Author Archives: Amrit Hallan

About Amrit Hallan

Amrit Hallan is a professional content writer who helps businesses improve their conversion rate through credible and compelling content writing. His main strength lies in writing search engine optimized content without compromizing quality and meaningfulness.

So how much effort and money do you invest in guest blogging?

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Guest blogging, as Matt Cutts says in this blog post, isn’t as good an idea as it used to be a few years ago.

Guest blogging is done; it’s just gotten too spammy. In general I wouldn’t recommend accepting a guest blog post unless you are willing to vouch for someone personally or know them well. Likewise, I wouldn’t recommend relying on guest posting, guest blogging sites, or guest blogging SEO as a linkbuilding strategy.

Being lazy, being possessive about what I write and being highly distracted (and of course there was also this fear of rejection faced by every author) I was never much into guest blogging although it always hung over me like a heavy weight. People were doing wonders with guest blogging. People made entire careers out of first guest blogging and then blogging.

Let’s be frank. There are very few bloggers and webmasters who guest blog simply to add value to the blog or online magazine where their content is published. In most of the cases guest blogging is done to get quality back links because when you publish your writing on another blog or website, they also publish your profile with a link back to your website or blog. Fair enough.

In a recent blog post titled After content marketing, definitely focus on networking I stressed upon the point that it is not wise to solely depend on Google and other search engines for qualified traffic. You should develop your own traffic sources. If and when I indulge in guest blogging, it will be more for expanding my presence rather than getting back links.

Guest blogging gives you recognition. It helps you build audience for your own blog or business website. It gives you the much needed initial thrust. In fact, it would be wrong to say that I barely invested in guest blogging. In the early days of business I submitted scores of articles (those days I used to develop websites so my articles were on this topic) to many websites and most of my traffic came from their and this gave me a big boost and I’m still benefiting from that effort.

How to optimize your content for Facebook’s Paper newsfeed app

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OK, you must be wondering Facebook has just launched its new newsfeed app called Paper, it hasn’t even been used by many people, not many reviews are available online, and I’m already talking about optimizing your content for it. In case you’re wondering what the hell I’m talking about and what is this new newsfeed, head to this nice review on ReadWrite.com that says that this app is more about looks and less about the content it plans to broadcast.

Anyway, there is a great buzz all over the Internet and you may have already seen people fervently tweeting about the release. Sadly the app is only available for the iPhone users (well, it remains to be seen whether it is a good thing or a bad thing) and as iPhone users are prone to doing, they are blowing this thing out of proportion.

When you talk of optimizing your content what is the first thing that comes to your mind? What exactly is content optimization? To me it is

Creating as relevant and useful content as possible
Writing in a language that appeals to your target audience
Creating a captivating headline that draws people to the main article
Making your content shareable
Organizing your content – text – under appropriate headlines, sub headlines and bulleted points
Hyperlinking to further bits of useful and related information
Avoiding excessive use of images and videos (unless your content merely constitutes of such media)
Using the correct structured data markup

The last point is very important especially for the apps like Facebook’s Paper newsfeed app. Such apps use the structured data markup to identify the nature of your content and then adjust it in the feed accordingly.

The points mentioned above are the universal traits of content that is optimized for practically every medium whether you are writing for your blog/website or for social networking websites. The same goes for Facebook Paper. Use the right markup so that your content appears under the right section, create captivating headlines so that your content can grab people’s attention, write smaller sentences so that it’s easier to read them on smaller devices and as always, stick to the point.

After content marketing, definitely focus on networking

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I was just reading this blog post on how Facebook threatened to shut down a business due to a simple misunderstanding. I don’t have complete information on the issue and I don’t even know whether the threat from Facebook was justified or not. Basing one’s business on a particular entity is like walking on a shaky ground that can give in any day, any time.

Depending on search engines is like depending on rains

Just think how many businesses were destroyed when Google suddenly decided to change its ranking algorithm. Websites, blogs and webpages that used to come on the first page for certain search terms were suddenly, within a few minutes, were relegated to as far away as 35th page. The problem is not with Google (to an extent it is, but that’s another subject), the problem is with businesses that solely depend on Google.

Search engines are important, no denying that, but they are not the only means of getting traffic to your website or blog. There are many instances when Google blocked particular websites but they still attracted lots of traffic simply because of the goodwill and networking they had established prior to being blocked.

I’m not saying that you totally ignore the search engines because millions of people use search engines to find what they are looking for and it can be highly profitable if they can find you easily. So do invest a considerable amount of time improving your search engine rankings not just for Google, but for every contemporary search engines. But don’t just stop there.

Things you can do to reduce your dependence on search engines

Please keep in mind that the steps listed below are not something that you can achieve in a few days or even in a few weeks. Formulate a strategy for at least a year. The key is not how much you do, it is how persistently you do. You can assign different tasks to different days of the week and then stick to that routine. Once you have formulated a routine, don’t think much unless “thinking” is really crucial to what you intend to achieve. Excessive thinking leads to procrastination and indecision. Just keep on working.

Spread your presence evenly. Routinely write for other websites and blogs. This is not just good for your search engine rankings it will also boost your direct traffic and help you come in touch with more and more people.
Build your mailing list. This is something I have been planning to do for a very long time but haven’t gotten to it. This is VERY important. A major source of your business can come from your mailing list. A mailing list is not just useful for learning email marketing campaigns; it also helps you keep in touch with your prospective clients.
Interact on other online forums. Join related forums. Leave comments on blogs. Participate in discussions on places like Quora.
Be more active on social media. This doesn’t require much explanation. Be regular on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn – basically wherever your target audience spends its social media time.
Keep in touch with your clients. Whether you’re working with them right now or not, always keep the channel of communication flowing. If they have previously worked with you and if they were happy with your work, sooner or later they are going to require more work. There are many businesses who generate almost 40% of their revenue off their existing clients and customers.

What’s newsjacking and how to use it for your business

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It is the age of content (there I go with the cliché) and if your business isn’t producing enough content it is probably being beaten by another business which is producing enough content. And it isn’t just about enough content, your content needs to be highly compelling, interesting, entertaining and useful.

How do you come up with content with such attributes on a regular basis? You cannot keep on writing tutorials and informative articles and blog posts all the time because sooner or later either you will run out of topics or your audience will get bored – it’s only so much they can learn. So how do you go on producing content without sounding trite? You leverage newsjacking.

News is happening all around you. Something new is always happening. New products are being launched, there is a new scandal in Hollywood or Bollywood (the Indian film industry, primarily Hindi), a new cure for an age-old disease is showing promising results, new services are being introduced, algorithmic changes are happening at Google and other search engines, a new “cute cat” or “laughing baby” video is going viral, some fight has broken up somewhere, an international economic conference is going on somewhere else, and so on. Thousands of things are happening in the world. Newsjacking means piggybacking on that news in order to create content for your own business. You will need to be smart, perceptive and of course, creative. Once you develop a knack for it, you will find it quite easy.

A real-world example of newsjacking

As we live in the times of relentless content publishing will also live in the times of cyclones, extreme climatic conditions and storms. Suppose there is a major cyclone building up and during the initial built-up you can easily make out that it is going to be a big news. As a food chain business how can you generate content surrounding this alarming news?

You can make arrangements for free food and shelter in your various strategically shortlisted outlets during the cyclone, publish a blog post explaining the arrangements that you have made and then promote this blog post as much as possible. You can also create multiple blog posts on how to stock food and keep it from spoiling during such emergencies. You can post recipes that can be prepared with little effort. You can write about foods that give energy and nutrition for a long time. You can also prepare a list of foods that give the body warmth during a blizzard or such happening. Once you start writing, you will notice there is lots of stuff you can write about.

The right way of using newsjacking

The relevance of any news is in its timeliness. Establish a system that you can receive relevant news on time so that you can start preparing content preferably before it becomes big news. The first benefit is that you will be publishing something unique and the second benefit is, since there will be a dearth of links, more and more people will be linking to you as a reference rather than mainstream news agencies.

Content marketing and a tropical fruit tree

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Why do you create content for your website? If you take your content seriously then you must be publishing articles and blog posts regularly. “Regularly” can be everyday, a few times in a week, or maybe a few times in a month.

The point is, whenever you are writing and publishing content you must be spending a considerable amount of time – even money – on it.

Why do you do it? Do you really believe in the power of content marketing, or are you simply trying out one of those “new fads”?

For the sake of focus, I’m assuming you understand the importance of what you’re doing.

Even when we’re serious, even when our intentions are clear, sometimes we just get trapped in a rut and keep on doing stuff thinking that sooner or later it is going to pay off. That’s why it is important to regularly step back, and evaluate our work. It’s more so important in creating and publishing content for your website.

Content marketing, although one of the most effective ways of building targeted traffic and generating qualified leads on an ongoing basis, doesn’t show results fast, unless your effort is backed by a big budget. It actually works like a tree that has to fully grow before it gives you fruits. Just imagine realizing you have been growing the wrong tree all along, or you have grown a tree that gives no fruit at all.

So how do you ensure that you are sewing and nurturing a tree that will someday give you the right fruit?

Naturally, by having a clear idea of what fruit you want to have. In terms of content writing and content marketing, you need to have a clear idea of what you want it to achieve for you – what fruit you wanted to deliver?

Not every tree can grow and give you fruit in your region. In a cold, European city, town or village you may not be able to grow a tropical tree. You either have to move to a tropical region, or you have to create the right environment for that tree to grow.

What I mean to say is, you have to understand and recognize the importance of selecting the right sapling, creating the appropriate environment, and nurturing the tree with great care before it can bear you the fruit.

When you apply the concept of the tree onto your business, creating, publishing and distributing that content is the tropical environment that you need to create, targeted traffic is a tree that you plant and grow, and qualified leads that turn into paying customers and clients are the fruits you get.