The 4 Habits of Great Content Marketers

Great content marketers aren’t born, they’re made.
Want to stand out from the crowd? Develop the following habits.

1. Follow a Routine

Routines can be a powerful tool for artists, politicians, CEOs, content marketers, and just about anyone else who is trying to build something extraordinary. There’s no blueprint for what routine is going to work for you. But if you’re embarking on a creative project, it’s in your best interest to develop one.
Have your best ideas before bed? Truman Capote embraced the fact that he was a “horizontal author” who couldn’t think unless he was “either in bed or stretched on a couch and with a cigarette and coffee handy.”

Everyone has different daily rituals. There’s no one-size-fits all solution. Figure out the habits that help you produce your best work, and schedule time to support those habits.

2. Read

In the world of marketing—like most worlds—knowledge is power. And we marketers operate within an environment that is constantly changing and innovating. The best way to ensure your content is contributing to the signal and not the noise is to read—about digital trends, about top campaigns, about the companies our industry leaders celebrate.
If you don’t understand what separate good content from great content, you’re not going to be very successful.

3. Embrace the Struggle

In an interview with the Paris Review E.B. White said, “A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word on paper.”
Creating a well-oiled content marketing operation is hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The best content marketers embrace the struggle. They push through outdated processes in the name of innovation. They buckle silos. They see the chaos and miscommunication rampant within their marketing team and roll up their sleeves.

4. Don’t Assume

In 2012, Harvard Business Review published an article revealing three common assumptions marketers make when it comes to identifying what customers want:

1. Most consumers want to have relationships with your brand.
2. Interactions build relationships.
3. The more interaction the better.

The findings revealed in this article proved that all three assumptions were dead wrong:

1. People want relationships with their family and friends, not a business.
2. Shared values build relationships, not interactions.
3. There is no evidence to suggest the more interactions a brand has with a customer, the more likely that customer is to purchase.

It’s not the content marketer’s job to build warm and fuzzy friendships with the people they hope to do business with. It’s the content marketer’s job to figure out what their target audience needs and what questions they have. With that information, they must meet those needs and answer those questions with highly-targeted, high-quality content.

5 Creative Ways to Write Persuasive Call to Action in Your Blog Post

By Anil Valvi

You might think that it is not important for you to write call to action in your blog post. But, is it so? 

 

If you want your readers to leave their comment on your blog, you write call to action. If you want your readers to follow you on Twitter and become your fans on Facebook, you write call to action. If you want your readers to sign up to your mailing list, you need call to action. The same is true when you promote your product to your blog readers. You need call to action. So, call to action is important for your blog, and it is necessary for you to learn about how to write it effectively. 

 

Here are 5 creative ways to write persuasive call to action in your blog post:

1. Don’t Be Afraid To Ask People to Do Something after Reading Your Post

Many bloggers are afraid to write call to action because they don’t want to come up as pushy and demanding toward their audience. But, this is just not true. When you write a call to action, you are not being pushy or demanding toward your audience. In fact, you are motivating and encouraging them to take the next action. You are not forcing them. You merely invite them to do so. So, don’t be afraid to ask people what they need to do next after reading your blog post. This is important, because when you feel afraid, you won’t be able to write an effective call to action and it will not be compelling enough to motivate your readers.

2. Tell Them the Benefit of Taking Action

You have to remind your audience about the benefit of taking action in the end of your post. It’s not about the benefit for you or your blog, but it is about the benefit that your readers will instantly get once they do the proposed action that you ask them to do. For instance, if you want them to sign up to your mailing list, you should tell them about the benefit of signing up to your list that they can get instantly. Remember, people will not be motivated to do something unless they can get the advantage of doing it. And it is much better if they can get the advantage instantly instead of later.

3. Make It the Next Logical Step

Make their action the next logical step that they should do after reading your blog post. It will go like this. If your readers love your content, logically they will want to get more content, right? Thus, if they want to get more content from you, logically they should stay tune with the latest updates on your blog. In order to do this, they need to follow you on social media because you will always post the latest blog updates there. So, it’s the logical step that they have to do. If your call to action can become the logical step that your audience can do after reading your content, they will just go with the flow. But, if the call to action is completely off-course for them, then they will not respond well.

4. Give Them Time Limit

People are constantly buying limited edition products because of one thing: lack of availability. The rarer something is, the more demand it will get, provided that it has good value to offer. So, it can be applied to your call to action as well. When you give your readers the time limit to take action, you will be able to encourage them to take action immediately. For instance, if you are giving away an exclusive offer to your mailing list subscribers for only the next 7 days, your readers will be willing to sign up to your list immediately just to get a grab on your offer. But, if there’s no time limit, your readers will not feel the sense of urgency to join your list. As a result, it will give less positive response for your call to action.

5. End with a Question

When you ask question to someone, he or she will naturally answer your question. Try it with your call to action. If your call to action is a question, then naturally your readers will respond to it. This is true when you are asking your readers to leave their comment. Once you write a full blog post, you will end it up with a question: “What about you? Do you have some other ideas that you want to share?” And it will automatically motivate people to write comment to share their ideas. Thus, the discussion will start. So, it’s a good strategy for you to end your blog post with a question in order to encourage people to take action immediately.

Those are some creative ways to write persuasive call to action in your blog post. If you want your readers to engage with you and become an active part of your blogging community, writing an effective call to action for your blog post is necessary. If you apply those creative ways for your call to action, you’ll get better response from your blog readers.

WordPress Multisite Can Be Structural Advantage For SEO

By Phil Singleton

WordPress is by far the most popular content management system for small businesses.  It’s super easy to use and when structured properly, great for search engine optimization.  WordPress also gives you the ability to create a ‘website of websites’ or your own network of sites, on a single installation.

You can find the official networking explanation of WordPress Multisite here.  We will not get into the background or specifics of WP Multisite in this post, but there are some great posts around the net of this topic such as this beginner’s guide.

In a nutshell, WP Multisite enables you to create a network of websites on a single installation of WordPress.  This means, you can have one ‘super admin’ with network wide control, then create an unlimited number of separate websites, each with their own unique moderators and users.  In one common application, for example, you could have a main domain with generic content and a subdomain with niche specific or geographically specific content.   OK, so what does that mean in real world applications?

The following is a practical example of a WordPress Multisite website.  This following link is to the main or ‘parent’ of a WordPress multisite installation website which shows content geared for a national audience:
http://bloggerlocal.com

Next, here is an example of a secondary or ‘child’ website on the same domain and WordPress installation.  In this case, all of the content is different from the parent website, including the content, images and meta data, and in this example, all content is geo-targeted for a city:
http://kansascity.bloggerlocal.com

Another example of a targeted use of WP Multisite is for niches.  So, as an example on the same domain, here is a child site niche-targeted for photography:
http://photographers.bloggerlocal.com

How does this help for SEO?
While there may be some subdirectory vs subdomain debate regarding the importance and influence of domain structure for search engine optimization, it’s pretty clear that subdomain structure is treated differently that subdirectory structure.  Regardless, using WP Multisite is not appropriate for all businesses nor is it pure SEO structure advantage.  The main benefits of using a subdomain structure in WordPress Multisite for possible SEO advantages are likely only realized when using this technology with a genuine and comprehensive approach, and for the following reasons:

1. The subdomain address is technically a separate website address.  Yet, search engines likely neutralize any potential benefits of trying to use subdomains in and of themselves as and SEO advantage.

2. The subdomain website is technically a separate installation of WordPress, meaning, it’s a separate CMS, with a separate blog and users.  Chances are that installing a full website on a subdomain shows this is a website and not a thin microsite or page.  This is why you can see that free Web 2.0 blogs on blogger.com and wordpress.com, etc. subdomains can achieve rank when they publish high quality content.

3. The child site content is quality and unique: this shows the search engines that the child site should achieve rank for its niche or territory.  Then each child site’s SEO potential can be further strengthened with unique social signals and NAP (name-address-phone number) citations if appropriate.

4.  It’s possible to map a unique domain, ie a separate domain to a child site.  Having a unique top level domain (TLD) mapped to a child is clearly be an SEO advantage as a child site with a unique domain to the parent site would have to be treated like a separate site by the search engines.

While WP Multisite may not be a fit for most small businesses, it certainly offers an awesome, cost effective structure for many types of businesses. Businesses such as restaurants, franchises, chapter-based organizations, property management firms, etc.  could all benefit from this type of “site of sites” networking structure.  By having the ability to carve out niche and geo-targeted child sites, there may be significant SEO benefits as well.

It's FBPro MARKETER

by Dave Guindon

A new Facebook automation software that hit the market...

It targets your traffic and promotes your products by building high converting Facebook pages.

It looks pretty solid..was built in Adobe Air, 

so it works on MAC or PC ...

Scroll down the page to watch the FBPro MARKETER demo here:
FBPro MARKETER

Social Media Shows Creativity

When it comes to social networking and job search, creativity thrives.

A CNN article gives a wonderful example of a creative use of the social media site Pinterest as a resume. Rachael King, a community engagement professional for Adobe, created the "living resume," which is a collection of high points in her career. The living resume provides King a visual representation of the work she’s done that’s much more exciting to sift through than bulleted list on a resume.

Tumblr is another visual social media site ideal for photographers and artists looking for jobs.

How to Use Pinterest to Drive More YouTube Views

BY Steve Young

 

Do you want more people to watch your videos?

Have you thought of integrating your YouTube channel with your Pinterest account?

When you combine the power of YouTube with Pinterest, you can boost your business, increase your subscribers and increase your video views.

Watch the video here:

slideshare.net/stevepyoung/how-to-drive-more-youtube-views

Driving Traffic with Your Market Stats Tools

Real Estate Blogger, Colleen Kulikowski, and Virtual Results Support Manager, Leah Marks, discuss the benefits and uses of the Market Stats tools in driving traffic to a realtor or property investment site.

Colleen has years of experience blogging on her real estate sites and has been successful at getting many buyers and sellers from those efforts.

With a little planning you can drive significant traffic to your website. Today, Market Reports are the backbone of my website. The good news is that good content doesn’t have to be complicated!

In July of 2006, I wrote my first post. I labored for days on what I was going to first write about.  Once I decided on Market Reports, it took me a couple of hours to create a simple market report.   Today I maintain more than 80 market reports and each one takes me less than 5 minutes to update.

These market reports are some of the most popular posts on my site and they can be on yours too!  A small investment in time on your part can pay you big dividends in the future. Market reports are simple to create and update.  Run some stats off of your MLS (or other info source site) and publish. Just remember to give credit and use a disclaimer if required. To get you started, here is the format I use (see the live report here). Feel free to use it as a template.

Watch the demo video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32GmynP89Ic

Driving Website Traffic with Market Reports

By Colleen Kulikowski

 A great idea for realtors, property investors or anyone with access to dynamic source information.

With a little planning you can drive significant traffic to your website.  Today, Market Reports are the backbone of my website.

Not sure where to start? I have been in your shoes wondering, “where am I going to start to build content for my site?” I get it!  It can be overwhelming to create effective posts.

You want a great real estate resource for potential home buyers and sellers. The good news is that good content doesn’t have to be complicated!

Read a step-by-step guide and see an example here:
http://virtualresults.net/driving-traffic-website-market-reports/

Tumblr - New Business Microblogging Platform

What It Does: Microblogging platformhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
Founder: David Karp, 23
Web Site: www.tumblr.com
Based: New York

In 2005, David Karp was running his software consulting business, developing new media for big media companies. He got the idea for Tumblr after becoming captivated by a new form of blogging known as "tumblelogging" that presented material of various formats (such as text, photo, and video) in a stream. While building a tumblelog for himself, the programmer realized other fans of the form would want to use a simple tool that would allow them to create their own. So during a two-week window between consulting jobs, Karp, who first started coding when he was 11, created the first iteration of such a tool designed with speed, ease of use, and customization in mind. Launched in 2007 for general consumption, the Tumblr platform now has 1.8 million users and has landed $5.5 million in venture capital from two rounds of funding with Union Square Ventures and Spark Capital. Karp, 23, says the 10-person company is not making money yet but will be experimenting with revenue-generating features this quarter. "Goal No. 1 is growth. We're aiming this thing for a mainstream audience."

Starting A Blog

Ready to become your own publisher?

In last month's newsletter we discussed why you might want
to start a blog. Listed here are some various resources where
you can go and start your own blog with various options
available to choose from.

These blogging sites can help you make your mark on the Web.

AOL Journals:
You don't have to be an AOL subscriber to use AOL's blogging
service, AOL Journals. You only need to register and walk
through a quick creation process for a basic blog. AOL
Journals may suit AOL instant messaging users especially
well, since you can post blog entries via AIM.

On the downside, AOL runs banner ads along the top of your
blog, and the look of the blog isn't highly customizable.
So while it's acceptable for, say, family blogs, AOL
Journals is not a smart choice for a small business owner.

AskJeeves Bloglines:
If you can't get enough of reading other people's blogs,
check out Bloglines. This free news aggregator service
delivers a customized news page that you design. You
choose a group of blogs to which you'll subscribe, then
Bloglines grabs content from them when it's updated.
You can use Bloglines for any news offered via RSS
(Really Simple Syndication), an option you'll see at most
major news sites and many blogs.

You'll also find a blog-creation tool here, for sharing
blog clips with friends, but it isn't very intuitive.

Blogger.com:
Run by search-engine king Google, Blogger.com helps you
step through creating and publishing a blog in just a
few minutes. You can't beat the price: It's free. And
you'll find good-looking design options and cool features
like AudioBlogger, which lets you call in by phone to
leave a message that's posted on your blog in MP3 format.

Blogger has new features including a photo Slideshow and
a Poll option by Adding Page Elements. You can also make
a Blogger publicly available as anonymous, to Gmail users
only, or to registered Blooger users only.

On the downside, you can't password-protect your blog using
this service. Still, Blogger.com is a good way to try on
blogging for size.

LiveJournal:
LiveJournal is an open-source blogging service that's free
to join but costs $25 a year to enjoy some of the most
high-end features, such as embedded polls and surveys,
custom themes, online photo storage, and phone posting.
When you pay, you can also receive new posts via e-mail or
text message.

The service--which was recently acquired by Six Apart,
the company that brings you TypePad (see below)
--is very community-oriented. You can aggregate your
friends' most recent blog posts in one place or create
a community blog where several people with shared
interests can post on a certain topic.

MSN Spaces:
MSN's free blogging service offers a bit more flexibility
than Blogger.com. MSN Spaces boasts a quick setup process,
good templates, and easy-to-use editing tools, plus the
ability to post entries via cell phone. You can also share
music playlists with friends. And you can make an MSN Space
blog publicly available to everyone, to a small group of
people, or to no one.

TypePad.com:
The TypePad service isn't free, but it's a good value,
starting at $4.95 per month for a personal weblog with
one author. (PC World named it Best Blogging Tool in
the magazine's 2005 World Class Awards.) TypePad offers
a really understandable interface, classy templates,
and a text editor that makes it simple to jazz up the
look of your blog.

TypePad also expertly guides you through tasks such as
password protecting blogs, sharing online photo albums
and setting up pages that blend text, photos, video and
audio using the company's unique Mixed Media templates.
All in all, TypePad will make your blog more
sophisticated, for a reasonable price.

Yahoo 360:
Yahoo's free service, still in beta testing, shows users
how to write and publish blogs, as well as share content
like music, post pictures, all while keeping control
over who can visit the site.

Why Start A Blog?

This writer has some useful information about Blogs. Blogs may not be for everyone, but for many they are becoming a powerful marketing tool.

If you need a website, you can start with creating a blog and then register your custom domain web name and point it to your blogging site.
More on this subject in coming newsletters!

What the Heck is a Blog?
By Andy Wibbels

Everybody is talking about blogs. They are everywhere: on the TV, in the newspapers, and all over the internet. With the number of blogs doubling every five months, there is no stopping the power of blogs.

But what the heck is a blog? For the elegant simplicity and beauty that blogs create, they certainly have an ugly, ungainly name. Blawg sounds like some kind of gurgling sound your cat makes before coughing up a hairball.

A blog, short for weblog, is often described as an online diary. The most recent entries (called posts) - appear on the homepage of the blog with links to archives of older posts. Archives are organized by date and often categorized by topic. Often, each post will have a form for readers to add their own comments and to give their opinion or reaction to the post's content.

But that's just what a blog looks like - it doesn't really tell you why a blog is different from a conventional website. The real genius in blogs appears in the process of how they are written.
You can update your blog instantly from any internet connection on any computer anywhere in the world - even from your summer home in Tahiti (as you sip an ice-cold island cocktail). Blogs are designed for people who don't want to learn (or don't have the time to learn) HTML or web design. You use a special type of blogging software (called a blog tool) to create and update your weblog. You type your latest post into a simple online form. You click "Publish" and it is instantly available online for the whole world to see. It's super-easy. If you can send an email, you can publish a weblog. So my updated description of a weblog is:
A blog is an easy, instantly and frequently updated website, focused around a topic, industry or personality.

One big reason businesses (especially small businesses and entrepeneurs) flock to blogs is because they reduce dependencyon a web design team to get ideas and announcements online. Developing a website for your business can take weeks, sometimes months, from shopping for a designer and doing project negotiation phase to getting the final site launched. Developing a website can be not only costly, but time consuming.

Many of my clients have found blogs a great way to start out online while they are building their business with the eventual goal to move towards a more robust web design solution. Others have moved all of their web sites into a blog format and have vowed to never look back.
You can create a blog and have a website in less than fifteen minutes, for less than $10, with hosting and software included- and, all without having to know anything about web design. With a blog there's ten thousand less decisions to make.

Blogging is the fastest, cheapest, easiest way to build a website in the time it takes to watch a sitcom.

Andy Wibbels is a blogging evangelist and creator of the Easy Bake Weblogs seminar that has helped hundreds of small businesses all over the world leverage blogs and RSS news feeds to increase profits and save time. You can download his free special report on business and blogs at easybakeweblogs.com

Article Source: EzineArticles.com

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