Back to Basics: Defining Your SEO Strategy Hey-oh! Rhea here and guess what? I’m supposed to leave for vacation in about six hours. Maintaining sanity, that’s what. Before I go I want to follow-up on several questions left in the comments of last week’s Whiteboard Friday. Frame a Purpose Statement We start with the most basic question. Why does the business exist? The usual answer is—to make money! Yeah, we get it, we all want money, but there’s no difference between a bakery and a car insurance company if we look at business in such simplistic terms. So, step back and really think about this. At Outspoken Media, our answer looked like this: Our purpose is to help grow and protect businesses. Using the aforementioned examples, the bakery’s purpose may be to provide fresh, local artisan bread to their community. In something as simple as a purpose statement, there are enormous opportunities to drive creativity with regard to content marketing, audience targeting, keyword research, etc. Set Website Goals Why does the website exist? 1.
Multi-Author WordPress.com Blogs To create an effective and successful blog the blogger must become a prolific writer of quality content. Fresh and interesting content is what readers come to our blogs to read and discuss. Provided your writing is engaging the enthusiasm you have for your topic makes your blog worth reading. Enthusiasm plus even more content and a wider range of viewpoints for readers to consider makes multi-author blogs worth reading. Does your blog need more content?Does your blog need more exposure? Without doubt multiple authors can publish more content than one blogger can, but little things make a big difference in small groups and teamwork comes with challenges. Despite the challenges that we have looked at here, multi-author blogs still bring great opportunities. Successful groups have a clearly defined purpose and committed members. Preparation Recruit additional enthusiastic authors for your WordPress.com multi-author blog. Evaluate the theme Create a custom menu User Roles – Adding Users Like this:
Content Marketing Success: Developing a Broadcasting Strategy More and more businesses today concentrate on content marketing in their efforts to convert prospects and deliver sales. And why shouldn’t they? Publishing helpful information online has several advantages that traditional advertising is missing: it offers the chance to explore new marketing methods that people don’t surf away from, it educates prospects in different niches, and (most important) it provides new interaction opportunities. In this article, I will focus on choosing the channels where you can cast your content, and preparing the actual publishing process. Play the Broadcasting Manager I confess I really love this game! What’s a broadcasting manager? A broadcasting strategy in a TV network contains three key elements: The ChannelsThe PlaylistThe Automation Machine Let’s go over them one by one and see how they fit in content marketing: The Channels Broadcasting networks include different types of channels: analog and digital, physical and virtual, linear and non-linear and so on.
Bloggers: 23 Ways to Counter Writer’s Block All of a sudden, your blog seems like a dog biting your heel cap and refusing to let go. You do not have time for yourself, all your research zeal has been exhausted and the topics you want to write on are all water down. They have no juice anymore. (Image source: Fotolia) All bloggers reach their writing limits at one time or the other. When this happens, do not tear your short point notebook. Related: Designers: 5 Tips to Get Back Your Creativity 1. Surprise your readers with a review of a book by a foreign writer. 2. Every day, products are launched across the Internet; from coaching programs to physical products, services to magazines. Follow up on a product that was launched a few years ago and track its performance. 3. Your niche may have its unique propositions but the essence of business is the same across all industries. 4. (Image source: Fotolia) 5. Blogsdrop (coined from eavesdrop) often. 6. Use social media and Google Alerts to find exciting topics to write about. 7. 8. 9.
Use Inbound Marketing to Bring In More Qualified Sales Leads | Vab Media An excerpt from a content marketing blog written for Honduran Joe, a coffee fundraising company, is a good example of these benefits. The blog isn’t about coffee fundraising at all; rather, it’s about the difference between two major types of coffee. Content marketing involves providing useful and/or entertaining content. Posting to blogs, Facebook, Twitter and other sources several times per week might sound overwhelming. How can you maintain a constant stream of ideas for content creation? Imagine your standard customers. When creating a customer profile, ask yourself questions that identify needs and interests: Where do they spend time online? Want to learn more about your audience? You Need to Start Creating your Customer Persona The first step is to start developing a persona by researching your existing customer base to identify the most common buyers for your products and services. What are their Pain or Problem Points? Align Content to the Sales Cycles 1. 2. 3. Beg, Buy & Borrow Beg.
20 Common Grammar Mistakes That (Almost) Everyone Makes I’ve edited a monthly magazine for more than six years, and it’s a job that’s come with more frustration than reward. If there’s one thing I am grateful for — and it sure isn’t the pay — it’s that my work has allowed endless time to hone my craft to Louis Skolnick levels of grammar geekery. As someone who slings red ink for a living, let me tell you: grammar is an ultra-micro component in the larger picture; it lies somewhere in the final steps of the editing trail; and as such it’s an overrated quasi-irrelevancy in the creative process, perpetuated into importance primarily by bitter nerds who accumulate tweed jackets and crippling inferiority complexes. But experience has also taught me that readers, for better or worse, will approach your work with a jaundiced eye and an itch to judge. Who and Whom This one opens a big can of worms. Which and That This is one of the most common mistakes out there, and understandably so. Lay and Lie This is the crown jewel of all grammatical errors. Moot
14 Tips To Source and Create Great Content For Social Media A question I often hear is how do you create great unique content? What most people and companies don’t realise is that they have great content it just happens to be offline in Silos, files on computers that are waiting to be repurposed for online. It can be interviews or press releases that can be edited, summarized or combined. The core foundation for your content should be initially a blog as part of your own website’s domain, this will help with creating links that will improve your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to help you “get found online”. So there are 2 core activities to having great content: ”Repurposing Existing Content” of different types and mediums and “Writing New Content”. 5 Tips For Repurposing Off-line Content To On-line Content Here are 5 of many ways companies can repurpose content for marketing purposes in ways that are efficient and meet the needs of target audiences. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 9 Tips To Getting Inspired To Create Content Some Ideas About Writing 1. 2. 3. 4.
How to Write Better: 7 Instant Fixes Does your writing stand out? Do you worry whether your writing is good enough? I can see you nodding your head. You are not alone. The good thing is that writing is a journey. On this journey, you can either travel the long road – or use shortcuts. Using shortcuts means learning to spot and fix mistakes in order to write better. Here are seven instant fixes that will improve your writing. But … what is good writing? Inexperienced writers think that ‘good’ writing is elaborate. No, good writing is simple. 1: The art of natural Check out an example of elaborate writing below (I’ve sourced examples of writing from free Kindle books chosen at random). This is from a story about a young girl who is at home with her young brother when a thunderstorm strikes. An ebony abyss claimed the den. I take this to mean, “The room went dark.” Maybe the author consulted a Thesaurus to create a sentence with special words. Your words should sound natural. I reckon you’d get a strange look … 2: Is it obvious? Careful!
Web Sites - How to Create a Successful Blog Editorial Strategy in Just Six Steps Blogs are one of the most valuable content marketing tools that businesses have to engage with and educate their prospects and customers. But many businesses still aren't taking advantage of what is a great opportunity to directly share information and expertise. At my company, we encounter that issue all the time. Companies either don't blog at all or they don't create enough of the right kind of content in their blog. A solid blog strategy will help you create relevant content on a regular basis to attract the people you are trying to reach and help your business convert those readers into customers. Here are six steps to creating a successful blog strategy that delivers results for your business. 1. Though this first step may seem obvious, many businesses cannot define their exact audience. For example, if you are a winery with a fab Cab, talk about the Cabernet grape, your harvesting process, and great food pairings for your best vino. 2. 3. Consider the following questions up front:
15 Best Places for Designers to Get Free Stock Photos Online I’m not sure if you’ve ever had a look at the prices on some non-stock photography sites (pictures of Gummy bears for $769.00 anyone?), but they reach far beyond the budget of the typical designer/developer. However, many places online allow you to obtain high-quality stock photos for free, giving the average starving artist a chance to create wonderful works of art/design without having to use next month’s rent on stock photos. In this article, we review the 15 best places to free stock photos online for designers. Note: Although these sites feature free stock photos, you should read the terms, limitations, and licensing of each work that you use; read the fine print! Dedicated free stock photo sites 1. stock.xchng stock.xchng is all free, all the time. one of the most popular paid stock photo sites – iStockphoto, sponsors them. Aimed at: Web designers and web developers, illustrators, print designers 2. A small team of in-house professional photographers supplies the photos in the site.
20 Content Marketing Ideas for 2012 I know — just the idea of coming up with content marketing ideas is enough to instill fear in many small business owners. But why? As SMBs, we’re pros at using content as a way to attract customers and build word of mouth. We’ve been doing it our whole entrepreneurial careers! But we seem to forget this when the “content marketing” term is brought into the discussion. Here, I’ll start you off with 20. Below is just a handful (OK, a few handfuls) of content marketing ideas your business can implement and profit from: Create a free course on a topic related to your business and invite people in your neighborhood to attend. See how easy that was?
12 Most Common Blogging Mistakes Starting a site is easy, but creating a site full of irresistible content takes skill, experience, time and effort. One way to become a better content creator is to look at reasons other sites fail. Study failure, learn from the negative and turn this into clear instructions on how to do things right. These are the common habits that you should avoid to give yourself a better chance of succeeding. 1. Working hard is not the same as working smart. 2. It is easy to keep planning, keep researching and endlessly refining your idea. 3. If you don’t have a deadline your tasks may end up expanding so as to fill the time available for their completion. 4. Part of the appeal of visiting a site is knowing that when you get there, it will offer something new to make it worth your while. 5. If someone who knew nothing about your site was to visit it for the first time, would that person understand – within a few seconds – what the site is about or what it can help them achieve? 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.