Content Writing & Copywriting Blog

Using Visuals To Make Your Blog Posts Attractive

Sep 14, 2007 No Comments »

During a spurt of regular blogging recently (that is, a few months ago) I started using images with my longer posts. In between I sprinkled even the smaller posts with captivating images.

An image in the beginning of your blog post immediately makes a visual impact. For instant, look at this post at Copyblogger and if you are too lazy to visit the link, I’ve included a screen shot below:

As you can see, there is such a striking image in the beginning of the post. Even if the blog post title doesn’t catch your fancy (just an assumption, in this case it surely does) you certainly want to read what this ominous-looking image signifies.

You can get some really good images at iStockphoto (contains a referral link) at as low as $1 per image. I know, it can prove costly if you are in a habit of posting lots of posts but you can use them with select posts. There are many other resources on the Internet where you can get free images but make sure the images add value to your blog posts, and don’t mitigate their pluses.

Technorati Tags: blogging, creating better blog posts

9 Simple Habits For Great Writing

Sep 13, 2007 2 Comments »

Great writing requires two things: good writing skills, and lots of discipline. If you can write with ease then you don’t have to struggle with words and you know just the write words to express things you want to express. The problem is with discipline: the act of writing regularly for a particular amount of time.

Here are the 9 simple writing habits that can help you complete your first book or novel. You can apply these habits to blogging too, for blogging too requires lots of regularity and discipline. My favorite is Just start that means don’t wait for the right inspiration. A long time back I had written an article titled Writing when you are not feeling like writing and in that I had said:

If you feel your brain has turned into a stone and your imagination has turned into a viscous clot, keep writing. You may feel like passing out, you may feel like throwing up, you may even feel like vowing never to write again, don’t give up. I do that, and it hundred per cent gives me good result and I can vouch for that. Keep writing gibberish if that is what comes out. Tell yourself there is nothing you can do but write even if that writing is the clumsiest of writings you’ve come across or hope to come across, because you have to meet a deadline. Telling yourself there’s no escape works wonders sometimes. Avoid procrastination like plague if you ever want to be a successful professional writer. Something is always better than nothing.

To add on to this, I just received a quote from Confucius where he says, “It does not matter how slowly you go, so long as you do not stop.”

This was a long time back. Being a profession content writer I cannot procrastinate. The advance that my clients pay me, and the end amount that they are going to pay me is the motivation enough.

Still, eventually I see myself writing literary works instead of perpetually slogging as a content writer or copywriter: money-wise good but not satisfying.

Here’s another great post on getting inspired to write.

Technorati Tags: on writing, inspiration, writing well, writing habits

50 Most Influential Blogs

Sep 12, 2007 6 Comments »

What influences you is a highly personal choice but there are things, personalities and events that affect a multitude of people and that’s what encompasses the NxE’s list of 50 Most Influential Bloggers and I think all the bloggers in the list deserve to be there. My personal favorites are:

• Neil Patel — SEO
• Leo Babauta — Personal development
• Rand Fishkin — SEO
• Om Malik — Technology and gadgets
• Brian Clark — Copywriting
• Pete Cashmore — Technology, Internet, SM, etc.
• Darren Rowse — Earning money from blogging
• Gina Trapani — Personal development and life improvement

There are some other great blogs but I hardly read even these regularly. I don’t get to spend much time on blogging (I’m desperately trying to change that) and whatever time I get I prefer writing posts rather than reading other blogs and interacting on them (hence, lack of traffic).

Technorati Tags: influential bloggers, top bloggers, blogging

How To SEO Your Blog

Sep 11, 2007 No Comments »

Blog SEO is natural most of the time as by their nature itself blogs are easy to search engine optimize. Take for instance blogs created with WordPress; provided you are not using some really lousy theme that is full of images, JavaScript and skewed markup, WordPress generates blog posts that are mostly SEO-friendly. Still, there are some steps you can take to make sure your blog posts, for your chosen topics, rank higher than blog posts on similar topics from other blogs.

Steps to SEO your blog

• Put your keywords in your title: Abstract titles sound cool but they make a dent in your rankings. Take for instance this post; I could have titled it something like “Get higher rankings for your blog” but since I’m dealing with blog SEO, I have used the phrase in the title. I’m not sure how well this post is going to rank (lots of factors are responsible for that) but using keywords in the title is a step in the right direction. But make sure the title compliments the subject of your blog as it’s of no use getting traffic for a wrong title.
• Make the most important statement in the beginning: By taking the topic head on you get an opportunity to use your key expressions and keywords in the beginning without sounding spammy. If this post is about blog SEO, then I should better talk about blog SEO in the first paragraph and make my intentions clear why I’m writing this post.
• Use your keywords in the anchor text: When search engines are crawling your blog post, with the help of your anchor text (text between <a> and </a>) they know you are linking to other resources on the same topic. For instance, if I want you to go to my content writing website I’d rather use go to my content writing website and instead of click here to go to my content writing website.
• Use your keywords in the heading tags: Heading tags are very important as they highlight the main points of your blog post. Headings make your post scannable and search engines like them precisely for this reason. When you use your keywords in your headings it helps both the search engines and your human readers.
• Have lots of relevant content: Regularly updated, relevant content helps you build a loyal readership and it gives the search engines lots of pages to index and rank. Remember that it’s not the number, but the quality that matter. Still, if you have lots of quality posts then the chances of being linked to and getting a higher rankings is greater. Less posts of course means limited choice for those who want to link to you, and inbound links definitely improve your search engine rankings.

Technorati Tags: blog seo, seo, blogging

Does Reciprocal Linking Really Matter?

Sep 10, 2007 3 Comments »

A few hours ago I was writing a blog post for a client on the benefits of reciprocal linking. When I was researching on the topic I found many articles and blog posts listing its benefits and things you should take care of while exchanging links with other webmasters and bloggers. I myself get link exchange requests now and then for my content writing website. I have a page dedicated to reciprocal linking but I haven’t updated it for a long time.

What’s your experience with reciprocal linking? Does it enhance your search engine rankings?

Technorati Tags: reciprocal linking, link exchange, seo