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General, Expert, Authority: What Differentiates the Content Levels at Express Writers? (Infographic)

June 19, 2024August 29, 2017 by Adam Oakley

At Express Writers, we’re a tight-knit team of content creators that pride ourselves on serving our clients with the best copy on the web. Since I founded the company in 2011, we’ve served over 5,000 clients around the globe. Watch our video story. Part of our structure in customizing our content and matching up our writers to our clients for successful results, has been in serving our clients with three specific levels. Our three individual content levels are suited to every kind of budget, expertise level needed, and consistent brand positioning. To explain our levels better, we created a visual infographic to represent what each of these levels look like. Enjoy! And be sure to scroll down to the content below the infographic to see examples of each content type, written by our creators. [bctt tweet=”See the three content levels at @ExpWriters #infographic” via=”no”] General, Expert, Authority: What Differentiates the Content Levels at Express Writers? (Infographic) Explaining the Three Content Levels at Express Writers General Copy: The Lowdown See an example of General Copy. Writer: Your writer passed our hiring tests. Only 2% of applicants do, so they’ve got writing chops. They’re not, however, an expert on the topic and will instead rely on their research and writing skills. Content Quality Specialist: Your editor follows our unique 5-point quality check to eliminate grammar and syntax errors while ensuring strong word flow and proper formatting. Thorough Research: Includes statistics, quotes, and/or links that support your article topic. Benefits of General Copy SEO-Friendly: Formatted and written to be found by search engines. Created for Optimal Readability: Content is broken up with subheadings and short paragraphs to make it easy for readers to consume. Who General Content Is Perfect for: Small businesses focusing on local SEO Agencies reselling our content to small, local-focused businesses Businesses or bloggers in non-competitive niches that need content for their blog or social media pages Expert Copy: The Lowdown See an example of Expert Copy. Expert Writer: Your writer passed our tests AND has extensive experience writing about your topic. They also have a better understanding of your readers than a general writer would. And, they’re expert in the nuances of engaging writing. Many of these writers have taken advanced courses, live workshops, or coaching sessions on how to write for engagement and conversions. Content Quality Specialist: Your editor uses our 5-point quality check process AND checks for link quality and research accuracy. Extensive Research: Using their experience, your expert writer knows where to find the best resources (links, statistics, quotes, etc.) for researching your topic. Benefits of Expert Copy Made for Search Engines: Everything, from the quality of the content to the formatting and keywords used, is made for high ROI in the organic SEO rankings, targeted to the real human reader. Audience-Centric Content: Content is designed to connect and engage with your unique audience. Positions You as an Expert: After publishing several expert articles, you’ll be well-positioned to start generating organic traffic for the long term. Who Expert Content Is Perfect for Businesses or bloggers that want to begin establishing themselves as an expert in their industry Small or medium-sized businesses that want to start generating organic traffic Businesses in a niche with moderate competition that are trying to work towards becoming an authority Authority Content: The Lowdown See an example of Authority Content. This content level not only uses the highest level writer and editors in our team, but also has a specialized process, workflow and extra steps for SEO keyword discovery and special image creation. Content Strategist: Step 1 in the Authority Content workflow. Uses industry-leading tools to perform keyword research and determine which long-tail keywords your content should be built around. Authority Writer: Your writer, who is an expert on your topic, works with the content strategist to ensure content is written around long-tail keywords that have the best chance to help you rank quickly. This writer has been handpicked out of our best writers and mentored by our CEO. Content Quality Specialist: Uses the 5-point quality check process, checks for link quality and research accuracy, AND ensures your content passes the quality standards necessary to rank. Designer: Creates customized images, based on the writer and content strategist’s suggestions, to ensure the content is as engaging as possible. Benefits of Authority Content Designed to Be the Best: Everything, from the images and research to the link quality and formatting, is designed to position your content as the BEST available on your topic. Positions You as an Authority: With our incredibly high standards, the quality of this type of content helps position you as an authority within your niche. Customized, Engaging Images: Content with images produces 650% higher engagement rates. With the customized images our designer creates, that number could be even higher. First Page Focus: The goal of this content is to get you to the first page of search engines for the long-tail keyword/s that we’re targeting. Who Authority Content Is Perfect For Businesses that are looking for content that “wows” and engages their readers Businesses in competitive niches that want to get to the top of the search engines Businesses or bloggers looking to establish themselves as an authority in their industry Interested in Finding Your Content Level Match? Talk to Our Team! Content creation tops the list as the most effective tactic for SEO. (Marketing Sherpa) But if you’re not investing in excellent content for your site, and publishing it on a consistent schedule, the chances of SEO rankings, more inbound leads, and sales drop. Get off the ground and start flying by investing in custom content for you and your brand! Want to discover which of our content types is right for you? Talk to us today! We’d love to help support your content creation. Head on over the contact page and book a call with one of our Specialists, or go straight to the Content Shop and check out our three levels: General Content Expert Copy Authority Content

Copywriting Fixes: How to Beat Writer’s Block and Churn Out Decent Copy

June 19, 2024August 15, 2017 by Alyssa Villeneuve

As a copywriter, I wheel and deal with words. Every word I write is worth something: money in the bank, bills paid on time, food in my fridge. Needless to say, when your words are your currency, you have to be able to produce. Unfortunately, it’s not always that simple. There are all kinds of scenarios that threaten my writing. Sometimes my dog sits at the foot of my chair and stares up at me for minutes at a time. Her eyes get big and sad. Eventually, she sits up on her hind legs and reaches out one little paw, giving me a gentle pat on the leg. “Hey, remember me?” she seems to say. “I depend on you for survival.” At this point, I can only sigh deeply and try to understand what she wants. Usually, this is her not-so-subtle way of asking for a bathroom break. My dog is the least of my worries, though. There are other barriers to writing. The worst of them seems beyond my control. Writer’s block. This anxiety-inducing state is not only dreaded but unavoidable. Seconds, then minutes, tick by as I sit motionless, staring at a blank page and a blinking cursor. These two portents of doom taunt me. This is the point where I have to act, or I’ll never get out alive. So, what should a copywriter do in the face of this self-created melodrama? Writer’s block can be a hard thing to beat. If you’re still with me, I’ll show you my strategy. A Copywriter’s Guide to Winning Against Writer’s Block Writer’s block can be a copywriter’s nemesis. It doesn’t want you to write a word, and it certainly doesn’t want you to get in a groove. Here’s how to fight back. 1. Focus – No, for Real I know if I have writer’s block, my mind is elsewhere. If it’s the same for you, I suggest sitting back and discovering where your mind has gone (or when). Then, yank on it and rein it in. Put your phone away. No, don’t put it in your pocket or set it within arm’s reach. Get up, go into the next room, and literally hide it from yourself. You’ll thank me when you don’t have notifications pinging at you every 20 seconds. Next, close every extraneous browser window/tab you have open. Just say no unless it’s essential to your process. For instance, I like to leave a tab open for an online thesaurus. It’s useful for cases of overused adjectives (“great,” “beautiful,” and “excellent” are common culprits). Once you have eliminated distractions, center yourself. Meditate on the topic you’re writing about. If your mind wanders off again, pull it back, and be firm with yourself. 2. Do You Need Mood Music? Once your distractions are gone, you may feel antsy. Sometimes, the silence amplifies writer’s block. It becomes a solid, menacing entity versus a metaphor for brain fog. In these cases, I recommend background music. Example (purchased from MelodyLoops): This infographic from WebpageFX gives you an idea why: I’m talking about the kind of music that gets your brain quietly but steadily moving, like a running brook. You don’t want waterfalls – unless you prefer that mind environment. If that’s you, by all means. For me, a quiet, steady, musical movement equals production in an equal measure. Like the music, the words drop at a constant beat and keep coming. It’s not just like a brook, it’s like a faucet turned on to a continual drip. I require instrumental music. Not angry, dramatic symphonies or complicated melodies, but simple arrangements. A piano, a violin. Clear notes at a moderate pace. For you, this might be totally wrong. I recommend searching your favorite music app until you land on something that sets your perfect writing mood. If this sounds incredibly fussy, believe me, I know. However, if your currency is words, you’ll understand. 3. Light the Wick Here’s another scenario: What if you don’t need music? What if you only need ideas? Chances are, if you’re a copywriter, you had a topic handed to you. Whether you find it inspiring, the client needs 1,500 words expounding on it. If you look at the topic and feel dead inside, you probably need a therapist. If you look at it and feel blah, you need to light the wick. How? Strike the match. Start by skimming everything you can find on the web about that subject. Read every article, blog, and website you can with the time you have. If applicable, look at pictures, too. Get inside the topic and swim around. Reading is one the best ways, I find, to get inspired and find your footing. Once you have a better idea of where you are, you can discover an angle to explore. If you can, make that angle as interesting to you as possible. Not only will it be more fun to write, that interest will bleed into your tone. Let’s face it: We all know when a writer is bored to death. To combat that bored tone from boring your readers, get in there and find the interesting side. Comic by Grant Snider 4. Resort to the Dying Arts So, what if silence isn’t bothering you? What if distractions aren’t an issue? What if you have ideas, but the writer’s block is still there? If you’re blank, you need my last-resort strategy. It requires three steps: Get out a notebook. Grab your favorite pen. Write – in cursive. I’m not talking about the modern scrawl you use to sign checks and jot grocery lists. I’m talking about formal, cursive handwriting. Yes, the type they don’t want to teach in schools anymore. The kind you practiced during painstaking sessions of loops and swirls in second grade. That one. When all else fails, this causes my brain to light up in a new way. I start thinking differently than when I’m typing. Sometimes, I’ll even jot down a whole introduction to my … Read more

Dear Return Clients: Here’s Why We Can’t Accommodate Your Old Rates

January 1, 2021July 25, 2017 by Adam Oakley

Recently, we received this message from a past client in our inbox. “It’s been awhile since we worked together, and I went to buy from you guys again today. Wow. Your writing fees increased by double?! I won’t be using you anymore.” *shudder* Anyone else find the incorrect contraction as grating as I did? Okay, moving past the grammar-Nazi that makes up part of my inner core… This client note. Seriously needs to be addressed, publicly. Back when we received it in our inbox, I wrote a short letter for our staff to send to the client. I summed up the main reasons why our prices don’t stay at one level year-after-year. But, the question itself smoldered in my mind for days, and eventually kindled an entire letter. Dear Return Client (A Personal Letter on Why The Industry, and Our Rates, Will Never Stop Evolving) Dear Client, Content marketing has evolved so much in the past few years. The evolution is the very reason our rates cannot stay the same. That’s the expertise area of my team and me, so we’re not BS’ing you here, not by a long shot. For instance… Check out this infographic we created showing how the last 40 updates in SEO apply to content marketing: A Timeline History of Google’s Major SEO Content Updates & What We Learned from it As A Content Agency (Infographic) Did you know that Google actually updates 500 times per year? (Moz) Last year, I wrote a bestseller on successful online writing, and I was also named a top content marketer for 2016. My passion, as the creator of this agency, is truly in this very industry of content marketing. It’s been my full-time career for nearly seven years now. I personally help recruit every single person that makes up our team (I can’t tell you how much I love finding a “gem!”). I read the latest books by content marketers, test and try SEO and content theories for myself, and have established incredible rankings for our own content. My staff and I create exclusive, internal training resources to keep my writers growing, and their skills sharp. We have a 5-point editing process I’ve put together that ensures we edit for exceptional content. And, our writing levels are created to exceed our industry competition in getting our clients their best-fit copywriters. Easily, I’ve increased my own content standards (and budget) for my brand content tenfold in the last few years, year-after-year. I’ll never drop my standards. My goal is that every client of ours can be sure of this foundation when they interact with and purchase services from Express Writers. You’re working with a team that cares about: Evolution and adapting to today’s standards, both in terms of reader expectation and ever-evolving search engine criteria. Quality. Personally head-hunting for the best of the best, in writers. Molding our writing to current standards. Constant innovation. Matching the client’s need, not just their want – even if we tell them “no” because our content isn’t a fit for their business stage. Creating content that is at the forefront of all the other results in Google. Launching the best writing level in the industry with Authority Content, which I created as a service in 2016 to answer the “skyscraper content” need. Developing new products, services, and even a course to match new industry standards. Ensuring a higher standard of content that will elevate your brand online every time the web demands higher standards.. Dear client, I’m afraid you’re right on one thing you said. It’s the elephant in the room. Our content prices have increased, yes – in the last week, our general blog rates went from $35/500w to $45/500w. (Expert rates are $90/500-600w.) But not to price gouge you. Not by a long shot. Think about this…it’s the truth: If we were here to price gouge you (charge an inflated cost for services that aren’t worth it), in reality we’d charge the same fee, give you crap content that’s not worth a dime in real ROI with Google (not to mention lets down your reader, and fails to support your business by offering content not within industry standards). Do you see the truth now? Our fees come from an honest place that reflects how we truly care about the content we deliver for our clients and how our writing standards fit today’s demand. In reality, our prices are actually more than fair. Our rates are equal to – or even lower than – the market value charged by many of our competitors, whose rates have doubled (or in some cases, tripled) in the past two years. But, cheap Textbroker rates just wouldn’t cover what our quality process is now – the process you need for content that matters. It wouldn’t cover: – Myself head-hunting for your best writer, and then testing and proving them before we bring them into the team. (See our Values.) – Our Content Director personally assigning your content to a best-fit writer. – Our content-marketing specialists and high-level editors reviewing every single one of your pages. – Halting production of your content mid-stream if it doesn’t match quality standards, and taking the time to revise and re-edit. ‘Nuff said. To end this letter on a very valid, marketer-mindset point: What worked years ago in simple, average, link-bait content will not work today. You won’t get a second glance from Google or a real, human reader for average content. Our content, even at the “General” level, is created by writers hand-picked and mentored by yours truly in best writing practices, and we continually head hunt, refine, and re-initiate our guidelines to match the ever-evolving trends of content marketing. And that makes the biggest difference. Because we care. Our goal is to serve our clients content at all levels in a way that works. We don’t want to serve up crap content that will be a waste of your time and money. I would encourage increasing your content marketing budget to allow for quality. If not, there are certainly competitors that offer cheaper content (a double-edged sword, though, it’s lesser in both quality and price). Yours in content, Julia McCoy … Read more

Becoming a Content Strategist: A Hard Knocks Success Story, & the Strategy Skills You Have to Have to Survive in Content

June 19, 2024July 6, 2017 by Adam Oakley

I’m the CEO of a content creation agency that has completed over 17,000 projects in content services (blogs, web pages, content planning), since 2011. In my line of work forging and leading content creation to power many content strategies, I’ve heard just about every complaint and frustration you could possibly hear from content strategists, marketers, and content practitioners: “I’m not sure this content is worth it.” “Where do you recommend I publish my content?” “I’m not sure I can do more than one month of blogging. I’ll look at the budget and get back to you.” “I can’t afford an industry specialist writer.” This is a small percentage of the clients that come our way, but I’m still ready to pull my hair out, every time I hear these phrases. Why? Because I personally know the value that a great content marketing strategy, and consistent publishing, can bring. But I also know what it takes to get there: the path isn’t easy. It requires investment, time, and most of all, commitment. The skills involved in the workload of a content strategist aren’t easy to learn. But here’s the cool news… Content can truly bring you 100x what you put into it. I’ll talk more about that in a moment, but first, here’s a look at what I’ve managed to achieve here at Express Writers solely through high quality, original content creation. A Content Strategist Success Story: Express Writers, Fueled Completely By Organic Content [bctt tweet=”Content can truly bring you 100x what you put into it. Read all about @JuliaEMcCoy’s venture into #contentstrategy ” username=”ExpWriters”] Today, under my direction and content creation as a self-taught content strategist and CEO, my little self-funded content creation agency and staff of 40 at Express Writers has managed to outrank competitors that have $9+ million in outside funding, by an immense 3%+ higher visibility in Google. We rank organically for over 11,000 key terms, with a presence worth $57,000+ monthly in organic search. And we haven’t paid a penny in ads—across six years—to gain the majority of our leads and clientele. They’ve come straight from these rankings. Question… How well does this content convert? Because you can’t just have high-ranking content, right? It has to return. After optimizing my strategy and increasing my content investment this year, we hit the highest sales month we’ve ever had this January. Now, we’re on track to break our first seven figure year as an agency. 99% of our leads come through organic content marketing. I’ve never invested a single dollar in PPC. The secret is all in how you go about it (your strategy), and your commitment. It’s not an overnight game, and it’s a steady, slow, but sure process. It can feel like hard, low-return work in the beginning, but in the long run, content is the best marketing you’ll have ever done. Content Strategists & The Proven Worth of Content to Advertisers Today, SEO has basically merged as a part of the wider picture that is content marketing. When you do SEO, you’re optimizing your content for high rankings in the search results: in content marketing, you market your product or service through high-value, audience-targeted content campaigns. Optimizing your content for search (SEO) is a crucial, integrated part of content marketing itself. It’s a big part of the skillset of a great content strategist. If you have the right strategy, the right SEO and the right content consistency in place, take a look at these success statistics that can happen. Per dollar spent, content marketing generates more than 3x the number of leads than paid search does. (Kapost/Eloqua) Content marketing costs between 31 and 41% less than paid search, depending on the organization’s size. (Kapost/Eloqua) Website conversion rate is nearly 6x higher for content marketing adopters than non-adopters (2.9% vs. 0.5%). (Aberdeen Group) Content creation ranks as the single most effective SEO technique. (Marketing Sherpa) 61% of U.S. online consumers have made a purchase based on recommendations from a blog. (FactBrowser) Small businesses that blog get 126% more lead growth than small businesses that do not blog. (ImpactBnd) A Content Strategist Skillset Wheelhouse: 7 Keys to Success Your content strategy is everything in achieving high-performing, high-ROI content. Follow these critical steps, in order, for a baseline sense of how to navigate through and set up your strategy so that your content is knocked out of the park and you know you’re getting ROI when you publish content. (PSA: These steps take time. Don’t jump around or rush through them. PSA 2: This takes time. Don’t expect overnight success.) 1. Know your position of authority and differentiation in your field. It all starts here. Know where your expertise lies, own it, and ten find your Content Differentiation Factor so you can officially stand out in your industry. To get to that, ask yourself, “what would make a customer choose me over my competitor?” Your answer is your CDF. Condense it to one or two key sentences to showcase on your home page (you may need a conversion copywriter to help you express this perfectly). Brands that have a standout CDF in a variety of niches (scan their home pages—it should, quite literally, stand out there): Uber: ”Get there: Your day belongs to you” Stripe: “The new standard in online payments” Grammarly: “Your writing, at its best” Moz: “5 billion searches are performed every day. Be found.” Zuke’s Dog Blog: “Live life off leash” Better Bites Bakery: “All joy, no worries” My agency: “Better content in your marketing.” This is the first step of a true content strategy, and this step is a discovery that could take some time. But it’s absolutely worth it. Too many brands starting out don’t take the time to make sure they have a standout factor. To set yourself up for content success, you have to have a reason for the reader (buyer, audience member, lead) to choose you and your content. Don’t skimp here. Having a CDF will 10x the results you’ll get when leads start finding your content. 2. Know your content goals. … Read more

The Entrepreneurial Story: How I Founded Express Writers From $75, Grew a Successful Company Mindset, and My Greatest Lessons in Business (Video)

June 19, 2024May 8, 2017 by Adam Oakley

This very month, back in 2011, I was plowing the seed of an idea, hiring five writers, and coding my own website. I decided to launch the idea, and came up with a business name in five minutes: Express Writers. As we move into our 6th business anniversary (and my 7th in the industry), I thought it would be awesome to get on video and sharing the story behind Express Writers – on camera! So, for the first (ever) video story that I’m finally doing, I’m sharing the story of how I started out in freelance writing at 19 then stumbled into creating Express Writers out of $75, a hope and a dream. That was what I started with – and nothing more. We’ve been bootstrapped all the way, learned some hard lessons, went through some crazy times, and came out stronger from every hard-knocks lesson learned. Today, we’ve served over 5,000 clients, and have grown by leaps and bounds: 200-300% year after year. This year, we were able to break all previous year’s records for client satisfaction rates and monthly income. But the story behind Express Writers’ creation isn’t complete without the real, raw, personal side of my life that I chose to change for the better (a personal, forced lifestyle that I chose to leave – and if I didn’t, I probably wouldn’t be here writing this blog today.) Here it is. The real, raw, true story of how Express Writers came to be. What made us, what shaped us, and what we’re doing today in the industry. Enjoy. The Entrepreneurial Story: How Julia McCoy Founded Express Writers From $75, Grew a Company Mindset, and Life Lessons in Business (Video Transcript) I run a writing agency, and 7 years ago I started with nothing but $75, a hope, and a dream. Today, we have the best client satisfaction rates that we’ve ever had, and we just surpassed our biggest month in sales. So, how have I been able to do it in such a competitive industry? Here’s my story. [clickToTweet tweet=”Watch @JuliaEMcCoy’s #video story behind the creation of Express Writers. #entrepreneur” quote=”Watch @JuliaEMcCoy’s #video story behind the creation of Express Writers. #entrepreneur”] Everything started in my business back when I was 19. I was in the middle of nursing school, and I was failing miserably. One day I woke up, and I asked myself: what do I love to do, and how can I make money doing it? I knew what the answer was in my heart: it was writing. That went back all the way before I was 12. I was always writing, and by age 12 I had a 200-page medieval fiction on a floppy disk. Along with that, I had early entrepreneurial roots. I figured out how to make money using the internet at 13: I was earning cash doing surveys. And by 16 – I don’t know where this idea came from, it was just in my head one day – I decided to go around the neighborhood and ask people if they needed help using their computer. I posted ads in the grocery store, and within a few days, I had several clients and I was making $40/hour at 16. So at 19, when I found myself in the middle of college trying to get a degree that I didn’t even want, I decided I would just try to figure out online writing and make a career out of it. And the next three months, I taught myself how to write, and I wrote hundreds of articles for very cheap clients: but that was how I honed my early writing skills. I also started learning a lot of SEO and content marketing back then. Before I knew it, I had more work than what I could handle. My next logical thought was, why not start a business? And Express Writers was born. I had one goal when I started my company back then: it was to find a group of writers who had passion in online writing, and who I could teach the elements of SEO and content marketing to, and we could learn and progress as a whole. I noticed a phenomenon back then: a lot of so-called writers didn’t know the standards of how to write for SEO, or the reader. So I started my business with that one goal, and clients began to trust me and to look to me for SEO and content marketing advice. And that’s when I started blogging regularly on my site, expresswriters.com. But the story is not complete without sharing a personal story. I grew up in a religiously suppressed environment. My dad was the pastor of a church, and at 21, I found myself locked up in my room by my parents and given a letter for my birthday that said I was a disgrace to my family. We were not allowed to lead normal lives, and my business was looked down on. So when I got that letter, even though that environment was the only thing I knew, I knew that it wasn’t normal and I had to get out. So six months later, my sister and I made the decision to leave in the middle of the night. And we did. It was very hard, but I had the opportunity to go follow what I loved to do, and go follow my dreams and chase my passions once I got out of that environment. I did that, and completely bootstrapped, without any outside funding, we grew 200% in the next few years. The first year was $50,000, and in the next few years we hit $300,000, and last year we just surpassed $650,000. As an entrepreneur, you often hear that failure precedes success. And that’s not just a quote or a fun saying, that’s the truth. Early last year, I found out that two trusted managers in my staff were embezzling. I had to fire them, and rebuild the team, and that took 5 months of hard work. I learned that with a supportive environment, ongoing accountability for … 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.

New for Spring 2017: Customized, Build-Your-Own Blogging Plans, Revamped Content Planning, & Content Consultation

December 31, 2020April 3, 2017 by Adam Oakley

You simply can’t be a self-serve menu, when you serve up content. One size does not fit all. We know this to be all-too-true, and it means that our Content Shop – and entire lineup of content services – change all the time. And the needs of our clients drive these changes. I love that this is one of our abiding principles, at Express Writers. We act when we see a demand – and learn, fit, and adapt to the changes necessary for progression in the industry, and to make sure the services that we sell to our clients are always one step ahead. Behind the scenes, it means a lot of work for our boot-strapped business. I’m constantly working with Tara, our Content Development Specialist, Katria, Tamila, Hannah, and our CTO to map out, create, and plan the changes – and adapt our entire sales and editorial management team to the changes. In the end: it’s more than worth it. We see real results from the hard work put into our improvements, and happy clients! Keep reading for all the changes out in the Content Shop this April. The Shortlist (TL;DR) of our Content Shop Changes: Biggest Changes, Biggest Benefits Don’t have a lot of time? Here’s a TL;DR (too long; didn’t read) list of the changes and the key benefits of the changes in our Shop. For a full in-depth list, scroll down for the per-product changes! Blog Plans: We’ve heard for ages now that “that package just doesn’t fit me,” so we completely rehauled our preset, three blog packages. Now, you get to completely build your own, by: 1) picking your writer level, 2) word count, 3) one (or both) of two addons for images/topic and SEO keyword planning, and finally, 4) quantity (telling us how many posts you want per month). Hit “add to cart.” Congrats! You’ve just configured your monthly blog plan! (If clients aren’t sure what they want, we can build a plan for them, starting at $280/cart. See more details in the sections below.) Content Planning: Biggest enhancement here? All blog titles are now analyzed according to Advanced Marketing Institute’s Emotional Marketing Value Headline Analyzer, one of my favorite tools on this planet. (And to solidify that we’re on track, we use Coschedule’s Headline Analyzer, too.) When I implemented checking every headline on the EMV Analyzer by AMI, our blog shares and overall traction went up by 25%+ on every post with the analyzed title. In the planning service itself, you get a ready-to-go editorial calendar for the month, a list of best SEO keywords (researched using top tools), and a BuzzSumo topic analysis. Content Consultation: For $350 (a low, low price, considering the value of what this could bring you), we now offer a content consultation with one of our highest-level, most experienced Content Strategists (his bio is below!). The session comes complete with a Discovery Report including an analysis of what you can be doing better with your content, and an SEO and topic analysis report, highly customized to the findings in the consultation call. Price: The price of blogging plans and content planning went up a tad. (We discovered, especially in the blogging plans, after doing some math that we weren’t able to cover the payment for our high level, content-marketing minded editors and expert writers. The WordPress posting was far too cheap – below $10 per – in the plans. We couldn’t pay out at that rate.) But with content planning blocks still starting at $120, and blog plans as low as $280 at the first configuration, you’re still paying below average rates here – even after the small increase. Jump on our services! The industry keeps changing, and skillset expertise increasing. I’ll be upfront: we simply can’t retain quality or work at low rates. And now for the in-depth breakdown. 1. Content Consultation Call with Reports Built into the Content Planning service is a new variation: Content Consultation. I’ll be real: content consultation was a long time coming. There’s been a serious demand for it. We hear this a lot: “What should I be doing with my site? Can you analyze and tell me?” “Can I get a dedicated consultation?” “Can I get some keyword reports and talk to a Strategist about what I’m looking for?” “I know I need content, but I have no idea what I’m doing.” What’s more, we’ve noticed, for a steady eight months now, a major need in the content marketing industry: Customization. All the way from quotes at a unique, per-word level, down to increased requests for a highly customized, per-site analysis – revealing exactly what you need, down to new site page recommendations, blog title and headline ideas, to the best keyword opportunities and what your competitors are doing that you could be doing better. Then, ongoing content publishing – a customized content recommendation at an ongoing basis. So, FINALLY, content consultation sessions, complete with full content discovery reports, are live! I just finished building a behind-the-scenes workflow that will ensure success at every step of the way, and hand-picked one of our most successful Content Strategists for the dedicated consulting call and report creation. Check it out: I’ve even written the interview guide that my consultant will be using, with questions that are guaranteed to elicit the best information so we find your “sweet spot” in creating content that answers your audience’s (and customers’) biggest questions, and positions you as an authority in your industry. Meet John G, our dedicated team member who will be working 1:1 with every client that needs a guided consultation: John is awesome. He’s been such a team player at Express Writers, and I have no doubts that he’ll knock the ball out of the park handling our content consultations. Check out the Content Consultation page for a checklist of the reports that come with a consultation. 2. Blogging Plans: Customized to Your Online Presence & Needs Completely, 100% customizable, create-your-own blogging plans are now available! Let me go back a little to explain … Read more

How Copywriting Works: A 101 to the Writing that Fuels the Web

December 31, 2020February 16, 2017 by Adam Oakley

Most copywriters know exactly what this conversation feels like: “What do you do?” “I’m an SEO copywriter!” “Oh…great! So, what do you do?” When you say you’re a writer, most people assume you’re an aspiring Hemingway, tapping away at your typewriter in pursuit of the next great American novel. Unless someone has experience in the digital marketing, content marketing, or online world, few people know what a copywriter does. (Not a copyright-er. I have another post on that.) That said, though, everyone is familiar with the work of copywriters, whether they know it or not. In a world as marketing-dense as ours, copywriters essentially make the digital web spin. They write the scripts for television commercials, radio ads, mail and email marketing materials, and articles that help people find answers to problems and learn new things. In other words, copywriters are everywhere! As such, it’s never been more critical than it is right now to understand how copywriting works, and what a massive role it plays in our modern world. What Copywriters Are (and What We Aren’t) First things first: not all copywriters are clones of Don Draper. Although romantic to imagine, that was way back when. Today, it’s 2017. There’s much less drama, smoking, and drinking in the office in this industry than what you see in the Mad Men series. 😉 That said, however, copywriters today fulfill a vast selection of positions. Here are just a few of the things that define what copywriters are: 1. Copywriters Write Copy for Various Industries and Specialties Depending on a copywriter’s unique job description, he or she might create marketing copy for a website or work one-on-one with an SEO company to write their website or create their Facebook posts. In other cases, copywriters write physical text material, like books, pamphlets, and educational sheets. No matter what industry they work in, copywriters work with words daily. 2. Copywriters Work with Other Teams to Create Marketing Copy In most cases, copywriters work with other specialists, like SEOs and sales teams, to create well-rounded marketing copy that fulfills a broad series of goals. 3. Copywriters Wear Many Hats A great copywriter is also a part-time marketer, editor, and publisher. While copywriters typically work with teams of editors, these skills are indispensable, and the best copywriters must know how to evaluate their content for quality and figure out what will and will not work for a client. What today’s copywriters are NOT: 1. Novelists. While copywriters do sometimes create text copy, they’re not developing books that sell as novels. Those are typically ghostwriters or other forms of writers. Instead, copywriters may create ebooks, articles, or white papers. 2. Machines. Good copywriters pay a lot of attention to each piece they create. They don’t just churn out work in a one-size-fits-all manner. Instead, they collaborate closely with teams and managers to build customized material for each client. 3. Outbound Marketers. The wheelhouse of copywriters is to create material that makes people want to connect with a company. They don’t typically push themselves or their content on other people. Instead, they work hard to create content that delights readers and makes them want to interact with a brand. The following graphic applies very much. 😉 What’s Under the Hood at a Copywriting Agency: What Express Writers Does Here at Express Writers, we know a thing or two about copywriters. Not only do we hire them – we are them! Before I founded my company, I worked as a copywriter on various freelancing platforms. I landed hundreds of gigs and dozens of clients, and within three months of self-teaching as an online copywriter, I went on to start my agency. (Check out my full story here.) Today, my agency has a full-service Content Shop with over 40 products: And our content agency staffs a team of more than 50 copywriters, strategists, and editors, handpicked by moi (more on our standards here), who specialize in writing, creating, and publishing the following types of content: Blogs and blogging packages Web pages, landing pages Product descriptions Infographics Meta copy Interviews (with our writers, strategists, project managers) Research In-line and developmental editing Keyword strategy Content planning/editorial calendars Expert copywriting in all areas, including Financial, Technical, Creative, Legal, Medical, & more Press Releases Ebooks Slides (PowerPoint or PDF) Ad Copy Slogans/Taglines Scripts Sales Pages Whitepapers Email content Social media posts and custom imagery Social media plans, profile creation Here’s an example of what we create in a year, per our year-end report for 2016: ALL this content is created by our handpicked copywriters, strategists, and editors, who specialize in different industries, content types, and services. This gives you a pretty good idea of exactly how diverse copy offerings can get! What Qualifications do Good Copywriters Have? The field of copywriters is a very diverse one. While some copywriters attended school for degrees in English or Journalism, others have spent their pre-copywriting lives working as attorneys, cooks, or dog mushers! Copywriters come in all shapes and sizes, and this unique assortment of backgrounds allows copywriters to bring their experiences into the field, creating more diverse and interesting copy. As it stands today, there is no one-size-fits-all educational program for copywriters. Instead, a copywriter that’s going to succeed in the industry just needs to possess a few key traits. These are as follows: 1. Creativity First off, copywriters need to be creative. While many people assume creativity is only necessary for people writing novels and short stories, and not people writing marketing copy, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Since copywriters write for such a diverse selection of clients, they need to be agile enough to think on their feet. Storytelling is central to great copywriting, and the best experts out there know how to access their creativity to weave compelling, unique copy that will engage an audience and help a brand meet its goals. 2. Strong Writing Skills While copywriters don’t need a college degree to excel in the field, they do need strong writing skills. While it’s true that copywriters write about everything from firearm … Read more

My Journey as a Creative Copywriter

December 31, 2020January 16, 2017 by Marcie M

The fall of 2014 seems like such a long time ago. It had only been a few months since we made the move to the Dallas area, and for the life of me I could not find my place in the land ‘o heat. Aside from my in-laws, I knew no one. I was looking for a job, something that would allow me to stay home and be available to our 3 boys, but finding something with that kind of flexibility was difficult. And then I ran across a blog titled “Stay-at-Home-Moms: Could Freelance Writing Be the Income You Need?” from Red and Honey. The blogger gave a short blurb about Express Writers, one of her recommendations that she described as “very active…with lots of work.” Take a writing test? I thought. Easy. They assign jobs to you? I can handle that. So I leapt. I filled out the application, took the writing assessment, and lo and behold—I was a writer! Well, kind of. Over the next 7 months or so, I spent my days churning out blog posts, web content, and trying to hone my skills as a creative copywriter. Let me tell you, it was a rough beginning—and I’m not talking about the workload. Thankfully, they have been patient with me. A Day in the Life of a Creative Copywriter I have always wanted to be a writer. From the days of third grade, when I won a Young Author’s award for my story about the fisherman who kept his catch as a friend rather than as food, all the way through my days of journal-keeping in college, something in me has always wanted to put pen to paper and create. After getting married and having 3 kids in 3½ years, not to mention a decade’s work with my husband as a non-profit administrator, writing took a backseat. I was faced with the task of a regular speaking schedule, which meant I put together manuscripts for delivery, but it was not the creative copywriting I knew could be developed in myself. And then our move to Texas changed everything. I went on to write for EW until the summer of 2015, when I began working for a local non-profit. While I loved serving the impoverished and homeless, a leadership change in the organization was my cue to exit that position. So there I was again, earlier this year, without a job and once again unable to find my place in the land ‘o heat (funny how things come back around). So I sent an email to Express Writers, asking if they had any open positions. What is a Creative Copywriter? After I meet someone new, the next question is usually, “And what do you do?”, and after I answer, they usually come back with, “So, you have a blog?”. Not exactly. Although a creative copywriter’s job may sound simple and mundane, every day does not look the same. Here are some highlights of my workload in the past few weeks: Social media management: One of my favorite tasks! Blog posts: A couple of 1,000 word posts with a keyword emphasis that required research and finding authoritative voices to back it up. Video transcription: I summarized the key points made in a media presentation. Encyclopedia-like content articles: Rather than present content in a blog format, I took a third-person approach and wrote more encyclopedic content. A creative copywriter takes on a variety of roles, depending on the needs of the client and their industry. The approach is always changing, and in order for the content to be effective, there must be thought and creativity behind the writing process during every step of the process. What is a Creative Copywriter Made Of? I have the advantage of working from home, which always includes a full pot of coffee and a variety of comfortable yoga pants (my husband is not convinced that these are considered a business expense). When I first started with EW, I was looking to earn a supplemental income for my family and be available when they needed me. This second time around has been much different, and I think it’s because I’ve realized that a creative content writer can’t be as impactful if he or she sees the process as “just a job”. While I do love the flexibility (and the work attire), I have also seen growth in myself as a writer. I have learned that to be effective in this industry, there a few characteristics that must be present: 1. Research No content creator comes up with authoritative content on a whim. Even the experts have sources on whom they rely for accurate information and statistics. Content without research holds little power for the audience. To the non-writer, coming up with 500 words may sound like an easy task. In reality, it depends on the topic at hand. If I am creating content for a long-term client for whom I have written in the past, it probably won’t take long to develop a post or article. However, if it’s a brand new client in an unfamiliar industry, the research will be more in-depth. 2. Creativity Every week, I sit down and picture myself as one of the followers of the social media pages I manage and think about what I would like to see in my newsfeed. I create images, find interesting articles and posts, and present them to specific audiences for their sharing and retweeting pleasure. Creativity means getting outside of yourself and into the mind of the reader. It’s always about taking a unique approach and drawing others into the story. 3. Focus Sometimes, the topics that our Content Manager sends me can feel drier than the Texas heat. I have to admit that there are times I have had to dig very deep in order to make an extraordinarily boring topic sound exciting. Focusing on the topic at hand might mean an extra cup of coffee or a walk around the … Read more

2016 Content Creation Report: A Retrospective Look at One of the Busiest Years for Express Writers

June 19, 2024December 22, 2016 by Adam Oakley

2011: the year I founded Express Writers (with $75, a bit of hope, and a lot of goal-setting: full story here.) The next five years: we grew, busted through seams, grew again, busted through seams again. We found and built our own systems to manage our growing company in 2015: a Content Shop, a writer teamroom. (We’re building even better systems today, set to relaunch in mid-2017.) 2016: we found our roots. Seriously. We’re ending the year with some deep, high caliber roots in place, and I’m glad about it. In the level of expertise our staff members have today, a perfect content fit in each of their roles: in the quality and dedication of the writers we have, and the standards we’ve been growing to perfection all year. So, it’s fitting that 2016 is the first year we took the time to create this end-of-year report, a showcase and look back at all the content we create. (Idea credit goes to Tara, our Content Development Specialist.) In 2016, we created the most content we ever have, not just for clients but for industry resource and learning materials. We worked hard all year: reinvented our editing standards in May, launched serious changes over November that improved our entire team, content quality, and clientele, and rounded up the year with some fabulous content. We launched our new #howtowrite learning category, launched an incredible Twitter Chat, #ContentWritingChat in January that made it to #4 on Twitter, and I was able to launch my book, self-published in April on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and our Write Podcast published in March. All in one year?! Time to delve in to our first ever full content creation report! Grab a coffee and join me. We’re detailing our total content output for our clients, and what we created to add insights and resources just for our audience and industry. (Keep scrolling past the infographic for the full lowdown, and a recap of our best posts of the year.) Download the Report (PDF version). From 171 Million Words Created to Launching a Twitter Chat, Book, Podcast, & Writer Mentoring No way all this happened in one year, standing here and looking back. Yet it did. And, it’s actually short of the goals we had for 2016. Crazy, right? Let’s start with what the brunt of our workload looked like for the year, as content writers. Client Work (a brief synopsis of the busy nature of our year): 3,451 orders placed (one order could range from 1-5 web pages to 400 articles at a time) 262,000,000+ words estimated written by our team in 2016! That’s roughly 524,000 500-word articles. Included in that word count besides articles and blogs: press releases, ebooks, ad copy, product descriptions, landing pages, web pages, slides, scripts, emails–to name a few. Our top content service sold for the year: blogs! Our top two expert writing categories in demand: legal and technical. Industry Resource Creation (what we launched in industry resources this year): Unprecedented grassroots success creating and running our Twitter Chat #ContentWritingChat, launched mid-January this year, managed by our fantastic Social Media Manager, Rachel. We see up to 1,000 tweets during the live hour now! Our Twitter chat was #42 trending on it’s first week back in January 19th, and by August, trending at #4. In November, we had our first sponsor! Launching the Write Podcast in April, making relationships with people like Sujan Patel, Steve Rayson, Mark Traphaghen, and many other fantastic content marketing influencers and leaders through it. Launching my book So You Think You Can Write? The Definitive Guide to Successful Writing (400+ copies sold, word-of-mouth only!), in April, and seeing it hold strong in #4 bestseller category in Amazon for months. Writing and creating internal training for our writers, with a custom 101 library of more than ten individual resources just for them, tailored to the weak points we saw that kept cropping up. Getting personal notes of thanks, and seeing tangible proof in their improved writing skills to show us the mentoring helps, is seriously rewarding. Launching the How to Write category with over 15 up-to-date guides published late 2016, teaching all things online content writing. Personally, my highlights running Express Writers in 2016 have been: Launching my book, podcast, and Twitter chat, and seeing amazing successes between them all, especially in our live hour with #ContentWritingChat. Getting our biggest client ever, and being able to write their orders with liberty (very few strict guidelines, a lot of creative freedom – dream client). Having the honor of hiring Tara Clapper, the former blog editor at SEMrush, an all-around content marketing guru that I’ve been talking to online for years. Training and guiding a successful editing team to work with our writers and help guide them to their best skills. Visiting the SEJ Summit in NYC with my team members Tara, Krystal, and Josh. Despite a lot of rough patches this year in the customer-facing support team with other representatives, this November I was able to reach out to and re-hire my sales manager Tamila McDonald, who worked with us in sales and content management all the way back in 2013 (and was fantastic at it). She’s been fantastic in the role already, helping our customers achieve success with content needs. And… Straight from the heart: thanks to all of you who have helped us grow this year! To our clients: We value each and every one of you. There were crazy things to deal with in the support staff this year, but they weren’t anything that a successful company hasn’t experienced at some point or other (non-loyal staff). We appreciate you so much, and will continue to work hard to earn your business and create the best content money can buy. To our amazing writers and staff: Working hard and tirelessly to deliver amazing content means the world to me and our clients. Remember that great things are coming for us all in 2017: stick with us, and you will, without a doubt, grow with us. (We have a huge relaunch of the Content Shop and our teamroom in development now, due out in the New Year!) A Look … Read more