LJ Sedgwick, Author at LJ Sedgwick

September 21, 2017 by LJ Sedgwick Leave a Comment

3 Reasons Why You And Your Startup Need Online Mentors

You know your tech solution inside out. It’s innovative, useful, and in all likelihood the best thing since Velcro. But unless you’ve had specific training, other elements of running a startup, like bookkeeping, marketing, or securing funding, might be out of your comfort zone. That’s where online mentors come in.

If you choose the right ones, you can access a wealth of knowledge, best practice, and advice to help you navigate the choppy waters of running a tech startup. Sure, you could pay for expensive training programs (and in the case of anything financial or legal, you really should). But can you afford that? Learning from the best online could be a better option.

But can you afford that? Learning from the best online could be a better option. Access their content from anywhere, save what you find useful, and ignore what you don’t.

Still not convinced?

Here are three reasons why you need online mentors.

1) Mentors can be expensive. Online mentors don’t have to be

Some people baulk at the idea of having a mentor. It conjures mental images of the inevitable training sequences in action films. You don’t want to run up and down stairs while your mentor looks on and bad 1980s inspirational rock music plays in the background.

Mentors don’t have to take that kind of form. They’re essentially someone that you learn from. Hiring a mentor can cost a considerable amount of money because you’re paying them for their time, as much as their expertise. So choosing online mentors is a way to learn while saving money.

You might not have the time or money to hire a mentor. But you can still learn a lot from online mentors. Click here to learn 3 reasons why you need them. — It’s okay to admit you don’t know everything.

It also means you don’t have to own up to having mentors if you don’t want to.

Note: I don’t mean you shouldn’t hire a coach if you need one. Coaches help you work through your problems and get you unstuck. A good business coach can be worth their weight in gold. Mentors are more of a guiding hand.

2) It’s easy to consume their content and learn from their output

Having online mentors lets you bypass the need to manually schedule meetings, which takes time out of your day. You consume their content when it suits you – and often in the format that suits you best.

Take Joanna Wiebe, as an example. I consider her to be one of my online mentors. I consume the bulk of her content from the CopyHackers blog since I learn best through the written word. But I also watch her live tutorial calls on Tuesdays to actually see her processes in action. 65% of people are visual learners so if you learn better from watching someone, these calls are the ideal way to learn.

Having online mentors does have one drawback since it’s more difficult to ask questions. If you hired a personal mentor who sat with you for two hours every couple of weeks, you can get instant answers. That’s more difficult with online mentors. They don’t have the time to answer all of your questions for free.

But if you choose the right online mentors, they’re still accessible. Take Jessica Mehring, for example. I learned bucket loads from her during her Content Chemistry course, and her blog is also a great source for learning.

Maybe your chosen online mentors run a podcast. You can listen and learn during your daily commute, while you’re in the gym, or during lunch. Take in the information in the format that best suits the way you learn.

The point is, just because you’ve never met the person doesn’t mean you can’t learn from them. The trick is to choose someone whose opinion and advice you trust. You can’t learn from everyone in the online space, so pick a handful of people and stick to them.

3) Online mentors can keep you up-to-date more easily

I’m a huge fan of books. You’d be hard-pressed to find a day when I don’t have one with me. And I don’t just mean novels. Books like Switch by Chip and Dan Harris are just as important to playing with new ideas and accessing new points of view.

The problem with books is that, even in the era of digital publishing, the content can become dated quickly. A book takes time to research, write, and publish. Even if it’s updated digitally, you may never know if you only own a hard copy.

Choosing online mentors means you can stay up-to-date with the latest developments in your niche. Or, if you need online mentors to help with your marketing, you keep up with current best practice within digital marketing. You don’t have to follow the advice in a book that could be eight years out of date.

Make notes on what you read (I recommend Evernote). Regularly revisit your notes to refresh your memory, give you new ideas, or to update them as content changes or evolves. Try out some of the tactics you read about.

So if Neil Patel recommends the ten best subject lines that guarantee subscribers will open your emails, try some of them out. Record your results. Keep testing until you hit on a formula that works for your startup.

Just make sure you put what you learn into practice.

Having online mentors only really works when you actually try following their advice. Treat blog posts or podcasts as mini-lessons, and set yourself the task of trying out what they discuss. If it’s a new tactic, give it at least two weeks to see any results. If it works, keep it. If it doesn’t, try the next one.

Just keep learning.

If you’d like to learn about the power of content from me, then sign up below and get my guide to writing blog posts, along with other tips and tricks in your inbox.

[mc4wp_form id=”490″]

August 31, 2017 by LJ Sedgwick Leave a Comment

How to spot these 5 symptoms of a failing blog – and fix them!

With phrases like “content is king”, it’s easy to think that churning out content is the best way to save a failing blog.

After all, if you build it, they will come, right?

Nope. Not in the world of blogging. More content doesn’t always equal more traffic.

You need to give visitors a reason to visit your content, otherwise you’re going to end up with a very sickly blog indeed. And when that happens, some 95% of people stop blogging. They assume blogging is a waste of time.

Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, it’s still really important to start or have a blog in 2017, moving into 2018.

So if you suspect your blog might be ill, see if you can spot these 5 symptoms. With early intervention, your blog can be saved!

1. The dreaded ‘wall of text’

Back in the early days of blogs, there wasn’t as much competition for attention. And blogs still had a degree of novelty value. So you could post the so-called ‘wall of text’ and readers would still read it.

But readers have a lot more demands on their time now. And there are a lot more blogs – and therefore more competition.

If a visitor lands on your blog and finds an impenetrable wall of text, they’re likely to stop reading after a couple of paragraphs. Reading on screens is hard on the eyes. And comprehension is still much better when we read content on paper.

So posts need to be scannable. Use headers to break up content. Readers can decide for themselves what sections they need to read, and which sections they can skip. Believe me, you’d rather your reader skips around within your content, rather than skipping to a whole different site.

Or just use images. GIFs are great, depending on your audience. I write for tech and software companies so I might use science fiction or tech GIFs. Like this one.

via GIPHY

Bullet points are useful for giving short bursts for information, or providing checklists. Images and infographics can also get across your point far more quickly.

So look at one of your current blog posts. The content itself might be fine – but if visitors can’t read it properly, then they won’t get the best out of it.

Work out where you can add headings to guide the reader through the content. You can use headings like I have here, to indicate a change of topic. Think of them like mini chapter headings.

2. No fixed focus or theme to the content on your failing blog

I’m my own case study here. When I started this blog, I’ll be honest – I didn’t know what to share on it. Now, I knew how to blog – I’ve been doing it since 2009. And I’ve been ghostblogging long enough to know how to write posts. I just didn’t know what kind of posts needed to be on here.

So if you look back at the earlier posts, they ping about around digital marketing, social media, storytelling, and copywriting.

It’s not a million types of content, but it wasn’t as focused as it should have been.

But why does it need to be focused?

Pretty simple. Say a visitor comes to your blog and enjoys the post they found on Twitter. You’d written about 6 hidden features of Photoshop to save time when editing photographs. They love it. It’s exactly what they needed.

But then the reader clicks onto the previous post, and it’s a post about an appearance you’ll be making at a local trade show. And the one before that was about a brilliant video you watched on Youtube the day before.

Are they likely to subscribe to your email list? Or come back to your blog? Sure, they might use your fancy category dropdown. And maybe they’ll use your search bar. But they want to know there’s essentially “more of the same” elsewhere on your blog.

You know you need your blog, but it's not quite wowing your visitors. Spot these 5 common symptoms of a failing blog and give your content a shot! — Diagnose problems with your blog.

So in the example of my content. I wouldn’t call it a failing blog – but I knew I needed to change something. So I got strategic. I worked out who I wanted to help, and I planned an editorial calendar. I focused on themes I wanted to cover. It’s helped me to work out what value I want to provide – and what I want to help you with. All in a logical order.

If you’d like help creating your editorial calendar, drop me a line!

3. Using too much jargon

It’s one thing showing how much you know about your subject. But it’s another thing confusing visitors to your site.

And I get it. If you make software, you want to speak to the people who use it. So you should use technical terms, right?

Not quite.

Scrivener are a good example. Their writing software is pretty much industry standard among authors. And their blog features short tutorials on using specific features.

But the terminology relates to the tools a user needs. It doesn’t bamboozle them with science. And nor should you.

For a great example of a conversational, friendly blog, check out Wunderlist. Their style is one of many reasons why I signed up for their to-do list app! (That’s not an affiliate link, by the way. I just think they’re ace).

A failing blog uses jargon; a healthy blog talks to its users as trusted friends.

4. Focusing on news type updates instead of useful content

A lot of companies still use their blogs as a place to host their news updates. And I know why you’d do that.

You’ve won an award. You’ve hired new staff. Awards show credibility and authority in your niche. And new staff prove you’re willing to invest in your brand – which should give a better experience for users.

But ask yourself; if you came to that blog as a first time visitor, what would you think?

You wouldn’t care. You don’t know who the company are, so why would you be interested in their new hires? If you haven’t used their software, you’re probably baffled by the new features.

Humans are inherently selfish, and “What’s in it for me?” seems to be the phrase of the 21st century.

So if you focus on yourself, you might end up with a failing blog.

I agree it’s definitely important to keep updates on your blog. The company behind OmniFocus use their blog to announces new updates to their software, or forthcoming features. It’s great for existing customers who want to keep up with the software they love.

But try to balance it with stuff for your visitors. What problems can you solve for them? Or how can you entertain them? Remember, being entertained is still a definite benefit for a reader.

You can even include content like ‘a day in the life of…’ to show visitors what it’s like behind-the-scenes. The value lies in the way you draw back the curtain. Plus, it humanises your company. People like to buy from people, not companies.

5. Not promoting your content in the right places

If you wanted to advertise the juiciest beefburgers in town, would you put your posters in a vegan restaurant?

I hope not!

You’d put them in the places where your ideal customer might shop. And your blog is no different. Your marketing strategy should have already identified where your target audience hangs out.

And that’s where you need to promote your content.

You might have already guessed that I don’t just mean social media. How about internet forums? Other blogs? Hell, you can offer your content as a guest post on a blog that your target audience reads.

But you also need to make your content shareable! If I land on a blog post and I can’t find share buttons, then often I just won’t share it. If your blog is on WordPress, plugins like SumoMe make it really easy to add nice sharing buttons.

You might want to experiment with the best place for the social share icons. But at least readers can now share your content – and help promote it for you.

So as you can see, a failing blog could be due to a range of factors.

But hopefully one – or all – of these symptoms can be easily fixed. And your failing blog can make a full recovery! But it’s obviously a big topic, and if you’d like a blog audit, then drop me a line!

We’ll get that blog back to full health.

August 24, 2017 by LJ Sedgwick 1 Comment

How to apply a digital watermark to your images in Photoshop

You’ve probably seen images online with watermarks on them. Some of them are very blatant, some are far more unobtrusive. In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to add a subtle digital watermark in Photoshop.

I’m using my own image from the website for my fiction pen name – you can easily use your own!

Ever seen images with a subtle digital watermark online and wondered how they were made? This guide shows you how to make your own in Photoshop! — My digital watermark

All you need is Photoshop – and some images.

Let’s get started on your digital watermark!

Go ahead and open Photoshop. Head to File and then New.

Now we’re going to make a new image. The size doesn’t really matter because we’re going to be making a brush from the result. But make it at least 1000px wide.

Now get the Type tool. I’m using the copyright symbol (©) and my photographer/fiction writing pen name.

So I pressed Alt and 0169 on my numeric keypad to make the copyright symbol. Then I just typed my name in my brand font. In my case, it’s UglyQua.

Now we’re going to turn this into a brush. That’s going to let you just stamp your text onto each image as required. It’ll save you typing it over and over! And this is the start of your digital watermark.

Now go to Edit in the top menu bar and choose ‘Define Brush Preset’.

You’ll get a little preview of what it’ll look like. Because it’s black on white, your brush will have a transparent back.

Give it a name if you want, and hit OK.

Now we’ll apply your watermark.

So now go ahead and open the image you want to add a digital watermark to.

I’m using an image I took of the Millennium Bridge in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Create a new layer and rename it ‘Watermark’. The new layer icon is the second from the right at the bottom of the Layers panel. You need that new layer so you can blend the digital watermark with the image below.

Now access the paintbrush icon in the toolbox on the left. Find your brush in the brush preset picker in the top menu bar. If your brush was the last thing you made, it’ll show up straight away.

Check the brush settings are at ‘Normal’ and 100% opacity. I’ve chosen white but this also works with black (depending on the background of your image).

Just use the brush like a stamp and click once on your image wherever you want the digital watermark to appear. Use the [ and ] keys to make the brush larger or smaller.

Use the Move Tool if you want to move it around once you’ve made the watermark.

Once you’re happy, find the bar saying ‘Normal’ in the Layers panel. Click on it and choose ‘Soft Light’ from the blending mode option.

This will blend your digital watermark with the image below. It makes it less obtrusive.

And here’s your final image! You can alter the opacity in the opacity bar to make it less transparent if you want a more subtle effect. Just drag the slider to the left, or type in a new value.

So there’s your digital watermark, ready to use!

Let me know if there’s something else you’d like to know in Photoshop. Or you can find out how to boost your colours in Photoshop too.

August 17, 2017 by LJ Sedgwick Leave a Comment

Do you need to revamp your marketing every month?

We’re just over halfway into 2017. The internet already buzzes with ideas about the need to revamp your marketing as we slide into the rest of the year.

Some experts even recommend changing things up every month. I can’t help thinking that makes a rod for your own back. How can you ever measure what works if you’re constantly changing things?

But some companies have managed to use the same advertising principles for years at a time. So the question remains…

Do you really need to revamp your marketing every month?

Back in 1980, Absolut had just a 2.5% share of the vodka market in the US. They sold just 10,000 cases that year.

Something needed to change. So they hired TBWA to make a difference to their advertising.

Enter, the “Absolut Bottle” campaign.

It ended up running for 25 years and contains over 1500 separate ads.

This is the very first one.

With the array of available marketing options, is it necessary to revamp your marketing every month? The success of Absolut Vodka says "no". Find out why! — The very first Absolut ad in this campaign.

By the late 2000s, Absolut was importing 4.5 million cases per year.

That’s half of all imported vodka in the US.

So how did they revamp their marketing?

The product itself looks pretty boring. The bottles are actually based on traditional medicine vials sold in Swedish pharmacies.

After all, vodka was once prescribed to cure medical ailments in the 16th and 17th centuries.

TBWA couldn’t change the actual shape or design of the bottle. The restricted brief meant none of the usual advertising tropes applied, like portraying particular lifestyles.

So Geoff Hays took a different route. He chose to differentiate the product by telling a different story based on the bottle itself.

He paired an image of the bottle with a simple two-word headline.

The classic, simple shape of the bottle worked well with the concise, witty slogans.

So why did it work so well for so long?

The format was described as: “A bottle, two words, and a little bit of wit”. The underlying message remains the same in all 1500 of the ads.

The bottle, and thus the brand, was a modern icon.

Later in the campaign, objects were cast in the shape of the Absolut bottle.

A professor of popular culture at Syracuse University pointed out that “these looked more like covers of The New Yorker than advertisements.”

During the campaign, Absolut commissioned more than 800 artworks by Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Annie Leibovitz, Helmut Newton, John Irving, Lady Gaga and Jay-Z.

The message was clear. “A cool brand for cool people”.

Sadly the campaign did run its course. By 2005, commentators felt the brand looked tired, and “no longer as cool as it used to be”.

But getting 25 years out of a single concept just proves you don’t need to revamp your marketing every month.

What can you learn from the campaign for your own marketing?

1) Look at the story you can tell with your tech product or service.

Make a list of its core features. Now pair those features with what they actually provide for the user. The gap between the user before they use your product and their life after they use it is your story.

Absolut managed to tell a very subtle story using the shape of their bottle. It’s classic, simple, durable.

Just like those old medicine bottles.

2) You should also play with imagery.

Don’t just stick to the obvious. Look at popular culture. The below example only worked because of the controversy created by the Young British Artists in the 1990s.

When you’re brainstorming ideas, write them all on a large piece of paper. When you’ve filled the page, fold it in half.

Force yourself to work with those on the lower half of the paper. They’ll be more interesting and less obvious than the first ones you came up with.

Your copy is crucial. Without the tagline the Absolut ads make little sense. If you need help coming up with your copy, drop me a line and we can talk!

3) Look for associations between your product and your target audience.

How can you tell people this is the brand for them in a more subtle and nuanced way? Remember their aspirations and desires.

People who bought into Absolut wanted to feel cool and clever too, just like their ads. People who buy Apple products feel differently about themselves than PC users.

Thinking sideways unlocks more interesting marketing. Can you take inspiration from music, fashion, current affairs, or art?

4) Don’t follow trends.

Following trends can be great if you get stuck for ideas. Look at the major tech firms – almost all of them have switched their logos to flat design from the mad array of gradients, drop shadows, and fonts that we had a few years ago.

But the problem with following trends is that you get stuck in a cycle of having to revamp your marketing every time the trend gets stale. If you pick something intrinsically true to your product, the lifespan of that idea is much longer.

For example, Apple puts its ‘why’ before its ‘what’. Its ‘why’? They ‘think different’. Everything they do is different from what everyone else is doing. That results in the ‘what’; cool, sleek products that other companies rush to copy. Their marketing reflects that so they don’t need to keep revamping it because the why remains the same.

And if something works, stick with it! It did run out of steam but the Absolut campaign ran for 25 years.

Over to you! Do you revamp your marketing on a regular basis? Let me know!

[mc4wp_form id=”490″]

August 7, 2017 by LJ Sedgwick Leave a Comment

What is it actually like to work with a content writer?

You don’t have time to write your own blog posts. It might pain you because you feel you should write them yourself. But there aren’t enough hours in the day. So you’ve accepted you need a content writer.

Finding one can be pretty daunting. After all, you’re a specialist in your field. You know your work inside and out. Handing over the reins to someone else might feel alien. Or like you’re cheating in some way.

Or you worry that a content writer won’t be able to capture your voice or appeal to your target customer.

Don’t worry. I’m here to provide your blog with the content that you’d love to produce yourself. But by letting me write it for you, you can spend that time working on your tech, winning new customers, and running your startup.

This post will walk you through what it’s like to work with a content writer. Specifically me.

First of all, we’ll decide what your project actually is.

Does your website even have a blog? If not, then you’ll need one.

Most bloggers won’t be in the business of setting them up. I can. And I’m more than happy to provide an audit of your existing blog too. With any luck, I can spruce up your posts and get you new traffic with those.

Ultimately you’re going to need more than one post. You won’t see enough results from a single post and that’s not how content marketing works.

But you might not want to commit to a year’s worth of posts until you’ve seen results. So will you only want a month’s worth of posts? Two? Three? I work on retainer so you’ll have weekly blog posts from me for as long as you want to work with me.

You’ve already read my samples so you know you like my style.

Once you’ve returned the contract, we’ll hop on a discovery call. We’ll work out what type of content you want and we can even discuss where you want it to be shared based on where your customers hang out online.

You know you want to hire a blogger but you can't help wondering what it's like to work with a content writer. Click here to find out more. — Which of these suits your target customer?

Decide on a metric that you’ll follow to see if blogging improves your business

Traffic is a good one. Make sure you set up Google Analytics on your website before we get started.

You could also use social shares. If you use functions like CoSchedule or SumoMe, this is easier to track.

One way or another, you’ll need to measure the success of the blogging. It’s difficult to gauge on the back of a month’s worth of content. But if you can see even a 50% increase in traffic then you know you’re onto something.

Then it’s onto topics – the bread and butter of a content writer.

You may already have ideas for topics. If so, then send them over. This will be helpful in the early days while we get to know each other.

But you might not have a clue what to write about. And that’s fine because topic generation is what you’re paying for with my Tremendous Time Saver Package. Give me an idea of what you’re looking for and I’ll do the rest.

I’ll brainstorm topic ideas around your niche and your needs. And I’ll do keyword research to make sure there’s an actual need for that kind of content. We’ll discuss whatever I come up with, and if you’re happy, I’ll drop them into an editorial calendar.

Don’t worry if you feel you’ve lost control at this point in the process. You haven’t. You still have final say over what I write.

We’ll decide on the first post. Then sit back and relax! Your first post will be on its way shortly.

Review the first post

Does it fit what you want? I’m happy to make any amendments, and you get up to two rounds of edits per post as part of the package. If you have a house style, let me know before I start work and I’ll incorporate it into the post.

You’ll need to get any changes back to me within the week so I have time to make edits.

You can decide if you want me to have access to your blog to upload the content directly. Or you may prefer to do it yourself.

Publish the post. Make sure you share it on your own social channels. If you have an email list (and if you don’t, you really should), send it out to your existing audience.

Then I’ll get started on the next post in the bundle. Rinse and repeat!

Remember to share posts periodically throughout the week. At the end of the month, review the metric you chose to measure the success of your new posts.

That way, you’ll be able to decide if you want to keep working with me.

Why do you need a content writer that specialises in your area?

Why your area? You’re a startup. You want someone who knows tech – and they really need to understand marketing.

As luck would have it, I’ve spent the last 14 years using Adobe products like Photoshop and InDesign. For the last six of those, I’ve broken it down and taught it to students from 16 to 60.

Believe me, that experience is invaluable when it comes to talking about software.

On top of that, I’m an Evernote Community Leader. It’s my pleasure, as well as my duty, to educate potential users on the best way to use a tech solution.

And why do I work this way? Because it works. I want you to have content that you’re proud to share. I also want you to enjoy the process of outsourcing your blog to a content writer to free up your time to work on your business.

Like the sound of this and wondering if we’d be a good fit?

Then it sounds like you need my Tremendous Time Saver package. Click here to find out more and secure your spot.

I’m standing by!