By Denise Wakeman

When it comes to creating content, there’s a subset of four elements you want to pay attention to, and those are the four E’s: Educate, Entertain, Engage, and Enrich.

People go online for two reasons.  One: to find solutions to their problems, and two: to be entertained.  So you want to keep your content tightly focused on educating your reader about the subject of your expertise.   If you can educate with humor, you’re way ahead of the game. Let’s take each element and clarify how you can use it.

Educate. This element is straightforward. You teach, explain, or spell out how to do something. You’re providing information and knowledge. Write up case studies of successful clients or do Q&A posts, answering your readers’ burning questions about your topic.

Entertain. Being entertaining is an art and some are more successful at it than others. Humor can be entertaining when done well, and telling stories is a powerful way to entertain. Multi-media lends itself to entertainment. Use video (either create your own or find something appropriate on YouTube and comment on why it’s relevant) or audio to mix up the delivery of your content. Tying current events or celebrity gossip into your message can also be entertaining as long as it’s in alignment with your core message.

Engage. How do you motivate your visitor to go from passive reader to engaged reader? Ask provocative questions, post polls and encourage comments on your posts. When your readers click a link to comment, take a poll or request your free report, they’re no longer passive but actively engaged with you. It brings them one step closer to becoming a client or customer.

Enrich. This is about delivering something a little bit more than your reader can find everywhere else on the Web by including history, quotes from literature, or information from other authorities. Go deeper to really add something that’s going to wow your readers. Essentially, you want to make your reader’s life better in some way by helping them to save time or money, or by helping them to be happier, healthier, or wealthier.

If you can weave one or more of these elements – Educate, Entertain, Engage and Enrich — into a blog post, you’re going to have a powerful and compelling blog.

Denise Wakeman is an Online Marketing Advisor and Founder of The Blog Squad. You can learn more about business blogging on Build a Better Blog. For more information on the author visit: Denise Wakeman

Inviting visitors to contribute and be a part of your website is a strong tactic in creating a profitable site and something that is easy to do. Conversation is a process for turning your website guests into interested prospects. It turns interested prospects into purchasers and turns purchasers into lifelong customers.

Invite your visitors to take action and do everything in your power to ensure that they take you up on your offer. Enticing customers with something that is free and part of your product is an easy opt-in conversation piece. For example:

-The attorney who asks prospective clients to call her office to schedule a free consultation.

-The weaver who wants his prospects to send for a free fabric sample.

-The dance instructor who invites her visitors to sign up for a free tango class.

All of these examples show an opportunity for conversation between you and your prospective buyer. Not only does this entice a customer to become more physically involved with your product or service, but it allows you to draw them in and see more benefits from your offer.

Another way to involve customers more closely (to increase the likelihood that they’ll return) is with interactive involvement devices like quizzes, surveys, blogs, and “ask” campaigns to engage your visitors.

Following up with customers, new subscribers, or anyone who shows interest keeps you and your product or service in the visitor’s mind.

Remember that there are many opportunities to engage your visitors through the internet. Take advantage of resources and connect with customers whenever you’re able to.

Although specific estimates vary, online researchers agree that email recipients make quick decisions on whether or not they will open and read promotional emails. Obviously, if they like, want, need, and/or are actively seeking the products being offered, they’re far more likely to open them. But emails come with their own special challenge, the subject line – that short, information burst that can make you or break you.

Like direct mail envelope “teasers,” emails’ subject lines must grab the recipients’ interests and increase the chances that they’ll open the messages. That’s why you’ll want to work on getting yours just right.

Start getting ideas scanning your own inbox. Jot down any that catch your interest and then see how you can tweak them to suit your needs. You can also look at headlines in your local newspaper, magazines, websites, and the like and see it you can covert any of those into intriguing subject lines.

Then use these tips to fine-tune your choices.

1. Keep them short and to the point. Less is definitely more in this instance, especially since overly long subject lines will get cut off from view anyhow.

2. Don’t divulge too much information. Add intrigue. Build curiosity. Make them want to open your email to find out more. For example:

- Zach, have you heard this yet?

- The Psychology behind the $40 Pet Rock Craze

- When $100 per hour is just okay

3. Use your recipients’ first names, unless it’s awkward or sounds forced. For example:

- John, will you help me?

- Mary, you’ll want to print this email.

4. Ask questions, such as:

- Is procrastination killing your business?

- Do you believe in this deadly marketing myth?

5. Include your product or service’s number one benefit and make sure it’s relevant to your target audience, like”

- One tip for losing ten pounds in one week

- 5 Free Ways to Sell More Houses

6. Avoid sending off “hooey” and spam alarms with exaggerations, or hints of high pressure sales tactics, such as:

- Triple your…

- My dear so-and-so

- Your e-commerce business

- Earn thousands at home

- Making Money the easy way

- Immediate action required

Adapted from Guerrilla Marketing On The Internet by Mitch Meyerson, Jay Levinson and Mary Scarborough

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