I’d never thought I’d write this post. I love templates and formulas when blogging. It’s all very logical to me.

photo credit: ttyS0

I love them because as you learn to write, create content and find your voice you find your own pathway. Structures, templates, formulas and blueprints are like training wheels – they help keep you steady as you learn. Sure there are other ways to learn like writing out your favourite writer’s best work over and over so you absorb their writing style…  and then there’s riffing off of other people’s content to continue the conversation.

And then there’s the dark side to using the formulas, templates etc as a blogger.

I love Erika Napoletano’s writing, I love her style and her authenticity. When I grow up I want to be her (I have no intention of growing up though, but I take it you know what I mean). I’d had another week of content theft and I was wound up to the gills when I read her post, and of course commented.

You can and should take a look at the post

- Rip me of creatively.

I then replied to a comment on a post that I’d written when I was in a more reflective and calmer mood – Blogging fears: someone will steal my content.

And then I drank half a glass of wine and watched season 4 of Sons of Anarchy. I woke up this morning with the burning desire to pull on my cut, kick-start my imaginary Harley Davidson and burn the next person who stole my content very badly…  clearly that half a glass of wine is too much for me.

Whilst mulling over content theft I realised that it’s possible that I advocate it in some way, albeit unintentionally, through the use of writing templates and formulas. I mused upon Erika’s structure with her “buy me a coffee and pick my brains” page. Then I thought about the people who’d ripped off her content – they’d copied the structure and amended the wording as they saw fit. But the structure of the original page was so distinctive it stood out a mile.

Never mind that phrases like buy me a coffee and pick my brains are common enough sayings, it was the replication of the structure that took me by surprise. I then mused upon the people that advocate writing on the same topic as a lot of other bloggers, with the advice being identical but say that’s okay because you have a different audience… and a different voice. In their essence they are the same; theft.

I am lucky, I work in several businesses and have some terrific clients. That means I can write really specific advice around blogging and what works, why it works in certain niches and not others. I have the benefit of my skills and experience. Those starting out try to emulate and model their heroes not understanding that what they are doing is theft. It’s not flattery, it’s not extra exposure, it’s not something any of us should be doing.

Yes, you read that right – any of us.

You do it when you read a blog post and think – I can write this better than the original author. Sure you can. But it’s not yours is it? It’s not your idea, your unique take or insight you are sharing. It’s someone else’s and you know it. You were inspired and you’ve dirtied that inspiration by thinking you could do better, that your content will be more awesome that no one will know or care.

The blueprint or formula format is wrong. It’s wrong because it teaches you bad habits and it stifles your creativity as a writer. Fill in the blanks content is generic and useless. Using it is not how you learn to write better. Looking at the structure of JK Rowling’s writing isn’t going to make your writing improve if you don’t understand the reasons why the structure was created. When you copy something you don’t know the reasons why, you don’t know the audience and you don’t know the backstory that makes it all special. The only way you will improve as a writer is to write more and read better books, or in my case watch more violent TV.

In the case of the people that steal my stuff they think I don’t know or care enough to call them out.

I do care. I don’t care how popular they are (one one of them think’s he’s god’s gift to blogging as he has some big name guest posts under his belt), I care enough to start writing content that will make my regular readers think What The… but if you are going to copy, you won’t look at the reason behind the post you’ll just think it’s a good idea and do the same.

Consider it my Harley delivered gift to you.

An email marketing campaign starts with getting names and emails, remember we gain permission first. But that’s not the end of  your email campaign, not by a long shot. People need to be emailed in order to read them! I know too many businesses that collect the emails but get too scared to email their customers!

Once you have your customer’s email address the next challenge is to get those people opening, reading, and taking action on your email messages. Otherwise, it’s a bigger waste of time than just sitting on the email addresses.

If you’re getting a zero or low open rate and you’re not getting your customers eyes on your email messages, here are 5 possible reasons why and how to fix it.

Your ‘From’ Line

One problem could be the ‘from’ line. Send a message to yourself and see what it looks like. If the ‘from’ line doesn’t clearly state who you are, the recipient is unlikely to open the message. In fact, your emails are probably getting relegated to the spam folder. Your ‘from’ line should be the name of your company and not an email address. It needs to be instantly recognisable as your business (in other words, the list the customers signed up for). I brand all mine Sarah Arrow / SarkeMedia.com so there’s no confusion.

Subject Line Problems

Most often, it’s the subject line that gets people to either open or ignore your messages. The subject line needs to capture the readers’ attention and do it quickly. They’re likely to give it a few short seconds of their time at most. It needs to be compelling enough to urge them to open the email in that short period of time.

Your messages also need to deliver on what the subject line promises. If you say in the subject line that you’ve got some secrets to share with them, your email had better deliver some secrets. If it doesn’t do this, the customers will quickly start tuning out your messages, no matter how compelling the subject lines. Worse than ignoring you and making your list unresponsive – they’ll unsubscribe, and you’ll be caught in the perpetual cycle of chasing subscriptions.

Boring Content

If people aren’t opening your emails, you may need a content upgrade. If you offer good, valuable content that truly helps customers out, they’ll be eagerly awaiting each email. If each email is a sales pitch or just plain boring, they’ll quit opening after a few. Put yourself in your customers’ shoes – what would you like to gain from the messages? It also helps to mix up your email messages. Don’t only offer promotions, but sometimes give helpful tips, multimedia content, or other things people can use.

Too Little or Too Much

Frequency also factors into whether or not people will open your emails. It’s hard to strike a perfect balance. If you send too many emails, people will get sick of you. If you don’t send enough, they’ll forget they signed up for your list. As a general guideline, most people recommend sending two to three messages per week maximum, but it depends on the nature of your email list. There’s also the time of day to think about. Certain times have higher open rates.

It’s All About Testing

It can be a long hard slog to figure out just where your email messages are failing, and that’s why testing is essential. If you experiment with different subject lines, message frequencies, types of content, and other factors, you’ll start to discover exactly what works. Testing gives you a realistic idea of what your subscribers like and don’t like, and when you know that –  you keep giving it to them.

So there we have it message your list, and keep them captivated, If you don’t they’ll treat you like junk mail and throw you in the bin!

What tips can you share in the comments about getting your emails opened?

Sarah

PS if you liked this post you will also like my book, instantly downloadable on Amazon – Zero to email marketing success.

Time is money, we know that.

But sometimes we have a small budget and it doesn’t stretch as far as outsourcing the written book for someone else to convert to Kindle, upload it and do all the fancy-schmancy stuff to the product description…

So in this post I’m going to share three low-cost, time saving Kindle tools tools that I just can’t do without when it comes to making fast Kindle books.

Kindle Formatting

I love Kinstant Formatter. 99% of the time my books come back perfect and ready to upload to Amazon. Out of all the Kindle formatting software that I’ve used this is simply the best.

You can see from the video how easy it is.

Kinstant Formatter works best when your book has few images and those images are aligned to the left. It also

• Adds a clickable table of contents
• Removes unwanted line breaks
• And lots of little things you don’t know you need until you actually see them

Kindle Covers

I love MyEcoverMaker is fab creating simple but effective covers for your Kindle books. The book cover you use for you book has to be huge… at least 1000 pixels down one side. My Ecover Maker allows you to do 2d images and 3d images and then make them as big or as small as you want. In about 3 minutes (see I told you this was about saving time and creating  fast Kindle books). You can purchase a monthly membership or pay $3.95 to download a cover.

Additional note – if you have an Amazon account already and have Kindle books for sale you may have access to the Amazon Cover Creator. It’s in beta at the moment but it’s very simple to use and takes just minutes.

Kindle Product Descriptions

And the last weapon in my arsenal of weapons… An Amazon HTML editor. Sure you can use Kompozer which is free. I’ve lost a fair few hours dabbling with Kompozer… and if you have Dreamweaver then you’ll not need this at all. But if you have no time and very little patience for learning new software on the fly then Better Book Tools is for you.

As you can see from the video, it’s simple effective and cheap. I wished I’d found this before I’d spent $50 on books explaining how to do this…

I’ve worked out that these tools will cost you less than $50 for the lot. Given the amount of time you save using them, your return on investment is super quick.

So if you have a small budget and are tight for time, check out these tools. I’m sure you’ll come to love them as much as I do