Content Marketing Archives

3 Foolproof Techniques to Prepare Your Content For 2015

August 25, 2022January 2, 2015 by Adam Oakley

The New Year has been rung in: 2015. Can you believe it? I can’t either. I’m sure I will be saying the same thing when 2016 is on the horizon, but I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself. If anything was learned in 2014, it is that high quality content is not going away. It seems like content is continuing to dominate both the search engines and digital marketing strategies, with its value only continuing to increase. It’s safe to say that content is not a trend or ploy to pull traffic in your direction; it is an online marketing staple with nearly limitless potential. When it comes to preparing your content for 2015, you might be asking yourself exactly which direction you should take. Content marketing has several layers, and they nearly all need to be tapped into in order to yield the best results. To help you prepare your content for the New Year, we are breaking down the essential steps to getting your content on track in 2015. Furthermore, we will provide you with a guide to finding the best content to share with your readers, and we’ll throw in a few helpful how-to’s on getting inspiration and producing the very best content in your industry. It’s another big year for content in 2015, and here are the best 3 prep techniques for reaching your audience and converting that content into cash. Foolproof Technique #1: Starting 2015 With a Bang . . . And an Audit So, audits are not exactly fun, but they are a very logical starting point for preparing your content for 2015. There are several strategies for performing content audits, and the best approach really depends on how what tools you have access to and the platform that you use. The Manual Audit: Overview of Keywords and Word Count If your website contains a high volume of content, start with an Excel spreadsheet that lists the URL of every individual page. Take note of the keywords used within the content, the date it was published, and the word count. This is an opportunity to discover what content on your website needs improvement, whether it is from a word count standpoint, or your content is simply outdated and no longer relevant. Broken Links Bring Down Page Value Another essential step in your content audit is to identify broken links within your text. Google considers websites with broken links and bad information as low quality, which can ultimately hurt your website search rankings. Whether the link is internal within your own website or outbound, clicking on all existing anchor text can save you a lot of hassle in the long run. Identify Content Gaps: What’s Missing? Although you are analyzing all of the existing content on your website, there is another audit approach that’s just as important: content gaps. Identifying content gaps will help you understand where your website falls short in terms of content. For example, you built out your website several months ago, but forgot all about adding an About Us page. Believe it or not, Google looks for signs of a legit business through your content. If you are missing pages such as About Us or Mission Statement, it could potentially hurt your rankings. Identifying content gaps is also important from a competition standpoint. In fact, this is yet another way to help determine what’s missing from your own website. When you are visiting your competitor’s website, take note of the content that they have available. What do they have that you don’t? Whether it is a blog or a staple subpage, competitors can leave clues to what you are missing. In order to stay in the content game, you need to know where your content gaps lie. Extensive Guide For Manual Content Audits Manual content audits can be grueling, but luckily there are extensive and helpful guides that can help you through the process. In particular, Moz has a pretty in-depth guide that explains the process and purpose of a content audit. Following this guide can give you a clear understanding of the content audit. If you are looking for reading that is a little bit lighter, here is a shorter version of a content audit breakdown with some informative instructions. Performing Content Audits: WordPress Edition WordPress is a large-scale content management system that is used by amateurs and professionals alike. It’s the perfect solution for publishing content, as well as implementing SEO techniques with built-in plugins like Yoast for WordPress. Yoast is a highly effective plugin that helps content marketers properly optimize their websites using the best SEO practices. If you happen to be using WordPress as your content management system, you can easily perform your very own content audit with the help of this tool. Using Yoast as a Guide to Audit Content for 2015 Yoast is perfect for filling in the missing pieces of those little meta tags. Meta tags might be small in terms of content, but they are essential pieces to solving the content auditing puzzle. Your meta tags in Yoast can give clues as to how your audience views your website in the search engine pages, and they even impact your click-through rate that influences your web traffic. When you’re looking at the Yoast plugin, take note of your keyword and meta description. The first step to finding the best keywords for your website comes down to thorough research; this can be achieved with industry-leading keyword research tools such as SEMRush. Once you have your targeted keyword in place, be sure that it is used sparingly within the body of your content. The Yoast plugin also tracks keyword density, which is another vital factor to successfully ranking your content on Google. A high keyword density in your content can lead to trouble when Google’s Panda update rolls around. Your focus keyword should be primarily present in your meta description. Since the meta description is so short, you only need to use … Read more

10 Content Platforms to Post on in 2015

December 31, 2020December 26, 2014 by Adam Oakley

Believe it or not, 2015 is almost here, which means it is time to look at some great strategies to improve your content marketing campaigns. As we approach the New Year, start considering the different content platforms you are posting on and those that you are not. I am going to take a look at ten great platforms that you should be using in 2015 to help you out. What’s ahead? 2015 is not only the year of the hoverboard and excruciating futuristic 80s-wear; it is also the year to improve your content campaigns! Let’s take a look at some great content platforms you can use to improve your content sharing. Why Should You Use Multiple Content Platforms? It might seem like a bit much to share your content on multiple platforms. Sure, sharing content on social media and a blog is fine, but do you really need to share it on other platforms? Sharing on multiple content platforms helps to make sure you are reaching a wider audience and broadening your chances of getting more customers and revenue. The reality is, no one person likes to read or consume his or her content the same way. Some people like webinars, others infographics, and some want in-depth pieces. This is why posting to multiple platforms with different content styles is a great idea. Here are a few platforms that get your content out to your audience in different ways, ensuring that you can reach more than one type of customer! 1. LinkedIn is Great for a Professional Audience. Way back in February, places such as Search Engine Land started informing everyone that LinkedIn finally opened blogging for everyone, not just influencers. This meant that your small business could post a blog about your industry and get quite the amount of views. This is a great change for businesses, but it seems that over the long months since, not many realize just how important this platform can be for their content. Writing content on LinkedIn can help you reach a different audience than your web page might be reaching, and you might have a chance to make possible connections with industry leaders. How can you create successful content for you LinkedIn? Here are a few great suggestions from Search Engine Watch: Make sure you choose topics your LinkedIn audience wants to read. Be consistent with your posts and consider posting once a week. Keep your LinkedIn article short at about 800 words. Make sure you always respond to comments on LinkedIn content. If you haven’t been posting content to LinkedIn, then you need to make a change to your content campaign for 2015! This is going to be a big part of getting people to your site. 2. Facebook is Still Relevant. Regardless of what you might be hearing, Facebook is still relevant for content and it will be for quite some time. No matter how many social media sites pop up, it seems Facebook stays stronger than ever. The question about relevancy came about when Copyblogger deleted their Facebook account saying they weren’t reaching the amount of people they believed they should. This led to their decision that Facebook isn’t relevant anymore. However, it was shown that their Facebook posts happened to be incredibly un-engaging. Facebook will still be relevant in 2015, and even with a few new social platforms on the horizon, it doesn’t seem like we will see the end of this social channel for a few more years. If you need a little more convincing about the importance of Facebook for your business’s content, here are some great reasons: Practically everyone has a Facebook nowadays, which gives you the chance to reach a wide audience. You have to create engaging content for Facebook, so why not focus on engaging content for every channel and your blog? People want engaging content no matter where your content is posted. It allows you to connect with clients easier than most other social and content platforms. 3. Twitter Reaches a Wider Audience. When you use Twitter, you get another chance to reach a wider audience. It allows you to interact quickly with your clients and, for many, it feels more personal than Facebook. Twitter requires you to respond directly to a mention or reply, which helps add that personal touch many might lack with other social sites like Pinterest or even Facebook. Since Twitter is very much a “real time” social site, this means that when you post your tweet, it has a chance of being seen immediately by the people who are following you. This can be perfect because you may find more people click on a link on Twitter when they see it right away. If you are using Twitter already, that is great! If you aren’t, now is the time to get on it because it can be a great tool to use in 2015. As we approach the New Year, those who have Twitter should consider changing the strategies, and those who plan to get one can use a few tips as well! When posting on Twitter remember these few simple facts: Add high-quality pictures to your tweets. Photographs have proven to up engagement on Twitter quite a bit! People really like images. Fill everything out and add a profile and cover photo. Create captivating, yet short headlines for your content and other items you share. Don’t hesitate to interact with people! Your clients will really enjoy having someone to chat with. 4. YouTube Connects with Audiences in a Different Way. This tends to be a social channel that goes widely unappreciated and unnoticed by many. This is a great channel to use to add more media to your content, and give clients something more to watch and interact with. You might think that you can just load some videos to something like Dropbox, but YouTube can help you boost interaction and it gives people a central location to find a business’s videos. When using YouTube, … Read more

How Chipotle is Nailing Their Content With The Cultivating Thought Series

December 31, 2020December 22, 2014 by Adam Oakley

Unique content campaigns are a great way to reach out to your audience and give them something valuable. This is exactly what the ever-popular restaurant Chipotle did with their recent campaign, publishing a series called The Cultivating Thought Author Series. What is this and how can you learn from it for your campaign? I am going to take a look at The Cultivating Thought series and give you some excellent insights that can help you improve your very own campaigns to get major success! Let’s take a look. What is The Cultivating Thought Author Series? Ah—Chipotle, the yummy Mexican food eatery that sets anyone’s stomach to growling the instant one reads the eatery’s name! Have you tried their special lime tortilla chips? You don’t know what you’re missing out on till you do. They dip and fry them in lime juice for a succinct, wondrous lemony-lime flavor on salty tortilla chips. This company isn’t only known for their food, however. No matter what, they always find numerous, excellent ways to do content marketing to bring in new clients and maintain their existing ones. Each time they’ve released a new campaign, they’ve done something unique, and we’ve had a chance to learn from them. Their latest bit of content marketing is a unique series known as The Cultivating Thought Author Series where well-known authors are creating new content for the company. It was started because someone suggested that the company did something with the blank spaces on their cups and food bags. In a smart move, Chipotle decided to follow what the customer, Jonathan Safran Foer, suggested and asked 10 well-known authors to write stories for the different cups and bags. This created a fun, unique series for customers. As I said, the idea came from Jonathan Safran Foer, and he happens to also be the curator for the series. The ten authors are: Toni Morrison, Sarah Silverman, Bill Hader, Malcolm Gladwell Jonathan Safran Foer Michael Lewis Judd Apatow George Saunders Steven Pinker Sheri Fink Chipotle is known for having a great sense of humor and being well ahead of most of their competitors when it comes to the content game. When you order food and drinks next time at Chipotle, take the chance to read the cups and bags to see what story and author you got! Who knows, maybe people will start trading them like cards? How Does this Work with Consumers? This creates a great chance for customers to read and engage while also sharing and comparing with other customers. This can create a great atmosphere for everyone inside the business, and can make friends and family have a fun time together. Going out to eat is always fun, but Chipotle wanted to add just another piece of fun to the equation. But how does this work with consumers? It seems pretty easy, and straightforward – it engages them. How likely are you to post a picture of a blank cup on social media? Not very likely, unless you’re going for that hipster shot, but that usually only works with a coffee cup. Now, how likely are you to post a picture of a cup with a story on it? Very likely! In fact, you might post it and hashtag #Chipotle #CaptivatingThoughtSeries and whichever author you got, which helps spread more awareness about the campaign. When this happens, more people are willing to head to Chipotle and get food to see what stories they get. I know I have an inclination to head to the nearest Chipotle to experience this! Why is it Such a Great Idea? You might be wondering just why this is such a great idea for Chipotle. They’ve already shown that they are a quality eatery with affordable prices and have a few fun campaigns already, so why is this a good idea? Because The Captivating Thought Author Series invokes humanity’s favorite aspect of life – storytelling. All you have to do is take a walk in a bookstore or movie shop to see just how much we love stories. There are tons of different ones everywhere we look, so why not include stories on cups and bags when we eat out? Chipotle understands the importance of storytelling and makes sure that they use it to engage their audience and make them feel like part of the company. The Captivating Thought Author Series focuses on telling different stories and you never know which one you will get when you head to the restaurant. It can be pretty exciting knowing you are going to get something unique and valuable when you go out to eat! How Can You Do Something Similar with your Content? Now that you’ve seen how this works and why it is a great idea, you might be wondering how you can get something similar. You realize that you can’t get well-known authors for your campaign, but that doesn’t mean you can’t gain inspiration from Chipotle. Let’s take a look at a few ways to get a similar campaign for your business! Listen to Your Customers. The main thing that helped this campaign get off the ground is that chipotle listened to its customers. When Mr. Foer suggested this idea, the company went ahead and started thinking about what they could do. In fact, they approached him, involving him in the process, making sure they were able to capture his idea for the campaign. This shows how important it is to listen and involve your customers. You might have a few successful campaigns if you don’t listen, but they will be much more successful if you listen. Involving customers and learning what their ideas are can help you create the perfect campaign, reaching your audience where they are with what they want. Use Stories in Your Content. Chipotle also focuses on an important piece of content marketing that some people are overlooking – storytelling. As I said above, humanity really loves stories, so when you use stories in your content campaign, … Read more

5 Awesome Holiday Content Ads

December 31, 2020December 19, 2014 by Adam Oakley

Christmastime is here, which means there are several great holiday content ads out and about—from the TV to out there in the wild. This year, while I made my Christmas shopping rounds, I decided to carry my superpower copywriter glasses and along the shopping way, caught a few great Christmas ads and setups to inspire you for Christmas and holiday marketing. I saw many a Santa, Rudolph’s red nose a-gleaming in multiple locations, and heard Christmas carols till I couldn’t anymore. It was really a great time and I am happy to share some of what I saw with you! Here are a few stores and a charity that really captured the Christmas advertising spirit! 1. Salvation Army – Firefighters and Bag Pipes. While out doing my Christmas shopping, I noticed that there were several bell ringers out for the Salvation Army. This is something that I absolutely enjoy about the holidays because many people will feel more inclined to give during the season, helping many. However, I’ve recently noticed that the volunteers seem to blend into the background and some people might just ignore them in the hustle and bustle of gift buying. When I was walking up to a store on my Christmas route, I noticed something different about some volunteers – they were firefighters and one had bagpipes. Mr. Bagpipe Guy (this is his unofficial name) wasn’t playing anything yet; just chatting with other shoppers. I went inside the store to buy my gifts and some decorations, and when I headed through the crowds and checkout lines to the door, I heard Mr. Bagpipe Guy playing Greensleeves. He then switched to other Christmas hymns as shoppers bustled in and out. However, every single shopper made sure to take a few seconds out of their busy shopping to gather some change and drop it into the donation bucket. I thought this was absolutely brilliant on the Salvation Army’s part! People are more willing to support the men and women who protect us, no matter what line of work they are in. And who doesn’t like hearing bagpipes play on Christmas – there’s just something very Christmas-like about them. While not exactly an ad, this probably helped bring in more donations for the Salvation Army. 2. Bass Pro Shops. If you live in the Midwest or South (or a few select Northern areas) then you know all about Bass Pro Shops. Whether you are a hunter, fisher or just like some great quality flannel, you know Bass Pro is the place to go. Bass Pro happened to be on my route of Christmas shopping. Currently, there isn’t a major season such as hunting or fishing that Bass Pro would normally advertise for, except, of course, Christmas. They had deals galore for everything from camouflage to Under Armor and various nice clothing. One thing I did notice is that Bass Pro is taking the flannel fad and are making it readily available and mostly affordable with many Christmas deals. This is a great example of jumping on the latest trend wagon even if you don’t know how you can market to certain demographics. They marketed the flannel shirts as great gifts for family and friends, with fashion tips for how to wear it or advice on how certain flannel is good for cold weather camping or wearing around the house. Bass Pro made sure to incorporate the holiday spirit into all of their advertisement and they even have a Santa Claus for kids to get pictures with. This gives families from all over the chance to go to a shop that interests them while still enjoying the holidays. I love seeing the various Santa Claus’ everywhere and think this is a perfect holiday ad. How many people are more willing to buy from a store after seeing Santa? I’m sure many of us are! Santa just says, “Merry Christmas!” Everyone who sees him can’t help but smile and get into the Christmas spirit. 3. Locally Owned Bookstores Know How to Sell Books. While I was out and about, the one thing I really wanted to do was buy a few books for friends at locally owned shops. I enjoy supporting local as much as possible because it helps support more than just the shop, but my community as well. This particular store has had a pretty awesome social media approach to the holidays sharing photos when it snows as well as photos of Christmastime from various stock photo sites. When you walk in the store, you are instantly greeted and the smell of old books greets you, as well. The bookstore is prepped and ready for Christmas and they constantly encourage followers to support local for the holidays. I really enjoyed this and thought their holiday social media approach was really a great way to bring people in this holiday season. 4. Target Isn’t Just Celebrating Christmas and the New Year. One thing I find very important when it comes to the holiday season is for stores to have sections available for other holidays celebrated around Christmastime. The most well known holiday is that of Hanukkah, or the Festival of Lights, which lasts eight days. Many stores only market for Christmas, or, if they market for the Jewish holiday, they only have a small end cap tucked away in a corner. However, Target understands what it means to, well, hit the marketing target and reach out to a wider audience. As I went through their store, I saw content ads galore for Christmas and even went to their “Christmas Shop,” which is filled with tons of Christmas décor. However, on my way, I couldn’t help but notice their rather large and obvious section of Hanukkah decorations, cards, gift ideas, and hilarious toys, including Mensch on a Bench. This is a great idea for those who celebrate the holiday for religious or family reasons, as well as those who would like to keep the tradition alive. The combination of Christmas … Read more

12 Blogs of Christmas: Express Writers’ Most Visited Blogs of 2014

December 31, 2020December 16, 2014 by Adam Oakley

Here at Express Writers, every day feels like Christmas with top-notch content that keeps on giving. We had our share of popular blog posts this year, not to mention a pleasant surprise from a Google update not too long ago, resulting in a huge bump in web traffic flow. Speaking of web traffic, we decided to have a little fun and conduct a Christmas time roundup of our 12 most popular blogs this year. These particular blogs had a high amount of organic traffic, and it makes us smile ear-to-ear knowing that our content is spreading cheer all year long. With our 12 best blogs of Christmas, you’ll find 12 more good reasons that content marketing is a game changer in your overall online marketing strategy. 12. Content Marketing in 2014: 11 Predictions to Expect We can’t all have a glimpse into the future like Mr. Scrooge, but we can certainly make guesses as to where content marketing will take us each year. In the beginning of 2014, we made a few solid predictions as to where content marketing is heading. We predicted that social media will play a larger role in content marketing this year. So far, this has been the case with the recent push in content curation and using unique content as an engagement element. This really comes as no surprise, since social media is all about connection and sharing useful information. We also predicted that top quality content will be in huge demand. This is becoming more and more prevalent, especially with Panda rolling out regular updates. As content marketing experts, our audience looks to us for guidance and future trends. We already pulled together a few content marketing predictions for 2015. Let’s see if this becomes a top blog post for next year’s round up. 11. Content Marketing vs. Copywriting: Top Strategies for 2014 Content marketing and copywriting are sometimes used interchangeably to those who don’t understand the difference. However, copywriting and content marketing go hand-in-hand for creating the most compelling content possible. Copywriting is the seed that makes the content marketing flower grow. Content marketing is all about engagement, establishing connections, and educating your audience. In order to market your content effectively, it must be well written and easy to understand. This blog gives a smart yet simplistic breakdown of content marketing and copywriting. With its useful techniques and helpful hints, this blog comes in at number 11 on our top 12 blogs of Christmas. 10. Comprehensive PR Writing Guide with Press Release Examples Writing press releases can be a bit tricky. Formatting alone can trip you up, and then there’s the question of what to talk about. In our number 10 blog on this list, we wrote a step-by-step guide that includes best practices for press release writing. This guide is educational and helpful: two primary elements that takes content marketing to higher levels. With our useful templates and tactics, readers can discover the best ways to write press releases with a kick. 9. 34 of The Craziest Words in English At Express Writers, we like to have a little fun with our blogs (and so should you). To take a step back from industry news and how-tos, we put together a quirky list with 34 of the craziest words in English. Our number 9 blog hits both the entertainment and education elements, which translates to a hole-in-one for awesome content marketing. Blogs in this style are super sharable and fun to read, which is a big reason why it performed so well on a web traffic level. 8. How to Blast Off Your SEO Content Rankings for 2014 Making more money and gaining new business is a goal for nearly every company on the face of the earth. Tech-savvy business owners understand that SEO and content marketing are gold mines for growing your business, and having a plan in place will put you on the path to success. Our number 8 blast-off blog helps readers to create a smart strategy for the upcoming year. The good news is that these tips are still helpful for 2015; it’s not too late to get your SEO and content goals in gear. 7. Why & How You Should Create Infographics For Your Company Content marketing isn’t always about writing. Infographics have become a big hit over the last few years, and they’re a perfection solution to presenting your content in a new light. We all know how important visuals are to hammering our message home, and this is why infographics are so essential for content marketing. Our number 7 blog highlights the popular techniques and uses for infographics, along with tips for creating an infographic of your very own. 6. 5 Rules of Copywriting You Should Never Break OK, so there’s the saying that rules are meant to be broken. In copywriting, that statement shouldn’t apply. This commandment-style breakdown does an excellent job of overviewing the essential rules of copywriting. In our number 6 blog of Christmas, we’re keeping it simple for our readers: follow these rules, and thou shalt have content marketing success. 5. A Timeline History of Web Copywriting The 5th blog of Christmas is more of an infographic, but it still scored high with our readers nonetheless. Our beautifully designed (and Pinterest worthy) infographic gave an interesting history lesson in SEO and content marketing, and we included a convenient embed code for our readers to share. Making history interesting can be a challenge, but adding pretty pictures and useful content made our goal easily achievable. This blog scored high organic traffic because it is educational, relevant, and linkable. 4. The Next Big Thing in SEO Content? Using Citations and Internal Linking With SEO, there always seems to be the next big thing — this time, it’s citations and internal linking. Citations are nothing new in the world of Internet marketing, and they are used to give credit to online media and information sources. Internal linking helps Google understand the hierarchy of a … Read more

5 Tools Everyone in The Blogging Industry Should be Using

December 31, 2020December 12, 2014 by Adam Oakley

It’s tough being a blogger. You spend hours of time on the web as you strategize, plan, and carefully craft your perfect post. You face deadlines, lack of motivation, and writer’s block. Not to mention, you could really use an assistant. Oh, and coffee. Lots of coffee. Sound accurate? As a blogger, you might think that you are on your own in terms of perfecting your craft. Lucky for you, your life is about to get a little bit easier. Whether you are a seasoned blogger or you are just at the beginning of your career, there are a lot of tools available on the web that can help bloggers stay on track and fight writer’s block. Blogger to blogger, here are 5 tools that are bound to keep your fingers flowing on that keyboard. 1. The Wonders of Blogging With WordPress Still using Blogger or another old school blogging platform? If so, it is time to get a little bit of WordPress love in your life. WordPress was originally started as a simple blog platform solution. However, it has experienced explosive growth over the last several years, morphing into the ultimate content management system that it is today. WordPress offers many benefits to bloggers, and you are truthfully crazy if you have yet to convert. So, what is it about WordPress that makes it so spectacular for bloggers? For starters, it is super simple to use and customize. While older blog platforms only allow you to change your background and maybe your font face, WordPress allows you to create an entire functioning website around your blog. If you are not a web designer and shudder at the thought of HTML, you are in luck. WordPress contains literally millions of themes that give you a beautifully designed website with the click of a button. It really is that easy. To take the benefits of WordPress a step further, Google actually favors WordPress websites and blogs. WordPress also contains built-in SEO plug-ins that you can install to help give your blog an extra boost. These advantages only skim the surface of why WordPress makes an excellent tool to bloggers. What are you waiting for? 2. Can’t Keep Track Of Your Posts? Enter the Editorial Calendar So, this blogger tool is mostly developed by you, but it a necessity and really helps bloggers to stay organized. There are several ways to go about creating an editorial calendar; one being a simple Excel spreadsheet. Depending on your posting frequency, you can plan your blogs day-by-day, week-by-week, or even month-by-month. Consider splitting your blog topics into categories, such as posts that are trending, seasonal, news, and how-tos. Another way to create an editorial calendar is by literally using an online calendar. Google Calendar in particular has a pretty decent set up to help keep you on track. If you still doubt your ability to make a solid editorial calendar on your own, there are free templates available that you can mold to fit your needs. For example, Hubspot offers a free and convenient editorial calendar to get you started. Staying organized as a blogger and knowing exactly what topic to write about will make your job a breeze. You know what they say – failing to plan is planning to fail. 3. Never Have Any Good Ideas? Hubspot Helps With That As one of my favorite tools for bloggers, Hubspot’s Blog Topic Generator is perfect for coming up with fresh ideas when you are in a pinch. One of the greatest obstacles that every blogger faces is wondering what to write about next. I don’t know about you, but I am not a fan of wasting time while trying to figure out my next blog topic. The blog topic generator is super simple to use. Type in 3 nouns that relate to your industry, and click the button for instant ideas. The disclaimer here is that this tool is not fool proof. Sometimes it generates topics that do not make much sense. A little common sense goes a long way with this tool, but I think it is a lot of fun and pretty useful. 4. Tracking Your Visits With Google Analytics Most bloggers want to know how much traffic is pouring onto their blog on a regular basis. One of the best tracking systems, hands down, is Google Analytics. Google Analytics will give you an overview of specific blog topics that are performing well on a traffic level, and what posts aren’t making the cut. You will see your bounce rate in analytics, which gives you an idea of how engaged your audience is with your website. Google Analytics also can measure your tracking coming in from social media, so you will know exactly how much traffic your Facebook or twitter account is pushing to your blog. Analytics has tons of cool and useful bells and whistles. There are a lot of useful features to explore, and they can all help analyze your best content. Every blogger can absolutely benefit from the power of Google Analytics. 5. Wordfence Security Keeps Your Blog More Secure The reality of owning your own blog is that there is a very real possibility that your site can become hacked. If you are on the WordPress platform, there is a free plug-in called Wordfence that will alert you of any potential threats that occur on your website. This includes attempted anonymous logins and security updates. Hackers can find loopholes to enter your site through old and outdated code, so always be sure to update your WordPress website as requested by Wordfence. This tool can save bloggers a lot of headache and heartache. Don’t put yourself in a position where you become the next horror story. Now that you know 5 essential tools that all bloggers should be using, you can start increasing your productivity while making your blogging career both simple and streamlined. Featured photo credit: ilkefoto / iStock

9 of The Worst Blog Writing Pit Falls To Avoid

December 31, 2020December 7, 2014 by Adam Oakley

How difficult is it to blog like a pro? The rules are simple, right? You can just write about topics that you’re familiar with, update the blog regularly and interact with your audience if you get any comments. Unfortunately, being successful requires a bit more than adherence to these very general rules. Many bloggers and copywriters have had to learn this the hard way. We’re here to help you not do that. Blogging pit falls come in all possible shapes and sizes but some could be more detrimental to brand establishment than others. We’ve compiled a list of some truly bizarre and funny blog writing errors. This is your opportunity to learn from the mistakes of others rather than experience the consequences of such shortcomings on your own. 1. Both Bad: Too Short, Too Long How would you react to a blog post that is 150-word long? Yes, some bloggers do think that the length is sufficient to present an idea and back it up with some evidence. How about the exact opposite – a blog post that exceeds 4,000 words? Who has time for that, right? Discovering the golden standard when it comes to blog post length involves staying away from the extremely short and the boringly long. Some of the best ranking pieces online are 2,416-words long. Blog post length that falls below 200 words can seriously jeopardize the search engine ranking of the blog or the website. Just think about it – how much can you say in 200 words? These will add up to just a few paragraphs, which is totally insufficient to present an interesting idea, develop it and support it with evidence. On the other hand, it’s important to refrain from getting carried away. Say what you need to say and stop. The audience doesn’t have time for all of your ideas and the concepts that you want to share with the world. It’s best to break it up in several different blog posts than to overdo a single one. This approach will also enable you to link the posts to each other, thus helping the audience explore more of your content and visit a bigger number of pages. 2. Not Breaking It Up: The Large Chunk of Text & Other Bad Styling Imagine searching for a topic of interest and coming across a title that sounds promising. You follow the link and come to a page featuring a large, uninterrupted chunk of text. It goes on and on for the next 1,000 words. Even if the content is great, chances are that you’ll give up on the piece after struggling through the second lengthy sentence. Poor formatting, large paragraphs and endless sentences interfere with readability and make it impossible for the audience to reach the end of the text. Many people will get bored with this kind of structure even when it comes on a printed page. Trying to go through the endless paragraph on a screen is going to be even more challenging. Here’s a simple visual example that will shed some light on why formatting is so important for the readability of blog posts: Formatting does make a difference with the second style being much easier on the eye and encouraging scanning through the text. Think about it the next time you feel the urge to write a lengthy paragraph that is full of convoluted, complex sentences. Another example of bad styling is consistently bolded text. Bold and capitalized text can be used to put some emphasis on the most important parts of the text. When every second word comes in a bold font and the author uses capital letters to share an exciting idea, however, the reader feels as if the content is “screaming for attention. Need a visual example? Here’s one: Words in bold and italic look different from the rest of the text, which is why the eye of the reader is immediately drawn to these parts of the content. Abuse in terms of text formatting, however, accomplishes the exact opposite – it confuses the reader and leads to the lack of focus. Using subtitles and pull quotes is a much better idea in terms of creating structure. The same applies to bulleted and numbered lists. This example expands the idea of how bad a large chunk of text is. In essence, formatting is as important as having quality content. Even the most brilliant article will become virtually unreadable because of poor formatting. While we are still discussing this point, it’s a good idea to mention the importance of font selection and text color. Fancy fonts may look great on an ad but they will do very little for the audience. Avoid gothic, handwritten and funky fonts because they’ll often make the text unreadable. The same applies to white text on black background. Try reading an entire article this way and you’ll know what we mean: 3. Doing Too Much Self-Promotion & Blogging Selfishly It may seem bizarre that some people would still attempt to sell through every aspect of their online presence. Excessively promotional and spammy blog posts are still a major problem that newbies deal with. Unfortunately, this problem can lead to the devastating loss of visitors. When looking for content, people want to read something informative, original or entertaining. Having a call to action at the end of the post or discretely mentioning a product or two is acceptable, as long as the text provides a lot of valuable information. According to Hubspot, excessive focus on promotion, especially if it comes with a misleading title, is a certain way of aggravating the audience and making sure that people are never going to come back to the blog. Now what do I mean by blogging selfishly? I mean blogging only about the titles you care about without considering your audience. Just like writing a cliché blog posting is a really bad idea, trying to go for something exceptionally niche and industry-specific isn’t going to be good either. … Read more

The Story of Thanksgiving: Celebrating Thanksgiving Content

January 1, 2021November 27, 2014 by Adam Oakley

All you have to do is head to your local grocery store to notice Thanksgiving is almost here. There are turkeys everywhere and all of the essentials for a Thanksgiving Day meal. There is nothing quite like walking into a store and smelling pumpkin or pecan pie baking in the bakery, and my stomach grumbles at the thought of delicious food that my family plans to make. I’m sure you’re in the same boat! It is a great day to give thanks, spend time with family, and also offers a unique marketing chance for all companies (if done correctly). I am going to take a look at the history of Thanksgiving, what it has morphed into in the modern age, and the some brands who have incredible marketing strategies! Don’t worry; I’ll also give you some great tips for your Thanksgiving content and marketing. The Story of Thanksgiving: A Brief History It’s hard to miss the basis of Thanksgiving Day history when you head to your kid’s school or the local library. You see tons of adorable little pilgrims and Native Americans in their paper gear, giggling and showing off their cornucopia drawings. What is the full history, however? In 1621, the Pilgrims celebrated a day of thanksgiving to show thanks for the crops and harvest they had. They were taught how to grow crops on the land by the now infamous Squanto who helped them not only with crops, but also by being a translator between the pilgrims and his tribe. His tribe leader even donated food to the pilgrims for their festival. Historians believe it lasted three days as many harvest festivals in the 1600s did. Three days? Can you imagine three days of turkey, stuffing, and pecan pie? That would be a great tradition to re-kindle, don’t you agree? After the initial day of thanksgiving, there were a few more celebrations in later years, but it was never officially recognized as a civic holiday until the 1800s. In 1863, Abraham Lincoln declared that there needed to be a national day of thanksgiving and remembrance, and thus Thanksgiving Day was born. To make things easier on everyone (much to future generations approval) the celebration is the fourth Thursday in November. While we still celebrate Thanksgiving Day on the fourth Thursday of November, the day has seen a lot of changes. Some of our traditional foods aren’t entirely traditional to the feast the pilgrims had, but it is still fun to celebrate this long lasting holiday here in the States. Let’s take a look at the modern times Thanksgiving! Current Day Celebrations: My, My, How Time Changes There have been many changes to the holiday, namely that of football and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. People gather around the TV to watch these festivities, which is a far cry from what the holiday used to be – family sitting around a table together. People still do this, and many families have rules that the TV must go off at a certain time in order to be together and talk. However, television plays a major part in many Americans’ Thanksgiving celebrations. The hallmark aspect of Thanksgiving is obviously giving thanks for what we have. It started out as a religious holiday where people gave thanks to God for all that he provided. However, it has steadily changed from being religious to something where families discuss what they are thankful for, without attending religious services. Some local churches may have events, but nowadays the most important aspect of Thanksgiving is spending time with family. Many times this incorporates a lot of traveling whether driving or flying to meet with extended family. There are many amazing traditions that we now have in the modern era of Thanksgiving, and many hope to never see these go away. These are: Eating turkey baked in the oven with sides of mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans in different forms, pie (lots of pie), and stuffing. The meal changes from family to family and depends on the location. The South has seen more people deep-frying turkeys and many on the East Coast seem to prefer cranberries with their meals. Turkey Day football! What makes the American Thanksgiving uniquely American is the fact that we can watch our favorite sport – football. We love parades, and there is never a shortage of those leading up to and on Thanksgiving with the most famous being Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Donating to charity and feeding the homeless on Thanksgiving Day. This is something many families will join together to do on Thanksgiving and celebrate the day together at a later time. People hand out Thanksgiving meals to those in need, providing amazing charity. And of course, the day after Thanksgiving – Black Friday. The name doesn’t harken to the Grim Reaper, but to where businesses’ budgets will be after shopping is finished. Now that you know the history and how it morphed into our modern day celebration, I am going to look at a few brands that have marketed for Thanksgiving in perfect ways. The Top 6 Brands Who Do Excellent Thanksgiving Content 1. The NFL. No one can out-do the NFL when it comes to Thanksgiving Day marketing. They know that this holiday is a big day for them and they make sure to put their best forward. The NFL makes sure to use every channel of social media they can push their Thanksgiving Day games and provides schedules as soon as possible for viewers to plan out their day. In 2013, the NFL knew that if they were going to reach an audience quickly, they needed to be on Instagram. In fact, the social media site announced that it had some of the highest traffic on Thanksgiving, which makes sense as everyone wants to show off their meals. The NFL published a schedule on their Instagram account, making it accessible to their followers. Such a neat idea! This is a great example of knowing where your … Read more

Awesome Blogging: 20 Tips From An Expert

December 31, 2020November 16, 2014 by Adam Oakley

About 15 years ago, it was virtually unheard of for businesses to have their own blog. At the time, blogs were mostly diaries in disguise (Livejournal, anyone?), and very few companies had even heard of the concept of blogging for business. Content marketing was anything but a topic of conversation, and some small businesses lagged behind on having any type of web presence at all. As the concept of having a company website became more and more prevalent, keeping the website updated and maintained became another battle. It became clear that having a company website was anything but a fad, and businesses soon had to incorporate ideas of standing out from their competition online. The web was a blank canvass for upcoming business blogs, and the competition was about to explode throughout the new millennium. Fast forward: it’s now almost 2015. While not every single company possesses a blog these days, many of them do. It’s interesting to see companies that have a smart blogging strategy in place, and those who aren’t too dedicated to managing their own blog. If companies aren’t currently blogging, the typical reasons include: Not enough time Fresh out of ideas Don’t know where to start 20 Techniques To Blow Up Your Business Blogging If you manage a company blog and you’re experiencing one or all three of these set backs, today is your lucky day. I’ve been around the blogging block a time or two, and I can tell you what kind of techniques work for creating, managing, and writing your very own blog. The following tips will enhance your online presence while having a blog that’s easy and entertaining to read for your customers. After all, isn’t that overall goal? 1. How’s That Headline? Did you know that 80% of customers will read your headline, but only 20% will actually read anything beyond? Think of all that hard work you put into your blog, only to have your customers click the back button. Writing powerful headlines is an absolute must for generating any kind of engagement. Think about it from your own point of view: if this blog post was entitled “20 Ways to Write a Nice Blog Post”, would you ever click on it? If I were a betting woman, I would definitely bet no. No one likes a boring read. Put some thought into that headline. 2. Verbs, Not Adjectives. While adjectives have their place, using verbs in your blog has the potential to create some very compelling copy. Some of my personal favorite verbs include: Dazzle Compel Astonish Bewilder Captivating Conquer Delight Discover Putting verbs in your headline or copy inspires people to take action. Taking action leads to conversion. What does this mean? Verbs are power words for your blogging strategy. Not to mention, they are pretty fun to write with. Give it a try. 3. Spark Some Emotion. Notice that all of my favorite verbs are related to some form of emotion. If you want to write a strong blog, you’re going to have to write something that sparks some form of emotion: preferably a positive one, since most people aren’t going to respond too well to negative emotion. Connecting to people on an emotional level gives them something that they can find as relatable. If you can get your customers relating to your company or product, that’s a big part of the battle. That’s when they become emotionally invested, and that is exactly what you want. 4. Become an Inspiration. Isn’t it great to feel motivated and inspired? Help your customers feel the same. While inspiration can come in many forms, use your sources to better your community or the life of a person in need. If you have an interesting background of how you came from poverty and built your business from the ground up, people will want to hear your story. Depending on your industry, you can take this in many directions. You can inspire people to get healthy, get an education, or even seek treatment for an addiction. 5. Write Longer Posts. Sorry folks, but two paragraphs are not going to cut it. In fact, three or four paragraphs probably won’t take you very far, either. Studies have shown that long content (think 1500 words minimum) performs and converts better than content that’s considered short. Your audience is looking for engagement, and long (well-written) content is a surefire way to get your audience thinking. You’ll be spending some extra time at the keyboard, but it’ll pay off in the long run. 6. The Presentation Factor. Have you ever received an e-mail that was literally one giant block of text? That e-mail could have contained the secrets of the universe, but the presentation ruined everything. And it was such a great topic! When you’re writing your blog, it’s important to establish exactly how you’re going to present the information. If you are currently using the one-huge-text-block strategy, it’s time to start thinking in punctuation and paragraphs. Be careful on how you present. 7. Playing with Paragraphs. Paragraphs are mandatory when it comes to almost any kind of content writing. As a general rule, most paragraphs are about six sentences long. I like to play with paragraph lengths and keep them around 100 words if at all possible. When I hit around the 100-word mark, I then divide the paragraphs up using sub headers. 8. Standout Sub Headers. Yes, your headline has to be top notch. However, that’s no reason to skimp on your sub headers. Use the same techniques for writing strong headlines, and incorporate those into writing your sub headers. Your sub headers are typically in larger or bold font compared to the rest of your text, so think of them as additional opportunities to grab attention. Sub headers need some love, too! 9. Always Use Images. Try to include an image with every blog post, even if it’s just one. Images break up the monotony of text-headline-text-headline. Keep in mind that some people … Read more

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