Words to the Wise

Blogging is about connecting. Even with all the ways to promote your blog and its content, if your content doesn’t connect with your audience, you may never have a successful blog.

Ok, now that I’ve totally turned you off blogging, let’s turn this ship around and give you six keys to creating good blog content:

1. Write a headline that gets attention. Much of your audience will find your blog posts through search engines and their RSS feeders and only see the headline of one of your posts and possibly a tiny snippet of info. Write your headline in a way that grabs your reader’s attention and gets them to click through to read on.

2. Create captivating content. When a visitor clicks their way to your blog, you want to keep them there. And chances are, you aren’t the first blog they’ve encountered on the subject they’re searching out. Stand out by being unique - yet still relevant. This is done through the tone of your writing and your perspective on your niche. Be you…within reason, of course. Be funny because you’re funny - not for the sake of being funny.

3. Acknowledge comments. A blog post doesn’t end with the a click of the Publish button in WordPress. As long as your content is live on the Internet, you can expect visitors. Read and acknowledge those comments - good or bad. This is where true relationships are built on a blog. When others come to your blog and see comments and your responses, it’s like a welcome mat that invites them to do the same.

4. Share link love. Don’t hoard your readers. Share links to relevant content off your site. Trust me, people will appreciate it. It shows readers that you’ve taken the time to find relevant content for them and actually share it with them.

5. Leave the black tie, or LBD*, at home. One of the big differences with blogs is that your tone can be much more formal than on a business website. Although my main site is pretty relaxed, my blog offers an outlet for less formal topics. Think of a blog as a social tool and bring your conversational tone.

6. Offer more than words. Don’t be shy about offering links to relevant products you sell via affiliate programs if that’s congruent with the purpose of your site. Just don’t oversell thees products. It’s fine to blog once, maybe twice about a product you’ve used, loved, and now want to share with your readers.

*LBD: Little Black Dress

Jason Pedley is a freelance copywriter in North Carolina. He’s written copy and SEO content for clients in Raleigh, NC and around the world and he never wears an LBD when he blogs. Learn more, but not too much more, at the new and improved home of SEO content writer Jason Pedley.

Are you even recognizing it as a slowdown? Despite the media frenzy surrounding the credit crunch, mortgage crisis, food prices et al, I have clients and friends who are defying ‘logic’ and actually doing well in this economy. In fact, a few are even growing faster BECAUSE of the downturn.

If you’re like me, you’re taking the downturn as an opportunity to grow and profit in new areas you might not have thought of. One of my clients is doing this by taking their online real estate business into new countries. I’m taking my business global thanks to a couple of new clients on the other side of the world.

Here are some strategic ways to stay ahead, and even grow, despite the economic downturn:

1. Have a Plan

It’s one thing for you and your business to enter an economic downturn mentally prepared, but are you prepared on paper? Do you have a plan that trims unnecessary spending? It doesn’t matter if you’re a one-person operation or an 100,000+ employee organization, everything can be scrutinized and put into a plan. If you have your strategies and tactics in the form of a company plan, you and your employees will be more likely to follow it. Saving on items such as electricity, supplies, perks and more can free up vital dollars for core elements like marketing and customer service. Too often companies cut from the largest budgets (like marketing) without realizing they are the most important budget.

2. Speaking of Marketing…

Marketing can be broken down into channels. And while cutting marketing as a whole might not be advantageous to you, cutting some channels may be. It’s time to look carefully at your ROI for each channel. Find out what’s working and what’s not. You may be able to get away with shifting money within your marketing mix to maximize channel productivity. If your website isn’t producing how you want it to, hire a copywriter to look over the copy and make suggestions. See what you can do to boost your search engine rankings.

3. Improve Customer Service

In an age where customer service is declining, now is the time to stand out by offering the best customer service you’ve ever offered. Get with your team. Discuss the situation. Tell them their jobs depend on it…they’ll get the hint. Treat your customers as if your livelihood depends on it - because it does.

As for me, I’m using the downturn to beef up my web presence, turn some of my attention overseas, and capitalize of my current pool of clients by offering them the best service I can. I’m also offering partner services, including bog management, graphic design, web design and PR services through professionals I’ve worked with in the past.

For me, a new year brings renewed drive and determination to give my clients the best copywriting, marketing and public relations I can at affordable rates. And that also means attracting new clients to my websites and blogs to learn more about me. Which means adding content and making sure that content is relevant to prospects and search engines alike. I’m going to give a little bit of detail about my five website suggestions for 2008 below. If you want the in-depth version, you’ll have to tune into This Hour has 22 Widgets on Wednesday, December 20th at 10:00am Eastern Time. Let’s just say I have a lot to say, and typing it would take all day.

Here are my five favorite ways to make 2008 an even better year for your website:

1. Fix the ‘little’ things in your site. Did your site designer give your website title tags like this: “About Us”, “What we Do”, “Contact Us” and “Page 5.html”? If your pages have title tags that like those, it’s time to change them. Title tags play an important role in search engine rankings and in overall marketing. When (and if) a prospect sees a page in your site listed in a bunch of search engine results, do you think “What we Do” is going to entice them to click on the link your site? Titles should be no more than 70 characters long, including spaces and your keywords or key phrase should be as close to the start of the title as possible.

Also, do you have description copy for your website pages? This is another very important tool for your online marketing.

2. Plan an online PR campaign. Got company news that you want to get out to the world? While I never discount true, person-to-person PR practices, planning an online-only PR campaign can really boost your traffic and send you qualified leads. Google the term NC Based Copywriter and you’ll see some releases from me. While the releases are not part of my site, they each link to me or describe my news and services in some way. I suggest planning on two press releases per month depending on relevant company news you have available. Obviously if you don’t have relevant news, you won’t be putting out a press releases. As for distribution, tune in to the show and I’ll give you a bit more info about that.

3. Start a blog. This couldn’t be easier, yet it is STILL seen as a daunting task for many business owners. The first major question you need to ask is where you will host your blog. Your blog acts very much like a website. With WordPress blogging software (my particular choice for two of my blogs, including this one), you can choose to have WordPres host your blog (yourblog.wordpress.com) or you can host it with a separate hosting service (www.yourblog.com or www.yourwebsite.com/blog). The difference between the two is very important. WordPress does not allow commercial information to be posted on WordPress-hosted blogs. This is why I moved my blog to my domain: jasonpedey.com/blog. This is not hard to do. Again, the blog creates relevant links to your site and products and also provides an avenue for you to create relevant content both easily and often.

4. Podcast. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Stop the sucky podcasting. I’m serious. There are still PR firms out there who think it’s cool to sit an intern with a script across the table from a C-level executive with a script and let the two read to each other while the conversation is being recorded. I don’t know why this still happens. When you podcast with me, you get interaction. Sure I’ll send you an outline of the topics we’ll cover in a podcast, but no word-by-word soap opera scripts. When you podcast with me, listeners get information with an element of entertainment, interaction and excitement. And again, podcasts are a great way to add relevant content to your site while giving people an inside look at who your company is. It’s easy and affordable and the best part is that I do most of the work. I’m talking 95% of the wrok here. All you have to do is read the overview and dial a phone number.

5. Dream big. I know each of the above counts as one idea. One blog. One podcast. One Ppress release, etc. But, that’s how big, powerful sites with lots of content are born. Imagine blogging twice a week for a year. That’s over 100 pages of relevant content for your site. Then post some press releases, articles and podcasts to your site and you have the nutrients your site needs to grow.

All of my suggestions for 2008 are within your reach. I can even help you set them up and make them happen. Don’t let another year of wanting to blog, or wanting to podcast, or wanting to do a PR campaign pass you by. Now is the time.

Creative briefs can be long and intricate, and they often take up precious time that could be spent actually creating something. However, there is a place in this world for the creative brief as it does help agencies (and freelancers like myself) better understand the task(s) at hand.

The creative brief typically involves questions. Lots and lots of questions. Now, I don’t always use a creative brief. If I believe that a client and I are on the same page about the scope and goals of the project, then I forge ahead. But when I think a creative brief will clear up some questions and help both me and the client better understand objectives, these are some of the questions I ask:

1. Who are we trying to reach? If you’re a real estate agent, are you trying to reach people selling their homes? Or are you trying to reach people in the Raleigh, NC area who are selling a home worth between $300,000 and $900,000 and has been on the market over 120 days?

2. What’s your objective? Is your objective to simply reach them? Or is your objective to send them to a special landing page on your website that gives them a unique offer and information that is tailored to their situation?

3. What are the obstacles? Does your audience have a belief that precludes them from thinking your product or service is for them? Are you one of a dozen companies sending similar offers?

4. What’s in it for your prospect? Will you solve a problem? Will you save them money? Will you MAKE them money? Will you save them from embarassment?

5. What feeling or personality will your communication take on? Will you be the voice of authority? Will you speak to your prospects’ emotions? Will you be out-and-out human?

6. Is the timing right? Some messages are more effective at certain times of the year. Do your prospects need your service right now? If you send them a message now, will they forget about you when they truly do need you? Can your message be used in more than one medium? For example - can you turn your blog posts into articles that can be distributed via the Internet?

7. How does this project fit in with your overall brand? Will this be one piece of the marketing mix? Are there other agencies working on other parts? For example, if I’m writing web copy, I like to be in touch with the web designer to see how my copy will be laid out in the page.

8. Are there any creative mandatrories? Is there a phrase or paragraph that must be used? An image? A logo?

This is just the start. Often, these questions lead to more answers. Fortunately for me, more questions lead to more answers and a better product in the end.

Who me? I’m still here. My blog had been in limbo as I made the transition from WordPress hosting to housing my blog at jasonpedley.com.

As you can see, my blog and I are back. If you’re signed up to receive updates, you’ll still get them. If you haven’t signed up for updates, look to your right, enter your email and you’ll get updates every week or two.

Thanks.

Jason