Blogging Archives

The Business Owner’s Guide: How to Work With Blog Writers to Create & Publish High-ROI Brand Content

June 19, 2024May 17, 2017 by Adam Oakley

You’ve seen the data. You know that content marketing adopters have conversion rates that are nearly 6x higher than non-adopters. You’re finally ready to take the plunge and focus on content marketing as a key strategy in your lead generation arsenal. But then it hits you. How are you going to produce all this content? HubSpot is telling you that, in order to optimize your efforts, you need to publish 16+ blog posts per month. “16 per month?!? My team and I can’t produce that many high quality blogs per month!” Fortunately, you don’t have to go at it alone. The proven effectiveness of content marketing has helped to create tens of thousands of capable blog writers that you can handle much of the work for you. You just need to know how to efficiently find and work with them. And, through this post, we’re going to teach you how to do it. Let’s get started. The Business Owner’s Guide: How to Work With Blog Writers to Create & Publish High-ROI Content Let’s start at the fundamentals: outlining your writing standards. 1. Creating Writing Standards to Communicate to Writers If you have a blog, then you probably already have some type of vague writing standards in place. And while your current standards can be used, they will almost certainly need to be expanded upon now that you’ve decided to outsource your writing. Your standards set the stage for how you will communicate, hire, and work with your blog writers. Establishing the Goal of Your Blog The first thing you’ll need to do is to clearly establish the goal of your blog so it can be communicated to the writers you work with. HuffPost contributor Danny Wong provides a few options. Some of them include: Tell your brand’s story Express your brand’s identity Build an email list Attract top industry talent Build credibility Become an authority figure in your industry Connect personally with customers and fans Capture media attention Facilitate word-of-mouth Create a competitive advantage After browsing this list, you’re probably wondering why you can’t just focus on all of these goals. The simple answer is…because having too many goals and priorities doesn’t work. As Harvard Business Review contributors Paul Leinwand and Cesare Mainardi have said, your business needs to stop chasing too many priorities. According to a survey they conducted, having fewer strategic priorities can actually lead to higher revenue growth for your business. If you’re determined to chase multiple goals, make sure they work together. For instance, your goal can be that you want to build your email list while connecting with fans and facilitating word-of-mouth marketing. Or, it can be to build credibility and become an authority figure in your industry in order to create a competitive advantage. Each example has three goals that work together. Hone your focus and create goals that you can clearly communicate to your writers. It will make working with blog writers a much smoother process. Helping Writers Create Amazing Content You know that creating amazing content is essential to high ROI content marketing. You may even know how to do it. Don’t assume, however, that the writers you’re working with automatically follow the same rules of creating great content that you do. If you’re looking for a checklist to provide to your writers, KissMetrics Director of Marketing Sean Marks created a great one. It includes nine ingredients. They are: Make sure the content is original Focus on creating a strong headline Make the content actionable Provide answers to reader’s questions Include accurate reporting and sourcing of information Make the content engaging Communicate through visuals Eliminate fluff and get to the point Update the blog regularly Your outsourced writers will be responsible for producing content that includes the top eight ingredients. You and your team will be responsible for the last one. Determining Content Length for Writers While it will obviously be much easier to get to 16 blog posts per month if they’re of the 400-500 word variety, the argument for long-form content is too convincing to ignore. If you want to achieve your blog goals, ranking for targeted keywords on search engines is the ticket to getting there. And if you want your content to rank on search engines, long form content is the way to go. Just take a look at this illustration produced by SerpIQ: Sure, it’s going to be more expensive to outsource long form content than it is to do the same for 500-word articles. As you can see, however, the ROI of long form content is significantly higher. And isn’t the point of marketing to achieve the highest ROI possible? Breaking it Down At this point, you should have a solid understanding of what you want your writing standards to look like. Now you just need to communicate them to your writers. Here’s a quick example of what you can tell them: Focus on the goal of our blog Utilize the ingredients of creating amazing content Make sure the post is long form (1,500-3,000 words) 2. How to Hire the Perfect Writers for Your Blog Your writing standards help create an overview of the type of writers that you want and need for your blog. Your job now is to seek out writers that have already proven capable of following the standards that you have established. This can, for the most part, be done in one of two ways; hire a freelancer or work with a writing agency. Freelancers vs. Writing Agencies Ahh, the great debate. Should you hire freelancers or go with a writing agency? And while there are many advantages and disadvantages to both choices, your decision should always come down to the value provided. Let’s break down the process of working with each so you can make the best possible decision for your business. Working With a Freelancer The typical process for hiring a freelancer involves a few steps. They include: Find a freelance job posting site. Upwork, Freelancer.com, Textbroker, and even Craigslist … Read more

The Ultimate Guide to Writing a Blog & a Regular Posting Schedule

June 19, 2024May 10, 2017 by Adam Oakley

Writing a blog can be difficult, especially for busy, nonstop marketers and agency owners. We know it – trust me! With blogging as a #1 means of earning our traffic and revenue, we sympathize. It’s never been easy, but it’s incredibly rewarding to maintain a business blog and write consistently. To do it consistently, and to do it well, you need a process. Your process serves as your guidepost for making sure you never just sit stuck, wondering what to do next. The goal of this guide is to show you that process and give you a in-depth bird’s eye view of everything you need to write a blog and do it consistently. Then, we’ll dive into the nitty-gritty of how, when, where and what when it comes to impactful blog writing. Ready? [bctt tweet=”Get a bird’s eye view of everything you need to write a blog for your business, and do it consistently. ??” username=”ExpWriters”] The Ultimate Guide to Writing a Blog & a Regular Posting Schedule: 7 Step-List Know the Foundations of Writing a Blog that Matters The Golden Rule in Writing Blogs How Long Should Your Content Be? 4 Steps for Creating Compelling Headlines That Click With Your Audience 6 Steps for Writing a Blog and Doing it Consistently Self Editing Like a Pro, Even If You Aren’t One (Infographic) How to Come Up with Blog Ideas (Infographic) Let’s dive in! Know Your Foundations: Writing a Blog Post That Matters Here’s a quote to inspire you (Chuck Close): Just like anything else, the blog writing process starts with a foundation. Without this foundation, everything else becomes confusing and inefficient. With it, you can regularly create great content that your readers will love. The foundation involves three things: The “Golden Rule.” Write for ONE reader. Determine Content Length. Focus on creating the right content. Create a Strong Headline. Intrigue your ONE reader. [bctt tweet=”The foundation of #writing a great blog post: write for 1 reader, determine length, create a strong headline. @JuliaEMcCoy” username=”ExpWriters”] Let’s dive into these a little deeper. 1. Foundation: The “Golden Rule” The “Golden Rule” of writing a blog is simple; write for ONE reader. The hope would be that you already have a good idea of who your ONE reader is. Hopefully you also have a good idea of where they are, what problems they’re having, and how they communicate. Entire books and long form guides have been written on defining, finding, and targeting your ONE reader (also called target audience, target market, etc.) You should read them. If you don’t have time for that, Forbes has a great evergreen piece on decoding your target audience. Don’t fall into the trap of attempting to write for a viral audience. As Forbes contributor AJ Agrawal points out, ‘Go Viral’ is not a smart marketing strategy. Since most viral content is based on trends, it’s not evergreen and therefore has an exceptionally short shelf-life. That makes it a bad investment. Avoid the masses and follow the “Golden Rule” by writing for ONE reader. It’s the only strategy that has long term value for your blog. 2. Foundation: How Long Should Your Content Be? Google the above question and you’ll find that there are over 179 million answers telling you how long your content should be. Everyone who’s anyone has tried their hand at answering this question – it’s clearly one of the biggest debates among content marketers across the web. I’ll say that long-form has tremendous benefits. I’ve created an argument for long-form content here: in all reality, it does the best for SEO purposes. That’s also why I launched authority content at Express Writers last year. But along with realizing the benefits of long, authoritative content, you want to think most about how to do the right content. Less of the wrong, high-volume, no return content: more of the right content. Rand Fishkin, the founder of Moz, has a great statement on this point. He says: to focus on creating more of the right content. What does the right content accomplish? Fishkin outlines four things: The right content serves visitor’s intent by answering their questions and helping them complete their goals. The right content delivers an easy, pleasurable, accessible experience on every device and every browser. The right content gets the right information and experience to visitors FAST. The right content does all of the above better than any of the competitors in the space. But that’s all well and nice to hear what you need to do. How do you actually go about creating the right content when writing a blog? You create your content with these things in mind and use your editing efforts to ensure that they’re followed. 4 Steps for Creating Compelling Headlines That Click With Your Audience While I’m sure you’ve heard it more times than you can count, compelling headlines are crucial if you want readers to actually read your blog. Copywriting legend David Ogilvy is famous for saying: But you know the headline is important. How do you create one that works? Do you use a template that so many others have already used? That’s certainly the easiest option. Do you list a dozen different options and narrow them down one by one until you find a winner? That can work too. Do you include a number or ask a question? Sure, go for it. The truth is, there isn’t a stand-alone strategy that works best for creating compelling headlines when writing a blog. What is a given, however, is that you must identify who your one reader is and you build your headline around what would intrigue them to read on. How to Actually Create the Headline While your headline will differ depending on your ONE reader, there is a simple formula that you can use to short-line the process. After all, writing a blog is hard enough. You don’t want to spend five hours coming up with an intriguing headline. Jeff Goins, founder and owner of the popular … Read more

How to Blog for a Photography Business: An Essential Guide

December 31, 2020March 29, 2017 by Adam Oakley

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. But that doesn’t mean that photography businesses get off the hook when it comes to content marketing. 😉 Today, everyone that has a business presence needs to blog. Blogging is essential in the current digital landscape, and photographers have a unique opportunity to harness the power of blogging for their benefit and online reach will fall behind. Fortunately, you can take proactive steps to learn how to blog for a photography business successfully and enjoy a more lucrative business, as a result. Here’s how. How to Blog for a Photography Business: Why Should I Blog? If you’re thinking, “Come on. I run a photography business! Why does blogging matter to me?” you’re not alone. Today, lots of companies are confused about how and why blogging has become so critical to a good online presence. The answer, however, is simple: blogging is the most efficient way to communicate with customers online, right now. What’s more, it’s seriously lucrative. Here are a few quick stats about how blogging impacts your ROI and bottom line, from Impact Branding and Design: Websites that blog have an average of 434% more indexed pages than websites that don’t blog. 47% of customers view 3-5 pieces of content before ever talking to a salesperson. Companies that prioritize blogging are 13x as likely as their competitors to enjoy a positive ROI. Compared to outbound leads, which have a close rate of 1.7%, inbound and blogging-focused leads have a close rate of 14.6%. Businesses that blog earn 97% more inbound links to their site. As many as 80% of customers ignore the paid ads at the top of Google’s results (this is a BIG deal for photo businesses!) and only focus on organic results. Blogs are currently the web’s 5th most trusted source of online information. We ourselves at Express Writers rely on consistent content creation to generate our inbound leads. (Here’s a case study on that.) As you can see, effective blogging has a massive impact not only on your company’s visibility on the web but also on the way people perceive your brand. If you’re bypassing blogging for paid advertising or (worse) no digital strategy at all, you’re missing out! How to Blog for a Photography Business: An Example of Success Jasmine Star is a great example of a Google success as a photography blogger. She writes a lot of posts and even offers tips that appeal to a typical photography buyer, but aren’t necessarily photography related. Her target clientele is marketers and those who need beautiful professional photography, and she blogs in a wide sphere of topics that will get the attention of her target clientele. How to Get Your Social Media Posts Seen By More People is one of her blog topics, for example. Are you sitting down for this? Her blog ranks in the top 3-4 organic results of Google for the highly competitive keyword photography blog. Jasmine’s consistent, awesome blogging has won her a top spot in Google’s organic results. And for a HUGE keyword. To find out just how huge, I took that keyword to my favorite SEO tool, KWFinder, and found that this keyword brings in 22,200 monthly visitors. Jasmine’s blog gets an estimated large chunk of that volume. Keep in mind this is traffic fueled by Jasmine’s blog, fully organic, without a paid advertisement. She gained this incredible keyword spot solely through her blogging chops! Take inspiration: your one time investment per blog, as long as it’s quality and matches what your readers would expect to read (and will love and share), can last for years! 5 Reasons Blogging Matters for Photographers, Specifically There are more reasons than the tremendous value in SEO traffic, although that’s pretty huge alone. While it’s true that blogging is critical for all brands, everywhere, it has some unique benefits for photographers. Let’s break it down: 1. Blogging Lets You Show Your Customers Who You Are For people outside the photography business, it might seem like all photographers are the same. Of course, you know this isn’t true! While all photographers take pictures, each has their own individual style, focus, and strengths. Luckily, blogging helps you showcase these. By using a blog, you can show your customers what’s important to you and what you value as a professional. This, in turn, helps you connect with the most valuable, relevant clients and build a sense of recognition on the web. 2. Blogging Allows You To Showcase Your Work Today, it can be tough for working photographers to find a way to display their recent photographs. After all, few photographers have physical galleries, and, even the ones who do don’t get tons of foot traffic to them. Fortunately, blogging solves this problem by giving you a centralized location to display your newest work and update your customers. This helps you keep your portfolio fresh and ensures that your clients always see your latest and best images. 3. Blogging Boosts Your SEO in a Way Portfolio Sites Never Could Some photographers address the issue listed in the point above by creating an online portfolio. And while this is a smart idea, it’s not a super effective approach when it comes to SEO. The reason being that portfolio sites don’t do much in the way of including keywords, offering indexable pages, or providing valuable, customer-focused content. They just exist. They seldom get lots of traffic, and they certainly don’t do much to appear in search engine results pages (SERPs). Blogs, on the other hand, are much more symbiotic – as we saw in Jasmine’s example. Designed to allow you to communicate directly with customers, blogs make it easy to target relevant keywords, keep your content fresh, and answer the biggest questions your customers have about your services, different photographic methods, and the industry as a whole. 4. Blogging Makes Your Content Shareable Imagine this: you shoot a wedding or maternity shoot. You post the photos on your blog and share them on social media (with your customers’ permission, of course). The customer sees them, loves them, and shares the … Read more

Hook ‘Em: How to Write a Killer Blog Intro

December 31, 2020March 28, 2017 by Adam Oakley

Eight seconds. According to Time, that’s how long the average human’s attention span is these days. For content marketers, that means grabbing someone’s attention is a lot of work and you have less time than ever to do it. This requires more than a little bit of strategic thinking. How do you claim your readers’ attention? Is it even possible? The truth is, you still have the chance to do it, but that chance is slimmer than ever. It all comes down to your introduction and the first few sentences. But no pressure! 😉 To help you craft that picture-perfect intro, here’s everything you need to know about crafting killer blog intros in the modern world. Why Are Your Blog Intros So Important? In a world of rapidly shrinking attention spans, the intro serves a critical purpose: it hooks the reader like bait hooks a hungry fish. Today, people are accustomed to making split-second decisions about people, places, topics, and yes, online content. They swipe right or left, so to speak, without giving much thought to anything beyond how the thing in question makes them feel at first glance. This can easily be bad news for your online content because it means that anything that doesn’t jump off the page as interesting, exciting, funny, or relevant is liable to get slashed. What’s more, your intros are some of the most high-visibility pieces of your content. While most people will at least glance at your intro, not everyone will take the time to read your entire body copy, which means that the intro is the perfect and one of the few places to grab those readers you so desperately want. Finally, the intro sets the tone for the rest of your content. If it’s boring, everything else is likely to follow suit. If it’s exciting and compelling, you can bet the rest of the content will be, too. By using your intro to show your readers you understand them and want to provide material they love, you can boost their confidence in you while also branding yourself as an engaging and worthwhile writer. Even a strong headline isn’t enough to do this. Many a blog had a strong headline and a weak intro and lost readers as a result. The Death of the Weak Word Writing a compelling lede is a lot like writing an impactful haiku or a great tweet: it takes technique. One of the most essential techniques you can learn to overhaul your introduction is how to kill weak words. Source: Neil Patel While this seems simple, it’s the foundation of great opening paragraphs. Think about it: if your intros are filled with weak, flabby words, they won’t be impactful, and if they’re not impactful, your readers won’t stick around. For your introductions to succeed, weak words need to be chopped out and replaced with more exciting and emotive alternatives. Thanks in large part to the dismal nature of the human attention span and the fact that introductions can’t, by nature, ramble on forever, there isn’t a lot of room to include bulky, pointless, or weak words. This means that killing them is essential. At the end of the day, learning how to trim the fat in your writing, and especially in your introduction, is the only way to create strong content that reflects well on your brand. Include weak words, and you’ll sink, cut them, and you’ll float to the top of your readers’ minds. Example of a Strong Vs. Weak Blog Intro Let’s put a strong blog intro vs. weak side by side to truly impact you on why studying how to write a great blog intro is so very crucial. Can you spot which one is “strong” as you review these two blog intros, pulled from the web? First example: Second example: The first was from GoDotMedia, the second from SmartBlogger.com. Can you see at a glance which one you personally like better? It probably took you less than 8 seconds to make that decision. At a glance, there is one that sticks out far more powerfully. Let’s explore how you can write powerful intros for your blogs, all the time, without fail. Ready? How to Write Killer Blog Intros 101: 10 Fundamental Tips for Greatness Writing great blog intros is a little bit like becoming a weightlifter – you have to work up to it and learn the right steps along the way. Here are ten foolproof tricks to get you there. 1. Embrace The Process Of Self-Editing Quick: what’s your favorite novel? Okay, now how many drafts of that book do you think its author penned? When it comes to great writing, self-editing is essential. Even the best writer needs to go back through his or her writing, again and again, to ensure it shines, and anyone who doesn’t embrace this process is likely to fall short. Hemingway is famous for having said “I rewrote the first part of A Farewell to Arms at least fifty times…the first draft of anything is s&*t.” With this in mind, don’t expect the first version of your introduction to also be the last version of your headline. To succeed in this business, you must master the process of self-editing, especially when it comes to your most critical piece of content – the first few paragraphs. 2. Practice, Practice, Practice Great introductions are formulaic, which is both good and bad news. It’s good because formulas are, by definition, things that can be memorized and learned. It’s bad because it means you’ll have to put in the work required to master it. Luckily, practicing your introduction writing skills and learning which tricks help churn out the best ones is something everyone can master. 3. Minimize Modifiers Modifiers: “really,” “very,” and “literally” are “fluff” These are words that don’t belong in your introductions, or anywhere in your content! The more you can cut these out, the more impactful your headlines will be. Instead of using these low-impact filler words, use a replacement verb that’s more powerful and compelling than … Read more

Protected: A Blog Formatting Guide: Mock Template

December 31, 2020August 15, 2016 by Adam Oakley

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

How to Find & Work With Your Best-Fit Blog Writers

December 31, 2020August 10, 2016 by Adam Oakley

Today, content is everything. Unfortunately, most companies simply don’t have the time, resources, or skill level to create quality content in-house. While many businesses try to scrape by, anyway, the truth is that opting to skimp on content is an excellent way to damage your business and put your livelihood at risk. Luckily, there’s a better way. By hiring professional blog writers to create your content for you, you can reap all of the skill and expertise these professionals have to offer, without pulling your hair out in the process. Read on to learn more. Why Hire Professional Blog Writers? While many marketers believe that hiring professional blog writers is just an unneeded expense, this couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, today, blog writers are more important than they’ve ever been before. As it stands right now, the U.S. population conducts roughly 12 billion Google searches each month, and 60% of the clicks produced by those searches go directly to the top 3 search results on Google’s SERPs. With this in mind, it’s clear that customers have more than enough websites and companies to choose from online, but that they consistently choose the ones that establish themselves as authorities in their niches and industries. While many companies believe this can be achieved through a mixture of paid advertisements and link building, the fact of the matter is that content is the single best way to produce a great business strategy that lasts. By hiring professional blog writers to manage your content for you, you’ll reap the following benefits: Authority. Customers want valuable, authoritative content that helps them learn something new. Hiring professional blog writers is one of the best ways to ensure that you’re offering this for your audience. Because professional blog writers know how to craft concise, compelling, unique content for your site, their services are a fantastic way to boost your brand authority and become a better-known entity in your industry. Relevancy. Professional blog writers have an intimate understanding of how to make sure content is as relevant as possible. Because blog writers are skilled at writing in an approachable, conversational, friendly tone peppered with heavy research, and then adapting that voice to suit your particular audience and segment of the market, hiring a professional blog writer is a fantastic way to boost your relevance across the board. Skill. Let’s face it – writing well takes skill, and many people simply don’t have it. When you hire a professional team of blog writers, though, you’ll get a skilled, high-quality team of writers who know how to craft flawless content for your brand. From spelling and grammar to today’s most current SEO standards, blog writers understand how to make content shine. Simplicity. As a business owner, you’re incredibly busy. While you might not have the time or the effort to put into crafting quality content, professional blog writers do, and this can help you boost your business. According to HubSpot, companies that have between 401-1000 pages on their website earn six times as many leads as those with between 51-100 pages. With this in mind, more is better, and blog writers can help you populate your site with quality content without sacrificing your sanity or home life. Adjustability. Your business is going to grow and change, and a skilled team of blog writers will be there to see you through it. Because bloggers are highly adaptable and adjustable, they’re the ideal people to have on your side – whether you need to create a blog post, press release, or a simple product description. Google’s Standards Now Demand Expert Writers While all the reasons I just mentioned are valid ones to hire blog writers, there’s one huge reason that rules them all: Google demands it. Last year, Google released the entire transcript of its Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines. The document was 160-pages long and designed to assist Google’s infamous human search quality evaluators understand what constitutes a quality site and what doesn’t. While there was plenty of highly useful information within the long document, two acronyms stood out: EAT and YMYL. EAT EAT stands for expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness and refers to three of the top things websites need to rank well in Google. The acronym, while useful on many levels, provides increased evidence for Google’s obsession with expert writers. Because there are so many low-quality web pages across the internet, Google rewards sites that offer high levels of EAT. Unfortunately, this is nearly impossible to obtain unless you hire a professional writer. For a page to have high levels of EAT, it must be concise, expert, and relevant. Be advised that these guidelines shift depending upon what type of page we’re dealing with. While a page that deals with breaking a young horse will require exactly as much expertise as a page that talks about how to become a stand-up comedian, the industries are slightly different and, as such, the knowledge required for each will be slightly different. While Google does differentiate between formal (Educated) and non-formal (lived) experience, it’s critical to have a high level of expertise to rank well in the search engine. YMYL While EAT describes what a page needs to rank well, YMYL provides some additional insight on which pages need the most of it. YMYL stands for “your money or your life” and is a critical acronym for marketers who want to improve their content across the board. You see, YMYL pages are distinct: they’re the web pages that have the potential to have a direct and negative impact on a person’s health, wealth, or well-being if the content within them is not perfect. These pages include financial advice pages, family law pages, any medical page, and the like. While YMYL pages have always been important, Google underscored how critical it is to have expert writers construct these back in 2015, and recently updated the Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines to reflect an increased importance on both EAT and YMYL. 5 Rules for Working with a Blog Writer Now that you … Read more

3 Easy Ways to Keep Up Your Blogging This Summer

December 31, 2020July 18, 2016 by Adam Oakley

Can’t wait to escape to the beach and enjoy your margarita this summer? Hold on there, if you’re a business owner or marketer… The sad news is your business and marketing won’t run itself, if you’re gone and no one else is left to run it. That’s especially true of your online presence, like blogging and social media. It might seem ridiculously tempting to just let the blog sit still for a month and take off, but here are some killer statistics that prove why you shouldn’t let your blog stagnate (even for a week). Why Consistent Blogging Wins Companies that blog have 97% more inbound links than those who don’t. That’s a LOT of SEO ranking juice. 92% of companies that blog more than once a day (that’s a lot of blogging) have won customers from their blog. And finally…ready for it? Marketers who use blogs generate 67% more leads than those who don’t. Why would you put all of that on hold for a month? Don’t let your online exposure and presence drop because of time off. The good news is that you don’t have to fold up that beach towel just yet. 3 Ways to Keep Your Blogging Healthy Despite the Summer Holiday Keep reading for my top three methods to have a consistent content flow to boost your online presence despite the summer vacation season. 1. Stock topics and keyword research in advance. This one’s very simple. I’ll break topic skeletons and keyword research topic searches into two points. #1: Topic skeleton fodder For the topic skeletons, all you need is Word and a couple hours of time. Come up with great blog topics by asking yourself a few questions and digging down with solid answers. It doesn’t even have to be perfect, what you write down: a professional blog writer can finalize your content to perfection and come up with headlines that will earn more clicks than your rough sketches. Here are a few questions to ask yourself. Outline your answers in a doc, which can be a rough sketch you send to your writer. Your story: Your founding story alone can make multiple great blog topics. Think of the value points of your company and why you believe in what you do. For example: “My T-shirt printing company stands out because of the ink we produce and the quality assurance we give our clients.” What are your client’s biggest pain points? Each pain point can make a new blog topic possibility. Example, “My T-shirt printing clients come to me with the problem that a lot of shirts are made cheaply. The print might come off in the wash or with use too quickly.” Aha! 7 Ways to Preserve Your T-Shirt Print-Ons, or How to Wash Your T-Shirt And Avoid Fading (Every Time). There you go – winning blog topics out of a few customer pain points. The second side of this point can garner a double list of blog topics. #2: Keyword Research For keyword research opportunities to help you come up with great SEO topics, I love SEMrush and KWFinder. It’s simple to research for your best keyword opportunities when using these tools. Check out my nutshell guide to keyword research for an in-depth guide. If keyword discovery requires too much time to figure out, check to see if the writing solution you’re using can do the keyword research for you. (We offer keyword strategy ourselves here.) 2. Invest in a blog writing service. There’s no way around this one. If you want your blog to literally run itself, you’ll need to invest in a good blog writer (or two). Here are key things to ask for when you’re reaching out to your potential blog ghostwriter so you can find a perfect fit: Writing samples: This is key. Those with experience will have a large portfolio available and diverse samples. Online & search optimization writing skills: Although the creative skills of a genius writer are at the core of successful online writing, and that should be your primary concern, you should check secondarily for a skill set in SEO content optimization skills. Make sure your writer knows how to write a unique meta description for every blog, meta title, and how to use your topical keywords naturally throughout the post. 3. Don’t just hire a writer; get a specialist who fits your industry. Have you heard of the Google E-A-T and Y-M-Y-L standards? Basically, Google looks for expertise, authoritativeness, and trust in every post going out on the web. For the intense industries, like finance or law, Google looks for even higher standards (Your Money or Your Life). You need an expert copywriter if your content falls in a high level category to get the most results out of your Google presence. To make sure your blogger can match these standards, ask for relevant samples in your industry and their real-life expertise in your niche (example, 10 years as a paralegal). Conclusion Don’t let summer get your ‪content strategy down. With a serious, active blog strategy, your leads, online presence and revenue will stay on the rise. It’s easy to enjoy time off when you have experts keeping your blog up. Invest in your online content today & save with code summer5. Visit the Content Shop.

The Floating-By Blogger Syndrome: How Not To Be Just Another Blogger

December 31, 2020April 7, 2016 by Adam Oakley

Have you ever felt like everyone in the world has a blog? If yes, you’re actually not too far off in your thinking. 58.6 million new blog posts are being published each month on WordPress; and there are over 76 million entire blogs that exist on WordPress. There are over 288 million more bloggers on Tumblr! With this many bloggers hooked up and running online, it can be difficult to understand how you could ever stand out from the crowd. There’s a seriously overflowing river (flood) of blogs. So, how are you going to excel in the middle of all of them? Or do anything but float by? While there are truly millions of active blogs out there, I have a little secret for you: many of them are lacking in what I’m about to show you. That means you DO have a chance, if you’re prepared to put in the elbow grease, dedicate yourself, and follow my tips. Read on to learn more about how you can prevent your blog from stagnating beneath the weight of the unhealthy, unsuccessful floating-by blogger syndrome. The Curse of the Floating-By Blogger Syndrome: Identifying the Floaters Regardless of the topic, writer, or platform, most blogs are snooze-worthy. They’re just another getup, floating by on the same raft structure every blog is using. Why? This unfortunate blogging syndrome has stemmed from the fact that everyone with some kind of brand, business, or story to tell, has heard from their brother, mother, sister, neighbor, marketer, or anyone really: you need to start a blog! Those that take this advice suddenly and without another thought become one of the following floating-by bloggers: Bloggers that don’t take the time needed to master the art of blogging. I mean the art of getting down, nitty-gritty, and write to stir emotions. Create to produce helpful thoughts that will shake the Internet. As Grant Cardone puts it—work to dominate, not compete. That’s the work involved in “mastering the art” of blogging. Bloggers that–wait for it–don’t write well. Many bloggers who have hastily taken the advice of “build a blog for your business now!” are poor writers, or are simply churning out content about topics they don’t care about. If there’s one floating-by type that irks me, it’s that one. Bloggers that just follow the lead of bloggers they admire without any new insights or thoughts, which has resulted in them being unoriginal carbon copies of other writers. Nothing new to see folks, just passing by here. The rushed blogger. They haven’t dedicated the time to find their niche, audience, people–and just blog in the dark without inspiration or a mission. Hence my coined term: the “Floating-by Blogger Syndrome.” Does it make sense now? These bloggers are all just floating by, and while they may be creating content, they’re failing to create anything original, unique, or attention-grabbing. With so many blogs in the world, it’s tough to imagine that many of them are the same, but it’s true. You could skim thousands of blogs right now and find that they all look and sound exactly alike. Gosh, it’s really become a sea, hasn’t it? In addition to the fact that cookie-cutter blogs clog up the Internet, they also don’t provide readers with the value they are so desperately seeking. Let’s talk about how you can completely miss the boat and reach a mountain instead: avoid the floating-by syndrome and become a stand-out blogger. 5 Ways to Be Better Than the Floating-By Blogger I guarantee that if you follow my five steps below, you have a 100% chance of NOT becoming the next floating-by blogger. 1. Focus on your audience Your blog is not about you. It’s not about your brand. Or what you want to sell. It’s all about, can I repeat that all about, the person you’re writing to and for. Too many blogs are bogged down in the mire of old-school SEO wisdom, sales tactics, and tired conventions. While things like keywords, CTAs, and optimization are important, they’re not the whole picture and bloggers that focus on them too much risk sacrificing the human connection that makes blogging work. To avoid this, be sure that you’re focusing on your audience and your topics first, and your message and ranking (CTA or your keywords) second. Developing an audience-focused perspective is a foreign concept for many bloggers, but it’s quite easy. It starts by asking yourself a few simple questions: Who is my audience? This question can be answered by defining a target audience. While the practice may seem a bit granular to some bloggers, it’s an incredibly important step in developing a genuinely audience-centric outlook. When you know who your target audience is, what they want, how they shop, and what they’re concerned about, you can create content that caters specifically to them. How will you reach your audience? Do you know which content formats your audience prefers? Do they love image-dense websites like The Verge or would they rather interact with your content through Tweets or long-form Facebook posts? Answer this question by taking the time to determine which of your content performs the best. If you’re still having a tough time determining where your audience most wants to find you, just ask them! Sites like SurveyMonkey can help you create simple surveys that provide you with valuable perspective into your audiences’ true desires. Make your topics deep. One of the most common mistakes floating-by bloggers make is that they fail to provide in-depth topics. All too often, bloggers assume that briefer is better, and they miss out on the value of long-form content. The truth is, long-form content converts better (about 37% better) than shorter content. In light of this, don’t be afraid to develop in-depth content that your readers can use as a guide. Provide actionable tips, relatable scenarios, plenty of images or screenshots, and a decent amount of links to help your readers find the information they’re looking for. They’ll thank you, and you’ll quickly become one of their favorite blogs on the web. 2. Work hard There is NO way around this. I spend hours and hours a week to create … Read more

From Start to Finish: A Guide On Creating & Maintaining a Solid Blog

August 25, 2022March 22, 2016 by Adam Oakley

Blogging is crucial for brands and businesses. One simple reason: marketers that blog get 67% more leads than those who don’t. If you haven’t launched your blog yet, or you have one but you’re not yet serious about it, it’s time you make that commitment. And I’m here to help you. If you’re ready to write for and launch your blog, just how do you launch a successful blog? Many people experience a fear of the blank page, or let’s say blank blog, and try to think up ways to conquer the world, or make a dent when they hurry up to meet a blogging schedule or launch their new blog. Then the worst of the worst happens, in the blogger world (or blogosphere). With no definite direction, newbies risk the all-too common problem of floating by: becoming the next sub-par blogger with no audience presence and no ranking potential on Google. Don’t be that blogger; read our guide to start off strong and maintain a blog that you’re proud to show off to your friends, family, and most importantly, potential customers. Your Brief But Ultimate Guide On Creating & Maintaining a Solid Blog After years of writing and publishing blogs, and with over 300 keywords in the top 10 pages of Google, I like to think that I know how to write blogs that rank; I’ve also been the most-read guest blogger at Search Engine Journal and Content Marketing Institute. So, here’s a few thoughts from my vault. I. How to Start a Blog Without further ado, here are thirteen ways to start and maintain a solid blog: and to make it easier, I’m going to break them up into I. How to Start a Blog & II. How to Maintain a Blog. 1. Find YOUR Niche Not just a niche but your niche. The one that makes you thrilled to wake up, excited to voice your thoughts on. Yeah – if you know that feeling, and you can identify what makes you feel that, you’re golden. And narrow down here. Do you like the business niche? Okay, what kind of business? Coaching entreprenuers? OK, what age group? You like young, inspired people? Okay, that’s your blogging niche. Could you be the world’s foremost peanut butter authority or an expert on locksmith tips for an average homeowner? Hone down, my friend, hone down. Find your niche and your viewpoint on any and everything about your topic. And here’s a tip for those who have a niche that’s somewhat broad and maybe a bit unoriginal. It’s okay: businesses and people may have been ruminating on the topic for years, but as long as you’re able to follow the next few steps, you’ll find yourself running with the big dogs. 2. Develop a Unique Idea and a Point Developing a unique idea is difficult and somewhat daunting, but it’s doable. Maybe you want to explore how to write a unique post in an in depth way that few bloggers, if anyone, has explored before. The post linked to in the last sentence isn’t necessarily a unique blog topic, as many people have explored how to write a unique post before, but it is very unique in its depth and how it gives the step-by-step process the author takes to come up with an idea, writing the blog, and posting it. Although you can also develop a unique blog post by giving broad strokes, you want it to be at least somewhat focused. A successful blog post won’t be titled “5 tips on X” and ramble for 1,000 words; you’ll get very few hits. What you can do is expand your idea and tie together seemingly disparate concepts in an interesting way. Unique spins show that you’re well versed in your topic as well as gives your blog some SEO weight. 3. Analyze the Competition and Keywords Figure out what the crux of your blog is and whittle it down to a key word or phrase (one to two words in most cases). Use SEMrush (see my guide here) to take a look at how often your SEO keyword is searched. If it looks good, make sure to put it in your title, description, and metadata. Also, have some minor keywords sprinkled throughout your post. This will generate a few more hits you wouldn’t have otherwise had. After you have your unique idea and keywords, analyze what you’re up against. Search common keywords related to your topic and check out what the competition on the first page looks like. Domain authority is a big one. If you’re up against heavy hitters and massive corporations, you may want to rethink your keywords. Again, keep it natural enough that the average person will search for it, but try to avoid going up against H&R Block if you’re blogging about tax law. You’ll also want to be mindful of backlinks. This will let you know if you’re going up against blogs or posts with 54 viewers or 54k viewers. Needless to say, one is easier to knock out than the other one. Finally, take note of the age of the blog. Shoot for blogs that are older and not updated or newer. Those are the low hanging fruit you want to compete against. Older blogs that are updated frequently get an air of authority about them in the search engines. 4. Research and Find Links There are two types of links that you’ll want to use to create a successful blog: internal and external links. Internal links are links to your own site. This will generate more hits to your site and show the search engines that people are staying on your page for longer. This correlates directly to domain authority. External links should be chosen carefully and should be to high-ranking sites. These links, again, add up to domain authority, a higher ranking in the search engines, and more page views. Keep in mind that this should come naturally. Ideally, backlinks in today’s SEO era come through shares: you reach out to someone who has a great site, ask them to share your content, and if they really like it, link to … Read more

15 Tactics To Start Using Today for Better Blogging

December 31, 2020February 23, 2016 by Adam Oakley

You’ve got a blog, but where are the readers? It’s gotten to the point where you’re wondering if you’ve got something worthwhile to say. If you’ve had this thought, even though you don’t know how to put it in action yet, I have good news–you’re headed in the right direction. It’s not just about reaching a lot of people. If you can reach millions and your content is useless, your Return On Investment (ROI) will be so low it doesn’t justify the time spent writing. There are some crucial things you can start doing right now, in the fundamentals of your blog writing process itself, that will turn around and bring you more readers and more success. Get on the road to better blogging today with a few simple, but key, tips. 15 Keys to Start Using Immediately And Get on a Path of Better Blogging You’ve got to have a good mix of value and reach, but finding that mix is daunting. Following is a list of fifteen ways that have proven successful in helping blogs reach a wider audience and becoming a better blogger, overall. 1. Outrage, Uplift, Mystery: Emotions in Headlines Matter! Whatever you’re writing, it needs to catch the eye and be emotional. Upworthy established a formula proven successful in the increase of clicks. It is comprised of creating headlines that alert customers of an “outrage” they can resonate with, uplifting them with the possibility of a solution or some other fulfillment, and establishing mystery throughout. Here are examples of headlines that use this formula: You Won’t Believe The Discount Opportunities This Weekend, Or The Secret Coupons Don’t Be A Victim Of Internet Scamming Through Hidden False Flag Social Media Campaigns Is Our Government Losing Its Mind? Insider Tips On Corporate Savings Note how each of these hits the reader in a relatable way at the beginning of the headline. Then, each title gives the reader a possible “uplift” (opportunities, don’t be a victim, tips). Finally, none of these titles give away enough information to let the reader move onward without clicking. Now, one thing I’d bet we all hate is the “click-bait-that-doesn’t-deliver” title. You know, the ones that get you to do a thousand clicks through a ton of ads before you can get anywhere. Don’t be that person. You can be honestly outrageous without outing a cold lie about what your content delivers. So, a couple do’s and don’t’s here: Do: Be authoritative, challenging, fun, and even shocking in your title–as long as your content delivers on what the title actually says. (Give them those coupons and the coupon code. Give them actual examples of those bad social media campaigns. Show them a list of 10 great insider tips–not something that’s common knowledge.) Don’t: Mislead. Click-bait title with no content that actually delivers on what you’re offering in the topic. (10 Ways You Can Actually Find Your Soulmate Today, for example, is pretty hard to fulfill on.) CoSchedule has some pretty awesome headline resources. Check out their headline analyzer and read their tips on how to get more emotional with your headlines. Check out the Advanced Marketing Institute’s headline analyzer as well. We also have a free guide with over 120 power words for better headlines: get it here. Playing around with that tool and utilizing guides with power words can get you great results. I worked on the headline of this very blog for about 20 minutes to get this score from the AMI tool: 2. Is Your Blog Mobile Friendly? Simple, but key. Half of all consumers conducting a search locally on their smartphone followed their search with a visit to the store within 24 hours, while only 34% did the same on a computer tablet. As smartphones become regular features of society, blogs that are easy to navigate on them will naturally increase in readership. When writing a blog, don’t forget to keep the mobile angle in mind. 3. Utilize Good Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Techniques 3 out of 4 people (75%) who conduct a search on a search engine won’t scroll further than the first page of results. This means that if your blog doesn’t show up within that first page, it is 75% less likely to even be seen. You’ve got to have it optimized for a search engine, and SEO techniques like keyword inclusion are a great way to do that. You shouldn’t go overboard with keywords, but the right amount will very likely increase your readership. Writing a good meta description for every blog is also a key of SEO blogging. Also, beyond outrage, uplift, and mystery, have a title that is likewise optimized with your keyword. 4. Aim Your Blog At The Right Audience (Share-ability) It’s all about opportunity cost. You want the greatest opportunity for the least cost. That means you want to aim your content at an audience who’s likely to share your blog. If you give your content value and properly engage this audience, you stand to see circulation in a way that’s wider than any solo efforts could produce (Moz). 5. Do You Have Share Buttons Visible on Every Blog Post? Not only that, but share your blog on every social media platform yourself. Making sure your share buttons are visible is important to give every reader a chance to share with their network. Twitter has nearly the entire population of the United States in worldwide users monthly making posts, Facebook has about one billion users that are active, while Google+ and LinkedIn both have constituents that transcend 300 million. Between the four of them, that’s 1.871 billion potential readers—though certainly some crossover between the platforms is to be expected. The point is, you’ve got at least a billion possible readers out there through social media, just waiting to check out your blog. Increasing readership through social media is really worth your time. A lot of people in the above-listed networks share content they agree with. If you get yours trending, the potential for cost-free marketing is high. I’ll give you a secret here, too: I’ve … Read more