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My favorite content writing tool

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Early in the day I was reading somebody’s blog post in which she had listed 50 of her favorite blogging and content writing tools. Right now I cannot access the post because I’m writing this from my galaxy tab and not my computer.

But if you ask me what are my favorite blogging and content writing tools these days, I’ll simply say Google Docs, and nothing else. And even the too I keep my editor window maximized (F11) and toolbar disabled so that I have just the editing screen with my text.

In order to improve my focus and eliminate distractions I’m rapidly moving towards minimalism and this also means using less and less tools. After all what do I have to do? I have to write. Whether I’m writing for one of my clients or for myself, all I need is an ability to type without much fuss.

So when I’m away from my computer I use my 7-inch Android tablet and google drive and when I’m in front of my computer I use Google Docs. Other than these, at least for writing, I don’t use anything else.

Of course for publishing I use WordPress but that’s not a tool but a platform. In fact, even for my main content writing website I use WordPress as backend.

Oh, and I forgot to mention GetPocket that was previously known as “Read it Later” or something. I use it not only to read useful blog posts and articles on my tab but also to compile content writing ideas.

Defining Content Marketing

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Joe Pulizzi on his Junta42 blog has put up some great definitions – gathered from various content marketing experts – of content marketing.

My favourite there is this one:

Traditional marketing and advertising tells the world that you are a rockstar. Content marketing shows the world that you are one. — Robert Rose

Don’t take “rockstar” literally; what he means is, instead of harping on about what great stuff you’re selling and what miraculous product you have got, content marketing helps your prospective customers and clients find that out on their own.

So how do I explain content marketing to my clients?

I don’t have a definition, but I do tell them that their content creates a ripe ground for conversations and engagement. It’s easier to buy from you if I know you, but how do I know you unless you are close to me or I am mad about you, or if you’re a totally trusted and respected public figure? I begin to know you if you have regular conversations with me.

By “conversations” I don’t mean having useless talk – nobody has time for that. People remember you and visit your website multiple times if you offer them something valuable. Since you cannot offer them free services or free products all the time (you offer them once, so they will come to your website once, or maybe a couple of times) the best option for you would be offering them valuable information. This information exists in the form of content.

Content marketing primary constitutes of three activities, or rather four:

  1. Figure out what your target audience is looking for in terms of content
  2. Mostly which medium it uses (prefers to use) to access that content
  3. Produce that content and make it available through their preferred medium
  4. Keep doing that on an ongoing basis

Many people find the fourth point troublesome, but when it comes to marketing your products and services on the Internet, this is the most crucial point. Content abounds on the Internet. Millions of pages and blog posts (containing text, video, images and audio) are being published daily and within seconds your content can be buried under the new content.

So what’s the use of creating new content, you may ask, if it is going to be buried instantly?

This is where quality matters. Since most of the content has no value, valuable content gets highlighted not just on search engines, but also on various other websites and forums.

But then again, publishing one or a couple of valuable pieces of content doesn’t give you sustainable engagement. Engagement happens when you provide valuable content on an ongoing basis. It doesn’t have to be everyday, but it definitely has to be consistently regular, whether you publish new content every day, once a week, or once a month. Quality, coupled with regularity, creates the most effective content marketing platform.

Don’t put all your search traffic eggs in one Google basket

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This is what says Duane Forrester, Senior Product Manager at Microsoft Bing in a post titled Bing Penguins & Pandas Poetry

Whether you like Microsoft or not, what he rightfully says is don’t just depend on Google for all your traffic – invest in other sources (websites, blogs, other search engines and social networking websites).

In the afternoon while having lunch with my wife I was explaining to her what it means to solely depend on Google for your business: it’s like farmers depending solely on the monsoons (or other rainy climates) for their crops. When you just depend on rains then your crops fail when the rainfall is below normal or if one year there is no rain. You have to create other sources of water. You need to learn to preserve water. You need to learn about crops that can be grown even if there is less water. I mean, don’t just depend on the rainy season for your harvest.

In the same manner, if you solely depend on Google, what happens if all of a sudden, like just happened with the Penguin update, your links vanish from search results and your traffic drops drastically? Most of your business will be gone.

Here are a few things you can do to create other qualified traffic sources:

  • Publish your content on other websites and blogs: This not only improves your search engine rankings it also gets you targeted traffic from niche sources.
  • Publish a regular newsletter: This is something I haven’t been doing I must confess. I have set up a newsletter at MailChimp, people have been signing up gradually, but I haven’t been regular. I must. In the coming weeks, I will. By publishing a regular newsletter you can keep in touch with your older, existing clients and you can also bring back those visitors to your website who might have visited once, dropped their e-mail ID and then forgotten about your website even when they could have used your service.
  • Submit your blog and the RSS feeds link to related directories: Again, this will get you more traffic from more sources.
  • Make ample use of social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter: Right now I’m not sure how a B2B business (which mine is) can engage people on social media for the purpose of getting you work, but many content based companies have significantly improved their traffic  bypassing Google altogether.
  • Create a strong brand for yourself: People should know what you do and they should seek you whenever they need what you can provide. For example, people should know that I’m a professional, experienced content writer and when they need credible, reliable and well written content, they should approach me.
  • Submit content to social media websites: Create small videos related to your business and put them on YouTube. You can create slides and put them at SlideShare.
  • Create a community: Creating a community doesn’t necessarily mean that you will be getting customers and clients out of it (you do, in fact) but they will be your advocates whenever they come across people who may require your services.

Duane further says:

Algorithms change.  Rankings change.  Competition happens.  The fact is, you need to be prepared.  So, when your single biggest source of traffic sudden loses steam, what do you do?  If your plan was to make sure your content ranked well across all the major engines, then your plan of action would already be in effect, protecting you from the loss in one area.  True, its not an offset that matches what could potentially be lost at the same level, but the option is losing everything and having nothing suddenly.

This is actually very true. So use your content to create multiple traffic sources.

Content writing is not just an e-mail or a web page

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A while ago I was talking to my good friend Akshar Yadav of Centronics Support and we were discussing how I normally charge my clients. As you must have already read my previous blog post I recently started charging an hourly rate. Akshar these days outsources almost all his content writing and copywriting requirements to me and he was among the few clients who weren’t quite thrilled about the hourly system.

So in this conversation he said, “If you spend two hours on a mailer then it’s not cost-effective for me if you charge an hourly rate.” — he would pay almost double the amount I was charging for a single document when I used to charge per document. Akshar was referring to a specific case and I must admit I had mixed up his requirement and gone on my own tangent while creating the mailer.

But the point that I was trying to make was it’s not the number of words or the number of pages that matter, but the value that is being delivered. When I write content for you and you pay me for it, you aren’t paying me for the “N” number of words that I have written for you – writing is not a commodity, it’s a service, its value. If it were just words that matter, anybody can write and then you can use that content on your website or your blog.

When Akshar sends his mailer he is going to get lots of new projects. All his future expansion plans might be depending on that mailer (I might be exaggerating, but I take my work seriously). If his only concern is whether I’m spending one hour on his mailer or two hours, it indicates two things: either he’s not sure whether he’s going to get work from the people he is targeting or he is not sure whether MY writing is going to work or not.

I’m just using his name to drive in a point: content writing is a highly critical service. I’m not saying spend all your money on content writing, but don’t save all you can save on content writing. You can compromise on web design, you can compromise on your SEO efforts and you can also compromise on the sort of office you have, but you cannot compromise on the quality of your written content. It’s your written content that does business for you. It convinces your visitors into doing business with you (or do whatever you want them to do).

No, it’s not a rant and I’m not saying that my clients aren’t paying; fortunately, and this also includes Akshar, I’ve gotten great clients lately and I’m very thankful for that. All my clients understand the importance of good content and they know what a difference it can make to their online businesses.