Write Speak Sell » Writing

Wow. Website Grader Gives My Blog a Top Ranking

Jeannette Paladino — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 15:00:06 +0000

Website Grader is a HubSpot program and gives your site an overall grade. Today I received an email from the company that said: “Your Website Grade improved by 4 points, from 93 to 97.” That means writespeaksell.com scores higher than 97% of the 2,646,608 websites that have been ranked so far.

Now I’m going for a grade of 100! Don’t know if I’ll make it, but I’m ready to try, with the help of my blogging buddies and my loyal readers.

Here is what the program analyzes:

Content: blogs, Google indexed pages and readability level
Optimization: metadata, headings, images, and interior page analysis
Promotion: how you rank on social media sites

As I read through the report, I also found that my Alexa Traffic Rank is in the top 6.38% of all websites. Alexa is an online service that measures traffic for millions of sites on the Internet in a similar way to Nielsen television show ratings.

Why is This Important to My Readers?

I’m feeling pretty good about my rankings. But here’s what’s important: apparently my content is helping my readers to solve a problem, learn something new or share my perspective on a current event. That’s my real goal: to provide value to people who take some of their precious time to visit my blog.

I’m blogging and writing for a living – having rebranded myself early last year as a Business Writer. I had held senior marketing communications positions with major corporations and agencies. But I felt it was time to re-invent myself. The world of social media was opening up and I wanted to be part of the action. I walked through the door into the blogosphere and I haven’t looked back.

I’m hooked. I love discovering new subjects to explore and I am very happy, dear readers, that you are visiting with me and enjoying what I have to say.

Thank you.

Analogies and Metaphors Paint Images for Readers

Jeannette Paladino — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 15:00:26 +0000

[tweetmeme]“Buzz is already taking a chunk out of Twitter, Facebook, and other social media services. That’ll only grow as brands and advertisers better understand what they can do with Buzz and its millions of users. Buzz is equivalent to throwing a giant super magnet into a room filled with nails.”

I don’t know about Buzz challenging its rivals, but this paragraph is a lively example of how analogies and metaphors enrich our writing and paint images for our readers. Buzz is like a giant super magnet attracting new users – a powerful visual image.

Writers often confuse analogies and metaphors. In a story on the CBS News Opinion page “Political Analogies Are Like Toothbrushes,” the headline is an analogy comparing two dissimilar things to clarify a point or create an image. Something is like something else. Then throughout the article the writer mistakes analogies for metaphors in which one object becomes another object, i.e., “Obama is Abraham Lincoln in 1860.”

This is probably nitpicking, because my point is that analogies and metaphors can enhance our writing.

I decided to re-read a few of my past blog posts to see how I might improve them with an analogy or metaphor. Here’s one that I think could be better (italicized words added): “This is a golden opportunity for companies to find out what customers are looking for and to respond to their needs directly one-to-one, like a good mother responds to her child’s need for a hug.”

Here’s another blog about the importance of facial cues in business: “We’ve all had the experience of talking to someone who gives us absolutely no facial or verbal cues. It’s like trying to get a response from General Lee’s image on Stone Mountain.”

A writer is a like a painter, using imagery to entertain, provoke and educate with the fervent hope of not being a bore. Your thoughts, good readers?

Get the Most out of Guest Blogs with Some Practical Guidelines

Jeannette Paladino — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 15:00:05 +0000

[tweetmeme]I don’t know about you, but I’m writing more guest blogs and inviting more people to write guest blogs for my site. It has happened sort of organically, but I’m also aware that it helps SEO if you link to another blog or they link to you.

So, if I’m going to continue to ask for guest posts, I need to create some guidelines for writers so that there are no misunderstandings or hurt feelings. Just as important, I need to be more strategic in asking for columns that align with my brand and are providing useful information for my readers. In turn, I need to be sure that I’m not saving the best for my own blog, but offering content-rich posts for other blogs.

Here are several sets of guidelines that I liked after a search of the web. I’ll pick out a few good tips from each to share in this post and you can go in and read them if you like.

Danny Brown. He actually set down some rules for when you write guest posts but they are just as relevant for your guest writers. Under “Make it Great” he asks these very relevant questions:

Would I be happy posting this on my own blog?
Is this the best this post can possibly be on this topic?
Am I being relevant to the audience of the blog I’m posting on?

The Bloggers Bulletin. This is a LinkedIn subgroup of The Blog Zone. I actually write guest posts for the group and these tips come from a post by Karen Fleeting.

Check the article writer’s credentials. Can they write?
Set the bar. The blog must be up to your quality standards.
Edit. Correct grammar and spell-check.
Ask for a link. You’re linking the post to their blog; ask for one in return.

Business.Gov. I was surprised, and delighted, to learn that the U.S. Small Business Administration accepts guest blogs for its Industry Word Guest Blog (this is something I will definitely check out). They have quite a few guidelines, and here are a few:

Avoid posting spam, pornography, offensive content, excessive spelling/grammatical errors or profanity.
Bloggers will offer unique advice and insight that is informational and apolitical in nature.
Bloggers agree to reply to comments. (this one is a must)

I’ll be writing up my guidelines soon. Leave a comment if you’d like me to send them to you. And I’d be interested in guest blog guidelines from my readers, too.

Blogging is Story Telling in Disguise

Brian Meeks — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 15:00:16 +0000

A Story

[tweetmeme]A few months back I was telling a story to my parents. It is one I have told many times, and my father especially enjoys it. A good friend of mine, who is nicknamed “Gretel,” was an avid community supporter and always attended the town council meetings. Lisbon, Iowa, is a small community of several thousand. He never missed a meeting. That is until one day he had a work conflict and there wasn’t any way he could change his schedule.

Brian Meeks

The next day, when walking through town, people kept congratulating him. He didn’t know what for. Nobody would tell him either. The people of Lisbon did enjoy seeing his confused look. It took him half the day, but eventually he discovered that there had been a discussion, the mayor had resigned, and by the end of the meeting, he had been elected Mayor, mostly because he wasn’t there to stop it.

My Dad always chuckles at this story and I enjoy telling it. But I had told it so many times, I wasn’t sure if all my facts were straight, or if I had made most of it up. So I called ‘Gretel’ and told him that I had been telling a story, of which he was the principal subject, but I couldn’t remember if it was true. So I told him the story, just as I had told it, and he laughed.

“Sadly, that is an accurate account. I served my one term, was done, and now know better than to miss a meeting.”

We both laughed.

Why I Love Stories

A blog post is a story in disguise

I tell this story, because it popped into my head when reading a friend’s blog. I really enjoy telling a story. I am not sure when I started to become a story teller, probably back in the mid-80’s when I got to know a group of friends who were all great story tellers, Gretel being one of the best.

Samuel L. Clemens, or as some would better know him, Mark Twain, told a great story. In fact, a 64-page handwritten manuscript of his just sold for $242,500, at auction. J.K. Rowling knows how to weave a tale. I know that when her books came out, I stood in line to get my copy and then spent the whole next day reading until I was done. (The last book took two days)

Stories have value and have been told throughout history. It is how we pass on pearls of wisdom. Stories can teach, they are able to persuade, and, if done well, they can motivate and uplift. If one names a human emotion, one can find a story which brings it out in each of us.

This is why I have found blogging to be such fun. I get to tell a story, every day, and there are no limits to what one can do, when crafting a tale. In one of my favorite blog pieces, entitled, My Days as a Ninja, not only did I travel back in time, but, when I was there, I had a Bosch circular saw. I am not above anachronisms in my writing, in fact, I thrive on them.

Earlier today I read a post which talked about blogging and how it can be difficult to think of material. I have to admit that in the 187 blog pieces (both my own and as a guest blogger), I have had a case of writer’s block. When I say “a case,” I truly mean singular. In nearly six months of writing nearly 900 words per day, I have only been stumped once, and it was more a case of being in a foul mood than being out of ideas. I ended up writing something anyway. I think it might have been a piece about how stumped I was, but I can’t remember, and I am way too lazy to go back and find it. The point is I got through it.

Cat story

And I guess that is the point of this blog post. If you blog, and who doesn’t anymore, then don’t worry about what to write about, just try to think of a story you would like to share. If you were sitting in a pub, with a glass of port and an attractive someone, what might you say to keep her engaged?

We all have stories. They are buried deep in us, waiting for that trigger which causes them to bubble to the surface. If the flirty lass in the pub mentioned sports, it would remind me of a story, if she said she liked animals, then I would tell a tale of “Harley the Cat,” if she wanted to talk about how cute she thought I was, then I would let her continue.

If you feel like you are getting stumped, then let your imagination take over. Picture yourself somewhere else and doing something you enjoy with people you feel comfortable with. Are you talking about politics? Maybe a discussion about wine has started? If you do this, I am sure the old light bulb will turn on. Whatever the topic, I bet you have a story, and then you will have your next blog piece.

***

I write a blog at Extremely Average. Mostly I write about my adventures in woodworking, but on occasion I delve into photography, social media, or just go crazy and write some fiction. Obviously I have trouble focusing. I make my living managing customer relations and social media for Preferred Vendor, in the HR and Recruiting industry. So basically, I do this all day long, every day. I love it. I am thrilled to be asked to write a guest blog piece on Jeannette’s blog. On a personal note, I like tennis, golf, woodworking, blogging, thinking about woodworking while I golf and then writing about it in my blog. I also like cheese and think that monkey and glockenspiel are two really funny words. If you play me in Scrabble, be aware that I know my ‘Q’ words which don’t require a “u.”

They Laughed When I Sat Down at the Piano But When I Started to Play!

Jeannette Paladino — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 14:00:55 +0000

[tweetmeme]This is no doubt one of the most famous advertising headlines in history, written by the direct marketing expert John Caples in 1926. The ad was to solicit correspondence course students for the U. S. School of Music. The full-page ad was dense with copy – several hundred words filling the entire page. Then, as now, the debate raged about whether people will read long copy. Or, should copy be short and crisp? Fast forward to today: should blogs and other social media copy be short or long?

John Caples famous ad

Ads starting, “They laughed when….” are still being written. A few recent examples: “They Laughed When I Went To Buy Tax Liens, But When Those Checks Started Rolling In”, “They Laughed When He Ran Away From the Basket… Until He Sank the Three Pointer!” and “They Laughed When I Said There Was a Secret to Writing Good Headlines.”

Why was the Caples ad so successful and compelling and still being imitated? For starters, it uses one of the oldest tricks in the books – it teases you in. You want to learn what happened when he started to play. Did they stop laughing? Did people listen?

It also fed the desire of most people who wished they could play the piano like Chopin or Rachmaninov. Gradually, Caples reeled them so they could learn how to play right in their own homes.

So, we still need the answer to the question: when people today are collapsing under information overload, will they read long copy? Or is it necessary to feed readers with bite-size chunks of copy? Here is my answer: it depends. I know, that sounds like fence sitting.

Whatever Works

But what do your readers want to learn about the subject? Is it complex? Does it need more explanation than short copy allows? The answer to the question is to write as long as it takes to make your case. I was pleased that Copy Blogger wrote about this and came up with pretty much the same answer – whatever works.

Here is another recent point of view from Direct Creative Blog. I liked this a lot: “You should be interested in that part of the market who are interested in your products. These are the people seeking information and who will read your copy, even very long copy.”

I was reminded of that when I was in the market for a digital camera. All of a sudden I started noticing ads for digital cameras. They were always there, but I wasn’t in the market. When I decided I needed a new digital camera I read everything I could, even long copy, or especially long copy, because I wanted as much information as I could find before I made a decision to buy.

We do need to remember this: the difference in social media copy is that it is being read on a computer, most likely a laptop and more often on a smart phone. So the key points need to be “above the fold” to capture the reader’s attention. That is the reason Twitter limited messages to 140 characters because that’s about how many fit on the screen of a cell phone.

Well, I’ve written a lot make a point: use short copy when that’s all you need to make the sale. Use long copy when that’s what you need to make the sale. End of debate.

Creative Communications Requires Out of the Box Thinking

Jeannette Paladino — Thu, 20 May 2010 20:00:20 +0000

Annie Hart

By Annie Hart

[tweetmeme]Or else what?

Or else be left behind in the dust. These days we can no longer afford to poo-poo creativity. Time is ticking and creativity is the wave of the present and the future.

Those who are still thinking in the past will be left behind in the un-creative dust.

So you do want to be on the wave of the future, don’t you? I’m sure you do.

Being creative in your communications requires thinking outside of the box. Communications is a wide field of expression – everything from print media to video, to public speaking, to billboards.

It is everywhere we go and in today’s fast paced world, we need to use our creative brains to keep up with the pace.

It can at first seem overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to, because using your creative brain is actually enjoyable and energy saving. It’s your old, stuck-in-the-rut left brain that’s getting in the way.

So who is this old brain that keeps you doing the same old same old? I affectionately call him Mr. Lizard and he loves doing the same things over and over again.

Mr. Lizard is the master of repetition, but needs to learn some creativity.

Ban your lizard brain

Why? Because he HATES change. He hates being original and he does not want to stand out in the crowd. He enjoys being one of the boring pack.

But do you?

Do you really enjoy expressing yourself like everyone else? I doubt it. You might be used to doing that but it’s probably not what you really want.

Try this test – if you’re tired or bored with what you’re putting out in your communications, then it’s a likelihood that you’re relying too much on your old lizard brain (cousin to your left brain).

Mr. Lizard doesn’t mean to but he enjoys keeping you stuck. So you’ve got to override his ideas and try something different. That’s what creativity really is – it’s the art and science of doing things differently.

Originality is creativity’s middle name.

Thinking outside the box means trying things that you haven’t tried before. And often, those that are most successful, come up with something that at first seems totally ridiculous!

What's your purple cow?

Think of Seth Godin’s purple cow. Silly right?

Silly but effective. Imagine yourself putting a big purple cow on your website, business card or brochure. You’re probably cringing right?

Well I’m not suggesting that YOU put a purple cow on anything. That was Seth’s original idea. But I am suggesting that you take risks like he does and think outside of the routine.

Here are some ideas to get you started, but feel free to improvise:

Think in color, that was part of the purple cow’s effectiveness, it catches our eye and is interesting and different.
Think “difference” – take a look at something that you’ve done and ask yourself, “What could be different about this?” One small change often makes a big difference.
If you really want to go out on an edge, and I suggest you do, then ask yourself, “What is the last thing that I’d want to do?” You can decide whether you want to do that or not, but at least you’ve gotten yourself to think way outside of your usual box.

That’s the idea. Stirring up your creativity is good for you and good for the world, because no one wants to read or engage in your boring, ordinary communications. They just don’t, so don’t kid yourself about it.

People today, especially the younger generation, like things snappy, quick and interesting and so do you if you’re honest with yourself.

Sometimes we’re afraid to make change, try something different and live outside the box. But that is old Mr. Lizard again asserting himself when he should be off taking a nap.

Today wake up Mr. Lizard and try something new. You will be glad you did.

Creativity in communications is everything. It is the wave of the future and I know you want to be on that wave.

Don’t you?

Annie Hart believes that Stories Change the World and she has brought her work to the fields of Business, Education, Healthcare, Non-Profit, Youth at Risk & Community Organizations. She can be found passionately sharing stories and tools of change on her blog and popular Radio 42 show.

No related posts.

Business Communication Through Words, Pictures and Actions

Jeannette Paladino — Mon, 17 May 2010 14:00:24 +0000

[tweetmeme]Sometimes it seems that brand new ways to communicate are being invented every day. Uh, uh. We’re mistaking new channels of communication – like the Internet, Skype, smart phones – for the actual messages we send to make ourselves understood. Despite the revolution that is the Internet, nothing has changed from how we sent messages in ancient times.

Think about it: there are only three types of messages: words, pictures and actions. Those 150,000+ IPhone apps all fall into one or a combination of words, pictures and actions.

We communicate with words.....

.....pictures

.....and actions.

It’s essential to think carefully about how we send a message so that the recipient is absolutely clear what we mean – the deadline is 5 p.m. this afternoon – and the underlying message in how it is delivered. As my mother used to say, “Let’s watch our TOV.” (Tone of voice.)

The sharp retort: “The deadline is 5 p.m. this afternoon!!” conveys much more than a simple “The deadline is 5 p.m. this afternoon.” Have I done something wrong when my manager raises his voice and then stalks out of the office? Of course, that is sending a very clear message. By the same token, we get the message when we feel a feel a friendly pat on the back. Nonverbal communication in business can convey so much more than words alone.

Why does this matter? We’ve all noticed it. Electronic communications is slowly squeezing the civility out of discourse. We dash off emails and text messages with little regard for how the recipient will receive the message. Face-to-face communication where a smile can convey more than a thousand words is missing when increasingly work is done virtually, and a laptop becomes the business traveler’s office.

I particularly worry about younger professionals who live by texting and communicating virtually on Facebook and other social networks. The emotional context is missing. Or worse, is misunderstood.

The back pat, the belly laugh, and the handshake – these convey so much more than words. Are we forgetting how to use them?

Simplifying My Brand was So Easy – for Someone Else

Jeannette Paladino — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 14:00:24 +0000

[tweetmeme]It took a perfect stranger to simplify my brand. I mean that’s what I do for a living: help individuals and companies with their brands – the words they use in telling their stories.

I was at a networking event last evening, and took the opportunity to do a little tweaking of my message as I circulated among the guests when I first walked in. I tried a few versions. Here is one of my openings: “Hi, I’m Jeannette Paladino. I’m a business writer. I help individuals and companies to sharpen their brands and shape the key messages they communicate to their target audiences.” Then I proceeded to tell the little group gathered around the bar that my focus was on writing web copy and blogs, branding and employee communications.

I'm a "word mechanic"

Oh, said one knowingly, “You’re a word mechanic.” Bong. Not wordsmith. Word mechanic. I love it. I’m the mechanic who fixes the words people use so they roar into action like the motor of a fancy new car. My tool box is filled with high-powered words. I don’t need to use them all, just the ones that create clear, compelling copy.

My new friend had turned my brand into an image that clarified for him the perceived benefit I offered. Once he understood, in his mind, what I do then he warmed up to the conversation. “So, you write blogs,” he said. He confessed that he was doing that for his own growing company and it just wasn’t a good use of his time. Maybe I could help him out? So, we exchanged business cards and he became a good prospect for my business.

It was a reminder for myself, and what I tell my clients – don’t over-complicate. Keep it simple.

Let your clients and prospects imagine the possibilities of working together.

Writing a Letter Will Amaze and Delight

Jeannette Paladino — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 23:06:45 +0000

[tweetmeme]I received evidence today that letter writing isn’t dead. I just finished tossing my junk mail, as I do every day. But in between all the magazines and discount flyers for Broadway shows, I was delighted to spy a letter from a new bridge partner containing several instruction sheets with conventions we’re working on. Now, Susanne didn’t have to send these to me. It was a favor and she could have given them to me when we play next week.

Writing a letter will amaze and delight

But her envelope stood out in my pile of mail. This got me thinking once again about how important writing a letter, preferably by hand, still is to us. We cringe under the deluge of email correspondence, deleting most of it without reading. Even a juicy subject line may not be enough to grab our attention.

But a letter?

We can touch the envelope containing the letter and shake it to try and guess at its contents. Sort of useless but we do it. We know that someone else actually held this envelope in his hand and wrote the letter inside. Would you believe that the old-fashioned letter actually has a sense of mystery about it? What will be revealed when I read it? (Envelopes we receive screaming “Save Money Now,” or “0%” Interest” printed on the envelope don’t count — more junk mail).

I’m talking about what is obviously a personal letter — even though the letter may turn out to have a business purpose. So don’t be afraid to seem out of date when you send a client or prospect a personal note. You will amaze and delight her because it obviously took some time to get the paper and envelope, sit down to compose the letter, address, stamp and mail it. How thoughtful of you to send me an article on a subject I’m deeply interested in, or to invite me for cocktails or a seminar.

Thank you note

Don’t forget the thank you note, while we’re at it, which my good friend Andrea Nierenberg wrote about in these pages a few months ago.

I’ll end with a funny question my grandson asked me recently, “When you were young, did you use a quill pen?” Yikes, I’m not that old. But, yes, I did use a pen to write letters when I was younger, before taking the lazy way out too often now and thumbing a note to someone on my new smart phone. Whew, glad that’s off my plate.

Writers as “Curators” of Communication; Is the Term Journalist Passé?

Jeannette Paladino — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:32:26 +0000

It’s enlightening to hear a respected professor at the prestigious Journalism School of Columbia University say he doesn’t know what journalism is going to look like in five years. Join the club.

Sree Sreenivasan, Dean of Student Affairs at the School, and his student, Vadim Lavursik, were panelists recently in New York City at the Mashable conference on “The Future Journalist” where Sreenivasan made that comment. It’s a bit of a misnomer to call Lavursik only a student, because he writes for Mashable and reported for other publications like the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

But what keeps swirling around in my mind is that journalists, we’ll still call them that for the time being – indeed, everyone who writes for a living – are really becoming curators of news and information. This isn’t an original idea on my part. There has been a lot written about it, including a story Lavursik wrote for Mashable in which he referred to, “journalists as curators and contextualizers.” Both speakers called on the media to become “community managers,” facilitating conversation on the web and pointing their audiences to other sources of information.

We’re accessing this information from an infinite variety of sources, with Google as our guide, and social media sites like Twitter sending us a non-stop stream of news and tidbits. What are we to believe? What’s fact and what’s, frankly, crap? We need to find out.

That’s why writers have to become more like curators in a museum. As John Thomson of the City University London, Graduate School of Journalism, wrote in an excellent post last month: “You are a curator. Like it or not, part of your role will eventually be to aggregate content (but not indiscriminately). You will need to gather, interpret and archive material from around the web using tools like Publish2, Delicious, and StumbleUpon. As Publish2 puts it: Help your readers get news from social media. More signal. Less noise.”

The Role of the Publicist Has Diminished

At the Mashable session, I got up and put in my two cents about how the relationship between journalists and suppliers of information, like large corporations and PR agencies, has fundamentally changed. Journalists don’t need publicists pitching them stories. Sure, they’ll take a press release and put it on the pile of other bits and pieces they’ve gathered online. But journalists have become more important than ever at ferreting out what’s real and what’s – what I wrote earlier. They can bypass PR people (and I love PR people, having been one most of my professional life after a brief stint as a business reporter). If a reporter wants to find someone to give her a juicy quote, say, on nuclear reactors, she can just go online and find the real expert. Now PR people need to feed social media so their companies and clients get found. The blogosphere is a beast with a voracious appetite. It devours information, but indiscriminately.

So, back to the idea of curator. As writers, it’s our duty to feed the beast, but also to whet the appetite of our readers with information we extract: taking just the tasty morsels and making sense out of them in terms that readers can chew on and understand.

8 News Media Business Trends for 2010