Are You Writing Articles That Attract Your Ideal Clients?

January 18, 2012 By Lisa Angelettie 3 Comments

About two years ago, I worked with a client who wanted help with positioning himself as a go-to authority in his industry. He initially found me through an article I had written somewhere (as most of my clients do) and wanted me to basically perform miracles for him. Okay — I’m a miracle worker sometimes (dusting off my shoulders:), so I took on the challenge.

My first job was to take a look at his business and one of the first things that I took inventory of was the types of content he had created and in particular if he was creating content that resonated with his ideal clients. He wasn’t, and at first, he didn’t get it. He would occasionally write articles and publish them, but never with any purpose or rather enough purpose. Never strategically. He really just wrote what he thought was important for his ideal clients to know, titled them what he wanted, and waited for them to come. They didn’t come.

And that’s my point here.

If you are going to spend your valuable time creating content such as articles, wouldn’t you like to make sure that they are working hard for you, and pulling more of your ideal clients towards you? Of course you do!

So here are a few points you should consider when sitting down to write an article this week. Think about your ideal client during this entire exercise – not yourself:

1. What is the point of this article? Is it to entertain your ideal clients? Am I solving a huge challenge for them?

2. Did I write this in a way that my ideal clients can understand and relate to? Am I using language that they use or am I talking above their heads or to the lowest common denominator.

3. Have previous clients asked you about this topic? That’s always a good indication that you will attract more ideal clients with content designed around the same topic.

4. Are you publishing the articles places where your ideal clients visit? Why are you guest posting at a home business site if your ideal clients are frustrated and burned out CEO’s?

The key to filling your business with not just clients, but clients that you LOVE working with, is to ensure that you know who those ideal clients really are and that you create content that they are looking for. I’ll be talking more about how to create client attracting content like this in my upcoming teleclass, “The 5 Biggest Shifts You Must Make When Writing, Publishing & Marketing Articles That Attract Clients!” . Register right now!

Top 5 Things I Learned About Writing Content In 2011

January 8, 2012 By Lisa Angelettie 2 Comments

Every year I like to reflect and assess what is working in my life and what isn’t. These are the five things that came up for me during 2011, when it came to creating content in my business. Maybe you can identify with some of these.

1. Statistics Can Be Addictive

In 2010 my husband was obsessed with his Blackberry and in 2011 he moved on to an iPhone. I think he may be even worse now. He is addicted to his apps the way I am addicted to my “stats”. Keeping an eye on your content statistics such as blog article views and article directory views can really get addictive especially when you have a period of high traffic and then see the inevitable dip in traffic. Not only that, if you get really obsessed, you start to rework your article ideas around what you believe the stats are telling you. Not good.

Okay, even though it does make sense to give your audience more of what they want, there has to be boundaries around how much time you give this — and I didn’t have too many boundaries. I analyze stats like some of you run down your entire day on Twitter. So what is it I learned? That I need to chill with the stats looky-loo. In 2012 it’s all about monthly stats watching instead of daily for me. I’ve got other things to do!

2. Consistency Is Critical

Well, the one good thing that came out of my obsessive statistic watching is that it did reinforce the fact that consistently publishing content totally affected my overall statistics for my blog, in the article directories, and with Alexa.com. The more I published, the better my stats, period.

3. Content Needs Space To Breathe

I decided to play around with the length of my articles in 2011 because while I had always stuck to a 400-500 word formula, I wanted to see how those would do when compared against article shorts (150ish words) and longer articles (800-1000 words). What I discovered is that if I broke up the content in the longer articles and included enough white space in between paragraphs – that they fared just as well.

The key seems to be for most people reading articles on the web is that they need white space to break up the type in order to stick to reading articles all the way through. It makes total sense, especially now that we know statistically that most content is being read on mobile devices.

4. Content Needs To Be Shared Via Social Media

Sharing content via social media has only grown in 2011 and what I did somewhat casually in 2010 became a “must do” activity over the last year and is only growing in importance in 2012. As you probably have noticed, social media is no longer that thing that only the cool kids participate in, now it’s a global force. Everybody is doing it.

Businesses are spending big bucks on their social media branding because it’s that important. And honestly, new kids on the block have it so easy! Social media sites give entrepreneurs a HUGE advantage when it comes to getting their content in front of many more eyes than was possible pre-social media days.

Finally, search engines are considering your social media footprint when ranking your content. Look at it this way, if folks are talking about you (in social media) then you get better ranking. If they aren’t – you may have to stand in line behind a few of the more popular folks in your niche!

5. Content Resistance Is Futile!

This realization is not so much about me as it is about many of the members of my community. Many of my article marketing students #1 complaint is that they have no idea what to write and so it takes them a very long time to write one article. This creates a resistant mindset when it comes to creating content which can break what little confidence you may have had in your ability to write.

I think it’s important to understand that if you are really struggling to write content that your ideal clients would love to consume, then there may be a bigger issue at play, and that is that you are NOT 100% clear about what your message is. If you were, it shouldn’t take 3, 4, 5 hours to write one Top Ten list or a few how-to tips. You might be saying “well that’s not me”, but ask yourself when was the last time you produced some content? Was it today? Last week? Last month?

In conclusion, it’s time to get honest with yourself. What have you learned about your content this year? Take a look at your content production pattern. Are you creating content enough to attract new clients consistently? Are you sharing it in social media? What can you do to improve your content for 2012?

5 Essential Rules For Protecting Your Content From Disaster

December 13, 2011 By Lisa Angelettie 5 Comments

Last Week I Broke My Blog, So Here Are My 5 Essential Rules For Protecting Your Content From Disaster…

If you are paying really close attention (or maybe I flew under the radar), you’ll notice that probably the last article (or 2) I published are missing from my site. The reason why is that I had to repair the blog using the database back up that my web host Hostgator runs regularly of my blog. They typically back up a site weekly, so when I contacted them, and they fixed it, the last couple of recent articles were missing.

I know what you’re thinking…I did not follow some of my own advice and write and save the articles in my word processing application. No, silly me wrote the articles directly to my blog — so whatever is missing — is gone. Links to those articles — 404 errors.

Mistakes are human and everybody makes them, but guess what? I’m a little embarrassed by this one. So here’s a content protection plan that I’m sticking to and I’m sharing it with you too…

There is nothing more frustrating for a writer than to be in mid-sentence and the power goes out. Note to self: don’t write your most inspired articles in the middle of a torrential storm! So based on quite a few episodes that I’m embarrassed to admit, of serious content loss, I started implementing a few rules in my life in an effort to always protect what is the lifeblood of my business — my content.

Rule #1 – Save As You Go
There are many word processing or blogging platforms that now do this automatically, but just in case they don’t — always save your work as you go. This can be a difficult task for someone when they are in the “writing zone”, but all I can say is that you have to discipline yourself to do it.

There have been many times that the power has gone out for 2 seconds, but just that fast my computer shut off and had to reboot — and so whatever I was working on was lost. This goes for all content including videos, audios, etc. Even if it’s a rough cut – save it.

Rule #2 – Save On An External Hard Drive
It’s practically like the Flinstones of hard drives, but I have one of my trusty old hard drives passed down to me from my husband’s early record producing days, that I use to save my entire site. I work on a Mac, so I use it in conjunction with Time Machine and it works fantastically. I make sure that I download a copy of my WordPress database on this hard drive too, so that I have it saved as well.

Rule #3 – Save Your Files In The Cloud
I practically did a old high school styled cheer “hooray!” when news of the “cloud” came into fruition. I love the concept of saving all of my important stuff in the air somewhere. Somewhere safe. So again since I am on a Mac and have a MobileMe account, I save all of my important files to the cloud.

The secondary benefit of saving to the cloud is that I can view the files on my iPhone, my iPad, and my laptop and everything looks the same and any edits I make will be seen the same on all devices, because I’m really making the edits “in the cloud” ! Love it.

If you don’t have a Mac that’s okay, because you can save your files the old school way. Upload and save your Images to Flickr. Save your articles to a major directory like EzineArticles. Your videos should be very safe on YouTube.

Rule #4 – Print & Save Copies Of Your Work
Okay, can someone cue a little Run DMC because this is old school and not very environmentally friendly, but it works, and that’s to have a print copy of your important work.

I mean what if you’re writing that book of yours that you’ve been writing for like 11 years and something happens to your computer files — there’s nothing like being able to whip out those pages right! I print most of my products and program materials and keep them in files just in case.

Rule #5 – Keep A Copy Out Of Your Office
Whether you work in a rented space or home office, it’s important to understand that part of keeping things backed up and safe is to separate them from where the potential disasters may happen. First place is the home. You may have a flood, a fire, or some other issue but your content will be safe as long as you kept it out away from your main working area. So a safety deposit box. Your mom’s house! Anywhere but where you are.

Are You Struggling With Implementing What You Learn?

December 3, 2011 By Lisa Angelettie 2 Comments

I have a question for you this week…are you struggling with implementing what you learn when it comes to marketing your business?

Consider all the articles you’ve read, videos you’ve watched, audios you’ve listened to, information products you’ve invested in, teleseminars or telecourses you’ve signed up for. How many pieces of content in your niche do you think you’ve consumed? 100? 1000? More?

Now think about the time you’ve invested reading, listening or watching all of these bits of information. Do you think you’ve spent a week, a month, a year or even longer of your time consuming all of this information?

Finally, consider the cost of consuming this content. How much money do you think you’ve currently invested in ebooks, information products, telesminars, workshops, etc. $100? $1000? $5000? What about intrinsic value. What about the time away from actually doing things in your business, with your family, for yourself at the expense of reading one more book or listening to another two hour teleseminar.

Now don’t misunderstand me here. Consuming content that can directly educate you about what’s going on in your niche or how to grow and expand your business is very important. Crucial even. But the key element that many entrepreneurs, especially solo professionals, tend to make when consuming information is actually implementing the strategies after they’re finished.

Hey, we’ve all done it. I did it a lot in my early years online. Mainly because I was totally overwhelmed with all of the information that I was consuming on building my business and improving my marketing. It was a lot! And there were many strategies. Lots of experts. And much of it was conflicting. I was truly swimming in a pool of quicksand and I can safely say that I know there are a lot more entrepreneurs who are currently in the spot that I was in back then. Is it you?

Here are some of my tips to get out of the sinkhole and back on land where it’s safe!

Pick One Marketing Strategy That Resonates With You And Do Only That (for now:)

The first thing I find when I work with clients is that they are trying to implement every marketing strategy that they’ve learned all at once. Needless to say that scattered implementation process does not produce results. Instead you need to focus on one strategy at a time and when you’ve mastered that, move on to the next. For me that first strategy was article marketing. For you it may be another content marketing strategy, such as video articles or guest posting.

Blow Up That To Do List!

Most people who are struggling with implementation are overwhelmed by the sheer number of things that they have on their to-do lists. I’m laughing as I write this because this was me FOR SURE. I have an old list that had like 123 things on it. The problem with this is that you only complete #1 and maybe #2 but you look at your big ole’ list and feel like you haven’t accomplished anything. So you don’t do anything the next day because you are all bummed out. Ick!

Take that list and blow it up! Pick out the top 10 things off of the list that are easiest for you to do and will make the most impact on your business. Now tomorrow you will tackle the first item on that list. You may have to chunk that item down into mini steps to get it done. Check off each step as it is completed. So your list may look like Item #1 and then a,b,c, under that item. When checked off it feels as if you’ve gotten a lot accomplished that day (and you have!) and you’re in a better place mentally to handle the next thing on the list.

Get Yourself Some REAL Accountability

This is probably the most effective strategy I used to kick my butt into gear. It’s simple. Check around with the leaders in your niche, and I guarantee you that they all have a mentor and/or a coach. The reasons to hire someone to help guide you are endless, but one of the major reasons that it’s always better to have a coach in your life is the accountability factor.

The reason why is that the person you bought that information product from really wants you to implement their strategies and see results but they’re not going to email you or call you to make sure that you did. Once the transaction is made — that’s it. But when you invest in a coach, you’re investing in someone’s expertise and their ability to keep you on task.

My business completely changed once I did this. Many of you know that I often talk about my mentors. They were very important to me and still are. I currently have 3 coaches and have seen the results in my income literally triple because of them; and I’m proud to say that I too hold all of my wonderful clients extremely accountable for moving forward in their businesses:) Do you hear me guys?

How To Protect Your Content From Hackers

November 19, 2011 By Lisa Angelettie 2 Comments

Are You Sure That You Are Protecting Your Content From Hackers?

My husband Deric is a music producer and executive, and like most people in the music industry, is deep into social media marketing. A few years ago it was all about MySpace and nowadays mostly Facebook and Twitter. He has a lot more fans and followers than I do, and he tweets and posts updates to his tribe everyday, and that’s really understating things:)

In the time that he has been on social media though, his Facebook, Twitter, and Gmail accounts have all been hacked into several times. In fact, he was just hacked last week. Typically the hacker starts posting weird or obscene messages which look like they are coming from him, but the people in his community are so use to it that they typically just send him a message “Hey D, your account has been hacked.”

Yet that’s not what typically happens in our world. Honestly, a lot of people would probably think I was insane if a hacker got a hold of my account and started posting weird messages. I can see the defriending happening as we speak! What about you?

Not to mention the headache it is if someone gets a hold of your Gmail account. You can basically forget about it if this happens. If Google doesn’t catch the hacker before you do – you can try changing your password, which is what my husband did. But if Google catches them first, they shut your account down and it takes heaven and earth to get it back. You’re better off creating a new account – because you will never see all those saved emails from the old account again.

When I asked my husband what his passwords were for these accounts I finally figured it out — why he kept getting hacked…

Mistake 1
He had a group of about 3 passwords which he rotated regularly on many sites.

Solution: You should create a unique password for each unique account you own. This way if hackers figure out one, they won’t necessarily be able to easily figure out the rest of your passwords.

Mistake 2
He created passwords that were easy to guess if you knew a bit about him.

Solution: Don’t create passwords that are easy to guess. This is what happened to several celebrities in the media recently. If everyone knows that you own a dog named Sadie, then a hacker is going to try using this password and variations of it to get into your accounts.

Mistake 3
Not only were his passwords easy to guess but they were very short, simple words.

Solution: You really need to create passwords that are a mix of lowercase and uppercase letters, numbers, and symbols.

Mistake 4
He kept his passwords written down in an obvious place.

Solution: Keep your passwords in a discreet and VERY safe place.

Mistake 5
He has had the same passwords for the last 5 years.

Solution: Change your passwords frequently. Sites like my shopping cart system make me change my password or I can’t login to my backend.

I know that many of us make these typical password mistakes because we can’t memorize a unique password for EVERY account we own online. So here are your options:

1. Okay, so I realize that practically any site you visit wants to make you a member and get your information but you can decide to make very unique passwords for select sites — ones that really matter such as your bank account, credit cards, email, social media, wordpress blog. OR…

2. I use password software which generates very strong, unique passwords for all of my sites and then remembers them every time I go to login. It also works on my iPad and my iPhone which I really like as well.

Bonus Tip – If you use freelancers that have access to your site or social media passwords, make sure to change passwords when you are finished doing business together.

Why You Should Never Hire A Ghostwriter

November 7, 2011 By Lisa Angelettie 7 Comments

Why You Should Never Hire A Ghostwriter If You Want To Be Noticed In Your Niche

Over the years I have had the opportunity to work with many entrepreneurs. Most want to cut corners and eliminate as much work as possible and I get it. The whole 4-Hour Work Week theory and such. But I’m going to be completely honest here… Most of the entrepreneurs I know who are making six or seven figures (including myself) who are sharing their special sauce 🙂 with the world are doing it themselves. Meaning that when it comes to their message, what they want to share with their tribe, etc. — they are the creators of that content — NOT a ghostwriter. Not a virtual assistant. Not a hired gun.

The reason why is simple. We all have competition. So if you want to “make noise” amid all the clutter in your niche you have to:

#1 – Be Authentic

#2 – Be Seen

#3 – Be Heard

#4 – Be Trustworthy

#5 – Be Unique

When you hire a ghostwriter to write your articles, your ezine, your ebook, your information product, your signature system, etc. he or she cannot help but write it in their own voice instead of yours because they are not you. The end result may be a polished, well-written, piece of content but it doesn’t sound like you and it definitely will not meet all 5 of the above criteria.

Instead — your content will sound like the hundreds or thousands of other pieces of white-washed content in your marketplace. There is nothing unique about it and that will make you simply….average.

Okay, So How Do I Produce Great Content Regularly Without Outsourcing It?

This is my theory on outsourcing… There are many things that you can and should outsource in your business but your content is NOT one of them. Where you can maximize your efforts is in compilation, distribution, publishing. So for example, you should write a great article solving one of your ideal clients’ problems. Then give it to a virtual assistant to publish to your blog, spin or rewrite it, and distribute it to various 3rd party sites and directories.

Or say you want to create an ebook for some passive income in your business. Take some of your favorite articles on a central topic, make some additional notes on each article, and then give them to someone to compile into a 7-10 chapter book. Someone else has done all the compiling and polishing of your book — but the content and voice is still ALL yours. Still authentic. Still You.

So if you are looking to really stand up and get noticed right now in your niche, write your own content. Do not hire a ghostwriter. Invest your dollars where it matters — leveraging your content – not creating it.

What Is User Generated Content & Do I Need It For My Business?

October 30, 2011 By Lisa Angelettie 6 Comments

What Is User Generated Content & Do I Need It For My Business?

User generated content is any content on the web (articles, video, audio, images, social media content, reviews, forums) that has been contributed by the users of the website and not the administrators. So for example, in Amazon’s (Amazon.com) case, their product reviews are a HUGE part of the user generated content you will find on their website.

If you notice, not only does Amazon ask for you to review products that you’ve bought from them, but they’d love it if you added a video review and/or your own product images. So why do they do this? Well, it’s really simple.

1. User Generated Content Builds Trust

User generated content builds trust between the site owner (in this case Amazon) and potential customers (you). If Amazon and another site are selling a product at the same price point, same delivery charges, but Amazon has 10 reviews on the product and the other site does not — which site are you more likely to purchase the product from? Statistics prove that most people will trust the site with the user reviews more than the site that has nothing.

2. Search Engines Love User Generated Content

Search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing all love user generated content. Google even admitted that they now add user generated content (such as social media content) as a factor when weighing the importance and relevance of a website. That’s BIG!

3. User Generated Content Makes Your Job Easier!

We can use Amazon as an example again. It’s up to Amazon administrators to set up the products and pages, but it’s up to users to create reviews, ratings, user lists, wish lists, profile pages and more. And let’s face it, it’s the reviews and all this other content that really seals the sale. This makes Amazon’s job so much easier. We the users make the sale for them!

Okay so we’re not Amazon, but let’s look at how we can use user generated content in our businesses. Take a look at some of the leaders in your niche. Do they have a lot of comments on their blog, do they permit guest blogging on their site, do they have a strong presence on social media sites like Twitter & Facebook? This is all user generated content and this is an area where solopreneurs have a real chance to shine.

So should you use user generated content in your content marketing plan? Heck yes! Can you do it all — probably, but it’s better to pick one thing, run with it, and do it well.

Have more questions about user generated content? Leave ’em below and let’s talk!

We’re On Alltop!

October 25, 2011 By Lisa Angelettie 1 Comment

We’re On Alltop! Yippee:)

Getting your site included among the coveted web directories is frankly like pulling teeth! You either have to pay for one like the Yahoo business directory (which I don’t know how good of an investment that is any longer) or you have to have the patience of Job and bide your time.

Well patience finally paid off because my site is now included in the much coveted Alltop.com Directory. With pretty high standards, I can’t even tell you how long it took before I was accepted into Alltop but that’s okay, because I am super excited about contributing my content and what I know about content marketing to the Alltop community.

If you have your own page on Alltop of your favorite blogs (something you should do if you haven’t), then I humbly ask if you’d add my site to your list of blogs to watch. Find me in the content marketing section here: http://content-marketing.alltop.com/.

I’m among some fine company on that page: Seth Godin, Copyblogger, The Blog Squad — so I’m definitely feeling like “I’m one of the cool kids!” (Of course you need to scroll it bit down on the page to find me:)