Ghost Blogger

I really enjoyed the article “Kitchen Clean-up” in Tucker Talks Real Estate, (the little newsletter my realtor friend Katrina Basile sends me.  November and December, I was reminded, are good times for me to give a little love to my kitchen and prep my appliances for holiday entertaining.

Coming up on four and a half years as a professional ghost blogger, I couldn’t help thinking I ought to remind attendees in corporate blogging training sessions that blogs and blog sites may need periodic ”cleansing” as well.

1.  For example, “Kitchen Clean-Up” talks about going through your refrigerator shelves and removing every item that’s past its expiration date.

One function of any SEO marketing blog is updating and correction information.  Mistaken data may have been inadvertently published on your business blog. There may have been updates in a company policy, or in one or more of the products. Or, there might have been a recent development in your industry that makes one or more of your former blog posts “incorrect”. 

I explain to new blog content writers that they can go back to former blog posts and write an update, usually in bold type.  That way, when online searchers find that “old” post, they can see that the company is keeping its readers current.

2.   Leveling the refrigerator is a second suggestion in “Kitchen Cleanup”. That means adjusting the feet on the bottom of the fridge, I learned.

“Leveling” business blog writing, particularly in SEO marketing blogs, involves checking your keyword phrase list to see if you’re overusing some terms and forgetting to include others. Referring to analytics to see which search terms are actually helping online searchers find your blog, you can adjust the degree of emphasis you’re putting on different keyword phrases over time. Make sure your content is not straying from the central themes or “leitmotifs” around which you based your blog marketing plan.

3.   Checking your user manual for each appliance to see what recommendations for care the manufacturer suggests, is the third piece of advice in “Kitchen Cleanup”.

For business owners and freelance blog content writers, the ”manual” consists of the features available in the blogging platform (Wordpress, Blogger, Tumblr,and Drupal are examples; this Say It For You blog uses Compendium Blogware).

Are you aware of all the key features and capabilities of whatever platform you’re using?  An important part of your “clean up” involves using all the tools that can make your writing for business yield the results you want.

“Now that your appliances are nice and spiffy, you can spend more time focusing on that perfect pumpkin pie,” explains “Kitchen Cleanup”.  And once, I’m hoping, Indianapolis blog writers have“cleaned up” the kitchen and “spiffiy-ed” up the platform, it will be a snap to focus on “cooking up” a perfect series of readable, engaging business blog posts!

“Congo is bigger than it looks,” Mental Floss Magazine informs readers.  “Although it looks pretty small on a Mercator map, Congo is the world’s 12th largest nation.”

As a professional ghost blogger, I must say I liked this article – a lot.  First of all, not only did it present all sorts of interesting information on the topic (the Democratic Republic of Congo), but information most readers wouldn’t be likely to know.  In similar vein, I tell blog content writers that including what I dub “startling statistics” makes the material more engaging.

“Most Americans don’t know it,” the article continues, “but they own precious slivers of Congo in their laptops, cell phones, and iPods.” (Tantulum stores electricity in digital cameras, and Blackberrys use tungsten to vibrate; Congo is the world’s leading source for each of these minerals.) A generous sprinkling of fascinating trivia keeps blog content writing fresh, I teach in corporate blogging training sessions.

“The country has only 300 miles of paved roads.” Using little-known background details in SEO marketing blogs is a great way to establish authority while capturing searchers’ interest.

But, I advise Indianapolis blog writers, be sure to include information that is actionable. For example, the Mental Floss article taught me something I plan to keep in mind when shopping for electronics:

In 2010, the U.S. government passed a law requiring American companies to disclose whether their products contain minerals from rebel-controlled mines (rife with violent crime and child labor).  Consumers, I learned, can choose not to buy products that don’t say “conflict mineral-free”.

What I liked best about the Congo feature story was one of its sub-titles: “Congo is bigger than it looks.” Corporate blogging might be described in precisely the same terms.
Business blog writing is short by definition, offering just enough to convey to the reader that he/she's come to the right place. On the other hand, what can be done is to offer different kinds of information in different blog posts. In a way, each time you post (or have your professional ghost blogger post), you're adding to the overall power of the blog.  Individual blog posts are little, but blogs – they’re a LOT bigger and more powerful than they look!

“We call them ‘utility items’,” explains Dennis Ryerson, editor of the Indianapolis Star, referring to that end of the information spectrum that is not traditional big breaking news, but stories “designed to help you navigate your community and your life.”

Come to think of it, blogging for business is designed around a similar concept – helping online searchers navigate their lives and find information they can utilize.

Ryerson’s examples of utility items in that issue of the Star (10/16/11) include:

• Telling you what to look for if you have gold jewelry to sell.
• Telling you how to capture a great fall photograph
• Learn ways to fight the flu.
• Tell you about fall festivals.
• Telling you ways to save money while shopping.
• Giving you advice about home remodeling.
• Telling you how to care for a product you’ve bought to preserve the benefits.

While corporate blog writing would, of necessity, have a narrower focus, concentrating on one business or industry, the “utility” in SEO marketing blogs comes from just the sort of practical tips Ryerson’s list includes.

Telling you what to look for. Readers who are looking for a product or a service need more than a photo and a price list; they need to know how to judge the value of what you have to offer. Does your corporate blog writing help readers ask the right questions?

Telling you how to… The people who are likely to find your blog are those who need your product, service, or expertise - they don't want to do it themselves. Using blogging for business to share advice and information serves to showcase your know-how and build the kind of trust it takes for searchers to become buyers.

Telling you about fall festivals….I’m always telling blog content writers in Indianapolis that the blog is an ideal bulletin board to preview -  and then review – special events and special sales the company is hosting.

“Big stories or small, you can learn a lot here,” promises Ryerson in the Star. Precisely the promise, I stress in corporate blogging training sessions, that freelance blog writers should strive to fulfill!

As a blog content writer, I’d been doing it for a long time, even teaching it to others in corporate blogging training sessions.  I just didn’t know the name for it.  Then I read “Business Blogging Mistakes and their Easy Fixes” in HubSpot, and learned that it’s called “content curation”.

As a freelance blog writer, I’ve always known that linking to outside sources is a good tactic for adding breadth and depth to my blog content.  Linking to a news source or magazine article, for instance, adds credibility to the ideas I’m expressing on behalf of Say It For You client companies.

And, when you link to another blog content writer’s comments about the subject you’re covering, that’s a way to reinforce your point and also shows you’re staying in touch with others in your industry.

HubSpot takes the concept even further, explaining that content curation means “selecting and aggregating information into one place that creates more value for information consumers.”

One of my best friends had to take courses for two years to become a curator in the art museum in Philadelphia. Her function is to enhance the experience of museum visitors by providing more background information about the artwork they’re viewing. She didn’t create the art, yet she’s adding value to the art experience.

That’s why the “curation” is so appropriate to describe how, in blogging for business, Indianapolis bloggers can really enhance and add value to the online consumers’ experience. While the information itself may not be original, as HubSpot points out, the aggregation of resources is very valuable to the readers. 

The wonderful thing about it all is that while curation is benefitting the readers, it’s also benefitting the people doing the blogging. That benefit takes two forms, I’ve found:

• As a corporate blogging trainer, I find that the biggest fear business owners have when it comes to maintaining a company blog is the fear of running out of ideas. Curating lets writers, every so often, use (of course with proper credit given) others’ ideas.
  
• One of the side benefits of blogging for business is what I call the “training effect”.  As you’re repeatedly communicating with readers about your business (whether on your own or using the services of a professional ghost blogger like me), the very exercise of planning the content trains you to talk effectively about your own business.

Thanks to HubSpot, I now know what to call the concept I’ve known all along: The cure for blog content writer burnout is content curation!

“…growth has been remarkable,” says Fortune Magazine, referring to Chipotle Mexican Grill., observing that profit margins in Chipotle restaurants are among the highest in the fast food industry. “That’s all the more notable since Chipotle says it spends more on food and more time preparing it,” Fortune adds.

Although I’m not a real fan of Mexican food, as a business owner myself (offering business blogging services), I found that Fortune article about Chipotle’s fascinating. While we’ve hardly achieved the status of a Chipotle’s at Say It For You, we Indianapolis blog writers do pride ourselves on spending more time preparing and devoting more care to business blog writing.

Chipotle’s high margins can be explained by other efficiencies, explains the feature article writer. “Throughput” refers to the rate of customer service, a Chipotle obsession, moving 300 customers an hour through the system. Their stated goal is to offer “Slow food fast”.

So, in what way can the Chipotle’s example be of business blogging assistance?

“Chipotle is a niche in a huge market dominated by burger joints”, points out Fortune. In corporate blogging training sessions, I stress, the first step is to define your business niche and then focus blog content writing on the needs of that niche target market.

Chipotle emphasizes efficiency in customer service, but not by rushing through the preparation and sacrificing quality. Precisely because they’ve put the needed time and care into the preparation, there are fewer customer service issues. “Blogs have informative and business-relevant content that increase traffic…” says Internet Marketing @ Harvard Extension 2011.  When online readers feel their needs are being addressed, versus sites containing purely promotional material, blog posts are able to achieve better conversion rates, is the lesson here.

Like Chipotle’s customers, I tell  business owners and Indianapolis blog content writers alike, your blog may be posted – and your online visitors may arrive - just one at a time. On the other hand, corporate blog writing is the perfect tool for achieving “throughput”.  While even the most unwieldy websites contain only a finite space for text, blogging doesn’t have such constraints. While individual posts are short, the content stays around forever, helping you build equity in those all-important keyword phrases and categories.

You might say the secret of successful corporate blogging for business is serving up slow content, fast!

The words of 50-kilometer running champion Josh Cox, “Remember, your worst run is always 100 percent better than the person who never tries,” are words I wish everyone blogging for business would tack up on their computer. As Runners’ World Magazine points out, “You’ll never regret going for a run, but you’ll always regret not going."

One of the most satisfying aspects of corporate blog writing is that the content you post remains online, continuing to build your presence as each new batch of content is added. While, according to Compendium Blogware CEO Chris Baggott, 95% of corporate blog readers will be first-time visitors to your blog, the odds of those online first-timers’ finding you increase with each new blog you post.

In essence the way the “matching” process works on the Web, blog content writing means never having to say you’re sorry about the time and effort you put in. I can honestly assure newbie Indianapolis blog writers, “Each time you post and your competition doesn’t, it’s a win!”

Sometimes, in corporate blogging training sessions, I recall the “Cathy” comic strip I used to enjoy so much in the Indianapolis Star. One strip in particular helps me explain why, out of all the different online communication tools we use on behalf of our clients at Say it For You, I am personally so “into” blog content writing.

Cathy and her boyfriend Irving are opening mail – she’s sorting through envelopes, he’s reading email.  “Who sends paper mail any more?” Irving jeers.  “People,” answers Cathy defiantly. When Irving rather tactlessly points out that most of her mail consists of ads and magazine subscription mailings, Cathy’s retort says it all for me: “Yes - people!  My mail is way closer to an actually human than you’ll get any time soon!”

“Way closer?” Not the most perfect syntax, but so “on the money” about blogging for business! Business blogs are where you meet the humans, the people running the business, the professionals providing the service, “way more” than brochures, billboards, or even corporate websites. Blogs are where you have people telling you not only what they have to offer but who they are.

As a professional ghost blogger with “way more” than 6,000 blog posts online (these Say It For You posts plus the corporate blogs we produce for clients), not to mention the thousands more posted by business owners and practitioners to whom I’ve offered business blogging assistance over the years, I can tell you this:

Josh Cox was absolutely right about the worst run.  The worst blog post writing is way better, in fact 100% better, than all the companies that never tried!

A favorite fellow blogger, David Meerman Scott of WebInkNow.com reminds readers how important it is to “make your writing easy to understand”.

Now, when I’m engaged in corporate blogging training, I sometimes critique newbie blog content writers’ attempts, always trying to keep my words positive and encouraging.

With my mother’s admonitions about tact firmly implanted in my mind. I don’t know that I could ever rise to the level of ruthless honesty Meerman-Scott showed in picking apart the content on the website of a company called ITA Software.


 "Founded in the mid-nineties by MIT computer science graduates, ITA Software has pioneered a new generation of travel technology. Our world-class engineers and travel industry experts are solving the industry's most complex computing challenges, and in doing so reshaping its very foundations."


Meerman-Scott has one word for that text: Gobbledygook. The problem, he points out, with using language like game changer, innovative solutions, next generation, world-class, customer-centric, and the like is that “these words and phrases are so overused as to have become meaningless”.

As a professional ghost writer, I can see another fault in the ITA material. In offering content writing assistance, I’d advise ITA not only to avoid trite adjectives, but to find a more effective way to impart information without “showing off”, coming across as pompous, or simply selling too hard.

It can be far more compelling, in business blog writing, to have customers do the bragging in the form of testimonials. What’s more, the ITA website paragraph offered no usable information to readers relating to either the travel industry or the software field. Rather than positioning their business as the “go to” source for things readers want to know, ITA kept patting its own back!

There are several reasons, I’d point out to freelance blog writers, that David Meerman Scott’s rewrite of the ITA paragraph is a big improvement:

"ITA Software by Google helps air passengers, airlines, and online travel agencies by making it easier for people to comparison shop for flights. Because of the huge volume of real-time transactions in airline pricing, the ITA Software engine is central in the travel industry’s most complex computing application."

•  It shows they understand their customers’ (the travel agencies’) problems and needs.
•  It offers a taste of how the end customer will benefit (“making it easier for people to comparison shop for flights..”).

1. Stay away from gobbledegook, from big words, and from boasting.
   
2. Above all, make your business blog writing easy to understand!

For the third in this week’s Say It For You blog series sharing writing tips from different books, let’s tackle an old dilemma – pronoun gender. The Little Red Writing Book advises “Keep your writing gender neutral.” The question is: How can we blog content writers stay grammatically and yet politically “correct”?

For starters, corporate blogging for business is a pretty new, modern method of communicating with potential customers, so the last thing business bloggers want is to sound old-fashioned, using “he” and “him” when referring to a person who might be either a “he” or a “she”.

You remember that old joke where a person knocks at the gates of Heaven and St. Peter asks “who’s there?”.  The reply, “It is I. “Go away!” says St. Peter.  “We have enough English teachers here.”

In corporate blogging training, I continually stress how important it is to know your target readers.  If you’re writing blog content targeted at new mothers, for example, using “she” and “her” is appropriate. Otherwise, advise the authors, use “they” and “them”. (“One” goes back to the English teacher-trying-to-get-into-heaven problem.)

If you’re providing business blogging assistance to companies with clients of both sexes, The Little Red Writing Book has some good advice about acceptable ways to approach certain “politically sensitive” terms:

Instead of “TV anchorman”, write “TV anchor”, “fire fighter”, not “fireman”, “police officer”, not “policeman”, and “spokesperson” rather than “spokesman”. On the other side of things, it’s better to use “homemaker” than “housewife” and “flight attendant” rather than “stewardess”.

When it comes right down to it, people aren’t concerned about remembering your web address or even your brand, says Chris Baggott, CEO of Compendium Blogware." With whom do consumers want to do business? As market research overwhelmingly demonstrates, "People like me", Baggott points out.

As a professional ghost blogger for so many different kinds of companies, I’ve found that it’s best to use “you” and “your”, conversing directly with those online visitors, who are, after all, asking themselves “What’s in it for ME?”

Since this week my Say It For You blog is devoted to sharing tips from three different books, today I’ll share a thought on blog content customization from Malcolm Gladwell’s What the Dog Saw.

One of the many anecdotes Gladwell relates in the book is, in two ways, especially relevant for blog content writers.   During a market research project for which H.J. Heinz Company sent researchers into people’s homes to watch the way they used ketchup, a three year old child reached for the 40-oz. bottle. His mother intervened, taking the bottle away from him and giving him a dollop on his plate.

The researcher had an epiphany: since a typical child consumes 60% more ketchup than a typical adult, the company needed to put ketchup in a bottle a child could control. The EZ Squirt bottle was born, made of soft plastic with a conical nozzle.  In homes where that bottle is used, ketchup consumption grew by 12%!

Lesson One: Those of us who provide blog writing services must know the needs of our audience.  Our corporate blog writing must speak to each blogging target audience in their language. The reason Gladwell’s story can be of such enormous business blogging assistance is that it reminds us to write content designed to let online readers know the company understands their specific needs.

Lesson Two: If you are four,” explains Casey Keller (until recently chief growth officer for Heinz), you don’t get to choose what you eat for dinner.  The one thing you can control is – ketchup! “It’s the one part of the food experience you can customize and personalize,” adds Keller. When it comes to SEO marketing blogs, success hinges on narrowing down your market and then doing everything you can to appeal to just that audience.

Remember that the secret Heinz discovered was allowing the customer to customize. Offer more than one Call to Action. Those who need more information before making a decision should be able to pick up the phone and call (and easily get a live person on the line!). Or for those not quite ready for that, they should be able to email a question (without needing to provide an entire personal biography in return!).  Or, for online visitors not quite ready even for that – they may choose to watch a video or download a white paper.

Are you serving up YOUR blog content writing in EZ Squirt?

This week my Say It For You blog will be devoted to sharing tips from three different books. (Always on the prowl for fresh writing ideas, I’ve managed to accumulate quite the little library on effective communication.)

Compare these two sentences, says communications consultant Milo Frank:

#1    “Deficits will badly affect the economy.”

#2    “Deficits will spread subtle, devastating poison through the economic bloodstream.”

The first sentence, Frank points out, is flat, while the second paints a picture in your mind.

Frank’s message is one every blog content writer needs to hear. Imagery helps make SEO marketing blogs more engaging.  In business communications, Frank acknowledges, there may be times when technical, precise language is in order.  The key factor to consider, though, is the listener, he says.  You want listeners to “see” as well as hear what you’re saying.

When it comes to providing business blogging help, I’d add, the key factor to consider is the blog visitor.  But, in whatever form you’re communicating, Frank teaches, “you can make your message colorful, interesting, and memorable with imagery.”

Of course, actual images – video clips, photos, stock art – can add impact to Indianapolis bloggers’ work, as I stress in corporate blogging training sessions.  Aside from actual pictures, though, freelance blog writers can paint pictures through words.

Is your company’s product smooth? Steely-hard? Satiny? Clean? Flowing? Razor-sharp? Crystal-clear?

Can I expect to feel happier after using your services? Confident? Healthy? Moved to tears? Powerful? Worthy? Safe? Warm and snug?

Help online visitors to your business blog assimilate your message through visualizing.  Painting word pictures is an important part of blogging for business!

Browsing through magazines can be good for your business blogging health, which is why I’ve devoted this week’s Say It For You blog posts to corporate blog writing a' la Natural Health Magazine. 

My motive for periodically testing my wits in a “Magazine Challenge”: to prove the point that blog content writers need never run out of ideas for their SEO marketing blogs.

While a restless mind seems to be a Rhoda Israelov hallmark, I’ve never been diagnosed with “restless leg syndrome” (I’d never even heard of the condition before all the TV ads began harping on it).  So, why am I choosing to highlight the Natural Health article “How can I calm restless legs?” Because it illustrates an effective way to impart important information in corporate blog posts without the business owner or practitioner coming across as either pompous or critical of readers’ behavior.  

In the magazine article, advice from three different sources is presented to readers:  an integrative physician, a nutritionist, and a naturopath. We read how each one of those professionals describes RLS symptoms and what each one suggests the possible causes might be. From my viewpoint as an Indianapolis blog writer, it seemed that, while I was getting a whole lot of information, the tone was not at all threatening – these were three authorities expressing their points of view.

One very compelling aspect of business blog writing is that business owners have a chance to provide very valuable information to readers relating to their industry or professional field.  In other words, your corporate blog posts can be a tool to position yourself and your business as the “go to” source for things readers want to know!

But what this restless leg syndrome article in Natural Health Magazine showed me is that letting outside authorities help you convey your message to your readers can be a very good idea in blogging for business. For this tactic to be of the most business blogging help, however, I’d have business owners “let the authorities talk”, then add their own spin based on their own experience in their field.

Browsing through Natural Health Magazine to look for ideas I could use as part of corporate blogging training, I saw a number of interesting articles, but my attention was diverted by an ad. The product was from Purely Products, and it was an item I’d never heard of before – a CFL.  I learned that a CFL is an air purifier and light bulb all in one.  I never would have found that out, though, were it not for the caption.

One of the big lessons in blogging for business is how important blog post titles are. The title must capture attention so that readers click on the link they’ve found through online search.

This particular ad showed a picture of a mom watching TV, cuddling with her son on the couch.  On one side of the room was a HEPA air filter showing a price tag of $500-$1,000. On the other side of the room a lamp was labeled “Healthy CFL: Under $10”.

The caption read:

“They both purify the air.  Which one would you rather invest in?”

Creating catchy blog titles isn’t the only challenge facing freelance blog writers. Shoppers these days have so many choices, both in the mall and online. Obviously business blog writing needs to be recent, relevant, and on point, but even more than that, corporate blog posts have to deal firmly with “The Why’s”.

• Why me? (The SEO marketing blog must make clear why the product is a good fit for this reader.)
  
• Why you? (What’s special about this provider, this company, this business?)
  
• Why now? (What’s so urgent that I should pay attention now?)
  
• Why this price? (Is there a special offer? How does the cost compare to other options I have?)

The CFL ad made it abundantly clear – I could purify the air in my home using a HEPA filter, or choose the much simpler, much less expensive option of the CFL.  A Maxima ad I found online follows the same format: “Wouldn’t You Rather Have an ’85 Maxima with Super Sonic Suspension?”

One other aspect of the CFL ad that I found very appealing is that it was very much in sync with the Say It For You no-hard-sell style of business blog writing.  “Shock advertising” or scare tactic blogging is, in my opinion, of zero business blogging help.   Blog content writers’ task is to present choices.  Given enough necessary, relevant, and truthful information, consumers are perfectly able to decide “which one they’d rather invest in”!

A few months back in my Say It For You blogs, I gave myself the challenge of finding three ideas for blog posts in a single issue of a popular magazine.  A couple of my fellow bloggers took me up on the Magazine Challenge, and some dozen very creative SEO marketing blog posts were born.

The idea behind the challenge was to combat “writer’s block”.  In corporate blogging training sessions, I found that blog content writers’ biggest fear is running out of ideas after weeks, months, and even years of sustaining a blog. The thought was that, as you browsed through whatever magazine you’d chosen, you’d find things that, on the surface, were unrelated to your business, but which would trigger ideas about your business, suggesting new ways to explain what you sell, what you know, what you believe, and what you know how to do. (In my case as a professional ghost blogger, the same technique works in finding novel ideas to explain my clients’ businesses.)

That was in August, and I just finished reading through an issue of Natural Health Magazine that makes me want to take the challenge all over again. So, once again, I’m inviting Indianapolis blog writers to try the Magazine Challenge along with me.

The simple rules, just as a reminder are these: Come up with three different blog post ideas, all based on titles or articles or illustrations out of a single issue of a magazine of your choice.  If you have your own business blog, simply email me a link to your site.  Or, email me your blog post(s) and I’ll publish it on Say It For You as a guest post.

Natural Health interviewed Krysten Ritter, ABC-TV and movie actress, using the star’s answers to reinforce lessons about healthy living. “Ritter reveals her cherished causes, favorite foods and why sleep is a top priority.” Ritter recalls growing up on a Pennsylvania cattle farm, explaining that she tries to support local farmers and eat organic food. She reads scripts while on the treadmill, and tries “to be realistic about my fitness goals.”

The lesson here for freelance blog content writers, I think, is that, while the message about exercise and diet is undeniably same-old, same-old, the reader’s interest is captured because it’s a celebrity saying these things, not a fitness facility owner or health food store proprietor.

The “Top 5 tips for healthy living” are not just any “top 5 tips”, they are Krysten Ritter’s tips, with the cachet factor increasing accordingly.

Anyone providing business blogging services can freshen up warnings, tips, alerts, and news by going on a “star search”.  The famous may not be counted among your clientele, but what well-known person is known for using your type of product or service? Wouldn’t adding a few drops of “star dust” add some glow to your business blog writing?

“Some writers can just sit at their desk and bang the keys,” observes Mental Floss, noting that others need to engage in outlandish behavior in order to court the muse.

Courting the online muse with long term corporate blogging for business (the only kind that helps companies “win search”) definitely takes what I call “drill sergeant discipline”.  Could descent into freakishness be of business blogging assistance as well?

• Composer Richard Wagner relied on barks from his dog to tell him if an opera passage needed to be tweaked. I’ve not yet encountered a pet than can edit SEO marketing blogs!
  
• A second composer, Von Schiller, needed the smell of rotten fruit to inspire him. I’d advise content writers in Indianapolis to try fruit-scented room freshener instead!
  
• Ancient Greek Demosthenes had trouble staying on task, so when he felt wanderlust, he’s shave off half his hair (he’d be too embarrassed to go out and was able to concentrate on his writing for a couple of months at a time!) I doubt even the most dedicated of  Say It For You freelance blog writers would be willing to try that one!
  
• Novelist Victor Hugo stood at a podium, naked, while writing his novels. Since Hugo’s podium was set up on his roof, weather conditions in the Midwest would probably render this strategy impractical for anyone providing Indianapolis blog writing services.

All my business owner friends and clients, in fact most business owners in general, know that business blog writing in their area of expertise is one tactic they can use in an effort to get indexed by search engines and get found by potential clients and customers. But, since frequency of posting new content is so key to success in blog marketing, and since blog content writing takes considerable time and effort (two scarce commodities in business owners’ lives), writing for business too often is put on – and stays on - the back burner.

Professional ghost bloggers become muses, then, providing blog writing services for entrepreneurs who’d rather operate fully clothed with full heads of hair, working in fresh-smelling showrooms and offices!

Busy writing for business in my Say It For You home office desk the other evening, I was interrupted by a phone call, which led to my having a “conversation” with a recording. The purpose of the call, I quickly learned, was to survey Indiana residents on the topic of the upcoming election, specifically concerning the role federal judges play in politics.

While the call started out as a nuisance, in retrospect I’m glad I made time for that ten-minute survey, shedding my professional ghost blogger’s “hat” and putting on my voter’s “cap” in order to participate.  The exercise actually reinforced some of the things I teach in corporate blogging training sessions about generating business using SEO marketing blogs.

The survey began with general questions:  Did I believe in voting in every election, most, or only some? Did I consider primaries to be important? 
 
Strange, this talking to a recording (Given a choice, I’ll always press “O” to get the live operator). But, never having gone through this particular kind of telephone survey process before, I realized I liked the very idea of being asked, in great detail, for my opinions! I made a note to myself to remind business owner clients and freelance blog writers that allowing comments in corporate blogging for business is a good idea if for no other reason than to engage readers!

The survey continued with questions about age range, gender, even race. As we progressed, though, it became increasingly apparent that the “agenda” related to the appointment of federal judges.  Which did I believe to be the primary responsibility of a federal judge – fairness and impartiality or upholding the Constitution?

So, in what way can all of this be of business blogging help?  In any selling situation (and blog marketing is no different), buyers shy away from sellers who employ strong-arm tactics.  This causes some providers to go to the other extreme, pretending they are offering nothing but useful, free information. Selling? Not at our company!

Taking the telephone survey actually did provide me with some valuable, free information about the appointment of federal judges and how their positions relate to which party wins an election. True, the further into the survey we got, the more apparent the “hidden” agenda became. But the point I want to make here is that it was OK!  The fact that the survey creators had a point of view to sell worked just fine for me. That same process will work just fine for content writers in Indianapolis who are offering business blogging assistance to business owners who want to make their cash registers ring!

When online readers click on a blog post or on a website, they’re perfectly aware of the fact that the providers of the information have an “agenda” and are out to do business.  But as long as the material they’re being offered by the blog content writer (whether that’s the business owner, an employee, or a ghost blogger) is valuable and well written, relevant to their search, they’re perfectly fine realizing the company would like to have them as a customer!

"Sales momentum," as Craig Davidson defines it in Employee Benefit Adviser, is "the process of creating and maintaining excitement in a buyer with the goal of making a sale." I'm the richer for having taken the telephone survey, with a much greater appreciation for the role of federal judges and the importance of how they're appointment.

Whether your corporate blog posts lead to an immediate conversion or, for now, merely result in a better-informed readers - you can count your corporate blog writing as a winner!

“Diners want to know more”, says Tiffany Hsu in the Indianapolis Star, explaining that “fast-food and casual chains are disclosing ingredients and prep methods to draw customers.”

Online searchers want to know more as well.  To draw customers, business blog writers will have to “disclose” greater detail than ever before.  And that, as I stress in corporate blogging training sessions, is perfectly OK.

Many Say It For You clients start out afraid – if they share too much ” how-to” or “how-it-works” information, their fear is, clients and customers won’t be willing to pay for their expertise. Ironically, some business owners who employ freelance blog writers have the opposite fear – they don’t want to be perceived as “bragging” or “hard-selling”.

Since one main purpose of SEO marketing blogs is to create new customer relationships, I was glad to read that restaurant owners are now going beyond legal requirements that they list the ingredients and calories in their food, and are beginning to provide in-depth material to showcase their expertise and customer care. “If you demonstrate to families that you offer them a safe meal, you establish a tremendous sense of loyalty,” observed one food executive.

That is precisely the message I try to convey to company owners that are new to blog marketing.  In providing business blogging assistance, I can share an insight I’ve gleaned in the process of creating more than 6,000 unique blog posts for corporate clients and professional practitioners:

Telling potential buyers about your special approach to your business, even sharing your special methods, is not going to either prepare or induce those buyers to “do it themselves”! Your readers just need perspective in order to make the right choice of provider – Just why is your way of doing things good for them?

“The voice of a writer is usually easier to hear in first person,” says William Cane in Write Like the Masters. Why? “Third person narratives so often mimic the ‘beige voice’ of an objective reporter,” Cane explains, whereas “with first person, it’s usually easier to be intimate, unique, and quirky.”

Certainly “intimate” and “unique” are qualities freelance blog content writers want to display in SEO marketing blogs, which tend to be most effective when they are at their most conversational and most personal.

Blogger John Haydon runs a bootcamp about “narrative voice”, and recommends using second person (“you” and “your”) in corporate blogging for business to provide useful information to readers and give those readers the feeling that the author is speaking directly to them.  Haydon’s colleague Nedra, on the other hand, suggests

• First person for a personal statements and opinions
• Second person for a how-to’s
• Third person for news

As a corporate blogging trainer, I recommend a mix of narrative voices, so regular readers of the company blog can find variety. Even a professional ghost blogger, I explain, can write in “I” format when sharing a personal experience that brings out some important aspect of the client company’s products, services, or corporate culture.  First person writing doesn’t mean filling pages with the word “I”, points out blogger gamergirl.com, because” that would allow creativity to lapse.” Brenda Hill of WOW-womenonwriting.com agrees, saying that “we can successfully write in either first or third person…It all depends on the story you want to tell.”

Forrester’s Top 15 Corporate Blogs list is full of companies whose blogs allow readers to identify with the business in personal, unique, and even quirky ways. To stay personal, we Indianapolis blog writers need to show readers we’re talking very specifically to them. At the same time, blogging for business will be at its best when it’s colorful, filled with the company’s special brand of energy and passion. 

If I had to boil down business blogging assistance to one line of advice, that might be “Don’t be beige in your blog!”

“Language is at the core of our being,” remarksNoam Chomsky, who’s been called the “father of modern linguistics”. Since we’re always immersed in language, he observes, “It takes a strong act of will to try not to talk to yourself when you’re walking down the street…”

In corporate blog writing, (which takes a strong act of will, anyway, in terms of maintaining the frequency and consistency needed to” win search”), you will definitely need the same strength of will Chomsky describes in order to avoid talking to yourself – and only to yourself – in your business blog writing.

One of the realities about corporate blogs that is toughest for newbie Indianapolis writers of blog content to accept is that other people, specifically online searchers, are interested, first and foremost, in themselves and their own needs, wants, and interests. Their curiosity about what you do - or about what you have to say or sell, I explain in corporate blogging training sessions, will be at its most intense when it concerns testing their own limits or their own knowledge. My theory is that’s why magazine self-tests and quizzes are so hard for readers to resist, and that’s the reason I believe including an occasional quiz or survey is a good idea for anyone providing business blogging services..

In Say It for You corporate blogging training sessions, the What’s-in-it-for-Them Rule is always part of the curriculum.  Speaker Magazine gives some very sage advice to authors trying to launch a new book:

“Don’t tell your prospects how great you are;
tell them how great they will feel when the ideas in your book relieve the pain they’re experiencing.”

Now there’s a piece of advice that can be used by every one of us involved in corporate blogging for business!. As Chomsky so wryly instructed people walking down the street – try not to talk to yourself.  Yes, readers found your blog because they were seeking information, products or services that relate to you, but never forget – now they’ve arrived, what they want to find relates to them!

“Keep your bullet points symmetrical,” advises fellow blog content writer Brian Clark. One way to do that, Clark explains, is to keep all bullet points in a group the same approximate length. That’s easier on online readers’ eyes, he adds.

That bullet points in general are a good fit for blogs is actually something I stress in corporate blogging training sessions.  By most accounts, search engines like bullet points.  Even more important, I’ve found over the years as professional ghost blogger, bullet points keep everyone on track, especially the writer.

It’s interesting that, just the other day, I was helping a student team at Ivy Tech learning lab put together a Power Point presentation on the subject of effective studying for tests. I noticed that their textbook recommends that students organize their notes using bullet points.

Clark offers a second bullet point-related tip that can relate to corporate blogging for business. “Practice parallelism,” Clark says, meaning that each bullet point should begin with the same part of speech and should maintain the same grammatical form.

This “honey-do” list in a blog by Cypress Media is a good example of Clark’s two rules (All the bullet points are one short line long, and all begin with a “command” verb):

• Take out the garbage
• Feed the dog
• Drop off dry cleaning
• Wash the car
• Buy stamps

Cypress’ Catherine Hibbard explains that using numbers in place of bullet points would imply an order of importance; with bullet points, all items have equal value. Like Clark, Hibbard recommends beginning each bullet with an action word where that’s appropriate, but in all cases making tenses and verbs consistent.

There’s no doubt bullet points are of business blogging help, but be careful not to overuse the technique.  I remind Indianapolis blog writers that SEO marketing blogs need to be conversational and personal in tone.  Truth is, we don’t tend to converse in bullet points!

Going back to that Ivy Tech textbook recommendation about organizing material, it seems to me that bullet points’ highest and best use is as organizers. That means the bullet points can be good tools for freelance blog writers whether those bullet points find their way into the finished blog posts or not!

As someone who offers business blog writing services, here’s how I’d sum up the subject of bullet points:  By all means, practice symmetry and parallelism, but consider also practicing restraint!

Researchers used to think people paid to get scared (as a population, we here in the US just finished spending close to $3 billion on Halloween) because they get a high off the relief at the end. But, as Science Daily reports, a new study shows horror fans are just “happy being unhappy”.

People getting “scared” into action is an important topic in marketing, including SEO marketing blogs. Specifically, business owners and those providing blog writing services need to weigh the effectiveness of fear tactics in galvanizing customers into action.

Shock advertising can, in fact, move people to action, I learned, reading reports from the British Department of Health on the anti-smoking campaign “Get Unhooked” (which was banned because the ads caused fear and distress in children). In business blog writing, though, while it’s important to appeal to readers’ need to avoid pain, you’re more likely to “win friends and influence people” in your blog posts by giving searchers a “feel” for the relief and comfort they’ll gain after using your products and services.

One very old selling strategy involves digging for pain points, and then creating a need for what we do or what we sell.  At Say It For You, we lean more towards the view offered by salesproductivityinsider.com, which is more in line with the sort of blog writing services we like to offer our client companies:

“Selling is not a horror show. We can professionly increase
the sense of urgency
to action without ‘scaring’ them.”