Tag Archives: blog

Curating Content – Tips and Tools

Posted on by
3

How, What, and When of Curating Content

Curating content, when done properly and on a regular basis can boost your SEO, your readership, and your bottom-line!

What is it?

Curating content is when you gather content from an array of sources and then publish it in an organized fashion.
There are many ways to curate content. Excellent examples of sites that exclusively curate content are Pinterest, Alltop, and Digg.

Curating Content As bloggers, part of our daily routine is to read numerous articles and other blogs in our niche as research and insight to our own blogs. Use them! Collect them in a Google document as you find them, organized by topic. Then, once a week, write an intro to your curated post and publish your “favorites” about a particular topic.

Why curating content is great for your blog:

  1. You have more to post about
  2. Meet new bloggers and build relationships with them.
  3. It’s great for your SEO

power-of-curation-for-SEO

Content Curation Tools

To make life even easier, there are great tools to make content curation even easier. Some of our favorite tools are:

  • Paper.li
  • Storify
  • Pinterest
  • Scoop.it

If you are looking for more tools, check out this amazing list: Comparison of Curation Platforms from SocialCaompare.com
Tips:

  1. Always give credit where credit is due! Thank content creators!
  2. Focus on the best content for your audience and your niche.
  3. Do not just copy and paste somebody else’s blog post or article – Add a reference to the post and a link.
  4. Introduce each item that you are including in your post with your own comments and opinions.
  5. Keep your content keyword-rich. Optimize the content to make it easy for your audience to find it.
  6. Blast your curated content – share it with those who are mentioned in your post.

Share your curated content with us!

Enhanced by Zemanta

Summer Blogging Blues – Use it to Your Advantage

Posted on by
Reply

Summer Blogging

Summer Blogging

While I was researching summer blogging for a post, it was very clear that I am not the only one that is writing about summer blogging.  It was noticeable that they were not writing about what I thought they were; many bloggers, big and small, are notifying their readers that the flow of posts are going to be slowing down over the summer months.

I was thinking this is great that people are taking a break from work and relaxing, and then I thought – great – this is the time to pull my blog up in ratings!

I searched 4 or 5 popular niches, and came up with almost the same results, here are some examples:

  • “Hey everyone! Sorry about not posting yesterday. Summer is starting here.”
  • “Summer Blogging. I know my blogging has been a bit lax lately. Unfortunately, it’s going to get worse before it gets better.”
  • “ I don’t know about you, but summers get crazy for me.”
  • “That’s right. I am taking a summer off from blogging.”

Don’t Join Them

Don’t join them. Be the source of fresh new content for your niche even during the summer months. Believe me, your readers are out there. Today, very few blog-reading citizens of the world turn off their connectivity for more than a day or so – if that. Therefore, while other bloggers are sliding down that big slide with their children, nephews, nieces, and cousins, you will be posting great summer-related blogs.

Blog Tip – Relevant Content

Summer time blogging is the time to use hot keywords. Whether you write about technology and gadgets or baby supplies and new parenthood there are summer topics to be tackled!

What are you going to be blogging about this summer? Do some research to see where others have left off and you can pull their readers in to your blog.

Happy summer!

Enhanced by Zemanta

7 Tips for Writing Great Product Reviews that People Will Read

Posted on by
1

Writing Product Reviews

Who doesn’t read a blog review about that fabulously needed item prior to actually purchasing it? You find hundreds of them, but what makes you read the whole product review? How is that product review different from the others? I will tell you. They had you in mind when they were writing it.

Know Your Reader

That’s it. That is probably the best piece of advice that you can get from anybody about writing product reviews. When you are writing a product review, remember who you are writing it for. Use the language that they will understand, and the style that they have grown accustomed to. For example, if you are writing about baby products the style and the language will be different than if you are writing about the latest tech gadget that everyone needs to have. What do they want to know about the product? Give it to them.

Personal Experience

Nothing says more than a short personal experience story surrounding the product you are reviewing. Take a look back at what we mentioned in our post about HSN and what you can learn from them. They are telling a story! When you are telling your product story, make sure that you show true interest. You might believe in the product, but now you have to convince your readers that you believe in the product. This is not always as easy as it sounds. I wouldn’t recommend you write:

“Wow! I use this weed hacker in my garden and it works; you should buy it!”

Be Honest

Trust


Nothing is perfect. Have you ever read those reviews where everything, but everything, about the product is perfect? You know better than that; some small feature might not be great, or the price might be very high (but you can say it is worth the money – if it is), or it doesn’t come in a wide range of colors etc.… When you add the pros and the CONS your automatically become creditable. Yes, you get clout for being honest.

Images

One picture is worth a thousand words. Use great quality images. If you are taking some of the images yourself for the post, that’s fine. Just make sure that you have proper lighting and that the image is clear. Always include images of the product from the manufacturer; they should have a bank of high quality images that you can use.

Disclosure

If you have received the item that you are reviewing from the manufacturer or another source in exchange for reviewing it, make sure that you have a disclosure in your review and a general disclosure on your site.

Summary and Conclusions

You have written your intro, told your honest personal story, included pictures or a video , pointed out key features, and explained the pros and cons. Now give them that all in one line!

Headlines: I Dare You to Write a Better Headline!

Posted on by
Reply

Don’t judge a book by its cover! Ha! That is exactly what your readers do when they read your headline for the first time. Your content, regardless of how amazing it is, will not be read if your headline is not amazing. Here are some tips on how to create amazing, “read–further” headlines:

Headlines Jay Leno

1. Headlines First

Ideas you have – Your editorial calendar is full of topic ideas and even keywords; now write your headline before you start writing your post.  This way you can check every word that is below that headline and make sure that the tale you are telling is answering the pain and questions of the headline.

Why? This is what CopyBlogger has to say (and we agree)

Your headline is a promise to readers. Its job is to clearly communicate the benefit you’ll deliver to the reader in exchange for their valuable time.

2. Challenge Your Reader

One great way of grabbing your readers’ attention, enough that they’ll continue reading your post, is to challenge them. Ask them a question, or even better yet, make them think of a question. Can you do that? Can you entice your reader to continue reading until they find the answer?

3. Lists

Everybody loves a good list. Here are some list-based titles that make a promise to your readers:

  • Top 3 tips on how to write a headline,
  • Top 7 converting headlines,
  • 10 tips for writing great headlines,
  • 3 ways to drive traffic to your blog with a headline.

List headlines prepare the reader for an organized post with researched information. Just make sure that your info is relevant and correct. Try to stay away from even and rounded numbers, the opposite attract more attention.

Hi everybody, headline goes here please

(Photo credit: reinvented)

The How-To Headline

Your dedicated niche audience wants to know “how to” and they want to know from you as you are an expert in your field (even if you don’t tout yourself as one).

  • How To Use Your New Nikon Camera
  • How To Backup Your Hard Drive
  • How To Upcycle – Summer Family Fun
  • How To Make Baked Alaska

 4. Emotional Connection

I have found that when asking a question directed at the reader, if they feel that it applies to them, or causes them an emotional reaction, an introspective they will continue to read. Here are some great examples from http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com :

  • Is All Publicity Good Publicity?
  • Is Your Marketing Strategy Using This Powerful Principle?
  • Where Did Your Creative Mojo Go?
  • What Drives You To Do What You Do?
  • Are You Solving A Problem Or Just Spinning Your Wheels?

Remember, your readers or future readers are looking for no-nonsense, catchy, emotional to-the-point headlines.

5. One Last Tip:

 Don’t make your headlines overly wordy. Research suggests that headlines should be no longer than 8-9 words.

Do you have tips on how to write a great headline?   Do you have a great headline for this post?

Enhanced by Zemanta