Tag Archives: Effective

Are You Effective at Getting PR for Your Blog?

Have you ever thought about getting some PR for your blog? PR stands for public relations, and this is an area most of us were not familiar with before coming online. These days I understand the importance of having my blog seen by as many people as possible, more specifically by my prospects.

You may already be familiar with my Book – Blog – Broadcast model, where we use our blog, books we write and publish, our podcast on iTunes, and our YouTube channel to cross reference who we are and what we have to offer. This is the beginning of providing value before you pitch. The idea is to show rather than tell others about your knowledge and expertise on your topic so they will want to approach you first. It’s similar to a film, where the characters show us who they are from the very first frame, rather than telling us about themselves in dialog.

The majority of the time we will need to go out and seek publicity for our blog rather than sitting back and waiting for it to happen. I was reading a guest post from Andreea Ayers over at Problogger on the topic of “How to Grow Your Audience By Getting PLR for Your Blog” and this is what she says:

After they make their list of, let’s say, 20 media outlets they want to be featured in, they should reach out and provide value, rather than reach out and “pitch” their expertise or blog. Here’s an example of what I did to get media attention when I launched a Pinterest course a few years ago. I created an infographic with 100+ Pinterest board ideas and I reached out to different types of blogs to see if they would be interested in using my infographic as a resource for their blog and to share with their readers. I included the infographic and in my pitch I mentioned that Pinterest is growing in popularity and many of their readers are probably still learning how to use Pinterest, but coming up with Pinterest board ideas is what holds a lot of people back from using it for business.

Instead of telling people she was a Pinterest expert, Andreea showed them how they could use this social site for their own business. This is far more effective, and will build long lasting relationships as well. This spurred interest in her Pinterest training and helped launch her as an expert in this area.

Increasing visibility in order to drive more traffic to your blog can be accomplished in various ways, including hosting a podcast on your topic, being interviewed by others, writing and publishing a book, and getting in front of the people who can best help you to achieve your goals. Andreea adds:

I think that bloggers should be proactive about publicity and cross promotions with other bloggers/companies whose readers are similar to theirs. When I look back at most of my “success stories”, they came as a result of me reaching out to the person who I wanted to connect with, not the other way around. Bloggers should also consider speaking at relevant industry events to build even more credibility for their blog and get in front of audiences in-person. Meeting someone in person or seeing them speak at an event can help to build credibility and a loyal following quickly.

This post is filled with great resources, including a four paragraph template to use when approaching others to get PR for your blog, as well as information on setting up your “About” page and thinking about SEO when adding content to help the media find your site. The bottom line is this: You must be proactive in getting PR for your blog, book, podcast, or anything else you are doing for your business.

How to Write Effective Web Sales Copy

Writing Web Sales Copy That Sells

I believe that learning to write effective web sales copy (copywriting on the Internet to sell products, services, courses, and more) was the best investment of time and money I could ever have done for my business during my first year online. Now that I have more than fifty different products for sale on the Internet, my web sales copy is like a sales team always at the ready to assist me in making sales 24/7/365. And the interesting part of this is that it didn’t have to take me a full year to learn how to do it. Now you can get started in as little as ten days.

I was given a review copy of a new training on copywriting by Dennis Becker, and I’d like to share my thoughts on this with you within this post. I also decided to do some additional research before publishing it here.

I was reading a post by Derek Gehl over at the Entrepreneur site called Make Your Sales Copy Sell: 7 Tricks to Writing Copy that Brings in Business where he says that:

Writing good sales copy doesn’t have to be hard–you just use a formula. Plug in all the elements, and you’ll create a whole that’s bigger than the sum of its parts.”

I agree, up to a point. When you are new to copywriting it’s easy to get confused by the glib comments of more experienced copywriters and marketers. Writing effective web sales copy takes practice, and that is exactly what you get from a new training just released by Dennis Becker. It’s called CopyBox and is a ten day copywriting challenge and short course on how to get started with copywriting to sell your products and services online. And it’s quite inexpensive as well. Dennis says:

Learning how to write good sales copy is one of the most valuable and profitable skills you can pick up in your business career. Because once you know how to craft irresistible, sizzling sales letters, then you’ll have the power to sell anything to anyone!

That’s why I’ve put together this 50+ page hands-on course, where you’ll get a step-by-step guide for crafting high-response sales letters. This includes:

*Ten daily modules where you learn exactly how to write sizzling copy!
*Ten daily assignments to go with each module. If you follow along, you only need to invest a few minutes a day to write a new piece of your copy – and in just 10 days you’ll be ready to roll with a high-response sales letter!

I love this type of “short course” where you can go through the materials quickly and easily over a ten day period. And I promise that if you do that you will most likely look forward to writing copy instead of dreading it like I once did. And Dennis provides dozens of examples and tips throughout this entire course to make it easier than ever for you to create your own sales letter.

One other part of Derek’s post that you will find helpful is this one on the topic of features and benefits:

Talk about benefits, not just features.
Your potential customers want to know how your product or service will make their lives easier, so focus on benefits, not features. Here’s an example:

Feature: The Grade A Gardening Shovel is ergonomically designed to remove weeds more efficiently than traditional shovels.

Benefit: Get your weeding done in half the time and reduce wrist soreness!

A benefit answers the question “What’s in it for me?” and gets visitors to imagine using your product to take care of the problem they’re trying to solve.”

So if you are ready to jump in to the world of copywriting for the Internet, grab Dennis Becker’s Copy Box and start your ten day challenge and course of study. You’ll be glad you did, as this is a necessary part of online marketing that you can’t afford to be without. And you might even decide you like it enough to write web sales copy for others. Yes, that’s something that is in high demand among those of us working exclusively online, and learning how to do this part of the business effectively could be your next career.

Time Effective Content Marketing Strategies

Time Effective Content Marketing Strategies for Entrepreneurs

Recently I worked with a small group of entrepreneurs at my Retreat in Santa Barbara. They wanted to know how they could create relevant content for their business websites and blogs without feeling like they were stuck in front of the computer endlessly with the writing process. There are several strategies I teach on this very topic, and we will go into more detail with the top three here. They are original content, curated content, and guest writing.

Writing original content is always going to be one of the best content marketing strategies when it comes to building your business and your brand. You know your topic inside and out and have both an interest and a passion for it that no one else will have. Time management is possible when you schedule out both the topics you wish to write about and the days and times you will sit down and commit to writing. I tend to do this during the early morning several days each week. I keep a small legal pad on my desk so that I always know what I will be writing about. Research time is kept to no more than five minutes for any piece of writing, and the writing is limited to anywhere from three hundred fifty to about eight hundred words in total. Over time you will develop your “voice” so that readers get used to your tone and inflection through your writing.

The second method of content marketing is through something that is referred to as “curated” content. This is content based on someone else’s original writing and then expanded upon by you with your thoughts, opinions, and examples. There are some excellent writers on every topic you can think of whom regularly create content that can be curated. In my business I have used writing from people like Seth Godin and Neil Patel to curate my own articles and posts. They teach and inspire me and I like to put my spin on their work to connect my audience to these new concepts. Everyone wins with curation.

Guest writing is the third method of content creation I will address here. This was first brought to my attention when it was taught to me as “guest blogging” more than ten years ago now. The idea is to trade original articles with people in complimentary niches and industries so that you are all exposed to different audiences over time. This was very intimidating to me when I was first online working as an entrepreneur. The others all seemed so experienced and professional in my opinion, and I was just starting out. When I made the decision to jump in and write something I believed to be of interest it was the best decision I could have made.

By now you can see that there are many ways to honor your time and still create enough content to publish on your sites on a regular basis. Spend some time planning out topics you can include as original content, curated content, and guest written content and see how well this serves you in your business. Content truly makes the world go ’round, and these strategies will help you with managing your time as a content marketer.

I am reminded of a quote from Anne Tyler. “If I waited until I felt like writing I’d never write at all.” Once you learn how to get your writing done in a reasonable amount of time this will make even more sense as a business and marketing strategy.

Content marketing is all about positioning yourself as an expert, continuing to create massive visibility, and building credibility for yourself and your business.

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