Successful Blog

How to Write Powerful Content that Powerfully Connects

by

How to blog series

by
Chris Nosal

cooltext443809602_strategy

How To Write Powerful Content

Being able to connect with your customers is one of the most important skills you could possibly learn in both blogging and in business, because your ability to connect with your customers is what translates into dollars, keeps your business running, and adds value to your customers’ lives.

In this blog post I want to detail some simple and easy but very powerful tricks that you can use to really connect with your readers and customers.

How to Really Connect with Readers

Basically, I’m going to show you some psychological “hacks” that you can use to capture people’s attention, and literally captivate them with every word you write (or say).

If you’ve ever watched Steve Jobs give a presentation (such as his presentation on the iPhone in 2007), you’ll notice he does one thing that 99% of speakers don’t:

He does’t start by focusing on how powerful the phone is, how fast the processor is, or how it’s different from all the other phones.

He starts by talking about how it is something revolutionary that is going to completely transform and revolutionize the way we (as humans) live our lives forever, and the incredible changes that are going to take place, for the first time in history, in our lives as a result of this groundbreaking discovery.

Now, which is more exciting:

A new electronic phone … or something that is going to change the way every person on the planet lives their lives forever for the first time in history?

Can you guess why people were lining up by the millions to get the iPhone yet, while no other company has ever had such a response to their products?

This same formula worked time and time again for the iMac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad; with people obsessively lining up by the millions sitting out in the cold for 14+ hours just to get their hands on one.

Which leads me to my next question:

What did Steve Jobs do here that was so powerful?

Going back to the iPhone example, Steve knew that people didn’t want just a phone; they wanted a story to emotionally connect with their phone.

The idea was that by buying an iPhone, you’d be among the first to experience something revolutionary and new that is going to transform your life like never before.

You weren’t just buying a piece of plastic that could make calls and manage your daily activities — you were buying something that was going to change your life, and change the world, and you were part of a revolution that was changing the world.

This is so powerful because, on a mental level, humans don’t connect with logic.

We want to FEEL like we’re a part of something; like what we’re doing has a purpose.

How to Write Powerful Content that Powerfully Connects

So, now that we’ve covered the basics, how do you personally apply this information (and this formula) to write blog posts that really pull your readers in, and literally compel them to read everything you write?

While there’s a lot of information on this topic, I’m going to break down the main points here in to a very simple formula that you can instantly use to skyrocket your results in just two simple steps — and here they are:

Use Visuals

If I use vague, bland, abstract words like communication, potential, integrity, or commitment, how do you feel? Now, how do you feel when I use words like ice cream sundae, swimming pool, or Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup?

Did you notice what I did there?

The second list of words creates a FEELING, and activates your imagination through mental pictures already associated with those words. Use imagery like that and you’ll move just talking to communication where your reader is actively involved and participating in what you say.

Create A Story

If I mention a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, you’ll notice you get a picture of a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup in your head, as well as the emotional experience that goes along with the image; I’ve just completely gotten your focus on what I’m talking about, and I’ve captured your attention using your emotions.

Now, let’s make this ten times more powerful by adding a story to this image

If I say, “I was sitting at home after a long day of driving, and as I sat at my kitchen table I wrapped my hands around the wrapper of a Reese’s Peanut Butter cup. As I slid the wrapper open, and slowly slid the chocolate out, I began to put it in my mouth, and then proceeded to softly chew on it as the peanut butter flavor soaked up in my mouth.”

Now how does that compare to just say or writing, “I ate food yesterday”?

With the second option, you’re just reading text on a page.

But the first example takes a vague piece of text and brings it to life by getting your emotions and your imagination involved, and holds your attention and focus on exactly what I’m talking about.

Even more powerfully, what I did in the first example actually built an emotional connection with the reader.

The Keys To A Powerful Blog Post

The most important thing about your writing is that it captures people’s attention on an emotional level, and that your writing really connects with them at a one-on-one level. Do this by connecting a clear and specific mental image with a story that emotional involves your audience.

The best part is that it takes practically no effort to make these simple but very powerful changes as you’re writing. And the more you apply these techniques to your writing, the better you’ll to become at communicating and connecting with people.

What sort of content powerfully connects with you?

Author’s Bio:
Chris Nosal writes about social skills and communication mastery at popularitysecrets.com. He is the author of Popularity Secrets, and also does personal coaching and consulting.

Don’t Build Your Business Castle on Another Guy’s Land

by

How to blog series

Content Is King

cooltext455576688_blogging

When building an online presence for a business, people quickly think of a website, social networks like Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook, and Google+ — all of which, when put together, can seem overwhelming. Add in a blog to the mix and often people will flinch. It’s reasonable that growth-focused businesses might worry about the commitment and time that a blog could represent.

Still, whenever I’m invited to help a business connect to their customers and grow their community, a blog is always central to the content strategy. Content attracts, informs, demonstrates, and establishes value. There’s a reason online professionals say, “Content is king.”

Don’t Build Your Business Castle on Another Guy’s Land

All of the social sites might seem to replace the role of a blog. Twitter allows us to connect, converse, reconnect, faster and easier. Facebook and Google+ allow us to be social with our customers. LinkedIn is the Chamber of Commerce online. Instagram and Pinterest give us a chance to share what we see and like.

But if you want to the search engines working for you, a blog is a cornerstone to reaching those goals.

Have you read the terms of service on those social sites where you’re putting your advice, your expertise, your unique content? Would you keep your address book, your contact lists, your communication records inside another guy’s business?

It’s hard to have a true presence, if everything you say is on social sites. How to people know which place you call home? Where do you put your serious thoughts? What home holds your business body of work?

Your business blog content is the cornerstone of your business online. Well thought and well presented content is easiest, fastest, and most meaningful way to share your expertise. Helpful (not hypeful) insights, how-tos, and information that’s relevant to your customer’s lives is an invitation to get to know your business beliefs, values, and business sense. Content like that attracts people you want to work with, and give search engines valuable pages to index. Those indexed pages advertise you whenever people search for the solutions you write.

Don’t put something as valuable and attractive as content on another guy’s url.

If you’re going to build and share online content, own the url where you house it. Instead of writing a post on a social site write it on your business blog. Share the link and an excerpt on that social site instead. Keep the original content on your own URL – where Google and your visitors can connect it to your business.

Let the traffic and the authorship come to you.

Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Google+ and the rest make it easy to build groups and share content quickly. But what are we risking by building a following in places where we don’t own the “land”? The social site “landowner” is gaining benefit of every customer you attract. If you decide to leave, you might lose your whole list.

Who can trust that the social site sill never change the “rules”? Are you willing to risk your business on that?

Free isn’t free when you think about it.
Go visit instead and invite folks back to where you’ve build a location that looks, feels, and interact with them in a way that only your own property can. Content is king. Don’t build your castle on another guy’s land. You might find that you can’t get to the castle one day.

How would your business be affected if Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, or Google+ lost the content and connections you’ve built?

Be irresistible.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Sun Tzu and the Art of Strategic Blogging

by

by
Mark Blasini

cooltext443809602_strategy

As any content creator knows, creating and maintaining a successful, engaging blog is a huge challenge. Bloggers are constantly plagued by the question: “How do I attract more readers and keep them coming back?” The answer to this question may lie in a two thousand year old text on military strategy — The Art of War, by the ancient military general Sun Tzu.

Sun Tzu and the Art of Strategic Blogging

Most people are familiar with Sun Tzu and his principles of deception and strategy. Many leaders, from Napoleon to Patton to top CEO’s in the country, use his wisdom to create successful empires. However, what most people don’t know is that these same principles lend great insights into how to create and maintain a successful blog. These principles make up what I call “strategic blogging.” I list them as follows:

  1. Follow your Way. For Sun Tzu, a strong general inspires his troops by leading them towards a single mission or vision — a spiritual goal that makes the fighting and hardships they must endure meaningful. This vision is what Sun Tzu calls “the Way.” Likewise, as a strategic blogger, you too must have a unique vision for your blog. What is it specifically that you want to accomplish with your readers? Do you want to inspire them? Educate them? Change their thinking or lifestyle? Whatever your vision is, the Way of your blog should always be geared towards helping readers create a better life for themselves.
  2. Know your audience and yourself. Sun Tzu writes: “Know your enemy and yourself and victory will be certain.” As a strategic blogger, you need to know who your audience is, what their needs are, and how you can best serve them. Are you writing for artists? Other bloggers? Entrepreneurs? Marketers? What information are they specifically looking for? What writing style are you strongest at (informative, personal, funny, reflective, etc.)? Find your natural style, find topics that your readers will be interested in, and go blog. Simple, yet direct.
  3. Avoid the strong, attack the weak. Sun Tzu says: “Just as the flow of water avoids high ground and rushes to the lowest point, so on the path to victory avoid the enemy’s strong points and strike where he is weak.” As a blogger, your content should be directed at hitting the audience where they are weakest — their uncertainty. In other words, it’s pointless to try to make someone aware of something that he or she already accepts as true — just as it’s equally pointless to try to convince someone of something he or she is dead against. Your best bet is to focus your message on what your audience is uncertain or neutral about.
    For example, let’s say you’re an environmentalist blogger and you want to blog about different ways and reasons for going green. While most people agree that going green is good for the environment, they aren’t willing to disrupt their lives in order to do so. So providing information from the standpoint of how going green will “save” the environment will most likely not be effective. Instead, you must strike where people are weak: their self-interest. Most people know that going green is good, but what they don’t know is how going green will benefit them. Fortunately, going green is more a matter not of what you do, but of what you don’t do, or stop doing. The focus of the blog, then, could be showing people ways in which eliminating pollution-creating behavior (e.g. using the car, running the electricity, etc.) actually saves them money. This fulfills your goal of educating people while giving your audience a clear, strong benefit.
  4. Use deception. Let’s face it: your goals and your audience’s goals, at some point, diverge. Your audience wants to be either educated or entertained. You want more subscribers (or e-book sales, or speaking opportunities, etc.). Thus, in order to achieve your goals, you have to practice deception. As Sun Tzu tells us, “Deception is the Way of warfare.” Deception doesn’t mean “lying.” As a blogger, you should always be honest with your followers. This is how you build trust, rapport, and long-term relationships. Deception simply means hiding your objectives in such a way that you lure your target to help you achieve them.
    For example, in the content marketing world, we use the 80/20 rule when it comes to providing content vs. selling: you should do 80% content, 20% selling. This means that only after you have provided valuable content should you provide a message concerning how your audience, by subscribing/purchasing/contacting, can better be helped. At the end of relevant posts, you should include a italicized message stating how you can help your audience further: “Want to know better ways to save money by going green? Purchase my new e-book…” Remember, though: only sell if you’ve provided valuable content. Your content is what is going to lure your audience — not your selling.

While these principles are by no means the end-all, be-all of strategic blogging, if you follow them consistently, I promise you will achieve incredible results. Now go out and establish your blogging empire!

Author’s Bio:
Mark Blasini writes about music, art, and creativity at www.DarkLion.com. He is the author of the free e-book Light the Fire: Six Simple Principles for Creating Art That Inspires, downloadable if you subscribe to his site. You can find him on Twitter as @TheProfMusic.

5 Powerful Tips For Writing Irresistible Headlines

by

How to Blog Series

by
Ali Abbas

Do you want more people to read what you write?
Do you want more subscribers to your blog?
Write irresistible headlines!

It’s that simple.

5 Powerful Tips For Writing Irresistible Headlines

Writing headlines is a craft; practice, and practice more to sharpen your skills.
In addition to practice, read about writing headlines regularly to make sure your skills don’t get rusty.

This post offers 5 powerful tips about crafting headlines. You might already know some of these, but one or two will surely make you slap your forehead. Others might sound absurd. But believe me they will go a long way if you employ them.

1. Write the headline first

The temptation is to write the headline after you’ve written the whole piece. Why not – you can write a better headline when the copy is there in front of you, right?
Wrong!

Headline is a promise.

You make promises before you fulfill them. Your headline is the same.
If you save the headline for last, after writing the monstrous copy, you’ll want to write the darn headline quickly and be done with it. That’s not how to blog effectively.

If the headline doesn’t get the required attention, it won’t bring the desired results — the people who are perfect for what you offer.

2. Highlight the biggest benefit

Most readers don’t come to find out what you do or why you do it. They are interested in things that make their life easier and better, save them time, make them money, make them healthy or beautiful.

Tell readers in the headline what your text will do for them.

3. Length doesn’t matter

Many so-called gurus preach that shorter headlines work better.
Nonsense!

14-word headlines can get as much readership as 3-word headlines.
Length isn’t as important as getting your message across.

It, however, is better to keep the title under 70 characters (including spaces) on the internet. Longer titles get truncated by the search engines which can ruin your most powerful headline.

4. Don’t try to be tricky

Don’t try to be over smart when writing your headlines. Hundreds of thousands headlines are competing against you. Readers are too busy to figure out what the heck you are trying to say with unfathomable mumbo jumbo. They will simply click another link — one with a clear benefit.

5. Don’t write incomplete headlines

I had a personal experience with this a few days ago.

Traffic was jammed and I, being bored to death, was looking indifferently at the surroundings. My eyeballs got fixed at two advertising posters of rival two telecommunication companies, posted on wall end-to-end. Their headlines read as follows:

I. The Treasure (Say by Company A)
II. Make Free Calls For The Next 24 Hours (Say by Company B)

I ignored the first headline wondering “a telecom company and treasure, what the heck” and the traffic had just started to move slowly, so I didn’t have the time to read the rest of the ad.

The second headline was imprinted on the back of my mind. Later on, I came to know that the Company A offered better value, but by then I had already purchased the services of company B.

Never use headlines that require reading the rest of the advertisement to be understood. Readers will quit at that very point. They have no reason to read on. Readers on the internet read too quickly to keep on reading to find out what you are trying to say.

What it all boils down to is…

To apply the marketing wisdom of P.T. Barnum:

“You can’t please all of the readers all of the time; you can’t please even some of the readers all of the time, but you really ought to try to please at least some of the readers some of the time.”

The sole purpose of a headline is to attract people who are most interested in your offer. Follow these 5 powerful tips for writing irresistible headlines. Ignoring them is simply wasting your time as well as money. Prove it to yourself!

What rules do you follow when writing headlines? Share in the comments.

Author’s Bio:
Ali Abbas is a freelance writer and blogging enthusiast. At the Writers Blog (), he shares his innovative ideas for starting a real, sustainable and profitable online writing career. To learn more about writing headlines, download his FREE Report: Secret Ingredients To Writing Killer Headlines That Always Get Noticed.

Ingredients to Make your Blog the One-Stop Shop for your Target Readers

by

If you are running a blog and relying solely on unique visitors coming from the Search Engines, and that too for a small set of keywords, then sorry to break it to you, but you (and your blog) are not standing on solid grounds. Mainly because a small shuffle in the rankings can send your blog tumbling back to starting point, and you’ll have to start from the scratch. Therefore, you should be aiming for a loyal readership from the day one. You have got to have some readers, who will be coming back to your blog on regular basis, reading your posts, sharing their opinions, sharing the good ones with their contacts at social profiles, and when needed, coming up with the guest contributions. But assembling this kind of readership is not easy. It is one thing to get someone to visit your blog for once (by the virtues of SEO or PPC) it’s another thing to convert these random visitors into regular readers. Your blog has got to have the following ingredients to provide your readers with a perfect mix that will make them bookmark and keep coming back to your website.

Updated Information:

Regardless of the theme or subject of your blog, you have got to keep your readers posted with all the developments or occurrences in your target market. Keeping you blog up to date doesn’t only mean posting news, instead you need to discuss these changes or developments, be it a sports blog, technology blog, SEO blog, politics blog, business blog, or a blog about blogging itself. Any blog that doesn’t cover the recent happenings or doesn’t stay on the ball will fail to convince the readers that this is a domain worth bookmarking.

Food for thought:

Keeping your readers updated with the recent developments is not the only requisite, instead you should be able to scrutinize all of these developments and help your readers understand by providing them with some food for thought, something to take home, for example how they can use a new technology, some marketing strategy, some upcoming trend, and the likes. There are hundreds of blogs out there doing nothing but rewriting the news. At the end of the day, it is the blog that goes one step ahead that gets the nod of approval from readers.

Humor:

Humor can make the most boring topics a lot easier to bear, and it is one of the easiest ways to hold on to your readers, but for some unknown reasons, very few bloggers dare to be amusing in their writings. The thing is that you don’t need to be Louis Harding or Erma Bombek, all you need to do is to relax and write in an informal way. Almost all of us have this inbuilt ability to crack a joke every now and then, when we are hanging out with our friends, so you can assume that you are writing for your friends, and not some critics (or search engines), chances are that you will find yourself coming up with some good tongue in cheek humor every now and then.

Personal touch:

A blogger is not a reporter or a journalist; in fact they are quite the opposite of each other. While people expect journalists or reporters to keep their personal likes and dislikes, or experiences away from the news or featured stories, blogs are meant to be a place where real people can talk about the real stuff with their own take on the matter. So, it is advised that you add that personal touch into your writings to help people related.

Controversy:

If you feel your blog is getting monotonous, and turning more into a dud with little or no activity, you can always resort to a little controversy. By controversy, I don’t mean delving into sensitive topics and hurting others’ feeling to make them speak, instead you can try and debunk some popular notion or myths, remember that we are talking about thoughtful write-up and not just trolling. For example, an SEO blogger can try to debunk a popular myth, or a tech blogger can confer some popular brand or gadget, or maybe a blogger taking on the fellow bloggers for some unethical practices getting common in blogosphere.

__

Rahil of Weight Loss Triumph is an online entrepreneur and a part time blogger. At his website, you can get a wewood coupon. These discounts and coupon codes will help you save while purchasing watches or other accessories from fossil or wewood.

http://www.weightlosstriumph.com/wewood-coupon-code-and-review.html

What Makes A Successful Infographic?

by

A Guest Post by
Ryan Bayron

cooltext443809602_strategy

5 Traits of Great Infographics

The blogosphere makes it very clear that some people love infographics, and others hate them. These days, it seems that anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of basic vector graphics software believes that they can and should contribute to the ever-growing number of infographics floating around the internet. After flipping through hundreds of infographics and trying my hand at a few of my own, I’ve discovered some common characteristics of those that succeed, and of those that fail.

  1. A successful infographic is targeted. The creator knows what the content is about, who will care about that content, and what they want to see. A successful infographic with medical statistics, geared toward physical therapists will look drastically different than one about fast food that’s geared toward soccer moms. Successful infographics are not one-size-fits-all. ( This is good. | This is not so good. )
  2. A successful infographic is accurate. At the bottom of all infographics is (or should be) a list of sources from whence the author gathered the information. When this list contains links to .gov and .edu sites instead of Wikipedia articles and TMZ articles, it makes a difference. People notice that kind of thing. Successful infographics are painstakingly researched, citing public domain scientific journals, published research documents and statistics reports from research agencies. ( This is good | This is not so good. )
  3. A successful infographic is navigable. A person never just looks at the entire Mona Lisa. Studies show that they always start at her face, then move down her arms to her impressively detailed hands. The point is that when we look at an image, our eyes move through it, one thing at a time. Successful infographics provide a clear path and discernible cues to show the viewer what to look at next. ( This is good | This is not so good. )
  4. A successful infographic is novel. It’s not enough just to be informative anymore. Infographics that get shared have a sense of novelty to them – something their readers haven’t seen anywhere else. Whether it’s infographics, online videos, blog posts or flash games, novelty always boosts shareability. Successful infographics are designed to transcend the mere combination of graphics and text. (This is good | This is not so good )
  5. A successful infographic is simple. If someone is overwhelmed by colors, massive text blocks, giant diagrams and in-your-face pie charts, they’ll bounce before they finish reading the title. Simple is not always boring. Successful infographics don’t get in their own way – they make the information easy to find and easier to read, and the graphics are a supplement to the info, not the other way around. (This is good | This is not so good. )

At the end of the day, a successful infographic is just like any other piece of quality content. It must be relevant, accurate, fresh, engaging and unique. In a world where people spend hours on end scouring the internet for things to share on their Facebook walls and Twitter feeds, a successful infographic is a powerful tool for building links, engaging users, spreading information and promoting your brand. The key is to take time to hash out the details and make sure it’s truly worth sharing.

_____
Author bio:
Ryan Bayron is the owner, author of The Line Theory blog. His website is Byron.org. You can find him on Twitter as @BayronDotOrg

—-
Thank you, Ryan! Successful infographics can really add to a site’s appeal.

Be irresistible!
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!