Recommended Reading for Blog Content Writers – Part B

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Blog content writers relieve the drain on business owners’ time, and so what relieves the drain on the blog content writers?  Since at least half the time that goes into creating a blog post is reading/research/thinking time, I’ve found that collecting books that serve as blog writing resources is, as Martha Stewart, might put is, “a good thing”.

Some of the books in my “blogger’s library” are about writing itself (see Part A of this series), but in today’s Say It For You post, I’ll share links to books about what I call “tidbit treasures”.

Tidbit Treasure books:
What I dub a “triggering tidbit” is nothing more than a piece of unusual or little-known piece of information which bloggers for business can use in their posts, tying that information to explanations of their own company’s products, services, and culture in order to capture online readers’ interest.

Book of Totally Useless InformationTidbits from The Book of Totally Useless Information, by Don Voorhees include:

  • U.S. President James Garfield could write Latin with one hand and Greek with the other – at the same time!
    You can earn a good living as a banana gasser.
  • During the Victorian era, wealthy British travelers would go to Indiana on luxury cruise ships.  It became trendy to pay extra for the privilege of staying in a portside cabin on the way to Indiana and a starboard on the way home.(Before air conditioning was invented,
    staterooms facing land tended to be cooler.) A POSH (port out, starboard home) label on one’s luggage signified this privilege.  That’s why we use “posh” to describe something elegant.

The Book of Incredible Information: A World of Not-So-Common Knowledge, by J.K. Kelly & Louis Weber book of incredible informationcovers hundreds of fascinating, funning, and unfamiliar facts. For instance:

  • French fries were first cooked up in Belgium, where the verb “to French” refers to the technique of cutting something into long, thin strips.
  • French dressing doesn’t come from France, either.  In fact, the wife if Lucius French, who founded Hazleton, Indiana, created the recipe.

Why do I refer to tidbits of information such as these as “treasure” for Indiana blog content writers?  Common myths surround every business and profession.  Offering little-known explanations exploding myths engage readers’ interest, and we can use them to lead into some little-known fact about our own (or our clients’) products, services, and company history.

Keep tuned…next week in my Say It For You blog, I’ll offer reading resources for bloggers about selling and about online marketing…

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Recommended Reading for Blog Content Writers – Part A

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Since frequency and recency play such a large role in search engine rankings, what a blog writer can add to the marketing mix is discipline, consistently posting high quality content on behalf of the business. Hiring the extra “brain” relieves the “drain” on the business owner’s (or the professional practitioner’s) resources of times and energy.

So what relieves the drain on the blog content writer? (Years ago, in the process of explaining the way my company Say It For You came about, I talked about the “drill sergeant discipline” needed by blog content writers.  I knew that the main key to business blogging success was going to be simply keeping on task week after week, month after month, year after year.

One question I’m often asked when I train business owners and employees or newbie blog content writers for hire is this: Where do you get ideas for blog posts? My answer is – everywhere!  But that doesn’t mean the ideas are going to jump right onto your page. I like to emphasize that at least half the time that goes into creating a blog post is reading/research/thinking time!

This week I decided to highlight one aspect of the “everywhere” – namely books. I’ve spent almost a decade now putting together quite a collection of books that serve as blog writing resources.  I’m providing links so that you can take a look for yourself at some of these wonderful little books. I’d also love to hear about books you may have found especially useful.

Books about writing:

Of the two types of people who make up the English-speaking world, I find myself among the minority who believe proper grammar and spelling matter on business websites and in business blogs. Because of that, some of my favorite basic resource books deal with writing basics.

Effective Writing in Easy Steps“If your writing is difficult to understand or written in an inappropriate style, it won’t serve the purpose,” points out Tony Rossiter in Effective Business Writing in Easy Steps. “When I’m writing, working as a management consultant or running a training course,” Rossiter adds, “I like clarity, plain English and gentle humor.”

 

 

A second favorite resource is The Little Red Writing Book, by Brandon Royal. This little book presents “20 powerful Little Read Writing Bookprinciples of structure, style, & readability.” Just to offer you a taste, Royal talks about four types of transition words:

 

  • contrast – but, yet, on the other hand, whereas
  • illustration – for example, for instance, in fact
  • continuation – furthermore, on the one hand, undoubtedly, coincidentally
  • conclusion – finally, therefore, thus, as a result

There’s no lack of information for us content writers when it comes to hooking readers and wowing fans, but, with words being our primary tools, it’s important to go back and review fundamentals of writing.

Stay tuned…In coming posts, we’ll offer reading resources for bloggers on marketing and metaphors…

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Tantalizing Up Your Blog Titles

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“Kick-ass” isn’t an expression you’re likely to find in a Say It For You piece of writing. Still, since Hubspot.com invariably offers advice that’s valuable Headline concept.for blog content writers, I wanted to share with my own readers Hubspot’s formula for “writing kick-ass blog titles”.

Stay accurate. “Accuracy is critical when trying to finesse a title.  Why? It sets clear expectations for your readers….It’s best to under promise and over deliver,” Hubspot cautions.

One of the compromises I suggest to newbie content writers is to use a combination of a “Huh?” to get attention and then an “Oh!” subtitle to make clear what the post is actually going to be about.

Use alliteration. “It’s a device that makes something a little lovelier to read,” Hubspot explains.

An example I used in a corporate blogging training session is this: Say you’re writing about a hair salon in Carmel.  Look for descriptive words beginning with C, such as “Captivating Curl in Carmel“.

Use strong language. “Strong phrases (and quite frankly, negative ones) pack quite a punch,” Hubspot points out, warning at the same time that these must be used in moderation.

In the area of “kick-ass” language, I tend to come down on the side of moderation. Business blogging is one way we have of “talking about ourselves”.  And, whether it’s the business owner or professional practitioner herself doing the writing, or whether we professional blog content writers have been hired to do the job for them, we need to make sure we ”talk” in ways that give readers the right impression.

Make the value clear. “Presenting the format to a reader helps make your content a little sexier”, says Hubspot, meaning telling readers the format (infographic, Ebook, ‘a simple formula’, etc.

Hubspot importantly concludes: “All of this hinges on understanding your core buyer persona. You need to find language that resonates with them, and know what they find valuable.”

In other words, it’s great to tantalize up our blog titles, but we blog content writers need to know what our own readers are likely to find engaging, as opposed to off-putting.

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Blogging to One-Tank Destinations

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kind rijdt autoHave you visited the Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Notre Dame, Indiana? How about the Five Points Fire Museum in Lafayette, IN? I haven’t been to either, but after learning through the Columbian magazine that those would be “one tank destinations” for me (I live in Indianapolis), I’m adding both locations to my vacation day fun possibilities list.

There’s a valuable nugget of wisdom in this for us blog content writers, I realize. Had that article in the Columbian been about two faraway, exotic destinations, I’d probably have simply turned the page. Instead, I cut the item out of the magazine, posting it on my kitchen bulletin board.

Thing is, in marketing, it’s all about accessibility and ease when it comes to triggering action on the part of readers, whether in print or online. Making a business’ or a practice’s products and services accessible and easy to acquire or use has to be at the top of our best practices list when it comes to writing content for business blogs.

What are some ways to make the information in blog posts “one-tank”, meaning easy to access and easy to put into action?

  • Offer answers in a few, short, well-thought-out words, with longer answers to follow if requested
  • Insert Calls to Action at various points throughout a business blog post
  • Remind readers of the annoyances and hassles they’re experiencing with their present providers and products.  Go on to describe the perfect, hassle-free solution to their problems.
  • Don’t just say “Contact us.” (What exactly do you want your reader to think, feel, or do?) Have people fill out a form where they tell you “where they want to go”.
  • Focus on one specific step readers can take. Choose a very specific problem or need, and offer a very clear and compelling solution.

    Are you taking your blog readers to one-tank destinations?
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Bullet-Point Blogging

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“Bullet points, when used wisely, can increase readability and retention by readers,” Michael Bailey reminds us in Internet Ten Blank business diagram bullet liet illustrationMarketing: an Hour a Day. So is that all we need to know?  Not by a long shot, because bullet points can very easily go very wrong.

Bullet points are mini-headlines, encouraging readers to go back into the real meat of your content or go forward with your call to action, says Robert Bruce of copyblogger.com. Bruce offers three bullet-point rules of thumb:

  • Keep them symmetrical (1-line each, 2-lines each, etc.).
  • Practice parallelism (begin each with the same part of speech).
  • Keep them short for greater impact.

“When website visitors read text online, they do not want to work too hard at the task,” says writeraccess.com. Bullet points draw the readers’ eyes to the most important information. Writeraccess reminds blog content writers of some basic punctuation and grammar rules:

  • The text used to introduce a section of bullet points should end in a colon.
  • When the information is a complete sentence, begin with a capital letter and end with proper punctuation.

A “sneaky tip” offered by websitecopywritingservices.com is that the first and last items in a list generally grab the most attention, so use the start and end of the list to convey whatever is most important.

William Green, guest blogging on BloggerSentral.com, makes no bones about the way he feels about bullet points. “They benefit nearly every area of your blog, be it traffic, SEO, Twitter follows, RSS subscribers, I mean everything,” he says.

As a corporate blogging trainer, I particularly liked what Green had to say about finding the right balance between paragraphs and bullet points.  If you can use both, he says, you will be become a successful blogger.

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