Online Writing & Blogging
Writing for online publications and blogs is a unique, new form of writing with its own considerations and rules. Although focused primarily on this explosively expanding market, even if you don’t write online, you’re bound to find helpful advice and information among these articles.
All the latest (and greatest) Online Writing & Blogging articles, news, and resources collected from all the websites and blogs and assembled here for your easy access. Use the toolbar above to filter the articles, news, and resources to a particular subject, or to view all subjects simultaneously.
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The 7 Essential Parts Of A Blog!
We often hear or read about what a blog is. There are also a lot of articles that deal with different styles of writing, how to start a blog, how to select images, etc… In this post I would like to discuss the different parts of a blog, the essentials so to speak. A blog has different parts, just like the body of a human being. Each of our body parts has a role to enable us to function properly, just like a blog has several parts that we need to look into to make sure that they are strategically and correctly placed so that the readers will not have a hard time navigating our site.
One thing that can really annoy your readers is your site being difficult to read or navigate. You can look into this by checking the bounce rate in your analytics. If you have been… -
Announcing MashBash BlogWorld: Win a Free Pass [CONTEST]
Mashable is excited to announce MashBash BlogWorld, the opening party for this year’s BlogWorld & New Media Expo in Las Vegas on October 14-16. To kick off the Expo, we’ll be hosting the first night’s official party at Haze at Aria Hotel.We would love for you to join us, so we’re giving away passes to BlogWorld. To enter, answer the following question — “What is the future of blogging?” — in the comments below. Readers with the best answers will win one of five “full access” tickets to BlogWorld, which includes MashBash. Winners are invited to attend this industry celebration where the online world comes together to meet, relax and make important business networking connections.Date: Friday, October 15 Time: 8:00 p.m.-10 p.m. Location:Haze at Aria. 3730 Las Vegas Boulevard, Las Vegas, NV. Tickets: Must have BlogWorld Badge to enter.How To Win TicketsSimply click the “Like” button on our Facebook Page…
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4 Tips for Writing SEO-Friendly Blog Posts
This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.In addition to writing for their human readers, web writers and bloggers have to consider the digital web crawlers employed by search engines like Google. Your business can’t skip the task.Since most would-be readers use search engines to find blog posts, you need to make sure that Google ranks your site highly when those readers search for terms related to your business and the content you’re writing.You could spend thousands of dollars to have a search marketing firm optimize your business’s blog for search engines, but chances are that you can learn a lot of the fundamentals yourself, saving yourself a lot of money as long as you have the interest and the time. Here’s a basic primer on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for your company’s blog.1.…
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The 10 Essential Ingredients of Successful Sales Pages
When you see dozens of copywriting formulas promising “the perfect sales page,” how do you know which ones to trust?
After all, each formula seems to have a successful direct sales superstar behind it, and each one looks like a solid plan. What do you do in the face of these wildly different sales letter styles?
The first step is to realize that copywriting is more than any one “formula” — it’s an exercise in communication and persuasion.
Just like a recipe, different formats will give you different results. The recipe you’re looking for will depend on your audience — and you’ll have to test yours to find out what they respond to best.
But whatever sales page recipe you choose to follow, the important thing is to understand the reasoning behind the “ingredients” that go into it. Let’s take a look at what every successful sales page should have… -
Mind Blowing WordPress Plugins
In Dallas, August 29, 2010, at OpenCamp I presented “Mind Blowing WordPress Plugins.” Here are the WordPress Plugins and more features during my presentation. Let me first define what my qualifications for a “mind blowing WordPress Plugin” were, as I had to sift through thousands of Plugins and then filter down to include the following [...]
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A Four-Step Guide to Generating Sales Leads from Your Blog
Dean: Did you know you can use your blog to make money offline?
Blogger: Offline? What is this “offline” you speak of?
Dean: It’s the opposite of “online.”
Blogger: (confused silence)
Dean: You know. Offline. Not on the internet. The real world.
Blogger: (shaking phone) Not only does this stupid phone drop my calls, now it’s translating them into crazy moon language.
Okay, I jest. But to listen to some bloggers, you would think a blog’s only purpose is to make money online, by selling ebooks, membership sites, or advertising.
The truth is, blogs have grown into a more powerful tool than anyone ever imagined. They’re ideal for making money online, of course. But they can also be used to generate profits for nearly any kind of business, including those that provide real services in the offline world.
This often means generating sales leads for a service or consulting business.… -
Is Your Headline Good or Bad? Give it the Breath Test
Bloggers have been asking the question “Do long or short headlines work better?” for a long time.
But the answer to the riddle of how to create a headline that pulls in readers doesn’t necessarily lie in subtracting or adding one more word. There’s not a mysterious formula or arcane copywriter’s trick.
The answer is much simpler than that.
The best way to get a headline that works is by using the breath test.
Try saying this headline aloud:
How To Recognize Six Difficult Telltale Signs Of Disinterest And Lack Of Motivation In Your Student And Customer
Ran out of breath, didn’t you? And even if you didn’t quite run out of breath, you had a hard time getting through the whole thing.
You’ll also find that you struggle to recall the contents of that headline. Because if you can’t say it in one breath, you can’t hear it in… -
The Three Key Elements of Irresistible Email Subject Lines
Email is back.
Despite repeated proclamations of its extinction, rumors of the death of email marketing have been greatly exaggerated — especially since email and social media are a powerful combination. You might not reach the average college freshman, but for slightly older types (you know, the ones with the money), email is still the way to go in many lucrative mainstream niches.
You must first, of course, get your emails read. And it all starts with the subject line.
Email subject lines are a form of headline. They perform the same function as a headline by attracting attention and getting your email content a chance to be read.
So, headline fundamentals still apply. But the context is different, with the email space having its own funky little quirks that need to be accounted for.
Here’s the good news — email also implies a special relationship with the reader; a… -
How To Write Eye-Catching Headlines that Transform Browsers into Buyers
In order to stop readers in their tracks, capture their attention through every word of your copy, and persuade them to click that “Add to Cart” button without a second thought, you need to master the “headline reading psychology” of your soon-to-be customers.
Once you understand why magnetic headlines pull readers in, you’ll know how to do it for your own sales pages, every time. Follow along with me for the next ninety seconds and I’ll show you exactly how you can turn a casual browser of your sales page into an avid reader, curious to drink in your copy until ultimately hitting the “Buy” button.First, get relevant: Tell your readers’ they’re in the right place
So many people create clever turns of phrase hoping to pull people into their sales copy and wonder why their catchy headlines just don’t work. The answer is simple: Readers are busy people,… -
How to NOT Get Paid to Write Online (And Make Money Doing It)
Fresh out of college, I landed a job writing one-page sell sheets for a marketing company for $50 each. On a rare excellent day, I might do as many as two of these.
Soon after, I found a freelance gig that would pay me $300 per article I wrote for an inter-organizational newsletter. I got to interview people for that one. It was more work, but better money.
Eventually, I hooked up with a pretty big industry magazine and was being paid $1300 for 2000-word feature articles. That was the big money.
Magazine pay doesn’t go much higher until you get into the really big-name publications. I could often get two of those assignments at a time, but I needed to coordinate and interview around ten people for each article, so doing two in a month was a hell of a task.
Today, I’m doing much better in my writing… -
Social Media Marketing Insight from 21 Smart People (And Me, Too)
There’s a new book out called Success Secrets of the Social Media Marketing Superstars. Yes, that title sets off my hyperbole radar a bit too (not to mention my alliteration alert), but it’s a solid collection of smart social media advice based on real-world case studies, best practices, and proven techniques.
I wrote Chapter Two of the book – The Psychology of Social Media. It’s about applying tried-and-true influence factors in the social media space to build a business or make whatever case you’re trying to make.
Here’s what else you’ll learn:How to Create a Mega-Following With Social Media – Gary Vaynerchuk
Personality: How To Stand Out In Virtual Crowd – Andy Wibbels -
10 Reasons Negative Comments Could Make Your Blog A Success
After having blogged for a couple of years now, there are certain things that have become clear to me. The success of a blog isn’t always thanks to the good commenting and polite following, but also due to the more controversial comments. With the vast amount of blogs now available, many of which are really good, there is a huge competition for readers. Research shows that visitors tend to stick to reading their list of two to three favorite blogs, which means the chances of them finding your blog is kind of slim. That’s why it’s so important to stay focused and transparent in your way of running and developing your blog.
The single most common behavior when receiving a bad, rude or impolite comment is to delete it. However, this could potentially, if not most certainly, scare away a lot of your readers due to the censorship your blog… -
Philadelphia Tax Code Sparks Big Controversy with Small Bloggers
Do you use Google AdSense or other ad services on your personal blog or website? If you live in the city of Philadelphia, you might want to rethink that decision.Last week, the Philadelphia City Paper published an article discussing the potential impact of the city’s Business Privilege Tax on residents that engage in “activity for profit” — activity that includes blogging, provided a user’s blog runs advertisements or makes money in other ways. The city of Philadelphia’s Business Tax Privilege requires residents to pay a privilege license for a one-time fee of $300, or $50 annually, in addition to a percentage of gross receipts and/or taxable net income, depending on the nature of the business.The problem is that this license technically applies to any person conducting business activity in Philadelphia, regardless of that activity’s profit or loss margins. That means that Joe Blogger who makes $12 per year from AdSense…
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Why Your Blog Doesn’t Make Money
Darren Rowse doesn’t make his money from Problogger.
Brian Clark doesn’t make his money from Copyblogger.
Chris Brogan doesn’t make his money from his blog, either.
Neither does Sonia Simone.Not a single founding member of Third Tribe earns the bulk of their income from the blogs that are practically (or in Brogan’s case, literally) synonymous with their names.
Yes, they make some money directly from those blogs. But revenue directly from the blog doesn’t represent the bulk of their income. Not by a long shot.
So why do so many bloggers equate blog success with financial success?
Many, if not most, of the bloggers I see are hoping that their blogs will make them popular. They are also hoping their blogs will make them money. This isn’t exactly surprising. Fame and riches are supposed to go hand in hand, after all.
But when you need a new stream of… -
A Good Enough Guide to Starting a Blog
Whispered fears run through your mind, freezing fingers as you’re typing, blocking drafts from being published, stopping sites from going live.
What if your writing isn’t good enough.
Your spelling, your grammar, your recall of old rules from school: not smart enough.
Your style: not witty enough. Not engaging enough.Your ideas: not thought through enough.
Your content: not significant enough to match your theme, your topic, your mission, your passion.
Your drafts: not brilliant enough to match the plans you had, the dreams you dreamt, the blog you saw unfolding in your mind.
Your position: not expert enough. Not authority enough. (I mean: who do you think you are?)
Your voice: not clear enough.
Your desire to make a difference: not enough to clear the bar.
To which I say: enough.And ask instead:
If you are learner enough to learn new styles of writing on the web: for… -
Bloggers versus Copywriters: The Rhetoric Debate
A few days ago, Glenn Murray wrote a post for ProBlogger called Bloggers Versus Copywriters: 8 Reasons Why Bloggers Do It Better.
Sly fox that he is, Glenn warned me the post was controversial, knowing full well I’d rise to the challenge of debate. He was chuckling over my impending comments, and I hadn’t even made any yet!
Of course, comment I did. I had 500 words banged out in three minutes. Then I came to my senses and decided to write a post about it all. It’s much more fun that way.
Now, to be fair, comparing bloggers to copywriters is a little like comparing masterful wizards to sword-in-the-stone apprentices. They don’t perform the same job, have completely different goals and career motivations and have very different skills sets.
They do have one common trait: they write. They have a second common trait: they use copywriting techniques to get… -
Posterous Redesign Highlights Ways to Share Beyond E-mail
“Dead simple” blogging platform Posterous — which has built up a loyal following of users by allowing them to quickly and efficiently e-mail in their blog posts, no formatting required — has released a redesign highlighting the many ways users can share multimedia content on the platform besides e-mail.At the top of the page, a new header features a rotating roster of blogs, each of which take advantage of the service in a unique way. The Chief Tshirt Officer, for instance, uses the platform to promote its products, while TheWhiteFamily finds that that Posterous is the best way for family members to keep in touch with one another.The header helps first-time visitors to the site envision ways they could utilize the platform, and existing users expand their use of it in interesting new ways — perhaps with additional kinds of media besides text — as well as “relate to [other]…
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Why Your Writing Blog Sucks
Remember your first blog post? Remember all those plans you had for posting regularly, growing the readership, increasing your business awareness? So what happened?I know plenty of you who have terrific, must-read blogs. For very different reasons, each of you has attracted an audience and has found a way to distinguish your blog from the masses. But there are a few of you – if you’re even visiting here – whose blogs are memorable for the wrong reasons or completely forgettable. Are you committing any of these blogging sins?You don’t post regularly. Most bloggers have a regular schedule, be it once a day, once a week, twice a month. Where it goes wrong is when you have nothing to say and you decide to go silent. Or worse, when you apologize for not posting sooner. Your blog is a reflection of your business approach. If you can’t be consistent in…
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The Key to Innovative Business Ideas: Cross-Pollination
Gather round, everyone. It’s time to have “The Talk.”
You know the one I mean. You’ve started asking lots of questions and I can tell you’re ready for it, so make yourselves comfortable and let’s go over the basics.
Because if you’re in business, you need to know about this. It’s crucial to your success. Mastering this technique will put a spring in your step, and bring new life to your ventures.
Plus, it’s actually pretty fun.Birds do it, bees do it
The birds and the bees do this naturally, and we can, too. It’s called cross-pollination.
They fly from one flower to another, or one tree to the next, picking up bits of one plant and carrying it to the other.
The plant on the receiving end of this pollination is hardier and able to reproduce with greater variety. It meets environmental challenges more successfully because it’s genetically… -
Are You Making It Hard for People to Comment?
It’s frustrating when you want to leave a comment in response to someone’s writing… and you can’t.
Here are some of the hurdles I’ve come across recently.
Profile required. What if I don’t have a profile that fits your drop down box? This is a Blogger bugbear of mine. I don’t use Blogger so don’t know how easy or hard it is to set up the commenting options, but if some people can set it up so I can leave name and url… why can’t all Blogger bloggers?
Subscription required. Really? Why?Captcha. Captcha is well named. It doesn’t just capture spam, it captures time, energy, words, positive intention, the possibility of making connections. Do you really need it?
What commenting hurdles have been tripping you up recently?
Photo Credit: please type the word in the photo to continue by Mick O on Flickr -
Four Sales Page Elements That Get People To Buy Now
When your sales page isn’t converting the way you need it to, it doesn’t just hurt your bottom line – it can cripple your confidence as a writer and make you doubt your future as a marketer.
On top of that, the frustration of having to rewrite underperforming copy can make copywriting seem like a tedious chore instead of the enjoyable exercise in persuasion it’s meant to be.
Fortunately, there are simple (but powerful) ways to write highly effective copy the first time – copy that gets readers emotionally invested and ready to click that “Add to Cart” button.
Read the next few paragraphs, and you’ll have a step-by-step, can’t miss foundation that will make your next sales letter a whole lot easier to write.
1. Get in touch with the pain your reader brings to the table
Features aren’t what sell your product – solution-oriented benefits are. You know,… -
Join Sonia and Brian at BlogWorld 2010 (And Save 20% With This Discount Code)
Sonia and I will be speaking again this year at BlogWorld in Las Vegas, October 14 – 16. This time we’ll be doing a keynote presentation along with our friend Darren Rowse of Problogger.
We’re excited to be presenting together, and if we pull it off like we plan, it’ll be educational and entertaining. Of course, the show is much bigger than the three of us, which is the real reason you should attend.
BlogWorld & New Media Expo is the only trade show and conference created for the industry of blogging and new media. It gives participants the strategies, tools, and technologies they need to stake their claim in the blogosphere.
Specifically, BlogWorld is all about creating content, getting it noticed, and achieving your goals – whether that be money, influence, or both. The even bigger draw is the networking, deal making, and good ol’ fashioned camaraderie that happens… -
Tumblr for Android Is Here
Tumblr fans with Android devices, hustle over to the Android Market: Tumblr has released an official Android app.With little or no fanfare, this application has appeared with handy tools for posting photos, links and more to your Tumblr. You can take pictures and record audio and video for your posts from within the app, which makes for a very real-time blogging experience that lends itself well to the mobile device.In addition to posting, you can also access your dashboard to read, like and reblog the posts of those you follow.We’re seeing some Twitter integration, as well; you can choose to tweet about your posts as you go.We won’t lie: The app is still super buggy. We’re speculating this is one of the reasons we haven’t heard much about this application yet from official channels.We’re also hearing that you’ll need to run at least Android 2.1 for this app to work;…
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Mind Blowing WordPress Plugins: Officers Directory and Contextual Help Menus
I will be presenting a session on “Mind Blowing WordPress Plugins” at OpenCamp in Dallas, August 27-29, 2010, and I want to introduce you to some of the WordPress Plugins I will be talking about to tease and tempt you, as well as to showcase the innovations that are out there in the WordPress Plugin [...]
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How to Use Emotional Copywriting to Kick-Start Your Sales
Writing with emotion can be hard. Really hard. Especially when it’s on a subject that’s technical.
I’m speaking from experience. You see, I recently launched an ebook about keeping WordPress sites more secure, and I asked my friend James Chartrand of Men with Pens if I might be able to write a guest post to try and spread the word.
If you’ve been following James’ blog for awhile, you know she doesn’t publish many guest posts, and when she does, her standards are high. The reply to the first article I submitted was, “I’d prefer one that’s less technical and more emotional.”
“Um, it’s WordPress security enhancements.” I think I may have said that out loud.
Now how the heck am I supposed to tell an emotional story about setting up a WordPress Firewall?
I’ll tell you though, it can be done. The story just needs to be told in… -
Blog Struggles: SOBCon, Idea Whelmed, and Tell It To the Telephone Pole
A few people were concerned when I started my first Blog Struggles Diary recommending that I not blog every day thus changing the whole tone of my site. This confused me as I thought this was what my site was about. I had to take some time to think about that…then life and work interfered, [...]
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15 Excellent Corporate Blogs to Learn From
This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.Creating and maintaining a corporate blog, or a blog of any sort for that matter, isn’t always the easiest of tasks and doesn’t come naturally to most people. There are a lot of considerations to take into account — theme, topics, audience, content, design, writers, multimedia, promotion, writing style, comment policies, and so on. Above and beyond all of that, you also need to consider the blog’s name and URL.Although the act of creating blog posts can be quite simple, forethought and planning must first go into the creation of a corporate blog in order to keep the processes running smoothly, especially if multiple bloggers are involved.We recently outlined 10 tips for corporate blogging for businesses hoping to focus on key elements of creating a blog in…
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6 Online Marketing Mistakes that Will Kill Your Business
Usually on Copyblogger we talk about how to grow your business with online marketing, get more customers, increase your conversion rate, build thousands of daily readers, and all the rest of it.
But you also need to know about the factors that will kill off your business. Sometimes it’s a question of attitude, like when you’re sick of it, when it’s only a hobby and you don’t want to take it too seriously, or when you’re equally scared of success and failure.
And then there are just downright mistakes, which, fortunately, can be corrected.
If you want your business to thrive, watch out for these warning signs. Get them straightened out and you’ll get your business on the road to robust good health.
#1: A sucky attitude
Your attitude about your own business will affect everyone else’s attitude about it. Every web visitor, every person you speak to, every twitter… -
10 Tips To Help You Write Your Blogging Butt Off
It’s hard to believe that I’ve written 674 articles for Bit Rebels in the past year. I’ve learned so much during that time, and I’m grateful that those invaluable lessons will stay with me my whole life. That is one of the best parts of blogging, the personal growth that accompanies each post.
Since we update Bit Rebels many times each day, we write a lot. It is not unusual for us to write six articles each in one day. There have been several days when I’ve written ten articles, and last week, there was a day when I wrote fourteen articles in one day.
I don’t say any of this to brag of course. I’m sure there are people that would argue that it’s not a good idea to write that much. I’m only mentioning it all because I’ve had so many people ask me how to do it.… -
5 Reasons Why No One Is Reading Your Email Newsletter
Five reasons?
There may be seven thousand reasons why your newsletter won’t get the response you’re looking for.
Most of those reasons have the same common problem, though: readers just don’t like it.
And that’s probably because you’re making one of these five mistakes.Mistake # 1: Your newsletter isn’t helpful
This is a big one. My wife signed up for a newsletter on Ayurveda, thinking she would get some helpful articles and ideas on a topic she was very interested in. All she ever got was a whole bunch of promotional stuff.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. You know very well that non-stop shameless self-promotion doesn’t exactly endear you to others, and of course you’d never make every single newsletter into a pitch.
Because you’re a Copyblogger reader, you know that your content has to be useful or it won’t get read.
Yet most folks can’t help themselves.…
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