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An Amateur Blogger’s woe: Information overload

Tuesday, February 24th, 2009

Every blogger enters the blogosphere with one goal in mind, to make it big. He wants his blog to be popular, to be read by a lot of people and to have a loyal readership. And he is ready to do whatever it takes to reach there. However, there is one problem that he has to face. There is a lot of ‘help’ available out there that is causing more ‘harm’ than help. Ironical, isn’t it?

Let’s say that Mr. White (Yes, I love Reservoir Dogs!) is a blogger who has just started a new blog. His readership at the moment is zilch. In fact, he hasn’t even decided the topic to blog about.

When he enters the blogosphere, he is as confused as a cow on Astroturf and is desperately looking for directions. Thankfully, there are hundreds of bloggers who have been there and done that before him. They are the demigods of the blogosphere. They have walked the walk and talked the talk. They have a six figure reader base and make a six figure income each month from their blogs. And Mr. White will rely heavily on the inputs and tips that he receives from these experts to help him establish a base in the blogosphere.

So, Mr. White starts his journey by looking for Blogging tips. A simple search on Google gives him 93,200,000 results for ‘Blogging tips’. Wow! That’s far too many experts for a subject as difficult as blogging. ‘Maybe it’s simpler than I thought’, thinks Mr. White and enters one of the first websites on the search results page. This site is almost the holy grail of blogging and has a lot of advice for beginner bloggers. Mr. White is happy and smiling that he has found such a large resource of invaluable information.

He spends the next three hours on the same website and jots down all important tips and links that will help him in one way or the other in his quest for success on the blogosphere. He subscribes to the RSS feeds for regular updates and is just about satisfied. ‘But’, thinks Mr. White, ‘there can be more information out there.’ Why stick only to one website? So, he goes to the next website.

But here is where Mr. White errs.

He finds that there is an equal amount of information on this website as well. A lot of it duplicated content and a whole lot of new stuff as well. Well, the more the merrier. He spends some time on this website as well before going to the next one and the next one and the next one. He is greeted by newer tips and ideas on every blog that he goes to. Each new blog speaks about something new that the earlier blogger had missed out on. ‘Do you know your link karma?’ ’10 tips for amateur bloggers’ ‘Using Twitter for your blog’ ‘Going viral and getting more readers’. ‘How, I got 10000 readers on my post in one day’… Aaargh! There is so much information floating out there that analyzing and segregating, genuinely useful content is a tall order.

Mr. White is overwhelmed at all the information and is back to square one. He is feeling as lost as a cow on Astroturf again. This (information overload) is a problem that is faced by most amateur bloggers. I faced it too when I started out on the blogosphere (which was like three months ago).

Information is a lot like food. It is best when served in small digestible reasonable portions that serve its purpose. But we (everyone from managers to bloggers to couch tubers) keep ingesting information till the point of asphyxiation. One of the reasons why we do it is, to prevent any information from being left out or, in other words, to be as perfect and complete as possible. But it’s easier to lose direction amidst all that information.

And hey, you can very well be accessing and storing wrong information.

The internet makes it easier for us to get more information that we would ever require. The onus is on us to ask ourselves ‘When do I have enough?’

The solution

Ok, so I have blabbed enough about the problem. Time to get into constructive mode and suggest a few solutions.

1. Rely on the best: The blogosphere is full of self certified experts who can talk about any subject this side of Jupiter. But there are very few people who can truly be labeled as experts in their field of expertise. If blogging is what you are looking for then you can rely on Problogger.net as well as Bloggingtips.com. There are others that are good. But you won’t need anything else once you visit these two. Similarly, look for the ‘best of the best’ in your niche and rely on them for sometime to come.
2. Limit link hunting: I have coined the term ‘Link hunting’ and it is the phenomenon where you follow outgoing links from blogs. Your favorite post has a comment and it leads to a different blog, a comment from that blog leads to another and so on and so forth. New bloggers have the habit of following every link that may seem even remotely useful. Link hunting is one of the prime causes of information overload. Limit it to, say, 3 outgoing links per day.
3. Set a time limit and stick to it: Accessing information and acquiring knowledge is fine but you have to set a time frame for information loading and stick to that timeframe. And once you start to exceed that timeframe, switch off your browser and get back to your tasks. It will also help you improve your productivity.
4. Learn data control: It’s so easy to hit that ‘subscribe to RSS’ button on every blog that you come across. But think about it. Do you really need that blog subscription? Take time and clear off all the unwanted RSS links from your subscriptions. Controlling the influx of unwanted data is the key to curbing information overload.
5. Meditate: There are a thousand ways of meditating. Try and find what relaxes your mind. Play soothing music; relax with your eyes closed. Even if you can do it for 5 minutes in a day, do it. A relaxed mind always helps you focus and improves your creativity as well.

Notes: Image courtesy  Flicrk: Information Overload, originally uploaded by DeaPeaJay.

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Why Originality doesnt come easy – My effort to be an ORIGINAL Blogger

Thursday, February 19th, 2009
The need to think out of the box

I have been trying desperately for the last couple of weeks to come up with an original idea for my next post. The result is that I have ended up with just one post in the last 15 days. That’s when I thought of writing on the very concept. ‘Originality in the blogosphere’, now that’s not something that you read everyday.

What made it so difficult for me to come up with a post was that I wasn’t merely trying to write on a popular subject. I was trying to find a subject that has never been dealt with (God, help me). Oh, it’s so easy to find a popular article, rehash it and then post it as your own without even crediting the original writer (For example, How to make money blogging, 5 tips to get back links to your site, etc).  These are topics that have been beaten to death.

Even though every writer tries his/her best to add a different perspective to it, the article effectively is, on the same subject. If a reader were to search for the topic on a search engine, he would end up with 10 to 15 different links to articles that all talk about the same thing. It might be more variety for him but does he really have the time to browse through all of them?

Coming back to the topic, I had boasted in one of my earlier posts (in case you missed it)that it took me just 120 seconds to come up with an alphabetical list of ideas for topics. But creating ‘original’ articles out of them…hmmm…if only it were as easy.

Originality? Say’s who?

I began the futile exercise last week by creating a list of ideas that I would like to develop an article on. The list was as follows.

  1. 5 tips to improve your writing productivity
  2. How to write an article in 10 minutes
  3. Getting stuck thoughts and words to flow again

‘Impressive’, I said to myself!

And after doing my bit of mind mapping and creating a plan for the article, I start working on the first one of them. I am a fluid writer like most others in the profession and once I get into the flow, it hardly takes me a few minutes to come up with a rough draft of an article. Within 10 minutes, I had jotted down an 800 word first draft which I was highly impressed with. I was sure that this was going to be one of my better posts in recent times. So, I close the word editor and decide to take a break before getting back to the article for a second look.

I either surf or plug in my Ipod during my breaks. This time, I started surfing one my favorite blogs and suddenly, I find an article called, ‘Want to Boost Your Writing Productivity? Have a Baby!‘ by Michael Stelzner at Copyblogger. It’s a fantastic post! Even better than what I have managed to scribble down so far.

That was the end of my self induced originality bit and I decided to scrap my post. I mean, I loved the article so much that it would be an atrocity to post something on the same lines.

But I wasn’t going to be beaten psychologically. I am one of those stubborn-as-a-leech types and thought that well, two people from a population of 6,706,993,152? That aint bad at all. The very thought that only one person besides me, thought about the subject, was enough to cheer me up for a while. But wait, could there be more ‘rehashed copies’ of the same article floating around the internet? I had to be sure about that and so, I googled the topic. Bang! I got about 15 articles on the same subject in about 0.27 seconds (It’s fast, huh?)! I didn’t bother to check who wrote it first.

Here I was with 5 measly tips to improve productivity and there was one guy who had thought of 50 ways to do it. (It topped the Google search results). I didn’t dare search for the other topics but I am sure that there might be multiple versions of them existing as well. So, I realized that writing original ideas is not easy.

Is Blogging about being original?

But is originality really necessary? Are we committing a crime by giving our own perspective to a topic that has been written about by people who have a deeper understanding and a larger fan following? And if we are trying to come up with something completely original, does the bar become too high to exceed?

No, I feel that it isn’t a crime to give your own perspective to a topic. A lot of people do it. That’s the very essence of a blog. It’s a place where you can blurt out whatever you feel like and nobody can question you.

I mean, if someone has written about 100 ways to find happiness and you have found ways 101 – 110, then why not write about it? It would be wrong to scrap the idea simply because it was a popular post on a famous blog. But at least, you can make an effort to treat the post in a way that nobody else has. Give it a new heading, add a picture, change the flow, do something that the earlier writer didnt do.

A cloned article with different words and different headings (but has the same pitch, tone and thought process) is what you can ill afford. Not to forget that you are not really helping your blog by doing it. A reader would always prefer to read a better established blogger than you. (Imagine 10 different versions of Harry Potter doing the rounds of book stores. Would you prefer my version or that of J.K.Rowling?)

But originality, that’s something different altogether.

Think out of the box or in it? Originality is energy consuming

A lot of people advise to think out of the box to come up with innovative and original ideas. But, how does one think outside the box? For that matter, how does one think inside the box? What is the damn box?

Charles H. Duell said way back in 1899 that, “Everything that can be invented has been invented.” That, I think, is thinking inside the box.

Similarly, are all original ideas for articles taken already? No. Not at all. All it takes is a serious rap on the grey matter for new thoughts to start jumping out, but, hey, it’s you who must give that rap. In Charles H. Duell, there is a clear unwillingness and fear to go beyond the obvious. The thought process is limited and it is the mind which sets these boundaries. As a writer, we have to try and break free from those boundaries in order to conjure up originality. Originality that stems from imagination.

The problem with a lot of writers on the World Wide Web is that they have been limiting their thinking and trying to blindly ape, ‘the best’ out there. (Even I have been guilty of doing that in the past) But what we do not seem to realize is ‘the best’, have reached that position because they did not follow anybody. They set their own rules, unconventional at times. And the rest simply followed them. That sir is thinking out of the box. The question that we need to ask ourselves as writers is, ‘Do we wish to be followers or leaders?’

The simplest definition of thinking outside the box is thinking unconventionally and it is far from easy. It requires a desire to explore, an ability to diverge from the conventional well-trodden path and the passion to live from your imagination.

I have decided to try and think outside the box in the days to come. I know that it’s far from easy. But at least, I will make an effort no matter what. I will do whatever it takes to go through more creative exertions. I will keep you posted on how I am faring on my effort to be original.

On a closing note, I would like to quote a famous aphorism.

‘If you only do what you always did, you will not even get what you always got’

Notes: Image Courtesy Flickr:  – Originally uploaded by Orangecrazy

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Why Ghostwriters ‘MUST’ start blogging and article marketing

Monday, February 16th, 2009

Ghostwriter 2, originally uploaded by mrlemonjelly.

’20 SEO oriented articles on Google Ad sense wanted: The rights for the articles will rest with me’

This is an example of a writing job posted on freelancer hire websites. What it means is that the writer who wins the bid or is awarded the job will write the articles, but the articles will be officially credited to another person. In other words, the person is looking for a ghostwriter. Such jobs are a common sight on websites like Elance.com and Getafreelancer.com and there’s nothing wrong with them. They are all part of the job and as freelancers; we have got to accept them. Besides, if you are a good writer, you can command your price. It’s a different thing altogether that most clients on such websites are looking for ‘cheap’ but ‘effective’ writers and are only willing to pay about $3 for a page of original copy that requires extensive research and quality writing skills. It’s almost turning into an economic axiom (Being an Indian writer doesn’t help either).

My Story

I have always wanted a life that would be governed by me. I have always wanted to speak out my mind. So? I decided to become a freelance writer. And when I got the opportunity to write my first assignment as a ghostwriter, I grabbed it with both hands and worked incessantly for the first two years doing whatever work came my way for whatever they offered me (I have written 500 word articles for $2 :) ), just to create some repute and get those 24 months onto my resume. A bulk of my work has been, as a ghostwriter and I never really felt the need to get my name next to the article. Most freelance writers start this way and keep doing it until realization dawns. Of course, there are the more fortunate ones who get a confirmation letter and a paycheck from the first publication house that they send their first article/short story to.

Coming back to my story, It might sound funny but I never really knew how important it was to be credited for your work (as long as the money kept coming) until one fine day; the company that I was working for had no more assignments to offer me. Apparently, they had landed a plum programming assignment with one of their UK based clients and hence, had put the writing assignments on hold for sometime. Good for them, bad for me. I took it as a much needed break and decided to enjoy this unplanned vacation. But very soon, this ‘sometime’ turned into more time and eventually into a lot of time. I stayed without a single writing assignment for two months at a stretch. My days were spent in surfing, surfing and more surfing (thankfully). Soon, hopefulness turned into frustration and then it metamorphasized into utter desperation. But I painfully realized that this was the flipside of not having a fixed employment. No paycheck on the 1st of every month.

Surfing helps

It is true that I was frustrated at not having an assignment for almost 60 days. But it is equally true that it was this idle time that taught me the basics of freelance writing and introduced me to the wonderful world of blogging. I started browsing through some quality blogs and websites that were written by freelance writers like me. The only difference was that their work belonged to them. It was here that I realized that something was not right. Despite having worked for almost 2 years as a freelancer, I had nothing to show. No articles on websites or publications, nothing in print…nothing at all. It was almost as if I was nonexistent for the whole world barring the few people that I had worked with.

From that moment on, I decided that I was going to work independently. Even if I did work as a ghostwriter, it would be work that came directly to me. I would not work for an outsourcing company again. No matter how dire the straits were. Making the decision was easy, implementing it was more demanding than I had imagined. It was almost as if I was starting from scratch. I entered the big bad world of ‘competitive bidding’ and started my website and at times I was as lost as an urban frog at a train station. I stuttered, faltered but hung on. I was duped a couple of times (client disappears after work is delivered). After those two months without work, I have spent almost 3 to 4 months, without a dollar in earnings. But today, almost a year later, I have my list of clients; I have a portfolio to show, my articles are published on several websites around the world. You see, those two months without work have given me a lot of work.

And based on my experience, here are 5 rules for budding freelance writers.

1. Find time for your own work: This article was not meant to discourage you from finding or taking up work as a ghostwriter. Even when you hang out your shingle, the bulk of the work that you receive will be as a ghostwriter. But you should always find some time for your own work. Dedicate an hour or two everyday for your work, website, blog or articles.
2. Start a blog/website: Starting a website is one of the best ways to make your presence felt in the online world. It’s like your own personal corner of the World Wide Web. A place where you can speak about yourself, your work, showcase your portfolio and where prospective clients can contact you. It’s fairly inexpensive. You can even start a blogger account for free.
3. Start Article Marketing: Merely having a website is not sufficient enough. You need to get traffic into the site and being a freelance writer; article marketing is the best and easiest way for you to do it. Try and write at least one article every two days and submit it to article directories (ezinearticles, goarticles). If your article is good, then it will help you drive some traffic into your website and your article might get published on other websites.
4. Reach out to other writers: Reach out to other writers. It helps you stay in the loop. There are several ways to do this. Post a comment on their articles/blogs, write a guest post, link to them once in a while and social networking also helps. It will help you build some credibility and other writers will also return the favor. The result? More traffic. Think of it as part of your blog karma.
5. Learn to Sell yourself: Budding writers have this tendency to accept all kinds of work without thinking twice about the quality or the kind of money that they will receive for it. But this tendency can quickly turn into a habit and a harmful one at that. Always gauge a project on a qualitative and quantitative basis and then give a custom quote. You can attach a sample article to prove your mettle. But never settle for atrocious prices like $0.5 per article of 500 words or so, even if you are writing your first independent article. If you write well, expect to get paid well.

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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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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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