Visuals are stimulating and entertaining to the mind. More than anything, people enjoy sharing content that is unique and provides a solution to their questions.

You have likely heard about the need for a brand to present valuable and unique content for its readers. Eye-catching elements that catch the audience such as images, videos, and infographics. They work to project your message that ties directly to the scheme of things.

What Makes Visual Content that Catches Your Audience

Visual marketing is incorporated into a brands content mix for numerous reasons, including building the brands social media network and increasing leads.

When creating visual website content consider these tips to catch your audience:

• Share what the audience wants: Right at this moment, what is on everyone’s mind? When sitting down to create your videos and images, that is the very first question you should ask yourself.
• Deliver what you promise: Create visual content that is extremely relevant to your core brand community. It is important to share the information which your targeted audience will always need, does not change over times, and provides them with helpful information as well as solutions.
• Go further than only images: When creating web content include short video or infographics that can be shared on places such as Facebook and Instagram and ties back to your YouTube channel and website.
• Give the content a new twist: Make sure your visual content is relevant to your intended audience that is unique to your brand. Of course, just as long as you provide your own fresh “twist”, a topic that is on everyone’s mind is terrific.
• Make the visual content “shareable”: Share your tweets and posts specifically with important individuals in your niche that are inside of your network stating how that particular tweet or post could be beneficial their audience base, also. Ensure your website is responsive and includes social sharing icons as well.

Begin your visual marketing campaign by creating visual content and improving them as you go along. So, be sure to pay attention to user feedback and do not be afraid to change your graphics along the way to ensure you reach your targeted audience.

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Generally, creating additional content is a good thing; however, as any successful marketer knows, it takes more than just creating content to gain results. It takes great content. Great content requires careful planning to deliver the variety and value your audience craves.

The following tips can help you plan for better content for your audience:

Begin with Goals

Compelling your audience to take action is the goal of content marketing. You miss the “marketing” part of the equation when there is no action. So, do not begin with what you want your audience to know. Begin with what you want your audience to do.

The wanted action may be attending a webinar, signing up for your blog, scheduling a demo, etc. Whatever you decide, each piece must be connected to a desirable result.

Allow Your Audience to Lead the Topic Selection

Listen to your audience through their questions they are asking through emails to your sales department, forums such as Quora, search engine queries, and tools like Bloomberry and BuzzSumo then continue the conversation as your topic selection.

Change Up Your Content

Fill holes in your editorial calendar and ensure your content is fresh by changing up your content type. Sure, save room for sharable listicles, however, balance those with thought-provoking pieces that establish the point of view of your brand. Include how-to articles that are 100 percent utility.

Have a plan, write it out, and make it actionable.

Include Interactive Content

Other content is not your main competitor for your audience’s attention. Your main competitor is everything else in the world. With our content, we are asking that people stop what they were doing, ignore any distraction that may come their way, and engage. Earning that level of attention is far easier with interactive content.

Have Some Fun

It is okay to let loose once in a while when you have plenty of useful and practical content. In general, people enjoy being entertained and enjoy laughing. Provided that you stay consistent with your brand voice, there is nothing wrong with experimenting with a little comedy.

Start a Dialog

Does your calendar still have a few blank spaces? If so, allow your audience to fill them in. User-generated content builds enthusiasm, helps foster community, allows your customers to view real-world examples of what your brand can do, and much more.

The ideal way to promote user-generated content is to ask for it. Ask your customers for product photos, reviews, customer stories. Manage a contest and recognize the top submissions.

Better yet, ask your most valued client if you could feature them. They get extra visibility while you receive a compelling testimony. Make sure you know what content planning to do for your unique situation.

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Grow Brand Awareness

Through your content, more awareness and leads for your business is generated. You are able to demonstrate your skill and expertise over and over with your content.

Content Marketing Builds Consumer Trust

The more content you create for your business to share with your target audience, the more obvious it becomes that you’re an expert in your desired industry. To help people resolve problems, they trust and hire experts.

Improves SEO Efforts and Expands Your Reach

Your reach is naturally expanding with content. Relevant blog content published on your site or guest sites attract consumers who have an interest in the services and/or products your business offers.

Moreover, your site search engine ranking can also significantly improve when content is published regularly. The reasoning for this is when your content and website are linked to the to them on the internet, these search engines are informed that your site offers value.

Cost-Effective Way to Gain New Leads

Here is another reason why content marketing is important, all the new leads your business has gained through the content. A small business that requires consistent traffic to their website to expand their brand and increase sales will find how vital lead generation is to them. In addition to the content being excellent for lead generation, it is also highly affordable.

Helps Influence Conversions

Conversion statistics provide an excellent look at why content marketing is important. The following are only a few of these stats that show the importance of this marketing tool in regard to enhancing website conversions:

• According to the Content Marketing Institute, 61 percent of online consumers in the United States, decided to make a purchase after reading a recommendation on a website blog.
• ABG Essentials states this marketing tool provides 6 times higher conversion rates than other online marketing tools.
• As reported from HubSpot, partly because of their content marketing efforts, inbound marketers have the ability to double the average website conversion rates – from 6 percent to 12 percent.
• From CrazyEgg – Video content provides an excellent return on investment (ROI) and considerably increases conversions.

Consumers Want Great Content

The fact is that consumers want great content.

• Internet users spent 20 percent of their time on content.
• 68 percent of individuals devote time to read about brands that they’re interested in.
• At least once a month 57 percent read content marketing titles.
• 80 percent of individuals value learning about a company through online custom content.

Content marketing grabs the attention of the consumer which in turn builds your business in today’s digital age. This is the reason why content marketing is important to your business. By investing now in correct content marketing, you and your business will be rewarded for years to come.

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One of the biggest questions that I get asked is whether or not I am happier as a freelancer. Do I enjoy what I do? Do I get the satisfaction from it that some get from their jobs?

Happiness as a Freelancer

Happiness comes from doing something that you like. You can choose to be happy with any job. No really, you can. You’re ultimately the keeper of your own happiness. However, being able to go to my children’s appointments or the plays that they put on without having to let my boss know I will be missing an hour of work here or an hour there is great. That is the biggest and best thing about being a freelancer and owning my own business.

I have a strong work ethic, I do and even at a 9 to 5 desk job if I missed that hour, I would be working until 6 to make it up, but I just cannot miss out on those times that I won’t have again. I will always have the desk, the work, the job; but my children will not be little forever.

You may not have children but you might have a grandma that you want to spend time with before it is too late or a dog that has to be put to sleep soon so you want to give them the best life they could ever ask for towards the end. Whatever the reason, freelancing has allowed me to be much more flexible with what I can and cannot do, making the things that really matter most to me easily enjoyed.

It is Not All Good

Freelancing is not all good. I don’t get large amounts of taxes back every year that I can spend to fix my house or do my hair. I have to pay for health insurance for my family (which is pretty expensive). Struggling is sometimes necessary when I try to find work when the workforce is slow and clients are deciding on their marketing strategies. I have to MAKE myself work because there is no boss barking behind me to get those papers in! You have to work to grow your freelance career.

I do have the creativity to create beautiful websites for clients. By allowing my creativity and my passion for helping others grow, I am essentially loving what I do, downfalls and all. I love being able to help those small businesses ramp up their production and see money come into their businesses. I love being able to stretch my imagination further than I ever have with their projects they bring to me.

Happiness is what you make it. If you want happiness, just think about what you want from life. Think of those things that make you happiest. These are what your life should revolve around, not something that holds you back.

*If you want tips on how to organize and handle both personal and professional life, check out my post here… it also has pretty awesome extras you can make use of!

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Organizing for the future is what I always say! I feel that my life is more put together and I can easily manage my time more effortlessly if I am better organized. This means being able to get all of my ducks (or website content in this case) in a row and then go down and cross them off.

If you’re looking to get your ducks in a row, then now is your time to do so. Here are some of the best pointers that I have used to organize my web content and get it ready to go for the weeks, or even months if you’re feeling ambitious, ahead.

Make a Plan

It all goes smoothly when you have a plan, doesn’t it? In my case, that is how I feel. I have to-do lists, plans, and papers full of hopes and dreams everywhere. When you can cross them off as you go down the list, you will not only feel more organized, but more accomplished.

Think Your Website Content Through

Before you go posting everywhere, think your web content through. You should know what you’re going to post on, where, when and how. These are all great starting points when it comes to both blogs and pages that need to be made for the website. Planning ahead, knowing what to expect and thinking it through makes a difference.

Set it Up 

Set up the pages, words, pictures and anything else that you need to have set up. From there, you can be sure that you have time to look it over and then look it over again. You can change and move anything that you want. It is your website, but you also want to make sure that it is set up for usability and not just because you think it looks pretty.

Don’t Publish Just Yet

You don’t want to publish the website just yet once you have everything planned out, written down and ready to go. Give the backlink to someone that you trust. Let them take a look at it to see where you are. This not only gives you a pair of fresh eyes on the website but it also gives you some additional insight on what needs to be done.

Being able to have a game plan at the beginning of a website is a good thing. All too often you might find yourself running around trying to gather the website content, throw it all together and try to come up with something unique. This is not going to work.

Put your voice into it. Work hard at it and stick with it. You want something that is going to be worth looking at, so you have to make sure you organized it right, while also ensuring that you don’t feel overwhelmed.

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Making web content great consists of a few different ingredients thrown together and then artistically touched up. We all want to have a quick way to get the most out of the posts that we put up, don’t we?

When you’re throwing together your next great masterpiece, keep these five things in mind. Once you do, you know you have a pretty kick-ass article that you can throw out there for the masses to see. That seems to be the goal of everyone posting something, doesn’t it?

#1 Be Interesting! 

You want to share some insight, we get it but we don’t want to be bored to death (kind of how you’re feeling right now, isn’t it?). When you’re sharing information or you’re speaking to an audience, it is important to be as interesting as you can possibly be. It is going to make a huge difference.

#2 Write for Lazy People

Let’s face it, no one has time to read a 2,000-word thesis article on your favorite stuffed animal. It is just not going to happen. Remember #1, as mentioned above… your stuffed animal is not all that interesting. You want to make your content easy to digest in a scannable format that is pleasing to the eyes.

#3 Know Your Readers!

We have to put this in here because so many people out there actually do not know who their readers are. Are they business people? Are they writers like you? Do they have families, needs, wants and desires? You have to know as much as you can about them so that you can appeal to them. Give them something they actually want when they show up for a good read.

#4 Create Original Web Content

I cannot stress enough how important it is that you do not go alone and steal someone else’s writing. You just shouldn’t, so don’t. You want to come up with something original, unique and completely you. This is why your audience shows up more than likely, so make sure to keep injecting your personality into it each time you write.

They’ll love you more for it.

#5 Proofread then Proofread Again

You want to make sure that you’re handing out something pretty good. It should capture your own style and voice well and it should have less than the normal amount of typos in it. Using a Word processing program or even a grammar checker can help tremendously because it will catch these things before you even do!

Make more out of the content that you put up. The more you stick with these ingredients (or rules, but I wanted to be fancy) the more you’re going to benefit in the end. You want content that is readable, easily digestible and interested. Check, check and check – we got you covered!

Plus, once you got that web content down to a science, you can make sure that your website design is just as great!

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Font Matters with a Business Website

Websites are essentially online portals made up of three elements, text, pictures and video. Of the three, the text is by far the most important. A business’s text explains concepts in-depth and the other pieces on the page serve as resources or an expansion on that explanation. According to Creative Market’s findings, it’s imperative to nail the right font down when you put your website up. If your website is using the wrong font, color or size, you’re missing out on potential visitors whether you know it or not.

Utilize a Sans-Serif Font

After looking at the analysis of Creative Market we were surprised to see that so many of the sites relied on a Sans-Serif typeface, but when you stop to consider the benefits of Sans-Serif it makes sense that so many of the leading online websites would be leveraging this leading type. The major difference between sans-serif and other typefaces is that there are no little feet at the bottom of the letters. That might not seem like much at first, but removing those feet makes a website easier to read when using low-resolution devices like a smartphone.

Choosing the right font option can make your website accessible and more enjoyable to a larger group of people, which is exactly why so many market leaders are relying on top sans-serif fonts like Helvetica, Arial, and Open Sans. If your site uses a font with intricate details or small feet, one of the first things you should do to it switches over to a sans-serif font to make it more accessible to everyone.

Go for a Deep Black Font Color

According to the study by Creative Market fonts closest to black are best for business. When looking over all 1,000 of those top websites, nearly all of the sties relied on pure black for their font color. Some of the sites relied on a dark gray as the font color as well, but pure black, or #000000 for all you hex users out there is the most obvious way to go. Lighter colors might look cool, or create a unique look for your site, but black is the most practical option for serious web owners looking to expand.

Choose a Mid-Level Font Size

Creative Market observed three main font sizes in use on all the websites, 14px, 16px and 13px in that order. There were far more websites out there with a 14px font size than any other. That doesn’t mean that 16px or 13px isn’t any good because they have decent success as well. The findings show that you definitely shouldn’t be going with an 8px font, or a 20px font though. Readability is everything in an online website, and a mid-range font helps ensure that your sites show on full-sized computers as well as mobile devices.

The Takeaway

• Choose the right font for success. Black, 14px, Sans-Serif works best.

Article Length is Important

Next on the web-design checklist should be the length of your content. According to the research covering the top 1,000 businesses, the wordcount to shoot for is 605 words. That’s right in the middle of the range and shows that quantity isn’t the most important factor. These businesses are all wildly successful, and they aren’t relying on 5,000-word articles to achieve that success.

Instead of adding every single detail into your business articles, focus on the important key points, explain things very clearly and rely on branching articles to address topics more closely.

The Takeaway

• Nail your page design, and create brief, top-quality content. Longer isn’t better in the case of article length.

Site Speed is a Real Factor

Have you ever been stuck at a business website where every page loads slowly? It’s infuriating. That’s exactly the opposite of how you want your visitors to feel when loading up one of your business webpages. This is why we weren’t surprised to see that the average website response time of the 1,000 top websites examined in the study was just 1.36 seconds. That’s pretty darned fast, and that means visitors will enjoy a smooth browsing experience.

Business owners need to rely on lightweight themes when building a site so that it loads as fast as possible. Take a website speed test right now and look for ways to decrease your load times if they’re notably higher than the 1.36-second gold-standard.

The Takeaway

• Top websites load quickly. Take action to avoid having a sluggish site.

Page Size Matters

This goes along with site load speeds, but during the Creative Market tests, the average webpage size was just 66,970.0928 bytes, or significantly less than 1Mb. Those findings show that fancy sites aren’t better. Instead, simple web pages that minimize heavy graphics and special features are the industry-standard. Lightweight web pages load faster, and they show up nicely on a wider range of devices. That’s why business owners should go for a simple approach with their own sites.

Check your web page size and try to find ways to minimize it if the size is significantly higher than 1Mb. Bigger is not better in this case, and those bloated pages could be deterring visitors hoping for fast information. Cut the page size down and we guarantee you’ll see faster load times as well.

The Takeaway

• The best websites feature compact pages. Cut down on your own page size for improved customer interaction.

Now you know what the top business owners are doing. It’s time to take all those simple best-practices and apply them to your own business website. Look through the details and make the necessary changes for yourself. It’s worth the effort, we promise!

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Many people ask what a content writer is? What can they do for you? How do they help, as compared to doing my website content myself?

Knowing what content writers are and what they do can ultimately help you figure out if they’re the best to go with.

What is a Content Writer?

In order to have a website that can attract an audience, it has to be well written. This is important for your company, but also for those visiting the website. You have to have a voice of your own to show for it. Through the use of a website that has well-written, authoritative, informative information; you can gain this audience.

Web content writers work off of the specifications of the client’s. Whatever you need to have written, these wordsmiths can essentially make it happen, no matter what topic you work in.

Why Use a Content Writer?

So many ask why they’re needed. The first reason being that without the content writer, you’re not going to have content that sells. Whether you’re selling services, selling products or just trying to make your website seen on the internet.

You need to have someone that has a way with words. Those dedicated, full time, long time content writers can provide this type of content for you. These content writers will automatically understand the needs that you have and the information you want to hand out.

Need I say more?

While, I specialize in a wide variety of content writing, I can also provide online marketing skills to help boost your website traffic, to get you seen on the web and also provide those administrative jobs needed to keep up on the views you get.

Contact me today to learn more!

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When it comes to what I can do for you, there are so many answers that I could give. Whether it is marketing that you want, a website that you need or just really persuasive content. I can provide a large variation of types of services that not only get you seen, but captivate the audience that you’re trying to impress.

So What Exactly Can I Do For You?

I am a content writer, but I also can develop simple, beautiful websites, as well provide the backend marketing that many companies need when it comes to showcasing their talents online. With my help many companies were able to find themselves on search engines, have a beautiful website to send their customers and clients too, while also feeling proud of the work that they perform.

Without my help, a lot of companies do not get the web presence that could actually be quite beneficial to them. This can become a problem if you find that you’re having a hard time reaching an audience.

Why Do I Do it?

In my life of work, I have to go out there and find jobs for myself, find long term client and even some short term. However, I provide them with something valuable, so that if they ever needed any future help, they’d come to me to find it.

I can be your eyes and ears on the internet. I can put your name out there and make sure it is whispered. I can give you something to share with those around you that you’re thinking of working with. Whatever it is that you want to have done with your website, content or marketing online, I can be the one to help you achieve everything that you need to have done.

Learn more about why you might need website content for your business, or if you’re already considering an online presence, then make sure to reach out and contact me today. We can discuss your online presence or lack of in more detail!

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With more and more people looking to make money in easier than a 9-5 type of job way, it is no wonder the content world is becoming increasingly saturated with writers. However, how good are these writers? How much do they charge? What value or services do they bring to the table?

Those That Have Been in Content Writing a Long Time

If you’re like me and have been in the content writing business a long time, then you know it is important to have some sort of specialty and credentials to back you up against the grueling workforce that has become our life.

With me, it is my marketing degree and specialized areas that bring the most attention.

Not everyone is able to provide these skills and I am sure other long-time writers have their own niches that they practice in.

These new writers do not have much going for them but a newly found freelance writing freedom and the ability to work for pennies. Should companies hire them to save a buck?

Whether or Not Companies Should Hire Newbies 

Being new to the freelance writing world is not a bad thing. It means you can get your feet wet, learn a bit and create a specialty all your own. By no means does this mean that you should give up or stop taking on jobs.

However, businesses that want custom-tailored, SEO rich, quality content should probably search for an expert in the industry. Those businesses that want to just throw up a website and create something just to have a presence there to show their clients, give the newbie a shot, why not?

Great content is what is going to drive traffic to your website. It is what is going to back you up when it comes to finding diversity in the niche that you work in. This can be something that newbies learn, but you might not have the time for them to take the time to learn on their own.

Welcome to all newbies in the freelance writing world and welcome to all businesses that want to work with experts and newbies alike in the field. With that being said, here is a guide to helping newbies get off to a great start in this content building industry.

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