Archive for June, 2008

Author: April Hall

Internet Copywriter

Internet copywriters are often a unique blend of accomplished, talented writers who also have an uncanny knack for marketing. We are skilled at taking those all-important keywords and creating content that flows well, provides information and is interesting to read. There are times, however, when some of us feel compelled to put marketing keywords on the backburner in favor of demonstrating our creative prowess when it comes to the written word. For those of us who create SEO content every day, and who work to create useful and understandable content for our readers, the following information about trusted newspaper and magazine publications may be extremely useful:

Plain-Language Services conducted a study of the world’s leading print publications, using the widely-accepted “Dale-Chall” formula that analyzes writing and gives each piece a grade level designation. Some of the world’s leading newspapers write at a surprisingly low grade level:

Grade Level and Circulation of Current Periodicals

Were you as surprised as I was to learn that Harper’s writers target a 9th grade reading level? Or that the National Enquirer publishes at a 12th grade level? Here I was thinking that I looked like an intellectual by carefully displaying New Yorker magazines around my coffee tables, when I would have been better off picking up the latest tabloid in the grocery store line!

So, what does this information mean for those of us who work with internet copy? It means that we need to always keep our audience in the forefront of our minds as we create new content. If the largest print publications in the world–TV Guide and Reader’s Digest–understand that to reach the most people, the most effectively, writers need to aim for a 9th grade reading level, how much more carefully should internet writers use language?

The reality is that the internet is the reading source for millions of people around the world, so your content should definitely be geared to reach them. Unless you are writing an academic article for an online journal, you really shouldn’t be using language that only college graduates would understand; and, in fact, you should probably shoot for the grade level that local newspapers often target, which is a 5th grade level. As a former English teacher, it pains me to recommend that SEO writers lower their writing level to reach site visitors rather than to spur readers to stretch their level of understanding… However, as SEO writers, our purpose is to provide relevant, understandable information in order to promote our sites as well as our products and services.

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Author: Conrad Salvador
Writer Coordinator

So you’ve done all that you can for your online business in your targeted markets and now you are looking to expand to other territories. How can you predict what will be the hot “new” thing? What markets would you like to target now? How can I find out where my product will make an impact internationally? If you had the insight to predict what to do in the future for your business, wouldn’t you like to know how?

The newest version of Google Trends went live yesterday with some features that will be beneficial for you to answer all of the previous questions. That’s good and all, but how can you predict what will be the “hot” new thing or the future?

Well, here’s an example of what is currently going on with Google Trends (we captured this image just minutes ago). As we can see by the example below in Today’s Hot Trends that “email french” is the top searched keyword for 6/11/08.

After a little investigation, I found out that the French Government is looking to get rid of the word “e-mail” in all government ministries, documents, publications, and websites. The move was motivated because the French want to exclude English words out of the French lexicon.

In the SEO world, this is valuable information if you were thinking about doing some work in France. You would have to adjust your SEO marketing plan to correlate with what is going on over there currently and down the road as well.

Another way Google Trends can be useful for your business is that it enables you to better target main keywords for your market. For this example we will use the keyword “houston real estate“. I chose this example, because it is no mystery that the real estate industry is not doing too good and by utilizing Google Trends, you can see where the drop-off occurred by year and you can also see which region is currently looking for that keyword. If this was the keyword you were targeting, then you can see by the example below that Humble, TX is the market you should now focus on due to the popularity of that keyword:

Now that you’ve made your mark in America, you are now thinking about expanding your business overseas. For this example you will have to change the keyword search to make it more relevant, in this case we will generalize the term to “real estate“. All you have to do is change the region dropdown list to ALL REGIONS and you can see which countries are searching for this term the most. As you can see by the example below that this term is being searched for the most in Australia, which translates to a stronger real estate market in this country:

With Google Trends, you can have a crystal ball when it comes to what you should do with your online business. You can see what you need to do now based on the latest trends online. Google’s newest tool can also enhance your business research experience, allowing marketers to monitor trends home and abroad. With Google Trends and a little bit of inventive SEO marketing, you can now control your own future.

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Author: Henry Adaso
SEO Copywriter

You’ve heard that old saying “You only have 11 seconds to capture a web reader’s attention,” right? Well, I have some good news and some bad news about that age-old sentiment.

The bad news is, that time frame may have even shortened lately, following the emergence of millions of websites and blogs offering the same old solutions to the same old issues. Reading on the web may have enhanced communication between marketers and consumers, but with over 75 million blogs in existence and 120,000 new blogs being created every day, standing out from the crowd has never seemed more difficult.

The good news: there are still proven ways to get magical results on your business blog. Copywriting breakthrough is not unattainable, if you know how to navigate the rapidly expanding web world. Learning the tricks of SEO copywriting can help you gain higher conversion rates.

Practice headline research - Doing a headline research can make all the difference when it comes to niche blogging. If your headline is bland and uninspiring, your business prospect might never get a chance to learn about your products no matter how groundbreaking. Scour top social media sites like Digg and Sphinn to see which headlines are constantly making it to the homepage. For example, “How Tos” or instructional articles that add value to the reader’s experience will surely get you some attention.

Form a brainstorming group - Team up with your colleagues to come up with copywriting ideas. You may not find the magic bullet on the first go. In fact, many of your brainstorming ideas will end up in the proverbial garbage can. Still, you have a better chance of striking gold when you mine other people’s intellectual resources.

Dig deeper - Have you had a personal experience that relates to your topic? Don’t hesitate to share it with your prospects. Your story is unique to you and you alone. No one can tell it like you can. Ultimately, taking the personal approach allows you to connect directly with your consumers.

Subscribe to blogs, newsfeeds, and magazines in your niche - You’ll be amazed by how much content ideas you can discover by sign up for newsletters and RSS feeds in your field. Subscribing to most feeds only takes a few minutes, but the benefits to your business can be tremendous.

Let the reader decide - If all else fails, try a democratic-style blogging — of the readers, by the readers, and for the readers. There are so many ways to do this without turning your blog into spam central.

1. Ask a question (e.g. What’s Your Favorite Xbox game?) and unlock the experts in your readers
2. Ask for guest submissions from consumers or other experts in your field.
3. Turn user correspondence into an article. If a prospective customer writes you with a question, chances are there are other users with a similar concern. Why not address the issue on your business blog so that everyone benefits from your insight?

Good copywriting is not just about creative content. Any Internet-savvy marketer can write effective website copy. It’s about delivering valuable ideas to your consumers in a personable tone. When you find yourself running into a brainstorming firewall, don’t despair — reach out to your co-workers for content ideas, dig deep within for a personal angle, or simply embrace your consumers.

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Author : Thomson Chemmanoor
SEO Coordinator

There is no doubt that the power of backlinks is an important factor to improve your search engine ranking. There are several people trying to game the search engines by falsely inflating backlinks to their site. This methodology of getting links will fail when Google slaps them right on top of their head as they loose all the ranking which they were trying to build.

One of the effective ways to get natural links coming from other sites is by making your website a quality source of content for visitors. By this way, people naturally start linking to the site because of the quality of the content.

Here are some effective natural techniques to get you the backlinks you will need:

1) Syndicate News and Articles Distributing articles and press releases to article directories, industry related PR sites, and media outlets can generate authority links which will boost your website ranking. Creating newsworthy press releases and interesting articles gets noticed by other website owners, journalists, and bloggers which can attract natural links from their websites.

2) Conducting Web Contests - Web contests are very popular now a days and it can go viral if the winning prize has a good cash value. These kinds of online contest products create an incredible amount of buzz around the blogsphere if you are able to get the word out. A few hundred dollars can result in getting thousands of dollars worth of traffic and backlinks.

3) Offering Freebies Everyone loves to get free offers. You must offer good quality content that has value without any obligation attached to it. It will spread the word and people start linking back to the offer. One of the best examples is creating a free tool like an online calculator or a tool which is valuable to the industry.

4) Product Review and Testimonials Most people look for reviews that they can trust before buying any product. Try reviewing products on other websites and if you have the option - put your website URL in the review. Also, companies will be interested in getting testimonials from their customers. If you have a chance to put a testimonial along with your website address, this will give your website a back link.

5) Sign Up with Social Media Adding your website in your social media profile will get you backlinks. For example, profiles in your Twitter and Linkedin accounts give you the option to add your website which shows up as a backlink in search engines.

6) Share Knowledge Sharing your knowledge will get you backlinks too. Answering peoples questions in sites like: answers.yahoo.com, www.linkedin.com/answers, and www.answerbag.com will make others think that you are an expert in the field and will link back to you. The key is to give quality information to the question they post.

7) Run Your Own Affiliate programs Run affiliate programs for your website address embedded within the JavaScript of the tracking code. Offering higher commission is the key to get more people to join your affiliate program and start promoting your program.

8 ) Creating Widgets for Blogs Coming up with widgets for blogs and spreading the word out to bloggers can get massive amount of links back to your site. Widgets are easy and simple way to add some flare to blogs which generates a ton of backlinks.

9) Offer Free EBooks Offering free information through downloadable eBooks can get links. You need to embed the links within the content of the eBook to get back links. You should allow the users the right to republish those eBooks without changing the embedded links.

10) Comment on Do-Follow blogs There are several blogs which have do-follow links on the comment files where you can put your website address while you engage in the blog posts conversations. By default, all blogs have no-follow tags, but you need to identify those blogs that allow do-follow on their comment fields.

A good link building strategy is just a good way of marketing. Its all about being creative and thinking outside the box. When you incorporate these tactics, it will set you apart from the competition as it gets you the backlinks that you will need to create a presence.

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Author: Henry Adaso
Internet Copywriter

So now that you know why you should start building links today, are you ready for some tips? If you’re an expert in the field of search engine optimization, you may already know most of these. For the rest of us, here are 5 characteristics of a quality link.

Informative - No reader will fault you for linking off to an article or website that adds value to their experience. But linking to a sub-par site is an easy way to lose readership.

Credible - Quality inbound links come from credible sites. Elevate your own credibility by offering only fair, objective, and accurate information to readers. If you establish yourself as a trusted source, inbound links will be less difficult to obtain.

Descriptive - Explain what the link has to offer. Why should a reader click on the link? Don’t use phrases like “click here” when crosslinking. Use a creative signal phrase instead.

Brief and Useful - Writing links in blocks of sentences or paragraphs is bad SEO practice. Keep it brief and user-friendly or it will look like you forgot to close a tag.

Groundbreaking - Be the first to report a breaking news story in your niche and others will be happy to credit you for the gesture.

In summary, a quality link is brief, useful, descriptive, and enhances user experience. If you’re new to SEO, you may first want to get acquainted with linking, inbound & outbound links.

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Author: April Hall

Internet Copywriter

If you were anywhere around a television, radio or newspaper for the past few months, then you already know that it has been a historic time in American history as the first woman and African-American candidate vied to become the Nominee of the Democratic Party. It has been a truly whirlwind ride as Americans of all walks of life have had the incredible opportunity to be a part of history in the making.

As I watched the events unfold with my two young children (and tried to convince them that the speeches we were listening to in person and on the television were more important than the Dora show they were missing) I got to thinking how much our world is changing in so many ways; in politics, in social interactions, and in technology. Who would have though thirty years ago that companies could use the “magic” of computers to instantly advertise and reach a targeted group of consumers?

Modern technology seems so natural for those of us involved in internet marketing–do some keyword research, create fresh and high quality content, study search engine practices and new SEO techniques, and eventually we will build a successful internet campaign. But when we stop to think about it, we will all realize just what an amazing tool we have in internet marketing. In decades past, an advertising campaign meant creating flashy,catchy ads and using print and television media to reach customers who may or may not be interested in your products or services. Much of it was hit and miss.

Now, web development companies hire SEO staff who can use precise and targeted techniques to make the most of every advertising dollar with a few keystrokes. We may all be unimpressed with the rise of internet technology (particularly those who have spent our entire adult lives enjoying its benefits), but a moment or two of reflection may lead us to a greater appreciation of this element of technology.

So, as we all continue to bear witness to this moment in our history as a nation and as a world, it is befitting to also recognize the development of internet technology and how that affects how modern companies run. For those of you who would like a brief history of the internet, check out his easy-to-understand video of Ethan Zuckerman (during which I learned email began way back in 1965!):

Isn’t it exciting to know we are a part of internet marketing history, as well?

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