Julia McCoy - Express Writers

The 7 Do Not’s of SEO in 2019 and Beyond (Search Engine Journal Webinar Recap)

June 19, 2024April 24, 2019 by Adam Oakley

SEO to content is like paleo chocolate frosting to a paleo chocolate cake. (Ever had one of those? They’re decadent, AND good for you. ) It seriously is that important–and impactful–in content marketing. SEO-focused content marketing has powered our own organic marketing at Express Writers for years. Without good SEO practices, your content will miss out on the possibilities of earning traffic and leads through organic user searches. The opposite, bad SEO, will make readers and Google look a little like Steve Carrell in this scene in the 2014 movie, Alexander and The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day: Not good. That’s why, this April, I presented a webinar for Search Engine Journal on the top seven bad SEO tactics to abandon forever – ones that are dragging down your search rankings, confusing users (see above photo), and leaving your content in the dust. We had an amazing turnout for this webinar. Over 300 people tuned in live! Here are the slides from my webinar, and here’s the YouTube replay. For those who missed it, or those who want the highlights, keep reading – I’m recapping the major points, here, too. ✔ Before we get into the bad SEO tactics and practices people are still using, we need to answer one question… [bctt tweet=”Get your own content marketing all geared up for the ROI you’ve been waiting for with the help of good SEO. Watch @JuliaEMcCoy’s @sejournal webinar about the 7 Do Not’s of #SEO in 2019″ username=”ExpWriters”] Why Does SEO and Google Matter? Two reasons: 1. Most Internet Users Rely on Google About half of the world’s population uses the internet. That’s no joke. Of those internet-users, about 60% begin their browsing with a Google search. Over 3.5 billion Google searches happen in a day. Plus, Google dominates the market. Almost 60% of all web traffic begins with a Google search, according to the data from SparkToro and Jumpshot. Image: Backlinko 2. Google is All About the User Most web traffic comes from Google, and Google is all about that end-user. From their Search Engine Evaluator Guidelines to their Webmaster Central Blog, the user experience takes center stage. When your SEO and website experience tick off human users, you tick off Google, simultaneously. Therefore, good SEO practices are all about keeping users and Google happy. The better you do, the more highly you will be ranked in search (and loved by users!). With that out of the way, let’s get into the bad SEO tactics that will make your two most important audience members (humans and Google) confused, annoyed, and fed-up. [bctt tweet=”SEO-focused content marketing has powered our own organic marketing at Express Writers for years. Know why SEO matters with @JuliaEMcCoy’s @sejournal webinar about the 7 Do Not’s of #SEO in 2019″ username=”ExpWriters”] 7 Just-Plain-BAD SEO Tactics You Shouldn’t Be Using Anymore 1. Using Your Target Keyword the Wrong Way An outdated SEO practice we need to do away with is targeting one keyword per page – especially similar or semantically related keywords. Instead, it’s better to target both focus keywords and secondary, related keywords in the same piece of content. This will align your SEO strategy with modern semantic search, which is what Google is focusing on moving into the future. Semantic search looks at a page’s overarching topic vs. individual keywords to determine whether it’s relevant to a user’s search query. On the right side of this diagram, each keyword is targeted individually. A better SEO practice is to target related terms like these within the same piece (left). Using a focus keyword + variations, related terms, and synonyms all within the same high-quality content piece signals to Google AND users that the page is topically relevant to the search query. 2. Developing Thin Content That Doesn’t Go the Distance Short, thin content pieces are not SEO-worthy. If you want a page to rank, you need longer, in-depth content. How do we know? Look at the data: From BuzzSumo’s analysis of over 100 million articles, long-form content (over 3,000 words) was most-shared. A Backlinko study came to the same conclusion – long-form content = higher search rankings. To write longer content, focus on answering the user’s question(s) thoroughly and deep-dive into your topic. 3. Posting Content Whenever You Feel Like It You can’t post content erratically if you want to rank higher in search. Many studies have shown that consistently publishing high-quality content leads to more ranking opportunities. For one example, a HubSpot benchmark study found that companies that posted over 16x/month earned the most traffic and leads. That doesn’t mean you need to start blogging like a madman (or madperson), though. If you push out tons of posts but your quality sucks, you still won’t get anywhere. That leads us to bad SEO tactic #4… 4. Focusing on Quantity Vs. Quality Pushing out blog posts just to get them on the web is never a good idea for SEO. Quality matters more than quantity for rankings and readership. If you can’t feasibly publish fantastic blog posts on a consistent basis (say, 2-3x/week), cut back. One amazing post per week or month is better than 3 mediocre or crappy ones. Tip: Check out the top 5 search results for your focus keyword in Google. Try to create a post that’s better than anything in that top 5. 5. Publishing Duplicate Content According to SEMrush, a study of over 100,000 articles showed the most common SEO error is something we can all easily avoid: duplicate content. Nearly 66% of the articles in the study suffered from this problem. It happens when multiple pages appear very similar or match 100%. Usually, this is unintentional, but some people do plagiarize content. Either way, you will be penalized. Luckily, this mistake is easy to avoid. Do it by running all of your content through Copyscape before publishing. Rewrite any pages that have a percentage match. 6. Using Shady Tactics like Link Buying If you really want to get on the wrong side of Google, link schemes and link … Read more

I Gave a 4-Hour Workshop on Content Writing to A Healthcare Firm. Here Are My 3 Takeaways

September 5, 2022April 2, 2019 by Adam Oakley

This March, I had the honor of teaching my first paid content writing workshop. (I’m stepping out of my comfort zone by taking my first in-person speaking engagements this year. Till now, I’ve done webinars, podcasts, and lots of video. This January, I gave my first 20-minute live talk to a mastermind here in Austin, and it went well!) The March workshop was in Irvine, California, for a healthcare company called NextGen Healthcare. Sarah, Manager of the Marketing Content Strategy, asked me to come and teach a full half-day class on one of my favorite topics — strategic content writing techniques for web, blog, email, social media and downloadables (whitepapers, content upgrades, etc.) for a B2B audience. The workshop was on March 26, and it went very well! For several reasons. First, the team of people that were there! (*cue Hallelujah chorus*) Teaching is easy when you have such a great crew as students. These people were simply amazing. Smarties, each and every one! Secondly, it was great to have a live audience while teaching content — tunnel vision, farewell! I was able to see, hear and discover what people that work in a leading industry firm actually find difficult in content marketing, what they struggle with, and on the flip side, what they actually enjoy doing and are good at. I think I walked out with as much new inspiration and knowledge as I (hopefully) left my attendees with. Here’s a recap of my workshop experience. First, what went into the workshop; and secondly, some key takeaways from the conversations I listened in to. [bctt tweet=”Content marketing expert @JuliaEMcCoy gave a live content writing workshop to a healthcare firm in California. Read her top takeaways from the experience #strategy” username=”ExpWriters”] What Went Into My 4-Hour Content Writing Workshop It was fantastic to work with Sarah Andrade, who is the Manager of Marketing Content Strategy (that’s a mouthful) at NextGen Healthcare. She found me through our site at Express Writers, and sent me a warm, friendly email requesting my presence teaching the workshop and offering full payment. Content creation is my jam, so when Sarah at NextGen Healthcare found me, despite a short timeline (in two weeks!), I said yes to taking on content creation for the half-day workshop. It was an amazing experience. I can’t say enough good things about the content team themselves. Brilliant people, all of them! Sarah (the marketing manager who found and recruited me), Allison, Carrie, Michael, Holly, Eleen, Jaime, Cathryn, Michelle…and everyone else whose names my post-speaking mushy brain sadly didn’t hit save on. Seriously, it was a rockstar team. They checked all the boxes: Engaged, interested, and passionate about their jobs (the whole room was engaged and came alive when we paused for Q&A) Already knowledgeable in a variety of areas (from SEO all the way to how to post content on Instagram with the paragraph breaks — Allison and Jaime had a finger on SEO, social and content trends) Great at content (Michael, Carrie – rockstar content writers, serious OGs, I’d hire them — and I hire 1-2% of the writers I meet!) Here’s what the final outline of my workshop looked like: NextGen® Healthcare Content Creation Workshop Sessions & Outline Sarah gave me full liberty to construct the whole half-day workshop. So, with Sarah’s help, I came up with 20-25 minute speaking sessions, broken up by Q&A content creation workshops. Here’s the final outline of workshop I constructed and gave. I was able to get through all the sessions between a time span of noon to 5 p.m. We ended up spending a great deal of time in Q&A, which I loved. Session 1: Introduction to Modern Content Writing & Content Types — Learn It! Q&A and Homework Share Session 2: How to Craft Engaging, Optimized Blogs — Learn It! Q&A and Blog Content Creation Workshop Session 3: How to Write Engaging Web Content — Learn It! Q&A and Web Content Creation Workshop Session 4: How to Write Emails — Learn It! Q&A and Email Writing Workshop I spent a few back-to-back 10-hour days working on the content to get it all done, right after Sarah found me. In less than 10 days, I’d created 200+ slides, four PowerPoint presentations, four cheat-sheet PDF takeaways for each attendee, and two recorded videos for the class demo-ing how to use BuzzSumo for content analysis, and SEMrush for keyword research. If I had more time, I would have made the content even more tailored to their audience and conducted more research on their high-level audience – but, I was able to customize it fairly well. My designer did an amazing job on the presentation design (psst… this is something we offer in the Content Shop!): Here are a few of my favorite slides from the session (and I think everyone’s favorite, from the joyful and positive feedback that erupted after I presented the ‘icky face’). I took an overly stuffy home page tagline from the website for NextGen Healthcare, and rewrote it for the class: The ‘homework’ everyone was asked to do prior was a suggestion of Sarah, and I thought it was a great idea. We came up with three items (1. Bring your questions, 2. Bring a piece of content from NextGen to reform, 3. Bring a piece of content that makes you feel something – curious, inspired, joyful, etc.), and everyone that attended the workshop was all about it! Pretty much all of them had done their homework prior (again, so impressed with this team). In the homework Q&A time, lead writer Michael shared how much he took inspiration from Andrew & Pete, two content marketers that recently made a Top 100 Marketer list. I love Andrew & Pete myself. They’re outside-the-box thinkers who boldly and creatively go where few marketers go. Overall, it was an amazing group, and the experience of teaching a workshop was wonderful. 3 Takeaways & Inspirations Gained from Teaching My Workshop I was inspired by the live conversations I listened to, … Read more

The 6 Steps You Need to Build a Rock-Solid, Lucrative Online Content Strategy Framework

June 19, 2024May 15, 2018 by Adam Oakley

Want to know the #1 way I grew Express Writers? Two words, five syllables: Content marketing. Or, more specifically, consistent, strategic content marketing. Online content strategy, a real, firm strategy, became my best friend to get to the “serious growth” phase. The thing is, it took YEARS to figure out and perfect. All the pieces had to come together, and I had to test, re-test, and test again to find out what worked (and, what didn’t). When I figured it out, things snowballed. Our income from Express Writers boomed to six-figures, and then to seven-figures ARR, inside just two years. Here’s the story, and how I used my experience to get clear on EXACTLY what I needed to reach bigger, better, bolder success. After that, I’m going to share the 6 steps I used to hone my online content strategy to a razor-sharp edge: the exact same system you can use to get crystal-clear on your own content and start seeing real results. (What you’re about to read is a sneak peek into the six pillars of content success that I discuss and teach at length in my intensive content strategy & marketing book and course.) Online Content Strategy Clarity Equals Success: From Near-Failure to Six-Figures after Getting Strategic I started my business, Express Writers, from basically nothing – I was a college dropout with a dream and a mere $75 of pocket cash. The beginning was hard. Here’s what that looked like, 2 years into the game: By that time I had published 215 blogs, had 141 keywords ranking on Google, about 500 visitors/day to my site from organic traffic, and was earning around $29K/month. I was creating content, but the results were lackluster. I was doing a few things wrong: My content quality wasn’t consistently high I often published content just to “get it out there” I was trying to push out TOO MUCH content (at least one blog post a day) I was doing cold outreach to get more clients – and not earning any ROI for my time spent (read: the cold emails I sent out turned up nothing but crickets chirping) I was trying to boost growth on every channel possible In short, growth from content marketing was slow. I was hustling every day, snatching at leads wherever I could. And, the leads I did get from my content weren’t that good. And, all of this was happening while I was a wife, a mom of a two-year-old, and had an understandably busy family life. Bottom line: I was overworked and not seeing the results I dreamed of from my content. The Turning Point: Enter Content Strategy The turning point came in 2016. Our low-profit, high-expense months were not sustainable. We were making an average of $65K/month, but were lucky to take home 35% of that total. Then, in May 2016, I discovered my two managers had been embezzling from the company for months. I fired them. After that, some reassessing happened. I had to rebuild my business and my team. It wasn’t until a few months later, while we were still slowly recovering, that I finally started implementing a content strategy. With the combination of that strategy and better members on the EW team, we started seeing returns, slowly but surely. We even started setting records for our monthly gross income. Before using content strategy, I was publishing an average of 4 blogs/week. We had about 3,900 keywords indexed on Google, and we were making $65K/month, with some lower months after the embezzling fiasco. One year later, and only a few months after implementing a content strategy, we hit our first $71K month in income. We also reached 6,000 keywords indexed on Google, which was nearly double the amount from the previous year. And that momentum kept building as I refined my content strategy. We continued having record months. Our Google presence kept building, and our online visibility skyrocketed. We started ranking #1 for hot keywords, and our traffic jumped to thousands of visitors per day. Today, our content marketing continues to work and build on itself. Without the strategy, though, none of it would be possible. By now, you’re probably dying to know what that strategy looks like. Listen up, because I’m sharing the 6 steps to my content strategy framework next. These steps build out the foundation of a rock-solid strategy. 6 Steps to Build an Unstoppable Content Strategy Framework This is how you do content marketing that wins. 1. Understand the Basic Fundamentals of a Content Strategy Content strategy defines as: If you don’t understand what a content strategy is, go back and get clear on this. It’s the only way you’ll also understand how content strategy fits into content marketing, and why the two cannot exist without each other. Think of it this way: It’s impossible to succeed at any activity without a thorough base knowledge to guide you. Content strategy is no different. You should also know what you’re talking about, and how to branch out into topics your audience wants to hear about. Finding your topic area is a fundamental first step in a content strategy. Along with that, know your CDF – your Content Differentiation Factor. What makes you different than all the other content voices out there? 2. Know Your Audience and How to Lead Them to a Sale (Bridge the Gap) Knowing your audience is one thing, but knowing how to turn your audience into customers is another. If you don’t understand how to bridge that gap, you’re missing out on one of the biggest first steps involved in putting your content strategy in place. Of course, before you can connect the dots, you must know who your REAL audience is – not your imagined audience (only research and having actual conversations can tell you this!). Once you know your persona, you can create content that matches the lifecycle stages of awareness, in the sales cycle. Example: 3. Use SEO (and Understand Its Importance) Want to … Read more

The Content Marketer’s Café with Julia McCoy, Episode 3: How to Use Long-Tail Keywords Naturally In Your Content for SEO Success

April 19, 2021October 7, 2017 by Adam Oakley

Keywords = key phrases, focus keywords and secondary keywords, broad keywords, long-tail keywords… These can often pose quite a challenge to writers. It’s not the keywords themselves. Those tend to be pretty straightforward. It’s the often odd combinations of words in ways that are anything but grammatically correct. Add to that a general lack of punctuation, throw in the name of a city and state, and you have what seems like a recipe for the most awkward sentences ever written! So, how do we creatively insert a keyword in our content for best results? Let’s explore. The Content Marketer’s Café with Julia McCoy, Episode 3: How to Use Long-Tail Keywords Naturally In Your Content for SEO Success Competition Comparison: Long-Tail Keywords vs. Broad Keywords I’ve been able to rank content just on my site, expresswriters.com, for over 11,000 phrases. Do you know what the majority of those keyword phrases are? Long-tail phrases. So when you’re looking for keywords to optimize your content with, you can either look up broad or long tail keywords. Broad Keywords 1-2 words long Also known as: “short tail”, “head terms” Long Tail Keywords 3-5 words Long tail keywords are primarily better because of two factors: Lower competition: Easier to rank for. Great opportunities for new, emerging or growing sites. Higher buying intent (ROI): Searchers are usually looking a specific answer to their question and are much more likely to be in the buying stage. Example: “where to buy basketball shoes online” vs. “shoes” – the searcher knows exactly what he wants by searching the long tail keyword, and he/she is much more ready to buy! Broad keywords are tempting because of the amount of traffic searching for them. But remember, you need the right traffic, not a ton of traffic, when it comes to looking at the value of keywords that will bring in real results. Which type of customer would sell today if they walked in your dress shop? Someone who wants a “dress” Someone who wants a black dress, size M, for an evening party next week One of my favorite tools to research keywords with is SEMrush and Mangools KWFinder. In KWfinder, here’s what it looks like to find a low competition long-tail keyword. For example, we looked up a keyword, blogging statistics. We wrote a blog around this as a keyword since it had a “possible rating at 50/100” – that’s since gone up to 52 – and we were able to get our blog in the top 4 results for that keyword. The left side of KWFinder is where you’ll find your gold mines – long tail keyword opportunities that you can write content pieces around. I recommend going long-form and writing one piece of content around one keyword for best results. Don’t dilute and cram too many keywords in one piece. Natural Language in SEO The days of keyword-stuffing your way to the first page of Google are looooong gone, but today with how smart Google is, there’s no reason you can’t do this: [bctt tweet=”Write for search engines without sounding like you’re writing for search engines, says @JuliaEMcCoy. ?” username=”ExpWriters”] When it comes to writing with SEO in mind, this means using natural language – and natural variations of the words that appear in the focus and secondary keywords – instead of inserting the same exact keywords and key phrases into your text over and over again. Let’s Talk About… Focus Keywords + Natural Usage We always ask our clients for one focus keyword per piece. But when it comes to penning the actual copy, if the exact keyword phrase doesn’t flow well, we fall back on just writing naturally. Here’s an example. For instance, this client-supplied keyword phrase: “best ux designer Austin” Clearly won’t work in either the title tag, meta description, or in the content (page, article, blog post, etc.). It may be an important, valuable keyword phrase for the client, but it’s a bit too clunky to use as is. Even if you think you can squeeze that kind of phrase into a sentence – such as “When it comes to finding the best UX designer, Austin has a lot of choices to offer.” Sure, once in a while you’ll be able to get away with that. But far too often, the inclination seems to be to get hung up on that exact keyword phrase. In a title tag or headline, the best approach would be to use the keyword naturally, like so: “How to Find the Best Web and UX Designer in Austin” You would then use variations on this keyword phrase throughout your content. Bottom line: Don’t try to force the keyword into the copy, and don’t then use the exact same keyword or key phrase over and over. Use synonymous keywords. Location-Based Keywords Let’s talk briefly about location-based keywords. Just when you think you’ve got a handle on things, along comes a location-based keyword: “eyedoctor in Burlington Vermont” Remember: To Google, there is absolutely no difference between: “eyedoctor in Burlington VT” and “eye doctor in Burlington, VT” Since we’re humans writing for humans – we should always defer to using proper punctuation, grammar, and style, even in SEO writing. So, use the space between eye and doctor. When you take into account that these keyword lists being supplied to (or, in some cases, created by) us are almost always generated by such tools as Google’s keyword tool and other tools – not actual humans – it’s not surprising the keywords provided to us don’t include punctuation, proper grammar, etc.: because they were generated by algorithms/tools. It’s absolutely essential for websites to use location keywords in the page titles and Meta description tags of their pages. When it comes to using those same location keywords in the content itself – in the copy, in headings, and in image Alt tags – remember to avoid overuse. Ways to Get Creative with Location-Based Keywords Let’s say your keyword is “gluten free pasta Phoenix.” You … Read more

The Story Behind Express Writers: Julia McCoy, Founder Shares "From College Dropout to $4 Million"

June 19, 2024September 20, 2017 by Adam Oakley

99% of our sales here at Express Writers come through the content marketing we do. I believe it’s possible, because I’ve done it. Revenue-generating content marketing is not a myth, or some secret recipe that you have to be born into. It’s what we do everyday, and I believe you can, too. I’m Julia McCoy, and I’m a college dropout. I’ve sold over $4 million dollars worth of content creation services to thousands of clients across the globe through the company I founded, Express Writers. Today I lead a team of 40 hand-picked writers, creators, and project managers. More importantly, we have the best client satisfaction rates that we’ve ever had, and we just had our biggest month in sales. Just 6 years ago I started with nothing but $75, a hope, and a dream. Here’s how I did it… Because I’m on a mission to inspire you to achieve your dream even faster than I did. The Story Behind Express Writers: Julia McCoy, Founder Shares “From College Dropout to $4 Million” I was 19 years old and failing out of nursing school. I didn’t have a safety net and nursing school was not going to work, so I asked myself: what do I love to do, and how can I make money doing it? I love to write. By age 12, I’d written a 200-page medieval fiction novella. And at 13, I was teaching myself internet marketing, doing surveys for cash, learning basic computer skills. I walked around the neighborhood offering my services to the public. It worked out well, and I was earning $400 in a given month before I turned 16. I jumped in. In the next 3 months, I taught myself how to write, and I wrote over 250 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. More Work Than I Could Handle as a Freelancer Two things happened: I discovered an untapped need in the marketplace when I combined content marketing with search engine optimization (SEO). Most of my competitors were frustrating clients by being one or the other. I blended the two disciplines to write content that positioned my clients as an authority AND turned into real sales, which led to… More work than I could handle. And that’s when I started blogging regularly on my own site, expresswriters.com and found businesses willing to pay top dollar for lead generating content, and we grew. 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 together, as a whole. Getting Disowned by My Parents Led to a Better Future You might say “oh sure, this was easy for you with your family’s support.” The truth is, it wasn’t. I didn’t have a safety net. I grew up in a religiously suppressed home. My dad was the pastor of a church, and on my 21st birthday , my parents locked me in my bedroom with a letter telling me my life was worth nothing. I shouldn’t have been born. I was not allowed to lead a normal life, was told everything I did was wrong, and my business skills were looked down on. Even though that was the only home I’d known, when I got that letter I knew that it wasn’t normal and I had to get out. Six months later, my sister and I made the difficult decision to escape in the middle of the night. It was very heartbreaking, but it was the only shot I had to follow my dreams and chase my passions. 200% Growth for Express Writers in the Early Years Completely bootstrapped, no outside funding, no family support, no safety net.. my content agency, Express Writers, 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. Taught Through Failure = My Greatest Lessons for Success As an entrepreneur, you often hear that failure precedes success. Early in 2016, I discovered two trusted managers in my staff were embezzling. I fired them, rebuilt the team, over the next five months. I learned that with a supportive environment, ongoing accountability for your staff, and most importantly, the right people, there is no limit to what you can do as a business. That experience taught me what it means to create a great company culture, and serve our clients with the best customer service. The CEO of Salesforce, Marc Benioff, said “the secret to successful hiring is this: find the people that want to change the world.” For me, that was finding people that shared my goal, a gigantic goal, of creating the best copywriting agency on the planet, and giving our clients the best content that they’ve ever gotten. One of my biggest lessons was that it’s not about the job descriptions in your company, it’s about the environment and how your staff support each other. The next big lesson is to constantly evolve. What helped grow our company in the beginning might not work today. For example, we had a terrific commissioned sales rep but I wanted a culture of cultivating great client relationships rather than a culture chasing end of quarter sales quotas. I replaced our commissioned sales rep with a real content marketing expert, to do consulting and selling at Express Writers. After she was working here for a week, I checked in with one of our clients, and asked: Could you rate the difference in experience between the commissioned sales rep and our content expert? And he said that the difference was 100x better. I knew we were on the right track. I couldn’t be more proud of the team we have in place today. We … 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

#ContentWritingChat Recap: Blogging for ROI in 2017: Where to Blog, SEO, and Writing Strategies with Julia McCoy

June 19, 2024February 17, 2017 by Rachel Moffett

Are you curious about blogging for ROI in 2017? That’s what we covered in our latest round of #ContentWritingChat! And if you missed out, you’re in luck because we’ve created a recap for you and it’s filled with awesome tips. Keep reading to check it out! Blogging for ROI in 2017: Where to Blog, SEO, and Writing Strategies with Julia McCoy Join us for #ContentWritingChat TOMORROW at 10 AM CST! Our CEO, @JuliaEMcCoy, will be guest hosting! pic.twitter.com/h8rYfvYvX8 — Express Writers (@ExpWriters) February 14, 2017 For this week’s chat, our very own CEO stepped in to guest host. Julia McCoy shared her expertise on blogging for ROI in 2017 and offered some amazing tips for writing, SEO, and where you should be blogging this year. We covered some of the key topics to help you succeed as a blogger this year, so make sure you read through them and start implementing this advice for yourself! Q1: For those that aren’t convinced, why is blogging still so important for brands? The reality is, many brands still aren’t convinced that blogging is worth their time. They don’t realize the value that it can provide to their audience and their brand overall. So, let’s convince them why they should be blogging! Here are just some reasons blogging is important for brands: A1 Consistent blogging is a WINNER. This graph shows us outranking million $+ funded competitors, solely from blogging. #ContentWritingChat pic.twitter.com/saEk6raPvF — Julia McCoy ? (@JuliaEMcCoy) February 14, 2017 A1 Just a few awesome stats on why every brand should blog. (from https://t.co/l6E0VrwJlI) #ContentWritingChat pic.twitter.com/3Bey4oIe5z — Julia McCoy ? (@JuliaEMcCoy) February 14, 2017 Julia knows that blogging is a must for brands! She even shared some pretty impressive data that backs it up. The graph above shows Express Writers outranking major competitors solely from blogging. She also shared some stats that are sure to convince you of the importance of starting your own blog this year. A1: Blogging is a lead generation opportunity. It’s how you can build influence, which draws in an interested audience. #contentwritingchat — Annaliese Henwood (@MktgInnovator) February 14, 2017 As Annaliese said, blogging is a lead generation opportunity. So many people will stumble upon your blog and want to do business with you because of the content you share. She also said blogging helps you build influence, which is key to drawing in your audience. A1) It’s a way to establish an authentic, authoritative voice that YOU control. Your thoughts, your words…it’s genuine #ContentWritingChat pic.twitter.com/CsGRfImgTN — Jason Schemmel (@JasonSchemmel) February 14, 2017 Jason knows that blogging is a powerful way to establish an authentic, authoritative voice. Your blog is your place to share your thoughts with your audience. A1: Blogging is a great way to show your expertise to the industry. It also helps you connect with your audience. #contentwritingchat — Netvantage Marketing (@netvantage) February 14, 2017 Blogging is an opportunity to show off your expertise to your industry, but also to your audience. It’s a great way to connect with your audience and to start building a relationship with them. A1: Blogging is important because it allows brands to expand their audience, share more information, and establish voice #ContentWritingChat — Josh Lawson (@JoshKLawson) February 14, 2017 To put it simply, blogging is an opportunity to expand your audience, share quality information with readers, and can help you establish your voice as a brand. A1. Social media is just rented properties while your blog is your real estate #contentwritingchat — Cheval John (@chevd80) February 14, 2017 Cheval’s advice is important to keep in mind. Social media is like rented property when you think about it. You don’t own the platform, nor can you count on it to always be around. If a social media platform shuts down, you’re going to lose your followers and everything you’ve worked so hard to build (unless you’ve successfully converted them to readers, subscribers, and customers). Your blog, however, is one place that you truly own and are in control of. Q2: Where should you blog this year besides your own website? Discuss how to find the right platforms. While blogging on your own website is great, blogging on other sites can provide major results. There are a lot of benefits to guest blogging, but it’s all about choosing the right places to post if you want to make it work for your brand. Keep these tips in mind: A2 Create a target persona then study the publications they share. THAT’S where you want to blog https://t.co/FBSVmRvRxb #ContentWritingChat pic.twitter.com/cRvVTrCOk0 — Julia McCoy ? (@JuliaEMcCoy) February 14, 2017 Julia recommends creating a target persona for your audience so you know what they’re like. You can figure out their demographics and also what sites they’re reading on the web. That’s where you should be sharing your content! Check out the blog post she linked for more information on creating your own target persona. A2: Guest blog on the websites YOUR audience is reading. Find out where they spend their time online and BE THERE. #ContentWritingChat — Rachel (@redheadrachel) February 14, 2017 The key to choosing the sites to guest blog on is figuring out where your audience spends their time online. You want to post on the sites that your target audiences reads so they’ll discover you and head over to your website. A2) Find popular blogs within your wheelhouse & be a guest blogger. That exposes your content to a broader audience #ContentWritingChat pic.twitter.com/5vB7ffeUe4 — Jason Schemmel (@JasonSchemmel) February 14, 2017 Jason also knows the importance of finding the popular blogs in your wheelhouse and guest posting there. It’s the best way for you to reach your target audience and hopefully make them a fan of your brand. A2 Industry specific forums, Guest blog on Authority sites, Quora, Reddit, #LinkedIn are few great places #ContentWritingChat https://t.co/8bhBiI9RFQ — Varun Kumar ? (@DigitalVK) February 14, 2017 Varun recommends posting on forums that are specific to your industry, guest blogging on authority websites, and also using platforms … Read more

#ContentWritingChat First Episode: What is a Copywriter? With Julia McCoy Recap

August 4, 2022January 22, 2016 by Adam Oakley

We launched our very first #contentwritingchat this week, Tuesday the 19th at 10 AM, and it was a raging success! Over 300 tweets were sent back and forth in the short hour. I was the host, and the topic was all about my favorite subject, What is a Copywriter? As the host, I answered the key questions put together by my social media team on this topic. We had some great participants join in and add superb thoughts to the conversation! Our Very First #ContentWritingChat Makes it To #42 Hottest Talked About on Twitter The most exciting part was when we were told by TMobile that we ranked #42 in the USA on Twitter. We had to take a screenshot of that one: Our 1st #ContentWritingChat was a success, trending @ #42 in USA on Twitter! TY, attendees! Special guest next week! pic.twitter.com/AxCgGIIlQe — Express Writers (@ExpWriters) January 19, 2016 Our chat featured writers, content creators and some of the experts who make up a large part of the content writing world. Let’s dive right in on the recap! A copywriter works to build up a business. They work to make a business better from the ground up. Q2: What are the top skills of a good copywriter? #ContentWritingChat pic.twitter.com/OYJmSwAbZf — ContentWritingChat (@writingchat) January 19, 2016 A2: They’re original, have technical skills such as SEO, HTML, CSS, WordPress & know how to be social media savvy. #ContentWritingChat — Anneliese Sparks (@iamanneliese) January 19, 2016 According to Anneliese Sparks, a good copywriter must have tech skills, be savvy and original. We agree. Q3: What are the top factors of “good copy”? #ContentWritingChat pic.twitter.com/jsYxEnfTT4 — ContentWritingChat (@writingchat) January 19, 2016 A3 It’s well written, engaging, and targeted to the right audience/niche. Incorporates SEO (natural, relevant keywords). #ContentWritingChat — Julia McCoy (@JuliaEMcCoy) January 19, 2016 Content that is engaging and targets an audience will pull the people in. Content that is well written will keep them in. Q4: How does online marketing influence copywriting? #ContentWritingChat pic.twitter.com/NrOqEiotSJ — ContentWritingChat (@writingchat) January 19, 2016 Q4. Online marketing + Copywriting = Content Marketing #contentwritingchat — Olivia Dello Buono (@oliviadello) January 19, 2016 Content marketing is the best of both worlds for Olivia. She knows what it is all about and we know that the two often go hand in hand to get to content marketing. Q5 never come out as planed, but here it is now! pic.twitter.com/HaGrkbluh5 — Express Writers (@ExpWriters) January 19, 2016 A5: Social media posts, unique & quality content for websites, optimised content for good SEO @ExpWriters #ContentWritingChat — GML Team (@GMLConsulting) January 19, 2016 Nearly everyone uses it, so it is important that social media content is unique. SEO is equally important because, let’s face it, who doesn’t use Google on a daily basis? Q6: What SEO skills should today’s copywriter have? #ContentWritingChat pic.twitter.com/8TCkgKFNxf — Express Writers (@ExpWriters) January 19, 2016 A6: Ecommerce writers capture long-tail phrases used by audience, then reply to expressed intent #ContentWritingChat https://t.co/7i4HGOnrYf — Michael Stricker (@RadioMS) January 19, 2016 While we know there’s much more to SEO, long tail phrases are the newest way to get the content marketing results that you need for your business. They’re a great place to start. Q8: In which scenario is a professional copywriter is needed? #ContentWritingChat pic.twitter.com/MMwQyEEUte — ContentWritingChat (@writingchat) January 19, 2016 A8: When you want to optimize your content for search and expect the results to grow your business and brand awareness. #ContentWritingChat — Ryan Clutter (@Ryan1SEO) January 19, 2016 Businesses need copywriters because most of them don’t have the skills for online writing. Copywriters provide professional service and great information that a business may not have been able to put out otherwise. You should also consider using a copywriter … A8 When yo’ grammar ain’t perfect. #ContentWritingChat #IHadTo https://t.co/WKO7QrHMH0 — Julia McCoy (@JuliaEMcCoy) January 19, 2016 We are looking forward to seeing all of you next Tuesday at 10AM (Central) on the #ContentWritingChat! Our guest host will be none other than Elena from SEMrush, discussing content strategy tips for the online SEO writer. Join us on Twitter @ExpWriters!

Why We Didn’t Have a Black Friday Sale

December 31, 2020November 27, 2015 by Adam Oakley

This is an original short by Julia McCoy, CEO of Express Writers. Everyone around me, everywhere I look, is having some sort of “Blowout Black Friday Clearance Deal NOW!” I flipped through (and instantly deleted) maybe 50 emails with some version of this title just today. Now I’m not one to stop anyone from going to sales or having them. If that’s in your best interests, by all means—enjoy Black Friday. Why We Didn’t Have A Blowout Black Friday Sale How come we were one of the very few businesses who didn’t send out one of these emails or put out a quick promo code on social media? For the new people perusing this. Express Writers is a copywriting agency. Our job is to write and create high quality content, web pages, ongoing blogs, sales pages, resumes, you-name-it—for businesses of all sizes and types. My point is we don’t sell a product. We sell services. Human services. And creative services, at that. No machine can replace a pen wielded by a real human with an active brain that has been endowed with the extra cells of writing creativity. We don’t sell a product we can mass-produce at once, sit in the closet, and ship out at a moment’s notice. Or what can be discounted for a quick sale at the end of the year. Human services shouldn’t be discounted just because the commercial, product-oriented world has declared the Friday after Thanksgiving THE day for “blowout sales”. 4 Reasons Writing Doesn’t Ever Deserve a Coupon Code 1. It’s humanly created. Did I say yet that writing is a service written specifically to order, EVERY time it’s ordered? That is, if you want high quality. There’s services like Constant Content where writers bucket articles with random keywords, and you can come and buy those. I don’t recommend this, because in 2015/2016, to stand out in a huge sea of content marketing, you need to be unique; have your own voice; research and put a lot of work in; and have your own expertise angle to become a thought leader (a factor of winning content online). 2. It always takes time. Writers are working on the clock. If they give you a discount, chances are they have to rush through that piece and not spend as much time so they can make a decent hourly rate. And that’s why we don’t ever allow bartering. We know how much time is required by not just the writer, but our management; content specialists; and editorial staff on every single content piece (we never skip the quality process on anything). So, we charge to make the process worth our time, each time. 3. It’s too valuable. Would you ask your heart surgeon for a discount? Would you ask your chiropractor? Replace that with any service you value. Writing isn’t necessarily heart surgery, but it’s a talent to be valued. This ties into our human creation process mentioned. It also has huge ROI if you pick the right creative writer. Just don’t think of asking a good copywriter for a discount on their talents. The value is too high. 4. Writing is an art. A fading art, a God-given talent that not everyone can boast of. I meet a lot of people who say they can write or edit, but once they’re given our SEO and content tests, cannot. To truly create high quality content for the web is actually getting harder to do, because it’s hard to find a good copywriter who is dedicated and given to their trade. So, don’t do a quick sale if you’re among those offering a human deliverable. Something that requires brain cells to come up with and deliver to specific order details, not in mass amounts that will sit on shelves for unlimited dates. Here’s to the rebels of Black Friday. Those who don’t conform and discount themselves to match the commercialization of America. If you’re humanly creating what you’re selling for a living, don’t cheapen yourself for 24 hours just to match a short-lived fad. I leave you with this quote by Eric Thomas: To get high quality, non-cheap quality writing services 365 days of the year, visit our Content Shop.

What’s New at Express Writers: Our Paper Plane Logo Rebrand, Upcoming Books & More

June 19, 2024November 11, 2015 by Adam Oakley

At Express Writers, we absolutely love adapting and growing. What we don’t like to do is stay still. So, for the past few months, we’ve been working on a lot of things behind the scenes. Here’s a recap for you on just what we’ve been up to! I Fly Like Paper, Get High Like Planes Our calligraphy pen point has been our foundational visual logo for years now, and we were brainstorming together on how to take it to the next level, staring at different pen points and unique illustrative representations. I looked at my team member, COO Josh, and instantly had a thought: a paper plane shape. Then, we decided to take things up a notch and put the paper plane in motion – pointing directly to our name, flying, and “aloft.” We knew we loved it as soon as the idea came to mind. The final designed product was done by our own COO Josh McCoy. Our paper plane represents the modern standards we’re continually adapting to, and a standard of onwards/upwards that we have been upholding for four years now. Just to put into reality how and why we work hard to symbolize the onward and upward standard in the industry of content writing. We are continually honing our services, and working towards the best content agency on the planet. The paper plane fits our mission statement in a big way. Express Writers Announcement From Julia McCoy, CEO Posted to our @ExpWriters Instagram account, here’s an announcement about all these changes at Express Writers from Julia: What’s in the works at Express Writers! A personal message from our founder, Julia McCoy (@ceomommy1) #podcast #bookstagram #published #author #ceo #announcement #marketing #googlesearch #webtraffic #optimization #content #seo #seoproblems #success #entreprenuer #sales #copywriting #writing #contentmarketing #blogging #inboundmarketing #growthhacking #googlesearch #webtraffic #optimization #copywriting #writing #instalike #instagood #instavid A video posted by Express Writers (@expwriters) on Nov 9, 2015 at 6:09pm PST I’m working on: Books Besides our logo rebrand, which has officially launched as of today, I’ve been working on two books: a complete guide on how to be an online content writer & a beginner’s guide to blogging. Both will be out before Christmas, so stay tuned – look for an announcement from us with published Kindle book links. Podcast & Twitter Chat We’re launching: The Write Podcast #ContentWritingChat I’ve already created our first episodes and scheduled in some super cool guests. I can’t wait to share all my content marketing knowledge and that of my guests’ with you. Here’s to growing together in content marketing!