ion Leap » blog writer

Does Your Blog Writer Get It?

IonLeap — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 02:38:53 +0000

When your blog writer sits down to write a post, are they writing for you or for themselves? Are they writing to please the fine art that they practice? Or are they writing to please the god of Commerce?

At ion Leap, our blog writers don’t aim to please their English teachers, their friends, or their critics. We aim to write blogs that please:

The search engines so that those searching for your product or service can find your website
The reader who clicks your page 1 ranking on a Google search

Getting you ranked on page 1 for a Google search is always a top priority of an ion Leap blog writer team. But it is not the top priority. The number one priority is to turn someone who is searching for you into a customer. And the way to do that is to make certain that the entire search experience is successful for your prospective customer.

When your prospective customer finds you on a page one ranking on Google, very often what they find when they click that link is a blog post. That blog post is very often not a very successful landing page.

At ion leap, our blog writers take the entire search experience into mind. Our goal is to turn a search experience into a sale. The way to do that is to focus not only on the blog posts, but on the landing page experience, and to turn that experience into and engaging one. The landing page must be engaging in every way. It must have all sorts of media on it – video, bullet points for fast reading and comprehension, long-form copy for those who like it, and most importantly A CALL TO ACTION.

If your landing pages have all of the above, then they will have a much better chance of turning a Google search into a sale.

And it’s even more involved than that. At ion Leap, we refer to something we call The Psychology of Search.

The Psychology of Search

For each of our clients, we take into account what will motivate a sale. Some sales processes are very considered, requiring several higher-up approvals – this is very true in B2B marketing solutions.

If you’re in a commoditized category, then your prospects aren’t going to be motivated by much more than price. But if you’re in a category that has a lot of angst involved in the purchase, then your prospect can be motivated by much more than price. And that’s where persuasive marketing comes in. And that can (and should) be reflected in your website content. Your landing pages MUST be very driven by search psychology. A good blog writer will understand and deliver on that.

We’d love to assess the search needs of your company. Contact ion Leap and ask us to do a FREE assessment of how your communication should engage your prospects.

Web content writing services inspired by the masters

IonLeap — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 14:36:42 +0000

The art and the science of web content writing services should probably be balanced about 50-50. Yet, invariably, the art outweighs the science. Perhaps most writers are frustrated novelists.

“Sir, nobody but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.”
– Samuel Johnson

At ion Leap, we don’t put pen to paper (or finger to keyboard) without a purpose. And that purpose is almost always to get a client found by their prospective customers. Does that mean we’re all science and we don’t bring art to the practice of web content writing services? Not at all. But the reason we have such high artistic standards has nothing at all to do with art. We believe art must serve commerce. That’s why we write so beautifully.

When web content writing fails

Companies often hear from their peers that they must have a blog on their website. They’re rarely sure why this must be or how to maintain it to their advantage, yet they dutifully launch their blog. Some even keep it active for a few months before they miss that weekly deadline. Then a skipped week turns into an empty month. You know the rest.

Everything that is written merely to please the author is worthless.
- Blaise Pascal

Bringing great content to your readers again and again requires a rare writer; one with an endless source of great ideas. At ion Leap, we bring blog writer teams to work on every client. The writer on the team is the more creative one. The SEO is the more scientific one. They work together to create content that both your audience AND Google will love.

The Google part of the equation is the easier part. Coming up with great ideas for your audience is more difficult. Too many writers take the artistic approach too far. We look for writers who understand that the idea is more important than how many fancy words you use to express it.

“Have something to say, and say it as clearly as you can. That is the only secret.”
- Matthew Arnold

The discipline of web content writing services

Then it all comes down to discipline. We like to train Google to crawl our clients’ websites twice a week. The way that’s done is by posting twice a week. It sounds easy until you reach week 10. By then most writers start to run out of steam.

“Writing is easy; all you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until the drops of blood form on your forehead.”
- Gene Fowler

B2B web content writing services can be the most difficult. At ion Leap, we’re smart enough to recognize what we simply cannot write. We’re currently working with clients in two very complex business categories. No one but the client could truly write it in a way that will make it have real value to readers. But the client doesn’t have time to write the blog. So what do you do?

At ion Leap, we’ve found an inventive and fun way to get around this issue. We still regularly deliver beautifully written blog posts under these difficult circumstances, and they’re pleasing to the readers and the search engines.

“The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.”
- Thomas Jefferson

Learning from Mr. Jefferson, we’ll wrap up this blog post. If you have questions about our web content writing services, CONTACT US. We’ll be happy to provide several references.

Search Marketing Solutions in a Petaflop World

IonLeap — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 13:11:36 +0000

Imagine an army of writers – literally thousands of writers in each company – sitting monk-like at their keyboards (or microphones using speech to text), crafting wonderfully written content for readers to enjoy and Google spiders to crawl.

Each 500-word treatise which each writer crafts will be uploaded onto the company’s blog in a millisecond or two. In the next millisecond, the spiders will have crawled it, categorized it, and judged it based on the nearly instant social media comments and “likes” – or perhaps based on facial recognition recognizing the number of those who glanced at the content and smiled.

That same day, several hundred videos could be posted, each filmed in 3D HD. The power of the petaflop will ensure that search engines can understand the spoken word, the visual content and the supplied metadata that defines what the content really is about.

Several hundred live conversations via mobile devices about the postings and videos might be listened in on, understood and measured against all this content. After all, while we have to respect privacy, we can still listen in and understand.

The question is, will the computing power of the petaflop and exoflop completely change what is created and how it is search categorized and understood?

Will the petaflop kill the written word and change how search marketing solutions work forever?

When you have a petaflop parked in your devices, think how much the world will change for those who create content and those who consume it.

First, who needs the written word any more? Already we see readership declining in printed material. Why will it be any different in the online world? When everything can be delivered quickly and simply via snippets of video, who will want to read anymore?

The wide availability of petaflop and exoflop computing will change things; there’s simply no doubt about it. While my wild imaginings might be way off the mark, I think anyone in the business of content writing and creation can understand that the availability of more and more computing power will mean I don’t sit on the floor of the Seattle airport plunking away at a keypad to get my thoughts down. And it won’t mean that we have dedicated content crafters who are subject matter experts. More likely, the ideas of many human “experts” will be instantly pulled in as an aggregate and instantly mixed in with the readers’ reactions.

Just today, a good friend in Seattle amazed me as he demonstrated Siri on his new iPhone. It’s a speech command app that is as near to human interaction as I’ve seen since Dave, the futuristic astronaut, was asked by the supercomputer Hal if he’d dream. This, plus the ever-growing power of supercomputing will make a big difference for us content companies.

And search marketing solutions will have to change. They’ll have to because the nature of what we search for and how search engines value content in a petaflop world will change.

Stay tuned.

Blog writer gets instant results with Google+

IonLeap — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 03:00:42 +0000

Google+ is now available for business accounts. I’ve been dabbling with it on a personal gmail account I use since being invited into it by Mike Valentine, SEO expert. (There’s a high value embeded link for you Mike )

Earlier tonight I posted a cool YouTube embeded video into a very short blog I wrote to make a point about the importance of content writing in the rapidly changing media landscape. A few minutes later, I went back into my recently opened Google+ account for my gmail-managed business email. There, on a group about Content Writing, was my blog post – just minutes later!! How cool is that? (see a grab of it above – yes I shamelessly +1′d it)

Content writing by competent blog writers who understand the changes will win

Attending conferences and participating in lots of online communities is more critical than ever for those trusted to write the blog content that gets companies ranked. It’s not enough to be a compelling writer. You’ve got to keep up with the rapid changes and learn to take advantage of them in inventive ways. My mind is spinning with ideas for how this can help my clients.

The blog post I put up earlier featured a great video about the rapid changes in the media landscape. There have been at least 2 others like this in the past (maybe I just like the graphics and cool music); but every time I see one of these, I’m not so much overwhelmed with the statistics, but energized by the opportunity for the content writing professionals out there and the companies who use them.

The early bird gets the worm?

Those who staked a claim with key phrases are ahead of others who are just now getting into that game. The same might well be true for companies who get into Google+ early; those who generate social media buzz around certain topics; generally, those who take content seriously. It’s all content.

By no means am I one of those who think this is yet another “holy grail” of SEO. Much like QR codes, this will be yet another thing we all have to absorb and learn to manipulate to our advantage. But this social sharing tool is put out by the world’s largest search engine. That presents some serious opportunity as far as I’m concerned.

Blog writers must follow a content strategy

IonLeap — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 13:25:01 +0000

Today I spoke with 6 different prospective clients for ion Leap and told each one the same thing – don’t write a single page of content onto your website, by a blog writer or other pages, that doesn’t follow your content strategy. If you do, it’s a waste of time. The question is how many companies have a content strategy? And if you do, is it driven by your corporate marketing strategy?

Stop floundering

Having a clear content strategy keeps you from wasting time. There are four simple steps to getting a content strategy, and then executing it consistently:

1. Create a simple outline of your product / service offerings – Don’t base this just on the way you think it should be structured. Base it on the way your prospective customers search for what they need.

2. Let that guide your search for key phrases – Google provides free tools for choosing phrases based on search demand per month. Use the tools, but don’t use them blindly. Apply marketing thinking to the selection. Also, make sure you can commit to working with those phrases again and again, turning them into interesting blog postings that will be of value to your prospects. Google must see that you’re committed to particular phrases based on the number of times it’s on your website.

3. Work with key phrases your prospects are using to find companies like yours – This seems to be particularly difficult for many companies. When I look around various business websites, I can immediately tell that people still look at writing as a purely creative exercise. While blog writing for SEO purposes should be creative and fun to read, it must follow a business goal, or don’t bother. Your creative writing days were back in college. Time to get very focused.

4. Use the phrases in the way that works – If you write a blog post in a particular way, it will rank on Google and Bing. If you don’t…it won’t. Our technique of writing blog postings using key phrases is proprietary and I’ll be happy to discuss it with serious companies. Try me at the contact link above.

Getting to page 1 on SERPS doesn’t necessarily result in sales

In certain categories, getting to page 1 on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) definitely means increased sales. But in some higher-cost categories it’s far more difficult to tie a page-1 ranking to a sale.

At ion Leap, we go much further than just getting you ranked on page 1. We examine the pages that are ranking and make the necessary changes to it to ensure a lower bounce rate and cross sell other products and services. We make the offering compelling. Then, if they’re still not ready to buy, we offer the opportunity to at least let us bring them “thought leadership” content like a monthly e-newsletter.

Get ruthless

Look, getting someone to click your page 1 ranking
is no guarantee they’ll be back. You must be compelling.
What they find when they click that page 1 link
must have a sense of urgency to it. We can get
you to page 1. Let us go further.

The next step is to assess what’s happening on your landing pages – the pages they arrive at when they click that page one ranking we’ll get you to. Is there anything that compels them to buy your product or service? Are there relevant, short videos on those landing pages? Is there a way for them to sign up for an e-newsletter?

Why ion Leap

We bring over 25 years of marketing expertise to our integrated approach. Sometimes we recommend that our clients NOT write a blog…not use content marketing. How’s that for a statement in a blog post about blog writing??

If you’re ready to take a more marketing-driven approach to your content – to be ruthless about it – then it’s time to contact ion Leap. We’ll get you focused fast.

Blog Writer Summary:

Hire a blog writer who understands strategy

Make sure each blog is written with those phrases

You must go beyond blog writing to on-page sales

Contact ion Leap for blog writing that works

Why Content Is Still King

IonLeap — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 02:21:19 +0000

You may have heard it said: In the current marketing environment, content is king. Today’s savvy consumers scour the Internet for more than names, prices and reviews. Indeed, even when they’re not just surfing for entertainment, they’re looking for useful information – often website content writing – they can use in their daily lives. Or interesting tidbits to pass along to friends. Even applications they can interact with in a meaningful way. This holds true across all market segments, regardless of your method of customer profiling.

Of course, this wasn’t always the case. In the outdated mode of one-way mass communication, which dominated the marketplace as recently as 15 years ago, consumers had no say in what, where or how they received marketing messaging. And interaction was limited to filling out a business reply card and waiting for a phone call from a sales rep. In short, content was limited to a few paragraphs of ad copy or what an announcer could cram into a 60-second spot.

Social Media: a Vehicle, Not a Destination

Today, with the advent of social marketing – a.k.a. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, et al. – interaction is at the forefront. Friends, acquaintances and colleagues spend a majority of their time online sharing ideas, thoughts and sympathies with each other. But they also share links. Lots of links.

And those links lead to content.

Some of that content is created by individuals just for fun. Much is created by major commercial content providers, from online newspapers and magazines to humor sites to cause-related organizations.

This is where today’s marketer can fit in nicely.

Using valid direct marketing data in order to reach your target market on social networks and elsewhere, you can point them to your own content-rich direct marketing communications that can entertain or inform, and ultimately persuade your target to consider what you have to offer.

Good Website Content Writing = Satisfied Visitors

You see, a web presence without meaningful content to back it up is nothing more than window dressing. Without compelling content to attract visitors, your online marketing will gain little traction. And the simplest place to put your content? A blog.

Some people think that blogs are no longer relevant, having been supplanted by short, single-sentence posts in social media venues. But in truth, having a company blog is more important than ever.

We’ll discuss why in a future post.

Now Google Gets Really Serious about SEO

IonLeap — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 04:49:59 +0000

It’s late Friday night after a long, grueling week of helping rank clients higher on search engines. I really should be off to sleep… I’ve gotten so little this week. You see, Ion Leap does SEO (I cringe to use the acronym) the honest way. We work at it, posting relevant content via blog writer teams; using social media to drive folks to that content; and being good Internet citizens on behalf of honest clients.

Then there are the SEO scum who cheat the system

The system has been bilked for a very long time. I’ve written about this before. Read more about SEO scams here and more here if you’re really bored. My theory is that Google was simply recognizing that thousands of people are employed by these sleezy SEO companies and no one wanted to see folks lose their jobs. But, enough is enough.

Now it’s time for an honest assessment of companies based on what they offer consumers; and nothing else. The ranking algorithms of search engines are complex, yet mostly honest. They look at how long a website has been around – you have to earn it. Then they look at what you say on your website – you have to be an authority. Then they (sort of) look at how many people think you’re an authority by linking to you – that part got mucked us just a weeeeeeeeee bit. This is the part that one search engine is clearly going to clean up. Maybe the others will as well.

Justice, thy name is Google

This is the fourth such article I’ve seen about SEO scams over the past few months. (Article here) I’m so delighted to read this that it warms my heart. The poor consumer doesn’t really know what determines which search results show up on the left side of Google or Yahoo. I’ll tell you why they are there – OFTEN, THE COMPANY SHOWING UP PAID A TON OF MONEY TO DRIVE THOUSANDS OF LINKS TO THEIR WEBSITE.
Period.
End of story.

The number one criteria for ranking companies high on the left-hand side of Google for faaaaaaaar too long has been how many links were pointed at your website. An entire industry sprang up to meet that need. 90% of them are SEO scum but, hey, it’s a job.

Now, it appears that it’s time for search engines to get honest about how “gamed” they’ve been over the past 10…er….20 years by this practice. But, once again, it’s Google who takes the lead. Bless them! Yahoo was looking so creepy in what showed up that I saw no logic logic to it at all (unless it was the logic of the almighty dollar).

Still I worry about honest SEO

The article above seems to want to reassure us that only “12% of search queries” will be affected by this. Well, which 12% ? I hope it’s not just the huge companies. What about the smaller companies who can’t afford to have an army of SEO scum pointing millions of links at them?

This article pretty much condemns Google. The most damning part is the Hitwise statistics which point out the 82% of searches on Bing are considered successful by users while only 66% of searches on Google are useful. “Useful” being measured in terms of bounce rate (or how long the user stayed on the website suggested by the search engine).

I believe it’s time that all search engines get real about what consumers want. Give up on the scam of link scumming and get serious about content. You might say we’re biased because we’re a content writing company. I’d counter that we’re also a group of folks who use search to find the best results, and we’re tired of the crap showing up in our queries. Give us content that answers our questions and solves our problems.

If you run a company who depends on your website to drive new customers in the door, then stop looking for the quick way to scam the system and build something real on the Internet. Stop going to the SEO scum and call Ion Leap instead.

Ion Leap builds lasting brands with valued content.

Top 5 Scary Website Practices

IonLeap — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 14:52:35 +0000

This time of year, there are lots of spooky things going on out there. On the Internet, we get horrified by looking at some of the techniques used in an attempt to trick Google into better rankings. Google wants you to earn your ranking on their search results. There’s really no easy way to achieve page one. But that doesn’t stop the SEO ghouls from trying.

1. Plagiarized Content

Google spiders crawl the Internet looking into all the websites out there; millions of them. If they look through yours and find content that (a) matches some on another website and (b) was posted after that one was, then they’ll drop your ranking. And they’ll drop you hard.

Recently I got a call from some SEO ghouls in India who found us on a search for the phrase Blog Writer. Their client had been on page 2 and wanted to get to page 1. Problem is, they didn’t want to earn it, so they hired this company from India who was paying their writers about $1 for 300 words of content. Naturally, the writers lifted content from another cell phone company website and dropped it onto the new site. Google dropped the client down below page 40. Scary!

2. Cheap Foreign Writers

On this website, I found an anonymous job posting -

“What I prefer to pay is about $1.20 per article, but feel free to bid. (experienced and inexperienced!) Please note that others bidders may bid lower than this amount. So bid accordingly.”

If that’s all I was offering writers to work on clients’ website content, I’d post anonymously too.

This SEO company is looking for blog writers to create 300-word articles about technology – a B2B category – and he’s only going to pay $1.20 per article. Technology is an area that takes time to write and because your audience is knowledgeable, you have to write something of interest for the company’s prospects. Presumably, they know something about technology. But this SEO hack wants to pay only $1.20 per 300 word article. Of course, he’ll mark that up and charge his client more. But the copy will be total crap.

I can’t imagine which technology company the above SEO guy has as a client. Are there companies out there who actually want their website to have the cheapest content possible? Do they know this is going on? I highly doubt it.

3. Link Farming

When you see cute phrases like this, it’s usually time to run the other way. Link farming is the SEO company’s favorite way to rank sites higher. They set up these “farms” and plug your URL into them. The sites exist as nothing more than tons of pages with hundreds of links on them, usually pointing to other pages with links on them. Their goal is to rank their sites higher because of all the links. Then, when they place a link to your site, your rank benefits from their higher link authority. Problem is, these sites are now losing their value.

Even as Google is spanking this practice, the SEO hacks are trying to stay ahead of it by adding in some spun verbiage around the links and choosing meta data that’s appropriate for each page. Like all such practices, this one won’t work for much longer. Problem is, if your site is listed on these farms, you can bet the SEO companies won’t bother to take them off and you’ll be hurt.

4. Content Spinning

I’ve written recently about content spinning. You can read more about it at this link; but I’ll summarize it here. To avoid paying qualified subject matter experts, SEO ghouls will go in and pull bits and pieces from other websites, change just enough words to throw Google off, then use it on their client sites.

If content spinners come in to work on your site, they may also take the existing content from there and blend the words up to throw Google off. Pity the poor reader who stumbles into your site looking for good information. They’ll find some kind of un-readable mess instead.

5. Doing Nothing

I saved the scariest for last. This is the one most companies practice. They park content online and don’t update, optimize, or even think about writing to intersect with the changing search requests of their customers.

The good news is, doing nothing won’t hurt your rank. You’ll still be down below page 5 on what your prospects want. And there you’ll stay – the living dead.

Ion Leap uses blog writer teams to help companies intersect with their prospects’ searches. We practice only ‘white hat’ content creation and linking strategies. As a result, the success our clients enjoy takes longer to earn, but it also stays on top more permanently. If you’re ready to turn your website into a living, breathing, vibrant online entity, put our techniques to work for you. See the “contact” link above.

Content writing. The lifestyle

IonLeap — Sat, 15 May 2010 01:17:35 +0000

It really is a lifestyle. If it’s not, you won’t be able to handle the rigors of it – every day, finding new ways to be relevant to your audience, to add value, to make Google love your words. Over the last 5 or 10 years, content writing for the web has made my life far more interesting.

Exposing yourself

While we almost always write on behalf of other people/companies, good content writing requires that we pour ourselves into every sentence. The best writing exposes the personality behind it. It takes some people a while to develop the ability to let go and be this public with their opinions, their feelings. We have one blog writer who won’t tell her friends she’s doing this for fear they won’t like what she writes. I tell absolutely everyone to come in and read my stuff. I guess I’m a content exhibitionist.

Meet great people

People who are actively participating in social media, blogs, articles, etc. are just naturally interesting. They see more of the world; they have to in order to stay plugged in. All this Internet technology makes it so much easier to be in touch with them and share parts of your life. I’ve found the relationships I’ve formed over the web are very real, in some cases more close than the people who I see every day.

Don’t believe it. I have yet to write in a hammock. Airplanes, yes. Hammocks, no.

Learn a little about a lot of things

While content writers won’t likely be complete experts at many things, the act of writing on behalf of clients means you’ll be smart about a wide variety of subjects. If you’re the curious type, this is the job for you.

As an advertising person, I’ve learned enough to be dangerous about banking, skiwear, Worcestershire sauce, tomatoes, pizza, chicken, forklifts, mountain climbing shoes, stationary bikes, and a lot more. No two days are the same and that makes sitting down to work fun every day.

It also requires me to continuously keep my mind sharp. Making your content writing interesting means you need to bring something to every new subject you tackle. As a result, I read an awful lot, even if I feel like I know a subject. Every business out there is undergoing continuous transformation and we have to keep up.

Living the lifestyle

I get a kick out of wearing jeans most days. In the summer, there’s every chance I’ll be in shorts. Being a night owl, I sometimes stay up until about 2 am. Often I’m up working on social networking for a client or reading the latest to stay sharp a subject. Being up that late sometimes means getting to work at 9:15 or 9:30, and my life works really well that way. I have time to help get the kids out to school. I drive a short commute to the office (with a stop at Starbucks on the way) and I’m writing again by 9:30.

Some people think that the pressure of having to write something brilliant under a deadline is grueling. I actually love it. I’ve been doing this now for over 20 years – first in advertising, then on the web – and I’ve never come up empty.

Loving content writing makes Ion Leap better

We look for a particular kind of person to be one of our blog writers. You can read more about our demanding requirements here. The main requirement is an ability to use active listening; to hear what a client really stands for, to understand the issues of their target market.

Ion Leap writers are also good marketing people. We look for opportunities that only entrepreneurs would be trained to see. We actively engage with our clients in much more than content writing – we’re business partners.

That kid will be a good blog writer

IonLeap — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 05:00:03 +0000

The most successful blog writer in any category is the one who’s the best listener – to the clients, to the consumers, to the world. Only a blog writer who can listen can successfully communicate.

In fact, it’s pretty much true in any line of work. If you can train yourself to really hear people you’ll do better.

Ion Leap blog writer teams listen more

We’re signing up more and more companies who want their websites to succeed, mostly because we’re able to hear what’s really going to help companies get to the top. We do it by listening to what’s going on in their category, by listening to their partners and customers.

Once we’ve listened a lot, our blog writer teams set to work crafting content that both Google and your prospective customers will like. Google will like it because it’s key phrase rich. Your customers will love it because it’s engaging, entertaining and solves their needs.

Then, we keep listening. Our blog writer teams will hear what your potential link partners want, what’s changing in the market. We listen for unusual tactical opportunities and write those into ongoing content.

In fact, we never stop listening. We’d love to listen to you. Call us any time at the “contact” link above.