Finding your article’s focus with Roy Peter Clark
Identifying their focus is one of the biggest challenges for many of my blogging class students. I try to help them by asking “What problem do you solve for your readers?” I found additional helpful techniques in the “I don’t know what my story is really about” chapter of Roy Peter Clark’s Help! for Writers: […]
My big newsletter mistake’s lesson for you
When’s the best day and time to send your e-newsletters? My January mistake upset my beliefs about this topic. My usual routine and its rationale I usually send out my monthly newsletter around 8:15 a.m. on the first non-holiday Tuesday of the month. I send it early in the day because my Constant Contact statistics […]
Top five posts from the third quarter of 2013
In case you missed them, here are top five posts from the Investment Writing blog during the third quarter of 2013. How I gained 5,000 Twitter followers in 4 years The Future of Marketing is a Newsroom Mentality ←guest post Quantitative easing for regular folks: 3 lessons from The New York Times Rethinking the traditional […]
Two ways to encourage comments with a no-comment financial blog
Compliance worries make many advisors shy away from allowing comments on their blogs. If you’re in this camp, you can still encourage reader interaction. Two techniques stand out for me: 1) polls or surveys and 2) calls to action. 1. Polls or surveys Polls and surveys encourage readers to share their opinions with you. However, […]
Make your email links pop or lose clicks
I wanted to watch the video. I really did. But I couldn’t find the link to the video in the email. To get the most benefit from your emails, you need to make your links prominent. Color and underline My online experiences have conditioned me to click on links that are underlined, with text colored […]