7 Days To A Better Web Platform - Bitly

7 DAYS TO A BETTER

PLATFORM:

The Get-It-Done Guide to Improving Your Blog

By Rich Polanco

7 Days To A Better Web Platform: The Get-It-Done Guide to Improving Your Blog First Edition Publication Date: January 2013 Published/Produced/Designed by: Rich Polanco - UnwireMe.com - [email protected] Version 1.0 ©Copyright 2013 - Rich Polanco Cover Image: Flickr @ Sachin Shelar NOTICE OF RIGHTS Feel free to share this book! If you reference the material online and find it useful, I'd love a shout out. Thanks for reading! NOTICE OF LIABILITY The author and publisher have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of the information herein. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the authors and UnwireMe, nor its dealers or distributors, will be held liable for any damages caused either directly or indirectly by the instructions contained in this book, or by the software or hardware products described herein.

Table of Contents (Clickable) Introduction - p.2 Day 1: Refocus Your Blog - p.3 Day 2: How To Research Your Niche - p.8 Day 3: Create An Avatar - p.13 Day 4: How To Market Content - p.19 Day 5: Be Yourself - p.24 Day 6: Redesign Your Website - p.27 Day 7: Go Beyond Blogging - p.30 What Now? - p.35 Join Me! - p.36

Clicking "ToC" will bring you back to this Table of Contents.

INTRODUCTION Thank you for downloading my ebook "7 Days To A Better Web Platform"! I started blogging close to three years ago, developing sites for myself and others. This has allowed me to slow-travel the world and work doing what I love at the same time. I document my journey into location independence, travels and life as an expat at Unwireme.com. You may be contemplating a journey of your own into location independence, just as I was three years ago. The hardest step is toward having a 100% online business is getting started. If you have, give yourself a pat on the back. It is my hope that this guide helps you improve your blog and grow it into a successful business. If I have even just the tiniest of hand in helping you achieve success, then I've done what I set out to do. This book can be read on any full color device that will support Adobe PDF files. The iPad version is also free to download. If you spot a typo or error, or would like to discuss the information here, e-mail me or drop by the site to chat. Contact information for all my social profiles are at the end of this book. I hope you enjoy reading this book as much as I did writing it!

Rich Polanco

Day #1

Overcome The Lack Of A Clear Topic

Refocus Your Blog

Day 1: Refocus Your Blog

Let's Fix It! Want to know what's the most important question your audience will have about your message? I'll tell you. It's the same question you've had about every speech you've ever heard, every TV program you've sat through, every job meeting you've attended, or every story you've ever heard your friends tell.

"Why should I care?"

What's An Elevator Pitch? Imagine yourself walking into a corporate building downtown. It's your first time there and the reason you're there is to pitch a business deal to a marketing manager at that firm. You've been in contact with the manager, have traded e-mails back and forth, talked on the phone and he's ready to hear your idea in more detail. The manager has agreed to meet with you and listen to your pitch.

Self-interest is a powerful motivator. Almost everything we do is driven, in some way, by a perceived benefit we'll derive from it. Even charity donations are in large part driven by the self-satisfaction they provide to the giver. It may not be the main motivation, but it's certainly there.

The person thanks you, and remarks that they've never seen you in the building before. "Oh, I'm hear to pitch a business deal with the company", you reply. The stranger's eyes light up, and with hand outstretched to shake yours says: "Great! I'm the CEO! Can you tell me what it's all about before I have to step off this elevator?" Are you able to quickly, clearly, and concisely explain to someone what your business and platform are about? That's your elevator pitch.

Which is why when it comes to websites, first impressions matter so much. A visitor will spend less than 10 seconds on a site before deciding to move on to something else. How you hold their attention during those first seconds is crucial. This is why you should craft an "elevator pitch". Flickr @ tatejohnson

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That morning, you pack all your promotional material, charts and notes and make your way to the meeting. As you're about to enter the elevator in the main lobby, another person approaches, obviously in a hurry. You hold the elevator for them, out of courtesy, for which they're grateful.

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Can visitors quickly figure out during their initial 10 seconds visit what type of site they're looking at? Can they tell what sort of information they can gain from listening to you and from reading your content? Can they answer the question "Why should I care?" without having to wade through a bunch of content? Your elevator pitch (or lack of it) will help or sink you with first time visitors.


Crafting An Elevator Pitch Your elevator pitch should aim for three things: 1. ONE Main Idea 2. Be Short, Clear, and Concise 3. Awaken Curiosity

Let's break each down:

Main Idea It's a good idea to stick to one main point in your elevator pitch, even if your site touches on more than one topic or idea. Having more than one main idea will confuse the reader and lessen the impact of your pitch less. Your main idea should be communicate to the visitor what's there to gain from reading your site. Are you looking to help, entertain, inspire, or educate your reader? While you can certainly do all the thing I just listed above, pick one overall theme you're going to sell the reader on. What are you trying to ultimately help the reader with, or educate them about? Is there a specific goal you're seeking to inspire your audience to achieve?

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Flickr @ Helico

Don't be a juggler I had the "juggling" problem when I first started blogging. Still do sometimes. This is perfectly normal because we are "multipassionate" individuals. And while this is great for personal growth, it can be a deadly sin for a blog. Imagine if your favorite website changed every week from focusing on news, then to sports, to then another switch to fashion, to later just doing cooking recipes. Would you continue visiting that site?

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While we like excitement and freshness, this doesn't carry over to all aspects of life. We generally prefer continuity and reliability from our sources of information. If I can't trust that I'll get what I'm looking for when I visit a website, it's very likely I'll get turned off and stop visiting that site altogether. What are you aiming to be known for?


Do You Have To Be Stuck On One Topic? Absolutely not! It's tempting to pick a big, broad topic to draw upon (think "gardening for women" for example). It's true that too narrow a topic and you run the risk of putting yourself in a box (think "gardening for left-handed poker players").

I used Popplet, an iPad app, to create the topic diagram below. There are more mindmapping apps on the market, for PC, Mac and mobile platforms. This diagram can go a dozen different ways, depending on the niche and sub-topics you choose.

The trick is to pick a central idea, and under it, fit relevant sub-topics to talk about. As you start out with a broad topic, keep narrowing down your sub-topics until you find one that's neither too broad or too exclusive. Let's stick to gardening as an example. Do I talk about indoor or outdoor gardens? Suburban or urban setting? Who is my ideal audience (see next chapter)? Mind-mapping is a great way to visually identify sub-topics topics. Pick a broad topic and narrow into sub-topics that are of interest to you and your audience. Figuring out sub-topics in advance will let you know if you have plenty of material to draw from. A great technique is to come up with a onesentence tagline that addresses the problem (why should your audience care), who's it for (your target audience) and what you can do to help them (your offer).

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For our gardening website, sample "tagline" that doubles as an elevator pitch could be: "Advice that works for moms who want better urban gardens."

Creating an elevator pitch before the website is up is much easier than when the blog is already up and running. Which is great news if you haven't launched your website yet. But what if you've already launched a blog? That will depend on the direction you've gone with it and on the feedback you've gotten from visitors. Start with an overall, broader topic that encompasses your blog, then narrow down to the sub-topic where your "offer" resides.

Short, Clear and Concise It's not always possible to limit yourself to a one-sentence elevator pitch. But as an exercise, you should at least attempt to.

In your pitch, avoid technical terms, unless widely understood by your target audience.

By creating an interesting About page, you have the opportunity to do two things:

Be clear. Don't be wordy if you can help it.

1. Tell visitors what makes your site different from similar websites and...

Stay away from corporate-speak and run from words like "synergy", "cutting-edge" or "mission-critical." Your language should be natural and reflect your personality, and unless you're Robocop, those words won't connect with your audience.

2. Extend your elevator pitch by telling readers what makes you qualified to talk about the topic you've picked, from your point of view.

Speaking of personality, don't forget to infuse your pitch with enthusiasm, but without being over-the-top "omygoshimawesome!"

Remember: Your pitch is not set in stone. As your site matures, you can always tweak it and refine it according to where your blog is headed. Don't feel like you're locked in to a tagline, because you're not.

Show that you care about what you're talking about and don't be afraid to show it.

Get-It-Done Action Task

Awaken Curiosity

The One Sentence Pitch

Once you've got your tagline, it helps to create a compelling backstory that differentiates you from the rest. A great place to do create interest and curiosity is by creating a good "About Me" page.

Communicate these two things in you pitch: Your offer and the benefit to the audience.

The "About Me" page is usually one of the most visited pages on personal blogs. Why?

"People want to connect with other people, not websites."

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Because people want to connect with other people, not websites. Read on "About Me" pages on "Day 5."

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If you can get those across in a clear, exciting way, you'll probably end up with a great elevator pitch. In fifteen words or less, state: What's your offer? Why should they care? My tagline/pitch? Rock Your Online Business Platform, Travel More.

Day #2

Define The Audience

How To Research Your Niche

Day 2: How to Research Your Niche

Let's Fix It! By doing a fair amount of research, you can speed-up your platform's development process and avoid many of the same pitfalls others stumble over.

often resembles the Big Bang Theory: Add a cool Wordpress theme, sprinkle some blog posts, stir in a big helping of social media... and magically, a wonderful platform is supposed to appear. I really wish it were that easy.

You can conduct research two ways: methodically, or none at all. I don't need to tell you which one is more effective. The recipe for building an effective platform

Start by researching potential topic you'd like to build a business around and what sort of audience tends to gravitate towards those topics. There are three great places where you can start your research:

Where to Start Researching We all have our preferred communication medium. My friends know that if they want to reach me, the best ways are (in order of preference): Via text, message chat, face-toface conversation, and telephone. I'd rather drive over and talk to someone in person than pick up my phone. It's my least preferred method of communication. How you choose to communicate it's as important as what you have to say. The best way to reach out to your audience is to research how others in your niche do it.

1. Get Googly Begin by researching how the top 10 blogs in your niche communicate with their audience. Sometimes this is as easy as searching Google for popular terms in your niche. Check out their platforms and how they use them. Google Blog Search This type of search will comb through popular blog platforms, such as Blogspot.com.

This may lead to other interesting bloggers you can network with, and the current topics of conversation in your niche. Flickr @ Juhansonin

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You can then turn this idea around and use the same concept to your advantage. Twitter allows you to search by "Tweets" or by "People". A "tweet search" helps you find relevant and popular tweets (currently being retweeted by

Don't rely solely on Blog Search, but as a complement to your Google searches.

2. Tag the Hashtags Despite the bad rap it gets sometimes, Twitter can be a great source of information. Oftentimes, tweets are tagged with what are called hashtags, which are marked with a number sign, like this "#". For example, if I were tweeting about my latest gardening post, I'd tweet something like this: "New Post: How to Get Rid of Flies http:// myblog.com/new post #gardening #blog"

I've included two hashtags above, #gardening and #blog, which would allow my tweet to be found whenever someone does a search for those two words.

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others). It's a great way to keep yourself informed of topics currently being discussed in your niche. A "tweet search" for the #gardening hashtag will look like this:


Another useful search is "people search". This type of search allows you to identify influential Twitter accounts. It's well worth your time to follow those those.

Network with them by engaging in conversation and by retweeting their interesting tweets. A people search for the #gardening hashtag looks like this:

Find out what other social media other bloggers use to connect with their audiences, take notes, and join their networks. You may discover communication platforms you hadn't previously thought of.

3. Scout Blog Directories You can also find a great deal of information by searching blog directories. And when it comes to blog directories, go to one of the best: Technorati

Technorati allows you to search keyword terms by blog or by post. Another cool feature is Technorati rankings. Technorati ranks how influential registered blogs are on their owner's self-described categories.

I recommend you register your blog with Technorati, so you can be included in this directory as well. For a list of other directories worth submitting your blog to, check out Search Engine Journal's directory list.

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Where To Find Your Audience

Top 10 Social Networks of 2012 (Clickable)

There are hundreds of social networks out there. A natural question for bloggers is:

While Facebook and Twitter are big enough, and inclusive enough to accommodate any and all groups and individuals, most social networks are built around specific audiences.

"Should I be on (insert social media network here - Facebook, Twitter, Google +, etc)?"

For example, deviantART (see left) is a community for people interested in the visual arts (photography, illustration, etc.) It would make little sense for you to be involved in it if:

The truth is, you don't "have to" be on every social network. Unless, that is, you have an army of employees keeping tabs on all your social network accounts. For a social media presence to be effective, it must be engaging. Being social means you need to participate in conversations, either ongoing, or started by you. Spreading yourself thin across various social networks only makes you a less effective communicator.

1. You didn't have an interest in visual arts, and 2. Your platform does nothing to speak to the interests of that community. Unfortunately, besides recommending you join Facebook and Twitter, whatever social network you commit to (never forget it's a commitment if you want to make it work), will largely depend on the interests of your audience.

That said, before exploring social media avenues, you should at least have a presence on both Facebook and Twitter. Why?

One way to figure out what social network you should be on is to ask yourself the following:

Because there's a good chance that many people in your audience use Facebook (1 billion users), Twitter (500 million users), or both.

"If I were interested in topic "X", where would I go for information?"

Here are the top 10 social networks in the world for 2012, in order of popularity:

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If you're like most people, it is highly unlikely you're a member of all these social networks, or even an active participant in half the ones listed. There's a very good reason for that.

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For example, if I were interested in gardening, I may look into YouTube for specific "how-to" videos. Or I may pop into a gardening forum (forums are the original social networks) to look for answers about specific gardening-related questions. Maybe I'm more interested in flowers than growing vegetables, so I spend more time browsing Pinterest or Flickr.com for pictures of my favorite flowers, and even join to share my own.


Facebook Page: __________________________

Research often goes to waste if you don't take the time to document your findings. You can learn a lot about what works and about what doesn't observing others. Take a look at the top websites in your niche and note their level of engagement with the audience. What do they do that works? What could be improved?

The point I'm trying to make is, don't dismiss a social network outright without checking it out first. You may find a thriving community or be one of the pioneers, finding a way to deliver content in an exciting way no one has yet fully taken advantage of.

Take a look at other peers in your niche and note how they're progressing. What's different about them?

Don't just join a social network because it's hot and the "latest and greatest" when it's obviously not a fit for what you do and the audience you're trying to reach.

Top Three Blogs In Your Niche

For example of social network profiles and how I use them, check out mine here:

Take note of the following:

Google+(Networking)

Any E-mail Giveaway? _____________________ Like Best: ______________________________ You'd Change: ___________________________ Other Social Networks: _____________________

Top Blog #3: ___________________________

Twitter Handle: ___________________________ Top Blog #1: ____________________________ Facebook Page: __________________________ Twitter Handle: ___________________________ Any E-mail Giveaway? _____________________ Like Best: ______________________________

YouTube.com/UnwireMeTV(Travel Videos)

You'd Change: ___________________________

Pinterest.com/UnwireMe (Travel Photos)

Other Social Networks: _____________________

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Twitter Handle: ___________________________

Facebook Page: __________________________

Facebook.com/GetUnwired(Travel Chat) Twitter.com/RichPolanco(Travel/Biz Info)

Top Blog #2: ____________________________

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Any E-mail Giveaway? _____________________ Like Best: ______________________________ You'd Change: ___________________________ Other Social Networks: _____________________


Favorite Peer Blogs In Your Niche Peer Blog #1: ___________________________

Peer Blog #3: ___________________________

What would you improve about the top blog?

Facebook Page: __________________________

Facebook Page: __________________________

_______________________________________

Twitter Handle: ___________________________

Twitter Handle: ___________________________

_______________________________________

Any E-mail Giveaway? _____________________

Any E-mail Giveaway? _____________________

Like Best: ______________________________

Like Best: ______________________________

How would your blog be different from the top 3 blogs?

You'd Change: ___________________________

You'd Change: ___________________________

_______________________________________



_______________________________________

Peer Blog #2: ___________________________

Which blog has the most appealing design to you? Why?

If you were to create the perfect blog from scratch, what would you mix and match from all the blogs you've studied?

Facebook Page: __________________________ _______________________________________ Twitter Handle: ___________________________ _______________________________________ Any E-mail Giveaway? _____________________

_______________________________________ _______________________________________

Like Best: ______________________________

Which blogger creates more engagement on social networks? What do they do differently?

_______________________________________

You'd Change: ___________________________

_______________________________________

_______________________________________


_______________________________________

_______________________________________ Can you apply these to your blog?

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Day #3

Find Your Blogging Voice

Create An Avatar

Day 3: Create an Avatar

Let's Fix It! "Have you had trouble attracting readers and customers to your site? Wish you could somehow convince everyone to just take a look? You might be suffering from 'everyone-itis.' This is a dangerous condition. If left untreated, it could lead to lessened focus, disinterested readership, loss of money and general lack of traction." It almost sounds like one of those those TV commercials advertising the latest magic pill. As the old business saying goes: "If everyone is your customer, then no one is your customer." You probably already have an idea who your likely readers or customers are. This is a good idea, since it's too expensive and time consuming to attempt to be all things to all people.

"Demographic" are defined as "the statistical data of a population, especially those showing average age, income, education, etc."

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Find Your Demographics

Check Out Trends

QuantCast.com

Google Trends

Use this (free!) service to search for websites or keyword terms popular in your niche. Once you find a relevant top site, click on it and take a look at its results. You may be surprised with the findings!

Another great site. It allows you to look up search trends that Google has picked up on certain keywords.

For example, let's say I wanted to target people traveling to California on vacation. I did a search for "California Travel". The top result for that search term was VisitCalifornia.com. The results revealed interesting information. Most people reading VisitingCalifornia.com fit the following categories. They are: •Female •Between the ages of 35-44 •Have no children •Make over 100K a year •Went to college or above •Likely to be Asian or Hispanic

If I were building a website or business that promote California tourism, the information above would be a goldmine.

At Google Trends, I searched again for the term "California Travel". The most popular related terms were: "Travel in California" "Travel to California" "Southern California Travel" Knowing that more people are interested in traveling to Southern California than they are to Northern California can either shift your focus, or reaffirm your belief that you're targeting the right audience. Great! All we have to do is identify our relevant demographic group, right? Well... not exactly. Identifying your core audience group is the first step. Even better than that is to identify just one. That one person who'll bring out you blogging voice: your avatar.

"If everyone is your customer, then no one is your customer." ToC


Finding Your Voice

2. Speak To One Person

One thing I've learned in life is that no one likes to be lumped into a group with everyone else. Sure, we all want to feel like we belong to the group, but not as a faceless, nameless participant.

Here's a question worth asking: Who are you communicating with exactly?

Yet, too often it feels as if content online is written for no one in particular, with no emotion and zero character. Which is why we don't connect with the writer or the content. This is a struggle for most first-time bloggers/ writers. Too often, they worry. Not so much about what to say, but how to say it. There's a two-step approach to finding your "voice":

1. Care Enough To Not Care First off, don't worry about what possible detractors may think about what you have to say. He who tries to please everyone, ends up pleasing no one. No matter how brilliant your ideas and how well you explain them, there will always be a troll who will criticize you and say your ideas are dumb. They're bullies and the Internet attracts them in droves. Pay them no attention. Use your platform to state your ideas boldly and confidently.

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When you communicate through your blog, how do you see yourself? Are you a speaker delivering a speech in front of an audience, or are you having a one-on-one conversation with a close friend? If you're closer to the former, not the latter, it may be time to rethink your approach. The demographic data you'll find is only a starting point. When you write... can you imagine yourself as if having an actual conversation with your reader face to face? This is exactly what you can achieve when you create an "avatar" for your ideal customer.

Creating An Avatar An "avatar" is a fictional representation of a real character. By creating an "avatar", or character for your ideal customer or audience member, you're effectively assigning them characteristics that will make it easier for you to communicate with them. Most of us think we have a fairly consistent personality, but this is not so.

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We will often behave differently depending on the setting (work, home, among strangers, with friends, etc). Depending on how you "view" your audience, this is how you'll address them, often subconsciously. Which is why you'll often see writing that is dispassionate and detached, because the writer had strangers in mind when they wrote the piece. To avoid this, craft an avatar for which you'll write to as if speaking to him/her directly. Remember, you don't write for yourself... you write for your audience.

Take a few minutes to get specific creating your avatar. How would your tone change if you were speaking to a man versus a woman? What if you were speaking to a twenty-something versus a baby boomer? Or a high-school dropout instead of a doctor? Does your topic have a specific terminology or slang that communicates with your avatar? Don't think that by adopting a specific tone you'll alienate everybody else. Sure, some people will not "get" you, but that's a risk worth taking. Trying to appeal to everyone will ensure you fail to connect with anyone.



First Name: _______________

To create your avatar, fill out the worksheet on this page. Get really specific about your avatar.

1. Is your ideal customer male or female? ________________ What is your Avatar's age? Be specific. _____

Most importantly, give them a name.

2. Is your Avatar single? Married? Divorced? Any kids? ________________

When I write, I always imagine that my avatar is the intended recipient. I imagine them sitting at their computer, reading what I've written for them. It's also worth noting here that it's even better if you model your avatar after someone you know, who matches the characteristics you envision in your ideal customer.

3. Avatar's education level (High School, College, etc)? ________________

Once filled out, it's a good idea to refer to it occasionally and make adjustments as necessary, as you discover more information about your audience, or if your focus changes.

4. Do they have a college degree or like to obtain one? ________________ 5. Is your Avatar working? Where? Do they like it? Why or why not? ________________ 6. What motivates your Avatar most? Success? Respect? Stable family life? Excitement? Acceptance? Etc... ________________ 7. What concerns your Avatar most about their future life? ________________ 8. What is her/his most pressing need? What is the reason they are on your website)? ________________ 9. How does your service or product fulfill that need? ________________ 10. What could concern your Avatar about buying a product/service from you? How will you minimize those concerns? ________________

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Day #4

Attract More Readers

How to Market Content

Day 4: How to Market Content

Let's Fix It! Being able to write well is the most important skill you'll have to develop if you want to be an effective communicator. You'll get the most bang for your buck by learning to express yourself in a way others can "get you" than by trying all the marketing tricks in the world. Great marketing can get people to the store, but they'll leave just as quickly as they came if they don't like what you're selling. People tend to over-complicate the writing process. You want to produce content that's memorable and engaging. No many people engage with an encyclopedia, but we'll become raving fans of certain novels.

Great marketing can get people to your store, but they'll leave just as quickly as they came in if they don't like what your selling. Content Marketing "Content Marketing" is one of the most effective types of marketing you can try. In essence, you attract a following by publishing outstanding content (blog posts or articles) that helps, inspires, entertains, and/ or educates people. They are the ones more likely to engage with you and share your content with others. There are three parts to optimizing content in a way that sticks in the readers' minds: 1. Usefulness Factor

When you write, the goal should be to create content that gets people talking. Content hat inspires and makes people take action and feel positive about what they've just read. Writing that sticks in their mind.

2. Content Structure 3. Headline Quality Let's dive into how to optimize all three.

The enemy of great writing? Boring, uninspired writing that fails to resonate with anyone. The smartest communicator is the one who can get their ideas across, not the one who uses the fanciest language.

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1. Usefulness Factor The most important thing you should take away from this book is this:

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I mentioned it earlier, but it's worth repeating here: Why should the reader care about what you have to say? Every time you sit down to write a post, think about what effect it will have on your reader. If you're planning to change your site's design... Will the change make it easier or harder for people to access your content? Are you doing it to please yourself, your audience, or both? When you write, ask yourself what will your audience be gaining from reading your post. How is it useful to them? What will it help them achieve after they've finished reading it? How will it make them feel? If you have good answers to these after writing every article, you've laid down the groundwork for content usefulness.


Not everything has to be a "how-to" post. Maybe your audience is looking to be entertained for a bit. To be distracted from boredom. Sometimes they just need a bit of inspiration to carry them through the day. If they are actually looking for information, are you doing your best to provide it in the easiest, most accessible format?

How to Fix Most Common "Structural" Problems:

Below is an example of a sentence written in active voice:

Get away from passive voice... when necessary:

Rich is writing another blog post.

Passive voice often gets a bad rap because it leads to vague, often wordy writing. Passive voice does have its uses, but think twice about whether you need to use it.

"Rich" is the subject performing the action (writing) on a subject (blog post). The same sentence can be rearranged to turn it into a passive sentence:

That's the key to keep people coming back. Every time you gear up to do anything on your blog, look to the big four human needs: Need for help, inspiration, entertainment and education.

With active voice, the subject does the action and is the focus of the sentence.

Another blog post is being written by Rich. Here, the focus is now "blog post" rather than "Rich" who is doing the action.

Which of the four will your content address? Hit one or two of those consistently with every post and you'll be connecting in no time. Useful, helpful content is content that gets read, bookmarked and shared. And don't just aim to write "serviceable" or even "good" content. Aim above "great" every single time.

2. Content Structure Attempting to improve your writing by ignoring content structure is like attempting to decorate the inside of a building that's falling apart on the outside. Content structure is less about what you say and more about how effectively you lay it out for people.

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For a guide to "passive vs. active" voice, check out this post by GrammarGirl (Mignon Fogarty):

http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/active-voice-versus-passive-voice.aspx

Mignon is the producer of the very popular podcast: Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing

Well worth a listen if you want to improve your writing and be entertained at the same time.

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Break Up Complicated Sentences:

Stay Away From Big Words:

Here is a run-on sentence that needs breaking up:

Don't do it. Big words won't make you seem smart. They only confuse most people. The thesaurus is your friend, use it.

As I was sitting at the cafe, writing a letter, I was approached by a young woman who must not have been older than 21, who asked me, after seeing I was obviously alone, whether she could sit with me since there were no empty booths in the place.

Write for the Web:

Adding more than three sentences to a paragraph and your readers' eyes will be strained. Use Sub-Headlines: Sub-headlines are a great way to break up text into manageable sections.

Reading a computer screen is not the same experience as reading a book. When you write for the web, you need to break up long sentences.

When text goes on forever, with no break in sight, it tends to discourage people from reading further.

That's an extreme example, but you get the point. Stick to one main idea per sentence to make your writing easier to follow. Avoid Cliches: Wikipedia defines a cliche as a phrase that's overused to the point it doesn't mean much. Some examples are: "Next thing you know...", "At the end of the day...", "Say what you will...", "Truth be told..." "As a matter of fact..." It's not wrong to use cliches, but don't overuse them. Recognize when you're overusing them and change them to make your writing your own.

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Flickr @ libertygrace0

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"The Secret Path to Riches that Few People Know About" Got your attention, didn't I? Let's talk about headlines.

Headlines I know the headline at the start of this page looks cheesy. But it accomplishes the one thing a headline should do: Get you to read the next line.

Headline writers (copywriters is the proper term) need to structure their headlines in such a way that a person passing by is tempted to buy the magazine just on the strenght of its headline. Next time a magazine headline, Twitter headline, Facebook post, or even newspaper article headline catches your eye, stop and think for a second. What about that particular headline grabbed your attention?

It's hard to increase the size of audience when starting out. A popular way to attract visitors is by promoting your posts using social media.

The key to writing great headlines does not come from thinking outrageous ideas and trying to make each headline top the last one. To get good at it, you need to study them and try to figure out which ones work and why.

If you're dealing with Twitter, you won't have much room to work with at 140 characters. That's when crafting good headlines becomes really important.

Here's a way to get free advice from the top bloggers in your field:

It doesn't matter how good your content is on the inside. If your headline doesn't grab the attention of someone scanning their Twitter or Facebook feed, they won't bother to go read what the content is about.

Check their "Most Popular Posts" section, which is usually located on their website's sidebar. This will clue you in as to what their audiences find most interesting. There are three types of posts you'll noticed get used constantly. It's because they work:

How-To Posts: Instructional, detailed posts that solve a problem. Example: "Step-by-Step Guide to Renewing Your Visa in Guatemala City". Cultural References: Latches on to a popular, well-known reference (celebrities often get a mention), and ticks the reader's curiosity. See: "Three Lessons To Learn From Starbucks About Rocking Your Vision". These headlines are attractive to their intended audience because they resonate with their interests. If you take a look at my homepage, you'll see that my most popular post ever was... *drumroll*... a top 10 list post. Second most popular? A how-to post. Give them a try! They just work.

Get-It-Done Action Task On Day 2, I mentioned that the best way to learn something is by observing and taking notes on how the pros do it. Find at least 3 very popular blogs in your niche that list their most popular posts on their homepage.

Learn From the Pros: If you want to see how the pros do it, take a look at the magazine rack when you're at the store. Notice how easily catch your eye and how oftentimes you can't help but pick one up and browse through it.

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List Posts: Top 10/100 lists are always popular. Check out: "10 Great Reasons Why You Should Live a Life of Travel".

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Write down at least 5 headlines that catch your eye and make notes about why they attracted you. Think of ways you can use a similar headline to craft (not copy) a post in the same style, with the same type of headline.

Day #5

Engage Your Audience

Be Yourself

Day 5: Be Yourself

Let's Fix It! I have seen personal websites that have all the charm of a hospital waiting room. How do you fight the "textbook syndrome"? Flickr @ StevenDepolo

Most people don't really care about YOUR business goals. People care about what you can do to help them. And when you do, most will be grateful, come back, and recommend you to their friends. It's not about you, it's about your audience. Tell people what you can do for them, why they should choose you over someone else, and why you care about their experience. Show Your Audience the Person Behind the Business It bears repeating:

If you're a first-time blogger, you probably fall into one of two camps: You either talk about yourself WAY too much or you don't talk about yourself nearly enough.

One of the best decisions you can make about your blog is to open up to people. When you open up, you show your human side. People will respond in kind and open up to you.

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Did you know that "About Me" page is often the most checked-out page besides the homepage? Don't miss out on the benefits of creating an engaging "About Me" page. Three Component of a Great "About Me" Page: A rockin' "About" page does not need to be overly long or a soul-baring exercise. It just needs to do three things: 1. Connect your audience with the purpose of your business

People connect with other people, not websites.

Dare to be your real self, not a bland, inauthentic version.

The obvious place to open up about yourself is through your content and the sharing and retelling of your own experiences.

If you talk about yourself too much you risk alienating some readers, but your connection will be much deeper with the ones who "get you". At least there's a risk/reward payoff to that scenario. If you don't talk about yourself enough, you run the risk of not connecting with anyone at all. It's a tough thing to balance, and you can only learn it from experience.

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2. Show the human side of the business 3. Encourage the audience to stay connected Connecting Your Audience to Your Business: In the first chapter, we covered how to craft an elevator pitch. Your tagline, short and sweet, is your bait. If you've managed to pique the interest of your first-time visitor, then your About page is your chance to expand on your main idea.

Day 5: Be Yourself

Your website is not a disguise or skewed representation of who you are. It's a window into you and a part of you (your projects) that you're passionate about.

At the end of your "About Me" page, invite the reader to join you at Facebook, Twitter, or any other social network of choice. Ask them to subscribe to your e-mail list.

Get-It-Done Action Task About Me Page Worksheet To craft an engaging "About" page:

The enemy here is disconnectedness. If you're transmitting a "keep at arm's-length" vibe, don't be surprised when people do keep away.

For examples of simple "About Me" pages, check out:

Conversely, if you try to share too much (what your cat has for breakfast each morning), it make people feel uncomfortable. Like those people that invade your personal space when they talk a little too close. What do you in that situation? Same thing you'd do online; that is pull back instinctively. Ask yourself:

My own @ UnwireMe.com

"Is what I'm sharing helpful, or will it make people cringe or feel uncomfortable?" Being closer emotionally with your audience is preferable to keeping your audience at a distance. My most popular posts always tend to be those where I share most about my personal experiences. Encourage the Audience to Stay Connected: After telling your audience who you are, what you're about, and how you can help them, encourage them to stay connected with you and to ask questions.

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Darren Rowse's @ ProBlogger.net

A note about e-mail lists:

A good way to grow your subscriber list is to show the audience that you know what you're talking about. It can be a short e-book, recorded interview, an instructional video, or email series. Whatever you decide to give away, make it useful to others.

I've been tempted to buy products from other bloggers in the past, only to be very disappointed with their free products. When a free giveaway is garbage, there is no reason for customers to believe that a paid product will be any better. Give potential customers a taste of the quality they can expect from your products.

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1. State the Benefits: Describe what your site is about and what makes it different from similar blogs. Tell your audience what you will do for them (why should they care to visit, read, and interact with you). 2. State your Qualifications: You don't need a "Master's Degree" in your subject. It's perfectly fine to talk about your knowledge and experiences. Remember that "expert" is a relative term. You are qualified to teach what you know. Never claim to know more than what you really do because people will see right through that. 3. Encourage Connections: Use the opportunity to remind them why they should stay connected with you via e-mail updates and check out your social network profiles. 4. Make it Personable: Tell everyone a bit about your background. It doesn't have to be a confessional, but tell people about what led you to start your site in the first place. Hugely important is to add at least one photo of yourself. The goal is to be approachable and show a bit of the human side behind the site.

Day #6

Optimize Your Blog For Business

Redesign Your Website

Day 6: Redesign Your Website

Let's Fix It! I would argue that one of Apple's greatest keys to success has been its ability to do one thing well: Keeping. Things. Simple. Great advice for anyone in business. Because I like to research and keep up-todate with the latest trends, I browse through a ton of websites. There's nothing that turns me off a website faster than when it's confusing to read and/or find information. Fumble the design and you'll lose first time visitors before they've had time to explore your content.

A CTA is an element on your site that prompts the reader to do something. It can be to: a. Sign up for your newsletter b. Buy something (on or offsite) c. Like your Facebook page d. Follow you on Twitter e. Donate to a charity f. Share an article... ... And many more. Can there be more than one CTA on your page? Absolutely! How many should one have total? Depends.

While website design is the easiest aspect to screw up, it's also the easiest one to fix. Before you go and rush out to tinker with the design, let's talk about the most important thing you need to get right about your design: Your "Call-to-Action".

What's a CTA? For the benefit of bloggers starting out, let's quickly define what in web marketing lingo is known as a Call-to-Action (CTA, for short).

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A concept related to CTAs is "landing page", which a homepage is in its most basic form. However, homepages often have too many elements going on in addition to your CTA. A true landing page (which you can have several of) will focus on just one thing: Convincing your visitor to go through with a CTA. For more about landing pages, check out the excellent resource listed at the end of this chapter. Look at Problogger's homepage (screencap below). The CTA is the newsletter "subscribe to" box located to the right. For my taste, it's not attractive enough to stand out from the rest of the page, though the green "Subscribe" button has a unique color that draws your eyes in. Simple works.


To the right is my site's previous CTA. This version stood out from other page elements. Always test, optimize and improve CTA design, color and placement. Offer something to the visitor if they follow through with your CTA. If you encourage visitors to follow you on Facebook, what will you provide in return? A promise of exclusive content would work. When I do so, I let the audience know about it. I often post information that doesn't make it anywhere else but my Facebook page. If asking your reader to subscribe, what will you offer them? Even if you don't have a product for sale yet, you can still package stories, how-to's, or other related information into a free product. For step-by-step e-book creation, check out Pat Flynn's (free!) guide: "E-books The Smart Way".

Design Tips Make Your CTA Stand Out: CTAs should be front and center. The main CTA on my site uses colors that are complementary to the design, but that stand out from the rest of the page. This CTA is viewable no matter which page or blog post visitors land on. it would be difficult for a new visitor to get confused or distracted enough by what's going on elsewhere on my site to miss that CTA.

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Use Whitespace Effectively: Quick note: Don't cram as much text as possible into a page. Give your text room to breathe and give the reader space to rest their eyes.

Use ColorSchemeDesigner.com to choose one main color; pair up with complementary color(s).

Use Attractive Colors: When it comes to design, simple is often most effective. Black text on white background is still the best. Red letters on green background, or a similar headacheinducing combination will distract your reader. Nothing on your site should make your content harder to find or read. Nothing. Colors should complement each other. Fortunately, there's a tool you can use to figure that out. It's the tool I used to come up with my design's colors.

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For your CTA, choose a bold complimentary color you don't use anywhere else on the page where the CTA appears.


Lay Off Sidebar Widgets:

Your Site's Layout:

Wordpress is a great platform to build a website around. It's easy to make changes to your site's design and to add functionality by the way of widgets. Widgets are great, but they can be too much of a good thing sometimes.

Imagine making your first trip to that brandnew neighborhood supermarket.

Having too many sidebar widgets tend to be distracting for your audience. Each one screams "Hey, look at me!", taking visitors' eyes away from the CTA.

You can also add categories based on media type. Some people like videos, so make them easy to access. Organize your categories with a video and a podcast section, if you do podcasts and videos.

Every widgets you add takes aways from the effectiveness of the others. Limit yourself to a maximum of four, maybe five at most. Your CTA, a "most popular posts" widget, and a widget showing your "social network links" are always good options. Just be mindful of widget overload. Newer versions of Wordpress allow the option to select which categories each widget will appear in. I have more than four sidebar widgets installed, but not all show up on all pages. Some are enabled for some categories, others only show up on the homepage. Display widgets according to the value they provide to the page visitors are on and how they fit your overall layout. Speaking of layouts, let's talk about... well, layouts.

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Stick each post into major categories and have less than 10 top-menu items (on the previous page you can see I have 6). On your top menu (or nearby) there should be a link to your "About Me" page (see previous chapter), and a "Start Here" page link. Your "contact page" can be moved to the footer (bottom of the page) if you need room for other items.

Flickr @ vauvau

Right away, you notice everything seems to have been oddly arranged. Products are stocked on shelves according to their order of arrival, which is how ketchup ended up next to produce, and soft drinks side-by-side with soap. In order to shop there, you'd have to literally scan entire aisles, row by row, to find what you are looking for. "This is crazy!", you think to yourself, "I'll never find anything here." That's how a disorganized blog looks to a first-time visitor. Your posts need to be arranged around your central theme and sub-themes. It draws readers in when related stories are easily accessible.

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What's a "Start Here" page?

It's a road-map to get your new visitors plugged in quickly to your best content. It's also a great place to sell them on why they should connect with you on social networks and links to your best content, organized by topic.

This page is where you'll have, or link to "back to basics" info explaining key terms first-time visitors may be unfamiliar with. A short welcome video intro letting your audience know your name and what your site can do for them is also a nice touch.


Get-It-Done Action Task Optimize Your Homepage There are many, many, MANY designs to choose from if you have a Wordpress-based site. Some designs are free, some you'll have to pay for. You can even have a webdesigner build you an original theme from scratch. Whatever the design you ultimately end up with, it needs to be easy yo navigate, and it's purpose for existing must be clear the moment someone sees it. Those two objectives work together toward the goal of fulfilling your Call-to-Action. To help you optimize your website's layout for business, I recommend you download Unbounce's: "Ultimate Guide to Landing Page Optimization". This free guide goes into excellent detail about what techniques you'll need to visualize, test, and implement great product landing pages. Many of the lessons you'll learn about landing pages can easily be adapted to homepages as well.

Test Your Homepage Design It's fine to ask friends and family what they think about your site's design. More often than not, they'll offer encouragement and gentle suggestions about what needs to be changed. But... Have you ever stopped to think what those complete strangers who come to your page, only to live 10 seconds later? Why was their visit so brief? Did they not like your page? What scared them away? Enter the five second test. On the web, first impressions matter. Studies show that most people that visit a site for the first time will stick a website for an average of around 5 seconds. If you don't grab that visitor's attention that first time, they may never come back to give you a second chance. A great tool to find out what strangers think about your design can be found at FiveSecondTest.com.

Free to sign up for, FiveSecondTest allows you to upload a screenshot of your site. The site will then flash the image for five seconds to other users. Users take impression tests and answer specific questions crafted by you about what they see. Possible questions you can ask may include: Is the text too big/small? What impression does my logo convey? What's the site about? What's the first thing you noticed on the site? How creative you get with the questions is up to you. You can also upload two different screenshots and ask how they compare against each other. For an additional fee, you can increase the number of tests you can submit to the site and the number of responses, or you can participate by taking impression tests, which increases the number of tests you can submit about your site. It's a valuable tool worth taking for a spin.

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Day #7

Don't Know Where to Take Blog Next

Go Beyond Blogging

Day 7: Go Beyond Blogging

Let's Fix It! Once you have a website that's smartly designed, it's time to start thinking bigger. MUCH bigger! It's an uphill battle just to get noticed. Even if you have the prettiest, most well-designed website, you'll need to get the word out about it or people won't find it. You need to branch out and extend your reach. Think of your website as your hub of activity. Every other place where you have a media presence, that's like a satellite that directs people back to your site. Hold that thought. We'll get to your satellites in a minute. People find websites a number of ways. Some visitors show up through word-ofmouth. When a friend tells another about a website or sends you a link, that's the best possible endorsement a website can get. Viral websites are endorsements on steroids. Search engines, and by that I pretty much mean Google, are a much hyped source of traffic. Being found by the search engines is great because it's free traffic that just shows up without any more effort on your part than doing some Search Engine Optimization (SEO) upfront.

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New to SEO? Here's how to optimize: 1. Subscribe to Aaron Wall's free 7-Day EMail Course: You'll get more than enough knowledge from it to get you started with SEO: SEO E-mail Course 2. Get Yoast's free Wordpress SEO Plugin. The best of its kind: Yoast's SEO Plugin

A word of caution:

Don't build your marketing strategy entirely around attracting free traffic from Google. If Google, for whatever reason, decides to assess a penalty and rank your website lower, justified or not, you'll be HOSED. That traffic stream you worked so hard for will dry up overnight.

Your satellites, whether on social media or other channels, help extend your reach. They keep social media users connected to you and help bring in people to your site that might have not heard of it otherwise.

Setting Up Satellites Beyond Social Networks What other satellites can you set up, beyond what you can do in social media? Two huge ones actually. The first is video, the second one podcasts. If there's a way to differentiate yourself from the rest, it's by establishing satellites where there's a lot less competition to deal with. I'm willing to bet that a large chunk of your potential audience likes video and checks out YouTube from time to time. And that another chunk likes to listen to podcasts on their way to work, at the gym, or at home. A good cross-section (like me) enjoys doing both. Why Podcasts? Question: Which would you prefer to be? Big fish in a small pond, or a little fish in a big pond?

Not all your satellites are created equal, or deserve the same level of attention. Each satellite you set up will require its own approach and time commitment. Some of it you can automate (Twitter following, for example), some you can't.

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Flickr @ deanmccoyphotos

Day 7: Go Beyond Blogging

If you're just starting out with your web platform, you're a small fish in a 300,000,000-sized (that's millions) pond. Just do a Google search on your niche's key terms and check out how many website hits come up. I'm betting well into the thousands, or in the millions if it's a popular topic. That's your competition.

Creating Video

Three Simple Keys to Great Video

In chapter 4, I talk about making an emotional connection with your readers through your writing. A more powerful way is to do it through video. There's something about having a person "look" you in the eye that creates trust. It's psychologically effective.

It's not hard to record good video. You need:

For comparison, go to iTunes (if you have iTunes installed on your PC, a Mac, or an iDevice) and search for podcasts on your niche. I'm willing to bet you'd be lucky to find even a hundred podcasts about your niche. Some niches will list less than 10, sometimes none will come up. And that's before digging into the list and crossing off podcasts that haven't been updated in a while. (If you don't have iTunes, check out PodFeed.net).

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Good audio: Find yourself a quiet spot. If your camera doesn't have an input for an external microphone, record as close as possible to the camera to capture good audio. Avoid small rooms, or recording near walls. This keeps keep echo to a minimum. Mind the background: Simple is best. Too much clutter behind you will distract people. A bare wall is fine. Try to record at eye level and stay away from funky angles if not necessary for effect.

Get-It-Done Action Tasks

There's opportunity now in the podcast arena like there was back before blogging had exploded. By producing a decent podcast on your subject, you'll be like the one-eyed King in the land of the blind. It's a great way to establish yourself as an authority and bring people around to your website. To learn more about podcasting, check out Cliff J. Ravenscraft's, from PodcastAnswerMan.com. If you think podcasting is something you might want to try, take a look at his excellent, totally free video tutorials at "Learn How to Podcast".

Good lighting: Special lights are nice, but not necessary. Use natural sunlight whenever possible.

Create a YouTube Channel: If you haven't done so yet, reserve a username, so it's available when you're ready to upload videos. Flickr @ Joi

To create video, you don't need a fancy camera or expensive equipment. Any decent webcam that produces High Definition video will do. Pretty much any decent camera nowadays will record HD video. I record most of my videos using an iPad Touch 4G and the quality is fine.

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Practice Recording Audio & Video: Start recording yourself to get comfortable speaking to a microphone. Any smartphone will allow you to record notes. Evernote is a great (free) program to practice voice recording. Get it here.

What Now? Success is all about building momentum. Once you've defined a purpose for your blog, established who your audience is and what they want, it's time to get to work and make things happen. Hopefully this book has given you some ideas on how to get the most out of your blog and take it to the next level. It's also super important that you develop relationships online with fellow bloggers who encourage you and that you can learn from. Pay it forward. Help others coming along who are right where you were when you first started. If you need help, or would like to share knowledge, I'd love to keep in touch with you. My contact page is right behind this one. Best of luck and stay in touch!

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