Content Magician, Freelance web content writers

What You Write Affects Your Bottom Line

Author: Marsha Maung

Don’t be surprised if you asked a common businessman in today’s business world if he is willing to pay someone X amount of money just to ‘touch up’ his web content and he says ‘no, there is not much point in doing that’.

The mentality is such that (at least where I live) as long as the message gets through, that is more than enough. Why spend money on touching up on web content the message of which remains the same but only with more fanfare?

It matters because. Whilst there isn’t much point to hire a freelance web content writer to write poems, long-winded speech-like rants or an article so deep and technical that nobody else can understand, it is important to make the right impression. Some readers or visitors of your website may not mind the shoddy write-ups, but let’s assume there is a big international company that is looking for a smaller establishment for outsourcing purposes. If this person chances upon the web content and thinks that you do not pay enough attention to your image and it could, in turn, tarnish theirs, it would be a waste, wouldn’t it?

It affects how people think of you. On a personal level, if you are not a celebrity, it may not matter much what people think of you. But on a business level, you NEED to care about what other people think of you, especially your customers.

Now, if you looked at the importance of your web content that way, would it be true to say that the web content affects your sale? It affects your bottom-line?

What is required is not to write web content that stuns people and make people think that you have the best writer on the planet on your team. No. All you need to focus on is in correct usage of grammar, spelling, an easy-to-read style of writing which is short, concise, to-the-point and is relevant to your readers (your customers).

Relevance to your customers will keep them reading, make them interested and if they can’t be your customer today, they will not hesitate to introduce customers to your business or convert into your customer in the future.

So, don’t tarnish the image of your business with bad web content. If you can spend X dollars on marketing, sales, advertising and promotions, why not simply hire someone to work on the web content. It doesn’t cost much. Really. And it is definitely worth the money.

Twitter Basics

Twitter Training - Getting started with Twitter Twitter is just another example of the light speed at which communications are catapulting forward, and corporate America (as well as home business online marketers) should do our best to keep up. Social Radar, a research group reporting on activity and trends in social media, ranked Twitter number one in June 2009. Close on their heels were iPhone, Google and Facebook. Yes my friends, there were more “tweets” (140 character exchanges on Twitter) than there were searches on Google.

Let’s start with the basics. What is Twitter? Twitter is a text only platform that launches discussion and banter with a basic question, “What are you doing?” The answers must be 140 characters or less and are sent via the web, mobile texting, instant message and or a variety of applications.

Because Twitter combines elements from many applications in the digital world, many say it was the logical extension of what had developed electronically thus far. For example, Twitter uses some of the elements of instant messaging (IM), some of chat rooms, some of blogs, and of course, it is actually a member of the entire social networking family of sites. It’s like a chat room in that it is an open forum, like instant messaging in that tweets are bite-sized core thoughts, like a blog in that it allows for moment to moment updates with people of your choosing, like a website in that profiles can (and should) convey a specific “feel” and or character, and definitely a social networking site enabling fun or passionate communication either continually, or in whatever timeframe fits each user.

But what is it really? Depends on who you ask. To some, Twitter is a fun escape from the doldrums of the job, home life or commute; to some it is a way to feel close to friends, family and associates (divided by schedules or geography); to some it’s an instant communication and information dissemination device; and most importantly to home business professionals like you, Twitter is the one of the most powerful, real time marketing system now in play.

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The Obvious Reasons Your Website Does Not Close Sales

Editor: Yup, simple but true. You need to give the potential customer every extra bit of information to swing them your way. Otherwise, closing a sale is as hard to pulling out your own toenails.

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One of the frustrating things for new online merchants, particularly those who are used to doing business in a brick and mortar world, is that of website conversions. This actually can be frustrating even for online veterans.

Here is a list of things that may seem obvious, but that a surprising number of website owners overlook.

First- Do you have complete product descriptions? Guess what folks; the phrase “a picture is worth a thousand words” only applies to selling products if the words are there in addition to the picture. Online, a product with little to no description is like a sales person in a brick and mortar store trying to sell without talking. And although we’ve all have times when we wished sales people would just not talk, the fact of the matter is that we do like them to answer questions when we have them. Otherwise we won’t have enough information to make our buying decision. The same thing goes on a website; our questions need to be answered in order for us to buy.

Second- Do you provide solid contact information? Nothing makes a website visitor think “fraud” like the lack of contact information. If you are only providing an email address for contact you leave potential buyers wondering if you are legitimate. Addresses and phone numbers help a shopper feel more like they are dealing with real people, not just someone trying to obtain their credit card information.

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Uncover the Hidden Online Copywriting Powers You Didn’t Know You Had!

We’ve all been there… tirelessly slaving away over our online copywriting only to find out it is completely ineffective! Sound familiar?

For most of us, effective online copywriting doesn’t come easy. In fact, online copy writing is generally the task that the vast majority of website owners and Internet marketers would love to outsource. Outsourcing your content writing is not difficult, there are many professional writing services out there that will create custom-written content for you, but their services do not come cheap!

So if you can not afford to outsource your online copywriting, you have no option but to uncover the web copywriting powers within. That’s right…inside us all is an online copy writing master, just dying to get out. Today, you will take the first steps in unleashing your copywriting potential!

Step #1 of Online Copywriting Mastery - “measure twice, cut once”

Mastering the art of online copy writing starts with good planning. One of the biggest mistakes people make with their online copy writing is diving right in without any plan about what they are going to say or what they want to achieve.

Making a plan means different things to different people, some people work best to a very structured plan, others find that a list of bullet points of things to cover is enough. Personally, I like to create a spider map, detailing all the things I need to include in my copy to accomplish the purpose of my work.

Step #2 of Online Copywriting Mastery - Build a framework

Using your online copy writing plan, create headings or single sentences to describe what will be included in each paragraph. This gives you a framework and a structure and serves as a prompt if you lose your chain of thought.

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Thanks!!

4 Steps to Use Social Media to Maintain Customers

Author: Gary S. Spirer

Do you want to maintain your existing customer base rather than incur the expense of attracting new consumers? The solution has never been easier with social media. Here’s what to do.

Step 1. * Find out what your customers are really saying through social media *

Find out what customers say about your business to others using sites such as Buzzmetrics and Umbria. LinkedIn has a company buzz application that lets consumers express their real opinions of products, services, and the quality of service at companies. By joining these social media, you can find out how your customers feel and pass on to other potential customers.

Step 2. *Select the right social media *

Reach the most customers by using the right social media platform. To immediately reach customers and interact with them, micro-blogging is optimal. An example of such media is Twitter. To actively engage with customers over time and discover what they think of products, then use social networks, such as Facebook. Maintaining a constant dialog with your customers enables you to really reach them. In addition, you can attract new customers to your company web site.

Step 3. * Engage your customers *

Develop a more interactive website now that you know how your customers feel about your business. Set up a special page that enables them to rate products and leave feedback and future suggestions. By doing so, you can actively interact with customers to find out more about their tastes. Allow customers to rate all aspects of your products and all sections of your website. Be sure to leave room for comments in addition to a 1-5 rating scale.

Step 4. * Converse with your customers *

Converse on an ongoing basis with customers be establishing a brainstorm section. By inviting customers to suggest ideas for products or tips on how to improve existing products, you can keep them happy by making such changes.

That’s it! Remember by understanding what your customer needs and knowing their tastes you can better cater to them. It is much cheaper to maintain existing customers rather than gain new ones. Please visit for more great business advice.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gary Spirer holds a bachelor’s degree in Literature from New York University graduating magna cum laude, and an MBA in Finance from Columbia University.

Mr. Spirer began his career at the prestigious investment banking firm Lazard Freres, where he worked at their real estate affiliate. Subsequently, Gary founded his own real estate company, Capital Hill Realty. In real estate Gary has developed, syndicated and invested in properties that in today’s value, aggregate over $500 million. Gary has raised over $60 million dollars from individuals and small funds with 100% success.

For more on Stepsto, check out our website StepsTo at http://www.stepsto.com

Stop Being A Narrow-Minded Writer

Author: Marsha Maung

One of the things about article marketing is this – you have to write. A lot. Combine writing for yourself and writing for your clients, it’s a big challenge. Your fingers get no rest. But that’s a different story because when you are writer and you want to indulge in article marketing, it means that you end up digging your brain for articles to write for YOURSELF.

The thing is that, this means you will be writing about ‘writing’ from multiple angles. You try to find a way to write about the same thing without repeating yourself. That’s hard. There will come a point in your career when you start wondering - is there anything about ‘writing’ that I have not written about already? Like me, I have been writing for a decade….I find it hard to write about my work these days because my well is a little dry by now.

Just like magic, something popped in my head. Why do I restrict myself when I write. Why is the only topic that I get to write on is ‘writing’. When you market yourself through article marketing, it is pertinent that you appear flexible, knowledgeable and resourceful. You need to be versatile. That is because your clients are probably people who are not into writing. They could be from the clothing industry, the teddy bear making industry, the self-improvement industry, etc.

When you have to write for your clients, that is when your creativity is called upon. You challenge yourself to learn about the different topics that you are handed. That is when you learn how to enjoy writing about something new.

If you can showcase your own versatility in that way, this opens up so many windows for the types of articles that you allow yourself to write. You can write about world news, charitable events, things that you have learned through life-changing events in your life or maybe something that you have picked up while in cooking class.

This way, when your potential clients look for writers pertaining to their industry, they can find you.

So, write about something else, write from your heart, share with the world everything that your fingers can type out. Stop narrowing your mind down to just writing about ‘writing’.

How a Recession Can Help You Grow Your Business

Often times a recession can cause all businesses to lose sales, including online businesses. This can cause us to think that a recession is bad for business, and it certainly can be. However a recession can really benefit our business because we begin to look at how we can make our business better, and hopefully grow our business even during the recession.

Why is a recession good for your bottom line?

1. A recession takes you out of your comfort zone. So many times when we are in the routine of running our business we tend to stop taking risks. We stop looking for new ways to make the business better, because in our eyes the business is running just fine and we feel safe. But the fact is in every business, including an online businesses, there is a bit of risk. A recession helps to remind us of the risk we are taking when we run our own business. With this reminder we start looking for ways to continue to grow our business and keep it afloat.

2. Explore Different Avenues of Income. During a recession it may become very apparent that your current business alone, is not going to cut it. It may not be reliable, creating enough income, etc. When we get in our comfort zone we become blind to the different sources of income out there that we can use to help grow our business. If business is doing well we may lose sight that, alone in itself, even if it is a great business, it is not a business that will help us reach our financial goals. Truth be told most people who make a lot of money, do so through multiple streams of income. When a recession causes us to move out of our comfort zone we start looking for different streams of income, which will ultimately help us to meet our business, and personal financial goals.

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Online Social Networking – The Right Way

by Marsha Maung

I have been receiving SMS messages from this beauty center that I go to this month and it’s amazing that they keep doing that. You know why? It must be costing them a bomb to just send out these messages through the conventional text messaging system. They could be saving themselves tons of money every month if only they knew more about things like Twitter and Facebook.

Sigh….

Online social networking is the new word of mouth marketing, albeit, in the electronic format. It is like you giving your friends a call and telling them about the amazing beauty treatment that you just got or you could be telling them about this amazing promotion going on…all free of charge, except for the amount that you are paying for your internet services.

But we all have internet services nowadays anyway, so the extra cost is basically ZERO.

The cost comes in the form of the number of seconds it will take you to type out your message on the online social networking website and then clicking the submit button. That is it.

In fact, online social networking is so incredibly powerful and cheap that more and more companies are beginning to hop onto it for the sake of their businesses. The downside to that is that not many of the businesses know how to optimize the full potential of such online social networking sites. What they are doing is keep telling their friends to visit them, telling them about a promotion…using the old method of pushing products and services instead of pulling.

A balanced method of using the push and the pull marketing on online social networking sites is the only way to do it. People are smart and they don’t like it when others talk about nothing but just ‘buy me, buy me, buy me, I am good, I am good, I am cheap, I am cheap’.

Boring.

Online SOCIAL networking is a social site. You need to socialize and make friends. That way, you win fans, you win friends, you win business. There’s nothing, like they always say, like doing business with someone you like and know.

The Personal Opinion Essay

By Peter Paulus

(Ed Note: This is a rather lengthy one but if you take the time (or have the time to read this, it might be useful)

When people are asked a question concerning what they like or dislike, or when they are asked to state what they think about a given topic, the answer will be their opinion. An opinion is their view or impression, their thoughts, feelings or conclusions on a particular topic. An opinion does not deal with the idea of right and wrong, correct or incorrect; rather, it deals with people’s reasons for thinking that way and how they came to their conclusions. Hence, the name: personal opinion essay.

As the writer, you are looking for agreement from the reader, and the reader is looking for something with which to agree. This is not a research paper based on scientific evidence and statistical facts. It is a relationship built between the author and reader, based on personal understanding.

Desired Outcome

The desired outcome is that you develop your ability to write clearly and make your opinions understood. You are also expected to reach a certain standard of quality in your writing. Your goal is to express yourself effectively and within the accepted parameters of the English language. This personal opinion essay is the first type of essay you need to master in writing; after all, the word essay embodies the concept behind personal expression.

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