How Do I Hire You?

I've visited a lot of blogs and there's something that I notice in quite a few of them: no contact details! The only way a person can get in touch with the blog author then is via a comment, which can be made open to the public.

This is not a problem when the blog author is not a writer, designer or someone who is selling his services. This becomes a BIG problem when the person is open to receiving clients, does not have a website with a contact form and conducts all the correct marketing procedures to get an audience to visit his site.

If you are looking to attract potential clients or even are open to the idea of getting new business, ensure there's a way you can be contacted. Put an email or phone number up on your blog where it's visible. And don't make it complicated. There's nothing that's going to send a potential client running off to your competition faster than if he has to play 'search for the contact details' on your blog.

Cut to the straight and narrow

Want to get an audience to actually read your prose? Get off the meandering path and stick to the straight and narrow.

Strip it down
Along with being a writer you need to be an editor and this means, being brutal! Cut back on your word count dramatically by snipping off the excess word-fat and keeping it lean. This holds all the more true in the case of query letters where concise information is required, not a long drawn out account of how brilliant your article is. Check the ratio between the number of words you use and the amount of information you offer. A 50% ratio is good.

Get rid of relative pronouns: Avoid as much as possible using ‘that, which, who’ and their verbs.
E.g. The report that was submitted by Mr X is on my desk versus The report submitted by Mr. X is on my desk.

Avoid repetitions
It’s quite common while editing to find a word repeated, not necessarily in the same sentence but in an adjoining one. Getting someone else to give your work a once-over can help reduce this problem immensely as can taking a break and getting back to the piece to view it with a fresh pair of eyes.

Stop being passive: Use the active voice as much as possible. Take action, tell your readers what they should (or should not be doing) and get straight to the point with doable advise.
E.g. I give versus You are given; Do this versus This should be done

Be animated: Start your sentence with an animate subject. Using animate subjects also allows you to select more colourful verbs.
E.g. We solved the problem versus The problem was solved.

Twitter Headlines Which Work!

I sporadically use twitter- when I have the time, I love browsing through it, when I'm busy, it's relegated a back-seat. Twitter however can be a powerful tool, not just to make friends and online contacts, but also to keep abreast with what's happening in the market, sell you products and services and gain new clients.

Because of the limited number of words you can use each tweet, try and keep in mind the following:

Your headline should be interesting. Funny too is good. Most people will retweet your tweets without actually clicking on the link, if your headline captures interest.

If you promise something, always be sure to deliver.

Ensure readers understand the urgency of action- Buy Now, Last Day Offer, Click Now- are all great ways to get readers to click on the link.

Stick to one topic. Tweeting on your restroom activities and what your dog ate is really of no interest to people. A well written article which offers advice, is.

Avoid blatant selling. I have to say I sometimes indulge in it, but it's never got me any hard core fans, just those who want to gain more followers. Keep promoting your work subtly and you'll find it a better way to capture audience interest.

Happy tweeting!

Read A Lot, Write A Lot

No, that isn’t my line but one borrowed from Stephen King in his book, On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft. Reading is essentially what makes a writer, write, and it always surprises me when people say- I love writing, but I don’t read much (actually, I haven’t heard anyone say that, but I have heard of it being told). How would you know of the mysteries of Egypt without reading about them ? (Please don’t say the Discovery Channel, though I do love it! ;) Or delve into murders aboard trains, planes and old English manors with an Alfred Hitchcock novel. I don’t read Stephen King’s books much, but I do know what he says about writing- and that comes because I enjoy reading.

Reading helps your writing to improve and here’s how:

It helps you understand your genre or niche: All writers should have a niche, even generalist writers. By reading about topics you are interested in and want to write about, you’ll learn how to create the required structure, sentence flow and particular terminology which may (or may not) apply.

It helps you build a better command of the language: Read in the language you will be writing and you’ll build up your vocabulary, learn to identify grammar and sentence syntaxes and improve your writing style.

It acts as an idea bank: Reading can stir up the imagination and allows you to come up with ideas you may not have previously thought of. Lacking blog ideas? Pick up a book or read through online blogging sites. Need to pitch an idea to your local magazine or newspaper? Browse through catalogues, brochures and online newsroom sites. You never know when or where an idea will strike, but reading certainly helps speed up the process.


Want to use this article? You can if you include this blurb:

Freelance writer Usha Krishnan Sliva has years of article and copywriting experience. To get more free tips and writing ideas, subscribe to her ezine-Getting It Write on http://www.writechoiceforyou.com or sign up for her course, Article Writing And Selling 101 on http://www.writechoiceforyou.com/WritingCourses.html

What Makes Keywords Important?

You've heard of the importance of SEO (search engine optimization)-http://writechoiceforyou.blogspot.com/2009/10/seo-tactics-for-site-optimization.html and often, clients will ask for the use of certain keywords in their articles. What makes keywords so special and why use them?

Keywords can form a very important tool to your writing process. For one, they are accurate. Used appropriately, they will provide you with the correct words for the correct context. They will also ensure your article gets a higher ranking on search engines. And finally, clients looking for research will be directed to sites which use the key words they've typed in.

Selecting keywords is simple and sites like Google are user friendly. All it requires is that you put in a list of options you're targeting and the site will spew out a number of relevant keywords for you to select from.

When selecting keywords from the given options, bear in mind that popular keywords are not always the best choice. You'll be fighting with hundreds of other articles which have opted for these 'popular' keywords. It may make more sense to base your selection on researched demand; i.e. a more narrow niche rather than a more popular choice.

So the next time you're writing an article, whether it's for a client or your own site, take some time to research the keywords you can use in it. And watch your page rankings rise!


Want to use this article? You can if you include this blurb:

Freelance writer Usha Krishnan Sliva has years of article and copywriting experience. To get more free tips and writing ideas, subscribe to her ezine-Getting It Write on http://www.writechoiceforyou.com or sign up for her course, Article Writing And Selling 101 on http://www.writechoiceforyou.com/WritingCourses.html

How To Exact Your Money...Or Revenge

Payment at times can be hard to extract, especially from oversees clients. We’ve all been burnt sometime or the other and mostly by applying to craigslist type ads which are perfect for scam-artists and clients who want all, for free!

If you feel you are not making any headway with collecting fees, contact Angela (angela@writersweekly.com). She’ll offer valuable advice and puts out warnings on your behalf.

I’ve also received ‘warnings’ from other members of a writing group to which I belong on the following two clients:

Warning One:
please, please, post something to your writers about this guy: mnsavage@yahoo.com . His name is Jordan, and he doesn't pay his writers. I have been in contact with several of his writers who have been burned by him!
From S.

Warning Two:
I would be wary of working for this company, Plutoz (ad which appeared in craigslist below) - I did a lot of work for them a few years ago and never got paid (I tried, of course, but with me being based in the UK and them in the US, I couldn't use my usual ports of call, such as resorting to Small Claims Court to try and get the unpaid money, so eventually just had to write it off). Back then, it was also supposedly a 'new and exiting' search portal launch.
From R.

WRITERS WANTED
Plutoz, an exciting new shopping and lifestyle search portal
(plutoz.com), is seeking web-savvy, motivated, prolific, and witty writers
to research and compose capsule reviews of websites. Write sincere,
unbiased, quick, and accurate copy for our online consumer audience as
well as producing short articles about various web consumer topics
(shopping, travel, lifestyle, home, fashion, entertainment, video games,
electronics, food and hundreds of additional titles and categories).
Please send a brief e-mail reply to the following questions:
• How long have you been writing web copy? What is your most recent
professional web/other writing experience (if any)?
• What are your web content areas of expertise/interest?
Past experience as a talented writer or editor for a media channel (print,
web, radio or TV) is highly desirable. This job can be done on your own
time but you must meet our deadlines and follow our editorial guidelines.
Please send us your resume and answer the above questions.
Compensation: Writers will be paid based on experience and the amount of content that they generate (following our editorial guidelines).
Reply to: job-mtqhx-1430259258@craigslist.org.

SEO Tactics For Site Optimization

Someone new to Internet marketing may well ask, what is SEO and why does my site need to be optimized? SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the result driven process of increasing the traffic volume or audience flow to a website via natural or organic search strategies, as opposed to using paid marketing techniques (SEM: search engine marketing). SEO can be strategically targeted toward image search or video search or the most popular usage, keyword search.

Nowadays, most online companies will use SEO alone or in conjunction with other marketing tactics to draw in large audience numbers to their site. SEO may require certain HTML coding implemented, and if this is the case, it should be incorporated at the web design/web content stage. What is to be avoided is Black Hat SEO or unscrupulous methods to ensure your site gets high ranking. Black hat SEO includes article spinning, keyword stuffing and invisible text. Techniques which maintain the integrity of your site are considered ‘White Hat’ techniques and while they may appear to be more time consuming and resource needy, they are in fact the correct strategies to draw long term audience and ensure high SERPs (search ending results pages).

Search Engines (popular examples being Google and Yahoo) work by allowing spiders to crawl the web and locate sites and pages and index them. Without aiding and assisting them by using relevant SEO tactics, it’s likely that your site or page will remain buried and un-indexed. Your second priority would be to get your page as high a rank as possible. Surfers will generally not go beyond two pages worth of searching. To find your site or page’s current Google rank, visit, http://www.prchecker.info/check_page_rank.php

So, what are some of the organic SEO tactics which work?

Descriptive title tags and meta tags: It goes without saying that the URL of your site should be as descriptive and relevant as possible. However, your title tags and meta data should also be relevant. These use keywords to describe your site’s products and services not only to your audience, but to the search engines as well. Use free keyword search sites like http://nichebot.com, http://keyworddiscovery.com, http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/ and http://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal to find out what word descriptions would work best for your site.

Site accessibility: Your site needs to load well and be accessible to visitor in seconds. This means, you will need to constantly check and recheck graphics, images and file sizes to ensure they are not too large. Visitors and unfortunately, search engines too, have short attention spans. Make sure your site is quick to download and graphically and visually pleasing to the eye.

High speed server: This links with the earlier point. Your site should be hosted on a high speed server to ensure it loads quickly. Given the competition you’ll be facing, visitors are quick to move away from slow-loading sites.

Linking (internal and reciprocal): When linking to an internal site map, ensure your links don’t blog spider navigation. By transferring your internal links to the bottom of the page, you’ll give search engines an unobstructed path through your page. When using internal links, try making them keyword dense for an additional pull. If you are considering reciprocal links, try and do a search to find out high ranking relevant sites and connect to them. One such paid site which allows you to track and find page rankings of competitor and relevant sites is PR Prowler : http://www.prprowler.com. However, you can also use free tools like PR Checker to find this information.

Captivating content: Creating captivating content will also ensure your pages get read more often. The more content-rich your site, the more likely it will be read by a larger audience and picked up by search engines. Do not get caught up however in article spinning which can result in your site getting penalized.

Strong starting sentences: Begin always with strong sentences; these are the ones most important. Ensure they are audience captivating and search engine friendly.
Keyword density: Your web content should be keyword rich, but avoid keyword stuffing, which is considered black hat SEO and will result in search engines giving your site a miss. A good keyword density is between 5%-8%, depending on the length of the content. You can analyze your keyword density here: http://www.keyworddensity.com

So there you have it, excellent SEO tactics which are time-tested and proven to work. As with any tactics though, success does not come overnight and you will need to invest both time and energy resources if you want to get it right.

Want to use this article? You can if you include this blurb:

Freelance writer Usha Krishnan Sliva has years of article and copywriting experience. To get more free tips and writing ideas, subscribe to her ezine-Getting It Write on http://www.writechoiceforyou.com or sign up for her course, Article Writing And Selling 101 on http://www.writechoiceforyou.com/WritingCourses.html