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Successful Blogging Practices Part 1

So the very first thing is tell stories everything must be delivered in the story I mentioned this yesterday because stories is pretty much exactly how we learn things from childhood we've been told stories and we learned through stories we've been trained to listen to them and stories are linear there's a very specific beginning middle and end we can tie them all together and the fact the matter is people are skeptical and stories this on him a lot of times if you really want get people to listen you tell them let me tell you a story and said oh, really? And then you tell them a story it makes so much ease the transition into it is so much easier in effect jennifer acre professor marking a stanford graduate business school she even did studies on this a story is connected is a story I am sorry a story that connected set of events with a beginning middle and end it's a journey that moves the listener and when a listener goes to ah on that journey she feels different. The result is pers...

uasion and sometimes action stories are twenty two percent more memorable. So ultimately we want to create top of mine awareness or toma so imagine how much more memorable of it is if you have stories integrated and I'm not sure if you guys have heard of the story about pablo picasso and the whole yes no ok, I'll read it anyway I think it's a great story it's worth knowing so legend has it pablo picasso was sketching in the park when a bold woman approached him it's you picasso the great artist oh, you must sketch my portrait I insist so picasso agreed to sketch her after studying her for a moment he used a single pencil stroke to career portrait he handed a woman his artwork or his work of art it's perfect she got you managed to capture my essence with one stroke in one moment thank you how much do I owe you? Five thousand dollars the artist replied, but but but what? The woman's father how could you want so much for this picture? It only took you a second to draw it to which because responded madam, it took my entire look it took me my entire life and this was written by l in war but in the book of hers and whether it's true or not it doesn't really matter. The whole point is that it's a story and the essential parts we remember very easily we could retell the story justice how aiken retail blake mycoskie story for tom's shoes about him in argentina I don't I don't need to know the details I just know that he wasn't going to see the solid people who didn't have shoes decided to create a project that shared you know the wealth of other nations and I thought it was great I buy shoes and everybody's happy it's easy to retell because beginning middle and end and even if we think about how this relates to our industry isn't this a lot of the time the case people don't I know how to value our photography because it took you click two seconds yet we charge a lot of money for it when in reality it takes a lot of time to get that correct perspective that right lighting and you know blur effect in everything so there's so much to it but the main thing is that when it comes to stories you're able to recall the important parts you know thus creating value another thing you have to do it for block post and when I say success of blogging practices I forgot to mention I mean successful anything content creation practices I only say blogging because again funnel effect everywhere goes to the block so I used call block next thing is to integrate climactic pictures so think about stories he always have the setting then it moves up into climactic pitch such as knights fighting off dragons you know, save the princess and then this is the claim that's how we have this roller coaster ride of emotions because otherwise if it's constantly blaring of, you know lots of energy it gets desensitizing and for those who have watched original jurassic park, I'm not sure if you remember the last scene where t rex save the you know, people humans from the raptor but we've seen so much it wasn't even engaging anymore because we were scared entire movie so that the young girls that college is the t rex again, you know, it's not even a big deal and there was no more action. Does that mean we're desensitized and a really great example of how this works for those who watch am sees the walking dead do you get what I'm saying? It's not like every minute there's oh there's a zombie coming at you it's oh, you know, we finally got our lives together everything's happy oh oh my god! Zombies you know? And then it goes back down his summaries and thank goodness you know, moving along and it zombies and comes back down. If you get so excited every single moment of the writing process you're going to lose your audience, so make sure that you have it in the roller coaster ride in waves. The next thing you want to do is write in small chunks it's so important to understand that it you have to almost defy what you learned in grammar school I understand that you have to you know when it comes to paragraphs you know everybody was taught to introduce the body of text with the topic sentence and a topic sentence the sentence whose main idea controls the direction that the remainder of the paragraph experience brothers may also use the topic sentence and I'm losing my place sentenced to bridge paragraphs within these paragraphs there are details sentences that develop, explain and support the controlling claim all statements must be focused and unified in the aggression with when we can see the whole point is it becomes a blur it's hard to read it really is so especially with you know, people having bigger and bigger blog's now and smaller and smaller tex because it looks cool or something it's really difficult it's going to become blurry thing so try as much as possible to other use the larger funds and or break everything up my rule is that there's there always know more than three or four lines I don't care just creating paragraph sometimes have one sense in paragraphs and I just keep on doing so because it's easier for people to read the next thing you want to dio is to use lists lists are very important because when I was going to school at u c l a I had tomes off books I had to read I could not possibly finish all of reading and have a life so what I did was I skimmed but I never skimmed past any parts that had a bullet point because bullet points obviously made that their importance, so they're easy to scan. So do so when it's when you're writing, when you want people to stop and pause and think and read, you put a bullet point, let me ask you, do you girls scan the web? Or do you read every single word scan? Probably, but you do have to stop when it's italicized bold it or underlined or bulleted. So lists are very powerful on top of it lists offer a light at the end of the tunnel, like ten ways to have the perfect thanksgiving dinner or the four summer or for the four colors that you must have for summer all of a sudden, like, oh it's, only four or only ten I could read all that, and then you just go through it, otherwise it becomes too overwhelming becomes ambiguous. You don't know what to expect and you forget about the next thing is you want to be clear and concise, you have to remember that social media has trained us to have very short attention spans. Tweets are hundred forty characters long. I mean you can blame twitter, a few wants newspapers have to be re very short. Oh, even about the whole long the big blocks of text and short paragraphs think about newspapers l a times new york times while she journal you know is how they're all divided in two columns they could write really long blocks but it's really hard to read you and you lose your place but in columns you can discount really quickly not only can you absorb information quicker, but you won't lose your place, so I think it is that you want to get to the point and the point is whenever even when it comes to sales or marketing, every recipient only has one concern. What is the benefit for me? So remember that if anything, write that down because it's very important what how are they benefitting? And you have to be able to address that? Of course you had to use all of the other marketing you know strategies, but ultimately what is it for them? Because usually that's what they're concerned about. So get to the point on that and thomas jefferson really said it best. The most value of all talents is never using two words when one will do so be concise and ask your question lawrence this is a question from and maybe who said that I've heard that block post need to be at least three hundred words for them to be googled by index but this seems to be contrary to what you're advising, so can you please comment on that? I didn't say to have a short block post, so I said to have short paragraphs have short paragraphs. But do you think that's true about having three hundred words in a block post for ghoul to index them or index not, that is a very good, um, marker to go by. But there is one thing that I noticed for certain. No one knows google's algorithms. Okay, so we can guess we can experiment and we can measure results. But google just like social media changes a lot in which I'm going to show you how they've changed recently too. So I cannot say it's three hundred. It could be two on your that give it one, ninety nine. I have no idea. Okay, but it's a good starting point. Okay, it's, the next thing you want to do is have personalized content content that really pushes you. So remember how we talked about how your business craft is only one very small aspect of your life and that aspect. A lot of people can replicate the messaging. And for those who can understand esoteric value, it looks the same. So how do you truly make yourself different is personalizing everything? It's how you can do differently you love it when I got that dot your passions, your interests, your dis interests remember we talked about target audience is you have to put yourself out there but to a comfortable degree and that's the only time when you can really connect with yours the next thing you want to do is make sure to use visuals lots officials and not on ly any visual not you know, terrible looking for those always portfolio visuals instagram pinterest facebook, twitter they're all pushing for twitter I mean for photos they catches the eyes first same with sushi on top of it if you think about in terms of blocks of text how you can create a respite for people from reading reading, reading, reading oh god, I'm getting really tired I need a little respite and which I should have done more is throwing more photos of food because otherwise it's a lot more text here but it's it's giggles you little breathing like aw thank goodness I can appreciate a photo for a minute not a minute but ten seconds not maybe even two seconds and then continue reading so it gives people a breeding of breather for a moment and the thing is is that when you deliver information verbally people only remember ten percent of it if you add a picture retention is sixty five percent stanford business next you want to do is you want to hook readers just like in dating looks attract but personality keeps I mean it's sort of rings true for for writing block posts as well no one is going to be able to absorb your great content if you cannot even hook them from the very beginning with the catchy title so you have to almost throw your bait out there and really in the fish first before they can even appreciate all of the great value that you have so how you can do so is you and it there are no instead if you have a catchy title how you you know override it with a search engine optimization I'll demonstrate how you can do so later on but here's some really cool titles from g q magazine so where to find the world's best wines chow down ten best restaurants in america a man's guide to dropping the last and hardest ten pounds how to go from burger flipper to grill master in five simple steps so if you look at these titles already where to find the world's best wines what type of content is that solution remember it's a question zuko what are the best ones so you provide a solution chow down the ten best new restaurants in america so this is in a way a list it's a list there ten it's easy and they're the best so obviously I want to know whether the witches of the best and there are many tense I should check it out remember how we talked about fear what is it that your clients are facing? What is it that's keeping them apart night and for some men it's to lose that last ten pounds around the waist you know, like how the y just get rid of that last ten I do sit ups and push ups have been on protein diets and in so far I can't do it how do I get it? So this is almost a very hot, button provoking type of question or statement it's pushing emotions here and this one's comparison from grill master the man from burger flipper to grill master conversion in five simple steps list as well and I know that there you can probably go into magazine racks and get lots of these inspirations but if you really want I wrote down a template for one hundred three magnate headlines based on all of these and you could download it for free to school till comstat secretive life and just grab it. The next thing is you want to share your opinions be dicey, you know, get a little controversial and sometimes if you ruffle their feathers that's one of the most engaging in conversations happen, so get out there, put your opinions and get people to to engage with you and respond next, okay um when you say share your opinions do you mean that they should be industry related are just whatever's current events are here's my favorite french five place both because rumor we're targeting both the industry because we want the industry to hire us as well there that actually the easiest target audience because they already understand and appreciate photography to convince him is very easy they like it already it's just a matter of connection once they found that compatibility they just hire you no matter what price so definitely kato towards industry but same time cater towards your normal called target audience the next thing is to ask questions as I mentioned yesterday you want to ask very stimulating questions not a guest, no question because those air too simple you want to get feedback, get interaction going you wanted them tio talked to you so then you can ask questions back for example, what is your favorite food that's the whole spectrum of you know answers where can come from if you could travel anywhere in the world where would you go? If money does not matter, what would you do mean? High? You can just come up with lots of questions and this is a way to get to know them in a very much more personal way outside of just photo related I I shoot your photo and I give you photos I make you look pretty, you know it's go beyond that. Next time you want to do is publish accordingly and there isn't a really optimal of time I can say for everybody so you have to experiment to yourself. Everybody's target audience is different because if you have working people as your target audience from nine to five do you posted from six to ten? But you also to keep in mind that a lot of people search their phones and search the web during work hours. So you all nodding so you get so maybe you should post it right after because maybe they have meetings in the morning from nine to ten. So you post around eleven so right before the lunch time so that they can have a little relaxing moment. Read about it in an email to themselves and they can read it later at night, so publish accordingly tested for weekends, test of engagement results and go from there. The next thing you want to do is to set the tone with your first sentence. This is very much similar to a hook for your title. Not only does it have to be catchy for your title, you also have to be catchy with your paragraph I'll give you an example a few examples here and a lot of time tonight in the senate, a lot of people who do you who do you guys like to blogged you like to bag you like to buy you like that so much? I know you don't like shaking your head and it's really difficult because we don't know what to write about like where do I start the long day I don't know where to be and so it's a very easy approach is to simply set the scene and a lot of novels the very first thing they do is set the scene where they are what's going on are there things or sounds around the area and you want to make a catchy um I forgot what? The boat confessions of a shopaholic yes everything ok? The first sentence is always very catchy and unfortunately cannot remember right now. But if I come back from break hotel make sure mention it but I wrote a few myself here for myself and then you guys can skin idea I just had the most embarrassing moment of my life that that that I know that what is it? All right, what is this embarrassing moments or another one? And then this is where you catch them and then you know what? What is that? Now you want to screw our way like to get into people space and find out you know all the juicy stuff next thing you can write about us I woke up to the drumming of torrential rain I will lie I was worried about what you know I worry about what worried about your hair getting wet you melting under the rain or you can say sure you can continue on sure my camera isn't well approved by the wet solemn bride won't be any better that's like oh my gosh a wet solemn bride you know this is getting really really good here wanting beat on and everything is are another example would be do you believe in praying well I don't but nevertheless I got down on my knees like oh what's going on here so use these hooks as for a sentence is to set the tone get people hooked in not only with the title but also with your sentences and if I'm there you set the scene you let it progress and move on to whatever you're trying to push out and go from there the next thing you want to do is reach hard toed posts because imagine like a block you have blood post that were written three years ago that have never won't ever see the light of day so you want to build to send that traffic back to those old post because you spent a lot time creating that contents your meisel gil give it some attention I talked about yesterday yesterday you can even create a calm compilation of post so springs most popular colors and just get all the boot there's a bookcase or clothing line for lingerie or anything like that and put it into one post or favorite halloween costumes for kids or favorite halloween costumes for dogs whatever your target audiences just compile them all put them all into one and you can also link back to all the old posts this is not only good for reading but it's also good for search engine optimization because I'm going to talk about how links work later on but linking is a very powerful as one powerful part of searching the opposition so link to yourself and link outside I mean like so what an example of that be if I'm blogging a wedding and I say remember this couple's engagement session and I post a link to their engagement session? Yes that's exactly what I'm talking about that's really good that's a good example so link back like, oh, by the way or even for your using patterns like check out all of the other post of corgi on because I remember you had a corgi so that you can do that and you can get people to also say the main thing is you don't want people to get to your sight read it and then leave you want people to stay there so you want them to constantly click around and you could do so by recharging old post but the same time, if you're trying to create a cell's paid or landing page, you want to minimize links because the more links you have there virtually calls to action they're telling you to do something else each link is a distraction in itself, so the more thinks you have more distractions people are less likely to be able to finish the entire page. The next thing you want to do is pay attention to grammar and slings and I'm not talking about, you know, l a p a format or anything like that, even though that's very important because I know e writing is a little bit different than formal writing, but you have to pay attention to language barriers between different countries for example in australia in england ah, jumper is not person who jumps a jumper is a jacket. You know mozzie is a mosquito and fries or chips, you know it's very different. You make sure you have the right language I want you smirking about. We were having conversation yesterday about the differences between english and american english and, you know, chips and fries and crisps and all that yeah, it's very different and depending on your target audience, you have to make sure that you're catering to them correctly, so I'm going to really talk about later on how you can optimize for other countries and you want to be able teo cater for them because otherwise it's just gonna be a very confusing block of text and e mean, they'll probably be able to decipher it but it's not gonna be easy moment for them. The next thing you want to do issues calls to action keep in mind that these are all strategies that I'm talking about you comply them virtually anywhere too. All of the cop types of content I mentioned yesterday for example pdf ce teo you know, tacked out brochures to block posts to everything so calls to action or c t a where can you put this? Where can you tell people any idea that you want to take a stab at this? Like at the end of the block post? Like come check out the rest of my workers email to book me very cool. Oh, yeah exactly that's one very smart place to put it. So for example, most block post if you just have a theme by normal default you read it that the title you read a text, you get the photos. I mean, you see the photos, the portfolio photos, you read more techs and you have a concluding statement, but what else is there to dio you can comment, my correct, but how often do you comment on other people's sights? Rarely sometimes you know if you really feel compelled teo but even then you're not going to comment as likely as leaving you know we can't go back up and try to find a contact but if you're really interested but the chance of leaving is easier I mean the option to leave is easier so you don't want people to leave which is why you want to have call section justice how betty mentioned check out my other cordis you know other photos the cord is here and click with link or check out my engaged you know this couple is engaged in a session here linc you know or what my said at the very end I usually have three options about her about paige so about me because remember photography is photography is photography to a general to a very layman's eyes photography photography of course they're very small nuances between good versus great but it's hard to distinguish as it tried to emphasize and I'm not trying to discredit based photography work but most people cannot tell a difference so the only weaken tell difference is between the three dimensional parts of other dimensions to me aside from my craft so again I am trying to sell myself so about me it's very important I actually push people to understand my background the second one is investment or I'm sorry view other portfolio work so you want to see more weddings more I mean a portrait s'more boudoir, click here you can see more third option because what if they're already done looking at the fourth one reagan they're ready to commit. You can either click do the call to action to the investment page or contact page simple is that click go there so you have those are my three options. You can change your own to whatever you want, but remember, at the same time, you don't want to give so many calls to action that not only doesn't distract them, but it takes away too many options remember how I mentioned that to me options were also mean loss because I want to click on all of them to make sure they don't lose out on some of them or through analysis paralysis. I just quit unjustly close the webpage same thing as going to a restaurant as I mentioned lot of options it's hard for me to commit my friends all know I would sit there for minutes and everybody's food would come and I still won't be able to pick because it's still hard for me that's why I always pick when I close and I move away so I only get a few calls to action.