swanie » blogging

3 Reasons to Write a Professional Blog

swanie — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 16:26:10 +0000

By now you’ve probably heard that many people earn an income by blogging. As a business professional, that may not interest you or be worth your time. But before dismissing blogging altogether, consider these three reasons for professional blogging …3 Reasons for Professional Blogging

Demonstrates industry expertise and participation – prospective clients visiting your site want to know what you can do for them and how good you do it. A professional blog allows the visitor to see, firsthand, your level of industry knowledge and activeness.
Improves search engine performance – if you write blog posts on a certain topic, you increase your chance of being find through online search. In fact, some search engines (such as Technorati) search only blogs. If you’re not blogging, guess what? … you’ll never show up on the search engine results.
Improve your practice by learning and exchanging ideas with your peers – you can learn from your peers by visiting and participating on their blogs, and vice versa, they visit and participate on your blog. Who knows … you just might learn something useful that you can apply and improve your practice.

Ideal Length for a Web Page

swanie — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:55:01 +0000

To think readers want to read every word I vomit is arrogant and self-serving. I strive to say what I need to say, not one word more or less. Still, I wonder if there is an ideal length (not too short, not too long) for a web page.

I found several reliable sources for the ideal length for a web page …

I found this with a quick Google search: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/percent-text-read.html

This study is dated 2008. I doubt online reading habits have changed much since. Naturally, the longer the page, the fewer number of people who read all of the text. However, the sharpest decline seems to be at about 200 to 300 words.

I like a lot of what Bob Bly writes about writing. I found this excerpt on his enewsletter (http://www.bly.com/archive/?p=111):

According to web expert Gerry McGovern, the ideal length for a
page of web copy on a regular web site (not a landing page) is
300 words. He says 50% of visitors will read a 300-word page to
the end, while only 5% will scan 1,000 words.

Headlines should be 4 to 8 words, sentences 15 to 20 words, and
paragraphs 40 to 70 words. Hyperlinks should be in the right-hand
column, not embedded within the body copy. Reason: links in the
body copy distract readers, making it difficult for them to read
the paragraph.

Source: IntelBuilder

This provides a practical rule of thumb.

300 words seems reasonable to me. It gets tough to keeping online reader engaged for more than that. If I have more content than that on the subject, I need to either condense the content (always good to do anyway), spread the content to multiple web pages (yikes!), or encapsulate in a different medium (such as video).

Writing Powerful Blog Headlines

swanie — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:07:03 +0000

I argue the headline is the most important element of an advertisement. If the headline doesn’t engage the reader, the rest of the promotion is for not. The same goes for blog posts. Even if readers subscribe to your blog, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re reading your content. It’s likely they also subscribe to other blogs and scan headlines on a regular basis. Here are several practical tips to writing strong headlines that stand out from the rest …

The Four ‘U’s Headline Writing Formula

When writing a headline, strive to include the four ‘U’s in your headline (a headline writing tip I learned from copywriter, Michael Masterson):

USEFUL: Be sure it’s written in a matter that explains what’s in it for the reader. e.g., “How to Save Time and Improve Service Quality at the Same Time”
UNIQUE: Don’t be predictable. e.g., “The Most Important Business Lesson I Learned from My Plummer”
ULTRA-SPECIFIC: Package your ideas or use. e.g., “The 17 Real Reasons Why 79% of All Small Businesses Fail”
URGENT: Give the reader a reason to pay attention now. e.g., “What Top Professionals Are Doing Now with Social Media to Win Marketshare”

It’s tough to write a concise headline with all four elements. Shoot for 2 to 3 and you’ll do just fine.

Types of Headlines

I recently found this blog post on writing blog headlines:

http://www.blogussion.com/writing/headline-techniques/

This is a decent guide explaining different types of headlines:

Headlines that leave you wanting more
Ask an important question
Promise to teach or solve a problem
Goes straight to the point
Exposes some sort of secret

I could write a book on headline writing. It’s certainly an art once you get into it. But the above tips keeps writing a good headline practical.

The Golden Rule of Professional Blogging

swanie — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 20:20:51 +0000

Several years ago, I attended a media conference and what one of the panelists said about what makes a good story stuck. In fact, it not only stuck, I revere his advice (and maybe it wasn’t originally his advice, either) as a golden rule of blogging …

“Tell me something useful I didn’t already know.”

It’s sage, simple, straight-forward journalistic advice with universal application … for social media, blogging, media, video, audio, all of it. If I want people to listen to me, everything I say or write must follow this rule. This can also be called the rule of relevancy, which has three ingredients (the three ‘I’s):

importance (or interest)
immediacy
integrity

If what I have to say isn’t that, then I’m probably just babbling.

So, what makes for ‘relevant’ information? What do my readers want to read? Here are some suggestions in rank order of what generates the most interest and response (according to Blog Traffic Exchange):

quick tips
how to … tutorials
reviews/opinions
resources
interviews
best of …
personal story
news