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5 Tips to Write Crowd-Pleasing Page Content for your Website...

If you have spent any time online in the last ten years, I am sure you have heard the phrase "content is king." I first heard the phrase myself in 1996 during an undergraduate computer class at my beloved alma mater, Cornell College, (GO RAMS!). We were discussing a recent speech given by Microsoft founder Bill Gates titled of all things "content is king." During the speech Mr. Gates made one, of what would become many, prescient predictions about the Internet, when he stated that "content is where I expect most of the real money on the Internet will be made (Gates)."

As any reliable, competent SEO practitioner will tell you today, the content used to write a site is one of the single greatest factors in obtaining high-quality search rankings across a variety of engines. Sites with detailed product or service information covering their specific niche are more successful online. What do they have in common? All of them realize that content drives the web and thus their site. The most successful sites focus on a multi-pronged "successful content strategy" that makes use of most, if not all, of the following simple content strategies:

1. Write content that is tailored to your audience, not to you.

If you read your site copy and find lots of self-focused verbiage (us, our, we) as opposed to more customer friendly language (you, your), then your content isn't being written with your audience in mind. This is by far the single most common mistake editors make when writing their site marketing copy. Don't forget your audience. Site content needs to speak to the site visitor, and you can't do that in first-person.

2. Focus on building useful research and information content.

A client of mine had a comics-related retail web site that contained all of 4 pages. He pretty much threw up a page of items for sale with an "about us" page, and a plea to contact him for more product info, and waited for the orders to come in. Three months and two orders later, he finally realized something was wrong. After scrapping his entire site and having Media Wyse design a new site around detailed product info, and content rich pages covering the current comics-related landscape, the site is well on its way to being profitable. Don't make his mistakes. Add plenty of product content and on-point research to your site right out of the gate and update it regularly. Your audience will thank you for it.

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3. Write your content for the site visitor, not for the search engine.

Obviously the goal for your site and for each of its pages is to rank high in the search engines by optimizing your pages with select keywords whenever possible. However, very seldom will you be successful if you attempt to optimize your site content while writing it for your visitors at the same time. To accomplish both goals, follow this simple tip; search engines index as many as 500 words on each page they spider. Make sure your pages have a minimum of 500 words of content and appeal to your reader. Then go back and "mildly" optimize your pages around 1-2 keyword phrases each.

4. Write your content to elicit an emotional response.

Are you passionate about your web site? Does your site content communicate this to your audience? If not, you're missing out on a valuable tool to market your product or service. Make sure to write your site content with strong "call-to-actions" whenever possible. "Buy me now;" "contact me for more information;" "ask me a question." Don't leave any doubt in your audience what you expect from them. If you don't tell them what you want them to do on your site, they won't do it.

5. Vary your content choices to heighten visitor site interaction.

Each page of your site is a unique entry and exit point for visitors to view your content. Thus, each page of your content-rich site should be varied and engaging to the reader. Using different forms of content throughout your site is an extremely effective way to encourage repeat visits and benefit from word-of-month marketing from satisfied users. To accomplish this, design pages containing FAQ's, step-by-step product tutorials, interactive video content, online tools, and/or site specific content links. Mix these pages up and watch your site referrals skyrocket.

Any and all of these content choices, used with the interests of your audience clearly in mind, will go a long way to ensuring the success of your content strategy and your site in general. In the words of Bill Gates, "those sites that succeed will propel the Internet forward as a marketplace of ideas, experiences, and products....a marketplace of content (Gates)."

Gates, Bill. "Content is King." 03 1996. 17 Apr 2006 (http://www.microsoft.com/billgates/columns/1996essay/essay960103.asp).

Related: Debt Consolidation Blogging - Free Blogging Service

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Casey Markee is president of San Diego SEO firm Media Wyse. He has over 7 yrs. of experience within the online marketing arena and holds graduate degrees in Marketing & E-Commerce. Contact him today at http://www.MediaWyse.com with your SEO questions or help on your upcoming campaign.

Why Most Newsletters Don't Work - part two: For Effective Newsletter Content, Get Real

Client newsletters do generate results. Yet, many business people who issue a newsletter find it frustrating to generate the results they want. This is why most newsletters are cancelled after a few issues. Many eventually conclude that newsletters just don't work. Those not willing to give up on their newsletter need to get real about newsletter content.

what newsletters do
A good newsletter might never cause a spike in sales. However, if you watch other indicators over time - such as business per client, referrals from newsletter readers, and client retention - you would see how a newsletter performs as an investment in client relations. Newsletters shape market perception. Good newsletters help to build and maintain hundreds of business relationships with meaningful engagement.

What to say?
For many, a newsletter is demanding and time-consuming - especially when content that the issuer wants to communicate elicits difficult-to-measure results.

Some report news to readers already swamped with news. Some offer persuasive articles or clever commentaries to readers who really don't need to be sold. Some offer lists, tables, and graphs. These, too, come with the risk that readers might not care. So, if a newsletter is best used as a tool of brand management, with what content?

the cost of off-the-shelf content
In a lot of situations, it is tempting just to buy good content, if you can find it easily at a reasonable price. But what is the reputation-shaping effect? Your clients can tell when your message is not really yours.

meaningful, brand aligned
Because a client newsletter is a medium for business communication, and because it assumes a business relationship between the issuer and the reader, a newsletter is a medium for client relationship management. Your clients can tell when you're involved in your newsletter. Hence the need for original, brand-aligned newsletter content.

the cost of do-it-yourself content
Some decide to keep the connection with clients alive by developing their own content. This entails a commitment to produce meaningful, well-written content on schedule. Many then face these basic assumptions:
1. You need to have talent and creativity. 2. You have to provide value in the newsletter, such as advice or insider tips or discounts. 3. You must educate readers on points related to your business.

Put into practice, these basic assumptions stop some from issuing their own newsletters. These are worth considering, but are not must-haves. What readers really need from you is heart.

survey says...
Gallup research shows that the key to wooing customers isn't price or even product. It's emotion. Gallup developed an eleven-question survey to understand client engagement (CE 11). Eight of those questions (73%) probe emotional engagement. (Alec Applebaum: The Constant Customer, Gallup Management Journal 06/17/01)

emotional engagement
When you engage clients emotionally - which often follows from showing your own emotional engagement - that leads to more loyal, profitable business. People go out of their way to deal with businesses whose values they respect, whose style they like, and whose sincerity they like. When people believe in you, they demonstrate it with loyalty to you and bring more business to you.

medium for meaningful contact
When a newsletter makes people feel good about themselves in connection with the newsletter issuer (e.g. it validates their values) then it can create a feeling of connectedness. When that sense of connectedness is maintained through meaningful contact (e.g. a brand-aligned newsletter) then competitors' attempts at wooing your clients have less effect.

Why not...
honor what your clients like about you? reflect their interests? celebrate your connection with them? declare the satisfaction you find dealing with them?

measure engagement
In addition to issuing an engaging business newsletter, also set reasonable performance expectations and measures. Rather than short-term sales increases, efforts to optimize newsletter performance should reflect long-term business goals, such as: stronger client loyalty or retention. more, higher-quality referrals. more business per client.

get real sincerely
Newsletters are naturally brand-management tools, and good brand management is good client relations. If you think in terms of client relations - maintaining the connection and managing the client experience - then you can improve your business with a client newsletter that shows your true colors. That's getting real.

Glenn Harrington is Principal Consultant of the Harrington Newsletter Company in Victoria, BC Canada.

www.harringtonnewsletter.ca
doctor@harringtonnewsletter.ca

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