Copywriting – Page 11 – Express Writers

9 Ways to Spring Clean Your Content, Starting Now

August 25, 2022April 7, 2015 by Adam Oakley

The birds are singing, the grass is getting greener, and all that snow is finally melting; that must mean spring is finally here! One of the things I love about spring is getting the chance to take stock of the things I have around my home and do some deep spring cleaning to clean out all the gloom from the winter. Spring-cleaning is not only perfect to do around the home, but it is also incredible for your web content. That’s right, you can spring clean your content to make it better and stronger than ever. I am going to take a look at this and give you some excellent tips to spring clean your content. Why Should You Spring Clean Your Content? Over the years, we’ve all created excellent content that met the current strategies and needs of the Internet-world. There have been plenty of Google updates, and many people have worked to make sure their content meets each algorithm for the best results. However, all of this content can become stale and start cluttering up your website. You should take the chance to re-organize your content and make sure everything is in tip-top shape for the rest of the year. How Can You Do It? “I don’t want to get rid of all of my web pages, though!” Don’t worry, you don’t have to get rid and donate your pages like you would your household items or clothing. But you can do some awesome things to make sure your content is new and looking better than ever. I am going to take a look at the top ways you can achieve this and make your content awesome for the rest of 2015. Spring Is Here: Our Guide to Spring-Cleaning Your Web Content Here are the top ways you can spring clean your content, starting as soon as possible. Get a Content Audit to Refresh and Clean Your Existing Content. One of the best ways to start the spring clean is to get an awesome content audit. What does a content audit do for your site and how can it help you organize things? A content audit will check your URLs and page titles to make sure nothing is broken and to help you implement adequate keywords to help with ranks. It can also help you look at your product descriptions, blogs, and other forms of content to see if it matches up with the latest Google algorithms, as well as checking for grammar and spelling. In short, a content audit will take a look at your entire website and help you to start working on some excellent ways to fix your website and make it perfect. Take a Look at Keywords – Do New, Fresh Keyword Research. Even with the latest content updates to Google algorithms, keywords are still vital to websites and helping your rank. However, many people don’t realize that the keywords that worked two months ago might not work now. The best way to make sure your content is still leveraging the advantage you want is to do fresh keyword research and implement new keywords for your website. This can also help you research new keywords as you think of them, and implement new ones into your strategy. You can do keyword research on your own or find professionals who are trained in research to help you find the best ones for your site. Generate New Blog Topic Ideas for the Month. You can come up with blog topics for the whole year, but it is best to make sure those are all evergreen topics that will still be relevant in a few years. However, you should come up with new blog topics each month to help keep your content consistently fresh. This will help you write about great, trendy things going on in your industry as well as writing on news topics to give your clients and readers more, useful information.Coming up with blog topics can be difficult, but it is possible. HubSpot provides a blog topic generator that helps you come up with great headlines and can help you brainstorm new ideas. If you’re still having a hard time coming up with new topic ideas, you can follow some of the suggestions from Entrepreneur such as writing on the questions your clients ask or something you’d like to know more about yourself. Create a Content Editorial Calendar. In order to keep your content organized and looking amazing, you can also create a content editorial calendar for the year and current month. You don’t necessarily need anything fancy, you can use Google Calendar, but you can also create your own template. Either way you choose, it will help you organize your ideas. If you constantly review it and compare with analytics, it can also help you see which posts are currently working and if you need to tweak any of your future posts to match. Get Fresh Content Such as Product Descriptions and Web Pages. Sit back and take a second to think – how long have you had your current product descriptions and static content? Sure, you may have had regular blogs posted but have you thought about your other content? Having the same content for a long time can make your website look and feel stale. While new customers might not notice this, your existing clients will. A great way to spring clean your content is to get fresh content for your various landing pages and product descriptions. This will look great and, you can even share new information you may have about your product or service. Re-evaluate Your Social Media Strategy. Just like with fresh content on your website, you need to have fresh content for your social media pages. While you might be consistently publishing new content, you need to make sure the strategy is still working. Take the time to look at your strategy and see what is working and what isn’t to make any necessary changes. A … Read more

Our Top 10 Strategies To Becoming An Expert Blogger

January 9, 2024April 6, 2015 by Adam Oakley

How do you become an expert blogger? This is a question that’s asked by many aspiring content creators. And it’s a good one. After all, blogging and content marketing are stronger than they’ve ever been. 91% of today’s businesses participate in content marketing. In addition, there are tons of ways to make money blogging in the modern world. For example, we use blogging to earn 99% of our leads and revenue around here at Express Writers. And we’re not the only one bringing in the bacon through our blogging. Michelle at makingsenseofcents.com is a blogger I follow who travels the world and makes six-figures monthly through affiliate blogging. And Jon Morrow at SmartBlogger is a smart marketer who uses his blog to earn over $100k/month. So, whether you’re attempting to start your own blog or looking to create content for other businesses, the opportunities are there. And while there’s quite a bit of competition in this space, becoming an expert blogger is something that can set you apart from the field. If you’re able to nail the strategies outlined below, you’ll be well on your way to becoming an expert in the blogging world. Let’s get started. [bctt tweet=”Learn how to become an expert #blogger in our 10-step guide. ” username=”ExpWriters”] 10 Strategies to Becoming an Expert Blogger Ready? Let’s get into them! 1. Learn How to Write Well-Structured Blogs Arguably, writing is 80-95% of the weight of a highly-successful blog. Just look a few examples of top-ranking, top-shared, conversation-driving blog posts: How to Become a Freelance Writer and Get Paid $200 – $1K per Post – Jon Morrow at SmartBlogger 3 Creative Habits That’ll Make You More Inspired and Prolific All Year How to Find Your Brand’s Unique Content Differentiation Factor and Use It to Your Advantage The structure and readability of these blogs are critical examples. This is the style you need to follow when you write a blog. For example, look at the readability and short, impactful-sentence structure of Morrow’s blog, linked to above: Learning how to write a great blog is definitely an art and a science. But once you learn the art of writing a great blog, everything follows. We have a free guide on how to write great SEO blogs that might help. And my book, So You Think You Can Write, is an excellent primer to learning online content writing standards. Takeaway: Learn the structure and writing style of great blog posts. 2. Create Audience-Centric Content Understanding this concept is the most important step on your journey to becoming an expert blogger. Fortunately, it’s also a pretty simple one to follow. There are essentially two types of content; content-centric and audience-centric. Image Source As you can see in the image above, content-centric blogs are those where the writers create content and then try to find an audience that will read and appreciate it. Writers of audience-centric blogs, on the other hand, establish the audience they’re writing for and work to create content that’s designed specifically for them. The more important point to take away from the image above, however, is that audience-centric content enables you to reach your maximum audience. By identifying who you’re writing for, and what they want to hear, you’re giving your content the best opportunity to earn the interest of readers and be successful. And isn’t that your goal? Takeaway: Identify your audience and create content based on what they want to hear. 3. Stay Up-to-Date With Your Industry Ten years ago, not many people were familiar with content marketing. As time has gone on, however, the industry has developed and improved to the point where Marketing Mag projects that content marketing will be a $300 billion industry by 2019. So, how has the content marketing industry grown so much over such a short period of time? Because the amazing people that helped create the industry, and those that have joined since, have worked to constantly improve it. Modern day blogging is MUCH different than it was 10 years ago. In fact, it’s a lot different than it was just 3 years ago. And because the industry is constantly evolving and improving, it’s essential that you stay up-to-date. How Can I Stay Up-to-Date With the Industry? You can start by paying attention to the movers and shakers. People like: Joe Pulizzi. Founder of the Content Marketing Institute. Author of ground-breaking books like Content Inc. and Killing Marketing. Ann Handley. Head of Content at MarketingProfs. Author of Everybody Writes. Jay Baer. Founder of Convince & Convert. Writer of four best-selling books related to content and digital marketing. Brian Clark. Founder of Copyblogger. Darren Rowse. Founder of ProBlogger. In addition, there are plenty of great blogs to follow. Some of the best include: Content Marketing Institute Copyblogger ProBlogger The Write Blog MarketingProfs To get the most out of these blogs, be sure to join their email lists to receive useful content to your inbox on a regular basis. Takeaway: Follow top industry experts and blogs for tips and strategies that can improve your skills. 4. Research is Everything Next to writing well is research. Just like writing skills are integral to structuring a great blog post, research is everything to a well-read, informative, and accurate blog. As Shout Me Loud contributor Chassie Lee tells us, research is the core of content marketing. She goes on to say that: “Research is the first and most vital step when developing and executing a content strategy. Without complete research, the steps of Ideation/Planning, Creation, Connection, and Measurement will be based on insufficient data.” So, you know that research is important. But how do you actually do it effectively? What’s the Best Way to Research Effectively? This is where things can get a little tricky. Because, while there are many ways to go about researching, you’re going to have to take the time to determine the strategy that works best for you. In Neil Patel and Kathryn Aragon’s Advanced Guide to Content Marketing, they recommend a three step approach. … Read more

Outdated Content: How To Consistently Evaluate The Quality Of Your Copy

December 31, 2020March 27, 2015 by Adam Oakley

The number one money sinkhole for many website owners comes from outdated content. Outdated content is any content that you have that is no longer relevant, or doesn’t help the website either financially or content-wise. The problem with outdated copy is that it can be so easy to become inundated by it. The quality of your content is directly related to the quality of your site as a whole. This means that the more outdated content that you have clogging up your website is the less efficiently it performs. [Tweet “Monitoring the #quality of your #content is an ongoing job, one that doesn’t have a clear end point.”] What Qualifies as Outdated Content? Depending on what sort of site it is that you run, outdated content can vary. Websites that hold searchable listings might have a database that is flooded with dead links or links to old contact sites for certain clients. In the case of a retailer or wholesaler, it could come down to stating that a product is stocked when in reality it isn’t. Professional company websites can also suffer from this malady by having members of staff up on their company listing who no longer work with them. The impact of this content varies from site to site as well. In the case of the professional company website, it simply makes them look inept at maintaining their website. In the case of the retail store or the search database it can lead to loss of income. 5 Ways Outdated Content Makes You Look Bad You might think that just because a piece of content isn’t current, it doesn’t generate a whole lot of traffic. This is a huge misconception. Many times, it’s the existing content that causes the majority of your incoming traffic. Lots of people use search engines that direct them to pages that have been existing for a long time and have slowly climbed up the rankings for a particular keyword. When that “old” page gives the user misleading or outdated information the user is left to assume the worst. In fact, outdated content almost always leads to the reader jumping to one or more of these conclusions: That your website is going out of business That your customer service must be terrible That your company is lackadaisical and just aren’t “with it” That your website managers are technologically incompetent They’re not good enough for my money All of these things work towards causing you to lose revenue through lost conversions. This is definitely not where you want your site to be going. There are ways to get around outdated copy and to revamp content and keep it fresh to avoid these generalizations being applied to your website. The most effective method of dealing with outdated content is auditing. What is Content Auditing? Before you can properly fix your outdated content, you are going to need to figure out where that content is and how badly it affects your current website. In order to do this, you can utilize a methodology called “content auditing”. In a nutshell, content auditing is a means by which the pages of your website are examined for things like broken links and outdated information. After the offending pages are identified, we can move on to making those content pages more viable by updating the information, removing dead links and generally cleaning up the copy. The end result is a website that looks professional and features well on search rankings. Keeping your content current is as important as having a page that exists for a long time. The longer your page in in existence, the more trustworthy Google tends to find it. By refreshing the content on the page you make it a little bit more popular in the search rankings, which can translate into increased traffic and possible increased income through conversions and advertising. How Can Content Auditing Help You? 5 Ways Content auditing can help any website to become better and more efficient. When you content audit, you remove spurious information and revamp the copy in pages that need it. You check your current information and edit pages where the information needs to be updated. All of these can lead to a lot of different positive benefits for the entire site, including: Avoiding Panda penalties: Google’s Panda algorithm is very picky when it comes to certain things such as outdated content. An audit helps you to keep your information up to date to get away from this pitfall Fix Pages for Copywriting: Some of your pages may be in dire need of an overhaul. An audit helps you to pinpoint these and allow you to fix individual pages without having to rewrite entire swathes of your site Consolidation: Some pages would be better if they were combined into one page. Information that is very closely linked can be placed on the same page, eliminating the need for a redundant page and making your site architecture more pleasing. Determine Keyword Specifics: Each page has a set of keywords that they are ranking for. By doing an audit you can figure out what those keywords are and if they suit you. You might be surprised at what keywords your site ranks for! Remove Bad Pages: Some pages just cannot be salvaged and your best option would be to remove them completely instead of getting visitors that end up with a bad impression of your site. Content auditing makes this easy by giving you an overview of which pages tend to shunt users off-page and which ones send users to other pages within your site. Outdated Content is Slowly Killing your Site Just like a bad investment, outdated content takes away a little more of your possible income every month. It’s like an invisible lurker that steals away your customers and leaves them hating your site. You can fight back against it by doing regular content audits. These ensure that you are always at the top of your game regarding … Read more

10 Steps to Create Intelligent Content This Year

June 19, 2024March 12, 2015 by Adam Oakley

When it comes to writing content, you want to make sure you create the best possible pieces for your site and clients. You can look up all the different writing tips and tricks, but there might be one thing you’re missing out on – writing intelligent content. Intelligent content is the way of the content future, and you need to make sure you are on board with this great method. I am going to take a look at just what intelligent content is, why you need it, and also focus on some great steps to help you achieve the best content this year. What Does Intelligent Content Mean? Referring to intelligent content not only refers to how the specific piece of content is written, but also what goes into your content strategy. Intelligent content helps you know whom you are reaching, and it can make the difference when someone clicks on your link on social media, another blog, or from the SERP. A leader in the niche, Ann Rockley, says that intelligent content has a rich structure, and it also keeps everything such as semantics organized. I am going to focus on why you need to have intelligent content for your page, and just how you can get it, easily. Why Do You Need to Have Intelligent Content? One of the most important reasons why you need to have intelligent content is because it can be what helps make or break your company’s success. Smart content takes user experience into consideration, which is something you need to focus on when you make your website and any content. A major part of user experience and content is the same, or similar voice, as well as proper research. If you have different content throughout the web that doesn’t have the same voice and that doesn’t match up when it comes to facts, people aren’t going to know if they can trust you. Inconsistency will breed discontent, and you will soon lose your clients and any visitors. Start focusing on creating intelligent content to make sure you have consistency; your clients will greatly appreciate it and you will be immensely happy with the results it produces. Another reason why intelligent content is important is it is because your clients are able to find what they need quickly, without a lot of hassle. This goes hand-in-hand with user experience. If your clients are able to find what they want and need, quickly and easily, they are more likely to stick around and use your business continually. It will also help you convert visitors into leads, bringing in more customers. 10 Steps to Follow for Incredible and Intelligent Content Now that you know what intelligent content is and why you need it, I am going to take a look at just how you can achieve it. Intelligent content isn’t very hard to get, and by following a few steps, many of which you should already be doing, you will be able to see some great success. Let’s take a look! Make Sure Your Content is Well Researched. One of the best ways to make sure your content is written intelligently is to make sure it is well researched. You might know a lot about a certain topic, but it is always wise to do your research and have resources to back you up. Google is not only helpful for people to find your site, but it is also helpful for you to find great research and resources. Look for sites that have high domain authority (you can use Moz’s MozBar to find great sources) and take time to learn. This is definitely important if you are writing about a topic that you do not know too much about. You don’t want to come across as someone who isn’t knowledgeable, so you need to make sure you do tons of research. Always Have Well Written Content. Another way to get intelligent content is to make sure it is written well. You do not want to have content that is filled with grammatical or spelling errors, or content that sounds stiff and dry. Well-written content is vital to keep readers and convert them into leads, and it is also important when it comes to ranking. Well-written content means that you should be focusing on high-quality content, and we all know how important high-quality content is to the SERPs. A great way to write amazing content is to focus on something you are passionate about; your passion will come across in the writing, which makes it engaging and great. Make Your Content Industry Specific. Writing about trends is great when you want to stay relevant, but you need to make sure you always write things that are industry specific. You can gain inspiration from the latest movie releases or books, but if it doesn’t relate to your industry, it isn’t going to flow very well with the rest of your content. Make sure that you are always writing about things related to your industry to help set you up as an industry leader and to keep from confusing your clients and visitors. I regularly take inspiration from various trends, but I always make sure that when I write about them, I utilize them to show things pertaining to copywriting, social media or content marketing. Trust me, it is possible! Use Your Meta Tags to Help Customers Find What They Want. Like I said earlier, intelligent content doesn’t just come down to how well you write a specific piece, but the structure of your content, as well. When you create your content, you need to make sure you are utilizing your meta tags to help bring in people who are specifically looking for a company like yours. It doesn’t work if someone is looking for the top dog food and they accidentally come to your site that is all about construction. That is a bit of an extreme example, but I think you understand where I am coming … Read more

10 Ways to Create Beautiful Content: Storytelling, Visuals & More

December 31, 2020March 6, 2015 by Adam Oakley

We all want to craft content pieces that engage our readers and give them something to talk about. Nonetheless, we are fully aware of the fact that our audiences are constantly bombarded with tons of attractive, informative and palatable content coming from different reputable sources. In this context, we are desperately looking for the simplest, most concise answer to the following key questions: Why is it so important to work hard to exceed our own content creation efforts on a daily basis? How do we make our writing stand out from the crowd? And most importantly, what are the secret tricks and tips that we could apply to craft eye-catchy, memorable content with a real substance? Let’s find out. Understanding the Challenges Posed by the Information Age In 2015, we spend a lot of time filtering our sources of information. A century ago, some of the most well-read people were lucky to assimilate the info provided by 50 books during their entire lifetime. The continuous expansion of the Internet has changed the way in which we communicate and educate ourselves and has also increased our appetite for premium content. According to a recent study cited by The Telegraph, these days the average Joe has the ability and the opportunity to filter and assimilate a large amount of information representing the equivalent of no less than 174 newspapers of fresh data on a day-to-day basis. Our brains act like giant last-generation computers that help us avoid the unessential and scan, skim, memorize and revisit the things that interest us the most. In this context, it becomes obvious that modern readers have become increasingly selective and able to distinguish mediocre writing from the truly useful and engaging written masterpieces put at their disposal. This brings us to the next question on our list: what are the steps that we should take to revamp, beautify and individualize our writing? 10 Ways to Craft Strikingly Beautiful, High-Value Content Wondering how you could add tiny hooks to your content pieces to make your audience read your written materials first thing in the morning, share them on social media platforms, provide feedback and land on your pages time after time? Here are a few pointers that you should factor in to enhance the practical and aesthetical value of your content without losing a wink of sleep. Unleash the Power of Quality Storytelling. A good copywriter knows everything about marketing tactics, conversions and sales and makes the most of his exceptional storytelling skills to promote any kind of concept, make it extremely desirable and encourage a certain action. We all love a good story. This is precisely why we read books, watch movies and enjoy the conversation that we get to have with an old friend whom we haven’t seen in ages. Stories relax us and help us break the monotony. Stories lead to more stories and get people talking. Every single page that you create needs to be linked to another to add continuity to your story. In order to touch your readers’ hearts and raise their interest and curiosity you should find the best way to: Introduce yourself and kindly invite your readers to sit down and enjoy the narrative ride Get your readers intrigued and build anticipation Present facts that your audience can actually relate to Rely on a unique approach that will individualize your writing style Stir up a mix of powerful emotions and explore your manipulative potential to stimulate your readers to respond to your subtle calls to action According to Copyblogger, strategic storytelling can help you reach just about any marketing goal that may be on your mind at this point. You just have to figure out what your story really is and how you could wrap it beautifully and serve it to your public while it’s still fresh, compelling and newsworthy. Create and Publish Shareable Images. High-impact, original images that evoke powerful emotions are a gold mine for copywriters looking for the easiest method to upgrade your content. We are all aware of the fact that a good picture is more meaningful than 1,000 words. What you may not know is that images boost recall 72 hours after a first exposure to web content. According to Brain Rules by John Medina, a relevant image can help you take your content from dull and unremarkable to memorable in a split second. Craft and Implement Attention-Grabbing 3D Pictures. If you are determined to give your website a quick, inexpensive facelift and turn your content pieces into beautiful masterpieces that your readers won’t be able to ignore, consider adding a few well-chosen 3D images to your pages. According to boostblogtraffic, 3D images enable your prospects to visualize the elements that they could get by signing up, registering or making a purchase. In a world where your content is your only tie with potential buyers seeking products like the ones that you’re selling, 3D photos are the bait that you need to boost your catches. Incorporate Infographics. We will let you in on a little secret: everybody loves infographics these days. As a matter of fact, as Search Engine Journal points out, the search volumes associated with these elements have witnessed an 800% growth over the last decade, proving that audiences have a huge appetite for neatly organized, information-rich, easy-to-read content. Infographics match this description and represent the handy visual aid that allows you to beautify, personalize and promote your content in the most effective manner, while also making it easier for your readers to assimilate the food for thought that you’re providing. Use Behind-the-Scene Pictures to Add a Sense of Authenticity to Your Writing. Let’s say that you’ve recently stumbled across some amazing facts that could constitute prime material for your next story. You write your content piece and get ready to publish it. But all the cool kids on your block will ask you: if you didn’t post it on Facebook (Twitter, YouTube and any other popular social networking website), did … Read more

12 Ways The Walking Dead Creates Content To Die For

December 31, 2020February 23, 2015 by Adam Oakley

Zombies. Blood. Skin falling off. Desperate survivors. You can’t turn it off, though. Is it magic? No, it’s just AMC’s The Walking Dead. Unless you’ve been holed up trying to escape walkers, or are busy prepping for the zombie apocalypse, you probably already know that it’s simply a major hit. When AMC’s The Walking Dead returned from its mid-season hiatus in February 2015, it came back to 15.6 million viewers, according to the New York Daily News. It’s blowing television away. The most-watched TV show on cable this year, it has been consistently drawing crowds since it first launched back in 2010. Fan demand has caused the show to grow from 6 episodes in the first season to 16 in the most recent ones. What you may have missed, however, is that their screenwriters aren’t the only talented wordsmiths on their team. AMC has some skilled copywriters working on The Walking Dead website as well. 12 Elements That Quality Content Should Have: Let’s See How The Walking Dead Measures Up For this piece, let’s actually take a look at the 12 elements that Forbes Magazine says high-quality content should have, and then see how The Walking Dead’s website measures up. Appropriate Content Length. The first thing that Forbes mentions is having content that’s the right length for the audience. It’s doubtful that people are trying to research and read about The Walking Dead using a mobile device, so they should be targeting 1500-2000 words for the sake of their readers and to rank well in Google. Using an online tool to verify word count, their “About the Show” page hits the spot at 1662 words. If, for instance, you decided to examine the “Daryl Dixon” page, purely for research purposes, of course, you’d find 1819 words. It seems their content writers did their homework and are delivering pieces of ideal length. Use of Supplementary Media. The second thing Forbes mentions is the importance of including photos, images, video graphics and other supplementary media, because they increase how often a piece is shared and improve reader response. If you’re still on Daryl’s page (it’s ok, we won’t tell anyone), you already know that the copywriters have included plenty of photos and videos. In fact, the website is loaded with media on every page, including the blog. If you can tear yourself away from Daryl, you’ll see that the copywriters have nailed this aspect across the site, too. Coherent Content and Grammar Check. Forbes also mentions the importance of not only having factually-correct information, but also in having error-free content that has been organized in a sensible way. Analysis of the “About the Show” and “Daryl Dixon” pages, plus one of the longer blog entries, returned zero spelling and grammatical errors. The website also utilizes a mixture of headings, subheadings, and bullet points to break up text, which makes it very easy to follow. Proper Formatting of Page and Text. The next concern, per Forbes, is whether the content is easy to skim, as well as aesthetically pleasing. Considering that the website liberally uses images, reading the pages is almost unnecessary for navigation. However, corresponding text is certainly there and all content flows naturally. Attaining an Appropriate Readability Score. Forbes points out that readability is especially important when those checking out the content are children or non-native English speakers. Several pages of The Walking Dead were run through a Gunning-Fog Index tool, and they all came back with ratings between 4 and 5. An easy read on the Gunning-Fog Index is 6, while text that is more difficult to read can rise as high as a 20, though that might only be seen on a high-level academic paper. Although the median age for a Walking Dead viewer is 33.2, it’s actually the most popular show for people ages 12-34. Considering that the age span for the show’s viewership is pretty massive, and the youngest viewers are roughly in grade 6 or 7, the readability for the website’s content is dead-on. Hire Writers who are Experts in the Field. Although Forbes says having expert writers is more important on pages that involve finances, medical advice, or life-changing information, all content should come from an authoritative source. Sadly, the only true walker experts are characters on the show, but the Walking Dead website is managed by an entire team of experts who cover AMC shows. If a group of real-life heroes can’t be rounded up, industry experts are probably the best that one can hope for. Be Sure the Authors Have a Positive Reputation. Seemingly, reputation and expert knowledge would go hand-in-hand, but Forbes split them up for some reason. Based on a little bit of sleuthing, it seems that the noted contributors were plucked from relative obscurity to assist with numerous AMC blogs. None of them appear to have had work printed in any major publications, but being chosen by a huge company like AMC strongly speaks of their reputation. Has the Content Been Shared? Forbes reports that Google does not officially look at social media shares to help determine ranking, though they often correlate. In any case, when an article is shared frequently, it’s generally an indication that it was written by a skilled copywriter. Speaking only of the blogs on the Walking Dead website, the overall pattern seems to be that longer articles have more comments and social media shares. One recent post had 8k shares on Facebook, but some of the shorter posts had none. Even though social sharing is not consistent from piece to piece, the copywriters did well overall. Quality Internal and External Links. According to the Forbes article, high-quality outbound links help make a site more trustworthy, while internal ones are to be used carefully. Interestingly, the Walking Dead website relies heavily on internal links. It seems that every time a character or episode is mentioned, the text links to the corresponding area on the website. While the “About the Show” page includes only one internal … Read more

17 Secrets To Creating Awesome Blog Topics

December 31, 2020February 20, 2015 by Adam Oakley

It’s that time again – you’re stumped for awesome blog topics and you aren’t sure how to come up with any. I know—I’m a writer over here. It’s as frustrating as the feeling that everything you touch turns into ice, right? Time to “let it go…” Sorry, I think I got carried away there. In any case, you really CAN create some incredible topics that are sure to please every single one of your readers, and I’ve got some tips to help you. Let’s take a look at 17 different ways you can easily come up with some awesome blog topics for your business and readers! How to Generate Engaging Blog Topics Use the HubSpot Blog Topic Generator. You already know the area you want to write about, and you likely already have a few nouns and keywords at the ready. However, you might be stumped for creating great headlines and forming topics. HubSpot understands this, and we love them for it! In fact, they created an excellent topic generator where you can put different nouns into a search field and have them generate headlines and topic ideas to help inspire you. You might not use what they come up with, but it can help get those creative juices’ flowing. It is important to remember that this is a computer generating the ideas, so use discretion and decide if it is a decent topic or headline. Pick Evergreen Topics for Your Blogs. You can also come up with awesome blog topics by utilizing evergreen topics. Evergreen means that the topic will last for a long time instead of writing on trendy topics that only last for as long as the trend does. You can come up with some great evergreen topics that pertain to your business by researching your audience, asking what they want to read about, and searching Google for some great ideas.For example, if you write a blog about foot health, then you will want to write on things like how to treat plantar fasciitis or diabetic foot care. This is a great example of a topic that will remain popular long after trends fade away because people will always need to learn new ways to take care of their feet. You will notice that using evergreen topics will not only get more social shares and views, but also give your content more mileage and allow you to reuse parts of it throughout the year. Always Create Excellent Headlines. When creating great blog topics, you have to make sure you also come up with awesome headlines. Headlines are what will make people click on a link or avoid it all together. Craft something that gives the audience a question while also giving a small answer. Consider staying away from click bait sounding headlines and craft something that doesn’t come across too sales-like, but as something that offers the reader real value. You might even notice that by crafting a great, powerful headline, you can come up with a few more topics, too! This has happened to me more than a few times, and it is wonderful. Use “Trigger” Words to Pique Interest. Along with crafting a great headline, you should make sure you use “trigger” words. This is what can convince someone to click on the link, instead of passing it by. A few trigger words are things such as “awesome,” “top secrets,” “top tips,” “great,” “amazing,” “perfect,” and so on. I am going to use foot care as the example yet again. If you are writing about how to treat a common foot condition, you don’t want the headline to sound bland and boring. Instead, you can write a headline that says, “The Top Awesome Ways to Keep Your Feet Wonderfully Healthy” or something similar. Keep a File of Ideas for the Future. This might not seem like a way to come up with new blog topics, but there have been several times where I have thought of several topics, only to forget them. When you begin brainstorming, you will find that it is easy to come up with a plethora of topic ideas. This means you need to write and file each idea away in order to remember it in the future. You can use something like Evernote, Dropbox, or Google Docs to create a file for ideas and resources. This will help significantly in the future when you begin to hit the inevitable topic idea brick wall. Take Inspiration from Other Blogs. While you don’t want to steal their information and exact headlines, gaining inspiration from others is a great way to come up with great blog topic ideas. You can take a look at what your competitors are blogging about, and follow industry leader blogs to get notifications about new posts. This will help you generate some great ideas for your own content and might even help with your social media posts! Again, only gain inspiration from others; never copy or steal what they are doing. Create an Ideas Board When Brainstorming. Sometimes people have trouble brainstorming by staring at a computer. However, if you make an ideas board, you might find brainstorming easier, especially if you are brainstorming with multiple people. In fact, find one or two people to brainstorm with to come up with some great topics. While you might be stumped for ideas, others might be able to come up with some great ideas that you hadn’t thought of. Don’t go brainstorming alone! Take along a pal or two and use an ideas board to keep things organized and in view the whole time. Ask Your Audience What They Want to Read About. You might not realize it, but your audience is one of the greatest resources you should be using for topic ideas. You can ask your readers what they want to see and even have them ask questions to be featured in a question and answer post. This will give you … Read more

Have You Audited Your Content Lately?

December 31, 2020February 19, 2015 by Adam Oakley

The one thing you know that is absolutely vital for your company’s online presence is the need for great content. You have your website all laid out, you feel like you are writing top quality content all the time, but you might be lacking in social shares, decent Google ranks, and leads. Why is this? What can you do about it? The best way to learn what is wrong with your content and what you need to do is audit it. This is great because you get to see your entire website outlined in an orderly manner and see what you need to do to improve your site and bring in more clients. I am going to look at what a content audit is, why you need it, and the two ways to do one! First: What is a Content Audit? Content auditing is something you may hear thrown around when you read content marketing sites, but you might not know what the writers mean. Just what is a content audit? How does one do an audit? Is it really that important? These questions are completely valid! It is, in simple terms, a chance to look at your website to find anything that is missing, overdone, or broken. This is vital because you need to make sure your site is always working well in order to get the best results from Google. It gives you the chance to combine all of your existing content into a master list and look over it. How does this help? It gives you the chance to make sure your website is operating with the best quality out there because, we all know, high-quality content is key when it comes to copywriting. Remember, this is different from a content inventory. An inventory focuses on the amount of content and pages whereas the audit will focus on the quality existing content. 3 Top Reasons Why You Need an Audit The main reason you need to use a content audit is to make sure you have the highest quality content possible. As I already stated, high-quality content is vital to have for your website. First of all, it helps you rank higher on Google and can bring in more people. Secondly, after it brings in people from the search engine, it helps retain them. No one wants to read poor quality material. By focusing on quality content, you will gain and maintain clients by making a content audit important to your strategy. Let’s look at a few more reasons why you need an audit. It Solves the Problem of an Uninterested Audience. Having buyer personas at the ready can help you when it comes to doing a content audit. This can help you see which parts of your audience will be more engaged with your content and which aren’t. If you have one persona that is only about 10% of your audience and another that is 60%, you want to make sure your content reaches out to the higher percentage the most. Of course you want to reach the 10%, but if you only have content for them, you’re missing out on a huge chunk of audience reach. A content audit can help you see this and improve your strategy. You Can Increase Social Shares. Since a content audit focuses on quality, you will be able to see which areas need improvement. This will not only help with your website but can also increase your social shares. People don’t want to share low-quality work, which means you need to know the quality of your existing content. Checking Out the Competition. Yes, a content audit of your own website can get very tedious, but you won’t have to stay there forever. You can even do an audit of your competition to see what they’re doing right and wrong. Researching your competition can help you improve your strategy by either gaining inspiration or learning which mistakes to stay away from. Two Ways To Do Your Content Audit Now that you know what a content audit is and why it is important, you are most likely wondering just how you can do one. Here are two ways you can do a content audit: DIY: Create a Spreadsheet and Use Google Analytics. A content audit is something you can do yourself. It is important to know that it will take a significant chunk of time so you will need to be sure to set aside enough. You can create a spreadsheet, use Google Analytics, and go over each page in detail to make sure everything is going smoothly. QuickSprout offers an incredible guide to help people do their own content audit by explaining how to set up the spreadsheet, using Google Analytics, and which details you need to look at. Hire a Content Auditing Service. While a DIY solution seems to be the easiest or the choice that saves the most money up front, it can be overwhelming. Many people don’t have the training necessary for a content audit and can miss important things, or take much longer than it really should. The best way to ensure you get the most out of a content audit is to hire a service that has trained professionals. While this will be money out of your pocket, you will notice that the professional audit can help you find pages that need to be improved. When this happens, you will be able to bring in more revenue than ever. Audit Your Content for Incredible Results Now that you know the importance of a content audit, now is the time to begin. Take a look at your schedule and carve out some time to look at what you’ll need for your content audit. If you need help, don’t be afraid to ask! Professional content auditors can help you get the best results and give you the guide to improving your content. No matter what, a content audit is your key to a successful webpage. Photo … Read more

15 Ways to Keep Your Content Flow Organized

December 31, 2020February 16, 2015 by Adam Oakley

Do you have some awesome topic ideas and great content marketing planned out, but you accidentally forgot to write it down? Or, you might have hundreds of sticky notes around your office? 15 Tips for Staying Organized with Your Content Organization is key to having successful content because you are going to have a hard time remembering everything if it isn’t organized well. Just how do you get organized with your content ideas and flow? Let’s look at a few tips that will help. Use Programs Such as DropBox. If you are looking for a great way to keep things organized but want to be able to access it whether you are on your own computer or not, programs like DropBox are perfect. You can easily put your content folders into this cloud-based system, and be able to do your marketing from anywhere in the world. This is also great because, we all know computers like to be finicky, and might just crash one day. If that happens, all of your ideas are not only saved on your computer and an external hard drive, but also on DropBox. Utilizing List Apps and Programs. One of the best ways to stay organized, whether it is for personal life things or marketing, is to keep a list of everything you need. A big mistake many people make with lists, however, is having a master list for every single thing both business and personal, and all the little things in-between. By using list programs such as the Reminders app on iPhone and iMac, or Remember the Milk, can help you create multiple lists for multiple things. I love lists, because they help me get through my busy content days and helps me remember what I need from the store or other non-work life related things. Try some lists out today and watch that organization and flow improve! Planning Out Your Schedule for the Next Week or Two. Another thing that helps me immensely with getting organized is not just having a plan for the upcoming month (which I will talk about later) but is also scheduling out my week and two weeks. This helps because you don’t just have content marketing going on, you have other things pertaining to your business, and, again, personal life. When you sit down and plan everything out, you will be able to delegate time to different tasks and know when you should start and finish something. While this might not always go to plan, you will find that you will be more productive and get things finished on time. You will also notice things aren’t quite as stressful if you already have a plan in place! Using an Editorial Calendar to Keep Your Topics Organized for Months. When it comes to content, you need to make sure that you are not only prepared for the current month, but also for the next few months. A great way to do this is to sit down with your topics and campaign ideas and implement them into an editorial calendar. This will help keep your thoughts and topics organized, and you will be relatively stress-free for the next few months. Many places suggest having an editorial calendar set up for about six months or having one in place for the entire content year. Are you not sure how to create an editorial calendar? Don’t worry! Hubspot offers a great, free calendar! Create a Content Inventory. A content inventory helps you keep track of the content you’ve done, as well as what areas you haven’t covered. It can even show you areas you have covered some, but not enough. A content inventory is also a great way to keep track of every web page you have from your about section to a contact page or anything else you have or need. What you can do is open an excel sheet or a Google Doc and catalog each page you have by name, link, and a small sentence about why you need it. This can help you figure out new pages you need and how you can also organize your web page. It can also help you see if you might have a landing page or two that you don’t really need. However, it will take quite a bit of time to create a content inventory, so be sure you have enough time set aside to do this. Don’t Hesitate to Use Good Old Fashioned Paper and Pencil. Technology is great and can really help you get organized, but you shouldn’t ignore good, old-fashioned practices of staying organized. Consider getting a planner and writing down your content schedule or what you need to do in the future. Keep notes of your different topics or simply use pencil and paper to brainstorm. Many times, this can help people stay more organized than a calendar on a computer because writing it by hand can commit it to memory easier. I know that writing down things on paper is quite a big help for me and I find that I get a lot more done that way. Use a Sitemap to Keep Your Flow Organized. Sitemaps can be incredibly helpful when you are trying to stay organized. This can show you which pages are the most important and that you want more clicks to, but it can also show you which pages you need to change and improve to make them more impactful. It can be a simple thing to make either on your own or with a program. You will find that, when you have this written out in a diagram format, it will be easier to see what you need to do and make necessary changes. A sitemap will also show the relationships between pages. However, this can be difficult to decipher, which can make a sitemap a little harder. You should still give it a try and see how it benefits you! Use a Post Tracker to Help Stay Organized. A … Read more

Copywriting Showcase: The Impeccable Writing of Neil Gaiman

December 31, 2020February 9, 2015 by Adam Oakley

Whether you’ve read his stories or not, Neil Gaiman is a known name in the literary world and I am certain you’ve seen his name when shopping at local bookstores. He has written countless books such as Coraline and Stardust and has won many awards including the Newberry and Carnegie Medals. He has written graphic novels, short stories, novels, and even collaborated with multiple famous authors including Terry Pratchett and George R. R. Martin. 4 Ways Neil Gaiman Wins at Copywriting Neil Gaiman is an excellent source of inspiration for all writers including us copywriters! Let’s take a look at how Neil Gaiman does amazing copywriting. Neil Gaiman Knows How to Use Social Media. If you haven’t heard much about Neil Gaiman outside of his books, then you might not realize that this author is tops at social media. He takes occasional breaks from the web because his Twitter is not just his business of writing, but also personal. However, when he is active, he is very active and engages with fans. He regularly tweets and re-tweets fans, and responds to their comments.If you happen to say his introduction to the anniversary edition of Fahrenheit 451 was beautiful, he will respond thanking you. If you mention something that you found funny in his books or his latest book, he will re-tweet it. Neil Gaiman understands that engaging with his readership is a vital part of becoming and staying a popular author. Sure, his writing can stand alone and bring in many readers, but how many people would truly read his books if he didn’t regularly engage with them.This shows just how important social media is, as well as how important client engagement is for your business. Engaging with clients can help them feel like they are being heard and that there truly is a person behind the brand. It creates a relationship between brand and client that can be absolutely vital to a business’s success! He Gives Regular Advice to Young Authors. Another thing Mr. Gaiman does is pay attention to his fans who want to become authors. He gives regular advice to young authors about how to write great short stories or novels, and has written countless blog posts and articles giving these tips. He even made a commencement speech encouraging young authors, and artists, to keep making good art.His simple rules for writing include writing one word, then a following word, and so on. He also encourages people to be willing to laugh at their own jokes and be fine with any mistakes they make. We all know that we’ve made mistakes and that even some of the more popular writers, filmmakers, and CEOs have made mistakes as well!This is a great example of giving your client base something that they want and need. Neil Gaiman knows that in order to cultivate his amazingly creative fan base, he needs to give them helpful advice and he is more than willing to do that. In fact, he regularly states that if it weren’t for Terry Pratchett, he wouldn’t be where he is today, and he wants to be helpful to others as Terry was to him. Use this as inspiration to write content that will provide real value to your client base. Give them DIY tips or advice on things that pertain to your industry – trust me, they’ll greatly appreciate it! They will even begin to see you as a trusted source when you do this. He Discusses What He is Passionate About. While Neil Gaiman loves writing fantasy and science fiction stories, he also enjoys writing blogs and articles about his passions. It doesn’t take much research to realize that Mr. Gaiman has an absolute passion about the need for libraries. Recently, in the United Kingdom, many libraries were either being closed or on the verge of being closed due to various factors. This upset Neil quite a bit, as well as many others. He wrote an article about the need for libraries and even the need of daydreaming. In another article, he wrote about the importance of fiction in the world.What can you learn from this? You might not be writing articles on libraries or fiction books, but when you write content for your readers, you want to write high-quality pieces. How can you do this? By writing on a topic you have a passion for. Your passion will come through your writing easily when you do this, which can help craft excellent and compelling pieces for your blogs, as well as any guest blogs you do. He Knows the Importance of Collaboration. One thing Neil Gaiman does a lot of is collaboration with other authors. This is something many authors might do at some point in their career, but many only do it once or avoid it all together. Neil Gaiman stands out because he seems to enjoy it. In fact, his very first book was a collaboration with his dear friend Terry Pratchett on the book Good Omens. He has since collaborated with Mr. Pratchett more and has done others with writers such as George R. R. Martin. He also collaborated on a book of short stories based on the works of H. P. Lovecraft with Sherlock Holmes as the main protagonist in the book Shadows Over Baker Street.Neil Gaiman has had incredible success with his collaborations and is a great example of why you should be teaming up with others in your industry. George R. R. Martin and Terry Pratchett could easily be considered Gaiman’s competitors, but they all know that collaborating together helps them all out in the end. Take some time to think about some awesome collaborations with those in your industry or even organizations such as humane societies and other charities. Use Neil Gaiman as Your Inspiration for Content! Take this chance to implement a few things that Neil Gaiman does into your very own copywriting strategy. By engaging with fans, using social media, and writing … Read more