Freelance Blog Writer

“When it comes to writing a love letter, remember: It’s not a card.  It’s a letter,” cautions Tom Chiarella in a wonderfully sentimental Readers Digest piece.

Sometimes, in corporate blogging training sessions, I find myself issuing a similar caution: " When it comes to blog content writing, remember: It’s not an ad.  It’s a blog.”

As a professional ghostwriter of blogs for business, I’m keenly aware of the fact that when people go online to search for information and click on different blogs or websites, they don’t want to “be sold.” Sure, readers know the providers of the information are out to do business, and that the business owners and professional practitioners sponsoring the blog would like to convert them into clients or customers. But, if the material is valuable and relevant, the readers will stick around, so long as the blog doesn’t come on too strong in its Calls to Action.

Blogs, I explain to newbie freelance blog writers in Indianapolis, are more like advertorials than advertisements.

And, while blogs aren’t love letters, either, a lot of what Tom Chiarella had to say, I found, could be applied to writing for business and can be used by anyone who provides business blogging services.

“First, sit. Letters take time.  Writing takes a while.  Three lines can’t do the work of three paragraphs.” Crafting your message when blogging for business takes time and discipline. A website cannot tell your story completely, nor can it engage your potential and current customers with fresh content in real time. Blogging is more effective than any other medium at communicating your story in a timely manner, spread over time.

“Be loyal to the past you share. Use detail to show what you remember and that you remember.” Blog content writing reveals your story.  Why this business or profession?  How did you get started?  What connects you and your readers?

Remember, it’s not an ad.  It’s not a website page. It’s not a long article.  It’s a blog.

 Never one to “nap” when it comes to corporate blogging training, I’m on the alert for ways to keep blog content writers awake and active. Three visits to websites in the blogosphere’s “bedroom community” sparked some great ideas business owners and professional practitioners can use to keep their SEO marketing blogs energized over long periods of time.

Furniture Today blog
“Bedding is an impulse item,” asserts Jim Green of furnituretoday.com. “When you want one…well…you want one… When the consumer gets the impulse to buy a new mattress, he/she will commonly act upon it quickly.” 

(Here’s the part that relates to blog content writing:) “The best merchants put the message out there on a consistent basis to capture the customer’s attention whenever it arises.”    That’s precisely true in blogging for business. To capture online searchers’ attention “whenever it arises”, it’s crucial for you to maintain frequency and consistency in posting blog content.

American Freight blog
“American Freight Furniture and Mattress is excited to announce that the Lakeland, Florida location has moved to a larger space and expanded its inventory.”  One excellent reason for posting  business blog content is to make announcements of news about the business or practice.

Clarifying ways in which you differ from your competitors is another: “American Freight is a warehouse-style discount furniture story open to the public that specializes in furniture obtain through dealer cancellations, factory closeouts, retain chain buyouts, and wholesale liquidations.” American Freight goes on to explain why that’s good for the customer.  As I often explain to business owners, in writing blog content in Indianapolis, always assume readers are asking themselves, “So what?”

Bedroom Furniture Portland blog
Like American Freight, Bedroom Furniture Portland is making use of their corporate blog to make an announcement: “We finally got our store hours up at the store!  Our hours for those who want to stop by and visit are by appointment Tuesday, Wednesday – Friday 10-5, Saturday 12-5, Sunday 12-5, closed Mondays.”

In another post, the bedroomfurnitureportland blog features a testimonial. “With just a few emails and phone calls, Susan was able to answer all my questions…In a couple of weeks after placing my order, the furniture came and I was completely satisfied with the quality and detail of the items.”   Customer success stories and testimonials like this one boost the credibility of your business with new prospects.  At the same time, I explain to Say It for You freelance blog writers who create content for clients, the process of providing a  testimonial reinforces the relationship that client already has with the business or practice.

You may not be selling mattresses, but, whatever the products or services you provide, always imagine that when online searchers want one…well…they want one. 

Will your business blog content be there to tell them you’re there, ready to satisfy their wants?

Social media “should be part of every company’s outreach, because it has great potential for brand-building…”, asserts Linda Mansfield of Restart Communications, who recently served with me on an Indiana Motorsports Association panel to discuss marketing on the Web.

The static problem, explains Mansfield, comes from the fact that “all of the different social media avenues are vying for the same thing: people’s time and attention”. Of course, as we blog content writers in Indianapolis know all too well, “traditional” marketing message are part of the competition for consumers’ eyeballs and eardrums along with new media.

In corporate blogging training sessions, I emphasize that “winning search” through business blog writing is simply not enough.  As Mansfield points out, you have to “make sure that the people who are the ‘face’ of your company are approachable, likeable, knowledgeable, and available.”

Lucky for us freelance blog writers, blogging for business is the perfect vehicle with which to “face the nation”, our very own group of online readers and clients who share our interests.  While there’s more than enough information out there on every imaginable topic, including our own, blog content writing provides a unique and ongoing opportunity to talk about what we have, what we know, and what we do. Most important, we get to share who we are and why we’re so passionate about our work.

Business blogs – they’re where we get to be approachable, likeable, knowledgeable, and available!

Some of the puzzles I love to solve are “quotefalls”. After you finish filling letters into the boxes, you uncover a wise saying. I knew the writer of this one must have been referring to corporate blog writing along with babies:

“A baby is a small creature who soon ceases to be an armful
and grows into quite a handful.”

When it comes to corporate blogging for business, says Rick Short, Indium Corporation’s Director of Marketing, perseverance is the big thing: “If you won’t be able to stick with it once the blogging becomes routine, after you’ve battled with writer’s block, after numerous distractions beckon, then find a new hobby!”

Like childcare, it seems, “content is never done.  It is a process that needs continuous attention,” as Erin Short, Coordinator for Tall Ships America points out. Sad statistics prove Short’s point: 90% of all bloggers for business neglect or abandon their blogs.

That’s why, in corporate blogging training sessions, one of the main lessons I need to convey
to would-be blog content writers is that the real challenge in blogging is sustainability, even more than the content creation part of SEO marketing blogs.

I think Gina speaks for all freelance blog writers along with all business owners when she says, “It is challenging to stay on top of my thoughts and put together relevant blog posts when my daily job often takes up so much of my time, both in the office and out.”

A good blog will drive up your search engine rankings and give you credibility... It all sounds great, except for one thing — you have to write. ... observes fellow blogger Jenni Buchanan.

As that small corporate blog creature ceases to be an armful and grows into something much bigger, that’s when Indiana blog content writers can help handle the handful!
 

A common refrain they hear from their Australian dentist advisees, Dental Web Strategies admits - It’s really hard to find enough time to blog on a regular basis.

At Say It For You, we know. Business blog writing is hard work.  It seems everyone acknowledges the important role SEO marketing blogs play, but in the real world, 80% of business blogs end up neglected or even totally abandoned. 

Actually, most business owners can think of quite a number of things they want to tell the world about their products, their professional services, and their customer service efforts.  Somehow, in the execution stage, though, inspiration appears to run dry;  the need for business blogging assistance becomes all too apparent.

Dental Web’s suggestion is one that business owner bloggers and professionals blogging to promote their practices need to hear: Answer a common question.   This is so easy, says Dental Web, “your dental assistant could do it in her sleep”. The question might be one dental patients really ask on a regular basis, they add, or “something you find yourself explaining anyway”.

Common explanations make for easy-to-access content, Dental Web emphasizes to its dentist members. Since dental assistants hear the doctors using that content all the time with patients, they can repeat it verbatim.

A related suggestion for “solving the content crisis” comes from Compendium Blogware CEO Chris Baggott.  Baggott, however, suggests “mining” emails sent to customers and newsletter material as fodder for blog content writing. Email, he observes, tends to live in a different “silo” from blogs, so that much wonderful content created by company employees goes forever unindexed by search engines.

Over my years as a professional ghost blogger, I’ve found that business owners and professionals have many stories to tell.  They want to – and need to – share the benefits of their products and services, the history of their business and their own journey, news of importance to customers, how-to information, and their own perspective on trends in their field. Lack of running out of content ideas may be their biggest fear, but it’s actually lack of time that sabotages so many business blogging efforts. That’s precisely the point at which freelance content writers can come to the rescue of all that wonderful content “hiding” in emails, newsletters – and owners’ and dental assistants’ minds! 
 

It’s gotten to be a habit of mine - I read signs. We Indianapolis blog content writers can learn a lot from signs, I’m convinced - from how to go about engaging people’s interest, to how to fairly represent a business owner’s or professional’s mission.

One day, driving south on Meridian, I noticed a sign out in front of the Indiana Blood Center. Its message was short and sweet:

                        ”Craving cookies?  Come on in!”

Well, I’ll tell you, I’m a professional ghost blogger, and I offer business blogging training, and… for the rest of that day, I just couldn’t get the message from that sign out of my mind.

First off, the way SEO marketing blogs work was perfectly captured in the two very short sentences on the Indiana Blood Bank sign:

Through the search engine optimization process, potential customers search online for a product or service they’re interested in. Because you have a “sign” outside (the keyword phrases you’ve used in your frequently posted blog content), the search engine has “delivered” those potential buyers to your “digital doorstep”.

They’ve got the “craving”; you’ve got the “cookies”.

 You invite those customers to “come on in” by clicking on the link to your blog post.

Another good thing about that sign is the “bonus”, meaning the cookies. Jimmy Brown writes in incomeondemand.org that offering a bonus that’s both desirable to customers and easy to deliver gets prospects excited and increases the likelihood they’ll take action by buying your product or service. The Indiana Blood Bank is doing exactly that – using an incentive to get extra “sales” (blood donations).

But, arresting as the message was, and, as much as I like cookies, there’s something I didn’t at all like about the “deal”. You see, the Indiana Blood Center sign was doing something that I caution freelance blog writers to avoid – pulling a “bait and switch”.

Remember, the first thing online readers will see on your blog is its title, and largely based on that title, those searchers will decide whether to “come on in” and read your blog content. The title carries an implied promise that “what you see is what you’ll get”. In other words, in corporate blogging for business, the post needs to deliver on the promise in its title. Not that donating blood isn’t a noble cause, but no fair inviting me in on the basis of my craving for cookies, leaving out that I will first need to have my blood drawn!

If ever the Indiana Blood Center asks for Say It For You’s business blogging assistance, I plan to suggest the sign be changed to read, “Raise your sleeve if you crave cookies!”

Third on the list of three things you’ve got 118 seconds to accomplish in an elevator speech is  explaining the priorities you will deliver on, says Jeffrey Hayzlett, writing in Success Magazine.

Always on the alert for ways to convey marketing messages through corporate blog content writing, I couldn’t help recalling Hayzlett’s advice the other day.  A sign posted in (of all places) the ladies’ room in Panera Bread exemplified just such an 8-second mission/priority statement:

“Serve classic French bread and you’ll have many good friends.”

Actually, the other two Hayzlett elevator speech requisites apply to blogging for business as well:

Grab the attention of your would-be customer.
Freelance blog writers need to keep that Hayzlett motto firmly in mind.  “Aim for speed and immediate relevance,” Hayzlett cautions.  Of course SEO marketing blogs are all about relevance, because search engines will “introduce” you to potential customers based in large part on the relevance, along with the recency and frequency, of your blog content.

Describe what your business offers.
“Good, successful copy,” says fellow blogger Michel Fortin, tells the reader ‘why’ right up front.”
I teach Indianapolis blog writers to address five “why’s” in that 110 seconds left in the “elevator speech”: why you (the reader), why me (the blogger), why this (the offer), why now (the urgency), and why this price (the value).

Need business blogging assistance? Keep serving up that sort of classic blog content – you’ll have many good readers!

Zipping points, according to witty public radio host Michael Feldman, are over-used phrases he believes should be kept inside our heads and never allowed to escape our lips – or pens!

Feldman’s warning certainly applies to business blog content writing.  Sure, in Say It For You corporate blogging training sessions, I urge freelance blog content writers to use a less formal and more conversational tone.  But, pu-leeze, I’ll now add, make the Feldman “no-no” list your own, avoiding once-popular expressions such as “going forward’, “operationalizing”, and “low-hanging fruit”.

(Readers, you're invited to comment by sharing your own 'no-no" list of trite expressions!)

Lists have always been basics in SEO marketing bloggers’ tool kit, but they’ve been lists of keyword phrases and of categories. Now, having laughed my way through Feldman’s bathroom reader “What D’Ya Know?”, I plan to refer to two lists in my work as a professional ghost blogger: 

1. Keyword Phrases
2. Zipping Points

What that means is that never again, in my writing for business owners or professional practitioners, will I refer to “ramping up”, “outsourcing”, “getting your game on”, or “knowledge acquisition”, much less “manage expectations”, or “prioritize”.  No longer will I describe any Say It For You client’s product or service as a “game-changer”.

Mr. Feldman, I can tell you your list is going to be of great business blogging help. My professional ghost blogger mouth and pen (keyboard?) are “zipped up”, you will be happy to know!

“Viable, changing content becomes the engine that powers your website,” cautions friend and fellow blogger Phil Steele. A professional blog content writer like myself, Steele urges business owners who lose enthusiasm at any point to recruit someone “who can keep things afloat for you.”

One very useful pointer in the Steele blog post “A Ferrari Without an Engine” concerns objectivity.  “Too many business blogs serve as extended advertisements,” he warns, suggesting business blog writing would be better aimed at taking a bird’s-eye view of one’s industry, and only then relating back to one’s own business.

I find that advice particularly appropriate for my Say It For You clients who are professional practitioners.  Offering an industry bird’s-eye view is a good idea in all blogging for business, of course, but it’s especially important for doctors, accountants, lawyers, life coaches, and others offering personal services to use blog content writing to make three things very clear:

• their specialty or niche within their field
• their special “philosophy” about their area of practice
• their unique approach to providing client services

In marketing lingo, “dripping” means sending out a series of small messages, usually through email, to customers or prospects over time. Radio advertising, in which the idea is to hit as many people as possible, as many times as possible, is a form of drip marketing, because most listeners need to hear something several times before they act.  Freelance blog writers can help business owners and professional practitioners employ a similar technique through their inbound marketing campaigns in the form of blogging.

The industry overview Steele talks about, you know, taking a bird’s eye view of one’s professional field or industry, then relating back to one’s own business? That can be one tall order to fill on a single web page - or ten web pages, for that matter. Corporate blog writing is a much better tool for the job.

Viable, changing content is what’s needed to convey objectivity.  And, remember, objectivity is an object in blogging for business!

When things aren’t going right in business, the natural tendency is to point fingers away from oneself – whatever’s wrong, it’s the fault of that guy or gal over there, that other department, or that other manager.” says Bill Jeffries, President & CEO of Executive Strategies International.

That’s why, in working with employees to develop high-performing teams, Jeffries insists the “senders”, (aka the blamers) come along to the sessions with their “send-ees”. Similarly, in the Israeli Defense Forces, an officer is always expected to lead from the front. The famous cry of the officer is "aharai!" (follow me).

Does all this have anything to do with providing business blogging assistance? I really think so. It doesn’t matter, in my book, whether business owners or professional practitioners are doing their own blog posting or hiring professional ghost bloggers like me to help. The blog’s message might be well-thought out, or it might even be unintentional. Either way, wherever there’s a blog, that blog is conveying the values and beliefs of the owners.  You might say blog content writing is one way of inviting online readers to “come on in” and become part of the process of bringing those values to life.

The business owner offering advice through blogging for business is, in a way, the sender. (He or she’s giving advice, issuing Calls to Action, and “driving” traffic to the website, basically assuming a leadership role.  The online reader searching for information, products, and services is the send-ee in the typical corporate blog writing scenario.

Thing is, the cry of the blogger had better be “aharai!” (the cry of leading from the front), not the cry of either salesperson or movie director. In a blog offering information about health products or services, it needs to be obvious the content writer is a believer in and user of those very products and services. What reader can be engaged in advice about stock trading when the advisor has all her money in CD’s? In corporate blogging training sessions, I stress sincerity and passion over facts and figures when it comes to SEO marketing blogs.

Freelance blog writers in Indianapolis – how many ways can you say “Follow me!”?

Blog content writers can take a tip from friend and fellow blogger Susan Young of Aimfire Marketing. When we’re delivering information to online visitors through blog content writing, we should pay attention to three of the cautions Young issues about sending press releases.
 

• Include the most important information up front, (so the reporter/producer knows the overview of the story before going into the details).

Remember, the reason online searcher find your SEO marketing blog site in the first place is that what you provide matched up with whatever need or want those searchers typed into the search bar! Those readers need confirmation that they’ve come to exactly the right place to fulfill their needs and wishes – and they need to know that right off the bat!
 

• Stick to the main idea; don’t include too much information in your release or pitch.

When it comes to business blog writing, I explain to business owners for whom I'm providing blog writing services, minimalism means focus.  Presenting, then illustrating, a single concept, leaving the rest for another day, is the very essence of effective blog post creation.
 

• Research your targeted publications to ensure they’re a good fit for your story.

To be an effective marketing tool for your business, your blog must to be the result of a well-planned strategy aimed at a specific segment of the market.  Never try to appeal to  everybody – talk to the ones most likely to be reading what you have to say.

Breaking media etiquette rules may get your pitch deleted or ignored, Young points out.  As all good freelance blog content writers know, failing to engage online visitors upfront, including too many ideas in one blog post, and not knowing your audience’s needs will get you “bounced” in a big way!

Years ago, at a National Speakers Association meeting, I remember being taught to create a “one-sentence speech”. 

The idea was that anyone who’d been in the audience should come away being able to summarize in one line what I’d said; otherwise, my speech would not have been well-constructed.  Today, as a professional ghost blogger and corporate blogging trainer in Indianapolis, I apply that same “one-sentence” rule to business blog writing.

A second step, useful in both speech preparation and blogging for business, is to apply the Rule of Three.  I first heard of the Rule of Three at Toastmasters, but came across it again today in a SpeakingResource blog post. With each blog post focused on one main idea, freelance blog writers would use three points to illustrate and to expand on that idea.

Daniel Janssen of Speaking Resources suggests one possible arrangement:
 
1. An anecdote
2. Some statistics or facts
3. A personal experience

Blog content writers for a professional practice, for example, might describe three benefits readers could derive by availing themselves of that practitioner’s services.

Or in blogging for a business that sells three different versions of a given product, each of the three paragraphs might describe which situation would be best matched with each version of the product, (A company that sells a hair product with different formulas for curly hair, frizzy, or fine hair, for example, might devote a paragraph to each type).

The same concept holds true for Sapeurs in the Congo, who “wear designer clothes and serve as ambassadors for moral conduct, proper etiquette and peace” and who have very strict fashion rules, including a dictate that the perfect ensemble may contain no more than three colors.
 

From fashion to speechifying to corporate blogging – stick to the One-Sentence Speech and the Rule of Three!

In real life, chances for real “do-overs” tend to be few and far between.  Hopefully, we learn enough from our most terrible mistakes to avoid repeating them – at least not repeating them in exactly the same way.

A recent issue of Mental Floss (a never-failing idea source for me as a professional ghost blogger) related the story of one of the biggest corporate bloopers of all time – VISA.

Before 1958, credit cards had to be paid in full each month.  As Bank of America prepared to launch the first-ever revolving-line credit cards, the company asked each of its Los Angeles bank branch managers to prepare a list of customers who should definitely NOT be issued revolving lines of credit.

Uh-oh…the BankAmericards were issued only to that very group of “no-no” customers! The result – in the first few months of the program, there was a 22% delinquency rate on the new cards, and BofA lost a whopping $20 million in its first year.  Meanwhile, a PR fiasco ensued, with clergy and the press criticizing the company for fostering an “immoral” credit-based economy.

As readers of this Say It For You blog already know, the story of revolving-credit cards continues with a spectacular turnaround, with Bank of America straightening out the problems and changing the name of the card to VISA.

So, what’s my point in calling attention to this business tale gone bad, then great, in discussing SEO marketing blogs? One very important function corporate blog posts can serve is damage control.

As a reader, I enjoyed learning the BofA snafu story because that failure has turned into such a success.  I teach freelance blog writers in Indianapolis to include stories of their clients’ past mistakes and failures. Such stories have a humanizing effect, engaging readers and creating feelings of empathy and admiration for the business owners or professional practitioners who overcame not only adversity, but the effects of their own mistakes!

What’s more, business blogging help can turn out to help with customer relations.  When customers’ complaints and concerns are recognized and dealt with “in front of other people” (in blog posts), it gives the “apology” or the “remediation measure” more weight. In fact, in corporate blogging training sessions, I remind Indianapolis blog writers to “hunt” for stories of struggle and mistakes made in the early years of a business or practice!

Remember the old alchemists who turned junk metal into gold?  When it comes to blogging for business, mistakes and struggles can be “golden” content for blog posts!

“Not blogging?  You’re in the minority,” asserts Lisa Barone in smallbiztrends.com, with 65% of small business survey respondents in HubSpot’s annual “State of Inbound Marketing” study saying they are using corporate blog writing.

Well, at Say It For You, we are most certainly blogging! The fact that the very post you’re reading is #600 in the series brings to mind the S&P 600 stock index.  The S&P 600 covers only an approximate 3% of total U.S. stocks.  Powerful despite that small size? You bet.  As of February 24, the index was up 10.77% for 2012!

Small but powerful is, as a matter of fact, a perfect description for the tactic of using business blog writing to accomplish three goals all business owners have: building awareness, credibility, and trust.  As a corporate blogging trainer in Indianapolis, I call attention to business content writing in blogs as a natural centerpiece for most small business’ social media marketing.

What’s keeping the other 35% of small businesses from using blogs as a business-building tool?  The two biggest fears, I’ve found, are:

• “Giving away” information and know-how that might prompt potential users to become do-it-yourselfers instead.  In reality, informational blogs have the opposite effect, demonstrating to prospects how knowledgeable the business owner or professional practitioner is!
   
• Running out of content ideas. At #600, as you can see, this small business is still going strong; creative content generation is what I teach!  Collaborating with a freelance blog writer can be the answer to owners’ lack of time to devote to creative writing.

Only those who put money into the S&P 600 stocks saw their investment grow by that amazing 11% in two months.  Likewise, only those business owners and professional practitioners who put frequent, recent, and relevant content into the blogsphere on a consistent basis will be able to realize all the benefits blogging for business can bring.

“If they’re in your session, they’ve already drunk the Kool-Aid,” explained well-known humor speaker and coach Bill Stainton at our most recent National Speakers Association of Indiana meeting.  Stainton was offering a tip to conference “breakout session” speakers, but he might well have been coaching content writers in Indianapolis.

Conference attendees who choose to attend sessions titled “Better Employee Relations”, “Applying the New Federal Regs on Manufacturing”, or “Orange Growing in Your Own Back Yard”, for example, already have an interest in one of those topics. The point Stainton was emphasizing to us speakers is that in such a situation, long introductory remarks are superfluous;  the session leader needs to get to the heart of the matter straight away.

As a professional ghost blogger for business owners and professional practitioners, I realized that breakout sessions at a conference are an almost exact parallel with corporate blogs. If readers have arrived at your business blog, it’s because they already have an interest in your topic – they’ve already “drunk the Kool-Aid”, and are ready to receive the information, the services, and the products you have to offer. It’s now up to you to assure those visitors, through the words and pictures in your business blog content, that they’ve come to precisely the right place to get what they’re after.

In any talk, not only a breakout session but even a keynote address, Stainton explained, the first five minutes must be indicative of what the audience can expect. What will be the format and presentation style (humorous/ serious, questions welcomed/questions held to the end?) and “stance” (problem-solving/ informational/motivational?). The audience will go along with any number of different approaches, but they want to know “the deal”, meaning what they should expect.

When I’m offering corporate blogging training sessions to business owners and their employees, or talking to freelance blog writers, I’m telling them the same thing.  It’s just that a couple of seconds, not five minutes, describes the “window” of time blog content writers have to “get indicative” and capture readers’ attention.

Yes, online readers who arrive at your business blog may have already tasted the Kool-Aid and apparently are interested in more of it.  Your task is to keep them engaged with valuable, personal, and relevant information, beginning with the “downbeat”,(which is my term for the first sentence of each post).

Yes, those visitors are drinking Kool-Aid, and the only question remaining is – will they be drinking your brand?

Realtors quoted in the Indianapolis Star and New York Times reporter Matt Richtel each offer advice to consumers that I think all Indianapolis blog content writers should heed:

“Curb appeal,” report the realtors, “is critical to attracting the public.  If prospective buyers don’t love it from the curb, they won’t even schedule an appointment.”

In blogging for business, curb appeal starts with the title of your blog. Even if the search engines have delivered readers to your link (on page 1 of Google, for instance) the title must be appealing to readers, and, ideally, short enough to be shared on social media sites. In fact, having engaging titles in SEO marketing blogs is the equivalent of applying fresh paint and new handles to the front doors of a house you want to sell.

The New York Times article, on the other hand, is reporting on cars.  The increasingly complicated “infotainment” systems on the dashboards in cars distract drivers and cause accidents, federal traffic agencies are beginning to realize. .

For business owners, distractions are plentiful, and many a blog, begun with the best of intentions, ends up neglected or with the effort totally abandoned. With SEO marketing blogging on the rise, more and more business owners and professional practitioners are running out of time and hiring freelance blog content writers to take up the slack.

Those providing business blogging services, on the other hand, need to avoid distractions on the blog page itself.  Anything that takes readers’ attention “off the road”, away from the message and the Call to Action is distracting.  Overdoing the visuals with complex charts, graphs, and diagrams, even too much Flash technology on a blog page can divert attention away from the core message of the blog.

Focused blog content writing for any business or practice adds curb appeal and avoids distractions.  Remember, business owners want online visitors coming past the “curb” and into their website.  We writers want those readers keeping their eyes on the road to all the valuable information, products, and services business owners and practitioners are eager to provide!

’

“All bloggers would like to get more interaction and participation from their readers and visitors,” says vandelaydesign.com.  (As a blog content writer and corporate blogger trainer in Indianapolis, I found nothing new in that observation.)

Imagine my delight, though, to learn that, aside from the obvious conclusion that engaging readers through our business blog writing helps increase the response to our Calls to Action, we freelance blog writers may be helping protect against dementia in seniors!

Getting social, according to a 15-year study of older people in Sweden, may prevent dementia by providing emotional and mental stimulation. Subjects in a University of Michigan study did better on tests of short-term memory after just ten minutes of conversation with another person.

What are some of the ways Indianapolis blog writers can encourage more interactivity through our corporate blog writing?

Vandelaydesign.com advises displaying the most recent comments in the sidebar of your blog. In corporate blogging training sessions, I go one better by advising blog content writers to periodically compose an entire blog post around a question posed by a reader.

Two other Vandelaydesign suggestions include putting a link on your blogsite that says “email to a friend” and adding a “share on Facebook” link.

Two tactics I often incorporate into my Say It For You blog writing services include using “tests” and surveys to engage readers and help them feel they are part of a conversation with my business owner clients.

Engaging in conversation can provide mental stimulation for people of all ages. It’s nice to know, though, that memorable business blogs can help improve customers’ memory!

“When journalists write pieces, they write so a person can look at the headline and say ‘Wow, that looks interesting.’ When somebody reads a retirement document, you want them to say, ‘Wow, I learned something today.’” 

Employee benefit advisers say their biggest challenge is overcoming the apathy that many employees have toward saving for their retirement, and that the secret is in the way the message gets presented.

In “Using Blogs to Educate your Stakeholders,” Kat Liendgens says that same thing applies to corporate blogging for business. When you make sure, in your business blog, to educate your users not only about new features and products, but about the benefits of those products and features, she explains, you’re ensuring continued buy-in.

“Wow-that-looks-interesting” headlines that stoke curiosity constitute tactic #1 in freelance blog writers’ anti-apathy strategy.  “Gappers”, according to advertising maven Michel Fortin, are headlines that make readers want to close the gap between the problem named in the headline and the solution. (I’ve used a variety of that tactic in this Say It For You post by posing a question.)

When it comes to creating “wow-I-learned-something-today” content, as a corporate blogging trainer, my mantra is a simple one:

“The more you know about, the more you can blog about.”

 In other words, in order for us freelance blog content writers in Indianapolis to deliver high-quality website materials, articles, and corporate blogs, we simply must keep educating ourselves, reading everything from newspapers and magazines to billboards and advertisements, and listening to everything from TV and radio shows to casual conversations.

Blogging for business, I repeat, is a matter of enriching ourselves so that our content can be richer.  Anyone providing business blogging services should be able to state “Wow! I learned something today!” - every day!
 

 “Boosting voter turnout could be as simple as making individuals see voting as part of who they are rather than as something they do,” writes Janelle Weaver in Scientific American Mind.

 

As a corporate blog marketing trainer, I was very interested to learn that this statement came as a result of a 2008 survey. Of registered voters asked the question, “How important is it to you to vote?" there was an actual 82% turnout at the polls.  Of those asked “How important is it to you to be a voter?” by contrast, there was a 96% turnout.

We freelance blog writers in Indianapolis need to pay attention to the conclusion published by Christopher Bryan of Stanford University about that 96%:

“We offered people the prospect of claiming a desirable
 identity,” he said. “That’s a very powerful thing.”

In offering business blogging assistance to business owners over the past five years, I’ve had many express hesitancy about being too “sales-y” or about appearing too self-serving in their SEO marketing blog. At the same time, of course, business owners require a return on their marketing investment dollars..

The sweet spot may lie in the creation of just the kind of “desirable identity” for customers to which researcher Bryan was alluding. First, I tell business owners, the blog content writing effort should aim to offer readers a feeling of what it would be like to have you working alongside them to help with their challenges and issues.

Even more important, though, is leading potential customers and clients to view themselves as part of the bigger picture your company is working to create – better health, more convenience, greater safety, financial security, or increased energy savings.

Writing for business should help you, as my friend and fellow marketing blogwriter Tony Fannin likes to say, “BE somebody to your clients!”
 

“People are more important than ever before,” remarks fellow blog content writer Michel Fortin. That’s because, he explains, “The internet is cold and impersonal.”

What Fortin calls “taking the human element out of the sales process” is actually the polar opposite of what freelance blog writers aim to accomplish, and getting personal is a huge element in the success of any SEO marketing blog.

Practical eCommerce’s Paul Chaney agrees. “Blogging,” he says, “consists of one person – or one company – communicating directly with consumers in an unfettered, unfiltered manner….blogs are a more personal form of communication.”

As a corporate blogging trainer, I liked the specific blog Chaney pointed to as a great example of getting personal: “How Differences With Your Spouse Can Make Your Marriage Stronger”, written by publishing company CEO Thomas Hyatt. “It’s that type of transparent self-disclosure that has made Hyatt both a popular blogger and a respected leader," Chaney observes.

If people are to be more important than ever before, that means Indianapolis blog content writers must focus on personal anecdotes and on the personal values of the business owners and the people delivering professional services.
.
“Be intimate.  Be ego-driven.  Above all, be emotional.” Is Fortin’s advice to online marketers. SEO marketing blogs may be writing about business, but it had better be about people as well, and that includes both online searchers and online blog content writers, both buyers and sellers. The message: You’ve gotta get down and personal!