Pack Your Articles with Statistics

When writing articles for the public, you can boost your authoritative credibility by citing statistics related to your topic.

A good place to start is LibrarySpot.com, which has links to statistics on dozens of sources, listed by government agency and by topic.

Speaking of government agencies, the U.S. Census Bureau has a great resource for journalists and other writers - Facts for Features and Special Editions. These are collections of statistics around specific topics. For example, the "Back to School" statistics list statistics on student enrollments, how much money is spent on back-to-school shopping, government spending, the earning power of eduction, and more.

Another source for statistics is the University of Michigan Library's Statistical Resources on the Web. There you'll find links to data on business, health, demographics, economics and more. If you don't find what you're looking for, you can request assistance from the librarian. (Priority is given to University of Michigan students, staff, faculty and alumni.)

A little rusty on how to interpret averages, sample size and margin of error? Here's a link to an article, Statistics Every Writer Should Know.

7 Ways to Repurpose Your Content

Have you noticed how the "big names" keep presenting the same message over and over again? You can pretty much predict what they're going to say. The content varies slightly, but the theme remains the same.

They are "repurposing" their content - sometimes you'll see it in print; sometimes you'll hear it in an interview; or you may get it online via the web or newsletter.

There are dozens of ways to repurpose content. Here's a slide show I recently posted online, which reviews 7 of them.

The more ways you can get your message out there, the more quickly you will be branded as an expert in your field.

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Do-it-yourself: Website or blog?

One of the most frequent questions I get is, "What's the quickest and least expensive way to set up my website?"

If you're going to do it yourself, the quickest way to get a web presence is to set up a blog at blogger.com. This blog that you're reading is hosted on blogger.com. It's free. You don't need any programming or web-designing skills. And you can update it very easily.

Blogger blogs are limited - you can't have different sections and pages,as you'd find on a traditional website.


Convenience of a blog, look and feel of a website

If you want the convenience of a blog (easy updating, interactivity, plug-in widgets, etc.) with the look and feel of a website, your solution is to use the free Wordpress blog software.

To do this you need a domain name and web host. If you don't have a domain name (e.g., yourwebsite.com) you can get one at Godaddy. Each name costs about $10/year.

Next, you need a place to host your website. There are hundreds of web hosts. You can use Godaddy for hosting, but I've heard great things about Hostgator. Fees start at $4.95/month.

Whatever hosting service you use, make sure they offer free installation of the Wordpress software. Wordpress will be a built-in option that you click to install from your website's control panel. Learn more at wordpress.org

Once you get your Wordpress blog installed, simply choose a template and start typing to add content. You can add extra functions and widgets as you go along.


Want to stick with a traditional website?

If you won't be doing much updating, or if your website is mainly a brochure for your business, then a traditional html-based website may be all you need.

Many web hosts have simple "site builders" (templates) to get you started. You can also use wysiwyg (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) html editors such as nvu or amaya. With these editors you don't need to use html - simply type in your content and the html code is automatically created.

However, it does help to know a little about html, in case your final result has weird lines or spaces. Here's a link to info and tutorials on html.

Whether you decide on a blog or a website, if you don't have any web presence, get started today. Don't wait till you have everything ready to load onto it. Just get started. Tweaking will be easier when you have it partially completed.

LEARN MORE


Learn more about the difference between a blog and a website, and how they are related to your marketing, in the 9-minute slideshow below. It's a sneak preview of my new home-study course. If you are ready to take a serious step toward marketing your practice or business, visit MarketWithAuthority.com for details.

The power of your voice

If you're a a therapist, coach or consultant, you probably communicate mainly through your voice. Your voice reveals so much about who you are. Recently I interviewed two broadcast specialists from Australia, who gave us lots of tips on how to make the most of our voice to connect with clients, and also to market ourselves.

The blogtalkradio recording is below. It's 60 minutes, but you can download it to your computer and either listen online or transfer it to your portable music player. To download the audio, click here and look for the blue Download tab just above the "Market with Authority" image.

Get the study guide here.

Use hot topics to frame your marketing message

The best marketing message is that which addresses people's concerns.

What are people talking about? What are they searching for online?

You can get answers to these questions from statistics provided by search engines, blogs and social bookmarking sites.

If there are a lot of searches or a lot of blogging on a given topic, that means it's hot. And if you're an expert on this topic (or something related to it) it's an ideal time to write about it or comment about it. This will help build your status as an authority.


HERE ARE SOME TOOLS:

Google Trends - See at a glance what the popular searches have been for the past 24 hours. Or search on a specific topic for trends in recent weeks, months or years. You can even compare search terms and get a breakdown of searches by country and region.

This graph shows the results of searches for 3 popular psychiatric diagnoses: ADHD, Autism, and Bipolar, for the last 12 months.

Overall, Autism (red line) has been the most popular search. However, if you look at the countries below the graph, you'll notice that this is the case mainly for English-speaking countries. in northern Europe the most popular search has been ADHD (blue line.)

Thus, depending on which population you're targeting, you'll frame your message accordingly.





Yahoo Buzz - Learn what's hot right now. A "Buzz score" is based on search term popularity, how many times a news story or other item is emailed from Yahoo Buzz, and the number of votes from Buzz visitors. You can search for buzz within a particular topic, and within a specific time frame, up to the past year. Here's a screenshot from what's hot in health news from the past 30 days:





Blogs and social bookmarking - People are not only searching online; they are also talking about what they've found. They're blogging, commenting, and sharing their bookmarks. You can see what's hot by visiting:
Technorati
BlogPulse
Del.icio.us
Furl

"Expensive" implies quality

Last week in the news there was an interesting study confirming what we already suspect: Expensive medicine is perceived as more effective.

People who were told that a pill cost $2.50 got more pain relief from a shock to their wrist, than did those who were told that the pill cost only 10 cents. In reality, both groups of subjects received the same pill, which contained no pain medicine at all. The pill was just a placebo (sugar pill.)

A few months ago another study showed that people sipping wine which they thought cost $45, reported that it tasted better than wine that they were told cost $5.

Moreover, brain imaging reflected more activity in the pleasure centers when the people drank the "expensive" wine - even though both products were identical!

These research results are not surprising. From haircuts, to cosmetics, to watches, to cars - in the mind of the consumer, higher price is associated with better quality. And expectation of quality affects one's experience of satisfaction.


What this means for your professional business:

Even in these tough economic times, if you are a professional, think twice before slashing your fees.

There is still a need for your services and products. And when money is tight, your potential clients and customers don't want to waste it. More important than ever is their confidence that what they are paying for is indeed going to help them.

Instead of lowering your prices, increase your perceived value. Here are some tips:

• Be extra responsive - e.g., return phone calls and emails within an hour.

• Offer extra convenience - e.g., toll-free phone number, baby-sitting services for your in-person clients, evening office hours, stamped self-adressed envelopes for return mail.

• Give something free, which is related to your paid service or product - e.g., book (yours or someone else's), CD, DVD, pedometer (eg., for clients you are coaching to improve their life style.) These items cost a few bucks, but can greatly enhance your perceived value.

What eye-tracking studies imply for your website

Where should you place your most important text on your web page? According to eye tracking studies by Jakob Neilsen, people's eyes scan web pages in an F-shaped pattern, as in the image below. The red areas indicate the longest gaze, blue the shortest, and grey no focus at all.



What does this mean for your website? If you look at the diagram, you can see that the top third of the page, with emphasis on the left side is the most looked at. That's where your most important information should go.

Further down the page use more headings. Since readers spend less time focusing as they scan down a web page, headlines will catch their attention and get them to stop momentarily.

Nielsen also recommends AGAINST using a lot of bright graphics and fancy formatting. He found in his research that anything resembling a banner ad tends to get ignored.