Pat and Lorna's Blog » Rants

Spectacular Content Creation Tips – Setting High Standards for Quality Content

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:00:58 +0000

In the past several years, article writing for website promotion has become a plague. There are so many more articles out there today than even two years ago that it is becoming common place to read low quality articles that were not ever proof-read before being published. Many have grammatical errors, spelling errors, or broken English. Some have obviously been written by software programs because they have strange symbols in mid-sentence.

Articles have become an onslaught of keywords and key phrases with little attention paid to the content value. People are just looking to increase their website rankings by having more links to their site. This tends to leave readers frustrated and annoyed – not good for traffic creation.

Raising the bar on content standards…

Don’t flow with that crowd. Make your articles count. Help raise the bar regarding content standards. It is necessary to provide your readers with information they didn’t have previously or a new perspective on the topic. It is hard to find new resources for information because the internet is flooded – some good, some not so good.

Where can you capture high quality content?

One place that you may be able to get a new perspective on your topic of interest is from video conferences and video lessons that are offered on the internet. It has become increasingly popular to produce video lessons and conferences or interviews online. Many are through opt-in lists or free memberships. If you are willing to subscribe, you may have a new content resource that will raise the standard of your articles.

Make sure you’re within your rights.

This gives you a perfect opportunity, but always be sure to inform your reader that the information is taken from a particular lesson or conference and be certain that you are not violating any copyright laws. In some cases, it may be necessary to obtain permission from the producer of the conferences or lessons before creating your article.

Depending upon your subject, you may be able to get some very good information from television too. With all the channels now offered, you can usually find information on just about any topic at some time throughout the day.

Once you are certain that you are within your rights and not violating anyone else’s rights, sit down, listen up, and start taking notes. Just like in school, take good notes and be sure that you get your information correct. If you specifically quote someone, be sure that you give the appropriate reference and credit. One of the benefits of the recorded lessons is that you can rewind and be sure that you get your facts straight.

As we mentioned before, the quality of content has greatly diminished over the past couple years. It is now more important than ever to be sure that your facts are correct, your grammar is better than average, and you offer some information of value. Those that actually have high quality articles will shine above the rest and create more traffic to their sites.

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Pat and Lorna Shanks are "SPECTACULARIZERS" of great audio content. They teach entrepreneurs, independent professionals and small business owners how to attract more clients and make more money using Spectacular Presentations and Robotic Internet Marketing. For more "Spectacularizer Tips", go to www.PatAndLorna.com or follow us on Twitter.

Spectacular Content Marketing, Capturing the Value of Your Website

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:06:32 +0000

By now anyone who has a website knows the importance of using content to market their services and products online. Search engine optimized content; in other words, search engine friendly content is one of the best ways to drive traffic to your website. SEO content requires the use of buzz words or keywords in order to make the search engine take notice. However, not all keywords are equal. In order to drive potential sales to your site, you will need to identify the keywords that work and the ones that don’t.

Capturing a Niche with Content Marketing
For instance, your niche market is the travel market. Travel packages are a dime a dozen online. The word “travel” as a keyword is not going to work very well. Why? Because the word “travel” is too vague and can be used in a million different ways. However, one of your recent blog posts talked about travel possibilities for senior couples’ Caribbean Cruises. This represents an under- served market that is not readily visible. Anyone typing in senior couples cruise or some combination of those words, are going to find his or her way to your website. You might even go back and tweak the original post a bit with a few more keywords designed to lift your website to the top of the search page.

Search into Sales
The more searches which land on your pages the more likelihood that those searches will turn into sales. It also means search engines will find you more easily. This type of content marketing is called long tailed content marketing. It is specific marketing. Using specific phrases instead of vague words as your keyword means less competition in the marketplace for you. Another good thing for you is that there can be many variations on the phrase, with each variation having its own page of search content.

Pages Mean Visibility
The more pages of content, the more you increase your visibility to search engines. Targeted content make the search engine believe that you are the authority on the subject and begins ranking your pages higher in all searches. Back links developed from other sites which find you interesting, sales increase as a result. It’s called the snowball effect. Mix in some highly targeted or niche content marketing, using keyword phrases instead of vague multi-meaning single words and you can’t help but capture the niche.

With a Little Help From Friends
So maybe, you’re getting traffic due to something you wrote and you don’t know how to expand into the niche because you are not familiar with it. This is where research both online and offline comes in. Look into the niche that was generating your traffic. Go to websites that give away articles and select a couple to help you market to this niche. Another way is to find knowledgeable friends with which to share information about the niche. Ask them to write some content for your website or to direct you toward information that will enable you to keep the traffic flowing.

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WordPress 2.8 Is Out Today

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 17:36:58 +0000

WordPress 2.8 is out today. This is the latest version of the WordPress software. When you log into you admin, you will see a request to update your site to WordPress 2.8.

We've heard of some compatibility issues, so proceed with caution.

Here is a video with some of the new features:

If you want to read more on this release, then go here:

http://wordpress.org/development/2009/06/wordpress-28/

Enjoy!

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Remember the "Know, Like and Trust" Factor!

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 21:00:06 +0000

When two people meet, is the first invitation, "Would you like to go for dinner?" or is it, "Will you marry me?" It's pretty obvious that it is the former.

Well, maybe it's not so obvious… when it comes to connecting with people online it seems that maybe it isn't. It appears that a lot of people don't understand that people have to get to know, like and trust you before they'll "check out" your offer, give you a testimonial, or tell other people about you.

Appreciation… one word, but so much power. Show people that you appreciate them first… for whatever it is they do. They choose to follow you or spend some time on your blog or website. It doesn't have to be a huge thing.

"Thank you for following me." Simple, but so very effective. Yes, we may have an amazing offer, or trying to grow our list, but there's time for that later. First things first… the other person.

Sometimes the shortest path to a destination is going the other way. To help ourselves, the shortest way is to help others first. Think first, what can I do for you? The other side of it… what's in it for me, will come.

Okay, so back to the "know, like and trust" factor. Offer others assistance, show interest in what they do, have some dialogue with them… and before you know it, they will know, like and trust you. Then they will be thrilled to take advantage of your amazing offer, provide a persuasive testimonial and tell everyone on their list about you and your business.

By getting people to know, like and trust you first, you and your business will flourish. Karma? Most definitely!

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How Social Networking Gave Us a Warm, Fuzzy Feeling

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 21:27:48 +0000

This is how Social Networking using Twitter gave us a warm, fuzzy feeling as well as some warm jackets…

To get the full details on how we got these wonderful Ezine Articles jackets please read this post here.

In a nutshell, we were tweeting about how Ezine Articles was going to give their authors with 5000 followers a jacket. We made a comment (tweet) about how Ezine Articles was allowing their authors to automaticlly post their approved articles to twitter.

You can check this out at Twitter.EzineArticles.com. We are in the Top 10 followers with published articles.

EzineArticles.com raised a challenge to its authors to have 5,000 followers on Twitter before the end of 2008. The reward? A very warm Ezine Articles fleece jacket!

Here we are in the front of our house with our brand new Ezine Article jackets from Chris Knight and the Ezine Article team. We are having a chinook today, it's (-0c/32f), but we are having winds of 39km/h (24m/h) and wind gusts of 50km/h (30m/h).

Those white streaks in front of us is the blizzard that was occuring at that time.

So thanks to Chris Knight, the Ezine Article team, and of course you our followers; without you this would not have been possible. But it also shows you the power of social networking. Thanks to all of you.

– Pat & Lorna

P.S. They are very, very warm!!!

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"Creative Imitation” Whats All The Fuss?

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 21:53:11 +0000

It seems that there are a few blog posts and comments going around on "Creative Imitation" ,

What Is All The Fuss?

So here is the original blog posting at Alex Mandossian's blog that was posted by Jeff Herring (aka. The Internet Article Guy)

And it has to do with one of the quotes that Alex teaches his students:

“Never invent, always improve”

Heck, even we made a comment on the original blog posting, because we are good friends with both Alex and Jeff and it made sense to us. We try to Creatively Imitate when ever or where ever possible.

Jeff also posted the same posting on his own blog here. No big deal.

Now a couple of days later Stu McLaren (aka. The Idea Guy) (we are friends with Stu too, he's Canadian, eh) posted a comment on Alex/Jeff's original blog posting and also created his own blog posting here.

A quote from Stu's blog post:

"Personally, I have mixed feelings regarding the way this is presented to small business owners. On the outside, it sounds like all you have to do is model leaders in your industry and you’ll succeed."

Then Stu got a comment from Diane Eble, who then posted her own blog entry here. A quote from that blog entry:

"There’s quite an interesting discussion going on about “creative imitation”–what it is, and whether it’s good or bad."

So we searched Wikipedia.org for "Creative Imitation," and it couldn't be found. So we searched for Creative and Imitation

For Creativity we get:

"Creativity is a mental process involving the generation of new ideas or concepts , or new associations of the creative mind between existing ideas or concepts. An alternative conception of creativity is that it is simply the act of making something new."

And for Imitation we get:

"Imitation is an advanced behavior whereby an individual observes and replicates another's. The word can be applied in many contexts, ranging from animal training to international politics ."

So what is all the fuss? Didn't we just "Creatively Imitate" everyone?

We would love your comment.

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