Unmemorable Title » Blogging

Are The Evils of Modern Football Ruining Your Blog?

Andrew — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 20:00:20 +0000

Don't let Football's Evils harm your blog

Football. It’s a lot like blogging. It used to be the hobby of various undesirables who spent their weekends locked in running battles throughout the town centres, now it’s the preserve of reasonable professionals with Sky TV subscriptions.

Ok, maybe blogging never had the same hooligan problem as association football. But it is suffering from the same modern maladies as the beautiful game. There might be less diving, no referees to argue with and a lack of salmonella-ridden pies, but you’d better beware of the following footballing evils.

Tim Lovejoy

Tim Lovejoy. The archetypical modern football fan. Doesn’t understand the game, doesn’t go to matches, doesn’t have the foggiest idea what the words burbling out of his smug face actually mean. He represents the first of football’s evils. Falsely assuming a position of authority.

If you’ve set yourself up as the leading mind in your field, the go-to-gal in your niche or the mastermind of your very own specialist subject, you’d better be able to back it up. Otherwise you’ll be found out. You’ll claim that Johan Cruyff is your favourite ever player, then admit to never having seen him kick a ball. And you’ll look like a fool. And people will stop taking you seriously.

After that, you’ll end up lurking on some cookery forum, trying to rebuild your reputation.

The Hype Machine

Ever watched Sky Sports News? Every single development is EARTH SHATTERING. Whether it’s Wayne Rooney ruling himself out of international duty due to an ingrowing nose hair, or the latest from Stoke City 0-0 Birmingham City, they’ll pretend it’s the biggest event since a few Germans decided to have an impromptu sledgehammer and re-unification soiree.

Don’t fall into this trap yourself. Not every development is a game changer. If you stand on the rooftops hailing the next Yahoo Meme as a guaranteed Twitter killer, or proclaim to the masses that Google Wave has rendered email obsolete, you’ll look like a berk. Don’t get egg on your chin. Stay sane and sensible, and don’t install a news ticker on your blog.

History Began in 1992

Despite what Sky want you to think, history didn’t begin in 1992. Liverpool aren’t a small club because they’ve “Never Won The Premiership(tm)” – they won every other league title for two decades.

Likewise, you deciding that “blogging is all about talking to your audience” isn’t as groundbreaking as you think. That was true of magazines, books, Roman graffiti and prehistoric cave art. Just because the packaging has changed doesn’t mean the product is significantly different. Bear that in mind, or people with long memories will start to lose confidence in you.

Money

Talk to any football fan, and sooner or later the conversation will turn to money. Wages, transfer fees, debts – these are now as prevalent in pub conversations as goals, tackles and why singing the national anthem REALLY LOUDLY is the key to international success. And it’s boring.

Likewise, when you spend every second paragraph hawking your wares, plugging your affiliates or telling us how much you charge per word, you’re going to bore people. So keep it to a reasonable level. Money ruined football – don’t let it ruin your blog too.

Manchester United

I admit, I’ve got nothing for this one. I just wanted to use the picture.

If it wasn’t clichéd, Andy would apologise for not posting in August, citing back to back illnesses and the start of the football season. But it is clichéd, so he’ll just suggest you follow him on Twitter.

How Long Does a Blog Post Need to Be?

Andrew — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 13:00:02 +0000

Image by Michael David Pedersen

Does a blog post need to be thousands of words long, pre-empting every potential query?

No. A blog post only needs to be long enough to get your point across. And not a word longer.

The Golden Rule of Blogging

Andrew — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 13:00:35 +0000

“Speak to your audience. Give your readers what they want. Keep it brief. Rule of three…”

Yeah. Enlightening. You’ve heard all of that before, haven’t you? Hundreds of times. The closely guarded secrets of the superstar bloggers. Secrets so secretive, that you read them thirty times a week on sixteen different blogs.

Well if you’re expecting this all-new GOLDEN RULE OF BLOGGING to be something along those lines, you’re going to be surprised. Because here’s something that’s 99% certain not to have been featured on Copyblogger.

“Stop Pissing About and Write“

See? I told you that wouldn’t have been on Copyblogger.

But it is the Golden Rule of Blogging. And now I’m going to tell you why.

You may have noticed that the amount of posts on Unmemorable Title has tailed off recently. It’s not because I’m suddenly less productive, or that I’m out of ideas. It’s because I’m very busy. Which means that all of my half baked ideas end up scribbled on the back of receipts or the back of my hand.

And then I never do anything about them until a day or two later. By which time I’ve forgotten half of the brilliant idea that made the post worth writing, and end up with a generic “remember, talk to your audience, kids!” post. Which really isn’t going to enrich your life. So I delete it and do something else.

Until an idea strikes! And I repeat the whole sorry process ad nauseum.

Strike While the Iron is Hot!

Don’t get caught in the same cycle of having to discard decent ideas. It’s all too easy for that fantastic notion that’s bubbling away in your brain to become stale, moth-eaten and barely worth the synaptic space.

If you don’t have time to write a full blog post, grab a notebook, or any piece of paper larger than a receipt, and scribble away. Titles, outlines, good sentences, ideas for subheadings. Get as much of it down as you can.

Then make a date. Put aside an hour or two of your time to write the thing up, and then half an hour to proofread. But make sure you set a deadline. If that idea’s not part of a post within 48 hours, you’ve missed your chance.

And then you end up pretending that a self-admonishing criticism of your inability to post regularly is a golden rule of blogging.

So what are you waiting for? Stop pissing about and write something!

Practise your writing – leave a comment below. And don’t forget to follow me on Twitter.

Five Tweets That Teach You How to be a Writer

Andrew — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 13:15:56 +0000

You can’t say much in a Tweet. 140 characters won’t change the world. But they might change the way you think.

Just five Tweets could be enough to show you how to be a writer.

Read

Read. Read everything. Read anything. Books, poems, adverts, cereal boxes. See how others write and learn how they get their message across.

Only reading as much as you can get your filthy mitts on can teach you how to write. Read blogs in your niche. Read blogs outside your niche. Read trashy novels and Pullitzer prize winners.

Read every single sentence you come across and ask yourself what it does, how it does it and who it does it to. Then read the next one.

Write

Write. A golfer practises putting for hours on end, so she’ll sink the one that counts. Write constantly, and you’ll improve with each word.

There’s no reason not to write every day. Write articles. Work on that novel. Write love letters to your cat. Write for any purpose you can ever think of, write for every person that you’ve ever heard of.

Practise makes perfect isn’t just a cliché. It’s also the best piece of advice you’ll ever have.

Listen

Listen. Writing is a way of communicating, and that’s a two way street. Listen to worries, needs and aspirations. Learn about your audience.

If you want to be able to speak, you first need to know how to listen. Listen with your ears – hear what people are saying about products and experiences. Listen with your eyes – pay attention to reviews and complaints.

If you don’t take the time to listen to your audience, you’ll never know what to say to them.

Speak

Speak in your own voice. Copywriting isn’t copying what people write, it’s finding the correct style and tone of voice to connect with them.

Just because you’re reading what others are writing and listening to their needs, doesn’t mean you should emulate them. Retreading old ground and mimicking other writers doesn’t make for exciting, engaging copy.

Your job is to give a product, company or brand a voice. And that voice needs to be unique.

Persist

Quitting gets you nowhere. You won’t ever get everything right the first time – so keep trying. Persistence always pays off in the long run.

A first draft is never right. Learn to take constructive criticism, and always be prepared to make a change for the better. Throwing in the towel gets you nowhere fast.

Persistence is the best quality anyone in any industry can have.

Share your 140 characters of wisdom in the comments thread. Who knows? It might help someone out.

Four Things to Celebrate This Manchester Day

Andrew — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 17:59:17 +0000

Photo by Ben Sutherland

Most of you will be aware that today is Father’s Day (if not, I advise making a quick apologetic phone call before reading on), but it’s been brought to my attention that 20/6/10 marks the first ever “Manchester Day”

As I’m always one for marking ridiculous holidays that’ve been made up by tourist boards and councils, I’d like to share four Mancunian things that you should celebrate. Preferably by faking a Liam Gallagher accent, whilst drinking a pint of Holt’s.

Manchester SEO

Naturally, I’ll have to mention FirstFound here, given that it’s my job to publicise the company (and create great free content like the FirstFound Social Media Guide ), but there’s a lot of non-corporate SEO advice to be had in the Capital of the North. There’s the #MancSEO meetups, and great blogs like Webtoastie.

Manchester Copywriting

I’ll take it as read that you’re familiar with Unmemorable Title, but I’m far from the only copywriting blogger in Manchester. There’s UT guest poster Tom Mason, and people like Martin Williams (the only man to be following me on Twitter twice). That’s far from a comprehensive list, but as we Mancunians are SEO experts, Google is your friend.

Manchester Blogging

It’s almost heresy in a post like this, but I do need to mention plazzie Scouser Roger Davies and his great blog post about moving to Manchester. Now that’s done, we can move on to the cream of the city’s bloggers. I’ve covered them before, but you should familiarise yourself with last year’s Manchester Blog Awards finalists. And then add My Shitty Twenties and I Thought I Told You To Wait In The Car to your RSS feeds.

Manchester Football

Specifically this match.

Yeah. Manchester and football. Even Leeds fans can learn to love it.

Andy’s been slack in updating the blog because he’s been busting his chops on the FirstFound Blog. He is still on Twitter more than he should be though.

Guest Post: No Running, No Diving and No Heavy Linking

TomMason — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 19:28:20 +0000

Being offered a guest post can be a confusing situation.

It’s like going into someone’s home for the first time; you’re not quite sure about the house etiquette. Should I take my shoes off in the hall? Where do I put my coat? Which chair should I sit in?

With social etiquette very much in mind, I’ve been carefully considering some guidelines for my inaugural appearance on Unmemorable Title.

Courting controversy

First of all, you can’t be too controversial. This isn’t my blog and I wouldn’t want to blight Andrew’s solid reputation as a copywriter by preaching about the death of SEO or some other widely exaggerated claim.

However, you don’t want to be too PC. No one wants to read 500 blah-blah words on how Google loves keyword-rich content. You’ll get bored. I’ll get bored. It’s just not that interesting.

Quality control

Furthermore, there’s an issue of standards. Andrew runs a tight ship here at Unmemorable Title and there’s a lot of excellent content lurking around these WordPress halls. In short, he’s got some SEO game.

As a guest blogger, you want to be able to justify your invitation. Knocking out three hundred words while you’re waiting for the rice to boil on the hob just isn’t good enough. A guest post needs to be insightful, witty and, crucially, entertaining. If only for the fact you’d like readers to subscribe to your own blog when they’re done digesting your digital cameo.

But then again, you don’t want to put too much effort into it. Why spend hours crafting a blog which isn’t going to benefit your own corner of the internet? Let’s say you create the Mona Lisa of guest posts; your greatest work as an SEO copywriter which pulls in ‘href’ juice from around the globe.

Congratulations. But wouldn’t you rather have all those juicy recommendations for your own site? It’s a tough one.

Coffee and after-dinner mints

Finally – and most importantly – you can’t outstay your welcome. There’s nothing worse than a guest blog trying to soak up the limelight with a 1,000 word essay. You’re a special guest star, not a listed cast member. Wrap it up, thank the host and courteously suggest readers pop by your site if they want to read more of your work.

Thanks Andrew.

You can read more of Tom Mason’s thoughts on SEO and social media over on Manchester SEO.

How Not to Get a Comment Approved

Andrew — Wed, 26 May 2010 17:54:03 +0000

I’m fine with people leaving comments here because they want a link, so long as they contribute to the conversation. However, if you’re just copy and pasting from a generic template, you’re not getting added.

If you copy and paste in your multiple choice template and forget to delete as applicable, you won’t get a link and I may take the mickey slightly.

“Love it, it’s {sites|posts|web sites|blogs| like this that makes the internet|net so awesome|good|great”

Cheers for that chief. Filling the Net with crap, one comment at a time.

You Really Shouldn’t Be Blogging

Andrew — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 20:52:15 +0000

Photo by Brainware 3000

Common wisdom across the Blogosphere is that you should be blogging. All the time. If you’re not creating reams of content regularly, then your readers are going to desert you, RSS subscribers will throw in the towel and the search engine spiders will retreat to less dusty corners of the web.

This is of course, rubbish. Because guess what? You really shouldn’t be blogging.

Why You Shouldn’t Be Blogging

Of course, I’m not suggesting that you shut down your blog, uninstall WordPress and sell your domain name. But blogging when you have good reason not to can do you more harm than good.

Content Isn’t King

Every single piece of SEO advice you’ve ever read has told you that content is king. Every single piece of SEO advice you’ve ever read has missed the point.

Not all content is created equal, and not all content has a claim to the throne. Good Quality Content is the key to your readers’ hearts, and what the search engines want to see. If you’re not providing that, then in all honesty, you probably shouldn’t bother.

There Is Such Thing As A Valid Excuse

You might not ever have admitted this to yourself. It might be a huge leap for you. But it’s OK. We’ll do it together. Deep breaths. Are you ready? On three. One…

Two…

Three. There will always be times when you just can’t face putting a post together, and that is not an issue.

See, that’s not so scary, is it? Whether you’re stressed out with paid work, have pressing family issues, or just want to curl up on the couch with a kitten and a glass of whisky, there are always things that’ll be more important than your blog. So do them. And once you’ve cleared your mind, you can approach your blog with fresh ideas. What you don’t want to do is try and power through…

Your Readers Deserve Better

… because your readers will notice. They’ll see that you’re not putting out work of your normal high standards. And then one of two things will happen.

If you’ve been using Twitter properly, then you’ll have a core of readers from your niche who’ll spot something’s not up and offer their advice and assistance. They might even send you a guest post or two to tide you over.

However, most of your readers – the ones who just read your efforts without getting involved – will decide that they’re bored. And if they’re bored, they won’t read.

And the search engines won’t be impressed either. Sure, so long as you’re not scraping and stealing, you won’t be hit with any penalties. But if you’re not producing good content, people won’t link to you. And that’s not doing your SEO any good.

So do yourself a favour. Know when you shouldn’t be blogging, and don’t blog. Take some time off, recharge your batteries, and come back strong. Just don’t draw attention to your hiatus with a post that’s a thinly veiled attempt to provide an excuse for your absence.

When Andy’s not making excuses for not updating UT in three weeks, he’s writing for The FirstFound Blog, procrastinating on Twitter or writing the odd guest post here and there. Share your best excuses in the comments thread.

Can You Afford to Work For Free?

Andrew — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 13:31:12 +0000

It may surprise, shock and appall you to read this, but I don’t spend every waking hour writing. Some of it I spend reading, working the SEO beat and wrangling kittens, but a fair chunk of it is spent on computer games.

Football Manager 10 to be specific, and managing Dinamo Vrange to be precise. So as you can appreciate I’ve spent time in various forums. What I’ve seen in my favoured forum is a situation that should serve as a warning to anyone creating content.

They’ve shown me that if you ever want to make money, you can’t afford to work for free.

For years, the team at FM-B (including Copyblogger guest Jordan Cooper) have created an invaluable guide to the game. Tactical tips and tricks distilled from their own experiences and experimentations. Every year, the updated version of the guide is released to a rapturous reception. Except this year.

Why?

Because they’ve decided that their effort should be rewarded. So they’ve slapped a price tag on it. £7.50.

Not unreasonable, you might think? I mean, how much would most copywriters charge for seventy-odd pages of well written copy that fulfils a very real need and engages with an audience perfectly?

The problem is that they’ve been offering this for free for the past few years. And while the forum stalwarts and vocal admirers have forked up the cash, the people who never comment or say thanks are coming out of the woodwork to complain.

So what does that mean for copywriters and bloggers?

It means that if you’re an established blogger looking to make some cash from your content, you need to be prepared for all those returning visitors who never comment to suddenly become very vocal and very angry. Those thousand unique hits a month aren’t going to turn into a thousand sales. Your detractors will be the minority, but you should never expect all the people who will take your advice for free to be willing to pay for it.

And if you’re a copywriter just starting out – don’t fall in to the trap of doing work for free just to get established. Always charge a fair price for fair work. People automatically link cost with quality. Why would they pay you for the sort of content you churn out for free? Especially when that guy charges a fortune. That must mean he’s far better, right?

And if you’re just a Football Manager addict who’s stumbled upon this by accident, buy FM Britain’s latest eBook. Then tell them they owe me commission.

The Secret That’ll Get Your Clients to Read to the End

Andrew — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 13:59:13 +0000

The longer you rattle on about a product or service, the more chance you have of the client getting bored. Be brief and focussed – that way you can be sure the reader is going to carry on to the end.

Kick off with an intriguing headline. Then outline the issue your product or service addresses. Once you’ve created the problem and the need in the reader’s mind, offer your solution. Then add a call-to-action, and you’re done.

Is brief always best? Share your thoughts in the comments section.