Writing for Your Website When You’ve Run Out of Things to Write

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As a writer, you may fear the inevitable wall, that moment when you feel you have exhausted your idea repository and aren’t sure what to write for your website or blog. You know it’s important to keep your online presence relevant and fresh in order to maintain high readership – with certain fields, there is always something new to explore. If your business is slow to offer innovations and new events, however, it’s possible to spend more time staring at the monitor screen than filling it.

Whether writing non-fiction or a story, everything begins with an idea, a question that needs to be answered, or a “what if” scenario burning to be played out. If ever you find it a challenge to crank out a minimum of 300 words designed to promote your products and services you may wish to employ a few writing exercises designed to stimulate your brain and turn one uncertain sentence into a flowing narrative rich in key phrases to help readers find you via search. Here are a few I recommend, which have worked in different situations and may be applied to any topic:

Top Five: This is a good topic especially for retailers or those in the mechanical or technical trade. Ultimately, no matter what you do for a living, you will be asked about the top products or devices in your field. Contractors swear by specific brands of windows and plumbing, and boutique owners may recommend certain designers for formal events. Think about a topic related to your business where at least five brands compete for your and your clientele’s attention, then compare and contrast.

How To: The simple how-to article works to establish you as an authority in your field. If you sell goods, draft step by step instructions on how to use them, and if you offer services – labor or clerical – you can offer tips on handling certain issues without necessarily giving away the store.

I Remember…: Do certain products or services you offer tie in to a specific memory? Does what you do know require more advanced work and equipment than in years past? Take readers on a trip down memory lane and provide a history for your company in the process.

Anti-Top  Five: For every top five products and paradigms, there is advice on what not to buy and how not to do things. Offers readers the consequences of the wrong decisions and products for the work you provide, and you may find this strengthens your authority.

Worst Case Scenario: If troubleshooting constitutes a good part of your business, nip those frequent calls for assistance with a series of articles designed to help readers face different challenges.

Once you’ve exhausted these ideas, keep brainstorming. Check the daily news wires and set up keyword alerts for your e-mail to lead you to related blogs and sites. Sometimes it takes only word to spark an idea, be sure you search well for it.

Kathryn Lively is a social media specialist assisting clients with social media optimization and travel social media services. Clients include Gainesville hotels, European hotels, and Virginia web design firms.

Engaging Readers to Comment on Blogs and Social Networks

Do all these funny-sounding social media sites cross your eyes? You need help sorting the tweets from the buzzes! Spider Writers can develop a sound social media marketing plan that brings followers to your profiles, and your business. Contact us today at 757-499-1990, ext. 104 for a free consultation.

You can write for miles, you can post links to funny videos on your Facebook page, and you can tweet until your online voice gives out…it’s great to have the ability to easily produce content, but none it means much unless you know for certain people are processing it. What good does it do to have 500+ Twitter followers or a thousand fans on Facebook if none of them are regularly checking your content?

Where success in social media is concerned, we tend to gauge the effectiveness of updates by how often posts are “retweeted” or shared across over platforms. How often people “Digg” your articles or link to your YouTube depends on overall interest – did you produce something thought-provoking or funny? You may be encouraged to see numbers increase every time you check your social profiles, but when it comes to your blog you have analytics and, more importantly, comments. When you post, do people have to something to say about it? Does what you write move people to want to share their opinions? If not, there’s a chance you aren’t blogging correctly.

Are there rules to proper blogging? Not really. The beauty of blogging comes in the freedom allowed the writer – you can share as much or as little information as you wish, enhance your entries with photos or video embeds, and even creative hypertext that guides readers to relevant spots on the Internet. As a blogger, you can also monetize your material with affiliate or point of sale links to products and services. The more you blog, the greater the opportunity to reach people interested in your topic, though the one thing that will keep readers returning to your blog is active engagement. Don’t just blog at visitors, but to them.

Ask Questions: If the purpose of your weblog is to establish yourself as an authority in your field, you might at first be reluctant to entertain opposing views. While some may find debates daunting, encouraging readers to answer to questions you pose can make for good interaction, which in turn may lead readers to share these only discussions via social media.

Accept Criticism: In a perfect world, everybody agrees with what we have to say, and everything we say is correct. Not so online – it seems the Internet was made to create controversy, and nobody is immune to negative feedback. Rather than take a curt remark on your comment wall personally and ignite a flame war, take a deep breath and examine why a reader would disagree with you, or criticize your company, product, or service. The temptation to erase bad history is tempting, but you’ll be the bigger person if you let these comments remain and accept them with grace.

Remain Topical: Part of maintaining online popularity involves looking for content that is…well, popular. It’s a challenge to raise your voice and talk about your business when people are more interested in sharing viral videos and pictures of funny-looking cats. You might wish to experiment with levity in your blogs and social profiles – join ‘em instead of beat ‘em by sharing popular content, and test reader response. If you can find a way to integrate what is popular and maintain relevance to your topics, all the better.

Above All Else, Ask! Never fear that asking questions of others will diminish your authority. The only way to grow is to learn, and engaging people online can snowball into full-fledged conversations that keep people visiting your profiles. What have you done recently to help blog comments skyrocket? How do you engage social friends and fans to keep talking? Feel free to share your ideas here.

Kathryn Lively is a social media specialist assisting clients with social media optimization and travel social media services. Clients include Gainesville hotels, European hotels, and Virginia web design firms.

Document Sharing Boosts Social Presence

Earlier we discussed how businesses can use digital publishing to their advantage, and increase authority in their specific fields by offering books and guides for visitors to download. As publishing moves forward into the social realm, with Facebook and Twitter users sharing viral data 24/7, those interested in attracting attention should acknowledge their options with regards to document sharing. Whether your aim is to publish white papers relevant to your business, or to sell a cookbook of family recipes, or even to share you non-profit’s newsletters, your involvement in social media and social sharing can help boost visibility of your cause, and in turn increase business and/or donations.

Let’s take a look at some of the more popular document sharing sites and how their functionality can work for you.

Smashwords.com – In just a few years of existence, Smashwords has become a force in electronic publishing. Partnered with major retailers Barnes and Noble and Fictionwise.com, and with close to half a billion words published, this site offers writers an appealing opportunity to expose their work to readers. Account holders (registration is free) may offer works for free or for a fee, with Smashwords taking a small percentage of the cut – authors receive 85% of net sales, a bounty compared to what traditional publishers take. Membership in their Premium program is contingent on following their publication guidelines.

Scribd.com – Launched in 2007, Scribd boasts over 10 million published documents from novice users, seasoned authors, and large corporations like O’Reilly Media and the Ford Motor Company. An account at Scribd gives you the option of uploading a document (PDF, MS Word Doc, and Power Point presentations) for free distribution or to sell. Once uploaded, Scribd’s tools allow you to embed documents into websites (branded readers are also available) or share via social media. There is no charge to use the service, for gratis or paid uploads.

Wattpad.com – Wattpad bills itself as the most popular eBook community, focusing on fiction and poetry although it does make room for academic works. With your free account, you can upload text files and ePub format. There is no paid model available at this time, though Wattpad offers the opportunity through a partnership with print on demand purveyor Lulu.com. Wattpad also offers a mobile version of their site, with an iPhone app.

Docstoc.com – Also founded in 2007, DocStoc allows users to distribute free and paid content, and in addition will let you integrate your Google Adsense information in your account. The more you upload to DocStoc, the better the opportunity for earning commission via your Adsense. DocStoc is geared mainly toward professional documents and non-fiction, novels and templates and PowerPoints are also found here. For companies, DocStoc provides a publisher partner program to increase your brand visibility, and permits embedding of works on other sites.

Issuu.com – This digital publisher claims 6 million visitors a month with 500 million uniques. The principle is the same as with the previous sites, and Issuu lists the likes of Penguin Group, Google, and Random House among its content providers. There are two tiers for membership: a free account for the purpose of sharing gratis documents, and a Pro plan of $19/month which allows accounts to sell books and other files. An Android app is available, with an iPhone/iTouch one pending, and companies interested in branding and customization can take advantage of Issuu’s developers’ tools.

A few things to remember if you decide to pursue social sharing via document sites as these: 1) It’s important to make sure your works are edited and polished before publication, as the files you present stand for your company and/or busines; and 2) Only distribute works for which you hold the rights/copyrights. While sites like Scribd and Wattpad and others provide excellent opportunities for file sharing and buzz via social networks, it’s not uncommon to see people use them for illegal book sharing, or piracy.

Do you have writing to share pertinent to your business? Whether you have one page or one hundred, you can increase your visibility and brand through social document sites.

Kathryn Lively is a social media specialist assisting clients with social media writing and travel social media services. Clients include Gainesville hotels and Virginia Beach web design firms.

Expanding Your Reach Through Digital Publishing

The recent unveiling of Apple’s iPad set the social networks ablaze with commentary. While many oohed and ahhed over the device’s shiny appearance and capability for making life and work run more smoothly, others wondered aloud (and on Twitter) if the gadget would only serve users as an expensive, tricked out Kindle-type monitor. To be certain, if Apple succeeded in anything with its initial push, they added fuel to already animated discussions on the future of publishing in the digital age. For the business using the Internet to strengthen brand visibility and customer reach, this represents progress worth watching, even if you don’t work in publishing.

Experts may debate whether or not print is dead, but it can be agreed upon that digital production of books and documents won’t fade anytime soon. Amazon.com reported a record high for Kindle eBook sales late in 2009, while document sharing sites Wattpad and Scribd boast thousands of available works – everything from novels to dissertations to poetry and plays – for download to laptops and smart phone reader applications.

Amateur writers are not the only ones making use of this exposure, either. Scribd, for one, distributes works by major corporations and publishers, including Ford and Simon and Schuster. Recently, self-publishing platform Smashwords, which allows authors to make content available for sale or free, signed agreements to allow the works of registered users to be distributed to Barnes and Noble’s website. Not to be outdone, Amazon cooperates with authors directly to sell their books via their Kindle store.

Bottom line: if you have written something worth sharing, and wide distribution can benefit your business, it should be seriously considered. All you need to do, once the writing and editing is completed, is plan accordingly. As you ponder this type of marketing strategy, ask yourself these questions:

1) What can I write about my company/products/services that people may want to read?

What is your main line of business? If you work in construction, perhaps you have extensive original material on home repairs and tips that can be collected in a digital booklet and distributed. If you deal in antique, you can lend your expertise to a pricing guide or series of articles on properly buying and selling items. For everything you do, you can provide instructions and insight.

When you do prepare work for distribution, take care to make certain your work is original, with attributions to other sources made where needed, and that your website and business information is provided. Cover art is not necessary, but if you feel it would help readership you can easily find royalty-free artwork online to use.

2) How do I format my book/lets?

Common formats of electronic documents include HTML and PDF, which may be created easily through the proper software or freeware. Other formats, readable on proprietary readers like Kindle or Sony’s reader, can be translated through free publishing services like Smashwords.

3) Where do I offer my book/lets?

For marketing purposes, it is beneficial to make any complimentary digital downloads easily attainable. Offer the files on your site’s server, and take advantage of free distribution channels like Wattpad, Scribd, Smashwords, and similar sites. Advertise links on your blog and social profiles for maximum exposure.

Similar to article marketing, creating digital downloads can work to lend authoritative value to your brand and increase awareness of your business. As people turn more toward sharing free content via social media and smart phones, so you have the opportunity to raise exposure of your work, products and services.

Kathryn Lively is a social media specialist assisting clients with social media writing and travel social media services. Clients include Gainesville hotels and Virginia web design companies.