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How to Create Exquisite Subheads

Please note that this transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and grammar.Jerod Morris: Welcome back to The Lede, a podcast about content marketing by Copyblogger Media. I’m your host, Jerod Morris. If you want to get a content marketing education while you’re making breakfast or on an evening stroll, this podcast is the way to do it. In this episode, Demian Farnworth and I break down the sixth essential ingredient in a blog post, and this one’s exquisite.By definition, something that is “exquisite” is extremely beautiful and typically delicate. Delicate, huh? It might make it seem a bit strange, then, to use the word “exquisite” to qualify the types of subheads that are essential to a blog post. Sure, you want them to be beautiful in a sense, to capture attention and preserve readability … but delicate? Debate all you want about whether that part of the definition applies to writing good subheads, but this much I know: Your reader’s attention span is delicate, and whether that reader is reading every single word in your post or just scanning breezily on through, there is a delicate balance that your copy must strike to draw readers in. And subheads play a huge role in keeping readers flowing on down the page. Personally, I like to think of subheads as simply mini-headlines, like the prefix suggests. We know how important headlines are, explaining to you in episode one of this series how to make them magnetic. So it seems to me, then, Demian, that subheads ought to serve a similar purpose — promise a benefit that the subsequent copy will fulfill — and that you ought not overlook them, just as you would never overlook the headline itself. Demian Farnworth: Exactly, Jerod. The whole goal is to capture attention.There are studies out there that demonstrate that only about 10 percent of your visitors are going to read every word that you write. The rest will simply scan. And this was beautifully demonstrated in an <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2013/06/how_people_read_online_why_you_won_t_finish_this_article.html" target="_blank">article by Farhed Manjou from Slate magazine</A> called “You Won’t Finish This Article.” It’s about a 2,000-word article, and he opens it up beautifully, talking about the state of online reading. As he’s going through the paragraphs, he’s describing the behavior of most readers, and by the time you get to the third paragraph he’s saying, “About 40 percent of you have probably dropped off by now.” And then as he moves to the fourth paragraph, he moves to a lower percentage. The point is that nobody really reads online unless it’s absolutely necessary and it’s absolutely got their attention. He did some research. He asked the company ChartBeat, the web analytics company, to run some numbers to see how readers scrolled through Slate Magazine articles, and the findings are pretty revealing. Most visitors will read about 50 percent of what you write. There’s a huge percentage, though, who don’t even scroll. So they see the headline, and that’s about it, and they move on. And for the rest, you have this very natural bell curve. The headlines, the subheadlines, those are for the scanners. Those people who are coming to the article, they’ve been attracted to your headline, they like your first sentence, but now they’re just going to scroll through and see if anything else captures their attention.Jerod: Yeah, and to win that war on attention attrition, I guess you could say, you’ve got to have those subheadlines that capture people, that keep them there, that keep them moving down the page. Jerod: So, we talk about how they’re like mini-headlines — then do the same tricks and techniques that you would use for writing headlines apply to subheadlines? I mean, is it as easy as telling people to go back and listen to <a href="http://www.copyblogger.com/lede-magnetic-headlines/" target="_blank">our magnetic headlines episode</A> to get a good idea for what they should be doing with subheads?Demian: It really is. All the same tricks apply. You know, we talk about the “four U’s,” asking questions, and it’s all about enticing, teasing; yet you want to be descriptive in what you’re writing. So going back, learning how to write headlines translates. And this is the beautiful thing about learning a fixed principle like writing a headline: it will translate across mediums. It will translate throughout your article from the headlines, to the bullets, to the subheadlines, but it will also translate from blog posts to writing Twitter headlines, Facebook posts, Google posts, et cetera. So yes, the same tricks do apply.Jerod: And something else to keep in mind with subheadlines, and this actually harkens back to the last episode in this series with bullet points, where we talk about being consistent with them, and this idea of parallelism. Talk about parallelism, what it is, and why it’s so important with subheads.Demian: Just like bullet points, you want it to be consistent. For example, with bullet points, if you’re starting it with verbs, then each one of your bullets should be a verb. Same thing with the subheadlines. If your first subheadline is starting with a verb, it’s good to keep it consistent. I would probably say this is one of those things where you can bend this; this is no hard-and-fast rule. This is something you can bend. But I think we’re sort of looking for that consistency, that rhythm that comes with good articles. You have that cadence that comes with a consistent, you know, verb, verb, verb, verb. So it’s kind of pushing and edging the reader down through the page. It’s the same as what’s effective with subheadlines. Sometimes you’ll have posts that are, like — I mentioned this in a previous episode — four steps to washing dishes with vinegar before you get cholera, right? So the way you want to design those subheadlines, you’d want to be consistent with step one, step two, step three, and step four. With each subheadline you want to include a descriptor. So it would be, step one: Boil the water. Step two: Pour in a gallon of vinegar. And then step three and step four. And this can be seen, too, like writing a post about mistakes or whenever there’s some sort of a sequence of events. So for example, Brian wrote an article called “<a href="http://www.copyblogger.com/landing-page-mistakes/" target="_blank">Five Landing Page Mistakes That Crush Conversion.</A>” And so in that post, what you could do too, is say you know, “Mistake #1: Describe that mistake.” Just really short descriptors. “Mistake #2: Describe that mistake.” So again, what that does for the scanner, the person who’s just looking down the page, he says, “Okay, this is a mistake. I need to focus on this. I need to focus on this. I need to focus on this.” The thing that we hate to talk about, or to think about, is when I talk about how not very many people are going to actually read your posts. So you have a scanner, they jump to your page, they like the headline, they start scrolling down … The first subheadline might not do it. The second subheadline, the third subheadline might not do it. But eventually they get to that fourth one, and they’re like, “Oh, that’s interesting,” and so they jump into that section, read that section, but realize that if they really want to understand what they’re reading they have to go back to the previous or the next section and read.I don’t know about you, Jerod, but that’s the way I read online. I catch something, I’ll read a portion of it. Because what people are doing the whole time is evaluating whether they want to invest their time into that particular article. Or if they, at best, save it for later, whether they use Readability or put a bookmark on there. So subheadlines are — think of subheadlines as being like hooks or burrs, in essence. They’re the burrs that stick to you in the woods on your clothing when you go through there. That’s what a subheadline is. It’s the burr to get people to stop, to hook them so they look. And then finally, when you’re talking about subheadlines, say you’re not using a how-to post with steps, but you’re explaining something. Maybe it’s historical. You’re giving some sort of shape to an historical movement, or you’re talking theory. What the subheadlines do at this point is that they should summarize the article. So the scanner should be able to read and feel the flow of the story by your subheadlines. They should sort of feel like, “There’s the opening. There’s the middle part. And there’s the conclusion.” So the subheadlines should give them a quick and easy guide to seeing what’s going on with the story.Jerod: So we’ve spent a lot of time so far here talking about subheadlines from a reader perspective, and how they can impact the reader. But subheadlines can actually be very useful for the writer before the post ever gets to the reader. Tell me if you’ve had this happen, where you’re writing a post and you just put in placeholders for your subhead. You have an introduction, and then you have “subhead one,” “subhead two,” “subhead three,” “subhead four” …Whereas, what you can do with subheads is plan them out in the beginning. Use them to outline your post. Think about them beforehand as opposed to just this afterthought that you slap in there before you hit “Publish.” It can really help you, I think, organize your thoughts. Organize your posts, from the beginning. Demian: Yeah, exactly. What we’re talking about here is creating an outline. You mentioned you have your headline, and then you’ll have your subheadlines. And sometimes it does help the actual writer, because sometimes I’ll sit down and, especially if I’m working on sort of a larger project, and I have tons of notes, I’ll start working through my notes and stuff, and as I hit key points I’ll set that aside as, This will be a subheadline.” Then I start compiling notes that are related to what’s underneath that. So it helps me gather and corral all the information that I’m gathering at that point. It also keeps the writer on track as they are editing. I rarely start with the headline, and I rarely start with the subheadlines. Really, I’ve got an idea, I start writing. I start putting in research. And then when I go back shaping it, that’s when I get the first draft done. I go back shaping it, and then I’ll start putting in subheadlines. And what that does is that helps the writer to be clear and concise in what they’re saying. It keeps them on track. Because when you’re reading through and you’re shaping it, especially if it’s a long article, you’re shaping the article, and you realize that you get to a point, and you’re like, “I’m not sure if this sits well in the rest of what I’m saying.” So you stick a subheadline on there, and then you gauge it with the rest of the headlines, and you say, “Okay, yeah. So point A is this, point B is that, point C is this, but point D is this, and it seems a little bit off. So how do I need to shape that and get that in there, or do I even need that?” So I really find that, especially when going through the heavy editing portions of writing posts, creating the subheadlines helps me shape that actual article. I find places where it’s like, “Hey, this is a really good idea, to transition from big idea A to big idea B, and then put in the post subheadline, just to say this is a transition point.”Jerod: Okay, so here’s the million-dollar question for you, then. We published an article from you earlier this week called “<a href="http://www.copyblogger.com/ideas-from-dead-copywriters/" target="_blank">Thirteen Damn Good Ideas From Thirteen Dead Copy Writers.</A>” A post like that, it is very, very easy to figure out where to put subheads and how many to use, because you’ve got an intro subhead, a closing subhead, and then you’ve got one for each of these 13 steps. But in a post where it’s not that easy, especially a longer post, how many subheads should you use? Where should you put them? What are some criteria that you use to make those decisions?Demian: That’s a great question. This whole point about subheadlines and writing for the web …. I mean, I’ve been at this for over 14 years, but there was a comment in an article I wrote, “<a href="http://www.copyblogger.com/writing-exercises/" target="_blank">The 12 Writing Exercises That Will Transform Your Copy,</A>” and there was an article that somebody wrote on there that said, they basically said “This was a 1,300-word article, and it didn’t seem like that at all.” And that kind of stopped me, and I went back and I looked through it, and it’s a very airy article. There’s a lot of white space, but there are a lot of subheadlines too, and the text between the subheadlines is also airy. The point being is, yeah, the subheadlines have to be in there, depending on the length of what you’re writing. So a 100-word article, I’m not sure that needs a subheadline. A 200-word article, maybe. A 500-word, definitely at least two. But it really comes down to a gut instinct, and dividing the post into meaningful sections, right? Again, it goes back to that thought of helping you shape and organize your thoughts.But what is a meaningful section? And when I say “meaningful,” again, it depends upon the content. So you just have to feel your way through there. But I think with the longer articles, the more the better. As a rule of thumb sometimes, when I’m working through a post and I’m scrolling through it on the preview mode, I will look at it. And if it’s a longer article and I don’t come across a subheadline every full scroll, then I know that I probably need to put one in there. Because again, I’m thinking about the scanner. The person who’s scanning is doing exactly what I’m doing. They’re scrolling it. And so putting a subheadline in there helps keep their attention with what they’re reading.Jerod: Yeah. And real quick, just a piggyback on that too from an editing perspective. I don’t think you can always tell where you need to subhead if you’re using WordPress, inside the WordPress “edit” screen. You really need to do a final preview on the site itself so you see how it will be seen by the users, and as you read through you start to get the rhythm of the post, and you see it how your reader will, and that, I think, will tell you: okay, right here, this spot … this has been going on too long … it’s too long a block of text … it needs a subhead … it needs to break it up. You’ll start to see that when you read it in a preview version like your readers will see it. With all that said, Demian, any final thoughts? Any final tips when it comes to subheads that we can leave the listeners with?Demian: Yeah. So the length of your subheadlines … again, this is back to the bullets. Brevity reigns supreme. Here’s something to think about, though. Outbrain, who has this huge article distribution network, ran a study not long ago and discovered that as far as headlines go, the ones that got the most click-throughs were headlines with 60 to 100 characters, or about 16 words. And if you think about that, that’s within the range of the sort of Upworthy-type headlines. So if you can get your subheadlines within the range of, say, 10 to 16 words, I think 16 words is probably a lot for a subheadline; so 10 and under, but again, it’s about being descriptive. It’s about enticing. Those are the types of lengths you want to look for.Jerod: Thank you for listening to this episode of The Lede. I know we went a bit over our allotment of 15 minutes, but hopefully it was worth it. We’ll be sure to work on our brevity next time.If you’re enjoying the show, please consider leaving us a rating or a review on ITunes, and join us next time when we seduce you into learning the seventh ingredient that every blog post needs. Talk to you soon. # # # <a href="http://feeds.copyblogger.com/~/58920920/0/copyblogger~How-to-Create-Exquisite-Subheads/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">View the original article here</a>

How to Create Exquisite Subheads

Please note that this transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and grammar. Jerod Morris: Welcome back to The Lede, a podcast about ...

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06.49

5 Ways a Minimum Viable Audience Gives You an Unfair Business Advantage

<img alt="Image of Stadium Crowd" src="/vintage-crowd.jpg" width="650">Startups aren’t “real” companies, according to retired entrepreneur and author <a href="http://steveblank.com/" target="_blank">Steve Blank</A>. At least not in the way we usually think of the concept of a “company.”Startups are instead temporary organizations on a mission to find a scalable business model. Once that business model is found, a “real” company is born to execute on it.For many years, Steve Blank has been a mentor to <a href="http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2008/10/about-author.html" target="_blank">Eric Ries</A>, whose book <a href="http://theleanstartup.com/" target="_blank">The Lean Startup</A> took the entrepreneurial world by storm in 2011. If you haven’t read Eric’s book yet, you should as soon as possible.For now, let’s dig in deeper on the meaning and origin of “lean” in the context of business. Then we’ll get into what this means for <a href="http://newrainmaker.com/" target="_blank">digital media entrepreneurs</A>.The concept of lean originates from the world of big business, specifically in automobile manufacturing.Derived from the production systems used by Toyota Motor Corporation, lean came to generally mean delivering value to customers while promoting efficiency and elimination of waste in the process.Boiled down, lean means:Starting with a simple processKnowing that there’s always room to improveImproving constantly based on feedbackApplied to startups, lean means conducting Blank’s “search for a scalable business model” in an efficient, customer-driven approach. It’s about acting according to relevant information instead of pure intuition.Vastly simplified, this entails:Building a minimum viable product (MVP)Finding out if people will pay money for itUsing feedback from those buyers to rapidly evolve the product into something better that will sell in the broader marketThe scary thing about the lean startup concept for some is that the product is truly minimal. Sometimes the product doesn’t really exist, and you just watch for buyer intention by sending PPC traffic to a dummy website.Other times, it’s software so unstable that the developers cringe at release. Or a service without proper support in place for anything other than a few test clients.Despite the scariness, lean methodology works exceptionally well in the context of a startup. That’s because the only way to know what people will buy is for them to actually buy it, and you don’t want to sink huge resources into something that doesn’t sell.It’s cool to see this movement becoming mainstream, because all of Copyblogger Media’s products since 2007 have been developed according to lean principles. With each new line of business, we initially built a minimum viable product or service, and then we rapidly evolved newer and better versions based on customer feedback.There’s just one major difference.We started first by <a href="http://www.copyblogger.com/content-marketing/" target="_blank">building an audience</A>, and that’s how we found our scalable business model and became a “real” company.Serving that audience with valuable free content revealed loads of useful insight into the problems and desires not currently met in the broader market.Enough, in fact, for us to make our MVPs more “viable” from the start than we would have been able to otherwise. This led to better initial sales momentum, higher customer satisfaction, and ultimately more profit.Using this process, we’ve never launched a product or service that’s failed. This is why I advocate you start first with a minimum viable audience.As alluded to above, a minimum viable audience (MVA) helps with finding out what people are willing to buy.But for digital media entrepreneurs, a MVA does much more than that, thanks to the power of <a href="http://www.copyblogger.com/agile-content-that-works/" target="_blank">agile content marketing</A>.You have an MVA when:You’re receiving enough feedback from comments, emails, social networks, and social media news sites in order to adapt and evolve your content to better serve the audience.You’re growing your audience organically thanks to social media sharing by existing audience members and earned media.You’re gaining enough insight into what the audience needs to solve their problems or satisfy their desires beyond the free education you’re providing.As you can guess, the first two aspects of an MVA feed the third. So let’s look at the specific benefits of starting with an audience rather than going straight to development of a product or service.I’ve often said that social media is the greatest freely accessible market research environment ever known. Let me qualify that, however, because I’ve always meant it in the context of creating content that builds an audience via social media distribution of that content. I learn more from serving an online audience than any other approach I’ve taken to truly understanding a market.The power comes from learning directly from an actual group of people in response to relevant stimuli (your content), rather than trying to glean a great idea from general research about an abstract market. Real people who pay attention to you, with real problems and desires.I’m not saying you should ask them what they want to buy. People only truly tell you what they want to buy by buying it – anything else is not reliable.Steve Jobs famously said:<BLOCKQUOTE readability="5">It’s not the consumers’ job to know what they want.</BLOCKQUOTE>It’s your job as an entrepreneur to know what they want. But first, you need to arm yourself with enough intelligence to make an educated guess.Producing content for an audience allows you to make better-educated guesses. Much better, in my experience.The audience will tell you, unsolicited, about problems and desires that no existing product solves. They’ll tell you how existing products and services are missing the boat, or how the companies behind them are less than desirable.Combine that with broader social media monitoring and competitive intelligence, and you’re armed with serious insight into a highly viable product. Or, at least the first version of one.Whenever you launch a new product or service, you must not only accept, but embrace that it will not be perfect. Not even close.Even armed with better insight thanks to the audience, you won’t get everything just right. Plus, once a sufficient number of people interact with your new product or service, they’ll do and think of things that you’ve never even considered.This is a good thing.One key point of the minimum viable product approach is that early adopters of something new are more forgiving, and more willing to provide feedback, than customers that come along later. In my experience, this is true.But no one is more forgiving than an early-adopting fan. People who already know, like, and trust you due to the quality content you’ve already given them are the best initial customers you’ll ever have.The key is to be very explicit about the situation. We always launch a new product or service at our very best price, on our very best terms. And then we tell them exactly why: the great deal is in exchange for them helping us make it better.We’re in the process of doing this again right now. Our upcoming <a href="http://newrainmaker.com/platform/">Rainmaker Platform</A> is being released by invitation only. These early adopters will get a deal that will never be offered again in the future in exchange for feedback, and we’ll use the data to make the platform even better based on real-world use.Being that transparent might not work with cold traffic from Google AdWords. But we’ve found that an existing audience of fans will jump all over it while we serve future customers better, faster — even at a higher price.The story of how Copyblogger Media came to be is interesting. If nothing else, it’s unconventional.Basically, I built the audience here at Copyblogger starting in 2006, and one-by-one, year-after-year, opportunities for products came to me from others, unsolicited. Some partnerships were for collaboration in creating a product, while others were for software and services that I couldn’t possibly have created or managed on my own.By 2010, I owned an interest in four separate companies that revolved around Copyblogger, collectively doing several million dollars in annual revenue. After some shuffling around and yet another opportunity arising, five companies merged to become Copyblogger Media later that year.When people say we seem to have a Midas touch because we’ve yet to launch something that’s failed, they aren’t seeing the whole picture. They don’t see what I said no to.Referring once again to Mr. Jobs:<BLOCKQUOTE readability="5">Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do.</BLOCKQUOTE>I’ve been fortunate to be blessed with an “unfair advantage” when it comes to being presented with product and service opportunities. But that’s due to being smart enough to build an audience first, not any other sort of magical gift.Not only will the audience reveal what it wants, it will reveal what’s not right for the long-term benefit to both them and your company. You’ll know what not to do as much as you’ll know what to do.And you’ll have plenty of opportunity to do both.At SXSW Interactive 2012, an entire track was devoted to lean startups, which was a very cool thing. What wasn’t very cool was the number one question that kept coming up:<BLOCKQUOTE readability="5">How do I get funded?</BLOCKQUOTE>As mentioned above, one of the fundamental tenets of lean processes is the avoidance of waste. A lot of would-be entrepreneurs don’t seem to understand that waste can occur at the moment you take money from an investor.Taking money too soon, or taking too much, or sometimes at all, is a:Waste of equity – you’re giving up a percentage of your company before you know how much is appropriate or necessaryWaste of control – once you have investors, you lose a degree of freedom that might also not be ultimately necessaryWaste of opportunity – cash is designed to be spent, which often inhibits seeking more creative solutions, like strategic partnershipsExplore the benefits of <a href="http://37signals.com/bootstrapped" target="_blank">bootstrapping</A> an audience first. I built what became Copyblogger Media with only $1,000 for a WordPress design, web hosting fees, and a bunch of my time on the way to early profitability.Start with an audience, and let them reveal what they want. At that point, you’ll be in a much better position to determine how much money you need. You’ll also have better leverage in negotiating your valuation (see below).You might even find you don’t need (or want) to waste one bit of your company.The final point comes down to pure math.A company that acts like a digital media company first — using content marketing to attract an audience — is worth more than another company with comparable revenue but no audience platform.Let me give you an example.In 2010, before we merged those five companies together to form Copyblogger Media, I received a proposition. A publicly-traded Internet company offered me seven figures for copyblogger.com (which I owned 100% at the time).They didn’t want StudioPress, or Scribe, or Teaching Sells (the products and services that generated the revenue). Just the website.The offer was based on their business model, which was selling online advertising and producing conferences. I declined, given that the site is way more valuable to our model than it is to theirs.The point is, <a href="http://www.copyblogger.com/digital-media-platform/" target="_blank">a digital media platform that you own</A> has independent value as intellectual property. And if that platform is at the center of your revenue model like it is for us, that asset must be taken into account in valuation, whether at acquisition or when taking a round of investment.The value of an authoritative website grows every year. The audience grows every year. The insight into the next line of business or market expansion comes every year.Like I said, it’s an unfair advantage. Why not join the club?<img alt="" class="avatar avatar-100 photo" height="100" src="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/34534405aa368793a1a65168bf3b808f?s=100&d=http%3A%2F%2F1.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D100&r=G" width="100"> About the author Brian Clark is founder of Copyblogger and host of <a href="http://newrainmaker.com/">New Rainmaker</A>. Get more from Brian on <a href="https://plus.google.com/+BrianClark" rel="author">Google+</A>.<a href="http://www.printfriendly.com/print?url=http://www.copyblogger.com/unfair-business-advantage/" onclick="window.print(); return false;" rel="nofollow"><img alt="Print Friendly" src="/button-print-gry20.png"></A> <a href="http://feeds.copyblogger.com/~/58915270/0/copyblogger~Ways-a-Minimum-Viable-Audience-Gives-You-an-Unfair-Business-Advantage/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">View the original article here</a>

5 Ways a Minimum Viable Audience Gives You an Unfair Business Advantage

Startups aren’t “real” companies, according to retired entrepreneur and author Steve Blank . At least not in the way we usually think of t...

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08.58

Would You Rather be Social or Interesting?

<a href="E:\aaaaa\has'\1\data\make money online for free\jebul\Would-you-rather-be-social-or-interesting.jpg"><img alt="Would you rather be social or interesting" class="aligncenter wp-image-33783" height="400" src="/Would-you-rather-be-social-or-interesting.jpg" width="600"></A>The “Interest Graph” is not the “Social Graph”. But what does that mean and why should you care?Despite the rapid ascent of Interest-based platforms, such as Pinterest, Sulia, WeHeartIt and Wanelo, we rarely see dialogue about the Interest Graph except in a Social context. However, The Interest Graph and Social Graph are two fundamentally different infrastructures with different underlying assumptions for marketers.Sure, they often overlap, but it’s time we come to appreciate their differences, so that we can be more effective marketers on a social web driven by people’s passions and interests.So should you be social or interesting?Friends, followers and connections represent some degree of familiarity, ranging from a spouse to someone you met once at that thing you went to. If you think in High School terms, the Social Graph is all about getting in with the cool kids, so you can multiply your reach and borrow from their swagger.The basic assumption of “Social Marketing” is:“If someone knows someone else, they will be interested in similar things”In high school, the “Interest Graph” is like clubs or sports teams- a group of people coming together because they love to do the same thing. They may or may not be friends, may or may not know each other, but they share a common passion that brings them together. The more passionate they are the more likely they are to create, share and comment.The basic assumption of Interest Marketing is thus:“If someone is interested in something, people who are interested in similar things will be interested in that thing”The more people who see your message, the further it will spread. This means you will need to continue to grow your social networks on Twitter to remain ahead of the competition. It’s about building an online distribution network.If you hit the right audience with the right message, you can connect with valuable customers through a trusted authority.Studies show that <a href="http://www.pinterest.com/pin/287174913709384253/" target="_blank">traffic from Pinterest is more valuable than traffic from Facebook and Twitter,</A> likely because the audience is better qualified to begin with. That said, Facebook and Twitter still have substantially larger user bases, so if your strategy requires very broad reach, it may be easier to find it through the social web.By digging deeper, other critical differences between Social and Interest-based marketing emerge. Let’s compare Facebook and Twitter, the preeminent Social networks with Pinterest, the preeminent Interest-based network to illustrate a few distinctions:Information about Interests becomes dated less rapidly than what’s trendy on the Social scene. If you’re interested in gardening, chances are an article about how to optimally plant daffodil seeds will be as relevant five years from now as it is today. Conversely, most news articles, events and other timely posts about the new blockbuster movie we’ll all forget in six months isn’t.Cool comes from knowing what’s hot now; Interesting comes from knowing quality information.  That’s why <a href="http://www.pinterest.com/pin/287174913709384091/" target="_blank">content on Pinterest lives longer than content on facebook</A>.As marketers, we need to differentiate our content strategy. All too often at Tailwind we hear “Pinterest doesn’t work for us. We’re sharing the same thing there as on facebook but not getting results.” It’s not that Pinterest “doesn’t work for you;” you’re just doing it wrong. Start with the audience on Pinterest and ask yourself- what content does this audience need? Chances are, it’s different from what your facebook audience needs. And if done properly, it can pay dividends over a much longer period of time- more similar to your SEO content strategy.When Pinterest first gained notoriety, publications focused on their unique, scannable visual feed. While that feature has been very important in establishing Pinterest’s identity, interestingly Pinterest has recently focused on raising the profile of other methods of discovery – namely, <a href="http://blog.pinterest.com/post/74744409147/its-going-to-be-an-interesting-year">Interests</A> and <a href="http://blog.tailwindapp.com/pinterest-search-front-center/" target="_blank">Pinterest search</A>. And this makes perfect sense: In Interest-based discovery, depth of content matters.You may passingly decide to check out Breaking Bad, but once you get hooked, you may find yourself researching everything from the actors’ backgrounds to blue crystalline cake toppings for your next house party. With topical content, it’s rare that users go beyond the first article, and even more rare that enough information will be organized and accessible to dig deeper if you wanted to.As a result, the stream is the thing- you want a wide variety of new content, but don’t need or expect to dig deeper on most social platforms. Sure, surgeons and butchers both cut flesh daily, but when precision is necessary, call a surgeon.  In the same vein, you shouldn’t look to tools built for Twitter or Facebook to develop your Pinterest strategy. As CEO of the leading <a href="http://tailwindapp.com/">Pinterest Analytics and Marketing tool</A>, this suggestion probably seems self-serving. But if we didn’t see that the Interest Graph requires unique tools, we wouldn’t be building Tailwind in the first place. Let’s examine a few cases in point:Tailwind initially took off as the go-to analytics tool for marketers on Pinterest. Today, over 12,000 brands rely on us for insights that inform their campaign strategies. At first our approach was similar to advanced Social analytics tools, but over time we realized that metrics need to be thought of differently for Pinterest. For example, Facebook and Twitter tools tend to focus on recent content, in a real-time feed, to help you understand which posts were more or less successful. For Pinterest, though, immediate analysis of content can lead to incorrect conclusions. Consider this <a href="http://blog.tailwindapp.com/viral-pin/">case study of a pin that went viral six months after being posted</A>.Due to the evergreen nature of content, one must constantly refresh engagement data on past posts, as an individual pin may look like a dud after an hour or a day, but after connecting with the right interest group can become a star 14, 30 or even 180 days later. For this reason, we’ve built capabilities to be able to track the life of a pin over time, so when your late blooming content comes to life, you’ll (a) notice it and (b) be able to understand how and why it went viral. Social CRM tools frequently emphasize who has the most followers, so you can amplify your message as quickly as possible. In a real-time, reach-based environment, this makes sense. Conversely, when you’re trying to amplify a message on Pinterest, what topics a user is influential about matters far more. Someone may have 2 million followers, but if their authority is in Men’s Clothing and Home Décor, paying them to pin your wedding pins isn’t likely a good use of marketing budget. At Tailwind, we solve for this, by showing our users what topics influencers are trusted about and helping identify impactful pinners for a topic, not just ones with high follower counts.Given the longevity of a pin, emphasis on visual content and focus on curation over creation, it might not surprise you that the top sources of content on Pinterest are quite different from the top sources on Twitter or Facebook. Topical, news-oriented content performs very well on platforms powered by the social graph, as timely content can spread rapidly through social circles.On Pinterest the question is often- what are the best sources of content for a given topic. Thus, in order to help Pinners discover better content to pin, we had to dig deep into understanding the best sources of content on a given topic- often this means content is a bit less newsy in nature, as the news cycle doesn’t allow for deep coverage of many topics.So, should you focus on the Interest Graph or Social graph?Most likely, the answer is both. Most businesses need both broad reach and targeted marketing to fill their funnel. However, you may lean more heavily into…Social if your business involves short blasts of intense promotion of unique products or content (e.g. concert promoters, news media), your audience knows each other well in real life (e.g. University Student Affairs Office) or the economics are driven more by volume alone (e.g. CPM-based publisher in non-niche category).Interest-based Marketing if your business rotates products frequently but sells into the same audience (e.g. most retailers), serves customers with a specific hobby/passion (e.g. category-driven media publication), needs to be recognized as a subject matter expert (e.g. most service businesses) or targets an audience with common interests that’s geographically fragmented (e.g. camera manufacturers targeting photographers and wedding photography targeting brides).Ready to start building your Interest Graph strategy? Check out <a href="http://blog.tailwindapp.com/b2b-pinterest-strategy/">32 Do’s and Don’ts for Your Pinterest Marketing Strategy</A>. It’s a great primer.Guest author: by <a href="http://twitter.com/danielpmaloney">Daniel Maloney</A>, CEO and Co-Founder of <a href="http://tailwindapp.com/">Tailwind</A>My book – “<a href="http://www.jeffbullas.com/blogging-the-smart-way-how-to-create-and-market-a-killer-blog-with-social-media-book/" target="_blank">Blogging the Smart Way – How to Create and Market a Killer Blog with Social Media”</A> – reveals the tips and the tactics.I show you how to create and build a blog that rocks and grow tribes, fans and followers on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. It also includes dozens of tips to create contagious content that begs to be shared and tempts people to link to your website and blog.In this book I also reveal the tactics I used to grow my Twitter followers to over 220,000.<a href="http://www.jeffbullas.com/blogging-the-smart-way-how-to-create-and-market-a-killer-blog-with-social-media-book/" target="_blank">Download and read it now</A>. <a href="http://www.jeffbullas.com/2014/03/14/would-you-rather-be-social-or-interesting/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">View the original article here</a>

Would You Rather be Social or Interesting?

The “Interest Graph” is not the “Social Graph”. But what does that mean and why should you care? Despite the rapid ascent of Interest-bas...

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08.54

3 Vital Marketing Lessons From the World’s Most Offensive Doughnut Shop

<img alt="image of Voodoo Doughnuts sign" src="/voodoo-doughnuts-cb.jpg" title="3 Essential Marketing Lessons From the World's Most Offensive Doughnut Shop">The line, even on the bitterest winter nights, extends out the door and down the block. The neighborhood could charitably be described as “gritty” — known for marijuana dispensaries, tattoo parlors, and bars. (And those are the legal businesses.)The walls are Pepto-Bismol pink, graced with a black velvet painting of a stern-looking Pam Grier. The place smells like … well, like a doughnut shop — that delicious yet faintly disgusting scent of industrial fryers. The menu on the wall is illegibly tiny (even for 20-somethings on glaucoma medication), but everyone just pulls it up on their phone anyway. They take cash and only cash, and the cute tattooed employees at the cash register are friendly, if not necessarily efficient. They’ve taken something ordinary (you might even call it a bit <a href="http://www.copyblogger.com/boring-topic-content-marketing/" target="_blank">boring</A>) and turned it into an enduring craze. And yet, everything about the place turns off 95 percent of their potential customers.Yes, <a href="http://voodoodoughnut.com/index.php" target="_blank">Voodoo Doughnuts</A> has arrived in Denver. The adjective most writers use for it is “legendary,” followed quickly by “funky” and “indulgent.” (I’m not sure why “insane” doesn’t make more appearances, frankly.)They sold nearly 200,000 doughnuts before they officially opened, fiddling with their high-altitude recipes and opening at irregular hours during their “soft opening.”It’s inconvenient, the lines can be absurdly long (you’ll wait up to two hours on a Saturday night, much of that time outside in the polar-vortex cold), and at the end of the day … they’re just doughnuts. When <a href="http://www.travelchannel.com/video/tony-digs-doughnuts-in-portland-11740" target="_blank">Anthony Bourdain visited the original Voodoo</A> in Portland with Chuck Palahniuk, he said of one of their signature items (the maple-bacon bar):<BLOCKQUOTE readability="5">Only late-era Elvis on medication would eat this.</BLOCKQUOTE>And yet … it’s the kind of place Anthony Bourdain takes Chuck Palahniuk when they’re in the mood for doughnuts.Voodoo is doing some things very right. And even if your customers look a little different from the pierced-and-tattooed crowd that graces Voodoo, every business can benefit from their core marketing strategy.Voodoo keeps their eyes on three things:Voodoo’s signature doughnut is shaped like a voodoo doll with a little pretzel-stick stake through its heart. They have a number of doughnuts on the menu that you can’t order without cursing. You can get a doughnut with Cap’n Crunch cereal on top. Or Tang. Or bacon. They even used to make a doughnut with Nyquil, until the FDA made them stop. (They did discontinue the Jägermeister doughnut as being too disgusting for any human being to eat.) Do they taste better than other doughnuts? If you’ve been pining for bacon or breakfast cereal on your doughnuts, I guess so. Otherwise, they’re a lot like everyone else’s doughnuts: delicious for two bites, and then you start to hate yourself. But if you go to Voodoo once, you want to talk about it. It makes for a great story that their customers love to tell. Voodoo founders Kenneth “Cat Daddy” Pogson and Tres Shannon have a snarky, grungy ethos that attracts customers who think like they do.When they try something new, they can consistently make the right call for their customers, because there is an unmistakable Voodoo “vibe.” Opening a store next to a historic adult movie theater? Thumbs up. Opening one next to a Restoration Hardware? Not even close.This doesn’t just work for Denver and Portland hipsters. When you truly get your audience, you’ll be able to craft offerings that delight them, whether they’re monied Manhattan mavens or pious Peoria parents.If you’re still fretting over <a href="http://www.copyblogger.com/email-list-unsubscribes/" target="_blank">unsubscribes</A> or nervous because a commenter was offended by the word “mofo” in your bio, let Voodoo be your inspiration.Part of being memorable is knowing who you don’t serve. It’s not (necessarily) about being as offensive as your imagination can inspire. It’s about <a href="http://www.copyblogger.com/dangerous-feedback/" target="_blank">writing off the people who aren’t right for you</A> and never will be.If you’re in an overcrowded market and are having trouble standing out, think about what you can offer that would be genuinely memorable, yes. Maybe there are some <a href="http://www.copyblogger.com/content-success/" target="_blank">untried intersections</A> in your topic — some fresh ways you can remix the tried and true. But also remember: the answer to that question may lie in who you chase away.Have you ever tried an edgy, bold, or even potentially (to some) offensive marketing position? How did it work out? Let us know in the comments …Flickr Creative Commons image by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kwl/8598514830/" target="_blank">Kenny Louie</A>.<img alt="" class="avatar avatar-100 photo" height="100" src="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/7cee49037749ad1b40cfd13ecbf44bda?s=100&d=http%3A%2F%2F1.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D100&r=G" width="100"> About the author Sonia Simone is co-founder and Chief Content Officer of Copyblogger Media. Get more from Sonia on <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/soniasimone" rel="me">Twitter</A> and <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/106258703910258230237/posts" rel="author">Google+</A>.<a href="http://www.printfriendly.com/print?url=http://www.copyblogger.com/marketing-voodoo/" onclick="window.print(); return false;" rel="nofollow"><img alt="Print Friendly" src="/button-print-gry20.png"></A> <a href="http://feeds.copyblogger.com/~/58843347/0/copyblogger~Vital-Marketing-Lessons-From-the-Worlds-Most-Offensive-Doughnut-Shop/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">View the original article here</a>

3 Vital Marketing Lessons From the World’s Most Offensive Doughnut Shop

The line, even on the bitterest winter nights, extends out the door and down the block. The neighborhood could charitably be described as “...

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08.50

Over 160,000 WordPress Sites Used as Zombies in DDoS Attacks

Written by <a href="" rel="me">Noemi Tasarra-Twigg</A> in <a href="http://www.bloggingpro.com/archives/category/news/" rel="category tag" title="View all posts in News">News</A> Are you running WordPress like us? Do you make it a point to update to the latest version as soon as it’s out? If not, then maybe you should.<a href="E:\aaaaa\has'\1\data\make money online for free\pro\zombies.jpg"><img alt="ddos attacks" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-29714" height="400" src="/zombies.jpg" width="500"></A><a href="http://www.koreaittimes.com/">Source</A>In a recent massive attack, more than 160,000 WordPress sites have been taken advantage of and used to launch “a large HTTP-based (layer 7) distributed flood attack against a target”. And, these were legit WordPress sites that were abused for the attack. So you could actually have been one of them! Security firm <a href="http://sucuri.net/">Sucuri</A> was tasked with the duty to figure out and solve the <a href="http://www.bloggingpro.com/archives/2011/04/07/is-your-blog-ddos-proof/">DDoS attacks</A>, and what they found out was that the vulnerable WordPress sites were the ones which allowed pingbacks.Now you know that this option is turned on by default, so unless you disallow pingbacks on your blog, you could be taken advantage of as well. That, or upgrade to the latest WordPress version now, or find another solution, such as a plugin that Sucuri conveniently has ready for you. <img alt=";)" class="wp-smiley" src="/iconwink.gif"> <a href="http://blog.sucuri.net/2014/03/more-than-162000-WordPress-sites-used-for-distributed-denial-of-service-attack.html">Sucuri CTO Daniel Cid</A> says:<BLOCKQUOTE readability="8">Any WordPress site with Pingback enabled (which is on by default) can be used in DDOS attacks against other sites. Note that XMLRPC is used for pingbacks, trackbacks, remote access via mobile devices and many other features you’re likely very fond of. But, it can also be heavily misused like what we are seeing.</BLOCKQUOTE>If you want more technical details about how the DDoS attacks were done, you’ll find that in the blog post.If you want to know if your blog is being used to attack others, you can check out Sucuri’s checker <a href="http://labs.sucuri.net/?is-my-wordpress-ddosing">here</A>. You simply have to type your URL in.Categories: <a href="http://www.bloggingpro.com/archives/category/news/" rel="category tag" title="View all posts in News">News</A> Tags: <a href="http://www.bloggingpro.com/archives/tag/ddos/" rel="tag">DDoS</A> This post was written by <a href="http://www.bloggingpro.com/archives/author/noemi/" rel="author" title="Posts by Noemi Tasarra-Twigg">Noemi Tasarra-Twigg</A>. You can visit the <a href="about:www.bloggingpro.com/archives/author/noemi/" rel="author">Author Archive</A> for a short bio, more posts, and other information about the author. <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bloggingpro/PfjF/~3/V51FXSITFQ8/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">View the original article here</a>

Over 160,000 WordPress Sites Used as Zombies in DDoS Attacks

Written by Noemi Tasarra-Twigg in News Are you running WordPress like us? Do you make it a point to update to the latest version as soon ...

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08.45

BloggingPro Job Board Highlights (March 10-14)

BloggingPro Job Board Highlights (March 10-14)Written by <a href="" rel="me">Noemi Tasarra-Twigg</A> in <a href="http://www.bloggingpro.com/archives/category/jobs/" rel="category tag" title="View all posts in Jobs">Jobs</A> <a href="http://www.bloggingpro.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/bpjb-250.png"><img alt="Job board highlights" class="alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-23124" height="150" src="/bpjb-250-150x150.png" width="150"></A>How did your week go? Are you beating any serious deadlines today? Good luck!Here are the job board highlights to end your week.Gaia Interactive (www.gaiaonline.com), an online game and avatar community with one of the largest forums in the world is looking for content creators and bloggers to help facilitate community engagement through creating quality content and sharing their work to their social networks. Any content goes, but the more followers you pull into the community, the more they’ll pay you. The SEM Corporate Blogger is a marketer who is a strong believer in the power of content marketing and ethical SEO tactics. This person will be responsible for creating extremely high-quality blog posts multiple times per week in order to improve the company’s organic search results and reflect our position as an authority in both marketing and SEO. WebpageFX is seeking talented outside freelance writing professionals. Excellent opportunity for versatile creative writers. If your writing and working styles meet their needs, they can provide a steady stream of challenging assignments. Opportunities include web sales copy, social media, blogging, longform content, and more. PJ Media is looking for freelance correspondents located in battleground states to help cover key Senate and gubernatorial races on the ground. All levels of experience from fledgling to veteran journalists will be considered; however, political journalism experience is strongly desired. These are not commentary positions and a background in objective reporting is mandatory.An East Bay agency client is seeking an Offsite Copywriter with financial experience. You will be tasked with short form copy – print ad concepts with headlines and small body copy. Along with banner ad copy, radio scripts and direct mail – all deriving from the print ad concept.Categories: <a href="http://www.bloggingpro.com/archives/category/jobs/" rel="category tag" title="View all posts in Jobs">Jobs</A> Tags: <a href="http://www.bloggingpro.com/archives/tag/blogging-jobs/" rel="tag">Blogging Jobs</A>, <a href="http://www.bloggingpro.com/archives/tag/copywriting-jobs/" rel="tag">copywriting jobs</A>, <a href="http://www.bloggingpro.com/archives/tag/journalism-jobs/" rel="tag">journalism jobs</A> This post was written by <a href="http://www.bloggingpro.com/archives/author/noemi/" rel="author" title="Posts by Noemi Tasarra-Twigg">Noemi Tasarra-Twigg</A>. You can visit the <a href="about:www.bloggingpro.com/archives/author/noemi/" rel="author">Author Archive</A> for a short bio, more posts, and other information about the author. <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bloggingpro/PfjF/~3/CEo1ohak8q8/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">View the original article here</a>

BloggingPro Job Board Highlights (March 10-14)

BloggingPro Job Board Highlights (March 10-14)Written by Noemi Tasarra-Twigg in Jobs How did your week go? Are you beating any serious de...

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08.38

Taming the Social Media Marketing Beast

<img alt="Taming the Social Media Marketing Beast" class="aligncenter wp-image-33710" height="400" src="/Taming-the-Social-Media-Marketing-Beast-2.jpg" width="600">What if someone said.“Today we are announcing three revolutionary products that will transform your businessThe first one allows you to self publish to the world with one click The second enables you to market your brand without begging the gatekeepers or paying big media. It doesn’t cost a cent The third is a breakthrough two-way communication platform that is freeBut they are not three separate products – it’s “Social Media”.Would that interest you?This take on social media…..inspired by Steve Jobs famous presentation to launch the iPhone in 2007, highlights the three vital components of  social media.It’s unrivalled power to publish, market and communicate to a global community in real time.In essence it is the biggest change to publishing in 550 years (Gutenberg would be pleased), the biggest shift in marketing since the invention of the television and the most important communication revolution since the telephone.Social media marketing has moved beyond just being a cool looking Facebook page. Its integration into the web means that you need to consider blogging, multimedia content, search and mobile as integral parts of your social media marketing strategy.The maturing of social media is highlighted by the emerging trends that illustrate the creativity of the medium. This includes:Brands becoming media companies and publishers. (Red Bull)Visual content as a component in your contagious content armoury. (Eg. Pinterest, Instagram, Infographics and Vine)Paying to play as Facebook reduces your free organic visibilityBrands bypassing mass media. (Beyonce)The emergence of social media management platforms to help manage, monitor and measure the many componentsWe also mustn’t forget the rise of Google+ and its implications for search.Despite many people understanding that they can’t ignore social and they have moved beyond “why” to “how”, there are still many challenges.One of these is the need for “unlearning”. John Maynard Keynes summed it up well when he said“The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as escaping old ones“This includes flipping old marketing habits on their head. Social media marketing is not about your brand, your products or selling. It’s about your customer.It’s not about control but it is about managing the splintered chaos that is social media.These challenges will push many comfort zones to the limits in traditional business models.Despite the chaos that social media has brought to media there are many opportunities for making your brand visible and credible. Here are four worth embracing.Publishing power is in your hands. No longer do you need to beg the mass media gatekeepers for newspaper inches. publishing has been democratized!Tap into the the potential of free crowdsourced marketing. You can build your own online networks on social media and motivate your own fans and advocates to share and distribute your content.Accelerate the building of your owned and earned digital assetsBuild online credibility and trust by becoming ubiquitous online as you publish to YouTube, blogs and even Slideshare. Research by Edelman with its annual “Trust Barometer” shows that being seen 3-5 times will create a trust factor of 60%.It means making the investment and taking the time to create a strategy and plan that will provide a cohesive and integrated approach.This means not only knowing the demographics but the social profiles and the personas that lay beyond the sterile data and this means asking some questions.What are their key problems and fears?Where do they get their information?What are their aspirations?What primary social networks do they use?What media do they consume?What are your goals and their priorities for your social media marketing? These could include:Increase Facebook likesImprove brand awarenessDrive traffic to website, blog online storeIncrease sales leadsGrow your email listCustomer engagementOnce that list is done then the priorities need to be assigned.After you have defined your audience and the prioritised goals are identified then the content can be created that will resonate with your potential prospects and customers to meet those marketing goals.This will include but not limited to:Blog postsEbooksYouTube videosImages for engagement on FacebookTwitter updates to drive traffic to online stores or websitesThe content creation will vary depending on your target market and also whether your are a consumer or business brand.You may have many goals but you need to pick your most important ones. Here are a couple of examples.Goal: Build an email listThis can be done a few ways.Offer a free e-book on your blog that requires an email address to downloadCreate a custom tab on Facebook that captures an email to download a whitepaper or watch a free videoRun competitions on Facebook that require registering with an email addressGoal: Increase your social networks fans and followersThe importance of developing your own online distribution network that bypasses the traditional media model of paying for attention is becoming paramount.So here are a couple of tactics for possible implementation.Offer free premium content for a Facebook “like”Follow the “followers” of other online influencers on Twitter in your nicheThe digital web has one big advantage over the old analog world. You can measure.So what are some key components to measure, monitor and manage?Social network growthLeads generatedRetweets on TwitterShares on FacebookComments on your blogWebsite and blog trafficAnd that is just the start of the metrics. Finding out what works and what doesn’t means you can adjust your tactics for optimal results.We now live a world driven by the social, mobile and knowledge web and we need to play and to sum it up we need to embrace some realities.Unlearn the old paradigms. This means pushing your comfort zones.Sitting down and start planning that strategyStart thinking like a publisherGrowing “your” online distribution networks to provide marketing independenceSo start building your digital and social assets today.My book – “Blogging the Smart Way – How to Create and Market a Killer Blog with Social Media” – will show you how.It is now available to download. I show you how to create and build a blog that rocks and grow tribes, fans and followers on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. It also includes dozens of tips to create contagious content that begs to be shared and tempts people to link to your website and blog.I also reveal the tactics I used to grow my Twitter followers to over 223,000.Download and read it now. <a href="http://www.jeffbullas.com/2014/03/12/taming-social-media-marketing-beast/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">View the original article here</a>

Taming the Social Media Marketing Beast

What if someone said. “Today we are announcing three revolutionary products that will transform your business The first one allows you to s...

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18.19