Showing posts with label Writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Writing. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Title Considerations

While it certainly isn't as much work as crafting the body of a superior article, selecting a title for a piece is definitely an important element of the entire process of content creation. The title of an article is a multifunction web tool, providing opportunities for engagement with the reader and search engine in equal measure. Putting some thought into the title and how best to leverage its effects will help title choices provide a solid return on investment instead of burdening an otherwise good project needlessly.
Making Wordplay Work
The necessity of a good title is rather self evident if one plays a small game. Borrowed from Christopher Hitchens' autobiography, Hitch 22, the game basically goes like this: Pick a popular movie title and change it just slightly to get a "title that didn't quite make it" - Quiet of the Lambs, American Pastry, Mister Zhivago, the American Samurai and such all demonstrate the importance of getting things just right. A small change can eliminate the value of good wordplay or an entertaining twist of phrase in favor of something more bland and pointless.
To that end, try to put some thought into the title. Reference popular works - for example, a comparison piece doesn't go wrong by referring to "A Tale of Two..." Alternatively, the title could reference a key quotation or phrase within the body of the text itself. Don't ignore something that seems to work, but double check creative title ideas against someone else's opinion, just to be sure.
Words are Key
The title is a crucial part of the Search Engine Optimization process. Keyword spiders and algorithms often look at the first words in an article, and the title is no exception. Having the core keyword worked into the title will consistently help return better results within Internet searches.
However, this comes with particular caveats: Some keywords, particularly keyword phrases, are long and clunky and can interfere with the aesthetics of a title. If the keyword phrase in question is "how to brew your own beer," that's one thing. A clever preface can be put before it, with how to brew your own beer as a subtitle or addendum to the main line. On the other hand, the keywords might be "Legal Advice Auto Accident," which is more difficult to work into a clever title. Experiment with a few approaches, and consider putting only a few of the keywords into the title or breaking them up into a fresh sentence.
Another trick concerns where to put the title. In many blog posts the title will have its own section. However, also consider putting the title and its keywords into the body of the paragraph itself. Some search engines ignore separate title fields and focus on the content of the article itself, so this can help keep a writer from robbing themselves of good keyword return.
Brevity, Please
Particularly in the academic world, titles of articles and papers tend to be long and quite dense. "An Analysis of the Savior Archetype in Modern English Literature" certainly tells us what the paper is about, but could also easily be summed up as "The Savior in Modern Literature" and loses nothing of its statement of intent.
Further, keyword optimization becomes less effective the further into a document one gets, and this includes the size of the title. Proper keyword effect selects for shorter, more efficient use of titles, so avoid the temptation to put the whole topic into the title line. Go for simpler, brief word choices that allow expression of the important information without going on and on.
Hyphenated titles are very popular for this reason. A single word can capture the intent of the message, such as "Betrayed," and then be followed with keywords. To take an example from the news, perhaps the keywords are "WikiLeaks" and "PayPal." The title could then be "Betrayed - WikiLeaks Banned from PayPal."
To Joke or Not to Joke
Not every lighthearted article responds well to a joking title. People are oddly finicky and picky about when they'll accept humor, and the use of puns in a title is a risky gamble. Yet it undoubtedly works - consider the example of the Focker movie trilogy starring Ben Stiller.
Obviously if the article is a serious piece, a pun should be avoided unless it's executed in the vein of dark humor. Serious work demands a serious title.
However, an important rule of thumb is to be very cautious about industries or groups in jokes. Consider for whom the article is intended. If it is aimed at a wider public audience, such as a newsletter or advertisement intended to bring people into a site for discussion or purchases, then an excellent inside joke would be misplaced. Not everyone understands the jargon, so it should be limited. On the other hand, a specialty letter crafted specifically for professionals of the plumbing craft could easily get away with jokes about piping and other internally-recognized puns. As with any online venture, the goal is clearly to keep the audience first and foremost in mind when selecting a title, rather than simply hoping they'll "get" it.


Monday, December 27, 2010

Writing WordPress Blog Posts That Hypnotize

WordPress is one of the most highly touted blog platforms in the world. Its massive user base is incredibly passionate and resourceful. And the updates just keep making WordPress better and better. Unfortunately, for the WordPress user, this means that they have massive competition on the web today. Of course, this isn't just from other WordPress users, but they are included. You need ways to differentiate your blog from the rest of the crowd. You need things that make your blog posts literally hypnotize your readers.
Is there anything more boring than reading a blog post about someone's cat? Now, I'm not opposed to cats, but unless I personally know you (and even then), I don't want to read an entire post about your cat. But posts about cats aren't the only ones that bore people to tears. Most blog writers have no idea how to capture their readers.
Writing effective blog posts is not like normal writing. Writing blog posts that really grab people are very rare. But what do these writers know that the others don't? Well, first, they understand that having someone's attention is a privilege. Most writers look at it the other way around. As such, you need to understand that you probably have 5 seconds to convince someone to keep reading your post. That's it. How would you write if you only had 5 seconds to sell someone to read your post? Well, you would start with a catchy title. You wouldn't write the title "The Importance of Saliva." Nope, don't do it. You would write something like "Why Saliva Keeps You Alive." See the difference? There is nothing in the first one that remotely makes me want to read on. The second is much more alluring.
Okay, so you have written a nice title. You have garnered maybe another 10 seconds from your reader. That's an incredible step. Now, don't let your readers down. Your very next paragraph should punch them between the eyes. Lead into your subject and keep them wanting more. Maybe you would tell them facts about how much saliva your body produces in a day. It's gross and incredible. And then maybe you would start to tell them about the enzymes in the saliva. And then you would leave them hanging on how exactly it keeps you alive.
Don't answer the reader's curiosity in the first paragraph. If you do, you will relieve the tension and they will move on. You want to lead them into the body of your post. You want to hypnotize them with your words. And then you want to deliver something great. Don't lead them on and then not deliver. No one likes a tease.
If you follow these simple ideas, I can guarantee that your writing will improve. Writing blogs is like writing articles in a newspaper. You need to grab their attention, build tension, keep them wanting more, and then deliver. It's that simple.


Saturday, December 25, 2010

How to Do Article Marketing

Article marketing is a success only if you can force a reader take a the action you want him to take. The reason being that main thing behind article marketing is to publicize and make your reader do what you want out of them.
Writing article is helpful only if you can make your reader do more clicks. With bad articles there is no use to do it all day long. If you can write good articles you cant make money.
You will create enemies who are less hard working. Those who optimise their article to convert can even get you killed. Those who work less feel envy on you.
The number clicks needs to be increased and once it increases your resource box will be optimised and thereby increasing profit.
The correct way to test 10 new article sis simple. Go through each one and select the good ones and bad ones. The good ones are those which have maximum number of clicks and bad have less clicks. Keep on separate out the bad ones until your CRT is 2, 3 and even 4. This way you can give a nice competition.
System of scale is the required to find best out new unique resource boxes. The information used today should be used in recent time. The strategy which work in two different service is same and if they are successful in one then they will be surely successful in the other one.
Don't be shy, if you are an associate marketer. Watching the content or calls to action and marketing message that big marketers use in the national campaign.
And yes there is no problem in going with their ideas for your own use and content and articles. And if these articles or products of your are propagating their offers or ideas, there is no problem at all.


Friday, December 24, 2010

Article Marketing Strategies

If you are using article marketing to promote yourself, your site or your product, there are three key elements you must understand before you hit the "submit" button. These are: branding, lead generation, and promotion.
1- Branding
In the days of the wild west, before people realized that good fences make good neighbors, cattle used to roam freely across the plains. To ensure that no one stole their cows, ranchers would brand them with the ranch's symbol, or logo. At certain times during the year, cowboys would go out and round up all the cattle for miles around. They could then be herded back to their home ranch and sold, eaten or mated.
Today, the internet is a bit like the wild west of days gone by. Thoughts, ideas, stories and news wander around, commingling freely with other bits of digital information. For anyone trying to make a living online, it is more important than ever to fix your brand on your own work. Why?
One of the obvious answers is that you don't want other people to steal your work. Another answer, though, is that you want your clients and potential clients to begin to know you (and your company, products, etc.) through your work.
What this means for article marketers is that every time you sit down to write, you need to make sure you are doing the best possible job you can. Put out drivel, and your "brand" will quickly become associated with drivel.
Think of it this way: If your goal in article marketing is to entice readers back to your own website, you have to give them a good reason to follow you home. Your articles are the teasers, the hint of what can be found at your own site.
Put out consistently good articles, rich with content that helps your readers, and your brand will be something you can be proud of.
2- Lead Generation
Of course, the main reason to employ article marketing is for lead generation. Readers who come across a quality article you've written are likely to follow your links back to your own site so they can read more. Hopefully, you've filled your own site with more quality content so that readers begin to recognize you as the leader in your niche and they return again and again.
Viewing your articles as a way to generate leads should encourage you to fill your writing with information your readers want and need. Don't hold back here. Give readers what they want. They, in turn, are then more likely to give you what you want - visitors to your site.
3- Promotion
Many writers think that putting out articles is the promotion they should be shooting for. After all, the more articles they put out, the more links back to their own site, right?
Right. But also short-sighted. Your real goal when article marketing should be to write such high-quality, content rich articles that they are picked up and redistributed by larger publishers with hundreds of thousands of readers.
When incorporating article marketing as a part of your overall promotion, you should look at the bigger picture. The quality of your articles will brand you in the eyes of your readers. Choose how you want them to see you (as an expert) and put out the content that will help them do so. Recognize that your articles are one the best possible forms of lead generation available to internet marketers and treat it with the seriousness that this aspect of your business deserves. Finally, don't view your articles as the end. Write them in such a way that they will encourage re-distribution and so that readers will benefit from them for years to come.


Saturday, December 18, 2010

Avoid Crafty Traps in Essay Writing

Hidden pitfalls are on watch for your paper success in every paragraph of the essay you write. They are notorious misprints, insidious misspellings and numerous stylistic, syntax and format errors. Indeed they are your restless essay writing enemies, which are always on the alert, putting obstacles on your way to excellent grades for your writing assignments.
The drastic truth is that even slight mistakes make you freak out and lose the train of your thoughts. They evoke a fear of losing the main thread, give rise to uncertainty in your strengths and potential, dissipate your motivation to write and give the way to other distractions. Ultimately, make it challenging for you to complete your task at hand.
These minutiae seem to be minor for the inexperienced writer, but in fact they obscure an overall picture of your essay and occur to be crucial for the estimation of your work by professors, reflecting on your poor grades. Hence, essay writing pitfalls must be eradicated by all possible means.
Take these helpful hints to avoid crafty writing traps and forget about poor grades for your writing assignments once and all the time.
Say No to poor thesis statement:
Everything you write should develop around a clear central thesis statement. Good thesis statement zeroes in one main idea and states it clearly, avoiding ambiguous and vague phrases.
It should be specific, analytic and has to evaluate the significant insights of your essay. Strong thesis statement usually introduces the original approach to the traditional view on the problem.

Avoid weak introduction and open-ended conclusion
Focus on one primary function of the introduction - to introduce your thesis statement clearly and precisely so that to grab the attention of the audience. The success strategy of writing your introduction is to start with the broad statement of your main idea and to close it with the actual thesis of your essay.
Don’t leave the unfinished and open-ended feeling at the end of your essay. Always remember that your paper must make its point clear right from the beginning and up to the logical ending.
Make your conclusion coherent and smooth and be sure to stress the significance of your work in the concluding part of your essay, pointing the ways in which your invaluable contributions can be applied.

Beware of undeveloped essay
This problem is particularly common and results from not understanding clearly the essence of the chosen topic. Selecting your essay topic make sure to familiar with it completely and to ask yourself what you really feel passionate about and don’t forget to research it preliminary very thoroughly.
Your paper won’t produce an undeveloped impression if you provide your work with a solid argumentative ground, explaining clearly your view on the researched topic and elucidate the past attempts of the solution of this problem. So that to show the professor that you’ve got the core of the chosen topic at your finger tips.

Never use slang language
Bear in mind that slang language and curse words are absolutely inappropriate in your work. Always remember that your targeted audience is educated professors. More over that college writing commonly implies the utilization of the formal style, which has definite frameworks.

From the Kitchen to the Corner Office

Everyone has a million dollar story that they can turn into a book. The best books, from a business perspective, serve as a lead generator that points readers to their other products and services. Incorporating personal experience into a book and a thriving business is much more than sharing the author’s life story. It involves matching the author’s passion and expertise to a marketplace hungry for the solutions the author provides.
Michelle Yozzo Drake learned life lessons from her mother and the other strong women of her family in the kitchen. Her women’s wisdom network taught her much more than how to make a great meal. Now she incorporates kitchen table lessons into a coaching program that teaches women to develop strong leadership skills in the business arena.

But for her, being a strong leader means much more than running a company. According to Yozzo Drake, it means “striking a balance between all of the roles we as women must fill, and bringing their feminine wisdom into every aspect of their personal and professional lives.”

Her book, From the Kitchen to the Corner Office – Mom’s Wisdom on Leadership, teaches women to bring the lessons of their mothers and of motherhood into all aspects of their life. The book releases in April with Morgan James Publishing. 

A book becomes the most powerful lead generator for a business when it offers readers a way to work with the author. The most successful authors do much more than sell books. Royalties are incidental income as compared with what they generate from income streams such as speaker fees, workshops, coaching programs, consulting fees, or other products and services.

From the Kitchen to the Corner Office is an example of this principle in action. Purchase of the book includes a free bonus seminar called Mom’s MBA. As a gift to women who are serious about their career success, she will reveal the strategies for which she normally charges four to five figures in the free seminar.

Yozzo Drake said, “I want to help women achieve – and show them how much motherhood can be the ultimate business training ground.”

Business mentoring with Awaken The Author Within.com showed her how to write an entrepreneurially sound book that also grows her coaching practice.