Author Archives: Amrit Hallan

About Amrit Hallan

Amrit Hallan is a professional content writer who helps businesses improve their conversion rate through credible and compelling content writing. His main strength lies in writing search engine optimized content without compromizing quality and meaningfulness.

Incorporating content marketing in the earlier stage helps

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One of my clients recently asked, “Would it have been better if I had incorporated my content marketing strategy while I was planning my business website?”

Of course, was my reply. And this is not just about content marketing or content writing; every good strategy has an advantage if it is implemented or incorporated from the beginning. There can be some pitfalls if a particular methodology or strategy hasn’t been tested well and in such a case it is better to wait rather than take a big risk.

But everybody knows what an important role your content plays towards promoting your website and generating targeted search engine traffic. This has been known for more than 15 years (at the time of writing this it is 2010). When you implement content marketing strategy earlier you get an edge; you save lots of time and effort when you decide to aggressively promote your website through your content.

Although most of my clients come to me when they have already had their websites for a long time there are some clients who come while they are launching their new websites. They are lucky as they already comprehend the overwhelming importance of targeted content and related marketing from search engines and social media and networking websites. Publishing content regularly on your new website immediately gets attention from the search engines. This is one of the greatest advantages of publishing clearly defined content either on the main website or on the blog. If you create a blog under your main website and start publishing at least two posts everyday your links can start appearing on search engine result pages within two weeks and this has been proven with multiple websites and blogs.

Early adoption to content marketing is more beneficial these days when you can attract lots of traffic from social media and networking websites since people love to post interesting links they come across while browsing the Web. Your targeted content can get you much needed attention at a very low cost.

But it doesn’t mean it is a hopeless case for older websites. You just need to be more aggressive. One pain points can be the quantity of your content. If you already have hundreds of pages indexed for wrongly targeted content you might have a problem refocusing the search engine results. This can be achieved, though, by streamlining the existing content and at the same time adding fresh content.

Choosing the right content for your website

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It is your content that brings traffic to your website and keeps bringing it on an ongoing basis. But is it all about having content? I have observed many websites and blogs simply publishing content in order to get traffic and create buzz. This may or may not work: it depends on what you are trying to promote. in most of the cases it doesn’t. You may get “tons of traffic” but this traffic doesn’t turn into revenue. It will only give you an ego boost.

What your website needs is targeted content. As a business website it is prudent to publish two types of content:

  • Business content
  • Educational content

Business content promotes your business. It tells your visitors why they should do business with you. it is a mix of sales pitch and information. The sole purpose of your business content is to convince your visitors into doing business with you.

Educational content — although it too can promote your business — normally educates your visitors about your product or service. It doesn’t need to be in tutorials format. You can create engaging blog posts in which you can explain how your customers and clients can benefit by using your product or service and you can also handle issues that they may face while or before using your product or service.

But you may think how the usual business and educational content becomes attractive enough to draw visitors from search engines and social media and networking websites on an ongoing basis. no, it’s not an easy task to achieve. You will need to be very creative. But the effort is worthwhile. You need to realize that the purpose of generating and publishing content on your website and blog is not to generate lots of random traffic; its purpose is to generate business for you and if it is not doing that — directly or indirectly — then you are simply wasting your time and resources. keep few pages or blog posts but try to make them as effective as possible. Keep your audience in mind when you are thinking of titles and keywords and key phrases.

Creating a list of probable titles and search terms helps to choose the right content for your website because it helps you focus and target better.

Why content strategy comes before social media marketing

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What’s your content basically? It’s your presence, especially on the Internet. People know you not just because you are there, they know you because of what you have to say about your business, your core expertise, and the world in general. Your content gives you a presence. It’s like your circle of your influence, and without influence, there is no social media presence.

When you publish content on your website or blog – thought-provoking content – you begin to make an impression. People either respect you for what you have to say, or they differ. Both the feelings create in their minds an imprint. The more you publish, the more they remember you. They begin to respect your knowledge. They begin to relate to you. They carefully follow your advise and opinion. Even if they disagree it means to an extent they’re paying attention to what you are saying. Then they write about your opinions on their own blogs and websites, or they share your links with their friends to may be seek further opinion. This is how people begin to recognize you.

Brands and people who have done well on social media and networking websites haven’t done so by merely appearing there all of a sudden one day. They are already recognized names. Since they are recognized, people eager follow them, they eagerly listen to them.

The point is, if you are a Sachin Tendulkar or a Britney Spears you just have to let the news out that you have created a social media presence. In a few minutes you’ll have 100s of 1000s of fans and followers. You are already a known name. You have already made a presence in people’s mind with your other efforts (here, cricket and singing).

You have to achieve the same thing with your content. Content is a great weapon. It makes people come to your blog and website again and again. You give people something to talk about, something to ponder over, something to put to use. This helps you strengthen your brand.

Money follows money and success follows success and this is how our world works (assuming you leverage the advantage). With strategic content publishing you create a recognizable presence, and then you leverage this recognition on social media marketing. By the time you launch your social presence, people already know you because of your content. In fact, they have eagerly been waiting for your social media presence.

So does this mean you don’t need to publish content if you are already a celebrity or if a few thousand people in your particular circle know you? Depends on where you are placed. There are well-known brands on Twitter, well-known artists, well-known writers, singers, journalists, politicians, Internet marketers, programmers, etc. but they don’t just depend on their Twitter presence. They actually need to perform in their actual fields. A writer who does not write can’t do much on social media for long, and neither can a cricketer who doesn’t perform well on the field.

Social media marketing needs a backing and that backing can be provided by your content publishing. Whatever you need to promote, it can be promoted through social media, but the actual message exists in the form of content on your website or blog.

Creating blog posts that really make an impact

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Yesterday I talked about why your business needs a blog, so today, let’s briefly talk about creating blog posts that produce real results. Now what do we mean by “real results”. For that you gotta figure out why you blog.

Are you simply blogging to improve your search engine rankings? Although there is nothing wrong in that, if you are blogging simply for SEO, you are missing the whole point of blogging. Blogging is a branding tool, it’s a communication means, SEO happens – a good thing though – as a byproduct. If you publish blog posts that can really help your visitors (they should return enriched) then you are automatically improving your search engine rankings.

Enough with the SEO gripe; if you want to create effective and impactful blog posts, there are two ways of achieving that:

  • Following the herd
  • Evolving your own, distinct style

Both these methods work. For instance, these days lots of blog posts are created in a list style, something like

  • 5 sure shot ways of harassing your neighbors
  • 10 social skills you shouldn’t try in public
  • 55 jQuery plugins to totally destroy your website
  • 7 psychopathic tendencies that make your baby adorable

…you get the drift.

These lists abound on the Internet, and they’re really great in terms of collating great information and presenting it without having to write well. I mean, you don’t need to stretch your writing skills much if you’re creating monosyllabic bullets.

Evolving your own style is difficult, but it’s a better way of embarking upon your blogventure. It gives you your own voice and renders you a unique personality.

Other than these, there are standard ways that help you create impactful blog posts:

Give enough time to a new idea

Stop having blog-post-publishing dreams as soon as you hit upon your great 21st century idea. Jot down the notes and prepare a draft. I don’t mean you should take hours preparing posts that can be prepared in 20 minutes, but if there is an idea that warrants some prolonged thinking, give it some time, even a few days. Remember that it’s not important how many posts you publish, but what’s the quality of those posts.

Create titles that draw attention

By reading your title your prospective reader should be able to make out precisely what you offer in your latest blog post. Learn from the “screaming” newspaper headlines. They are created so that you immediately grab the copy and start reading the news.

Your readers may come across your blog post title anywhere: on your blog, on a search engine result page, on another website or blog, or on a social media bookmarking or networking website. A dull, uninspiring headline is never going to make them click the link. But don’t mislead your readers; if your title offers chocolates, don’t give sugarcanes in the actual post.

Stick to a single topic

Handling a single subject has many benefits:

  • It paves way for multiple blog posts
  • One concept is easier to understand and remember
  • It’s less confusing
  • It’s more focused
  • You can keep coming back to it to add more value
  • It’s easier for your readers to save or bookmark your link under appropriate categories and tags

Offer a workable solution

Avoid offering probabilities, as anybody can do that. Offer solid solutions in your blog posts. When a reader leaves your blog, he or she should feel that, yes, the world is a bit better after reading your blog post. Providing solid solutions also encourages people to

  • Bookmark your link
  • Promote it on social media and networking websites
  • Link to your blog post from their website, blogs and newsletters

Ask for opinion

Blowing your own horn after a while tends to get boring. There needs to be some involvement and engagement. Make your readers an active part of the thought process. Ask for opinion. Nudge them for a feedback. Question them, probe them, you can even incite them. Your every blog post should try to trigger a reaction.

OK, I have got only this much time for today’s post. Got some ideas for creating great blog posts? Share them in the comment section and I’ll include them here with a link back to your website or blog.