- Susan Weiner Investment Writing

Blogging the mistakes your clients make

December 8, 2015/in blog/by Susan Weiner, CFA

Looking for something to blog about—and an easy way to organize your post? Find inspiration for blog posts in “The Mistakes Charitable Startups Make,” a Wall Street Journal article that’s called “Starting a Charity? Here’s What To Do, and What Not To Do” in the online edition.

Blogging mistakes effectively: Copy the formula

Here’s the basic formula:

You do these good things
As you do these good things, you may make common mistakes
Mistakes and their fixes

Mistake 1 and its fix

Mistake 2 and its fix

Mistake 3 and its fix

Mistake 4 and its fix

Part I: You do these good things

It’s good to start with something positive your clients do. It gives them a chance to feel good about themselves.

The Wall Street Journal‘s article kicks off with “People who are passionate about a cause typically have several options.” One of them is starting a nonprofit, the article’s focus.

You can substitute any activity your clients feel passionately about. For example,

Teaching their children to spend money wisely
Creating corporate benefits that boost employee morale and retention
Leaving a legacy for future generations
Planning to travel in retirement

Part II: You may make common mistakes

Teach your clients that their activities may come with challenges. You don’t need to scare the heck out of them. Just give them an incentive to keep reading.

The Wall Street Journal article says the following:

Starting and running a nonprofit is a complicated business, and one that nonprofit experts say individuals all too often seriously underestimate—from raising money and choosing the right board members to filing paperwork correctly. Such shortcomings can lead to costly mistakes, ultimate failures, and sometimes even lawsuits against well-meaning but nevertheless unprepared philanthropists.

Part III: Mistakes and their fixes

After quickly attracting your readers’ attention, provide them with a list of problems and their solutions.

The Wall Street Journal sets off each problem with a heading. For example, THE MISTAKE: Not doing your research or THE MISTAKE: Underestimating the paperwork.

After identifying the problem in a heading, you can quickly explain it. Or, you can follow the Journal‘s example by telling a story of an individual who grappled with the problem. The author of the charitable startup article interviewed people. You may have stories from your clients, colleagues, or personal experience.

Next, explain the solution. The Wall Street Journal makes it easy for readers to find the solutions by adding a heading saying THE FIX.

Wrap up your post

The newspaper story ends with the conclusion of the last mistake-fix pair. You can do the same. However, if your blog post tackles one of your areas of expertise, consider adding what’s known as a “call to action.” A call to action urges the reader to take another step.

Imagine you blogged about “Mistakes People Make When Retiring to Costa Rica.” Your call to action might be “Click to download our report about ‘Managing Your Finances from Costa Rica,'” “Sign up for our webinar on ‘Living in Costa Rica,” or “Call us to discuss how we can ease your transition to Costa Rica.”

Blogging mistakes that your clients can make can turn their mistakes into your success. If you’d like to learn more about better blogging, check out my financial blogging class.

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Use a wacky days list when you run out of blog ideas

September 22, 2015/in blog/by Susan Weiner, CFA

If you ever run low on blog post ideas, a wacky days list may solve your problem. You can use the list as the basis for brainstorming exercises. Whether it’s Employee Appreciation Day or Be Nasty Day, it’s amazing how a holiday calendar can spark ideas for your financial blog.

Days with obvious relevance

The titles of some days may lead directly to blog post ideas. For example, Employee Appreciation Day made me think of:

How you can help your employees by offering a better 401(k) plan
How your firm appreciates its employees’ continued learning as they try to better serve clients
Three budget-friendly ways to show your appreciation for your employees

Days that trigger personal stories

Some of the calendar days may trigger personal memories that you can use to make a point for your readers. Let’s take National Frozen Food Day. You have a blog post if you remember the great “deal” on frozen food that went bad when you didn’t have enough room in your freezer. There’s a lesson about false economies.

Days that serve as metaphors

Plant a Flower Day could serve as a metaphor. You can suggest steps that your clients can take that will brighten their financial lives as a flower might brighten their gardens.

How about YOU?

How do you use holidays or named days to inspire your blog’s editorial calendar? I’d like to hear from you.

Image courtesy of MR LIGHTMAN at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

8 ways blogging is like bicycling

September 15, 2015/in blog/by Susan Weiner, CFA

Bicycling is my favorite summer exercise. The more I bike, the more I’m struck by the similarities between bicycling and blogging.

1. It gets easier with practice

Falling off and skinning my knees when I learned to ride a two-wheeler was no fun. But after a while, I stopped falling and I covered every mile with greater ease.

In a similar way, blogging gets easier as you practice more. Like figuring out where to place your weight to stay upright on your bike, you develop a sense of the proper balance among your blog’s components. As you pedal with less effort, you also write with less effort.

2. It’s easier to follow trails

I’m a fan of bicycle trails like the Minuteman or Nashua River Rail Trails. Following a path that’s paved and marked with signs is less stressful than navigating the Boston area’s road maze, having to make decisions at every corner.

As a blogger, you’ll find it easier to follow well-marked writing paths. For example, a list post follows a simple structure:

Introduction of your theme
A numbered list of points addressing your theme
Conclusion or call to action

I’ve described more models in the following posts:

3. Shorter is easier

It’s easier for me to cover five miles than 50 miles on my bike. Still a five-mile ride is so short that it’s unsatisfying. I like to cover at least fifteen miles on a ride.

Shorter is easier for bloggers, too. That’s why I recommend a length of 250 to 400 words for beginning bloggers. I typically run about 400 to 600 words. But just as I occasionally stretch myself in a long bike ride, I sometimes write longer. Most people will struggle to say something significant in less than 250 words unless they’re using a nontraditional form, such as a podcast, video, or infographic.

4. Visual appeal matters

Some of my favorite bike trails follow rivers, offering plants, wildlife, and water to delight my eyes.

Visuals—photos and other images—are important to blog posts, too. They help attract the attention of readers. They also illustrate your points, aiding your readers’ understanding.

Sometimes the visuals of a bike ride and a blog post overlap. I’ve written some blog posts, such as “Focus your blog post or lose your readers,” inspired by bike rides and illustrated by photos taken on those rides.

5. A buddy helps

I almost always bicycle with my husband. We enjoy exploring new areas together. He pushes me to bike farther than I would go on my own. He’s also my mechanic, fixing problems I can’t tackle alone.

A blogger can benefit from two kinds of buddies, in my opinion.

First, a buddy can encourage you, as I described in “How a blogging buddy can help your financial planning or investment blog” and “Blogging buddies: Financial bloggers’ secret weapons.”

Second, a virtual assistant or more technically skilled helper can manage challenges you can’t—or don’t want—to handle, as I described in “9 Ways a Virtual Assistant Can Streamline Your Financial Advisor Blogging” on Michael Kitces’ blog.

6. Sometimes you wipe out

I still remember wiping out my bicycle in the Provincetown dunes on Cape Cod. It was my first time using hand brakes. I was used to a one-speed bike on which I stopped myself by pedaling backwards. That didn’t help me as I gathered speed riding downhill. I gained my last—I hope—skinned knee of my adult years.

As a blogger, you’ll make mistakes. They’ll be less physically painful, but they’ll still sting. For example, one time I scheduled two blog posts on the same day. Other times, I’ve written posts for which I had high hopes, but they failed to attract the attention I desired. However, just as I learned to use my bike’s hand brakes, I’ve become more skillful at blogging. You will, too.

7. Good equipment and precautions help

My bicycling became more enjoyable when I upgraded from a bike with lever gears and dropped handlebars that forced me to hunch over. Now I only ride bikes with dial gears and straight handlebars. It’s so much more comfortable.

My helmet isn’t as comfortable. However, I wear it on every ride for protection.

For your blogging comfort, find a platform, such as WordPress, that’s suited to your level of technical expertise. You may also find my book, Financial Blogging: How to Write Powerful Posts That Attract Clients, helpful.

For protection, make sure that you follow best practices for website security. If you allow comments on your blog, consider getting help from an anti-spam plugin. I’ve had a good experience with the Anti-spam plug-in, which has replaced Akismet for me.

8. It helps to share the load

A well-prepared cyclist carries a heavy load. It might include a pump, spare tube, a lock, tools, and extra water. It adds up.

I’m lucky that my husband carries the extras in his backpack. My load is light—just whatever I carry in the bag strapped around my waist.

In blogging, it also helps to share the load with others. That might mean recruiting other people to post on your blog. You might use guest bloggers. Or, you can recruit other members of your firm to participate in a group blog.

Sharing the load with other bloggers eases your burden, assuming that they’re reliable. Just as I’d be disappointed if my husband left his tire repair kit at home, you won’t like it if your fellow contributors let you down. I’ve written about how to keep a group blog going in “How to manage a group blog: Financial advisor edition.” When it works well, it’s wonderful.

For me, the joy of bicycling comes from savoring each experience. I hope you find the same satisfaction with blogging.

Credit sources fairly in your financial blog posts

September 1, 2015/in blog/by Susan Weiner, CFA

You want to do the right thing when you find an interesting idea, statistic, or quote that you use on your blog. That means crediting your source. How much information must you provide?

Citation rules for blogs aren’t as clear as for books, where sources such as The Chicago Manual of Style lay out rules. I’ve developed suggestions for you based on my experience, Ann Handley’s Everybody Writes: Your Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content, and other resources.

1. Figure out if you’re entitled to quote the material.

Copyright and the concept of “fair use” govern your rights. The guidelines are murky. One key idea is that if you use the “heart” of the work, you’re in trouble, as explained in the “Amount and Substantiality of the Portion Used” on the University of Minnesota’s “Copyright Information and Resources” page.

You’ll find more “fair use” tips and resources in “Legal danger for financial bloggers: Two misconceptions, three resources, one suggestion.” Some sources may have their own guidelines, as discussed in “Are you crediting your OECD data properly?”

In another example, Hubspot asks that you limit quotes on your website to “no more than 75 words. This is to prevent duplicate content issues that would impact both our own organic search rankings and the other website’s,” according to Corey Eridon’s “How to Cite Sources & Not Steal People’s Content on the Internet.”

2. Name and link to your source.

At a minimum, you should name the publication or resource that’s the source of your information, whether it’s a blog, newspaper, conference presentation, or something else. Some people minimize the information, saying something like “according to The New York Times.”

I like to go further than that, naming the article and, possibly, the author.

3. Link to the source.

It’s courtesy to link to the source you’re crediting, assuming it’s available online. If your compliance professionals are uneasy about links, then make sure you follow the advice in my next tip.

4. Provide enough information for your readers to find the source on their own.

I’ve struggled with how much information to put in a citation. Then I read the suggestion in Everybody Writes that you should provide “enough information about the author and the work that someone could easily find it if the original link breaks.” Ann Handley made this suggestion in Everybody Writes’ chapter on content curation, “Curate Ethically.” I think it should apply to citations in blog posts in addition to content curation.

Handley also warns readers against linking to other people’s content using nofollow links—links that deprive the author of the linked material of a boost to their search ranking. I agree. It isn’t fair.

Providing enough information might mean giving a link to “Susan Weiner’s post, ‘How a blogging buddy can help your financial planning or investment blog’” instead of “Susan Weiner’s blog.”

Strike the right balance in giving credit to your sources!

A smart, fair strategy will boost your credibility.

Disclosure: If you click on the Amazon link in this post and then buy something, I will receive a small commission. I link only to books in which I find some value for my blog’s readers.

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Work smarter, not harder, on your blog

June 2, 2015/in blog/by Susan Weiner, CFA

You’re a busy professional. You don’t have unlimited time to devote to your investment or financial planning blog. However, if you’re blogging without a strategy or plan, you’re wasting time. Advance preparation, as I explain below, will allow you to work smarter, not harder, on your blog.

Step 1. Know your goals.

Do as I say, not as I do, when it comes to blogging. I wasted time on two earlier blogs until I found my focus in helping financial marketing professionals learn to write better.

You’ll achieve better results if you start by identifying your target audience and your topic areas. Both should align with your business focus. For example, if you offer financial planning to divorced women in their fifties or older, don’t write blog posts for millennials about how to start saving in a Roth IRA account.

Step 2. Pick the right blogging frequency

Consistency counts when you blog. Your clients won’t be impressed if you blog twice a day for one month, quarterly for a year, and then sporadically thereafter. They’ll worry that you bring the same lack of commitment to your main business, as I discussed in “Woody Allen’s wisdom for successful financial bloggers.”

Pick a posting frequency that you can stick with. Not sure how often you can post? Create a cache of posts that aren’t time-sensitive before you go public with your blog.

Step 3. Develop a process

When you develop a repeatable process for your blog, you’ll invest less energy in creating each post. This is why my book, Financial Blogging: How To Write Powerful Posts That Attract Clients gives you step-by-step instructions for the following topics:

Brainstorming ideas
Organizing your thoughts before you write
Writing your first draft
Making “big picture” edits
Making smaller edits

The book also discusses compliance, marketing, and time management.

After you develop a process that works for you, your blog posts will take shape more quickly and easily.

Step 4. Learn your blogging personality

Different approaches to blogging work best for different people. Pay attention to what works best for you, so you can do more of those things.

For example, some people enjoy writing to a detailed editorial calendar, as I described in “How to manage a group blog: Financial advisor edition.” But that approach would be like torture for me. I need some inspiration to write.

I’ve identified some techniques that work well for me. For example

Maintaining a list of potential topics in Microsoft Outlook
Mind mapping complex topics
Writing drafts in a steno pad, as described in “No batteries required: My favorite blogging technique”

Don’t force yourself to use techniques you don’t enjoy—especially when better alternatives exist.

Step 5. Get help

You don’t have to do it all yourself. For example, Sheri Iannetta Cupo of Sage Advisory Group, LLC uses the help of Wendy Vissar to create customized images for her blog, as explained in “Boost your blog with original photos: The SAGE Advisory example.” Rick Kahler of Kahler Financial uses an editor. You can use my Financial Blogging book as a source of ideas for how to overcome common challenges for bloggers.

I’m not a big fan of hiring a ghost blogger. You’ll do better by letting your personality shine through in something you’ve written. You can adapt your posts to suit your skills and preferences. For example, you can write very short, opinionated pieces. Or you can create podcasts or videos.

If you’re determined to use content written by others, check out the resources in “Ready-to-use content for financial advisors.”

It’s rare for me to take on ghost-blogging outside of ongoing relationships with larger companies. However, you can hire me to critique one of your blog posts so you can learn to improve future posts.

What are YOUR best tips?

I’d like to see your best tips for working smarter, not harder, on your blog.

Reader question: How do we get people to read to the end?

May 28, 2015/in blog, newsletter, writing/by Susan Weiner, CFA

“How do we get people to read to the end of our newsletter articles and blog posts?” This question came up in one of my writing workshops.

I share some ideas in this article. I also suggest that you complement your initial question by asking “How can we ensure that people who don’t read to the end—or who don’t read every paragraph—still grasp our main points?”

1. Write in a reader-friendly way

To attract and retain your readers throughout your articles, write in a reader-friendly way.

This starts with clearly identifying your topic and how it’ll help your reader. Do this in your introduction to snare readers.

Next, write headings that guide your reader through your article. These should show how your article will deliver on the promises made in your introduction.

Observe other good writing practices, such as strong topic sentences and clear, concise writing. Clunky writing discourages readers.

2. Use “gold coins”

Readers tend to bail out of reading online after less than two minutes. That’s the point where Poynter’s Eyetrack research suggests “establishing a ‘gold coin’ like a simple pullout quote or visual element that keeps the reader engaged about halfway through a long story.” This could be a provocative quote, graph, or photograph. Or it could be “a telling detail, a bit of description, an apt phrase, a moving anecdote,” as Dr. Ink says in “Dr. Ink Discovers the Sixth ‘W’.” As Dr. Ink says, “If these are spaced strategically in the story, the logic goes, the reader will have incentive to move down the path. As soon as the gold coins run out, the reader leaves the forest.”

Bonus: Capture readers who skim

It’s not realistic to get every reader to finish each of your articles. However, if you observe the tips listed above, you’ll get more mileage out of your articles. This is because you’ll communicate well with those who only skim. They can still grasp the gist of your articles.

Image courtesy of foto76 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How to beat blog burnout

May 4, 2015/in blog/by Susan Weiner, CFA

Have you ever felt tired of blogging? Thought about giving up your blog? I have. There was a month when I hated all of my new posts and felt enthusiasm about no potential topics. My energy had been flagging for awhile. I say this because “blog burnout” flashed into my head when I saw this statue on Michelangelo’s tomb in the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence, Italy.

I pulled myself out of my slump. Perhaps you, too, can beat your blogging blahs with the techniques I share below.

1. Reexamine why you’re blogging

Take a new look at why you’re blogging. If your business has changed, perhaps your blog is no longer worthwhile. Consider dropping it. It felt liberating to considering dropping my blog as part of my goal-setting process.

However, that positive feeling turned to horror, as I considered losing my readers and my chance to express myself on topics about which I feel strongly. My readers and my passion for clear, effective communications are reasons why I continue to blog.

2. Ask if your blog builds your business

Can you see how blogging contributes directly or indirectly to your bottom line? It may be rare for clients to say, “I picked you because of your blog.” However, your blog makes you easier to find online. It also helps prospects to get comfortable with you before you ever meet them. Your blog also helps you connect with and educate clients, prospects, and referral sources.

These are some of the measures I mulled over as I thought about my blog. I also thought about how my blog feeds my e-newsletter and helps to differentiate my social media feed from that of people who rely on curating other people’s content. My blog leads indirectly to new business. That’s another reason to keep it.

3. Consider ways to ease your burden

If you want to keep your blog, but you’re losing your oomph, consider cutting the time you spend on it. Options include

Taking a break or posting less frequently
Getting co-workers to contribute, if you work at a multi-person firm—I’ve discussed this in “How to manage a group blog: Financial advisor edition.”
Inviting guests to contribute to your blog
Republishing old posts, taking the time to update them prior to republication

I’ve enjoyed contributions by my guest bloggers. I’ve also updated and republished one old post, “Seven tips for slogging through blogging: Lessons from the Blogathon.” I may do that again.

4. Find fresh inspiration

You need fresh ideas to regain enthusiasm for your blog. Ironically, getting out of my office is one of the best ways for me to do this, as I’ve explained in “Museums can inspire your blog posts.” As I mentioned above, this post was partly inspired by a visit to Florence, Italy, and partly by searching for lessons in my own struggle.

I look everywhere for inspiration. Sometimes I find it in something as simple as a photograph, as I explained in “Photo + Mind Map = Blog Inspiration.” Other people’s blog posts and books can also inspire. Plus, there are the ideas in my book, Financial Blogging: How To Write Powerful Posts That Attract Clients.

What’s your best tip?

My list of slump-breaking tips isn’t complete. What has worked for you? I’d like to learn.