(www.inkthinkerblog.com) — I’m at SOBCon09 in Chicago with @lizstrauss and @starbucker. I’m taking notes as people talk, so there will be typos; deal with it. Now I’m checking out Stephen Smith (@hdbbstephen) and Brad Shorr (@bradshorr), who are giving us some tips on Writing for the Web Inside and Out: Tips and Tactics for your Readers and for Search Engines. Woohoo!

There are two types of web readers: human readers and search engines. Appeal to the people who want to buy your stuff while also helping your content to rank higher in search results.

Keywords and key phrases are not the same thing. Think general search terms versus specific groups of words. Not sure? Check out the competition. Pull up their page source and check out their metatags. Do detailed and regular keyword research. Also, use Google Analytics or another tracking program to see how people are finding your site. And see what things people are talking about or asking you in comments and e-mail, because those may yield excellent search terms. Misspelled words are good examples as well. (My favorite tool to see where I currently rank for my target keywords is at SitemapDoc.)

Use title tags. Make sure that your page titles incorporate your main keywords or key phrases. Don’t forget about metadescriptions, either. That’s the chunk of text that shows up beneath the page title in search results. If you’re good at Twitter, a metadescription should be no problem. It’s the mini sales pitch for that page. Include a key benefit or a key point of resistance to make that link stand out to the person doing the search. A lot of people blow this off, so if you take the time to write a good one, it will make your link stand out and you’ll get more people coming to your site.

Every post should have only one category. (Did you hear that, people? ONE CATEGORY.) Categories are really broad. Tags are where you get super specific. Stephen recommends tag clouds because they appeal to readers and draw them in effectively.

Make your webpage easy on the eye so you can draw your readers in. People look at pages in a F-shaped pattern: across the page left to right, then down and left to right again but not as far, and then straight down. Place your content in ways that support an F-shaped reading pattern. What’s good for human readers is good for search engines, too. Put your key words or phrases in bold text to make them stand out to readers and show engines that they’re more important.

Lists are useful because they’re user friendly and memorable, and they’re also great for breaking up text. Narrative posts have their place but don’t get crazy with paragraph length. Keep columns narrow, too, for easier on-screen reading.

Internal links help both readers and search engines by pulling both of them deeper into your site and keeping them there. It raises the authority of your whole site if you use your key phrases as your anchor text to your internal links. If you’re on WordPress, use the Related Posts Plugin. That internal linking is really key to blowing away your competition.

Ideal paragraph length is 3-7 lines, and ideal page length is about 300 words because it gives the reader a worthwhile reason to visit the page without overwhelming him or taking up too much time. Structurewise, use paragraph headings with title tags. Do NOT, however, use H1 tags in your post content because you will be penalized by search engines. Stephen recommends H3 as standard paragraph headings.

When using photos, RENAME THEM DESCRIPTIVELY with search-friendly titles and alt tags. The title is keyword or key phrase text. The alt is a descriptor for the image itself.

(Great general overview of blogging dos and don’ts.)

Contents Copyright © 2006-2014 Kristen King

(www.inkthinkerblog.com) — I’m at SOBCon09 in Chicago with @lizstrauss and @starbucker. I’m taking notes as people talk, so there will be typos; deal with it. Now up is @davidbullock who elicited a marriage proposal from me last year because he was so unbelievably awesome (never mind that we’re both married). I am also tweeting throughout sessions, so make sure you follow me so you don’t miss anything.

This is about how to make money online using your blog and everything else you have at your disposal. If you’re not using this stuff to make money, it’s a moot point. Remember what we talked about last year: Strategy, Tactics, Action, Results, Testing/Tracking – START.

Last year, David Bullock wondered why he was here. Then, he worked with an old friend to create Barack 2.0 as a case study and demonstrated that you can translate rising stories and trends into successful models using blogs and information products to create income streams. His goal was to create a business model that was sustainable for the next 20 years.

When he tracked Barack Obama’s use of social media during the presidential campaign, he was nothing more than a citizen journalist. That is something all of us can do. It cost $154 for the whole year. They started with a blog post. Then a webinar. Then a podcast. Plus tags and comments. He turned a 17-post blog, transcribed blog posts, and created a 134-page book. We can all do that in any given industry in any given time.

“Now, this is where it gets interesting.” (I love this guy.) “We reported on something that was a rising story in the marketplace. You all have that available to you at this time right now.” The question is are you going to become the expert or look at the stories go by you like a tickertape. You all saw Barack Obama using social media. You watched him do it, and what did you DO with that? Nothing. We captured it and turned it into something. And some amazing thing started happening. Links from Fast Company, LA Times. Interviews with Black Enterprise.

This is about making money. They put their book on Lulu.com. So he added, “If you want to interactive online addendum, you will give me your e-mail address.” Lulu wasn’t giving him people’s names because they don’t track this stuff for authors. He used the PDF as an extra for the $39.95 book. At 200 books sold, 75 people had registered for the PDF. He had to learn about ecommerce, got 1ShoppingCart.

Radio, television, links, news coverage — it’s all happening simply because he documented something that was happening that all of us had access to. We’ve got it through newspapers, Twitter, CNN’s iReport… There is money to be made in trends. Find out what people are talking about and turn it into income.

The Two Lessons

1 – If you say you’re going to do something, do it.

2 – If you’re going to do something, make sure it makes sense.

The key is to write interesting content that people are interested in. The blog was the platform that created the book which is the platform for the consulting he wants to do. If you take the get-it-done, pragmatic, get-it-done-because-tomorrow-I-must-eat to the people who have to spend money because of their corporate budget, it’s a match made in heaven. Those two worlds don’t coexist typically. The person who can bridge the gap between those two worlds, who stands in that gap, that person has a lot of money to make. When you bring to the table real, hands-on experience, all of the sudden there’s a different respect.

Enter a market by making a product, and maintain control of all your intellectual property. It’s all positioning, storytelling, and getting the thing right. Once you control something that people want, then you have latitude in the marketplace.

This is the big takeaway: “I did this, these are the numbers.”

(We ran out of time way too early… Pout, pout, pout.)

Contents Copyright © 2006-2014 Kristen King

(www.inkthinkerblog.com) — I’m at SOBCon09 in Chicago with @lizstrauss and @starbucker. I’m taking notes as people talk, so there will be typos; deal with it. Now up is @copyblogger Brian Clark, who invariably rocks my socks. I am also tweeting throughout sessions, so make sure you follow me so you don’t miss anything.

You’re not a blogger, you’re an entrepreneur. You’re not creating content; you’re creating an online asset. Positioning is really the most important part of your strategy, especially if you’re trying to get someone to pay you for information. Positioning can also contribute to partnerships and lead to new positioning strategies.

Power Positioning: From Personal Branding to Online Assets

People live and die for stories. if you want people to talk about you, to get the word out, that’s how you need to think about it.

Positioning = unique selling proposition. Unique in a way that no one can copy. Being the purple cow. Having a winning difference. It’s not enough to differentiate you from the competition if no one’s talking about you. (<rant>I am so tired of hearing about Gary Vaynerchuk. Good for him, but come on, talk about something else, people. </rant>)

How are you going to create a positioning strategy if you don’t know who that audience is? Who are you going to attract? Outside of Twitter, it’s good to have a business matter.

Positioning via persona or personal branding

The goal is to be literally remarkable — worthy of being remarked upon. One way is positioning by persona. That doesn’t work for everyone, but the people who love you love you intensely. When you position with persona, your audience will buy anything you sell because they want to identify with you. Extremes are remarkable, criticism is personal, and cashing out is different. As Terry says, the No. 1 thing is to be nice. But no one talks about nice people, and that’s just a sad fact. It doesn’t have to be the foul-mouthed marketing type, but you have to be willing to go to extremes. The biggest reason Brian doesnt’ do this positioning: he likes to sell stuff after he’s built it.

Personal branding happens naturally. Often it’s better if you create something else that focuses on THEM so they get to respect and like YOU. It’s more important to build an independent brand than to build a lukewarm personal brand that does nothing for you or lacks direction.

Google will love you if people love you first.

Positioning via crossroads or intersection

Julien mentioned something about creative intersections. it’s when you take two seemingly unrelated things and you connect the dots for people. Copyblogger is an example, because it’s a blog about blogging but it’s specifically a blog about blogging as copywriting, the intersection of copywriting and content. Be careful to amplify, not constrain when you position via crossroads. And make sure people get it; don’t assume they get it. He cites Medici Effect: What Elephants and Epidemics Can Teach Us About Innovation.

Positioning via metaphor

Metaphorical positioning is the most powerful, and it is the most fertile ground when you’re dealing with information. It’s a means to create an instant identification with someone to communicate the value of what you’re offering in such a way that the audience gets it right away. But it’s sometimes tough to come up with a really solid metaphor. Make sure you don’t get a bad one that works against you. Visit the bookstore and look at titles for examples.

What is your story?

What are you uniquely going to do in the world? It’s not about what other people are doing; that’s just to give you an idea of where to start.

Contents Copyright © 2006-2014 Kristen King

(www.inkthinkerblog.com) — I’m at SOBCon09 in Chicago with @lizstrauss and @starbucker. I’m taking notes as people talk, so there will be typos; deal with it. Chris Brogan (@chrisbrogan) shaved his head and it’s throwing me off majorly. Looks good, but very different. Julien Smith (@julien) is his same adorable self.

Why is it that some people are successful on the web and some are not? Why do some feel like they’re just turning their wheels, and others feel like they’re doing very little work. Here are…

6 THINGS THAT MAKE PEOPLE SUCCESSFUL ONLINE

1. Make your own game. Stop playing by other people’s rules.

Many try to at first, but stop. Perez Hilton has more traffic than Time Magazine, and he’s a doughy gay man who usually has pink hair. He’s slaughtering mainstream media because he’s not playing by their rules. It’s far more profitable because you make yourself an immediate leader of your category. Example: Tim Ferris (the 4-Hour Work Week guy) is a “lifestyle designer.” Be constantly inventing your own space. If you don’t invent your own space, you’re automatically playing by someone else’s rules. What you need to be is the damn best small biz marketing consultant in the whole wide world (Becky McCray), the absolute anti-brand (Jeff Livingston), etc. Do all these different things that make you the person who owns your game. It’s about standing out. Stop trying to be someone else because they’re already taken. Just be yourself.

(Slide changes. Julien: “This is just a dog with a shotgun.” Everyone laughs. I nearly spit yogurt on my computer.)

If you like one thing and you like a second thing, find the intersection between the two things. There is a system to everything. Discover it and profit.

(Julien decides to take off his coat. Chris announces wardrobe changes throughout the presentation and says he will later take off his pants. Catcalls abound.)

2. Be one of us. Membership has its privileges.

Outsiders do not influence insiders. Trust agents are embedded inside of communities they care about. Influencers convince themselves, too. Insiders forgive each other more and forgive each other faster. Julien says he has an internal process that tells him that when he is in a group with other people, he helps those people. It’s about belonging. Those who belong are powerful. THose who don’t are not.

Oh my God, Chris Brogan is beatboxing.

3. The web is the ultimate leverage engine; use it or be used.

Banners were first. E-commerce had mixed successes. We use the web for leverage: blogging, twitter, relationships for a cause. Smart companies aggregate; smart people also aggregate. Less work = more time. Put it on paper. The web is so powerful because you can do it once and have it work over and over again. It works for a sales pitch, any page you write, everything you do online. We’ll be speaking this weekend, but if we don’t write it down and put it on the web, we’re wasting our time.

Video of Free Hugs campaign with music by Sick Puppies.

Video from Where the Hell is Matt of him dancing his stupid dance all around the world. “Nobody was in the dancing stupidly with millions of other people all over the world game. Turns out, there was a job opening! Who knew?”

Principle: Never do work twice. Never begin from nothing.

4. Agent zero. The web is a network; the network is all powerful.

Be the center of the network. Certain companies — the smart ones — only have groups of 150 people or less because after 150 people, you stop caring. The web is a powerful network. if you want to be successful on the internet, be like the web. Be part of a lot of 150s. LinkedIn sucks, but the principle is amazing; it does not facilitate good network behaviors because it only give you two groups (industry and location) and no way to demonstrate affinity. It’s a starting point to understand that there’s a pile of people out there.

Be helpful. Be humble. Share. No one likes people who talk about themselves, but everyone likes people who talk about them. When you talk about them, you learn a lot. When you talk about yourself, you learn nothing.

5. Be a human artist.

Some people need to work on their social skills. Don’t be “that guy.” It’s really about empathy, thinking about more than just how YOU can benefit. Think constantly about how other people feel, whether they’re comfortable, how you can help them. Reciprocity. It’s about understanding. Marketing to people you don’t even know: “It’s like I’m reaching out to shake your hand and you stick your tongue in my mouth.” Know when to be visible and when to ghost. Good leverage is building great karma. Bad leverage is pyramid schemes. Reputation comes from empowering others, not just being amazing — you build a reputation by being amazing at empowering others.

6. Build an army; use the power of many.

Empower other people, go from craft to craftsperson to cottage to factory. It’s amazing how little an individual needs to do so long as a group does it. Example is Digg, Reddit; voting up is such a tiny thing, but on a massive scale it creates incredible acts. Finding out how to leverage it is key. It’s about mass. But then the transition from factory to cafe, it’s about mass customization. We can do small things better.

The people who are successful on the web, trust agents, are successful at one or two of theses things. You don’t need to be good at everything, just a few. As long as you can do that, you’ve got something great that you can feel great about, support your family with, all kinds of different stuff.

Contents Copyright © 2006-2014 Kristen King