Just a few days ago I wrote about freelance writing opportunities and how blog writing is becoming quite a popular job for service providers. Well ironically, I was just asked by one of my clients to ghostwrite articles for their blog.
Talk about good timing. I honestly didn’t know this would happen at the time of writing my post, but it proves the fact that there are people out there looking for blog writers. You just have to get yourself in front of potential clients.
Being a current client of mine, and knowing the subject matter of which they need articles written for, it just makes sense. It’s not my normal proofreading work, but having done this type of work before as well as a bit of re-writing work, I figure, why not?
It’s always a good idea to have multiple streams of income, so capitalizing on every opportunity is a no-brainer. I’m not going to lie… I need money. Who doesn’t?
That’s what my blog is all about. Presenting ideas and showing you different ways you can earn extra money on the internet. There’s many different avenues to take, and freelance blog writing is one of those, and it can pay off.
Following up with my previous post on finding freelance work from home, I wanted to share about another freelance opportunity. Freelance writing opportunities are in high demand. If you’re a writer, or aspiring writer, then this post is for you. Heck, even if you’re not that great at writing but are knowledgeable in a certain area or niche, then pay close attention.
There are numerous amounts of people that constantly require article writers on a wide variety of subjects. Just go to my previous post, linked above, and sign up with those sites as a service provider. You’ll be able to see firsthand at how many writing jobs are available.
Other freelance writing opportunities, and one that is very similar to the above, is blog writing. The same principal applies, but this time you’re writing an article or blog post for the owner of a blog. There are millions of blogs ran by webmasters, and many webmasters don’t have the time to keep up with their blogs.
The fact is that it’s hard keeping up with a blog, and I should know. . It takes time to research a topic and then write about it. It’s very time consuming to keep a blog updated on a consistent basis. And as we all know, Google loves new, fresh content that’s added regularly to sites. This is where you, a freelance blog writer, can help.
Many blog owners would like to keep their blog up to date and provide valuable content to their readers. The problem is that many just don’t have the time due to other interests or obligations. Many blog owners would be willing to hire a blog writer to post content on their blog.
It will take a little effort and time on your part, but if you run across a quality blog that doesn’t get updated very often, or seems to have been neglected, you could simply contact the owner and offer your writing services to them. Many will be so happy that you contacted them that they’ll jump on the idea.
The price you get paid per post for blog writing will vary and has many factors. Some factors include the niche, length of the posts and your writing experience. With a little effort there’s no reason why you can’t find a blog writing job.
So there you have it… two examples of freelance writing opportunities that are available to you. I’m sure with some creativity and strong will, you’ll be able to find other avenues as well.
I’ve been hearing from different sources on the web that EzineArticles.com would be implementing changes that would have a serious impact on every article marketer out there. If you use article marketing as part of your marketing strategy, as you should, then listen up! This is important, and you’ll want to know how to stay on top.
The recent changes involve new Adsense ad placements on your article pages. They’ve added more and placed them in such a way that might just decrease your article click-through rates. Scary huh? The whole point of writing articles is to have it read and then get your links clicked.
Now, EzineArticles, one of the best article sites around, is making it tougher for the average marketer to make it in this big internet marketer game.
But, don’t fret just yet. I received an email from Travis Sego the other day that just might be the solution to these recent changes. If you’re not familiar with Travis, he’s the bum marketing genius that takes homeless guys and teaches them how to write articles and make a fortune, being a bum. Gotta love it!
I really like what Travis is doing. Plus, he’s a down-to-earth, fun loving guy (you’ll see what I mean in the email he sent me). What’s better is that he wants to help people, and by doing so, allows me to help you.
Here’s the email Travis sent and what he had to say about the new EzineArticles changes and how you can keep your click-throughs high:
Hey!
What’s da haps?
As you may have heard…
EzineArticles.com has made some
changes that will affect YOU!
Wanna talk with ya about them…
I’m in a silly mood though so…
How ’bout a little light hearted fun first?
Have you heard this one?
*********************
Confucius say…
Man who run behind car…get exhausted.
Man who run in front of car…get tired.
*********************
Heeeee….hee…
I know I’m corny…but I luv that one!
Now here’s how a man, woman or Bum
can get on top of the EzineArticles.com
changes.
Without getting exhausted or tired!
They’ve recently made the decision to
add more Adsense to the articles.
Which MIGHT make it a little tougher
to get YOUR links clicked on.
I ain’t worried though.
You won’t be either.
Learned this trick from reading
PotPieGirl’s One Week Marketing
System.
(I had to see what all the new folks
were RAVING about).
Here’s what you do:
1. Shorten your articles! Your article body
only has to be 250 words!
2. Make your authors box…L-O-N-G-E-R. You
have up to 300 words you can put in your authors
box.
You should be able to make your authors box…look
like it’s part of the article!
You follow?
Using just this one little tip from One Week Marketing,
and I’m pullin’ in a 34% click through on one article…and others look like they’ll do even more.
Yipee Skipee!
I wonder if you can figure out a couple other
reasons I am so happy about this?
Betcha can?
==>Short articles are FASTER to write.
==>Short articles COST LESS to outsource.
==>Short articles = More Articles = More Sales!
So there you have it.
Have any more great ideas on how to get around these new changes? I’d love to hear them.
There are many people who dread having to write papers or articles. Many just feel like it seems to be too much work and it all just goes to waste when no one reads them. To some people, reading articles seems like work too, especially if the article is boring and very bland. Well, articles are supposed to be read, that’s their purpose to impart your message and information. If it is not read then it is a waste of time and effort.
But all the same, articles have to be written to be read. It’s just a matter of making them good. Making a good article doesn’t have to be strenuous and straining. There are just some points needed to be reminded of, and some guides to follow. Once you get the hang of it, writing articles could be fun, as well as profitable for you and your site.
Of course, writing articles must be about something you know about, that’s why if you own a site, you probably is knowledgeable about that certain topic and theme. When you write about it, you won’t have a hard time because you already know what it is and what it’s about. It’s just a matter of making your articles creative and interesting.
To make sure that your articles get read and enjoyed, here are six red hot tips to get your articles read. These tips will make your articles readable and interesting.
1) Use short paragraphs. When the paragraph are very long, the words get jumbled in the mind of the reader just looking at it It can get quite confusing and too much of a hard work to read. The reader will just quickly disregard the paragraph and move on to much easier reading articles that are good to look at as well as read. Paragraphs can be a single sentence, sometimes even a single word!
2) Make use of numbers or bullets. As each point is stressed out, numbers and bullets can quickly make the point easy to remember and digest. As each point, tip, guide or method is started with a bullet or point, readers will know that this is where the tips start and getting stressed. Format you bullets and numbers with indentations so that your4 article won’t look like a single block of square paragraphs. Add a little bit of flair and pizzazz to your articles shape.
3) Use Sub-headings to sub-divide your paragraphs in the page. Doing this will break each point into sections but still would be incorporated into one whole article. It would also be easy for the reader to move on from one point to another; the transition would be smooth and easy. You will never lose your readers attention as well as the point and direction to where the article is pointing.
4) Provide a good attention-grabbing title or header. If your title can entice a person’s curiosity you’re already halfway in getting a person to read your article. Use statements and questions that utilize keywords that people are looking for. Provide titles or headers that describe your articles content but should also be short and concise.
Use titles like, “Tips on making her want you more”, or “How to make her swoon and blush” .You could also use titles that can command people, for example, “Make her yours in six easy Ways”. These types of titles reach out to a persons’ emotions and makes them interested.
5) Keep them interested from the start to the finish. From your opening paragraph, use real life situations that can be adopted by the reader. Use good descriptions and metaphors to drive in your point, just don’t over do it. Driving your examples with graphic metaphors and similes would make it easy for them to imagine what you are talking about. Making the experience pleasurable and enjoyable for them.
6) Utilize figures when necessary and not just ordinary and insipid statements. Using specific facts and figures can heighten your article because it makes it authoritative. But do not make it too formal, it should be light and easy in them and flow. Like a friendly teac her having a little chat with an eager student.
Writing articles is an art form. Developing content for the net takes time and practice. Writing effectively and getting your readers to respond is the first benefit in building traffic. This results in direct traffic as readers are inclined to click on your link(s) in the resource box of your article.
I suggest you take a moment to visit Patricia Makhulo’s Article Marketing Made Easy post which gives you many great pointers on getting your article noticed and read.
Article marketing has two main traffic benefits: direct traffic and search traffic. Both are important and should be utilized to their fullest potential. You want to get as much bang for your buck as possible, so there’s no point in wasting a good article by only getting half the potential traffic.
Article marketing is one of the best ways to create long-term, targeted traffic to your website. I’m going to explain both traffic benefits.
An article is made up of different elements that are essential to getting direct traffic. These elements include:
Defining the product/service you need to promote – Most articles have the purpose of providing useful information in order to pre-sell a product or service.
Using the “useful, but incomplete approach” – Provide useful information to your readers, but make sure it’s incomplete and that they could better use the information by visiting the link(s) in your resource box.
Using a tips list or tutorial format when applicable – If your article can be broken down into a list format, then do it. This will direct your readers along towards realizing their need for your product/service.
Expanding on your main points to build the content of the article – as I’m doing with these key elements, provide information that expands on the main points of the article.
Providing a closing or “call to action,” usually in the resource box, also known as the “about the author” section – Most people fail to do this. The resource box is there for a reason. Tell your readers to visit your link(s) to make better use of what they read.
Re-reading and proofreading the article to avoid errors – Don’t do this yourself as most people fail to catch their own mistakes. Have someone proofread your article for you so that it reads well and is error free. The best thing you can do when crafting an article is to write in a clear and concise manner. You need to convey your message to your readers so that they can understand it. Your article should read as though you were talking face to face with them.
If you focus on these key elements, your article stands a much better chance of receiving clickthroughs and your website getting targeted, direct traffic. Also keep Patricia’s models in mind as they work very well too.
The other main benefit involves getting natural search engine traffic from people searching for information. Aside from direct traffic, search traffic is just as good because it’s also highly targeted. Most searches performed in a search engine are for information. That’s why it’s so important that you provide useful information to your readers because there’s a better chance that they’ll convert to a customer.
There’s two elements that you need to be aware of when striving to get search traffic as a result of your articles. As people search for information, they enter keywords into the search box. The keywords they enter determine what results are displayed.
It is your job to find out what keywords those people are searching for. I recommend Google’s External Keyword Tool. Once you determine the keywords you’re going to focus on, the two elements soon come together. The first element is writing your article for specific keywords.
You need to determine what keyword phrase you need your article to rank for in search engines so that it is displayed when someone searches for that keyword phrase. This may sound complicated, but all youneed to know here is that as long as you provide useful and unique content, your article will get noticed.
Websites are primarily ranked based on how many backlinks (links pointing to your site from other relevant sites) they have. The key here is containing the keywords you need your website to rank for within those backlinks. This you can completely control with the use of your article resource box.
The second element applies to your website. This involves the use of your article resource box. While the resource box can be used as your call to action as discussed earlier, it also has another use.As you need to get your article ranked high in search engines for a particular keyword phrase, you also need to get your website ranked high for keywords as well.
While developing your call to action phrase, create a link to the web page that you want to send your readers that contains your keywords you need your page to rank for in search engines. Every article you create will contain your resource box with your call to action and a backlink to your website. You see how your resource box serves two purposes in one?
If all of this sounds a bit confusing to you, then you should read some of my other posts on SEO:
Applying these methods to your article marketing efforts will ensure direct and long-term traffic for years to come. Both forms of traffic are equally important, so don’t ignore these methods. Article marketing, when done properly, will help you build your business and set it up for long lasting success. Remember, your website must have traffic, and article marketing can help you achieve it.
Last week I made a post titled I Hate Thieves! Blogger Steals My Content! and ranted about a blogger who took one of my articles and deleted my links. I sent the owner of the blog an email via the contact page and hadn’t heard back.
Well today I received an email from the owner after two weeks of having sent the email. Here is what the blog owner said…
Thank you for your check my blog, I have already put your website link in my article with keyword “work from home online business” in my webpage http://www.getcashonline.org/work-from-home-online
Now obviously the owner doesn’t speak very good English, but you get the idea. This came as a bit of a surprise to me. Of course, I actually went to the page and made sure that he really did add my link. It’s there, along with the other million links he added of his own.
I need to correct him, though. He stated that he placed my link in “his article.” The fact is that he placed my link in MY ARTICLE. My link deserved to be there all along from the beginning when he decided to use my article.
This problem has been around forever, and it’s impossible to fight it completely. Most scraper blogs (blogs that scrape content from other sources, usually through RSS) steal content all the time with no recognition or link back to the source. I don’t think this is a scraper blog, but if you’re deleting links intentionally, then it might as well be one.
If you market your work from home business using article marketing then I’m sure you’ve been faced with this issue before. It’s not something you should get real worried about as it doesn’t happen too often, but it’s something you should be aware of. Not everyone is going to be honest. That’s just how it is.
There’s some rare cases, such as this one, where you can actually contact the owner and try to resolve the issue. This is the best case of action you can take. It really isn’t worth your time to pursue content thieves. Like I said, they’re the minority, not the majority.
Writing content for the web and marketing your online business comes with this risk. I just want you to be aware of it and realize that it’s going to happen. Fortunately for me I was able to revert this issue. If you want to eliminate this risk and get a much better reach for your articles then be sure to check out the Free Traffic System.
This also brings up another point and one I push quite heavily. If you haven’t heard of Google Alerts or don’t use it, you’re doing a disservice to you and your online business. It’s important to keep track of who’s talking about you and who’s linking to your websites. There’s no better way to do this than by setting up Alerts for your name and website domains. It’s fast and easy to do.
I hope my experiences here can help some of you. Don’t let this discourage you from writing content for marketing your work from home business. It’s an excellent way to get your name and business out there. Be sure to check out my Article Marketing Works video to see how its been helping me.
If you are attempting to create a successful blog for personal or business reasons, you should know that looks do count. Many bloggers make the mistake of thinking that looks are not as important as content, since readers are essentially reading your blog for the words, not the way it looks. This is true to some degree. The fact is, however, that people will not take your words seriously if your blog looks less than attractive. To have a successful blog you have to have it all. You must have interesting content as well as a great look. If you want to update the look of your blog, consider these areas of importance.
Easy To Scan
The way your blog reads on a page is an extremely important part of your blog’s look. You should always remember to keep your blog posts short and to the point. If you are treating your blog as a personal diary, your posts may be a little longer than normal. But, if you are trying to get more traffic to your blog, then you really want to focus the attention with short posts that offer the main point easily. Most blog readers will only scan your posts, not read them word for word. So keep this in mind when you are writing. The shorter the post, the more likely they are to read the entire thing. If your blog is easy to scan because the posts are short and the breaks are clear, you will have a great looking blog.
Professional Edge
When designing or redesigning your blog, try to make it as professional looking as possible. Even if the blog is not for a business, the more professional it looks, the more seriously people will take it. Not everyone knows a lot about programming, so you may need to research a bit. If you have the extra funds, you might even want to get a professional to program it for you. No matter what you have to do, just keep a level of professionalism in your mind throughout the designing process.
Friendly Colors
Most people don’t think twice about what colors they choose for their blog. The facts are that some colors come across better on the web than others. Blue and black are easy to see, so they are always great choices to use. Sea-green, beige, or purple are also great soothing colors to use for a blog. You should stay away from using colors like pink, yellow, or any neon varieties. They are extremely hard on the eyes when reading them online and can deter people from reading your blog. Keep these color tips in mind when you design your blog to get the best results available.
Appropriate Graphics
It has been noted that the use of pictures on your blog is a great way to boost traffic. Blogs that offer pictures that correlate with their content are fantastic. Readers love to connect with the content further through pictures. With most blogging software offering ways to easily add pictures, it should not be a problem for most publishers to add them right into the blog. If you do have trouble, consider checking the “help” area in your blogging software for more information. The information there should provide you with step by step instructions to help you get on your way.
Successful Layout
Most people who design blogs and websites will tell you that the layout does matter as well. The way a blog looks to the reader is important in terms of layout. The layout should be clear and defined. If the reader is confused by the layout, they will likely not stick around to explore. They will most likely go right on to the next blog available. If you are letting a professional design your blog, you will likely not need to worry much about the layout. However, if you are doing it yourself, take a look at other successful sites to get ideas about what works and what doesn’t. Look at your site like a reader would to get the best advice you can. Lastly, simply test different layouts on your friends and family to see which ones they find the most suitable for your blog.
Firstly, we all want to know How to Make Money Online, and one of the best ways I have found is by creating blogs. In this article I intend to show you how you too can learn How to Make Money Blogging by telling you how combining the techniques I have gathered from across the web helps to make me $$$ every day. Secondly, I am not trying to sell you my latest “Get Rich Quick” scheme because I don’t have one. Each eBook you read will have a wealth of information within them which will, without a doubt, help you to discover the secrets of How to Make Money Online. I am only going to tell you which ones out of the 100′s available you SHOULD read if you too want to make lots of money.
I use a 10 step guide to setting up and starting all of my blogs.
I will give you a list of the top 10 resources later that I use and recommend to everyone who is serious about making lots of money online. One of the vital aspects people seem to miss out when they first get into blogging is the fact that their blog must contain information that people want to read.
Many bloggers are looking through closed eyes in this regard and if you browse through 50 blogs you will notice that most will tell you they know How to Make Money with Blogs when really all they tell you is where they went on their vacation or how many cars they have.
Are you ready to learn How to Make Money Blogging?
If the answer is YES then read on and start to make money with your blog. I am not here to tell you how to write your blog, that’s up to you, but what I am about to tell you is the 10 things I use to make money on the internet. You can choose to use these techniques or not, that’s your prerogative.
Step 1 – Finding a Topic
Turn off your computer, grab a pen and some paper and sit somewhere you can relax but also stay focused (if you are just starting out this step can be a pain because we all want to know How to Make Money Online and we want to know how to make it NOW). Think of a topic you are interested in and write it down (this helps because you will be more committed to trying instead of giving up in a day or two) and also make sure it is something other people are interested in too. A couple of ways I use to think of a topic is by using MetaSpy to find out what people are searching for, Ask IQ to find what’s popular and VRE Toolbar to find out how many people search for the topic (this is also useful later on to get traffic). Write down your top five keywords, you will want to use them later in your blog.
Step 2 – Create Your Blog
Find and create your blog online. I like to use WordPress for it’s SEO benefits but there’s also Blogger and Movable Type. You can find all the help in the program you use to get information when setting up the blog. Create your content, make it original, and make it informative. This is one of the main keys to learn How to Make Money with Blogs. You need to include the keywords you wrote down in Step 1 in the content of your blog. Try not to overuse these as it sends out bad signals to the search engines, and this is 100% not what you want.
Step 3 – Go Google
Sign up for Google Adsense and insert the code in the margin of your blog. You can customize your ads in many ways, such as including text links or image links. I prefer the text links only, as they are easier to blend in with your blog and don’t take the focus away from the information. Google Adsense will probably not make you a millionaire but it is an instant way of generating a small amount of money.
If you want to track where your visitors are coming from with regards to direct hits or from search engine results then I would suggest you use Google Analytics and again you can get all the help you need setting that up from within the program.
You will also want to add your URL to Google’s index.
Step 4 – Find Something to Sell
If you don’t want to sell anything and are happy with the income Google Adsense is bringing in then you can skip this step. If you want to maximize your income and truly learn How to Make Money with Blogs you will want to find an affiliate program to join. A couple of affiliate programs I would suggest are ClickBank and Commission Junction. You can sell anything from office furniture, pet supplies, movies and clothing to PC games, Dieting tips and Audio software.
Whatever program you join will give you help inserting the code you will need to insert into your blog, but be sure you do this correctly or you WILL NOT earn money from your visitors. If you do not know how to edit HTML, W3Schools HTML tutorial is a great place to start.
Step 5 – Social Bookmarking
There is no better advertising than word of mouth, but the next best thing is social bookmarking. You will want to make things easier for people to do this. Social bookmarking sites I use and recommend are OnlyWire and SocialMarker and they are used for people to share their bookmarks or websites that they have liked with other people in their online community.
I would not suggest you add your own links to these services, but provide visitors to your website the ability to do so.
Step 6 – Write an Article
Whether your blog is about a specific product, for example a certain MP3 Player you are promoting, or just about giving people information, I would suggest you to write an article or a review of it. Most article directories require articles of 500 words and over so I would use this as a rule when writing to ensure your article is published.
Submit your article to any of the 100′s which are out there. I personally use a few of the Top Article directories such as EzineArticles, Article Dashboard, Amazines.com, isnare and SearchWarp. I also use a nifty piece of software called Article Submitter which will submit your articles to over 600 article directories, which saves you lots of time and leaves you to focus on writing your blogs.
Step 7 – Ping The Hell Out Of It
Every time you add new information to your blog, you want to let the blog directories know about it, this is known as pinging. Some Blog providers automatically send out pings when you update, but to be on the safe side you will want to do this manually too. WordPress already does this for you. Add any pinging services to the list already provided. Word of note – ONLY PING WHEN YOU UPDATE.
There are a couple of Ping sites I use which will send a ping to multiple blog directories at the same time. PingMyBlog would be my first port of call and then if for some reason that site is down I would use Ping-o-matic. Remember, to only ping when you update or you could get blacklisted, and that is bad.
Step 8 – Yahoo! Answers and Forums
One of the easiest ways to get targeted visitors to your blog is to make use of the people you want to target. I would suggest you sign up to at LEAST one forum in the topic you are writing about, and don’t just go straight in there and start posting comments for people to look at your blog, they won’t.
The secret is to add the link to your blog in your signature and actively become a member of the forum, posting relevant topics and starting debates within them. The more you post, the more your link will show, and if you provide someone with good info the chances are higher they will click your link.
Yahoo! Answers is along the same lines as forums but the beauty of this is it’s viewed by thousands of visitors each day. If you don’t already have a Yahoo! account get one and then login and search for questions relating to the topic of your blog and answer them well. You can then insert the link to your blog and as with the forums, if you answer well you may have not only earned yourself a point or two on Yahoo!, but also earned a visitor to your blog.
Step 9 – Update Your Blog
This can be by several means, one is to add new reviews or content to your blog, and if you are going to do this I suggest updating every couple of days. This helps to keep the search engines happy as they love to see new and original content.
Another way of updating your blog and keeping the content fresh is to add RSS feeds to it. Make sure the feeds are relevant to your blog and provide visitors with helpful information. Visitors to a World of Warcraft blog don’t want to read feeds about knitting, or do they?
Step 10 – More, More, More
Repeat steps 1 – 10, this is the only way How to Make Money Blogging.
Step 11 – A Bonus Step
If you have your own product or newsletter, give your visitors an easy way to sign up to receive updates or information. This helps you to contact the visitor again with more great info or products you wish to sell.
How to Make Money Online is easy if you follow the above steps.
Some important things to remember so you don’t get disheartened with your blog is the fact that you will not become a millionaire overnight, it takes hard work and a lot of effort. If you are really serious about learning How to Make Money with Blogs then stick with it and eventually you will have an Ah-Ha moment. This is when things start to work and you think to yourself Ah-Ha, that’s how they do it! Your moment could be sooner than you think.
My Top 10 resources I use and recommend are:
1. Rob Benwell’s Blogging to The Bank 2.0
2. WordPress Goldmine
3. Rob Atherton’s Building A Blog Empire For Profit
4. The Blog Challenge
5. Hinge Marketing Magic
6. Blogging For Riches – Complete Video Tutorial
7. Social Bookmarking Demon
8. Adsense Inbox
9. WordPress SEO Sniper
10. RSS, Blogs and Syndication…
Blogs are becoming a widely used devices for publishing information on the web. They can be used either to communicate general information, or as a marketing tool to promote products and services. Although the blog format has been around for a number of years, the way it is being used is still evolving.
The most distinctive thing about a blog is that it is “content-rich.” Most blogs consist of a number of posts entered on a regular basis. These posts can be short references to some other resource on the net (connected by a link), or long posts which are essentially articles or essays on a specific topic with embedded references to other related sources on the web. This makes them ideal for writers, reporters, journalists, as well as marketers wanting to systematically report on current activities, news of the day, or the features of products. This is mostly the case for this Work From Home Resources blog you’re reading right now.
For instance, blogs are used extensively by bloggers in China to comment on the political and economic scene there. They are used by political advocates in most parts of the world who want to push a certain point of view. They are used by journalists as an alternative medium to communicate their experiences and ideas without them being filtered by large publishers. And blogs are used by corporate communication people to keep in touch with employees and customers by carrying corporate news and comments on the developments within a company or industry.
They are also increasingly used by marketers who want to promote certain products and enhance the search engine exposure of specific websites. If you have a website, or are promoting a website on behalf of a client, then planting references to it in blog posts is a very good way of bringing it to the attention of the search engines.
**Blogs and Search Engines**
Blogs are useful marketing tools because the major search engines pay close attention to them. The structure of blogs makes them easily spiderable, so the major search engines — Google, Yahoo, and MSN, etc. — tend to view them as sources of “news.” The more active a blog is, the more frequently it will be spidered. If a blog contains new posts every day, it will get spidered every day — and sometimes more than once a day.
That means that the information in an active blog will show up in search engine indexes much more quickly than changes made to ordinary static websites. Many people think that simply making a change to their website — for instance, posting a news item on their home page — will result in the chance of being picked up by the search engines. But this is not the case. The search engines can only reflect that change after the site is spidered. And unless a site has a history of being constantly updated, the search engines will only spider it occasionally.
Therefore, when it comes to influencing the search engines, blogs can serve two useful functions. First, as we have seen, an active blog gets spidered regularly. So as long as it remains active, a blogger can expect a regular visit to his blog from the search engines to see what is being reported. New posts will get indexed almost immediately, and will start to show up in search engine results.
**Two Important Conclusions about Blogs**
First, if you want to have something reflected quickly in search engine searches, writing about it in a blog is the best way to accomplish this objective.
Second, since the search engines follow links, placing links in your blog posts to other sites to which you want to draw attention to is a good way to get them spidered as well. For instance, say you introduce a new product on your website. The best way to have the search engines visit your site quickly and reindex the changed pages is to make an announcement in an active blog. The spiders will visit the blog, follow the links pointing to your website and index the changes to the website.
This is why links placed in blog posts are generally the most effective way of drawing attention to other targeted websites.
**Taking Advantage of Blogs**
There are two fairly straightforward ways to take advantage of these important features of blogs.
The first way is to start your own blog. It is surprisingly easy to become a blogger. Many sites offer free blogs that are part of a larger “community” of blogs. For instance, go to blogger.com (owned by Google), sign up (for free), and you can have your blog up and running in a matter of minutes.
The problem with this approach is that you may not be a writer, you may not be interested in making regular posts, or you may simply not have anything to say on a regular basis. In that case you might try to find someone who will let you make posts every now and then in their blog — or at least create links pointing at your website.
Another interesting alternative is to pay someone to review your site, or feature your products every couple of weeks in their blog. That way you get all the marketing and search engine advantages of blogging without actually having to do any of the work.
The internet revolves around information. You can’t escape it; it’s everywhere! User generated content… blogs, articles, news, etc. People are always looking for information. It’s what makes the internet thrive. No wonder Google likes new, fresh content and rewards those who provide it.
There’s one problem I see constantly with content providers. It has nothing to do with the content itself. The content is sound, for the most part, and is valuable to the majority of people. The problem is that a lot of the content I read doesn’t look professional.
Here’s what I mean by this. You write a great article… one that would benefit others because of your useful knowledge. However, you lacked the effort to read over it before you decided to submit it to article directories. If your article is accepted, it is read by hundreds if not thousands of people.
That’s cool right? Yeah it is, except for the fact that your article has numerous spelling and grammar errors. The people reading your article are appalled by this and click off your article. Has that ever happened to you? Would you even know if it did? Are you aware that your articles have poor grammar and spelling, punctuation, or perhaps the lack of punctuation entirely?
I see it every single day. Not just articles. Website text on home pages, web pages, sales letters and the list goes on. That’s very unprofessional in my opinion, that you couldn’t take a little extra time to proofread what you wrote before you let every one on the net read it.
I understand it’s hard for people to catch their own mistakes. That’s usually the case, actually. It takes practice, practice and more practice to master. No joke! Then you have another scenario. Someone who doesn’t have English as their primary language. Their intentions are good with solid information that would be very useful to anyone who reads it. The problem here is the same.
Software that a lot use to translate what they write does a pretty decent job. But… not good enough. Sometimes ideas get crossed and a sentence ends up saying something different than what it’s suppose to mean. Grammar can be downright horrible. It’s not their fault, though. Or is it?
I feel it’s everyone’s responsibility to present a professional image. If you’re trying to make a name for yourself on the internet and earn others respect, then this should be your top priority. This means proofreading what you write or having someone proofread it for you.
You want others to understand what you’re trying to say. Write in a clear, concise manner without spelling and grammar errors. If this is impossible for you then get someone to proofread it… it’s that simple. You can easily hire someone to do this. There are many freelancers who would be more than happy to help you out. It’s up to you, though, to seek out their help.
Does your online reputation matter to you? It should! You want to make a name for yourself and have people respect you. So… do yourself a favor and make certain you’re presenting a professional image.
Following up with my previous post on finding 
. It takes time to research a topic and then write about it. It’s very time consuming to keep a blog updated on a consistent basis. And as we all know, Google loves new, fresh content that’s added regularly to sites. This is where you, a freelance blog writer, can help.
