Showing posts with label Social Media & Blogging. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Social Media & Blogging. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 27, 2018

How To Make YOUR Blog Posts Stand Out?


2 million blog posts are written every day, here's how you can stand out..

If you are creating 500-word me-too blog posts that get read by no one, you are completely and absolutely wasting your time.




It's Not Your Fault

You've been told by so-called experts for years that if you blog consistently, you will see truckloads of traffic, thousands of subscribers, and millions of dollars in sales.

The thing is, a lot of these experts cut their teeth in the early years of the Web, when 500-word blog posts could win you fame and fortune.

Now? Not so much.

If you're serious about standing out from the 2 million blog posts pumped out every day, here's what you need to start doing.



1. Start Writing Better Titles

A part of me dies every time I see an "SEO-optimized" title seemingly meant to destroy all joy from the act of writing (or reading). I'm talking about titles like these:

In general, any title that looks like it was vomited out by a keyword tool might please Google, but it definitely won't drive users to click on your link.

Google is an algorithm. Your users (and eventual customers) are human. It's high time you start writing for the humans.

The stats don't lie: 80% of readers will read the headline, but only 20% will read the rest. A strong title can lead to 500% more pageviews.




Upworthy didn't become the fastest-growing media company in the world without obsessively testing titles.

So how do you create "human-optimized" titles?

That's a big question, and people more qualified than I am have written about it, but for the most part you...

--Incite curiosity, but don't fulfill it (the "curiosity gap" or the "you won't believe what happened" headline).
--Exaggeration and hyperbole (the "this is the most epic thing ever" headline).
--Shock, incite, outrage (the HuffingtonPost school of headline writing).
--Be unusual (like the headline of this article you're now reading).
--Be incredibly useful (e.g., by creating the definitive guide to SEO ranking factors)

For a crash course, check out Jon Morrow's e-book, Headline Hacks.



2. Have A Voice (or at least write in the first person)

Want to experience crippling sadness and depression? Go ahead and start browsing through some corporate blogs.

You'll see page after page of droll corporate-speak offering no real value or opinion, punctuated by the saddest sight in all of blogging: "0 Comments."

The worst of the lot will stick to third-person, seemingly distancing the author from all expressed opinions and making the blog that much duller.

Writing in a unique voice is not particularly difficult; you write the way you speak. It requires confidence more than it requires skill. With enough of the former and a bit of the latter, anyone can write in a unique voice.

How do you build up this confidence? Just follow these three simple rules:

--Read good writing, and read a lot.
--Write every day.
--Share your writing with the world.

Yup, it really is that easy.



3. Write Longer Pieces

I know, long pieces are hard. You have to spend hours researching the topic, organizing the content, and writing the post. You'd much rather fire up Word, pump out a 500-word post, and call it a day.

Except, those 500-word posts will only work if your first name is Seth and your last name is Godin.

If you feel tempted to write short blog posts, here are a few arguments to the contrary.

A. Longer blog posts rank better in the SERPS

The average number of words for the top 10 results in Google was more than 2,000, According to a study by SERPIQ


Simply put, Google equates longer content with higher value. Which means better rankings and more traffic.



B. Longer posts get more shares

Buzzsumo did the math and found that the longer the post, the more shares it gets:




A 3,000-10,000-word post effectively gets 2.5 times the shares of a 500-1,000-word post.

A caveat before you hunker down and write that 10,000-word epic post: analyze the benefits of the additional shares vs. the cost of producing a 10,000-word behemoth.

For most businesses, the benefits do not justify the cost. Stick to 1,500-3,000 words; you'll balance effort with traffic, and you'll be golden.

C. Longer posts convert better

CrazyEgg increased conversion rates 363% by switching to a long-form page.

Meanwhile, in a study conducted by Marketing Experiments, long-form pages converted 40.54% more than short-form pages.



D. Long posts get more backlinks

Here's a chart of the number of posts on the Moz.com blog by word count:

Short answer: longer content performs better in every aspect.



4. Make It Pretty

The future will belong to publishers who can present content beautifully.

No, you don't have to spend $100,000 and rebuild NYT's Snowfall story, but a few graphs, pictures, and readability hacks will go a long way toward getting people to stick around.

Articles with pictures get shared more than twice as much as those without.




Your readers will also naturally pause at images in an article (which is why BuzzFeed has all those picture-riddled lists).

Here's a few things you can do to make your content prettier:

A. Use gorgeous header images

You can get breathtaking stock images for as low as $1. Alternatively, you can use a free tool, such as Canva, to create simple and useful header imagery.

B. Create short infographics for key information in a post

Short images that pack key concepts from the post into an easy-to-share, easy-to-consume format are a wonderful way to break up posts into sections and give readers something to linger over.




Spread them throughout the post in long articles, and you will improve readability and cut down on bounce rates.



C. Improve readability

Nothing scares off readers faster than big chunks of text. It's not their fault; it's a fault of the format. Readers want to read dense pieces of prose, but only when it's in the form of a substantial long-form article or book.

For your typical business blog, that doesn't really apply.

To make your post more readable, try to...

--Break up key concepts into bullet points.
--Use short, 2-3 sentence paragraphs.
--Keep sentences as short as possible. Feel free to break this rule if it interferes with your ability to write better.
--Use images to break up content into sections.

D. Use Animated GIFs

Nope, never use GIFs. GIFs are evil and should remain on BuzzFeed.



5. Stick To A Plan

You do have a content plan, right?

I'm still amazed at the number of startups, other businesses, and "serious" bloggers that start blogging without a plan or strategy.

They spend months writing whatever they feel like, then wonder why they get no shares, traffic, or comments.

You wouldn't start a road trip without a map... so before you put down a single word on (metaphorical) paper, chart out a detailed content strategy for your blog.

(HubSpot has a handful of resources.)



6. Promote Like Crazy

Jon Morrow of BoostBlogTraffic says to be successful as a blogger you must spend as much time promoting as you do creating your content.


When Jon speaks about blogging, I tend to listen to what he has to say.

It doesn't matter whether you are blogging for a budding startup or penning down thoughts as you backpack across the globe, at least half of all your blogging time and budget should be devoted to promotion.

Here are some strategies to help you kick-start your blog promotion:

--Influencer outreach: Build relationships with influencers; use their platforms to promote your content via guest posts, article reprints, etc.
--Paid promotion: Throw a few dollars into Facebook ads every time you publish to drive the initial rush of shares. If you have strong visual content, try Pinterest promoted pins. For higher-value, B2B focused content (whitepapers, e-books, etc.) Google AdWords can work as well.
--Link-building: Use old-school link-building techniques. such as outreach, broken-links, and the excellent "skyscraper technique" by Brian Dean of Backlinko.




7. Gather Data

Quick questions: What was your best performing blog post last year? What was its keyword/topic? How did it receive the bulk of its traffic organic, social, or direct?

If you don't have ready answers, you probably aren't tracking data obsessively enough.

Gathering data and using it to improve the blog is often the number one differentiator between successful and not-so successful blogs. The best blogs (and their creators) know what works and they pump out more of it.

Take some time to learn Google Analytics. A one-day investment in mastering GA will give you a world of previously unavailable insight into your business. Liz Lockard's introductory course is a good starting point. Jump into Avinash Kaushik's posts on advanced analytics when you're familiar with the basics.

A day or so invested in understanding data will go a long way toward improving your content performance.

Guest Authored By Puranjay Singh. Puranjay is Founder of GrowthPub, a provider of content marketing for start-ups. Follow Puranjay on Twitter.





"There is a war for attention, and you have only a few seconds to make an impact.

You can't afford to be dull, stale, or boring.

To turn visitors into readers, readers into leads, and leads into customers, you need content that stands out.." -PuranjaySingh


    • Authored by:
      Fred Hansen Pied Piper of Social Media Marketing at YourWorldBrand.com & CEO of Millennium 7 Publishing Co. in Loveland, Colorado. I work deep in the trenches of social media strategy, community management and trends.  My interests include; online business educator, social media marketing, new marketing technology, skiing, hunting, fishing and The Rolling Stones..-Not necessarily in that order ;)
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    Thursday, August 10, 2017

    YOUR Social Media Influencer Internship?


    You may have heard about Chiara Ferragni, who started a personal style blog as a 27-year-old that now generates $8 million per year..

    Or Johnny Ward, who started blogging about his travels as a budget backpacker and ended up with a successful media company. Or the food blogger who earns $150,000 per year.



    The internet is overflowing with how-to guides on how to imitate their successes by becoming a full-time Instagrammer, blogger, and fashion guru.

    But you have probably never heard of the women featured in (not) getting paid to do what you love, a book by Cornell researcher Brooke Erin Duffy that examines the myth that working hard on a personal brand will pay off in the long run.

    She compares this premise to that of unpaid internships. "The expectation is, if you invest yourself now, this will pay off in the future with this glamorous, fantastic job," Duffy says. "But the reality is much less auspicious in terms of how often these actually do turn into full-time employment."

    Just as not everyone can make it based on unpaid internships, which inherently favor those with connections and families who will pay for their living expenses, not everyone can build a huge online presence and find enough advertisers to make a living. "You have to think about the investments they're making upfront, the investments in the fashion or the makeup or the food," she says.



    Social influencers with 1,000 to 100,000 followers can be paid between $50 to $1,000 to advertise for a brand, according to influencer marketing firm Hireinfluence, which works with brands such as Oreo and Microsoft to place products in the social feeds of popular personalities.

    Most of the dozens of women who Duffy interviewed, despite many hours of unpaid work, have little to show for their efforts.

    Meanwhile, companies are benefiting from the free labor, which Duffy calls "aspirational work," by running "influencer marketing" campaigns that sometimes only pay in free swag.

    Q: What is the myth that powers aspirational labor?

    The myth is very much a meritocratic one: That if you are putting the most creative, unique content out there, and you have a special voice, you will rise to the top. And by rise to the top, I mean you will earn an income.



    The reason that I call this a myth is that if you look at people who have actually risen to the top - the super bloggers, the super influencers - I don't see them as people just like us. They have some sort of existing capital. They have the right connections. And so, the myth is one of digital meritocracy. If we work hard enough, if we have this creative vision that nobody else has provided, we can get our dream job and do what we love and get paid.

    What is the difference between aspirational labor and posting on Facebook once in a while?

    What is different with aspirational labor activities is that they are very much seen as something that will provide a return on investment. They'll provide you access to the right people who will turn this into a job.

    How much work did the people you interviewed put into their personal brands?

    Let's take the case of someone uploading an image on Instagram. We see the final image and the cutesy caption, but we don't see the amount of thought and strategy that goes on before any of this happens.



    You have them preparing the photo, staging the photo, doing the photo shoot, afterwards editing the photo and coming up with a caption. And then you have this self-promotion.

    A lot of people who had been doing this for years were shocked at how a culture of self-promotion eclipsed the creative elements. They got into this because they really enjoyed styling or writing or photos. They would say, I'm coming up with my creative product, and then I'm spending hours promoting it - sharing it on Instagram, sharing it on Facebook, sharing it on Twitter.

    It can't be the same content. They have to vary it depending on the audience for each platform. And after that, they would say, we have to go through and respond to all of our followers, and we have to engage this culture of reciprocal following. I follow a blogger because she'll follow me.

    It was just staggering to hear all of the work that goes into this.



    Was anyone you interviewed successful?

    A lot of people who were successful had worked for years moonlighting as a blogger while maintaining their full-time jobs. They were essentially doing two jobs in order to make enough to subsist on.

    There was also a sense that they always had to be on. You can't just abandon your blog for a week, or you see a huge dip in your followers, which directly links to your advertising income.

    And so, there's this kind of, what is this doing to my personal life?

    But also, when is this going to pay off enough for me to leave my job?

    Or is it not?



    How are companies benefiting from this myth that anyone can make it on social media?

    Native advertising and influencer marketing is all predicated on this idea that "real people" are promoting their favorite brands and products. It's much cheaper for an advertiser to reach out to a young person with their own "organic following" than it is to place an ad in a magazine or on TV.

    Brands kind of dangle this promise of hope. You'll see campaigns where brands will say, hey, hashtag your favorite jeans look and post on Instagram and maybe we'll feature your image for people to see. There are also more dubious promises of exposure. I talked with people who said the companies would not offer them any sort of financial compensation. In one case, this woman was a cosmetics blogger and she had a sizable following. She said companies would sometimes send her products unsolicited and say, hey, could you just do us a solid and blog about this?



    You drew a parallel between aspirational labor and other types of traditional "women's work." Can you explain?

    "Women's work" is a form of invisible labor that goes unrecognized and uncompensated. Child care, domestic work are seen as activities that women inherently do and they're naturally good at.

    It's invisible in that it's unseen and also there are no economic rewards associated with it.

    We now see the lineage of this devaluing of work in the social media economy.

    I see these investments of time and energy as a form of work, but they're often seen as leisure, they're seen as fun, and they're seen as something that shouldn't be materially compensated.



    After interviewing all of these women, did you come away with a conclusion about what you think should change?

    I think the best place to call attention to that are in the very same places where this activity is happening, which is online, across social media.

    I would love to see more attention to how few people are making it in this industry, how few businesses are willing to compensate influencers. They have this incredibly saturated market, it's teeming with young people who are willing to work as so-called influencers. I think transparency about how lopsided the system is what I'd like to see as the first step.

    Guest Authored By Sarah Kessler. Sarah writes about the future of work. Before coming to Quartz, she was a senior writer at Fast Company. She is also the author of an upcoming book about the gig economy. Follow Sarah on Twitter.





    “Begg says it should be fairly easy for marketers used to using Social Studio to figure out how to incorporate the visual recognition tools into their repertoire.

    The new functionality should be available immediately to Salesforce Social Studio users.."

      • Authored by:
        Fred Hansen Pied Piper of Social Media Marketing at YourWorldBrand.com & CEO of Millennium 7 Publishing Co. in Loveland, Colorado. I work deep in the trenches of social media strategy, community management and trends.  My interests include; online business educator, social media marketing, new marketing technology, skiing, hunting, fishing and The Rolling Stones..-Not necessarily in that order ;)
      Published by at No comments:
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      Location: Loveland, CO 80538, USA
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