The problem with all these toys is finding ones that work well AND save time. Lots of times, I find ones with one or two helpful features and this usually means entering the same information into multiple locations. Or, I end up tracking several applications at the same time.

Well, you’ll be happy to know I’ve found some brilliant programs. They’ve made my life easier, and as far as I’m concerned, they’re a must-have for anyone creating content or running a website.

Project and Strategy Planning — Trello

Fog Creek Software call their wonderful new program “a collaboration tool that organises your projects into boards”, but Trello is so much more.

A free collaborative organizational program, Trello lets you create lists and cards you can add to a virtual board. These cards can then be dragged and dropped between the boards as needed. You can label and filter them, add comments, a voting mechanism, checklists, due dates, and more. (Did I mention you can collaborate with others and even publish the boards publicly?)

Currently, I’m using Trello to organize and track:

Books I’m Writing – I name the board the title of the book. Then, I create a list for each chapter. The subheadings and topics in each chapter are represented by cards in the list.

Marketing Strategies – I have one list for ideas, one for onsite marketing, one for offsite marketing, and one for promotion/advertising. Then, I create a card for each segment. (The email marketing list might contain cards labeled “signup strategies”, “pitches”, and “landing pages” for example.) To help flesh out the concept on each card, I add URLs, ideas, checklists, due dates, and notes in the comments section.

Website Planning and Building – Trello is excellent for keeping up with the constant changes that come with new websites. I create a list for each parent page, cards for each child page, and add links to additional boards in the comments.

For larger websites, I create multiple boards: The first board is divided into steps. So, I’ll make a list for market research, design, structure, content, marketing, etc. Then, each of those lists contains cards that represent and link to yet another board for each of the major steps. (Under marketing, for example, there might be a card for social media with a link to a social media board, one for SEO with a link to the board with all my SEO plans on it, etc.)

Content Creation — As you might imagine, I work on a ton of content for clients, my sites, and sites I run in collaboration with others. While I use Google Calendar and RememberTheMilk to keep everything straight, I found I still needed something to keep track of ideas and what stage each piece is at. So, I created a board specifically for content creation.

To do this, I made a list for each step in the process (ideas, currently writing, waiting for editing, ready-to-publish, published). Then, I drag each idea from one board to another as I get them done.

Easy peasy, right? Trello could use a few tweaks to improve its usability, but they’re pretty new and they’re working like crazy to add new ideas and features. Overall, I am absolutely loving it.

Trello Pros:

• Able to keep up with constant change (drag and drop)
• Excellent collaboration
• Flexible (boards/cards/lists can be used for just about anything)
• Free
• Labeling, filtering, and card customization

Trello Cons:

• Unable to make a card represent a board
• Comments get lost on extremely active cards
• Inability to integrate with other software programs like iCal, Basecamp, and others

Email Marketing and Newsletter Management — MailChimp

For effective email marketing and management, you can’t beat MailChimp. I’ve seen it in action for businesses of various sizes, and it always impresses me.

MailChimp starts with easy-to-build signup widgets and forms. These simple forms collect and automatically add respondents to a list. Then, you can use an existing template or create one of your own to make your own HTML and text emails. (Recipients can choose which format they prefer when they sign up.)

You can schedule the emails to go out at a specific time, create and drip feed an autoresponder series, or send them out immediately. You can send an email out to everyone, or segment your lists to personalise the emails and get a higher conversion rate. MailChimp’s reporting feature and live statistics make it really easy to see how your campaign is performing.

MailChimp offers a number of other services as well including an inspector to ensure safe delivery, an RSS-to-Email tool, geo-location, split testing, and more.

MailChimp Pros:

• Super simple for non-tech types
• Make campaigns as simple or as complicated as you’d like
• Integrates seamlessly with a variety of other software programs
• Flexible campaign creation
• Free or very affordable
• Solid list management
• Excellent reporting feature
• Easy campaign duplication

MailChimp Cons:

• Takes a bit of tinkering when you first start if you’re inexperienced and have no techie know-how
• Would love to see more data collection involved
• A bit clunky when dealing with late sign ups or sending to a single recipient
• Can’t disable social sharing on some emails and not others in a single campaign

Product Marketing and Membership Software — Your Members

A membership plugin designed for WordPress, Your Members isn’t something I’d normally recommend for anything other than creating a membership site, but wait until you can see what it does.

Your Members includes full user management, payment gateway integration, content management, and a ton of other features. It also includes add-on packages for Facebook membership sites, secure video streaming/distribution, and more.

Currently, I’m using Your Members strictly to manage and market the ebook series I’m working on. This plugin will make it possible sell my ebooks individually (choose the ones you want), in bundles of four for a small discount (buy all the books on a specific topic), as an annual 12- month subscription (for all 12 ebooks), or for a significant discount. It will also allow me to offer additional content and ebooks, as well as deliver courses and other features.

I think this is brilliant for anyone who creates content. You can use Your Members to sell your works of fiction (think: a novel and a series of short stories, or releasing the novel as a series), videos, podcasts, products and educational courses, blog posts, web designs, images…If you can make it, Your Members can sell and manage it.

Your Members Pros:

• Create flexible packages and memberships
• Full content control (Hide or show full or partial posts)
• Tons of opportunities to upsell and cross-promote
• Super easy to install, set up, and customize
• Ability to create your own messages and emails
• Integrates easily with other software
• Excellent customer service

Your Members Cons:

• Requires an initial investment
• You need to plan how you’re going to offer your content very carefully
• Must make sure the right people have access to the right content

Social Promotional Tool — inviteApe

Social sharing and word-of-mouth marketing are becoming more and more important. A recent Neilsen study showed more than 70% of consumers trusted socially shared content over brands and official media sources, so why not use this to market your products and services? That’s where the inviteApe WordPress plugin comes in.

This tool allows your followers to share links and information to your website and rewards them when that share pays off! So, if I share a link about my buddy Glenn’s book, and you click the link, I get a free copy. Ok, maybe just a discount or some other free material, but you get the idea. I used it to share initial copies of my first ebook and I don’t have a single complaint.

inviteApe uses Gravatar to create personalised pages for you and all your followers without lifting a finger. You can redirect users and customise the offer however you’d like. It’s a brilliant, quick little app.

inviteApe Pros:

• Easy way to encourage others to share your content and expand your reach
• Very little setup required
• Works for just about anything, and with a little customisation, you can even use it to sell and sign people up to mailing lists
• Works easily with pretty much any theme

inviteApe Cons:

• Need an established social-based following that’s already sharing and paying attention to your content
• Must have a main offer and something to give. This “something” has to attract others who aren’t as familiar with your work and tempt them to share

Invoicing and Bookkeeping — Freshbooks

I love that Freshbooks has a dashboard where all of my clients can log in and see what’s happening with their accounts. The UI is pretty and easy for everyone to use, and it tracks everything involved in my projects including my time, expenses, how long it takes them to pay, how much is outstanding, and how much I’ve been paid for. Best of all? It’s priced at a level that’s suitable for individuals and small businesses.

Another thing I really enjoy about Freshbooks is that it integrates with tons of stuff. This means I don’t have to worry about setting up PayPal requests or copying and pasting the same information multiple times. I just set it up and go.

The time tracking is probably good for people who remember to turn the silly thing on and off, but for me, it just doesn’t work. I need something with automatic tracking, a desktop app that works on my Mac, and something that lets me assign the time to a project, without having to go back to the website. For this, I use Paymo.biz.

Paymo’s time tracking app still needs some tweaking because it’s a bit clunky, but it’s new. And I have to say that it’s the best I’ve found for Mac so far. (Paymo is actually another really good alternative to Freshbooks. However, I find it has more of a project management focus, which is why I chose Freshbooks. I also don’t generally use time to invoice, so it isn’t much of an issue.)

Freshbooks Pros:

• Slick, brandable interface for clients
• Easy and fast to track and send invoices
• Uploading options means you can keep all of your client’s files in one place where they can access them whenever they need to
• Snail mail and email invoicing. Also does recurring payments
• Affordable
• Integrates with Basecamp and numerous other programs small businesses already use

Freshbooks Cons:

• Time tracking is helpful, but it doesn’t auto-track movements on your desktop.
• Another set of log-in details for clients
• Initial setup takes some time
• Frequent tab switching when locating and setting up projects

Customer Relationship Management — CapsuleCRM

CRM programs have been a particular pain for me. I’ve tried a bunch, and I’ve found they all had major issues for me:

• Desktop-based — Really sucks when you travel and frequently switch machines, not to mention a huge resource hog.
• Affordable, but don’t do what I want — I hate having to track everything manually!
• Fantastic, but expensive — If I have to work six months to pay for client management software, I don’t care how well it works. It’s not worth it.

Capsule CRM integrates completely with Gmail, so I never have to re-add information. Just click the button to upload the email and it’s done. It automatically matches the email with the right client.

It manages sales leads, as well. As a small business, I don’t find this section as helpful, but I’m trying to get into the habit of maintaining it for that inevitable day when I realize I’ve once again grown bigger than I thought. Overall, the entire thing is quite intuitive and I no longer have to worry about losing emails to a server crash. (Just be sure to back this up.)

CapsuleCRM Pros:

• Stores contacts individually and as an organisation
• Integrates with other software and apps, as well as social networks
• Makes contacts and organisations easy to find, including any projects or opportunities associated with them
• Change an individual into an organisation or an organisation into an individual
• Merge multiple contacts

CapsuleCRM Cons:

• Doesn’t allow you to make a case into an opportunity or an opportunity into a case
• Doesn’t include cases and opportunities on the dashboard
• No way to search the content of emails? (There may be one, but I haven’t found it yet.)
• Tasks and calendar don’t integrate with iCal and Gmail tasks or other calendar/to-do apps

Content Collaboration — Gather Content

I’ve been looking for a suitable way to share and revise content with clients, and this quest brought me to Gather Content. It basically gives you a way to design mockups and insert content. You can then invite clients, designers, and others involved in the project, so they can revise and tinker with the layout and the various elements. You can assign pages, due dates, and upload content. When you’re done, you can export the whole kit ‘n’ kaboodle in one full swoop.

I don’t think I’m using it the way the developers had intended it, but so far, I’m pretty pleased with it. At the moment, I’m using it to design and layout new website content. I’m also using it as a temporary home for all the new content for my existing sites. I couldn’t care less about the design options, but I did have a play with them and thought they worked quite well. I’ll be testing this one further before adding it to my existing client routine.

Gather Content Pros:

• Easily create and move pages
• Files, comments and everything you need is in one place
• Project organisation is fantastic
• Keeps track of what’s due and when
• Easy for others to change things and make comments. (Revisions are all saved, so you can easily move from one revision to the next without losing anything.)
• Free!

Gather Content Cons:

• Having to play with the design is a bit frustrating when you just want to use it for content. You need to add a text box to the page before adding content
• Reloads the entire page when you switch from one page to another. Avoid this by opening pages in multiple tabs
• No integration with other software or apps yet

To Do List — Pegby

I’ve used RememberTheMilk to handle all my to-dos since I started my business. I enjoy it, and find it’s really convenient, but I have been playing with Pegby recently. It’s another one of those pretty drag-and-drop apps that you actually don’t mind playing with. You create one card for each item, and from there, you can add notes, files, and tags. You can push it off until later, or share the board with someone else and delegate the tasks.

This is fun for me, but not practical when things start getting overly complicated. Not to say it won’t work for someone else, but my brain simply doesn’t work that way. That’s why I’m still using RememberTheMilk to handle all of my long-term tasks. But, I’ve found Pegby’s Trello-like information radiator layout is a great option to manage my daily to-do list. (I’m still playing with it, so opinions here may change.)

Pegby Pros:

• Pretty, fun, and makes me want to get things done, so I can move the cards around
• Information radiator layout is ideal for daily task lists
• Free (Works on a pay-what-it’s-worth model)
• Collaboration is pretty simple
• Email cards to the board
• Paying members can make boards public and give them their own branding

Pegby Cons:

• Can’t simply tick off completed tasks if it’s an item with multiple steps
• Not really designed for long-term task management

That’s it for me.  What sorts of tools have you recently adopted or been testing? Anything I should try?

*** Update ***
The other day, I tweeted a blog post and made a comment that I really liked the tag cloud the site was using. Today, Infomous replied to my tweet with a thank you and a gift! Turns out, it’s a tool. And they have a bunch of other really neat tools for analysts and publishers like this nifty alternative navigation system. Very nice, yes?

Blog Tag Cloud

Twitter Tag Cloud

Today, I thought it would be fun to share a sample of it with you. Enjoy!

Boost the Strength of Your Content

Congratulations. Things seem to be rolling along nicely. Your link bait may even be ranking well in the search results, thanks (at least in part) to a little known ranking factor called ‘Query Deserves Freshness’ (QDF).

(The search engines believe newer content is better, so they often list new content higher in the search results to see how it does. It’s also the result of the high number of links, traffic, and attention new content gets compared to older content. And without maintaining this momentum and establishing your piece, it will start falling in the search results.)

To make the most of your new rankings, and the attention your fresh, new piece of link bait is getting, you’ll need to increase its strength and visibility almost immediately. In fact, I make this part of the pre-planning phase because it takes work and time.

Link Back to Your Own Link Bait

Usually, when I create an important piece of content, I also develop a guest posting strategy to go with it. This way, I’m generating links to keep the content up in the search results, but I’m also driving fresh traffic to the piece, while expanding my reach. (I’ll write more on this later, but in the meantime, check out The Fine Art of Creating a Guest Posting Strategy.)

This strategy is almost identical, except for what I choose to write about, and how I choose my targets.

For example:

Let’s say we’ve created link bait for a car manufacturer entitled ‘The 20 Strangest Cars on the Road’. For guest posts, I would create content that looks at customizing cars, odd cars from history, unique uses for various cars, and other content that touches on the subject of the link bait piece, but doesn’t duplicate it. If it fits, I may add a little extra intrigue by borrowing an image or video from my link bait piece, to use in the guest posts.

Then, I publish a few of the guest posts on the same day as my link bait, a few more the next day, and so on. Why? When readers click through from the guest post to read more of my content or see what I have to offer, they’ll land on the link bait piece, and continue reading. After all, if they were interested in the guest post enough to click through, they’ll likely be interested in our link bait as well.

The transition is smooth, and readers are more likely to read further, rather than returning to the first site. (I should add that I normally don’t publish additional blog content immediately after a link bait piece. I like to milk my link bait for all it’s worth, before moving on.)

The second reason for this is to create a safety net. If something goes wrong with the piece (it attracts the wrong audience, feedback is negative, it’s not getting attention, etc.), I have time and the opportunity to make changes and get things back on track.

When choosing sites to guest post on, I tend to stay away from others in my industry. Instead, I search out sites that are target rich. This means their readers are interested in the content, use my chosen social media networks, and own websites (are likely to link back).

So, in our example, I would look for sites such as car magazines, companies that specialize in customizing cars, high-end recreation websites, and others who attract people with a high income, and an interest in expensive cars. I may even create pieces that look at cars driven by top CEOs and target business magazines and websites.

Blog posts aren’t the only format you can use, of course. Other types include:

• Videos
• Slide shows/presentations
• Ebooks
• Articles
• Press Releases
• An app, widget, game, software, or tool
• White papers
• Case studies

You can use anything really. The only rule is that whatever you choose has to link back to your site and target the right audience.

Continue to Generate Interest

It’s no shock that people lose interest in your content the second you press publish. So, if you’re going to keep people coming back in the weeks ahead, you’ll need to keep working with it.

One I way I accomplish this is to create…

Want to read the rest and find out how I keep traffic coming to my link bait? You’ll have to get your own copy of Copywriting Master Class: Creating Successful Link Bait.

Suddenly, I heard something move to my left, and I admit it: It scared the crap out of me! I yanked the earphones out of my ears and literally looked to make sure I was alone.

Of course, I laughed at myself. It was silly, but the show and my own habits set me up to freak out and do exactly what I did. It did scare me enough to start thinking though…how similar are scary movies to good websites? Is there anything I can learn here?

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Scary Movies Bring Everything Together

Horror movies use our minds to scare us. Every element works to gain our trust, suck us into the story, and make us part of the story…the music, the images, the sounds…it all fits together perfectly.

Websites aren’t supposed to scare us…well, some are, but generally speaking, they’re not supposed to. What they are supposed to do, however, is to gain our trust, suck us into the sales funnel, and make us buy into the ultimate goal. Every element needs to work together to do it.

The Perfect Introduction

If you’ve ever watched Paranormal State, you’ll notice it starts off with a black screen, completely devoid of everything except simple white lettering. The sounds are reminiscent of something banging on the pipes and other sounds you’d normally hear at the scariest points of a movie.

The message is written clearly, simply, and is very much to the point. The text is in a font you’d normally see used on official paperwork, and before the show even starts, you know the entire show will be presented from an investigative standpoint.

Websites and copywriting need to set up the visitor instantly. The first thing they notice should already tell them what to expect from the rest of the site. If you were to think of your website like a movie, it should give hints about the main elements of the plot.

Not sure what the plot for your website or copywriting should be? Here are a few tips:

• Start with the end in mind – Decide where you want visitors to be at the end of their visit. Hopefully, this is at the end of a conversion.
  
• Decide where each ‘viewer’ starts - Websites are a lot like a ‘choose your own adventure story’. Your job is to figure out where each segment will land and begin their journey. Even though they may start at multiple locations, they should have a similar theme.
  
• Connect the Dots - Make a note of all the important ‘intersections’ for each of your conversion paths and make sure each visitor can go through the ‘story’ without getting lost. Can they skip to the end at any time?
  

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Focus Attention On the Most Important Information

In a scary movie, you’ll notice that only one element, sound, visual stimuli, or script, will peak at any one time while the foundation of the story is being laid. At the key points where you’re being drawn into the story, only one element will build tension. This might be a character talking while nothing notable can be seen onscreen, or it might be the music slowly building the tension while all is quiet and still.

Then, as you near the climax of the movie, you’ll hear the intensity build in two of the elements. The music will intensify as the characters begin to realize whatever it is the climax will be. You’re naturally pulled into the storyline and find yourself experiencing the story yourself. Waiting. Wondering. Wanting to know. The climax? All three elements reach their peak.

Now, think of your conversion process.

While it may not be as noticeable in a shorter process, ecommerce stores make it relatively easy to plan out. Think about it:

You start the story by landing on the site. Already getting an idea of what you should be looking for, you follow a category or click on a product page.

Once there, the theme of your visit surrounds this main piece, giving you information, and convincing you to purchase that item. There are other paths you could take, other products you could purchase, but the main focus should be centered on the product you initially chose. In short, even though there are other elements present, the other stimuli should be muted and naturally direct focus on the main path.

From there, you place your item in the shopping cart. The end (the checkout button) should be calling to you, but things like sales, free shipping if you buy $X more, and other offers should be intensifying. They’re all indications of the climax to come.

By the time you’re done, you can’t help but think about how nice it will be to get your items in your home and in your very own hands. Clicking the checkout button? That’s the climax. The moment of relief from all the built up tension.

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Every Story Has a Hero

No matter what kind of movie you watch, they always have a star. There is always one main character you can rely on to find happiness, save the day, or defeat the bad guys. This is where most of the focus is centered, and generally, where the story begins and ends.

Does your site have a hero? Does it have a product, a group of information, or offer that everyone can look to for help? Will it save the day?

The next time you watch a horror movie, or any good story, watch it, enjoy it, and be entertained, but watch it a second time. Take time to watch it with the sound off, listen to it without watching the screen, and if you can, read a script from the show. Make note of how the elements work together and how the movie draws you in until you convert and buy the story. Then, look at your own website, or get someone else to do it, and see if it does the same.

So, if you aren’t trying to screw writers over by trying to get everything for nothing, which most people aren’t, there’s something else behind it.

I’m not cheap, and after a series of recent events, I’ve re-evaluated my pricing structure yet again. My time and my copy are an investment, and it’s not something that should be taken lightly.

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Cheap Copy Makes You Look Cheap

Enough is enough, and I’m not the only one who’s had it with this type of thinking either. A number of writers have already had their say:

Web Content — You Get What You Pay For! (Oh, and that video on the end? Watch it.)

Why I Charge $1,200+ Per Page For Copywriting

My Thoughts On ‘Sausage-Factory’ Content: Let’s Set Something Straight

Google Says Quality Is Dirt Cheap, Don’t Hire Copywriters

Is Quality Copywriting Worth the Expense?

Here’s from the client’s perspective:

Debating the Value (and Meaning) of “Great Content” for SEO (Comments are great)

When To Pay Top Dollar For Copy

How Much To Pay a Copywriter from the Warrior Forum

The Importance Of Good Copy

Reviving Anorexic Web Writing

Search Engine Optimization and the Importance of Copy

There are literally thousands and thousands of pages on the topic.

Copywriting is an investment equal in importance to the design, development, usability, and marketing strategy. Throwing a hastily written piece of web copy on a design you’ve spent thousands on is like shoving a $10K stereo in a 1983 Tercel. And in a business where your only interaction with most customers is your website, the existance of this plague is truly a mystery.

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I’m More Than Just a Durn Good Spellur

So, how do you define a ‘good writer’ anyway? Is this someone who can spell and knows the rules of grammar? Someone who can fit enough drivel between your keywords to satisfy your keyword requirements? Well, if that’s the case, then you’re right. Any idiot can do that…hmm, well no, that’s not true. I guess for some, the ability to speak and read English is enough.

Did you know that when you hire a copywriter, a good copywriter, you get more than just someone who can bang a bunch of crap onto a page. Yes, a good copywriter has to understand the rules before he or she can break them, but great copywriting, and indeed, great websites don’t become great by breaking the rules. They become great by breaking them the right way, and there’s much more to it than just that.

My Copywriting Is Creative

Tell me, how do you define your brand when it comes to creating your website? If you say simply your logo and tagline, you deserve a good swift smack. Your brand is the image you present to visitors.

Knowing that, what kind of an image do you project when your site looks great, but no one can understand a damn word you’re saying? Exactly. You may say you have high quality with an attention to detail, but do you really? Or are you more interested in making a quick buck? If it’s the latter, I can guarantee you that people can sniff that out a mile away. It reeks like a skunk and spreads about as far.

What sort of image do you project if someone arrives on your site and they can’t figure out what it is you do or what you have to offer them? Either it looks like you aren’t too interested in sharing that information, or you’re trying to hide something. People aren’t going to fight to give you money or attention.

What if your site just feels bland and uninspiring? How do you think people see companies like that?

When I write a piece of copy, I think about it long before I ever start writing. The imagery, feel, and tone for the copy absolutely perfect, meaning it needs to match you, your brand, and your target audience. If it doesn’t, you may as well be speaking alien because it’s going to be about as effective. In fact, my best ideas come to me at night when I’m supposed to be sleeping, in the truck, or while I’m in the shower.

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I Don’t Bully Your Buyers. With Me, They WANT To Buy

Some segments of your audience need pushes at different times and to varying degrees. Do you address that adequately? Or do you just toss the standard format onto a page and hope for the best?

While most copywriters follow a standard formula, I know that nothing is ever standard. Your business, your market, your website, and even how you plan to communicate different ideas enter into this equation. I charge more because I take time to figure out to get familiar with your target audience and learn how to push the right buttons at just the right time.

I Focus On What Really Matters — Those Who Buy From You

I don’t know how many times I hear people complain that they’ve got too many time wasters. Or, they complain that they’ve got a low conversion rate. Did you ever stop to think that maybe your copy is attracting the wrong segment of people? Many times, site owners are building a site and they can’t even define who their most profitable market is. I don’t just mean stay at home mom’s over 40 either. I mean putting names to that market.

When I work on a project, however, I do my best to work with that company to define that audience, or I attempt to narrow it down as much as possible before I can even start. Why? Because that’s what makes my writing better and different than almost all other copywriters in the industry.

It’s not just identifying this market. It’s using various methods to become familiar with the people who will be giving you their money, enough that you can use the same language, have the same problems, desires and fears. Why? So you know how to offer them the solution.

This doesn’t just come from analyzing the data either. You need to understand exactly what it is you’re looking at. Is it guaranteed? Of course not, but it’s sure a lot more accurate than the wild stab in the dark a lot of other copywriters make, if they account for this at all.

I Get the Right Message Out There

A large majority of website owners want to talk about how wonderful their product is, how wonderful they are, and then ask consumers for money. This is so common, this is all a large number of copywriters produce. Sorry, but this just isn’t very effective. It’s been proven over and over and over again. In fact, the best copywriters in the business have been preaching this for decades.

When I craft copy, I get the attention of your target audience, I create an internal need, and convince them that buying whatever it is from you is the best they could do for themselves. To do this, I make a direct connection between you and them. Think of me like a translator. It has nothing to do with features and telling them how wonderful you are. This desire is far stronger than just bragging yourself up and asking someone to buy from you.

Well, I lied. This does work if you’re a girl guide, and sorry, but you’re far from a girl guide. Unless you’re a girl guide. Then, you have my apologies.

I Know How To Incorporate Social Media

Want to know what your target market is really talking about? Want to know what they really need or enjoy? Trying to hit a particular social media site? If your copywriter doesn’t know what he or she is doing, or doesn’t know what to look for (or how to look for it), you’re likely not going to get there, especially if you haven’t had time to do your homework. Things like this are easily skewed.

I charge more because I do know where to look and know how to interpret what I’m looking at. I charge more because I generate ideas that help you get the attention of your target market. Is it guaranteed? Nope. Sorry. Stuff like that is never a guarantee, but I guarantee you’ll get a heck of a lot closer with a copywriter that knows what she’s doing compared to one who doesn’t.

And Let’s Not Forget Search Engine Optimization

I’d like to think I have a pretty darn good understanding of SEO and how content fits into that equation. This gives me a distinct advantage over most copywriter, not only because I know how to create your content, but I also know how to structure it to satisfy the search engines and create sales funnels that are customized to match each of the different visitors who land on your site. In fact, I know how to create entire content strategies that will help you build links and all that kind of stuff.

A large number of other writers don’t even know where to begin. Oh, they can plug keywords into a bunch of text all right, but that’s pretty much the extent of it. What about working in difficult keywords or instances where the keywords chosen aren’t exactly a good match for the topic? I guarantee that if you’re only paying them a couple bucks an article, they aren’t going to care.

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I’m Good To You Too

What happens when you forgot about a project or you’ve discovered you’re falling in the SERPs? Maybe you’ve got a product that’s not going to meet the month’s goals? While most other copywriters only work business hours Monday to Friday and no holidays, I’m usually willing to make myself available and do everything humanly possible to get it done.

I don’t limit the number of revisions you’re allowed. I don’t give you obscene turnover times, and you know it’ll be done when you give it to me. There’s always a friendly voice on the phone and friendly hellos in your email. You can’t say the same about a lot of the writers out there, and anyone who has fought with crap writers before knows how important this is.

You see? If I was just writing, I could warrant working for a couple of dollars an hour, but there’s much more to it.

I Have Expenses Too

Would you pay someone to work for them? Good. Me either. If it’s going to cost me to do your work, I’m not too interested in doing it, and I think that’s only fair. So what else is included in my costs? The same things that are included in every other service or product you buy:

• Marketing
  
• Administrative costs
  
• Advertising/donations
  
• Emails, phone calls and chats (I don’t charge when we spend an hour on the phone!)
  
• Education, resources and learning
  

In the end, a single piece of web copy can take me days, not an hour or two. Besides, if you think it’s important enough to seek out the best copywriter to do it, don’t you think I should put as much time, care, consideration, and thought into it as you would?

You’ll notice I didn’t mention all the free SEO, site structure, usability, social media and marketing questions I often get asked while working on these projects. These questions sometimes eat up hours of my time…hours I could be getting paid for or spending with my kid.

Does this mean everyone should buy expensive copy? Of course not. Does this mean I’m the right copywriter in every situation? Of course not, but the rest of this discussion will have to wait for the next post!

Companies want to advertise their products and services while creating a buzz around their business. Unfortunately, some get so caught up in the idea of getting conversions, they forget readers have to have a desire to read the piece in the first place or they’re just going to ignore it. (Think banner blindness!) It’s sort of like failing to see the forest for the trees.

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Now, while I’m a firm believer in the idea that there’s a time and place for everything, and am aware of the huge advantages promotional content can have, I strongly believe in using informative content in a blog, article marketing strategy, or to otherwise market a website, product, or service.

Why Promotional Content Is Often Ineffective For Marketing

On the Web, people are constantly bombarded with advertising. So it’s only natural that the last thing they want to spend time reading is
more advertising when dealing with an overflowing newsreader or inbox. When this happens, I find readers ignore this type of content and see it as having no value to them.

It’s important to introduce a new product, but promoting products too often can cause you to lose readership. They don’t want to read about you all the time. They want to find out how to solve problems, and the way I see it, if you have a properly crafted website, you don’t need to highlight something different every day.

Your readers should already know what you offer. This doesn’t mean promotional content is useless, but you need to be cautious about how you incorporate it into social spaces. (Mention sales, news and publish the odd post, but don’t consistently use entire blog posts to talk about you and your offerings.)

If you really want to sell the products or services you have on offer, you need to forget about advertising them. Instead, demonstrate to your audience how the items or services you have for sale can make their lives better, easier, or more enjoyable.

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Readers Want To Learn From You, So Give ‘em What They Want

By the time a reader gets to you, they have one of two goals:

1. They want to know how to solve a problem or issue by themselves. They want to leave your site and come away with something they can use, even if it’s hot news topics or industry changes.

2. They are too busy, or too inexperienced to handle an issue themselves, and want to hire you to look after it. In this instance, they don’t want to be educated. They expect you to know everything and use this knowledge to help them achieve a goal.

Your job as a website and business owner is to decide what goal your readers have and how you’ll address them. Depending on your niche, you may even need to address the needs of both types of readers.

From here, you can create topics that address these needs while still getting your message across in a subtle way. The idea is to make your audience go ‘Oh hey! I bet their product/service can help me do that.’ Or, ‘if I bought the product or service, I could do all this too…’

How Each Reader Type Converts:

You’ll find those who want to solve an issue themselves still may need some of the complimentary services you offer. Or, they’ll discover how much work or experience is required to do the job they have in mind and change their minds about doing it themselves. In this instance, who better to do the work than the expert they chose to learn from initially? Others may simply respect you for helping them and improve your authority. No matter which way it goes, you essentially lose nothing.

The group of readers who know they don’t have the time, experience, or expertise to do something are the ones who directly convert. They are already looking for the things you offer, so you just need to show them why you are better than your competition.

Lastly, if you’re guest posting or working on a content placement program, you’ll find the site owners are a lot less reserved when it comes to informational content. Promotional content, on the other hand, could cost you to get up there.

So, the next time you create a piece of content to publish on a blog, for example, which type will you use? Why? Do you feel promotional advertising can take a leading role in blogs, for example?

The other group is moms, dads and students who would like to earn some extra cash writing for a living. They want to do it, but they just can’t afford to pay me to teach them one on one and finding a decent course on it is like finding a needle in a haystack blindfolded!

While I do help some of these people on rare occasion, I simply can’t afford to help all of them. Now, with Practical SEO Copywriting by Glenn Murray, I can!

About Glenn…

I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Glenn Murray of Divine Write for almost three years now. We met over a tweet about SEO of all things. I was looking for some good quality resources to learn more about SEO, and he was kind enough to offer me a copy of his book SEO Secrets.

Being a creative, writing-obsessed, information addicted, quirky soul with a passion for SEO like me, we hit it off instantly and spent a good chunk of time talking about…I don’t know…something. Anyway, despite the fact that we’re technically competitors, we’ve become colleagues, and most importantly, great friends. We’ve worked together and helped each other more times than I have fingers and toes. (Might explain why I don’t know how many times we’ve helped each other out!)

You’ll never find another copywriter more interested in talking about the industry and willing to help. He’s smart, knows what he’s talking about, and is certainly ahead of the game compared to most in the industry. Naturally, I was excited and flattered when I got a sneak peek at Practical SEO copywriting.

Glenn and Writing

Perhaps one reason Glenn and I get along so well is that we have the same methodologies, techniques, and ideas when it comes to SEO copywriting and running our businesses. (They say imitation is the best form of flattery )

Well, we do argue about one thing: I’m a firm believer in the idea that contractions should be used to improve the flow of the writing, but they should be mixed with the long form to add variety and emphasize various points. He doesn’t. As a result, it has become one of our favourite arguments that I poke him with just often enough to keep him on his toes. (I keep meaning to write a post about that…)

Ok, ok. He uses a lot of funny words that remind me of Crocodile Dundee, his spelling is a little off (who spells tire with a ‘y’ anyway? ) and he’s made me go digging through an Australian/Canadian dictionary for a translation more than once, but I digress.

In short, Glenn has written a book that contains the teachings I would have included in a book about SEO copywriting. He is an extremely talented copywriter, successful, and someone I look up to very much.

Practical SEO Copywriting

I absolutely loved the way Glenn formatted and set up the book. Not only was there lots of pretty pictures and tables to look at, but it also meant I could absorb more information by reading less. Who doesn’t like that?

The problem with writing about SEO copywriting is that it contains many problems you don’t encounter or think about until after you get going on it. This can make these situations a bit difficult to for someone new to the gig to understand. Glenn, however, handled it beautifully.

He explored each of the common issues in detail using simple and entertaining English. (I must say that ‘The sniff of an oily rag is the Honda ride-on mower’s equivalent of over-eating!’ is my favourite line in the whole book.) The problems, solutions, and examples included in the book made it easy to understand what he was getting at and how to solve them.

Glenn also covered a number of the dilemmas I was forced to learn through experience. I think this will give everyone wanting to know more about SEO copywriting a huge advantage that those of us who came before this book simply just didn’t have.

Everything you need to know about SEO copywriting is in this book and explained in a way everyone can understand! It’s far better than most of the multiple week training courses I’ve seen, and if you don’t think so, Glenn is more than happy to refund your money. (If it makes you feel better, I don’t remember Glenn ever having to give someone a refund on any of his books.)

What I’d Like To See In The Book…

Like the brain freeze that comes with ice cream, you have to take the good with the bad. On the bright side, the sugary sweet goodness more than makes up for the momentary discomfort.

First of all, Glenn doesn’t talk about himself or brag about himself near enough. I know him, so I know there’s much more to the story that I think others would have related to and found interesting. It would also have gotten readers to realize exactly how big of a deal he really is. (In case you’re wondering, he’s as big in the copywriting world as Oscar the Grouch is on Sesame Street. Wait…is Oscar still on Sesame Street? Never mind. You know where I’m heading with this. You definitely want to get to know him!)

I would have liked to see him dig a bit more into formatting text and the importance of bold, italics, colour, and underlining. On the Web, this can make or break your copy, as far as I’m concerned.

While making headlines and text scannable was mentioned in the book, I would have loved to have seen a section devoted to it. Other items such as studies, reports, statistics, etc that outline the habits of online readers (the first three words of a title, for example) would have been another great set of topics to consider, even if it was simply providing links to further reading.

The book doesn’t dig much into creating headlines, but at the same time, this is sort of a tough one to teach. You just need to practice. A pull file filled with great headlines you find along your travels can really help too.

I think those new to copywriting and websites would have benefited from a set of examples they could refer to. The book does have examples, but some people learn better when they can compare before and after samples in different styles. Perhaps it would have been even better to give some exercises at the end that we could work on and compare to the optimized version? That’s right, I need more dammit!

From now on, those who ask me about SEO copywriting will definitely be getting a link to this book.

So, if you haven’t already purchased Glenn Murray’s Practical SEO Copywriting, I strongly suggest you do so. You won’t be disappointed!

Update: Blair Keen of Good Signal.com did up a great video that takes an excellent look at both of Glenn’s books. However, it gives you a REALLY good look inside the cover of Glenn’s Practical SEO Copywriting. Enjoy!

(Yes, these are affiliate links on an honest review.)

Keywords and SEO

Yesterday, a new writer contacted me and asked about keywords and SEO. The problem was that she was spending more time playing with the keywords and keyword density than she was actually writing the piece. My suggestion is to use Google and Live Keyword Analysis to cut that time in half. Let’s use ‘writing coach’ and ‘online writing coach’ as the example.

Before I ever start writing, I gather my keywords and head to the Google search bar. Once there, I use the ‘~’ key (mine is above the tab key) and type in a keyword after it. When you press the search button, write down the synonyms it gives for the given keyword. For my keywords, this would be things such as writing consultant (which is a little different, but often done by the same person), writing adviser, online writing help, and writing advice just to name a few.

These alternatives benefit your customer and boost the Google power of the article as well. How? It will help bring up your article when someone searches for any of those alternatives. In fact, I will often run a list of alternatives through Google’s Adwords tool to find the best alternatives to use.

The number of alternatives you need depends on how many words you have to work with. Since I often write 500 word pieces, I keep three alternatives and two extras for tough sentences. Then, I set up the article on the page.

Write the title and any other additional items at the top of the page and make my sub-headings. In a 500 word piece, I design the page to have five paragraphs. This gives me an intro and a conclusion paragraph as well as three paragraphs to back them up. Next, I plug my given keyword (the one originally requested) in the start of the introductory paragraph and once into each paragraph after. The only thing left after that is to write out the piece using the alternative keywords elsewhere in the piece when needed.

I found this not only eliminates a large amount of time playing with keywords, but it also makes the writing faster. When I’m finished, I run the piece through Live Keyword Analysis and do any fine tuning before I press the save button.

Just a few quick tips for working with Live Keyword Analysis:

• This tool doesn’t recognize two letter words. To solve this, I use the ‘find and replace’ option to add an X onto the two letter words used in the keyword phrase. Once I copy it in the tool, I use the undo button to take them out of the word document instantly.
• It doesn’t like punctuation. I use the find and replace function to remove the apostrophes and the undo button to replace them after it has been copied into the tool.
• If you have singular and plural keywords such as writing coach and writing coaches, I still enter both into the tool. Then, I subtract the density of the plural from the singular word’s density to get the real density.

I hope this helps! What kind of tricks do you use? How do you make your work faster and easier?

(Image byDoBeRaGi)