Content Writing & Copywriting Blog

New York Times has launched Baghdad Blog

Feb 28, 2008 No Comments »

The New York Times recently launched a new blog called Baghdad Blog to enable its reporters from the Baghdad bureau to directly interact with their readers. One of the introductory posts says:

The Baghdad bureau of The New York Times serves as both home and office for 7 to 10 Western reporters, photographers and videographers, who work with a large Iraqi staff of reporters based in Baghdad and other cities across Iraq.

We talk with our Iraqi colleagues morning and evening about the problems they face in their neighborhoods, their dreams and those of their families. At night, staff members gather for dinner and discuss the news of the day: How close was that explosion heard this morning? Which military unit is finally going home? What is life really like in certain parts of the city and in the countryside? This blog is an attempt to include readers in our conversations.

War or peace, or rescue, blogs are continuously bringing people closer to each other. Today’s irony though, is, we don’t talk to our neighbors but we regularly interact with people, through our blogs, with people from other continents.

How to become an authority blogger

Feb 26, 2008 2 Comments »

Just read this interesting and comprehensive post on how to become an authority in your niche at Dosh dosh. Authority always commands respect and trust. When you have established your authority people believe in most of what you say. In order to become a successful blogger you have to become an authority in your field and only then your readers will come to your blog to seek advice repeatedly. For example check out Dosh dosh and Problogger, and even for that matter Copyblogger; people simply love what these people write because their advised can be immediately used and benefited from.

What benefit do you provide as an authority blogger?

"Benefit" is the central keyword of being an authority. You become an authority blogger when your advice helps many people improve themselves. Your advice should be straightforward and it should not contain abstract meaning. People should be able to implement your advice with minimum effort and derive maximum benefit from it.

Become an authority blogger gradually

I’m not suggesting that you shouldn’t start blog unless you have become an authority because then you will get trapped in a vicious circle. You become an authority gradually. In the beginning you don’t even have to act like an authority. Just write about your experiences. For example, if you are an online copywriter then share with your readers all the experiences that you have while serving your clients and all the new things that you are learning. Also chronicle the mistakes that you make and what you learn from them. Sharing your mistakes and using them as your strengths commands lots of respect from your readers.

Talk like an authority blogger

Along with publishing your blog daily keep learning and improvising. This is another thing that makes an authority: talk like an authority. I don’t mean sound like a snob and show disrespect for your readers, but you get my point. You have to sound convincing because if you cannot convince you cannot have people trusting you. Keep improving your writing skills because they come handy when you have to express yourself. If you’re straining all the time trying to "write well" it shows through. This is also a skill that you acquire/learn gradually.

Verify your facts and then talk

An authority blogger knows what he or she is saying and you can only be sure of what you are saying if you know the facts and have the data to back them up. Do your research and make sure you don’t have to eat your words later on. The sky is not going to fall if you have to eat your words, say once or twice every six months — we all make mistakes — but don’t take such instances lightly and try to make sure their occurrences are minimized.

Be consistent and frequent

Consistency is also an important ingredient of success. If you’re not consistent then people soon forget about you, especially on the Internet where things happened so fast. If you write once a week, or once a month, then your readers will have read scores of blog posts, perhaps on the same topic, and by the time you write about it, it may already become an old news to them. Give them something everyday so that you become a part and parcel of their daily lives.

Authority comes with experience and knowledge, and with sharing. The more you share your knowledge, the more deep-rooted it becomes.

Should you use social media to boost SEO

Feb 25, 2008 2 Comments »

Steve Rubel of Micro Persuations decries this new trend amidst Internet marketers to use social media for the purpose of search engine optimization and Andy Beal reacts to it by calling it hypocritical. I think they are at the extreme ends of both the opinions.

Nobody can doubt that social media is revolutionary. It empowers people to interact and share ideas and thoughts with each other without any interference from the traditional media tools like television and newspapers and magazines and herein lies its quintessential strength and this is the reason why social media is such a hit among the average net users. And this is the reason why the SEO experts and the Internet marketers want to tap into its reach.

Blogging is a prime example of the power of social media. I don’t have much experience with other social media websites but I have plenty of experience creating and managing blogs so I can comfortably talk from this perspective. Is it wrong to use blogging as an SEO tool? Depends on what you call SEO.

The main purpose of SEO is to generate relevant traffic to your website or blog and I see no harm in it especially when you are generating traffic for genuinely useful content or service. For instance if I maintain a blog on content writing and content publishing what is wrong in it if I try to highlight my content in front of those people who want to read my content but don’t know how to find it?

Similarly using your blog mainly to search engine optimize your business website defeats the very purpose of maintaining a blog because the main purpose of maintaining a blog is setting up a communication channel with your readers so that you can exchange ideas and information with them. If, with various SEO tactics you can get tons of traffic but you don’t have anything important to offer, you are simply wasting people’s time and this is where I begin to agree with Steve.

Print-on-demand online services reviewed

Feb 24, 2008 No Comments »

At Read/Write Web. If you don’t know what print-on-demand service is, it lets you get your books printed without having to approach a traditional publishing house. One of the oldest and famous print-on-demand services is Lulu.com. A print-on-demand service not only publishes your book — for a fee of course — it also helps you distribute it among the various book retailers and shops. Amazon.com too provides such a service.

I think for a new author it is a great opportunity, provided he or she has some money to invest. I remember a few years ago I tried to get in touch with such a company that had opened a new office in New Delhi. Right now I cannot recall its name but they were so unprofessional that they didn’t even reply. Back then we didn’t have Internet companies.

By getting your book published through a print-on-demand service you can avoid the hassle and the uncertainty involved in approaching a traditional publishing house. The traditional publishing houses are not only overbooked and choosey they also take a very long time in selecting the book, getting it edited, publishing it and then finally marketing it. Hopefully by the time I finish my first book I will have enough money to afford a print-on-demand service.

How does social media marketing affect your business

Feb 22, 2008 1 Comment »

Social media marketing amplifies customer opinion rather than improving it, says Josh at Bokardo.com, and he slightly disagrees with the fact that it helps you generate buzz and consequently generates more business for you.

I think both the things apply: it surely does amplify opinion about your product or service because there are so many people using social media; and it also creates buzz and generates sales for you.

Social media marketing includes blogs, social networking websites and social bookmarking websites. Compared to normal business websites there are more people, hundreds of thousands of times more people visiting and using social media websites. Every kind of information spreads like wildfire in social media websites because people who interact on these websites are generally more communicative than normal people, and they have more means to communicate. They like to spread messages and share information with each other. They visit other blogs, read your opinions and give opinions. So of course even small messages sometimes get large coverage. You can call this buzz. Due to this buzz lots of people come to your website and if they want to do business with you, they do it.

Does lack of a social media marketing strategy adversely affect your business? It is same is asking does not having a website affect your business? This is because there are many businesses that don’t need a website. And there are businesses that need a website. And among those businesses that need a website there is a fierce competition to get more and more exposure on the Internet and for that they use all the tools available in the contemporary world. Social media marketing is one of those tools. If you use only social media marketing and ignore other tools social media marketing is not going to be very effective. On the other hand if you are using other tools and if there is another company that is using social media marketing along with other tools of course that company is going to have an edge over your company.