Writing on the Web from Patsi Krakoff, The Blog Squad

The Search for the Ideal Client Begins: Is It You?

Newsletter Nuggets – November 30, 2006
…tips and tricks for writing great ezines and blogs

Table of Contents

1. A Note from Patsi – Are You an Ideal Client? Contest Opens
2. Featured article for December: Human Relationships at Work: The New Frontier
3. What’s New on the Blogs?

A note from Patsi –

A heads up to all you entrepreneurs, small business owners and professionals. Here’s a fun way to get free online marketing help from Denise and me. We’ve just launched a contest to find our "Ideal Client.”

We will coach our Ideal Client live for 15-20 minutes, on our new Internet Radio Show, every Thursday morning starting January 11 at 11 a.m. ET, continuing through April 15. Our show “Blogging and Beyond” will be produced on VoiceAmerica™ Channel.

Even if you don’t win, you may be selected as a runner-up, and can participate in our 13 week mentoring group that runs parallel to the radio show. So you have nothing to lose by applying to the contest.

Our goal is to show our listeners how someone can have a real marketing presence and start leveraging the Internet using simple online tools, in a relatively short time.
Our “Ideal Client” must meet these criteria:
1. Experienced professional with a book, ebook, or services to sell
2. Intermediate computer skills and comfortable with using software
3. Intelligent, personable, hungry to learn, and passionate about business
4. A good sense of humor helps; overly chatty or shy people are discouraged
5. Discipline to show up every week and complete tasks between shows
6. Ready, willing and able to invest in the tools required to market online (after initial trial offers, 3rd party tools are estimated about $58/month).
Our contest winner will not only get mentoring on how to leverage the Internet for their business, but they will also get great exposure for their business, including their name, website and business mission or tag line on the radio, during 13 weeks.

Here’s where you get more info, and apply:
http://www.BlogSquadContest.com. Go there now and submit your application.

Ezine Tip: Some of our Newsletter Nuggets readers aren’t interested in using other people’s content for their ezines (such as the article offered below). We offer professional newsletter services even if you don’t use our content. Visit www.CustomizedNewsletters.com to see how you can outsource your ezine tasks and leave your brain free for your clients.

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Featured Article for December:

Human Relationships at Work: The Untapped Frontier

Categories: Communications, Emotional Intelligence, Managing

“Today we are faced with the pre-eminent fact that, if civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships.”
—Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1945

Leaders and managers can study, train and be coached. But if they fail to work on their interpersonal skills, they will not succeed when given more complex responsibilities. The ability to relate to and connect with others helps confer influence and leadership success.

Writing Headlines: More Easy Tips from Joan Stewart

The Publicity Hound has a lot of great writing tips on her site, and Joan Stewart generously shares with our readers here. In a recent comment to the post about her headline tips, she shared this web page with more great headlines to use for your articles:

Here's a sample:

Once you've chosen a topic, it's time to select a title. Here's a list of possibilities. Simply fill in the blank, depending on what you've decided to write about.

A Part-Timer's Tactics for a Full-Timer's ______________
A Quiz: Test Your ______________ Smarts
Cash in on _______________ Trends
Chasing the Right ______________
Cool Tools for Today's ______________
Common Errors That Kill ______________
Discover the 7 Essential Elements That Guarantee ___
Finding the ______________That is Uniquely You
Good News for ______________
How to Bounce Back from ______________

Online Marketing Contest: Are You An Ideal Client?

You can enter and win a 13-week free online marketing mentorship with The Blog Squad. Here's the deal: www.BlogSquadContest.com

We will coach our Ideal Client live for 15-20 minutes, on our new Internet Radio Show, every Thursday morning starting January 11 at 11 a.m. ET, and continuing through April 15. Our show “Blogging and Beyond” will be produced on VoiceAmerica™ Channel.

Every week we will discuss new tools that are easy AND essential to implement in order to grow a business online. On the show we will interview Internet marketing experts, plus we will coach a client in real-time through the steps designed to market a real product or service.

That’s where you come in. You could be selected as our Ideal Client and get free marketing mentoring. You’ll learn how to optimize your blog AND how to implement simple online marketing tools.

Our goal is to show our listeners how someone can have a real marketing presence and start leveraging the Internet using simple online tools, in a relatively short time.

Our “Ideal Client” must meet these criteria:

Great Writing: The Last Forgotten Step

These last few posts have been modeling the way to write better ezines and articles for the Web, faster, including how to craft good headlines.

But the final step in writing better is often skipped entirely: reread and edit your writing before you publish. In today's rapid working environments, we are rushed to produce quantity with little attention to quality. Many bloggers insist on claiming their right to be spontaneous and never mind the typos.

If you are a professional, your writing on the web is your sales person. You wouldn't send out sales staff without shoes and a clean shirt; why would you want to leave your writing with errors and bad grammar?

This is important for the impression you make on readers who may want to hire you. Not only do you want to re-read your stuff for errors, but also clarity from the reader's perspective.

Here's a great editing tip from Publication Coach Daphne Gray-Grant:

"...when we edit our own writing, we need to do more than make the text flow more smoothly, take out unnecessary words and fix grammar and spelling mistakes. We also need to ask ourselves the following questions:

-Who is going to read this?

-What do I want them to do?

-What might they misunderstand or find confusing or unbelievable (and how can I clear up that problem?)

For more Power Writing tips, subscribe to her ezine.

Blog Audience: Knock, Knock...Who's There?

Conversations with Experts presents...

Is anybody listening out there? Measuring your blog's audience
Wednesday, November 29, 2006, 8:30 p.m. ET (no charge, registration required)
Guest Expert: Tris Hussey, View from the Isle

You've started your blog. You're writing great posts, but who is reading them? Is anyone out there? Blog metrics is still in its infancy, but there are some tools, tips and tricks that you can use today to get a handle on your current audience and learn how to grow it.  You'll come away with easy and effective methods to start measuring blog audience today!

If you have a question you would like Tris to address during the Conversation, please submit it here.

Register:  www.ConversationsWithExperts.com

Can't make the Conversation? You can pre-order the audio program and save 50%.  Pay only $4.95 now.  After the live event, the audio will be $9.95.

Conversations with Experts: How to Build Your Business On and Off-line
Hosted by Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff.

Conversations with Experts is sponsored by Build a Better Blog System.

Conversations with Experts presents...

Is anybody listening out there? Measuring your blog's audience
Wednesday, November 29, 2006, 8:30 p.m. ET (no charge, registration required)
Guest Expert: Tris Hussey, View from the Isle

You've started your blog. You're writing great posts, but who is reading them? Is anyone out there? Blog metrics is still in its infancy, but there are some tools, tips and tricks that you can use today to get a handle on your current audience and learn how to grow it.  You'll come away with easy and effective methods to start measuring blog audience today!

If you have a question you would like Tris to address during the Conversation, please submit it here.

Register:  www.ConversationsWithExperts.com

Can't make the Conversation? You can pre-order the audio program and save 50%.  Pay only $4.95 now.  After the live event, the audio will be $9.95.

Conversations with Experts: How to Build Your Business On and Off-line
Hosted by Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff.

Conversations with Experts is sponsored by Build a Better Blog System.

Writing Great Headlines: A Tip from The Hound

Here's a great way to get ideas for compelling headlines for your articles, ezines, blogs and other web copy, and it comes from Joan Stewart, The Publicity Hound in her latest ezine.

The article she writes is titled "Can Your Purse Make You Sick?" If you're a girl, you probably want to know the answer to this strange question. But there's a lesson here for everyone. Here's her tip on writing great headlines:

"That's called a formula headline, and it's the kind of headline you often see on the covers of big magazines.

"That got me thinking. Many Publicity Hounds can use a variation of that same headline in their own press releases, blogs, ezines, articles, columns, letters to the editors or even direct-mail pieces. A health expert could write an article titled "Do Video Games Make Your Kids Sick?" A chiropractor could write one titled "Does Your Office Chair Make You Sick?"

"Here's how to find formula headlines and turn them into your own.

Stand in front of a magazine rack with a notebook and a pen. Or visit Magazines.com at http://www.Magazines.com  Then click on a few magazine covers. Look for headlines that catch your attention. Can you remove a word or two and substitute your own words to conform to your own topic?"

Great tip, Joan, thanks. If you want more great tips from Joan, send a blank email to subscribe to her Publicity Hound ezine here.

Writing Better Headlines: 7 Classic Headlines That Are Proven to Work

Crafting the headline for an article you publish is probably more important than writing the actual article. I say probably, but many professional copywriters who make lotsa money doing this will tell you it is THE most important task.

If your headline is ho-hum nobody will read what you have to say. If your headline is engaging and compelling, people will get drawn into reading your article like Ulysses to the Sirens. They won't be able to resist it.

Of course, you still need good content in the body of the article. Otherwise readers will be mad they spent the time reading only to come up empty.

Brian Clark of Copyblogger gives some great tips on this. Recently he wrote this in a post called 7 Reasons Why List Posts Will Always Work. Here's an excerpt:

"Any headline that lists a number of reasons, secrets, types, or ways will work because, once again, it makes a very specific promise of what’s in store for the reader. A nice quantifiable return on attention invested goes a long way toward prompting action, and as long as you deliver with quality content, you’ll have a satisfied reader."

"Plus, these type of posts and articles are perfect for building your authority and demonstrating a mastery of your area of expertise. If you’re business blogging, that’s key."

He then goes on to list 7 classic “list” headlines that you can remix on your blog when you’re looking to boost readership:

List Writing Technique: More on Writing Faster, Better

Colleague Adam Urbanski also advocates writing a list to jump start your article writing process. Here's his article, Six Easy Steps to Marketing Your Business With Articles and here's an excerpt:

"Begin with listing ideas you want to cover, write down key words and phrases you would like to use... Next, write a paragraph on each idea or key word you listed. Add examples and stories to illustrate your points, list additional resources. .. Spend time creating a strong opening and a good summary or call to action to close your article."

The more you read about a technique or tip, the more variations on it, and the more you hear it from different sources, the more likely you are to remember it, and to try it out. So it is my pleasure to share Adam's well-written article with you (he has others you might want to check on on the site.)

If you know of other experts who promote the list-writing technique, let me know (besides Jeff Herring of course!).

Writers Book Camp: Come In Out of the Cold

If you are one of the many professionals working on a book, there's a writer's book camp in sunny Santa Monica CA Dec. 11 & 12th. Our colleague and friend (and accomplished author) Ruth Klein invites you to join her for a two-day action workshop.

I can't think of a better way to jump start your book writing process, or to catapult it to completion. No matter what stage your book is in (incubation, half-way, or editing) you will benefit from this event. Plus, Santa Monica is a very nice place to be in December (think 'biz expense' too)!

Ruth knows books; she has published five. Two of Ruth’s books are in the book stores now and one will be on a PBS Special in 2007. She's been quoted in business, health and women's magazines, newspapers, television, radio and Internet media sites.

Writing Better: 10 Simple Steps to Writing an Article

Yesterday while I was writing about the "secret writing tip" that has made my writing easier and faster (make a list) I ended up with a list of 10 steps I go through each time I write an article.

That's how powerful the "Make a List" technique is for writing. You will actually create another article while writing the first one.

So from yesterday's post, here's my new list of writing tips:

1. Find out what keywords you need to use in your next article.
2. Write out a headline or general subject title (you will revise the title later).
3. Make a list.
4. Write one or two sentences about each point on the list.
5. Write an introduction that tells people why this is important to them.
6. Create a dynamic headline. (Use a headline/copywriter's manual if you need help)
7. Write the conclusion. (Don't forget a call to action.)
8. Include links in your resource box or author's information paragraph
9. Submit to EzineArticles.com, or to your favorite article directory.
10. Repurpose the article for your ezine, blogs, and other uses (use it as a special report, etc.)

There really should be an 11th step here: What other lists did you see while writing the first article? Is there another article you could develop based on the first article? There usually is.

Come by this blog tomorrow because I just created another post while writing this one: how to create dynamic headlines, step #6, is worthy of expanding into its own article.

See how this works? Just walkin' my talk...