You might be in a hurry to scan whether this post has anything worthwhile. It does. I promise.
When helping clients build business online, here’s what I often encounter: they under plan, costing them thousand$ in lost business and redoing the site down the road. They don’t realize that rushing ahead based on intuition can limit their entire business for years to come – or worse, doom the site to failure.
Who wants to plan? Nobody. Let’s just get going. Build the site already. I know what it basically needs to say and what it needs to do.
Problem is, this common mistake can cost thousands of dollars in lost business and even more when you finally get around to redoing it.
Stop the RUSH – Seriously, STOP IT – Please!
If you have a concept for a new site or want to revamp and old one, let me give you one of the most powerful pieces of advice I can give you.
Don’t Skimp on Your Initial Homework – Take Your Time or Pay Someone Who Knows How Do It
Your content and entire website needs to be structured around true intelligence gained from the web. That is, if you want to create maximum impact. There are countless sites on the web that just sit there. Much of the reason why is described above.
Research Your Niche Online – Don’t Rush. Don’t assume everything is the same online as it is offline. It’s not.
What’s happening in the space? What are people talking about? Why would anyone need what you have? Is it the superior replacement to anything? Is it different? What’s your angle? What are people looking for? Folks, this is not accomplished by using google trends tool and calling it a day. Though I love the tool and its great:
Visit Google Trends Here:
There is more than meets the eye and that is a subject for future posts. But:
Time & Resources Properly Invested In Doing Adequate Online Research FIRST, Will Pay You Back Many Times Over
Okay. Too much work and not enough hands on deck. Sorry about that… (well, not about the too much work part!) Truth is that I’ve been so busy helping clients I haven’t even done the basics on my own stuff yet. However, you may want to keep tabs on what happens. My site is not even done and I have told basically no one about it yet. But – soon we will!
I’m pumped. Businesses we are working with are seeing just plain phenomenal online results, all verifiable. I’ll turn some into case studies for you. Some of the most powerful strategic internet marketing principles we’ve learned happened while serving clients these last few months. Had we forged ahead on the blog you’d have missed some of the internet strategies you may really need.
I will be sharing with you how we have taken under-performing websites time after time and turned them into business assets.
Tip #1: Just Say NO to Creating Another Billboard in the Desert
Folks, I’ve seen too many good business folks duped into spending all their money on design, content and functionality. They get left with a site drifting aimlessly at sea that attracts only an occasional passerby. They wonder why its not working and keep trying different things. I used to be one of them. There is a better way. I’ll get into detail in upcoming posts.
Tip #2: Just Say NO to ‘One Size Fits All’
Do you ever get sick of going from one ‘cure’ to the next?
I do. The web is a relatively complex world with it’s own logic that often is different than we suppose it is. In most cases there is no single remedy to cure an ailing site. The problem is that too many gurus have only one solution – theirs. So accidentally bump into these one shot wonders everywhere online and one week its link building, then push technology, then blogging, then SEO (Search Engine Optimization), email marketing, affiliate programs, new content management platforms, different designs, joint venture, a new ‘revolutionary’ software, facebook fan page, social media firestorm, article marketing and the list goes on.
Look for a combination approach and forget the magic bullets. Building business by leveraging the internet takes time, education, skill and plain hard work. There is no one magic answer that works for everyone. It doesn’t exist.
You think you have one? Do tell and I’ll be happy to eat my words -really- cause I really wish this was all easier sometimes.
Attention readers…
We were so busy doing work for clients the blog went on hibernation practically as soon as we launched. Nice problem to have these days… We apologize for the delay in posting more helps – they are coming.
Stay tuned.
Merry Christmas from SEO WebCopy Jockey
We are sharing exactly how to develop winning content strategy for original content – not rehashing others’ ideas or doing a cookie cutter site.
So after you:
- Define Your Niche
- Prioritize What You Want Your Website to Do
Now it’s time to #3 : Create & Research A Top Level Outline.
Nope it doesn’t sound fun and it isn’t sexy – sorry. No I am not, because if everyone knew how to do this…
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So with Tip #1, you hopefully narrowed who you are (who you are not), what niche you want to focus on and within your niche, what is uniquely valuable that you offer to others. Be specific.
Great. For that exercise, it doesn’t matter whether you are working on a brand new site or yours has been around 10 years. Avoiding the puppy and butterfly syndrome online is an important FIRST step to developing a winning content strategy.
As case and point to illustrate how Step 1 could look, let’s ask ourselves: What, specifically, will our readers and clients find here on this site www.seo-web-copy-jockey.com that is valuable to them? The answer might look something like this:
Most people have website issues. We focus on turning websites from chumps (those that may look good but haven’t delivered business the way they NEED to) to champs (those that ‘win’ online, producing what their owner’s expect). To that end we provide:
- SEO Copywriter Tips
- Keys to Strategic Internet Marketing
- Info about how revolutionary a Website Assessment by qualified experts can be for people’s online business.
- Services related to each
Basically, if it doesn’t have to do with one of these categories above, you won’t find it here.
What about your website? What exactly will visitors find on it that’s valuable to them over time? Real value, not hype.
YOU should have something like this scrawled on the back of a napkin or in a fancy pdf from your boardroom minutes, we don’t care. Now on to the next step.
Rushing around the web? Take a breath.
That’s what most people don’t do… when it comes to creating an original, winning content strategy.
Today’s tip is something that gets missed a lot.
Tip #1: Avoid Puppy & Butterfly Syndrome When Starting Out: DEFINE YOUR NICHE
You have seen it.
- Puppy chases butterfly #1.
- Puppy doesn’t catch butterfly #1.
- Puppy keeps trying.
- Butterfly #2 & #3 float by.
- Puppy forgets about butterfly #1 and chases butterfly #2 & #3.
- Puppy keeps chasing.
- More butterflies float by.
Online many people act like this: Stumble on whatever attracts attention. Anything exciting, tweet it.
Its one thing to do this when you are a popular personality or niche guru with an engaged following – Huge mistake if you not and just trying to be like one. That is NOT how you get there (and not how they did originally either!). Here is how:
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Today we’re going to address a few common problems most internet marketers face as they work on their websites. If you’re not working on yours or a client’s – skip it. If you are – GOLD here.
Over the next posts we’ll go step by step on content strategy, using tactics we have learned from clients and web projects around the US, Canada & the Caribbean.
One common issue is that people think they’ll just take an offline business or mindset online and presto – “we’re in the internet business”. So they build a fancy new site loaded with all the best descriptions of how great they are and plenty of genuinely cool other stuff – but the site still doesn’t do business.
The web is loaded with them. Look good. Smell good. But business ain’t good.
While these people are often busy raising the bar on design (which can be a good thing), others are building business with less design and more content strategy.
When it Comes to SEO, Stay Away from One Trick Guru’s
Yeah, specializing is one thing… but…
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