Planning, creating, and publishing website homepage content is no walk in the park. In fact, it presents the most difficult—and important—decisions a digital marketer must make. Everyone seems to want to know the exact formula for getting it right. But no such formula exists. So the process of getting homepage content published often paralyzes marketers big and small, experienced…
Have you been listening to the Content Matters podcast? Andy Crestodina and I team-up every other week to bring you a 20-minute program packed full of content marketing tips and tactics. Each episode focuses on a specific topic and ends with our soon-to-be-famous “mousetrap and cheese” segment. If you like digital marketing podcasts, there’s no…
Boo. A few years back us marketers started howling about the volumes of crap creeping across the web disguised as content. Perhaps we thought we’d scare away some of the murderous marketers. We didn’t. The stench is staggering. It’s inevitable. When something in the media heats up, the vultures shall emerge. If you’re aged like me, think of the golden…
When you battle for attention in the noise fest that is the Internet, the most important skill you could possibly possess is headline writing. Your headline is going to be the make-or-break element that determines whether or not your content is read. I want to help make you a better headline writer. I’ve created a cheat…
Lessons from (and confessions of) a former content farmer. This is a guest post from Erik Devaney of HubSpot, aka @BardOfBoston, pictured above 😉 Ever stumble across a poorly written, vaguely comprehensible article with a title like, “How to Cook Atlantic Pygmy Octopus on a Weber Grill” or “The Best Types of Blue Flowers for…
I’ve been asked to give a brief lesson on how to write content for the web. While it’s writing we’re going to cover, to apply the lesson I want you to think of yourself as an artist. You’re going to paint a picture—illustrate a point (or several). So you’ll start with a sketch. The blank…
The original version of this article, “Why is Your Content Boring?” ran at the Vertical Measures blog. “Our content isn’t producing the results we want.” As a content marketing consultant, I hear this one often. As a content consumer, I see why—all day, every day. Most content is flat out dull. And as a content creator, I…
Your digital footprint is huge. Okay, well, truthfully, I don’t know what size it is. But here’s what I do know: your digital footprint has a huge effect on your online marketing. When it comes to factors you can control to improve your website traffic, it’s Mr. Big. You do want to improve your website…
You devour online marketing lessons. You feast on articles, reports, books, and eBooks. Perhaps it’s so important to you, you spend some of your precious time attending webinars and conferences and you can’t help but join the conversation on blogs and via social media. Good for you. There’s a ton of information to take in,…