Content
Constructing A Press Release That Gets Attention
Press releases have always been a great way to get not only visitors to your web properties but also backlinks. The problem is, most people have no idea how to write one. It’s not that difficult at all and I will give you an outline and some of the things you should do and shouldn’t do.
Firstly, ask yourself whether your news is actually newsworthy? If you think it’s not don’t worry, it doesn’t take much to make it look newsworthy. Here is the biggest no-no of a press release. Don’t use it simply to make a sale or sell something.
A press release needs to be toned down. It needs to answer the who, what, where, when and why of whatever it is you’re promoting.
Here are a list of DO NOTs:
- Don’t make your press release sound like an advertisement. If it does then go back and tone it down and remember the four “Ws.”
- Never write a press release just to mention an opening or a launch. They are a dime a dozen and these type of press releases will usually get turfed.
- Always avoid hype and don’t fill it with fluff. It needs to be direct and straight to the point.
- Avoid exaggerations and over the top claims. The Journalism profession is one of skepticism. I know because I’ve spent my career working in news rooms around the world.
- Avoid too many exclamation marks. This is definitely a no-no…!!!!! I would not include them at all.
Create Writing Rituals to Power Your Writing
No, you’re not a professional writer, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use the same tricks and techniques professional writers use. One of the dirty little secrets effective writers don’t tell you is that they aren’t good writers because of innate talent; they’re good writers because they practice writing rituals.
Writing rituals are nothing more than personal habits. They might have to do with how long you write, where you write or when you write. In some cases, there are behavior-based writing rituals that use a repeated action – such as sipping a drink or sharpening a pencil – that you do before, during or after writing.
Many rituals don’t have any practical impact on your writing. Instead, they have a practical impact on you, which then impacts your writing on more levels than you can imagine.
Finding Niche Market Ideas Using Magazines
The following is a guest post by Lara Dutta
Finding a great idea for a niche market is as easy as standing in line at the grocery store.
Next time you are standing around waiting for the cashier to ring you up, take a few minutes to browse through the gold mines along the counter – the magazines.
Want to know what people are buying? Look in the pages before you – and take notes.
Cracking Google’s Servers and Finding Search Keywords
Researching keywords for your next blog post, article or site?
I’m going to show you a way to get a peek behind the scenes of the Google search engine and see actual “search keyword” trends. Using these techniques you can discover keywords that you will want to use now!
Sure Google Trends (http://www.google.com/trends/) can help you find the top 100 hot topics but unless you are into top news stories or celebrities it doesn’t always help.
Google has finally let us pull back the curtain and see into the mounds of data that they have been collecting for years using their Google Insights for Search Tool. (http://www.google.com/insights/search/)
This is a keyword researchers dream. Four years of actual search data that you can comb through.
Using the Google Insights tool:
The first thing you should do is to sign in to your Google account at the top of the Insights. This will provide you with a little more detail in the results.
Top 4 Small Business Marketing Blunders
Marketing is, for many small Internet-based businesses, a necessary evil. Unfortunately, it’s also their life bread. Without effective marketing, your Internet business doesn’t stand a chance against the competition.
Here are four of the worst marketing mistakes you can make (In my opinion that is):
Denigrating your customers: If you come out and say, “only a moron would buy from my competitor,” you’re effectively closing off every potential client who’s ever bought from that competitor. It makes your potential customer feel embarrassed and out of touch. You want your potential customers to feel good, because happy customers are much more likely to buy.
Denigrating your competition: Talking smack about your competitors doesn’t boost your own business. All it does is make you look like a bully. Instead of insulting the other guy, talk about your product and why it’s a better product. This demonstrates an overall sense of integrity, as well as a genuine belief in the product you’re selling. And if you don’t believe in your product, potential customers won’t either.
Being desperate for a sale: Desperation implies that your product hasn’t been selling, which tells your customer that maybe it isn’t a quality product. You want people to have a favorable perception of your product, which is why so many good marketing techniques rely on urgency and scarcity. Demonstrate that you want the customer’s business, but also demonstrate that you’ll be fine without it.
Ranked Hard, The SEO Comic Strip
When you think about Search Engine Optimization, you generally don’t think “that’s funny.” As any webmaster can tell you, trying to keep up with the changes in the algorithms Google uses for its searches is like trying to herd cats. SEO is more likely to lead to frustration than it is to laughter.
Ranked Hard is a monthly webcomic drawn by Kelly Ishikawa and written by the folks at Big Oak – an SEO company. These folks know the ins and the outs, the ups and downs of the SEO biz, and it shows. From their commentary on Black Hat SEO to their take on Google Adwords, the Big Oak folks take no prisoners, and leave you laughing all along the way.
13 Reasons Why I Like Windows Live Writer
Writing a post while connected to the Internet has the chance of you being tempted to check for new mails or to check your earnings or being disturbed by someone wanting to chat with you. To focus on writing a better post, I would suggest disconnecting from the Internet and to use a desktop blog editor instead of the writer provided by the blog platform you use.
Many bloggers still don’t use a desktop blog editor and don’t realize that they are wasting a lot of their precious time waiting for their blog platform’s writer to load when a desktop blog editor will let them write, preview, save and publish a post very fast.
There are many desktop blog editors available like Windows Live Writer (WLW), Ecto, w.bloggar and Qumana. Being a Windows lover, I use Microsoft’s Windows Live Writer. Below are the reasons why I like it.
Three Types of Blog Writing Styles For Getting You Started
Everyone who runs a successful blog seems to have advice about how to write your blog posts. More
often than not, the advice of one blogger will directly counteract the advice of another.
How do you know who is right?
The bottom line is this: whatever writing style works for your blog is the right style for you. It’s the ultimate test of practicality. If it works, do it some more. If it doesn’t work, stop doing it.
How do you find your writing style, though?
How will you know which one is working for you? I suggest that you try out a variety of different writing styles on your blog, and see how your readers respond and what kinds of backlinks each generates.
Here are three types of blog writing styles to get you started:
Personal Writing: This is the kind of blog writing where you talk directly to your reader in a conversational style. You use lots of personal anecdotes. You use informal language at times. You write as if you were writing a letter to your best friend.
The upside to a personal writing style is that you’re likely to create quite a loyal community of readers. The downside is that it’s awfully hard to outsource your blog writing down the road when you want to let your blog run on autopilot for a while.
