Blogging lessons from Investment Writing Spotlight

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“Investment Writing Spotlight,” my critiques of financial blog posts, disappeared when Facebook eliminated its Discussion tab. However, its lessons live on in this list of recommendations that I made on some of my volunteers’ blog posts.

1. Identify your topic, and possibly your audience in your title

Your title can attract or repel your audience. Catchy titles perform better when they also at least hint at your topic. If you’re writing about the challenges of a narrow audience—for example, municipal pension administrators in the state of Illinois—it’s good to work that into your title. If that makes your title too long, then put it in your introduction.

2. Focus on “you” the client, not “we” the firm

People love to read about themselves, as I’ve said many times before. So, use “you” in your blog posts and write from the client’s perspective on your topic. Make sure you identify the benefit of the topic to your client.

Focusing on the client also means challenging some of your assumptions. Explain some of the vocabulary and relationships that are clear to you. They may mystify your clients.

3. Make your content easy to skim

Everybody’s busy, so make it easier for readers to capture your main points by using, as appropriate

  • Headings that make points rather than just noting topics
  • Topic sentences that convey each paragraph’s main point
  • Short paragraphs
  • Bullet points

4. Edit yourself

Strong topic sentences are a great framework, but you may still be able to strengthen your paragraphs by

  • Deleting or minimizing information that doesn’t support your topic sentence
  • Deleting excess words
  • Shortening sentences or varying sentence length

Thank you, blogger volunteers!

The folks who volunteered their blog posts for my critique were extremely gracious, so I’d like to thank them with links to their blogs and Twitter accounts.

Videos: 3 ways to make them palatable for video-haters like me

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I HATE videos. As a lover of the written word, it annoys the heck out of me when people share information only in video or audio. However, there are steps you can take to make video and audio more palatable to cranky folks like me. You’ll find three suggestions below.

Technique 1: Add minute markers

Looking for the easiest, fastest solution? Then, list your video’s major shifts of topic accompanied by the time the shift occurs.

For example, imagine a Q&A on investing in emerging markets. The text accompanying your video might look something like this:

00:00     Introducing Ms. EM Expert

00:30     What are emerging markets?

01:40     Reasons to invest in emerging markets

03:25     Risks of investing in emerging markets

This format lets me figure out what, if anything interests me. Then I can fast-forward to the good stuff.

Technique 2: Summarize the key points

A written summary of your video’s key points will make people like me even happier. However, you’ll find it more time consuming than Technique 1.

Your write-up need not be comprehensive. Just give me the highlights. For example, if we continue to use the emerging markets example, you could give a brief definition of emerging markets, followed by a list of the pros and cons of emerging-markets investing.

Technique 3: Provide a transcript

A transcript — a word-by-word record of your video conversation — is the most time consuming, but it also provides the most information of the three techniques I discuss in this blog post. I like that I can search the transcript for specific words and phrases.

You can make transcripts less time-consuming by outsourcing to a professional transcriptionist. To improve the transcriptionist’s accuracy, provide a list of terms and names that may not be familiar to someone outside your field.

Even with a list of terms, don’t expect your transcript to be perfect. Transcription isn’t easy. Also, human beings don’t speak in perfect sentences. You’ll need to review and edit the transcript word-by-word. This is why I’m not a big fan of publishing transcripts.

If your video features your voice exclusively, you may be able to get it transcribed using voice recognition software. Dragon Naturally Speaking is one option. Again, you’ll need to make corrections.

What’s your favorite?

Of the three options I’ve presented, #1 is my favorite. But I’ll be grateful for whatever you do to help me.

How do YOU make your videos user-friendly?

How long should a blog post run?

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There’s no set rule. I typically target 250-400 words. That’s long enough to express one idea and short enough to discourage you from going off on tangents. I don’t like tangents in blog posts. Posts should be narrowly focused to make them easy for readers to absorb.

You’ll find opinions all over the place about blog post length. Most of you are busy, so I encourage you to keep your posts short to help you keep on a blogging schedule.

Let me know if you have questions!

3 tips for maximizing your guest blog’s impact

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Example of guest post by Margaret Patterson–You can click on the photo to see the post.

What if you wrote a guest post and nobody realized you were the author? I’ve read guest contributions on blogs that hid their author’s identity so well, I thought the host was the author. If you follow my tips, this won’t happen to you.

1. Ask your host to insert your byline into the post.

When “By Jane Advisor” runs prominently near the top of the post, it’s easy to identify the author.

2. Provide a head shot photo to run with your guest post.

Some readers respond better to visual cues than words. A photo leaves no doubt that the blog host is not the author.

3. Ask your host to run a brief bio, including at least one link.

A bio is your one chance for overt promotion when you guest blog. Provide the bio to your host, rather than relying on him or her to write something suitable. Include at least one link in your bio. Good candidates: your website or your strongest social media page. Another possibility is to link to a landing page where you make a special offer to the readers of your guest post.

To see sample guest posts…

…click on some of the links in my “Guest bloggers: 2011 in review” post.

More on guest posts

Wondering how you can snare a guest post? Check out this link: Audiocast: How to Guest-Blog on Personal Finance or Investments.

 

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at freedigitalphotos.net.

Iowa caucuses’ lessons for financial advisors

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Advisors, which counts more for your potential clients–your personal chemistry or your process for helping them reach their financial goals?

Photo: Steve Jurvetson

Chemistry wins. At least that’s what an article about voters’ approach to the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary suggests to me. “Voters Examining Candidates, Often to a Fault” appeared in The New York Times on December 29, 2011.

Potential voters interviewed by The New York Times

…were hard-pressed to recall details of the candidates’ plans to reduce taxes, create jobs and shrink the government.

Yet they knew about the marriages and mannerisms, the faith and careers of the candidates, and they brimmed with unvarnished opinions about any trait that strikes them as admirable — or just as likely, annoying. (Emphasis added by me.)

For example, one interviewee “…is leaning toward voting for Ron Paul because of the Texas lawmaker’s unpolished speaking style….” Another “… is drawn to Mitt Romney because the well-coiffed candidate reminds him of his father, a business executive.”

Advisors’ personal chemistry counts

Personality is more memorable than plans. That’s the lesson I take away from this article. Anyone marketing to individuals should keep this in mind.

Blogging boosts personal chemistry

The importance of personal chemistry is another reason for advisors to consider social media, especially blogging. It’s a great way to develop chemistry before you meet or even speak with a prospect.

If you’d like to boost your financial blogging skills, sign up now to get the EARLY BIRD rates on “How to Write Blog Posts People Will Read: A 5-Lesson Writing Class for Financial Advisors.” I’ve recently updated the class FAQ.

Writers, organize or else! A lesson from Barry Tarshis

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Does your writing suffer from this problem?

“…if your thoughts aren’t well organized, it doesn’t matter how large or varied your vocabulary is, how vivid an imagination you have, or how lyrically you compose a sentence; your writing, more often than not, will puzzle your readers.” –Barry Tarshis, How to Write Like a Pro, p. 63

Tarshis offers many ideas about how to write well.

You can whip your thoughts into shape with a five-step process.

  1. Brainstorm ideas
  2. Organize your thoughts before writing
  3. Write a first draft
  4. Edit–Consider hiring an editor if you struggle with this phase.
  5. Rewrite

Most popular 2011 Investment Writing posts

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Google Analytics revealed my most popular blog posts of 2011. Wordle.net created the image of the most popular words in this top 10 post. Enjoy!

  1. Writing resources for equity research analysts–There are some specialized resources for analysts.
  2. My fill-in-the-blanks approach for structuring articles–Bloggers can use this powerful technique to quickly produce a post.
  3. Career strategies for wealth managers without a book of business–My CFA charterholder colleagues contributed valuable advice to this article.
  4. White paper marketing: Walk a fine line–There are three key characteristics of white papers.
  5. Quick check for writers, with an economic commentary example–An easy-to-use technique for checking whether your writing is easy to read.

    Image created using Wordle.com

  6. The 10-postcard approach to financial advisor marketing
  7. Mark Tibergien’s one thing for financial advisors’ business improvement
  8. Best practices for institutional asset manager websites
  9. Financial advisor prescription by Statman evokes strong response
  10. Mind mapping technology for financial advisors

How to manage a group blog: Financial advisor edition

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I imagine a group blog run by financial advisors would face several challenges in producing interesting, high quality blog posts on a regular schedule.

Image: HikingArtist.com

These include the following:

  • Coming up with mutually agreeable topics for blog posts
  • Setting a schedule for publishing blog posts
  • Getting posts written, edited, and approved

I have ideas about how to tackle the challenges.

Brainstorm as a group

Need topics that will satisfy your group as a whole? Try brainstorming topics in a meeting with the other blog contributors.

By the way, I’m assuming you need to satisfy the group because you’re blogging with other employees of your firm. If not, agreement may not be necessary, but group discussion is still a spur to creativity.

Create an editorial calendar

It’s easier for your team’s writers to contribute regularly if they have a schedule.

Here’s a sample editorial calendar for a group blog:

MONTHLY EDITORIAL CALENDAR
WEEK NUMBER TOPIC
1 Children
2 Career
3 Retirement
4 Estate planning
5
  • Jan. −Guest blogger re: home decorating on a budget
  • [Feb. − NO 5th week]
  • March−Last-minute tax moves that will save you money on April 15

Notice how subject areas repeat on a regular schedule, making it easy for writers to know when their posts will run. Once they know that, they should be able to calculate dates by which their first drafts are due.

Create a process

You don’t want contributors to turn in their posts at the last minute. This is why you need a well-defined process with due dates. The process might include the following steps.

  1. Submission of first draft for content review and proofreading
  2. Rewriting, if necessary
  3. Compliance review
  4. Rewriting, if necessary
  5. Publication on blog
  6. Monitoring and responding to comments

Other tips for group blogs?

Please share your best tips for managing group blogs. I also welcome your questions.

 

2015 update: In a LinkedIn discussion, Stephanie Sammons of WiredAdvisor mentioned CoSchedule as a useful tool for group blogs.

Guest bloggers: 2011 in review

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I’m thankful for the knowledgeable and talented professionals who have contributed guest posts to my blog this year.

Here’s a list of guest posts sorted by topic, including client communications, marketing, social media, and writing.

Client communications

Marketing

Writing

Other financial topics

I also hosted some wonderful guest bloggers last year. See “Guest bloggers: 2010 in review.”

This post was updated on Dec. 28, 2011.

Get your blog indexed, or suffer poor visibility

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You want your posts to rank high in Internet searches.

Photo: artzubi

However, search engines don’t start exploring every new blog as soon as it’s created. Luckily, you can speed up this process by bringing your blog – not individual posts – to the attention of search engines.

There’s a one-time process to accomplish this. You submit a request for each search engine to index your blog. There’s no guarantee they’ll comply immediately, but your index request is likely to accelerate the process.

For instructions on how to get your blog – or any website – indexed, go directly to the search engine that interests you and check out ProBlogger.com’s 5 Ways to Get Your Blog Indexed by Google in 24 Hours.