Writing, publishing, book marketing, all offered by experienced authors, writers, and marketers
How Often Should You Be Blogging
Since I'm a writing coach and I often help clients learn how to use a blog to build their brand and their business and/or writing careers, many of my clients want to know how often they have to blog.
Do you wonder the same thing?
Well, if you feel like you HAVE to blog, you probably shouldn’t be blogging in the first place!
Blogging should be for someone who can’t WAIT to wake up in the morning and share more information with people.
If you lack that, it could be a sign that you’re in the wrong niche.
But let’s talk about traffic and authority.
You’ll see some leaders in a niche who blog very infrequently.
This is sometimes because blogging is a side tool for them.
They primarily use other things like television, radio, webinars and live, in-person seminars to attract and cultivate an audience.
But if you're a blogger who wants to use your blog as your primary source of audience engagement, then you need to make a commitment to show up and share on a regular basis.
The more, the better – but there’s an asterisk to that*
* More is better ONLY if there’s something valuable that you’re sharing.
In other words, don’t blog just to blog.
Don’t slap up meaningless content that dilutes the truly valuable blog posts you have just because someone told you to blog three times a day.
What you ought to do is go through and develop your editorial calendar to see how much content you can conceivably create.
You’ll be surprised at how many ideas you generate once you understand how to look for good blog ideas.
As far as search engine bots (spiders) are concerned, they like to see a certain amount of “freshness” in your blog.
They typically start off visiting your blog once every couple of weeks, but they narrow their visitation schedule to index your site if you blog regularly, and this looks good and helps you get content indexed faster.
It’s also helpful to your blog subscribers if you blog frequently.
If this is a topic they’re interested in, then you want to be the go-to authority figure in your niche – the person they know will have continual updates and fresh information.
A daily schedule is best.
Some people post several times and day, and this is great, too.
Don’t burden yourself trying to reach that goal, though.
Just be consistent.
If you can only manage to post three times a week, then do it three times a week.
However, there is such as thing as blogging too little.
When you start going weeks or months without blogging, don’t expect a blog audience to stick around and become subscribers and fans of your content.
In fact, they won’t even know who you are!
Suzanne Lieurance is a freelance writer, the author of over 30 published books, and the Working Writer's Coach.
Let her teach you how to turn writing about your personal experiences into a career and your brand.
Learn more at www.fearlessfreelancewriting.com.
7 Writing Goals for 2017
Here are 7 writing goals that can help you in 2017:
* * *
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The Frugal Editor: Do-it yourself editing secrets for authors:
From your query letter to final manuscript to the marketing of your new bestseller
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Email Marketing - 10 Top Reasons to BE Doin' It
By Karen Cioffi
While marketing strategies can come and go, there are still those that are top contenders and email marketing is one of them. And, it's an important strategy in book marketing.
So, what makes email marketing so important - why exactly should you be doin' it?
Here is a list of 10 top reasons:
1. Email lists are personal and build relationships. They help you develop a relationship with your subscribers. No other marketing strategy offers this ‘personal touch’ element.
2. Emails drive targeted traffic to your website. This means the people clicking on your email links (CTAs) are already interested in what you offer.
3. It’s one of the most cost-effective strategies there is (in other words, it’s cheap and has a great ROI).
4. It’s is easy and quick. Services, like GetResponse make it super-easy to create lists (campaigns), create the coded optins, and allows you to send out emails immediately.
5. It allows for automation. This means you can schedule emails to go out at specific days and times and segment (divide) your list.
6. It’s versatile and customizable. You can create a variety of campaigns, segway into other campaigns, use for weekly workshops, and so much more.
7. It generates results. Email marketing is one of the only strategies that encourages subscribers to become customers or to take other actions.
8. Allows you to measure results. Email marketing services have analytical tools in place that give you much need information, such as how many subscribers open your emails and how many click on the links in your emails.
9. Beats social media’s conversion rates. Conversion is the process of a person taking a desired action, such as clicking on your link or optin.
In a study by McKinsey and Company, it shows that email exceeds social media’s conversion rate by 40X. (1)
Forty times. That’s huge!
10. According to Convince and Convert.com, “People who buy products through email spend 138% more than people who don’t receive email offers.” Along with this, “44% of email recipients made at least one purchase last year based on a promotional email.” (2)
You may feel it’s all just too much. You already blog as part of your marketing strategy, isn’t that enough? Well, it’s really not.
Keep in mind that if you use social media to share your posts, you’re only reaching a minute percentage of your followers. And, less than 1% of your website visitors will buy from a random blog post they clicked onto.
As number 7 above says, email marketing produces results. And, your efforts can be as simple as linking to your most recent blog post from within your newsletter or email. Be sure to use it as part of your book marketing strategy.
To get started with Email Marketing, you need an opt-in box. I use Get Response and like it so much, I'm an affiliate for them. If you need to get your email marketing going, start with Get Response.
For an in-depth look at email marketing check out my 45+ page ebook (no fluff), Email Marketing Right V2. It tells you exactly what you need to do to effectively build your subscriber list, and it's only $3.97!
About the Author:
Karen Cioffi is an award-winning children's author, ghostwriter, and author/writer online platform instructor. Subscribe to the RSS to get must-know writing and marketing tips!
And, check out Karen’s e-classes through WOW! Women on Writing:
http://www.articlewritingdoctor.com/content-marketing-tools/
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HAPPY NEW YEAR
PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR!
2016 Coming to a Close – 2017 Just Before Us, Bright and Shiny
Mark Twain said, “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, Dream, Discover.”
Make 2017 a year of action rather than procrastination.
To end 2016 and latch onto 2017, here are 11 quotes I find inspirational. Hope you do too.
“Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.”
~ Lyndon B. Johnson
“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” ~ Wayne Gretzky
"For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness."
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Remember, today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday." ~ Dale Carnegie
“Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” ~ Will Rogers
“You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.”
~ Christopher Columbus
“I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.” ~ Stephen Covey
“Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.” ~ Warren Buffet
“If a man empties his purse into his head no one can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream. ~ C.S. Lewis
“You’ll never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine.” ~ John C. Maxwell
One Last Edit: Re-think before Submitting
- Go back to the theme card you prepared before or during the writing. Make sure the main theme shines through and ask yourself, Do the minor themes bolster the main theme?
- Check the structure one more time. Is it solid?
- Does each character have an arc? Each story part introduced have follow-through to the end? Follow each one all the way through to make sure.
- Is your main character's flaw/need evident in the beginning and satisfied/solved from what she's learned by the end?
- Have you done a scene check to make sure there isn't any section that might work better elsewhere?
- Is there any character or scene that doesn't move the story forward?
- Is there anything to add to strengthen any part, or any weak part to delete which will strengthen the story?
- Is description kept at a minimum (in a children's story)? Is the story told through dialogue and action?
- If it is a mystery, make a list of the clues, red herrings and reveal to make sure everything is covered.
- Do one last fact check.
One Easy Way to Learn to Write Good Copy
It doesn't matter what wonderful service you provide or how amazing your product is, if you don't let people know it's there, no one will buy it. Sure, word of mouth works for some things. For most, however, you need to write something and get it out to people to let them know what you have. The question is, how can someone on a limited budget with beginning skills as a copywriter, someone who writes advertising copy, let people know about their product.
The answer is simple. Copy what others write.
No Plagiarizing Allowed
When I said to copy what others wrote, I don't mean to steal their words and use them in your own advertising copy. I mean for you to take pen and paper in hand, no computers allowed unless you literally cannot use your hands, and copy a sales letter word for word. This is a powerful learning technique used in many circles. When you write with pen and paper, something magical happens in the brain. I can't tell you all the neurochemical responses in that brain of yours, but when you write by hand, there is a complex interaction in the brain that helps you learn faster and easier.
Don't spend your time physically reproducing any sales letter you come across. Use your time wisely and copy, for learning purposes only, the best sales letters you can find. You can do an internet search using the keywords "winning sales letters" and come up with a treasure trove of letters you can begin copying to get the hang of writing a good sales letter.
One of the most successful, if not the most successful letter to introduce a new product was written for a newspaper you may have read or at least have seen the name. That is The Wall Street Journal. This very successful financial newspaper was once only an idea in someone's mind. As time has demonstrated, it was a great idea. The problem was that people had to buy initial subscriptions for it to be successful. This very simple two-page letter has generated an estimated $2 billion in revenue for The Wall Street Journal.
The Step before Copying
The sales letter that launched The Wall Street Journal is one to use for leaning by copying by hand numerous times. Before you put pen to paper, read it out loud several times. Listen to the cadence of the words. Pay attention to the imagery. Notice the feelings you have as you are reading it. Can you put yourself in the place of each of these young men? Which one would you rather be? Would you want success so much that you would pull out your check book, fill out the form and pop it in the mail? Remember, the internet wasn't even a spark in the mind of anyone at that time. This direct mail piece had to provoke immediate action before the offer was lost under a pile of other advertising.
Once you've read the letter and put yourself in the reader's position, begin copying the words. Feel the cadence as you write. Let the words and the rhythm of them imbed themselves within you from the interaction of what you see with your eyes and reproduce with the movement of hand. This simple task, although it takes time, will move you faster in learning the skill of copywriting.
You can then take what you've learned and write your own powerful sales letter in your own wonderful style that may be the next $2,000,000,000 winner.
Cathy Chapman, PhD, LCSW is a strategic marketer, copywriter and coach for the self-help and alternative health care market. To receive your Special Report "The Bare Necessities for an On-Line Marketing Campaign with Little Cash Outlay... Plus One" go to http://www.mindbodyhealthwriter.com.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6553599
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