Archive for the ‘Increase Web Traffic’ Category

As a copywriter, you know that words have power.

You know words can influence, inform, and inspire.

They can persuade your fellow humans to do some amazing things (or to do the wrong things, but we won’t go there today).

What you may not realize is that your words can change the world.

Here’s something else that’s really cool that you might not have realized …

The keys to world-changing writing are also the keys to damn good copywriting.

But as you know, good writing doesn’t happen all by itself. So let’s talk about what it takes to be damned good … and what it takes to change the world.

Your words must be meaningful

As Hugh MacLeod said, the market for something to believe in is infinite.

Your writing must give your readers something to believe in.

Some writers are called to create a great masterpiece like Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech. If that’s you, that’s awesome.

But most of us are doing something much more humble. And there’s nothing in the world wrong with that.

It can be as simple as the promise of SEO Made Simple.

You know that nasty, frustrated feeling of being overwhelmed by something like optimizing content for search engines? Maybe for you, it’s another topic. But we all have a thorny problem like this. It feels complicated. It feels kind of scary. It feels like it’s going to be very easy to mess up.

For readers who are feeling that same kind of overwhelm, the promise to make search engines simple gives something to believe in.

That they can do this. That they can keep moving forward and get over this stuck spot.

Whether you’re telling a grand, heroic story or just solving a frustrating problem, the concept is exactly the same.

World-changing writers and copywriters both begin with the meaning.

Your words must be sticky

But meaning isn’t enough.

Meaningful words that aren’t also sticky will slip silently into your readers’ left ears and swoop swiftly out of their right ears. (Or would that be eyes?)

Your words must stick inside your readers’ heads. Your reader will be changed by words that stick, and will share your words with others.

No stickiness = flash in the pan.

Some stickiness = successful marketing campaign.

Mega stickiness = world-changing movement.

This is where all your copywriting tips and tricks carry over to the craft of world-changing writing. Headlines. Subheaders. Bullet points. Specific details.

And most importantly, storytelling.

World-changing writers and copywriters both strive for a sticky story.

Your words must be authentic

There’s a lot of smarmy social media kool-aid out there about authenticity. That’s not what we’re talking about.

What we’re talking about this this: No one will care about your meaningful, sticky message if it smells like bullshit.

If your readers suspect you’re trying to sell them something they don’t want — whether it’s a product or an idea — you’ll lose their attention forever.

That’s why your words must be authentic.

“Authentic” doesn’t have to mean sharing intimate details of your personal life. (In fact, if you could refrain from letting us know what your cat had for breakfast, that would be awesome.)

But it does mean that you have to believe in what you’re writing. You have to let a piece of yourself shine through in your words.

You have to give a damn.

World-changing writers and copywriters both let authenticity into their writing.

So where’s the world-changing?

The world isn’t changed in one fell swoop. (Or even a swell foop.)

The world gets changed one person at a time.

One reader who reads your meaningful, sticky, authentic words. One reader who is a little bit different after reading your words than they were before.

If you’ve done your job well, that one reader will share your words with one more reader. Then two, then ten, then a hundred.

That’s how the world is changed. By spreading ideas that are meaningful, sticky, and authentic.

So how about you?

What idea will you spread? Will it be grand or humble?

Whatever your idea is, Pace would love to give you a hand with making your message a little more meaningful, a little sticker, and a little more authentic. To do that, check out her free video course, The 6 Steps to World-Changing Writing.

And let us know about your world-changing idea in the comments.

About the Author: Pace Smith is the co-leader of the Connection Revolution, where she helps dreamers blossom into world-changers. Click here to get her free video course, The 6 Steps to World-Changing Writing. Sonia does a lot of writing around here, and is pleased as punch to be one of the teachers in Pace’s workshop.

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Did you know Copyblogger Media has a WordPress hosting division? Many people don’t, because it’s been a bit under-the-radar.

The whole thing started with our frustration with web hosting in general. Specifically, the fact that a lot of “WordPress hosting” amounts to generic one-click installation of the CMS on a standardly-configured box — which simply doesn’t cut it for optimal performance and security.

So, last year we decided to manage our high-traffic network of content and product sites ourselves. We did this by bringing into the family a team of people who themselves also ran high-traffic sites; people who had invested a ton of time learning how to make WordPress work really well at the server level, because, like us, their sites and livelihoods depended on it.

After enjoying the best hosting experience of my entire online career, it seemed smart to follow our usual modus operandi. That is, if we use it ourselves, then there’s a good chance others might want it as well.

With that, Synthesis was born. This time, however, we kept things limited to our existing customers and people we knew.

No hype. No big launch. No dancing unicorn videos.

Just a simple, unwavering focus on ensuring that Synthesis is the best WordPress hosting experience ever. Word of mouth, however, is a strange and wonderful thing.

Word Gets Around…

Pretty soon, we started getting pinged by people with serious performance and security requirements. Our response? No problem.

GeekBeat TV – The web show fronted by Cali Lewis gets hammered with traffic from fans, and we eliminated their sporadic downtime and reduced page load from 7.5 seconds to 1.4 seconds.

BlogWorld – The premier mega-conference of the blogging and new media space was crippled during its twice-yearly crunch time. We rescued them from their publicly-traded web host and gave them a quantum leap in performance.

Diario de Yucatan – Diario de Yucatan is one of Mexico’s most visited websites. They chose Synthesis for a flexible, secure, and scalable hosting platform after dealing with less-than-reliable performance.

Larry Brown Sports – One of the top independent publishers of sports-related content, LBS gets big traffic spikes from ESPN, FOX Sports, Sports Illustrated, CBS Sports, and NBC Sports.

Digital Photography School – After growing to 5,000,000 unique monthly visitors, DPS needed a highly scalable, secure architecture that could accommodate their existing external caching configuration. They said jump, we said how high.

Add to that Chris Pirillo’s massive site Lockergnome, Andy Beal’s Marketing Pilgrim, and the company and client sites of online marketing agency BlueGlass, and we quickly got comfortable with the fact that we could handle any kind of site’s hosting needs … as long as they used WordPress.

But Synthesis is not just about sites with huge traffic. Any online publisher or business with a web presence needs to be very serious about the performance and security of the place people more often first experience your brand.

For example:

Pushing Social – Stanford Smith does everything right when it comes to creating great content, but every time I tweeted one of his articles, his site crashed. The last straw was when he got maliciously hacked. Stanford happily came over to Synthesis.

Convince and Convert – Jay Baer makes a living speaking, consulting, and doing a lot of traveling. That’s all made possible thanks to content marketing via his website, which he doesn’t want to worry about beyond hitting publish. Synthesis gave him fast, secure, and reliable peace of mind.

TomKat Studio – Kim Stoegbauer started a blog to share her craft projects, decorating, and party ideas, and then got crushed with big links from HGTV and Martha Stewart. Now, Synthesis allows Kim’s company to grow even larger when those magic link moments happen.

If you’re looking for a better WordPress hosting experience, now may be a good time to join these fine folks.

Save 20% This Week Only (Only With This Special Link)

We’re still perfectly happy to allow Synthesis to grow by recommendations from clients and partners. The good will alone that comes from solving the frustration of a poor hosting experience is pretty fantastic.

So we thought it would be nice to offer a price break this week. Since Synthesis doesn’t have a “cram 5,000 sites on a single server” model, we’re not as cheap as some other hosts. Then again, if your site can’t stay up during moments of traffic success, or gets compromised by hackers, did you really get a bargain?

Anyway, this week only — until Friday 5/18 at 5pm PST — you can save 20% off our regular plan pricing, which should help. And you get to keep that discounted price for the entire life of your account … no expiration date unless you decide to go elsewhere.

IMPORTANT: To get the deal, you must click this link.

After clicking that link, you’ll see revised pricing for each plan that is automagically 20% lower than usual (on the other hand, if you don’t use that link, you’ll see the full prices). Once you’ve clicked and are at the site, feel free to check out all the features, case studies, background on how Synthesis came to be, and the frequently asked questions.

Then simply head back to Plans and Pricing to get started with Synthesis and save.

Your Best WordPress Hosting Experience Ever

As always, we want you to be delighted. And we’re pretty sure you will be.

If not, don’t forget our hassle-free 30-day money-back guarantee. Simply contact support and we’ll promptly issue a refund.

Here’s that special link again.

About the Author: Brian Clark is founder of Copyblogger and CEO of Copyblogger Media. Get more from Brian on Twitter and Google+.

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Want to hear about the day in the life of a so-called “successful entrepreneur?”

Yesterday, I stayed in bed until about 2 PM. I watched the last few episodes of Mad Men. Around sunset, I took a leisurely stroll down the beach. When I got back, I hung out with a friend for a couple of hours, ate dinner, and went to bed.

In other words … I goofed off.

And while I was goofing off, my business generated a pretty decent chunk of revenue.

You want to know the coolest part?

I did absolutely nothing to “earn” it.

I didn’t check my email. I didn’t talk to anyone on the phone. I didn’t write anything.

If I wanted to, I could do the same thing tomorrow and the next day and the next day, and it would keep on trucking all by itself. Parts of my business are so automated I could actually die, and it would be months before anyone noticed.

You might think, “That’s not right. Nobody should be able to goof off and get paid for it.”

But you know what?

I’m totally unashamed. Here’s why:

I worked my ass off to get here

For the past three years, I’ve worked at least 12 hours a day, seven days a week, for stretches of around six months without taking a single day off.

For the vast majority of that work, I wasn’t paid a dime. Rather, I was building a machine capable of running on its own.

That’s what truly successful entrepreneurs do:

We build money machines.

We take our expertise and transform it into systems that run without us. Sometimes that means hiring employees, but in my opinion, the best system to put in place is something infinitely cheaper, easier to manage, and simpler to create right now.

(Ready? I’m going to lay my super ninja, “make the internet your ATM” breakthrough secret weapon on you.)

The best “money machine” you can build is content.

Why is content King?

Well, we could argue about whether it really is King or not, but most of the marketing world is coming to understand that content is important … maybe even indispensable.

Why?

Well, think about this:

These days, some of the highest paid people in the world are the copywriters who craft the “junk” you receive in the mail. The best ones charge a minimum of $100,000 to create a single direct mail piece.

Obviously, there’s a lot of research and thinking and smarts involved, but here’s what’s funny:

A beginning copywriter will compile demographic data, conduct focus groups, dutifully collect the official line on what the product’s USP is supposed to be — you know, all the normal marketing tomfoolery.

An experienced copywriter, on the other hand, often finds the best salesperson in the company, hands them a tape recorder, and says, “Tape yourself doing your next 10 sales calls.”

From there, our crafty copywriter transcribes the sales calls, isolates the most persuasive elements, and organizes those into a letter. Then they mail the letter to 200,000 people.

It’s not necessarily less work. It’s smarter, more effective work.

Some would say they aren’t being “creative.”

Instead of reinventing the wheel, they’re taking a salesperson whose methods already work, distilling and cloning that salesperson 200,000 times, and instead of paying each of those clones a salary, they can be distributed in the mail for around a buck apiece.

The point? (And I do have one)

Your blog post isn’t just a blog post. Your podcast isn’t just a podcast. Your video isn’t just a video.

They’re components of a system.

If you’re not getting any results from it, it’s not the media’s fault. Blog posts and podcasts and videos and any other media can and will create sales …

… but only if the system wrapped inside the media is effective. If the system sucks, the result will suck, and the flashiest and most whizbang media in the world won’t save you.

So, the question becomes:

How do you create content that sells stuff?

Let’s talk about that next.

How to get paid to goof off

Sounds awfully nice, doesn’t it?

Well, here’s the “secret” formula:

1. Find somebody who is good at selling stuff (maybe that’s you)
2. Create content that duplicates what they do
3. Distribute said content to as many people as possible
4. Repeat the process until you have the desired level of income
5. Go goof off (hooray!)

If you want to “make money while you sleep,” you’ve got to create the kind of content that does the work for you.

Really, that’s it. It’s the whole shebang.

Of course, it’s easier said than done. And I’d be lying to you if I said anyone can do it.

The fact is, most of the top marketers in the world have experience selling one-on-one. Look into their past, and you’ll find they were on a sales floor, going door to door, or on a telephone, talking directly to customers and convincing people to buy.

Most people are too squeamish to do that, and in my opinion, that’s the real reason why almost everyone fails at making money online. They try to create a piece of content that does the selling for them, but they have no idea how selling works, so they essentially end up cloning the worst salesperson in the world.

That’s not going to get you what you need. Your content is an extension of you, and if you suck, your content probably sucks too.

Does that mean you’re doomed if you hate to sell?

Fortunately, no.

Mainly because you probably don’t understand what selling is.

If you’re afraid of selling, you probably have visions of pushy car salesmen chasing old ladies through the dealership parking lot, willing to say or do anything to make the sale.

And it makes you nauseous. You would rather change careers than become somebody like that.

But here’s the good news:

Good salespeople are not pushy. Good salespeople will never lie to the customer. Good salespeople usually aren’t even called salespeople. You give them your money in exchange for something you want, never even realizing you participated in a sales process.

That’s what you need to learn how to do.

If you’re still terrified, the other method is to study master salespeople and marketers and try to model what they do. In other words, build a swipe file.

The only problem is, you don’t know exactly what to model. In the beginning, you duplicate elements that don’t matter, and you ignore elements that are essential. It’s only after years of trial and error that you finally get the hang of it and do it right.

This method of learning selling does work. Just be prepared to starve for a few years as a penalty for being a scaredy-cat.

Either way though, there’s good news:

You don’t have to work until the day you die

Unless you want to, of course. Some entrepreneurs would have it no other way, and I respect that.

Also, it’s important to realize sometimes you don’t have a choice about when you quit.

As I’ve written about before, I have a (supposedly) fatal disease called Spinal Muscular Atrophy, and every year, I lose a little bit more strength. While I’m fairly productive now, science says I’ll eventually lose the ability to move everything but my eyes. Which isn’t the end of the world, but it will slow me down.

Honestly though?

I’m not worried.

Already, my business makes more than enough money to take care of me, and every day I work to make it less and less dependent on me. One day, I might be forced to step away, or I might not, but really, that’s not the point.

The point is peace of mind.

Because of my business, I can afford the best medical care anywhere in the world. Because of my business, my family will be taken care of, regardless of what happens to me. Because of my business, I can scale beyond helping just one or two people at a time and help millions.

Strategic content is what lets me do all that.

And goofing off?

That’s an added bonus. Living is one thing, but enjoying your life is quite another, and nothing is quite so empowering as getting up every morning and knowing you can do whatever you want, not just because you’re the boss, but because your business goes on running without you.

So, learn how to sell effectively.

Clone yourself by creating lots of awesome content.

Distribute that content far and wide.

And then goof off, if you want to. Life is short, my friends, and I don’t know about you, but I intend to savor every last moment of it.

About the Author: In addition to serving as Associate Editor of Copyblogger, Jon Morrow is on a mission to help good writers get traffic they deserve. If you’re one of them, check out his blog about (surprise!) blogging.

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If you’re building a business through content marketing, you’ve probably noticed that the attention span of your audience is shrinking by the second.

With the mushrooming of social networking and the growing number of mobile users surfing the web on the go, we’re all on the verge of an attention meltdown.

This can be a huge hurdle if you’re trying to effectively engage your audience and get your products or services in front of them.

That means you have to use every writing tool you can to gain and keep audience attention. Believe it or not, a return to solid writing fundamentals — and more specifically, specificity — can get you out ahead of the competition without having to strap dynamite to yourself to get noticed.

One small note before we get started …

If you only read 3 lines of this article, read these …

Specificity is especially helpful for writing your headlines.

Remember the 80/20 rule: 8 of 10 readers will read your headline copy but only 2 of 10 will read your entire post.

Since headlines are the most important part of getting your audience to read your content, you should place 50% of your emphasis on writing magnetic headlines before you write the rest of your copy.

The experts have been touting the importance of getting specific all along, and here are some of their more compelling tips to help you win the battle for your audience’s attention:

1. Get to the point

Old-school copywriter George Lois wrote a very useful guide titled Damn Good Advice (for people with talent!). In it, he gets to the heart of the importance of specificity.

Lois writes: “All creativity should communicate in a nanosecond.”

That’s about all the time you have to make an impression, but “creativity” can be misunderstood.

He reminds us that brevity is the key to good copy and that every single word counts.

“It’s not how short you make it; it’s how you make it short.”

Creativity is getting them to read your copy, without confusing hyperbole or jargon phrases.

2. Without attention, you have nothing

Without an attention grabbing headline, you can chuck your great content in the trash.

AIDA is the classic marketing formula heralded by a lot of great copywriters including Brian Clark, Sonia Simone and ad man John Carlton.

Attention. Interest. Desire. Action.

Gaining attention is gold because it’s the first step in the cycle to getting your prospects to take action and buy.

3. Grab attention by being ultra-specific

The Four U’s of headline writing as outlined by AWAI are a very helpful guide to evaluating any piece of sales copy or content:

1. Useful
2. Ultra-specific
3. Unique
4. Urgent

Useful is absolutely required. If your headline can only be one more thing, make it ultra-specific. This is key because specificity presents the most benefit to your reader.

You make a promise of the reward you’re offering up front so your prospects will have a reason to give you their precious time and read your first paragraph.

4. Specificity builds credibility

Brian Clark’s How to Get 53% More Readers for Every Blog Post You Write reminds us that “Specificity increases credibility because specific details are simply more believable than broad assertions.”

He has some great examples of ultra-specific headlines:

• How I Made $19,931.42 Last Month With Google AdSense
• In This Free 10-Chapter, 123-Page Ebook, You’ll Learn …
• Eleven Secret Techniques That Make Bloggers Money
• Lose 36 Pounds in Only 7 Weeks
• How to Shave 5 Strokes Off Your Golf Score in 3 Days

If your headline isn’t presenting specific, rewarding information, you’re bound to get bogged down with the rest of the unreadables.

Just remember that the #1 rule for building credibility is making good on your headline’s promise.

5. Specificity is persuasion

Chris Garrett wrote about the advantages of precise details over vague guesstimates in his post The Persuasive Power of Specificity.

Statistics, exact details and case studies:

• Catch the eye
• Build curiosity
• Produce an aura of authenticity
• Show your readers your attention to detail

Being vague doesn’t work in real life and it doesn’t work in copywriting. Getting specific means revealing the cold, hard facts of what you have to offer.

On the flipside, he warns not to use specifics if they are overly technical, confusing, or can get you into legal trouble.

6. Specificity boosts your conversion rates

Marketing Experiments have proven that optimizing your headline can boost your conversion rates by 73%.

Not only will you boost your readership, but optimizing your headline by just a single word or figure can actually get more people to take the action you want them to take.

That’s reason enough to do some split-testing of your own.

7. Warning: Big words make you sound dumb

In Dean Rieck’s post 11 Smart Tips for Brilliant Writing he references an important psychology study that showed that using overly complex language doesn’t make us look smarter to readers.

We’ve all seen inexperienced authors use big words to make themselves feel smarter.

You’re not fooling anyone, so do your research and know your audience. Remember Nathaniel Hawthorne’s maxim:

Easy reading is damned hard writing.

8. There is no substitute for great copy

Robert W. Bly wrote in The Online Copywriter’s Handbook, that the most important thing that will set you apart as an effective online marketer is “powerful, attention-getting, compelling copy”.

Your words must grab your prospect and never let them go.

9. To approach greatness, you have to start at the start

Ernest Hemingway started out as a reporter for The Kansas City Star.

He won a Nobel Prize in his later years, and credited his formative years writing “copy” as a journalist.

Each cub reporter was given a style book when they started, with these rules:

• Use short sentences
• Use short first paragraphs
• Use vigorous English
• Be positive, not negative

It doesn’t get much simpler than that.

10. One word can make all the difference

Mark Twain wrote:

The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter — ’tis the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning.

Specificity is the lighting rod that will lead your prospects through your sales cycle to take action.

Let’s get specific

We can all use help getting more specific in our copy.

There is no “the dog ate my homework” in content marketing online, do your research or somebody else will do it better and with more detail.

Know your audience, their problems, fears, desires, and dreams and you’ll be well on your way to getting them to reading your copy, and taking action on your offers.

Do you have more suggestions for getting specific? Drop them in the comments.

About the Author: Kelton Reid is an independent screenwriter and novelist, as well as a copywriter for Copyblogger Media. Get more from him on Twitter @keltonreid.

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