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In the first part of this series on ranking at
the top of the search engines, we discussed diversifying
your Internet marketing efforts. We introduced
several methods including RSS feeds, Link Popularity,
Article Marketing, Blogs, and physically altering
your pages to make them more target-able for select
keywords. All of these share the key of great
content in order to unlock success.
Think of each method as a vehicle that carries
the greatest cargo in the world. That cargo is
your business, your product, and the word you
want to get out.
Now....
So you're thinking, "show me how to set
up these things and get traffic coming in!"
We'll get to that, but imagine if you go to all
the trouble of rewriting ten of your web pages,
setting up a blog, writing some articles, buying
some text links, syndicating your site over RSS,
and you flip the switch and everyone hears you...
But then surprise! Your audience feels like they're
watching an old, dubbed Karate movie... the words
come in English three seconds after the guy moves
his mouth...in Chinese. Your new parade of eager
visitors turns away and never comes back.
Then you'd hate me, the Internet, your old first
grade teacher... and we don't want that! So before
we start adding marketing bells and whistles to
your site, lets focus on the secret ingredient
they all share, the solid foundation... super,
juicy, colossal content! And, you can start drafting
that immediately.
Great Content- What Makes It?
Is there a site you visit nearly every day? Why
do you go there? Do you learn something or take
back some knowledge? Guess what... the site has
"good" content.
In terms of business, you're probably on the
web researching, buying, or selling something.
The Internet is all about information exchange.
In whatever vehicle it's delivered to you, if
the information is simple to find and well packaged
in easy to understand, bite size pieces, you're
happy. And you'll probably go back to the same
place when you need more of that information.
In your case, content is information about/promoting/creating
awareness about your business. To turn a new visitor
into a new client or customer, you want to convey
that information in a genuine, honest, no strings,
down and dirty package.
So then, on the surface, your packaging should
be:
-Professional
-Clean
-Attractive
-Interesting
-Simple
-Straight Forward
-Intriguing/Enticing
Let's take this article... the layout, wording,
sentence structure, and my personality package
the content. The content is the underlying message
I want to share with you-- that all of the latest
e-marketing techniques won't help you one bit
if you don't understand the ideology behind them
first, how they work, and how to adapt them to
attract people to your own, unique piece of the
Internet.
Great Content- How to write it
That's going to vary depending upon your audience.
So let's start there! First, know who your audience
is. Be yourself. If you are dishonest and pretend
to be something you're not, it will show in time
and you'll lose all the work you put in.
Which brings me to another important point. Write
with confidence. If you are confident in what
you are writing and you aren't attempting to deceive
anyone (i.e. you are not selling seeds to an audience
of botanists when your only skill is brick laying),
you will earn people's respect.
Trust goes a long way. You don't have the luxury
of delivering your content in person. You have
a very short time to convince people you are not
the latest scam, you have something to offer that
will help them, and they can feel safe doing business
with you or at least willing to learn more.
That's a pretty tall order! But you can do it.
Let's start with some guidelines for writing your
content. Remember... a web page, an RSS feed or
a news article will all share these commonalities.
Great Content- Thematic Essentials
-Be informal, but structured
-Know your audience. Pretend you're talking to
them. If you wouldn't say something in person,
don't say it online.
-Don't be boring. Would you read what you've
written?
-Do NOT lie
-Writing for the Net is not the same as writing
for print
-Keep it simple- one idea at a time, don't overwhelm
-Inform, educate and show the reader what's in
it for them.
-Do not saturate your content with sales hype.
You are slowly building trust, making a name for
yourself, and not producing an infomercial.
Great Content- Mechanical Essentials
-Divide your document into headings and sub points.
People scan a page until something catches their
eye, they don't read.
-Make your titles and headings catchy, yet poignant.
-Do not try to incorporate a keyword in every
sentence. Be natural, your keywords and synonyms
will enter themselves.
-Spell Check
-Grammar Check
-When finished, put your document down and go
do something else. Come back later and revise.
Repeat, rinse.
How to keep it fresh and keep your audience
-Earn their trust by being honest
-Identify with a common problem or solution to
which all can relate
-Don't shove your product or service in their
face
-Show them something cool
-Give them something they can try immediately
-Leave them wanting to come back
Concluding Thoughts...
Internet marketing takes time, perseverance,
and practice. A ton of all three. If you are swamped
with work and honestly can't commit, hire someone
to help you or do it for you.
You wouldn't allow a brochure to be printed with
spelling errors and bad photos. Your online presence
is no different.
Now that you're working on writing, next time
we'll learn how to encase your content in some
of the latest Internet marketing methods. I'll
show you how they really can increase links and
get traffic flowing. In this series we'll delve
into details about the pros and cons of each method,
and how you can start using each right away to
increase traffic and links. Start writing and
revise, revise, revise! See ya soon!
About the author:
John Krycek is the owner and creative director
of http://www.themouseworks.ca.Learn
more about search engine marketing and web design
and development in easy, non-technical, up front
English at http://www.themouseworks.ca/html/website_articles_indx.html
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