In this post… I share a true story that illustrates how we can save our clients from the Wild, Wild West of the Internet by being authentic and real—by being Truth Tellers. Whether you’ve just arrived on the Internet scene, or you’ve been around, as I have, for 20 years, you may someday find yourself in […]
In this post… learn from a real-life example why publishing content written in third person can cripple your content marketing efforts. As a marketing writer, I care about two sets of content perceptions: 1) how you, my client, perceive my content, and 2) how your readers perceive the content I wrote for you. When the two […]
In this post… Discover how to sell without selling, something you probably do all the time but don’t even know it. In this post, I share a story of speaking with someone who sold me on her magnificence, and then told me that she didn’t like to … and wasn’t good at … selling. You […]
What happens when you try to sell ice to Eskimos?Before I became a product creator and writing coach, I used to troll all the job boards looking for writing and editing work. Believe me, applying for “gigs” is about appealing as I imagine that getting back into the dating scene would be after being married for […]
Here at The Write Idea, I’m all about helping you make life easier for the people who visit your website and read your content — including content on your website popups. To that end, here’s a lesson learned straight from this morning’s browsing session.The problem: Vague website popupsSo … I’m about to embark on a passion […]
A new breed of business owner wants to help you rock your biz–so you can rock your world.It’s the mom-preneur, dad-preneur, wantra-preneur, solo-preneur, heart-centered-preneur, healer-preneur, wellness-preneur, and other-preneur. The gurus, biz bosses, thought leaders, and experts in their various topics who started online businesses a year or so ago, and are now out there full […]
The email may as well been headed: “Hey, you already paid full price, so this deal is not for you.” I’m so annoyed with MarketingProfs. And a little with myself. I’m a PRO MarketingProfs member, which means I pay an annual fee for access to special content and events like webinars. I also get PRO member discounts […]
“Just keep blogging, just keep blogging, just keep blogging….”(Imagine Dory from finding Nemo as you read that first line.)Yep. I said it. Despite my best intentions, I struggle to keep my blog fresh with new content.It’s not that I don’t have anything to say or share. On the contrary. My Evernote account is loaded with […]
The sold-out webinar: Is it false scarcity? Or is it for real?I confess: Since the dawn of the webinar, I’ve always thought that statements like these from webinar hosts were nothing other than feeble attempts to use scarcity to try to convince people to “sign up now”:There are limited seats and we’re almost full up.Seats […]
A mystery, a shock of disbelief, a realization. I couldn’t believe it. It took me a moment to figure out what this strange email was, and what it was doing in my inbox. First, I looked at the name of the sender. Next, I looked at the name of the organization. Huh?Still no clue. Next, I noticed that they […]
EXTRA! EXTRA!So you want free publicity? Thinking about writing a press release? Great idea! In the age of the Internet, most major news outlets and publications get a high percentage of news from press releases.Your goal is to get your release noticed rather than ignored or trashed. But keep in mind that a new website, new […]
An Adwords campaign to sell online and DVD trainingThis client, a producer and distributor of online training programs for individuals and corporations, wanted to run an Adwords campaign to push people searching for various keywords to specific landing pages.To create the campaign, I first studied Adwords to understand how to deliver the best results. Then, […]
Selling a training product with a series of emailsHave you ever signed up to receive news or information from a person or company and found yourself on the other end of an email nurture sequence?Yeah … me, too. I actually sign up for a lot of newsletters and offers, the best of which become part […]
What’s so special about you? Why should your prospects care? What’s your disruptive? Whitney Johnson’s HBR article on career change, innovation, and disruption really got me thinking—not just about my disruptive skills (although I am thinking seriously about them), but also about a company’s disruptive ability, or even a document’s disruptive power.By “disruptive,” Whitney means unique, […]
While pursuing a master’s certificate in professional and technical writing, I dabbled in a grant-writing class. Something I read in that class stuck with me because it’s as relevant to content marketing and content writing as it is to grant writing.From Miner and Miner, 2005, p.5., emphasis mine:During the review process, [sponsors] discern among proposals by […]
I don’t know about you, but if I have to read (or write) one more piece of stuffy, fluffy, jargon-filled marketing content, my head will literally explode.(Okay, not literally … although “literally” apparently can mean “figuratively” these days, so … there you go)You know the kind of stuffy marketing content I’m talking about, right? The […]
