Sonia Simone says, “We’ve said it so often you’re probably sick of it. Content marketing doesn’t work unless the content is genuinely worth reading. Routine, phone-it-in content won’t get you the audience, the leads, the prospects, or the conversions you need. Andy Crestodina over at Orbit Media Studios is one of the content marketers who really gets it. When I found out that Andy had conducted a survey of more than 1,000 bloggers about the specifics of how they work, I knew that I wanted to get a post together to share our takeaways from the survey”. How to Be in the Top... [...]

Sonia Simone says, “We’ve said it so often you’re probably sick of it. Content marketing doesn’t work unless the content is genuinely worth reading. Routine, phone-it-in content won’t get you the audience, the leads, the prospects, or the conversions you need. Andy Crestodina over at Orbit Media Studios is one of the content marketers who really gets it. When I found out that Andy had conducted a survey of more than 1,000 bloggers about the specifics of how they work, I knew that I wanted to get a post together to share our takeaways from the survey. Good content takes time.... [...]

Stefanie Flaxman says, “What does a rough draft of a blog post have in common with all the other blog posts by all the other content creators in your niche? Too much. I’m sure you’re aware that there are countless other writers musing about the same ideas you are, and in similar ways. The goal of a typical first draft is to transform your scattered thoughts into a cohesive article that explains a topic to your target audience. But why should readers choose your content over another writer’s work?”. How to Spot the Weakest Part of Your Blog Post ‘Copyblogger’ Blog  [...]

Rachel Sprung says, “What is the first step you take as you begin writing a blog post? Lots of people just like to start from the beginning — they stare down the blinking cursor until they’re suddenly inspired to write a clever introduction. But that’s not always the best way to start a blog post. That cursor? It’s daunting. Instead, it can be much better to create the structure of the blog post before doing anything else. First, you write a few large headers as the main blog post sections and maybe add a few smaller tags as sub-sections. Then, all you’ve got... [...]

Dominic Hung says, “A few months back, I had written what I thoughtwas an excellent blog post. From the first round of internal feedback it seemed it was all but ready to go, but when a second round of feedback from another interested party was provided, it ended with a sentence pretty much anyone hates to hear. “Maybe we should rewrite this.” Cue tears and melancholy music. I ended up discarding the blog post in its entirety and rebuilding it from the ground-up. We ended up with a blog post of greater-than-usual quality, but it took a significantly greater-than-usual amount of time... [...]

Scott Yates says, “What is the future of blogging? Is it fading away, “dying” or even “dead”? Will it soon be just a trend of the past, replaced with some other medium? My business is based on blogs, so people ask me these kinds of questions all the time. My answer is always the same: “I sure hope not. My wife really wants a new couch.” But then I give them the real answer, which is: “No way. Not any time soon.” I don’t know what blogging will look like in a hundred years, or even 20 years. Who can imagine what inventions and developments will appear in the next two decades?... [...]

The latest post on ‘Copyblogger’ Blog is titled “35 Blogging Tips to Woo Readers and Win Business”. Henneke says, “Let’s not pussyfoot around it. Blogging is a lot of work. Hard work. Generate new blog post ideas. Write weekly content. Promote posts via social media and email. At times, we all wonder whether our blogging efforts are paying off. Do we need to keep plugging away? Write more? Promote more? The thought of quitting might even creep up now and then. Wouldn’t it be nice to stop worrying about your next blog post? And have some extra time to go out with friends? Or... [...]

The latest article on HubSpot blog is titled “Generic Blog Posts Suck. 6 Tips to Add Valuable Detail for Increased Engagement”. Laura Hogan says, “I manage our business’ blog, write the blog titles, edit the content our team writes, optimize the blogs, write blogs for HubSpot, and am constantly consuming industry content from others. So what’s the biggest issue I see with blogging? It’s the lack of detail. “Excellence is in the details. Give attention to the details and excellence will come.” –Perry Paxton I understand why the problem arises though; you... [...]

The latest article on HubSpot blog is titled “15 Blog Optimization Stats You Need to Tweet … STAT”. Sam Kusinitz says, “You’ve probably heard many times before that if you want to create and sustain a successful blog, there’s a lot you need to do. You’ve got to create exceptional content. You’ve got to optimize your posts for search engines. You also have to create catchy titles, inspire social shares, and determine the best times for publishing your posts, among a thousand other things. Actually putting all of those best practices into, well... [...]

The latest article on HubSpot blog is titled “8 Types of CTAs You Should Absolutely Try on Your Blog”. Rachel Sprung says, “On this blog, we talk a lot about calls-to-action (CTAs) and how they help us in marketing. They’re a critical component of your website’s lead generation process — especially on your blog. Without CTAs, people visiting your blog will have a hard time converting on your landing pages unless they happen to stumble upon them at a later date. So if you’re trying to get more conversions from your blog, you’d think the more CTAs... [...]