Archive for December, 2008

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Words should talk: Personalized content and the difference it can make

Friday, December 19th, 2008

It’s easier to write content for a large amorphous mass of people. You have no audience demographics to look into. You are not catering to a niche. You create generalized copy that appeals to all. But talk about the World Wide Web and you are immediately writing to a special interest group, a group that has very little time and is looking for results within that limited time frame. All the more reason for webmasters and internet copywriters to pull up their socks.

I have browsed through thousands of websites till date and still do. In fact, a large percentage of my work hours are spent in browsing and finding quality websites. But, I also come across some very inutile web pages. And based on my analysis of the copy on these websites, I have found that they can be categorized into three different categories.

Robo text

The internet is like a labyrinth and search engines are like the labyrinth key. Millions of internet users use them everyday to find what they are looking for in the gargantuan World Wide Web. For webmasters, it is the only free source of never ending passive traffic. So naturally, each and every website out there wants to be listed in search engine results pages. Search engines on the other hand are trying their best to ensure that only the best and most relevant websites get listed in results pages and the rest is filtered out easily

So they analyze a website on the basis of several parameters and the web copy is one of those parameters. Hence, each and every website tries to write copy that is optimized for search engines. The attempt is to make it easier for search engines to find and list the website. But, my friends, it is so easy to get carried away in the process and end up with ROBO copy on your page. (This isn’t the robots.txt file that we are discussing here) Robo Copy is copy written solely with the purpose of getting better search engine rankings. The very essence of the copy is to make it easier for spiders to scan and list it. But people using Robo copy forget that it is human users who read a web page and it can be a very jarred reading experience reading such a page. Here is a small example of Robo Copy.

Example: Why California SEO services are the best

‘California SEO services’ is a company that caters to the people of California. It can help you get your California business listed in top search engines. ‘California SEO services’ has helped hundreds of businesses in California to climb the Google ladder. If you are a California business looking to generate better sales and ROI, then come to ‘California SEO services’. We also cater to businesses outside California and inside California.

Got the gist? If search engines don’t penalize your site for using Robo Copy, audiences definitely will.

Mechanical Text

Next in line is mechanical text. Mechanical copy is not as worse a culprit as Robo Text. But it surely aint any better. Mechanical copy is informative but not many users are able to derive any information from it. Sounds difficult? Mechanical copy is copy that looks as if it was created by a machine or automated software. Now that might sound like too far fetched a concept but it is true. A lot of new writers looking for assignments try to impress clients and showcase their command over the language by using complex words and technical jargon that can put a geek to shame. And you can kiss your SEO goals goodbye with it. Not required. Copywriting for the web is about crafting a message that delivers tangible results. The user is least bothered about your language proficiency. All that matters to him is that his purpose of visit to the site is served.

Words that talk, move, amuse and persuade

A writer writing copy for the internet has to write with a clear and concise understanding of the target market, write with brevity and play with words. There is no room for banal copy on the internet. The content should talk to the reader. Readers love interactive copy and they respond. It’s about making them feel in command all the time – giving them complete authorial power.

We always love it when we receive a personalized email newsletter. One that says ‘Hey Stanley, it’s been a busy week…’ rather than one that says ‘Hi reader, we have just launched…’ The same stands true for web copy. There is no way to personalize copy for each and every user that lands on your website. But you can ensure that the copy is interesting enough to make most users read through it completely or visit the more profitable sections of your website. It is about building a relationship with the visitor within the few seconds that he/she spends on your website.

It’s about talking and listening and then talking again. Can your copy talk and listen?

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The importance of good content: Converting visitors to customers

Friday, December 19th, 2008

A standardized or generalized answer to this question (How to convert a visitor to a customer) would have been a holy grail for the business world. But alas, each and every customer walking on the face of this planet has different expectations, requirements and a completely different mindset. You cannot generalize customer management. What you can do however is ensure that you provide the bare minimum that each and every customer will look for and then let the customer decide from there on. And in the online world, almost every customer first looks for a quality informative website.

Here are three stages in sequential order that best describe the mindset of an average visitor reaching a website from a search engine or some other source on the internet.

  1. Hopeful
  2. Impatient
  3. Frustrated/Satisfied (Result depends on the website)

Firstly, he is hopeful of finding the information/product that led him to the website. But after spending a fruitless few minutes on the home page, he starts getting impatient for he has no time to browse through the entire website. A million other equally good, if not better, websites await his coveted attention. Quick copy and link scanning follows. Lastly (usually within a couple of minutes), he is frustrated when he can’t find the information/product that he came looking for in the first place. His mind, fingers and the little mouse in command scan through the page and move the cursor closer and closer to the ‘close window icon’ (The lil ‘X’ at the top right corner of the browser).

There, another sales proposition bites the dust. Chances are high that the same person will never visit the same website again. Oh yeah, all that you heard about internet visitors having a bad memory is crap. Internet visitors have a memory like an elephant. I still remember most websites that have pop under advertising (I hate them) and avoid them like a plague.

Stage 2 and the power of words

Hopefulness is a common trait in each and every internet user. They are all hopeful of finding a better deal, a nicer website, a cuter girl. It is stage two mentioned above that can actually convert an ordinary visitor to a customer. Picture this: You reach a website looking for ‘packaging and moving services in Kansas’. However, all that you find is an enormously large webpage that has about 8 largish paragraphs of text. There are no headings, no bulleted lists, and no highlighted text. Would you be comfortable to read through the entire webpage hoping to find some information or links out of it? Not for all the tea in china.

What a visitor needs

Every visitor coming to a webpage should be greeted by high quality personalized content. Content that is easy to scan through, is separated into small chunks, has powerful headings, is linked to other useful pages on the website, has relevant highlighted keyword phrases, is informative, original and written for human beings (but optimized for search engine bots) only. The visitor should either find what he is looking for, in the first couple of minutes on the page or should be attracted to stay on the website for a sufficiently long period to read through the sales copy and then make a purchase. Either ways, it’s the content that is going to make him do it.

Isn’t that what every customer on the face of this planet looks for and deserves?

Isn’t that the mantra for success followed by successful corporate for years?

Then why not employ it in your online business as well?

Like Nathaniel Hawthorne once said, ‘Easy reading is damn hard writing’. (Source: http://thinkexist.com/quotes/nathaniel_hawthorne/)

The power of content in the online world is evident from the success of blogging as a business tool. Today, there are bloggers who earn six figure incomes each month solely from their blogs. Why is the Wikipedia so popular? Why does Google scan through each website before deciding whether to list it or not? The secret lies in the content. The relevancy of the content to your website is not only important for the visitors, it is equally important for your site to be accepted for listing in search engines. Now that’s an entirely different topic. Browse through my articles on content and SEO to know more about it.

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“Why Britney Spears would love my content” – The importance of good titles

Sunday, December 14th, 2008

Aah…See, I managed to pull you in purely on the basis of the title of this document. The topic that we are discussing here is ‘the importance of good titles in drawing readers to your article/blog post’. And while this is a great example to emphasize the importance of good titles, this technique should itself never be employed while writing actual articles/blogs. Your Blog post title should always be connected to the content within the article and this article has little or no relevance whatsoever to Britney Spears, which I presume is the keyword that drew you here. So, learn what you can from it but never use it.

Coming back to the importance of good titles, let’s pick up an example from a newspaper advert. What prompts you to go through an advertisement or actually read its content? It is either the title in bold letters or an absolutely stunning image that captivates you instantly. The title of your blog post or article is just like that. It is an advertisement for the rest of your article. The reader or visitor is not interested nor does he/she have the time or patience to read through your entire article. But if the title is interesting enough, then who knows. You might have found yourself one more loyal reader and the more the better.

So what defines a good title?

Now that, is a million dollar question that has a few too many answers at the moment.Dave Taylor has written some great tips about this when I was still an infant content writer (about two years back). You can read it here.

A good title can be defined as something that is captivating, can initiate action (click or read through), describes your blog/article, is short and sweet, is search engine friendly, is an ambassador for your blog etc etc.

See, there is a lot to do in the 5 to 8 words that make up your title. Now let’s look at some of those things with that magnifying glass.

•1) Captivating: Captivating means something that can grab the attention of the reader almost immediately. And hey, the captivating element better be in the first four words because readers usually scan through titles too. So, the first four words of your title have to be magic. And do not write an essay of a title. There is nothing worse than an enormously long title.

•2) Should Initiate action: The title can initiate one of two different actions from each visitor who reads it. He/she will either click on the title to read the rest of the article or will scan through it and move on to a googol other blogs awaiting his/her attention. Your title has to fall in the first bracket.

•3) Be descriptive: The title should be the best and smallest description of your article or blog. Think about it. If you click on a title like ‘Why Britney spears would love my content’ and then see that there is nothing in there about Britney, and then you would feel deceived. The feeling might just be too miniscule to make a huge difference to the rest of your day, but you might just remember me and my blog for the rest of your life. And you will most certainly avoid linking to me. It’s about building trust and credibility.

•4) Avoid Clichés: How many times have you come across titles that are commoner than mobile phones in the world if not more annoying? They are all over the internet. ‘Click here now’, ‘How cool is this’. Avoid these titles. Not only do they clearly avoid all of the three previously mentioned extremely important points, but they are also sore to the sight.

•5) Think out of the box: If you are a good writer, then all it requires is a little rap on that grey matter and you can churn out damn good titles for your blog. It can be bold, fun or plain outrageous. But as long as it serves the purpose and gets traffic to your blog, you can stick to it.

So, have you managed to convince you to put in a little more thought to the title of your next blog post?

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Good Content, Pricey but Nicey!

Sunday, December 14th, 2008

I was recently contacted for writing content by a website design company who were working on a large web portal. Upon further discussion, it was revealed that they wanted about 30 pages of quality SEO oriented content written for their websites. We discussed everything from the keyword phrases to the length of the articles to the niche audience that the website catered to. And then, ladies and gentlemen, I quoted my price (which happens to be quite reasonable as compared to market standards). The reaction though unexpected, wasn’t completely new to me. The guy sitting opposite me showed signs of amazement and then shock at the rates quoted by me. Then, he entered the next phase which usually follows shock. Questionnaires! Boy, do I love them! 

Don’t you think that the price quoted by you is too steep?  

Not really, unless you believe that words are meant to be cheaper than peanuts. Look around you. Professional content writers usually charge about $10 a page of original plagiarism free copy. And if his/her work has been published in magazines or newspapers, then the price almost doubles. Hiring a good quality experienced content writer is definitely going to cost you more than what hiring a college student looking for pocket money or beer money will cost you. Yes, there are writers who will work for $1 every 500 words they write. But you get what you pay for. If that’s your budget then be prepared to get copy that is loaded with grammatical errors, is scrapped off other articles on the internet and has little or no relevance whatsoever to your product. Better forget your SEO goals.   

Is it worth the price? Why?  

Yes. It is totally worth it because search engines love good content and so do users. Search Engines are smart creations. They have silently evolved faster than any Operating System has in the past decade or so. I don’t know the duration of time that you have been accessing the internet for. But if you compare the search results of today with the results a few years back, then you would notice a marked improvement in the quality of websites that come up now. Search engines today are constantly monitoring and modifying their algorithms to ensure that each website that turns up in the search results is ‘closest’ (in terms of relevancy) to the term searched for by the user. In simpler words, quality informative and keyword rich content takes you one step closer to that elusive top spot in search results pages. If that isn’t worth a few dollars more, then I don’t know what is. 

The price almost equals the price quoted for website design 

Yeah, so what? The success of a website on the internet today depends on several equally effective factors. The website design, the content and the marketing strategies go hand in hand. Not one can be considered inferior to the other. Why look down upon content as something that should cost only a fraction of the actual cost of the website when it can very well make a significant difference to the final outcome? Even the most attractive and sophisticatedly designed website cannot survive without content. And it’s not mere words to fill up the spaces that we are talking about over here. It is good quality original copy that can inform, inspire and initiate.  

Pricey, but nicey! :)  That was my reply to the website design company rep.

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Freelancer Diaries: When work is scarce, write more

Monday, December 8th, 2008

The last few months have virtually changed the economic scenario all around the world. It started when Lehman Brothers collapsed and went bankrupt. But the seeds they say were sown much earlier. What seemed like a mortgage scenario in the US then started a whirlpool of sorts that sucked in major conglomerates from all over the world. Millions of people have lost jobs. Pink slips are being handed over by the dozen. Pay cuts are the norm of the day. Stock markets are tumbling like a pack of cards. The situation looks grim. But me, I am glad that atleast I aint the only one facing financial problems. I am a freelance writer and I have often scoffed at others in the past when they talked about ‘working at office’ woes and when they narrate their peak time travel woes. Not me, I would think and silently smile deep in my heart. I have worked from home for the last couple of years and have nearly mastered the art.

But the last couple of months have nearly left the market dry.  I find myself staring at a nearly empty inbox everyday barring a few stubborn as ever spam messages that promise me a bigger penis. Work is scarce. Yes, for all those who thought that finance, banks and IT were the only sectors affected, here’s some inside information. Work is affected across all sectors and the freelancer is not spared either. The volume of work has gone down considerably and I have spent a lot of time in the last couple of months expecting the situation to miraculously improve overnight. But it doesn’t seem to happen as swiftly as I thought it would. So I have worked on a back up plan to keep me occupied when work is scarce.

Surf and read

An idle mind is a freelance writer’s worst nightmare. You ever heard of the writers block? There is something else also called the writers rust. It’s a predecessor for the writers block and can settle in real fast. So keep surfing the internet and catching up on the blogosphere. There’s plenty happening all around the world and it is best that you stay updated. Keep a tab on the best blogs that you come across. You never know how and when they can come in handy.

For those who still haven’t done it, start a blog

If you have managed to escape the insanity till now, then this is the best time to become a ‘meshugener’ (For those who are scratching their heads wondering what that is, it is a Yiddish term for crazy). Start a blog. It might not seem like too much of an important thing at this point but start it nevertheless. I am sure there are hundreds and thousands of thoughts deep within your heart that are waiting to come out as words. Do yourself a favor and get it out. Blogging is a great pastime, is an excellent way to build contacts and with time, you can make some great money out of it. If you are new to blogging, then there is a huge world of experts waiting to help and guide you. Simply log on to Google and look for blogging tips.

Build some credibility via article marketing

This is a good time for freelance ghostwriters to build some credibility of their own. Start writing articles and submitting them to major article directories. It is a great way to build some credibility, get some in coming links to your website or blog and ‘find more work’. Yes, if you are a good writer, then article marketing can do wonders for you. But it will only help if you start.

Promote yourself

If only you and a few selected clients of yours were the elite few people in this world who were aware about your profession, then chances are that work will be scarce when those clients cannot or do not have anything to offer you. Get out and promote your services. There are thousands of tools that you can use. Social networking sites, forums, fellow Bloggers etc. Remember, the World Wide Web is a huge marketplace and you are doing nothing but limiting yourself by not promoting your own work and only working as a ghostwriter. Think of yourself as a publisher. Spare some time everyday for your own content that you can publish online. And GET IT DONE!

Yes, the times are tough! But you can’t wither away or go back to mamma and say that it aint fair! Bear it and work your way out of it.

Good Luck!

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