Blogfeeder - The Copywriting and Marketing Blog from Wordfeeder.com

LinkedIn: The Easy Way to Get and Manage Testimonials for Your Business Website

I help people create websites for their (sometimes) newly launched businesses. One problem I regularly encounter is getting my clients to pull together testimonials or endorsements for their work or products. They're embarrassed to bring it up, or maybe they just can't get organized enough to make that call or send that email.

LinkedIn takes care of this for you. If you log into your account profile and go to the Recommendations area, you can send a quick Request for Recommendation with one simple click. Or, to kick things off, you can start sending recommendations of your coworkers. Typically, people who worked with you will flash back to that time when you teamed up, and if they feel good about what you created together, they will reciprocate with a recommendation of you and what you do.

That said, is it okay to publish those testimonials on your business website, even though they were originally meant for LinkedIn? Well, I would say that since someone was willing to make a public testament to your worth, they probably would not have a problem with this. But in case you're unsure, you can do one of two things: 1. ask them for permission, or 2. publish their words but remove either their first or last name from the testimonial, making it slightly more anonymous.

More than likely, if you're starting a business, that business is a culimination of your professional experience. So it follows that people who have worked with you in the past would (hopefully) have something good to say about your work. LinkedIn makes it so easy to do this. Thanks, LinkedIn!

View my copywriting testimonials on Wordfeeder.com - some are from LinkedIn, some are from emails that I received from satisfied website clients.

The Number One Reason NOT to Use a Google (Blogger) Blog

This morning I logged into my client's blog with the intention of making some improvements here and there. At first it seemed her blog was a mere experiment, but now she has a growing audience of fans and is really getting into posting thoughtful entries on a regular basis.

So, for a while things were going well... I was thinking that the Blogger platform was pretty intuitive, and the updates I was making to her sidebar widgets and things like that were relatively simple to do.

Then I got the mother of ideas... she needs blog topic categories! Why on earth does her blog not have categories?

Blog categories are really good for your search engine rank. I mean, think about it from the human perspective. Let's say you happen upon a blog like this one, about copywriting. You start reading an entry, and then you want more. What's the first thing you'll do... go to the sidebar to see what other kind ofreading is here. This is where categories are SO. VERY. HANDY. Organized by topic, does it get any better?

So you can imagine my dismay when I realized that Google (Blogger) blogs do not offer a Categories feature the way that Movable Type blogs (like this one) do. Of course I researched the issue on Google to confirm. What I found was some random bloggers talking about how you can "hack" Google blogs and add some special code to the main file if you want to start using categories.

This is a little too high tech for me, and in fact, the few links that I did click while searching for that hack code led me to dead websites. "This page no longer exists."

I wouldn't want to "hack" a client's blog and screw it all up. I'm a copywriter and web marketer, after all, not a coder.

So, that's the sad news about Blogger blogs. No wonder I don't have one. And with that being said... hey Google, why don't you give us some categories already?

Wordfeeder offers regular blog content management. Click here to learn more about this service.

When Your Website Designer Becomes the Enemy

I've been helping to create business websites for a variety of clients for several years now. In the majority of cases, I work in a copywriting capacity, although I do have a select few clients who have me on permanently, making HTML changes to their websites in Dreamweaver which I also do.

One pattern I can't help but notice is the client who arrives wanting "a new website" to fix what the former web designer screwed up and then left for dead. I find it shocking that this is how a business relationship would end.

The shocking part is not so much that the client is unhappy about the site and the website designer ends up folding (it happens... sometimes the working relationship is just not a good fit). I'm more surprised by the fact that the web designer wouldn't even have the decency to leave the client with the hosting login on his way out. I mean, at least be a good sport and let the client hire another web tech who can pick up where you left off.

I also can't imagine that running away with the client's website login details would be profitable for one's professional reputation. But I'm also guessing that the types of people who would screw over a client in this manner maybe don't aspire that high in the first place. For example, maybe the client hired some near-anonymous person overseas who they're not likely to "run into" again (or so they think!). Or maybe the designer was a flaky high school or college student who threw up a quick storefront on the internet to try and make a little pocket change and really isn't all that committed.

Whatever the case, sometimes the client/web designer relationship just doesn't work. But because the world is ever-shrinking, it's really smart not to burn that bridge if at all possible. As frustrated as either or both parties might be, doing the honorable thing in the end might just save you some unpleasant repercussions down the road.

That said, this is why I always tell my website clients to open hosting accounts in their own names. I urge them (and you) to create and protect their own logins, and have all alerts from their hosting company come through to their own email addresses. Give the person who'll be working on your website his or her own login. Then, if for some reason the relationship should fall apart, you'll at least be able to salvage what remains and keep control of the site and the domain name.

Wordfeeder Creates Small Business Websites! We'll even give you your own login. Contact dina@wordfeeder.com for a quote today.

Wordfeeder Website Marketing Client Wins Award for Best Content

This news has been a long time coming, but unfortunately I'm not as great at keeping up with my own blog content as I am with my clients. Back in November 2009, Diane Downey, owner of The Yard Fairy San Diego Landscaping won for "Best Content" in California Landscaping Magazine's Cybersoil Awards.

Wordfeeder Copywriting has been managing article editing, newsletter creation and web page updates for Diane for the past year, and I'm thrilled to see that her website has become such a raging success within the California landscaping community!

Truth be told, I play a large part in the upkeep of Diane's website - but without her proactive involvement, The Yard Fairy website simply would not be. Each month, Diane takes the time to carefully write out detailed information that I then turn into web articles for her. She's completely engaged in the content creation process, also snapping gorgeous photos that I then add to her site for a truly professional effect. People from all over the world are Googling and discovering her wonderful talent for landscaping in a way that conserves water and respects the environment.

We published a press release announcing the news on Diane's website back in November.

I'm always so amazed by the creative and enterprising people that I have the pleasure of writing web content for each day. Diane is one great lady and I've learned so much about landscaping and gardening simply by working for her.

Want to create your own, award-winning website? Contact Dina@Wordfeeder.com for a custom copywriting or web design quote today.

Locating Missing Temp Files Because You Forgot to Do a Save-As in MS Outlook

This morning an emergency email came in from my corporate client who I was trying so hard to get the copy out to in record time. In my haste, I had sent them the wrong document draft, and it was all because I must have opened up an attached file straight in MS Outlook and forgot to do a Save-As to the correct folder. I haven't made this type of error in years. I blame it on the fact that I was on the phone with the project manager while simultaneously editing the copy. Multi-tasking is bad. Multi-tasking when you're half starving due to your new "healthy eating" campaign is also bad.

So, for anyone out there who has committed such a dastardly deed, here's how to rectify it.

The missing file is hiding in the Temp folder of your PC. Unfortunately, that folder is buried deep in the hierarchy of folders and is tough to locate. So here's one solution.

1. Hit START, the SEARCH.

2. Click on ALL FILES AND FOLDERS

3. Under "a word or phrase in the file," type OLK

(OLK is the folder where the temp files from MS Outlook are stored.)

4. Under "look in," highlight "My Computer."

5. While still in the Search box, scroll all the way down. Check the boxes that say "Search hidden files and folders" and "Search Subfolders".

6. Hit Search. When the OLK folder shows up, double click that. Look for the filename that you would have called your document, then the most recent version. MS Outlook puts a number in parenthesis after the filename each time a new version is created. For example, your file might be called DogDayCare (4).

7. Make sure you open that file and do a SAVE-AS to the appropriate folder where you intended to store in the first place.

In addition to the above, you can check out the advice that this person shared... the project manager sent me this link to help solve the problem. Thanks, Liz!

http://www.groovypost.com/howto/microsoft/outlook/find-the-microsoft-outlook-temporary-olk-folder/

What I'm Working On: Artisan Bread Copy, Property Management Website Content, Self Improvement Articles

This morning I'm feeling a little scattered, wondering which of my copywriting projects to tackle first. I have three on deck for immediate turnaround and a few others that I can work on for what's left of this week and the beginning of next.

First, we had a phone meeting to discuss a new artisan bread product line that I'm responsible to write the packaging copy for. I was given all of the branding information up front, including an interesting cross-section of consumer reactions to initial copy - which words they responded favorably to and which they found too over the top to believe and why. It's really interesting to get this type of feedback and to try and weave it all together into a cohesive branding statement.

Next I have a coach who's expanding her business, partnering with people in complimentary fields who want to become affiliates of her products. They've agreed to have her write articles to feature in their blogs, so I'm handling the editing/fleshing out of said articles while keeping her voice and coaching philosophy in tact.

Project Number Three is rewriting the copy for a project management website. The SEO who put the content in before I arrived on the scene focused mainly on keywords but sort of forgot to address the potential client with any sort of interesting message. I did the homepage yesterday and already I'd say it's much improved from what it was.

So, now I guess I'll be figuring out which of these to make my first project of the day. I'm leaning toward the artisan bread copy. Mainly this is because the self improvement coach is still asleep in California, and the property management client has the ball in her court as she reviews the homepage I sent.

So, artisan bread it is. Thanks for helping me out this morning!

Got copy that can use a little extra kick? Looking for a website or SEO analysis so you can "fix" whatever is keeping your website visitors from becoming customers?

Call on dina@wordfeeder.com to assist!

Annoying Facebook Apps

Are you as sick of those irritating Facebook alerts and applications as I am? How much do you want to smack those people who you add to your list, thinking one day you'll have a professional relationship... only to find them deliriously posting angels and baby ducklings and pictures of fruited drinks on your page?

The latest update that's driving me batty is the this one: "16 new people are now connected to so-and-so." These endless lines of incredibly dull and trivial news are occupying valuable FB real estate. I would much rather be notified of whatever interesting link, news story, note, photo, video or song my FB connections might be posting.

That said, I complained about this last night, and lo and behold, Bill McGonigle of BFC Computing handed me a solution. Firefox has an easy-to-install add-on that blocks out all this crap. Here's the link to it:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/47397

And here's a picture of me using the blessed thing!

You can get it to work in just two little clicks and a restart of your Firefox browser. Oh, you're not using Mozilla Firefox? Well, why not? I'm telling you, once you do, you're in for a treat.

Good luck with your social networking endeavors on Facebook!

Sincerely,

Dina at Wordfeeder Copywriting and Marketing