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Blog Posts and Comic Strips – Sisters Under the Skin

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blog's 3-part structure

In offering corporate blogging training, one rule of thumb I often emphasize is focusing on just one idea in each blog post. Not only does this lend more punch to the post, it helps the blog content writer concentrate all his/her efforts around that one focal point.

When it comes to condensing, comic strip creators do it best, I’m convinced. Three comic strips in one Friday’s issue of the Indianapolis Star are perfect models. Each strip had only three “frames”. In the first, the stage is set with a situation, dilemma, question, or problem. The second box develops the idea, and the third ends with a “summary” closing line.

Blondie:
Did you lecture Alexander about being out past curfew?
Yes.
Then he lectured me for staying up so late!

Wizard of Id
You know, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you without your hat?
Oh, really? Here!
A mullet? The 80s were the best time for wizards.

Snuffy Smith
How come Sheriff Tait don’t have a deputy?
Well, he likes to think he’s so darn capable he just don’t need one.
That job obviously gives him wa-a-ay too much time to think!

Mutts
As the great cat wizard, I can see into the future.
How does it look?
Empty, for now.

When it comes to blogging, we at Say It For You firmly believe in the Power of One. A business blog post, the concept is, should impart one new idea or call for a single action. Focused on one thing, your post has greater impact, since people are bombarded with many messages each day. Respecting readers’ time produces better results for your business.

Problem-solution essays are a common requirement for high school and college students, grabmyessay.com explains. The essay identifies a problem and discusses a solution, convincing the readers to address the problem as soon as possible. The problem-solution essay, like any other essay, too, should end with a conclusion, restating the problem and containing a call to action that encourages the readers to take part in the proposed solution or to look for alternative solutions.

Although blogs use a much greater number of words than comic strips (and possible far fewer words than writing instructors often require of their students), it’s possible to incorporate that comic-strip “three-frame construct” in each post:

  1. The “pow” opening section presents a question, a problem, a startling statistic, or a gutsy, challenging statement.
  2. The middle section develops the thought, brings in supporting materials and valuable information.
  3. At the end of the post, you do a “tie-back” to that opener, a finishing flourish.

    At Say It For You, we like to think of blog posts and comic strips as sisters under the skin!

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What This Blog Isn’t

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This week’s Say It for You posts were inspired by James Marshall Reilly’s book One Great Speech, in which he describes his challenges in locating and identifying “experts” in varying fields, based on the requests of buyers and event sponsors.

In the introduction to his book, James Marshall Reilly makes sure readers know exactly what to expect.  In fact, the author provides three checklists:

  1. Who is this book for?
  2. What this book will teach you
  3. What this book isn’t

While it may not be practical for blog content writers to actually provide readers such a checklist for each post, it’s a great self-check mechanism for content creators.

Who is this blog post for?
Not only must a marketing blog be targeted towards the specific type of customers you want and towards those who will want to do business with you, each post should have a specific type of reader in mind. That way, the content will clearly demonstrate that the business owner or practitioner and the staff understand the readers’ concerns and needs, but know how to meet those needs and solve those very problems.

What this post will teach you
The title of a blog post indicates what readers can expect to learn. There are two basic categories of blog titles, we’ve found at Say It For You. The first is very direct, using keyword phrases that match up with what a reader may have typed into the search bar. The second category gives only the barest hint of the content to follow and is meant to arouse curiosity A compromise I teach is to use a combination of a “Huh?” title to get attention and then an “Oh!” subtitle to make clear what the post is actually going to be about.

What this post isn’t
Of Reilly’s three lists, this one may be the most important for blog content writers to consider and at least indirectly, make clear in the content:

  • This is not an advertisement or a list of claims about a product or service.
  • This is not a news report (although it may be based on a news report, offering a fresh perspective on that news).
  • This is not a ”put-down” of our competitors’ products and services.
  • This is not a thinly veiled attempt to capture contact information from you.
  •  This is not a mere re-hash of widely accessible information.

Very much like a sculptor who “reveals” the shape by cutting away “excess” marble, blog content writers can craft effective posts by cutting away what the content is not!

 

 

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NASA Isn’t Looking for Astronauts

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As a speaking agent, James Marshall Reilly explains in the book One Great Speech, his biggest challenge is locating and identifying “experts” in varying fields, based on the requests of buyers and event sponsors. Reilly is looking for people as yet unknown in the speaking world. But don’t be confused, he cautions – when Bank of America wants to pay for a speaker, they’re not looking for a banker or financial services expert. The State Department isn’t looking for a diplomat, and NASA isn’t seeking a speaker who’s an astronaut. These organizations have plenty of their own in-house experts.

So what are these mega-company meeting planners seeking?’ Reilly says it’s someone with:

  • a unique perspective
  • a new idea
  • new information
  • passion
  • a story that resonates

Reilly’s insights sure resonated with me. As blog content writers, those are the very qualities we’re aiming for in helping our clients’ stories resonate with their target audiences.

Unique perspective
The typical website explains what products and services the company offers, who the “players” are and in what geographical area they operate. The better websites give at least a taste of the corporate culture and some of the owners’ core beliefs.  It’s left to the continuously renewed business blog writing, though, to “flesh out” the intangibles, those things that make a company stand out from its peers. In other words, it’s the blog that gives readers context within which to process the information.

But, from whose perspective? We can use blogging to offer searchers the relevant, up to date information they came to find, giving it to them in short paragraphs and in conversational style, then leading them to take action. But it’s crucial to present information from the customer’s perspective, not ours. Where we are is never the starting point!

Passion resonates
When online readers find a blog, one question they need answered is “Who lives here?” In terms of achieving Influencer status – it takes passion, and it takes opinion, we’ve learned at Say It For You. Sharing the obvious slant may be vociferous, but if it’s not passionate, it won’t resonate with readers.

Information
Very much like the folks most likely to be in attendance at a Bank of America or NASA conference, blog site visitors are already interested in the subject at hand and may already know quite a bit of information on that subject. While there’s very little likelihood that the “startling statistics” you offer to capture readers’ attention will be “new news”, facts and statistics need to be “unpackaged” and put into perspective.

No, Bank of America may not be looking for a speaker with a finance degree, and NASA may not hire an astronaut for the keynoter at their conference. But if you can turn information into stories that resonate in your blog posts, online readers may just “hire” -YOU!

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Disagree Agreeably in Your Blog

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You’ve no doubt been exposed to the streaming TV ad for Vroom, in which a guy is strapped to a chair in the back of a car dealership. The dealer finally uses a pair of jumper cables to zap his victim back to reality, where he’s sitting on his front lawn watching Vroom deliver his new sedan.

Tempting as it is to knock your competition, there are some very good reasons not to do so, Cedric Voigt of Ballou PR writes:

  • It makes the story all about them.
  • It makes you look like a follower, not a leader.
  • You are not objective, and your target audience isn’t stupid.

At Say It For You, we absolutely agree. Negatives against competitors are a basic no-no. Yes, , in writing for business, we want to clarify the ways we stand out from the competition.  But, to get the point across that readers should want to choose this business or this practice, or these products and services over those offered by the competition, it’s important to stay positive.

The People’s Pharmacy Q&A column in the Indianapolis Star the other day exemplifies taking a firm stance on a subject while acknowledging that there are other opinions. The reader had been diagnosed with “white coat syndrome”, because her blood pressure would dramatically increase in the presence of a doctor or nurse. Her question was this: “Do I really need to take drugs for high blood pressure when my pressure is high only in the doctor’s office?”

Pharmacists Joe and Teresa Graedon disagreed with the recommendation given the reader by her doctors. However, rather than “knocking” those doctors, the Graedons offered a three-part response:

  1. Acknowledging that there are alternative approaches — “Doctors disagree about the need to treat white coat syndrome. Some think it signals reactivity to stress.” Because people are frazzled in many different circumstances, these physicians believe drug treatment is appropriate.”
  2. Offering evidence backing up their own viewpoint — “An Italian study of early 1,200 elderly people with high blood pressure found that white coat hypertension raised the risk of a cardiovascular event slightly but not significantly.
  3. Firmly restating their own view — “You could ask your doctor about reducing your medication. To prepare for that conversation, you may want to read our eGuide to Blood Pressure Solutions.”

When it comes to comparing yourself to others, accentuate both the reasoning behind, and the positives about, your way of doing things! Differentiate, don’t disparage.

 

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Guest Post: How to Increase Organic Traffic to Your Blog

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The term “organic web traffic” describes the way visitors arrive at your website as a result of “natural” search.

Organic traffic is the reverse of paid traffic, which defines the check-outs generated by paid ads. Organic visitors locate your site after making use of an internet search engine like Google or Bing, and are not “referred” by any other web site.

The simplest method to increase the natural web traffic of your website without getting a traffico anomalo google error is to routinely publish quality and relevant content on your blog site.This is, nevertheless, just one of several techniques to use for getting new visitors.

The science that focuses on enhancing organic circulation is called Search Engine Optimization or SEO. Organic traffic comes as a result of searches used by readers through search engine, such as Google, Yahoo, or Bing.

Since organic traffic is free, that is the kind of website traffic that proprietors want the most.

HOW TO BOOST NATURAL WEBSITE TRAFFIC:  11 LEADING SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION TIPS

The challenge for any type of organization ensuring that when people look for a product and services like your own, they find you and not your rival. But there’s no need to rely on pricey pay-per-click advertising and marketing; there’s plenty you can do to increase natural web traffic at no charge except your time.

1. Direct content to your readers, not to internet search engines
Get to know your customers’ personalities, in order to know whose problems your content is solving. By producing quality educational content that reverberates with your perfect customers, you’ll naturally boost your Search Engine Optimization.
Talking about those primary problems, using the keyword phrases they use in search queries is the best path to increasing your audiences. Writing for search engines alone is useless; all you’ll have is keyword-riddled rubbish.
Pleasing your target audience will result in also pleasing internet search engines.

2. Feed your blog site routinely
Blog writing is perhaps the most efficient method to raise your natural site website traffic. Blog content lets you go deeper than your website permits, creating a big, expanding brochure of practical, persona-optimized web content targeted to your market niche.
On the other hand, poorly-written, “spammy” web content will do more damage than help. Avoid it.

3. Connect to the blogosphere
The blogosphere is an area for reciprocators.
Read, comment on, and link to other individuals’ websites as well as their blogs, specifically those operating in your market. That will encourage them to read, comment, and link to your content bringing in even more leads.
An excellent area to start is Quora. A cool tactic for getting your voice out there is to spend some time answering individuals’ concerns on Quora as well as supplying genuine, valuable and concrete understandings for the certain location you are a professional in.
Tip: Always use a VPN while using Quora, which will give you more specific results according to the country designated in your VPN.

4. Use long-tail keywords
Better than using the most prominent search phrases in your market is choosing keywords that are more detailed and specific to your services or product.
In time, Google as well as other internet search engines will certainly recognize your website or blog as an information source for that certain subject, which in turn will boost your web search position while helping your perfect clients find you.
Keep in mind that positioning on Google has to do with having a sphere of influence for a certain niche topic.
This article, for example, is targeted tor those that want detailed advice on enhancing natural website traffic. We’re not targeting every SEO-related keyword.

5. Get your meta down pat
The meta title, the URL, and the description are the three crucial ingredients for maximizing traffic for a website or an article. It’s simple yet reliable.
Meta summaries and meta data are your way of telling Google precisely what you’re speaking about.
We make use of a variety of devices, including Yoast Search Engine Optimization plugin for WordPress, HubSpot’s SEO tools, and Ahrefs to help us optimize our web pages.
But it’s not enough to just ‘mount a plugin’, You need to work on describing each web page in turn.

6. Continually create quality content
Try to compose and release content as often as possible, but not at the expense of top quality! The more high-quality content — including full-sized articles as well as posts — you have on your site or blog, the more opportunities you provide for getting found through organic web traffic.

7. Use internal links
As soon as you’ve accumulated a respectable catalog of content, you can link to older posts, as well as to your own website, guiding visitors to appropriately related content.
Internal linking keeps visitors on your website longer, which helps improve your search rankings.
Don’t, however, overuse interior links. Overuse may begin to look like spam.

8. Encourage incoming web links
Google prioritizes websites that have a lot of inbound web links, especially those coming from other reliable sites.
Urge clients, buddies, family members, distributors, industry mavens, and fellow blog writers to connect to your website.
The more inbound web links you have, the higher your website will rank, because the more reliable sources link to you, the more reliable your site becomes in the eyes of search engines.
Beware Search Engine Optimization “snake oil salespeople”, though. Attempting to trick Google with spammy links from low-reputation websites is a sure path to failure.
Some web links can in fact, damage your Search Engine Optimization.

9. Blow your own horn
In addition to linking to other websites and getting them to link to yours, you can promote your blog content by linking it to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon etc.
If individuals are “hanging around” your web content on social media, that sends a strong signal to Google that the material is relevant, helpful, and intriguing.

10. Use social networks
Build visibility on social media networks such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
This is a way to get your name and internet site address out on the net. Add “share” buttons to your website to make it easy for individuals to share your content.
Most important, of course, is to compose material worthy of sharing!

11. Use metrics to maximize results
Use Google Analytics to track site visitors to your website and blogsite.
Learning where readers are coming from and which search terms led them to you allows you to fine-tune your content.
Ultimately, to enhance natural, organic website traffic, Give searchers what they want – quality, guidance, and insight..

Millie Oscar writes SEO and technology-related articles and her articles have appeared in a number of sites, including EzineArticles.com, ArticlesBase.com, HubPages.com, and TRCB.com. Her articles focus on balancing information with SEO needs–but never at the expense of providing an entertaining read.

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