Blogfeeder - The Copywriting and Marketing Blog from Wordfeeder.com

People Really Don't Understand SEO, Do They

I've come to the conclusion that there's no point in telling certain people how to choose the right keywords for their web articles. I've had a few folks email me recently, wanting "persuasive copywriting" but appearing to not be a "fit" for my workstyle. (It doesn't take me long to figure this out; just a couple of back-and-forth emails, and I'll know if we can work together.) Anyway: they show me their websites, and I see some decent copywriting there. They want to know if I can write stronger copy that will help them convert more clients. So I look at their keywords, and instantly recognize what the problem is.

When I explain to them EXACTLY WHAT TO DO to get people in who will more easily convert... they ignore my advice. "No, Dina... you misunderstand my request. I want the copy to be more persuasive." Actually, dude-who-doesn't-want-to-pay-anything-until-you-start-making-more-sales... I just TOLD you how to get more sales (using keywords) but you're not understanding me! I will never work with you based on the fact that already you aren't following my instructions. If I did work with you, I'd say Let's Fix the SEO, you'd say "Let's work on the copy instead", you'd continue to not get sales, and I'd never see any real income. Which is why: 1. I don't want to work with people who only pay a percentage of new sales, and 2. I don't care to work with people who refuse to follow my advice.

I don't mean this to sound rude; think of it as "feisty", okay? Sometimes I feel a little FEISTY!

Announcing Our New E-Guide: Start Up Your Own Writing and Editing Business On the Web

Are you a writer, copywriter or editor who's always dreamed of working from the comfort of home? Finally, after serving clients via the web for more than 8 years, Wordfeeder is creating a long-awaited guide book to help you do just that.

Get ready for The Nitty Gritty of How to Start Up a Writing or Editing Business on the Web!

I used the phrase "nitty gritty" because I'm a practical person. I like to get to the meat of the matter, and that's what I'll be sharing with you. You know... those confusing little details about online business that nobody bothers to tell you about without a lot of prodding and struggling on your part!

Some things you'll learn from our e-guide:

• The critical difference between web and print copywriting
• How to organize, categorize, and present your writing samples for public viewing
• The secret to getting people to your website who already want what you have
• Email newsletters 101: yes, those new marketer mistakes can really hurt you!
• Social networking tactics to blast your good name out to the world and bring you more clients than you know what to do with
• HTML survival basics to give your web content an extra push
• Coping skills for challenging clients (and how to attract the best ones to your front door)

And much more!

Be one of the first to hear about the launch of our long-awaited e-guide, The Nitty Gritty of How to Start Up a Writing or Editing Business on the Web. Sign up for our list below.

 

 

Are your advertising methods proven to work?

Someone emailed me a question today about whatether or not my methods are proven to work. This got me to thinking, and so here's the response I offered:

Thanks for contacting Wordfeeder for your copywriting needs. I must confess, your use of the word "proven" amuses me (in a friendly way). As someone who, as you say, has "tried some things," I'm sure you know that response varies greatly, depending on all sorts of factors. When a marketer claims that their methods are "proven" to work, what exactly do they mean anyway?

Are they proven to convert more of the people who were already willing to buy anyway? What if you use a "proven" method, but the "right" people don't receive the message for whatever reason? Many factors go into succesful advertising; for example, finding the right audience to market to; marketing at the right time, marketing X number of times until the "warm" prospect becomes a "hot" prospect; putting calls to action in the right places; using enough (but not too much) emotional triggers in your message; employing psychology in your pricing technique; so on and so forth.

I handle copywriting and web content projects for many different types of clients. The ones who do all of the above in a way that appeals to their target customer seem to get the sales. I have never done a formal analysis of ad performance; however, if something doesn't seem to be working, then I will most certainly take a different approach for next time. I too, have tried all kinds of things. :)

With all of that said; if you'd like to talk about your project and how I can help, then feel free to email me more details. Thanks and have a great holiday season!

Warm regards,

Dina at Wordfeeder.com

Should You Tell People You Work with a Copywriter?

Lots of people who hire copywriters like me prefer to keep this information on the DL. They would just rather have their audience ONLY picture them doing all of the communicating. Of course, we know that smart business owners can't do everything themselves, and that those who DO hire copywriters to handle their web content development, online newsletter management, sales letter writing, etc., are generally a lot happier. They also come across as more professional. But none of this is here nor there. The question is, should you tell people you solicit the services of a copywriter, or should you keep quiet?

That really depends on the type of person you are. I respect the anonymity of my clients. If they seem not to be mentioning to others that I'm their copywriter or their website/blog marketing person, then I don't talk about them to anyone, either (at least not by name. I may use an example from our work together to teach others about marketing in my blog or articles). But on the other hand, if they're someone like my landscaper client, Diane Downey, who is always ready with another public testimonial, then I'm happy to also refer to her by name.

There are advantages to both situations. If you don't tell people that you use a copywriter, then they can never turn around and accuse you of not writing your own stuff (but who cares if you don't write your own stuff? Everyone knows that marketing is marketing, and it's not like your copywriter is impersonating you on email, talking to your clients directly). On the other hand, if you do go public with your professional relationship with a copywriter, you can enjoy the reciprocal benefit of having that copywriter openly cheer for you in places like their blog. You can enjoy the exposure you get when the copywriter puts your story on the Success page, or you may get some good professional referrals to people like website designers, graphic artists, or pretty much anyone in any industry who the copywriter may know and who you might benefit from using their services.

I find it refreshing when people are open enough to admit to others that I write and/or edit their marketing materials. It shows that they're bold, fearless, and not afraid to tell the truth. I honestly believe that when you let go of fear is when your business and success really take off. I do.

But on the other hand... if they'd really prefer I not mention that I work for them, this is just part of being a copywriter. We're behind the scenes... that invisible marketing technician, here to make you look and sound more professional. We don't care if you never mention to anyone that we tuned up your copy for you. All we really want is to be fairly paid for our God-given skill.

Need professional website content written? Email dina@wordfeeder.com for more information. We won't tell anybody if you don't want us to!

How Did You Find Us? Google, of Course

For small business owners, list building is an important part of growing your client base. In fact - I don't know how people would get customers without procuring their contact information.

That said, everyone who's interested in making money online should have a mailing list that people sign up for when they visit their websites. I do. I use Aweber.com. Whenever someone new signs up for your email address, you get an alert via email (unless of course, you specify otherwise). One just landed in my inbox. On my form, I included a field that says something like "How did you find us?" Nine times out of ten, the answer is Google.

Sometimes people who know why I'm asking that question give me the exact search phrase that they used to find my copywriting website. I love that!! Thank you to all who take the time to fill out that part of the form. "Google" is a hugely helpful answer because it lets me know that the articles I publish on my site get indexed and found. "Googled the phrase 'copywriting services'" is even better because now I know exactly WHAT people look for - so I can create more of that in the future.

Do you know what your customers are Googling? Do you publish informative content regularly, as a way to keep leads coming in, so you can grow your contact list and get more business?

Email dina@wordfeeder.com for help managing your web content today!

Finally Updated my Blogroll in the Sidebar

I don't know who reads the Wordfeeder blog these days, but those who do may have noticed that I took a semi-sabbatical in 2009. Well, 2010 is another story, and Blogfeeder is back in action with tons of tips on how to drive more traffic and business to your company website.

This brings me to the blog links in my sidebar. For those not in the know, giving the gift of a link from your blog to someone else's is one of the best things you can do for their Google popularity. And if your blog is highly trafficked... forget about it! That's like the captain of the football team going out with the geekiest band girl.

My links were sorely out of date (a couple of blogs I had on there weren't even ACTIVE anymore!) but I could not for the life of me focus on figuring out Typepad's new secret trick for editing those links.

This morning I found it. There's a tab up at the top called Libraries. Now, I have never felt compelled to click that link, as "libraries" is not a word that registers with me as even remotely important. Turns out it was... THAT is where they hid all my old Typelists! Those sneaky little sneaks.

And now that we've solved the mystery of the missing typelists... may I present to you the newly updated Blogfeeder crew of fellow hobby bloggers and entrepreneurs. Some blogs on there are even mine!

If you have a great blog that you think I may want to link to, email dina@wordfeeder.com and tell me what it is. And if I do link... it would be great to have a link back from you!

Peace.

Dina at Wordfeeder.com Copywriting, Copy Editing and Website Marketing

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.

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.

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!

What I'm Working On: Garden Coaching Sales Copy for a Landscaping Client

One copywriting/website client who I really enjoy working with is always coming up with creative new ways to pitch her services. She's a professional landscaper, but instead of having one of those static websites, she provides valuable tips for people who are looking to learn. While a website can serve many purposes, dynamic is so much more effective for your bottom line than static. My client knows this and having me help her create new content on a regular basis is bringing her business.

So if you want your name coming up for all kinds of searches that people might be out there Googling, post all kinds of how-to articles and different types of promotions that will help people learn something new.

This week, my client and I brainstormed a solution for folks who can appreciate a well lanscaped backyard but don't want to spend a lot on a professional gardener. We're working on a garden coaching page, where people can get how-to instructions, helpful diagrams, and phone time with a landscaper who knows what they're doing. We're going to publish this information on its own, stand-alone sales page and use the words "garden coach" in the title so that people will be able to find it.

Searching for creative ways to market your business online? Email dina@wordfeeder.com for help!