Kicking Ass Content Connections by Lorelle VanFossen

Slide 1: Kicking Ass Content Connection WordCamp 2007 By Lorelle VanFossen http://lorelle.wordpress.com/ http://www.cameraontheroad.com/  2007 Lorelle VanFossen lorelle.wordpress.com

Slide 2: Connecting the Bloggers Do you know your blogging competition? • Do you know this blogger? • Have you blogged about this blogger? • Does something this blogger does interest you? • To help your build your blog, you must • connect with other bloggers and work together to build each other’s blogs  2007 Lorelle VanFossen lorelle.wordpress.com

Slide 3: The Blogging First Impression • Too many blog posts look like they were written in 10 minutes by someone who clearly: • Can’t Type • Can’t Think. • Make you think they were released for the day or maybe they have computers in the institution.  2007 Lorelle VanFossen lorelle.wordpress.com

Slide 4: Creating The Content If you want to get someone’s attention, you need to show them something they’ve never seen before, or show them something in a way they’ve never seen before.  2007 Lorelle VanFossen lorelle.wordpress.com

Slide 5: Content Building • Find the Missing Pieces • Look at the Big Picture • Take Your Time Blogging  2007 Lorelle VanFossen lorelle.wordpress.com

Slide 6: Find the Missing Pieces • There are holes in subjects everywhere. Not everything has been said - and even if it has - show them the subject in a way they’ve never seen it before. • Say it well, say it better, but don’t repeat old subjects. Find out what has been covered, link to the best, but find what is missing.  2007 Lorelle VanFossen lorelle.wordpress.com

Slide 7: Find the Missing Pieces There are 1,860,000 search results for how to install WordPress. • Do we need another? • Can you really write a better tip or technique for installing WordPress than those that have already been written? • What’s missing?  2007 Lorelle VanFossen lorelle.wordpress.com

Slide 8: Find the Missing Pieces: • In school they taught “how to” but rarely did they ever cover “why”. We were told “because” and “that’s the way it’s always been done”. • School doesn’t prepare you for problem solving, it prepares you for solving problems. • Blog the why.  2007 Lorelle VanFossen lorelle.wordpress.com

Slide 9: Look at the Big Picture You are the editor and publisher of your blog. You know it’s goal, purpose, mission statement, short range goals and long range goals. You see the big picture thus you should be able to see what’s missing. What’s left out? In your industry, niche, blog content – what’s missing from the big picture.  2007 Lorelle VanFossen lorelle.wordpress.com

Slide 10: Take Your Time Blogging • Unless you blog the news, don’t read your feeds in the morning. Read them before you go to bed and let the information stew. Slow down. • Gives you time to think. • Gives you time to read what others have to say • Gives you time to say it better. • Gets you more attention as you aren’t reporting it as • one of the many but one of the few - with perspective.  2007 Lorelle VanFossen lorelle.wordpress.com

Slide 11: Benefits of Waiting to Blog • Blogger considered wiser. • Reader believes blogger now has a better perspective on the subject with time. • You will catch those who “hadn’t heard it yet”. Readers are grateful. • It gives the original authors of the subject a second round of traffic for which they are grateful as this audience tends to be the thinkers not reactors.  2007 Lorelle VanFossen lorelle.wordpress.com

Slide 12: Be Late to the Party • Recently, worried after entering the conversation late, a friend told me, “you sounded like the only sane one talking”. • Blog early on a controversial subject and you may sound like a ranter. • You might not, but the readers are in such a panic to get more information they impose their “desperateness” onto what they read. • Waiting has the perspective of time, thus readers are calmer, had more information, and “ready to listen”.  2007 Lorelle VanFossen lorelle.wordpress.com

Slide 13: Creating the Conversation Mode What is the difference between a website and a blog? Conversation.  2007 Lorelle VanFossen lorelle.wordpress.com

Slide 14: Building an Audience Begins With Two • Liz Strauss of Successful and Outstanding Bloggers just started a new series on blog strategy building and marketing. • Blog for one person. That’s your customer. Who? YOU. • When they walk in the door of your blog, it looks like home. It meets their expectations for their needs. • You want your blog to be a familiar place, where everything is where it is supposed to be, relative to your blog topic and content.  2007 Lorelle VanFossen lorelle.wordpress.com

Slide 15: People want to do business with people who are • Like them. • Meet their expectations. • Make your blog’s design say “Hey, you’ve found the right place.” • And they will stick around.  2007 Lorelle VanFossen lorelle.wordpress.com

Slide 16: Can you tell when someone’s faking it on their blog? Then your readers can tell when you are faking it.  2007 Lorelle VanFossen lorelle.wordpress.com

Slide 17: What does “faking it” look like? Too many ads - intent = money not content • Not enough or no original content. • More blockquotes than content. • Lack of sincerity and faith in the content. • Poor or lazy writing style. • No About page or “self” in the writing. •  2007 Lorelle VanFossen lorelle.wordpress.com

Slide 18: Content Must Match Intent Building a relationship with your readers means: Earning their trust. • Being authentic in content and style. • Keeping your promises and commitments. • Putting the relationship between the you and your • readers first. • It doesn’t pay to fake it.  2007 Lorelle VanFossen lorelle.wordpress.com

Slide 19: Give Without Expectation of Return One of the wonderful aspects of blogging is sharing what you have learned. It brings value to your reader’s lives and work. • If you teach someone how to break a habit, how to do it bigger, better, faster, easier, more efficiently, you have their attention. • If you give them the easy way out, they will follow you. • Invite them to leave your blog for something worthwhile, and they come back…with friends.  2007 Lorelle VanFossen lorelle.wordpress.com

Slide 20: Getting the Conversation Going Too many people are still writing for their 8th grade teacher. Writing in complete sentences, complete thoughts, complete ideas. That’s not a conversation. You can’t get a word in edgewise.  2007 Lorelle VanFossen lorelle.wordpress.com

Slide 21: Don’t Finish That Thought • To turn a complete idea into a conversation, don’t finish the idea. Don’t finish the thought. Stop writing. • Instead of 10 tips for X, have 7. They will give you the next three. • “Oh, you forgot” ...you didn’t forget. You let them help you remember. • Incomplete thoughts allow readers to complete them. • Let them complete the game: What’s missing in this post?  2007 Lorelle VanFossen lorelle.wordpress.com

Slide 22: Never say “What do you think” • You might get an answer. • You might not like the answer you get. Since you are writing to them, and they are like you, it’s like being with your best friend or being an old married couple – you’ll find them finishing your sentences.  2007 Lorelle VanFossen lorelle.wordpress.com

Slide 23: If You Want to Participate in a Conversation, Participate in the Conversation.  2007 Lorelle VanFossen lorelle.wordpress.com

Slide 24: Participate in the Conversation • Blog about what others are blogging about, linking to their parts of the conversation, and add yours. This gives permission to share their views and encourage comments. • You don’t have to respond to every comment, but you have to make your readers FEEL like you do.  2007 Lorelle VanFossen lorelle.wordpress.com

Slide 25: Other Ways of Making Blog Conversation • Continue the conversation in comments on your blog. • Don’t answer the question completely. • Comment on other blogs setting an example of how to comment and continue the conversation. • Comment on other blogs. Help them and they will help you continue your conversation.  2007 Lorelle VanFossen lorelle.wordpress.com

Slide 26: Building Content Tips • Write timeless content that keeps new readers finding you over the years, not days. • Write for the future, making your content valuable 20 years or more from now. • Write article series that keeps readers coming back for more. • Publish a predictable schedule: • Monday Links for the Week • Wordless Wednesday • Friday Summary  2007 Lorelle VanFossen lorelle.wordpress.com

Slide 27: Building Content Tips • Don’t just blockquote - continue the conversation. • Write keyword-rich, search term filled content and titles. • Make one or more of the first three paragraphs “blockquote-ready” for copy and pasting and referencing your blog post. • Write content worth linking to. • Write content that attracts “you” to your blog.  2007 Lorelle VanFossen lorelle.wordpress.com

Slide 28: Finding Lorelle • Author: Blogging Tips: What Bloggers Won’t Tell You About Blogging • Lorelle on WordPress - WordPress and Blogging Tips • Taking Your Camera on the Road - Travel and Photography and Life on the Road • Lorelle’s Family History - Genealogy Blog • The Blog Herald - Daily contributor and content translated into 3+ languages • WordPress Wednesday News Report • Email: lorelleonwordpress@gmail.com  2007 Lorelle VanFossen lorelle.wordpress.com

Slide 29: Blogging Tips: What Bloggers Won’t Tell You About Blogging  2007 Lorelle VanFossen lorelle.wordpress.com