Posts Tagged ‘keywords’

In part one, we talked about “the secret” to writing.  Now that you know that writing is a skill that can be learned, let’s start.

Let me make one disclaimer first, because I know several “gifted” writers.  And they can lead you to places you might not go otherwise, almost without your realizing it.  (When did you last read something that you had trouble putting down?) These talented people go on and become professional authors, and we are so grateful that they do.

What I’m talking about here is not to minimize that talent, when I say writing is a “skill.”

For our purposes, however, which is to market, there is a difference.

You don’t have to be a professional author and be working on “your book”  to become a professional marketer who writes articles for marketing….that’s the difference.  Professional authors write based on experiences, or research of their choice.  Professional marketers write based on keywords that they want to rank for; their audience’s choice.

As a professional marketer, you will always be “writing” something.  An ad for pay-per-click, (short) ads for ezines (long) articles, posts, tweets, auto-responders, headlines, and, once you get going, sales letters which can be turned into a landing page.  And then, of course, there are your bio lines.

With some practice, you will be amazed at how quickly all your marketing tasks go, and you will be better able to outsource when you need to. You will know what you’re looking for.

Now you still may be thinking that you don’t know what to say, even if you had a keyword, or topic.  And that’s ok. 

Here’s a tip I learned:  if you can talk to others, you can write articles and share your expertise with others.  It can be like having a conversation. 

So in thinking about what your audience is asking, and what you could say back to them, break it down in steps.  Like this:

1) What does you audience want to know?   What did you want to know when you first learned about your subject?

2)  Take that question, shorten it, and do a keyword search.  Look at your numbers.  Then branch off.  (more about the how-tos of this later.)  The google wonder wheel is great for this, and it’s free.

3) Create your first draft with questions and answers based on the keyword.

4) Break that up into Intro, Body and Close. 

A friend of mine put it this way:   “Tell them what you’re going to tell them. (opening)  Then tell them.  (body)  Then, tell them what you told them.  (close)

A little simplistic, but easy to remember. 

5) Create your title, in the form of a question.  You don’t have to always do this, but a question will generate answers in your mind. It actually helps you keep going…you might find yourself adding more to your body.

Later, you’ll start creating your title sooner…but for starting out, it sometimes causes a shut down.  The object is to keep moving.  Keep writing.  It will come to you.

Writing is not as hard as most people think…it’s simply a process of looking at it differently,  then breaking it down in steps.

Remember, you don’t have to be a professional to do this; you are already an expert in something.  If you’re not an expert at what you’d like to be, read up on it.  Ask your questions, then write about what you’ve learned.  

 In marketing, writing is a skill that can be learned, and like all skills, it gets better with practice.