We’re working on a way to cover clientele monthly content needs via a Membership Program for the past month. For businesses of all sizes, our Membership program is perfect to supply the ongoing content that readers share and Google loves. All you need to qualify is meeting a monthly minimum spend amount. No contracts, ever!
Josh McCoy, our head hauncho CTO, has been working on development with his team for a while now. It’s a pretty shiny system! Everything we have ever built for our Content Shop is 100% custom—no one else out there has a design that’s similar—so, it takes a while to push through all the custom development steps.
Here’s what we’ll be offering—and keep reading to get on the list access it as soon as we finish developing the platform!
Our Membership Program Benefits for Content Buyers
Our Membership clients will be able to access a specialized platform version of the Content Shop, built just for them, with fixed lower rates on all our products, easy and intuitive online ordering, and easier premium input form options. Perfect for the busy agency or business that needs to keep up a steady content delivery flow with minimal to no hassle.
Our Membership Program will offer:
NO membership fees! You just place a minimum deposit, which is 100% for use in content purchases
Enjoy a unique, specialized Membership Platform just for our white label clients, with ongoing low fixed rates and intuitive ordering (just like our Content Shop, but specifically for membership buyers)
Pricing at 10-20% below our Content Shop cover rate pricing
A Content Manager available to assist at any time
Input forms specialized to the white label client: easier, simpler for ongoing projects
No contracts on our program, at any time
How to be Eligible for Membership
-Monthly minimum deposit of $1,000 or more must be placed
-$1,000 must be spent every 30 days to maintain ongoing Membership qualification
Discounted Rate Clarification
By discounted Membership pricing, we mean a 10-20% lesser rate than what our new Content Shop cover rates will be once we re-launch. Many of our current rates will increase during the re-launch: we’re in the phases of auditing our own products, lowering the price on some and staffing better writers for other complex products, improving quality and adding staff, which necessitates rate increases.
Quality in content is always our foremost goal, and increasing content rates will enable us to support our improvements, additions and enhancements. Taking this next step with us will bring you our new level of content.
Why Is Our Content So Good (Why Should You Invest Here)?
I’ll make this brief. Our clients are valued to us, and so is their content. We care about what we send you to publish on the web: and that’s why we will never just offer a cheap $15 article and call it quits. Every month, I take the time and trouble to re-create our training materials. My HR team hires new copywriters and trains them better every week. My content staff works about 60 hours a week to oversee our editors, improve the quality, answer client questions, and deliver the best content we can create. Every week we brainstorm together. How can we come up with amazing content on our own blog? How can we train our writers better?
Simply put – when you order with Express Writers, you’re ordering with a dynamic, powerful team of people who really, truly care about your content.
The Membership Program is Out!
As of May 2016, our membership program is live!
Sign up here and enjoy membership benefits with no hidden fees, contracts, or costs.
Bombarded with tons of low-quality, unremarkable stories that are constantly flooding the Internet, readers have become quite selective to their time and energy when it comes to reading blogs or content online.
Whether you’re ready for it or not, they use your own headline as their first selection criterion.
Just like a book is still being judged by its cover, each content piece that you produce gets evaluated by your readers in a few seconds based on its headline.
7 Headline Formulas That Will Convince Your Readers to Take Action
Simply because their originality and unique, totally recognizable style should be their most valuable trademarks, writers can seldom afford the luxury of relying on existing patterns to make their content piece seem more interesting in the eyes of their readers. However, when your goal is to create magnetic headlines, you can always turn to a few foolproof formulas showing you the direction that you should follow to make more people take a glance at your article. Here are the 7 golden headline formulas that you should have in mind as soon as you decide to put pen to paper.
“The Secret” to [Something]. You simply cannot go wrong with a magic keyword followed by a promise. People can’t always keep a secret, but they would definitely like to hear one every half an hour. Secrets give them the power to stand out from the crowd and prove their superiority in their circle based on a very simple principle: “knowledge is power.” When that secret actually supports one of their most ambitious goals, things get even better. Let’s consider this example: “The Secret to Losing 10 Pounds in 2 Weeks the Healthy Way.” How could you ignore this headline, when all you want to do is stop eating donuts and achieve a gorgeous beach body without getting on the treadmill?
“X Ways” to [Achieve Something]. The “X ways to do something” proves once again that readers love specialists and their expert insight. They want to take the easy way out and avoid unnecessary stress or expenses by following the advice of someone who has already dealt with this challenge and knows what he’s talking about. This is why a title such as “5 Ways to Revamp Your Career Rapidly and Stress-Free” will always deliver excellent results.
“Little Known” Strategies/Ideas/Methods That Will [Support a Goal]. For the same reason why we love secrets, we are also very interested in “little-known” things. Yes, we want to get the latest scoop before anyone else. We also appreciate informative content pieces allowing us to show off our knowledge in front of our friends, from time to time. “I bet you didn’t know that male ostriches roar just like lions!” Following this simple idea, it becomes obvious why headlines such as “Little-known methods to develop a profitable home-based business” can guarantee your success as a writer.
Here’s the Simplest/Most Rapid/Cheapest Way to [Solve Your Problem]. It’s no secret that most of the individuals who are surfing the Internet to find the best solutions to their daily problems and challenges are looking to save time and money. These two values always end up influencing their decisions. In this context, a concise title reading “Here’s the Easiest Method to Get Hired after Your First Interview” will most convince job seekers to read the entire body copy with greater attention; after all, it holds the key to getting a nice job rapidly and hassle-free. What more could you ask for?
Grow/Build/Succeed in/Have Something Desirable. Sometimes, we need an extra push to get things done. Headlines such as “Build Your Own Website and Start Selling like a Pro” or “Grow Your Own Vegetable Garden in 5 Easy Steps” act like a powerful stimulus, reminding people of their ambitions; plus they also put the reward right under their nose. In other words, it’s like telling your readers that if they want to strike gold, they’d better start digging.
“X Mistakes” That Could Bury/Destroy/Compromise [Something That Means a Lot to You]. When something means the world to you, you focus your entire attention on the good and the bad that your object of desire is exposed to. This is precisely why you would also read an article highlighting risk factors, such as your own actions, which could threaten your career, relationship, health and every other aspect that you care about. Let’s face it: a title reading “10 mistakes that could instantly terminate your relationship” is automatically associated with an article that you may want to read entirely, whether you’re single and still looking for your soulmate or happily married for more than a decade.
A Reinterpretation of the Classic “How to” Headline. Truth be told, “how to” headlines can be quite boring. The good news is that you can amplify their power of seduction by introducing the reward, as explained above, or through associations with individuals or groups of people who have already reached a certain target. For example, headlines like “How to Take Care of Your Skin like a Dermatologist” or “How to train like a Navy SEAL” may stimulate the curiosity of your segment of public and get them to spend some (quality) time on your page.
How to Create the Ideal Headline in 5 Easy Steps
When it comes to writing killer headlines, putting theory into practice doesn’t have to be a challenge. Here are the 5 key steps that you should take to come up with the perfect title for your next content piece.
Identify the Needs, Demands, Problems, and Expectations of Your Audience. Get to know your audience before anything else. In this phase, proper keyword research, a good social media strategy and tools designed to help you come up with interesting blog topics, such as Hubspot’s Blog Topic Generator, can simplify your mission.
Brainstorm with Your Team. Your coworkers may just have what it takes to inspire your next masterpiece. By putting themselves in your readers’ shoes and relying on their empathy, they could offer you valuable suggestions allowing you to come up with an attention-grabbing, compelling title.
Put Pen to Paper. As you may already know, the biggest risk is not taking any risk. What does the perfect headline actually look/sound like? You can get the most accurate answer to this question only by examining different available options, so put your mind at work, play with various keywords, create associations based on high-impact verbs, adjectives and nouns that could reflect the core of your story and see where they take you.
Incorporate Powerful Adjectives, Numbers and Buzzwords with a Proven Effectiveness. When it comes to using emotion-rich words that could convey the entire message that you’re trying to send through your headline, don’t overdo it. Stick to one or two categories of words added to reflect just how unique, special, relevant or attention-worthy your story actually is. Here are some extra guidelines that you may appreciate along the way.
The right adjective can take your headline to a whole new level by changing your readers’ reaction from “Ain’t nobody got time for that,” “Wait a second, I actually want to read the whole piece, it sounds promising.” Attributes like “effective”, “proven”, “remarkable” and “little-known” will always sound like music to your readers’ ears.
Numbers let your readers know that you’re organized. They also deliver the promise that you will stay on point in the body copy and avoid divagations that can dilute the substance of your content piece.
Nouns that are proven buzzwords can actually help you maximize the appeal of an ordinary list post and raise the curiosity of your public. As Goinswriter.com indicates, words like “reasons”, “lessons”, “secrets”, “tips”, “facts” and “tricks” are particularly effective because they highlight your mission (after all, you do want to educate, entertain and inform your readers) and anticipate the desires and demands of your audience (yes, your readers are still waiting for you to tell them why they need to buy your new product, and they would also appreciate a few easy tips on how to conduct a successful DIY home improvement project on their own).
Use Online Tools to Measure the Effectiveness of Your Headline. Worried that you may promote a certain title and fail miserably along the way? If you don’t trust your instincts and would much rather rely on an authorized second opinion before selecting a headline for your new content piece, don’t hesitate to utilize one of the many online tools designed to help you make better decisions and maximize your odds of success. Trust us when we say that aids like the Emotional Marketing Value Headline Analyzer offered by Advanced Marketing Institute can make your job a whole lot easier.
Solving the Equation of Perfect Headlines
The perfect headline is a complicated equation comprising multiple elements of equal importance, including research, an wide knowledge database, creative thinking, brainstorming sessions, a deeper understanding of the targeted audience, an ample testing phase and proper optimization. Once you put all these pieces together, you manage to solve the puzzle and come up with the string of words with a magical resonance that will feed the curiosity of your readers and make them click on your links and land on your page time after time. Photo credit: Zastavkin / iStock
Social media is becoming more and more a necessary value instead of a commodity. But still, many people question its necessity and validity.
Some think that it can work well for certain businesses but that it might not be a tool that other businesses, including their own, will need. However, social media can be a great way to drive website traffic and bring in more clients and create long-lasting relationships with customers.
One of the main questions that people bring up when asking about social media for their company is if it has any impact whatsoever on their SEO and just how much of an impact it might have.
How Does Social Media Impact Your SEO?
When it comes to search engine optimization (SEO), we are all looking for new and improved ways to help get our content noticed. I’ve talked about the many different changes to SEO over the last few months, especially Google changes, and the one thing many people wonder about is if social media has any impact. It might not seem like it has much of an impact, but you might be surprised when you get into the nitty-gritty of new SEO tactics.
According to a Business 2 Community author, the reality is that social media does impact SEO and it helps to bring out great success for your website, content, and products. I am going to reference this article throughout this blog to give you some great reasons on how social media can and will impact your SEO.
Does This Mean You Really Need Social Media?
If you haven’t jumped on the social media bandwagon, now is the best time to do so. Many people wonder if they really need social media for their business because it seems like such a “young person club.” Many businesses that don’t reach out to younger demographics often question its validity, but it should be noted that many younger people started out with social media because their parents were on there, too. This means there is a wide age demographic throughout social channels, which can help you reach out to any age, not just young to older Millennials or even younger generations growing up.
Which Social Sites are the Best to Boost SEO?
There isn’t one specific site that truly boosts SEO the best. Google Plus is a great option to get ranked on Google, but again, it is not the only one that can do so.
What you need to do is play around with social media and try the holy trinity of Facebook, Twitter, and G+ in the beginning. You can branch out from there at a later time, but get your feet wet first before diving fully into social media. Once you’re more established or understand a bit of the social media game, then it is time to get working on other channels if they will benefit your company.
12 Ways Social Media Actually Really Does Impact Your SEO
Now that I have looked at why you need social media and that it can impact your SEO, you are probably wondering just how it does. I am also going to take a look at how you can use it to further your web content and business.
Social Media Profiles Rank on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). In the Business 2 Community article I shared earlier, the writer mentions that social media profiles do rank on the SERP. When someone searches for a product or service, your social channels have a high likelihood of ranking in those search results, which can lead people to your business. This is why it is important to optimize your profiles fully before it is too late.
Social Shares Can Give Your Webpage More Inbound Links. While you don’t always want to focus on inbound links, the Business 2 Community article points out that it does create great, organic inbound linking. These links will help to validate your website, and can help you become an authority with Google. When this happens, your website is more likely to be ranked higher than ever before, which is exactly what you are aiming for if you’re reading this blog. In short, your social channels and links will help create more visibility for your web page, which is a tremendous help to bring in new customers and more revenue.
Mixing Social Media and SEO Increases Your Online Presence. Just like with blogs, social media, combined with SEO, can help increase your online presence, making it larger and more accessible. A larger Internet presence might seem daunting, but this is something you should be aiming for. If you do not have a larger presence, you are less likely to be found organically, which means more money being spent on advertisements to gain new clients.
Traffic From Social Media is Organic Traffic. According to the Business 2 Community article, about 95 percent of all links created in traditional link building techniques aren’t very effective. They don’t bring in organic traffic nor do they bring in enough of your targeted audience to bring about the revenue and success you want to see. However, by using social media, you are much more likely to drive organic traffic from your links because it will come from your followers. This will bring in great quality visitors that are likely to turn into customers and they in turn can share your information bringing in even more customers.
Social Media is the Best Way to Bring in Mobile Users. April 21st has come and gone, which means that Google’s latest, and largest, update has been in effect for a few days. This update makes it vital for all businesses to have a website that is mobile friendly, and what is the best way to bring in mobile users to your new, or freshened up, mobile friendly site? Using social media. You need to have a social media presence to bring in your mobile clients, and as we can all see, mobile users are a large demographic. Social media can drive people to your site, which will help benefit your SEO and improve you overall reach.
Combining Social Media and SEO Can Boost Engagement for Your Brand. Engagement is a vital part of any online presence, which means that you need to make sure you are making it possible for your clients to engage. They can engage on your blog, but they are more likely to engage with you on social platforms. There are many things you can do to drive this engagement, and it gives you the chance to boost your SEO by way of organic link building and more. Just how does engagement help with SEO? The Business 2 Community article says it is because engagement means happier clients who won’t just be a one-time customer. They are likely to become long-term customers, and visit your site regularly. These repeat visits are great for your metrics and helps boost your rankings significantly.
Each Social Channel Should Be Considered a Search Engine, As Well. Remember that while you want to bring in ranks and views from Google, or even Bing, the social channels act as search engines themselves. This gives your business more coverage and helps more people find what they are looking for. If someone is looking for a certain keyword, product, or service, they are likely to search Google or Bing, but they are also likely to search social media channels. Many times, people will look for certain trigger keywords to get find products, which is why you should use your keywords as your hashtags, as well. I’ll take a look at this a little later in the blog.
Google Does Use Twitter to Look for New Content. While there isn’t a central system to file all web content, Google does use Twitter to locate new content to add to an index. If your content gains a lot of notice and traffic on Twitter, it is easier for Google to find your content and list it on the SERP. Different ranking factors that help Google discover include re-tweets, the amount of time people link to and tweet your content, and how quickly it was shared over a certain time. While you might not think that Twitter is a great resource for your business, it might just be a bigger help than you initially realized.
You Can Use Your SEO Keywords as Hashtags on Social Media. Optimizing your social media posts will be a great way to help Google notice your content and help bring your blog or web content on the SERP. A great way to optimize your social media posts is to utilize your keywords as hashtags to bring in more views, clicks, re-tweets, and more. Make sure you choose the top keywords that help bring traffic from Google to your site to make sure you are reaching the right audience. You should also make sure you are playing around with different keywords to see if any others will bring in more, and different, clients.
Google Plus is Still Vital to SEO and Ranks. When you create social media platforms, you always want to make sure you are utilizing Google Plus for your content. One of the biggest, and most obvious, reasons for this is Google Plus is a social media channel created by Google. This means that Google makes sure it is as important to ranking as possible. Sure, they’ve made a few changes to the importance of Google Plus and how it helps with ranks, but it is still a vital platform. It can help your content rank higher and help establish you as an authority in your industry. Being set apart as an authority is a great way to gain trust from your followers and customers, helping create long relationships and convert new visitors into clients. You can also optimize your Google Plus profile perfectly to drive ranks on the SERP and raise your position on the SERP to higher, more effective, one.
Social Media Lets You Use Viral Content to Drive Engagement and Clicks. One of the great things about social media is access to viral content. There are two ways you can use viral content to bring in engagement. One is using and sharing viral content to drive people to your account to then see your social posts and links to your website. Viral content is a great advertising tool that also promotes more engagement and social shares from your followers. Another way is creating your own viral content that will encourage people to share your individual content to drive social shares. These can be in the form of infographics, videos, or other images.
Build a Following on Twitter to Maintain Customers. As I mentioned earlier, social media is a great way to engage with your existing clients, creating repeat clicks on your links by those individuals. This looks excellent on social media and to Google and is why social media is vital to your SEO campaign. Use your social accounts to build a great following of loyal clients that will not only click on your site links regularly and make purchases, but also to help bring in new clients. If your existing ones are happy and feel you are engaging well with them, they are very likely to share your social posts, driving more organic clicks and traffic.
Drive Your SEO by Becoming a Social Butterfly
Don’t shy away from social media simply because you think that it isn’t for your business. As you can see, it will be incredibly helpful when you are trying to boost your SEO and gain new, long-lasting clients, as well as boosting organic traffic and link building. If you are looking for someone to help you create excellent, engaging social media content or fully optimized profile pages, then look no further. Express Writers has an excellent team of social media managers that can help you with your social media needs. Take a look at all that we can offer you!
If you haven’t been living under a rock for the past decade, chances are you’re familiar with Silicon Valley’s wildly successful, technology-based startup businesses Uber, Buffer, and Airbnb.
And if you have been living under a rock, welcome to a world where engaging content means billions of dollars in annual revenue for marketing savvy businesses—businesses that were a mere twinkle in their founder’s eyes just months before hitting the ever-elusive yet highly coveted billion dollar revenue mark. Yes, these three commercial venture high rollers—Uber, Buffer, and Airbnb—have a lot in common when it comes to content marketing.
So what exactly do these companies have in common when it comes to content marketing? The answer to that question is quite simple—engaging content. These three multi-billion dollar businesses offer undeniable proof that engaging copy is more than just trendy buzzwords spewed forth during techy sales meetings with newbie CEOs who are barely out of diapers. Engaging content is a genuine, bonafide way for a company to gain exposure, build loyalty, and generate interest from millions of potential customers.
Successful companies like Uber, Buffer, and Airbnb realize the power of engaging copywriting, and if you own or manage a business, it’s time you realized its power as well.
Engaging Content: It’s More Than Just Words on a Webpage
By now you’re probably thinking, “Ok, engaging content is a big deal. But what exactly is engaging content?” (Either that or you could be thinking about… “A cinnamon raisin bagel and a vanilla latte would be totally awesome right now.”)
How 3 Companies Are Using Content To Kill It In Revenue
But assuming you’re thinking the former, let’s take a moment to clarify the difference between content and engaging content. In other words, let’s take a moment to clarify the difference between run-of-the mill, off-target content and stellar content that engages a company’s target audience and facilitates exponential company growth. Immensely profitable companies like Uber, Airbnb, and Buffer only use content that is very engaging in their marketing campaigns, and the results are nothing short of awe-inspiring.
Uber: Engaging Content Means Videos. The peer-to-peer driving company Uber uses videos as a primary source of content marketing. But we’re not talking about mundane videos of cars cruising around a city block picking up a guy in a suit who happens to need a ride to the airport. No, Uber is much too in-the-know when it comes to engaging video content to churn out something so dry and uninteresting. Instead, Uber focuses its video content on the unique and diversified people who drive for their company or who use their services as a way to get where they need to be. In one of Uber’s blogs titled, “Your Drivers. Our Partners. Their Stories.” you can watch a video that details the lives and experiences of some of Uber’s drivers. Upon watching the video, you immediately feel a sense of relatability and you gain a better understanding of how the company operates. And even though each driver mentions several times throughout the video that working for Uber is the best job they’ve ever had, it doesn’t come across as contrived or preachy. Instead, it’s done in a way that helps establish company trust and helps portray Uber as a company that listens to and cares about its employees.But the best and perhaps most engaging feature in Uber’s video is the people; the everyday citizens just like you, just like me, and just like the people who are most likely to use Uber’s services. Using real drivers instead of actors in their video helps Uber connect with their customers on a more personal level while still demonstrating the value of the service they have to offer. You get to see faces and names of real people associated with the company, and then you realize that it’s these same people who may be giving you and your toy poodle Mr. Bojangles your next ride to the dog park. You feel a sense of neighborliness, a sense of connection, and perhaps most importantly, a sense of being totally comfortable with using Uber’s service. The video’s sincere, relatable realism speaks to Uber customers, potential customers, and potential drivers alike, which is a huge factor in why the company is now worth an estimated $40 billion.
Airbnb: Surprise! Print Media Isn’t Dead! And For Airbnb, It’s Actually Quite Engaging! Yes, you read that correctly. When it comes to engaging content, print media can be just as useful, worthwhile, and successful as a webpage or video. Who knew, right? Actually, Airbnb knew. The hospitality website, which connects travelers with home owners willing to rent a room in their house, recently launched their print media venture Pineapple, a magazine that caters to both Airbnb hosts and travelers. Airbnb chose the name “Pineapple” for their magazine because the fruit was a symbol of hospitality in colonial New England, and hospitality is what Airbnb is all about.But what’s so compelling about Airbnb’s first magazine addition is that it came with a simple yet poignant mission statement that tells the reader the main purpose and focus of the magazine: “to explore our fundamental values: sharing, community and belonging,” and to “inspire and motivate exploration, not just within the cities featured, but within any space a reader finds themselves.”Why is this message so important, and why does it fall under the category of engaging content? Because the primary purpose of Airbnb is to connect people who have a need for something with people who have something to offer. In other words, Airbnb’s basis for operations is human connection and bringing people closer together in the name of travel, adventure, and exploration. People who are most likely to use Airbnb’s services are those who value the importance of everything in Pineapple magazine’s mission statement—exploration, sharing, and a sense of community and belonging.You can follow Pineapple’s engaging mission statement throughout its glossy, picture-loaded pages (again, kudos to Airbnb for its use of engaging visual content) as you read articles like the interview with Hans Ulrich Obrist, the curator of the Serpentine Gallery in London, where he discusses “architecture’s role in bringing us closer together.”There they are again; those magic words that are so near and dear to Airbnb users’ heart—”us”, “closer”, “together.” Without people wanting to connect with one another, or be close with one another, or share experiences and learn from one another, Airbnb as we know it would cease to exist. The fundamental human desire for connectedness and a sense of belonging is the driving force behind Airbnb’s success and subsequent multi-billion dollar profit. And don’t think for one second that Airbnb’s content management team doesn’t realize this.In fact, just last year Airbnb launched a new brand awareness campaign in which a symbol called a “Bélo” was unveiled as the company’s new logo. According to Airbnb’s company content masterminds, “the bélo is a universal symbol of belonging.” On the company’s blog site, they describe why they chose to create a new symbol to represent their company by saying, “So to represent that feeling [of belonging], we’ve created a symbol for us as a community. It’s an iconic mark for our windows, our doors, and our shared values. It’s a symbol that, like us, can belong wherever it happens to be.” If a statement like that can’t secure brand loyalty from millions of community-minded, travel conscious users, than I don’t know what can.
Buffer: Engaging Content: OMG! Social Media is Buffer’s #BFF :). All chat jargon, hashtags, and emoticons aside, every good content marketer knows just how crucial social media is for business exposure and success. And with that said, it’s no surprise that Buffer uses social media as a primary part of its engaging content strategy. After all, social media is the reason Buffer was created in the first place. Buffer helps businesses manage their social media accounts so they can reap the ultimate benefits of strong social media presence and exposure.So let’s think about this for a minute. If the service you provide helps businesses manage their social media accounts, it’s nothing short of a given that your own social media accounts will be brimming with engaging content, relevant posts, and perfectly timed updates, correct? Not surprisingly, this is the case with Buffer. However, Buffer still deserves a lot of credit for realizing something very important; something which is the exact reason why the company exists in the first place—engaging content on social media is a really big deal.
Be Engaging With Your Content, And The Sky Is The Limit
So we now know that using engaging content in your company’s marketing strategy borders on sheer genius. No, I take that back. Engaging copy doesn’t just border on sheer genius; it blasts through the border like an armor-plated combat tank and takes sheer genius as its unsuspecting prisoner.
But the truly great thing about engaging content is that it’s totally accessible to everyone. With compelling content, there’s no reason why your company can’t see the same magnitude of success as Uber, Buffer, or Airbnb. Pick a medium in which to show off your engaging copy—be it videos or podcasts, print media, or social media platforms—and do what the great successors before you have done. Know your company’s mission, know your target audience, and know how to produce amazing content that engages your audience and compels them to explore your company further.
Yes, engaging content truly is the bread-winner in most successful businesses. And yes, your business can use engaging content to reach more customers, build brand loyalty, and maybe, just maybe, hit that ever-elusive yet highly coveted billion dollar revenue mark. Dream big, engaging content users. Dream big.
There are times where no matter what we do, it just seems like things aren’t working. You can implement everything you’ve learned from marketing and SEO, yet you don’t seem to get anywhere. This is a frustrating reality. However, here’s the good news—you, my friend, are not alone!
Did you know there are several incredibly famous authors and creators that were in the same boat as you at some point in their career? These great authors and creators, at one point or another, were considered “failures” by themselves and others.
Once you get through failure, and don’t allow it to drown you but rather make you stronger, you will achieve greater success than you’ve dreamed of!
I am going to take a look at a few incredible authors and creators that we all love today, and look at just how they failed before they succeeded. Let their failures and inevitable success we see now be an awesome inspiration to you, today.
Walt Disney Was Told He Lacked Imagination. The man who created many stories, an epic empire, and worldwide theme parks was once considered to not have much imagination. That’s right; the creator of Mickey Mouse was believed, and told, he lacked imagination. Can you conceive of where we all would be if he listened to that and didn’t create the empire we all know and love today? He also had multiple other failures including best friends leaving Walt Disney Studios for competitors and competitors even stealing his original work, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. It was after Oswald was stolen that he created Mickey Mouse, who is definitely the most popular mouse in the entire world.
Albert Einstein and the Problem of Traditional Learning. While Einstein is not a fiction writer, his works have brought about an amazing advancement to the field of science. We have many of our theories and even proof of various scientific aspects because of him. However, Einstein was terrible with traditional learning and many thought he wouldn’t go very far. This speaks loudly to those who might have a hard time with traditional marketing, understanding how to make their business a success, and even young children who are having a hard time learning in school. If he had let his problems get in the way, we wouldn’t have much of the scientific advancements we have today, nor any of his incredible academic work.
J.K. Rowling Wrote Harry Potter Without Much of a Plan for Success. When J.K. Rowling first wrote Harry Potter, she was living as a single mother on welfare. It was a difficult life for her, but she decided to start writing. She created the Wizarding world, but, according to her, she was rejected “loads” of times by different publishers. She kept going, however, even though she didn’t necessarily have the finances she needed to send off so many manuscripts. I am especially glad she kept going because we might have never met the Boy Who Lived, experiencing an incredible fantasy world just a few miles away from normal life. In addition to rejections for Harry Potter, Rowling also faced several rejections as Robert Galbraith, her pen name for The Cuckoo’s Calling. What a great example of “keep on trying.” Now Harry Potter is a goliath in the marketing world, offering writers and businesses alike incredible marketing inspiration.
Charles Darwin Was Considered Average at Best. Evolution has had a long, contentious past with many people arguing over its reputability. What many people don’t realize is that the father of evolution, Charles Darwin, was considered an average student at best and dropped out of a degree and career in medicine to become a parson. However, he found a significant interest in nature and began traveling the world to understand it better. As he did so, he came up with his theory and published the now popular and infamous Origin of the Species. Regardless of one’s stance on evolution, it is hard to deny that this “average” student made a huge impact on the world of science and helped bring about a different view of nature.
Dr. Seuss Had His First Book Rejected 27 Times. We all love Dr. Seuss, don’t we? We all have that one book that helped us get through difficult times or at least one that was our childhood favorite, but did you know Dr. Seuss’s very first book was rejected 27 times? That’s right. And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street was rejected 27 times by different publishers. It took a while for this book to become published, but eventually it was and Dr. Seuss became a tremendous part of the literary world. He even has an entire literary day (his birthday) dedicated to him and his amazing work.
Stephen King Threw Away Early Drafts of Carrie and it was Rejected 30 Times. Have you read Carrie? If you’re a horror and novella fan, then chances are you already have. It is a great, scary story that is definitely a classic in the horror world. Before it became the success it is today, Stephen King got very frustrated with it and threw away early drafts of the novella. In addition, when he finally finished it, it was rejected 30 different times. It is unlikely we would have the an epic horror empire King created if it weren’t for his wife. She made sure to help get Carrie published, and we can all thank her for the wonder, and horror of a Stephen King universe.
Margaret Atwood Failed Writing a Novel On Holiday. Margaret Atwood is a definite goddess amongst fantasy and science fiction writers, and we might never have received the wonder of The Handmaid’s Tale if she hadn’t failed writing another book. She went on a bird watching, book writing holiday and only one aspect of that holiday was successful – watching birds. She struggled to write her novel and eventually stopped. It was soon after stopping that novel that she began the terrifying dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale that is still creeping audiences out today.
Mary Shelley’s The Last Man Was Panned by Reviewers. We all know Mary Shelley’s impressive work, Frankenstein, which was, and still is, an amazing part of early science fiction literature. However, one of her books that doesn’t get the acclaim it deserves, The Last Man was often panned by reviewers, yet has proven to be just as powerful as Frankenstein. The book even disappeared from shelves after the 1833 American edition but was eventually printed again in 1965.
Publishers Were Unwilling to Publish J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. When it came down to publishing J. R. R. Tolkien’s massive, classic work The Lord of the Rings, publishers were unsure if it would actually work. In fact, The Lord of the Rings was originally one huge book. The publishers eventually broke the book up into the now infamous trilogy, which was not Tolkien’s favorite idea. His publishers were worried they’d lose thousands of pounds trying to sell this work, as well. After all the fear, The Fellowship of the Ring ran a printing of 3,500 and sold out in the first 6 weeks, which was a milestone in publishing then. Aren’t you glad the publishers, and Tolkien, stuck with the books? We not only have an epic book series, but some great films for The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit to help inspire our copywriting!
What Can You Learn from These Authors?
Now that you’ve seen a few things that have happened to some of the world’s favorite authors and creators throughout their careers, you might be wondering just what you can learn from them. There are many different things you can learn, but a few things that stand out to me are:
Just Because You Didn’t Achieve Something Doesn’t Mean You Never Will. To many of these authors, it just didn’t seem like much was going to happen to them or with their stories. Can you imagine what would’ve happened if J. K. Rowling had never pushed for Harry Potter or what the world would look like without Dr. Seuss? Use their passion and dedication to help you achieve the marketing goals you have, and benefit your company.
If You Give Up Now, Just What are You Losing Out On Later? Giving up can be easy in many situations, especially after multiple failures. However, giving up could mean losing out on something amazing in the future. Don’t let your failures stop you.
Keep Working and Learn from Specific Failures. The above point talks about not giving up, but what should you do with specific failures? You should take the chance to learn something from them. Each failure is a lesson and it can help you learn exactly what you need to do to push your business and marketing to be the best.
Don’t Let Failure Keep You From Your Business Goals
Use these authors as a great example to help you continue striving for your business goals, no matter what. Keep writing your content and pushing through, and you’ll start to see some pretty awesome results. If you need help to create incredible, successful content, then Express Writers is here for you. Our team is dedicated to making all of our clients have successful businesses and amazing web content that your customers are sure to love. Don’t hesitate to contact us for more information on how we can help!
