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Excess Voice Newsletter
April 2007, Issue # 129
In this issue:
>> Intro: Thanks for all the feedback
>> Review: The 4-Hour Workweek. A book by Timothy Ferriss
>> Article: 3 Reasons to Add Articles to your Web Site
>> Other: A job listing...and your book recommendations
>> Survey: Do You Have a Say in Design?
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Greetings,
First, let me thank everyone who responded to last week’s email about working from home.
I hadn’t anticipated such a large response, and I am very grateful for the time and work so many people put into their answers. It looks like this is going to become a larger project than I had originally anticipated. Which is a good thing.
In this issue we have a review of book that is being published today, and an article on the subject of writing articles for web sites.
As always, please take a moment to respond to the survey question.
Until next time,
Nick
Nick Usborne
Newsletter: http://www.excessvoice.com
Copywriting and consulting: http://www.nickusborne.com
>> Feedback: mailto:nick@excessvoice.com
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REVIEW: The 4-Hour Workweek. A book by Timothy Ferriss
If you haven’t read this book yet, it’s not surprising. The publication date is today, April 24th.
I was fortunate to get an advance copy from the publisher, and finished it within 24 hours.
This is rare for me, as I read a lot of fiction and usually have a non-fiction book lurking in the background for occasional reading.
In a nutshell, this book starts with the question: If you want to enjoy life on your own terms, why wait until retirement age before you get started?
He paints a picture of burned out executives, working too hard, for too long and never even having time to pause and ask, “Why exactly am I putting myself through all this?”
That’s how the book starts...it then moves on to show you how to change your work life and create a business that allows you to enjoy life now.
You can read my full review here:
http://www.excessvoice.com/four-hour-workweek.htm
Previous Reviews:
#1. Freelance Writing Success in a Box
You may have the talent to be a great copywriter. But do you have the skills to run and grow a truly profitable copywriting BUSINESS? This guide shows you how...
Read my review...
http://www.freelancewritingsuccess.com/success.php
#2. Landing Page Handbook - How to Raise Conversions
This report from MarketingSherpa is the first I have seen that provides solid data on what does and doesn't make a difference to landing page conversion rates. Tons of data on copy and design strategies. Dozens of before and after examples and the improvements achieved.
Read my review:
http://www.excessvoice.com/landing-page.htm
#3. Keyword Discovery – a keyword research and analytics tool for SEO and PPC.
Filled with advanced search features, Keyword Discovery draws on search results from over 200 search engines. If you are serious about attracting organic search engine traffic, or optimizing PPC campaigns, you'll want to check this out.
Read my review:
http://www.excessvoice.com/keyword-discovery.htm
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ARTICLE: 3 Reasons to Add Articles to your Web Site
With content sites like Excess Voice, it’s a given that a large part of the site will be devoted to articles.
But even if you’re selling furniture or herbal supplements, the addition of a large number of articles to your site offers several benefits.
>> Benefit #1: The major search engines love single-topic text pages.
If you’re selling office furniture, for example, you probably have quite a few elements you need to put on your home page. You have categories to present and photos to include, offers to make etc.
Particularly with online retail sites, it can be a problem doing a full search engine optimization job with your home page. One way or another, your theme is going to be broad.
For instance, while you may show all kind of different kinds of furniture suitable for office use, it’s going to be tough optimizing your home page beyond your primary theme – office furniture.
If someone does a search for a specific item, like a kneeling chair, your home page is not very likely to appear high on the search results page.
Even your sales page for the kneeling chair will have an inner conflict when it comes to optimization...should you be optimizing for keywords, or for sales conversions? Probably the latter. And a product sales page may not always contain a great deal of copy.
So what do you do?
You write articles. And you don’t just write one article about kneeling chairs...you write five or ten. And you optimize each one for a particular keyword within the “kneeling chair” theme.
When you do that, you are far more likely to be listed high up for specific items in your inventory, and each article can contain a link to the appropriate sales page.
>> Benefit #2: People like articles too.
Some people may conduct a search while thinking, “I want to buy a kneeling chair”. But many others will type in the keywords while thinking something like, “What the heck is a kneeling chair? A colleague said it helped with her back pain, but I’d love to know more about this.”
A lot of searches start out as questions. And articles do a great job of answering questions. When your articles are each focused on a single topic and keyword, then you will be writing information that is almost certainly useful to your readers.
And if you do a great job of answering your readers’ questions, you increase the chance of them buying that product from your site, and not from your competitors.
>> Benefit #3: Engage your readers with a great article, and then get them as a subscriber.
When you write a useful article, be sure to add your newsletter subscription form and offer immediately beneath it.
If a reader finds the information in your article useful and enlightening, then you have created just the right environment in which to ask him or her to sign up for your newsletter...and receive additional interesting articles.
In other words...the moment is perfect. You give them great content, and then invite them to sign up to get future articles by email.
You may not get a huge number of newsletter sign-ups from a single article.
But what if you published a hundred articles? Or two hundred?
>> Concluding thoughts...
Both people and search engines like single-topic pages which are relevant to the search query.
On many sites, both the home page and second level pages are attempting to address a variety of issues, and please a number of different stakeholders.
Article pages have no such burdens.
You can write them with the sole purpose of pleasing your readers, Google, Yahoo! and MSN.
** If you would prefer to read this article on the web, or would like to forward the url to a colleague or friend, you'll find it here:
http://www.excessvoice.com/article129.htm
>> Feedback: mailto:nick@excessvoice.com
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OTHER:
A couple of extra items for this issue:
1. The Web Services Group at Washtenaw Community College (Ann Arbor, MI) is looking for a full time Web Writer.
You'll find details of the position here:
http://www.wccnet.edu/humanresources/jobs.php
2. A couple of issues back I asked for suggestions for good books on marketing. I have finally added the list of your recommendations here:
http://www.excessvoice.com/books-on-marketing.htm
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SURVEY: Do You Have a Say in Design?
As a writer, do you have some influence over the final layout of your text? Do you get to let the designer know where points of emphasis should lie etc?
[ ] Yes, I do.
[ ] No, I don't.
[ ] Other.....
Comments: ....
(NOTE: Any comments and your name may be published in the next issue, or on the Excess Voice web site.)
Cut and paste your replies to me at mailto:nick@excessvoice.com
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NICK USBORNE'S SERVICES:
Yes, I do more than write articles and publish newsletters.
Ask me to write for your site, emails and newsletters.
http://www.nickusborne.com/copywriting.htm
Ask me to optimize your key offer pages...
http://www.nickusborne.com/consulting.htm
Check out my online marketing advice in audio and other downloadable media.
http://www.conversioninsights.com
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