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Publish a
press release
Every day journalists receive press releases from companies and organizations that will never be used, because the author has failed to understand the basic principles of communicating with the press.
21
By adhering to a few basic tenets, and by using keywords to optimize the content, you can gain the press attention your company deserves.
Headline
Never use puns in an online headline. Google works literally – it doesn’t understand puns, can’t pick up a play on words, and is confused by poor English. So, be literal, direct and punchy.
Optimize your press releases with keywords
Carry out some keyword research to make your release search engine friendly. Find out what phrases are best used with the product or service your press release refers to. If you’ve already done some keyword research for your website, you should have an idea of what works.
It’s a good idea to use these keyword phrases where they work best - in headlines, subtitles, tags and links.
Wordtracker.com
If you are directing the journalist to other areas of your site, remember never to use ‘click here’ as the text in your link. You are wasting a valuable opportunity for optimization - use a keyword instead. For more information about how to optimize your pages, see day four of Wordtracker ’s ‘ Profit from Keywords ’ video series.
Structuring your press release
The lead (lede or standfirst) is the first paragraph. It should be a summary of the story you are about to tell. News writing is structured around an ‘inverted pyramid’ which means the most important elements of the story should be at the top, and as you move down the copy the information becomes less important.
Let’s look at VisitScotland - Scotland’s tourist board - to see how it does press releases. A copy of its release is here . From a search perspective, there are a couple of points I would amend. The headline reads:
‘Scotland gets the big screen treatment in major campaign to attract English visitors.’
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Section 2: Recipe No. 21 | Publish a press release
The headline could be clearer. What does ‘big screen treatment’ mean? Look at it
Hot Tip
Spend as much time writing your headline as your main copy. It is the headline that determines whether you get the reader’s attention.
Wordtracker.com
from the viewpoint of the search engine; Google doesn’t know how to interpret this. An alternative might be: ‘Cinema advert set to attract English visitors to Scotland.’ It’s not the most striking headline ever written, but a search engine will ‘understand’ it.
I would rewrite the lead paragraph, too
Hollywood director Peter Webber has filmed a new advert set in Barra which was premiered in UK cinemas as part of a major campaign to attract English tourists.
I have written it to satisfy the search engine’s need for clarity and a basic rule in news writing: the five Ws that I’ve mentioned before, which are often accompanied by ‘how?’.
• Who? Hollywood director Peter Webber
• What? A new cinema advert
• Where? UK cinemas
• Why? To attract more English tourists
• When? Friday
After the introduction
Look back at the five W ’s and ‘how?’, and use them to flesh out the rest of the press release. Remember, the body of the copy should be the interesting detail. The background stuff comes towards the end.
Avoid technical language
You shouldn’t assume the journalist is someone who knows a lot about your industry, so don‘t use jargon. Journalists hate having to translate awkward or complicated copy, so don’t make their jobs any harder.
Quotes
Using quotes is sometimes the best way of explaining why a product is so good, why a new report is beneficial, or why an acquisition is exciting. I would say that the quote
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Section 2: Recipe No. 21 | Publish a press release
should contain between 50 and 75 words. It should add something to the story, and not merely repeat what you have already stated. Remember, this isn’t an opportunity to make a sales pitch - so no corporate speak.
Vital content
There are some things you should always have in your press release.
• Your company brand should be highly visible.
• Date the press release in a universally understood way - Monday 10
November 2008 - not 11/10/08, as it will be understood differently in different countries.
• Be clear and specific. Instead of writing “Today we launched our new product”
write in “Today (Monday 10 November) we launched …” so that there’s no confusion.
• Embargo? An embargo means that the journalist cannot print the story before a
certain date and time.
• It’s a good idea to have the company name as the sender , rather than,
say, John Doe.
• The subject heading is crucial as it will give the journalist a clear indication of what the press release is about , so this is where you should
choose your keywords carefully.
• Contacts. It is imperative to put contact details at the bottom of your press release,
and don’t forget about out-of-hours contacts – for example, a cell phone number.
• Make yourself available. It’s very frustrating for a journalist who wants to
expand on a good press release when the person they need to quote is out of the office or held up in meetings all day.
• Notes to Editors. This section comes at the close of your press release. It is
background information on your business. It can include things like your aims, the size of your company, the number of awards your company has won, or indeed some background on you if you are a small business owner. It is a good idea to provide links to other areas of your site which may be useful - ‘FAQs’, and ‘About Us’.
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Section 2: Recipe No. 21 | Publish a press release
• Photographs. Be prepared for a journalist to ask you for a photograph. Have a
high resolution picture available to email.
More top tips
• You are more likely to get coverage if you offer your story exclusively to one publication. If you give an exclusive, think of follow-up stories that
maximize coverage.
• Know the publication . If you have embargoed a story for Tuesday, why are you
sending it to Sunday newspapers?
• Double-check all statistics and spelling of names. Mistakes make
journalists think you are sloppy and likely to get things wrong.
• If you think you have a great story on your hands and it doesn’t get picked up, phone the journalist and ask why. Maintain a friendly tone and ask
why your story wasn’t used. You should get great feedback for next time you have a story to promote and you’ll start to build a relationship with the journalist.
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The Wordtracker Academy
Free articles, case studies, tips and tricks to help you grow your online business through effective keyword research and search engine optimization .
Gain a clear advantage over your competitors by becoming an expert at search engine optimization and keyword research. We’ve commissioned some of the world’s best online marketing and SEO professionals to be your guides.
Go to the Wordtracker Academy
Wordtracker.com
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Customer service contacts
Use our support system
Email a message to support@wordtracker.com Chat live with one of our support team at Or call us:
• From the USA and Canada: 011 44 333 200 4555
• From the UK: 0333 200 4555 (calls are charged at local rates) • From any other country: +44 333 200 4555
Publication details
Written by Rachelle Money , Mark Nunney and Ken McGaffin Produced and published in November 2009 ISBN number: 978-0-9561475-3-0 © Wordtracker LLP
Unit 11-12 Apollo Studios, Charlton Kings Road, London NW5 2SB United Kingdom CEO: Andy Mindel
Design/production: Shilpa Patel and Neil Gardiner Sub-editors: Julie McNamee
Chief marketing officer: Ken McGaffin Marketing manager: Justin Deaville
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Sunday, April 4
21 irresistible content ideas to wow visitors and boost your search engine optimization
-----------------------------------------------------Page 81-----------------------------------------------------
Section 2: Recipe No.18 | Observe
Hot Tip
For a master class in the power of
observation check
out Seth Godin . This self-made marketing expert uses everyday experiences to
comment on sales and marketing.
A search on the term ‘mini motos’ in Wordtracker’s Keywords tool.
The tool’s Related Keywords search will find hundreds of topics you could write about. Here is an example:
1. Your business sells a mini-size motorbike, known as a ‘mini moto’.
2. Type ‘mini moto’ into the Related Keywords tool and you will find related words such as pit bike, mini bike, and pocket bike.
Wordtracker.com
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Section 2: Recipe No.18 | Observe
3. Use each of these phrases as seed keywords in the Find Keywords tool and you’ll discover a whole world of possible content - enough for thousands of pages of writing.
Back your observation up with research
Let’s go back to Godin. He is excellent at pinpointing problems and providing interesting solutions in an informative, chatty tone. In some blog posts he quotes experts, finds statistics to support his arguments, gives examples and links to sources. Yet the depth of his lateral thinking rarely ventures beyond 300 words.
Get inspired
As Yogi Berra, former New York Yankees baseball player, said: “You can observe a lot just by watching.” Develop the habit of active observation. Practice it.
Wordtracker.com
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Use an
inspirational quotation
“…what is the use of a book” thought Alice, “without pictures or conversations?”
19
This quotation is taken from ‘Alice In Wonderland’ by Lewis Carroll. A quotation can be a great basis for an article. This quotation tells us a lot about why and how
asks me include plenty of color in an article, they are asking for descriptive, emotional language. So, I use plenty of adjectives , or describing words.
we write.
Think of Alice’s Wonderland. It is filled with fantastic
The literal meaning suggests that we should include pictures such as photographs, graphics, or illustrations. You should also think about creating visual images with the words you use. Try to write as though you’re having a conversation with a friend.
Building pictures
When you read a novel it’s often possible to visualize the story. This is because the author will have chosen their words carefully. The same concept applies to good business writing. So, how do you translate what you see into words on a page for someone else to read?
A splash of color
In journalistic terms many editors will talk about color. They don’t mean white, green and brown , but a vivid description that brings the story to life. When an editor
Wordtracker.com
color and imaginative description. And is so much more interesting than most business writing.
Conversations
Many business writers could benefit from making their writing more conversational, and less formal. Pose questions. Engage. Ask your readers to think.
A good way of doing this is through an opinion piece based around a quotation.
Comment is free
A good quotation isn’t dependent on the person who said it. It doesn’t matter if it comes from a football
pundit, a politician or a pop star – it is your interpretation that will interest readers. Here are some quotations you could use in your writing:
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Section 2: Recipe No. 19 | Use an inspirational quotation
“You cannot fight against the future. Time is on our side.” W. E. Gladstone, British
Hot Tip
‘Learn to write well, or not to write at all.’ John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby.
Wordtracker.com
Liberal politician and Prime Minister.
“Things are seldom what they seem. Skim milk masquerades as cream.” W. S. Gilbert, English writer of satirical verse.
“The art of leadership is saying no, not saying yes. It is very easy to say yes.” Tony Blair, British Labour politician and Prime Minister.
“The thing with high-tech is that you always end up using scissors.” David Hockney, English artist.
“I always say, keep a diary, and some day it’ll keep you.” Mae West, American film actress.
“Whenever a friend succeeds, a little something in me dies.” Gore Vidal, American novelist and critic.
“Three hours a day will produce as much as a man ought to write.” Anthony Trollope, English novelist.
“A hungry man is not a free man.” Adlai E. Stevenson, American Democratic politician.
“The chief business of the American people is business.” Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the USA.
And, of course, no list of quotations would be complete without reference to the playwright Oscar Wilde:
“Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.” “The truth is rarely pure and never simple.” “I can resist everything except temptation.”
“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
“There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written.”
There is a useful list of business quotations at Woopidoo .
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-----------------------------------------------------Page 85-----------------------------------------------------
Make a video
Videos make great content for your website. Use them to show your customers the full potential of the products you sell, or showcase your own expertise.
20
Show customers how to use products
You can’t underestimate the power of video. Lauren Luke’s career is based on uploading great content. In 2007 she began uploading tutorials to YouTube , the free video site, on how to apply makeup . Luke now has more than 295,000 subscribers and her channel has been viewed more than 8 million times. Such success led her to launch her own cosmetic line in April 2009. If you work in an industry where people need to be shown how to use your products, video could offer a great opportunity.
Show what products can do
The champions of video are Blendtec with their Will It Blend? videos. I’ve mentioned them elsewhere, but it’s worth noting how often they choose to blend items that are popular and frequently searched. They blended the iPhone when it was first launched; they blend computer games and the latest cameras. They do this to capture the online traffic that is generated by people searching for these sought-after items. They also take requests from their viewers, which means there’s another layer of
interaction. Ask your customers what they want to see. Similarly, National Web Design shows people how to
improve their web design skills. This is helpful, not only to customers, but also as a way of educating and engendering trust in prospective customers. The site includes a six part series on web design through a content management system that has attracted many thousands of views. Note how the company responds to comments, which further engages customers. The videos are kept to under 10 minutes. If you have a complicated or in-depth video, you might want to split it into more manageable chunks.
Wordtracker.com
Video interviews
You may want to be more adventurous and use videos to interview people. EConsultancy.com does this well. The digital marketing and e-commerce site has a YouTube channel , which is mainly made up of videos with its own experts or relevant guests. Next time you attend a conference or discussion, you may want to create a video.
The Web Content Recipe Book | 86
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Section 2: Recipe No.18 | Observe
Hot Tip
For a master class in the power of
observation check
out Seth Godin . This self-made marketing expert uses everyday experiences to
comment on sales and marketing.
A search on the term ‘mini motos’ in Wordtracker’s Keywords tool.
The tool’s Related Keywords search will find hundreds of topics you could write about. Here is an example:
1. Your business sells a mini-size motorbike, known as a ‘mini moto’.
2. Type ‘mini moto’ into the Related Keywords tool and you will find related words such as pit bike, mini bike, and pocket bike.
Wordtracker.com
The Web Content Recipe Book | 82
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-----------------------------------------------------Page 82-----------------------------------------------------
Section 2: Recipe No.18 | Observe
3. Use each of these phrases as seed keywords in the Find Keywords tool and you’ll discover a whole world of possible content - enough for thousands of pages of writing.
Back your observation up with research
Let’s go back to Godin. He is excellent at pinpointing problems and providing interesting solutions in an informative, chatty tone. In some blog posts he quotes experts, finds statistics to support his arguments, gives examples and links to sources. Yet the depth of his lateral thinking rarely ventures beyond 300 words.
Get inspired
As Yogi Berra, former New York Yankees baseball player, said: “You can observe a lot just by watching.” Develop the habit of active observation. Practice it.
Wordtracker.com
The Web Content Recipe Book | 83
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-----------------------------------------------------Page 83-----------------------------------------------------
Use an
inspirational quotation
“…what is the use of a book” thought Alice, “without pictures or conversations?”
19
This quotation is taken from ‘Alice In Wonderland’ by Lewis Carroll. A quotation can be a great basis for an article. This quotation tells us a lot about why and how
asks me include plenty of color in an article, they are asking for descriptive, emotional language. So, I use plenty of adjectives , or describing words.
we write.
Think of Alice’s Wonderland. It is filled with fantastic
The literal meaning suggests that we should include pictures such as photographs, graphics, or illustrations. You should also think about creating visual images with the words you use. Try to write as though you’re having a conversation with a friend.
Building pictures
When you read a novel it’s often possible to visualize the story. This is because the author will have chosen their words carefully. The same concept applies to good business writing. So, how do you translate what you see into words on a page for someone else to read?
A splash of color
In journalistic terms many editors will talk about color. They don’t mean white, green and brown , but a vivid description that brings the story to life. When an editor
Wordtracker.com
color and imaginative description. And is so much more interesting than most business writing.
Conversations
Many business writers could benefit from making their writing more conversational, and less formal. Pose questions. Engage. Ask your readers to think.
A good way of doing this is through an opinion piece based around a quotation.
Comment is free
A good quotation isn’t dependent on the person who said it. It doesn’t matter if it comes from a football
pundit, a politician or a pop star – it is your interpretation that will interest readers. Here are some quotations you could use in your writing:
The Web Content Recipe Book | 84
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-----------------------------------------------------Page 84-----------------------------------------------------
Section 2: Recipe No. 19 | Use an inspirational quotation
“You cannot fight against the future. Time is on our side.” W. E. Gladstone, British
Hot Tip
‘Learn to write well, or not to write at all.’ John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby.
Wordtracker.com
Liberal politician and Prime Minister.
“Things are seldom what they seem. Skim milk masquerades as cream.” W. S. Gilbert, English writer of satirical verse.
“The art of leadership is saying no, not saying yes. It is very easy to say yes.” Tony Blair, British Labour politician and Prime Minister.
“The thing with high-tech is that you always end up using scissors.” David Hockney, English artist.
“I always say, keep a diary, and some day it’ll keep you.” Mae West, American film actress.
“Whenever a friend succeeds, a little something in me dies.” Gore Vidal, American novelist and critic.
“Three hours a day will produce as much as a man ought to write.” Anthony Trollope, English novelist.
“A hungry man is not a free man.” Adlai E. Stevenson, American Democratic politician.
“The chief business of the American people is business.” Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the USA.
And, of course, no list of quotations would be complete without reference to the playwright Oscar Wilde:
“Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.” “The truth is rarely pure and never simple.” “I can resist everything except temptation.”
“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
“There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written.”
There is a useful list of business quotations at Woopidoo .
The Web Content Recipe Book | 85
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-----------------------------------------------------Page 85-----------------------------------------------------
Make a video
Videos make great content for your website. Use them to show your customers the full potential of the products you sell, or showcase your own expertise.
20
Show customers how to use products
You can’t underestimate the power of video. Lauren Luke’s career is based on uploading great content. In 2007 she began uploading tutorials to YouTube , the free video site, on how to apply makeup . Luke now has more than 295,000 subscribers and her channel has been viewed more than 8 million times. Such success led her to launch her own cosmetic line in April 2009. If you work in an industry where people need to be shown how to use your products, video could offer a great opportunity.
Show what products can do
The champions of video are Blendtec with their Will It Blend? videos. I’ve mentioned them elsewhere, but it’s worth noting how often they choose to blend items that are popular and frequently searched. They blended the iPhone when it was first launched; they blend computer games and the latest cameras. They do this to capture the online traffic that is generated by people searching for these sought-after items. They also take requests from their viewers, which means there’s another layer of
interaction. Ask your customers what they want to see. Similarly, National Web Design shows people how to
improve their web design skills. This is helpful, not only to customers, but also as a way of educating and engendering trust in prospective customers. The site includes a six part series on web design through a content management system that has attracted many thousands of views. Note how the company responds to comments, which further engages customers. The videos are kept to under 10 minutes. If you have a complicated or in-depth video, you might want to split it into more manageable chunks.
Wordtracker.com
Video interviews
You may want to be more adventurous and use videos to interview people. EConsultancy.com does this well. The digital marketing and e-commerce site has a YouTube channel , which is mainly made up of videos with its own experts or relevant guests. Next time you attend a conference or discussion, you may want to create a video.
The Web Content Recipe Book | 86
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21 irresistible content ideas to wow visitors and boost your search engine optimization
----------------------------------------------------Page 76-----------------------------------------------------
Publish your own survey
We all love to read survey results. At least,
journalists often write news stories about them, which is one indicator of our interest in them.
17
Do a search on Google News for ‘survey ’ and you’ll find tens of thousands of results. I got 91,000 results just from the last month: I repeated the search on the New York Times and found over 77 stories in that newspaper alone from the last seven days.
This hunger for survey results is well known in public relations (PR), and its practitioners regularly feed survey stories to newspapers and other media. Do a survey story well and you can create excellent content for your website, get great coverage, and generate lots of inbound links.
You must be careful that your survey is objective and unbiased.
There are two approaches you can consider. First, you can comment on other peoples’ surveys. This saves you all the work of conducting your own. Or, you can conduct your own survey. Let’s have a look at some surveys that have created press coverage for the companies that commissioned the research. As you look at these examples, ask yourself a number of questions:
What did the sponsors of the survey want to achieve?
Wordtracker.com
What is the real story?
How might the story and survey results have benefited their business?
How can you conduct research of the same value?
How might others use the information you provide in your results?
Example 1: Compete survey of Smartphone users
In March 2009 Compete, a web analytics company, published findings on how people use their
Smartphones such as Blackberries and iPhones. They found iPhone users spend over three quarters of their time using their cell phone for personal rather than business use. These findings were picked up by the New York Times , TechCrunch and Geek.com .
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Section 2: Recipe No. 17 | Publish your own survey
Example 2: Mom Central survey, back to school clothes
Hot Tip
Be very clear about how you’re going to
conduct the survey and analyze the results.
SurveyMonkey.com is a simple, inexpensive tool to help you carry out surveys.
Wordtracker.com
Mom Central (an online parenting community) conducted a survey in August 2009 asking 1400 parents if they were likely to reduce spending on their children’s school clothes in fall 2009. The results showed only 17% anticipated spending less, but 92% said they would use special offers or take advantage of discounts. This survey was picked up by Fox Business and Reuters .
Example 3: Curious Wines blog, wine for wedding day
In September 2009, the Curious wines blog published findings of a wedding survey in which it looked into what kinds of wine couples would like for their wedding day. They found that one in four respondents bought wine from online retail shops rather than from the hotel venue where they were getting married.
Curious Wines’ blog post was picked up and used on other blogs.
These results were picked up by the Wedding Dates blog , which used the survey results to include a post on five top tips on how to choose wine for your wedding day.
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Section 2: Recipe No. 17 | Publish your own survey
Using survey results
These are just three examples from the many thousands of surveys published every year. There are bound to be interesting surveys in your area of business, and here’s how you can use them to create content for your website.
1. If you’re looking to create keyword rich content, you can simply publish the news release that accompanies the survey. However, many
other sites will do the same - so it is much better to add your own original thoughts to the news release. (To have news releases emailed to you, sign up to sites such as www.prweb.com ).
2. If the survey confirms the need for the sort of product or service you’re providing, you can write an article that draws on its results to highlight the problems you solve and why people should buy from you.
3. You could create an article summarizing the survey results and adding your own opinions. Disagreeing with survey results or pointing out
weaknesses in a survey can bring attention.
4. You could write a summary of the survey and include it on an industry resources page.
5. You could use the survey results to give you article ideas. You could
write an opinion piece on one its conclusions.
Researching and publishing your own market research survey
Commissioning your own survey can be a rich source of content and publicity. However, it does demand a lot of work to get it right. Here are important questions to consider:
1. Do you really need to do an original piece of research? Consider whether
you could use surveys that have already been published.
2. Have a clear objective. What do you want to research? What will you do with
the results?
3. Be very clear about how you’re going to conduct the survey and how you’re going to analyze the results. SurveyMonkey.com, an inexpensive online
research tool, has a handy pdf guide - Smart Survey Design .
Wordtracker.com
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Section 2: Recipe No. 17 | Publish your own survey
4. One of your most important objectives is to remove bias . Many
amateurs ask leading questions such as, “Do you like the friendly attitude of our customer service staff ?” This question assumes the friendly attitude. It would be much better to ask, “Do you think our customer service staff are: friendly, average or unfriendly?”
5. Make sure that you:
• Publish the full results on your own website or blog.
• Write and distribute an accompanying press release, linking to the results on your site.
• Send copies of the results to key influencers and bloggers in your industry.
• Use the survey results as inspiration for further articles.
Finally, if your survey is successful, consider turning it into a regular event, as LonelyPlanet.com does with its Annual Travellers’ Pulse Survey.
Wordtracker.com
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Observe
Active observational skills can enhance the quality of your website content.
18
Godin: A master in observation
Marketing guru Seth Godin is a prolific writer. His
Typepad blog is consistently in Technorati’s list of most popular blogs . Why is this? I’ll stick my neck out and say it’s not because he’s the world’s greatest writer: that’s not what makes him a success. It’s his acute attention to detail and observational skills that have made him a ‘guy in the know ’. He’s seen as someone who is keenly aware of his industry and understands the trends and challenges for marketers. He doesn’t just ignore what’s going on around him, he actively observes and analyzes it. Godin doesn’t go to a baseball game, a restaurant, or get into a taxi without thinking about the ways in which his choices have been marketed to him. His brain is never ‘off’.
One of Godin’s blog posts focuses on a trip he made to the Apple store in New York . He writes about his experience of walking through the door - nothing about the software, the gadgets on the shelves, or even the store layout. Godin dedicates a post to the fact that the door didn’t automatically shut behind him. This is Godin’s opportunity to talk about customer care in its truest sense. He says: “It’s the customers that care who actually have a huge impact on your business. If no one
Wordtracker.com
cares, you’ve got trouble. Goal one is getting people to care. Goal two is listening to them.”
Brain training
In the past Godin has written about a local restaurant closing down, poorly designed branding he’s noticed on the street, queues outside a car rental shop, and even the way a bought sandwich was prepared. Godin’s secret to success…he asks why?
Too many of us observe passively. Rarely do we question why something is the way it is. In a world where we are bombarded with images, slogans and advertising, the general hubbub of life whizzes past us in a blur. To harness these experiences for your website you have to train your brain to put ordinary experiences into sharp focus.
From observation to search engine optimization
Take a single word or phrase from your observation and enter it into Wordtracker ’s Keywords tool.
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Publish your own survey
We all love to read survey results. At least,
journalists often write news stories about them, which is one indicator of our interest in them.
17
Do a search on Google News for ‘survey ’ and you’ll find tens of thousands of results. I got 91,000 results just from the last month: I repeated the search on the New York Times and found over 77 stories in that newspaper alone from the last seven days.
This hunger for survey results is well known in public relations (PR), and its practitioners regularly feed survey stories to newspapers and other media. Do a survey story well and you can create excellent content for your website, get great coverage, and generate lots of inbound links.
You must be careful that your survey is objective and unbiased.
There are two approaches you can consider. First, you can comment on other peoples’ surveys. This saves you all the work of conducting your own. Or, you can conduct your own survey. Let’s have a look at some surveys that have created press coverage for the companies that commissioned the research. As you look at these examples, ask yourself a number of questions:
What did the sponsors of the survey want to achieve?
Wordtracker.com
What is the real story?
How might the story and survey results have benefited their business?
How can you conduct research of the same value?
How might others use the information you provide in your results?
Example 1: Compete survey of Smartphone users
In March 2009 Compete, a web analytics company, published findings on how people use their
Smartphones such as Blackberries and iPhones. They found iPhone users spend over three quarters of their time using their cell phone for personal rather than business use. These findings were picked up by the New York Times , TechCrunch and Geek.com .
The Web Content Recipe Book | 77
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-----------------------------------------------------Page 77-----------------------------------------------------
Section 2: Recipe No. 17 | Publish your own survey
Example 2: Mom Central survey, back to school clothes
Hot Tip
Be very clear about how you’re going to
conduct the survey and analyze the results.
SurveyMonkey.com is a simple, inexpensive tool to help you carry out surveys.
Wordtracker.com
Mom Central (an online parenting community) conducted a survey in August 2009 asking 1400 parents if they were likely to reduce spending on their children’s school clothes in fall 2009. The results showed only 17% anticipated spending less, but 92% said they would use special offers or take advantage of discounts. This survey was picked up by Fox Business and Reuters .
Example 3: Curious Wines blog, wine for wedding day
In September 2009, the Curious wines blog published findings of a wedding survey in which it looked into what kinds of wine couples would like for their wedding day. They found that one in four respondents bought wine from online retail shops rather than from the hotel venue where they were getting married.
Curious Wines’ blog post was picked up and used on other blogs.
These results were picked up by the Wedding Dates blog , which used the survey results to include a post on five top tips on how to choose wine for your wedding day.
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Section 2: Recipe No. 17 | Publish your own survey
Using survey results
These are just three examples from the many thousands of surveys published every year. There are bound to be interesting surveys in your area of business, and here’s how you can use them to create content for your website.
1. If you’re looking to create keyword rich content, you can simply publish the news release that accompanies the survey. However, many
other sites will do the same - so it is much better to add your own original thoughts to the news release. (To have news releases emailed to you, sign up to sites such as www.prweb.com ).
2. If the survey confirms the need for the sort of product or service you’re providing, you can write an article that draws on its results to highlight the problems you solve and why people should buy from you.
3. You could create an article summarizing the survey results and adding your own opinions. Disagreeing with survey results or pointing out
weaknesses in a survey can bring attention.
4. You could write a summary of the survey and include it on an industry resources page.
5. You could use the survey results to give you article ideas. You could
write an opinion piece on one its conclusions.
Researching and publishing your own market research survey
Commissioning your own survey can be a rich source of content and publicity. However, it does demand a lot of work to get it right. Here are important questions to consider:
1. Do you really need to do an original piece of research? Consider whether
you could use surveys that have already been published.
2. Have a clear objective. What do you want to research? What will you do with
the results?
3. Be very clear about how you’re going to conduct the survey and how you’re going to analyze the results. SurveyMonkey.com, an inexpensive online
research tool, has a handy pdf guide - Smart Survey Design .
Wordtracker.com
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Section 2: Recipe No. 17 | Publish your own survey
4. One of your most important objectives is to remove bias . Many
amateurs ask leading questions such as, “Do you like the friendly attitude of our customer service staff ?” This question assumes the friendly attitude. It would be much better to ask, “Do you think our customer service staff are: friendly, average or unfriendly?”
5. Make sure that you:
• Publish the full results on your own website or blog.
• Write and distribute an accompanying press release, linking to the results on your site.
• Send copies of the results to key influencers and bloggers in your industry.
• Use the survey results as inspiration for further articles.
Finally, if your survey is successful, consider turning it into a regular event, as LonelyPlanet.com does with its Annual Travellers’ Pulse Survey.
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Observe
Active observational skills can enhance the quality of your website content.
18
Godin: A master in observation
Marketing guru Seth Godin is a prolific writer. His
Typepad blog is consistently in Technorati’s list of most popular blogs . Why is this? I’ll stick my neck out and say it’s not because he’s the world’s greatest writer: that’s not what makes him a success. It’s his acute attention to detail and observational skills that have made him a ‘guy in the know ’. He’s seen as someone who is keenly aware of his industry and understands the trends and challenges for marketers. He doesn’t just ignore what’s going on around him, he actively observes and analyzes it. Godin doesn’t go to a baseball game, a restaurant, or get into a taxi without thinking about the ways in which his choices have been marketed to him. His brain is never ‘off’.
One of Godin’s blog posts focuses on a trip he made to the Apple store in New York . He writes about his experience of walking through the door - nothing about the software, the gadgets on the shelves, or even the store layout. Godin dedicates a post to the fact that the door didn’t automatically shut behind him. This is Godin’s opportunity to talk about customer care in its truest sense. He says: “It’s the customers that care who actually have a huge impact on your business. If no one
Wordtracker.com
cares, you’ve got trouble. Goal one is getting people to care. Goal two is listening to them.”
Brain training
In the past Godin has written about a local restaurant closing down, poorly designed branding he’s noticed on the street, queues outside a car rental shop, and even the way a bought sandwich was prepared. Godin’s secret to success…he asks why?
Too many of us observe passively. Rarely do we question why something is the way it is. In a world where we are bombarded with images, slogans and advertising, the general hubbub of life whizzes past us in a blur. To harness these experiences for your website you have to train your brain to put ordinary experiences into sharp focus.
From observation to search engine optimization
Take a single word or phrase from your observation and enter it into Wordtracker ’s Keywords tool.
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21 irresistible content ideas to wow visitors and boost your search engine optimization
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Interview an expert
Secure an interview with a respected personality in your industry and the resulting article is likely to attract great traffic and links to your site.
15
How to ask for an interview
Phone or email the person in question with a polite invitation. Explain your website or blog so they can judge whether to grant the interview. You should briefly explain who your audience is and why you want the interview.
I always like to give the person an indication of the angle the article is going to take. You can offer to email the interviewee a list of questions. This keeps you focused on what you want from the interview and puts the interviewee at ease, because they can prepare for the interview and research answers in advance.
Before the interview
Plan the interview and like any good journalist, do your research in advance. Read previous interviews the person has given. Look up the companies they have worked for and the projects they have been involved with.
Make sure you have a pen, notepad and a dictaphone to record the interview. There have been a few times where I’ve been half-way through an interview and found
Wordtracker.com
my dictaphone has run out of battery power or my cell phone is about to die, so make sure you don’t fall into the same trap.
Where are you doing the interview? Choose a quiet spot with as little noise and interference as possible.
The kinds of questions you could ask
I interviewed Chris Garrett, an expert blogger, for
Wordtracker ’s Academy in July 2008 and here are some of the questions I put to him.
• On your own blog www.Chrisg.com you have said that there’s no money in blogging, yet your blog title claims that there’s a six figure income to be had. What’s the truth?
• How do you blog for dollars?
• What are your blogging tips for someone starting out?
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Section 2: Recipe No. 15 | Interview an expert
• With millions of blogs out there how can I make sure mine is unique?
Hot Tip
• What keyword research do you do before you write your blog entries?
• Is business blogging a waste of time?
Conduct your interview
over the phone rather than email. A face-to- face interview works even better.
Wordtracker.com
• How do you manage comments?
• On your blog you said the “Build it and they will come” theory is flawed. Why?
• How do you get other bloggers to link to you?
My research helped me pick up on things that he’s written or said in the past.
In the article I link to Chris Garrett’s own blog. It’s a good practice and will be appreciated by the interviewee.
The interview
You’ll probably find that the first question is the trickiest. So, get the interview going by asking about easy questions about the person’s background – how they got into their profession, or what companies they worked for.
Get to the specific questions you emailed to the expert and make sure you are listening and taking notes at the same time. Listen carefully! Your interviewee may give a surprising answer or make a controversial statement, so you need to be ready to react to that and ask for more detail. Follow up with probing questions: ask why they feel this way. Or get them to give specific examples.
Structure
You can write up your interview in a question and answer article, like the one I wrote on Chris Garrett; or you can write it in a structured narrative, such as the article I wrote on Seth Godin , author of best selling book, Permission Marketing, Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers.
Use the questions you wrote down as the start of a structure. The introduction should be a summary of who the interviewee is and why your readers will be interested in what they have to say.
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Section 2: Recipe No. 15 | Interview an expert
At the end of the interview check that the interviewee is happy for you to email them with any follow-up questions. That gives you a second chance to clarify what they’ve said.
Before publishing
Check your facts before you hit the ‘publish’ button. If your interviewee gives you a bunch of statistics or mentions a piece of research, check the source to make sure it’s truthfully and accurately represented.
Once the article’s published, send a polite email to the interviewee notifying them. Encourage them to link to or Tweet the article, and respond to any comments or questions it generates.
Wordtracker.com
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Write an A-Z
This idea is simplicity itself. You can write an A-Z on almost anything: great products you have used over the years; tourist attractions in your state; songs and musicians you admire; or tasty food and recipes.
16
Entertain your readers
Many websites have A-Zs in the form of an index, which makes the site easier to navigate. This can make useful
list, so plan your writing before you begin. Have a brainstorming session with your colleagues and pick a broad subject area, so you can fill most of the 26 letters.
content, but go one better: aim to create something fun.
Campaigning A-Zs
An A-Z of well designed products
I got the A-Z idea from Fast Company magazine, which in October 2007 published an A-Z of well designed products. The magazine presented each letter alongside a product, with its photograph, the product blurb, and how much it cost. For example:
“M — Method Floor Mop. From the ergonomic pole to the compostable corn-based cloths, Method is, well methodical about smart, sustainable design. It’s non- toxic and naturally derived to protect your home sweet home (and everyone in it.) $24.99.”
A-Zs can be used to promote a variety of causes. Friends of the Earth, the environmental campaign group, has an A-Z of different types of wood , the amount used in the UK each year, and whether the species of tree is under threat.
Sales A-Zs
Here’s another A-Z , geared towards generating sales. It lists gift ideas for men who can’t think of what to buy their girlfriends or wives.
Note the way that each page is optimized with links to
and from each gift idea.
Plan your list before you begin writing
This is a fairly simple process, as long as you have the full A-Z. There’s nothing worse than an incomplete
Wordtracker.com
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Section 2: Recipe No. 16 | Write an A-Z
Hot Tip
Choose a broad- ranging topic. You
don’t want to get to the middle of the alphabet and realize you have nothing left to say.
Toptenz provides great ideas for your own content.
A-Z dangers
The main danger in writing an A-Z is that you can labor over it too much. It should be a quick guide, not a weighty dossier. Try not to get sucked into writing reams of material — keep to a few sentences for each letter.
Wordtracker.com
The Web Content Recipe Book | 76
Interview an expert
Secure an interview with a respected personality in your industry and the resulting article is likely to attract great traffic and links to your site.
15
How to ask for an interview
Phone or email the person in question with a polite invitation. Explain your website or blog so they can judge whether to grant the interview. You should briefly explain who your audience is and why you want the interview.
I always like to give the person an indication of the angle the article is going to take. You can offer to email the interviewee a list of questions. This keeps you focused on what you want from the interview and puts the interviewee at ease, because they can prepare for the interview and research answers in advance.
Before the interview
Plan the interview and like any good journalist, do your research in advance. Read previous interviews the person has given. Look up the companies they have worked for and the projects they have been involved with.
Make sure you have a pen, notepad and a dictaphone to record the interview. There have been a few times where I’ve been half-way through an interview and found
Wordtracker.com
my dictaphone has run out of battery power or my cell phone is about to die, so make sure you don’t fall into the same trap.
Where are you doing the interview? Choose a quiet spot with as little noise and interference as possible.
The kinds of questions you could ask
I interviewed Chris Garrett, an expert blogger, for
Wordtracker ’s Academy in July 2008 and here are some of the questions I put to him.
• On your own blog www.Chrisg.com you have said that there’s no money in blogging, yet your blog title claims that there’s a six figure income to be had. What’s the truth?
• How do you blog for dollars?
• What are your blogging tips for someone starting out?
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-----------------------------------------------------Page 72-----------------------------------------------------
Section 2: Recipe No. 15 | Interview an expert
• With millions of blogs out there how can I make sure mine is unique?
Hot Tip
• What keyword research do you do before you write your blog entries?
• Is business blogging a waste of time?
Conduct your interview
over the phone rather than email. A face-to- face interview works even better.
Wordtracker.com
• How do you manage comments?
• On your blog you said the “Build it and they will come” theory is flawed. Why?
• How do you get other bloggers to link to you?
My research helped me pick up on things that he’s written or said in the past.
In the article I link to Chris Garrett’s own blog. It’s a good practice and will be appreciated by the interviewee.
The interview
You’ll probably find that the first question is the trickiest. So, get the interview going by asking about easy questions about the person’s background – how they got into their profession, or what companies they worked for.
Get to the specific questions you emailed to the expert and make sure you are listening and taking notes at the same time. Listen carefully! Your interviewee may give a surprising answer or make a controversial statement, so you need to be ready to react to that and ask for more detail. Follow up with probing questions: ask why they feel this way. Or get them to give specific examples.
Structure
You can write up your interview in a question and answer article, like the one I wrote on Chris Garrett; or you can write it in a structured narrative, such as the article I wrote on Seth Godin , author of best selling book, Permission Marketing, Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers.
Use the questions you wrote down as the start of a structure. The introduction should be a summary of who the interviewee is and why your readers will be interested in what they have to say.
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Section 2: Recipe No. 15 | Interview an expert
At the end of the interview check that the interviewee is happy for you to email them with any follow-up questions. That gives you a second chance to clarify what they’ve said.
Before publishing
Check your facts before you hit the ‘publish’ button. If your interviewee gives you a bunch of statistics or mentions a piece of research, check the source to make sure it’s truthfully and accurately represented.
Once the article’s published, send a polite email to the interviewee notifying them. Encourage them to link to or Tweet the article, and respond to any comments or questions it generates.
Wordtracker.com
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-----------------------------------------------------Page 74-----------------------------------------------------
Write an A-Z
This idea is simplicity itself. You can write an A-Z on almost anything: great products you have used over the years; tourist attractions in your state; songs and musicians you admire; or tasty food and recipes.
16
Entertain your readers
Many websites have A-Zs in the form of an index, which makes the site easier to navigate. This can make useful
list, so plan your writing before you begin. Have a brainstorming session with your colleagues and pick a broad subject area, so you can fill most of the 26 letters.
content, but go one better: aim to create something fun.
Campaigning A-Zs
An A-Z of well designed products
I got the A-Z idea from Fast Company magazine, which in October 2007 published an A-Z of well designed products. The magazine presented each letter alongside a product, with its photograph, the product blurb, and how much it cost. For example:
“M — Method Floor Mop. From the ergonomic pole to the compostable corn-based cloths, Method is, well methodical about smart, sustainable design. It’s non- toxic and naturally derived to protect your home sweet home (and everyone in it.) $24.99.”
A-Zs can be used to promote a variety of causes. Friends of the Earth, the environmental campaign group, has an A-Z of different types of wood , the amount used in the UK each year, and whether the species of tree is under threat.
Sales A-Zs
Here’s another A-Z , geared towards generating sales. It lists gift ideas for men who can’t think of what to buy their girlfriends or wives.
Note the way that each page is optimized with links to
and from each gift idea.
Plan your list before you begin writing
This is a fairly simple process, as long as you have the full A-Z. There’s nothing worse than an incomplete
Wordtracker.com
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-----------------------------------------------------Page 75-----------------------------------------------------
Section 2: Recipe No. 16 | Write an A-Z
Hot Tip
Choose a broad- ranging topic. You
don’t want to get to the middle of the alphabet and realize you have nothing left to say.
Toptenz provides great ideas for your own content.
A-Z dangers
The main danger in writing an A-Z is that you can labor over it too much. It should be a quick guide, not a weighty dossier. Try not to get sucked into writing reams of material — keep to a few sentences for each letter.
Wordtracker.com
The Web Content Recipe Book | 76
21 irresistible content ideas to wow visitors and boost your search engine optimization
-----------------------------------------------------Page 66-----------------------------------------------------
Section 2: Recipe No. 13 | Review a product
threw me was the ‘DVD check’ — a process that took around 20 minutes.” He goes
Hot Tip
There are two types of product reviews - stand- alone or comparative. The first focuses on a single product. The second evaluates
similar items and helps readers to choose the product that best suits their needs.
Wordtracker.com
on to talk about new features like the Finder, Space, and the Time Machine. The review ’s quality is enhanced by the addition of photographs taken from his desktop that illustrate exactly what he’s talking about. In his summary, he concludes that the system is well worth the money.
Two approaches, two audiences
Riley and Snell approach the same product in different ways. They have been written with different audiences in mind.
Your readers
Who are my readers? This is the question you should be asking yourself repeatedly throughout this process. If you are largely talking to an audience of corporate managers their problems are going to be different from the guy who runs a small business from home. Your readers are key to the product review, because they will make a judgment call on whether to purchase the product based on your review.
Content
You can write a review on anything — it doesn’t have to be the latest piece of technology. You could write about a nearby restaurant, a coffee shop that sells the best muffins you have ever tasted, or a household appliance you have recently invested in.
Detailed research is essential. You have to know your subject matter, so that you’re being fair to the manufacturer, and to yourself. It’s your credibility that is at stake.
Once you have decided on your product, researched it and know the style you want to adopt, decide on your structure. I have provided some points to consider:
• Headline should include the full product name and version you are reviewing.
• Introduction should be a short summary of your product review. Give
your readers a taste of what to expect by telling them whether this is going to be a positive or negative review.
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Section 2: Recipe No. 13 | Review a product
• You should set out the claims the manufacturer makes about what the product does by reading all the material supplied. These provide a
basis for measuring the product’s success.
• Why will your readers be interested in this particular product? What
could they gain from using it? What are their needs and wants? What problems do they face?
• How does it work? Think about giving a step-by-step description and include
photographs, like Riley did with the Mac Leopard. If you are reviewing software don’t get too technical. Your readers won’t want to know every cough and spit of an installation process but they may appreciate a screenshot.
• Show your appreciation or disapproval of the product. You should go
back to the promises the manufacturer makes and express how it lives up to those promises, or how it doesn’t. A list of pros and cons is a great way to show your readers exactly what they can expect from the product.
• Make comparisons. Is the product an upgrade of a former model? Is it
better than its predecessors? How does it compare with competitive products — so in the Mac example, you might want to consider how its operating system compares with a similarly-priced PC?
• Summarize your opinion in the final paragraph. Is it worth the price tag?
Do this with certainty and conviction, or you will leave your reader confused. Would you buy it? You should also include a link to the company who makes the product and the recommended retail price.
Now that you have shared your views with the world, invite others to participate and get a debate going.
Wordtracker.com
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Build a
Top 10 list
Readers respond well to Top 10 lists and they are some of the quickest, easiest articles you can write.
14
There is a lot of competition out there, so you need to be able to present your article in an easily accessible way. A list that contains lots of text will be off-putting to many readers. A Top 10 should have short sentences and shouldn’t be repetitive. You can list top tips, worst mistakes, or simple bullet points.
The www.toptenz.net site is dedicated to Top 10 lists.
Toptenz provides great ideas for your own content.
It may provide ideas for your business. 10 is a popular
Wordtracker.com
quantity, and more likely to be searched on than other numbers. But, you can include any number of points – whatever suits the content.
Keyword research ideas
If you aren’t sure what kind of Top 10 article you
should be writing, start with some keyword research. Use either Wordtracker ’s paid Keywords tool , or its free keywords tool.
I typed ‘top ten’ into the Keywords tool and it produced a list of potential articles. The most popular was Top 10 search engins, but others caught my eye, too. You could write about the Top 10:
• travel destinations • supermarkets • viral emails • movies • toys
• books to read
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Section 2: Recipe No. 14 | Build a top-10 list
BBC Top 10 list
Hot Tip
Almost any topic provides plenty of opportunities for
creating a Top 10 list.
Find the right keywords and search engine
traffic will flow to your site. Include the terms ‘top’ and ‘best’ in your headlines and title tags.
Wordtracker.com
In February 2007, ING Direct bank commissioned some research about social signals that are key indicators of a neighborhood that is “on the up,” with potential for rising house prices. The BBC carried a news article on what the Top 10 indicators are:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6389467.stm
1. Ethnic cuisine
2. Thicker telephone directories
3. Crowded public transport
4. Better school results
5. Neighborhood watch schemes
6. More burglar alarms
7. More skips and scaffolding
8. Graffiti disappearing
9. Planning notices appear
10. More traffic wardens
ING’s timing, not long before house prices started to fall, wasn’t great. But the example shows how straightforward it is to attract good media coverage for Top 10 lists.
Top 10 things you should know before you blog
In her article, The Top 10 Things You Should Know Before You Blog , Carole Matthews takes a more in-depth approach to a Top 10 article. Matthews writes 1,400 words, with each of the 10 headlines in bold, and around 120 to 150 words on each point.
The piece works well because she has done her homework and is able to include a variety of attributable quotes and links to organizations within the body text.
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Section 2: Recipe No. 14 | Build a top-10 list
Use the Top 10 to showcase your talents
Think of your audience when writing. What kind of thing would they like to know? How can you use your expertise to provide useful tips or share your strategic thinking?
E-consultancy.com, an online marketing and e-commerce site, has published a series of articles analyzing major UK retailers’ websites. See 10 things Tesco can do better online . Or 10 things Boots can do better online . Each article is a critique of the retailer ’s site, with tips on how users’ experience could be improved.
You could write a similar article to showcase your skills or products. If you run a yoga class, explain the Top 10 benefits of yoga. If you run a cookery school, cover the Top 10 meals made with chicken. Or if, like Guy Kawasaki, you are a successful blogger and venture capitalist, you could write about 10 ways to use LinkedIn to find a job .
Five more ways of benefiting from Top 10 lists
Here are five more ways of benefiting from Top 10 lists
• Invite readers to add to your list – this gives you greater engagement and
interactivity with your audience, and creates additional keyword rich copy.
• Create seasonal lists – for Christmas, Halloween, or Valentines. End of year
round-ups are always popular.
• Include both ‘Top ten’ and ‘Top 10’ in your headline and body copy –
as people will use both terms when searching.
• If you sell advertising, you may want to split the list over more than one page. You can benefit from optimizing each page separately, but more
importantly, generate page impressions to impress potential advertisers.
• Finally, halve your workload – write a Top 5 list.
Wordtracker.com
The Web Content Recipe Book | 71
Section 2: Recipe No. 13 | Review a product
threw me was the ‘DVD check’ — a process that took around 20 minutes.” He goes
Hot Tip
There are two types of product reviews - stand- alone or comparative. The first focuses on a single product. The second evaluates
similar items and helps readers to choose the product that best suits their needs.
Wordtracker.com
on to talk about new features like the Finder, Space, and the Time Machine. The review ’s quality is enhanced by the addition of photographs taken from his desktop that illustrate exactly what he’s talking about. In his summary, he concludes that the system is well worth the money.
Two approaches, two audiences
Riley and Snell approach the same product in different ways. They have been written with different audiences in mind.
Your readers
Who are my readers? This is the question you should be asking yourself repeatedly throughout this process. If you are largely talking to an audience of corporate managers their problems are going to be different from the guy who runs a small business from home. Your readers are key to the product review, because they will make a judgment call on whether to purchase the product based on your review.
Content
You can write a review on anything — it doesn’t have to be the latest piece of technology. You could write about a nearby restaurant, a coffee shop that sells the best muffins you have ever tasted, or a household appliance you have recently invested in.
Detailed research is essential. You have to know your subject matter, so that you’re being fair to the manufacturer, and to yourself. It’s your credibility that is at stake.
Once you have decided on your product, researched it and know the style you want to adopt, decide on your structure. I have provided some points to consider:
• Headline should include the full product name and version you are reviewing.
• Introduction should be a short summary of your product review. Give
your readers a taste of what to expect by telling them whether this is going to be a positive or negative review.
The Web Content Recipe Book | 67
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-----------------------------------------------------Page 67-----------------------------------------------------
Section 2: Recipe No. 13 | Review a product
• You should set out the claims the manufacturer makes about what the product does by reading all the material supplied. These provide a
basis for measuring the product’s success.
• Why will your readers be interested in this particular product? What
could they gain from using it? What are their needs and wants? What problems do they face?
• How does it work? Think about giving a step-by-step description and include
photographs, like Riley did with the Mac Leopard. If you are reviewing software don’t get too technical. Your readers won’t want to know every cough and spit of an installation process but they may appreciate a screenshot.
• Show your appreciation or disapproval of the product. You should go
back to the promises the manufacturer makes and express how it lives up to those promises, or how it doesn’t. A list of pros and cons is a great way to show your readers exactly what they can expect from the product.
• Make comparisons. Is the product an upgrade of a former model? Is it
better than its predecessors? How does it compare with competitive products — so in the Mac example, you might want to consider how its operating system compares with a similarly-priced PC?
• Summarize your opinion in the final paragraph. Is it worth the price tag?
Do this with certainty and conviction, or you will leave your reader confused. Would you buy it? You should also include a link to the company who makes the product and the recommended retail price.
Now that you have shared your views with the world, invite others to participate and get a debate going.
Wordtracker.com
The Web Content Recipe Book | 68
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-----------------------------------------------------Page 68-----------------------------------------------------
Build a
Top 10 list
Readers respond well to Top 10 lists and they are some of the quickest, easiest articles you can write.
14
There is a lot of competition out there, so you need to be able to present your article in an easily accessible way. A list that contains lots of text will be off-putting to many readers. A Top 10 should have short sentences and shouldn’t be repetitive. You can list top tips, worst mistakes, or simple bullet points.
The www.toptenz.net site is dedicated to Top 10 lists.
Toptenz provides great ideas for your own content.
It may provide ideas for your business. 10 is a popular
Wordtracker.com
quantity, and more likely to be searched on than other numbers. But, you can include any number of points – whatever suits the content.
Keyword research ideas
If you aren’t sure what kind of Top 10 article you
should be writing, start with some keyword research. Use either Wordtracker ’s paid Keywords tool , or its free keywords tool.
I typed ‘top ten’ into the Keywords tool and it produced a list of potential articles. The most popular was Top 10 search engins, but others caught my eye, too. You could write about the Top 10:
• travel destinations • supermarkets • viral emails • movies • toys
• books to read
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Section 2: Recipe No. 14 | Build a top-10 list
BBC Top 10 list
Hot Tip
Almost any topic provides plenty of opportunities for
creating a Top 10 list.
Find the right keywords and search engine
traffic will flow to your site. Include the terms ‘top’ and ‘best’ in your headlines and title tags.
Wordtracker.com
In February 2007, ING Direct bank commissioned some research about social signals that are key indicators of a neighborhood that is “on the up,” with potential for rising house prices. The BBC carried a news article on what the Top 10 indicators are:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6389467.stm
1. Ethnic cuisine
2. Thicker telephone directories
3. Crowded public transport
4. Better school results
5. Neighborhood watch schemes
6. More burglar alarms
7. More skips and scaffolding
8. Graffiti disappearing
9. Planning notices appear
10. More traffic wardens
ING’s timing, not long before house prices started to fall, wasn’t great. But the example shows how straightforward it is to attract good media coverage for Top 10 lists.
Top 10 things you should know before you blog
In her article, The Top 10 Things You Should Know Before You Blog , Carole Matthews takes a more in-depth approach to a Top 10 article. Matthews writes 1,400 words, with each of the 10 headlines in bold, and around 120 to 150 words on each point.
The piece works well because she has done her homework and is able to include a variety of attributable quotes and links to organizations within the body text.
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Section 2: Recipe No. 14 | Build a top-10 list
Use the Top 10 to showcase your talents
Think of your audience when writing. What kind of thing would they like to know? How can you use your expertise to provide useful tips or share your strategic thinking?
E-consultancy.com, an online marketing and e-commerce site, has published a series of articles analyzing major UK retailers’ websites. See 10 things Tesco can do better online . Or 10 things Boots can do better online . Each article is a critique of the retailer ’s site, with tips on how users’ experience could be improved.
You could write a similar article to showcase your skills or products. If you run a yoga class, explain the Top 10 benefits of yoga. If you run a cookery school, cover the Top 10 meals made with chicken. Or if, like Guy Kawasaki, you are a successful blogger and venture capitalist, you could write about 10 ways to use LinkedIn to find a job .
Five more ways of benefiting from Top 10 lists
Here are five more ways of benefiting from Top 10 lists
• Invite readers to add to your list – this gives you greater engagement and
interactivity with your audience, and creates additional keyword rich copy.
• Create seasonal lists – for Christmas, Halloween, or Valentines. End of year
round-ups are always popular.
• Include both ‘Top ten’ and ‘Top 10’ in your headline and body copy –
as people will use both terms when searching.
• If you sell advertising, you may want to split the list over more than one page. You can benefit from optimizing each page separately, but more
importantly, generate page impressions to impress potential advertisers.
• Finally, halve your workload – write a Top 5 list.
Wordtracker.com
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21 irresistible content ideas to wow visitors and boost your search engine optimization
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Section 2: Recipe No. 11 | Admit your mistakes
Both newspaper sections tell the stories of business people who sold out too quickly; hung on too long; failed to manage staff well enough; didn’t communicate with their customers; ignored their instinct; or paid the price for underestimating their competition. If you’re brave, you could write about your mistakes. Or there are other options.
Mistakes other people make
You could offer advice. If you own a web design company do you look at other people’s websites and cringe? Why? What are they doing that’s so wrong? If you are in PR, marketing or advertising, I’m sure you can think of a blunder or two to talk about, either specific industry examples, or general pointers.
Frugal Marketing
Take a look at Frugal Marketing where Keith Price, author of the ‘Copywriter ’s Dirty Little Secret’ e-book writes an article about ‘The Apprentice’, Donald Trump’s television show. Each week, he highlights contestants’ mistakes and offers marketing advice. This is a great way of piggybacking a popular television show that attract millions of viewers and press attention.
Frugal marketing creates content based on the popular television series, ‘The Apprentice’.
How can you use your knowledge and experience to show people how to avoid the oversights and failures made by others?
Wordtracker.com
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Review a book
Writing a book review is a great opportunity to create a keyword rich webpage. And a chance to give an honest reaction to someone else’s work. But how do you make sure your critique is both fair and valuable for your readers?
12
Question everything
A good review will contain information about the book’s content and a judgment about how successful the book is. To judge success, you need to know what the author ’s aims are. Research is essential. Find out as much as you can about the author ’s viewpoint and purpose.
I’m going to show how I constructed a review of Mark J Penn’s ‘ Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Today ’s Big Changes ’. Many of the points I make can be applied to fiction reviews, but I’m primarily concerned with non- fiction reviews.
I started by reading the blurb on the back, the
introduction and the writer’s biography. The cover of Penn’s book includes endorsements from Bill Clinton, the former US President, and Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft. Both men were Penn’s former employers, and I was able to mention this pertinent fact in the review.
Make notes as you read
My next step was to read the book. However, I did so in a particular way, questioning every assumption
Wordtracker.com
and argument I found. Have your notebook open as you read and note page numbers when you find an interesting point or idea. You may want to place ‘post-it’ notes on important pages. This process makes writing the review easier.
Don’t judge a book by its title
When I saw the title, I thought ‘Microtrends’ would be a dry piece of writing, all technical language and no color. Let’s be honest, ‘Microtrends’ is hardly a sexy title, is it? In reality, I found the book to be interesting and informative. The fact that the book surprised me formed the basis of my critique, so I chose to lead on that point in my introduction.
Good structure is essential
Critiquing someone else’s work is a real responsibility. So, you should think carefully about what you want to say. Your review should combine analysis of the book’s content with a personal response to the subject matter. Reviewers will want to know:
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Section 2: Recipe No. 12 | Review a book
• What the book is about
• So what – why should they read it?
When writing a review, you should describe the content, analyze how the book tried to achieve its aims, and express your own reaction to it.
Microtrends
After reading ‘Microtrends’, I scribbled down a rough structure. It’s a great way of deciding which points you want to cover. Here’s what I wrote:
•
Introduction. You should include the title of the book in the opening paragraph.
• Look at the book’s introduction. If it is well written, it will set the tone and
context. Is there anything you can pull out of it that helps you analyze its content in a wider context?
• A description of the author. Who is he/she? What other books have they
written? Are they an expert in this field?
• What promises does the book make? What are the most appropriate criteria
for judging it?
• What questions or debates does the book raise ? How topical or important
is it?
•
Are there any problems or difficulties?
• What does the writer say that you disagree with? What has the author left
out?
• Why would anyone read it? Think about your target audience — what are they
likely to think about the book?
• Does it belong to a particular genre? Does it fit into a type - mystery,
romance, or business?
• How does it compare to other books that look at a similar issue? Does
it contain any new opinions? What are they?
Wordtracker.com
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Section 2: Recipe No. 12 | Review a book
•
Has it changed your mind about anything?
Hot Tip
Try to mention the name of the author and the book title in your introduction — it is frustrating to read a review of a book but not know who wrote it and what the title is.
Wordtracker.com
• Conclusion. This is where you should make a clear recommendation to your
readers.
Use this outline to create a basic structure. It’s up to you to fill in the gaps, while maintaining logical thought and flow. Pick three or four examples from the book that back up the points you make.
Hints on writing
As a guideline you might want to dedicate the first two-thirds of the review to the author ’s main ideas. The remainder of your copy should evaluate the book.
When writing, make sure any quotes you lift from the book are put in quotation marks (“”). This avoids confusion. When you re-read your drafts, always go back to the page you have taken the quotes from and double-check for accuracy. The concluding paragraph should sum up your central argument and judgment. Never introduce a new idea at this stage.
Pros and cons
If it helps, you can make a list of pros and cons before writing. The most positive point I made about Penn’s work was that he personalized Microtrends by using his own experiences in business. I was frustrated, however, by being bombarded with statistics. I wanted more analysis and included this comment in my review.
Being critical of someone else’s work doesn’t sit comfortably with many people. But, as a writer you are providing a service. So if you disagree with the author, tell your readers how you feel. You’ll be providing great material for a debate.
Try to include a few short quotes from the book to illustrate your points. It is a way of giving your readers a sense of the author ’s style.
Once you’ve written a review, take a break. Don’t publish straight away. Have a day or two away from it. A fresh perspective will help you edit the piece more thoroughly. Revisit your notes, re-read key chapters of the text, and hone your copy, so that it’s easy to read, clear and accessible.
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Review a product
How do you choose which products you buy? Do you believe every word the salesman tells you? Or, do you ask your friends’ and colleagues’ opinions and try to get an independent assessment before you buy?
13
Savvy consumers will be looking for product reviews. Provide them on your site and you are likely to attract traffic.
Decide which product you are going to review. It should be relevant to your market and appeal to a section of your target audience.
You could look at a new software package, a piece of equipment such as a cell phone, or an experience such as a museum trip — as long as that’s appropriate for your audience.
Here’s an example of a product that two writers reviewed very differently. In October 2007 Apple launched an updated operating system, Mac 0S X, dubbed ‘Leopard‘, to a worldwide audience. Apple sold over 2 million copies in the first weekend, and this created a flurry of online activity with people eager to share their experiences.
Macworld.com
Jason Snell of Macworld.com, an independent online
Wordtracker.com
magazine that provides news and reviews of Mac products, gives his thoughts on Leopard .
In his introduction he sets out the promises Apple makes in relation to the product, such as improved security. Snell discusses the major features, using headings to break up the review.
In places his language is technical and the article is long by internet standards (nearly 3,000 words). These factors matter less if his readers are technically minded and already familiar with Mac products. He splits the review into chunks to make it easier to digest.
In his closing paragraph, “Macworld’s buying advice”, Snell poses the question: are the new features worth $129? His answer is clear. Yes, the features justify the price.
Techcrunch
A review by Duncan Riley for Techcrunch.com on Mac’s Leopard takes a less technical approach. He writes in the first person, making his a much more personal review. At 740 words, the review is much shorter than Snell’s. Riley ’s approach is more practical. First, he describes the installation of the software, “The first thing that
The Web Content Recipe Book | 66
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Section 2: Recipe No. 11 | Admit your mistakes
Both newspaper sections tell the stories of business people who sold out too quickly; hung on too long; failed to manage staff well enough; didn’t communicate with their customers; ignored their instinct; or paid the price for underestimating their competition. If you’re brave, you could write about your mistakes. Or there are other options.
Mistakes other people make
You could offer advice. If you own a web design company do you look at other people’s websites and cringe? Why? What are they doing that’s so wrong? If you are in PR, marketing or advertising, I’m sure you can think of a blunder or two to talk about, either specific industry examples, or general pointers.
Frugal Marketing
Take a look at Frugal Marketing where Keith Price, author of the ‘Copywriter ’s Dirty Little Secret’ e-book writes an article about ‘The Apprentice’, Donald Trump’s television show. Each week, he highlights contestants’ mistakes and offers marketing advice. This is a great way of piggybacking a popular television show that attract millions of viewers and press attention.
Frugal marketing creates content based on the popular television series, ‘The Apprentice’.
How can you use your knowledge and experience to show people how to avoid the oversights and failures made by others?
Wordtracker.com
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Review a book
Writing a book review is a great opportunity to create a keyword rich webpage. And a chance to give an honest reaction to someone else’s work. But how do you make sure your critique is both fair and valuable for your readers?
12
Question everything
A good review will contain information about the book’s content and a judgment about how successful the book is. To judge success, you need to know what the author ’s aims are. Research is essential. Find out as much as you can about the author ’s viewpoint and purpose.
I’m going to show how I constructed a review of Mark J Penn’s ‘ Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Today ’s Big Changes ’. Many of the points I make can be applied to fiction reviews, but I’m primarily concerned with non- fiction reviews.
I started by reading the blurb on the back, the
introduction and the writer’s biography. The cover of Penn’s book includes endorsements from Bill Clinton, the former US President, and Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft. Both men were Penn’s former employers, and I was able to mention this pertinent fact in the review.
Make notes as you read
My next step was to read the book. However, I did so in a particular way, questioning every assumption
Wordtracker.com
and argument I found. Have your notebook open as you read and note page numbers when you find an interesting point or idea. You may want to place ‘post-it’ notes on important pages. This process makes writing the review easier.
Don’t judge a book by its title
When I saw the title, I thought ‘Microtrends’ would be a dry piece of writing, all technical language and no color. Let’s be honest, ‘Microtrends’ is hardly a sexy title, is it? In reality, I found the book to be interesting and informative. The fact that the book surprised me formed the basis of my critique, so I chose to lead on that point in my introduction.
Good structure is essential
Critiquing someone else’s work is a real responsibility. So, you should think carefully about what you want to say. Your review should combine analysis of the book’s content with a personal response to the subject matter. Reviewers will want to know:
The Web Content Recipe Book | 63
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Section 2: Recipe No. 12 | Review a book
• What the book is about
• So what – why should they read it?
When writing a review, you should describe the content, analyze how the book tried to achieve its aims, and express your own reaction to it.
Microtrends
After reading ‘Microtrends’, I scribbled down a rough structure. It’s a great way of deciding which points you want to cover. Here’s what I wrote:
•
Introduction. You should include the title of the book in the opening paragraph.
• Look at the book’s introduction. If it is well written, it will set the tone and
context. Is there anything you can pull out of it that helps you analyze its content in a wider context?
• A description of the author. Who is he/she? What other books have they
written? Are they an expert in this field?
• What promises does the book make? What are the most appropriate criteria
for judging it?
• What questions or debates does the book raise ? How topical or important
is it?
•
Are there any problems or difficulties?
• What does the writer say that you disagree with? What has the author left
out?
• Why would anyone read it? Think about your target audience — what are they
likely to think about the book?
• Does it belong to a particular genre? Does it fit into a type - mystery,
romance, or business?
• How does it compare to other books that look at a similar issue? Does
it contain any new opinions? What are they?
Wordtracker.com
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Section 2: Recipe No. 12 | Review a book
•
Has it changed your mind about anything?
Hot Tip
Try to mention the name of the author and the book title in your introduction — it is frustrating to read a review of a book but not know who wrote it and what the title is.
Wordtracker.com
• Conclusion. This is where you should make a clear recommendation to your
readers.
Use this outline to create a basic structure. It’s up to you to fill in the gaps, while maintaining logical thought and flow. Pick three or four examples from the book that back up the points you make.
Hints on writing
As a guideline you might want to dedicate the first two-thirds of the review to the author ’s main ideas. The remainder of your copy should evaluate the book.
When writing, make sure any quotes you lift from the book are put in quotation marks (“”). This avoids confusion. When you re-read your drafts, always go back to the page you have taken the quotes from and double-check for accuracy. The concluding paragraph should sum up your central argument and judgment. Never introduce a new idea at this stage.
Pros and cons
If it helps, you can make a list of pros and cons before writing. The most positive point I made about Penn’s work was that he personalized Microtrends by using his own experiences in business. I was frustrated, however, by being bombarded with statistics. I wanted more analysis and included this comment in my review.
Being critical of someone else’s work doesn’t sit comfortably with many people. But, as a writer you are providing a service. So if you disagree with the author, tell your readers how you feel. You’ll be providing great material for a debate.
Try to include a few short quotes from the book to illustrate your points. It is a way of giving your readers a sense of the author ’s style.
Once you’ve written a review, take a break. Don’t publish straight away. Have a day or two away from it. A fresh perspective will help you edit the piece more thoroughly. Revisit your notes, re-read key chapters of the text, and hone your copy, so that it’s easy to read, clear and accessible.
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-----------------------------------------------------Page 65-----------------------------------------------------
Review a product
How do you choose which products you buy? Do you believe every word the salesman tells you? Or, do you ask your friends’ and colleagues’ opinions and try to get an independent assessment before you buy?
13
Savvy consumers will be looking for product reviews. Provide them on your site and you are likely to attract traffic.
Decide which product you are going to review. It should be relevant to your market and appeal to a section of your target audience.
You could look at a new software package, a piece of equipment such as a cell phone, or an experience such as a museum trip — as long as that’s appropriate for your audience.
Here’s an example of a product that two writers reviewed very differently. In October 2007 Apple launched an updated operating system, Mac 0S X, dubbed ‘Leopard‘, to a worldwide audience. Apple sold over 2 million copies in the first weekend, and this created a flurry of online activity with people eager to share their experiences.
Macworld.com
Jason Snell of Macworld.com, an independent online
Wordtracker.com
magazine that provides news and reviews of Mac products, gives his thoughts on Leopard .
In his introduction he sets out the promises Apple makes in relation to the product, such as improved security. Snell discusses the major features, using headings to break up the review.
In places his language is technical and the article is long by internet standards (nearly 3,000 words). These factors matter less if his readers are technically minded and already familiar with Mac products. He splits the review into chunks to make it easier to digest.
In his closing paragraph, “Macworld’s buying advice”, Snell poses the question: are the new features worth $129? His answer is clear. Yes, the features justify the price.
Techcrunch
A review by Duncan Riley for Techcrunch.com on Mac’s Leopard takes a less technical approach. He writes in the first person, making his a much more personal review. At 740 words, the review is much shorter than Snell’s. Riley ’s approach is more practical. First, he describes the installation of the software, “The first thing that
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21 irresistible content ideas to wow visitors and boost your search engine optimization
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Section 2: Recipe No. 9 | Report on an event
Exhibitions
Hot Tip
Exhibitions are another source of content:
• Could you write an interesting article about your company’s preparation for the exhibition?
Ask open questions
of the people you meet. Questions starting with the words why, what or how will get people talking.
Wordtracker.com
• What products are you exhibiting?
• What do you hope to get from the exhibition?
• How many people are you expecting to see?
• What should visitors to your stand be expecting?
After the event
• How many sales did you get?
• What was the customer feedback?
• Were you able to network with other companies?
• Who was the best speaker at the event? What made you like them? What did
they say that was so enlightening?
• Would you recommend the event to other companies?
• What tips would you give on surviving an exhibition day?
More adventurous work
At larger events, you might want to ask a member of your team to act as a roving reporter, responsible for interviewing other attendees, Twittering, blogging, and producing a review of the event. Take your notepad around the event and speak to the leading figures:
• What do they feel about the event?
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Section 2: Recipe No. 9 | Report on an event
• How does it compare with previous years?
• What products are they promoting?
• Who are their competitors? Compare their presence at the event.
And remember, when name-checking people and businesses, make sure they are aware that you intend to publish.
And you don’t just have to report on the event itself. Some of the speakers may throw up article ideas that you can follow up. I went to the 2009 Guardian newspaper summit in the UK, where industry leaders discussed the future of media. It included a series of presentations on how newspapers and television production companies will make money in the future. This sparked an idea for an article I wrote called ‘Would You Pay to Read Newspapers Online?’
When writing any kind of content, engagement with your audience is the main goal. By posing different questions and getting your readers involved you will build up a solid reputation within your industry ’s community and become an attractive site to link to.
Wordtracker.com
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Jargon buster
10
The Penguin English dictionary defines jargon as: “language peculiar to one art, trade or branch of learning.” If an expression is mainly used within your industry and not outside, it’s jargon.
Using obscure or little-known language Decide your strategy
runs the risk of leaving your customers When you set up your own jargon buster, make sure to
feeling confused and frustrated. provide links to any of your related products. Order your
list alphabetically or with some of the most queried
It’s important to speak in a language your readers
understand. Writing a jargon busting article forces you to consider the language you use more carefully, helping you to engage with your customers on their level. This can be just a glossary of terms where you mix industry language with keyword rich phrases.
A jargon busting crusade
There are many examples of jargon busters, for
accountancy firms, attorney offices, financial advisers, charities, and marketing consultants. London-based Digital Strategy Consultancy claims to be on a “jargon- busting crusade” because jargon is “unnecessary, confusing and a barrier to everyone‘s understanding”. The firm has developed a booklet that explains terminology used within its industry. It is 15 pages long and is fully searchable. Each term is explained in plain English. Other companies are free to post it to their own sites.
Wordtracker.com
words near the top of the list. If you want your jargon buster to be more sophisticated than a list of definitions, then check out Ask Oxford , the online Oxford Dictionary, which contains clear definitions. If the language in your industry doesn’t change very often your glossary of terms should have a long shelf-life.
It can be a good idea to invite people to add to your list or to offer a comments tool, because as your industry evolves so too will the language. Or add in the buzz words we love to hate.
Epicurious.com
Imagine you run a cookery school website — you could have a glossary with links to pages containing definitions for carbohydrates, proteins, free range, organic, E-numbers, trans fats and so on. You could also link to recipes that are rich in fiber or low in fat. Check out Epicurious.com . It’s a food dictionary that has a list of
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Section 2: Recipe No. 10 | Jargon Buster
cookery terms and descriptions of food. Each page links to other relevant pages on
Hot Tip
Get someone
from outside your company — it could be a professional
the site.
Business in the Community , an organization which helps businesses make a positive impact on the communities around them, has a jargon buster too, which may be useful to have a look at. It gives its members one sentence definitions of business terminology, terms such as, ‘cause-related marketing’, ‘green electricity ’ and ‘venture philanthropy ’. Business in the Community has placed its jargon buster in the resource section of its website and organized it alphabetically.
proofreader, a willing student, or even your mom to read through your site and pick out the jargon.
Explaning jargon makes great keyword rich content.
Don’t alienate your customers by talking gibberish; educate them and help them join in with the conversation. All industry is built on dialogue. Jargon or unnecessarily complex language should never be a barrier to that.
Wordtracker.com
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Admit your mistakes
Making mistakes is an inevitable part of owning and running a business. It is human nature to make them, and imperative that we learn from them.
11
Hot Tip
As entrepreneur and billionaire Donald Trump said, “If you
don’t learn from your mistakes, that’s the biggest mistake.”
Wordtracker.com
It takes an honest and bold person to discuss their mistakes, poor choices or foolish decisions.
Even the big guns get it wrong. Remember Sir Richard Branson’s failed Virgin Cola venture, Donald Trump’s bankrupt businesses, or the PR disaster of Walmart’s fake blog? Sir Alan Sugar, who’s reputedly worth $1.16bn, once told reporters, “You haven’t got enough time to listen to my mistakes…In the rest of your life you will not earn 10% of the money I’ve lost.” Most successful entrepreneurs and business owners will tell you that making mistakes is inescapable when running a business.
Discuss your mistakes
Cleveland, Ohio has a great online newspaper which has a section called My Biggest Mistake where small business owners talk about their experiences and, more importantly, how they overcame them. Some of the titles include:
‘Our Biggest Mistake Was Not Having a Backup Business Plan’; ‘Broken Machines Put A Wrench In Business Growth’, and
‘New Business In Web Development Tried To Do Too Many Other Things.’
The Chicago Tribune business section used to run a similar series, again called My Biggest Mistake.
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Section 2: Recipe No. 9 | Report on an event
Exhibitions
Hot Tip
Exhibitions are another source of content:
• Could you write an interesting article about your company’s preparation for the exhibition?
Ask open questions
of the people you meet. Questions starting with the words why, what or how will get people talking.
Wordtracker.com
• What products are you exhibiting?
• What do you hope to get from the exhibition?
• How many people are you expecting to see?
• What should visitors to your stand be expecting?
After the event
• How many sales did you get?
• What was the customer feedback?
• Were you able to network with other companies?
• Who was the best speaker at the event? What made you like them? What did
they say that was so enlightening?
• Would you recommend the event to other companies?
• What tips would you give on surviving an exhibition day?
More adventurous work
At larger events, you might want to ask a member of your team to act as a roving reporter, responsible for interviewing other attendees, Twittering, blogging, and producing a review of the event. Take your notepad around the event and speak to the leading figures:
• What do they feel about the event?
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-----------------------------------------------------Page 57-----------------------------------------------------
Section 2: Recipe No. 9 | Report on an event
• How does it compare with previous years?
• What products are they promoting?
• Who are their competitors? Compare their presence at the event.
And remember, when name-checking people and businesses, make sure they are aware that you intend to publish.
And you don’t just have to report on the event itself. Some of the speakers may throw up article ideas that you can follow up. I went to the 2009 Guardian newspaper summit in the UK, where industry leaders discussed the future of media. It included a series of presentations on how newspapers and television production companies will make money in the future. This sparked an idea for an article I wrote called ‘Would You Pay to Read Newspapers Online?’
When writing any kind of content, engagement with your audience is the main goal. By posing different questions and getting your readers involved you will build up a solid reputation within your industry ’s community and become an attractive site to link to.
Wordtracker.com
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-----------------------------------------------------Page 58-----------------------------------------------------
Jargon buster
10
The Penguin English dictionary defines jargon as: “language peculiar to one art, trade or branch of learning.” If an expression is mainly used within your industry and not outside, it’s jargon.
Using obscure or little-known language Decide your strategy
runs the risk of leaving your customers When you set up your own jargon buster, make sure to
feeling confused and frustrated. provide links to any of your related products. Order your
list alphabetically or with some of the most queried
It’s important to speak in a language your readers
understand. Writing a jargon busting article forces you to consider the language you use more carefully, helping you to engage with your customers on their level. This can be just a glossary of terms where you mix industry language with keyword rich phrases.
A jargon busting crusade
There are many examples of jargon busters, for
accountancy firms, attorney offices, financial advisers, charities, and marketing consultants. London-based Digital Strategy Consultancy claims to be on a “jargon- busting crusade” because jargon is “unnecessary, confusing and a barrier to everyone‘s understanding”. The firm has developed a booklet that explains terminology used within its industry. It is 15 pages long and is fully searchable. Each term is explained in plain English. Other companies are free to post it to their own sites.
Wordtracker.com
words near the top of the list. If you want your jargon buster to be more sophisticated than a list of definitions, then check out Ask Oxford , the online Oxford Dictionary, which contains clear definitions. If the language in your industry doesn’t change very often your glossary of terms should have a long shelf-life.
It can be a good idea to invite people to add to your list or to offer a comments tool, because as your industry evolves so too will the language. Or add in the buzz words we love to hate.
Epicurious.com
Imagine you run a cookery school website — you could have a glossary with links to pages containing definitions for carbohydrates, proteins, free range, organic, E-numbers, trans fats and so on. You could also link to recipes that are rich in fiber or low in fat. Check out Epicurious.com . It’s a food dictionary that has a list of
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Section 2: Recipe No. 10 | Jargon Buster
cookery terms and descriptions of food. Each page links to other relevant pages on
Hot Tip
Get someone
from outside your company — it could be a professional
the site.
Business in the Community , an organization which helps businesses make a positive impact on the communities around them, has a jargon buster too, which may be useful to have a look at. It gives its members one sentence definitions of business terminology, terms such as, ‘cause-related marketing’, ‘green electricity ’ and ‘venture philanthropy ’. Business in the Community has placed its jargon buster in the resource section of its website and organized it alphabetically.
proofreader, a willing student, or even your mom to read through your site and pick out the jargon.
Explaning jargon makes great keyword rich content.
Don’t alienate your customers by talking gibberish; educate them and help them join in with the conversation. All industry is built on dialogue. Jargon or unnecessarily complex language should never be a barrier to that.
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Admit your mistakes
Making mistakes is an inevitable part of owning and running a business. It is human nature to make them, and imperative that we learn from them.
11
Hot Tip
As entrepreneur and billionaire Donald Trump said, “If you
don’t learn from your mistakes, that’s the biggest mistake.”
Wordtracker.com
It takes an honest and bold person to discuss their mistakes, poor choices or foolish decisions.
Even the big guns get it wrong. Remember Sir Richard Branson’s failed Virgin Cola venture, Donald Trump’s bankrupt businesses, or the PR disaster of Walmart’s fake blog? Sir Alan Sugar, who’s reputedly worth $1.16bn, once told reporters, “You haven’t got enough time to listen to my mistakes…In the rest of your life you will not earn 10% of the money I’ve lost.” Most successful entrepreneurs and business owners will tell you that making mistakes is inescapable when running a business.
Discuss your mistakes
Cleveland, Ohio has a great online newspaper which has a section called My Biggest Mistake where small business owners talk about their experiences and, more importantly, how they overcame them. Some of the titles include:
‘Our Biggest Mistake Was Not Having a Backup Business Plan’; ‘Broken Machines Put A Wrench In Business Growth’, and
‘New Business In Web Development Tried To Do Too Many Other Things.’
The Chicago Tribune business section used to run a similar series, again called My Biggest Mistake.
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21 irresistible content ideas to wow visitors and boost your search engine optimization
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Section 2: Recipe No. 7 | Start a debate
• Add substance by researching and quoting independent reports or surveys, and provide a link to these reports too. Elicit opinions from industry blogs,
or email your peers for their opinions.
• To what extent has the media picked up on the debate? It’s perfectly
acceptable to quote articles from magazines or newspapers, but you should cite the title and the journalist — copying large chunks of text counts as plagiarism. Again, link to the news article.
• Look at publications online and read the comments they generate.
The views you read can provide a useful insight into how the debate is shaping up.
• Why not Tweet your debate question to test the opinion of your peers?
Inviting others to give their thoughts may help with the writing of your article.
Provide two points of view
Another way to approach the article is to ask a colleague to write from one point of view, while you provide a conflicting opinion. Taking this approach will mean you can focus on one side — and really let rip — in the knowledge that your organization will appear fair-minded. This is how a local politician and a scientist took opposing sides over plans for a new runway at Heathrow ’s airport in London. http://www.guardian. co.uk/environment/2008/jan/27/travelandtransport.carbonemissions1
Choose an appropriate tone
1. Look on this article as a conversation you’re having with a colleague.
It doesn’t need a complex structure, or a particularly corporate tone.
2. Remember, this is your website, your discussion, and it’s your voice you should be using. Some people find that recording out loud to a dictaphone,
and transcribing the results produces more natural text. This is especially useful if you aren’t used to writing.
3. Once you are happy that you have all the arguments covered, it’s time
to summarize. This is the best time to describe your own feelings and experiences.
4. When you have completed the article, let colleagues read it. Make
amendments and add in extra points, and edit stringently. Check for grammar and spelling.
Wordtracker.com
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Section 2: Recipe No. 7 | Start a debate
5. Now the article’s published, invite others to take part in the debate.
Generating discussion not only widens the topic, but also generates valuable content. You should participate too. If someone leaves a comment asking a question or seeking clarification on a point you make then make sure you give reply.
Encourage discussion amongst your visitors by adding a piece of software, such as the ‘ Subscribe to Comments ’ plugin from Wordpress, to your site. It allows commenters to choose to receive an email notification when someone responds to one of their comments.
Wordtracker.com
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-----------------------------------------------------Page 53-----------------------------------------------------
Review of the year
A review of the year is a great way of creating keyword rich content.
8
Resist the temptation to write about your company and its achievements.
As always, write from your customers’ perspective. How has the year affected your customers’ businesses?
Organize a brainstorming session with colleagues to pinpoint the year ’s important events. You may want to flick through industry publications to help jog your memory.
There are several useful websites that will throw up ideas. Check out the The Way Back Machine , a digital library that contains website archives. You’ll be able to track how the internet has changed over the past 12 months.
Another great resource for casting your mind back is the Economist’s forecast , which will help you work out whether last year ’s economic forecasts matched reality.
The Economist provides forecasts for the year ahead.
Wordtracker.com
What can you write about?
There are many topics you could cover. If you were selling digital cameras you could look at:
• The way the technologies and industry standards have changed
• How prices have varied
• How changing customer attitudes are affecting the market for photography
equipment — are more customers using cameras on
their phones?
• The equipment reviews that have been published
• Changing market share figures
• Projections of future sales
• Major industry events
The Web Content Recipe Book | 54
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-----------------------------------------------------Page 54-----------------------------------------------------
Section 2: Recipe No. 8 | Review of the year
• Product launches and models that have been discontinued
Hot Tip
Save any industry publications you
receive. They are likely to be a useful source of information and ideas when you write your review.
Wordtracker.com
• The results of industry awards
• News from related sectors — how have changes on the internet affected digital
photography?
Alternatively, let’s pretend you are an organic vegetable grower. If sales of organic vegetables have gone up, describe why and let readers know what vegetables are now more popular. How have health issues affected interest in your products? And what about your relationships with the major supermarkets — are they stocking more organic vegetables?
Other factors to consider:
• The effect of different media: Which television programs have been
successful and how have they affected your business? Which are the articles and newspaper reports that have brought extra customers and inquiries to your market?
• Governmental changes: Your industry may have been affected by regulatory
changes or international events. Most have. Has the government released grants, tax breaks, or new health and safety measures? Always be thinking and writing about how your customers have been affected.
• At the end of the article , Take the time to look to the future. If you’re due to
launch a new product, you can speculate about how it might improve your customers’ lives.
Do you talk about yourself more than your customers?
Always write from your customers’ perspective. Internet consultancy, Future Now, provides a ‘ We-We Monitor ’ on it site, a free tool that evaluates the text on a web page and calculates how customer-centric it is.
The Web Content Recipe Book | 55
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-----------------------------------------------------Page 55-----------------------------------------------------
Report on an event
Every year, companies spend thousands of marketing dollars sending their employees to exhibitions, seminars, and training courses. Make the most of your marketing spend by turning an event experience into interesting web copy.
9
Whether you are delivering a speech, attending an exhibition, or taking a course, there are great opportunities for creating keyword rich content for your website.
When I have been asked to report on international conferences, I’ve usually had only a little knowledge of the subjects being discussed. Yet, by asking questions — lots of good, open questions — and fitting in as much research and preparation as I could, it was usually possible to write good, informative stories.
Always take notes
During the event, keep a daily diary or Twitter updates.
• Who did you talk to? What kinds of people
attended the event?
• Was there anything interesting said?
• Which elements of the discussion irritated or excited you?
Wordtracker.com
• Did any of the speakers make
announcements. A new advertising campaign,
product launch, or sales figures?
Answer any of these questions and you could have an article or a good short piece for your blog.
Do your research beforehand and if possible, find out what the keynote speakers look like. Usually
conferences have networking sessions, so use this as an opportunity to strike up conversation.
What should you publish?
Think twice about what you publish. If someone gives you new information in a one-to-one conversation, check that they ’re happy for you to publish it before doing so. There’s a difference between making an announcement on-stage to a packed audience and exchanging gossip at the buffet or in the bar.
If there’s a presentation you particularly enjoyed, you may be able to get permission to reproduce it on your blog. But the presenter owns the copyright, so only republish with permission.
The Web Content Recipe Book | 56
Prepared exclusively for qin yu
Section 2: Recipe No. 7 | Start a debate
• Add substance by researching and quoting independent reports or surveys, and provide a link to these reports too. Elicit opinions from industry blogs,
or email your peers for their opinions.
• To what extent has the media picked up on the debate? It’s perfectly
acceptable to quote articles from magazines or newspapers, but you should cite the title and the journalist — copying large chunks of text counts as plagiarism. Again, link to the news article.
• Look at publications online and read the comments they generate.
The views you read can provide a useful insight into how the debate is shaping up.
• Why not Tweet your debate question to test the opinion of your peers?
Inviting others to give their thoughts may help with the writing of your article.
Provide two points of view
Another way to approach the article is to ask a colleague to write from one point of view, while you provide a conflicting opinion. Taking this approach will mean you can focus on one side — and really let rip — in the knowledge that your organization will appear fair-minded. This is how a local politician and a scientist took opposing sides over plans for a new runway at Heathrow ’s airport in London. http://www.guardian. co.uk/environment/2008/jan/27/travelandtransport.carbonemissions1
Choose an appropriate tone
1. Look on this article as a conversation you’re having with a colleague.
It doesn’t need a complex structure, or a particularly corporate tone.
2. Remember, this is your website, your discussion, and it’s your voice you should be using. Some people find that recording out loud to a dictaphone,
and transcribing the results produces more natural text. This is especially useful if you aren’t used to writing.
3. Once you are happy that you have all the arguments covered, it’s time
to summarize. This is the best time to describe your own feelings and experiences.
4. When you have completed the article, let colleagues read it. Make
amendments and add in extra points, and edit stringently. Check for grammar and spelling.
Wordtracker.com
The Web Content Recipe Book | 52
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-----------------------------------------------------Page 52-----------------------------------------------------
Section 2: Recipe No. 7 | Start a debate
5. Now the article’s published, invite others to take part in the debate.
Generating discussion not only widens the topic, but also generates valuable content. You should participate too. If someone leaves a comment asking a question or seeking clarification on a point you make then make sure you give reply.
Encourage discussion amongst your visitors by adding a piece of software, such as the ‘ Subscribe to Comments ’ plugin from Wordpress, to your site. It allows commenters to choose to receive an email notification when someone responds to one of their comments.
Wordtracker.com
The Web Content Recipe Book | 53
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-----------------------------------------------------Page 53-----------------------------------------------------
Review of the year
A review of the year is a great way of creating keyword rich content.
8
Resist the temptation to write about your company and its achievements.
As always, write from your customers’ perspective. How has the year affected your customers’ businesses?
Organize a brainstorming session with colleagues to pinpoint the year ’s important events. You may want to flick through industry publications to help jog your memory.
There are several useful websites that will throw up ideas. Check out the The Way Back Machine , a digital library that contains website archives. You’ll be able to track how the internet has changed over the past 12 months.
Another great resource for casting your mind back is the Economist’s forecast , which will help you work out whether last year ’s economic forecasts matched reality.
The Economist provides forecasts for the year ahead.
Wordtracker.com
What can you write about?
There are many topics you could cover. If you were selling digital cameras you could look at:
• The way the technologies and industry standards have changed
• How prices have varied
• How changing customer attitudes are affecting the market for photography
equipment — are more customers using cameras on
their phones?
• The equipment reviews that have been published
• Changing market share figures
• Projections of future sales
• Major industry events
The Web Content Recipe Book | 54
Prepared exclusively for qin yu
-----------------------------------------------------Page 54-----------------------------------------------------
Section 2: Recipe No. 8 | Review of the year
• Product launches and models that have been discontinued
Hot Tip
Save any industry publications you
receive. They are likely to be a useful source of information and ideas when you write your review.
Wordtracker.com
• The results of industry awards
• News from related sectors — how have changes on the internet affected digital
photography?
Alternatively, let’s pretend you are an organic vegetable grower. If sales of organic vegetables have gone up, describe why and let readers know what vegetables are now more popular. How have health issues affected interest in your products? And what about your relationships with the major supermarkets — are they stocking more organic vegetables?
Other factors to consider:
• The effect of different media: Which television programs have been
successful and how have they affected your business? Which are the articles and newspaper reports that have brought extra customers and inquiries to your market?
• Governmental changes: Your industry may have been affected by regulatory
changes or international events. Most have. Has the government released grants, tax breaks, or new health and safety measures? Always be thinking and writing about how your customers have been affected.
• At the end of the article , Take the time to look to the future. If you’re due to
launch a new product, you can speculate about how it might improve your customers’ lives.
Do you talk about yourself more than your customers?
Always write from your customers’ perspective. Internet consultancy, Future Now, provides a ‘ We-We Monitor ’ on it site, a free tool that evaluates the text on a web page and calculates how customer-centric it is.
The Web Content Recipe Book | 55
Prepared exclusively for qin yu
-----------------------------------------------------Page 55-----------------------------------------------------
Report on an event
Every year, companies spend thousands of marketing dollars sending their employees to exhibitions, seminars, and training courses. Make the most of your marketing spend by turning an event experience into interesting web copy.
9
Whether you are delivering a speech, attending an exhibition, or taking a course, there are great opportunities for creating keyword rich content for your website.
When I have been asked to report on international conferences, I’ve usually had only a little knowledge of the subjects being discussed. Yet, by asking questions — lots of good, open questions — and fitting in as much research and preparation as I could, it was usually possible to write good, informative stories.
Always take notes
During the event, keep a daily diary or Twitter updates.
• Who did you talk to? What kinds of people
attended the event?
• Was there anything interesting said?
• Which elements of the discussion irritated or excited you?
Wordtracker.com
• Did any of the speakers make
announcements. A new advertising campaign,
product launch, or sales figures?
Answer any of these questions and you could have an article or a good short piece for your blog.
Do your research beforehand and if possible, find out what the keynote speakers look like. Usually
conferences have networking sessions, so use this as an opportunity to strike up conversation.
What should you publish?
Think twice about what you publish. If someone gives you new information in a one-to-one conversation, check that they ’re happy for you to publish it before doing so. There’s a difference between making an announcement on-stage to a packed audience and exchanging gossip at the buffet or in the bar.
If there’s a presentation you particularly enjoyed, you may be able to get permission to reproduce it on your blog. But the presenter owns the copyright, so only republish with permission.
The Web Content Recipe Book | 56
Prepared exclusively for qin yu
21 irresistible content ideas to wow visitors and boost your search engine optimization
-----------------------------------------------------Page 46-----------------------------------------------------
Write your company’s history
Often, someone arriving at your homepage will click on the ‘History of Company’ link because they want to gain a flavor of what your business is all about.
6
This is your opportunity to put the corporate voice on mute and tell your story in a personable way.
Let us see your passion
As with most stories, starting at the beginning is best. Tell us why you started the business. What did you want to create? It doesn’t matter if you set up a cookery school, sell second-hand cars, or make wedding favors from home — you are passionate about what you do — so let us see that.
Describing the birth of your business can be
inspirational, especially if you had to take substantial risks. When did the “Eureka!” moment hit you? Were you standing in your kitchen, or on the daily commute, or did someone inspire you to start a business of your own? Tell us about it.
Identify important keywords
Keep your keywords in mind for when you are writing this article for your website. Having them to hand will
Wordtracker.com
help focus your writing and show your readers what your business is all about.
An informal tone often works best
Writing a history allows you to state your core values. This is your opportunity to build an identity. Ensure your tone is relaxed and conversational. The fact that people have selected to read your ‘History ’ page means that they are interested in knowing more about you.
You could be informal and write something like “Hi, my name is John Doe and welcome to my site, www. johndoe.com. For nearly 20 years I worked as a head chef in some of New York’s top restaurants and hotels. I decided to start my own cookery school in 2001 when blah blah blah happened…”
Amber Jewelry
Here are a couple of examples. Amber Jewelry has a personal story on why its owner was attracted to the jewelry business, and amber in particular. It gives an account of the owner ’s journey in a way that is engaging and interesting for its customers.
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-----------------------------------------------------Page 47-----------------------------------------------------
Section 2: Recipe No. 6 | Write your company ’s history
Hot Tip
The story is king. When writing your company’s history, emphasize the narrative. Personalize the story when you can and remember: the journey can be more interesting than the arrival.
Amber Jewelry’s About Us page.
It makes great use of links to expert articles, as well as links that go deeper into the Amber site. It includes photographs and examples of the company ’s jewelry, which make it clear to visitors what kinds of products the business sells.
Innocent Drinks
Another example of how businesses can use a story to good effect comes from Innocent Drinks . The article aims to reflect the nature of the company, which claims to put truth and openness in its products.
The company matches the tone to its brand message — fun, quirky and honest. It never becomes corporate. Instead, the article provides a link to an interview, on the BBC’s HardTalk show, given by the company ’s co-founder, Richard Reed.
The page also includes an email address for people wanting to know more about how the founders started the company, which suggests that they are open and accessible to their customers.
Wordtracker.com
The Web Content Recipe Book | 48
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-----------------------------------------------------Page 48-----------------------------------------------------
Section 2: Recipe No. 6 | Write your company ’s history
Content ideas
Key points you may wish to make in your opening paragraph are:
• When the company was established?
• The number of employees you have?
• Where in the world your company is based?
• Which industries your serve?
• What makes you different from your competitors?
What do you do if your company has been around for many years? You may have inherited your business and this is the first time you have branched out onto the web. One way to tackle this is to break the history down into decades, allowing people to see how your business has grown and developed over time.
Show that you make a difference
Use the history to reflect on how you have contributed to your clients’ success. Show that you are an authority on your industry and illustrate the presence you have. List your best clients and show how you developed long-term relationships with them. This information will be useful for journalists and for those who want to research your company.
By writing a history of your company, you are building trust. Post photos of the real people that work with you, so visitors can put a face to a name. Make sure the history is up-to-date and finish your article by including links to other areas of your site.
Wordtracker.com
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-----------------------------------------------------Page 49-----------------------------------------------------
Start a debate
Courting controversy and conflict can be a great way of attracting attention. Publishing an article that starts a debate is likely to generate traffic, comments and links.
7
Start with some research
Contributing to an industry debate isn’t difficult, but if you want to come across as thoughtful and lucid, start with some research.
Every debate has at least two sides, so you should do some digging to find out what the main arguments are. Arm yourself with as much information as you can. The best way to do this is to set up Google Alerts with keywords that relate to your industry. This means that all articles containing those keywords will be emailed to you, on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. You can also sign up to NewsGator , a news aggregator that delivers really simple syndication (RSS) feeds. Keeping abreast of industry news will put you in an informed position, one that will enable you to illuminate an argument.
Before you write an article, you should be asking
yourself : where does the friction lie? By teasing out the points of conflict, you will have a better understanding of the debate and be more likely to write a really interesting article.
Wordtracker.com
Choose your topic carefully
If you’re in business, you won’t want to offend your customer base. So, choose your topic carefully. You might want to write about:
• Incoming legislation that affects your industry
• New software or a cool gadget. You could gather differing opinions on whether it’s any better than its competitors or predecessors.
• A recent piece of research
• A hot topic, such as climate change, which is likely to place new demands on your business.
You may want to look at more general debates, such as whether it’s beneficial for companies to have employees work from home.
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Section 2: Recipe No. 7 | Start a debate
TechCrunch
Hot Tip
Talking to yourself is said to be the first sign of madness. But it can be helpful to
say your thoughts out loud. It’s amazing how a sentence you have been laboring over suddenly starts to flow once you talk it through.
Wordtracker.com
TechCrunch is a group-edited blog that focuses on technology. In July 2009, MG Siegler ’s article compared Apple Mac computers with PCs. Siegler published it in response to Apple’s quarterly results. The author ’s writing style is authoritative but accessible. And the piece is well-researched — the author makes comparisons between the computer market and the car industry. By August 2009, the article had generated more than 360 comments and been Tweeted 589 times.
New York Times – room for debate
Newspaper columnists provide some of the best examples of the use of topical news stories to generate debates. The New York Times has a section on its website called ‘ Room For Debate ’. Writers post articles on a wide range of issues, such as:
• How air travel can be made less annoying
• Do women make better bosses?
• What do school tests measure?
• Are deer the culprit in Lyme disease?
As you can see, most of the articles are headlined as questions. This suggests to readers that the author is starting a discussion.
Create a plan
Publishing an unjustified rant will probably damage your reputation. So, plan a clear, methodical structure. Your readers are more likely to respect you if you can show that you’ve considered the arguments carefully. Exploring the debate thoroughly means being fair to both sides:
• Begin with a paragraph on why you have chosen to tackle the subject.
• The simplest way to structure your contribution is to outline two sides to the argument. Make a list of bullet points — as many as you can — so that you
fully understand the merits of each view. You can edit them down later.
The Web Content Recipe Book | 51
Prepared exclusively for qin yu
Write your company’s history
Often, someone arriving at your homepage will click on the ‘History of Company’ link because they want to gain a flavor of what your business is all about.
6
This is your opportunity to put the corporate voice on mute and tell your story in a personable way.
Let us see your passion
As with most stories, starting at the beginning is best. Tell us why you started the business. What did you want to create? It doesn’t matter if you set up a cookery school, sell second-hand cars, or make wedding favors from home — you are passionate about what you do — so let us see that.
Describing the birth of your business can be
inspirational, especially if you had to take substantial risks. When did the “Eureka!” moment hit you? Were you standing in your kitchen, or on the daily commute, or did someone inspire you to start a business of your own? Tell us about it.
Identify important keywords
Keep your keywords in mind for when you are writing this article for your website. Having them to hand will
Wordtracker.com
help focus your writing and show your readers what your business is all about.
An informal tone often works best
Writing a history allows you to state your core values. This is your opportunity to build an identity. Ensure your tone is relaxed and conversational. The fact that people have selected to read your ‘History ’ page means that they are interested in knowing more about you.
You could be informal and write something like “Hi, my name is John Doe and welcome to my site, www. johndoe.com. For nearly 20 years I worked as a head chef in some of New York’s top restaurants and hotels. I decided to start my own cookery school in 2001 when blah blah blah happened…”
Amber Jewelry
Here are a couple of examples. Amber Jewelry has a personal story on why its owner was attracted to the jewelry business, and amber in particular. It gives an account of the owner ’s journey in a way that is engaging and interesting for its customers.
The Web Content Recipe Book | 47
Prepared exclusively for qin yu
-----------------------------------------------------Page 47-----------------------------------------------------
Section 2: Recipe No. 6 | Write your company ’s history
Hot Tip
The story is king. When writing your company’s history, emphasize the narrative. Personalize the story when you can and remember: the journey can be more interesting than the arrival.
Amber Jewelry’s About Us page.
It makes great use of links to expert articles, as well as links that go deeper into the Amber site. It includes photographs and examples of the company ’s jewelry, which make it clear to visitors what kinds of products the business sells.
Innocent Drinks
Another example of how businesses can use a story to good effect comes from Innocent Drinks . The article aims to reflect the nature of the company, which claims to put truth and openness in its products.
The company matches the tone to its brand message — fun, quirky and honest. It never becomes corporate. Instead, the article provides a link to an interview, on the BBC’s HardTalk show, given by the company ’s co-founder, Richard Reed.
The page also includes an email address for people wanting to know more about how the founders started the company, which suggests that they are open and accessible to their customers.
Wordtracker.com
The Web Content Recipe Book | 48
Prepared exclusively for qin yu
-----------------------------------------------------Page 48-----------------------------------------------------
Section 2: Recipe No. 6 | Write your company ’s history
Content ideas
Key points you may wish to make in your opening paragraph are:
• When the company was established?
• The number of employees you have?
• Where in the world your company is based?
• Which industries your serve?
• What makes you different from your competitors?
What do you do if your company has been around for many years? You may have inherited your business and this is the first time you have branched out onto the web. One way to tackle this is to break the history down into decades, allowing people to see how your business has grown and developed over time.
Show that you make a difference
Use the history to reflect on how you have contributed to your clients’ success. Show that you are an authority on your industry and illustrate the presence you have. List your best clients and show how you developed long-term relationships with them. This information will be useful for journalists and for those who want to research your company.
By writing a history of your company, you are building trust. Post photos of the real people that work with you, so visitors can put a face to a name. Make sure the history is up-to-date and finish your article by including links to other areas of your site.
Wordtracker.com
The Web Content Recipe Book | 49
Prepared exclusively for qin yu
-----------------------------------------------------Page 49-----------------------------------------------------
Start a debate
Courting controversy and conflict can be a great way of attracting attention. Publishing an article that starts a debate is likely to generate traffic, comments and links.
7
Start with some research
Contributing to an industry debate isn’t difficult, but if you want to come across as thoughtful and lucid, start with some research.
Every debate has at least two sides, so you should do some digging to find out what the main arguments are. Arm yourself with as much information as you can. The best way to do this is to set up Google Alerts with keywords that relate to your industry. This means that all articles containing those keywords will be emailed to you, on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. You can also sign up to NewsGator , a news aggregator that delivers really simple syndication (RSS) feeds. Keeping abreast of industry news will put you in an informed position, one that will enable you to illuminate an argument.
Before you write an article, you should be asking
yourself : where does the friction lie? By teasing out the points of conflict, you will have a better understanding of the debate and be more likely to write a really interesting article.
Wordtracker.com
Choose your topic carefully
If you’re in business, you won’t want to offend your customer base. So, choose your topic carefully. You might want to write about:
• Incoming legislation that affects your industry
• New software or a cool gadget. You could gather differing opinions on whether it’s any better than its competitors or predecessors.
• A recent piece of research
• A hot topic, such as climate change, which is likely to place new demands on your business.
You may want to look at more general debates, such as whether it’s beneficial for companies to have employees work from home.
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Section 2: Recipe No. 7 | Start a debate
TechCrunch
Hot Tip
Talking to yourself is said to be the first sign of madness. But it can be helpful to
say your thoughts out loud. It’s amazing how a sentence you have been laboring over suddenly starts to flow once you talk it through.
Wordtracker.com
TechCrunch is a group-edited blog that focuses on technology. In July 2009, MG Siegler ’s article compared Apple Mac computers with PCs. Siegler published it in response to Apple’s quarterly results. The author ’s writing style is authoritative but accessible. And the piece is well-researched — the author makes comparisons between the computer market and the car industry. By August 2009, the article had generated more than 360 comments and been Tweeted 589 times.
New York Times – room for debate
Newspaper columnists provide some of the best examples of the use of topical news stories to generate debates. The New York Times has a section on its website called ‘ Room For Debate ’. Writers post articles on a wide range of issues, such as:
• How air travel can be made less annoying
• Do women make better bosses?
• What do school tests measure?
• Are deer the culprit in Lyme disease?
As you can see, most of the articles are headlined as questions. This suggests to readers that the author is starting a discussion.
Create a plan
Publishing an unjustified rant will probably damage your reputation. So, plan a clear, methodical structure. Your readers are more likely to respect you if you can show that you’ve considered the arguments carefully. Exploring the debate thoroughly means being fair to both sides:
• Begin with a paragraph on why you have chosen to tackle the subject.
• The simplest way to structure your contribution is to outline two sides to the argument. Make a list of bullet points — as many as you can — so that you
fully understand the merits of each view. You can edit them down later.
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21 irresistible content ideas to wow visitors and boost your search engine optimization
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Section 2: Recipe No. 4 | Write a case study
Choose your voice
Decide whether you’d like to write the entire article in the first person, from the viewpoint of the case study, or from your own perspective. The easiest way may be to introduce the article yourself and include direct quotes when you have a particular point you want to illustrate.
For example, you could state, ‘we helped our client find a more cost-effective way of collecting customer data by installing our new widget technology, which… (describe the tool you provided for the case study).’
Then, you can drop in a direct quote from your case study that illustrates both the savings they made and what they plan to do with their improved customer data.
Wordtracker.com
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Write a blog
Content attracts prospects, engages them in conversation, and converts them into customers by building their trust in your ability to deliver. One of the easiest and most direct ways to do this is by blogging.
5
Anything you want
A blog is a ‘personal online journal’ and millions of people are already publishing them. In 2008, blog search engine Technorati claimed to have indexed 133 million blogs. Blogs can be about anything you want — a parent might write about the health of his kids, a student might share her experiences of traveling abroad and a teenager might write about the everyday difficulties he encounters. There is no end to the possibilities.
Build a profile
For the business or website owner, publishing a blog is a terrific way to raise your profile, get inbound links and, above all, interact with your customers and marketplace. A blog allows you to give customers an insight into the type of person you are — as a result, your customers may be more interested in buying your products.
Those who blog or participate by posting comments, generate debate and comments from other readers. So, a blog provides an excellent way for businesses to understand and interact with their customers.
Gary Vaynerchuk took his family ’s wine business, Wine
Wordtracker.com
Library , based in Springfield, New Jersey and grew it from a profitable $4 million a year business to $50m a year. He channeled his enthusiasm and passion into communicating a love of wine through writing and making videos online. He now has more than 90,000 visitors a day to his website. Vaynerchuk’s success led to television appearances and he has his own wine club, reviews wines, and of course, sells wine and spirits through his website.
Woot , an online electronic good store, was launched in 2004 and sold its 1,000,000th item, a 4 gigabyte (GB) hard drive, on February 5, 2007. It sells one type of product a day through its daily blog . The day ’s product is advertised in a fun, quirky style. Customers stampede to buy its products and the company does hardly any advertising.
Other successful bloggers
Other companies that blog successfully include Dell , about its products, services and customers. Amazon publishes Omnivoracious . Small businesses are blogging, too – have a look at the Lincoln Sign Company , which showcases the best in custom signs.
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Section 2: Recipe No. 5 | Write a blog
Hot Tip
Keep your readers
coming back to your blog with frequent updates.
Woot: one day, one deal.
There is nothing mysterious about a blog — it simply lets you create and publish content very easily.
If you decide to publish a blog, you may want to incorporate it into your existing domain (something Lincoln Sign Company didn’t do). By setting up the blog page as www.yourbusiness.com/blog, rather than something like http://yourbusiness. blogspot.com so that all the traffic it generates comes into one site. This can help you to rise up the Google rankings.
You do need to make a commitment to update your blog regularly – aim for a couple of postings a week to build up a readership. Unfortunately, for many would-be bloggers this is a tough commitment to follow – some 95% of new blogs quickly become inactive http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/fashion/07blogs.html .
Blog posts don’t have to be long, but they must be useful. Making regular postings of one or two paragraphs, together with an occasional longer article, is a good starting point. Here are some ground rules:
• Adopt an editorial position – what type of voice will your blog have? It is worth
giving this some thought.
• Be brief and direct in what you say. Puffy or pompous language reads
dreadfully on a blog so keep your writing simple.
Wordtracker.com
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-----------------------------------------------------Page 44-----------------------------------------------------
Section 2: Recipe No. 5 | Write a blog
• Use Wordtracker’s research tools to incorporate popular keywords into your posts. The headline is particularly important. So, if you’re writing about
small business, you might want to rewrite the headline ‘A time for change?’ as ‘A time for change for small business’. That way, you’re more likely to attract visitors who are searching for the term ‘small business.’
• Use Wordtracker’s SEO Blogger tool to make keyword research easier when
publishing posts. You can find the most sought-after keywords for your subject without ever leaving your blog-editing screen. The tool sits alongside whatever blog publishing software you’re using so you can do keyword research and optimize your posts as you write.
• Include keyword-rich linking text — the people you link to will love you for it
and it will help Google decide what your blog is all about.
Content
So what should you write about?
(i) Comment on an external news story – there is a ton of material out there,
no matter what business you are in. Sign up to important newsletters and RSS feeds in your industry, as well as general business publications. One of your first tasks in the morning might be to review these publications and pick out interesting items that you can point people to or comment upon.
(ii) Tell people about a useful report or resource that you’ve come across in your day-to-day work. As you browse the web, you’ll come across stuff
that you find particularly interesting or enlightening. You can help your readers by telling them about the resource and linking to it. Even better, you reward the author or publisher of the article by giving them a live link and you’re making connections with other influencers in your industry.
(iii) Point to an article or resource on your own site. People, who might
otherwise have missed it, find it.
(iv) Post an answer or comment on a query you received from a customer. Many writers make the mistake of thinking that their comments or posts
should always be leading-edge – aimed at setting opinion in the industry. But many readers are just looking for straightforward information – giving it to them in simple plain English may well be all they want.
Wordtracker.com
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-----------------------------------------------------Page 45-----------------------------------------------------
Section 2: Recipe No. 5 | Write a blog
(v) Write an announcement about a new feature or service you’ve added. It doesn’t have to be groundbreaking, just a useful addition. Always write from
the customers’ point of view: don’t assume they will understand your in-house jargon. Don’t use the blog for the hard sell, a blog should be informative and useful, not just another means for you to market your products.
(vi) Write a seasonal statement. How do seasons influence demand for your
products? What about holidays such as Thanksgiving, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, or Ramadan?
(i) Invite opinion or comment. Develop a dialog with your audience by asking for
their opinion on an important issue, research in your industry, competitive activity or publicity.
Writing tip
Here’s a tip I got from Craig Garber . Get one of those small kitchen timers, or something similar and once you’ve scanned the day ’s news, set it for 30 minutes and write without interruption. Once the timer goes off, you should have written a few hundred words or more. Do a quick edit, or ask a colleague to review it, and you should have a pretty good blog post.
Little but often
Write a little every day, but don’t be over-ambitious. You don’t need to write perfect English and you don’t need to agonize over every point you make. Blogging is not an academic exercise, so don’t be afraid of being wrong — but if you are, make sure you acknowledge it.
More information and resources
For more information and free blogging advice , visit the Wordtracker Academy . Or buy Chris Garrett’s book on Business Blogging , which is packed with useful advice.
Wordtracker.com
The Web Content Recipe Book | 46
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Section 2: Recipe No. 4 | Write a case study
Choose your voice
Decide whether you’d like to write the entire article in the first person, from the viewpoint of the case study, or from your own perspective. The easiest way may be to introduce the article yourself and include direct quotes when you have a particular point you want to illustrate.
For example, you could state, ‘we helped our client find a more cost-effective way of collecting customer data by installing our new widget technology, which… (describe the tool you provided for the case study).’
Then, you can drop in a direct quote from your case study that illustrates both the savings they made and what they plan to do with their improved customer data.
Wordtracker.com
The Web Content Recipe Book | 42
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-----------------------------------------------------Page 42-----------------------------------------------------
Write a blog
Content attracts prospects, engages them in conversation, and converts them into customers by building their trust in your ability to deliver. One of the easiest and most direct ways to do this is by blogging.
5
Anything you want
A blog is a ‘personal online journal’ and millions of people are already publishing them. In 2008, blog search engine Technorati claimed to have indexed 133 million blogs. Blogs can be about anything you want — a parent might write about the health of his kids, a student might share her experiences of traveling abroad and a teenager might write about the everyday difficulties he encounters. There is no end to the possibilities.
Build a profile
For the business or website owner, publishing a blog is a terrific way to raise your profile, get inbound links and, above all, interact with your customers and marketplace. A blog allows you to give customers an insight into the type of person you are — as a result, your customers may be more interested in buying your products.
Those who blog or participate by posting comments, generate debate and comments from other readers. So, a blog provides an excellent way for businesses to understand and interact with their customers.
Gary Vaynerchuk took his family ’s wine business, Wine
Wordtracker.com
Library , based in Springfield, New Jersey and grew it from a profitable $4 million a year business to $50m a year. He channeled his enthusiasm and passion into communicating a love of wine through writing and making videos online. He now has more than 90,000 visitors a day to his website. Vaynerchuk’s success led to television appearances and he has his own wine club, reviews wines, and of course, sells wine and spirits through his website.
Woot , an online electronic good store, was launched in 2004 and sold its 1,000,000th item, a 4 gigabyte (GB) hard drive, on February 5, 2007. It sells one type of product a day through its daily blog . The day ’s product is advertised in a fun, quirky style. Customers stampede to buy its products and the company does hardly any advertising.
Other successful bloggers
Other companies that blog successfully include Dell , about its products, services and customers. Amazon publishes Omnivoracious . Small businesses are blogging, too – have a look at the Lincoln Sign Company , which showcases the best in custom signs.
The Web Content Recipe Book | 43
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-----------------------------------------------------Page 43-----------------------------------------------------
Section 2: Recipe No. 5 | Write a blog
Hot Tip
Keep your readers
coming back to your blog with frequent updates.
Woot: one day, one deal.
There is nothing mysterious about a blog — it simply lets you create and publish content very easily.
If you decide to publish a blog, you may want to incorporate it into your existing domain (something Lincoln Sign Company didn’t do). By setting up the blog page as www.yourbusiness.com/blog, rather than something like http://yourbusiness. blogspot.com so that all the traffic it generates comes into one site. This can help you to rise up the Google rankings.
You do need to make a commitment to update your blog regularly – aim for a couple of postings a week to build up a readership. Unfortunately, for many would-be bloggers this is a tough commitment to follow – some 95% of new blogs quickly become inactive http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/fashion/07blogs.html .
Blog posts don’t have to be long, but they must be useful. Making regular postings of one or two paragraphs, together with an occasional longer article, is a good starting point. Here are some ground rules:
• Adopt an editorial position – what type of voice will your blog have? It is worth
giving this some thought.
• Be brief and direct in what you say. Puffy or pompous language reads
dreadfully on a blog so keep your writing simple.
Wordtracker.com
The Web Content Recipe Book | 44
Prepared exclusively for qin yu
-----------------------------------------------------Page 44-----------------------------------------------------
Section 2: Recipe No. 5 | Write a blog
• Use Wordtracker’s research tools to incorporate popular keywords into your posts. The headline is particularly important. So, if you’re writing about
small business, you might want to rewrite the headline ‘A time for change?’ as ‘A time for change for small business’. That way, you’re more likely to attract visitors who are searching for the term ‘small business.’
• Use Wordtracker’s SEO Blogger tool to make keyword research easier when
publishing posts. You can find the most sought-after keywords for your subject without ever leaving your blog-editing screen. The tool sits alongside whatever blog publishing software you’re using so you can do keyword research and optimize your posts as you write.
• Include keyword-rich linking text — the people you link to will love you for it
and it will help Google decide what your blog is all about.
Content
So what should you write about?
(i) Comment on an external news story – there is a ton of material out there,
no matter what business you are in. Sign up to important newsletters and RSS feeds in your industry, as well as general business publications. One of your first tasks in the morning might be to review these publications and pick out interesting items that you can point people to or comment upon.
(ii) Tell people about a useful report or resource that you’ve come across in your day-to-day work. As you browse the web, you’ll come across stuff
that you find particularly interesting or enlightening. You can help your readers by telling them about the resource and linking to it. Even better, you reward the author or publisher of the article by giving them a live link and you’re making connections with other influencers in your industry.
(iii) Point to an article or resource on your own site. People, who might
otherwise have missed it, find it.
(iv) Post an answer or comment on a query you received from a customer. Many writers make the mistake of thinking that their comments or posts
should always be leading-edge – aimed at setting opinion in the industry. But many readers are just looking for straightforward information – giving it to them in simple plain English may well be all they want.
Wordtracker.com
The Web Content Recipe Book | 45
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-----------------------------------------------------Page 45-----------------------------------------------------
Section 2: Recipe No. 5 | Write a blog
(v) Write an announcement about a new feature or service you’ve added. It doesn’t have to be groundbreaking, just a useful addition. Always write from
the customers’ point of view: don’t assume they will understand your in-house jargon. Don’t use the blog for the hard sell, a blog should be informative and useful, not just another means for you to market your products.
(vi) Write a seasonal statement. How do seasons influence demand for your
products? What about holidays such as Thanksgiving, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, or Ramadan?
(i) Invite opinion or comment. Develop a dialog with your audience by asking for
their opinion on an important issue, research in your industry, competitive activity or publicity.
Writing tip
Here’s a tip I got from Craig Garber . Get one of those small kitchen timers, or something similar and once you’ve scanned the day ’s news, set it for 30 minutes and write without interruption. Once the timer goes off, you should have written a few hundred words or more. Do a quick edit, or ask a colleague to review it, and you should have a pretty good blog post.
Little but often
Write a little every day, but don’t be over-ambitious. You don’t need to write perfect English and you don’t need to agonize over every point you make. Blogging is not an academic exercise, so don’t be afraid of being wrong — but if you are, make sure you acknowledge it.
More information and resources
For more information and free blogging advice , visit the Wordtracker Academy . Or buy Chris Garrett’s book on Business Blogging , which is packed with useful advice.
Wordtracker.com
The Web Content Recipe Book | 46
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21 irresistible content ideas to wow visitors and boost your search engine optimization
-----------------------------------------------------Page 36-----------------------------------------------------
Bust an
urban myth
The web is a great source of information, but sadly you can’t believe everything you read online — rumor, conjecture and inaccuracies pollute the world wide web. A good myth busting article can both help your customers, earn their trust, and attract search engine traffic.
3
Successful myth-busting
If you are going to use a myth busting article to attract web traffic, make sure you lead with interesting content, not a sales pitch. UnBiased.co.uk is a UK- based company that specializes in helping people find mortgage advice. In July 2009 it produced a media release titled ‘ Myth-busting the Mortgage Market ’. UnBiased commissioned research to gauge how
British people felt about getting a mortgage during the recession. The research found that 33% of those polled believed lenders would only get a home loan of up to 2.5 times their annual income, when in reality lenders are offering four times annual income. So that’s the first myth busted. UnBiased does a good job of producing a myth buster which is related to its business (mortgage advice). It creates and uses up-to-date information (the research poll), promotes the article (through a press release) and publishes it online.
Not every company can commission research, but this example shows how statistics and analysis can debunk myths and misconceptions. It’s a good idea to keep an eye out for industry-related polls or statistics that you feel offer up an alternative view, or reveal something interesting about your business community.
Wordtracker.com
Myths and realities
Some myths develop out of a news story. Think of the global hysteria about swine flu — blogs, news articles and Twitter spread conflicting messages about how harmful the virus was. This led to a number of websites writing a myths and realities article on the subject, including the National Geographic’s news article on Swine Flu Facts, Swine Flu Myths
Each point is written as a question such as ‘How safe is eating pork?’ which is how someone searching for information might write it.
Add helpful links and contact details
In each case it’s important to show that you are helping your customer reach an answer. Include links to other articles and add your contact details at the end of the piece. Ask people to email any further questions, or provide them with the opportunity to arrange a
consultation if they want to discuss their situation further.
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-----------------------------------------------------Page 37-----------------------------------------------------
Section 2: Recipe No. 3 | Bust an urban myth
Search out new material
Hot Tip
Most urban myths are borne from confusion over what to believe.
So, give your customers some straight facts: you’ll dispel an
unhelpful fiction and
generate trust amongst potential customers.
Wordtracker.com
Myths don’t all arise from news stories. Look through your emails and on-site searches for queries that refer to myths in your industry. The reason for writing these types of articles is to put your customers’ minds at ease and give them the facts.
Do your own research when busting myths. Keep an open mind and ask questions:
• Is there bias in the information you are reading?
• How can you validate the data, or test any claims made?
• What facts would prove the claims wrong?
• Give real life examples from your professional life that lead you to consider these statements as myths.
• If you are linking to research, a survey or news story, consider the source and make sure you trust it.
Expose poor advice
Another way of approaching a myth buster is to expose the bad advice given in your industry. PC World did this with its article, Busting the Biggest PC Myths . It exposed poor PC advice that wasted customers’ time and money. Subjects included ‘Magnets zap your data’, ‘Cookies track everything you do on the Internet’ and other common misconceptions. The article appears on PC World.com and on About.com; it ranks No.1 on Google for the query ‘What are the Biggest PC Myths?’
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-----------------------------------------------------Page 38-----------------------------------------------------
Write a case study
For Judy Kingsbury her journey to becoming a healthy vegetarian was a rocky one. Growing up in the small town of Manitoba, 200 miles north of Winnipeg, she says the term ‘vegetarian’ wasn’t even part of her vocabulary.
In the late 1960s, Judy took her first tentative steps towards vegetarianism. But, a lack of nutritional education, along with the fact that there were so few other people she could turn to, meant Judy faced periods of ill health. She threw herself into a macrobiotic diet of low fat and high fiber foods, grew thin, and became dehydrated. Malnourished, she
sought help to restore her health and discovered more nutritious ways of living a vegetarian lifestyle.
40 years on, Judy says that starting up an educational website dedicated to vegetarianism and vegan lifestyles was a natural decision. In 2003 www.savvyvegetarian. com was born — a website that has taken on its own personality and continues to grow in popularity.
Judy has spent years building up the site’s content, it
4
offers a plethora of information and tips on vegetarian living, and now receives 60,000 visits a month. So how has she been able to generate this level of traffic?.
Good story-telling sells
Many of us have an innate love of stories. They can create a magical sense of wonder, and teach us about
Wordtracker.com
Savvy Vegetarian uses Wordtracker’s Keywords tool for content ideas.
life, ourselves and others. Judy ’s story was the first case study I wrote for Wordtracker. I wanted to capture Judy’s personal journey to help draw in readers and humanize some abstract concepts — such as keyword research and search engine optimization (SEO).
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Section 2: Recipe No. 4 | Write a case study
Wordtracker’s case study
The term ‘case study ’ can sound clinical, but a well-written story about a successful client can be a wonderfully informative way of introducing yourself to prospective customers. It’s an opportunity for people to see the services you provide, and will help them gauge what kind of solutions you apply to specific problems.
For instance, I asked Judy to:
• explain in practical terms how she used our product in her business;
• outline the kinds of benefits that brought
• give me some real examples that I could write about
I was also able to include eye-catching headlines, like ‘Keyword Research Triples Sales’, without appearing to be selling the company ’s products. Another example: Spotty Gifts
In a more recent case study involving a company called SpottyGiftBoxes.com, we gave the article the headline ‘ How Keyword Research and SEO Increased Traffic to Spotty Gift Boxes by 228% ’. Again, this makes clear to our customers that there are real life success stories out there whose businesses are benefiting as a direct result of using Wordtracker ’s Keywords tool.
I identified that Caroline Blatchford who owns SpottyGiftBoxes.com, had a problem with competitive keywords. This led me to ask how she resolved this issue using keyword research. This kind of question is great for your readers, because it helps them identify problems that they might also be facing, and gives them an idea of how to tackle them. Caroline’s response was useful too: she outlined a five-step SEO process that readers could follow.
Customers who face similar challenges can share their experiences by adding comments, and will hopefully find inspiration and resolutions to their own problems. As one Wordtracker reader, Stephen Craine, commented , ‘Great article, really useful to see a real life example of how to use keywords. With the investment of time that it takes to build links and optimize pages to best effect, it’s motivational to hear what others are doing and the results they are achieving.’
Wordtracker.com
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Section 2: Recipe No. 4 | Write a case study
Write an overview of the case study’s business
Hot Tip
Preparation is essential. If you’re interviewing a customer, decide what questions you want to ask in advance.
Wordtracker.com
Here’s a step-by-step guide to writing case studies. First, write an overview of the company/client you are basing the case study on.
• What is their background? Which industry are they from? Describe the kind of
products and services they provide and the size of their business.
• Next, outline the challenge the client faced. Write from the client’s
perspective: what problems were they experiencing? How had they tried to overcome them? Why had previous efforts proved unsuccessful? What were they looking for? The bigger the problem, the more appealing your solution will appear.
• Contact your case study and explain to them that you would like to write about them. Outline how they might benefit from the attention. Will you link
to them from your site, offer a discount on their next purchase, or give them a free white paper you wrote?
Preparation
Preparation is essential — here are some questions you should consider:
• How the client learned about your company
• What problems they were having
• What services they were looking for
• Which products or services they chose and why
• How quickly was this service provided? How was it provided?
• How has their business changed since you provided this service? Has
it saved them money, time or space? Has it improved the way in which they provide services? Has it increased the volume of customers they have? Do they now have more unique visitors coming to their website?
• Would they recommend you to other businesses?
• Ask for a photograph of the person you are basing the case study on.
Failing that, ask if you can use their logo on your page with a link to their website.
The Web Content Recipe Book | 41
Prepared exclusively for qin yu
Bust an
urban myth
The web is a great source of information, but sadly you can’t believe everything you read online — rumor, conjecture and inaccuracies pollute the world wide web. A good myth busting article can both help your customers, earn their trust, and attract search engine traffic.
3
Successful myth-busting
If you are going to use a myth busting article to attract web traffic, make sure you lead with interesting content, not a sales pitch. UnBiased.co.uk is a UK- based company that specializes in helping people find mortgage advice. In July 2009 it produced a media release titled ‘ Myth-busting the Mortgage Market ’. UnBiased commissioned research to gauge how
British people felt about getting a mortgage during the recession. The research found that 33% of those polled believed lenders would only get a home loan of up to 2.5 times their annual income, when in reality lenders are offering four times annual income. So that’s the first myth busted. UnBiased does a good job of producing a myth buster which is related to its business (mortgage advice). It creates and uses up-to-date information (the research poll), promotes the article (through a press release) and publishes it online.
Not every company can commission research, but this example shows how statistics and analysis can debunk myths and misconceptions. It’s a good idea to keep an eye out for industry-related polls or statistics that you feel offer up an alternative view, or reveal something interesting about your business community.
Wordtracker.com
Myths and realities
Some myths develop out of a news story. Think of the global hysteria about swine flu — blogs, news articles and Twitter spread conflicting messages about how harmful the virus was. This led to a number of websites writing a myths and realities article on the subject, including the National Geographic’s news article on Swine Flu Facts, Swine Flu Myths
Each point is written as a question such as ‘How safe is eating pork?’ which is how someone searching for information might write it.
Add helpful links and contact details
In each case it’s important to show that you are helping your customer reach an answer. Include links to other articles and add your contact details at the end of the piece. Ask people to email any further questions, or provide them with the opportunity to arrange a
consultation if they want to discuss their situation further.
The Web Content Recipe Book | 37
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-----------------------------------------------------Page 37-----------------------------------------------------
Section 2: Recipe No. 3 | Bust an urban myth
Search out new material
Hot Tip
Most urban myths are borne from confusion over what to believe.
So, give your customers some straight facts: you’ll dispel an
unhelpful fiction and
generate trust amongst potential customers.
Wordtracker.com
Myths don’t all arise from news stories. Look through your emails and on-site searches for queries that refer to myths in your industry. The reason for writing these types of articles is to put your customers’ minds at ease and give them the facts.
Do your own research when busting myths. Keep an open mind and ask questions:
• Is there bias in the information you are reading?
• How can you validate the data, or test any claims made?
• What facts would prove the claims wrong?
• Give real life examples from your professional life that lead you to consider these statements as myths.
• If you are linking to research, a survey or news story, consider the source and make sure you trust it.
Expose poor advice
Another way of approaching a myth buster is to expose the bad advice given in your industry. PC World did this with its article, Busting the Biggest PC Myths . It exposed poor PC advice that wasted customers’ time and money. Subjects included ‘Magnets zap your data’, ‘Cookies track everything you do on the Internet’ and other common misconceptions. The article appears on PC World.com and on About.com; it ranks No.1 on Google for the query ‘What are the Biggest PC Myths?’
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Write a case study
For Judy Kingsbury her journey to becoming a healthy vegetarian was a rocky one. Growing up in the small town of Manitoba, 200 miles north of Winnipeg, she says the term ‘vegetarian’ wasn’t even part of her vocabulary.
In the late 1960s, Judy took her first tentative steps towards vegetarianism. But, a lack of nutritional education, along with the fact that there were so few other people she could turn to, meant Judy faced periods of ill health. She threw herself into a macrobiotic diet of low fat and high fiber foods, grew thin, and became dehydrated. Malnourished, she
sought help to restore her health and discovered more nutritious ways of living a vegetarian lifestyle.
40 years on, Judy says that starting up an educational website dedicated to vegetarianism and vegan lifestyles was a natural decision. In 2003 www.savvyvegetarian. com was born — a website that has taken on its own personality and continues to grow in popularity.
Judy has spent years building up the site’s content, it
4
offers a plethora of information and tips on vegetarian living, and now receives 60,000 visits a month. So how has she been able to generate this level of traffic?.
Good story-telling sells
Many of us have an innate love of stories. They can create a magical sense of wonder, and teach us about
Wordtracker.com
Savvy Vegetarian uses Wordtracker’s Keywords tool for content ideas.
life, ourselves and others. Judy ’s story was the first case study I wrote for Wordtracker. I wanted to capture Judy’s personal journey to help draw in readers and humanize some abstract concepts — such as keyword research and search engine optimization (SEO).
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Section 2: Recipe No. 4 | Write a case study
Wordtracker’s case study
The term ‘case study ’ can sound clinical, but a well-written story about a successful client can be a wonderfully informative way of introducing yourself to prospective customers. It’s an opportunity for people to see the services you provide, and will help them gauge what kind of solutions you apply to specific problems.
For instance, I asked Judy to:
• explain in practical terms how she used our product in her business;
• outline the kinds of benefits that brought
• give me some real examples that I could write about
I was also able to include eye-catching headlines, like ‘Keyword Research Triples Sales’, without appearing to be selling the company ’s products. Another example: Spotty Gifts
In a more recent case study involving a company called SpottyGiftBoxes.com, we gave the article the headline ‘ How Keyword Research and SEO Increased Traffic to Spotty Gift Boxes by 228% ’. Again, this makes clear to our customers that there are real life success stories out there whose businesses are benefiting as a direct result of using Wordtracker ’s Keywords tool.
I identified that Caroline Blatchford who owns SpottyGiftBoxes.com, had a problem with competitive keywords. This led me to ask how she resolved this issue using keyword research. This kind of question is great for your readers, because it helps them identify problems that they might also be facing, and gives them an idea of how to tackle them. Caroline’s response was useful too: she outlined a five-step SEO process that readers could follow.
Customers who face similar challenges can share their experiences by adding comments, and will hopefully find inspiration and resolutions to their own problems. As one Wordtracker reader, Stephen Craine, commented , ‘Great article, really useful to see a real life example of how to use keywords. With the investment of time that it takes to build links and optimize pages to best effect, it’s motivational to hear what others are doing and the results they are achieving.’
Wordtracker.com
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Section 2: Recipe No. 4 | Write a case study
Write an overview of the case study’s business
Hot Tip
Preparation is essential. If you’re interviewing a customer, decide what questions you want to ask in advance.
Wordtracker.com
Here’s a step-by-step guide to writing case studies. First, write an overview of the company/client you are basing the case study on.
• What is their background? Which industry are they from? Describe the kind of
products and services they provide and the size of their business.
• Next, outline the challenge the client faced. Write from the client’s
perspective: what problems were they experiencing? How had they tried to overcome them? Why had previous efforts proved unsuccessful? What were they looking for? The bigger the problem, the more appealing your solution will appear.
• Contact your case study and explain to them that you would like to write about them. Outline how they might benefit from the attention. Will you link
to them from your site, offer a discount on their next purchase, or give them a free white paper you wrote?
Preparation
Preparation is essential — here are some questions you should consider:
• How the client learned about your company
• What problems they were having
• What services they were looking for
• Which products or services they chose and why
• How quickly was this service provided? How was it provided?
• How has their business changed since you provided this service? Has
it saved them money, time or space? Has it improved the way in which they provide services? Has it increased the volume of customers they have? Do they now have more unique visitors coming to their website?
• Would they recommend you to other businesses?
• Ask for a photograph of the person you are basing the case study on.
Failing that, ask if you can use their logo on your page with a link to their website.
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