Content Magician, Freelance web content writers

Archive for the ‘Business Thoughts’ Category

Where I live, people…business people tend to be more than a little uncomfortable about trying out internet marketing ideas and search engine optimization tactics. They would rather sit it out and WAIT FOR SOMETHING TO HAPPEN to their websites. A relative, with whom I spoke extensively with about search engine optimization and internet marketing, said that it would be OK with him if he just waited it out and see if he could get lucky!

There is no such thing as getting lucky with internet marketing. It’s either you put effort into it or you DON’T. Look, the Internet is a wonderful stage for business website owners. It’s the single one available vehicle to us that allows us a stage as big as television….bigger. And everyone’s fighting for footspace in cyberspace.

My question would be this…how does LUCK come into the picture when there are tens of thousands, perhaps millions, of people fighting for the first three pages of a popular search engine results page? If it’s so easy, why don’t everyone just hold back on the search engine optimization and internet marketing startegies, save the money and just wait for Lady Luck to smile at them.

Who knows? Maybe she takes turns?

If one wants a piece of the pie in cyberspace, it’s imperative for one to out effort in promoting one’s website or blog online. It just does not appear on your lap for no resaon whatsoever.

And frankly speaking, it’s not even that hard to do on your own. All it takes is a willing heart and an open mind….or is it the other way around.

By Deborah Owen 

While it is true that a few people can skip protocol and begin writing for large markets without writing credits, the ordinary person cannot. Be prepared, because every publication will want to know where you have been published before, and you should have a list of publications as long as your arm.Write for ezines that pay in subscriptions, (some will pay $5). Write for your church bulletin and bulletins at work. Go to your local newspaper and ask if they need someone to cover sports and/or political meetings. (These are hard jobs to fill, and almost every paper needs someone in these positions.)

You may be asking yourself, “But if I give writing references in ezines, bulletins, and local papers, won’t the editor know I’ve been working for nothing?” Yes, they will, but they won’t care. They will admire you for your tenacity. They will know you’ve been out working and learning the market, and they’ll know that you must be some kind of a decent writer, or no one would have published you.

There is yet another way that you can get experience, and that is writing for Associated Content and other such places. You can also write for article distribution centers. Everything counts.

When you send your first piece into a magazine, don’t make the mistake of saying, “My teacher said she liked this piece,” “I’ve never been published before, but I’ll be a hard worker,” or “I belong to a writer’s club and they voted this article as the best of the month.” These are amateur remarks, and any editor will recognize them as such.

If you don’t have any publication credits, avoid the subject altogether. Give the short story on how you got into writing and what your goals are, and always thank the editor for his time in reading your submission.

In conclusion: write articles free of charge to get publishing credits (and keep dated clippings from each one in a scrap book, as you will need that information later on); present yourself well and have the audacity of a Rockefeller. Remember, you’re selling yourself. Most of the time, you’ll get the chance you’re looking for, if you bluff your way through it.

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A smart domain purchase for your new online business is much more important than many people may think. The right domain name can boost search engine placement and brand an entire business. Alternately choosing the wrong domain name can hurt your business from the start. Here are the top five tips for choosing a winning domain name for your online business.

1. Choose a keyword based domain name when entering competitive niches. Look for a two or three word phrase relating to your niche. This phrase should receive more than 500 searches per month and have less than 200,000 competing sites in Google when searching that phrase in quotation marks. Making a domain purchase using such a keyword phrase will help your website or blog rank better for that particular phrase.

2. Avoid hyphens whenever possible. While it was believed that using hyphens to separate words within a domain name helped with search engine optimization it is now generally frowned upon. It is recommended to avoid hyphens as they tend to make your domain name, and your business, appear spammy and unprofessional. If you must use a hyphen keep it to one instance only between a two word phrase. (MM-I don’t quite agree with this because in most cases, the most effective keyword related domain names are already taken up. To me, having a hyphen isn’t all that bad an idea. But that’s just my thought)

3. Choose the right domain extension. When making a domain purchase you should always try and secure a .com extension if possible. Since superior .com extensions are not always available your next choice should be a .net extension. In instances where neither is available then you can choose a .org extension if you really must have that particular domain name. Avoid .info, .biz and other extensions.

4. Choose a short and memorable domain name if you have the marketing to brand it. While ranking well for your niche is easier with longer, keyword based domain names those domain names don’t often stick in the minds of potential customers quite as well as a short and unique domain name does. Businesses such as eBay and Twitter are good examples of business who dominate their markets with odd one word domain names. Just be sure you have a good marketing strategy in order to make your domain name synonymous with what your business is about. (MM-then again, this is easier said than done unless you’re willing to sacrifice a couple of keywords here and there)

5. Buy aged domain names. Unlike registering a brand new domain name purchasing an expired domain name that has already been used for an online business can give your new business an instant boost of success. Backlinks and PageRank associated with that domain name will be instantly passed on to your business and help bring in early traffic while you get your business up and running.

Whether you choose a longer keyword based domain name or a shorter, memorable one depends on the needs of your new business. Taking advantage of the benefits of aged domain names is always a step in the right direction to early success which your new business can grow on. When making a domain purchase be clear on what your business needs and choose wisely. Your business’ success is riding on it.

It still continues to stun me every time someone asks me, “Is there such a thing? Freelance blog content writer? A freelance what….web content writer? Is there a NEED for it?”

I give up.

To say that I am a veteran freelance blog content writer, I probably am not. I can point you to some of the biggest online movers and shakers in terms of online content production or blog content development. But I HAVE been writing freelance for more than a decade….PROFESSIONALLY….which means for more than TEN YEARS, I’ve been continuously paid to produce web content, write blog content and advertising copy for people.

And when people ask me something like ‘Is there a NEED for it?’, I can’t help but feel a little insulted.

On a website, navigation is something I would rate as NUMERO UNO. If your website is not easy to navigate, WELL….good luck to you! I mean, it’s the truth. The second would be content. At the very least, I am pretty honest with you and I am trying to shove a sales talk down your throat. Navigation of a website is more important than the web content or blog content because…who do you think would have the patience of clicking through from one page to another just to find the web content or blog post that they want to read?

I guess, as a freelance blog content writer, I am a pretty lucky gal. I’ve never had to struggle through a difficult conversation trying to explain the whole search engine optimization, internet marketing or online promotion methodology to them. They know how it works – and they set me to it. End of story. With that said, I am also lucky that my blog content writing clients are willing to pay for quality.

They know that if they pay peanuts, they get monkeys. There are a lot of monkeys out there, unfortunately.

Anyway, I would describe the content on your website as the meat attached to the skeleton. Your website would be nothing without it, hence, if you’re not a writer yourself, it makes sense for you to hire a web content writer (ahem, like me), who can do the job quickly, efficiently, independently and affordably.

Hiring a blog content writer for your blog posts, some say, if like lying. Oh, I was so hurt at one time when someone else ‘flamed’ me for ghost blogging for my clients. “It’s like a lie. You’re a liar. A bullshitter”. Not exactly. You see, when someone hires me as their blog content writer, what I do is that I do the research on my part. If it’s an industry that I am not familiar with, then I would have to put a lot of hours to find out what makes the readers tick. It’s not as simple as picking up a pen and just sucking it up to the corporate leaders or the company’s CEO.

If that was the case, my life as a web content writer would have been much easier, trust me. The role of a ghost blogger like me is very important for the company’s image. If I do a good job, I attract regular visitors, help with the branding process, and help the company collect data and feedback from the blog or website visitors. If a blog content writer (I am not saying me! LOL) does a bad job, the website or blog owner suffers. And the writer gets off Scot-free.

Anyway, my point is that you need to hire a web content writer who knows how to write and make sense, and then make the message stick in the minds of the readers….ideally, forever, but in reality, for a long time. Even if someone was just stumble onto your website or blog without really intending to and likes the content that you have placed there, you’ve created an impression. If this person REALLY likes the blog content on your website, then he or she would come back for more later on.

Makes sense, I am sure.

And there’s one other thing about hiring a blog content writer that you should always remember. That search engines love content…the fresher, the more links it contains and the more people linking to you equals a good website or blog. So, remind your web content writer to do just that lest he/she gets carried away with writing non-seo optimized content for your website.

The most important page that your blog content writer should focus on is the main/home/index page of your website. or in the case of your blog, the first page that the search engine pulls out when it crawls into your url. I’ll leave the whole ‘linking’ hullabaloo for another time because it’s not something that your blog content writer can control too much. Linking is more your job, as a website or owner or your webmaster. It’s something you and your webmaster should sit down together (or online) to discuss on an extensive basis.

I think one of the hardest lessons to learn as a professional freelance writer is this….finding your own personal writing style and also accepting criticisms from those who prefer a different style of writing. For instance,….yes, you would have guessed, journalists and published authors.

Generally speaking, these professionally-trained individuals are highly qualified people where writing is concerned and frown (very deeply) upon the style adopted by bloggers and internet freelance writers because of their lack of style and formal training. ‘The foundation isn’t even there’…. ‘that’s a whole load of bull’…or ‘he/she could use a few months in proper training on how to write PROPERLY’.

They view the materials written by bloggers and internet freelance writers as an insult to their profession.

Professionals, as I would now like to call them, are particularly harsh on bloggers, internet freelance writers and so-called self-proclaimed freelance writers because they’re pretty much against vanity press. It seems, to me, their awards, certificates and accolades, perhaps, have given them the right to criticize other styles of writing not taught in school.

I guess in a lot of ways, it works out just right because if I was a lawyer and someone came up to me, claiming to know more about an area of law that I was educated for, I would be on my feet slamming on tables, fuming at the sheer arrogance of this person claiming to know more about the law…which is something I was trained for.

But I think some professional writers, authors, reporters, journalists should just hang loose for a bit here and stop being so harsh on internet freelance writers. There is a long brick wall standing between these literature experts and freelance writers….a long, thick wall and frankly speaking, I don’t see how freelance writers and bloggers can be a threat to journalists.

Bloggers and freelance writers have evolved so much with Web 2.0 that a ‘new style’ of writing has been developed. Instead of churning out striking web of words, the focus is on how to deliver thoughts, feedback, reviews and ideas in as personal a way as possible and in the shortest period of time.

People who read on the internet couldn’t, really, be bothered with how well spun an article is. Journalists and newspaper writers should just stick to their own industry…writing for magazines, books, newspapers, and other more traditional form of media….unless they’re willing to bend their own rules and principles a little.

Bloggers and freelance writers can then focus on how internet writing works and generate reasonable income from providing their ‘services’ to their clients.

So, please….don’t be harsh on us just because we’re not QUALIFIED. The same way journalists can’t comprehend or do away with using a certain method of coming up with a masterpiece, bloggers can’t quite understand why something so simple has to be so complicated.

The same way a journalist will find it hard to be a copywriter and a copywriter might have more than a little trouble writing a screenplay, people cannot unreasonably impose journalistic principles on bloggers and internet writers who rely significantly on Web 2.0 and vanity press.

In this case, shouldn’t we just say ‘we agree to disagree‘?

Till this very day, I am still surprised with the number of people and companies in my own country’s, Malaysia, ignorance and indifference to the importance of search engine promotion. Malaysia search engine promotion industry is still at an infancy stage whereby the SEO industry and online marketing sector in other countries like Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia and Taiwan has grown tremendously over the years…well, after Facebook came about, I guess everyone started realizing just important it is to be ‘present’.

Not only should a Malaysia company focused on search engine promotion be ‘present’ ONE TIME but all the time, as many times as possible! I’ve said many times before and I guess I’ll waste those precious few taps to say it a few times again…it’s all about online activities and communication with the readers. Malaysian companies who are looking for search engine marketing and promotion methods should look beyond the ‘paid advertising’ method because there’s more to online marketing than placement of banners and text links.

I assure you, Malaysian companies, that the banner advertisement is the easier way to doing things but in terms of search engine marketing or a Malaysian company, that’s a short term solution and if you do your math, the ROI isn’t impressive at all.

Focus, instead of bringing in good content through good search engine marketing methods for your Malaysian website selling Malaysian products and services in the International arena. Rope the readers in and do everything you can, within your power, to keep the Malaysian or readers from other countries from clicking away and never coming back.

To me and to a lot of other search engine marketing experts, this is the essence of search engine optimization and building an online presence – regardless of whether you’re a Malaysian company serving only Malaysian companies or individuals or an International brand.

The world is your stage where internet is concerned and when you use the right internet marketing methods and search engine marketing strategy for your Malaysian-based website, you can reach beyond what you dream of.

Right now, the focus of your attention could be merely Malaysian consumers…but think in the long run. What happens when you are looking for foreign investors? What happens when you need help in terms of technology? How are people going to view your Malaysian company with very little internet marketing and search engine optimization done to your website if they see that you’re not innovative and quick enough to catch on the digital wave?

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The author is a Malaysian-based freelance writer, graphic designer and occasional singer who’s been in the internet marketing, content development and search engine optimization field for more than a decade. For more info, visit her website at http://www.marshamaung.com or her blog at http://www.marshamaung.blogspot.com.

Many moons and circles of the moon around the earth ago, I came upon this term called ‘stickiness’. When you think sticky, you’re probably thinking about either honey or glue…never would I have imagined someone calling a website sticky. Sticky is annoying and if you have super glue on, I don’t think it’s a good kind of sticky we’re talking about.

So, where was I?

Oh. Yeah, stickiness of a website. Basically, when you read an article or a web content about stickiness, it’s referring to how ‘interesting’, ‘unique’ or ‘interesting’ the website is and are you doing enough to bring your readers back to the website. It also means that are you drawing a loyal crowd of readers to your website.

There are a lot of ways to make your website sticky.

• Creative content that is fast, accurate and don’t beat around the bush
• Interesting news that they can’t anywhere else just as fast
• Cute or funny pictures
• Cool tools that they can use for their website
• Music or cartoons
• Polls and interactive ‘online toys’ that they can play with or participate in
• Regular reply from the webmaster or the writer or the owner of the website that encourages interaction between owner/writer and reader/visitors.

There’s really no point in keeping a website going unless you put some effort to make it sticky. Just imagine this…if you want to promote a website that isn’t sticky, you’ll have to keep promoting the website to people you meet online and offline one million times before you get to see the ten thousand unique visitors that you’re looking for.

But if your website is sticky, then you promote the website one million times and you probably keep right about five hundred thousand of the visitors who come to your website.

Now, isn’t that an interesting fact?

Of course, I’m just pulling the figure out from nowhere but I am sure I am not at all that far off mark. If you search the internet, you’ll probably find some stats that can show you that online marketing and promotion of a website is about stickiness and how well you build connection with your site visitors and then build a bridge of loyalty between you and them so much so that they are willing to come back to your website time and time again…without you having to remind them or beg them to come back for another visit. 

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Marsha Maung is a Malaysian-based freelance writer with two kids. She spends her time ferrying her kids around, watering her plants, writing web content, SEO stuff, ghostwriting books and also indulges in the occasional Facebook-ing. Visit her blog for more dirty details on the life and times of a mother, writer, designer, housekeeper, coffee-maker, poop-wiper, chef…and just about everything else under the sun. 

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