WriteSwap: Content Marketplace Like Fiverr

September 7, 2011 By Lisa Angelettie 6 Comments

WriteSwap Is A Marketplace For Content And Looks Like Fiverr

I know some of you are never going to take my advice and leave a lot of the creative writing elements of running your business for you to do yourself and not outsource to someone else.

So with you rebels in mind, I stumbled across a site called WriteSwap which is a marketplace for all things content related such as: Advertising, Articles, Biographies, Blog Content, Direct Mail, Ebooks, Editing, Email Copy, Fiction, Licensing/PLR, Press Releases, Proof Reading, Reports, Research, and Sales Copy/Critiques.

The site looks a lot like Fiverr, in fact it seems to be built on the same platform which is cool, but the pricing is not the same (which is a bummer). The jobs on this site run more than a Fiverr job ($5), and tend to run an average of between $10-$50 USD.

Personal Branding – Using The Internet To Build A Powerful Brand

November 19, 2010 By Lisa Angelettie 7 Comments

Personal Branding – Using The Internet To Build A Powerful Brand

When building a Personal Brand, the easiest, fastest and most impactful way to do so is online. But be fore-warned, it’s just as easy (and even faster) to destroy your brand if your social media campaign doesn’t have a strategy behind it. Whether it’s blogging, article marketing, tweeting, or posting to Facebook and YouTube, having an effective internet presence is the number one way to boost your brand.

Developing a solid personal brand can have a tremendous impact on your bottom-line if done correctly. Here are some tips to building a stand-out Internet Brand.

1. Know Your Goal

Begin with the end. First determine, what is the goal of being on the internet? Is it to get clients? Is it just for socializing? Do you even have a goal? For purposes of this article, let’s assume your goal for being on the internet is to generate business and get clients.

However, before diving into all forms of social media head-first, you must indentify some objectives to reach your goal. Consider this:

Do you know where your clients are?
On which social media platforms do they engage/ participate?
What is the message you want to convey to them?
Will your objectives boost your brand awareness?

The true test of your social media campaigns’ effectiveness will come from your ability to create an online community who will become cheerleaders for your brand.

2. Identify Your Target Audience

Knowing where your customer is will save you lot’s of time and energy. It will also help define your marketing message.
In addition to knowing where your clients are, you need to identify who they are. You may think you know your target audience, but when it comes to building an online community, ask yourself this:

What benefits do my products or services provide?
What do I want to say to that audience? (Your communications shouldn’t always be a sale or a “call to action”; in other words, a one-way conversation. Start by building a relationship and creating 2-way conversations.)
What type of person needs my product or service?
What is the best way to reach them on the internet that will showcase my company’s culture and generate sales?

Once you have answered these questions, then you can begin to create a strategic social media campaign to reach your ideal audience. (More on that later)

3. Personality + Passion = Purpose

Put passion and personality into all of your online profiles and be consistent across the board.

The most important reason for businesses to have an internet presence is to build a powerful, compelling brand. The only way to make that brand stand out amongst the crowd is to filter through all of the fluff for your target audience. Take advantage of the opportunity to showcase your personality and passion in all of your communications. By doing so, your audience will see your authenticity and get a clear understanding of your purpose.

You also have the opportunity to make an emotional connection with your audience. The majority of sales are made based on emotional connections. Why wouldn’t you use this platform as a vehicle to build a fierce Brand reputation?!

Your brand should communicate the following:

Who you are (Personality)
What makes you unique; The only one who can deliver (Personality & Passion)
Your expertise in your niche (Passion)
What service/ product you provide (Purpose)
What motivates you to do what you do (Purpose)

All of these components is what makes you you! If you are truly passionate about what you do, your audience will identify with that passion and understand your purpose for doing what you do. It not only adds value and credibility; it makes you the go-to-guy (or girl) in your industry.

Imagine reading a blog or Facebook post about a single mother’s struggle to raise her autistic child. Because of her experiences, she is now coaching other parents who are facing the same trials and tribulations. Not only would her story resonate with thousands of people, it would most certainly add value to her offering? This is not a manufactured brand. This Brand clearly and authentically communicates her passion, personality and purpose!

4. Develop a Strategy

Now that you have your goal, your audience and know where to reach them, you can develop an effective branding strategy. Each interaction you make with your audience should be strategic and accomplish at least one of the “5 E’s”

Engage
Educate
Evoke (an emotion)
Entertain
Establish (your Expertise)

You can use all social media platforms the same way or use different platforms to convey different messages. But decide early how and when you will use each. If your audience has come to rely on your blog posts as humorous anecdotes, you can’t suddenly decide to be an advocate for abused children using the same platform. You will not only lose your audience, but you will lose credibility.

The purpose of strategic online engagement is to define your Personal Branding. In order to increase your Brand awareness, you will also want to be strategic with:

Timing – How often will you engage? Will your communications correlate with current events? Have your customers come to expect information from you at specific times? Be consistent!

Content – If your objective is to stir up controversy, that’s perfectly fine, that is the value you provide for your audience. However, please don’t mix in touchy subjects with your content if that is not your intention for your brand. Nothing will dilute your message faster and turn off your base!

Placement – This goes back to knowing where your customers are. How are you going to communicate with them? Knowing that will boost your online presence for your community and create value for your clients. Make sure your brand is easily understood on each of your online platforms. If you do decide to switch tracks with your marketing messages, use a different social media marketing approach and explain to your audience why you’ve done. (Remember, make the emotional connection!)

All in all, you get the biggest bang for your buck using social media and the internet to build your brand. When you are clear on your message, the customers will come!

Kelly Green (Brand Coach Kelly) empowers new entrepreneurs and career transitioners to build a powerful Personal Brand, clarify their marketing message, identify their target audience and attract more money, clients and success! For your FREE Personal Branding strategy session, contact Brand Coach Kelly at: http://ThePersonalBrandBlueprint.com

*Special thanks to Philip for requesting this article topic for today’s article marketing spotlight.

EzineArticles.com Goodies: A Great Marketing Lesson

April 5, 2010 By Lisa Angelettie 3 Comments

I was a featured expert author article marketing case study on EzineArticles.com and it was an amazing experience. I was able to chat with so many people who were “thinking” about writing articles or who were just getting started writing and appreciated the few words I had to say about what it has done for my business and how I get past those tough moments when I don’t feel like writing about anything!

But I digress, the point of this post is to tell you about my goodie box and inadvertently — the great marketing lesson I learned!

Now I love mail. I always have. I use to read the classifieds and would order the 1000 return address labels, just so I could get mail! I would beg my mom to order the mail order seahorses. It’s amazing that I got anything, because I would always send cash, because I was like 9 years old! So when I got my big ‘ole box today (a complete surprise:), I said “Yippee!” That’s right folks, I love getting goodies!

Now let me explain what marketing lessons I learned from receiving this EzineArticles goodie box:

1. The box was unexpected. I wasn’t anticipating any sort of compensation for being a case study on the website. An unexpected smile:)

2. The box arrived with a hand-written thank you note inside. A wonderful personal touch that I will always remember.

3. The box was full of great goodies all with the EzineArticles logo. Things I will actually use, and items that will remind me “Write your next article, Lisa!”

4. The message behind the goodies was definitely thank you, but also “please keep submitting articles to our site”. That was a message I received loud and clear and one I will act on and promote to my community.

5. This goodie box made a great case for getting your branding right. I’m still working on it, but I’m much more motivated. When you have a strong message, a good-looking logo, and a consistent branding message — I guess you can be brave enough to create lots of goodies with your logo on it!

6. I’m no different then anyone else. I love free stuff, and so will others. You can give your branded goodies away in contests, as a thank-you, or some other creative way. Done right – it will make you and your company… memorable:)

Related Websites

5 Reasons Why You Need To Write Blog Articles

October 13, 2009 By Lisa Angelettie 19 Comments

Most marketers teach the bare basics of article marketing. That’s because article marketing isn’t the newest bright and shiny marketing gimmick on the market, so most marketers aren’t really going to be bothered with it. They want to talk about the newest thing that they can make an affiliate income off of. So that’s why you probably haven’t heard that the BEST place for your articles to be published is your own website a.k.a. WordPress blog. This is why…

1. The search engines absolutely love blogs, especially WordPress blogs. While I have never truly learned the technical reason why, the bottom line comes down to the fact that the blogs feed the freshest content to the web in a way that the search engine spiders can easily identify as “new”. This means that your content will be crawled and shown in search engine results faster than someone who just posted a page on a regular site. So it should not be a question whether or not you need a blog in your business – you need one. It would be absolutely silly not to create this free treat for the search engine monster:)

2. When you write articles on your own blog you create a direct connection from the reader to your website – no middleman. When you write and submit articles to a directory, the article directory becomes your middleman. The reader searches for information, finds it via a search on the article directory, clicks on the link to the directory, reads the article, and then hopefully clicks on your link(s) in your article to your website or squeeze page. That’s a lot of steps the reader has to take to finally make it to your site. The more optimal scenario would be for someone to search for something, find a link to an article on your site, which of course takes them to your site. Better odds for more traffic, more opt-ins, and more “fans” of your work.

3. Readers can read and subscribe to your blog articles. An RSS feed allows readers to subscribe to your articles via RSS reader or through email. A few article directories offer RSS feeds for individual authors, some only have it for the author’s topic, and many others don’t have RSS feeds at all. If you have your own blog, that people can subscribe to, readers will have consistent and direct access to your articles which only supports what we know statistically about people who invest in your product or service. Prospects need at least 7 exposures to you before they can trust you enough to buy from you. Giving prospects solid content on a regular basis is a great way to support this.

4. Blog articles are easy to write and publish. Out of all the ways there are to publish your own content online or offline, blogging is the easiest. The biggest task is the initial set up of your blog, and after that it’s pretty easy. Get into the backend of your blog, write your article, make a few SEO tweaks like adding post tags or meta tags, and click “publish”.

5. While writing tons of articles and submitting them to the directories can create a surge of traffic to your website, writing tons of articles on your own blog can create something more. A base of people who follow your articles. Who actually look forward to your next article and know where to find it – on your blog. I call it building your article brand and building your reader fan club. Building this community of “fans” is crucial to the long-term success of your business online. These are the people who will buy from you over and over again.

*Bonus Tip
6. Writing articles on your own blog, versus an article directory, allows you to place live links within the article. Links that link to other articles on your blog to create stickiness, links to your own products and services, and affiliate links to products that you are promoting. See how that works!

Build Trust With Customers Using Article Marketing

September 23, 2009 By Lisa Angelettie 2 Comments

We are in a great new and improved information age. While print media is dying out , new media is taking its place as the next best place to do our research, catch up on our news, and connect with others. That’s why you should absolutely be taking advantage of the internet and use it to build trust with customers and prospects by using article marketing.

It’s a simple concept really. How do you want to present yourself to potential customers? As a trusted source of information, knowledge, and solutions right?

As you spread your message on the web and grow your visibility, people are going to begin to “Google” your name. I know it to be true, because my website stats reveal that many of my visitors come to me through the search term “Lisa Angelettie”. The same is probably happening with you.

So here’s my question – What do people see in the results when they search for your name? If they see results for a personal MySpace page or some of your goofy personal “tagged” photos on Facebook, then you may have a bit of a hard time convincing folks that you are a professional to be trusted.

It’s important that when you have someone search your name to not just find your social media profiles (like Facebook, Twitter, Linked In), but to also find high-quality and informative content, better yet lots of it on your topic, and you are well on your way to building a relationship of trust between you and your potential prospects and customers.

*Special Tip
In order to make sure that your articles do come up in searches under your name (author name), make sure to add your name as a meta tag keyword.

Is Your Name and Photo On Page One Google Results?

September 16, 2009 By Lisa Angelettie 3 Comments

Not long ago, I was crusing my little cousin’s Facebook page and saw some not-so-favorable photos she took in her college dorm. Nothing quite Miss America scandalous, but not really appropriate if a future employer chooses to “Google” her name. That’s why it’s more important than ever for her and especially important for entrepreneurs like us to have as much control as we can on what people see when they Google our names.

So is your name and photo on page one of Google results when someone searches for your name?
I can tell from my site statistics that quite a few people search for “Lisa Angelettie” on the web and then click thru to my website, but what’s also great is that people can be sure that they are finding ME because my full name and photo appear on the first page when you search for me. Here’s an example of a page one, personal search of my name “Lisa Angelettie” in Google:

There are two results for my name because I created two personal profile results for myself based on my two major websites (lisaangelettieblog.com and girlshrink.com). I also included my maiden name because a lot of my earler writings for The New York Times and Gannet News were done under that name, and I included a common misspelling of my name so that I wouldn’t miss that traffic either.

Now while I am the only result for my name (because it isn’t a common name), perhaps your name is, such as my maiden name: Lisa Miller. That’s why it’s even more important for you to set up a profile result for your name in the search engines.

So How Do You Create Your Own Google Profile Result?
It’s quite easy. You create a free Google Profile which gives you total control over how you appear in Google when people search for your name. Go to: http://google.com/profiles If you already have a Google account (adsense, gmail, analytics, etc.), then it’s simply a matter of clicking on the create a profile link within the account.

If you are still struggling with whether this is something you should do, consider the fact that you are an article marketer, a published author, and many people will remember your name if nothing else. If they want to find that article they read by you but can’t find it – they will Google your name. If they read an article and want to learn more about you — they will Google your name. If potential JV partners want to learn more about you and your business they will Google your name.

So what are you waiting for? Make sure you name and pic appears on Page 1 – every search!

Why New Coaches Should Write Articles

May 26, 2009 By Lisa Angelettie 3 Comments

The coaching profession is growing by leaps and bounds. People are seeking to reinvent themselves in today’s tough economy and are becoming life coaches, business coaches, wellness coaches etc. Unfortunately as the growth of new coaches on and offline explodes, it will require more work on new coaches parts to get noticed and get hired. That’s the biggest reason why new coaches should and must write articles.

Writing articles on the web is THE most cost effective marketing strategy for coaches because it’s key to:

1. Attracting traffic to your site
As a new coach it is essential for you to build an online presence message via your own articles and content hosted on your own website. No longer a glorified “business card” , it’s important that your website contain useful and interesting articles and information which attracts new prospects on a daily basis.

2. Educating potential clients about your practice
Teach others about your coaching niche, what you do, and how you can benefit them in their lives or businesses via articles.

3. Spreading your coaching message
Your articles are like little marketing gems, broadcasting your coaching message to whoever reads them. This really helps create a qualified client visit your site versus one who is just surfing the web and randomly finds your site.

4. Getting noticed by other coaching professionals in your niche
Are you a small fish in a big pond? Want to create joint venture relationships with other coaches? Other coaches have to know you are out there. Joining organizations and associations are not enough. Establish who you are via articles and get noticed by small and big coaches in your marketplace.

5. Establishing you as an expert and not as a “newbie”
It’s been a tried and true formula for decades. Want credibility? Get published. Article marketing is one of the quickest ways to get published and establish credibility and visibility in your coaching niche.

Now if you are a new coach, you probably already have a lot on your plate. It takes a lot to start a new business, especially when you are the only one doing the work. So article marketing may sound daunting, especially if you do not consider yourself a really good writer – but I assure you that you do not have to worry about being a great writer. In fact, all you need to do to get started is to write a list. If you can write a grocery list that includes at least 5 to 7 items – then you can write an article. Just like this article. This started as an article of 5 tips for new coaches and I simply expanded it by explaining each tip. Now it is an article.

If you want to learn more about how to put your coaching practice on fast-forward at zero cost, grab my no-charge Article Marketing Success Kit and discover just how easy it is to find that first client!

Personal Branding – Using The Internet To Build A Powerful Brand

Personal Branding – Using The Internet To Build A Powerful Brand

EzineArticles.com Goodies: A Great Marketing Lesson

Related Websites

5 Reasons Why You Need To Write Blog Articles

Build Trust With Customers Using Article Marketing

Is Your Name and Photo On Page One Google Results?

Why New Coaches Should Write Articles

Related Websites

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