Tag Archives: Content Writing

Content strategy before social media strategy

A major part of social media interactions involves promoting interesting and valuable content. Whether it’s blogging, Twittering, Facebook updates, Digging, Stumbling or simply forwarding email messages with engaging links, people are basically promoting content. That content can be in any format: videos, images, animations or text. If it’s interesting and useful, it is valuable.

In this post titled Social media starts with a content strategy the author has rightly stated that on social media nobody cares about you; they care about the content you can provide. People will promote your content if they find it interesting, relevant, topical or useful. So if you thinking about launching your social media campaign you better have some solid content production and content marketing strategy in place.

How do you formulate an advantageous content generation and marketing strategy?

Identify your market and recognize what it is exactly looking for. Does you content meet their requirement? Does it convey the right message? Do you promote your content in front of the right audience? Selling combs to bald people may be an accomplishment but in the long run it neither benefits your customers or clients nor it benefits you.

A successful content generation and marketing strategy involves three fundamental questions:

What?
Why?
Where?
How?

What sort of content should your website or blog have? What purpose does it solve and why you should publish it? Where should you promote your content – in front of whom? And what strategy and methodology you should follow in order to promote your content in front of the right audience.

Once you’ve answered these question, you can kick start your social media strategy.

How to never run out of blog topics

6 Replies

There are torrents of ideas when you start a new blog and in fact you’ve got so much to write that you feel like publishing multiple posts in a single day. You have to forcibly stop yourself just to maintain a semblance of regularity. You start dreaming about featuring in the top 100 blogs of your niche and your traffic graph actually throws buckets full of encouraging numbers at you. It’s like a dream run.

And then you begin to wake up.

It’s not a sudden awakening. You toss and turn around, you try to keep the dream going. 5 posts a day get reduced to 2 or 3 and 2 or 3 get reduced to 1 and then, to your horror, you begin missing entire days. After sometime, it doesn’t even remain a horror, you have nothing new to write and you have lost enthusiasm. You wonder how come all those successful bloggers keep coming up with one killer post after another with phenomenal regularity and to add insult to the injury, they not only write great stuff for their own blogs, they also write awesome guest blog posts for other blogs. What are you missing?

First of all you have to realize that everybody runs out of topics, eventually, even the greatest of bloggers. So how do they get new topics? Here are a few things you can do to keep the streams of blogging ideas flowing:

Be a part of the community

When you work alone there is a far greater chance of you running out of blogging ideas. Visit other blogs in your niche and pay close attention to what people are talking about. You get lots of new ideas when you interact with people.

Give priority to building a community

It’s hard to run out of steam if you’ve got a vibrant community on your blog. It’s always very encouraging when people give feedback, whether positive or negative.

Encourage your visitors to ask questions

Once you’ve developed a community, encourage your visitors to post questions. If you write about a product or a service believe me, people will have unlimited queries, and every query can be turned into an engaging and useful blog post.

Get active on social media

Lots of interaction and stimulation takes place on websites like Twitter and Facebook. People are constantly posting interesting tidbits that can be easily turned into great blog posts. Even small exchanges can be transformed into full-blown blog posts with some effort.

Get ideas from your existing blog posts

Lots of sub-topics are hiding in your existing blog posts. Go through your old archives and try to revive your old blog posts with new perspective. A lot changes in a few months. You can also re-write your older posts with some new twists.

Add value to blog posts and articles appearing on other websites

Use websites like AllTop.com, Delicious, Digg, StumbleUpon and PopURLs to find new content relevant to your field and see how you can derive new content out of them. Don’t worry about always writing longish blog posts. Even if you have one paragraph to add, link to the original content page and add your bit. This way it won’t seem daunting. Besides, sometimes when you think of publishing just a single paragraph, it’s easier to writing a long blog post.

Learn and share continuously

Learning doesn’t just help you blog non-stop, it also improves you as a professional, but that’s a different point. It’s great fun learning new things about your niche and them sharing them with your readers.

The key to NOT running out of blog post ideas is realizing that everybody does, and you constantly have to keep this in mind and plan accordingly. How do YOU make sure that you don’t run out of topics?

Why your website or blog needs unique content

Search engines looking for unique content

Search engines are looking for unique content.

Original content improves your search engine rankings because search algorithms, especially in Google, rate original content highly.

Websites that routinely publish duplicate content are penalised.

What is duplicate content?

It is identical content that already exists either on your own website, or another website.

Why would you publish duplicate content from your own website?

Let’s suppose I want to optimize two pages: one for online copywriting and one for content writing.

Although there are some broad differences between online copywriting and content writing, maybe (hypothetically) I feel the services are more or less the same and hence, I end up assuming that the content too is more or less the same.

What do I do?

I create one original page for content writing.

Then I create a duplicate page where everything else remains the same, but content writing is replaced by online copywriting.

I feel I’m smart. I think I have outsmarted Google.

The Google AI analyzer can process billions of parameters per second.

It can analyze millions of permutations and combinations of your words and phrases to know if you have written and published duplicate content.

It can read between the lines. It can read between the words. It can correlate millions of words, expressions, phrases and sentences before you can read the sentence.

Publish fewer pages and blog posts, but publish unique content.

It is do or die for the search engines when it comes to finding unique content

Various search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo! are constantly competing with each other.

Just because they get millions of visitors daily don’t assume they have it easy.

Even a small fluctuation means millions of ad dollars lost.

So they are constantly trying to improve their ranking algorithms and trying to find and index content that is unique.

The uniqueness and the usefulness of the content they find for their users keep those users from switching over to another search engine.

Why would the users use a search engine that finds the same stuff that can be found on scores of other websites?

Hence, in order to get higher rankings you have to make sure that the content published on your website or blog is unique as well as highly relevant.

Social media users want to promote unique content

Social media users are looking for unique content.

Nobody likes to promote content that is being promoted by 500 other users.

Social media websites can bring you tons of traffic if you can lure their users to your website by providing highly interesting, topical and relevant content that they cannot find anywhere else.

But do they promote your links just for altruistic reasons? Not at all.

Take for instance Twitter and Facebook.

Why do people keep posting interesting links on these websites?

They want to show that they can locate and share interesting stuff.

They want to be useful to their followers and fans.

This way, if they are posting 10 useful links from other websites and blogs, they can also post a few from their own website without looking spammy.

Besides, on Twitter, interesting tweets get retweeted and this is beneficial both to the owner of the link and the one who tweets it because both gain exposure.

Then there is conventional logic too.

When you publish useful content on your website it tells your visitors that you take pains to keep them informed.

If you share important information with them you establish yourself as an authority, and in more than 99% cases authority brings respect and trust, and respect and trust leads to loyal customers and clients.

20 benefits of writing and publishing unique content on your website or blog

Benefits of writing and publishing unique content.

Writing unique content enhances your website’s visibility in search engine results.
Publishing unique content attracts organic traffic and increases website engagement.
It sets your website apart from competitors, establishing your brand’s authority.
You build trust with your audience, establishing you as a reliable source of information.
Your target specific keywords and improve your website’s SEO ranking.
More people share your content on social media which further expands your reach and increases brand awareness.
Unique content boosts your website’s credibility and encourages repeat visitors.
You get an opportunity to showcase your expertise and position yourself as an industry leader.
You generate loyal following and build a community around your brand.
More targeted traffic and better conversion rate.
Writing unique content encourages backlinking, improving your website’s authority.
You can tailor your messages to your target audience better, increasing relevancy and engagement.
Publishing unique content fosters a positive user experience, keeping visitors on your website longer.
You educate and inform your audience and build brand loyalty.
Unique content provides fresh perspectives, attracting new visitors and encouraging return visits.
You can adapt your content to the evolving needs and interests of your audience.
More opportunities for guest posting and collaboration with other industry influencers.
You generate more leads and sales, positively impacting your bottom line.
You establish a strong online presence and expand your digital footprint.
You create a valuable resource that can be repurposed across different platforms, maximizing your content marketing efforts.

How do you write unique and relevant content?

Writing unique content.

Conduct thorough research to identify trending topics and keywords before writing unique content.
Write unique content by providing fresh insights and perspectives on industry-related subjects.
Incorporate unique personal experiences and anecdotes into your writing to make it more engaging and relatable.
Develop a distinctive writing style that sets your content apart from others in your niche.
Utilize storytelling techniques to captivate your audience and make your content memorable.
Incorporate data, statistics, and research findings to add credibility and relevance to your writing.
Present alternative viewpoints and challenge conventional wisdom.
Stay updated with the latest industry news and trends to ensure your content remains relevant and timely.
Conduct audience research to understand the needs, interests, and pain points of your target audience.
Tailor your writing to address specific problems or provide solutions that your audience is seeking.
Incorporate relevant keywords naturally into your content to optimize it for search engines.
Use headings, subheadings, and bullet points to structure your content, making it more readable and scannable.
Include relevant visuals such as images, infographics, or videos to enhance the value and appeal of your content.
Write relevant content by addressing frequently asked questions or common concerns in your industry.
Use case studies or real-life examples to demonstrate how your content is applicable to real-world situations.
Craft compelling headlines that accurately convey the unique and relevant aspects of your content.
Optimize your meta tags, meta descriptions, and URLs with relevant keywords to improve search engine visibility.
Interlink your content with other relevant articles on your website for better indexing, to avoid writing duplicate content and to provide a better experience to your readers.
Engage with your audience through comments and social media to understand their feedback and refine your content.
Analyze your content performance regularly and make the needed adjustments to ensure it remains highly unique and relevant.

How to regularly come up with unique content writing ideas?

How to regularly write unique content?

Follow industry news and trends to stay informed and generate fresh content ideas.
Conduct keyword research to identify popular topics and create unique content around them.
Engage with your audience through surveys, polls, and comments to understand their interests and needs.
Utilize social media platforms to discover trending discussions and adapt them into unique content.
Attend industry conferences, webinars, and workshops to gather insights and inspiration for your content.
Keep a running list of ideas by jotting down thoughts and observations as they come to you.
Brainstorm with colleagues or other professionals in your field to generate new content ideas collectively.
Analyze your existing content to identify gaps or areas that require further exploration or elaboration.
Draw inspiration from everyday experiences, personal stories, or challenges you’ve overcome.
Explore different content formats such as videos, infographics, podcasts, or interactive content to provide unique perspectives and engage your audience.

How I select and organize keywords for writing optimized content

2 Replies

Although SEO spammers have given a bad tinge to the art of using keywords in your web page copy, they are still as relevant as when the humans discovered their importance vis-à-vis search engine optimization. Really, it makes common sense. It’s the keywords and the key phrases that tell both the search engines and the visitors what you’re talking about in your web page copy or blog post. Miss the keywords, and you miss the whole point.

But aren’t there various ways of saying the same thing and wouldn’t you prefer to let the feral stallions of your imagination run wild on the meadows of writing, you may ask? Sure, but when you’re writing for your client, or when you’re writing for business (maybe yours), the need to generate business takes precedence over your proclivity for articulating psychedelic expressions.

You need to use the language used by prospective customers and clients.

Researching and selecting keywords and phrases

When I start a new optimized content writing project (to be candid, everything I write turns out to be optimized because of the way I write), I begin with a brainstorming on what sort of audience I’m writing for and this pretty much decides what keywords and phrases I’m going to use. This is often difficult and many content writers end up with near-gibberish content, but you can sort this problem out by making a list of benefits of the product or service you intend to promote through your writing. This may seem like a clichéd approach in the beginning but not every product or service is known by its name.

It is natural if people search for a "web designer" or an online "copywriter" because by now they are very known services, but there might be a few people who don’t know what SEO is and they may search for something like "improve my search engine position" or "get me on google first page". So aside from optimizing for a generic term like SEO, you also need to take care of people who conduct searches using direct benefits as search terms. Similarly if you are selling a mobile application that lets you manage your ERP system through a smart phone, there is a possibility that people look for "smart phone erp application" rather than the actual name of the software. Or for that matter people may search for "safest family car" instead of using known brands. If you are ignoring such search terms, you are missing the real traffic, whether you are a big business or a small business.

Organizing keywords

I use the main keyword in the heading and the title of the web page or the blog post. Although I use it just once in the first paragraph, if the context demands a repetition, use it again, but don’t use it more than twice. If you feel like using it more than 2 times, rephrase your sentence.

If your keyword is an expression comprising multiple words (for instance, online content writing services) you don’t have to use the complete expression all the time. Use it once or twice (try using it at least once in the first paragraph) in its entirety and afterwards, just scatter it across your remaining paragraph. You can repeat the complete keyword in the last paragraph too, but don’t force it if it doesn’t seem appropriate.

Aside from the paragraphs you can also use the keywords — partially or fully — in your headings and subheadings, bulleted lists, and even in your anchor text.

Is there some other way you feel the keywords can be researched and organized? Please share your thoughts in the comments section.

Want to be a better copywriter? Know your customers/readers

1 Reply

Effective copywriting and content writing is always preceded by a thorough understanding of your target market – your customers, your readers. Want to be a better copywriter? Think from the perspective of your customers. And in order to be a better online copywriter you also need to understand how the search engines interpret what you have written.

Of course we all have different definitions of being better. By being a better copywriter I mean you can improve your conversion rate and by being a better online copywriter along with improving the conversion rate you also improve your search engine rankings. In the end what matters is what the results are and how consistently your copy can perform.

When you understand the needs and desires of your target readers you can provide them exactly what they are looking for. An average surfer on the Internet is looking for solutions. Even when people are looking for brands they are actually looking for solutions. For instance if I am looking for an iPhone, although I am looking for a particular brand I am actually looking for two things: my desire to own a trendy gadget and the things that I can do with all the functions the phone carries. You have to cater to both the aspects if you want people to buy iPhones from your online store.

So when you are working on a copy understand what your customer is looking for and highlight that thing. If you are promoting yourself as an online copywriter, along with highlighting the sort of service you are providing, also highlight the greatest benefit your clients are looking for in case they want to hire you.

Do they want a more professional voice on their website or blog?
Are they looking for a particular style of writing?
Are they looking for a particular expertise (technical writer, medical writer, film critic, instructional writer, blogger, SEO writer, etc.)?
Do they want to improve their conversion rate?

These kinds of things immediately convey to your prospective customer or client you have what they are looking for. If you simply go on and on about what a great writer you are and how many clients you have worked for it is not going to make much impact.

This goes for any kind of product or service. Whenever you are starting to write think about what your customer or client would like to read. If it helps make a list of all the things your customer can gain if he or she purchases your product. Feel enthusiastic about all the benefits your product can offer. Why must your customer feel excited about your product or service? This should be the starting point.