Author: Melody Spier

If you’re stuck about what type of content you should post on your blog, worry no more. There are so many types of posts you can use to help you come up with just the right content that will engage your audience, and help you convert visitors. Let’s look at some.

1. Video Content – Just because you have a blog doesn’t mean all the content has to be written. You can also add video content. To help the search engine find the content, write a good description, fill out that alt information, and give the video a relevant name. You can also add a transcript.

2. Well-Placed Images – Don’t forget to add images to your blog post that help enhance the meaning of your post and grab the attention of your visitors. Remember to give the image a relevant name. For example, don’t name it “IMG423”; give it a descriptive name like “steakcookingdemo” instead.

3. “How-to” Content – Everyone loves reading good how-to content and tutorials. Anything you can show your audience how to do is fodder for a good tutorial post. You can add images, text, and video to enhance the usefulness of these posts.

4. Industry News – Keeping up to date on industry news is a great way to show what an expert you are and to provide that information to your readers without them having to look elsewhere. If they realize that you are a good one-stop for the information they need, they’ll come to you first.

5. Controversial Content – Sometimes you want to stir the pot. The reason is that it can cause your content to go viral. But do this with caution. If you can cause good controversy and not negative controversy, that’s even better.

6. List Articles – The article you’re reading right now is a list article. This is a good way to provide information in chunks that people like reading. Reading content without headings can be hard on the eye and cause people to click away. A good list is easy to read and to write.

7. Checklists – These are useful types of content that you can use as content upgrades to help people transition to your list. Add them to the content you have already created when relevant, and require a sign-up to get the download.

8. Case Studies – You can do a case study via interviews, either on video or by emailing your questions to the person you want to know about. If you have a product or service or process that other people have used successfully, send them an invite to do a case study. The fastest way is by interviewing, then turn the interview into a blog.

9. Reviews – Any niche offers an opportunity to earn a little extra income by conducting reviews and linking to the product that you recommend in the review. Sometimes a company may decide they like the reviews you have done on your own, and ask to work with you by providing free products too.

10. Problems and Solutions – This is a terrific type of blog post that is very interesting for your readers. If you can describe a problem and then tell them about the different solutions that are available (including yours), they may click the link to the offer and you’ll earn money.

Hopefully, these ten types of content for your blog will get you started. Don’t forget that you don’t want to create all this on your own. You can hire a content writer or you can use private label content, or both.

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One of the most important skills you can learn when trying to improve your copy-writing is the art of persuasion. Using persuasion with words is a skill that you can learn if you understand how to do it. Let’s go over some common persuasive writing techniques used by the pros.

Ask Rhetorical Questions – This is a question that you know no one is really going to answer and doesn’t need an answer to get results. Instead, the question is designed to make the reader think about something important. “Do You Want To Triple Your Conversions?” No answer needed; of course you do, and here’s how.

Use Repetition – You don’t have to go all infomercial on your audience, but repetition does help get a thought or idea into their minds. That’s why TV infomercials use the technique; it works. It might be irritating to some of you but it gets results. Using repetition in copy-writing doesn’t have to be as caustic. For example, you can use repetition in placement of the buy button, offering several calls to action on one sales page.

Add Emotion to Your Words – Use words that elicit feeling from your audience. You may want them to feel happy, sad, excited and even guilty. Using the words that bring out the emotion you want them to feel can help lead your audience down the path you want them to go. You can draw emotions by telling a story, providing case studies, and examples.

Provide a Little Hyperbole – In advertising it’s legal to “blow smoke” a little bit. Don’t lie, but do exaggerate a bit in order to get your point across. Overstating that your solution is “the best” and “most in-depth” is not a lie, but of course you don’t really know if it’s true or not because you’ve not seen every possible solution.

Give Some Stats and Facts – Backing up your points with facts is an important way to get the audience on your side. People like statistics and facts used to back up your points because it helps build trust in your words. Find a way to tone down the stats by making them seem human, using examples that involve a story.

Describe It in Triplicate – This is not about repetition; this is about using three descriptive words (adjectives) to accentuate your points. For example: “These simple, juicy, and flavorful chicken recipes will become family favorites.”

Be Personal – Perhaps your English teacher said not to use personal pronouns in writing, but in copy-writing you should definitely use personal pronouns. It’s about your audience, not you, so use “you” a lot in your copy-writing. But, if you want to relate to the reader, you can also use “we” and “our” to draw them onto your side.

Acquire Alliteration Abilities – Technically, this isn’t alliteration since normally you are supposed to use consonants and not vowels repetitively to make them sound out. A great example is the store “Bed Bath & Beyond.”

Don’t use every single technique in each page of copy or headline, but pick out one or two to use in order to create content such as sales pages, advertising copy, and more that converts.

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A great way to become an expert in your niche is to become an author. Writing a book requires that you know something about your topic, and are able to communicate it in a cohesive way that makes sense to your audience. It’s one of the most tried and true ways of building up expertise status. It was an effective way to do it even before the internet, and the ease of publishing eBooks on Kindle and your website.

You Can Prove What You Know

Writing a book is a great little selling tool that consist of an easy to give away (or sell) package of information that you know. It’s just all there; you put your knowledge in the book, and then you can prove that you have that knowledge because you were able to put that together for your audience.

You Have Something to Show for Your Efforts

Nothing is more satisfying than having that book with the cover showing your name bold on the front. It’s one reason people who are involved a great deal in education are encouraged and in some cases required to become published to prove what they know. Nothing works better than the process of writing a book to clarify what you know and believe.

Builds Your Credibility

You can shout from the rooftops that you’re an expert, and you may very well be. But, the book is proof that you have that knowledge. People respect it, and when they see that you’re published they will believe that you have credibility, even if you self-publish. This is because you are willing to put that book out there, and take the criticism that goes with putting your ideas out into the public for comment.

You Can’t Hide behind a Curtain as an Author

So many people want to hide behind their computers when working online or owning a digital business. But, as an author you need to come out of the closet and show who you really are. That’s the real key to becoming an expert: being who you are, owning what you know, and showing the world.

A Book Will Increase Your Value

If you provide services, want to speak in public, or have great products, a book will increase your value exponentially. When people see you as an expert – and a book will help you accomplish that – they are willing to pay more money for your products, services and information. As your value increases you’ll work less, and have more time to study more, write more and boost your expertise even more.

You’ll Learn More Than You Know Now

As you write a book, you will collect a lot of information from other experts and from your own studies, and that will help you learn even more. You might even change your mind about something as you write your book. That’s okay because that’s what experts do. As they learn more, you know more, and you increase your expertise even more.

A Book Teaches You Communication

When you write a book, you have to put your audience first in your mind as you disseminate the information to them. This will give you a lot of practice thinking in terms of how your audience perceives what you write. You always have to write with your audience in mind so that they get what you’re saying. It’s always about them and how they communicate best.

A Book Gives You a Platform for All Your Other Of

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There is no one right answer to how often you should create a new product. It depends on the nature of your business and how long it takes to put together a high-quality new product that will impress your prospective customers.

Having said that, regular product creation is important to build your brand and business so that your target audience gets to know you, sees the value you represent, and can develop loyalty to you over time.

Studies have shown that 80% of your sales will come from 20% of your audience; in other words, repeat buyers. Adding new products regularly is therefore essential if you are to make the most of this opportunity.

Types of Products

There are many different products you can create and sell online. They could be digital or tangible (that is, physical products). Digital products such as eBooks and multimedia courses are usually fairly easy to put together because you are in control of most of the production process. For example, you could write a short eBook in a day or two and have it up and selling on Amazon within a few hours.

The more expensive the item, the more time it will usually take. You can get a lot more money for a multimedia course, but it will have a lot more moving pieces to it, such as audio or video. You may have to outsource some of this work to create an impressive package.

If you are a monthly membership site, you have to stick to the terms of service. You need to create a new product each month and add it to the interface, or your customers will ask for their money back and unregister. But continuity income (that is, money from membership sites, clubs and so on) can be the best way to ensure a fairly even level of income throughout the year without too many highs and lows. Many membership sites report that users stay online for at least three months, so that is three months of income if you play your part and create great products.

Physical Products

Physical products are more problematic because of design issues, specification, manufacturing and materials, and even shipping and handling – either to your location, or to a warehouse where your items will be stored until ordered. All of these aspects of manufacturing physical products will usually have cost considerations and require a great deal of follow-up to ensure that the item is high quality and works the way it should. This whole process can take many more months than creating a digital product on your own computer.

The Launch Process

No matter which type of product you create, there is a launch process that needs to be followed in order to help your product sell well out of the starting gate. You might do alpha and beta testing to make sure the product is the best it can be by getting feedback. You would then correct the issues and get ready for a full launch across all media channels. The more of this you get done before L-Day (Launch Day), the better you will be able to deal with issue as they arise once paying customers start coming in through your site.

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There are a number of different phrases and statements that help demonstrate that you have empathy for your target audience. Empathy is important, because it offers the “human touch” in business dealings and marketing. You don’t have to act like a pushy used car salesman to seal the deal if you master these empathetic words and phrases and use them in face-to-face meetings and in your sales letters online.

The various statement can be used in different situations in order to meet certain business goals. Here are just a few words and phrases you and your sales team and customer service team can use to close deals more often and soothe any ruffled feathers.

Making Sales

There are a number of ways to offer your products and services and close the deal without seeming too pushy or lacking in empathy. The important thing to remember is that people don’t want to be sold to as much as they want to be understood.

The starting point should therefore always be your customers – their needs, desires, ethics and other considerations when they buy something. Do they have a family? Are they green?

By understanding the ideal customer in your niche, you can create just the right products and services and generate brand loyalty. They will feel you “get them” as a person and are not just trying to sell them stuff.

When dealing with prospective customers or writing sales letters, use phrases like:

• Personally, I would recommend you to…
• Would you like to try our new X?
• X is a good fit for you because you can accomplish Y easily.
• You know how frustrating it can be to try to do X? Y can help ease your pain.
• Have you ever had trouble with X? We did too until we started using Y.

As you can see, the tactic of asking open-ended rather than “yes or no” questions works well because it demonstrates you are interested in them, and your answers show empathy.

Making Customers Feel Valued

• Thanks for getting in touch with us. How can we help you today?
• I appreciate your patience.
• Thank you for remaining so positive.
• Your business means a lot to us.
• We appreciate you taking the time to talk to us today.

Dealing with Difficult Customers

Simple courtesy costs nothing. You and your sales team and customer service people should all train to be polite, no matter how rude any customer is who contacts you.

“How can we help?” opens the conversation. Then, depending on what they say, you can respond in a number of ways to show that you empathize, such as:

• I understand. If I were in your position, I would feel the same way. Let’s see what we can do to fix this.
• I feel your frustration. Let’s sort out this situation together.
• I would be asking the same questions as you are.
• You are totally right. Have you tried X solution?
• I would come to the same conclusion. So, what would you like our next steps to be?

Try to ensure the outcome is a win-win for everyone. Be sure to end the conversation with: “Is there anything else I can help you with today?”

If they say yes, you can respond with phases like:

• Great! Let’s get started.
• I’d love to help you with that.
• Give me just a minute/second to I figure this out for you.
• That’s awesome/great! How can I help?
• Let’s see if we can sort this out together.

A few simple words of empathy can mean a lot, so practice these words and phrases until they are second nature and see what a difference they can make for your business.

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A good copywriter can write effective copy for any type of product or service, without ever having needed it for themselves. Even if they haven’t experienced a problem personally, they can study it enough to develop an understanding of it, to show empathy for the situation so that they relate to the copy on the page.

Don’t Try to Reinvent the Wheel

Copywriting has been around for ages. People who have products to sell have long been trying to figure out how to get more people to make the decision to buy their products. The tricks of the trade have never stopped working, whether it is a sales page on the internet or a brochure at your dentist’s office.

Get to Know the Audience

One way to develop empathy for your audience is to get to know who they are. What audience are you trying to sell the product to? Why? What problems does it solve for them? What benefits does it have for them? What keeps them up at night? How much money do they earn and how much of that is extra money? Can your product be afforded via extra money, or is it a needed item that can fit into the household budget? All this information is imperative.

Use Reviews or Interview Users of the Product

One way to help write effective copy is to talk to the people who have found success using the product. Even talking to people who haven’t been happy with the product can help tremendously to ensure that you’re targeting the right audience – plus that information can be used to improve the product as well as the copy.

Stick to a Formula

You may not be aware, but there are various copywriting formulas that you can use to help you work through a proper sales page. You can combine them and use them individually. Buffer has a list of 27 copywriting formulas that you can use to make your sales pages and copy even better, and write about problems you’ve never had.

Link – https://blog.bufferapp.com/copywriting-formulas

Show Empathy

To show empathy, use words that denote empathy. For example, saying, “I understand” is a way to show empathy even if you don’t understand. You can also give examples in your words such as this one: “If I had that problem I would be very worried, but I would look to this amazing product to help me because it solves all these problems.”

Choose the Right Words

When writing a sales page, you want to choose the words that your audience uses. A great way to discover their way of talking is to frequent online groups with that audience in it. Observe their discussions, copy down the questions they ask, and write down the way they use the words. Then try to emulate them in your copy so that they feel understood.

Less Is More

Long-form sales pages are great, but you want to avoid filler words. A good way to get rid of filler words is to write whatever comes to mind, then go back and delete unneeded words that don’t help you get the point across.

Use the Right Tools

There are many tools today that will help you write amazing copy, create fabulous-looking sales pages, and even allow for A/B testing at a touch of a button. Software like Converzly.com, Leadpages.net, and others can help you make amazing sales pages that really speak to your audience and help you write about problems you haven’t had.

Writing effective copy about a problem you’ve never experienced may seem challenging, but it’s not impossible. Copywriters the world over have been doing it for many years – long before the internet was invented. Just get to know the audience along with the problems they experience, then let yourself feel their feelings so that your empathy for them shines through in your copy.

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You’ve seen click-bait used on many sites including on major news websites. Hyperbolic headlines and titles seem to have become the norm. But, most people express displeasure about it. Due to the high usage of these types of headlines, people are starting to become blind to them. Thankfully, you can get clicks without using click-baiting phrases. In fact, you’ll even build up more of that know, like, trust factor you need.

Tell Them What It’s About – The fact is, your readers want to know what’s inside the article. If you can tell them in the headline, then you’re going to get more reliable clicks than if you use hyperbolic headlines. Think about what you want them to do after they click through. You want them to read the content and answer your call to action. Will they do that if they click through to read and what you said was inside isn’t?

Tell Them At Least One Benefit – Your audience wants to know why they should read the article. Try to tell them why within the headline, so that they know if they click through they’ll learn something. “How to Write Click-bait Free Headlines Every Time” is a headline that gives the benefit of click-bait free headlines in combination of what exactly the article is about.

Test Your Headlines – Most auto-responders allow for testing of different titles, which can help you create better headlines. Split up your list and use one headline for one side of your list, and the other for the other side, but send them out at the same time. Send the most opened headline to those who did not open from either list.

Include Stats in Your Headlines – People love facts and the more facts you can include in a headline, the more likely you are to get clicks. Stats aren’t manipulative either; they’re based on fact and mean something. “29% of Marketers Love This Software” is a great headline if you want marketers to click. They key is to truly give them the rest of the information within the article too.

Optimize for Keywords – Anytime you can use keywords in the first three words of your title, do so. There isn’t anything manipulative about that because you have to have a way for your audience to find your content so that you can help them.

Don’t Leave Out the Dek – This is the area below the title that shows up often in search engines and on social shares. Make sure this part of your share is showing up and further explaining what the article is going to be about. It can explain the title further for the reader.

Avoid Tricks and Manipulation – It’s been said elsewhere in this article but it can’t be repeated enough. Tricks and manipulation might get clicks, but they won’t get results. If you’re after results, buys, conversions and sales, don’t trick your audience. Respect them enough to be honest.

Take a Stand – Even though this might seem like clickbait, if you really do take a stand as the headline states, it’s not. For example, you can write a title such as “End Clickbait Forever” and mean it. Sure, forever is a long time, but you’re taking a stand and you’ll explain in the article.

Speak Directly to the Reader – When you write a headline or any content for your audience, try to write to an audience of one. Use personal pronouns like “you” in your titles and in your content, and you’ll connect better with them without even trying.

Avoid Superlatives – This is when you add words like “ever”, “best”, “perfect”, “smartest”, etc.… as an explanation to your title. Adding in too many extraneous words clutters up the title and takes away from the meaning. It also does little to let the customer know what’s inside.

Headlines are central to getting more eyes on your content, but you don’t want to be manipulative to the point that you’re misleading them. Just think of how you feel when it happens to you, and think about how your audience will feel if you do it to them.

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A great way to become an expert in your niche is to become an author. Writing a book requires that you know something about your topic, and are able to communicate it in a cohesive way that makes sense to your audience. It’s one of the most tried and true ways of building up expertise status. It was an effective way to do it even before the internet, and the ease of publishing eBooks on Kindle and your website.

You Can Prove What You Know

Writing a book is a great little selling tool that consist of an easy to give away (or sell) package of information that you know. It’s just all there; you put your knowledge in the book, and then you can prove that you have that knowledge because you were able to put that together for your audience.

You Have Something to Show for Your Efforts

Nothing is more satisfying than having that book with the cover showing your name bold on the front. It’s one reason people who are involved a great deal in education are encouraged and in some cases required to become published to prove what they know. Nothing works better than the process of writing a book to clarify what you know and believe.

Builds Your Credibility

You can shout from the rooftops that you’re an expert, and you may very well be. But, the book is proof that you have that knowledge. People respect it, and when they see that you’re published they will believe that you have credibility, even if you self-publish. This is because you are willing to put that book out there, and take the criticism that goes with putting your ideas out into the public for comment.

You Can’t Hide behind a Curtain as an Author

So many people want to hide behind their computers when working online or owning a digital business. But, as an author you need to come out of the closet and show who you really are. That’s the real key to becoming an expert: being who you are, owning what you know, and showing the world.

A Book Will Increase Your Value

If you provide services, want to speak in public, or have great products, a book will increase your value exponentially. When people see you as an expert – and a book will help you accomplish that – they are willing to pay more money for your products, services and information. As your value increases you’ll work less, and have more time to study more, write more and boost your expertise even more.

You’ll Learn More Than You Know Now

As you write a book, you will collect a lot of information from other experts and from your own studies, and that will help you learn even more. You might even change your mind about something as you write your book. That’s okay because that’s what experts do. As they learn more, you know more, and you increase your expertise even more.

A Book Teaches You Communication

When you write a book, you have to put your audience first in your mind as you disseminate the information to them. This will give you a lot of practice thinking in terms of how your audience perceives what you write. You always have to write with your audience in mind so that they get what you’re saying. It’s always about them and how they communicate best.

A Book Gives You a Platform for All Your Other Offers

If you want a great platform in which to offer your services, expertise and ideas to others, then a book is the best way to do it. The book gives you an actual thing – whether it’s digital or physical – to point your audience to when questions arise that are answered in the book.

Writing a book takes a lot of thought and planning. And if you put your best foot forward with writing it, direct it to your audience, and write what they need to know, you will advance yourself to expert status with every word.

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