Hell yes!!!

Because the secret to great writing (especially writing successful headlines) is blatant and unrepentant theft.

When the likes of Shakespeares, Thomas Jeffersons, Oscar Wildes… plagiarized other writers, who the heck do you think you are?

Still believe that everything you write must be original?

Ok, then you’ll get very little done and the ever increasing pressure of being original all the time will finally give you a nervous breakdown or something.

And I don’t want that to happen.

But hey! I also don’t want you to violate copyrights or claim someone else’s work as your own.

I just want you to take a look at these templates, (you’ll instantly realize how powerful they are), try to tweak them and use them in your next blog posts, ads, or any other piece of copy you write.

Trust me, you’ll be amazed to see the results.

I’ve personally experienced it.

When I use one of these templates, my so-so post gets great response and when I try to craft an original headline from the deep-seated muscles of my mind, my best posts fall flat on their face.

Am I building up too much?

Ok, here are the 100 highly converting and highly successful headlines written by some topnotch copywriting gurus (towards the end, there’s a lesson you should walk away with – don’t miss it):

1. How to raise your child’s IQ before it is even born
2. The Secret of Being Wealthy
3. He Became Twice The Man At Half The Weight
4. How To Write A Good Advertisement
5. The Crimes We Commit Against Our Stomachs
6. Here Is A Way To Become Tight, Lean, Attractive and Remarkably Healthy In Just 45 Minutes Three Times A Week
7. How Do You Grow $1,000 Worth of Food In A Garden This Small?
8. Stop Dreaming And Start Making Money
9. The Chinese Secrets of Weight Control
10. Who Else Wants to Make Big Money In Electronics
11. They Laughed When I Sat Down At The Piano — But When I Started To Play…
12. Vita-Mix Makes Juice 12 Times Faster Than Other Juicers – And 400% More Nutritious
13. Imagine Me . . . Holding an audience spellbound for 30 minutes!
14. The Amazing Money-Making Power of Pac-Man And His Friends!
15. Smart Car Owners: Save Up To 87% Off Retail Prices On Your Spare Parts
16. HOW TO BECOME DEBT-FREE AND STAY THAT WAY – FOREVER
17. Gold Coast Lawyer Discovers How To Make Money At Home With The Help Of the Federal Government
18. Do You Sincerely Want To Be Rich?
19. How to Get $373,500 Out Of A $300,000 House
20. Do You Make These Mistakes In English?
21. You Don’t Have To Die To Collect On Your Insurance Policy
22. Some Straight Talk About Vitamins And Your Sex Life
23. 47 Reasons Why It Would Have Paid You To Answer Our Ad A Few Months Ago
24. Buy No Desk . . . Until You’ve Seen This Sensation Of The Business Show
25. The Machine That Peels Off Kilograms While You Sit Back And Enjoy It
26. How to Wake Up the Financial Genius Inside You
27. How To Rob Race Tracks Legally
28. How To Avoid Having Your Car Stolen This Summer On The Gold Coast
29. Sydney Lawyer Reveals The Insiders Way To Get Even
30. How to Find Someone To Love
31. To People Who Want To Write — But Can’t Get Started

32. WHY SOME PEOPLE ALMOST ALWAYS MAKE MONEY IN THE STOCK MARKET

33. Why Some People Almost Always Make Money In The Stock Market
34. Too Busy Earning A Living To Make Any Money?
35. Attention: Home Owner. Don’t Buy Any Curtains Until You Read This
36. Can You Pass This Memory Test?
37. The 5 Most Costly Mistakes In Business — How Many Are You Making Right Now?
38. 12 Special Tax Strategies That Are Making Doctors Rich
39. Dare to be rich!
40. Man Who Limped With Foot Pain – Now Runs 2 Miles Every Day!
41. Free Book – Tells You 12 Secrets Of Better Lawn Care
42. A Little Mistake Costs A Farmer $3,000 A Year
43. How To Win Friends And Influence People
44. Pregnant? The Sooner You Know, The Better
45. Everywhere Women Are Raving About This Amazing New Shampoo
46. Advice To Wives Whose Husbands Don’t Save Money – By A Wife
47. There’s Another Woman Waiting For Every Man – And She’s Too Smart To Have “Morning Mouth”
48. How To Write Copy That Will Make You Rich
49. The “10 Quickest Ways” To Get More Customers
50. The Lowdown On Self-Publishing
51. How To Discover The Fortune Lying Hidden In Your Daily Paper
52. Fatten Your Bank Account
53. It’s Crazy That A High School Dropout Would Make This Much Money
54. Six Types of Investors — Which Group Are You In?
55. Here’s A Quick Way To Break Up A Cold
56. The Secret Of Having Good Luck
57. How To Start From “Scratch” And Become A P.O. Box Millionaire
58. But What If You Could See Her Naked?
59. What Would You Rather Do This Evening: Watch TV Or Make Some Real Money?
60. How To Push Your Resume To The Top Of The Stack
61. An Amazing Business You Can Carry In Your Pocket
62. How The Experts Buy And Sell Gold And Silver
63. Here’s How To Find Out If Your Bank Is About To Go Bankrupt!
64. Little Leaks That Keep Men Poor
65. How I Made A Fortune With A “Fool Idea”
66. Does Uncle Sam Owe You Money You Don’t Even Know About
67. 38 Fun, Easy Ways To Earn $500 Next Weekend
68. How Come Some People Can Walk Up To A Blackjack Table And Always Walk Away A Winner
69. 10 Easy Ways To Meet People, Have Fun And Lose Some Weight At The Same Time
70. Banking Secrets That Banks Don’t Want Published
71. How To Beat The Banks At Their Own Game
72. The Lazy Man’s Way To Riches
73. If You Can Lick A Stamp – You Can Lick Your Weight Problem
74. How To Double Your Income In Just 60 Days
75. How To Get 12 Hours Out Of An 8-Hour Day
76. Are You An Overeducated Underachiever?
77. Movie Actor Reveals Amazing New Weight-Loss Breakthrough
78. For The Woman Who Is Older Than She Looks
79. Speak Spanish Like A Diplomat
80. Are They Being Promoted Right Over Your Head?
81. Business Owners: “How to Increase Your Profits In A Recession”
82. How to Earn $30,000 a Month with Low Budget Direct Mail Projects’
83. They Laughed When She Said She Could Treat Her Sick Children Without Drugs or Surgery
84. Attention Business Owners: $97 Makes $38,870
85. How To Make $25,000 a Month with Low Budget, High Profit Projects you can Start Today and  Run from Anywhere in the World
86. Are you ready to start your own $10,000 a Month Direct Mail Business
87. Own A Business Of Your Choice Without Investing 1 Cent
88. The Most Comfortable Shoes You Have Ever Worn Or Your Money Back
89. Financial Columnist Makes Unique Discovery
90. The Amazing Diet Secret Of A Desperate Housewife
91. How The Way You Undress Reveals Your Personality
92. Are You Tired Of The Treatment You’re Getting?
93. Scientists Discover Mystery Chemical That Seems To Drive Women Wild!
94. The Secret Of Making People Like You
95. Are You Ever Tongue-Tied At A Party?
96. If Your Home Doesn’t Have An Alarm He’ll Break-In Just 10 Seconds. With A Wormald Back-To-Base Alarm He Won’t Even Try!
97. Here’s A Way To Make Money That Has Never Yet Failed
98. How To Beat Tension Without Pills?
99. How A New Kind Of Clay Improved My Complexion In 30 Minutes
100. Tiger’s Top 10 Tips for Improving Your Golf Swing

The lesson you can learn from these templates

People want to know the secret of other successful people, the secret that can help them get a lot by doing very little.

Do you promise to write headlines that’ll help your readers get a lot by doing the bare minimum?

Over to you

Enjoyed reading?

Share the post so others can also benefit.

Have a question, suggestion, or moan?

That’s why blogs have a comment section!

The post Copywriter’s Cheat Sheet: 100 Most Successful Headlines Of All Times appeared first on Writers Blog.

Freelancing is one of the best ways to make money online.

You can set your own hours, work from anywhere you want and have the freedom to live life on your own terms.

However, as an ever increasing number of people are pursuing it, it’s becoming an ever more competitive field to work in.

Despite the increased competitiveness, the good news is that there are some simple and easy steps you can take to jump start your freelance career and rise above the competition.

Here are the top four of these steps:

1. Brand Yourself In Your Field

As a freelancer you are going to face competition.

It is a simple fact of life.

One of the best and most effective ways to overcome this is to brand yourself in your field, so you’re known as an expert. When you become recognized as an expert, clients are naturally attracted to your service and are willing to pay a premium. You become the “go to” person in your niche and suddenly become flooded with more clients than you can handle.

Here’s how to brand yourself as an expert in your field -:

• Start a Blog where you share your expertise on your subject
• Write a Book on your topic and publish it on the Kindle
• Conduct interviews with other gurus in your field
• Start a podcast and release it on iTunes
• Speak at Conferences and Seminars related to your niche

Take it one step at a time in branding yourself and you’ll quickly find your earnings skyrocketing. Not only that, but you’ll be able to pick only the best clients to work with.

2. Gather Testimonials And Other Social Proof

People are skeptical in today’s modern world, and especially online where things are less tangible as compared to the offline world.

As a result, you really need to go out of your way to prove your trustworthiness to your potential clients.

One of the most effective ways to do this is to show them testimonials and social proof like case studies and earning figures from previous clients.

If clients have the expectation that they’ll have a smooth and successful experience working with you, they’re going to naturally gravitate towards working with you.

Copyright: deviantart.net

It doesn’t matter if you’re a copywriter, freelance wordpress developer, transcriptionist, virtual assistant or fall into any one of the myriad of other freelance positions.

The scenario remains the same.

On your website and on any other Jobs Boards, you must put your best foot forward and show clients your best work and testimonials from other clients to convince them to hire you.

3. Keep In Touch With Your Existing Client Base

One of the most overlooked yet powerful strategies for being a successful freelancer is to keep in touch with your previous clients.

You need to make sure you’re in their minds when they next come to hire someone.

A great tactic for doing this is to:

build an email list with all of your previous clients and send them newsletters sharing your tips and informing them of openings in your schedule.

It is easier to get a previous client to hire you again and again than to find a new one. Therefore, you must invest time in nurturing your client relationships and keeping in contact with previous clients.

4. Always Over-deliver

If you want to be successful as a freelancer then you can’t afford to provide average service.

In today’s Internet world with unlimited choice you need to stand out from the crowd.

Doing more than what is expected of you is one of the best ways to do this. It builds your reputation and creates an enormous amount of good will for you.

All in all, freelancing is a tremendous opportunity and if you apply the 4 key tips in this article then you will give yourself a powerful advantage over your competitors and increase your earnings exponentially!

Over to you

Have a question?

We’re all ears… just drop a line in the comments.

Enjoyed this article?

Consider sharing it with others.

About the guest author: Hasan is a freelance web developer and designer. He also writes for several blogs and websites including WP Gurus.

The post The “4 Quickest Ways” To Become A High-Earning Freelancer appeared first on Writers Blog.

But if you’re good at crafting titles, you can improve those figures… big time!

Newspapers know what type of headlines work the best, so let’s learn from them.

Grab today’s paper and check out the ads age.

Is that a toil?

Ok, forget it; let me make life easy for you, just click the two images below to view them in their full size and read the text:

Noticed how clearly each ad appeals to its potential buyer?

Now look at these ads:

“What the heck are they trying to sell”… you must be thinking something like that, right?

Purpose of a headline

Secrets of Writing Headlines That Could Make You Rich, a report published by Peter Sun Publishing in 1996, explains the purpose of writing headlines in these words:

The only purpose of a headline is to target the person you want to reach and to sell them on wanting to know more.

Or

The main purpose of a headline is to pick out the people who will be most interested in your product or service.

Now let’s go back to our two types of ads: the first one contains ads written by folks who understood, and exploited the basic purpose of a headline, while the ads in the second one were written by people who tried to be smart and missed their mark!

Interestingly, even if your ‘cute’ headlines do pull in some traffic, a large percentage will NOT be your potential buyers.

The only trick that always works

I know you have read a plethora of content about writing headlines, something along these lines:

• Write multiple titles before deciding on the most appealing one
• Write headlines that raise curiosity
• Headlines with question work the best
• Try to copy the successful headlines
• Put some kind of news/discount into your headline
• Write short headlines

While all these tips, and many others, may or may not work, the only thing that will almost always work is targeting your specific audience in your headline.

What you should never do

Go ahead and experiment with your headlines, because that’s the only way to learn new things but never make any of the following silly mistakes:

• Trying to be clever, humorous, or abstract is probably the dumbest waste of your effort, time and money – because it drives very little, usually irrelevant (and worthless) traffic
• Never use headlines that are tricky, confusing or incomplete in their message – because people don’t have time to solve your puzzles
• Never use headlines that need readership of the rest of the advertisement to be understood – because nobody will bother

Further reading

• Download my Free mini ebook, and read it. You’ll learn a useful formula to craft your headlines.
• How to make your post titles search engine friendly.
• Basics of headlines on Wikipedia.
• Here’s a great series about writing magnetic headlines published on copyblogger.

Over to you

Enjoyed this article?

Consider sharing it with others.

The post Why You Write Lame Headlines And How Newspaper Ads Can Help appeared first on Writers Blog.

How would you make the most of the little, precious time you’re left with?

If I were given this bad news, I’d fly a plane, go on long drives with friends, visit places I’ve never been before, donate most of my stuff, spend some time with my family, and bid farewell to my blog readers.

Hold on, did I ever mention “writing” in my pre-death to-do list?

No!

Maybe because I’m not a hardcore writer.

Here’s what Isaac Asimov – a true hardcore writer – will do:

“If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn’t brood. I’d type a little faster.”

That shows writers are always short of time and have only one thing on their mind: writing!

Though the modern technologies have made life easier for writers, they’re also accompanied by many lethal distractions.

The biggest of them – which we usually don’t even recognize as a time-waster – is email.

If you’re guilty of wasting a lot of time hovering around your inbox, Gmail can be your saving grace; let’s see how.

Please note that some of these tweaks will work only with the Google Chrome and as long as you are singed in.

1.       Gmail is unconditionally there for you… 24/7

What if you were expecting an important message but the email server is down?

You’ll be too frustrated to do anything, let alone writing.

Usually, the likes of Yahoo, Hotmail, and Gmail don’t suffer email outage, but if Gmail server is encountering an issue, there are several alternate ways to access your inbox.

If the standard version of Gmail isn’t available, you can still open the plain HTML version via this link. Yet another option is iGoogle Gadget.

But what if you don’t have an internet connection at all?

The world won’t slow down, and you surely don’t want to be left behind.

Get the Gmail Offline add-on and you’ll be able to read, responded to, search and archive the emails… without network access!

2.       No more embarrassment because of forgotten attachment

A few months back, I had to write a press release for one of my repeat clients on urgent basis.

Around 1:00 AM, I finally managed to finish it, emailed the client and went to sleep with a satisfied heart.

The first thing that greeted me the next morning were two fuming emails from the client, moaning that there was NO attachment with the email.

Has this ever happened to you?

Besides being embarrassed, you’ve to re-send the attachment, apologize for forgetting it… more time wasted.

To make sure it doesn’t happen again, always write “I’ve attached…” in your email body whenever sending a file. If you forget to attach, Gmail, like a good friend, will give you a heads up.

3.       No more switching between the windows

The temptation is to check your inbox again and again, especially when expecting an important note.

If your wish is to get a desktop notification for every new email, while you carry on with your work, it’s Gmail’s command.

To enable the notifications, go to Settings, under General tab scroll down to Desktop Notifications and check New Mail Notifications radio button.

There’s also an option to get notifications only for the important mails.

4.       Safe subscriptions with infinite email Ids

I can admit it freely now: I used to be a skirt chaser during my college days.

Unlike the West, where guys openly seek dates in bars and pubs, the method to pick up girls is different in my country, Pakistan – mainly because of the cultural restraints. You’ve to do everything secretly or the wrath of your parents, their parents, neighbors, and Mr. Somebody, who doesn’t even know you, will seize upon you.

To stay discrete, I would clandestinely give the girls my cell number, and the things would move along. Then came a time when identifying different girls became quite a challenge and some of them started suspecting me of having ‘another’ affair. After that, I started telling every girl a different, made-up name, and boy… it worked!

Why the heck am I boring you with these narratives?

Because you can do the same with your Gmail.

(Maybe they’ve stolen my idea.)

Being a writer/blogger, you’ve to subscribe to several newsletters, events and other lists, which can result in spam inroads. The worst part is that you can’t even identify the culprit, unless you are using Gmail as it lets you use a different email address for each subscription.

Let’s pretend your email is freelancewriter@gmail.com, now any email sent to freelancewriter+abcd@gmail.com, freelancewriter+xyz@gmail.com and so on, will land in your inbox.

So if you’re subscribing to Writers Blog, just add WB after a ‘+’ sign: freelancewrier+wb@gmail.com. This way you’ll know which mailing list has been compromised and you can get rid of it.

Obviously, you can use this tactic for many other benefits.

5.       Automate communication, enjoy vacation

When you’re out of office, Gmail will notify all the clients who contact you.

To set up the vacation responder, simply fill a simple form under the General tab.

Want more?

If you’re an over-adventurous soul, check out the Labs menu under the Settings where you will find some crazy experimental stuff. Here, you can modify settings to un-send an email, save canned responses, operate multiple inboxes, and do a lot more.

Gmail also features the most powerful search bar, built-in translator, labeling mechanism, interactive native mobile apps for all the major mobile operating systems… the list goes on, and on.

Over to you

If you can steal a few extra minutes from your email routine every week and invest them into what you are meant to do i.e. writing great stuff, it’ll surely boost your productivity.

To share with us any other Gmail tricks you know, drop a line in the comments.

The post 5 Little-Known Reasons Why Writers Should Use Gmail appeared first on Writers Blog.

Check these out, and also post a link to your favorite article.

Writing

• Finally, master the art of writing killer headlines (in 25 minutes)
• The ultimate guide to skyrocketing your freelance writing rates
• Unlock the 14 little-known tips to proofread your own work flawlessly
• 3 secrets of copywriting gurus don’ want you to know
• Top 10 websites that pay you to write an article
• The naked truth about earning passive income with your writing

Blogging

• How perfectionism is killing your blog!
• How to find free pictures for your blog (in just 5 minutes)
• 10 deadly mistakes almost every new blogger makes
• The absolute beginner’s guide to creating a landing page
• 7 unusual places to find your next blog post title

Marketing/SEO

• Do you make these 6 SEO mistakes when writing your blog post titles?
• How safe is your blog from Google’s over optimization penalty?
• Finally, Google answers ‘are my pages indexed in Google’?
• How my blog jumped from PR0 to PR3 in just 7 months (infographic)

Ok, now go ahead and drop a link to the best article you read/wrote during 2012.

Thanks for a wonderful 2012, see you in 2013.

Happy New Year!

The post Best Articles Of 2012 – Writers Blog appeared first on Writers Blog.

One post there is better than 20 on mediocre blogs.

But you’re unsure, almost scared!

You don’t even consider the A-list blogs for guest posting.

The fear of rejection is holding you back from what can be your biggest leap towards glory.

If that rings a bell, this article is for you – it’s a comprehensive, step-by-step guide to getting your article live on ANY blog.

But first, here are two big newsflashes:

1. My guest post was recently published on ProBlogger: How To Publish Your Blog On Kindle
2. Writers Blog is now available on Amazon Kindle, click here to check it out

I’d totally love for you to go ahead and write a review of Writers Blog on Amazon. And if you own a Kindle, you can read it there for as low as $0.99/mo.

Back to the topic.

It takes time

Copyright: inquarta

You can’t write a post in the evening and see it on the homepage of a big blog next morning.

It took me about 3 days to write the said article… is that a lot of time?

Check this: Tommy Walker of IncomeDiary took nearly two years to write a guest post for Chris Brogan’s blog.

Be ready to invest a few hectic hours, and the outcome will be well worth every drop of your sweat.

Find a relevant blog

Most sections in this article are in favor of the host blogger, this is the only one for you.

If you’re a copywriter, a guest post on a dog training blog will be a sheer waste of time and energies.

Remember, relevancy is the key to pull in targeted audience.

At the end of the day, you’re writing the guest post to gain a benefit, and only targeted audience will grant you your wish.

Read their guidelines

The easiest way to upset any blogger is to ignore their guidelines.

Even your best piece can get rejected because of this.

Read the guidelines before you pick a topic, and one more time when sending the post… and follow them to the letter.

Connect with the blogger

Simply sharing their recent post won’t do.

They’re already getting hundreds of tweets, likes and shares, and might never know about your kind act.

But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t share their content; in fact you should stalk them on social media to find out their likes and dislikes, because the more you know them, the better your chances of getting a Yes are.

The best way to get connected with the blogger is dropping insightful comments on their posts.

No matter how busy a blogger is, he’ll read most of the comments and that’s where you can standout of the crowd.

Don’t comment on every post, and never comment when you don’t have something useful to say.

Get to know their audience

Skim though their recent posts, most popular posts, recent guest posts and some comments. The most commented and most shared articles will divulge the type of content their readership likes.

Choose your topics

Heads-up!

This is the most important step of all.

If you’ve chosen a relevant blog, and have done your homework to get acquainted with the audience, choosing a topic will become easy.

Just don’t write on a generic topic or the one that’s been recently published.

Again, any questions in the comments can help you. If you can identify content gaps and fill them with your write-up, you’ll surely move a notch up in the blogger’s books.

By hey! Did you notice something?

The subhead says choose your topics – not topic!

Why?

It’s quite possible that your first idea might get rejected, but if you’ve connected with the blogger, and have pitched them properly, they might ask you for a different topic.

This is what happened with me when I pitched ProBlogger.

When they asked me to come up with an alternate topic, I was at a loss.

I spent next 24 hours mining through different resources on the internet and finally conceived the idea which was accepted.

I wish I already had a backup idea that would have saved me a lot of time and effort.

Here are some tips to find a good topic:

• The easiest way is to get into their reader’s shoes and imagine what keeps them up at night
• If you can’t pick out a decent topic, check out other popular blogs, Google Trends, Google News, newspapers, or try your luck with the content generation tool
• If nothing works, head to some unusual places for inspiration
• Never ask your host to tell you what you should write. If they wanted something written, they would do it better themselves

Write a high-quality piece

Several blog posts, even books have been written on this section, but keeping the following few points in mind will help:

• Do extensive research, even if you’re a guru
• Don’t be nervous – nobody will shoot you even if you make the dumbest of mistakes
• Don’t imitate someone else, go with your own voice
• Write killer a headline
• Use simple words
• Your write-up should be as long as necessary and as short as possible
• Engage audience by asking questions
• Add internal links – most bloggers would love this
• Prove you’re an authority by adding relevant stats, quotes etc.
• Edit ruthlessly; get rid of all the needless words/sentences, and make sure there are 0 syntax errors
  (Click here for some handy tips on proofreading your own work.)

Pitch

Be polite, keep your pitch short and to the point.

Here’s the email I sent to Darren Rowse (keep an eye on the underlined pressure points):

Hey Darren,

How are you?

I know you’re a busy dude, so I’ll be brief.

I was wondering if you would be interested in publishing my guest post that I’ve written (after a week’s hard work) specifically for the Problogger readership:

How To Publish Your Blog On Amazon Kindle

I’m sure your readership will find it helpful.

Hope all is well, and hope to hear from you soon

Best regards,
Ali.

Before you send it over

Read their guidelines one more time, make any changes if need be and format the post in the stated manner.

If the blogger hasn’t specified a format, send your article in an MS Word file (for easy reading) as well as in html format (for easy publishing).

What the heck is html format?

Just paste the content in your WordPress editor, brush it up, click on Text (previously html) tab, copy/paste the content in Notepad and Save.

After it’s published

It’s time to party!

But wait a minute, you have to get the most out of your hard work.

Here are the four things to do:

1. Thank the blogger via email
2. Promote your article even if you don’t have a massive followership. Not promoting the article means disrespect. And why not impress your followers that you are on a topnotch blog?
3. Reply to comments – not all of them, but keep the ball rolling. Remember, you’re dealing with different and probably smarter people here. Only comment when you can add value, if you get a harsh comment or a question you can’t answer, leave it for the host blogger
4. Write a thank you note on your blog with a link to your guest post

Dealing with rejection (The best advice)

What if you don’t hear from them?

They’re busy, so give them at least a week or two before shooting reminder emails.

Most bloggers mention the time in their guest posting guidelines they need to get back to you. Don’t bother them during this period.

And if you don’t hear from them even after a reminder, move on; don’t waste your time.

Some big blogs might not publish the hottest of your posts, and there can be many reasons for this. To save your time, don’t try to investigate these reasons, just find another blog.

And don’t be disappointed.

Neil Gaiman, addressing the University of the Arts Class of 2012, talked about the best advice he was ever given 20 year ago that came from Stephen King when he said to Gaiman:

“So, this is really great.  You should enjoy it!”

Only, Gaiman shares, he ignored this advice and kept worrying about things that were out of his control. And he wished he had enjoyed it more…

One rejection doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world. If one blogger doesn’t accept your article, another one will.

But don’t waste your precious life worrying about things you can’t control; enjoy your writing, enjoy what you do, live your best life… it’s the only one you’ll get.

A bitter experience

Never send the same post to two blogs.

I learned it the hard way.

I once sent a guest post to a blogger, she didn’t reply for 7 days and I sent it to another one who published it the next day. The same day the first blogger replied that she has scheduled my post for the upcoming week. I was embarrassed to tell her that it’s already been published, and she was furious at me for wasting her time.

Your turn…

Now go ahead and pitch some A-list blogs.

But first, share this post with others because they need it, and because I’ll be satisfied that my effort didn’t go down the drain.

The post How To Get Your Guest Post Accepted By An A-List Blogger appeared first on Writers Blog.

Blogging can be incredibly rewarding, but it can also be stressful.

If you’re like me, you probably suffer from writer’s block every now and then, and you might have a difficult time coming up with blog posts that you are happy with.You have to be honest with yourself, however:

Are you being too much of a perfectionist?

Copyright: FikMik – Fotolia.com

Since you have put a lot of hard work, sweat and tears into your blog, you probably want everything to be perfect. You probably feel like you owe it to yourself, your readers and your blog to come up with perfect content all the time.

Although it’s good to set high goals for yourself, you should understand that being too much of a perfectionist can kill your blog. Therefore, it is important not to put too much pressure on yourself to be perfect all the time.

Don’t let writer’s block discourage you 

When you’re having a hard time coming up with the perfect blog post, you might skip a post or two. This isn’t a good trap to fall into.

Otherwise, you could find yourself neglecting your blog because you feel as if you can’t come up with content that is good enough.

Once, I let a perfectly good blog go to waste because of writer’s block and my stubborn perfectionism. I had put a lot of work into starting my blog, and I was even working on a small but promising fan base. I was having a lot of fun writing blog posts for it.

Then, one day, I couldn’t come up with a post that seemed worthy enough for my blog. I told myself I would come up with a great post next time around to make up for it.

As I kept pressuring myself and telling myself that I had to come up with a wonderful blog post to make up for slacking off and not posting, I had myself convinced that I needed to come up with something perfect. I would start to write blog posts, but none of them seemed good enough.

The “perfect” blog post never came along, and the blog ended up going to waste. Don’t let this happen to you.

Instead, do the best you can. Convince yourself that your blog posts are worthy. As long as you put your heart and soul into it, your readers will appreciate your content.

Ignore mistakes and get your thoughts out

If you are stressing yourself out about your spelling and grammar, you could find yourself killing your own creativity. It’s hard to get your creative juices flowing and to say what you really want to say when you are constantly stressing yourself out over commas and minor spelling errors.

Instead, let yourself type freely for a while when you are creating your blog posts.

Say what you want to say. Get your feelings out.

This will help you come up with the most creative and thoughtful content. You can always revise your errors later.

Don’t beat yourself up

Over time, you might find errors in your previous blog posts, and you might find that you aren’t quite as happy with some of your content as you once thought you were.

Don’t let this get you down.

It can be easy to beat yourself up if you feel that you haven’t been doing the best that you can for your blog. Having this mentality can make you doubt yourself, and kill your creativity, and even your blog.

Instead, don’t sweat the small stuff. Remember that minor errors aren’t a big deal and that a less-than-stellar blog post won’t ruin your blog.

By keeping this mentality, you will be much more likely to do the best you can for your blog in the future.

About the author: Dragan Palla is a passionate blogger who helps people to build an effective internet presence. Visit DomainsFlow to learn what he has in stock for you.

The post How Perfectionism Is Killing Your Blog appeared first on Writers Blog.

SMO is the process of optimizing your website or blog for social networks in order to drive organic traffic, boost sales, and enhance visibility.

This marketing strategy has taken the online business world by a storm. One of the main reasons why it is becoming increasingly popular is that many websites out there are receiving more traffic from social media websites than from search engines. In fact some web gurus are claiming that SMO will completely replace traditional SEO in the near future.

Search engines are still considered the number one source of traffic but the situation is changing at an amazing pace. Social media sites are gaining more and more popularity whereas search engines are struggling to keep up. In other words, you can reach a much larger group of people with the help of social media. Moreover social media allows you to harness the power of viral marketing. It can generate thousands of new hits overnight whereas the potential of search engines is limited. Lastly, SMO is much easier than SEO, especially after Google’s Penguin update.

It is also important to note that SEO and SMO are not mutually exclusive anymore. Links shared on social media count towards your ranking in virtually all leading search engines. In other words social media optimization is a part of search engine optimization.

As you can see, the writing is pretty much on the wall that the new battleground for traffic is social media. What all this means is that learning how to best integrate your website or blog with popular social media destinations is more important than ever. This source of traffic will have a major impact on every blogger and business owner in the world.

Unleashing the power of viral marketing

When you share a link on a popular website like Facebook it instantly becomes visible to hundreds, in some cases thousands, of people. Some of these people are not even your direct fans/followers. If they in turn choose to share it with their friends, the circle expands, thus leading to more exposure and new opportunities for your products and services. This is the unmatched power that Social Media Optimization allows you to harness.

There are numerous cases in which viral marketing enabled bloggers and entrepreneurs to get millions of hits almost overnight. By using the concepts of Social Media Optimization you can also receive the same results.

Social Media vs. Traditional Advertising

Interacting with your target audience on social media is a far better promotional strategy than traditional advertising. Everyday consumers are bombarded with advertisements through every possible media outlet. It is way too much “noise” and increasingly people are being forced to actively shut out these ads. That is why people turn off the sound during commercial breaks in the middle of their favorite shows and install ad blockers in their web browsers. In short, the effectiveness of conventional advertising is dropping fast. On the other hand, social media allows business owners to take a more subtle approach and interact with prospective customers in all kinds of interesting ways. This is a win-win strategy for everyone.

Everybody is on social media

98% of people between the ages of 18-24 year old already use social media. Facebook alone has more than 1.2 billion users. Therefore it makes perfect sense to get serious about SMO. It means that any effective SMO you can do will quickly build visibility for your business and product and cause demand and sales to shoot up instantly.

Effective SMO tools

There are various effective SMO tools available in the market. The best one is Synnd. It is a premium tool that allows you to build bookmarks and get votes automatically.

Other effective SMO tools include widgets and badges that make it easier for people to share your content across various social networking sites. Using these buttons readers can share your articles with a single click. The easier you make it for your readers to share your stuff in online social circles, the bigger will be the impact of your SMO campaign. If you don’t know how to integrate these widgets and badges in your website then you should use a premium wordpress hosting theme. These themes come preloaded with all the important social media features mentioned in this article.

SMO practitioners recommend the use of illustrations, graphics and photographs on social media sites because these things perform very well and receive huge amounts of engaging comments and votes in a very short time span. All you need to do is find interesting and creative ways to share your photos and videos. Do make sure that whatever you do it does not resemble any form of advertising or selfish promotion on your side because people hate to be advertised to online.

Social commenting is also pretty effective and again the right SMO move for you to make here would be to ensure that your site allows for comments to be made directly on social media networks. A single comment can go viral and give you a huge audience.

Conclusion

SMO might be new but already it is quite obvious that it is going to be a very important weapon for promoting websites and driving targeted traffic. The fact that social media has taken over from search engines as the top source for traffic is a pointer to what we should expect in the very near future. The bottom line is that SMO cannot be ignored by anybody who is serious about blogging or online business.

About the author: Hasan is a freelance web developer and designer. He writes for several blogs and websites including WP Gurus.

The post Social Media Optimization – Tips and Strategies appeared first on Writers Blog.

But coming up with great blog topics on regular basis is a challenge.

To write a post that goes viral, you need to write about something hot.

Real hot.

For example, once blog commenting used to be real hot, then there was a time when everyone wanted to read about Facebook, twitter, and LinkedIn, then came the era of Google+, and recently it was Pinterest.

With quickly changing trends, staying on top of the latest drifts is a daunting task.

And even the most talented writers/bloggers would suffer from ‘writer’s block’.

If you find yourself in such a situation where you’ve Googled around, browsed competitors’ blogs, waded through the news websites, asked friends for help, tried the Content Strategy Generator Tool, but nothing worked, here are some places you might not have considered:

1. Magazine covers

Check out this screenshot; I searched for “writing magazine” in Google images:

Click to enlarge

Not only have you discovered a few hot ideas, but also some great headline templates.

2. Google Analytics

This one can be pretty useful.

Check out the search queries in your Google Analytics, there might be some keywords you’re getting traffic for, but you don’t have the relevant content.

Why not write a post around these queries, when search engines already prefer your content for them?

3. Quora

Quora.com is a Question/Answer site, somewhat similar to Wikipedia, where people post their issues and others respond.

It’s a great tool for finding topics that people are hungry for.

Create your account, enter desired keywords into the Search Bar and you’ll get all the related questions.

Now go ahead and write some killer how to posts.

4. Local library

Libraries have almost become a haunted place.

Nobody goes there anymore.

(Ok I do, but once in a blue moon.)

Read the books and you might very well walk away overcharged with excellent ideas.

Even if you don’t, it was time well-spent.

5. Your own blog

Did you write some articles, in your early days of blogging, that you’re still proud of?

If yes, it’s quite possible they didn’t get the exposure they deserved.

It’s time to approach the same topic again, maybe from a slightly different angle (but it must have a unique title, Click here to learn why).

6. Online ads

Ads are everywhere.

They’ve become so redundant that we don’t even notice them.

But hey, somebody was paid a handsome amount to write that ad copy.

And once in a while, an ad hypnotizes us and we click it almost unintentionally. If an ad caught your attention, a post on the same topic will catch others’ attention too.

7. Spam emails

I hate spam.

You hate spam.

But occasionally you may come across a spark strong enough to set you ablaze.

I don’t want you to read all the 613 spam emails, just quickly scan the folder and see if your eyeballs get glued to something.

Beware…!

Since they’re pretty time-consuming, try these tips when nothing else is working, and also, don’t waste too much time chasing inspiration.

Here’s my best advice,

Always keep a journal with you where you can jot down ideas for your future write-ups.

When anything (coming from any source such as comments, movies, TV commercials, posters, billboards, graffiti etc.) – that can be converted into a blog post – hits you, take your journal out and scribble it.

Ever since I started keeping one, I always have more ideas than I need.

Before that, I’d set a rule for myself: if I couldn’t find a decent idea after 30-minute research – I’d stop and take a cup of coffee/tea, go for a walk or refresh myself with a bath.

So, what’s your favorite, unusual idea-hunting spot?

Tell us in the comments, because we’d love to know.

The post 7 Unusual Places To Find Your Next Blog Post Topic appeared first on Writers Blog.

For writers, landing pages are one of the most lucrative types of copy.

For bloggers, landing pages are doorway to list building, sales, affiliate marketing etc.

In the last post, I mentioned that, ideally the homepage of your blog/website should be a landing page, and a couple of WB readers emailed me, asking to explain the concept.

For better understanding, in addition to the detailed explanation, we’ll analyze some good as well as bad landing pages.

Ready?

Landing page definition

A landing page, aka lead capture page aka lander, is a single page where you direct your incoming traffic, encouraging them to take an action.

Seth Godin has an interesting and possibly the simplest definition of a landing page in one of his posts:

A landing page is the first page a visitor to your site sees.

This definition makes every page on your website or blog a landing page.

Here’s more from Seth:

Landing pages are not wandering generalities. They are specific, measurable offers. You can tell if they’re working or not. You can improve the metrics and make them work better. Landing pages are the new direct marketing, and everyone with a website is a direct marketer.

Purpose of landing page

Usually, the purpose of a landing page is to turn your visitors into sales lead. But it may cause any of the following five actions:

1. Make the visitor view another page (probably with your sales pitch or a sign up form)
2. Force them to buy your product/services
3. Get the visitor to register with you (usually done by collecting their email address)
4. Get a visitor to spread the word (by sharing on social media or by email)
5. Ask a visitor to interact in a specified way (it can include posting a comment or giving you some sort of feedback)

Types of landing pages

There are two loosely defined basic types of landing pages:

1. Reference landing page
2. Transactional landing page

Reference landing page

A page that presents some relevant information to the visitor you promised them, and redirects them to another landing page, which is usually transactional.

Transactional landing page

The visitor has to complete a transaction which can be anything from filling a simple form to clicking the Buy Now button.

Best practices to design a landing page

You can use any of the paid or free online programs to design a landing page or just hire a professional, but here are a few basic rules to keep in mind:

1. Write a killer clear headline

Design the landing page for your first-time visitors.

For the first-timers, you’ve a few seconds of their attention before they click away.

Your message should be loud and clear… and concise!

If you’ve read my mini ebook and my other posts about writing headlines, you’ll know I always preach that your headline should answer one question in the plainest manner:

What’s in it for me?

And you’ve to answer in the fewest possible words.

2. Have one highly visible call to action

After capturing the visitors’ attention with your headline, you need to have a clear call to action.

In other words, you’ve to tell your readers the next thing they’re supposed to do.

Make it vague, and they’ll run away; offer more than one call to action, and they won’t click any.

3. Place your call to action above the fold

The content, visitors see at the top of the page without having to scroll down, is considered to be above the fold.

The researches show that almost 80% visitors never scroll down.

4. Use a thank you page

The visitor has clicked your Buy Now button.

Job done!

Good job!

But now what?

This is where many people drop the ball by letting their visitors fall into the cracks.

Make sure you’ve a customized thank you page, which offers more ways to interact.

Suppose if you’ve sold one product, why not offer another? Or maybe ask the buyer to give you their email for further communication/promotions?

5. Make it browser friendly

People use different browsers, make sure you cater all of them.

After you’ve designed and uploaded the page, view it from different browsers to see how it looks.

Pages created in flash are the worst as many people don’t have flash enabled on their devices while some devices don’t support flash at all.

6. Analyze, Adjust, Repeat

In the end you must analyze the performance of the landing page by comparing the click through rate (number of people visiting the page) and conversion rate (hitting your call to action).

Keep tweaking your landing page for better results.

Good Landing Pages

Trello

(Click to enlarge )

• Clear headline
• One, prominent  call to action (in the brightest color and right in the center to catch your eyeballs) placed above the fold
• Testimonials give social proof

MailChimp

(Click to enlarge )

• Clear, big and bold headline
• One, prominent  call to action (in the brightest color and right in the center to catch your eyeballs) placed at two different places
• Social proof that 2.5 million others are also using it
• Shortest and to the point explanation of the application
• FREE, a power word, is used

Facebook

(Click to enlarge )

• Short explanation
• Prominent call to action
• If you’ve a short sign up form,  placing it right on the landing page encourages the readers to fill it

Manpacks

(Click to enlarge )

• Human eyes have the tendancy to follow the arrows, and pointing it towards your call to action can be helpful. This landing page has a little arrow while some other feature big ones which are even better
• Offering a discount is tempting

Bad landing pages

BlueCamroo

(Click to enlarge )

• Too much text
• No distinct call to action

Chase

(Click to enlarge )

• Too many calls to action
• Too many colors and distractions

Over to you

Did this article teach you anything?

Share it with others.

Have a question or suggestion?

Drop a line in the comments.

The post The Absolute Beginner’s Guide To Creating A Landing Page That Converts appeared first on Writers Blog.