Tag Archives: knowledge

Why This Blog Covers Everything Yet Says Nothing

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Sounds kind of ridiculous doesn’t it? Why spend the time writing a blog while saying little to nothing new? Why spend the time writing a blog to not sell something? Good question! After posting here everyday for a year during 2010 – with the exception of one day; a day where I got distracted and thought I had pressed publish when I had not – my answer has been – to see what comes of it. To my surprise, there are actually subscribers to this blog. When I first started writing this blog it was supposed to be more personal in nature. However, I soon realized a blog wasn’t the best channel for expressing myself. Anyway – back to the subject: Why this blog covers everything yet says nothing. Its because maintaining two blogs each and everyday provided the degrees of  focus and discipline I knew were required for my staying current in the businesses covered here – the media, internet / web and search businesses. The latter are by definition the fastest moving businesses on the planet and missing a day or two can mean missing both minor and major developments – news I have drawn from to develop my understanding of communications. So while I was covering everything media, internet / web or search whether here, on my main blog SearchMarketingCommunications.com or through my Twitter account, my primary objective was to pass along the news but retain the information was relevant for filling in the hole in the knowledge base I have built. I haven’t published those findings because those findings – the knowledge gleaned – is what I will be selling in my book For Sale by Google. If I had put my knowledge on the web it would have been stolen, repackaged and redistributed like everything else is on the web. As I have said in the past, the internet is the world’s first perpetual motion copying machine. I know better not to stick anything I don’t want copied into it.

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When to Stop Drinking from the Information Fire Hydrant

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I’ve been working with people and helping them figure out their personality styles for years, but I’m brand-new to blogging. So I did the logical thing and started researching. How to write an interesting post , how to target my audience , how to find my writing voice . If you’ve ever thought about trying a brand-new endeavor — like starting a business or a blog — you’ve probably done something similar. Problem is, there’s so much information out there, you can start to feel like you’re drowning. I wasn’t trying to slowly sip from a thin trickle of information about blogging and marketing. I was trying to drink from a fire hydrant. And I was getting sopping wet. I wasn’t really swallowing a single drop of information. Instead it was just piling up all around me, making me feel frustrated, uncertain, foolish, and pretty damp. That’s when I brought my knowledge of personality types to bear on this problem. How could I figure out how to drink from the fire hydrant in a way that actually quenched my thirst for knowledge? And when did I need to just step away from the flow and dry out? How we take in and use information There are literally thousands of personality profiling tools and methods, but I’m going to take just a slice of one of them to show two common ways people take in and use information. Then we’ll go through some techniques each of those personality types can use to figure out when to keep drinking from the fire hydrant, and when it’s time to take a break . Data gatherers Data gatherers have an insatiable desire for new information and a seemingly unlimited capacity to take more on board. For them, the more data there is to take in, the better. The internet is nirvana for data gatherers — a limitless expanse of information on any possible topic to be explored. They’re in their personal utopia. Data gatherers definitely intend to take action on their information, but they don’t rush into it. They’d rather gather up all the data on any topic to make sure they haven’t missed anything before they start, and they’re always hoping to sop up some more. The potential pitfall for data gatherers is disorganization. They have so much information stockpiled that it isn’t organized in any logical way, so they have a hard time figuring out how to take action when they’re ready. While they don’t feel overwhelmed, they certainly don’t feel ready to put that information to use. If this sounds like you, watch out for these problems: Not knowing when to take action. While the allure of new information is compelling, seeking out that latest article can be just one more form of procrastination that keeps you from accomplishing your real goal. Every now and then, stop and assess the information you already have. Do you have enough to move forward right now? If you do, go for it. If you don’t, only research the areas that you don’t have enough data for yet. Not sorting your current information. You have huge piles of data, bookmarks for informative pages online, and lots of reference books — but you can’t find anything. Take the time to organize your data based on the actual goal you have in mind. Start from the beginning and find the information that helps you accomplish your first task, and keep a file for it. Then move on to the next step, and the next. That way you can actually use your information, instead of just collecting it. Data assessors Where data gatherers collect information for its own sake, data assessors only collect information that can be used in some way. Data assessors want to drink from the fire hydrant, but only if they’re thirsty. They like to sort and organize data as it comes in, so they know exactly what pieces they already have in place and where there are still gaps in their knowledge. Data assessors are quick to make decisions and use the data they’ve collected for a purpose, and they usually don’t bother to keep stockpiling information once they have what they need. Sure, they might miss out on a juicy piece of information, but the one they already have serves their purposes, so why sweat it? Data assessors never suffer from confusion about how to put their information to use, but they do often feel overwhelmed with information overload . For them, the internet feels like a massive abyss. When they get too much data in at once, they don’t have the time to figure out where each piece goes. They get immobilized, because new information keeps coming before they’re ready for it. If you’re a data assessor, you need to know: When to stop taking in information. If you’re getting soaked by the torrent of information online, it’s time to get out and dry off. If you’re already feeling overwhelmed, take a break and assess what you already know. When you discover specific missing pieces of information you know you need, you can hop back into the water knowing just which drops you need to accomplish your goals. When to keep taking in information. Data assessors often feel overwhelmed by all the information out there, so it’s tempted to say “Stop! Too much!” Sometimes, though, you really don’t have enough — you just don’t want to face the gushing river again. Be honest with yourself about whether you’ve really mastered a topic. If you need to know more, hold your breath and dive in again. You can hop out as soon as you’ve gotten what you need. It’s hard to strike the balance of knowing when you need more and when you need to turn off the hydrant to catch your breath. But it’s worth it to start putting that data to use in smarter ways. How about you — are you a gatherer or an assessor? Do ever you have a hard time figuring out when to stop drinking from the information hydrant? Let us know how you’ve dealt with it in the comments. About the Author: Jill Chivers still has the learner plates on her blog I’m Listening , but she’s moving along as fast as she can between rest stops . Looking for a resource that will give you the most important information on marketing your online business, without glutting you with a torrent you don’t need? Subscribe to Copyblogger’s Internet Marketing for Smart People newsletter. It’s free, and we’ll give you what you need without overwhelming you.

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20 Warning Signs That Your Content Sucks

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Admit it … you’ve wondered. You’re writing and writing and writing, and a few people say they like it, but you’re just not getting results. Traffic is coming in at a trickle, links are hard to come by, and your comments section is about as lively as a nightclub at breakfast. And you can’t help wondering … Do you just need to be patient, waiting for your traffic to snowball? Or could it be possible that, really, your content sucks , and everyone is just being nice so as not to hurt your delicate artistic feelings? The hard truth: there’s no way to know for sure For one, we’re talking about quality, which is subjective by definition. One man’s junk is another man’s treasure, and all that jazz. It’s also a matter of scale. This isn’t American Idol, where you have 30 million people voting, transforming a singer into a superstar through the power of public consensus. If you’re a beginning blogger, you might have fewer than 100 regular readers, and 20 of them are your friends and family. And let’s face it; your mother is going to like everything you do, no matter how bad it is. That’s her job. So who are you supposed to listen to? Well … nobody, and everybody, all the same time. The maddening thing about creating anything is no one can tell you how to do it, and yet everyone’s opinion can teach you something. There aren’t any rules, no, but there are warnings. If your content sucks, you’ll see dozens, maybe hundreds of telltale signs, hinting that something is wrong. I’ve collected 20 of the most common here. Take a look through them, and see if any describe you: 1. You think your content is “good enough” If you had to rate your content on a scale of 1 to 10, what would you give it? A 6? A 7? That’s what most bloggers say. But here’s the problem: you can’t really grade content on a scale. You’re either blowing people’s minds or putting them to sleep, and there’s nothing in between. Put another way, content graded as a 6 or 7 gets the same reaction as a 1. It’s a waste of time to publish it. 2. Your posts read like journal entries Not too long ago, most people used their blog as a sort of online journal, where people took a few minutes every day to write down their thoughts. But blogs have evolved beyond that. Now they’re more like online magazines, with highly polished content. If your posts look more like “Dear Diary” than a magazine you would see at the newsstand, you’ve probably got a problem. 3. You’re not getting many (or any) comments Comments are one of the best ways to measure reader engagement. If you have a few hundred subscribers, and yet none of them are commenting, then it might be because they find your content unworthy of their attention. Translation: it sucks. 4. Your visitors stay less than two minutes, on average Install Google Analytics, and look at the average amount of time visitors are staying on your website. For most traffic sources, anything less than two minutes is bad. If you are at less than one minute, then your content is repelling people. You can do better. 5. You spend less than an hour on each post Yes, it’s possible to write a great blog post in 15 minutes, but I can tell you with absolute certainty that it doesn’t happen very often. Most of the popular bloggers I know spend anywhere from 2 to 10 hours on each blog post they write. If you’re not, you should be. 6. You’ve never received fan mail If your content is good, people will go out of their way to tell you how good it is. We’re not just talking about nice little tweets; we’re talking about five page e-mails where they tell you their life story and thank God for your existence. No, you won’t get much of it when you’re a beginner, but you will get some . If you haven’t, then your content isn’t as good as it should be. 7. You’ve never received hate mail The opposite is also true. If your content is good, you’ll always have a small but vocal group of people who think you’re wrong, rude, or inconsiderate. They are the righteous majority for moral authority, and nothing you can say will appease them. So don’t try. Their mockery and screams of outrage are merely signs that you’re headed in the right direction. 8. You focus on SEO before you get your first link Whenever a newbie starts asking me about SEO before they’ve even written a post, I always know they’re doomed. There is no better way to write horrible, crappy content than to deliberately stuff it with keywords in an attempt to boost your search engine rankings, when what you really need is for people to link to you in the first place. If this is you, immediately throw salt over your shoulder, turn around three times, and spit. Then forget everything you think you know about SEO. Study smart SEO instead. (But pay attention to the next item.) 9. You believe SEO is the secret to building a popular blog First, let me set the record straight. I am a big fan of SEO. I’m just not a fan of the pedestal many beginners put it on. SEO can’t, by itself, make a popular blog. First, you need remarkable content , and then you optimize it for search engines. Skip the remarkable part, and all the optimization in the world won’t help you. 10. You’re saving your best ideas for later Are you planning to do an e-book or course, and you’re holding back all of your best ideas, waiting for your blog to get popular before you publish them and make gobs of money? If so, stop. To riff on Warren Buffett, waiting until your blog is popular to publish your best ideas is like waiting until you’re old to have sex. Get your good stuff published today. 11. Your blog is about … well … everything One of the quickest way is to frustrate your readers is to write about everything that’s on your mind. Here’s why: people don’t come to your blog to find out what you think. They come to your blog for solutions to their problems. The moment you stop talking about them is the moment they stop reading. 12. You don’t know the benefit Pop quiz: one year from now, how will your reader’s life be better? What specific, measurable results will you have helped them obtain? We are not talking about “Having a greater sense of fulfillment and prosperity.” We’re talking about “They’ve lost 20 pounds” or “They’ve brought in five high-quality new clients.” If you can’t put your content in these terms, you’re setting yourself up to fail. 13. You think you deserve more traffic than you’re getting Do you feel annoyed that no one appreciates the value of the knowledge that you’re giving away for free ? I know I used to, and it took several years of struggling to realize no one is entitled to attention . You have to earn it, day in and day out. No exceptions. 14. You have a science, engineering, or technology background I know, it sounds horribly prejudiced. But here’s the deal: scientists, engineers, and other types of technologists are trained to be objective, passive, and detached — all three of which will destroy you as a blogger. No, you’re not doomed if you have a background in one of these disciplines. But it is a handicap, and you need to be aware of it. 15. You’ve never read a book on copywriting Writing a blog post without studying copywriting is like hunting for buried treasure without a map. You might be able to do it, but you’ll have to get astoundingly lucky. If you haven’t studied copywriting , you should. Like right now . 16. You have no idea what keeps your readers up at night Great writing is about intimacy, and nothing is more intimate than knowing what keeps your readers up at night. Find out what makes them afraid, find out what makes them excited, find out what’s going through their mind at 2 a.m. Then use it in your blog posts. You’ll be communicating with them on such a deep, emotional level that it will be impossible for them to ignore you. 17. You write less than 1,000 words per day Of all the warning signs, this is probably the biggest. If you’re not writing at least 1,000 words per day, it will be difficult, if not impossible, for you to write anything but mediocre content. Try writing at least 1000 words every day for 30 days, and see what an impact it has on your writing. You’ll be astounded. 18. You read less than 10 hours per week Besides writing a lot, you also need to read a lot. It exposes you to different writing styles to learn from; it gives you new stories and metaphors; it keeps you abreast of what’s going on in your field. In my opinion, 10 hours a week is a bare minimum. If you really want to be good, think more in the range of 20-40 hours a week. 19. You’ve never talked to a reader on the phone or in person A one-hour conversation with one of your most ardent readers will teach you more about how to communicate with your audience than anything else you can do. If you’re not doing it at least once every month or two, there’s a good chance you’re falling out of touch. 20. You’ve been blogging for less than six months Okay, we’re at the end, so I’ll go ahead and admit it: not everything is your fault. If you’ve been blogging for less than six months, there’s almost nothing you can do; your content is going to suck to some degree. Keep your chin up, expect to be ignored, and just keep going. You’ll get good soon. The bottom line I’d love to tell you that producing great content is easy. I’d love to tell you that there are shortcuts. I’d love to tell you can do it with your brain on auto pilot. But I won’t, because we’re being honest here, right? Producing great content is work. No, it’s not building a pyramid or putting a man on the moon or curing cancer, but it does take time, energy, and dedication. If you’re sitting here, right now, worrying about whether your content sucks or not, that’s actually a good sign. If you’re worrying about it at 2 in the morning, that’s even better. Achieving greatness in blogging is the same as anything else. You have to work your butt off. If you’re willing to do that, then there will always be a place for you on the web. You’ll always be in demand. You’ll always be able to stand out. It’s tough, yes, but it’s worth it. So, what are you waiting for? Hurry up and get started. About the Author: Jon Morrow is Associate Editor of Copyblogger. Get more from him on twitter .

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How Cornerstone Content Gets You Traffic and Subscribers

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Blogs are great resources. They let you publish high-quality content quickly, efficiently, and inexpensively. The problem is, the default functionality of blogging software makes it easy to show what’s new — but hard to show off the depth of what you’ve done over time. Blogging excels at presenting new content, but fails at aggregating old content in a way that works for people and search engines. So what can you do? How can you help both people and search engines find your content efficiently? Create some solid cornerstone content. If you’ve read Brian Clark’s new SEO copywriting report , you know how important this type of content is to attracting links and ranking for the terms that are central to your site. If you haven’t read Brian’s report, you should to get the full picture. But for now, it’s enough to know that a page hosting cornerstone content helps readers by pulling all of your content about a specific topic together in one place. In other words, each cornerstone page is a home for related content. If you want an example before I continue, check out Landing Pages or Copywriting 101 in the “resources” sidebar to the left of this post. Cornerstone pages let you highlight your most important archived content. They also help you attract links, get subscribers, and increase traffic. Keep reading to find out how. Cornerstone pages are great targets for link-building campaigns Remember, links matter first and foremost with search rankings. But complete, in-depth content on the topics you want people to find you for is important, too. When you group similar content into a home on a single page, you’ll have a keyword dense page which will rank in search engines when you build links to it. Sticking with the Copyblogger examples, do you think they chose phrases like “landing pages” and “SEO copywriting” by accident? Absolutely not. These are two popular keyword phrases that the Copyblogger crew wanted to rank well for in Google. And sure enough, they do. I know what you’re thinking. Copyblogger is a large site. They don’t need to focus on building links to each page, because they will gain links naturally over time. (Never mind the fact that, like every blog, Copyblogger started with no links and just one subscriber — which in this case was Brian.) That’s why cornerstone pages are even more important for new bloggers. These resource-rich pages are perfect for you to link when you do guest posts on other blogs. They’ll help you rank for specific keyword phrases and help you find new readers. 2. Cornerstone pages help you get subscribers People listen to authority figures. Brian also wrote a complete report on authority : why you want it, what it will do for you, and how to get it. People also tend to bookmark, share, and reference authoritative content. Cornerstone content is authoritative because it demonstrates your knowledge around a specific topic. And if it’s genuinely useful, people won’t hesitate to go further with your content, such as subscribing to your blog or signing up for an email newsletter. Does this strategy really work? Yes. How do you think Copyblogger became one of the top blogs? Scroll through the left sidebar and you’ll see all of the Copyblogger resources. Most of these are cornerstone pages, grouping several pieces of valuable content with a call to action to subscribe to the blog. 3. Cornerstone pages are shareable Since each piece of cornerstone content helps people address a specific need, they often remember it. For example, any time someone asks me how to write a great blog headline, there’s one resource that comes to mind . . . the Headline Writing series here on Copyblogger. Even though I first read it almost three years ago, I still refer back to it every time I need some inspiration. Whenever anyone asks me how to write a headline, I send them to this resource because of how helpful and complete it is. I don’t have to send them to five different sites, just one simple URL that’s easy to share. How do you create cornerstone content? There are two ways. One, you can start from scratch and write a blog series with the main goal of turning it into cornerstone content. This is a great way to kick off a blog, or to give your blog a boost. But if you’ve been blogging for a while, there’s a faster way to benefit from this strategy . . . without doing extensive content development. Let me explain. You probably have blog categories, right? Take a look through some of your more important categories. What if you hand-picked some of those category-specific articles and grouped them onto a cornerstone page? It would be easy, right? Now what would make this content effective? First, you’d want to do some basic keyword research to make sure you’re targeting a keyword phrase that makes sense. Then you’ll want to write a snappy, informative introduction that builds desire for your content, using smart SEO copywriting to make it search engine-friendly. And finally, you fill out the page with links to content you already have on your site. It’s that simple. Now get to work. If you focus, you can get your first cornerstone page posted in 30 minutes. And of course, the next time you write a guest post, make sure you link to your new cornerstone content page using the appropriate keywords as anchor text (Brian’s new report gives an example of this). How about you? Using any terrific cornerstone content on your own blog? Let us know where to find it in the comments. About the Author: Derek recently launched the blog Social Triggers . Check it out to learn how to use human psychology to get traffic, sales, and subscribers. Also, don’t miss out on his cornerstone content page, Online Sales 101 .

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What Do You Do When You Run Out of Knowledge?

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Bloggers have a distinct disadvantage. When someone hires an expert in — oh, let’s say marketing — that expert can dispense the same information she did for the last client. And the client before that one. And the one before that. Not bloggers. Blogging is about breaking down everything you know into bite-sized chunks so that people can learn it all over a period of time. If they look back through the archives, they can often see the entire breadth of your knowledge. Then one day, your well runs dry. This is a scary moment for any blogger. It’s not like running out of inspiration or having writer’s block . This is when you’ve said it all. Your blog contains absolutely everything you know. And let’s be fair — it’s a lot of knowledge. But you simply don’t have anything new to say . What do you do? Go get yourself some new knowledge I’m always amazed by how few people continue to educate themselves on their topic after they’ve become an acknowledged expert in it. Hey, everyone knows me as the number one guy on naked mole rats! Clearly, I know everything there is to know! But as an old coach of mine used to say, you’ll never know everything there is to know in your field of expertise, and there’s always something new to learn. People make new discoveries and innovations every day. You have opinions about those innovations. You agree or disagree with them. You try them or manage to take them a step further. Of course, if you don’t find out what those discoveries and innovations are, you don’t have anything to say about it. No wonder you’re stuck for posts. Actively pursuing new knowledge about your area of expertise has a side benefit: it provides more value for your clients. You may find the inspiration for a new ebook or web course to help newcomers understand and benefit. New knowledge could be the next big thing for your business — if you go out and find it. Doctors are one of the few professions actually required to update their knowledge of their field of expertise continually. If a doctor doesn’t know the latest innovation in surgery, his next patient might die from the lack of that knowledge. That’s a huge incentive for the doctor to always be learning and for the patient — and the medical board — to insist on that continual education. No one is going to force you to attend conferences or read books or take courses, but you’ll be much more respected as an expert if you continually update your knowledge. Your client’s life may not be on the line, but their business, their financial goals, and their happiness probably is — at least, their happiness with your products and services. Where can you find new knowledge? Well, you may not have heard about this gizmo called the internet, but it’s pretty handy for that sort of thing. It seems silly to mention using the internet to upgrade your knowledge on an online blog, but shocking numbers of people don’t use it for this particular purpose — even those who practically live online. Libraries are an awesome (and free) resource for new knowledge too, and so is your local bookstore. Go pick up some new literature and get someone else’s perspective on what you do. Magazines and trade journals, of course, are terrific for more recent innovations and information. Find ones that focus on your area of expertise and stay on the lookout for new ideas that sound interesting or innovative. Once an article grabs your attention, go do some independent research on that topic and find new resources to pursue. Actively pursuing new knowledge won’t just make you a better businessperson — though that’s reason enough right there. It’ll also pretty much guarantee that you’ll never run out of blog topics ever again. About the Author: For new knowledge that makes you a better businessperson — and that helps you hit the bullseye of success for your freelancing career, check out Men with Pens — or better yet, grab the RSS feed here .

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