Writer’s rites

Blogging - page-rank versus quality

Who would have thought that writing every day would be such tasking work?
Not just opening up the lap-top and hoping that a topic of interest will transmigrate from brain via fingers to blog-post.  If it were simply the case of plain, creative writing, the problem would be how to staunch the flow, not unplugging the dam.
No, I'm talking about writing for the same niche, day-in, day-out and keeping it fresh. I've come to realise how difficult it is to report 'news' in the sense of 'look what's new in our neck-of-the-woods' articles, regularly.
Neither are time nor application the issues - I have both in abundance. My issue is that there are hundreds of blogs in competitive niches pumping out, for example in the dating niche, re-hashed 'how-to-get-your-man' guides and 'ten-top-tips-for-online-dating' articles.
Although the posts to which I refer can hardly be considered 'news', and in a very real sense, many can neither be considered written in English, due to their population with all the right SEO tactics and keywords (used however inappropriately), they shine in page-rank statistics.
These are so obviously 'spun' articles: great swathes of transcript simply copied from a legitimate writer's work, dumped into a spinner and then churned out by the freelance mills as 'articles'. This practise really ought to be addressed by the digital copyright companies and the creators of the software charged with intent.
In an attempt not to be dragged down to that level, I'm constantly trying to find ways of picking through the headlines or reading between other lines that allow me to craft posts, which:

• don't drive readers into our competitors hands,
• maintain integrity to the post/language and look at each one from a different angle, and
• draw potential online daters to the site to provide quality, comprehensible information.

The task is not helped by freelancer agencies who permit jobs to be posted categorically stating that the need for 'spun' material.  It is obvious that they are not intended for reading, only to confuse the spiders that crawl the web-pages looking for 'content' that isn't plagiarised.
Okay, the pay is so poor a genuine writer would not envisage bidding for the project, but that surely raises another point: what protection do freelance writers get with relation to minimum pay?
There must be a minimum rate per 100 words for original content set, across the globe!
The fact that some writers work for peanuts depreciates the market for other, more talented, writers; employers get used to paying a below-value price and almost take it as an insult when you suggest a rate of $4/100 words.
No, something needs to be done – urgently!
If you agree, share this article if you know someone with whom it will hold sway! Thanks in advance, Zebedeerox.

Shameless Self Promotion for Professional Writer

Okay – after several months in the wilderness, I am now back in the driving seat promoting my online presence.

Now that I have been commissioned, have completed and subsequently been paid and received 5-star feed-back for several writing projects, I guess I can now truly call myself a professional writer.

My most recent accolade is having a paid e-mail campaign successfully completed on oDesk.
The money is obviously great, but, in one’s fledgling career as a writer, reputation is perhaps more important.  The fact that this contractor scored me a maximum of five in all five categories, and his subsequent comments, justified the time, effort, research and detail I incorporated into this project.


In conjunction with this initial successes, my own writing website www.wwwriteright.co.uk is now taking shape, too, with the focus on long-term relationships rather than one-off writing jobs  Although, that's not saying that I can't offer a similar service to other 'quick-turnaround blogging services, work-load depending, and with an amazing first 500-word article for a knock-down $29.95, you'd have to be a bit daft not to try me first.

Is Working Online Right For Me?

Making Money On Line

More than ninety percent of people who try to make money online fail before they’ve earned a penny.

Fact.

There are many reasons, but the most prevalent ones are obvious, when you stop to think about; unfortunately, most don’t.

Prospective internet entrepreneurs rush into the concept without due thought.  And, in all probability, for the wrong reasons; debt is not a good reason to look to the 'net as a quick fix to your financial situation. 

Making money online should be approached like any other business, because that’s what it is, your business.  You have to budget for running costs, monthly outgoings, time-input, research and possibly a sales team to pay!

People get too easily disheartened by others who claim to have made thousands of dollars in a week, which, in turn, fills their own minds full of negatives.

This encourages a knee-jerk reaction, tempting the budding entrepreneur to throw good money after ‘get-rich-quick’ schemes – don’t do it!  The only person getting wealthy off the back of such campaigns is the inventor of the concept; guaranteed, he/she will not be the person trying to sell it to you.

Those are some reasons why people fail.  So, how does one succeed?

The absolute maxim, to begin with, is: stick to what you know.  

A prospective client will more likely believe in you and, more importantly, part with their hard earned cash if your sales pitch is based upon solid fact, backed up by experience.  Believe me, it will set you apart from the crowd (and there is not just a crowd seeking prosperity on line, there are legions!).

If you don’t think you know enough about anything to take it to the web and sell it, and you want to learn from scratch, great, good for you.  But, before you embark on this arduous journey and take your new-found knowledge to the www, ensure you’re au fait with all aspects – there is always someone looking to challenge ideas and eliminate the competition.

You will amaze yourself with subjects you do know about.  From baby-sitting pets to running a local football team, or price-comparing your shopping on line to your own exercise regime – someone, somewhere will be browsing that topic.

Don't believe me?  Write down every different thing you’ve done today and put each one into your search engine – see how many millions of results match!  Do it NOW!!!

What you have just learned about is traffic.  The number of (potential) customers looking at what can offer.  And that is truly the key to becoming a successful on line sales executive – traffic!  Attracting people to your site.

Think about this: if you were setting up your first small business off line, would you pay top-dollar rent on the high street?  Or, more cautiously aim for smaller premises and try to divert the high street traffic to your shop?

If you have a great product, and you place enough markers along the roadside, people will find you.  Yes, this takes time and effort; but without the groundwork, your dream will never become reality.

So, how do we get our message to the masses?  Through advertising and word of mouth, as with any other form of business.  

Like everything else in life, you get what you pay for.  Tools for the internet are no different.

But do not be tempted to dive in - shop around for your essentials, like web-hosting (somewhere for your 'premises'), advertising and web copy.  Prices can vary dramatically and getting burnt is a sure-fire way of dampening your enthusiasm at the outset.

If you are seriously strapped for start-up cash, here are genuinely good free tools to help you support and promote your budding online business:-

·         Web-hosting – weebly.com – great for beginners and allows two free websites

·         Auto-responder – listwire.com – free automated e-mail sender

·         Twitter – twitter.com – follow trends and people of your choosing

·         Traffic Exchanges – StartXchange.com – mutual advertising for online businesses

Web Copy - your 'shop window' is your website or blog, which should be immaculate.  People very rarely go into an outlet if the front of store is a disaster.

So, is making money online easy? No, but not as complicated or daunting as you may initially think.

With a sound mindset, proper planning, frugal budgeting and accepting that you will not get rich overnight, you will make money on line.

Write right!

If you're quite new to making money line, you'll have sussed by now that this, in itself, is no mean feat.
As well as being constantly told: "The Money Is In The List", and trying to find that one 'zero start-up' program that's going to make you gazillion$ overnight on auto-pilot, you're constantly being dragged into The Valley of Distraction as you try to surf for credits or read *SOLO* e-mails.
None of this is conducive to building your online empire which, you are reliably being told, will enable you to "Fire Your Boss" in xxx months.
Even though you know you have the power to do so, if only you could get the whole shooting match and caboodle kick-started, it still eludes you!
If you have stumbled on this blog (or have been sent the link to it), there's a good chance that you will have read a thousand splash pages or opened even more e-mails before you arrived here.
I know - I have been there myself.
Very often, as I tried to convince myself that beating the timer was a game of skill that would eventually lead me to that first sale (and the inevitable avalanche thereafter), I felt like the monkey with the infamous typewriter who would, after several millennia, come up with a script akin to one of The Bard's greatest tragedies or, indeed, that most fictitious of works, The Highly Bobble itself.
Sorry, to the point of this blog:
Three things have struck me, as I've been picking the fleas from my scalp whilst waiting for matching spaceships and friendly dragons to embellish me with bonus peanuts, sorry, banner/text ad/mailing credits:-

1. Am I enjoying this, really: NO! Possibly because, as all of the decent guys in the IM world will tell you (whilst genuinely NOT trying to sell you something): you have to find the niche that you (at least) have some knowledge of to succeed in and, even better, enjoy working within its parameters!
2. When did the schools of the world join forces and stop teaching English?  Of the 1,000's of e-mails we read, even Splash-pages that people have deliberated upon, no doubt for hours following the design forms that the creators have provided to make their traffic-generating tool eye-catching, we could probably count on one hand the total number that are 100% grammatically correct!
3. Nothing is more likely to instantly lose my interest (how many times do you see 'loose' in the subtext of an article [i.e. 'you have nothing to loose'] instead of lose?  Blimey!)  than a poorly written e-mail, even if the page thereafter rocks.  I get the distinct impression that the person making me the offer has either copied and pasted the draft into their auto-responder without checking it (therefore, if I went to clickbank, I could probably promote it myself) or, as is more likely, they are so desperate to get me to their order page they have not addressed the key steps to getting me there in the first instance.  Either way, my willingness to buy has already been irreversibly suppressed by this initial bad form.

Drawing a conclusion from those points, given that my talent (if you can call it that) is a slightly above-average command of the English language, and the ability to transpose it at a decent rate of knots from perception to web-page, I think I can help at least 95% of people trying to eek out an existence on the web by offering my services as a copy-writer.  Yes, you've read thus far, how darest thee argue, my love?
From this link I offer a tariff of, what I believe, to be very reasonable charges for the services I am willing to offer.
Yes - you can get software that will write your blog for you - but so can everyone else.
I'm 40 and have been selling for 23 years - let me tell you, now (even before the www was invented, and subsequently hereafter - for those under 25, that must be such a difficult concept): people buy from people!
People they are comfortable with, people they feel they can trust, people they have a rapport with, people they can reach!
Okay - you're with a safe list, right?  Say, your EZ ads.  You open that folder, after 3 days, there's 540 emails.  What is going to make your ad stand out from the 539 others?  Don't forget, these random members that you've sent your ad to are going to be faced with the exact same mountain of e-mails to click through as you!
You have about 3 seconds to make a difference - self-writing software won't do that for you!  Your ad will be just the same as everyone else using the same free software.
You have to put some YOU into it.
You may have the highest converting product out there, but thousands of surfers, with a similar mindset as mine, will never take your offer seriously because you've let yourself down in the first instance!
Fill in the contact form, through this link,to send me your writing query.