Online Marketing for Local Business
Uncategorized
More Tips on Creating Great Article Titles
14 years
by jhaynes
in Uncategorized
Every site you submit articles to may have different editorial style guides. And as we have discussed before, having a great title can make all the difference in the world when it comes to your success. But even a catchy title needs to follow some basic guidelines.
Here are some helpful tips to use when crafting your titles to help you get your articles accepted more quickly:
Double-check spelling and word usage in your article title.
Do not put a period at the end of your article title.
All colons (:) and semicolons (;), long and medium dashes, pipes (|), and slashes (/) are to be replaced with two short dashes (–), or changed to word equivalents.
Ampersands (&) and parentheses () are allowed.
Quotation marks are allowed to emphasize a part of a title, but not the entire title. Please remove quotes around the entire article as they are superfluous and of no benefit to the author or reader.
Never put an article number in the title of an article, such as: Dog Grooming Tips-Article #3
Never purposefully use commonly misspelled words in your article title to try and gain traffic from people who mistakenly misspell words in their searches. It’s sneaky and will ruin your credibility as an expert author.
Never put a year or date in the title of an article. This greatly reduces the “shelf-life” and marketability of your article.
Proofreading Tips For Your Next Article
14 years
by jhaynes
in Uncategorized
Article marketing can be one of the most user-friendly, reliable and cost-effective methods to boost your site’s SEO and overall traffic. But it does require some work. Every article you submit or distribute should be high quality, free of any spelling and grammatical errors and the misuse of any words. In general, something that you would be proud to see representing your company or brand.
In addition to the eyeballs that will be reading your article – and judging the company or author that created it – publishers also have guidelines, sometimes very strict, about what they will and will not accept. That’s why proofreading your articles is so important. Here are a few tips:
Give Your Article a Cool Off Period
After you’ve finished writing, step away from your article for a few hours before reading back over it. When you’ve been looking over a block of copy for an extended period of time, it becomes more difficult to see glaring errors, the kind you would instantly notice in other situations. Your mind may start to automatically fill in what you expect to see, not what is actually there on the page.
Read Your Article Backwards
This is a technique I have often used. Have you ever read an article so many times that you can almost recite it without looking? The more familiar you are with a piece of writing, the harder it becomes to proofread. So read the last sentence of your article, and then the second to last sentence, third to last, etc. Reading out of sequence takes away any familiarity and can help you to see grammar and spelling errors.
Print Your Article, Stand Up, and Read Your Article Out Loud
Hearing an article spoken aloud can be extremely effective at highlighting grammatical errors and awkward phrasing. Your ears can sometimes be more perceptive than your eyes. For maximum effectiveness, combine tips 2 and 3, and stand up and read your article aloud AND backwards.
Find a Friend with Excellent Editing Skills
If you have someone close to you with great grammar and spelling skills, see if you can enlist his or her help in looking over your article. A second set of eyes can be very helpful!
Make Sure Spell Checker Is On, And Grammar Checker Too
Spell checker has pointed out countless routine errors and typos from my documents, and though I find grammar checker to be a bit less useful, it doesn’t hurt to keep it on. But these are never substitutes for proofreading of course, since spell checker won’t find words misspelled that are still actual words (“Come to my part tonight” instead of “Come to my party tonight”) or words used incorrectly (“affect” instead of “effect”).
Remember that proofreading is important. It pays to take the extra time up front before publishing a blog post, e-marketing piece, uploading website copy or submitting an article or press release. This ensures that your online content represents your company in the best possible way, and puts the spotlight on your expertise and professionalism to all who you interact with online.
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Need Help With Your Next Writing Project?
Contact me directly at: jhaynes@hattrickassociates.com or visit our Contact page and fill out the brief form.
Jim
The Top Social Media Tool for 2011
14 years
by jhaynes
in Uncategorized
If you were told about a marketing strategy that could substantially lower your marketing expenses and produce a ROI of 600% or more for your investment, would you be interested in learning more?
A recent online survey found that 81% of all the marketers report that they would definitely increase their use of this strategy. So what are we talking about? No, it’s not Facebook, YouTube. Twitter, LinkedIn or YouTube.
Of course Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are among the top 4 social media platforms. But what is the first? Blogging.
And if you work for a large corporation, you’re probably not blogging yet. Of course, you might have your own personal blog focused on your interests, favorite sport, political or social views, or maybe your hobby. But we are talking about a corporate blog, one that’s sponsored, written and monitored by your organization.
These could be some of the reasons your company isn’t blogging:
– You’re not sure what to write about
– Employees are “too busy” to blog
– You don’t want to give away company secrets
– Can your blogger stay “on message” and “on brand” at all times?
All of these reasons support the fact you really should have someone with a bit of seniority and knowledge of your business handle your blog, or monitor it and approve posts written by outside help, including Hat Trick Associates but also many, many other potential providers or freelance help.
And if you are a small business owner, you should know that almost half of your competitors will be using a blog for marketing purposes by 2012. So why are you holding back? Especially when HubSpot found through research that businesses with an active blog get 55% more online traffic than those without a blog. That is a number you cannot afford to ignore!
So big or small, your organization needs a well written and regularly published blog to compete in today’s online landscape. Because your competitors surely are, or will be soon.