I’ve been blogging since before it was called blogging. Since before there was software to even do it. I started out by publishing my newspaper humor column once a week on a website where I hand coded the html. In the intervening years, I’ve written over 900 articles and blog posts, so I’ve been asked a lot of questions about blogging.
“Think of blogging like you’re writing an email,” I tell aspiring bloggers. “Put ‘Dear Mom, Let me tell you about this cool thing I learned today. . .’ and then write about that cool thing. Then, go back and delete the salutation, and you’re done.”
All in all, it’s pretty easy. I can do it a typical blog post (350 – 450 words) in about 20 minutes. Add another 10 – 15 for editing, and I’m done.
Of course, I’ve been a writer for nearly 23 years, so I’ve got a few secrets and techniques. I’ve written marketing copy, newspaper columns, speeches, and anything else you care to name, so I actually know how to write something well in 20 minutes.
The problem is that most new writers figure, “Hey, Erik takes 20 minutes to write a post, I can write it in 20 minutes too.”
Yes you can take 20 minutes, but it sure shows.
Listen, writing is easy, writing well is hard. Just because you know how to construct a complete sentence doesn’t mean you are actually a writer. I know where Middle C is on a piano, but that doesn’t make me a concert pianist.
A good blog post on the part of a beginning writer should take about 1 – 2 hours each. That includes reading, researching, writing, editing, re-editing, and then editing some more. Notice that the actual writing is only one small part of that list.
Yet, these noobie writers will vomit something out in a few minutes, hit ‘Publish’ and think they’re done. Or worse, they study all the SEO writing blogs and come up with little gems like “For free writing tips, download this free writing tips article about free writing tips.” (And then wonder why no one is reading their stuff.)
I’ve been seeing this a lot lately in people who profess to be professional writers and content creators. They’re the ones who are advising clients on how to create content that will set them apart in their industry, make them thought leaders, and help them win searches in the search engines.
I don’t know how to say this, except to just say it: Some of your writing just sucks.
There, I said it. I’m sorry. I don’t know how else to say it. I feel like Simon Cowell, but without the Botox.
It’s not that you’re bad people or that you’re trying to trick people. It’s just that, well, you look like you spent 20 minutes writing your post. There’s missing and misused punctuation, bad grammar, egregious misspellings, and incomplete sentences.
“But it’s blogging!” you’re saying. “It’s supposed to be more informal, and not bound by the same rules of business writing.”
True, true. But if you claim to be a writer, then for God’s sake, act like one! Writers have at least a basic grasp of language, storytelling, and sentence structure. Admittedly not all of them do (American novelist Leon Uris is famous for not being able to spell or use punctuation properly), but if you’re a product of our public schools and universities, I would hope you have some understanding of these basic concepts.
It’s especially important as blogging is starting to see some legitimacy in the business setting, and the decision makers are still concerned that their writers don’t sound like complete boobs churning out electronic doggerel for the world to see.
The problem is that I’ve seen more and more so-called “content creators” who are putting up some of their own stuff that looks like it was written by a 10th grader. I believe you should put as much care and attention into your own stuff as you do your clients. The way you react to the small things is the way you will react to everything. And if you can’t be bothered to write your own stuff well, how can you be counted on to write others’ stuff well?
As a writer and teacher in spirit, nothing warms my heart more than someone who tells me they want to learn how to be a writer. I love teaching them some of the lessons I’ve learned in the past 23 years, and showing them how to express the ideas they want to share with the world.
Just be prepared to put in the time and energy it will take to make your writing successful. Don’t just throw something up and hope no one will notice all the problems and mistakes. If you want to be able to write something in 20 minutes, it’ll take you several years.
(For the record, this took me 22 minutes.)
About the Author: Erik Deckers
Erik is the VP of Operations & Creative Services for Pro Blog Service. He has been blogging for more than nine years (even before it was called blogging), and has been a published writer for more than 20 years. He has written humor newspaper columns, business articles, stage plays, radio theatre plays, and is currently working on a novel. He helped write Twitter Marketing for Dummies, and frequently speaks on blogging and social media.
Tags: blog writing, blogging, writing
Posted in Business Blogging, Business Blogging Content, Ghost Writing | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, August 18th, 2009
Recently a potential client tried to make the case that writing their own blog made financial sense because it “was cheaper”. So we sharpened up our pencils and analyzed what it really costs to write your own blog in three different scenarios:
- A corporation where technical experts (think engineers, accountants, lawyers, sales managers, marketing managers or executives) would be writing their own blog posts.
- A company that uses lower level clerical help to write the company blog.
- A small business where the owner is writing her own blog posts. In this case the owner is literally working for free.
Here’s how the numbers worked out:
Scenario One: Technical Experts
This is the most common situation we encounter: companies with knowledge workers who write their own blog posts. Compared to our highest-end product, the practice of using your own people may cost three times as much annually and offers little or no comparative advantage.
| Knowledge Worker |
|
|
Professional Blog Service Platinum |
|
| Assumptions |
|
|
Assumptions |
|
| Worker Annual Salary |
$85,000.00 |
|
Worker Annual Salary |
n/a |
| 18% Benefits & Tax Load |
$15,300.00 |
|
18% Benefits & Tax Load |
n/a |
| Annual Loaded Salary |
$100,300.00 |
|
Annual Loaded Salary |
n/a |
| Hourly Rate |
$48.22 |
|
Hourly Rate |
n/a |
| Company Income/Hour |
$144.66 |
|
Company Income/Hour |
n/a |
|
|
|
|
|
| Blog Post Costs |
|
|
Blog Post Costs |
|
| 2 hrs labor to write & post blog |
$96.44 |
|
2 hrs labor to write & post blog |
n/a |
| Lost income on two hours labor |
$289.33 |
|
Lost income on two hours labor |
n/a |
| Cost Per Blog Post |
$385.77 |
|
Cost Per Blog Post |
$135.00 |
| Monthly Cost @ 14 Posts |
$5,400.77 |
|
Monthly Cost @ 14 Posts |
$1,890.00 |
| Annual Cost of Blog |
$64,809.23 |
|
Annual Cost of Blog |
$22,680.00 |
Scenario 2: Clerical Workers
Smarter companies utilize internal resources better, so instead of having expensive knowledge workers do the writing, lower cost clerical or creative workers are used. The result: Professional Blog Service’ midrange ghost blogging offering is less than half the cost.
| Midsize Company Example |
|
|
Professional Blog SMB
|
|
| Assumptions |
|
|
Assumptions |
|
| Worker Annual Salary |
$35,000.00 |
|
Worker Annual Salary |
n/a |
| 18% Benefits & Tax Load |
$6,300.00 |
|
18% Benefits & Tax Load |
n/a |
| Annual Loaded Salary |
$41,300.00 |
|
Annual Loaded Salary |
n/a |
| Hourly Rate |
$19.86 |
|
Hourly Rate |
n/a |
| Company Income/Hour |
$59.57 |
|
Company Income/Hour |
n/a |
|
|
|
|
|
| Blog Post Costs |
|
|
Blog Post Costs |
|
| 2 hrs labor to write & post blog |
$39.71 |
|
2 hrs labor to write & post blog |
n/a |
| Lost income on two hours labor |
$119.13 |
|
Lost income on two hours labor |
n/a |
| Cost Per Blog Post |
$158.85 |
|
Cost Per Blog Post |
$55.00 |
| Monthly Cost @ 14 Posts |
$2,223.85 |
|
Monthly Cost @ 14 Posts |
$770.00 |
| Annual Cost of Blog |
$26,686.15 |
|
Annual Cost of Blog |
$9,240.00 |
Scenario Three: Small Business Owners
When a small business owner works inside her business, often the labor is viewed as having no direct cost. It does have an opportunity cost. Even working for free, a small business owner would have made more money having outsourced blog writing to Professional Blog Service using our top of the line service:
| Small Business Owner |
|
|
Professional Blog Service Platinum |
|
| Assumptions |
|
|
Assumptions |
|
| Worker Annual Salary |
$35,000.00 |
|
Worker Annual Salary |
n/a |
| 18% Benefits & Tax Load |
$6,300.00 |
|
18% Benefits & Tax Load |
n/a |
| Annual Loaded Salary |
$41,300.00 |
|
Annual Loaded Salary |
n/a |
| Hourly Rate |
$0.00 |
|
Hourly Rate |
n/a |
| Company Income/Hour |
$120.00 |
|
Company Income/Hour |
n/a |
|
|
|
|
|
| Blog Post Costs |
|
|
Blog Post Costs |
|
| 2 hrs labor to write & post blog |
$0.00 |
|
2 hrs labor to write & post blog |
n/a |
| Lost income on two hours labor |
$240.00 |
|
Lost income on two hours labor |
n/a |
| Cost Per Blog Post |
$240.00 |
|
Cost Per Blog Post |
$135.00 |
| Monthly Cost @ 14 Posts |
$3,360.00 |
|
Monthly Cost @ 14 Posts |
$1,890.00 |
| Annual Cost of Blog |
$40,320.00 |
|
Annual Cost of Blog |
$22,680.00 |
Conclusion
Hiring a professional ghost writing service can save you 50-66% over having your employees write your company’s blog.
roi, ghostwriting, blogging, businessblog
About the Author: Mike Seidle
Mike Seidle is a leading internet and social media marketing consultant who specializes in developing campaigns that are measurable and get long term results. Mike has been helping companies get internet results since 1996.
Tags: blog writing, business blogging
Posted in Business Blogging, Ghost Writing, Research Desk | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, April 15th, 2009
Writing good is hard.
CEOs are more likely to let out a little sigh and agree with that last sentence rather than point out its mistakes. (There are two of them. Did you see them? If you didn’t, this article is for you.)
Writing well is difficult for many managers and directors. Often they’re experts in their field, but lack the skills to communicate that expertise to an audience that doesn’t speak their language. We decipher their emails by cracking long codes of acronyms like PHPER, R&D, SEO, PIO, EOC and struggle to translate their doctoral-thesis-as-annual-report with marketing gobbledygook like “optimization and delayering,” “transition open-source communities” and “incubate holistic mindshare.”
Then, disaster strikes! The company decides to start a blog, and who’s on deck for four posts a month? Hopefully not the guy who wants to “implement extensible schemas.”
Best case scenario, the CEO really loves writing blog posts, and cranks one out every week. Worst case scenario (i.e. reality), the CFO is contributing, and his first post reads more like a secret state department communique or one of those emails from the exiled Nigerian prince who needs an American bank account to hold his $100 million.
But the CEO is too busy leading the company, and his or her time is worth thousands of dollars per hour. If the CEO has time to write weekly blog posts, start unloading your stock. And if the CFO wants to contribute, publish his posts on Friday night when no one is looking.
Why is it so difficult for many people to write great blog posts? Because (choose one or more of the following):
1) There’s an emergency meeting with shareholders after lunch.
2) The merger isn’t final yet.
3) There hasn’t been a need to write an actual letter in four years.
4) An interior designer chose all the books in the library.
5) That MBA program only required oral presentations.
6) Kids these days don’t know anything.
But the real issue here isn’t why the screen is blank. Our challenge is how to move the blinking cursor with a set of short words and sentences that convey a valuable idea to readers. An idea that’s thoughtful, concise, and even amusing.
There’s a reason you hired a CFO with a degree in accounting and several years of experience, and not a college dropout. There’s a reason your HR director has advanced degrees in psychology, and isn’t some woman you found at a McDonald’s who’s willing to work for $7.50 an hour. And there’s a reason your IT director has a savant-like knowledge of computers, and not your nephew who’s still using Windows XP Professional.
They’re professionals. They’re good at what they do, and they know how to do it right. Your CFO knows the difference between profit versus gross margin, your HR director knows all the EEOC laws that will keep you from being sued, and your IT director knows how to keep your networks up and running.
The same reason you hired those people is the reason you need a writer who knows that “writing well is difficult.” You want someone who understands interesting writing, can avoid grammar and punctuation problems, and creates the right kind of copy to keep readers and customers returning to your blogs.
There really aren’t that many good writers out there. And if you have any working for you, chances are they’re doing something more important. So you need to go outside the company.
But you’re not going to find that person on Craig’s List for $5. The best writers are trained professionals who understand language and the written word. They can take the complex ideas your subject matter experts have, and put them into simple language your customers can understand. And they do it well.
At Professional Blog Service, we write great blog posts by interviewing clients personally. We extract the most interesting and valuable bits of information to translate a manager’s passion for the idea into a message that’s clear and understandable, complete with verb-subject agreement, and no offers from the Nigerian prince or secret foreign service codes.
About the Author: Erik Deckers
Erik is the VP of Operations & Creative Services for Pro Blog Service. He has been blogging for more than nine years (even before it was called blogging), and has been a published writer for more than 20 years. He has written humor newspaper columns, business articles, stage plays, radio theatre plays, and is currently working on a novel. He helped write Twitter Marketing for Dummies, and frequently speaks on blogging and social media.
Tags: blog writing, ghostwriting, writing
Posted in Business Blogging, Business Blogging Content, Ghost Writing | 3 Comments »
There has been a lot of news lately on how companies are really not hiring right now. A recent report talks about how a companies are hiring temp workers, but they are not hiring them to stay. In the past, a common practice was to test drive a worker then offer them a position. Hiring them as full-time employees is not happening right now.
They tried to use the most complex words and sentences as possible in their scholarly works. Paragraphs were measured in linear feet, not number of words. And it was not unheard of to spend 12 – 15 hours writing a simple 10 page paper.
