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Copywriter Q&A: Diving into Company Blog Campaigns with Melanie Green

Posted on January 1, 2021June 1, 2021 by The Writers For Hire, Inc.

The Writers For Hire (TWFH) team member Melanie Green has more than 15 years of writing experience and specializes in digital marketing content. With TWFH, Melanie is the go-to expert on blog campaigns for businesses.

For this installment of Copywriter Q&A, we asked Melanie for her insights on the best practices for launching an effective blog campaign.

TWFH: We hear a lot of hype about blogs being an important aspect of company websites. In what ways can having a blog help a business?

MG: Blogs can help businesses in a lot of ways. A blog creates more content that can be found and linked to. It gives businesses more opportunities to utilize SEO keywords in an organic way that can help search engine rankings. It can even be used to answer common customer questions.

A blog gives credibility to the company and positions it as a thought leader or expert. It can also ensure that a business’s website comes across as up-to-date and relevant. Who hasn’t gone to a website to see that its last blog post was two years ago and questioned whether the company was even still in business?

TWFH: Those are some really compelling arguments for starting a blog! So, if someone is considering launching a blog campaign for their business, how should they get started?

MG: First, they need to have a platform available on their site to upload blogs on. I’m preferential to WordPress because of the plug-ins that are available, including the editorial calendar and Yoast. The editorial calendar lets you plan posts with a month-long view, and Yoast is a free tool that helps with search engine optimization.

Next, they’ll need to make decisions about who will write the posts, how frequently they’ll post, and what the topics will be.

TWFH: What is the best way to come up with a theme or topic for the campaign?

MG: I’m not sure that there’s a single “best way,” but there is a process that I follow. To find blog post ideas, I would:

Answer common questions my customers have
Provide information that would overcome sales objections from customers in the sales process
Find frequently asked questions online related to my topic
Review recent news to see if there’s anything that’s relevant
See what my competitors are writing about
Use topic generator tools like Answer the Public and Buzz Sumo
Use keyword tools like SEMRush and Google Keyword Planner, aiming for relevant keywords that have high search volume and low competition
Create variations of my most successful posts

TWFH: How frequently should blogs be posted? Is there a rule or best practice?

MG: Consistency is the key. If you can only commit to one post a week, then it should be every week, posted on the same day. It’s worse to post two in one week and none for three weeks.

Technically speaking, websites benefit the most from two posts a week. More can be better, especially for more competitive search terms. However, I always recommend that clients start by posting two posts a month and work their way up toward twice a week. Since quality is just as important as consistency, you don’t want to sacrifice quality.

TWFH: Do all of the blogs have to be new content, or can old content be recycled (if it’s relevant, of course)?

MG: The same content can’t exist in two places at once. So, it’s okay to update old blog content, but you wouldn’t want to re-issue it as a new post, even if the content has many little changes to it. This could hurt a website’s search engine rankings. If it’s a part of a monetization program, such as Google AdSense, having duplicated content can end the monetization agreement.

In general, it’s a good idea to only post new content to a business’s blog, while updating past posts for accuracy and keyword usage. Keyword performance changes over time, so this should be reflected in past posts.

TWFH: Should blogs be written in-house? Or is it OK to contract them out?

MG: I’m not sure that it matters where the content is written as much as who is writing it. If a business wants to invest money into hiring a staff writer with experience writing blogs, then it’s perfectly OK to have blogs written in-house. Writing is one of the most interesting fields, in that most people are capable of writing words down on a page. However, it doesn’t make them a writer. It’s still important to hire someone with experience that understands online writing and keyword usage and has the ability to turn work around to meet an editorial calendar.

For many companies, getting this expertise in the most cost-effective way is by contracting blog writers. Not all blog writers are the same, though. You can find a very inexpensive blog writer and end up with low quality or plagiarized content that you have to spend a lot of time to edit and fix. Finding the right set of writers can take time and you’ll need the budget to do so.

What often happens is that companies try to get blog content out on their own first before hiring blog writers. They’ll get busy working on other tasks and blog writing for their own site takes a backseat to other work. That’s when we’ll often see companies looking to collaborate with contract blog writers.

TWFH: What other components should a successful blog campaign have?

MG: Successful blog campaigns have 100% original blog posts of at least 500 words, consideration to keyword targets and usage, relevant pictures with alt-tags, and meta descriptions. The most successful campaigns are also well-advertised. Simply writing a post isn’t enough to drive traffic to it. It’s important to also share it with the world.

TWFH: What is the best way to distribute blogs?

MG: The most obvious way is through social media. This is low hanging fruit and should always be a part of the process. It’s also helpful to embed links to posts on relevant Quora or forum questions and to ask other blog owners to include your post on link round-ups.

TWFH: How will you know if your campaign worked? What is the best way to measure success?

MG: The success of a campaign depends on your goals. Is it to gain new traffic? Measuring success could simply mean more page views with a lower bounce rate, which means that they’re more engaged and didn’t immediately hop off your page.

TWFH: This is all great advice! Is there anything else that you’d like to add about blog campaigns?

MG: If companies want to get started with more content marketing, blogs are a great way to go. There’s no limit on how many you have, and it adds to the value of the site itself.

Content Audits: Why Your Site Needs One and How it’s Done

Posted on December 29, 2020July 31, 2023 by The Writers For Hire, Inc.

You’ve worked tirelessly on creating the perfect website for your business and have even added some great content to beef up your blog section. So, how do you know if your site is performing well?

That’s where the content audit comes into play.

A content audit is the process of going through all the content on your website and analyzing it to better understand what’s working and what’s not. Then, once you have all of the data, you can use it to make your website the best it can be.

Let’s get real—websites aren’t made to hide in the crevices of Google or drive away users with boring or hard-to-use content. Without web traffic, proper user engagement, and simply results (which can vary depending your goals), churning out content is fairly worthless.

So yes, content audits are as important as they seem. But how do you conduct your own?

Content Audit How-To

First, let’s understand the various metrics you can use to measure the performance of your website.

SEO

You may be vaguely familiar or intimately acquainted with SEO. If you’re the former, here is a crash course.

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO for short, is the process used to make sure your website is seen by your target audience. A website or page that has very little or poor content, or hasn’t been updated in years, will most likely have poor internet traffic, and hide in page 72 of Google’s search results.

Since people tend to click on the first few results that pop up on their internet search, you want to make sure that your site is easy to find and accessible. If you’re not paying for your site to pop up first, you want to optimize your site so that it will appear early on in an “organic search” (non-paid search engine results).

Here’s where SEO comes in. Search engines hold a database of all available internet content. They get all that information through crawling and indexing pages available on the web. Once there’s an index of all pages, videos, pictures, etc., the search engine ranks everything in order from most relevant to least on the results pages for any given search.

Say you’re looking up “panda bears in the wild.” Based on SEO, sites that are the most relevant to that search will come up on the very first page. Relevance is determined by many factors, the most important one being keywords. So, in this case, a site that has the phrase, “panda bears in the wild” multiple times will surface at the top of your search results.

While there’s a lot more to SEO, even a basic understanding can help you to conduct a content audit that measures your website’s visibility and ranking on search engines. If you find through your audit that your site is hard to find or not using keywords in an optimal way, it’s time to implement some SEO best practices.

User Engagement

SEO is only one factor in the complex web of content auditing. User engagement tells you how interested users are in your content. Lots of clicks, shares, and a low bounce rate, (when people stay for a while on your page as opposed to visiting and immediately leaving), demonstrate high user engagement.

High user engagement means your site is getting attention and appreciation from users. No one wants their site to be found via SEO metrics (using the words “panda bear in the wild” 1,000 times) but then dumped after one second because the user experience is so poor (which it would be, in that case).

That’s why it’s important to strike a balance between keyword usage and giving people a positive experience.

If your site is found on a search engine and enjoyed by its intended audience, your user interaction and engagement will be quite high. To measure these factors during a content audit, you’re going to focus on the number of shares, likes, comments, and page views, and length of average visit, to name a few.

You can also compare different types of content to see which got the most user engagement.

Looking at variables like type of post, length of post, and content of post and comparing them against each other can give you a good idea of what’s optimal and what’s falling flat.

For example, if you compare blog posts at 2,000 words vs. 500 words by looking at the number of likes and shares they both received, you can tell whether a larger or smaller word count is more popular. You could then either restructure existing content to make it more optimal or create more of what’s popular.

Sales Metrics

Sales is its own beast. Sites that sell a product (an item, a downloadable, or something else), are probably most interested in finding out what generated the most business.

While you might be tempted to focus solely on sales-related metrics, you do need to consider SEO and user engagement as well. After all, if your site is unfindable or unusable, you won’t be selling much of anything.

Beyond these factors, you can analyze business-related metrics by tracking leads, revenue, and conversion rate.

Leads are important because they are the site visitors who can potentially purchase your product or service. Several metrics can demonstrate how many leads you have—like how many people visit your site every day, or how many email subscribers you have.

Leads can also inform you about conversion rate: how many of your page visits turn into customers, or how many subscribers end up making a purchase.

The difference between number of leads and number of consumers becomes your conversion rate and helps provide insight into your return on investment (ROI).

As you can tell, there are a lot of factors you can look into when auditing your website. So where do you begin?

Narrowing Down What You Want to Know

If this all seems a bit overwhelming, start with focusing on what you actually want to know and eliminating what’s just extraneous.

It’s hard to make a general guide to content auditing since each website, company, or individual is looking to find out different information and reach different goals. So, first outline what you’re looking for based on who you are.

Not sure how? Who are you? What is your company?

If you are selling something, it’s important to look at sales metrics like leads, conversions, and revenue.

If you want more visits/views, look into SEO and engagement metrics.

Maybe you want to attract new viewers/visitors, or you want to nurture leads you already have. In that case, focus more on sales or engagement metrics.

Since analyzing your content is a means to an end, come in focused on that end.

Conducting Your Audit

Gathering Your Data

Now for the technical how-to: Roll up your sleeves, settle into your chair, and consolidate all your URLs into one spreadsheet.

If you only have a few URLs, you can do this manually, but if it’s a big site with many pages, download a crawler like Screaming Frog (free up to 500 URLs) or URL Profiler (paid service).

These downloadable programs will search your whole site (known as “crawling”) and set up a list of your URLs along with some basic criteria to get you started.

Your list will look something like this:

As shown in these pictures from Screaming Frog’s site, you’ll get a list of your URLs accompanied by certain criteria, like what kind of site it is (text, image, or something else).

Exporting is the next step, and you can do this in a few different ways. One, pictured above, will export the sites you select. If you want all of them, do a bulk export by selecting “Bulk Export” on the top menu, and then choosing “All Inlinks.”

For more information, visit the Screaming Frog or URL Profiler websites. With their comprehensive instructions, downloading and setting up shouldn’t pose a problem.

Next, export your list as a CSV file and create a spreadsheet, using a program like Excel or Google Sheets.

On your spreadsheet, use the filter feature on the top left of your list to filter out the unnecessary pages, looking only at your HTMLs.

Congrats! You have everything in one beautiful, confusing document. Now it’s time to analyze what you have.

Analyzing Your Data

Google Sheets or Excel Docs:

Using conditional formatting through Google Sheets or Excel allows you to arrange the cells so you can visualize the information easily.

For instance, if you’re analyzing word count and comparing longer and shorter articles, you can color code cells above and below certain numbers of words to make it easy to spot longer and shorter posts.

To set conditional format, select Format > Conditional Formatting from the top menu. It will look like this picture from Google Sheets.

Now it’s time for the fun part: understanding your data. Drawing conclusions from the tables, graphs, and charts generated on your Excel or Google Sheet is the whole point of the audit, so don’t take it easy just yet.

Sorting the data into various visuals like graphs and charts, and using conditional formatting in your lists, you can now begin to answer questions like: “Which article length is most popular?” “Which type of post gets the most shares?” and, “Which posts have utilized best SEO practices?”

Google Analytics:

You can either make your own inferences with your sheets, or you can go a different route and use Google Analytics, which is very helpful for content audits and understanding your website, as well as helping to track user behavior.

Importing your website information and data into Google Analytics automatically generates various charts and graphs and sets you up to track different parameters. Instead of creating a spreadsheet that you can manipulate yourself, Google Analytics feeds directly from your site and tracks it, boiling down information it collects into digestible statistics and graphs.

Here’s how to get your data into Google Analytics, via their informational site:

Once your site’s information is in the system, Google Analytics will do the work for you, providing insights into your data. Your job is to find it and understand it.

First, you can check out user engagement metrics by going to the “Behavior” Tab on the left-hand side menu. In this screenshot from Google Analytics’ demo page, you can see the “Analytics Intelligence” on the right.

By clicking on “Insights” at the top of the page, the “Analytics Intelligence” sidebar pictured above pops up with information on the implications of your data. You can click on these succinct reports to further explore and solve any issues.

In addition to the “Behavior” tab, the “Conversions” tab is useful, as it allows you to set and track goals. These tabs can be customized to track specific values. For instance, you can set a goal to find out how many leads on a certain page turn into customers. This is a way to identify and understand your conversion rate.

To set a goal, select the “Admin” option on the bottom left (the one that looks like a cog or “settings” button), then select “Goals” in the “View” column on the right, pictured here.

You can create a custom goal or use an already generated template goal. Once you set it, Google will track your site and create a report for you. It’s best to wait at least a few days, if not a couple of weeks, for results to be meaningful–one day will not give you enough information.

To track your goal, you simply choose the “Conversions” option on the left side and open Goals > Overview. You will see how many goal completions were achieved (like how many products were sold), conversion rate, and abandonment rate, to name a few.

On the “Audience” tab, you can view other metrics of user engagement, including bounce rate and average session duration. You can even see the most popular places your views come from, displayed in a pretty pie chart to compare social media to organic searches to direct searches. Or, like the view pictured below, you can see graphs demonstrating percentage of new users vs. returning users.

For more help using the extensive tool that is Google Analytics, we suggest watching the great tutorial videos they offer.

Wrapping It Up

Whether you’re using Google Analytics, Excel, Google Sheets, or a different online template, you can explore options of displaying, tracking, and reading your data for your content audit. And now that you have answers in front of you, it’s time to optimize your website.

If videos are doing better than articles, for example, publish more of those over their wordy counterpart.

If you’re losing leads when you wait too long to send a follow-up email, fix your funnel system. If SEO isn’t strong, use more keywords and put in headings.

And if certain types of pages are getting a ton of views, maybe consider adding a ‘call to action’ to them.

The possibilities are endless, and sometimes small changes can have big effects. So, go forth and conquer!

Avoiding the Copyright Police: Ways to Find Free Images for Your Blog

Posted on October 30, 2020July 31, 2023 by The Writers For Hire, Inc.

Remember story time as a kid? While the story was great, you have to confess it was the pictures that drew you in, right? Looking at the pictures was the best part of the entire experience.

The same applies to digital and printed communications.

Visuals, including photography and infographics, play a significant role in helping people take action, become inspired, or grasp a concept.

But you need to be careful about where you obtain your images.

Some imagery, including those on Google Images, are more often than not copyrighted and could land you in hot water if you use them without written permission.

“One of the issues we often see is clients using what they find on Google as images for a blog, website, or social media post. This is a dangerous game as many images are protected by copyright, or creative commons license, which limits their usage without proper payment or permission from the owner,” says Charlie Ewing, creative director at CGS Digital Marketing.

Before you get in haste to copy and paste, here are a few tips to tell if something is copyrighted or not:

Credit or contact details – If an image is copyrighted, take a careful look at the caption. You might spot the name of the photographer or whoever created the image. You might also find that person’s email address in the caption. If you really like the picture, you can contact them to see if you can use it; however, don’t be surprised if you will need to pay a small royalty fee.

Watermark – Many times, when an image is copyrighted, there will be a watermark or a faint design in the background of a logo or image. No matter how much you love the photo, don’t attempt to remove the watermark. It could cost you later on.

Metadata – You may want to check an image’s metadata. Sometimes referred to as EXIF data, metadata is described as a set of data that gives information about other data. The website “How to Geek” provides a good explanation of how to do this using a PC or Mac.

Reverse image search – If you are adamant about using the image and are determined to find the creator, you can use Google’s reverse image tool. You can upload the image there, and it will trace the photo back to where it resides online. From there, you might be able to determine the owner and contact him or her.

If you can’t find the owner to ask for permission, err on the side of caution and don’t use the image.

Photographers, illustrators, and graphic designers need to protect their livelihood and, as such, often check to see if there are situations where their images are being used without their approval.

It’s probably a smart idea to familiarize yourself with the different types of copyright laws and what they mean. Here is a list of the most common licenses:

All Rights Reserved
Royalty-Free
Public Domain Work
Attribution
Attribution-ShareAlike
Attribution-NoDerivs
Attribution-NonCommercial

If I can’t use Google images, what can I use?

The consequences of using a copyrighted image can be, for lack of a better word, unpleasant.

“Copyright is always something to be mindful of in the age of information,” says Emily Glass, director of marketing for Because Marketing. “With free services such as Unsplash and Pexels, there are plenty of stock photo options that won’t break the bank. Still can’t find a photo that fits? Adobe Stock or Shutterstock are great paid options.”

Below is a roundup of some of the best websites out there that offer royalty-free use of images:

Pexels.com

Pexels provides unlimited downloads of beautiful photos, and you’re bound to find something to match the subject at hand. Here’s an example of a beautiful picture you can download for free on this site:

Photo by **Sebastian Voortman** from **Pexels**

Burst.shopify.com

This site provides thousands of free images for websites and commercial use. Here’s a sample:

Reshot.com

Reshot says it is a “uniquely free,” “non-stocky” source for photos. Here is a great example of something that you might not find elsewhere:

Pixabay.com

This expansive site provides over 1.8 million stock photos you can download for free. Here’s a sample:

Gratisography.com

Gratisography markets itself as “truly unique, usually whimsy, and always free.” Here’s an example of what you can find on this site:

PXhere.com

Another full site that states the photos are free of copyright, so “do whatever you want.” Here’s a cool photo we downloaded from PXhere:

Unsplash.com

Unsplash has a robust collection of images ranging from pets to interiors to places of worship. Here’s a picture-perfect puppy we found:

If these sites don’t have what you’re looking for and you’re willing to pay, there are a few sites out there you can subscribe to for a reasonable price, including:

“We go through hundreds and thousands of stock photos with our clients every month. Stock images provide clients and writers with affordable, high-quality photos at their fingertips, and they have plenty of choices to pick from. Not only that but you can test and try the images before you purchase them. Photos are easy to license so you can be assured that you will not infringe on the copyright. A few of our favorite resources are freepik.com, pexels.com, unsplash.com, stock.adobe.com, and shutterstock.com,” says Sami Khaleeq, president of CGS Digital Marketing.

Creating Your Own Images

Maybe these sites don’t provide precisely what you need. If you need a quick photo and don’t have time or the resources to hire a professional photographer, you can always take advantage of your phone.

You can capture stunning images with your iPhone or Android. Digital Photography School provides some quick tips:

Light up your subjects.
Get close to your subject.
Hold your phone steady.
Save the editing for later.
Don’t delete your mistakes.
Don’t use the digital zoom feature.
Experiment with white space.
Take lots of shots, have fun, and experiment.
Learn some basic composition rules, and then don’t be afraid to break them.
Keep your lens clean.
Practice camera phone etiquette 101: Obtain permission to take photos of others in public.
Use the highest resolution possible.

Creating Graphics and Infographics

What if you need a quick graphic or infographic to explain a concept or present information? There are several great tools available for this purpose. Here are some examples:

Canva.com

Canva allows you to create professional-looking graphics that will make you wonder if you shouldn’t have pursued that degree in graphic design.

It’s user-friendly, intuitive, and provides a wide range of backgrounds, colors, and design elements.

You can use the basic version for free or pay a little extra to use the professional version.

Canva lets you create everything from business cards to social media posts, posters, flyers, infographics, and restaurant menus. Below are images of designs made in Canva:

AdobeSpark.com

You can choose from millions of free photos from sites such as Unsplash, Pixabay, and Pexels to create your graphics in Adobe Spark.

It lets you add text animations and stickers, and also has a library of exclusive fonts.

There is a free version, which provides the basic usage, a $9.99 per month individual version, and a $19.99 per month version for multiple team members.

Below is one of the templates you can edit and use as your own:

Picmonkey

This online photo editing and designer program can be accessed via the web.

It provides graphic design and editing tools and design templates for wedding invitations, announcements, business cards, and more.

You can use the basic features for free, but to get access to all the bells and whistles, you’ll have to pay a membership fee.

Here’s an example of what you can make using PicMonkey:

Visuals are an essential element of your blog post, website articles, and social media posts. With these resources at your fingertips, you’re sure to steer clear of copyright infringement, while at the same time creating something engaging and compelling for your audiences.

Partnering with Writers to Create Great Blogs

Posted on September 25, 2020June 1, 2021 by The Writers For Hire, Inc.

You spent the last few weeks researching, interviewing, and selecting a professional writer to assist you in drafting the company blog. Now, you’re ready to send them on their way to develop compelling copy that will take your company to the next level.

But, before you have your new writing team start churning out content, follow these five steps to make the most of this partnership — and its ability to impact your organization’s bottom line.

Step No. 1: Define your communications objectives.

What exactly does your company want to accomplish with its blog? In other words, what do you seek from your audience?

For example, does your new company want to become more visible in the marketplace, or is it an established organization that wants to reinforce its market leadership?

Do you seek to rebuild your reputation after a crisis, or are you working to distinguish your company from a competitor with a similar product or service?

In The Art of Digital Marketing, Ian Dodson emphasizes the importance of defining and setting tangible, measurable goals that can help you create plans and direct your day-to-day tasks.

Sure, a company blog can serve as a valuable tactic to increase customer awareness or as a call to action, yet it must be part of an integrated effort to truly increase market share.

Thoughtfully considering how your blog integrates into your overall marketing strategy will help you determine the type of content to feature and who in your company are the subject-matter experts to involve.

Once your objectives are defined, a solid writer or team can help you develop the appropriate content.

Step No. 2: Draft — and use — an editorial calendar.

If you’ve watched the popular television program Shark Tank, it’s likely you heard the business-owner “sharks” first ask each entrepreneur presenter this question: “Do you have a business plan?”

The mega-successful sharks figured out long ago the truth in this question: Proper planning prevents poor performance.

In Step 1, you defined your objectives. Now, you must determine how frequently you prefer to post and then plan your content.

Do you have sufficient information to post weekly, every other week, monthly, or quarterly? Consistency is key, so endeavor to keep to your schedule.

To stay on top of deadlines and information, some companies use an editorial calendar or timeline. This document typically shows your blog’s posting dates and writing deadlines, topics, proposed headlines, photo sources, and a notes section that includes additional pertinent information about each post.

Of course, you can tailor your timeline to fit your specific needs.

If your company is just launching the blog, you can easily set up an editorial calendar in a simple Excel spreadsheet or Google document that can be shared and updated among those on the project. This typically includes the company representative, writer, editor, and any other pertinent individual.

Other companies may already be using project management software like Wrike; if so, you may prefer to integrate with that.

Whatever you choose, use a tool that helps you stay on track of deadlines and information, and be sure to update the information regularly. This will provide a framework to effectively target your audience and produce quality blogs in a timely manner.

Digital marketing expert Neil Patel says if you’re rushed to produce content, you won’t produce your best work. Why waste the opportunity — and the money you spend for a writer or team — with poor or non-existent planning?

Step No. 3: Communicate consistently with your writing partner.

All solid relationships are built on strong, consistent communication. So, how can you ensure strong communication between your company and your blog writers?

First, provide your writer with regular opportunities to learn about your business and get used to your management style. TimeDoctor.com suggests that you:

Establish a fixed schedule of meetings to provide information, review progress, and track deadlines. Weekly often works best and, if conducting the meeting through a conference call, consider using the video function. People seek connection — even in their professional lives.

Be cognizant of appropriate hours to contact folks. If you’re on the east coast, wait until mid-morning to contact someone in San Francisco or Seattle!

The Writers For Hire (TWFH) copywriter Dana Robinson believes regular communication can improve accountability to deadlines and timely feedback. “I find it extremely helpful to set up a type of communication schedule at the outset of any project.”

Second, work with the writer to set realistic deadlines: Remember, they have other clients. An overly ambitious timeline with unreasonable deadlines can affect the longevity of the relationship — and your blog’s effectiveness.

Finally, let the writer know when and how you prefer contact – be it email, text, or other means. Then, support the writer by responding to their inquiries in a timely fashion.

Step No. 4: Provide access to your subject-matter experts and source materials.

Once a solid relationship is established, the writer may become a key part of the organization’s communications team — and know exactly whom to turn to for content to be featured in blog posts.

For smaller organizations, information may come from an individual, typically, the owner or manager.

In larger companies, though, it’s rare that all subject matter comes from a single company liaison, so it is essential to provide the writer access to your organization’s experts.

Email an introduction to the appropriate colleague, providing details about the blog topic and a general idea of what the writer needs. And be sure to copy the writer on the email.

A word of caution: Be careful about having too many layers of review and approval for each blog post. While your organization may possess technical experts, they often are not experts at crafting messages to appeal to your audiences.

Typically, one subject-matter expert and the communications liaison are sufficient to ensure the content is accurate and well-targeted.

Additionally, furnish the writing team with any background that may help them compose compelling copy. “Arming the writer with company materials can help them grasp the voice and overall tone your company wishes to convey,” says TWFH copywriter Laura Frnka-Davis, APR.

Remember, you hired the writer for their expertise and ability to convey a message. It’s your job to provide them with the information needed to cater the message to your specific business. As Karen Mazurkewich asserts in the Harvard Business Review, “The freelance journalists and editors we hire serve as sherpas, helping us find interesting narratives in the labyrinth of angles and ideas across our ecosystem.”

Step No. 5: After the writing project, evaluate what went right and what you can improve.

You posted the blog, and the team is ready to begin working on your next topic. Before you move on to the next post, there’s a final piece of the puzzle to place: evaluating your effort. This goes for both the project and your working relationship.

Here are a few questions for you and your writers to consider and discuss:

Was the deliverable what you expected?
Did your writing team meet their deadlines?
Did you provide timely feedback?

Review the notes section of your editorial calendar: Do you see any holes in information gathering or in the materials you provided the writer? Could you streamline any processes, provide additional data or visuals, or otherwise enhance the next effort?

Ideally, your company has a mechanism for gathering data about who opens and reads your blog post. If so, be sure to share this data with the writing team. Let them know whether the piece resonated with audiences and examine what could be done differently.

If your company plans to place resources in a writing team, these tips could help you develop a healthy working relationship — and a larger return on your investment.

Coronavirus Response: How and Why to Ramp Up Your Blog Content Quickly

Posted on April 17, 2020June 1, 2021 by The Writers For Hire, Inc.

As more and more Americans self-quarantine or are asked to work from home, online activity is skyrocketing. In fact, from January 29 to April 8, usage rates rose 105 percent (from 22.6 million people to 46.2 million people in the U.S. using the internet during peak hours).

While the circumstances aren’t ideal, most business owners are asking themselves how they can capture the attention of all of those online browsers. In other words, it’s time to think about how you can attract those new visitors and grow your business (or brand). Even though it’s true that more people are surfing the web, it’s also true that how you approach your content during this sensitive time can determine the future health of your brand.

To Pivot or Not to Pivot

People’s interests have shifted during the pandemic, and content creators should consider this shift when creating their content over the next few weeks or months. In general, content creators have two choices: pivot or don’t pivot. For some, pivoting will be easy because virus-related content easily fits in with their current content. For example, a business that focuses on working from home could write articles that include information about overcoming social isolation. For others, pivoting their content may be more difficult. Or, perhaps, your company believes pivoting to coronavirus-inspired content feels unnatural, contrived, or just downright tacky.

Pivot

Those who can easily pivot their content may have an advantage during this unusual time. For instance, hunker.com typically publishes articles about home design and improvement. But the site has recently changed its content to keep up with the new demand trends. Today, you’ll find articles like “Grocery Stores Empty? These Cleaning Solutions Will Help” and “How to Disinfect Your Washing Machine After Being Sick”.

Royal Caribbean is publishing articles such as, “Fun, Royal Caribbean Indoor Activities for Families”. Verizon Wireless’ latest post is titled, “Everyday heroes help us all, Verizon supports them.” Amazon has gone so far as to devote an entire blog to coronavirus.

Don’t Pivot

Some companies will continue business as usual and keep putting out the same type of content that they always have. As of this writing, for example, you’ll find little to no COVID-19-related content on the Costco Blog. Exxon has decided to keep its Energy Perspectives blog content true to its original purpose without straying into coronavirus territory. Even if you decide to (mostly) ignore the pandemic in your content, you can still ramp up quality content production, which will help your site to take advantage of the global increase in internet traffic.

What Not to Do

Whether or not you decide to write a lot of COVID-content or just a few paragraphs, you will need to learn to be sensitive with your wording and approach.

Here are three things you should avoid in your content:

Don’t Pretend the Pandemic Doesn’t Exist

People’s lives are being affected by the virus, and companies that come off as insensitive may experience a negative impact on their brand. If you completely ignore the current situation, you could publish content that may be considered inappropriate. For example, an article about the best local places to eat out may fall flat, as will an article about arranging travel plans to Europe. Publishing content like this could cause you to come across as tone-deaf during this crisis.

Don’t Blatantly Use the Coronavirus as a Marketing Tool

It’s natural to want to reach out to your customers and the general public to offer support. But even if your products or services can benefit them in these times, you should be careful in how you approach them through your content. For example, a blog titled “How to Take Advantage of the COVID-19 Quarantine by Using our Data Organization System” will come across as insensitive. Instead of trying to sell consumers something right now, try creating content that helps them get through these trying times. For instance, if you’re the data organization software supplier, you would do better by writing a blog entitled, “5 Ways to Be Productive While Quarantined” and subtly mention your data organization system as one of the talking points.

Don’t Spread Rumors or Criticize Politicians

These are polarizing times, and the last thing you want to do as a business is to take sides or spread rumors that may prove to be false. For example, if you don’t agree with a politician’s actions related to managing support efforts, keep it to yourself. Otherwise, you could end up offending the readers who don’t agree with you.

You should also be respectful of the consequences of the virus when mentioning it. Only use official sites to relay information and stick to the facts. Some of the official sites you can use for reference are:

What to Do

Successful content creators will focus on a few strategies during the pandemic. Here are some key points to keep in mind as you create your content.

Talk About the Things Important Your Customers

Don’t try to fit a square peg into a round hole. You still need to stay relevant to your customers. Don’t write about the phases of coronavirus on your pottery website, even if it does show up is an oft-Googled search trend. However, if you run a financial blog, you could write about stock market tips for today’s unruly market. A real estate blogger could publish tips about house showings during quarantine, or a dating site could write articles about how to maintain relationships during social distancing.

Inform People About Your Business—Subtly

Being sensitive doesn’t mean you can’t subtly promote your business. As with the example above, data organization content is helpful and lets consumers know about a product that could help them in this time. Hunker is continuing to establish its brand as an expert on how to live well in your home, but the content shift is interesting to today’s reader. The key is to give readers the information they want, while in a non-salesy way, informing them how your service or product can help them.

Be Consistent

As we established earlier, people are online a lot these days, and they are establishing new browsing habits. They are looking for sites that offer the most relevant content and are likely visiting those sites again and again. Your goal is to create content that keeps them coming back to your site. Publish daily or weekly, but stick to your schedule so your visitors will know when to come back for more.

Use Content to Strengthen Your Brand

Finally, if you create a page on your website that tells people how your business is responding to the coronavirus, it can give your customers a sense of security regarding your business continuity. For instance, everyone understands that gig workers are being financially impacted by the virus. Uber did a great job of addressing this problem by creating a page on its website outlining the steps it’s taking to ensure the financial well-being of its drivers.

A “coronavirus-response page” can also showcase how your business is helping your local community. If you are donating medical supplies to your local hospitals, talk about it on your website. If you are organizing a food drive for the local community, be sure to mention it on your site. Or if you are taking care of your employees by allowing them to work from home, let the public know about it. Just be sure that when you mention these things, you don’t come across as self-serving. Instead, focus on your community and the people you are serving.

5 Ways to Quickly Ramp Up Your Content

Now that we’ve talked about the do’s and don’ts for content creation during the pandemic, let’s talk about how to ramp up your content to reach all those people who are online most of the day.

Here is a 5-step plan to help boost your content fast:

1. Think About What Your Audience Needs Right Now

We’ve talked about the topics people are searching for right now, and if you can write content to match those needs, you are ahead of the game. You will first need to understand your customers and then determine how your brand can help meet their needs. For instance, if you sell pet supplies, you can write articles about how to exercise your dog during quarantine, how to keep your pets clean and, using the latest scientifically backed research, whether pets can transmit the disease to humans.

2. Create an Editorial Calendar

It’s always a good idea to create an editorial calendar when running a blog, but if you’re going to ramp up your content, it’s even more essential. First, determine how often you want to publish, and then begin thinking of the topics you will cover. This will require some brainstorming and research about what people are currently reading. Use Excel to create a spreadsheet or just make a list of your content for the next month or so. When you use an editorial calendar, it reduces the time spent on each article and allows you to concentrate on the writing.

3. Use Social Media and SEO to Increase Your Reach

If you want to bring more people to your blog, expand its reach by posting your blogs to social media. This will allow others to share your content. You can use any social media platforms you want—but the bigger your audience, the better this tactic will work for you. For instance, you can create a live steam on Twitter to talk about the highlights of your article or post your blog to Facebook or LinkedIn.

Also, using Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a great way to drive traffic to your site from the search engines. Use a keyword tool to determine the best keywords for your article and then use them in the title, headers, and content. And if you use more than one keyword, it will increase the visibility of your article.

4. Open Up Communication with Your Readers

Everyone is isolated right now and craving communication with others—even if it’s online. One way to offer that is to open up the comments on your post and interact with your readers. Starting conversations with the people who leave comments is a great way to build your brand and readership. In addition, use your social media accounts to communicate with your readers by encouraging comments and then responding to them.

5. Hire Professional Writers to Keep Up with Content Creation

If the thought of creating additional content seems overwhelming, think about hiring professional writers to do the job for you. If you’re not used to writing, creating a daily or weekly blog can take a lot of time. But experienced writers have it down to an art—and they will make you look good without your ever having to write a single word.

Are You Ready to Ramp Up Your Content?

Even though more people are online, only savvy business owners will benefit from increased internet traffic. If you want to get more eyes on your blog and build your brand, be sure to follow the above steps and advice!

Capturing words—Tools writers use for recording interviews

Posted on January 27, 2020August 16, 2021 by The Writers For Hire, Inc.

If there is one thing guaranteed to improve a piece of writing and make it more interesting, it’s the addition of insights from others. Adding firsthand experience, professional perspectives, and touching personal stories about a topic helps to elevate writing in a way that nothing, not even seriously in-depth research, can.

For as long as writers have been interviewing people, though, we’ve been struggling with ways to capture those stories as best as possible.

Luckily for us, the days of having to rely on nothing more than our ability to scribble madly in a notebook (or use questionably reliable tape recorders) are gone. We live in a gilded age of being able to record just about any kind of conversation we want, everything from in-person conversations to face-to-face video calls on the internet.

The problem is, what to use? What is the best tool to record a phone call or a video interview? With so many options available, making a decision can be a challenge.

To help you figure what’s out there and what’s working best these days, we’ve put together a list of what tools are available, what they do, and how to prepare for technical difficulties.

The recording tools of the modern writer

The first thing you need to consider when choosing the right recording tool is where the conversation is taking place. Is it in person? Online? On the phone? There may be a lot of tools available, but some are specific to how the meeting is taking place.

If it’s in person, you can’t beat a voice recorder app on your phone. It’s easy to use, the recording quality is great, you can sync to a cloud platform, and since you always have it with you, you’re always prepared.

If you’re like most modern writers, though, you’re probably not doing a lot of in-person interviews. Nowadays, it’s more common and much easier to conduct interviews online. And, luckily, there are some great tools available for online interviews:

Zoom is one of the more common tools for video calling these days and for good reason. It’s free. (Although, there is also a paid plan). It’s easy to use. The quality is excellent. And, best of all, recording conversations is a breeze.

To use Zoom, you download the app and set up an account. If you want to record, it’s easy. Just hit the record button at the bottom.

What’s nice about Zoom is that it can be used for video calls with as many people as you’d like, although the meeting is capped at 45 minutes with the free plan. People can also dial in or stick with an audio call if they don’t want to do a video conversation.

Recordings are made available after the call and are easy to find, download, and share.
Uberconference is another great choice for recording calls. What’s nice about Uberconference (aside from the truly fantastic hold music) is that it’s a very bare-bones platform. You do have to set up an account, but there’s no downloading involved and no time limits.

People call in or access it via a link, and you talk. Recording takes place when the organizer clicks the record button, and when the call is done, you’re automatically notified that your recording is ready.
Skype is likely a platform that you are at least a little familiar with. It’s the original video calling platform. These days, Skype is great for business calls (especially since recording is now built-in). Skype is basically free to use for anyone. But, you do have the option of purchasing credits, which is good for long-distance calling.

Skype allows you to make both phone and video calls, including dialing out to a landline, which is great for situations where you have to call overseas. Skype can also be used on just about any device you have, from your computer to an Xbox, making it a particularly versatile product.

Also, as mentioned, recording is now a native feature, making it extra appealing.
Bluejeans is another video conferencing platform that is great for recording conversations. What separates Bluejeans from the rest of the options is that it’s designed for teams. This makes it a great option for those who are a part of an agency or a small team of writers. You get an excellent platform that works across all devices for the entire team.

Like the rest of the options, you can both call in and use video calls. And, depending on the plan you’re using, recording is easy to get going.

Recording on Other Platforms

If you’re using an online platform like the ones listed above, but you aren’t the one hosting the call, recording can be a bit of a challenge. It’s not impossible, though.

One thing you can do in this situation is to ask the person hosting the call to record it. If that’s not possible, using a screen recording program like Loom is an excellent option. Loom is free to use, and you get a clear recording of the conversation that is automatically stored in your Loom account. This is also a great solution if you’re meeting on a program like Google Hangouts, which doesn’t have a built-in recording option.

All these options are great if your interview is happening online. But what happens when you have to do the interview over the phone?

Luckily, all is not lost. Much like the wide variety of choices you have for digital calls, there is no shortage of apps and services that you can use to record phones call these days.

Conference call services, like FreeConferenceCall.com offer a quick and easy way to provide a space for people to call in that allows you to record. Uberconference also allows you to do this.

If these aren’t an option, there are also a slew of phone apps designed to record calls. TapeACall is a good place to start. For $30 a year you get unlimited recordings of the calls you receive or make. It works by creating a connection to their server, where they record everything for you. You even have the option of recording a call after it has started. Currently, TapeACall is only available for iOS phones.

Rev.com, best known as a transcription service, also has a call recording app available for iOS users. Their Call Recorder is free to use and, best of all, you can easily access their transcription service after the call.

For Android users, the Cube ACR call recorder is a great option. Like the Rev call recorder, this one is free to use and captures conversations easily over the phone. Recordings get stored directly to the phone’s hard drive, making it easy to access, listen to, and share.

The thing with these call recorders is to make sure that you test them out first. Get a handle on how they work, what you need to do to make them work, and what things could possibly go wrong. The last thing you want to happen is to hit the end of a really good conversation only to find that your recorder didn’t work at all.

Transcription Options

Once you are done with your interview, you will likely want a transcription that you can refer to later.

There are services online, like the above-mentioned Rev.com, that offer decent quality transcriptions at a reasonable price (the base rate being $1/minute). They offer a quick turnaround (24 hours) and produce a transcription that is fairly accurate.

If you’re operating on a budget, try something like otter.ai. Otter.ai is a free, AI-based transcription service that is surprisingly not bad. You get a reasonably accurate transcription (although sometimes the AI will throw in a little bit of gibberish), and you get it fast, within a few hours. This is great if you want to quickly double-check a few things before you hit publish on something. A paid option is available, too.

A Few Final Thoughts

With all these options at your disposal, deciding which to use may seem a bit daunting. To find the best solution for your needs, we recommend experimenting until you find a good fit.

No matter what program or device you decide on, just be sure that you check your local laws and regulations pertaining to recording interviews.

One last piece of advice. Always take notes.

It doesn’t matter if you’ve been recording a certain way for years and years, there is nothing worse than discovering your recording didn’t work. Taking notes doesn’t fix the problem, but it covers your behind when something goes pear-shaped.

The 108 Most Persuasive Words In The English Language

Posted on November 12, 2019June 21, 2023 by The Writers For Hire, Inc.

It’s a long known fact that the secret to persuasive writing isn’t in the adjectives, it’s in the verbs.

Copywriters know power verbs sell and convince.

Internally, we have a list of 108 verbs that we’ve been using for a good decade, and we recently thought we should share it with proper credit to the original author.

We found that although the list is being recirculated (and in many cases claimed as original by several different authors!), the original author is, in fact, nowhere to be found.

So, if anyone knows who wrote this, we’d love to know!

With or without the original author, it’s still a great list…here it is!

The 108 Most Persuasive Words In The English Language

According to legendary advertising man, Leo Burnet, “Dull and exaggerated ad copy is due to the excess use of adjectives.”

To prove it, he asked his staff to compare the number of adjectives in 62 ads that failed to the number of adjectives in Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, and other age-old classics.

Here’s what he discovered:

Of the 12,758 words in the 62 failed ads, 24.1% were adjectives.

By direct comparison, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address contains only 35 adjectives out of 268 immortal words – only 13.1% adjective-to-total-word ratio.

Winston Churchill’s famous “Blood, Sweat and Tears” speech rates even lower and has a 12.1% adjective ratio (81 adjectives from 667 words).

Burnett found that similar ratios applied to great works such as The Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution. Conclusion: Use more verbs, not adjectives.

Verbs increase the pulling-power and believability of ad copy.

That’s why it makes sense to keep this 108-VERB “CHEAT-SHEET” close-by whenever you begin to draft your next space ad, sales letter, Website, or email campaign.

Still unsure how to incorporate these verbs into your marketing campaign? Or, perhaps, you just don’t have the time?

Then consider hiring a team of professional copywriters to do it for you! Talented advertising and marketing writers can take mediocre content and use power verbs to turn it into engaging copy that meets goals and produces results.

6 Free Templates to Get Your Blog Started

Posted on July 23, 2019June 1, 2021 by The Writers For Hire, Inc.

Blogging is hard. There! I’ve said it.

For some people, the idea of sitting down and writing a blog from scratch seems incredibly daunting.

For starters, how do you choose a topic to write about? And how do you format your blog so that it keeps your readers engaged throughout? These are things that even the most seasoned writers struggle with.

So, why bother with blogging? Is it really worth the time and effort?

According to the people at Lyfe Marketing, blogging is vital to the success of small businesses because it boosts online visibility and helps businesses build relationships with their target audience. And given the fact that the majority of internet users in the United States not only read blogs, but trust the information they get from blogs, it seems that blogging is really just a smart way to grow your business.

But, where do you start?

This fantastic article we found from HubSpot is a great resource to get you started. In the article, they provide templates for six essential types of blogs:

The “How To” blog
The “What is” blog
The “Newsjacking” blog
The “List Based” blog
The “Pillar Page” blog
The “Infographic” blog

All six of the templates are free to download, and can be used as a starting point for your blog. So, next time you find yourself staring at a blank screen, unsure of where to begin, you can rely on these great templates to break through your writer’s block and help get that blog written.

Top Six (Really) FREE Image Sites

Posted on February 20, 2019February 12, 2021 by The Writers For Hire, Inc.

With the Internet’s seemingly endless stream of images for any given subject, it’s hard to know which ones are free to use, and which ones are protected by strict copyrights.

Seeing a large watermark on an image is generally a good indication that the image you are looking at is copyrighted.

But what if there is no obvious copyright watermark? And what if you are able to click on the image and save it to your computer? Does that mean that you are legally permitted to use that image for your personal websites or blogs?

The answers to these questions are not always clear, and even when you think you are following the right steps to make sure you are using an image that is not copyrighted, images that seem to be copyright free are sometimes only copyright free in certain situations.

The Sticky Details of Copyright Laws

Unfortunately, image copyright laws can be complicated to navigate. And violating those copyright laws can lead to penalties and expensive lawsuits.

Sure, there is a chance that the image you use will never be discovered. But the reality is that whoever took that picture or created that image deserves to be properly credited and compensated for their work.

That is where copyright licenses, and the laws that protect them, come into play.

There is a huge array of different copyright licenses that control how and when images can be used.

Some licenses are very restrictive, while others allow open and free use of the image. The trick is figuring out which license your image is covered by, and what that license allows and prohibits.

For example, Flickr images are protected under eight different types of Creative Commons copyright licenses. The particular license used for each individual image is up to the discretion of whoever created or owns the image.

So, when using Flickr images, it is important that you find out which Creative Commons license is applicable to the particular image that you wish to use.

Types of Copyright Licenses

While there are a number of copyright licenses out there, some of the most commonly found licenses are:

All Rights Reserved: With this license, the copyright holder reserves all rights provided by copyright law. This includes the right to make copies, distribute the image, and license or otherwise exploit their work; no rights are waived under this license.
Royalty Free: A royalty free license allows you to use the image without having to pay any kind of royalty. Royalty free images are generally found on stock-photo sites, where the royalty has been paid already through your membership to the site.
Public Domain Work: Images classified under the Public Domain have been identified as being free of known restrictions under copyright law. This means that the image is free to be used for all purposes, without needing to seek permission or pay a fee.
Attribution: If an image is covered by the Attribution license, it may be used for personal or commercial purposes, as long as the user gives proper credit, provides a link to the license, and indicates whether any changes were made to the original image.
Attribution-ShareAlike: Like the Attribution license, this license allows free use of the image with proper attribution. It also requires that if you change or build upon the image in any way, you must distribute your contribution under the same license as the original.
Attribution-NoDerivs: Again, this license follows the same rules as the Attribution license; however, if you make any changes to the original, you may not distribute the modified image.
Attribution-NonCommercial: With the NonCommercial clause to the Attribution license, you may only use the image for personal use. The image may not be used for commercial purposes.

Educating yourself on exactly what these licenses cover, and making sure you know which license pertains to your image, is imperative if you wish to avoid any possible copyright infringements.

Penalties For Copyright Infringements

Making the mistake of using a copyrighted image without permission can hold some pretty hefty consequences.

First of all, it’s never fun to receive a scary looking “Cease and Desist” letter or an “Unauthorized Use Report” email.

Even worse, though, is when those notifices are accompanied by a demand that you pay a license fee or face further legal action.

And if you think you can get away with ignoring the notice and fee demand, think again! Failing to respond to the cease and desist can cost you a fine of anywhere from $200 to $150,000, plus attorney fees and damages.

To top it off, the image owner can take it as far as using the DCMA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) to get your entire site shut down.

So, How do you Know if Images are Truly Copyright Free?

The only way to know for sure is to check into the license for the particular image that you want to use.

When using sites such as Flickr or Shutterstock, each individual image should have a licensing agreement that explains whether or not the image can be used, for what purpose it may be used, and whether or not there is a fee associated with its use.

However, if you are simply doing a Google image search, the license information is not always easy to find.

Often, it is nearly impossible to find out who actually owns the license for many of the images.

And although it is possible to set Google parameters to show only copyright free images, there is no guarantee that the images that are shown are truly copyright free.

For this reason, we recommend that you always choose your images from a site where licensing information is clearly posted and easy to understand.

While there are many different image sites to choose from, these are our top six favorite sites for free images:

Not only do these sites contain breathtakingly beautiful images, they all also clearly state that their images are available for both commercial and non-commercial use and that credit to the photographer is not required but is, as always, appreciated.

And the best part? Sticking to one of these sites for your image searches will ensure that you can have peace of mind in knowing that you will not be in jeopardy of unknowingly committing a copyright infringement.

**Note: While the sites we recommend do have copyright free images, it is always important to read the fine print before using an image. Although the image itself may be free to use, some of the things depicted in the images (such as identifiable people, landmarks, or trademarked logos) may have other copyrights or trademarks that require consent from a third party.

The Harvey Memory Project

Posted on October 23, 2018February 12, 2021 by The Writers For Hire, Inc.

It’s hard to believe that it has already been more than a year since Hurricane Harvey dropped more than 30 trillion gallons of water along the Texas Gulf Coast, causing immeasurable amounts of destruction and devastation.

To those who experienced the disaster firsthand, memories of those days (and the months of recovery after) are burned forever in their minds.

In an effort to preserve, protect, and archive those memories, Rice University, Houston Public Library, Harris County Public Library, and the University of Houston Libraries have teamed up to form the Harvey Memory Project.

The project, which is funded by the Rice Houston Engagement and Recovery Effort and by the Rice Humanities Research Center’s Public Humanities Initiative, aims to collect various stories, pictures, and audio-visual recordings from people who survived the epic hurricane.

The contributions that are collected will be held in a memorial repository, which will be available for use by both the general public and by researchers and students studying the history of Hurricane Harvey.

For more information, to make a contribution, or to browse stories and pictures that have already been submitted, just click here: Harvey Memory Project.