Content Magician, Freelance web content writers

Archive for the ‘Blogging’ Category

There is a very good reason people hire ghost bloggers and freelance writers to tend to their websites, web content and blogs and that is to keep things fresh and updated. What’s the point?

OK, let me illustrate this with a real life experience.

I have quite a few friends who are in the search engine optimization industry. I do help my clients with SEO articles but I make friends with my competitors for a very good reason: HELP. One can only take so much when you are a ghost blogger and freelance writer. One needs help once in a while.

I get quite a lot of queries about work relating to SEO so yesterday, I got an enquiry about a SEO project. Here’s what I did. I messaged a friend….the friend who kept the closest contact with me, one who consistently spoke to me, and gave me projects, someone who was basically more than just a competitor. In reality, we were competitors but friends at the same time.

Here’s the thing about being in business in this technolgically-charged era. Be everywhere. Despite having so many friends in the same business, I can only remember two of them because they are there in my twitter and facebook. They update their stuff often, they blog and share stuff with me…stuff that I can understand.

The moral of the story is simple and that is that you have to constantly remind people of what you do or at least tell people that you are still around. As long as they remember you via your twitter, facebook or other online social networking sites, your name will be the first that they dig out when they or someone else needs your services.

Blog often, tweet often, update your facebook and write consistently to tell people that you are around. Because if you don’t, people unintentionally forget about you when something good comes up.

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This article was written by Marsha Maung for an online web content blog that she runs with a group of energetic (crazy), enthusiastic (temperamental), creative (PMS), and talented (incredibly unpredictable) bunch of people. But ah well….

One of the biggest problems with blogging is that sometimes (well, quite often, really) the well runs dry. I mean, it’s hard to try to conjure up interesting ideas about what to write. And if you have been doing for ten years, the well WILL run dry. But here’s the thing with professional blogger circuit…you learn how to find inspiration from others. Yes, it’s true. These professionalers bloggers aren’t really your competitors unless you see them that way. They are actually your allies and source for material to write about.

Let’s face it, every one of us live different lives. We experience different things. When one blogger blogs about how his car was towed away, you are reminded of your own experience as well. There you have it, something to blog about!

And if you want to stick to your ranking or pull in extra traffic, you’ve got to do the extra finger work and blog away because here’s a reality check….the more consistent you are, the more blog entries you write, the bigger the traffic leap. I’ve had many blogger friends who are professionals and some do it for leisure as well, who saw a spike in traffic whenever they increased the number of times they post stuff up in their blogs. The upswing is very noticeable.

Of course, I am not saying that we should make it a habit to copy others. NO, never copy works of others. Everything that you blog about should be completely original and let this be known: people who copy and paste stuff should include the credit. If not, they should be hauled to court. In due time, there should be a system up for that.

Anyway, if you have dreams of being a professional blogger, the secret is to be creative in finding materials to blog about. You need your camera and your notebook because these will be essential tools to help you gather information and material on which you can base your new blog entry about. Seriously. You will be amazed at how random materials can be turned into a very good blog entry.

So, althought this ’secret’ is nothing new, I’ll say it anyway – if you want to be a professional blogger, blog consistently, blog constantly, and blog creatively.

We old-timers (I hate that word!) fall into two categories, you would have:-

1. jumped from one blog to another over that period of time
2. stuck to one blog all this time because you don’t want to lose your fan-base

If you’re the kind who is from category A, then you’re probably safe because most of the stuff that you have in there on your blog (mostly on the front page and sidebar) are pretty updated. The most recent entries are displayed, and the side-bar reveals a myriad of things that are relevant to your current audience.

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It can be a tough trying to come up with dynamic blog posts that readers will find interesting and useful. Here are a few brainstorming ideas that may help you develop dynamic content that will add variety and personality to your blog while also inviting visitors to be interactive.

1. Post Other People’s Articles

You can find many interesting articles written by other authors and they are a great resource for generating blog content.  I will say that posting your own articles is ideal but in a pinch posting articles from other writers can add variety, particularly if it’s an article from an author with a creative writing style. Of course posting other people’s articles requires including their resource box with a link to the author’s website. If this concerns you here’s a suggestion.

Post articles that are useful to your readers but not in direct competition.  For example, a website about dating might post an article from a ‘money tips’ website that lists ways to save money on a date.   The article is useful to your dating readers but may not necessarily draw them to the money tips website as your reader is focused more on dating.

If you are posting articles from other authors be sure to preface the article with an introduction paragraph on why you like the article and why your viewers should read it.

Then follow the article with a personal comment and invite your viewers to offer their opinions and ideas as well.

2. Attend Webinars, Workshops or Live Seminars

Not everyone has the time or the cash to attend live Seminars or workshops, but if you do, they are well worth it when it comes to learning strategies and getting ideas for content.  In fact I’ll guarantee your head will be swimming with ideas and useful information when it’s over.

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I can understand completely how a writer, even a really creative and adrenaline-pumped blog writer or freelance writer, can just run dry on ideas. It can hit you….just like that! Out of the blue. It’s just like waking up and asking yourself, “Hey, where’d my nose go?” Experienced freelance writers, web content producers or blog writers know that writing is a little bit like Kung-Fu. You have to keep at it, keep practicing and also never let your own head get too big.

For example, sometimes people load praises on you so much that you think you’re right there at the top with the big timers. So, when the writer’s block hits you, you don’t quite know where to place your pride and yet….you’d rather be hammered to death than admit that you’ve run out of ideas. The ugly head of ‘writer’s block’ rears its head and it turns into a terrible monster. By then, writing, instead of bringing you joy, becomes a miserable chore.

Whenever I run out of ideas, here’s what I do….I blog-hop! Yup, I hop from one blog to another, reading into the lives of these bloggers in hope that their positive (or negative, depending on what blog you’re reading) vibes will rub off on me. It helps too if you keep a notepad, a laptop, palmtop (or whatever else that you can keep close to you all the time) with you so that when the mind idles and wander off, you can pull that equipment out and start jotting down ideas and topics that you can write about.

I find headlines and news to be of incredible help to me, as far as finding ideas for a blog topic or an article in concerned. It doesn’t have to DIRECTLY relate to what you’re writing about, you see. It’s almost like finding a similarity between the two, your article/topic and the news and headlines. I don’t know if I am actually making sense to you but it helps me, so, I’m just sharing this with you.

In the toilet…or while having a nice, calming drink after work…take the time to look around you and actually see the things around you. You’ll be surprised at how your creative juices can be jolted alive by the simplest things in life….like, a frog jumping in the garden, or your kids playing the piano, or the flailing curtails flapping its tails in the breeze.

Keep your mind open for ideas on what to write and you’ll find it, that’s my philosophy. As for what inspired this idea…it’s the ‘lack of ideas’ that inspired this article, so, go figure!

Most of the time, when people ask me, ‘What kind of blog should I get? Should I pay for one or would a normal one do?’I answer them very simply:-

1.  It depends on your budget. Do you have a few spare cents to spend on a blog platform? No doubt, it’s not expensive to pay for your own domain name, find a hosting and then have one of those free or really cheap blogging softwares installed….but it’s a commitment here that we’re talking about. So, on whether you want to get your own blog or make use of a free blog from…say, from blogger.com or wordpress.com….it depends.
2. How techny are you? When you have your own blog and you’re into this whole blogging thing and you’re really serious about it….you need to know how to….or know someone who knows how to ‘fix problems’ whenever there are glitches. Trust me, not knowing how to ‘fix these problems’ can affect your mood for the whole week while you wait for it to be ‘fixed’. 
3. How serious are you about blogging seriously? I mean it, seriously speaking, how serious are you about blogging seriously? I am also talking about commitment here…except that it’s not in a monetary form. We’re talking about blogging regularly and gaining some fan readers who would come back to read what you have to write about regularly. In order for that to happen, your blogging would have to be consistent so that your readers know when and what to expect from you when they hop into your website
4. Is it a business or a personal blog? If it’s a business blog, I would STRONGLY encourage you to pass on the free blog thing….you need something more professional. Listen, if you’re a business and you have a blog domain name like iwouldkilltobuildyourwebsiteforyou.abcfreeblog.com….it doesn’t look very good. On the other hand, if you have a domain name like blog. killerwebsiteblog.com….now that is something else. For personal blogs, I wouldn’t bother investing in my own blog except for this one, www.contentmagician.com but it’s only because this blog is a conglomeration of BOTH business and person. My personal blog can be found here and sometimes, it’s being a freelance writer as well but not always….so, I chose to go with the free blog blogger was offering. 
5. What kind of stuff are you going to blog about or post in your blog? This makes a difference because with a free blog software like wordpress.com, there are many (TOO MANY) limitations and you don’t have full control of your blog content. When they kick you out, that is it. You no longer own any of the web or blog content that you’ve posted in there…THEY own it. Trust me, I know this because I got kicked out by Wordpress and it’s painful that I can’t do a single thing about it now eventhough it was my fault that they kicked me out. But yeah, if you’re going to post a lot of personal stuff, audio, media, videos, images or other materials that you OWN and have CREATED and have LEGAL RIGHTS to, go for your own blog. 

Consistency is one of the biggest solutions to keeping your readers from coming in, reading a couple of lines, and then running off…worse, AND never coming back again. Many people have been asked the same question about this…how does one keep people coming back to their websites or blogs. Consistent posting of web blog content is the key.

Consistency in topic content and also consistency in regularly posting in your blog.

But consistency is difficult if you don’t have a regular web blog content writer backing you up because everyone’s got their thing to do and if the job of updating the blog readers with fresh web blog content is not given to someone, then the irregularity of your posting could result in irregular visits from your blog visitors as well.

Keep the topic going

While it’s good that we explore things outside of our main topic once in a while, I was awakened by a post by Chris Knight, the regular poster of ezinearticles, about being regular and keeping to your own expertise. To a certain extent, I have to agree. The problem of how to come up with web blog content within the same topic regularly and finding ideas would crop up.

So, in my personal opinion, crawling out of the main web blog content topic CAN be done – but as little as possible, and when you do so, it is of utmost importance that you keep the web blog content topic as close to home as possible.

How many times should I post new web blog content in the blog?

It’s hard to say. Some people keep to posting every day. Some people post once a week. Some a fortnight. But based on my experience as a web blog content provider, it is best if you keep the regularity of your web blog content posting to right about twice a week or three times if you can afford the time.

Otherwise, I don’t think it cost a lot to hire a web blog content writer these days…what with the world’s ailing economy. A lot of people are willing to be hired as a freelance contractual web blog content writer for as little as a couple of hundreds a month just to keep your blog going.

If you asked me, this is a worthwhile investment since it frees up your time to do other important things – like getting your car repaired, reeling in the sales, monitoring the search engine ranking for your blog, etc instead of you, sitting there mulling over your web blog content.

This is, however, an issue that varies from one person to another. Just do it as often and for as much as you can afford to. In today’s economy, busting a budget comes a close second to having hemorrhoids.

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For web blog content updating services, please take a look at our ‘services‘ page and if you think we fit the bill or want a rough estimate of what your bill would look like if you hired us as your web blog content writer, contact us.

If you keep writing the same topic on your website and producing content after content, article after article….it’s a perceivable fact that one fine day, you will run out of topics to base your web content on. Although the world is consistently evolving and we can always find fresh topics to put into our website content, if you’re churning out the articles day by day, one fine day, you’ll get this feeling…that you’re standing nose-to-nose with a wall.

So, a friend of mine have asked me this some time back: Do we have to write the same kind of content based on the same topic and industry everyday? If gets boring for the web content writer and a bored writer can’t, obviously, do very well at impressing the readers. Hence, it is my personal opinion that it’s perfectly fine to move out of the typical to the atypical once in a while.

For instance, if your blog or website is about handkerchief and scarves, I can’t imagine how many different type of web content you can think of to write about in your website or blog on a long term! Perhaps it would be wiser for the web content writer to move out of the tight corner and write on a broader topic, for instance, embracing the related and sub-related industries like shoes, fashion, celebrities, polls, handbags, etc.

The purpose of moving out of the strict generalization of your blog content or web content, you’re tapping into other markets as well and not narrowing yourself down unnecessarily for all the wrong reasons. Hence, if you feel that you’re bored of writing the same web content over and over…and over and over again, then move out of the topic a little bit. Some writers move out of their own genres and reveal a little about their lives once in a while….the effect? Instead of pushing people away, it had a positive impact, instead.

People started liking the blog or website more because of the tiny wee bit of diversification on web content done. As long as you don’t move too far off the radar, I’m pretty sure, the readers will love you more for the broadening the tight ridge.

Love,

Marsha M

Freelance writer, mother and occasional singer

Social bookmarking is a big thing now and we should make every effort to wobble our way into this whole social bookmarking thing - especially when we’re a bunch of word weirdos, right? We’ve got all the content in the world so, why aren’t people coming back for more.

You see, there’s this really huge problem with writing. And the problem is called ‘writing well’ or ‘writing something worth reading’.

I see an incredibly half-hearted efforts out there that makes no attempt whatsoever at trying to inform, impress, entertain, educate or tickle the readers.

When we write the content for our blogs, we should imagine our readers and audience sitting right there in front of us…waiting to be entertained. It’s only when we make an effort to write good blog content and update the blog with writing worth reading and coming back for will we see an increase in traffic, better branding, increased sales and blog popularity.

It’s time to change the 5-minute blog posting thing unless it’s a personal site. If you’re in it for the business, it’s time to buy the thinking cap, put it on before you start writing for your blog.

Write well enough, my advice is, to get your blog or blog content bookmarked by others or emailed to others.

This is a question that commonly plagues the mind of a small business owner who doesn’t have millions to splurge on marketing and advertising campaigns. Having a blog is the way to go these days because every one knows that the world is all about interactivity and not merely ‘activity’ anymore. With an online business that has a popular blog, you’ll find yourself more connected to your readers, site visitors and potential customers. This is the bridge your small e-business and the pocket full of gold coins.

Having a blog means that you have to spend some time researching and finding information about your business so that you can update your readers, fans, and site visitors whenever they pop by and it must be something they want to respond to, feel strongly about or will be potentially be interested in.

Being a small business owner, you’re probably in-charge of a lot more things than you’ve bargained for….from accounts to marketing, from typing letters to making tea, it’s your job. If writing doesn’t come naturally to you, it would be tedious and cause you stress if you were to add ‘blog updating’ to your list of to-dos. (more…)