs eternal life, well now I want to expand on that theme by talking about how you can optimise each of your blog posts.

Below are 5 tips to help you get the most out of your blog posts through optimisation.

1. Quality content

There is no getting away from the fact that people only want to read well written, informative blog posts.

You must therefore create posts that are easy to read, interesting and informative. If there is value in your content your readers will share it with others. Not only that, it will also attract those all important back links.

2. Keywords

Because you are writing for an online audience you must take care to work out which keywords your post should be targeting.  Once you’ve written your post, read it and think about what terms would your reader use to search for it. The primary keywords tend to be quite obvious, but other terms are not so clear-cut.

There are various tools you can use to identify your keywords such as Google’s keyword tool.  But there are also a few other tools you can use that will help you identify terms associate with your primary keyword. One is the Google Tilde search. But there is also another more visual tool you can use.

Let me introduce you to the Google Wheel. When you’ve entered your search term into the Google search box, if you look to the left of your screen you’ll see Wonder Wheel.

If you click on this it will produce a wheel diagram with your main search term in the centre (in this case ‘dog training’) with associated terms around it:

You can then click on any other outer terms to receive further results:

3. META Titles and descriptions

This is one aspect that is often forgotten. The META title and description are there to tell both the reader and search engine spiders what your posts is about. If you use the WordPress.com platform for your blog you can use the All in one SEO Pack to specify these fields.

When writing your titles and descriptions make sure your keywords are near the beginning. There is also a character limit for each (Titles – 72, Description – 165) so you’ll have to carefully plan your words.

4. Links

Both internal and external links are important when writing your posts. As you can see, I’ve used a mixture of both.

Your internal links (utilising related keywords) link out to other posts, while external links take the reader to other related websites. In both cases make sure you use keyword rich links rather than something like ‘click here’ which has no value.

Your external links can also be used to encourage inbound links from other websites as ‘trackbacks’ inform that web owner you have linked to  them. Therefore they may in turn link to your posts.

5. URL

The last item on my list is your URL. This I the web address used to link to your post. Make sure you use your keywords within this as it will instantly show the relevance of your post.

Make sure it is meaningful.

By utilising each of these techniques and tools, you will produce meaningful, interesting blog posts that will be found through the search engines. Not only that, but by ensuring you create quality content you will attract links and build your reputation as an expert in your field.

Blogging is an excellent way of getting your voice heard.

In my last post I explained why you should get your business blogging.

“That’s great Sally. But what the hell am I supposed to write about?”

Trust me, you’d be amazed at the wealth of material available to you.

By blogging you are going to really help your search engine optimisation, customer communication, online reputation as an expert and really boost your web presence. So it is really worth digging deep to find some great topics to write about.

Look beyond your writers’ block

Everyone has something to write about:

• your businesses background
• top tips
• ‘how to’ articles
• customer case studies

In your daily work situation subjects are likely to crop up. Keep a pad next to you to jot down ideas as they come to you. That way you’ll begin to build a list of potential blog posts for future use.

I stumbled across a great post on Problogger tackling this subject. In his post, Mark Hayward gives 9 tips for creating more small business blogging ideas. Building these suggestions into your everyday working life will generate you a constant stream of ideas.

Therefore writers’ block and the excuse that you can’t think of anything to write about will be banished forever.

Sally Ormond – freelance copywriter

If you are a regular reader to this blog, you’ll know I’m passionate about blogging for business.

I’ve been blogging for quite a while now and it has proven to be an excellent way to build my business. Plus it is a fabulous vehicle to help other people with tips and advice.

But, if it is new to you, it can be daunting. Where do you start?

I’ve put together 10 tips to help you get the most out of blogging for your business.

10 tips to get you blogging

1. What is your blog for?

Before you dive into blogging you need to be clear about why you are doing it. What is your aim?

• to build credibility?
• use it as a search marketing tool?
• will it be your main company site too?
• are you going to use it as a tool to communicate with your customers?

You may want to use it for all of these purposes. But it is essential to get this clear in your mind before you start.

2. Decide on your URL

If your blog is to be part of your main site, your URL will be incorporated into your main sites name e.g. www.companyname.com/blog. However if it is to be a separate site try to pick a URL that incorporates your keywords/topic name.

An example of this is this blog. I’m a freelance copywriter therefore the name of my blog is www.freelancecopywritersblog.com.

3. Software

The next stage is to decide on which platform you are going to blog. You can use a free blog such as through WordPress but if you do that you must remember that you will not get any benefit from inward links. All the links you get will be building WordPress’s site not yours. Therefore I would strongly recommend you get your own blog on your own URL.

4. Customise it

Create a blog that will perform as you want it to. Blogging platforms have various plug-ins you can use to enhance your posts. Through WordPress there are plug-ins such as All in One SEO, Google XML Sitemap and Tweet This to name but a few.

Your choice of plug-ins will be determined by your goals.

You can also customise templates to create an image that coordinates with your company.

5. Content

When starting out it is very important you decide what kind of topics you are going to blog about. Try and keep within your specific field. After all people will subscribe to your blog because they are interested in what you are talking about.

On this blog I discuss various copywriting and marketing subjects. People subscribe because they want to learn about those fields and know that each post will be relevant to them.

It is also a good idea to use your keywords as categories on your blog – that makes it easier for people to find information they are interested in.

6. Easy to share

If one person is interested in what you have to say, there is a good chance that other people will be too. Use a plug-in that makes it easy for your readers to share your post with others through social bookmarking sites such as Digg and Delicious.

7. Keep it social

Spread the word of your blog through RSS feeds into your Twitter account and Facebook. List your blog on directories and publish your URL.

8. Monitor

To keep up to date with what’s going and to find out what people are saying about you, your blog and your company use tools such as Google Alerts and Social Mention.

9. Blog regularly

The more often you blog the more people you will reach. Try to blog at least 3 times a week –if you can post daily.

10. Link

One of the most powerful benefits of blogging is that it creates back links to your main site. In every post make sure you add in textual hyperlinks to your main site utilising your main keywords.

I hope those 10 tips will help you set on the right foot. Blogging really is a powerful tool that every business should utilise. It doesn’t matter what industry you are in, blogging can and will help you reach a wider audience.