Great online editors make for great online publishing
At our most recent Mequoda Summit, I found that there were mixed feelings about the new online editor job description. Publishers were finding it hard to take their print staff and convince them that online publishing is part of their new job.
Even worse, many publishers are finding it terribly hard to convince their editors that they are now online marketers as well. Not to tell our fabulous and talented writers to “get off their high horses”, but if you still have editors on your team who simply cannot comply with the new online publishing environment, it’s possible you need new editors.
All that aside – it’s not too late to convince editors that they have a new job description, and that how they adapt can make or break your company. Here are the 8 habits of highly effective online editors.
1. Highly effective online editors can do their own keyword research: Never mind just using a keyword spreadsheet that has been created and delivered to them. Your best editors will seek out new keywords in order to rank on them and also broaden the terms in which they can write about.
2. Highly effective online editors know how to build an email list: It’s important that even the newest online editor realizes how important growing your email list is to the company. In every blog post, there should be an attempt to give away a free product related to the topic they are blogging about.
3. Highly effective online editors share their articles: They use social bookmarking sites to get their articles indexed and they are proud enough about their articles to post them on their own social networks.
4. Highly effective online editors understand the upsell: Congruity and alignment work well for product sales. If your email newsletter or blog article topic today is about how to prune rose bushes, then your ideal text ad today would be for a book or other paid product about growing roses.
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5. Highly effective online editors know how to reuse content and solicit content: You don’t need to write everything yourself. The creation of some content can be outsourced to ghost bloggers. In some cases, articles can be excerpted from existing books, and assembled/edited by freelancers. Additionally, many online promotions can be written by product managers, often by reusing content borrowed from online sales letters.
6. Highly effective online editors know how to organize their content: Smart and organized editors try to work seven days or more in advance to allow time for planning, emergencies, approvals, vacations and other things that get in the way of posting regularly and consistently.
7. Highly effective online editors befriend other bloggers: Inbound links are the key to SEO, so it’s important that your online editors become part of the blogging community.
8. Highly effective online editors know their GVR: Google Visibility Index, meaning how often your site is seen on page 1, 2 or 3 for its targeted terms. The number of page-one ranks should be a focus all online editors have. They should strive for page-one rank wherever it’s possible. This eighth habit was suggested by Bob Kaslik, the VP of Consumer Marketing at Interweave – thanks Bob!
Want to become a more effective online editor or have your editors trained in modern practices? Join Don and Kim for our Content Marketing 2010 Seminars.
