Content Writing & Copywriting Blog

Does Your Writing Suck?

Apr 11, 2007 No Comments »

Blogging is all about writing — if it is not a photo/video blog or a feeds collection. Writing can be a big hurdle if you let it overwhelm you. I have seen numerous blogs where the bloggers can write not even a single correct sentence and still their readers visit them regularly and even like what they write. When you write for blogs, it’s not about how you say, but what you say.

If you feel your writing can make a reader puke, don’t worry. I personally believe writing bad is far better than not writing at all. When people read your thoughts they don’t want you to be Dostoyevski — they are more interested in your thoughts. So focus on your thoughts, feel sincere about them, and see if there is a genuine feeling to communicate to your readers. Once you fee excited about what you want to say, your writing will seem good on its own.

Technorati Tags: blog publishing, writing well

Why I blog

Apr 10, 2007 No Comments »

There is a meme (pronounced meem, if you didn’t know it, like me) going on where people tell Why they blog. Since I never get memed (not enough people know my I guess) and some of the topics are really interesting I’ve decided to write about some topics on my own. So here’s why I blog:

1. I’m used to blogging: You don’t have to believe me, but I’ve been blogging since 2001, here and there, on and off. At that time it was not even hot and it was not being used as a PR tool or some branding campaign. Irrespective of whether I publish posts regularly or not, not having a blog seems odd.
2. To generate business: Blogging actually enhances your business. I hardly get 60-70 unique visitors per day but still I have observed an increase in business queries both from this blog and from website content writing website. For this year I have set aside some time to promote this blog and generate some relevant traffic.
3. To share ideas: When you share ideas you think more about those ideas. By writing them and sharing them with the others you solidify your ideas. You also obtain others’ point of views on your ideas and this helps you expand your thinking.
4. To keep me up to date: Blogging forces me to read. Whether it is copywriting, content writing, blogging, social media, seo or even web development, I read to keep myself informed as well as get new ideas to write about. I constantly learn new things and improve the existing ones. For instance, I have learnt a lot about search engine optimization by reading various blogs and by visiting forums.
5. To generate traffic: It hasn’t happened yet but I plan to get more traffic to my business website through this blog.
6. To improve my writing: I take blogging seriously in terms of writing. When I’m writing for my clients there is not much scope to be flexible and you cannot experiment. My blog gives me enough space to write the way I want to write. My literary blog lets me express my feelings about what is happening around me through writing and I’m seeing a big change in the way I used two write two years ago.
7. To earn money: Of course some day I’d like to earn money from my blog directly. I know considering the kind of effort I put in it is not going to happen for a long time, or may be it won’t happen ever because my priorities are different. I give a considerable amount of time to my singing practice and literary writing.
8. To make new friends: I have come to know quite a few people through blogging. There are so many great people around and blogs act as a meeting place: you go to other blogs and people come to your blog. By agreeing and disagreeing we all strike up conversations and this gives rise to great friendships.

Technorati Tags: blog publishing, meme

Writing The Ultimate Landing Page

Apr 10, 2007 2 Comments »

Roberta on CopyBlogger has written 10 Tips for Writing Ultimate Landing Page and it is quite an educational post. If by any chance you don’t know what’s a “landing page”, it is the page people come to directly after clicking your ad appearing on GoogleAds or some other online advertising link.

Since you pay for every individual click and from every click you would like to achieve some or the other objective (commercial, political, social) you have to be very careful about what appears on the landing page.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Bloggers Code of Conduct

Apr 09, 2007 No Comments »

Duncan Riley of 901am doesn’t like the idea of Bloggers Code of Conduct recently proposed by Tim O’Reilly. I don’t think it is a bad idea. Why should anybody have a problem if people try to be decent on the Blogsphere, especially in the light of such murky incidents? Although I’m not in favor of control, I’ve seen on various blogs people actually defending a book, in the name of free speech, written by an Islamic cleric that teaches you 101 ways of disciplining your wife with different kinds of regular beatings. Even if none agreed with the content of the book, they said the cleric had every right to get such a book published and promoted.

Some people have a blurred vision of freedom. In the name of freedom of speech they feel entitled to say anything they feel like. I’m not saying the blogs should be legally monitored or the governments should watch over our shoulders (most do, really) what we are writing, but bloggers that write nasty, insulting things should feel at least some impact. I know some will say the best policy would be to ignore them, but somehow I never feel like agreeing to such a philosophy.

Technorati Tags: blogging, blog publishing, blogging code of conduct

Commenting arrrgh…

Apr 08, 2007 No Comments »

Commenting is the most boring part of blogging unless I really feel like saying something. There are two reason my blogging hasn’t taken off the way it could have:

1. I rarely comment on other blogs and online forums.
2. I’m not writing linkbait content.

Ironically I’m writing linkbait content for a client :-).

Coming back to comments, I think most of the times when I start visiting the other blogs I’m thoroughly exhausted and have no energy left to think constructively or feel the heat of the ongoing discussion. Another discouraging factor is the amount of silly comments like “A very well written post…”, or “Thanks for sharing this…”, or “Good points…”, I mean, this is just a trick to leave the link and I don’t want to be a part of such a group. But this is the secondary problem and I can certainly overcome this if I try. The primary problem is the timing. I start reading the blogs after completing the day’s assignments and by the time I read other blogs I’ve already worked for good 10-12 hours.

One solution is, I should leave comments during weekends. This is just a better-than-nothing solution because the topics then are no longer current.

In the morning? Yes, I can, on alternate days, keep an hour aside to quickly visit a few blogs and try to participate in the discussions. I think I’ll try that.