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8 Incredibly Simple Ways to Get More People to Read Your Content

small tweaks to get more attention

Your precious words. You know they’ve got to be right to attract the audience you want.

You’ve slaved over them, carefully crafting each phrase. You finally hit “publish,” and what happens?

Nobody reads them. No comments, no tweets, no sharing on Facebook.

It’s enough to send a writer into deep depression and wipe out motivation to keep producing great content.

Think you need to spend another 10,000 hours perfecting your writing skills? Probably not.

Actually, the solution may be a lot easier than you expect. Writing less and styling your text so it’s easy to read could be all you need to do to attract and hold attention.
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The 7 Things Writers Need to Make a Living

classic traits of well-paid writers

If you’re a writer, you might have heard this most of your life:

People don’t make a living writing. You should find something practical to do with your life.

Smart, capable writers grimly pass around war stories on Facebook. Penny-a-word assignments, clients who don’t pay, disdain for our craft, and disrespect for our profession.

And yet, look around at this digital world so many of us spend our lives in — it’s made of words. The technology to produce digital content exists because we create words worth sharing.

Text, video, audio — it all needs great writing if it’s going to be worth spending our time on.

If writing is your profession and your passion, you can accept crap assignments for crap money and crap treatment.

Or, you can choose something better. Because there is something better.

In the time I’ve been writing professionally, I’ve noticed some necessary traits, abilities, and strengths that make the difference between life as a well-paid writer and life as someone who likes to write but can’t seem to get paid for it.

Here are seven of the most important.
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The #1 Conversion Killer in Your Copy (and How to Beat It)

easy ways to send the trolls away

What makes people almost buy?

What makes them get most of the way there and then drop out of your shopping cart at the last second?

What makes them stare at your landing page, wanting what you have to offer, and yet, ultimately, close the page and move on to something else?

It turns out there’s a hideous troll hiding under the bridge. Every time you get close to making a sale, the troll springs out and scares your prospect away. Get rid of the troll and your copy will start converting better than it ever has before.

The ugly, smelly, dirty, bad-mannered troll is prospect fear.

And it’s sitting there right now, stinking up your landing page and scaring good customers away.
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10 Ways to Build Authority as an Online Writer

surprising ways to build authority with your content

Picture the set of a late-night talk show, circa 1983.

Allen Ginsberg is fat, bearded, and sitting in the interview chair. Long hair grows in unruly patches from the side of his otherwise bald head. His eyebrows sprout from his forehead like wild hawthorn in bloom.

He’s wearing a tie-dye t-shirt with a hole in it. His fingers are stained from nicotine resin.

Ginsberg, a former marketing researcher, wanted to talk about the generation gap, and what he said about the challenges youth had to face actually made a lot of sense.

But although he certainly looked the part of “legendary poet,” this audience didn’t take him seriously. He simply didn’t appear to be a credible expert who they could know, like, and trust.

What was missing?
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What Is Content Marketing?

Bookmark This! Your content marketing reference library

Listen. If you are even remotely connected to the business, marketing, and advertising world, then you’ve probably heard the phrase “content marketing.”

You’ve at least been exposed to it through:

  • Blogs
  • Podcasts
  • Videos
  • Search engine optimization
  • Email autoresponders
  • White papers
  • Copywriting
  • Social media
  • Landing pages

But what exactly is content marketing? Glad you asked, because I’ve got answers for you. One short answer, and one really long. Here’s our official definition:

Content marketing means creating and sharing valuable content to attract and convert prospects into customers, and customers into repeat buyers. The type of content you share is closely related to what you sell; in other words, you’re educating people so that they know, like, and trust you enough to do business with you.

Which brings us to another question: how do you actually use content marketing?

Well, even if you consider yourself a seasoned practitioner or you’re a fresh-out-of-the-box beginner, this handy, systematic, and exhaustive guide — loaded with 100 articles that cover content marketing essentials for building a viable money-making platform — is at your finger tips.
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The 7 Essential Elements of Effective Social Media Marketing

plug in to social media essentials

By now you know it’s a bad idea to be a digital sharecropper and build your business entirely on someone else’s land (like Facebook, Tumblr, or any other third party you don’t control).

But you may be asking yourself, “What type of social media marketing should I be doing?”

How are savvy businesses using social media effectively to find more customers, boost their reputations, and make more sales?

Here are the seven essentials that will turn your social media marketing from an annoying time-waster to an effective bottom-line booster.
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