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.

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.

We like to know what’s coming.

Oh, there’s a lot of lip service paid to the value of spontaneity, and there is value in letting things develop without form at times. But usually we like to know what to expect, especially when we’re looking for information.

Readers come to look for a certain pattern in a blog post. That pattern lets them skim for information when they don’t have time to read the entire post, and it gives them a level of comfort that helps build the reader/blogger relationship. Plus from the blogger’s or writer’s perspective, it offers a repeatable format. That’s extremely important when you’re the only one maintaining a blog because you can be more efficient. But it can also help when a blog has multiple contributors so the format doesn’t vary too much from post to post.

The structure of my posts is sort of a three part approach. First I introduce the topic I’ll discuss. Next I try to throw in three tips or points, although sometimes there are more. If I can put them in a bullet list or identify them with subheads in bold, I do that. And then I offer a conclusion usually centered on how this helps make a blog or blog post better.

Despite the temptation for some writers to just wing it, the better approach is to plan out a structure for all your posts. It’s better for the reader, as well as the writer. And you end up with an ongoing relationship as a result.

Sean Romanoff is a copywriter and online marketing consultant specializing in blogs, articles, and all other aspects of making your web site effective. To contact Sean, click here or go to www.seanromanoff.com.

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.

“I don’t even know what a blog is.” That’s one of the first things I hear from potential clients when I suggest a blog for their web sites. Well the easy answer is that a blog is a shorthand name for a weblog, a sort of online diary. But for a business it can be much more.

One benefit of a blog is that it provides a steady stream of new content for a web site. That’s a good thing in the eyes of search engines like Google and Yahoo. When they see that a site is regularly updated with new blog posts, they see it as a place that’s active and dynamic. Sites like that are given a priority in searches.

But you also benefit from what you put in a blog because it gives you the chance to show thought leadership in your industry. In other words, it gives you the chance to be seen as an expert. And as an expert you have more influence, and in many businesses you can charge more for your expertise.

People also come to see you as a source for information in that field too. When they need to learn things about your area of expertise, they come to you for the inside scoop. And this establishes a relationship. It might extend your relationship with a current customer or it could maintain a relationship with a potential one.

And these are just a few of the reasons every business should be blogging. But even if they are the only ones you see, your blog will be well worth any time and energy you put into it.

If your web site isn’t saying what you want it to say, it could actually be costing you clients or customers.  The question is, how do you know? One key is to look for how often you talk about yourself.

The temptation with any web site is to talk about what YOU do, YOUR expertise, and things YOU’RE doing. Of course you have to give some information about you. But you should spend most of your time talking about your potential client or customer. By doing this you let them see that you care about and understand them. You also let them see how you’ve helped others who have similar problems or needs. And you begin to earn their trust by not making every issue about you.

Go through your site and see how many times you refer to yourself. Generally all you have to do is look through your site and see how many times you say the words “I,” “we,” or use the name of your business as the subject of a sentence. Now do the same thing but instead count the number of times you use the word “you.” If the first number is bigger than the second number, you have a problem. And a site audit may be needed to discover other ways your web site may be under performing.