Content Writing & Copywriting Blog

After a long time

Jan 31, 2005 No Comments »

I had a relaxed weekend after a very long time. Although Saturday was a bit hectic because Alka (my wife) wasn’t feeling well and I had to take care of her work, I had plenty of time to read Garcia’s Living to Tell the Tale. On Saturday I also transferred this blog to WordPress from Blogger and getting the stuff out of the Blogger grip was some feat :-).
On Sunday I didn’t come near my laptop although I did switch on the main computer. I guess continuous work was wearing me down and I was performing less and less. I was spending my days working all the time without achieving much and my clients were growing restive. I needed to sort things out very fast and figure out why so much delay was being caused.
I had been working without a break for, may be three-four months. I do less work on Sundays, but still, my less work means at least four hours. Despite the fact that I like what I do, it was becoming too much of it. So I have decided that on Saturdays there will be very less work and on Sundays there will be no work. During the week days I’ll be putting in regular work hours so that I have plenty of time in the evenings for Alka and I. This is going to increase my productivity and it is already showing. I went to bed early yesterday and woke up early. After my music practice, by 9 I was working. It’s 12:15 pm and I have already dealt with three clients. This is a good feeling and I plan to carry it on like this.

New Forum for Web Content Writers

Jan 24, 2005 No Comments »

This weekend I set up a discussion forum for web content writers. Web content writing is a rapidly evolving field, as more and more webmasters are recognizing the importance and the implication of good relevant content. A good thing about web content writing is that it is a specialized field. You cannot develop or purchase software to write good content — it has to be written. It’s not a “click and be done with” job. You need to sit, think, and write. You need to be a good writer.
In fact this is why (“why” is just an expression — I’ve always wanted to be a writer) I’m gradually shifting away from web development and focussing more on content writing. There are far too many web designers and developers who use lousy GUIs to create layouts and copy/paste code that is abundantly available on the Internet, and they do this work in pittance as if they have vowed to live in perpetual penury. They not only make their lives miserable (believe me, I have seen such people), they make life difficult for genuine web developers too.
You cannot copy/paste content, at least legally. Plagiarizing is easily detectable on the Internet.
As we all know, not everybody is comfortable writing. Companies and small businesses are going to require qualified content writers. They’ll need compelling copies to sell their products and services, they’ll need well-written profiles of their companies, they’ll need convincing case studies and they’ll need captivating online tutorials.
Besides, all major search engines attach weight to relevant, topic-centric content, and penalize those websites that employ “tricks” to achieve high rankings. This makes things difficult but forces the webmasters to have relevant content rather than useless graphics and animations.
With the emergence of blogs, more and more companies are going to make them an integral part of their PR and awareness campaigns. According to a recent study conducted by Technorati almost 23000 blogs are being created everyday. Although they are not all serious blogs but it shows how blogging is evolving into a completely new medium of expression. There is so much traffic being generated by blogs that BURST! Media recently launched a blog ad channel to sell advertising space on more than 20 high-traffic blogs.
As with content writing, not everybody can write regularly on blogs. Companies and individuals are going to require professional bloggers (some bloggers are already writing for blogs of other companies).
So the forum mentioned above deals with all these topics.

Writing web content for a legal firm

Jan 22, 2005 No Comments »

These days I’m writing research (well, partly researched, I mean, not thesis sort of research but research for the layman) web content for a legal firm that represents motor vehicle accidents victims. In this process I got to learn some intriguing things about the seat belt injuries, the airbag injuries and the SUV rollovers (I’ve been day-dreaming about driving an SUV). These are just a part of the series of articles I have to write. On an average I’m spending four hours on each article. Some need more time and some less but I quoted the client four hours per article at the rate of $25 per hour. As long as I get paid well and my work is appreciated, I don’t mind putting extra hours or working hard.

No electricity

Jan 18, 2005 No Comments »

We didn’t have electricity for the whole day and this is going to recur for three consecutive days. The electricity department is carrying out some reshuffle. This had to happen today when I had to deliver two assignments! Lesson: Try to finish your work as soon as you can and even if there is lots of time, if you can, finish the work.
Anyway, for the next remaining two days I’m going to turn nocturnal (as if I’m already not!). I have a couple of my own projects in the offing — as part of business expansion efforts — and I need time for them. I hope I finish all current work by this weekend.

Yours Truly in Search Engines

Jan 17, 2005 No Comments »

Call me Narcissistic. I just searched for amrit hallan on Google and the result brought up around 8,480 results. Yahoo brought up 1,530 results. Some pages are three-four years old. I found a page on Tripod that I created in 2000.
Most of the pages are the articles that I have written and different web masters have published them. Then there are some messages in the discussion groups and email lists.
This makes me feel like writing more articles: at least two articles every week, and I should make it a part of my work. Lots of visitors click on my resource box and arrive at my website.