Sean Romanoff Communications

Red ink pens.

They’ve long been the standard tool teachers use to correct papers. And they’re a curse to every student who’s ever seen something they’ve written dripping red. Why? Because you’ve broken the rules, of course.

The rules. Those things that make sure all of us communicate in roughly the same way. Some might tell you it’s how to tell “proper” English from what the rest of the riff-raff writes or speaks. But that’s not really what the rules are all about.

They’re really about making sure we can all understand each other. If every person followed their own rules of writing, we’d quickly lose the ability to make people understand what we’re trying to say.

So then the rules are good, right?

Well, not exactly. Anyone who’s been paying attention to this post so far should have noticed that I’ve broken the rules several times already. Microsoft Word is telling me I’ve already written three sentence fragments – on purpose.

So then the rules aren’t so good?

Well…let’s get a little clear about this. Rules are good in the sense that they set the parameters of the game. In this case, the game is writing well.

But the rules do cause problems. Here are just a few of the biggies – they limit choices, they extinguish creativity, and they destroy individuality. It sounds awful. Don’t worry though. This is exactly what the rules were designed to do. By making a standard form, we can usually understand the writing of every single person who puts pen to paper.

If you want your writing to stand out though, you can’t simply follow the rules and expect you to be a good writer. You need to have a sense of style and write with your own voice too.

So how do you balance when to follow the rules and when to follow your own style. Clear communication is what you’re after. If communicating clearly means you should follow the rules, do it. But if you can’t get the idea across the way you want to without ignoring or bending a rule or two, then follow your instincts. Most of the sentences I’ve written here follow the rules, but I’ve broken a few when I thought the writing was better doing it my own way.

Here are a few of my own rules that help me create my personal style:

• Use contractions – it’s more like the way we all speak.
• Try a sentence fragment here and there – it makes a point, so long as you don’t do it too often
• A paragraph can’t be too short…but it can be too long.

Just remember that the rules are there to help you. If you feel like they’re holding you back, go ahead and break a few.

Sean Romanoff is a copywriter and online marketing consultant. He specializes in blogging, WordPress web sites, article marketing, social media, and all other aspects of creating an effective online presence. To contact Sean, just click here.

In one of the early scenes in the movie Ray, producer Ahmet Ertegun chastises a young Ray Charles for trying to sound like other popular artists of the day. And as the recording session unfolds, he helps Charles find his own voice. Of course, Charles’ voice would ultimately be one of the most popular in the history of music.

You don’t have to be quite that ambitious, but that’s the attitude your blog needs.

And that voice is essential making your blog unique – like it comes from you. That’s the quality that separates the truly engaging blogs from the countless others that clog up the web.

So how does cultivating your voice benefit your blog?

Well, the first thing it does is attract readers. That’s easy to understand if you just think about your own life. You’re more likely to do business with someone who is genuine and authentic because you know you’re dealing with a real person. It’s not as easy to establish a direct relationship online. A blog is the first step in that process.

And that relationship grows because a personal voice gives your blog credibility. If you sound like you, your blog posts are more like a conversation with your readers. As they listen to you, they can weigh the truth of what you say. An honest dialogue with your readers gives you credibility that you must protect because it takes a long time to build and can be destroyed in one ill-advised statement.

If you continue to do this over time, you’ll form a long term bond with your readers. They’ll trust the information you tell them in your posts and listen to the recommendations you make. Don’t take that relationship lightly. It’s truly an honor to be given that level of trust.

 Without that voice you and your blog will never achieve that level of trust because it will be as flat as your computer screen.

Sean Romanoff is a copywriter and online marketing consultant. He specializes in blogging, WordPress web sites, article marketing, social media, and all other aspects of creating an effective web presence. To contact Sean, just click here.

Well, at least the blog title is new.

For the past few months my blog has been known as Marketing Rocket Fuel. I’ve used that title because I believe that online marketing is one of the most effective methods you can use to grow your business, both in terms of new clients or customers as well as in reducing your costs. But during this time I realized I had a problem.

The title didn’t really reflect what I was trying to convey or what I was about. It was a disconnect that would hamper my future growth of my blog and my writing and consulting business. I needed to better define my niche (more about the importance of that in a future post).

By redefining my approach more accurately, readers will know what my approach to marketing is. Plus search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing will better understand what I offer as well. So when people use search words and phrases that apply to what I do, they’re more likely to find me.

So today I am rectifying that problem.

What will change for you? Not that much. You’ll notice that I’ll write about business blogging from soup to nuts. And I’ll also look at other aspects of business marketing that relate to blogging like web sites, article marketing, social media, success stories, and long form pieces such as special reports, white papers, and ebooks.

I hope you’ve like what you’ve heard so far. Just know that at Effective Business Blogging you’ll get good tips and honest information about what makes an effective business blog and how to make one work for you.

Sean Romanoff is a copywriter and online marketing consultant. He specializes in blogging, article writing, social media, and all other aspects of creating an effective web presence. To contact Sean, just click here.

It’s called the lead for a reason. You want your reader to get somewhere. But you’re not sure exactly how to do it. Well, you just have to grab them by the hand and take them where you want them to go. And you do that in the first paragraph of a blog post.

That first sentence creates a sense of curiosity, but it has to be followed by copy that engages the reader enough to keep going. How exactly are you supposed to do that? Here are three strong ways to engage your blog readers and keep them going with you.

The first is to identify a problem that’s causing your readers pain. It may even be a problem they haven’t anticipated yet. But you don’t want to simply point it out — you eventually want to offer a solution.

Another way to get your readers engaged is to tell a story. The easiest source to find a story is your own experience, but you don’t want to go to that well too often. Find clients, friends, or colleagues that have a compelling story. When people get involved in a story, they naturally want to know more. Make sure you hook people early, so don’t wait too long to get to the meat of the story.

And the last way is to simply volunteer some new information. It has to be pretty new, though. And because it’s new, it naturally creates a sense of curiosity. We all want to find out about the latest thing, no matter what that thing is.

Start your blog with one of these methods and you’ll be well on your way to having readers who anxiously look forward to what you’re going to say next.

Don’t throw it away!

What am I talking about? That grating tendency so many writers have, no matter how experienced, to write something so boring, so trite, or so meaningless that you could delete that first line entirely and it woudn’t affect the blog post at all. It essentially becomes a throw away line.

A strong first sentence is essential. After the headline (and subhead if you have one), it’s the next most important line. That’s because it has a very important job.

The first thing a first sentence should do is grab the reader’s attention. You can use a quote, a question, or even a statistic (if it’s the right statistic) to get the ball rolling. One of the best, and easiest ways, to get started is with a surprising or shocking statement. That’s what you see in this post. The sentence, “Don’t throw it away!” isn’t what you expect in a blog post about the first sentence of an article or post.

One thing it shouldn’t be is a simple statement of information. While I’m a big proponent of proof and evidence to support your appeal, you can’t lead with that unless it’s a piece of information or a statistic so unusual it will shock the reader on it’s own. If not, save it for later.

The other key function of a first sentence is to move the reader along. To do that, it needs to inspire enough curiosity to get the reader to read the next sentence. “Don’t throw it away,” is designed to make you wonder what you shouldn’t throw away. Your first sentence should always motivate the person to read the next one.

Beware of this habit. It has a nasty way of creeping into your writing and making it weaker than it should be. If you follow these guidelines, you’ll write first sentences that are the envy of copywriters everywhere.

The secret? Curiosity.

Reading that sentence is an example of the power of that very quality. Give people a reason and they will dig for information, especially if that information can help them make their own lives easier or better. And although there are any number of headline formulas –  and many books can give you loads of simple headline writing methods — there are three easy ways to spark curiosity and get your target reading, which is the purpose of a headline.

Lists – Mentioning a list in a headline gives the impression there is a wealth of information within. Pick a topic people are interested in, and they’ll dive right into a post that promises a certain number of hot tips or best practices.

Questions – We don’t like questions left unanswered. But it’s not just the question itself, but the right question that makes the difference. A question that requires only a yes or no answer, no matter how intriguing, is dangerous because with a “no” you risk losing a potential client or customer forever. Go for questions that start with what, where, why, and how because they tend to start a conversation. And that’s what you want to happen.

Inside information – That’s what you find in the headline above. Words like secret, exclusive, or lost give the impression the information within isn’t known by everyone. A possible edge like that makes even the most cynical among us dig a little deeper.

Keep in mind that a good headline merely gets your foot in the door. To keep the conversation going you have to deliver on that promise and do it in a way that’s fun and engaging.

Get to the point.

That pretty much sums up the way to write a successful blog post. You can be clever, but be quick. You can be incisive, but be quick. You can be thoughful, but be quick. Are you noticing a trend?

More than any other kind of communication, a true blog post is a written conversation. And good conversation gets to the point. If you’re wondering, just think back to the last time a friend told you a meandering story.

I’ll assume you’re now convinced.

So with this empasis on speed, there are four keys to make sure your blog post does the job it’s supposed to do and does it quickly.

Headline – It’s the first thing a reader sees so it stands to reason that the headline is important. There are a variety of ways to write a headline but what has worked for this blog is the basic “how-to” headline often written in the form of a question. A business blog should convey useful information, so a reader needs to know what the subject is and what specific topic will be addressed. In this post the subject is business blogging and the topic is the keys to a successful post.

First sentence – Don’t let the first line be a throwaway sentence. It must push the reader forward. Short sentences are often good and surprising ones are great. But don’t fake it just for the sake of trying to shock. When you do that you run the risk of losing the reader forever because your credibility is shot

Length – A blog post needs to be long enough to convey value, but short enough that a person feels like it wasn’t a chore to read. A range of 250-350 words is a good rule of thumb.

Unity – Stick to the point. And don’t be repetitive unless you need to emphasize that point.

Follow these simple keys and your blog readers will thank you. Plus, they’ll make a blog more fun to write.

When it comes to business blogging, don’t reinvent the wheel to write your posts. In other words, have a process so you can write your blogs over and over again. This is another way to make sure blogging consistency doesn’t become an issue for you. Being consistent means people come to expect your blog to be posted on a regular basis and regular blogging can be overwhelming for writers and non-writers alike because, well,  that’s a lot of writing.

Assuming you have an editorial calendar for the week, you know what your topic is. So then you just write — right? Well, that depends.

Some people write best when they just sit down and write. Put yourself in your chair, put you fingers on the keyboard, and let the words flow. Don’t stop until you can’t think of anything else to say. Once you’re done writing, you edit and revise what you’ve written and voila — a blog post.

That works well for some. But others can’t think of what to say without a little more structure. Those people may be helped by getting their ideas out in a list or a mind map. But then those thoughts should be given an organizational logic by putting them into some kind of plan. That way you know what you’re going to write before you sit down at the keyboard (I recommend doing this longhand in a notebook) and after that the blog post pretty much writes itself.

Either way, figure out which process fits your personality best and run with it. You’ll write better posts and you’ll be able to keep writing them over the long haul. And that will give you a successful blog.

Knowing what you’re going to say is one of the biggest obstacles to blogging consistency. And blogging consistency is a key to a successful blog. When you don’t know what you want to blog about, it gets harder and harder to write. Eventually you post less and less frequently until you never write in your blog at all. Then your blog does nothing to market your site and actually can be a detriment to your ultimate success.

How do you avoid this problem? Create an editorial calendar.

If you have a daily blog, a monthly calendar should work well. Sit down and write out topics you want to discuss on your blog. Then break those topics down into sub-topics. The same thing was done with this blog where there were recently a series of posts on newsletters followed by the current series on business blogging. Keep in mind you can alter the calendar to address a hot topic in your field or in the news.

Near the end of the month, do the same thing again. Sit down and write out a number of topics, then break those topics down into sub-topics. Don’t worry if you sound repetitive or if there’s some overlap — that’s bound to happen a little over the course of a year. You’ll be surprised how you’ll treat a topic with slight differences each time you touch on it.

By using an editorial calendar and mapping out the topics in advance, you’ll never be at a loss for what to say.

If you’d like to discuss your blog, contact me today.

Stop! Why are you blogging?

Before you leap to your feet and say, “Hey, you already talked about why I should blog,” just hold on a sec. This post is about why you ARE blogging, not why you should blog. Assuming you’ve decided to blog, and you know who you’re blogging for, the next step is to figure out why you’re doing it. In other words, what  is your purpose.

There are a couple of important benefits to answering that question upfront.

The first is that you the more specifically you answer this, the easier it is to tailor your content. If your purpose is thought leadership, you may want to comment on what important people in the field are saying and doing. Or you may want to pose some of your theories or philosophies about the work. On the other hand, you may discuss the benefits of certain parts of your business if your goal is to get new leads. That way people who might be interested in your product or service understand more about who you are and what you do.

And the other benefit is you have a way to measure the success of your blog. Keep in mind that people often read blogs without commenting, so don’t let the comments you get — or lack thereof — influence you. There are other ways you can measure the effect your blog is having that I’ll talk about another time. But by expressing your purpose at the beginning, you make that measurement possible.

So before you get started, slow down. Take that spiral notebook I mentioned in my previous post and list all the different ways you could benefit from a blog. And there could be more than the one’s I mentioned, so don’t feel limited by that.