Content Magician, Freelance web content writers

Scorching Creative Energy

Author: Marsha Maung

For the longest time, I toiled day in and day out, pursuing the interest of others. As a business woman and as a freelance writer, there’s literally no other option. It’s either that or eat sand. I chose the former. I don’t like sand very much.

I tweeted this yesterday, I think (follow me on twitter if you want – www.twitter.com/marshamaung), and then it slammed into me. I tweeted: I need to write more for myself. In my organizer, the list of things to do for MYSELF is backlogged as far back as two weeks ago!

There are stuff that I should have done for myself that I should have done two whole weeks ago! Compare the list to the one I have for my clients – to the dot! Well, ALMOST to the dot. I had a bad Wednesday, ok?

I think it will do me good if I could just imagine myself as a client for once. If my clients were important to me, I should be just as important if not more important. Without me as a writer, there would be no….money. In this equation, the most important thing to my business right now is….yes, my computer, but more importantly, it’s me.

Write And Write And Write, Anyway

Can you think of one instance whereby you’re just staring at the keyboard and willing yourself to type something….ANYTHING out?! You’re just staring at it and wishing that there was something you could do about that empty page on the computer.

I know. It’s horrible, that feeling.

But here’s the secret to writing even when you’re stuck…just write anyway. Anything that comes to mind. Just think about a recent movie you’ve seen, the cup of coffee in front of you, your favorite actress, a man standing at the altar being abandoned by his bride-not-to-be….etc. The obstacle is you. You can’t get started because you’re facing something writers are most afraid of….writer’s block! Oh, how I hate that word too!

Over the years of being able to write despite facing devastating and career-destroying mind blocks, I’ll share something with you and that is to get yourself chugging anyway.

You know, November is my favorite month of the year because that’s the month whereby I have to force myself to write despite not knowing what to write. I participate in something called the National Novel Writing Month….in short, it’s affectionately called Nanowrimo. It’s an incredible process, I’m telling ya!!

The purpose is to force yourself to write a novel (or a really long short story – haha) of at least 50,000 words within that month. The reward….nothing. Yeah, you don’t anything from completing the process but you know what? That’s not true. At the end of the month, when you’ve finally succeeded in writing those 50,000 words, you’ve got half a novel finished and a story.

Sometimes the story is good, sometimes they suck – but you’ve got material to work on now, don’t you?

So, the essence of what I am trying to say today is this. Even if you’re stuck there staring at your keyboard, write anyway. Write about how you hate your hand lotion, how much laundry you have to do, write about world war II….just keep at it until the engine chugs to life.

Good luck!

p.s. If you’re still stuck, head on over here for some REALLY NEAT writing prompts! Have fun. No, seriously, HAVE FUN!!!

First You Write It And That’s The Easy Part

Most people concur that writing is not always easy – especially when you’re not wired that way. Most people would imagine TALKING a much better, more convenient form of communication. It takes effort to write. But for strange, weird people like me, writing is easier. That is….before this whole online social networking thing took it a few steps deeper.

Writing, for most writers today, is a form of promotion for ourselves. The more we write, the more we get out there, the more people we reach, the more people get to know about it. If you do a credible job, you invariably will attract a few fans and followers as time goes on.

With the online social networking phenomenon, it’s no longer the case.

Writing is the easy part….the physical part of typing the article out, editing and proofing them. And THEN comes the hard part. I know some people are thinking, ‘That’s it, right? You’re done! You get it published or send it out or something, right?’ WRONG.

I said ‘promotion’ up there and an article does not promote itself. You need to push it out there, hence, the work AFTER the writing is done. First, you’ll post it up, of course, then you put it up on your Facebook account to let all your friends and family members know that you’ve just written some masterpiece. And you get on Twitter and tweet about it to your followers so that they can get a read of it too. It’s not a prerequisite but some people repeat their tweets (RT – ReTweet) the same link with different write-up….just in case someone missed it. Some people do it up to 8, 9, 10 times a day. Sometimes they do it the next day, next week…well, it’s up to you how much you want to annoy your followers, really.

Done? No. Don’t forget to plug the story into article directories too and that’ll take a bit of time but you’ll chill while waiting. And of course, you’re going to have to place some links in your Facebook group walls and also in your blog to let readers know the article is there.

Done? No. Don’t forget the online bookmarking sites because lots of people go through them and an extra link can’t be a bad thing. So, you go into your digg.com, stumbleupon, Yahoo! buzz, propeller.com, delicious.com, furl.net…and stick the link up there with a short write-up to….yes, to let people know the article is there.

See? One article and tons of work after that. You see why writing is the easy part now? I might just start thinking that talking is way faster some day.

Linking To Others, Why? Why Not?

Some people are just really sticky about posting links to other sites just because it’s a requirement when you use their articles, videos or images on their blogs or websites. They’re thinking, ‘Why should I? Who’s to know? Why should I share the traffic with this guy….he can do his own marketing, can’t he? I’ve worked hard for my readers!’

Be nice.

That’s one of the unwritten rules about internet marketing and one of the nicest thing a publisher can do is to provide a link back – you earn extra brownie points for pointing to a link without it being a requirement but a favor. There are many benefits!

One, readers love you for it if they find it useful or entertaining. In the online world, it’s about developing a love for someone who leads you to stuff….maybe bigger things and more entertaining materials. They’ll love you for it, so play nice and you’ll win the hearts over.

Two, Google loves it, most major search engines loves it. Enough said?

Three, it works both ways. If the owner of the said blog/website finds out that you’ve linked to him/her without even asking for credit or a linkback, you get a new friend!

The trouble with some website/blog owners is that they’re so insecure about their own standing in cyberworld that they’re afraid of helping others with a simple link (in a new window if you so wish).

That’s sooooo not it.

The friendlier, nicer, and kinder you are, the more you stand out. Being nasty helps some bloggers but if you’re a business owner, I’m not sure if you want to head down in that direction.

Marketing - The Forbidden Language

“We will first evaluate the synergy between hosts, unanimously determine project aim and further pursue conclusion. This favorable course will combine instantaneous growth and achievement to gain traction to prosperity.”

This is an actual example of some copy I pulled from an online consulting company. Does anyone have any idea what they are presenting here? This could be an attempt to sell a service, product or a cup of coffee. It seems as if someone wrote a sentence and checked every word on an online thesaurus to make a fancier version of it. When taken from context, a statement should be able to stand by itself, on its own merit and remain understandable. In this article, I want to uncover the forbidden language of marketing and help bring copywriting to justice. Or in other words - I want to syngergize the synergy between the majestic biographies of other entities.

I am not an overly skilled copywriter and consider it to be one of the more difficult tasks in my line of work. When using copy to communicate a product or service, you have to first identify the reader. If you are a bank, don’t use large and complicated verbiage when attempting to coax customers into putting their money in a CD. If you are selling business coaching, professional but understandable text is acceptable. Regardless, construct your copy to be understandable and creative. Despite the popular “pictures are worth a thousand words” statement, you may not actually need a THOUSAND words when describing a product or service. Most of the time, it is the lack there of or secrecy that will generate more interest.

There are levels of information you should give a customer - consumer or business, so that you can snag their attention and get them to do something like request more information. It is very important to identify these levels before developing copy. What do you want someone to do after reading promotional material? Where are you placing the verbiage and how will it relate to your printed or web media?

I’ve found it best to always build a product, its attributes and descriptive language as if it was going to be sold or promoted online. A user website experience is a perfect example of how people read, retain and act upon the information fed to them. If you give to much information, the user is more likely to assume they already know enough and it isn’t necessary to request more information. However, if you tease them with just the right amount, they are more likely to be compelled to request additional information. That doesn’t mean one-line descriptions will elevate your success, it just means that you should tease the reader, wet their appetite and encourage them to contact you with a strong call to action.

So, now that you know how to formulate and design your copy with an idea of how much to use, let’s briefly discuss its contents. When working on descriptive text, avoid words like “synergy”. These words are what I like to call ‘default’ words and 62% more likely to be overlooked and ignored. There is a balance between enticing words and words that sound like you are the high school English teacher trying to be cool by dancing at prom - unsuccessful and very, very likely to fail.

Remember who you are attempting to communicate to and always assume ignorance. The worst thing you could do is make someone who you are trying to sell to feel inferior with big words. Try to be enticing, short and to the point. Here is an example of a distracting description of services and an example of one that may be just as effective without being obnoxious:

Bad: “Sample the soothing and immaculate taste of our natural selection of pastries and divine beverages while enjoying the tranquil reception experience complete with complementary Wi-Fi.”

Good: “Wake up and feel at home with continental breakfast served in our reception area while staying connected with fast, free Wi-Fi.”

Sometimes fancy works and sometimes it doesn’t. But, in this situation, just get to the point. The words in my first example don’t necessarily make me want to stay at that particular hotel. In fact, it makes me automatically assume that it is likely too expensive. Now more than ever, people don’t have time to appreciate the thought you put into descriptions that seem overly complicated, give them something simple, fun and memorable. Have fun with it, put something together that will catch their attention. Just remember, less is more and sometimes people just want you to get to the point.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Joshua Hays is an aggressive marketing consultant with a strong background in design and nearly ten years of broad experience involving both B2B and B2C marketing techniques including print and online campaigns. He has advanced knowledge of both the Microsoft and Adobe software suites and is cross-platform, multi-operating system (MAC & PC) trained. Joshua specializes in product and campaign development. Joshua Hays can be reached at http://www.joshuahays.com.

Coolatta’s Cool – Online Social Media Marketing Gone Right

There’s something really fantastic about what Dunkin Donuts is doing with their online social media marketing effort through Facebook; it totally threw me off. Don’t get me wrong, this is not the first time I’ve heard of such campaigns and I sometimes try to get my clients to go along with it but….well, skeptics abound. Somehow, there’s something really endearing about the way they’re going about it.

How are they going about it?

First, let me get this out of the way before I explode. For the life of me, I cannot understand why Starbucks is not catching on?! Don’t they know enough about online social networking to be in it already – or at least, do it the right way?! Starbucks, surprisingly, is still stuck in the middle of nowhere….literally….trying to combine their offline and online social media marketing thing together and achieving….not much. They SHOULD be frustrated.

They should fire the advertising company doing it for them. Sending cups of Starbucks coffee from friend to friend can only do so much knowing that most of us Facebook users are already quite tired of adding applications to our already mashed-up Facebook profile page.

Have you seen the Coolatta sweepstakes ran by the Big Donut recently on Facebook? They don’t have as many fans as the Twilight series (yet) but they’re quickly catching up with eight-hundred-thousand fans of their Facebook page and counting. Accordingly (I’ve not tried this for myself), you can upload a photo of yourself on the Donut’s Facebook wall with a Coolatta and then add a caption to it. After that, it will be a BINGO moment for you – wait for them to go around on a random-selection process and BINGO, it’s either you get it or you don’t.

The kind of prizes that they’re offering are stuff like TVs, iPhones, wardrobe, flights….etc. Really cool stuff, I have to admit…for a chance to win that all you have to do is to get one of those Coolattas and snap a picture of yourself with it? Man, you can even borrow it from the guy behind the counter and have your instant Coolatta picture taken, does it matter? Not really. Sale is the last on their minds at the moment although this side benefit would have been good. There’s bound to be a spike in sales.

Anyway, the main purpose is to get people to spread the message and encourage action….and it’s the perfect way to enhance branding compared to Starbucks’ meek effort in getting people to pass Starbucks coffee around. Most of the time, for your information, I ignore these cups of coffees (sorry friends, but I prefer REAL coffee) and sadly, it does nothing to people like me.

It’s not targeting the target market properly and not encouraging any form of active participation at all….and the keyword would be ACTIVE PARTICIPATION….and AHEM, it does not include spamming or asking fans of the Facebook page to circulate a message to as many of their friends as possible. That’s viral and in case you don’t already know, viral marketing is a big turn off, does NOT work on Facebook…or any other online media marketing sites available to us at the moment.

Good on Dunkin’ Donuts. Now I am off to see if I can photoshop a picture of me with that Coolatta thing and win myself an awesome holiday.

Would your publish your own article in your website?

Here’s a note for a crazy Thursday. Tomorrow is Labor’s Day and I ain’t giving myself a holiday. I know I am such a hard-assed boss!In order to determine whether an article is a good one or not, let’s take a look at it from the reader’s point of view.

For future reference, it’s always a ’step-into-the-readers’-shoes’ tactic that works best. It works in a website, it works in a blog and it works in article directories.I am assuming you’ve heard about how contributing articles to web content sites or article directories for promotional purposes.

If you’ve not, head over to www.ezinearticles.com, www.goarticles.com and www.articlesdashboard.com for more information. They should have sufficient information in there to help you understand what that is all about. 

Anyway, the point of writing this note here today is to ask you a question. When you’re writing your article marketing articles, if you were another website or blog owner, do you think you will publish those articles? I’ve seen some really FANTASTIC ones in there but I just can’t help but keep reminding all of you out there that the articles need to be publish-worthy! 

Otherwise, you’re not maximizing on the potential result of those articles.Write useful (amusing, if possible) articles that makes others want to publish it. Not just whack out a few words with a link at the bottom.

That’s losing the whole point of article marketing.Now, go and write a very useful article on your industry and start using article marketing as an online marketing avenue right now! 

How to Work Your SEO Content Development Strategy

At this point in time, when you’ve just started your website, you’re probably thinking about a SEO content development strategy that could help you secure a good position in your favorite search engine (it’s probably Google but I am not going to say just ONE single search engine because of locality). In order to bring in the traffic from search engines, you’ll need to have a strong SEO content development strategy that will work in multiple search engines, not just one and the person or company that hire to do this for you would have to be well-versed with multiple engines.

For example, in your plans, you’ll need to get someone to develop content thaT ATTRACTS not only search engines but is appealing to the readers as well. There is really no point in developing web content that brings in the search engines but not readers because REMEMBER, you’re trying to make money. The SEO content development strategy would be completely different if you were trying to make some money off of advertisements placed on a shell web template. If that is the case, it’s perfectly fine for you to stick to a singular strategy built for a single search engine. If you’re not, then here’s what you’ve got to do.

Your web content has got to be news-worthy. This is a no-brainer but even the best people in the SEO content development strategy industry tend to forget this in their quest to attract the search engines. Very few ever commits to or purchase from a website or business the first time they chances upon it. The trust comes in a couple of visits later. So, keep this in mind when working on your SEO content development strategy….you want it to stick a little the first time round.

Either hire multiple content writers or writers who can diversify. The purpose? It’s simple! Different types of content appeals to different people and considering the fact that you’re aiming at different sectors worked on by different personalities, it’s best if you diversify your SEO content development strategy a little to give yourself a little buffer. You don’t keep selling beef to a vegetarian, do you? So, this works the same way.

Reveal your own personality and get close to your readers. In your SEO content development strategy, make sure you get someone to get close to your readers. A decade back, a website is a faceless entity whereby information is freely dispensed. In today’s cyberspce, if you don’t have a personality or a face, it’s hard to win the war. Your competitors have blogs, facebook accounts, twitter, delicious and what-have-you-nots and you’ve got to be the same way if you want to connect with your readers. There’s really no way to get your customers to buy from you unless you’re amazon.com or a popular name in your industry. So, work your SEO content development strategy around that thought.

SEO content development strategy for regular publication of articles. You don’t do it one time and then hope for a huge amount of traffic. You do it consistently and persistently over time, regularly updating and pulling in the people and buying their trust. This is how an SEO content development strategy works now. Gone are the days whereby you write a basic web page content and let it do its work because they don’t work beyond being piled on by the multitude of page content in cyberspace. If you know how to hire an SEO content development strategy team, so do they and in order to get ahead of them, you’ve got to be persistent and patient.

There are no two ways about this, sadly.

Hiring A Writer Who Is Professional With Connectivity And SEO

The economy is in a slump and people are turning to the internet to make some money. As a professional freelance writer, I sincerely feel that while it’s great that the internet is providing many people a rope to cling on during this troubling time, businesses trying to find professional freelance writers for their web content or online marketing methods should be cautious about it.

The internet has become a breeding ground for all sorts of aspiring professional freelance writer. I am not being jealous because I am, frankly, thankful that there is a whole pool of new talents out there for me to tap into. I love that part of the bargain. But based on my experience as a professional freelance writer, there are problems that we need to face. There are so many of them out there right now, how do we know who is a good professional freelance writer and who isn’t?

The line has been blurred once again. The only time I remember this happening was when blogs become popular. Everyone became a journalist! As fun as it was to read into the lives of all those people who write blogs, it’s hard to find one that really rocks.

I hire one or two professional freelance writers to help me out with my work sometimes when I am bogged down with work or when there’s an emergency. I value the availability of my professional freelance writer…but I’ve had my fair share of bad experiences in the past. Hiring a professional freelance writer who does not write well and writes for SEO purposes ONLY gives me a blinding headache! Thankfully, over the years, I’ve found some professional freelance writer who are, indeed, very professional about their work, puts their heart into every single word that they write.

SEO writing is fabulous, I know, but it’s hard to find someone who can write SEO stuff without compromising on the quality of the articles. The professional freelance writer has to be experienced in balancing out the SEO part of the writing process and also the connectivity of the article. There’s really no point in writing SEO articles without trying to make SOME sense.

So, before you hire a professional freelance writer, check into the writer’s background and ask for some samples. Don’t make the mistake of hiring the first SEO writer that promises you a low price because you may regret it, at the end of the day.

FAIL At Your Online Social Media Marketing Effort

It’s been a long but enjoyable day. But before I pull the plug on this tremendously relaxing Saturday, I would to share something with you and it’s got to do with how people are going about this whole online marketing thing wrong.

It’s my personal opinion that there’s one way to turn people off online. The only surefire way to lose the fight in this very tiny battlefield is to stick to a formula that you know works. The old method used to work well, I know, but with the economy down in the gutter, everyone’s using the same formula. PLUS, the same formula is costing us too much money.

So, the traditional way of marketing is to knock down every single door you see and shove your products and services into their faces and refuse to leave until they succumb to your harassment. You could advertise in the newspaper but it’s getting expensive. You could hire a new marketing guy but it takes time to train someone new and you can’t exactly afford to hire anyone new at this point in time. You could revamp your brand but every single idea you’re going to have involves spending money.

The logical thing to do is to jump into the internet marketing bandwagon, right?

That’s the right thing to do, I am not saying you’re wrong, but don’t do it blindly and don’t just hand THE FIRST PERSON you know to do the job. You can’t because whatever they do online (and they can do this without waiting for a memo to be passed during a Board of Directors’ meeting) will affect your image! Hire the wrong person and you’re screwed.

In online social media, or the Web 2.0 as some people prefer to call it, it’s imperative that you sell yourself correctly. But you’re not selling your products and services, you’re selling a brand. You’re promoting loyalty. You’re encouraging people to get to know you better. You want to create a personality….a sort of stickiness on the internet that helps people remember you and come back for more.

With more and more people with the same social media marketing modus operandi, you can only create awareness by selling YOURSELF as a brand. You connect with people. You make yourself heard. You make friends and help people understand what kind of person YOU ARE before you get them to understand what you do for a living.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re a business or a freelancer! You’ve got to make that CONNECTION with others in order to get online social media marketing to work for you. Shall I say it again for good measure? OK. CONNECTION!

For a business, you can hire someone (or use someone who is currently on your payroll) to create an online persona for your business. And this personality is to connect with people, share his or her experience (on a personal or professional level) with people he or she knows.

It’s plain and simple.

The old method of PUSHING no longer works. Writing notes or blog posts about how WONDERFUL YOU ARE and how amazing your products and services are, shoving your potential clients’ faces into the brochures, flyers, profiles….they don’t work anymore. Blow your own trumpet and watch flocks of potential customers run off in the opposite direction!

It’s now time for some PULLING instead. And friends….the only way to pull is to attract. The only way to attract is to get personal.