March 21st, 2013
How to Make Your Website Copy Memorable
The hardest part of writing website copy is figuring out how to make it memorable and stand out from the competition. Sure, each business has their own flavor of who they work with and how they do what they do but let’s face it, most of us are in industries with fairly standard problems and solutions. As a result, it’s easy to fall into using the same language and making the same points as your competition.
When you don’t take the time to dig deep and write copy that really connects with your reader, your website winds up bland. It doesn’t make a lasting impression and you waste all that work you did to get visitors to your website. So, how do you cover the same ground as your competition and make it unique?
Understand the Heart and Soul of Your Audience
There are no easy rules to writing fresh copy. One thing I can say definitely is that if you’re going to have a chance of writing fresh copy, you have to REALLY get into the heart and soul of your target markets and understand the problem from their perspective.
You can go a long way to getting inside your target market’s head by understanding three things about them:
Who…
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August 21st, 2012
How to Set Up Google Alerts and Use Them for Internet Research
Typically, when we want to use the internet for research, we go to Google, type in a search term, and browse through the results. But what if you want to see the latest developments about a topic on a regular basis? You would have to remember to do the search every day, or every week, then sift through pages of results to find the new stuff. This could take hours!
That’s where Google Alerts comes in. Google Alerts enable you to put the internet research process on autopilot and have the latest search results show up in your email inbox or in your Google Reader feed. With Google Alerts you can do things like:
- Stay on top of trends in your industry
- See who’s talking/writing about a particular topic
- Monitor what people are saying about your company online
- Keep track of what your competition is doing online
Although you aren’t required to have an account with Google to set up an Alert, setting up Alerts through your Google account makes them easier to manage. If you use Gmail, Google Reader, Google Plus, or any of the other dozens of Google services, you already have a Google…
Read more »Tags: alerts, google
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November 8th, 2011
What Is RSS and How Does It Get Readers to My Blog?
The firs and possibly most important step in promoting your blog is having an RSS feed. RSS, which stands for “really simple syndication,” enables people who want to read your blog in the future to be notified when your blog has a new blog post.
When new blog owners find out that RSS is a tool for broadcasting their blog posts across the internet, they get excited. They think it’s the equivalent of standing on the roof of the tallest building and yelling through a bull horn. They think everybody in hearing distance is getting their message. When it comes to RSS, just because you’re broadcasting doesn’t mean people are receiving your blog posts.
Your Blog “Radio Station”
Think of your blog like a radio station. Radio stations send out content via the airwaves . Your blog works the same way. Each time you publish a new blog post it’s like another radio wave going out into the world. But just because radio waves are out there, doesn’t mean people can hear them. Fortunately, radio waves roll right past us if we’re not tuned into them. Imagine how crazy making that would be if you heard every radio…
Read more »Tags: blog reader, RSS
Posted in Social Media, What Is... | No Comments »
October 30th, 2011
How to Write Meta Tags
If you asked me “What is the #1 thing I can do to improve my website’s rankings?” I’d tell you to make sure it has meta tags that use the key phrases you want to rank for AND are compelling to potential customers. In my last post I explained what meta tags are and how they work. In this post, I’m going to show you how to write them so they help your rankings and get visitors to your website.
Some Things You Need to Know Before You Start Writing
First things first. You’ve done your research, right?
Just because you think you know what key phrases your customers use to find you doesn’t mean you do. Time and again I’ve seen clients who think they know what they want to rank for realize they had missed a whole segment of key phrases or realize people search on one variation much more often than another. Unfortunately, it takes several months to realize the problem is poorly targeted key phrases. Don’t guess. KNOW.
Serving 2 Masters
Ranking well in search engines gets you website visitors. Humans pay your bills. That’s why you have 2 masters: search engines and real live…
Tags: description tag, key phrase research, meta tags, title tag
Posted in Cautionary Tales, Search Engine Optimization | No Comments »
September 26th, 2011
What Are Meta Tags and How Do They Work?
Search engines are in the business of giving searchers what they are looking for, so they are always looking for information that describes what every page on your website is about. You can help the search engines by using meta tags.
Meta tags are snippets of code in the source code of a web page that give the search engines information about that web page. While a person viewing the web page doesn’t see them, the search engines do. There are about a dozen different meta tags but two are most important for our purposes: the Title tag and the Description tag. Their names pretty much tell you what they do. The Title tag is the title of the page and the Description tag is a brief description of what that page is about.
How Meta Tags Help
The search engines will rank your web pages for the words in your Title tag. How high the search engines place your web pages in the search results depends on whether you’re doing other things right and how many other sites are competing for those same key phrases. While the search engines don’t use the Description tag as a factor in…
Read more »Tags: description tag, meta tags, seo, title tag
Posted in Search Engine Optimization, What Is... | No Comments »
September 7th, 2011
Facebook Strategy: Friend or Fan?
When you “are the business” (i.e. artist, author or consultant), it’s challenging to figure out where you end as a person and where you begin as a “brand.” It’s crucial that you think though this boundary and are aware of it when using Facebook. Far too often individuals who are the business simply set up a Facebook profile and start Friending anybody and everybody.
I have worked with many business owners who have come to regret not thinking through their Facebook strategy before jumping in. This blog post is the result of hard lessons learned.
Facebook Profile vs. Facebook Fan Page
Before I explain the different between a Friend and a Fan, you need to understand the difference between a personal profile and a Fan page. Facebook’s primary purpose is as a personal networking site. They want real people to connect and share information with other real people. That is why you start by setting up a personal profile.
The Facebook terms of service clearly states in several places that you cannot have more than one account. For example, I cannot set up an account as myself, Elgé Premeau, and then set up another account as my business, eMarketing Strategist.…
Read more »Tags: Facebook, Fan, Friend, strategy
Posted in Social Media | No Comments »
May 2nd, 2011
Telling Stories on Myself: Time Management (Part I)
I’m a pretty organized person. There are no papers on my desk because every paper goes into a file. While my house is hardly spotless, each object has a home and it gets there at least once a week. The only time I am late is when I get lost which I rarely do because I map out the route if I’m not sure where I’m going. If a project has a due date, it’s done by that due date or I have a damn good reason why it’s not.
On the other hand, I don’t do nearly as much work in a day as I think I should. I have a few close friends who get a staggering amount of work done and still juggle other responsibilities like a household, a husband, elderly parents and raising kids. When I compare how much they get done in a week with how much I get done, I flagellate myself with self-recriminating statements like “I am so lazy” and “I HAVE to get more disciplined!”
As a business owner, I’m hardly unique in my struggle to get everything done. There’s marketing my own business, talking with prospects, managing sub-contractors, keeping in touch…
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March 23rd, 2011
Vegetables vs. Dessert: How to Write an Info Product that Sells
Steve Slaunwhite’s latest article answers the question “What is the best topic for an info product?” In the article, he challenges the reader to answer questions such as “Does the information help solve a problem or fulfill an aspiration?” and “Is your target audience hungry for the information?”
They are good questions and you really should spend some time writing down your answers. They will you figure out what should go in your info product and what to leave out. The answers will also come in handy when it’s time to write the sales copy which is easily the hardest part of the whole process.
What Can You Do to Give Your Info Product the Best Chance of Selling?
Writing a quality info product is incredibly difficult and takes more time than anyone thinks it will. In order to create a quality product plan on writing it, setting it aside for a few weeks and writing it again. If you’re not willing to take the time to do it right, don’t bother.
Over the years, I’ve worked with many clients to write and promote info products…
Read more »Tags: ebooks, info products, key phrase research, writing
Posted in Strategy, Writing | 2 Comments »
March 17th, 2011
Are you Protecting Your Most Important Online Asset?
Your domain name is your most important online asset. Learn from this company’s mistake and take these simple steps to protect it.
Read more »Tags: domain name
Posted in Cautionary Tales | No Comments »
February 15th, 2011
Even the Big Guys Screw Up SEO
Pssst! Did you know you could buy rankings? I did and was kind of shocked this story was news. But it’s good to know what this major retailer did wrong to bring the wrath of Google down upon them.
Read more »Tags: JC Penney, seo
Posted in Cautionary Tales, Search Engine Optimization | 3 Comments »
