Archive for the ‘Web writing’ Category
Take ACTION and You’ll Succeed With Web Writing
If there’s one thing which will derail your Web writing career, it’s this: knowing what to do, yet failing to take action.
Sell Your Writing Online NOW (SYWON) is full of action plans: you receive a Web writing assignment every week.
In this article Writing Career: One-Year Fast Track to Success | Angela Booth’s Fab Freelance Writing Blog I said:
“Over the past 30 years of writing, I’ve become a huge fan of planning. I plan consistently, and have yearly, monthly and daily writing plans. I never follow any plan precisely as written. I may ditch my plan for the day if I decide that something else needs attention.
However I can see from my own career that a lack of planning leads to a lack of action, and ACTION is what counts.”
Please read the article carefully, and create plans. Here’s the thing about any plan for your writing: every plan you create will work, and it will always have benefits for you far beyond anything you anticipate.
Each and every action you take benefits you — and often you won’t see the results immediately.
Twenty years ago, when my primary income came from copywriting, I often spent an entire day each and every week, writing letters to clients with whom I wanted to work. I got the names from business listings.
I wrote lots of letters. I got lots of clients.
Ultimately, because I just focused on the plan, I got many more clients than I could handle. It was embarrassing to tell prospective clients that I was booked sold for the next six months. Of course, I stopped writing letters, but for years, the job offers kept coming. Some of those clients are still with me today.
The results of your actions can take time to arrive. In my copywriting letter-writing, the best results came three months after I started the campaign. And then they snowballed. I had to turn my phone off so I could write: the phone just wouldn’t stop ringing.
If you’re a SYWON subscriber, you know that you can always check your plans with me and with Julia, so you know you’re heading in the right direction.
Any plan you create and put into action is a GOOD plan, simply because you’re taking action. So create a short and sweet plan today, and take ACTION. If you do, you’ll find it’s impossible to fail with Web writing… and come to that, with anything at all.
Web Writing: Best Keyword Tool
As a Web writer, your clients expect you to write content which is easily found, so that they get traffic. And this means that you need to be reasonably proficient at finding good keywords.
Over the years, I’ve tried many keyword tools. The best is Google’s own keyword tool. However, if you’re writing for many clients, it can be a challenge to manage your keywords and have them easily accessible.
Before I found Market Samurai, I had keyword spreadsheet files scattered all over my hard drives. I’d use them once, and then because keywords are constantly changing, depending on what searchers are looking for, I’d need to perform fresh searches (and store more spreadsheets) each month.
I’m sure you have the same hassles. 
Market Samurai is the answer. Not only does it help you to perform keyword research, it also keeps the research handy, and lets you update it at a click. It’s a tool I love, and commend it to you.
Be advised that there’s no need to upgrade to the paid version of Market Samurai after your trial if you’re only using the keyword tool and have no need of the other tools; the keyword tool remains free. However, if you do decide to upgrade, you’ll find it useful each and every day — I always have it open on my desktop.
“Go From Zero To Making $250 Per Hour For Web Writing – Kick Off Your Web Writing Career In 24 Hours!”
There’s great money in Web writing. Some Web writers are making $20,000 a month by blogging for a stable of sites. Others are writing articles or ebooks.
Want to jump on this opportunity? No matter what your level of writing skill, you can make great money writing for the Web too.
Get a full year of weekly assignments; become a Web writing pro with Sell Your Writing Online NOW.
Write Web content: that’s where the money is
Sell Your Writing Online NOW (SYWON) gives you all the skills and training you need to build your own Web content empire.
There’s lots of money in content, as Yahoo knows, because Yahoo has just bought Associated Content.
Yahoo Buys Associated Content, Makes An SEO Play reports:
“Founded in 2005, Associated Content has approximately 380,000 contributors who write articles, create videos, or upload audio and more on practically any subject under the sun. How much content does the company produce? According to this recent Econsultancy interview, about 10,000 new pieces of content every week.”
Interesting news.
Want to write for the Web? Sell Your Writing Online NOW (SYWON) gives you all the information and practical training you need. You can go from zero income to making $250 per hour in just a year. Does this sound like a long time to you? Consider that you’ll be making money quickly, and that your income will build month by month. Writing for the Web, the SYWON way, is fun, and exciting, and you get personal coaching from me, Angela Booth, right throughout your training. Join us — you’ll love it, I promise.
Web Writing Training: How to Make Easy Money from Your Writing Today
Want to make real money from your writing? You can, if you know how. Thousands of other writers are already doing it, so if you love writing, you can do it too.
Words are big business on the Web, and if you can write, you can write your own paycheck, once you know how it all works.
Over the past 12 months, several companies have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into developing Web content. One company is even rumored to be in the process of creating an IPO (Initial Public Offering.)
This last is amazing to me: a company which focuses solely and completely on WEB CONTENT is issuing an IPO? This means that Web content has arrived in the money markets, and it’s not hard to see why… there’s big profit in it.
You can take advantage, and can profit too, if you get Web writing training.
Let’s look at what Web writing training can do for you.
1. You Can Make Money Writing About Your Passions
I’m passionate about many things: the Web, and writing, just to name two.
Being able to make writing writing about my passions is sheer heaven for me.
In a sense, I’ve always made money writing about my passions… in the 1980s, when my sons were tiny, I made money writing for parenting magazines. In the mid-1990s, and up to the present, I’ve made money writing for computer magazines.
However, writing for the Web makes mining your passions to create an income much easier. These days if I become passionate about something, I’m much more likely to create a blog or a Web site on the topic, and monetize it, than I am to write magazine articles about it.
2. You Can Make Money Writing About What You Learn
What are you learning in your daily life? The constant changes all around us ensure that we’re all learning. All you need to do is notice what you’re learning, and you can make money from it.
Here’s a big tip: if you’re starting out in an area, you’re in a prime position to make money from it. You’re writing at a level that more people understand, because there are always many more beginners in an area than there are experts. Once you reach expert status yourself, it’s difficult to write for beginners for various reasons, the main one being that it’s hard to get back into a beginner’s mindset.
3. You Can Make Money As a Totally New Writer
Yes, you can make money when you’re just starting out. You can earn as you learn.
This gives you amazing opportunities. You no longer need to practice the writing craft for years on end until you’re a highly professional writer — you can make money as a beginner.
4. Are You Already a Professional Writer? Web Writing Training Lets You Turn Writing Into a Million-Dollar Business
On the other hand, if you’re already a professional writer, training in Web writing lets you spread your wings. You’ll begin to understand the truly unlimited opportunities the Web offers you. You’re ready to aim not just for a great income, but a superb one.
I was speaking with a Sell Your Writing Online NOW (SYWON) graduate student a few days ago who told me he’s creating a new blog, and that he’s confident that he’ll be able to sell it for a million dollars within 12 months.
Will he do it? I’m sure that he will. He’s created similar sites, and sold them. He knows what he’s doing, and if he doesn’t hit his million-dollar payday, he’s going to come very close.
I know that many writers are frustrated by the Web. They get stuck in low-paying writing ghettos, and know that they can climb out, but don’t see how. If you’re in this position, you’re on the first rung of a ladder. When you get the weekly Web writing training you need, you’ll climb that ladder. The higher you climb, the better the view.
Web Writing Training: 5 Reasons You Need It
Want to write for the Web? You can write for major Web sites, tiny Web sites, company sites, and for individuals. In addition, you can create your own online properties as quickly as you can type. These properties build into a real business, which give you residual income, month after month.
There are literally unlimited places for you to sell your writing online. Buyers FIGHT for good writers, and they’re willing to pay for quality writing.
Unfortunately, 95 out of 100 writers get stuck. They’re bewildered by the Web. Instead of seeing opportunities, they see chaos.
This is understandable. I’ve been online since the mid-1980s — the days when “online” meant command line interfaces, and Bulletin Board Systems — so I understand the Web and it’s easy to see where the opportunities are.
Here are five reasons you need Web writing training:
1. You need to learn what kinds of writing sell online, and who to sell your writing to.
2. You need to know how to create a Web site or blog in minutes, to take advantage of a new opportunity.
3. You need to know how to build up your own list of buyers: those publications, companies and individuals who rely on you as their own personal writer.
4. You need to know how to advertise and promote your writing services and products quickly, in a cost-effective way.
5. And the biggest reason of all: you need a program to follow, which guides you, and shows you the way.
Sell Your Writing Online NOW (SYWON) is that program. It’s been guiding writers to successful Web writing careers for two years.
Isn’t it time you took control, and built the Web writing career you want?
Kick off your writing career: go from zero to $250 per hour
Web Writing and Keywords: your best SEO tool is your brain
If you’re unfamiliar with SEO, it means Search Engine Optimization. You’ll often be asked to write “SEO articles” for clients, and of course, when you’re writing your own projects, you need to optimize them if you can.
With that out of the way, let’s get on with our topic, using your brain to discover the most effective keywords.
Web searches are keyword-based. This means that whether you’re writing your own projects, or are writing projects for clients, you need to pay attention to keywords.
But…
When I’m working with Web writing training students, I find that many of them rely too much on keyword tools, such as the Google AdWords Keyword tool. This is a mistake.
Here’s the problem with relying on a tool: all the data in a tool, no matter how wonderful the tool is, is historical. The tool shows you what terms people searched for in the past. It can’t show you what terms people will use today, or in the future. Since many keyword terms are new — they’ve never been used before — this presents you with a challenge, and an opportunity.
Here’s the challenge: some keywords are so popular that it’s almost impossible for your articles and sales copy to be found if you use them.
For example, take a term like “weight loss.” If you optimize for that keyword, and expect to be found, you’ll be disappointed. There are many millions of references to “weight loss” online, and without heavy promotion, which involves lots of money, NOTHING you write which is optimized on that keyword will be found. So writing that’s optimized for that keyword is a waste of time, right?
No… because every challenge also presents you with an opportunity.
Use your brain: it’s the best keyword tool ever
When you’re writing for the Web, your best keyword tool is your BRAIN.
Let’s imagine that a client asks you to write ten articles optimized for the “weight loss” keyword.
Use your head first.
Think about individuals who want to lose weight. They’re fat — or at least they perceive themselves as fat. A woman who’s ten pounds overweight can be even more upset about this than another woman (or man, let’s not be sexist) who’s 150 pounds overweight.
How do does a fat individual feel? Probably guilty, ashamed, perhaps even humiliated, if someone has looked at them with contempt, or has made an unkind remark.
It’s taken that individual time to gain weight. It will take them time to lose weight. However, something has triggered their desire to lose weight… So they want to lose it fast.
What might this overweight person think, and then type into a search engine?
Just make a list.
Some examples:
how do I lose weight by next week
I want to lose weight for my wedding
lose weight 50 pounds
lose weight with a good diet
a healthy way to lose weight
fat and lose weight
what should I weigh?
get rid of fat
And so on…
I haven’t spent any time thinking about this at all. I just typed whatever came into my head.
If I were really writing a series of articles based on the “weight loss” keyword, I’d type a list just like this, then I’d look in weight loss forums online, and I’d page through a couple of diet and/ or fitness magazines.
I have these magazines at home, but if I didn’t have paper magazines on hand, I’d Google “diet magazines” or “fitness magazines” to find them. These magazines would give me lots of ideas for additional keywords.
The bonus: using your brain to find keywords gives you ideas for your writing
The big bonus of mining your own brain for keywords is that you’re kick-starting your creativity.
Keyword lists that I create myself get me excited.
I could write articles titled “I Wanted to Lose Weight for My Wedding: I Did, Here’s How” and “Get Rid of Fat for Good: the Seven Simplest Ways to Lose Weight” very quickly. And so could you.
Not only is the competition you face much less (there are only 618,000 Google references to “get rid of fat”, compared to 55,000,000 for “weight loss” for example), you’ll find that you will write faster, and write more, when you mine your brain for keywords.
Want to write for the Web? Sell Your Writing Online NOW (SYWON) gives you all the information and practical training you need. You can go from zero income to making $250 per hour in just a year. Does this sound like a long time to you? Consider that you’ll be making money quickly, and that your income will build month by month. Writing for the Web, the SYWON way, is fun, and exciting, and you get personal coaching from me, Angela Booth, right throughout your training. Join us — you’ll love it, I promise.
Web writing: links are powerful and valuable
If you’re new to writing for the web, there’s one thing you need to know, and to remember. It’s this: relevant links are both powerful and valuable. The web is the web because of links, after all.
Links are the foundation of search engine optimization (SEO). They’re the primary way any web page is found online.
In the first few lessons of Sell Your Writing Online NOW (SYWON) web writing training, I ask you to create several sites.
Some writers tell me that they don’t need to do the “create a site” assignments in the lessons, because they already have a site. We tell them that’s great, but please follow the assignments as written, because there’s a strategy involved, and the more links they have, the better.
Just this morning, Julia wrote in response to a member query:
Start a Blogger blog; link it to your other websites. LINKS are vital; the more the merrier, and the more you’ll show up in the search engine results. So, create as many Blogger blogs as you wish. (Each blog must be genuine, and not created solely for links, that would be spam.)
That aside, there’s no limit on the number of free Blogger and WordPress.com blogs you can create, pointing back to your “real” websites. There’s a reason Angela has so many sites…
Get all the RELEVANT links you can
It’s vital that you get relevant links. As you go through the training, you’ll find that the sites you create start working for you, bringing you traffic via your links, and that as a result of the links, your income rapidly increases.
One point: please notice I said “relevant” links — not just any old links.
Relevant links are those which are relevant: they have something to do with the purpose of the site you’ve created.
Your writer’s portfolio site could have links from your clients (always ask clients to link to you from their sites; some will, some won’t). Your clients may be in many different industries. So you could have links from businesses which sell pet food, or which sell concrete rebar. Neither pet food or rebar are relevant on the face of it, BUT if they link to you using a keyword like “writer” or “freelance writer” or your name, they are relevant.
A warning: beware “we’ll get you to the top of Google” scams
Scammers love to sell linking scams. Therefore, delete any “we’ll get you to the top of Google” email messages you receive.
They’re scams. Here’s why: getting you to the first page of the search engine query results for a valuable and competitive keyword like “freelance writer” is impossible. You need to spend lots of time (and money) to achieve that.
These scammers provide you with totally irrelevant garbage links, which will get you banned from the search engines, so please don’t be misled.
Are you a member of Sell Your Writing Online NOW (SYWON) web writing training? Join us: you’ll have lots of fun, and you’ll become an established, well paid web writer, more quickly than you believe possible.
Web writing: fail your way to success
No one likes to talk about failure. Writers are especially failure-shy. I understand. I’ve been there. In the 1980s, when I started to write for magazines, I’d burst into tears whenever I completed an article query and stuck it in an envelope.
I wish I’d learned sooner that your failures don’t count. What counts is your successes. Any successful writing career is built on your failures: you fail your way to success.
I love this comment in Court’s article "5 Places You Can Look For New Keywords":
Before we get started I should probably make something very clear – I have had tons of sites that didn’t work out very well. I have always been willing to fall on my face. The honest truth guys is that you have to be willing to fail a few dozen times. You’ll find some winners, gain some experience, and you’ll also find some losers. The losers still have value because they can make some money and they can still be used to build some links. In that light, there is no such thing as a ‘loser’.
The article resonates with me because it’s happened to me too — I’ve started way too many writing blogs, for example. BUT… all my writing blogs are still online, and they get traffic and make money. Failures? Not really, not unless I’m suffering from a bad case of the "shoulds" and am being really hard on myself.
If you’re scared of failing, relax. It’s a writer’s disease. Sooner or later, you’ll be eager to fail, because you realize the more times you "fail" the more times you succeed.
The only real way to fail is to let the idea of failure paralyze you.
Here’s how I got over being scared of rejections and failing in any project: I made up my mind that I would only write what was FUN for me. If I was having fun, and the writing was its own reward, I could become cavalier about failures. So what? It’s the end result that counts, not how you get there.
Fail on!
SYWON
