Tips for Writing Horrifically Effective Content with Stephen King

Tips for Writing Horrifically Effective Content with Stephen King
Email Marketing with MailChimp
Small Businesses Are Borrowing Less Again, Per PayNet Index
7 Questions You Better Ask Your Copywriter

Posted: 15 May 2013 04:00 PM PDT

It's a little strange to acknowledge that someone as famous and prolific as Stephen King is perhaps the ultimate ghostwriter. Then again, what about Stephen King and his writing isn’t strange? In 1977, King was frustrated with the industry standard that made it difficult to publish more than a single novel per year. Thus, King began publishing using the pen name Richard Bachman.

King published four novels before his secret was exposed, making this one of the greatest publishing tricks in literary history. As a great ghostwriter, Stephen King has a lot of tips for ghostwriters and content creators in general.

Article Writing Tips for Horrifically Effective Content

"Good books don't give up all their secrets at once." – Stephen King

Now, there's nothing wrong about giving up all your secrets, just be sure to space it out effectively. After all, if you want to brand yourself as a thought leader in a particular industry, you have to provide useful content – but you always want to have something to say.

To do this, spread out your knowledge over a series of blogs or articles. The more in-depth you get on a particular topic, the more valuable the information is and the more content you can squeeze out of your knowledge.

"Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule." – Stephen King

Really, Mr. King?

While this might seem counterintuitive at first, it makes complete sense. Shouldn't writers have and develop our own unique voices? The more that we rely on 3rd party sources such as a thesaurus to do the writing for us, the less of our voice remains in the content. Make your content your own – natural and authentic.

"Description begins in the writer's imagination but should finish in the reader's." – Stephen King

Remember, article writing and written online content should be concise and effective. When we include superfluous descriptions, we muck up the idea and sometimes make it difficult to follow the point of the piece. Surprisingly, you can have very clear and descriptive writing in just a few words.

Word economy is everything. Your words are like dots on the page, and it's the job of the reader to connect them all.

"Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open." – Stephen King

To unleash your voice and personality in your article writing, write without any inhibitions. Write as though no one will read it. Once you get all of your ideas and thoughts onto the page, then that's the time to critique it with an editor's eye, not beforehand.

Article writing in mental privacy allows you to get all your ideas out. While they may not be the "best" ideas, at least you have the opportunity to develop and revise them with your open-door-edit.

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Email Marketing with MailChimp

Posted: 15 May 2013 11:00 AM PDT

Some claim that email is dead. It is a familiar refrain that many marketers hear, and perhaps say, but it is not true. With over 95 million emails sent per day on average, MailChimp proves that email is still a viable way for small businesses to get the word out. This MailChimp review is for business owners looking for an easy-to-understand email marketing platform.

MailChimp is a Web-based email marketing service that comes with a great suite of tools. One of the most important things to know is the service is completely free if you are mailing less than 12,000 emails per month to less than 2000 email accounts. This "forever free" option does not give you access to all of the features and it does leave a MailChimp icon embedded in your newsletters. That seems a small "price" to pay for free, in my opinion.

Full disclosure: The TechBizTalk newsletter, about cool new gadgets and software, runs on the MailChimp platform, still at the free level and I'm a big fan of the service. This screenshot below shows my recent efforts to build a few newsletters.

Email Marketing with MailChimp

What I Really Like:

Their sense of humor. They like to keep things cheery. However, if you are the type who does not like to mix business and pleasure, the optional fun posts can be blocked.

MailChimp wants you to succeed and provides many free resources on how to get started with email campaigns. Lots of tutorials and support posts.

MailChimp allows you to create your own newsletter or use one of many elegant templates.

You can segment your mailing list to target different audiences. The RSS-to-email option that will automatically send out your newsletter when you update your blog.

Ever wonder how well your advertising is doing? Let the program take care of that by sending you a report that tells you who is opening your newsletters and who is sharing them on social networks.

Apps that allow you to work from both Android and iPhone operating systems.

What I Would Like to See:

My only item or issue is that even though I know some of the terms, even I get lost a bit in figuring out which to do first – start a campaign or start a list. As it turns out, if you don't have a "list" then you can't start a campaign. They make this clear when you first signup and start, but it is easy to forget. When I came in the next time, I found myself wondering what to do first. Some help boxes over the items would be useful. But, to be fair, this is mostly "operator error," meaning me. There's obviously more to like than "like to see." The screenshot above shows both options, but the service does make it hard to start (naturally because you need a list structure, even if it is empty). You can choose “Create Campaign” but it reminds you that you need a list.

If you find that you exceed the forever free level, which means your business is growing, paid plans start at $10/month. They also have a pay-as-you-go option that is like buying stamps and very affordable, too.

Take a look at MailChimp and keep the conversation going with your customers.

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Small Businesses Are Borrowing Less Again, Per PayNet Index

Posted: 15 May 2013 08:00 AM PDT

loan research

Small businesses are borrowing less again.

A March report from the U.S. Small Business Administration showed small business lending had increased for the first time in 10 quarters in the last part of 2012.

But more recently the Thomson Reuters/PayNet Small Business Lending Index (SLBI) says that trend hasn’t carried into the new year. Instead, a recent update in the index shows lending to small businesses has dropped for three consecutive months of the new year ending in March.

The Thomson Reuters/PayNet Small Business Lending Index measures the overall volume of lending to small U.S. companies. The index fell to 98.5 from a total of 105.4 in February.

PayNet President Bill Phelan told Reuters News that this key indicator can be seen as a predictor of the economic climate. He said that decreased borrowing and lending is not a good sign for job growth among small businesses for the next nine months.

“We are seeing that they don’t want to take on new projects, to invest in capital,” Phelan told Reuters. “They’re kinda hunkering down right now. They don’t have the appetite to take on new projects at this time.”

On the other hand, Phelan did acknowledge some bright spots, such as industrial manufacturing. We reported recently on small manufacturers reinventing themselves in the changing economy.

While any negative lending news should sound some alarms for small business owners, especially those teetering to stay afloat, the updated SLBI numbers could just be an expected and normal trend.

“That doesn’t necessarily mean we’re going into a contraction,” Phelan added, talking to Reuters. ”The recovery has been going for a while. The cycle has been advancing. You get natural changes in the cycle.”

A key reason why the SLBI shows declines in small business lending over the last three months is because the asset class for these companies has become “riskier” and loan default rates have increased recently. Overall, small business loan default rates will increase to 2.1 percent this year from 1.3 percent.

Phelan said “economically sensitive” small businesses like transportation companies and small retailers continue to recover slowly from the recession and are more likely to default on loans.

The PayNet Index of loan research collects real-time loan information from more than 200 U.S. lenders. Its proprietary database covers 17 million current and historic commercial loans and leases, worth over $740 billion.

Lending Down Photo via Shutterstock

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7 Questions You Better Ask Your Copywriter

Posted: 15 May 2013 05:00 AM PDT

copywriter

Have you ever taken your car to get an oil change, only to decide four hours and forty dollars later that you would have been a lot better off doing it yourself? Well, you can get the same feeling in the pit of your stomach when you hire a copywriter.

If you want to have a smooth sailing experience, below are seven questions I highly recommend you ask your prospective copywriter before signing on the dotted line.

7 Questions to Ask Your Copywriter

Can I call you?

As an online business owner that works with many (online) marketing agencies and SEO firms, I primarily help my customers through email. It's fast and easy. What's not to love?

But when there's a serious problem or an issue that needs to be addressed immediately, that's what a phone is for. Don't hire an online copywriter if you can't get them on the phone pronto.

Do you provide keyword research?

No joke – there are copywriters out there that don't do keyword research. It's kind of like a chef opening a restaurant and asking you to bring your own ingredients. If he's a really, really good chef (or writer), then maybe you're willing to "bring your own ingredients." But that's pretty rare.

Either way, you should know what you're getting into.

Will you publish for me?

Again, no right or wrong answer here. But, if you aren't the most tech-savvy cookie in the cookie jar, then you might want to see if your copywriter can upload content to your blog or website.

Most copywriters and agencies will do this for you at a nominal fee. It takes very little time, but is a huge convenience factor for you, the client.

What's your opinion on character limits?

Your copywriter should be informed and up-to-date on the latest Google character limits. Ninety two character long titles and 204 character long meta descriptions are going to get cut off.

Make sure your copywriter knows what's up. Remember, they call it search engine optimization for a reason.

Can I see examples of your work?

Hopefully, you already have seen some writing examples. If not, be sure to ask. Some writers may pull the "I-have-NDAs-card" (non-disclosure agreements). Fair enough.

So can they write you some custom content?

Will you write all of my content yourself?

Here's a dirty little secret about the writing game: A lot of it gets outsourced without the end-client ever finding out, especially the optimization work that is more or less "keyword stuffing."

If you're paying Mr. or Ms. Top Writer with this award and that credential, then you want to know that they’re the one actually writing it.

What guarantee do you offer on delivery time?

First, you shouldn't have to hound your copywriter to get content delivered at a decent time. Second, you should have a guaranteed delivery date. Third, you should have a guarantee about what you'll receive (discount, free work, etc.) should that delivery date not be met.

Things happen; protect yourself.

Have you hired a copywriter before and, if so, what questions do you wish you had asked?

Copywriting Photo via Shutterstock

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