Updates - Express Writers

Book Review: So You Think You Can Write? The Definitive Guide to Successful Online Writing

June 19, 2024August 24, 2018 by Adam Oakley

This is a guest post by Matthew J. Gaydos, who read and wrote this review of Julia’s book published in 2016, “So You Think You Can Write? The Definitive Guide to Successful Online Writing.” “Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.” Benjamin Franklin, p. 105. This is a very powerful statement. It comes from a mind who is very inquisitive and was involved in the written word. Ben Franklin is just like Julia McCoy – they both never give up. They are always thinking and moving their own mountains. I believe this quote sums up the whole book. Buy on Amazon. [bctt tweet=”‘Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. Ben Franklin is just like Julia McCoy – they both never give up.’ Read a reader’s real review of @JuliaEMcCoy’s book, So You Think You Can Write” username=”ExpWriters”] Giving Value to My Audience Through Content In order for your website to gain more visits, you must be a hub of information. This can be achieved by what Julia mentioned on page 20 of her book, which is “publishing great content that answers questions, provides useful information and is engaging.” Learning the Basic of Search Engine Optimization Julia made SEO (Search Engine Optimization) learning fun and easy to comprehend. This is the first time I read a book dealing with this subject. I was not able to put this book down. It was intriguing and interesting to me. I was deducing and injecting all the material on the pages. I became like Ben Franklin – a detective, analyst, and researcher while reading. I took copious notes and became one with the author by writing in the margins. I knew nothing about keywords before I read the Performing Basic Keyword Research section of this book. On page 55-56, Julia made it so simple that I followed what she wrote. I used the Wordtracker tool and it was more engaging than I expected. Julia says, “Informational searches are a highly valuable tool for building brand loyalty and creating great online content” on page 87. I found this to be very true. Creating Eye-Catching Social Media Posts While reading the subsection dealing with How to Write for Social Media, Julia says “Social media content works best when it’s catchy, brief and engaging, and grabs the attention of the reader usually in tandem with the image, video or link.” Our brains can easily digest, sort, and comprehend information in blocks of time. Make the image match the writing so it’s easy to digest. When writing for print, always be straight to the point to avoid rambling. Turning an Article to Additional Sources of Information In the Repurpose Your Content section, I liked reading about turning my articles into infographics and presentations, as well as how evergreen content can be a timeless resource for my audience. I can use this information to make my own website engaging and informative to current and future visitors. Continuing to Learn More About Content I hope to read more about writing and optimizing content in the future, so I’m glad that I’m connected with Julia on LinkedIn where I can read her posts every day on this topic. I’ve always been an avid learner and the knowledge I just gained will surely make me go far in this field. Keep up the good writing, Julia! – Matthew J. Gaydos Avid Reader, Writer, Researcher, Learner, and Book Reviewer

Celebrating 7 Years in Business, Our Story, & Announcement

June 19, 2024May 11, 2018 by Adam Oakley

This month marks the seventh year Express Writers has existed. Back in 2011, it was quite the humble beginning for us. I was doing 90% of the work, all the way from writing client blogs to emailing and cold calling to find my next prospect. In 2011, I quit nursing school to follow my dreams. Literally, one morning I woke up and asked myself, “what do I love doing?” I knew what the answer was, from the bottom of my heart. Writing. So, I took my passion online and started a freelance profile. Within three months I had more clients than I’d dreamed of, and I started a business. With nothing more than $75, Express Writers was born. Celebrating 7 Years in Business: The Express Writers’ Story 7 years later, we’re on our 14,185th project (that doesn’t even include 2,000+ of projects in the years prior to building our e-commerce content platform). If we’re averaging 10,000 words per projects (they vary from 500w – 50,000w per order), that’s over 70,850,000 words written! We’ve served over 5,000 clients, and our team is 75 people and growing. We grew 20% in internal support members (QAs and copywriters) to our team, just in the past two months. Today, we’re celebrating this major milestone of our 7th year in business. First, we have an awesome brand video to share with you. Bonus: we had a wonderful video producer help out with the production! If you’ve been a part of our journey thus far: reader, subscriber, client, podcast listener, team member… thank you. It’s 100% true: “Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.” (Michael Jordan) Plus, we’re announcing something super special. Content Shop Major Change Announcement: We’re Now Taking New Clients By Invitation Only At Express Writers, one of our highest priorities is focusing on quality, timeliness, and creativity when we serve our clients. We find that fewer clients mean that we can focus on greater results for each one of those clients. Many clients who have been with us for years now are increasing their order quantity, and we’re staying busier than ever because we’re focused more heavily on client support than simply sales. We greatly, greatly appreciate our clients’ loyalty. We want to continue in this direction: serving our loyal clients with our best. So, after much deliberation, we’ve decided to make this happen: We’re now taking new clients by invitation only. Here’s what that means for our Content Shop usability. If you don’t have an account, you will be able to view our services and pricing, but you won’t be able to buy unless you have an account. Guests without an account will see this: Clients with an account will see the checkout options on services inside our Content Shop: We’re taking new clients only after carefully reviewing their request to join our site as a client. Here’s our New Client Registration form: Our ideal clients are seasoned marketers, agencies, and business owners. If that’s you, we’ll review your account and if we are both a mutual fit, we’ll happily welcome you into our amazing repetoire of clientele. If you’re ready to work with a team of capable content experts, fill out our New Client registration form, and we’ll get back as soon as possible. We look forward to serving you!

Content Shop Update: Our Expert Copywriting Level Just Got Better!

June 19, 2024April 13, 2018 by Adam Oakley

As most of our clients already know, we’re constantly updating and maintaining our services, team, and processes here at Express Writers. Quality is first and foremost at our heart. One reason I haven’t sought an outside partner or funding source is that running the company 100% by ourselves allows us to make fast, agile changes to our processes. These processes can instantly allow our clients to experience more customized, high-quality services–and turn on a dime to change or fix any issues, if they come up. Our personal commitment and involvement at this level is one major reason why we don’t even consider ourselves a competitor against many other “content vendors,” like Textbroker and WriterAccess, to name a few. You want cheap content on a budget? We’ll hold the door open for you, and recommend one of those vendors. You want quality web content for your blog, website or your clients’ sites? That’s when you come to us. As the CEO, I haven’t earned my place in the top content marketers worldwide by chance or through cutting corners. Quite the opposite. It’s been a long, grueling journey, full of learning experiences and challenges. I learned and grew, as I wrote and published multiple bestselling books in my industry, led my company, and built/rebuilt our processes. This April, we’ve made some changes in our Content Shop that we want you to be aware of. What’s at heart? You guessed it–quality. We want to continue to serve our clients with the best content (not the cheapest). Continue reading for a short memo on our internal, and external, changes. Express Writers’ Expert Copywriting Update & Internal Process Improvements: 3 Major Changes to Our Writing Levels Here’s a rundown of the major changes we’ve gone through this year. There are more–we literally improve our processes daily–but these are the biggest ones. 1. General Content Creation Level Update As you probably know by now, we’ve always offered three levels of content at Express Writers: General (no longer offered publicly, at request only on a case-by-case basis: our lowest-cost writer level for easier subjects) Expert (expert writers with specific industry experience, from legal to tech, finance, engineering, and beyond) Authority (our “boss” content level: the one you order when you want long-form blogs that net serious rankings and gain in Google) As of March 2018, we completely removed the public link to our General product level from the Content Shop. For every client interested in this level, our support team can personally hand them the link to this service after verifying that general level will be a fit for them (most sites need expert content at a minimum to see ROI from the content produced). Just open the chat in the right-hand corner of our site, or drop an email to request our General level. 2. Expert Copywriting Product Update Our team has grown in the last month! By now, we have a library of more than 70 expert writers that have individualized experience in a wide range of industries. This is an increase of more than double in our team size across the past four months. And this week, we revamped how we offer Expert content. Instead of more than 20 “products” (individual product URLs for each industry topic our writers cover), we combined all our expert topics into one simple category: Custom Industry Expert. This single product now features a box where you, our client, can type in your EXACT industry or topic/niche, and we’ll match you up to that expert! See below, and check out the product here: You’ll see the Expert Category in our Content Shop has drastically reduced to lesser “items” – but with the ability to tell us your specific industry before you place an order, we’re able to focus on customizing our content solutions for your needs more than ever. As our team grows, and we add more support specialists, this will be a fantastic way we can continue to focus on your specific topic and make sure it goes to the perfect-fit expert in our team. 3. HR Improvements One of the main cores I had at heart when I launched Express Writers, was hiring every writer personally. I wanted to find the best writers. Today, seven years later, I still continue to hand-pick every writer. This year, we’ve refined that process. I continue to carefully vet and look for industry expertise that can match every one of our client’s industries and topic areas. Our new step added to this process is having our Content Director, Hannah, hold a phone interview call with every writer that allows us to get to know our writers on a personal level, and find out their interests and favorite topics to write about, too. We also keep a running database about every topic under the sun that our experts have real-life experience in. These changes have already improved how writers work within our team, and boosted client satisfaction rates. Need content that pushes your brand forward online? We’re your team. Talk to us today. To your online success, ~ Julia and Team, Express Writers

Interview for the Write Blog: Authority Writer & Content Strategist Austin

June 19, 2024February 20, 2018 by Adam Oakley

Today for the Write Blog, we interviewed one of our full-time writers, Austin. Austin first began his career as a pro writer when he left his hometown of Los Angeles, California to travel the world and document his experiences along the way. He has toured with rock bands in Europe, written technical documentation for Australian engineering concerns and executed social media strategies for major international brands across the globe. A talented writer, Austin has been a long-term member of Express Writers for over a year, working full-time as an Authority Writer, Content Strategist and all-around gifted copywriter. What were your earliest writing memories? Like many introverted pre-teens, at the age of 10 or 11 I kept a journal where I’d write down my thoughts and occasionally try my hand at poetry. Shortly thereafter, I migrated to the then-popular LiveJournal platform and share these thoughts with the small handful of close friends who took an interest. Back then, everyone had a Myspace account, but keeping up a LiveJournal took a bit more effort, and it was a far more convenient way to share opinions and tell stories. What (or who) were your early influences in writing? I’ve been an avid science fiction fan since I was first introduced to Isaac Asimov. My father gave me The Foundation Series as a birthday gift. Asimov’s influence is easy to identify in both my creative and practical approaches to writing. In particular, one quote of his made a huge impact on my creative goal as a writer: “I made up my mind long ago to follow one cardinal rule in all my writing—to be clear. I have given up all thought of writing poetically or symbolically or experimentally, or in any of the other modes that might get me a Pulitzer prize…” I’ve also adopted many elements of his famously hyper-productive workflow – Asimov wrote almost 500 books during his lifetime, which calculates to an average of one full novel every two weeks for 25 years. I haven’t quite reached that volume of output, but if I had received George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones that year, this interview would not be online until the year 2050. What kind of topics get you excited/passionate to write about and why? I find inspiration in anything new, innovative, or otherwise under-explored. For the most part, this happens in the tech sector, where entrepreneurs and startups are constantly coming up with fresh and exciting challenges to the status quo. But this can happen anywhere, in any subject. Usually, I try to address this frame of reference in almost everything I write – synthesizing the well-established facts of the past with the new insights of today to create a better perspective of tomorrow. Do you have any daily/typical writing rituals? I continuously engineer just about every aspect of my daily writing routine to reduce inefficiencies and keep myself focused. Most of these rituals prevent decision fatigue from tiring me out throughout the day. For instance, I work at home, but always dress to a tee beforehand. Music is almost always playing (loudly) while I write, but only specific albums and playlists on repeat – radio host banter would get in the way and break my concentration. I keep my office immaculately clean for the same reason. I don’t smoke cigarettes, but I do hold an unlit antique tobacco pipe in my mouth while writing. That’s just a personal idiosyncrasy I suppose stems from popular depictions of writers like Ernest Hemingway or Mark Twain. Somehow, it just feels appropriate. What books, tools, websites have helped your writing the most? This is a small list of resources I reference the most: Kevan Lee’s list of copywriting formulas. This is a great tool, not just for introducing articles to readers, but for introducing just about anyone to anything. Google Scholar. I’ve found that more often than not, great sources form the crux of great content. Finding better, more recent, and more complete data about a subject than anyone else practically guarantees that you’ll be able to deliver a clearer and more compelling argument about it. Practical Content Strategy & Marketing. Can’t go wrong with this one. This book offers a bird’s eye view of content strategy as a discipline and then goes deep into what defines a successful approach, step-by-step. Buzzsumo. This tool is extraordinarily useful for synthesizing topics and strategies out of already-popular content. Used in the right way, it can be your go-to topic generating tool for almost any industry. Importantly, these are all technical resources that help get content made. For the creative work of actually writing content, I rely on two philosophical disciplines more than anything else: Aristotelian Rhetoric. A lot of motivational speakers, speechwriters, and life coaches will claim to teach you the secret of how to convince anyone of anything, but few, if any, do anything more than paraphrase Aristotle. When it comes to persuasion, the definitive work has been written and its about 2,400 years old. Critical Theory. This one is a little less user-friendly, but it’s incredibly useful when you need to disprove something, or otherwise poke holes in people’s existing prejudices, principles, and belief systems. Handle with care. Don’t try this at home. What is your favorite article that you wrote? My favorite project so far was a white paper for a cryptocurrency designed to operate in the healthcare sector. The level of research involved can only be described as legendary – decades of aggregated healthcare spend in multiple countries compared with each nation’s respective changes in fiduciary policy and the effects of those changes, transformed into a projection of future trends and used to argue for the need for a new form of currency to compensate for the discrepancy in inflation rates between fiat currency and healthcare products and services. Psychedelic stuff. A favorite client that you worked with? There’s a fellow whom I know only as “Sean”. One of my most memorable projects with this client involved long-form … Read more

Interview for the Write Blog: Copywriter & Content Strategist Diana

June 19, 2024February 20, 2018 by Adam Oakley

Interview For The Write Blog Copywriter And Content Strategist Diana

Today for the Write Blog, we interviewed one of our full-time writers, Diana. Diana is a journalism graduate, award-winning filmmaker and online content specialist. She dedicates her work to crafting content that connects people with stories and ideas that matter. When she’s away from the laptop, you can find her navigating through South America’s mountain trails or planning her next large-scale environmental project. Diana joined our team earlier this year and has become an integrated part, training closely with Julia for a course support role, and writing a myriad of content types for our clients. How did you first find out you liked to write? My dad is a writer and I’ve always been a big fan of him in many ways. So when I was about nine years old, I decided to submit a story for the Remembrance Day competition at my school. The story ended up winning first place and was announced at the annual ceremony. If you can remember being nine years old, winning basically anything was the best thing ever. So clearly, I exploded — and became totally obsessed. Soon after, I got a hold of my dad’s old briefcase, filled it with blank notebooks and begun writing long-winded mystery stories for a good length of time (Nancy Drew was my other hero). What (or who) were your early influences in writing? After my long-lived Nancy Drew/Harriet the Spy phase and survived my too-cool-for-school chapter, I was introduced to a handful of influencers in University. Besides my incredible journalism/writing professors and mentors, there were some other special people I surrounded myself with: I ABSORBED Kurt Vonnegut. Like I wanted to take his work and inject it into my body somehow. Douglas Coupland and Rawi Hage were fairly prominent in my life, too. David Sedaris was pretty much my long-distance, secret mentor for my short story work. Hunter S. Thompson was my muse. Charles Bukowski, Leonard Cohen and Sylvia Plath were my sad, soulful weekend mentors. At this time, I was also regularly writing lyrics for a band I was in. I think this may have been one of the greatest influences for my writing: The self-disciplined study of lyricism and poetry. It gave my writing a certaindepth and flavour. Henry David Thoreau was a game-changer, though. I think I’ve read Walden 4 times. This, combined with tree planting expeditions and my insatiable love for scriptwriting eventually led me to creating work for a purpose, rather than simply the joy of storytelling. What kind of topics get you excited/passionate to write about and why? I love characters. Profile pieces, especially on zany people, make me giddy. I also love every aspect of writing for environmental topics. I try to learn as much about environmental issues on the side to help my craft in this field. Honestly though, any topic that has the potential to influence further development in either myself or the world at large has me pretty pumped. This can include: – content marketing – social enterprises – psychology and self-development – new cuisine or farming practices – specific technology Do you have any daily/typical writing rituals? I meditate. I go through stints where I don’t do it as often, but it’s clear how it affects my concentration and therefore my writing. Meditating every morning before looking at screens improves the overall productiveness of my day significantly. Clear/calm mind + blank paper + coffee = real potential. What books, tools, websites have helped your writing the most? I’m kind of old school. I believe the simple discipline of reading and writing a desired topic/style can boost your abilities. Currently, I’m trying to improve my content writing, so I’m reading Julia’s book while following various blogs. I use Feedly to help me stay updated with specific styles of content I’m focusing on — which is actually the most high-tech I’ve ever been in this respect. What is your favorite article that you wrote? It was called, “Massacre on Dundas Avenue.” It was an investigative piece on why there were so many dead squirrels littering the main roads in my town. The article was a result of a casual observation that led to a broader issue — an approach I feel makes for the best articles. A favorite client that you worked with? Dr. Graham’s Homes, which is an orphanage and school in Kalimpong, India. I wrote a number of the graduate’s testimonials for their main site to encourage essential funding. The stories these students shared were truly inspiring, some of them almost chilling. Being given the chance to take these stories and mould them into something tangible was an honor. What is the oddest writing assignment you’ve ever had? I covered a radio story on the inside life of a trailer park, which was actually a few hours away from where the TV show, Trailer Park Boys was shot. The assignment required me to go door-to-door and interview residents of the area, which proved to be both terrifying and awe-inspiring. The range of characters was vast, but one common theme that carried through was the residents’ ability to effortlessly entertain guests. How does your writing career help you either creatively, personally, or financially? My writing career not only pays the bills and my ability to travel (which includes its own benefits), but it encourages me to evolve on a personal level. I believe that constantly working on a craft, whether it be art, carpentry, music or writing, enhances your ability to expand in a myriad of ways. It helps you practice humility, and when done well and enjoyably, can be beneficial for your spirit and overall well-being. The craft of writing helps you connect with people and ideas. It supports continual learning, curiosity, and encourages open-mindedness. Needless to say, invaluable gains.

Summer 2017 Content Services Updates: New Management Additions, Editing Process, Agency Perks, & More

January 1, 2021August 1, 2017 by Adam Oakley

As the end of July rolls around and the last quarter of 2017 begins (can you believe it already?), we have some exciting new improvements to share that have been in the works internally at Express Writers. Ready? Let’s delve in! Why You Can Trust Us to Constantly Improve our Standards and Work Harder than Any Content Services Provider A word before we get into the details of our July changes and improvements… Everything you see here—from our website to the last offering in the Content Services area—is maintained by a tight-knit group of people that work hard and, together as one, share a great passion for this industry of content writing and marketing. We don’t have outside funding. We’re bootstrapped: we love what we do, and that motivates us to work hard at it. I’ve done homework and ordered from many other content providers myself, and I can tell you that it is genuinely rare in this industry when a team of people come together like we do to work this hard to service our clients. Down to our sales manager, project manager, myself as the CEO and my husband as the CTO—we work hard, day in and day out, to change the common reputation in this industry of content creation providers and sell the best content service (in service and written content quality). For example: – Throughout the last week of July, we spent approximately 30 hours to find and hire eight solid new writers in unique expertise areas. We went through more than 50 interviews and 200+ applicants to find these eight! – For one given day, our Skype thread looks a lot like this: Our editing chat is even more lively – the editors help each other out consistently: Constant updates, constant communication, and quick fixes for any issues. We’re able to do big things because of how much we communicate with each other. I just want to give my team props for how hard we all work. We don’t cut corners. And you can expect this of us, every single time you order a content service from us. You’re ordering from a company that believes in hard work, and your sale directly correlates to the income that provides for our families. With that said… Now, let’s get into the changes for this month! July Changes: New Management, Writing & Editing Team Additions Marc Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce.com and frequently named the “SaaS Father,” said this about hiring: I believe in this statement, 100%. That’s why I’m choosing to put more time into finding the right people, more than I ever have. This month, we added twelve new people to the team in total: A new content director, Jeremy Kohlenburg Three new editors: Susan, Christina, Jessica Eight new writers, in various industry expertise areas and full/part time availability schedules Jeremy is replacing Katria, our former Content Manager, who quit in July. Jeremy is a perfect fit for the role of Content Director, bringing a great deal of freelance copywriting and blended leadership experience into this position in our team. Not only is he taking over content management, but he has a phone extension and is directly available to our clients, should they need to reach him for any concerns about their writers, revisions, our process, etc. I’ll let Jeremy share what he brings to the team. In Jeremy’s words: From our Content Director, Jeremy: I’m excited to join the Express Writers’ team as the Content Director. In this role, I will work directly with you, the client, to ensure that your content matches your exact specifications and exceeds your standards. I will be available to discuss your needs via email and phone, and I will take personal responsibility for the quality of every product I deliver to you. Behind the scenes, I will develop and lead the writing staff, closely with Julia, our CEO, and the editing team. I will hold our writers accountable to the highest professional standards, and work closely with them so you can get better products with faster turnaround times at the same competitive rates. My commitment to customer service and performance is based on years of experience as a copywriter and communications manager. I have led marketing campaigns for business leaders that enhanced public awareness, increased customer engagement, and boosted sales. I believe that the key to my success is open, honest, and transparent communication. This means that I never make excuses, withhold information, or avoid opportunities to talk. I expect the same of everyone who works with me. This results in more productive conversations, higher professional standards, and superior content. I am dedicated to bringing this philosophy to my new role as Express Writers’ Content Director. Please email me with your questions, thoughts, and ideas about how I can help Express Writers better meet your needs. I look forward to hearing from you, building our relationship, and making your experience with Express Writers extraordinary. Our new editors and writers join the team in various supportive needs. Our full editing staff ensures that content gets through the queue without any delays, on or before our deadline turnaround times: and our new writers are staffed to support all the expert areas we offer in our Content Services section. One more proactive change for our clients and team: our deadline turnarounds on the Policy page have been improved, clarified, and reconstructed to focus on what we can handle with our new, extended staff. Check our new turnaround times out on our policy page. Improved Editing Process For years, we’ve offered two levels at Express Writers to support our clients needs and budgets: and to match a level that was in need but not offered, I created a third level, authority content, last year (after training our best writers on it). Now, we’ve reinvented our editing process with brand new, rewritten and updated guidelines: new editing control queues in our teamroom, and two levels of editing: General editing for all our general content Expert/higher … Read more

Social Media Product Upgrades for May: All Plans Now Feature Professionally Designed & Branded Images

December 31, 2020May 23, 2017 by Adam Oakley

Just in time for summer, visuals are hot, hot, hot! Anyone who’s been paying attention to content marketing trends will tell you that visuals are a big deal right now. Larry Kim said that an estimated 84% of communication will be visual by 2018! So, how does this fit into your marketing? One fantastic way to boost your engagement online is by integrating beautiful, custom visuals into your social media content. And we’re here with just the product upgrade for you! Big News for Our Social Media Plans this May! If your social media is currently handled by the SMEs (Social Media Experts) at Express Writers, or you’re looking for an agency to hand the reins off to, we have exciting news for you. You may or may not know that all of our monthly social media plans already include images. We have three levels of Social Media Plans to choose from depending on how often you want to interact with your audience, but even our Level 1 package includes three custom images. So how could we have sweetened the pot even more? We took a look at the images that our SMEs were creating using Canva, and although they worked, when we realized that we have the resources to do better, we immediately took action. As of this week, all of our social media images will be created by our in-house graphic designers. That’s right. Now when you have Express Writers taking care of your social media posts, you will now also get professionally designed visuals, pre-sized for Instagram (which translates well to all social platforms) to represent your brand at no extra cost. That’s a huge added value to our already amazing social media offerings. How did we do it? Well, we’ve added more staff designers just for this purpose and created a new workflow where our content manager will assign all social media images directly to our designers. The best part? We aren’t even raising our prices one single penny (yet). We value our clients’ satisfaction and want them to love each product they receive from us, but as content marketing experts it goes beyond that. We aren’t doing our job unless we are providing our customers with the best quality we can to help boost visibility and promote their message. This is just one more way that we can continue to ensure that our products and services are the best you can get! The best thing – our social media package prices haven’t increased a bit. We want to give our customers added value – at no extra price! What Our Social Media Levels Include With each of our levels you receive industry influencer content curation, and you get to choose up to three platforms for us to create posts for. We can even schedule your posts for you using tools like Hootsuite or Buffer at no additional cost. Level 1 also includes: One post across all of your platforms every day, M-F Three custom images/week (perfect for Instagram as well as any other platform) Level 2 gives you: Seven or more posts daily spread among your platforms Four custom images every week Level 3 allows for maximum brand exposure with: Fourteen posts on weekdays Five images each week, including memes Let Us Help You With Great Social Media Services Today Having Express Writers handle your social media means consistent engagement across all of your social platforms with your community of followers – as well as an ability to build your network, generate leads, and boost sales. And now, it also means having professionally designed visuals to illustrate your posts at no additional costs! Check out our Social Media Plans today!

Why We Launched a Feature to Request a Dedicated Writer

December 31, 2020April 26, 2017 by woo_user_3892138

When you place an order for that important piece of content, you’re trusting Express Writers to pick the perfect writer that will craft exactly the copy that you need. We don’t take that responsibility lightly. In fact, there’s a lot that we take into consideration when making that selection, which is what keeps our customers coming back for more, time and time again. Topic: we know which writers will work best for specific topics based on experience and feedback from our editors. Industry: if you have a niche industry, chances are that we have a writer with firsthand experience to write your content. Content Level: we have writing levels to meet any need and our team can help you decide which one is right for you. Okay, so now that you’ve received your order, and you love it, it’s time to reorder… which can seem daunting. Your previous writer already understands you and knows what you need. You don’t want to start over again with someone new… and we get it. That’s why when you check out from now on, you may notice that there’s a new question to answer in our input forms! Keep reading to find out. How the Process Works After you check out on our website, you can enter your project details by entering a project title and clicking on “Start Project” in My Account: This is where you supply information, answer questions relevant to the product that you just ordered, and upload any supporting documents. Anything a writer needs to complete your project should be covered here. It’s also where you will now find the newest (optional) addition to our questionnaire, “Do you want to request a previous writer again on this project?” If so, all you need to do is include the order ID from a completed project with that writer or the writer’s initials (usually found on the file name for that project). That’s right, you can now request a writer from one of your previous projects—right from the comfort of our details form! If your newest order is unrelated to previous projects, or you just want us to pick a new writer for you, that’s no problem! Having a dedicated writer for your projects is completely up to you. Download our full Content Shop FAQ for every step in the checkout process. What Prompted This Decision? Frankly, it’s also a win-win. When you’re happy, we’re happy! You’ve spoken, and we’ve listened. Customer satisfaction is our top priority, and we’ve been fielding questions about requesting a particular writer for awhile now… and it’s only fair. If you’ve found your editorial forever after bliss with one of our writers, we don’t want to keep you apart! We love crafting quality content and this is just one more way to achieve that. Familiarity is one of the biggest hurdles you face when outsourcing content, which is why we really want our writers to understand the projects that they work on before they even start. It saves times on both sides when that step is already complete for a new project. Especially with particularly detailed, repeating orders, having a dedicated writer can be a life saver. You won’t need to explain your project, company, or goals to someone new—just update the details of your current project and you’re on your way to content designed just for you that we already know you’ll approve of! Staying True to Our Values Here at Express Writers, any changes or decisions must align with our values. We believe in delivering greatness which means tailoring our services to fit the unique needs of our clients in order to get results. We know that there is a constant learning curve in order to stay up with market trends and current demands. We are excited to offer this new addition to our already amazing list of products and services, and we are confident that we have the quintessential writer for your next project. The good news is that now, the fun doesn’t have to end there because you can keep requesting them for future projects too!

Why We Introduced Header Formatting in Word in our Writing Team as a New Standard

December 31, 2020April 15, 2017 by Ed Murray

Note from Julia: Ed, our Senior Editor, assisted me in rewriting our 15+ page Web Writing Guidelines for our team of 60 writers this week. One change we just implemented was teaching all our writers how to use Word’s Style menu to auto-format H2s and H3s. All of our blog content will now include this. I asked him Ed to write a post detailing why we did this change, and he kindly obliged. Let’s face it: People don’t read any more. Especially online (or, more accurately, on-screen, when you consider ubiquitous the use of smart phones and mobile tablets have become), where such factors as screen size, resolution, visual cues as to page length, and eye strain play a part in our ability to focus deeply on the written word. So what do people do online if they’re not reading? They scan – or skim, glance, browse, graze…whatever you want to call it, it’s not the same as pure reading. That’s why formatting for the web is so important. Everything from eye-catching headlines, to smaller-than-usual paragraphs, to bulleted or numbered lists plays a part in making an article, story, column post – any piece of content that’s predominantly text – more appealing to people. And headings – more accurately, subheadings – are a big part of that. What is a Subheading, Anyway? According to the dictionary definition (thanks, Merriam-Webster), a subheading is: “an additional headline or title that comes immediately after the main headline or title,” as well as a “title given to one of the parts or divisions of a piece of writing.” It’s this latter definition that we’re focusing on. Put another way, it’s the bold, stand-out text just above the preceding paragraph that says “What is a subheading anyway?” Subheadings help break up large blocks of text. They can also break down a longer piece of writing into different parts or sections, serving almost the same role in an article that a chapter does in a book. Which, in turn, can help convince potential readers to keep reading… For instance, what looks better to you in the example below: It’s obvious which looks better, right? Why Else are Subheadings Important? Subheadings break up articles into different sections, which allows for easier scanning of the sections of an article. And it’s a lot easier on the eyes than large, uninterrupted blocks of text – especially when reading on a screen. All of that’s well and good, but there’s a more important reason to use subheadings in your articles and blog posts: Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Search engines – we’re looking at you, Google (with some side-eye at Bing) – respond to subheadings because not only does it divide content into scannable blocks of copy, it also clues in the search engine as to the relevancy of the article, page, and section. Only if you’re writing and using them correctly, of course (hint: they should contain your keywords and/or variations of those keywords). Put another way, an H2 heading is a way of telling Google “pay attention, this is important.” More on this topic: How to Use H2s and H3s in Your Content How Many to Use? Most articles – and all blog posts – should have a subheading (H2) after the introductory paragraph(s). They should also have a closing subheading before the final paragraph(s). And they should use a subheading before numbered or bulleted lists (with some copy between the subheading and the list). Additionally, numbered lists should NOT be auto-formatted as numbered lists by Word (more on turning Word’s auto-formatting feature off below). Instead, each numbered item should be its own subheading – but in this instance you should use an H3 heading. Essentially, it will look like this: H1: Headline of the Blog Post Paragraph text (1-3 paragraphs, depending) H2: Subheading for first major section Paragraph text (1-3 paragraphs, depending) H2: Subheading for second major section Paragraph text H3: Sub-subheading for the first item in a numbered list, if applicable Paragraph text for the first numbered item H3: Sub-subheading for the second item in a numbered list, if applicable Paragraph text for the second numbered item H2: Subheading for conclusion Paragraph text (usually 1 paragraph) Longer is usually better for subheadings: they should be at least 6 words long. Don’t forget to use your keywords and keyword variants (synonyms, etc.)! How to Tag a Heading as H2, H3 We recommend using Microsoft Word’s built-in “Style” menu for subheading text that you want to format as Heading 2 (H2) and Heading 3 (H3). The Quick Style Gallery is prominently displayed at the top of most modern versions of Word: We began using Word to format our H2 and H3 subheadings for blog posts in part because it streamlines the physical blog posting process. Believe me, we’re well aware that there was a time that posting into WordPress from Word generated a lot of invisible code that was not only unnecessary, and that added to the “weight” (and hence the load time) of a page, but would sometimes even break how a browser rendered a web page. In short, pasting from Word used to be considered a big no-no. For H2 and H3 subheadings at least, that’s not the case anymore – believe me, before we began doing it this way because it was easier and saved time, we verified in a number of our client’s WordPress and other CMS installations that the code pasted from Word generated proper, ready-to-go H2, H3 headings, and not strings of gobbledygook formatting code…without having to use WordPress’ clunky pulldown menu: What About all that Messy HTML Code Word Produces that I Keep Hearing About? It’s true that if your Word document contains a lot of heavy formatting – such as tables, multi-column lists, custom style changes – it most likely will not be reproduced when pasting into the WordPress (or other web-based CMS) visual editor. There are other variables that will affect how documents will look once pasted into WordPress, such as the version of either Word or WordPress you … Read more

New Services in the Content Shop: Kindle Ebook Formatting for Self-Published Authors, Marketing Copy Formats, & New Expert Category

January 3, 2024April 11, 2017 by Adam Oakley

Over the weekend, we were busy beavers – we added several new products to our Content Shop! Kindle ebook formatting (with an option for a custom, made-from-scratch cover design) Marketing copy services in various formats, from flyers to brochure copy and more, under the new expert category Marketing New expert writing category: Content Marketing All of these services have been introduced because of a popular demand from our clients, and priced fairly to include expert team members for each stage of the project. An expert content marketing writer who sometimes ghostwrites for me is behind the new category just for CM, and we have a sales and marketing copywriter guru ready to deliver on the new marketing copy category and array of formats there with expertise. I’m excited to introduce these new services to our Content Shop and answer more needs for our incoming leads. Keep reading to learn more about each one of these updated new content products! New Services in our Content Shop: Kindle Ebook Formatting for Self-Published Authors, & 2 New Expert Category Products (Marketing & Content Marketing) Here’s the lowdown on our new products in the Content Shop! First, we’ll start with the two new expert categories, and then discuss our Kindle ebook formatting solutions. 2 New Expert Categories: Marketing & Content Marketing Our two new expert copywriting categories are live at the top of the expert copy category: New Expert Category: Content Marketing When it comes to content marketing, we’re the perfect team to write on the subject. So it was about time to launch a dedicated expert copywriting category to the Shop, just for the subject of content marketing. The beauty of this product is that it comes from what we do every day. Before we write and deliver our copy services for clients, we create content for ourselves – and that content fuels 90% of our entire marketing. (Check out our case study on our own success in that area.) You can trust our team to deliver the best copy on the topic of content marketing. Crafted by experts in the field, we’ll deliver successful content, ready to gain and rank online. We have a content marketing expert copywriter lined up to take these orders (he sometimes ghostwrites for me, and I trained him on our Authority Content copy format launched last year). New Expert Category: Marketing One of our very common requests lately has been for a wide variety of marketing copy formats. So, we’ve added a Marketing expert copywriting product that encompasses the common requests we get, including PPT copy, flyer copy, and brochure copy. See it here. Kindle Formatting & Cover Design for Self-Published Authors We’ve already had ebook writing as a service in the Content Shop ever since we launched our site, but it was time to add Kindle formatting services for the aspiring self-publishing leads that have been visiting our site and services. For a few months now, we’ve received an odd number of random requests for Kindle formatting. We talked to our team, and discovered that Kindle formatting was among the skillsets of one of our our full-time writers, Ashley. So, we’ve created a workflow, priced the service at a fair cost, and added the service to our Content Shop this weekend for Kindle ebook formatting! Our designer has crafted incredibly good covers for our clients’ custom design orders already, so we added on a variation to get an ebook cover along with a fully-formatted, ready-to-go Amazon .mobi and .epub file. We’re also getting ahead of a serious, permanent trend, by catering to the self-publishing crowd. Per a Bowker report, the amount of self-published books have increased by 375% since 2010. And that was a stat from last year. Here’s some more stats about the self-publishing industry (via PublishersWeekly): 31% of all ebook sales on Amazon go to self-published authors. Self-published authors are outdoing traditionally published authors, in the sci-fi, fantasy, mystery, thriller, and romance genres. What’s more, they are taking a large market share in all genres! Self-Publishing Testament to Success In April last year, I self-published my own book, So You Think You Can Write? using Amazon KDP and Amazon’s paperback publishing service, CreateSpace. So, I’ve been through the entire process! The reason I didn’t choose a publisher? Self-publishing on Amazon nets you a large 80% return on all your author royalties: a typical publisher will net you around 8%. That’s a tremendous difference. Of course, you have to market your book yourself when you’re self-published, and that can be difficult if you have no audience. Fortunately, I built up an audience through owning a business and starting several communities years before my book came out: and my book has sold over 500 copies across the last year just through word of mouth and publishing the link in my communities. (I’ve learned, though, that you can’t live off the income a single published book brings, not by a long shot—I net a low $150/month income from the sales. Still, it’s nice to have!) One of the most difficult parts of publishing my book was finding a trustworthy formatter. In the process of formatting my book for CreateSpace, which was 1000x harder than formatting for the simpler KDP process, I was scammed out of quite a bit of money. Apparently, after the book was out, I learned I’d been overcharged about 50x what I should have paid. So, this product in our Content Shop is something I’m very proud of offering. I know what it’s like to be a self-published author, both the struggles of the journey and the great reward afterwards from putting in the effort! Conclusion: New Services in the Content Shop for April That’s it for the roundup of the new services launched over last weekend in our Content Shop. Questions, comments, or thoughts? Drop us a comment below – or, if you have questions in particular about how we can help you with your needs, talk to us today! We’d love to become your go-to writing solution.