How to Write - Express Writers

How to Generate Backlinks That Will Boost Your Website Search Engine Ranking

February 6, 2025December 26, 2024 by Rachel Moffett

If you build it, they will come. This may be true for magical baseball fields in Iowa. But to boost your website’s search engine ranking, you need to do more than just build a site and wait. Search engine ranking, or where your website lands on a search engine results page, is inherently linked to website traffic volume. The higher you rank, the more traffic you tend to see. Many factors play into how well your site is ranked, including quality of content, page authority, and even URL length. One of the most important, and often overlooked, elements of achieving a desirable ranking is generating high-quality backlinks. A backlink is created when another website links to yours. Search engines view these links as recommendations or votes of confidence for your site. The more authority a linking site has with a search engine, the more valuable that backlink is to your authority. Below is a simple diagram depicting types of hyperlinks. Read on to learn how to generate backlinks to your website like an SEO expert. Why You Should Generate Backlinks Because the cool kids are doing it. No, really. Envision a quality backlink as that popular friend at school who will introduce you to the people you want to know. Generating backlinks is a way of networking your website to gain audience and authority. And much like when you network in person, the more people who link to you, the stronger your industry presence becomes. Rank Higher on Search Engine Results Pages A recent SEO study conducted by Backlinko found that the “#1 result in Google has an average of 3.8x more backlinks than positions #2-#10.”. Additionally, sites with backlinks from many different domains ranked higher than sites with less diversity in their links. The following chart depicts the correlation between backlinks and ranking. See an Increase in Referral Traffic A high-quality backlink, from a trusted source with a solid web presence, can provide a steady stream of new traffic for your site. Even “no follow” links, or those that don’t directly count toward search engine ranking, can ultimately benefit your website’s SEO by increasing traffic to your site and adding diversity to your backlink portfolio. Get Indexed by Web Crawlers Faster Search engines use website crawlers (also known as spiders) to gather and parse internet content. These search engine bots scan a website’s pages and index its information. Then, when you perform an internet search, an algorithm is applied to this index and the websites with relevant content appear on the search engine results page (SERP). Given that there are billions of web pages, the spiders start with a list of known sites and look for hyperlinks to add to the crawl list. More popular and authoritative sites tend to get crawled first. Getting a backlink from a quality source can put you on the fast track to getting noticed on SERPs. Increase Authority and Brand Awareness Think back to the school metaphor. If a friend you trust and admire introduces you to a new person, you might immediately feel more positive toward them given the common ground. Similarly, when someone clicks on your link from a site with authority, it can help improve your authority through association. Website backlinks from popular companies can also help increase your brand awareness. It’s like distributing your product through a major retailer versus selling it at a local market. The more people who see your name, the more potential customers you have. 4 Website Backlink Strategies That Will Boost Your Ranking An experienced backlink generator knows that link building can yield bountiful results, but they also know it can be a long and arduous process. Luckily, there are many ways for you to successfully generate quality backlinks and rank higher on search engines. A little bit of hard work and patience will go a long way in helping you develop a robust backlink portfolio for your website. Here are four industry-proven backlinking methods. 1. Generate Foundational Links on Social Media and Business Review Sites Aptly named, foundational links are some essential building blocks of an SEO strategy. These types of backlinks are a natural step forward after publishing your website and they’re the first chance for your site to gain traffic and get crawled. The links that you place on your business’s Facebook page or LinkedIn profile to direct people to your site are two common examples of foundational links. Social media links don’t technically count in page ranking, but they’re still a valuable contribution toward your internet presence, especially when first starting your SEO campaign. Guest posting for websites in your niche is also a good starting point. In these posts, you can include relevant links to your website that help build your backlink portfolio and boost your domain authority. Bonus — you get the benefit of building professional relationships with your peers. Internal links, though they’re not technically backlinks, can be considered foundational as well. They are hyperlinks on one part of your website that link to another part of your site. These early internal links can help you begin to rank on SERPs for low-competition keywords in your niche that you highlight with anchor text. 2. Pack Your Pages with High-Quality Content People Want to Share While this should be a no-brainer, you’d be surprised how many website owners leave their pages devoid of good content. A sparse number of blog posts or a lot of poor-quality posts can equally work against your domain authority. Consistently publishing content that’s of high value to your industry, combined with an effective backlinking strategy, is a surefire way to get noticed. Start by doing industry research into trending topics and keywords and studying the content of popular competitors to get an idea of the type of well-ranking web pages. Note that content format also affects ranking. For example, “why” posts and infographics tend to get more clicks than listicles and general posts. Once you’ve compiled your research, write similar (but still … Read more

7 Tips to Create Browsable Content for Web and Mobile Optimization

December 19, 2024 by Sarah Damron

There is a very high chance you are reading these posts on your smartphone. Smartphone usage is increasing, right along with smartphone capabilities. Phones have changed so much over the years. In your teens or young adulthood, you most likely only used cell phones to make calls, send text messages, and play the game Snake. Now, you have the entire internet at your fingertips. Because smartphones act as computers for many uses, users are no longer only restricted to using a computer for their daily browsing. After all, why haul around a heavy laptop when you can shop, game, and browse on a lightweight smartphone? Browsing content on mobile devices comes with its unique challenges. Is your content prepared for mobile optimization? We’ll walk you through seven tips on how to optimize your website for mobile readers by making it more browsable. How Is Mobile Usage Changing Content Marketing? A startling 95% of the U.S. own a smartphone. By 2025, an estimated 72% of internet users will be using smartphones to access the internet. That means three in every four website visitors may be logging on from their phones. Mobile optimization for this change can take many forms. You’ll first want to look over the technical aspects of your site. Make sure your site runs on both web browsers and smartphone browsers. A crucial part of optimizing for smartphones is keeping your images, video, and other media small so they don’t bog down mobile devices. You will also want to ensure your smartphone navigation is easy to use. Once you have your technical details ironed out, it’s time to dig deeper into your content on the device and how people interact with content on their smartphones. Think of the last time you read an article on a smartphone. While you may have sat down to read the article thoroughly, much of phone usage includes scrolling and quickly browsing. The user may not even have a specific end goal in mind. When you want to access something on the laptop, you must be intentional about the process. After all, laptops aren’t convenient to pull out anytime to check a quick fact. Those who use laptops do so with a specific purpose. However, phones are accessible at all times. Because of how often your smartphone visitors might visit your site to browse rather than sit down and digest content, you will want your content to be easily digestible for readers who want quick snippets on the go. What Are the Benefits of Browsable Content for Mobile Optimization? You don’t need to target serious readers ready to study your 2,000-word blog post to succeed. Mobile optimization through browsable content has several benefits. These benefits are not just for those reading on a smartphone but also for people browsing on their computer. Readers Can Find Information Easily What is one of the easiest books to navigate? I would argue it’s the dictionary or an encyclopedia. All the information is divided into chapters and in an organized manner. You can search by topic and first letter to find what you need to know. Browsable content has an organization that allows users to quickly identify what they need without spending hours scanning your copy, making your content convenient for smartphone users. You Can Keep Your Audience Engaged Longer There is a widely cited fact that people have an attention span of just 8.25 seconds. This may feel accurate with how short everything is becoming in the world. Ads are shortening, people speed up their videos (we all know you do it for those Loom videos!), and the use of short-form videos like TikTok is becoming more popular. There is even evidence that filmmakers are shortening their shots in movies to hold the viewer’s attention longer. However, how accurate is that information? Netflix’s data shows a different story, as people can spend hours watching a show. Social media usage also reflects how long people spend scrolling. That’s because how you engage with content will drastically alter your attention span. That’s why you might have no problem binge-watching your favorite show on TV but struggle to read a financial report from your CFO. When you create browsable content, you help connect with the reader and hold their attention longer. It’s a more engaging format, especially if paired with top-quality content. Your Content Is Easier to Digest Having small sections of content broken up is easier for people to process. It’s like reading a book broken up with chapters where you can focus on one topic at a time, helping you absorb the information in small increments rather than all at once. Because people who browse content on mobile devices can do so from anywhere, distractions may often exist around them. They aren’t just reading your content in a home office on their computer. They could be watching TV, on a lunch break, or riding the metro to work. Keeping your content easy to absorb makes reading more convenient in busy environments and on the go. You Can Rank for Snippets Browsable content helps with reading and improves your search engine ranking. Google is also catching on that more and more people prefer bite-sized nuggets of information. That’s why you will see a People Also Ask section, and now Google offers an AI Overview. Both items pull snippets of information from online content so readers can find quick answers. When you create quick answers for your readers, Google can use those short, easy-to-digest answers in their snippets, improving your search engine ranking alongside your readability. 7 Mobile Optimization Tips to Create Browsable Content If you want the benefits of browsable content, use these seven tips to optimize your blogs for mobile and web browsing. 1. Add Frequent Headings Headings will be your best friend for browsable content. They are like your chapter headings that tell people what they can find in each section. Break up your content with frequent headings to make finding exact information easy. They can … Read more

It’s Time to Update Your E-Commerce Content Marketing

February 6, 2025November 26, 2024 by Rachel Moffett

AI has come a long way since it first debuted. From being nothing more than a bag of bolts to running a vast majority of our everyday lives, it seems unlikely that it will be taking a backseat to the future of technology. With some feeling reminiscent of the turn of the century when the internet put messengers out of jobs, it is understandable that there is an ever-growing pressure to “join in on the future.” Embracing AI is inevitable, but this article provides expert-backed insight on why you should update your e-commerce content marketing strategy with human-optimized listings. The Importance of Keeping E-Commerce Listings Updated E-commerce content demands shift with algorithm changes, trends, and customer expectations. Staying on top of these changes might seem daunting, but those willing to go the distance may benefit from a positive impact on key performance metrics on e-commerce platforms. Below are a few reasons why you should ensure your content is regularly updated. Changes in Algorithms Search algorithms are king for generating traffic for your e-commerce website. We might not know exactly what’s behind the complex analysis performed by these algorithms, but a great rule of thumb is to remember that algorithms prioritize content designed for humans. The term “designed for humans” requires in-depth dissecting as it offers the most insight on how to tailor content to suit the various steps in your customer’s purchasing journey. To ensure your content remains visible to your customers, you should ensure it reads well and adequately satisfies the search query that directed them to your platform in the first place. Changes in Consumer Behaviors You might already know this, but companies are spending a fortune on data collection on their consumers. This is all in an attempt to understand and utilize consumer behaviors in e-commerce. Buyers’ needs and expectations change rapidly, often outpacing how fast businesses can adapt. Regularly updating your listings with relevant, engaging, and high-quality content is the best way to ensure you stay ahead of the curve and benefit from new market opportunities. Competitive Advantage If you’re selling on an e-commerce platform, you’re no stranger to competition and know the importance of standing out from the crowd. Creating content that not only aligns with your brand values but also reflects your commitment to quality is just another step to ensuring you outshine your competitors and retain the lion’s share of traffic generated from a search query. The Limitations of AI in E-Commerce Content Creation: Where Human Content Shines On a recent project for a client, we got to see just how important the “human touch” is when creating e-commerce content. Loctite is an industry leader in the construction industry, with its niche centering around adhesives such as world-leading specialty glues. The company approached us to revamp their e-commerce listings and essentially “breathe new life” into them, as they were outdated, generic, and irrelevant to their consumers. Their content strategy involved drafting content from AI, which resulted in content that sounded and read okay but did not provide value to the customer. Using this real-world scenario, below is an analysis of where the disparities between AI content creation and human content creation become clear. Differentiating Similar Products As mentioned earlier, Loctite deals with a wide range of products that sometimes overlap in utility, chemical, and structural formulas or physical properties. Their line of super glues, for example, consists of gel super glues, liquid super glues, and specialty super glues. In its first AI draft, the language model showed an obvious struggle in creating unique selling points to match the sometimes subtle differences between the super glues. However, from the human perspective, a writer can efficiently review the product, identify the unique selling point, and create content around how this product would directly benefit the customer. Unique Selling Points: Maintaining Relevance Where AI could correctly identify unique selling points, it often struggled to highlight how they may be relevant to the customer, overlooked better selling points, or prioritized selling points that might not be of particular interest to the customer. An excellent example of this is AI doing a deep dive into how advanced Loctite’s formulas are in a manner that borders on a chemistry lecture. Ideally, the human writer could point out how the advanced formula can benefit DIYers and professionals who prioritize an extra strong bond with added flexibility. Keyword Optimization It is impossible to overemphasize the importance of keywords in e-commerce content marketing. Recently, AI language models have gained the capability of incorporating keywords throughout the length of the content. However, its efficiency at doing this can be likened to slapping a band-aid onto a gaping wound (it’s not exactly useless, but it wouldn’t go so far as to save your life). In e-commerce content marketing, keywords must be incorporated to sound natural to the customer. This not only avoids a salesy tone but also lets algorithms know that your content is of high quality, allowing you to rank higher. Brand Style and Unique Voice Loctite’s super glues are known as record holders in the Guinness Book of World Records. However, an AI’s ability to remember that Loctite’s super glues can lift cars is not as good as a human writer’s. Similarly, AI struggles to get the full picture when capturing your brand’s unique style and voice. Additionally, if you have adopted unique writing styles or voice techniques for your brand, AI will fall short of embodying these in your content strategy for e-commerce. Improving Customer Connection We are still a long way off from realizing Alex Proyas’ I, Robot dream of empathetic AIs. Current-day Sonny is incapable of understanding the customer journey, and its automated content doesn’t mirror the everyday frustrations your customers seek solutions to. However, a human writer can envision themselves using your products (if they haven’t used them already), which poses the obvious advantage of creating content that connects with your customers. The Art of Product Description Crafting product descriptions requires a multifaceted approach. From the infographics to the captions … Read more

How to Optimize Content for Voice Search SEO

September 26, 2024 by Sarah Damron

Hey Siri, how much has voice assistant usage grown in the past few years? Having a personal assistant ready to respond quickly is convenient for all your tasks, from texting your best friend to setting timers. It allows you to multi-task or receive answers to questions without having to pick up your phone and interrupt what you’re doing. Are you in the middle of a board game and want to know when the game came out? Just ask Google Assistant. Are you exercising and curious how many calories 30 minutes on a treadmill burns? Ask Siri. The convenience of voice assistance is beginning to impact SEO directly. The very foundation of SEO starts with targeting search phrases people use. But if people use voice assistants to search and consume content, how might SEO look different due to changing search phrases? Here are a few predictions for voice search SEO based on trends we already see and what we know about content consumption from our years of content marketing experience. The Growth of Voice Search Voice assistants have come and gone (goodbye, Cortana). Today, three contestants stand as the most popular voice assistants: Google Assistant Apple’s Siri Amazon’s Alexa You will also come across lesser-known or more niche voice assistants built for individual brands or apps. Voice assistants are everywhere, helping people live more device hands-free without losing their connection to limitless information. In 2024, there were nearly 149.1 million voice assistant users in the US alone. That number is expected to grow to 162.7 million by 2027. This number includes voice assistants on smartphones, smart TVs, connected cars, and smart speakers. How Voice Search Impacts SEO About 45% of Americans use voice assistants for information discovery. Whenever someone asks their voice assistant a question, it pulls that information directly from the web and reads it back to the user. On smartphones, voice assistants often offer links so users can read the topic further (Yay web traffic!). This rise in voice assistants will impact SEO content marketing because people search for information on Google and consume the content from search results pages, whether knowingly or not. When people search through a voice assistant, they begin with a question. That’s different from most typed searches that often use scattered or disjointed phrases. For example, if you want to know how to fix a leak in your bathroom sink, you might type “bathroom sink leak” or “how to fix bathroom sink leak.” However, when you talk to a voice assistant, you ask complete questions using your natural language patterns, like “Hey Alexa, how do you fix a leak in your bathroom sink?” The voice assistant pulls the answer directly from a search engine like Google. Most responses come directly from a web source, with only a few pre-programmed responses, like when you ask Siri to tell you a joke. Search queries will also subtly change with the increased use of voice search and how people consume those answers. Rather than only reading results, more people will use voice assistants to read out results or sections of your content. Is your content optimized for voice assistants pulling out quick answers? 5 Steps Marketers Can Take When Performing Voice Search SEO Use these five steps to help you create high-ranking content and optimize for voice search. 1. Target Long-Tail Keywords You rarely hear someone talk to their Google assistant using half-baked sentences. Your voice search audience is often using complete sentences and very specific questions. That’s good news for you because those specific questions are often far less competitive SEO keywords than the one or two-word keywords. You’ll find most of those questions through your SEO tools or in Google’s People Also Ask section. In SEMrush, you can see a breakdown of keywords into groups that include keyword ideas and questions. Mixing in those long-tail keywords helps you gain that voice assistant traffic. You can use them as either blog post titles or supporting keywords throughout your content and website. 2. Focus on Natural Language in Your Content As you write your content, especially when targeting long-tail keywords that will attract voice assistants, consider how your content will sound read aloud. You always have a chance of someone reading your content aloud, which should be a constant consideration. Reading your content aloud during editing is a good rule, but it is almost essential when optimizing for a voice assistant. You will want your content to flow easily and sound natural. Try to aim for a conversational style that is engaging to read but still offers value with every sentence. If your sentence is too convoluted that a reader needs to see it on paper to understand its meaning, it’s probably not a good fit for voice assistant responses. You will also want to be conscious of periods and paragraph breaks. This signals the voice assistant, just like it does for a reader, to take a breath so your content doesn’t sound like a long-winded speaker. 3. Take Advantage of Text to Voice Voice assistants do more than just read words on a page. They can interpret everything going on with your content. This is especially important to keep in mind when researching how to optimize a website for voice search as you will need users to be able to navigate pages using voice assistants, not just read straight text. Think back to the last time you watched a movie with subtitles. Remember how the subtitles didn’t just transcribe conversations. It also transcribed sounds like horse hooves, wind, and the actor’s sighs. Voice assistants act similarly. They don’t just tell people what words say. They can also scan and describe specific images, buttons, or even videos. Since smart technology is often anything but smart, you don’t want to leave media descriptions up to chance. Instead, optimize your alt-text. This is a good habit for accommodating voice assistants and aiding those using text-to-speech or whose images won’t load. When you optimize your alt-text, describe the image … Read more

Learn to Write: The Ultimate Guide to Get You Started

June 17, 2024June 17, 2024 by Sarah Damron

The debate rages on… Is it worthwhile to learn how to write in the face of surging AI popularity? Artificial Intelligence has reduced writing anything from blog posts to white papers to a few clicks of a button. A few well-prepped prompts, and you’re off to the races. Rather than slog an entire day to write a measly thousand ones, AI can spit out tens of blog posts an hour. So, should you learn to write after the AI revolution? Unsurprisingly, the answer is a resounding yes! Learning to write remains a worthy pursuit for anyone looking to communicate with fellow human beings in any capacity. Whether you’re an executive, a business owner, or a freelance blogger. AI may have lowered the entry bar and given everyone the words, but they’re only a tool. They are instrumental in sourcing and organizing ideas. Still, they can be a hit or a miss when writing compelling pieces. That’s because despite sponging off immense quantities of data, AI tools can’t quite connect the dots like humans do. They can’t feel the gravity of a profound moment and express it like you would. They can’t bring to the table your lived experience, the granularities, the simple nuances that resonate with the readers and keep them riveted to the page. Simply put, AI tools miss out on the granularities that make us human. And therefore, the capacity to capture them in the written word. As such, AI may replace some writing while accelerating your capacity to write professionally. Why Learn How to Write Writing is hard, and for most people, a hair’s breadth is shy of a Herculean task. That’s because writing is an art. There’s more to the craft than stringing words into sentences. Or wielding your semicolons and colons with the skill of a Samurai. The core purpose of the written word is to drive communication. To create a resonance with the readers. To draw the reader’s attention not to the words on a page but to the underlying message. In fact, the best writing is invisible. It fades into the background while sucking in the reader with its compelling message. The best writing persuades and compels the reader to act. A well-written page can move a reader from a curious onlooker to a fastidious consumer who buys tens of thousands of dollars of your products annually. It can persuade tons of customers to pick your products over the competition because they resonate with the message. But what if you’re not running a business? Polishing your capacity to write professionally can skyrocket your career chances. A survey covering 120 of America’s top employers found poorly written applications a “figurative kiss of death.” One Human Resource practitioner termed them “extremely prejudicial.” Large corporations are unlikely to hire applicants with poor writing skills because over 60% of their salaried employees have some writing responsibilities. These companies use written communications to make business decisions. The survey estimates that companies spend billions annually to correct employee writing deficiencies. With smartphones and social media encouraging people to be more expressive, you can turn everyday escapades into a compelling read with polished writing skills. How to Successfully Write for the Web While learning to write professionally is an all-around important skill, writing for the web is an entirely different beast. With web content, you’re wading into an uber-competitive landscape. Google estimates there are about one billion websites on the internet — all competing for eyeballs. As such, you must adhere to the rules of the web to stand a chance of connecting with your ideal readers. Faced with limitless choices, online readers are a picky bunch with low attention spans. You have precisely 8 seconds to grab the reader’s attention, or you’ve lost them forever. That’s why online content — web pages, blogs, landing pages — play by different rules. The traditional magazine writing style has no place in this highly dynamic and super competitive landscape. Besides making sure your content is factually accurate and informative, you must tailor it to cater to the needs of your audience. It’s simply not enough to lay out the facts. You must weave them into gripping stories that compel and persuade. And that takes patience and practice. The adage goes, everything worth doing is worth doing well. Much like great novelists, great content writers aren’t born — their horn their skills the old-fashioned way — through sweat and tears. It’s the equivalent of becoming an Olympian. You join an elite group of people who can shape opinions and build empires with their written words. But first, you must painstakingly hone your skills and perfect your craft amidst mind-numbing setbacks. For a rookie, learning to write is the equivalent of becoming a figure skating champion — you’ll endure many a fall along your journey. But the rewards are well worth it. Once you’ve proven your writing chops, you become a renaissance man. You can apply them everywhere and profit from them for life. Learn to Write Like a Pro Professional writing is radically different from what they teach in school. School essays are more about showcasing your vocabulary and writing skills. In a word, school essays are all about you. Conversely, online writing is all about the reader—you’re out to solve a problem for the reader. And that takes a while to master. You may need to unlearn your previous writing skills and internalize the new approach. That takes practice and dedication. A labor of love — you must go all in and give it your best. Luckily, perfecting your writing skills doesn’t falls under the 10,000-hour rule purview. Your writing style will improve drastically if you consistently and diligently put in the work. Writing is a multifaceted process. Breaking it down into components makes learning to write less daunting and more manageable. 1. Set Yourself Up for Success with the Right Tools Your writing environment matters a great deal. Set it up properly, and it’ll help your flow and get you … Read more

Unlock Your Content Empire with White Label Ebooks: A Game-Changing Solution for Any Business, Any Industry

January 18, 2024June 20, 2023 by Adam Oakley

You might not see white label ebooks every day on the latest content marketing sites, but that doesn’t mean they are irrelevant. In fact, ebooks are still a powerful marketing tool that any business, regardless of industry, should be utilizing in their marketing strategy. If your company is not using an ebook, you are missing out on the opportunity to educate and retain potential customers and position yourself as an authority. Hubspot Uses Ebooks – and Savvy about it Too Take Hubspot, for example. They publish ebooks throughout the year and put them on their site. “State of Marketing 2023,” is a popular one that they release annually, telling you what’s new, what’s trending, and what they see in the future. Yes, these are all free, but that doesn’t mean Hubspot is not gaining something from using them. To download the ebook, you must give Hubspot your email. Once they have your email, you are part of their marketing funnel. You will get email marketing campaigns, some of which you might click on or even act on. All for a free download. What is a White Label Ebook? Hubspot creates its ebooks in-house, but that doesn’t mean you have to. Hubspot is a major corporation with the means to hire in-house writers to tackle the research and writing of their ebooks. You are more likely to benefit from a white label ebook for your business than trying to hire an in-house writer. Ebooks as “white label,” are ebooks written by a third party, such as a writing agency you have hired, but published under your company’s name or even your name. You are the author. You didn’t research or write it, but you get all of the credit. By no means is this misleading. You are a busy business owner and need to outsource things like content creation – including ebooks – to help your content marketing strategy and build your business. With these white label services, you get the expertise of a writer in your niche that can research, create, and edit – with some companies, like here at Express Writers, you can even get the book designed so it is ready to publish the moment you get it. You are a busy business owner and need to outsource things like content creation – including ebooks – to help your content marketing strategy and build your business. With these white label services, you get the expertise of a writer in your niche that can research, create, and edit – with some companies, like here at Express Writers, you can even get the book designed so it is ready to publish the moment you get it. A Quick Note on White Label Ebooks and AI AI is here, and it is writing content for a lot of businesses. However, we’d like to share a little caution when it comes to using AI to create an ebook – whether it is 4 pages or 40 pages. AI is NOT creative. It is not original. Yes, sure, your ebook might pass on Copyscape as “original” copy, but the reality is that your copy was generated by stringing together phrases and keywords already on the web – meaning content written by someone else already out there. So, your ebook is not white label if you opt for AI as your means to creating it. The only way to protect your brand and ensure you have a genuine, white label ebook is to hire a writer and have them create that ebook from scratch using their words, their research, and of course, your branding. The Benefits of Purchasing White Label Ebooks on a Platform Like EW At Express Writers, we understand the importance of a worthwhile ebook. In return, you want to flex your knowledge and gain something from your ebook. If you’re on the fence about outsourcing, let us discuss with you a few reasons customers purchase ebooks from our team rather than turning to a content mill or even AI. You Build Credibility and Authority with Your Audience Yes, long-form blog posts, such as our Authority blogs, help build your authority (an important part of E-E-A-T), but ebooks can do it even faster and better. After all, no one wants to read a 10,000-word blog, but they will read a 10,000-word ebook. Ebooks are the epitome of long-form content that help establish your brand’s credibility and authority in a single piece of content. You can share case study information, in-house statistics, and even more in-depth information about the products or services your company offers. It doesn’t matter if your target audience is a consumer or another business – ebooks build credibility all the same. Inexpensive Compared to the Return on Your Investment The return on your investment with an ebook is well worth it. Not only can you use ebooks as a gateway to capture emails and expand your potential customer pool, but it only costs a few hundred dollars for you to unlock leads that are actually interested in you. A single ebook locked behind providing an email address could give you hundreds of potential customers all for a few hundred you spent writing that one ebook. Purchasing leads will never generate results like that. Easy Distribution White label ebooks are digital; therefore, you don’t have to find a publisher or even worry about going through the demands of a digital publisher. Instead, you have a download-ready ebook you can put on your website, link in social media, create a landing page for, etc. Distribution is only limited by what you are willing to do to market the ebook. Likewise, your readers can access and download the content on any device – computer, phone, tablet, and more. Use Your Ebook as a Guide to Educate Even Further You can use an ebook as a “guide” to help your readers better understand your products or services. It works in any niche. For example, you sell custom resin pen blanks (quite the … Read more

The No-BS Guide to High-Level Technical Writing

June 19, 2024June 28, 2022 by Korilynn V.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment of technical writers is projected to grow 12% from 2020 to 2030. This is faster than the average for all other occupations. Also, approximately 5,500 job openings are expected for technical writers each year. If that data is any indication, technical writing is a lucrative career path if you have a passion for writing because the demand will only increase. So, if you’re interested in becoming a technical writer, that’s no better time than the present. But what exactly is technical writing? How can you get started and become a writer who lands jobs with ease? This guide has all the information you need to pursue this career path. What is Technical Writing? Technical writing requires the writer to communicate complex information in an easy-to-understand way. This spans a variety of industries, including computer hardware and software, engineering, chemistry, robotics, and the medical and financial fields. However, it’s worth noting that nearly every industry uses technical writing in some shape or form. It can cover a variety of mediums depending on what’s most appropriate for the topic at hand. For instance, technical writing can be reports, user manuals, instructions, documentation, and procedures, among other content types. As a result, writers need unique skillsets to have the ability and the confidence to craft accessible information. Why Technical Writers Are in Demand As mentioned above, jobs in the technical writing field are rising steadily, making it a worthwhile career path to pursue. But why is there such a need for writers in this field? One reason is that many jobs are becoming automated. It’s causing many people to worry about whether their job will become obsolete next. However, robots haven’t perfected content creation. We still need humans to craft and review content to ensure it’s done properly. And, in the technical writing field, there’s no room for error, making human writers and editors essential. Besides that, here are a few more reasons why technical writers are in demand: Their Skillset is Unique: Not every writer has a knack for technical writing. When a company is looking to hire someone to handle their technical writing needs, they want someone who has great writing skills, knowledge of these complex fields, and the ability to research and understand the topics at hand. Only a handful of writers fit those criteria. New Technology is Always Being Developed: The technology world is forever moving at a rapid pace. Every year, engineers develop new technologies and software, which means there’s a consistent need for technical writers to create content that corresponds to these new developments. That can include reports, instruction manuals, and more. If you have a knack for explaining things concisely technical writing could be a good fit for your next career move. And, with practice and experience in the field, you’ll have a truly in-demand skill. 6 Technical Writing Tips to Improve Your Content Technical writing is a great career path for those who love to write and are good at explaining complex ideas in simple language. However, it can still be a challenging field. Luckily, you can do a few things to improve your technical writing skills. Not only will these tips make your job more enjoyable, but they should help you land more opportunities as well. 1. Be Willing to Expand Your Knowledge It’s safe to say the worst thing anyone can do these days is to assume they know everything there is to know about a particular field. The reality is, there’s always more to learn and room for improvement. For that reason, you should be willing to expand your knowledge within your field by staying updated with the latest news and consuming other content in your industry. Doing this helps you better understand the topics you’ll write about and will boost your confidence as a writer. Now, the great thing about technical writing is that you don’t need to have hands-on experience writing about your preferred field. For example, you don’t need to be a surgeon to write about medical-related topics. You can take the time to research and learn everything there is to know so you can effortlessly bring a high-quality piece of content to life. 2. Practice Your Craft It’s not enough to just sit back and consume content from your industry. You need to put your knowledge and skills to use. That’s the only way you’ll become better at technical writing. A great piece of advice you can implement is to read other technical documents, then try to figure out what makes them great or what improvements can be made to enhance the content. Being able to identify the qualities of a great piece of content will help to strengthen your writing. From there, you can practice writing technical content of your own. You can even have a friend or a colleague review your work to offer their feedback. Because they likely won’t have experience or knowledge in the field you’re writing about, they can let you know if the content is easy to understand or if it’s still too complex for the average reader. 3. Get to Know Your Audience Every great writer knows that you need to understand who your audience is before you can begin creating. This advice applies to everyone, not just those in the technical writing field. Knowing your audience helps you choose topics that they’ll find appealing. Plus, it ensures you write in a way that speaks directly to them and their level of knowledge on the topic. For example, you’ll want to be mindful of the words you use. Instead of using specialized terms or complex jargon that will require your reader to break out the dictionary, use simple language they’ll understand without question. If you can’t explain something without the use of specialized terms, consider broadening your topic to explain it at a more general level. An easy way to better understand your audience would be to learn directly from them. … Read more

How to Write Content for Email Marketing

January 10, 2024October 12, 2021 by Nicole Inge

How do you write content for email marketing campaigns that people will actually read? This is majorly important. Maybe more than you’d think. Why? Email marketing can change the game for your business if you do it right. Think invested and engaged subscribers. More conversions. More sales. More trust. It’s all possible with good email. (That explains why email earns a GIANT return on investment. For every $1 spent on email marketing, expect to earn about $55 back.) Not to mention, it’s one of the most popular types of marketing out there. It’s not only effective — it’s also an easy, accessible, personal way to stay connected to your growing audience. So, I’d say learning how to write content for email is really, really important, especially if you’re on a tight budget. Wouldn’t you? Hence: this guide. Keep reading for 10 tips to improve your email content game. Email Marketing by the Numbers Email as a technology is nearly 60 years old (!), but it’s still most consumers’ favorite way to get information online: The average open rate for emails across industries is 22.86%. 45% of email subscribers say they open emails based on who they’re from. 33% say they open emails based on the subject line. The most popular email clients are Apple iPhone (with 34.2% of market share) followed by Gmail (30.7% market share). During the 2020 pandemic, the most popular way to read email was on a computer. Using call-to-action buttons in your emails versus just text links may increase click-throughs by as much as 28%. How to Write Content for Email Marketing: 10 Timely Tips Email marketing is different than social media. It’s more personal, more targeted, and, as a result, higher-stakes. With this in mind, consider these practical tips for how to write content for email marketing. 1. Write a Good Subject Line The subject line is the gatekeeper in the world of email marketing. Write a good one and you’ll see a satisfying open rate. Write a poor one and you’ll suffer the sound of crickets in the background of your campaign. While there are dozens of great ways to write a compelling subject line, the best ones all have a few things in common: They revolve around grabbing a reader’s interest and keeping it. With this in mind, follow all of the standard rules that come with writing any great email subject line: include action words; address the reader directly; make it unique, succinct, and short; and differentiate it from anything else they’ll see that day. For an example of an email subject line done right, check out this example from Mark Manson: 2. Personalize Your Emails Personalized email copy performs better than general email copy. With this in mind, input your customer’s name into your email subject lines and be sure to target the body of your email so that it speaks directly to your audience and nobody else’s. While it can be easy to worry that your emails will be lost in the fray, the only way to ensure that they won’t be overlooked is to personalize them fully and differentiate them from anything else out there. 3. Make Your Emails Clear First, Catchy Second Catchy emails are great, but only if they’re also clear enough to make your audience want to click on them. With this in mind, focus on making your emails clear and descriptive first, catchy second. This ensure that your audience will understand the purpose of your emails, and that you won’t be going out of your way to develop email campaigns that don’t draw real results. What’s more, emails that are clear boost your authority as a company, since they promise only what they can deliver, and help readers develop realistic their expectations. 4. Ensure Your Subject Line Relates to Your Copy Even if your subject line is clear and catchy, it’s all for naught if it doesn’t also align with your body copy. Keep in mind that delivering what you promise is critical in the world of email, and only people who can truly do this succeed in the long run. With this in mind, keep your subject text in-line with your body copy. In addition to providing better value for readers, this will also go a long way toward enhancing your reputation as a company and making sure that customers want to click your material in the days to come. Need some inspiration for writing email subject lines? Check out our free resource: 20 Proven Email Subject Lines for Your Email Marketing. 5. Keep It Relevant Relevance is critical for a good email, so be sure to tie the content of your email in with something that will ground it as relevant and in-demand. Current events work well, as does some personal detail about the audience. By showcasing your relevance, you stand a better chance of grabbing the reader’s attention and keeping it. 6. Write Emails in the Second Person Second person is the best voice for email because it’s personal and unique. When you reach out and speak directly to your customers, it’s easier for them to relate to the voice and content of your email. This, in turn, also makes it easier for them to connect with your emails and enhances the likelihood that they’ll open your emails in the future – which is a good thing for everyone involved. 7. Showcase Benefits Over Features If you’re making an offer via email, be sure to showcase the benefits of said offer rather than the features. In addition to being more valuable for readers, this also helps present a realistic picture of your product, which goes a long way toward helping people understand what to expect from it. While most people focus on the features in an attempt to sell a product, focusing on the benefits can go much further toward helping the reader understand what’s unique and special about the product. 8. Keep It Short but Sweet Email marketing is not … Read more

Real Estate Blog Writers: How to Write Helpful Content People Want to Read

August 28, 2022December 8, 2020 by Julia McCoy

So, you want to start writing a real estate blog? That’s a great move for your practice and your brand. According to Demand Metric, businesses with a blog generate 67 percent more leads and 97 percent more traffic. Imagine that many more interested buyers and sellers walking through your door every month. Of course, writing a real estate blog isn’t your typical walk in the park. From questions around Google’s quality requirements to how to structure real estate blog content for the greatest impact, there’s a lot for you to consider. Here’s a closer look at what all good real estate blog writers know, and how to create articles on real estate topics that people actually want to read. Let’s go! [bctt tweet=”Writing a real estate blog isn’t easy. ?? From questions around Google’s quality requirements to how to structure real estate content for the greatest impact, there’s a lot to consider. Find out how to write for this tricky niche on @ExpWriters ✔” username=””] Your Blog Is Real Estate – Make It Valuable! Ah – buying a home. For many people, it’s the ultimate accomplishment, the pinnacle of the American Dream. However, every truly great accomplishment is at first impossible… if not utterly overwhelming. The decision to buy (and also to sell) a home comes with looots of questions attached. (The fact that there are over 50,000 titles on Amazon dedicated to advising first-time homebuyers stands as a testament to this.) If you’re thinking about starting a real estate blog, you need to keep this in mind. With so many people blogging and writing books, what are you going to do to stand out from the crowd? Your readers will come to you because they’ve got questions, confusion, and all manner of pain points. But that’s good news, really. It means you’ve got your work cut out for you. Your goal? To create a resource that’s as valuable as possible by being as helpful as possible. Incidentally, helpfulness is one thing that Google looks for when determining SERPs. (The Search Evaluator Guidelines mention helpful content 19 times.) Is a Real Estate Blog YMYL Content? One more thing to consider before you start writing real estate blog articles is whether your real estate blog falls under the YMYL category. YMYL stands for Your Money or Your Life. It’s Google’s shorthand for content that may impact a person’s health, wealth, happiness, or life quality. This content is subject to special quality rating requirements to ensure that only the absolute best content makes it high in the SERPs. In Section 2.3, Google lists all categories that fall under YMYL. While most things are obvious – financial blogs, medical advice, etc. – real estate isn’t explicitly mentioned as a YMYL topic. Nonetheless, the guidelines do note that “housing information” qualifies as YMYL when it may impact a person’s happiness or financial stability. In other words, you may have some real estate blog articles that count as YMYL and others that don’t. When in doubt, always ask yourself: can this information impact a reader’s health, wealth, happiness, or financial stability? If you think the answer might be yes, make sure you’re serving up the very highest quality content for your readers to E-A-T. Not every site needs to adhere to YMYL, but all content should strive to satisfy EAT. [bctt tweet=”Before writing real estate blogs, consider: Will your content fall under Google’s YMYL category? ? This content is subject to special quality rating requirements so only the best content makes it high in the SERPs. ? Tread carefully.” username=””] How to Write Real Estate Blog Articles That Inspire Confidence Writing expert real estate copy takes a lot of skill. Not only do you need to know your industry and your local area, but you need to find a way to stand out from your competitors who may also be publishing blogs of their own. Here are five things that you can do when writing real estate blog articles to help catch the eye of current and future home buyers or sellers. 1. The Problem-Solution Formula Shines with Real Estate Blogs Few things in life inspire more questions than buying or selling a home. That’s great for writing a real estate blog because you’ll have no shortage of topic ideas. Strive to make your blog as useful as possible by providing valuable content that answers questions or solves problems. To get started, I recommend spending some time brainstorming the most common questions or problems that your current and potential clients have. Then, use the problem-solution or question-answer formula to structure the content of your posts. It looks like this: 2. Get Down with Local SEO for Real Estate Targeting Ever walked by a bench at a bus stop and see an ad for a real estate agent? That agent likely works in that immediate neighborhood and knows it well. Local SEO is the digital equivalent of that park bench. It lets you target a very specific area to attract clients who are looking at the neighborhoods you know and sell (or buy) within. You can harness the power of local SEO through a number of different ways: Create a Google My Business If you’ve got a formal office, create a Google My Business account, and get it listed. Create content around local news stories. Did something newsworthy happen in your neighborhoods? Blog about it! Optimize for “near me” searches. Include your location prominently on your site. That’ll help it bubble to the top when users do local searches. Got SEO writing questions? Check out my 20+ page ebook, The SEO Content Writer’s Cheat Sheet, to brush up your skills. ? 3. Play Up Your Real Estate Blog Content Differentiation Factor In my book Practical Content Strategy & Marketing, I introduce a concept known as the Content Differentiation Factor, or CDF. I define this as the thing – the perspective, angle, or unique voice – that helps your content stand out from your competition. Your … Read more