Content Mastery Guide

Editor and Ghostwriter

Three Ways to Create Authentic Content

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© neonshot – Fotolia.com

Let’s face it – you’re not the only nutritionist to write about superfoods, or the importance of drinking water, or why whole foods are better than processed foods. You’re not the only naturopathic doctor to write about how to get a better night’s sleep, the benefits of hydrotherapy, or how to choose chemical-free household products.

One sure-fire way to write about well-covered topics and still provide value to your readers is to infuse your writing with personality. Not just any personality – your personality. That is what will set you apart from the other nutritionists, naturopaths, and wellness professionals.

No one else has your exact combination of life experiences, professional expertise, sense of humour, hobbies and interests, values, triumphs and trials. These things are what make you you.

When you write authentically from your own true voice, you’re showing prospective clients who you are and how it feels to be with you. Doing this will draw in the right clients and repel the wrong clients, so you can connect with the people you were truly meant to help.

Here are three ways to create more authentic content:

  1. Excite

Have you ever seen someone’s eyes sparkle as they talk about their latest project, client triumph, or discovery? You’re witnessing the intersection of passion and purpose that we all feel when our work is aligned with our values and God-given skills.

Be sure your topics are exciting to you, or find ways to remove whatever is blocking your blogging joy. If you’re still not feeling the love for a blog post, you have my permission to scrap it and start again!

  1. Delight

You also want to feel excited about who will read your blog posts and how their lives will improve as a result. When you do, your words will jump off the page in bursts of love for your clients and potential clients, and they will feel your commitment to help them.

A research study out of Emory University in Atlanta used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to prove that the brain’s pleasure activity “lights up like a Christmas tree” when someone is surprised with a nice gift.

Besides giving value by sharing your generous ideas and tips, you can surprise your readers with an additional free bonus (in exchange for subscribing to your email list so you can continue sending them valuable content). Create a checklist or quick-start guide (also known as a content upgrade), or give them the chance to experience more of your personality via a video or audio recording.

  1. Recite

Are the words on your page the same you would use in a conversation with a client? I like to actually imagine a client sitting across from me as I write. Then, I read my post out loud or use Microsoft Word’s text-to-speech feature to hear someone else read it.

This is an excellent proofreading technique for catching errors, and it also helps make sure you’re writing like you talk. This gives prospective clients a truer sense of what it’s like to work with you.

When you excite, delight and recite in your blogging, you’ll create a more powerful bond with your readers. Your perfect clients will resonate with not just what you write about but how you write and who you are being when you write.

P.S. Want more ideas about how to write high-quality content that has more impact, attracts more ideal clients, and makes you more money? Register for my FREE webinar, Write Less, Earn More With Blog Posts That Are Easy to Write and Irresistible to the Perfect Clients For Your Health and Wellness Business.

How to Blog From Your Passion For Wellness

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© hadkhanong — Fotolia.com

Have you ever sat down to work on a blog post and found the spark just wasn’t there? If writing doesn’t come naturally to you (and even if it does), any excuse can be enough to push blogging to the back burner.

But then your website loses steam, you lose confidence and momentum, and worst of all the people who need you and your wisdom lose out completely and you don’t get to help them.

If you’re forcing yourself to write posts you’re not excited about, it will always feel like an uphill climb. But if you’re writing about things that evoke passion within you, writing will be a thrill. (Okay, maybe not always a thrill, but I guarantee it will be easier.)

Now you may be wondering, isn’t my blog supposed to be all about the reader, and not about me? What does my passion have to do with it?

What’s passion got to do with it?

When you write from a place of passion, you cannot fail to connect with your perfect audience. They will feel your genuine commitment to helping them solve this particular health problem, and they’ll get to hear your authentic voice as you speak from your heart to their heart.

Only your perfect clients will resonate with your message and how you write it – ideally, the exact same way you speak it when they’re with you in the room or over the phone.

When passion wanes and worry begins

Maybe it’s time to scrap this post and move on, maybe you can’t reconnect to the spark you had when you first thought of the topic, or maybe the problem is that the spark was never there in the first place.

Let’s look at five reasons you may lack passion for your blog writing:

  1. It’s a sub-topic you’re not particularly excited about, even though it’s a core issue for your audience and very connected to your passion area. Try this: Keep your eyes on the prize – if you can get someone over this initial hurdle, they can move into a place where you can both focus on what you love. Meet the person where they are to get them where they need to be.
  2. It’s a sub-topic you don’t know as much about. We can’t be experts at everything. Try this: Collaborate with other experts and either quote them as a trusted source in your blog post or share something they’ve already written. You can also enhance your own practice by immersing yourself in the latest research to learn as much as you can.
  3. It’s not a post you should be writing. Maybe you’ve strayed from your core categories, or you’re delving into a topic that’s better suited to your diary. Try this: Head back to your blogging plan and get reacquainted with your original passion for your audience and the issues they care about, and most importantly how your blog will help them solve those problems.
  4. You’re passionate about your topic, but you (and others) have already written about it many times. Feel like there’s no use saying it all again? Try this: Realize that today’s reader may have never seen your older posts about the topic. If this is still an important concern for your audience, freshen up your older posts and give them new life. As far as your fellow bloggers, remember what I said earlier about your perfect clients. Even if they’ve read similar blog posts from someone else, it is your message that will draw them in and turn on that light bulb above their head.
  5. You’re passionate about your topic, but not about writing. I hear this all the time from wellness professionals who love what they do but struggle with the online marketing required to attract more clients and grow their business.

Try this: Seek a blogging coach or mentor to light your spark and give you the tools, confidence and know-how to let your passion shine through your writing.

You can start by joining my next free online blogging workshop!

Passion is one of the most important ingredients of an effective wellness blog. Use these tips and suggestions to boost your passion so your readers can feel it leaping off the page.

Will Your Next Post Be Your Last Chance to Woo a Client?

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Your next perfect client is out there. Right now. There she is – a friend of a friend, or the former client of a related practitioner, or the second-cousin of your dog walker’s teacher. She’s scrolling through her social media feed when she spots the title of your blog post that seems to answer the exact question that’s been keeping her up at night.

Click.

This is it. This could be your first chance to impress her, to show her what you know, to reveal your personality and unique approach. This could be the start of a relationship that brings you closer, bit by bit, blog post by blog post, until she recognizes that you are the perfect person to help her.

Or this could be your last chance. There may be something about your blog post that sends her in the opposite direction. Now sometimes this is exactly what needs to happen. Maybe your approach doesn’t appeal to her, or maybe your personality rubs her the wrong way. Either way, it’s best she keep searching because any work you tried to do together would most likely fail.

But what if you ARE a good fit, but she couldn’t see it? What if something about your writing is what drove her away? It may have if you have any of these three reader-repelling habits:

Reader-repelling habit #1: The long and winding sentence

You probably already know if this is one of your habits, but a sure-fire way to spot it is to read your work out loud and notice:

  • Do you run out of breath before you finish any of your sentences?
  • By the end of the sentence, do you forget what the sentence was about?

Relationships are built on feelings. If a long and winding sentence leaves your reader confused or disoriented, they will associate those feelings with you the next time they see your name.

Watch the video below for an example. You’ll see how I actually add more words to break up and clarify the ideas in a long and winding sentence.

Reader-repelling habit #2: The stuffy sermon

Do you talk at your readers instead of with them? Do you feel like an imposter so you try to sound smarter to compensate? Do you tell them exactly what to do instead of encouraging them to try your ideas (and explain why)?

Preaching to your readers creates distance between you. They can feel like you don’t understand them or where they’re coming from.

When you’re reading your blog post out loud, imagine that perfect client sitting across from you. Ferret out any jargon – words or expressions that only people in your industry would understand.

This isn’t about dumbing down your writing; it’s about using plain language – clear terms that mean the same the everybody.

Instead of preaching to your audience, remind them how you’re connected. Are you a member of your own target market? Have you overcome the same problems you know help others solve? Or can you share a client story of how you’ve helped someone just like them?

There are plugins (like Yoast SEO) and apps (like Grammarly and Hemingway) designed to assess the readability of your posts. Use these to stuff the sermon and better connect with your readers.

Watch the video below for an example of how I turned a preachy sermon into a helpful suggestion.

Reader-repelling habit #3: The big bad wall of text

Nothing sends me away from a page quicker than this one. When I see big blocks of text with no break on the page, I immediately feel a sense of heaviness and overwhelm. It seems like way too much work to get the information I’m looking for.

When you preview how your published post will look in your blogging platform, count how many lines of text there are before a break. I try to keep most paragraphs at five lines at the most, but usually three or four lines.

Keep in mind that your reader may have chosen to display text at a specific size on their computer, or they may be visiting from a mobile device. That’s why it’s important to break up the text in other ways, such as:

  • Lists – You can use bullets for most of your lists (like I have here). The only time you’ll want to use numbers is if you’re presenting a specific number of points (e.g., here are three tips for better sleep, or here are my top 10 uses for apple vinegar), or if it’s important people follow your steps in order.
  • Images – Photos, charts and icons are another way to create visual interest and give the reader’s eyes a break.

The video below shows how I divided up a big bad wall of text to make it easier for the reader to digest the information.

If you want your next post to woo – not repel – your perfect client, banish these bad writing habits. Instead of confused, preached to, or overwhelmed, your readers will feel clear, connected, and comfortable.

P.S. Want to write high-quality content that has more impact, attracts more ideal clients, and makes you more money? Register for my FREE webinar, Write Less, Earn More With Blog Posts That Are Easy to Write and Irresistible to the Perfect Clients For Your Health and Wellness Business.

WordPress, Wix or Weebly: Which is the Best Website Platform for Blogging?

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© Ana Blazic Pavlovic - Fotolia.com
© Ana Blazic Pavlovic – Fotolia.com

Free, hosted sites like Wix, Weebly and WordPress.com definitely have some advantages. Sites like these are all powered by a CMS (content management system), which allow users to create a site and update the content without any code or technical knowledge.

That means you can quickly publish a website and start promoting your business 24/7.

Unfortunately, these sites also have some serious drawbacks, as was the case for one wellness practitioner I spoke to recently. Her Wix site not only would not integrate with the tools she needed (e.g., her email service provider) and wanted (e.g., recipe plugins), but she learned that in order to upgrade from Wix to WordPress or another platform she would have to manually copy and paste all of her website pages and blog posts, and start from scratch designing a new look for her site.

So even though the site didn’t cost any money, it cost her plenty of time and aggravation. As Charlie Gilkey points out, these are real costs. You’ll help more people and earn more money by being in front of clients and prospective clients, versus being stuck in front of your computer dealing with website issues.

Free sites can also cost you a lot of credibility. Providers usually hijack your site address with their own brand name (e.g., rememberingchyna.weebly.com), and sometimes place ads on your site.

Playing around with website design is fine for a personal site like my memorial for Chyna, my first greyhound), but not for your business, even if you enjoy tinkering and feel like you have a flare for design.

My advice? Avoid making too many changes to what the designer created. The more you stray from that, the less professional your site may become.

Please note: This article contains affiliate links, which means if you click on the link and purchase an item, I will receive an affiliate commission.

Use WordPress.com – If you MUST use a hosted site

Until I volunteered at the Ladies Learning Code Getting Started With WordPress and Blogging workshop, I thought businesses were discouraged or even prohibited from using WordPress.com for commercial purposes.

Jason Bach of Mosaic Data Services tells me that used to be the case, but hasn’t been for many years. While WordPress was originally designed as a publishing platform, they soon realized its greater potential.

I was delighted to learn about WordPress.com’s options for small businesses. Yes, they cost a bit of money, and YES it is worth it, and still a tiny fraction of what you’ll pay for a self-hosted site! For example, just $3.99/month CAD (as of December 2016) gives you a custom domain name (yoursite.com), and removes all WordPress.com advertising.

WordPress.com has other options that give you more space and customization options, but if you’re heading in that direction I’d strongly recommend upgrading to your own self-hosted WordPress site from WordPress.org.

Upgrading to a self-hosted WordPress site

The biggest benefit to choosing WordPress.com as your first website is that when – not if – you’re ready to upgrade, you’ll already be familiar with the WordPress dashboard, and it’s simple to migrate from WordPress.com to WordPress.org.

WordPress is by far the world’s most popular CMS. Research by W3Techs shows that as of December 2016, “WordPress is used by 58.5% of all the websites whose content management system we know. This is 27.2% of all websites.”

A self-hosted site from WordPress.org gives you more flexibility and customization than a hosted site, and access to premium themes (designs) and plugins (third-party tools like social media sharing buttons, newsletter sign-up boxes, analytics, SEO functions, and many others).

Plus, unlike a hosted site – including WordPress.com – that can be closed down by the provider at any time, you have full control over a self-hosted site.

Beware of free themes and plugins

Free things can cost you with a self-hosted site as well. While WordPress has a well-maintained directory of beautiful and functional free themes for your site, I’ve run into a few problems with these in the past. First of all, there’s the risk that the designer will stop updating the theme (i.e., to comply with WordPress updates), or doesn’t offer any support if you try to customize the theme and run into any difficulties.

Another issue is that because so many people seek out free themes, your site may not stand out if people are seeing that same design in other places.

Finally, and this issue applies to plugins as well as themes, there can be big compatibility issues if themes conflict with certain plugins, or if any of your plugins conflict with each other. I definitely recommend asking a web developer before installing themes and plugins. At the very least, search the web for reviews or complaints about compatibility problems or instability.

Premium WordPress themes

I recommend choosing a premium theme that comes with support, such as Elegant Themes (who also offer some plugins). With Elegant Themes, you pay one fee for access to all of their themes. That means you’ll have plenty to choose from now, and you can even give your site a facelift later. I’ve heard particularly good things about the Divi theme.

Website hosts

With a self-hosted site, you’ll also need to choose a website host. You can go with SiteGround, one of only two hosts recommended by WordPress, or you can go with a WordPress hosting company like Mosaic Data Services, who offers more personalized service and less competition for server space.

I hope this information will help you avoid some costly mistakes. Your website is your business’s home on the web, working for you 24/7. Make sure it’s something you can be proud of.

P.S. When someone visits your website, will they find fresh content or a ghost town blog? Keep your blog up to date with the Blogging Tips newsletter, delivered weekly to your inbox! Sign up here.

From Cobwebs and Crickets to Content and Crowds

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© losw100 - Fotolia.com
© losw100 – Fotolia.com

Now that the winter is getting closer, I’m noticing a few more spiders seeking shelter in my house. We’ve had a long-standing agreement – if they stay out of my way I’ll stay out of theirs.

One thing I do take care of are the intricate webs they leave behind in the corners. As beautiful as they are, they make my house feel tidy and uncared for.

The website equivalent to cobwebs in the corner is a blog that hasn’t been updated. When your website looks uncared for, the risk is that potential clients may think they might not be cared for either.

Aside from the unprofessional impression it makes on website visitors, a ghost town blog can affect your own confidence in your website, your business, and yourself.

You may stop wanting to send people to your website because you’re embarrassed by it; you may question whether you have any value to offer; and you may feel guilt or shame that you set a blogging goal and didn’t achieve it.

I’ve noticed that when it comes to fitness, the less I do, the less I want to do. While most days I look forward to going to the gym, if I miss even one workout, my motivation starts to wane.

Similarly, when your website is full of cobwebs because you haven’t blogged in awhile, you can quickly lose momentum and fall out of any blogging routine you may have started.

From cobwebs to content

On the flip-side, when you blog consistently at a level you can manage – start with once a month and go from there – your website, your business and you all reap the benefits.

  • Your website is updated more frequently (search engines love that!) and visitors stay longer.
  • Prospective clients get both an instant snapshot and an in-depth tour of your areas of expertise. This provides a better sense of who you are as a practitioner and a person, helping them build more trust in you. As well, colleagues and fans have a direct way to refer people to you for specific solutions.
  • When you follow through on your blogging commitment, you experience a heightened self-confidence in your own strengths and expertise. You get to develop and refine your ideas, then try them out and get feedback from your audience. Plus you gain material for other resources like presentations and books.

Spiders aren’t the only critters that can damage your blog. When your blog posts elicit no responses or feedback, your blog and social media pages become so quiet you can hear crickets chirp.

The problem with crickets is that you’re left with self-doubt about your content (am I writing about the right topics?), your business (does anyone want what I have to offer?), and yourself (do I even know what I’m talking about?).

As you keep writing (IF you keep writing), you may be going further down the wrong path of content that isn’t connecting with its intended audience. For the people who do find your content, they may be less inclined to take an action (like, share, comment) if they don’t see any other activity.

From crickets to crowds

When you consistently and repeatedly promote your new posts (and your archived posts, too) on social media, you build a community of people who appreciate your ideas and will share them with others. This includes both prospective clients and those who refer them to you.

This “social proof” encourages more people to read and share your work, giving you a wider audience and an invaluable feedback loop that can refine your future writing. This will keep your content on the right track and aligned with the needs of your target audience of prospective clients.

Exposure to a larger community can also attract invitations for content collaboration, speaking opportunities, and media exposure.

Here are the five key ingredients for promoting your blog posts on social media:

  1. An enticing message – why should they click?
  2. Separate messages for each social media platform – the right length and the right approach
  3. Permalink – send them to one particular post, not just your blog or website
  4. Related hashtags – join a wider conversation
  5. Usernames for tagging – make powerful connections and show your appreciation

It’s not the end of the world to hit a blogging slump (it happens to the best of us!). You can always dust off the cobwebs and start again. Just don’t forget to make some noise when you do!

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