Successful Blog

5 hot call to action tips for business bloggers

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You’re blogging for a reason, right?

If your blog is part of your business strategy, it’s time to do a check-up on your call to action (CTA).

A call to action is something that is intended to provoke a response in your reader.

It could be a bright red box that says “click here,” it could be a pretty picture of the cover of your e-book saying, “download now,” or it could be “set an appointment today.” Those are overt calls to action.

call to action

It could be more subtle, like a series of recommended blog posts. Those are calling the reader to read more, to explore your useful content.

Without any call to action, your blog posts are just spaghetti tossed against the wall.

Read these five tips that will help you clarify and enhance your calls to action right now (see what I did there?):

  1. First, consider what action you want to provoke. It should be obvious to your audience what they’re supposed to do when they land on your blog. Do you sell a product? Are you a consultant? Are you a thought leader/speaker? Your purpose must be clear in your own mind before you can communicate it to your visitors.

    And if you don’t know why you’re blogging, that might be ok (you’re just a writer who needs to write), just don’t expect to be getting revenue from your blog.

  2. Color me beautiful. Color theory is its own course of study, but there are some basic tenets you can apply. The folks at crazyegg.com produced a great infographic that summarizes the psychology of different color choices. Your CTA should be differentiated and appealing.
  3. Location, location, location. The human eye tends to read a web page in a zig-zag pattern, starting at the top left corner. We know that images and videos attract the eye, too. Consider putting your CTA in an attractive image that sits above the “fold”.
  4. Copywriting 101. Be brief.
  5. Track success and change it up if necessary. Know in advance what success looks like. Is it number of e-books downloaded? Is it number of paid consulting gigs? Is it number of unique visitors to your site? Think about using a unique link identifier on your CTA so that you can see it in your Google Analytics as a goal completion.

If I visited your blog today, would I know what you want me to do?

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for Social Strata — makers of the Hoop.la community platform. Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Blog (a verb)

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By Lisa D. Jenkins

“Others may be talking about the same thing, but they aren’t talking about it with your voice.”

How many times have you heard this when people are encouraging you to blog?

A lot? If you’re like me, it’s a lot.

Here’s how it happens in my head:

  • I have a thought about something timely.
  • My brain takes a walk along that thought path and reaches a conclusion.
  • I consider blogging about it and then I think there’s no need to write what everyone else has already published.

Why clutter up the internet, right?

fly with a tiny microphone

Now, the Husband doesn’t do work that’s remotely related to mine. In fact, his sole concession to getting anywhere near what I do for a living was to open a Facebook account six months ago – and we’ve been together for almost 8 years.

So you can imagine my surprise when he was sitting next to me last week and started asking informed questions about big data, segmenting, conversions and other magical things that make my nerd heart sing.

He was reading a blog – a blog I love. He continued to read through that blog for a number of days. Clicking ever deeper into the content and looking at me every so often like I was a supernatural being because these were things I not only knew but used. He asked questions, I answered and that went on for a while, so I pointed him toward three more blogs that feature similar content. These blogs are also on my not-to-be-missed roll.

Aaaaand here’s how the lesson of the opening statement from this post was driven almost painfully home for me.

He read a couple of posts from each of the new blogs and dove right back into the first one. Why? Because the voice, style and format of the first blog made the content easier for him to consume and relate to.

Hmmmm.

It’s almost like all those people who’ve come before me – those people I look to for guidance and advice – know a little something about this world of online business. Weird.

Now, I’m open about not blogging for myself. But I don’t for a second advocate that strategy for you – partly because I don’t know you and your business. And partly because it’s almost a given that the people who will love what you do need to hear what you do, and why you do it, from you. In your voice.

So lay it out there. Write what you’re thinking. Write about what you do. Write about the tools you use. Write about how you solve people’s problems. Let people read you. Blog.

Author’s Bio: Lisa D. Jenkins is a Public Relations professional specializing in Social and Digital Communications for businesses. She has over a decade of experience and work most often with destination organizations or businesses in the travel and tourism industry in the Pacific Northwest. Connect with her on Google+
Photo Credit: Adam N. Ward via Compfight cc

5 Productivity Hacks for Bloggers

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By Abby Perkins

A blogger’s time is one of the most important aspects of their profession. The slightest distraction can be incredibly costly to their productivity – especially if those distractions are persistent. There’s no question about it – wasting time prevents bloggers from performing at their highest level.

However, there are productivity hacks that can help bloggers manage their time more effectively.

clean organized desk

1. De-clutter your workspace

The best thing any blogger can do is set up a dedicated work space that is free from any possible distractions. An untidy work environment can leave you preoccupied and unfocused.

When you establish a place of order and structure, your thoughts become clearer and your mind becomes more focused, allowing you to be more creative and stay on task. Keep the area you work in clean and uncluttered – and, if you can, make it completely separate from communal areas like the living room or kitchen.

2. Disconnect from distractions

Bloggers can be a lot more productive without the distraction of a cell phone or the constant buzz of incoming emails. Though these things don’t seem like a big deal, they’re often a bigger distraction than we realize. Download a service like Pocket to help you stay focused, especially if you find yourself frequently distracted by articles and videos when you really should be working.

There are also services like Inbox Pause and StayFocusd to turn off email notifications or block certain distracting websites during certain periods of time.

3. Take notes and plan ahead

Journaling is an effective way to get unstructured thoughts and ideas down on paper. Once you’ve written out your thoughts, you can more easily organize them into actual blog posts and articles.

It doesn’t require much of your time, but organizing ideas by developing a schedule will also help you become a more successful blogger by allowing you to plan your time more accurately. If you write ideas down as they come to mind, you’ll be less likely to forget them later, and planning ahead will help you be more productive the following day.

4. Outsource research and writing assignments

A blogger’s work can get overwhelming. If you find yourself with a backlog of writing and not enough time to do it, it can be beneficial to consider paying someone to do research or write blog posts on your behalf. Outsourcing your work helps you save time, while letting you maintain control and consistency over your work. You can relax or complete other duties while other people deliver results for your blog.

One thing to keep in mind – if you’re outsourcing content, make sure you and the freelancers you work with have a clear understanding about things like pay, author credit, content ownership and more.

5. Switch up your location

The human mind craves stimulation. Working in the same area every day can lead to burnout and stress. If it’s possible, make an attempt to work in a different location once a week or every other week. You could go work in the park, in the local library or in the corner of a coffee shop. Changing your location is an great way to gain a new perspective and regain your focus on writing.

Whether you blog for fun or it’s your main source of income, everyone can agree that there are never enough hours in the day. These productivity hacks will save you time and increase your efficiency.

What are your favorite blogging productivity tips?

Author’s Bio: Abby Perkins is Editor in Chief at Talent Tribune, where she writes about jobs, workplace culture, and HR technology.

Photo Credit: Alsterstar via Compfight cc

Proven Ways to Make People Read Your Content

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By Katherine Crayon

You have created the blog of your dreams. You regularly update it with valuable content. Everything is perfect. Except…

Except the readers don’t come.

Cat typing on laptop

No comments, only a handful of shares and tweets — and that’s all. What went wrong? Think you need to perfect your writing skills? Actually, it’s not about the way you write. It’s all about the way you promote your content.

The web is flooded with thousands of recommendations on how to attract users to your website.

It’s important.
It matters.

The Internet was created to let you share your thoughts with millions of other people — it’s meaningless if they don’t read them. That’s why today we’ll concentrate on the ways to get people to actually read your content.

If you think that stuffing your posts with keywords and optimizing them for search engines will draw armies of followers to your resource, you are mistaken. Your blog will undoubtedly rank higher in search results, but will people come back?

The way people perceive your blog posts should be your highest concern. Combine catchy writing, impressive design and some basic ways of promoting content (described in this article).

Success will follow.

Written vs Visual Content

There is a general misconception that people ignore online content. They do read it. However, the way they perceive online data has changed a lot. Content marketing has generally revolved around written data, though more recently, visual content has greater appeal.

Modern users prefer skimming to reading. In order to make them actually read your post, you have to grab their attention (with a relevant image, video, infographic, etc.).

Statistics show that blog posts featuring at least one image are more popular among web users, which results in more shares.

Relevance

Will you read a post on a topic you’re not interested in? Most likely, you will scan the article and leave. As a rule, people surf the web searching for content that meets the basic criteria of relevance:

  • Publish content that coincides with the current time and season. For instance, will you read about Christmas on July 4th? Do you find it relevant posting about winter vacations in summer? Relevance has its own chronological order.
  • Consider your readers. You will hardly be able to attract artistic people to a chemistry blog. Each web resource has its own audience. Working on your blog, think about the target user who will most likely enjoy your content. Specializing on something particular will help you look like a pro and build trust with ease.

Skimming

Users will scan your posts first to decide whether the content before them is relevant. If they come up with some points that look relevant, people will likely stay and read the entire post word-by-word. How to organize content in such a way that users will easily find exactly what they need?

Here are several points to consider:

  • Headlines are the first thing people will pay attention to. The more relevant and to the point they sound, the more likely it is that readers will come — and stay.
  • Subheads help give users a quick overview of the things you discuss in the post. Once again, if they find these relevant, chances are they will read till the end.
  • Text formatting helps to highlight the content you want to draw skimmers’ eye to. Remember that highlighting too much content in bold or italics will equal highlighting nothing. Put emphasis on the key points so that users will quickly pick them out.
  • If skimmers find your headlines and subheads relevant, they will move to bullet points and numbered lists that will help them with decision-making.

Let People Choose

Readers’ tastes differ, so if you want them to keep returning to your blog, you should provide them with several forms of content to choose from.

We have already found out that people are more attracted by visual rather than written data. However, there are many web users who prefer reading detailed posts word-by-word, without missing a single thought.

Try to publish different forms of content through multiple channels and see what works best. Diversify your content marketing with images, videos, and infographics to let people choose what they want. And don’t forget to make all of your content look good no matter what device is used.

Post Regularly

Publishing content on a regular basis will make people come back. Though it requires significant and sustained effort, this is a proven way to build up a following. Whether you are posting 10 articles a day, three posts a week or simply update your blog with something new once a month, doing this consistently will increase traffic to your blog.

Leverage Social Media

With so many users learning about the latest news and valuable information in social media, including ‘Share on Facebook’ and ‘Tweet This’ buttons will make it much easier for your readers to spread posts online and draw new visitors to your blog. The easier you make sharing data, the more likely people are to do so.

It doesn’t require much time and effort to add social share buttons to your site. Make this one-time investment and you will reap great rewards.

Communication

Communication always matters. Make sure you respond to all of the comments left on your blog. Your readers put an effort into leaving their feedback under your post, so don’t miss an opportunity to show how much you value this. Communicating with people on your blog, leaving comments on other web resources, as well as participating in discussions on social media platforms – all this combined will show how much you care.

Final Words

When it comes to content marketing, always write with personality.

Engage your readers by sharing interesting posts on a regular basis and starting a debate online. Keep the writing short and sweet, and never forget to refresh it with some relevant photo or video content.

Are you an experienced blogger or just plan to start your web resource? Which of the aforementioned techniques do your find effective? Maybe you know some other proven ways of how to blog effectively. Share with us in the comments below.

Author’s Bio:Katherine Crayon is a copywriter with a fresh voice, reporting on tech news and all aspects of the web design industry. Meet her in person on Google+.

Photo Credit: atomicshark via Compfight cc

I Am Not A Blogger

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By Lisa D. Jenkins

I believe in blogging. Just not for me.

Female silhouette

Every 7 days I sit down to write a post here. Against almost every bit of social media/blogging advice to the contrary, my own blog – for years aptly titled The Occasional and Erratic Blog – has sat sparse and neglected. But I’m just now understanding why.

Self-employment wasn’t so much a carefully considered selection for me as it was a response to circumstances that required immediate action.

My two kids and I had decided to leave everything and start a new life together. I’d held a job I loved at a state college for almost 10 years. With benefits the job paid enough to cover a fairly modest life for a family of three. As my son said at the time, “We might eat hot dogs and ramen forever, but they’ll be our hot dogs and ramen.”

A month after the divorce was final, I lost the job I’d held and loved for 10 years – statewide budget cuts were deep that year. There I was with custody of my 13 year old son, a 21 year old in college, a mortgage and no income to cover any of it.

It was at that moment I decided to truly support myself rather than once more place myself in a position of counting on something else that might dissolve.

I’d been watching social media evolve and participating for a while – hoping my Director would let me integrate it into our marketing – and I knew beyond a doubt that I could make this work for me and for others. So I took the leap and dove head first into finding my way as a social media professional.

I was extremely vocal on Twitter and Facebook, learned WordPress and taught myself the coding skills we needed back in the day. Because: no plugins. I spent every single day learning and building connections by being helpful wherever I could. I offered advice, pointed people to resources, donated my time and writing to non-profits and I went to conferences. Nothing has been as keenly painful to my introverted self as that seemingly endless cycle of self-promotion but I did it. The one thing I never settled into was blogging.

Disclosure: Random exaggeration ahead.

“But you MUST blog,” says everyone always.

Yes, well, five years later and I’m still here – and barely blogging.

Inconceivable? Oh, it’s conceivable, I assure you.

But how to explain that to people and prospective clients became the issue at hand. Two weeks ago, on the Main Salmon River in the middle of Idaho’s Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness, it crystalized for me.

I don’t want to be an A-List blogger. I’ve no aspirations to write a social media or marketing book. I don’t wish to be recognized as a media personality. I’ve never pursued those things.

I define and execute strategy. I measure and analyze metrics. I engage on social media. I curate content. I design campaigns. I build relationships. And, I blog … for my clients.

I do the job I love in the best way possible for the clients I partner with. If my work isn’t the best example of my worth to a new or existing client, no amount of blogging on my own site will help.

Hi. I’m Lisa. I’m a social media practitioner and that’s all I want to be.

How does what you’re doing fit with what you want to be?

Author’s Bio: Lisa D. Jenkins is a Public Relations professional specializing in Social and Digital Communications for businesses. She has over a decade of experience and work most often with destination organizations or businesses in the travel and tourism industry in the Pacific Northwest. Connect with her on Google+

7 Tips To Get Your Next Article Curated and Shared!

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By Dorien Morin-van Dam

I love it when my articles get read and shared, don’t you?

I closely watch to see where it gets shared, on what social media platform, and by whom. I absolutely get a kick out of it when my article gets a bit of extra life when an influencer in my industry shares it with their audience.

When I first started to blog, I often wondered what made someone curate an article and share it. After three years of blogging and following and watching those in the social media industry, I have a much better idea of what the ‘sweet spots’ are. Knowing what type of article gets shared, does not guarantee your article gets picked up, by any means. It will, however, have a much better shot of being curated.

7 tips to get your articles curated and shared
  1. Put a Date On It – Really! Go check and see if your articles have a date. If the content is evergreen, I do not mind sending out an article that is older, but if you write about social media platforms and features, I would like to know instantly what date you wrote it. It will tell me if it’s relevant and if I should share it with my audience, or pass it over for a more updated piece on the same subject.
  2. Add an Image – I can’t (I guess I could, but I won’t) curate an article to Pinterest and G+ without a picture. In fact, the only platform I will send it out on without a picture is Twitter, but only if it is really, really good. And my thought is, that if it is really, really good, (and you are a really, really good writer) you should have put in the extra effort to actually find (or create) and upload an image! Your image has to be pin-worthy to be considered for pinning. Therefore, if you want your articles curated to Pinterest, plan accordingly with your image(s).
  3. Craft a Catchy Title – Just like you want to catch my eye and have me curate and share your article, I want to catch the eye and interest of my audience as well when I share your article. Therefore, put a bit of thought into your titles. Make them catchy and irresistible, yet understandable! And please, do not misrepresent the article by using an obscene word or phrase. If you do, I will never share another one of your posts, no matter how great they might be!
  4. Format For Easy Scanning – What does this mean? It means outlining your article in such a way, that if I scan it and see the thought process behind your article, clearly defined by the use of paragraphs, bullet points and a conclusion, I am much more willing to share it than if it was one, long, rambling article.
  5. Mention or Quote an Influencer in your Article – If you can, reference an industry influencer by securing a quote from them. You could also reference a book or eBook they wrote by inserting a quote and linking back, of course. In doing this, it shows you are keeping up with industry greats and the latest research, which is exactly what I am looking to share with my audience as well! And yes, then I might curate and use your article.
  6. Provide a Link and/or Reference Research – Reference an industry influencer or researcher if relevant, by linking to an article they wrote. In doing this, it shows you are keeping up with industry influencers and the latest industry news and you know how to interpret and apply this information. That’s what my readers are looking for as well!
  7. Easy Comment & Sharing System – If I can’t leave a comment on your blog without much effort, I won’t share it. If I can’t share your article without much effort (meaning; I have to go look for the sharing buttons as they are not obvious!), I also will not curate and share your article. Make it simple to comment, simple to share and I will take a second look.

Question: Have you ever gotten a ‘major industry leader’ to curate and share an article you wrote? Thinking back, what article was it and what do you think triggered the share? If you can figure it out, I suggest you duplicate that type of post! And I have to admit I was giddy for a few hours after Mari Smith shared one of my articles on Twitter!

Happy writing,

Dorien.

Author’s Bio: Dorien Morin-van Dam is owner and social media marketer at More In Media, a social media consultancy in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Dorien provides social media consulting, management, training and education; she is passionate about teaching social media to small business owners. She services clients all over the USA and has worked in many different industries as well as with several NPO’s. In her spare time, Dorien manages four kids, three dogs and a husband. She runs marathons and loves to bake, travel and read.