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photo by Wayne Large
So you’ve written your monthly post, clicked the Publish button, yawned, muttered, “Thank God that’s out of the way.” and now you’re thinking about lunch.
Chances are, the lack of comments and interest to your post are not disturbing you as you scan the take out menus.
If you are a creative person working in a creative organization such as Queens Council on the Arts, high-quality content on our blog is our most potent form of marketing.
You may be writing about how to get a grant to attract more artists to the Queens Arts Fund. You may be putting out a call for artists for an upcoming show. You may be promoting a workshop series for emerging writers.
Did you know that at the same time, your post can serve as an incredibly persuasive point for people to do something further? Blog posts can do double duty as landing pages for Google Ads. They can be places where people can sign up for a newsletter, RSVP for a workshop, donate, answer a survey, join a discussion….
And become active and engaged members of our community.
Valuable!
When you publish content, you want your reader to do something.
You want the work you put into your content to get your reader to take a specific action.
There’s a “secret” to making this work better … a secret that great copywriters have been using for more than a century.
Let’s talk about highly effective and compelling content
To create great content — the kind that gets shared, that attracts more readers, and gets people to take action — you need to do three things.
1. You need to write something incredibly useful.
2. You need to write something that’s easy to understand and easy to digest.
3. You need to make specific calls to actions for your readers.
Now, a couple of copywriting hints:
1. How are your headlines?
Are you uncovering the pain points of your potential customers?
Challenges of Working in the Arts vs. Tired of Being a Starving Artist?
2. Are you zoning in on the benefits of what you have to offer or are you still blithering on about features?
QCA Offers Professional Development Workshops vs. Eight Surefire Ways to Sell Your Artwork
3. Do you use the language of your audience?
No jargon. Say things in a simple, clear and direct voice.
Instead of “building capacity”, say “grow a business”.
4. Make your call to actions easy to follow.
Sign up here for immediate access to the coolest events in Queens.
In a nutshell, here’s the “secret” for content that works for readers and furthers audience building goals:
Create great, useful content that is enjoyable to consume, and that lets the reader know exactly what to do next.
Here’s a quick punch list for QCA power posts:
- Write a dynamic headline
- Always include an image or photo
- Write about things that are useful to the reader
- Include a link or two back to an older post on the QCA website or to featured artist or student
- End with a clear call to action
Got your own power blogging secrets? Link them up for us in the comments!
Few things are for sure in this world.
Chocolate chip cookies are a sure thing. And let’s be sure we are talking about the same cookie.
I make a cookie that is the love child of butter lace cookies and Toll House chocolate chip cookies.
In my book, the perfect chocolate chip cookie to have after an early morning bicycle ride on Saint Patrick’s Day,
to look forward to as I am running the last quarter mile of my half marathon run along the beach,
to delight Seth who is allergic to nuts, is a thin, crispy, round cookie an even golden brown, slightly darker around the edges, erupting with semi sweet chocolate chips.
I frowned at the handbrake on Sky’s Rockaway Cruiser. It was dangling uselessly from the left handle refusing to stay put in its clip. This would clearly be a difficult thing to manage especially while drinking coffee which was the plan.
Fortunately, our friend Paul, who we call The Bike Guy, was nice enough to swing by, toss the Cruiser on his bike rack to take back to his shop to fix. “I’ll just tighten the cable for you and it’ll be fine.”
In the meantime, I was in the kitchen wondering how to make my chocolate chip cookies thinner and crunchier. This has been a work in progress and two weeks ago I came fairly close by making a few adjustments. Today, purely by accident and process of elimination which are my two favorite ways of figuring out most things in life, I made a cookie that I was happy with. So happy that I sent over a plateful of them to Paul who wouldn’t let us give him any money for fixing our bicycle.
About twelve miles later in the afternoon, Seth told me Paul wanted to know if I could give him the recipe for the cookies. “I want a copy too,” said my mom who was helping me with the baking. “I really like the crispiness.”
Here it is.
Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Notes: If you have a temperamental hot oven like mine, I suggest you use aluminum baking sheets lined with parchment paper. The bottoms of the cookies will not burn as quickly.
Regarding flour, my friend Katherine, who writes cookbooks so she should really know about this, has always sung the praises of cake flour. I have yet to try this in my cookies but should you have the chance to do so, please let me know how they taste.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 4 aluminum baking sheets with parchment paper. If you don’t have a sifter, go and get yourself one. It is God’s gift to lumpless cookie dough!
Ingredients:
2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/4 cups sifted sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 cup sifted flour
2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips
Directions:
In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter adding the sugar, eggs and vanilla. Mix well.
Add the flour, salt and baking soda.
Mix in chocolate chips.
Place no more than half a teaspoon of dough for each cookie on the cookie sheet spacing them apart to allow them to spread. You should get a dozen on each sheet. Place two cookie sheets in the oven for 8 – 9 minutes.
Remove and let cool on racks.
About 6 – 8 dozen small delightfully crispy thin chocolate chip cookies!
Perfect for riding around on your beach bicycle and munching on.
March 15: In the Year of the Dragon at the Old Stone House
On Thursday, March 15, 2012 at 8 PM, Brooklyn Reading Works at The Old Stone House presents: IN THE YEAR OF THE DRAGON: A Celebration of Asian and Asian-American Writers.
Curated by author Sophia Romero (The Shiska from Manila), IN THE YEAR OF THE DRAGON includes a Brooklyn Poet Laureate, a playwright, and three novelists and a childrens’ book author/illustrator, all of whom will read excerpts from their latest work. A Q&A will follow the reading.
You won’t want to miss Brooklyn Poet Laureate Tina Chang, Novelists Susan Choi, children’s book author Hoong Yee Lee Krakauer and Sabina Meyer and playwright Linda Faigao-Hall.
A $5 donation includes light refreshments and wine.
The Old Stone House
336 3rd Street Brooklyn, NY 11215
(718) 768-3195
Between Fifth and Fourth Avenues.
Due to construction in the park, enter from the Fourth Avenue side of the house.
Hoong Yee, Richard, Janet
&
Barry
Blogging for a better world
At this year’s conference, I was joined by two other bloggers to capture in words the spirit and essence of this universe we call grantmakers in the arts – Richard Kessler and Barry Hessenius.
What is art about, really?
If you have ever heard Dr. Manuel Pastor speak, you would know what he would say.
Dr Manuel Pastor writes and speaks frequently on issues of demographic change, economic inequality and community empowerment. At his keynote speech at the Grantmakers in the Arts 2011 Conference, he said many things I thought were cool:
On December 15, 199, we became a majority/minority state.
Collaboration and conflict go together.
Collaboration is principled conflict.
Do you know the difference between chess and jigsaw puzzles?
Chess Jigsaw puzzles
2 colors many colors
some pieces are more powerful than others every piece is important
you gain by knocking a piece out you gain by putting pieces together
the goal is to win the goal is to complete
As a nation we play way too much chess
Art is making things of beauty with friends
Frances Phillips and her Beowulf socks
Frances Phillips is a quietly impressive force with a knitted sock patterned with the opening lines of Beowulf beginning with, “Hwaet…” wrapped around two slender needles tucked away in her pocketbook.
Hwaet?
“I’ll send you the instructions, you’ll love it.” Frances clearly loves literature and knitting to depths beyond me and the rest of the GIA Knitting Circle. ”Just remember to weave in your strands when changing colors mid row.”
Believe it or not, that makes sense to me. Later on during the conference, Tommer asked me if I had lost a ball of green yarn. At the moment I am knitting something in a silver cotton so no, the yarn did not belong to me.
“Hmmm, I wonder if Frances is using green in her Beowulf socks. Lynn Stern might be, she is working on a pair of multicolored gloves. Let me put the word out for you.” In my opinion, the fact that I know this stuff is actually impressive as an example of niche knowledge, thank you very much.
I turned to Frances, smiled bravely thinking to myself, “Wonderful! Just in time for holiday knitting.”
We were serenaded at the plenary brunch by Eugene Rodriguez, Linda Ronstadt, David Hidalgo and Los Cenzontles.
Throw me the lemon
Throw me the lime
Throw me the key
To your heart.
You are my dear
You are my love
You are my dove
That sings at sunrise.
Here’s something Linda Ronstadt said at the closing of the conference:
Mexican audiences know just when to howl and they know when to be quiet.
Hwaet everybody!
About the Author: Hoong Yee Lee Krakauer writes about how to be a nimble nonprofit, make life creative and make a difference at www.hoongyee.com.
She is also the Executive Director of the Queens Council on the Arts. Hoong Yee can be found surfing in the Rockaways whenever there are waves.
Do you want to know the fears, visions of perfect worlds and world changing advice of your peers and keynote speakers?
I have a special bonus post for you of interviews I conducted with people during the conference. Just leave me a comment with your email or better still, subscribe at www.hoongyee.com and get my interview post and new style notes for people who change the world delivered to your inbox.
Mason Bates
What do you think of when you hear the word – symphony?
I am sure these are a few that may come to mind:
Classical
Full
Concert
Beethoven
Crowd management
What?
Try hiding your surprise without choking on an artichoke heart in a ballroom filled with hundreds of Grantmakers with arched eyebrows.
Yet, crowd management shared space with other words such as
acoustic
perfect
string quartet
- and of course, it took the American composer of symphonic music, Mason Bates, to make musical sense of it all. And it took the San Francisco based Del Sol String Quartet to bring everything to life.
We lucky Grantmakers were serenaded by Del Sol who performed Mason’s ”Bagatelles”, a piece for strings and electronica.
“The string quartet,” Mason stepped up to the podium wearing a black leather jacket and a boyish smile. ”is a perfect acoustic creation.”
I love that.
Mason spoke about the challenge of putting a string quartet in new spaces. The difficulties in acoustics, outreach, managing audience engagement and expectations. And at the same time, there is the intriguing possibilities in creating a “hybrid musical event” such as his Mercury Sol.
Picture this, or rather, listen to this:
Consider a traditional musical group, such as the Chicago Symphony or the San Francisco Symphony, who work on artistic programs and invest in large marketing campaigns to prepare audiences for what they are going to hear and shape their expectations.
Now consider a newer musical group such as Mercury Sol, who work with stagecraft, lighting and technology to create immersive experiences for audiences and project program notes and somehow make the artist part of the audience. The sounds of a string quartet playing slowly drifts into a new space, gradually there is a change in perception, a light projection draws everyone to a point of focus.
There you have it. Crowd Management in the key of C.
About the Author: Hoong Yee Lee Krakauer writes about how to be a nimble nonprofit, make life creative and make a difference at www.hoongyee.com.
She is also the Executive Director of the Queens Council on the Arts. Hoong Yee can be found surfing in the Rockaways whenever there are waves.
Do you want to know the fears, visions of perfect worlds and world changing advice of your peers and keynote speakers?
I have a special bonus post for you of interviews I conducted with people during the conference. Just leave me a comment with your email or better still, subscribe at www.hoongyee.com and get my interview post and new style notes for people who change the world delivered to your inbox.
I write for love and money. It is my everyday passion. What's yours? 
