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Good morning Superwahms – today I just wanted to let you know that I’ve had some exciting news from my good friend Yaro Starak, the world-famous blogger who makes his full time income by writing on his blog.

For those of you who haven’t heard of Yaro, he started blogging a few years ago, and managed to turn his humble site into an online business that makes a great income – we’re talking well into 6 figures – while he was working on it only part time. In fact, we often joke with him that he’s not just achieved Tim Ferriss’s “4 Hour Work Week”, he has created a 4 hour work month!

I have learned heaps from Yaro, in fact he was one of the first people I learned from about how to make money using the internet and working from home. He is a great inspiration and a fantastic teacher (as well as a lovely person!). These days we get Yaro up on stage with us and interview him about his successes with blogging.

But he’s moving on to other projects now and has decided to stop teaching his “Blog Profits” course – which is a real shame.

So here’s the opportunity…I know that many of you probably already own blogs (or would like to), but I also know that many of you aren’t making as much money from them as you could be.

So if you would like to learn how to make great part-time income online, and how you can make a lot of money from the things you love, then I would highly recommend you grab a copy of his “Blog Profits Blueprint” before it disappears forever – you can download it for FREE by clicking here.

I sincerely hope you get as much out of it as I did!

All the best,

Liz

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Hubby brought this cartoon home from work several weeks ago.  I had intended to post it earlier with quite a few LOL and HA HA HA’s  and ROFL, but never quite got around to it.

Lately though, I’ve been feeling both sides of this.  The Darling Daughter, 12yo, has been on school holidays for the last two and a half weeks.  Hubby was home ‘sick’ last week with a bad back, and a couple of days this week with the flu (no, not man-flu thankfully, just ordinary flu).

So in the last few weeks I’ve launched the Two Hour Business Plan in the middle of finding time for a 12yo on holidays, looking after an injured/sick husband and then the lovely generous man (hear the sarcasm there?) decided to pass his revolting germs on to me.  Gee, thanks honey.

Self Pity and Woe Is Me is not what today’s post is about though.  Today I thought I’d have a chat about blogging with a business and list some resources that I use.  Some of the links are affiliate links, so if you end up buying any of these I might make enough to buy a cup of coffee, with cream.  Maybe.

Business blogging

I’m going to assume that everyone reading this knows what a blog is and what RSS is.  If not, feel free to email me and ask.  No, it’s not a silly question and you wouldn’t be the first person to ask me.

What’s your blog’s purpose?

Blogging is really useful for your business but it’s not a golden ladder leaning against the wall of huge profits.  It takes time, effort, technique and purpose.  It can also be a huge waste of time for very little ROI (Return On Investment).

Before you go putting all that work into your blog, you have to know why you’re doing it.  Here’s some of the things that a well-written blog can do:

- attract potential customers

- improve your website’s SEO (as long as the blog is on the same domain as the site)

- show people that you know what you’re talking about

- build a community of like-minded people through comments and discussion

- advertise sales, specials, new products

Know why before you start

Too many people jump into blogging for their business without a clear direction and purpose for it.  Just like everything else in business you need to know what result you’re working towards, so you know when you’re on track and if it’s working or not.

Know what you’re doing and why, and then aim every single post towards that purpose.

Readers aren’t buyers

I’m mainly talking to those who sell a service here, although this is still true – albeit to a lesser extent – for those who sell physical products.

Your blog readers aren’t your clients.

The majority of people who read your blog, subscribe to your RSS, comment on your posts – they’ll never buy from you.  This tends to be a shock for a lot of people, it sure was for me, when you’ve put in hours and hours and hours writing posts and then you realise that the readers aren’t actually buyers.

The majority of your readers are there for the free content.  There’s nothing wrong with that, and business blogging is still a great way to spread the word of what you do.  But if you’re looking at several thousand readers and wondering why they’re not buying – welcome to reality.

Readers don’t look at your website

The majority of readers never visit your website after the first hit, when they subscribe to your RSS.  So you can update your site to your hearts content, fill it with ads, promote every product under the sun and your readers still won’t know about it.

If you want your readers to know something, put it in a blog post with a powerful headline.

Partial feeds mean non-readers

So when a lot of people realise the above fact they decide to make their RSS feed only partial, meaning that RSS subscribers will see the first paragraph and have to click through to read the remainder of the post on the website.  Yay!  More hits on the site, better SEO and people see your site and ads, yes?

No.

Statistics show that partial feeds actually reduce readership.  Your first paragraph is going to have to be absolutely riveting and compelling to get people to click through.  Most readers won’t bother.  But if you have a full feed in your RSS – meaning the entire post is there in the reader or email – then most people will read it.

So why bother with blogging?

It’s a pretty depressing picture here isn’t it?  The readers don’t buy, they don’t visit the website and they don’t read partial feeds.  Why bother putting the effort in?

Because blogging will draw more people to your site.  It shows people what you can do and gives them confidence in you.  Used properly, blogging will attract the right people and get them recommending you.  It’s a great tool, but that’s all it is, a tool.

Use blogging wisely and with a clear purpose, and it will help grow your business.

Blogging Resources

Here’s some resources to help you get the most out of your blogging.  They’re all ebooks that I have bought and used myself.

31 Days to Build a Better Blog

31 Days to Build a Better Blog is a downloadable e-book designed to help you revitalize your blog by giving you 31 tasks that will all help to turn it into the page view powerhouse you’ve always dreamed of.

Each day in the project contains:

A Task – something to DO that day.

Teaching – each day you’ll be given great instruction on both the WHY and HOW of the task of the day.

It’s normally $39 but when I checked the link for this post I noticed it’s only $19.95.  I have no idea how long this price is valid for though.

On a side note, I’m looking to run a blogging workshop during August for those who are interested in developing their blogs using this ebook.  It’ll be free (but you have to purchase the ebook), and I’m still working out the details.  If this sounds like something you’d be interested in please let me know in the comments.

Beyond Bricks and Mortar

Taken from the Beyond Bricks and Mortar sales page:

The Practical Strategy to market your Offline business using Online tools

Beyond Bricks and Mortar gives you the solid footing you need to access practical, useful information on how to blog for your business – when your business isn’t online.

Beyond Bricks and Mortar fills the gap when you’re standing confused on the edge of the online world, unclear on how to bridge it for your physical business, and wondering who’ll tell you how to do that.

This is an amazing book written for those who have physical businesses with an online presence.

How to Build a Professional Blog

How to Build a Professional Blog – the Quick Start Guide to Plan, Launch and Profit with your own Successful Blog.

$47 value, and absolutely free.  Gotta love that! 

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Used under Creative Commons Attribution licence, from RankedHard SEO

Hehehehe, found this online and loved it.  How true!

(If you’re looking for an easily understandable SEO book, check out IttyBiz SEO School (opens in new window) – fantastic ebook.  Leads you step by step through how to set up SEO on your site and why it all works, written in plain english for the non-techie.  Note: the price isn’t on the page but it’s $39.00 and worth every cent!)

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Today’s post is reprinted with permission from Psychotactics by Sean D’Souza.  This particular article is one I keep coming back to, otherwise I’d be rewriting, re-recording and editing for ever.  Enjoy!

The 70% Principle

Have you got eleven seconds to learn a simple principle? A principle that will radically change the way you do things?

You do, don’t you?
Ok, tick, tick, tick….here’s the principle.

It’s called..um…the 70% Principle

So what’s the 70% Principle?

If a job is worth doing, it’s worth doing 70% right.
You can always come back to do the 20% later.

Yes, read it again, and no, the math isn’t wrong.

If you’re going to build a website, a 70% effort is fine.
If you’re going to do a presentation a 70% effort is fine.
If you’re going to bake a cake, for that matter…do you need all the ingredients?

The perfect cake? With all the perfecto ingredients? Or the cake with ’70%’ of the ingredients?

The ‘perfect’ wording on a website? Or the ’70% perfect’ wording on the website?

And nope this isn’t a case for mediocrity

No one is telling you to do crappy stuff. No one’s saying that you need to keep your project unfinished. But in the quest for perfection, most of us never start.

The 70% principle is about getting your best effort out and into the hands of your clients. That you don’t need to start off with a 100%-kaboom-wow-start.

So let’s tell you about our ‘who pushed me?’ start in 2002

We started Psychotactics,in the year 2002, with a 16 page booklet. We called it the ‘Brain Audit.’ And indeedy-doo, it started with just 16 pages. Those 16 pages, we cheekily sold for $20 or thereabouts.

And you know what?

We weren’t trying to keep the pages down to 16 pages, but we certainly weren’t trying to pad up the contents of the book either.

The 16 pages of information were all we knew at the time. And yes, we could have made it 100% perfect, but decided to put our 70% effort out anyyay.

Did I say, put it out? I meant, I got ‘pushed’

You see, I wasn’t keen to sell the Brain Audit. I wanted to get the e-book just right. But I was forced into putting it on the market.

I was forced to putting it on a sales page, by another marketer who promised to promote the book to his audience.

And he never did promote the book

I reminded him. Gently. Then became a bit of a nag. But that promotion never, ever happened. What did happen was that the ‘Brain Audit’ began to sell.

And as it turned out, I was able to add the next 20%,
and the next 20%, and the next 20%.

And yes, the math still adds up

Because all along, that ‘so-called incomplete’ product was selling. And when you think about it, which product or service of yours is ever complete?

As your knowledge grows; as your customers ask more questions; as you apply the concepts in different ways, your product or service gets better all the time.

And today, the Brain Audit is a comprehensive document that not only helps you understand how the customer thinks, but is also the basis for being a member of 5000bc; for doing any of our courses like the copywriting course, product-creation course.

What started out as a ‘who pushed me?’ product, now helps us get thousands of customers. And helps us grow our business considerably from year to year.

Kinda like the iPod, you see

When the iPod came out at first, it was just 10GB (yeah, pathetic ten gigs).

Then it went up to 30GB. And hey, we got video too. Then whoopsy-doo, it was 60GB. And uppity up it keeps going, both in size, features and ease of use.

Where’s the market for the perfect iPod?

There’s no market for the perfect product or service. The product or service that your customers want, is the product or service you have now.

That 70%-perfect product/service, will do fine for your customer.

How can I be so sure?

Could this article have been at least 30% better?
Couldn’t I have found more examples? More case-studies? Put in more details, perhaps? Tweaked my words just so to make it richer, more vibrant?

Sure I could. But you’ve got the point, right?

If a job is worth doing, it’s worth doing 70% right. You can always fix the 20% later.

©2001-2010 Psychotactics Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
Article written by Sean D’Souza.
Wouldn’t you love to stumble upon a secret library of small business ideas. Find simple, yet electrifying ideas,on website strategy, marketing strategies, copywriting, public speaking, article marketing, sales conversion, psychological tactics and branding. Head down to http://www.psychotactics.com today and judge for yourself.

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The very charming James from Men With Pens recently directed me towards Technorati’s recently released “State of the Blogosphere 2008” report. This report has been issued yearly since 2004, and the stats and figures it puts out are interesting. The complete report is so large they spread it over six days (so glad I wasn’t the one writing it!).

They’ve also recently emailed out a link for people to complete a survey for “State of the Blogosphere 2009”. If you’re interested in completing it – and if you’ve got a blog then you should be – click here for the survey.

What really struck me about this years report is the obvious gender bias in blogland. Looking firstly at the Introduction and the ‘Segment Snapshot of Bloggers’ the bias is obvious.

Personal Bloggers = 64% male

Corporate Bloggers = 70% male

Professional Bloggers = 72% male

I’m not sure exactly how Technorati defines the difference between ‘Corporate’ and ‘Professional’ bloggers, since over 50% of all three categories say they are in full-time employment. There seems to be no distinction made between full-time employment blogging and full-time employment elsewhere.

Average time blogging = 35 – 38 months. (Three years, give or take a month or two) There’s no instant path to success here. Experience, and sheer tenacity, seems to be a factor in being a successful blogger. Ask any of the A-Listers and they’ll tell you this, there’s no surprise there.

Looking at the “Global Bloggers by Gender” chart, 83% of females and 76% of males have personal blogs, however when it comes to business only 38% of females have a business blog compared to 50% of males.

These figures show something I’ve suspected for awhile. The internet is a man’s world, baby!

Think about it. Name for me a single female A-List blogger. Dooce – maybe? Others – there are a lot of females who are well-known, but not classed as A-Listers. Gender bias is well and truly alive on the internet, and I have to say it irritates me no end.

Why is this? I mean, why is it a man’s world, not why does it irritate me. If you’re a female then I’m sure you know why it irritates me, and if you’re a guy and you don’t get it then you possibly shouldn’t ask.

Honestly, I don’t know. Females are as intelligent as males, we’re as well educated as the guys are. We’re as tech savvy as them. Yet, what we say has less authority. We attract less readers. People question what we say more than they do a guy’s writing. I guess we as a culture haven’t advanced as much past the days of the suffragettes and equal opportunity as we like to think we have.

But you know what? The ‘why?’ is less important than the ‘so what?’. What does this mean for me? What does this mean for my clients, my friends, my peers? What does this mean for your business?  The fact is that the internet is male-dominated, so how do we live with that, earn a good income and grow our businesses?

So tell me, what’s your opinion on this? Is it truly a man’s world? What chance does a female have of getting to the top of the blogosphere? Leave a comment and tell us what you think.

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I hit a wall last week. Figuratively speaking that is, not an actual wall. You may have noticed there was only one post last week? That wall was one that I’d been warned about, that I’d been told to look for around the six month mark of having the site going and blogging constantly.

I thought I’d missed it. Yay me! After all, I’d been running a coaching business, complete with website, for over four years, why would ‘this’ six month mark be different? And besides, it’s been eight months. I must have missed it, right?

Man, I didn’t even see it coming. That wall just up and hit me right between the eyes last week. Totally unexpected, and frustratingly solid.

It’s the wall of “this is damned hard work” and “I’ve written more in the last eight months for this site than I did in the entire four years of the other website” and the “I’m so sick of sitting down to write/market/tweak/network”. And since it was a busy week in other ways, that wall felt even heavier than it should have.

It’s not that I’ve run out of topics, goodness knows I’ve got topics listed for the next two months and I’m adding to them faster than I’m writing posts. It’s not that I’m not getting results from the website, I’ve got a higher readership than I expected. I’ve got coaching clients contacting. I’ve had people contact me for Joint Ventures, guest posts, links etc. Business is good.

It’s simply the fact of the day to day ‘stuff’ of writing a blog. The glow of initial excitement has faded and gone, it’s no longer a novelty to have a business blog, it’s become the ordinary way to do business. The joy of writing a new post every day or two has disappeared, to be replaced by the mundane-ness of business as usual.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, it happens to every business owner, and apparently it’s usually around the six month mark. I guess I’m lucky that I made it to eight months before hitting the wall. That was probably simply the fact that I had so much going on in my personal life around then – my husband came home from a six month deployment in the Middle East – that I was able to keep going for a bit longer.

It’s not a bad thing, this wall, in fact it’s a good thing, it’s a significant milestone. This wall is a barrier that filters out the serious business people from the wanna-be’s. If you’re not serious about your business, if you’re not prepared to keep on going long-term, if you were expecting it to be easy, then this wall will stop you.

However if you knew from the start that it was going to be hard work, if you planned your business growth over a long period of time, then like me, you’ll get through this. Or you’ll get over it, under it, around it, whatever it takes. That wall won’t stop you more than momentarily. Or, as in my case, for a week.

I spent that week, apart from writing the one post, looking at what I’m doing and going over my business plan. Was this really what I wanted to keep on doing? Was I doing it the best way, or could I make it easier for myself? It was a real wake-up call, this feeling of hitting a wall, to make me look closely at what I’m doing and what I plan to do.

WAHM Biz Builder has evolved constantly over the last eight months, and it’s still changing. We’ve gone from launching in mid January, a major site redesign in April, another site change in July. I can track the changes and development in my writing from my first post to now. (And I’m so thankful it’s developed, because that first post is really badly written! Ugh!) I’ve run a survey of my readers, who basically said keep going in the same direction, that what I was writing about was what they were interested in reading. I’ve trialled Value Based Coaching. It’s been a great eight months.

I’ve been told there’s another wall that hits around the 12 month mark, and then again at 3 years. This time I’ll be ready for them, and not so surprised when they hit. Apparently this happens to every business, from the A-Listers at the top downwards. They’ve all gone through this and come out the other side stronger and more secure.

Last week is over, the wall is behind me now (thank heavens!) and so it’s on with business as usual. And thanks to last week and taking the time to look at what I’m doing, I now have an even clearer vision for the next year.

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How many times have you sat at your computer wracking your brain for divine inspiration that will enable your fingers to fly magically over the keyboard, your screen to fill with meaningful dialogue and teachings, and will culminate in a blog post that will attract readers, be stumbled/twitted/dugg voraciously, linked to, commented on and hailed as the best blog post that ever existed? Well, this post possibly isn’t going to give you the actual topic for that blog post, because if it was then I’d be writing it myself, however it will help get you on the path to finding that topic.

What I am aiming to do is help you with that feeling of “What am I going to write about?  This post has to be published today and I still don’t have a topic” type of writers block. I used to have this regularly, as in nearly every single day.

Plan your post topics in advance.

Simple, yes? But how many people do this? I’m not talking about writing your posts in advance, although that’s a great practice to get into, I’m talking about listing down your future topics.

Why? And what happens when that inspiration strikes and you write your award winning post? Where does that fit in? Glad you asked.

Planning your topics in advance helps with:

- Avoiding writers block when you haven’t a clue what to write about

- Saves the mental angst and energy of having to come up with a topic two hours before the post is due to be published. That mental energy is much better directed towards writing content, not topics.

- You can tie your posts in with other marketing and products that you have. For example, writing a series of posts leading up to the launch of a new product or service. The posts drive interest and curiosity about the product – watch your sales rise.

- It save time, both in creating a topic and writing the post.

- You create a strategic plan for the content of your blog which adds value and interest to your posts.  This will increase the quality of your content and help attract and retain visitors to your site.

- If you know your topics in advance, you can mind-map and draft them in odd moments of spare time. I regularly draw mind-maps of posts while sitting in the car waiting for my daughter to finish her dance class.

- And it’s easy. So easy. Try it and see.

How do you plan your topics? Three easy steps, (so easy you’ll wonder why I wrote them out, however I know if I don’t write them out, then someone will email or comment and ask how):

Step 1. Write a list of topics. Write down anything that comes to mind as a potential topic. Brainstorm. Look at comments that have been left on previous posts, emails you’ve been sent, questions you’ve been asked. Go through the list and delete any that won’t work.

Step 2. Take a piece of lined paper, or a Word document, or even a spreadsheet, and write the dates you plan to publish posts down the left hand side. I have posts planned for four to six weeks in advance. Note any holidays, conferences or other activities that could interrupt your writing and posting schedule.

Step 3. The hardest step. Decide what topic you’re going to post on what day and write it in. You can group similar topics together, plan series of topics on a subject, plan topics for product launches and seasonally relevant topics. Remember to include any dates that you plan to use Guest posts.

Now put the list up where you can see it, and start writing. I carry a copy with me in my notebook, so I can refer to it when I have some spare time; you may or may not want to do this.

Have fun planning your topics, and I’d love to hear how you plan and organise your blog posting. Leave a comment and tell us how you do this.

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This is the third of three guest posts brought to you by Marc Pieniazek of Welsh Scribe.

In this final instalment of the 3 part series on writing effective blog posts we take a look at the all important but oft overlooked end of the post.  Previous posts in this series discussed the importance of the title of the post and how to structure your copy to keep reader’s attention.

You’ve worked hard to entice the reader in with a catchy title and you’ve managed to keep their attention with compelling copy so the last thing you want to do is to end on a weak note and leave that reader hanging.

Thoughts like “now what?” and “is that it?” do nothing to compel the reader into doing something. They feel unfulfilled, like dining out in a fancy restaurant yet leaving hungry despite having a full course. If that was you would you return to dine there? Then why should your reader’s come back for more if your writing doesn’t fulfil them?

Talking of food. The first and most essential thing you need to do is what’s called sandwiching your copy. Let me explain.

Bringing The Closure

We all know what a sandwich is right? Two slices of bread with something in the middle as a filler. Well what would your sandwich be like if it only had one slice of bread? That’s right it wouldn’t be a sandwich.

By the same token you need to end your post on the same note you used to open it. In traditional teaching the structure is along the lines of telling your students what they’re about to learn, teaching them and then telling them what they just learnt.

Sounds a bit repetitive and redundant I know but this repetition has an important psychological effect. It’s called closure. The easiest way to create this closure is to simply mirror your opening paragraph. If you start with a problem then end with the solution.

When you make a sandwich you probably start with two slices of bread. Do the same with your writing start with your opening and closing paragraphs. Then add the filling.

Take a look at how I sandwich this post.

Beyond Psychology

So you’ve made a nice sandwich and your readers are feeling all the better for consuming it but it doesn’t mean they are going to do what you want them to do.

Sure they’re much more likely to return for more which is always a good thing but there are things you can do to increase those chances.

Promise them something at the end. This 3-part series is one example of enticing readers back to your blog. TV shows like LOST and 24 end on cliffhangers. As viewers we just have to know what’s going to happen next so we tune in again the following week. Can you end your blog posts on a cliffhanger?

The end of your post is also where you insert your call to action; subscribe to RSS for example, use social media to promote the blog post or even get them to buy from you. Whatever it is you want them to do just remember you must explicitly ask for it.

Now you are armed with all the knowledge you need to end your posts. Make that end note a strong one so that you don’t leave your readers hanging.

This also concludes the 3 part series on writing an effective blog post. Time to re-read the previous entries to see just how I integrated all the tips into each of them.

I hope you enjoyed this short series. Please do comment with your thoughts or questions.

Marc is a freelance writer and SEO specialist who helps freelancers build a profitable business. Grab his RSS feed today

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This is the second of three guest posts brought to you by Marc Pieniazek of Welsh Scribe.

This is the second post in a 3-part series. The previous post looked at writing headlines that attract attention and enticed readers to continue reading. In this post we’ll take a look at some of the best ways to maximise that attention once you have it.

Hopefully by now you’ve realised the importance of a great headline, the power it has to draw potential readers in and get them to read your copy. But the battle is far from over.

When structuring a blog post bear in mind that many readers have a short attention span. It’s no-one’s fault, it’s in our nature to filter the information that we’re bombarded with. Still, the last thing we want is to have someone click away from your blog post without reading it.

At the very least you want to give them the opportunity to skim through and take what they can. We can do this by breaking up the text.

Bitesize Chunks Are Easier to Swallow. Start with an excerpt or an introduction, something that gives the reader a quick overview of what to expect from the post. Keep them short, 3 or 4 sentences at most. Consider making them visually distinct from your copy as well by using italics.

Paragraphs need to be shorter than usual. Grammar sticklers forgive me; when it comes to blogging – one sentence does make a paragraph.

Headings and subheadings need to convey what’s coming up next or be intriguing enough to get the reader to slow down if only for a moment. If you can do both then you are onto a winner.

Take the previous post in this series as an example. One of the subheadings was to “Steal From Others”. Quite a provocative statement and one that hopefully had it’s desired effect.

Write lists. They are short and let you get your points across quickly with little effort required on the reader’s part. Lists should contain your most salient points, the ones you want your reader to take away with them even if they ignore every other word you’ve written.

Use bold to make parts of your copy stand out. The trick is to use it sparingly however. Like lists, highlight only the salient points.

Closure. There is one more thing to do with your post content to make it truly effective. Ending it properly. It’s no good leaving your readers hanging wondering what next.

That however is the topic of the next post in the series. 

So now you have a variety of ways to make your blog posts easier to digest. Remember, don’t stop at the title, once you have the reader’s attention don’t let it slip through your fingers.

Marc is a freelance writer and SEO specialist who helps freelancers build a profitable business. Grab his RSS feed today

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Today’s post, and the following two this week, are brought to you by Marc Pieniazek of Welsh Scribe.

Marc has the honour of being the very first Guest Poster on this blog!  He writes great copy, has a wicked sense of humour and is a lovely guy to know.  I hope you all enjoy his posts here as much as I do.

This first post in a 3-part series explores the structure of a blog post, in particular what you need to do in order to draw the reader in and get your message across.

Lets face it. Writing for the web is totally different from any other form of writing you have to do. Take a novel for example. Unless you’re a 3 year old, you don’t care that your book doesn’t have any pictures in it but we all know how important it is to have an image in our blog posts.

The most critical factor however is attention span. Not only do you have to grab a reader’s attention but you have to keep it. A difficult feat in this day and age.

Fortunately there are a few things you can do to increase your reader retention.

Start At The Top

The title is the first thing any potential reader will see and is therefore the most important element in any online writing. Don’t underestimate its power.

You can have the most important message mankind will ever hear, the best product or service guaranteed to solve every one’s problems but if your title fails to attract attention, that message won’t be spread and no-one will buy that super product or service of yours.

Steal From Others

T.S Eliot once said, “Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.”

Marketers call it a swipe file.

If you want to know what titles get the most attention then copy what works. Not word for word, obviously, The title has to remain true to your post. “Top 10 Fashion Tips From The Celebs” is no good if you blog about dog grooming.

Brian Clark has an entire series on how to write magnetic headlines.  Well worth a read but if you’re looking to get off the ground quickly here’s a list of time-tested titles that draw in the most readers.

•    The “How To…”: It’s no coincidence that this post begins with the words “How To”.  How to articles are the most sought after content online.

•    The “Top X…”: Another extremely popular type of article or blog post is the list post and an easy way of creating a list is by compiling a Top 10 or 50 or 100.

•    The “X reasons/secrets/ways Why…”: Expanding on the above point about list posts are titles containing a number of reasons or ways why something will work. The best example is Brian’s article 7 Reasons Why List Posts Always Work. On my own blog, the top 3 popular posts are of this format.

•    The “[celebrity] Guide To…”: Everyone wants to be successful at something and there’s no better example of success than a celebrity.  This is why my post “What the Phantom Of the Opera Can Teach You About Writing” is still getting traffic or why “The Winnie the Pooh Guide To Blogging” received 132 comments.

So there you have it.  Next time you write a blog post try fitting the title into one of the above categories. Spend a considerable amount of time on it, your post deserves it.

In the next post in this 3 part series I’ll take a closer look at the body of the blog post and what you need to do in order to get your message across, even to those that just skim through.

Marc is a freelance writer and SEO specialist who helps freelancers build a profitable business. Grab his RSS feed today.