What Not to Do With Keywords

Keyword rich articles, web pages, and blogs are critical if you want to keep SEO spiders fed. Keywords are what anchor searches to your entries on the web. They are also want vendors who are looking for ad space want to hook their ads to as well.

There are people who try to beat the system and who only manage to kill their own writing efforts. There is an old saying, “Winners never cheat and Cheaters never win.” This adage holds true in the use of keywords and their misuse by some nefarious bloggers and website owners.  But the people who own those SEO spiders are pretty smart and they know what is really happening. Pretty soon the cheaters’ plans back fire on them and they either get shut down or get nasty threats from the legal department of someone’s business.

So what are they doing that is raunchy and ill mannered abuse of key words?

• Irrelevant Key words - Using words irrelevant to page content to generate traffic.  For example, let’s say my blog site is all about dog food and dog food brand comparisons. But I know that the most popular blog topic of the week is “how to blog”. How to blog and dog food have NOTHING to do with each other. If I have loose blogging morals I might try and stuff “how to blog” in my dog food conversation to drive more traffic to my site.
• Key Word Stuffing- Repeating the same word over and over and over in a web page or blog entry. Some even go so far as to repeat the same keyword rich paragraph verbatim on the page. There is actually a tool called the “key word density cloud” to test if your page has keyword density overkill.
• Splogging- Prolific plagiarists who steal your blog content or your article content and post it as their own are dirty rotten sploggers. While mimicry is often called the highest form of flattery…stealing is stealing! All they want is your article and the web traffic that goes with it.

Finding the right amount of keywords for your site is similar to dieting, you have to find the right balance that works for you.  To keep you spiders happy and healthy, use keywords in moderation and drive your site responsibly!

Book Promotion – Begin to Market Your Writing

You wrote a book. You published it yourself and it is truly a solid read. How do you take that book and make a full time living? Marketing. Does hearing that  word send you running for the woods shaking with the willies?

Don’t run away! Marketing does not have to be an ugly adventure into the world of hard sales and cheesy promises. 

• A good marketer is really a good listener who works to foster discussion and waits for feedback.
• A good marketer knows that it is not about what the marketer thinks he has that is good for the audience.
• The astute marketer recognizes that it is what the audience wants that is important.

An author can take those same marketing principles of successful businesses and apply them to their own product…their book.  Who was the audience you had in mind when you wrote your book? What benefits are they looking to get from your book? What do they want and need?

You can’t be all things to all people. The first step in making your book successful is to know your audience and speak directly to their needs.

Once you have identified those specific needs you have to create a clear message on what your book does. You can’t begin to develop any sales copy until you have refined and articulated that message in such a way that it is absolutely clear in your own mind.

Readers are just like customers. They want to know how your book can specifically speak to their need. They want to know a little about you personally so they can trust you and your values. Readers want to make an emotional connection to your book. If they don’t they won’t buy it.

Do you have a clear message about your book that makes an emotional connection to your audience?

Writing for Dollars – Can you really make a living at this?

Is there a writer buried deep inside you? Do you want to add the words author and freelance writer after your name? Many authors say they would quit their day job if they could, “make a living at this.” If you  are not independently wealthy or have a spouse who is willing to support you financially and emotionally you will still have to support yourself while you write that book. There is also the whole finding an agent and getting your work out to publishers phase of the process. An author alone in the world living by their craft has to be clever or at least market savvy.

Many authors supplement their paltry royalty checks by freelancing. You can be a writer and make money. It is possible! Don’t get caught up in the negative hype of making a living freelancing. There is heavy competition…in some fields. It can be difficult getting the next assignment…in some cases. The pay is low…at times. If you are willing to be creative and learn a few effective marketing and business practices you can earn a living writing.

Who uses freelance writers and authors?

• Corporations and Businesses – newsletters, reports, press releases, business plans, articles for in-house and peer reviewed journals.
• Technical Industries – compliance directions, field guides, handbooks, technical guides, etc.
• Health Care Industries – research reports on treatments, medical coverage, and other related issues. Newsletter and peer reviewed journal articles.
• Popular Magazines
• Individuals – resumes, book proposals, ghost writing, content editing
• Self Publishing – create your own newsletters that lead to book sales

All you need to be successful is to have some writing talent, persistence and a little self-direction. As a writer you already know that you have to take criticism of your work with grace and you are certainly aware of how to meet deadlines. Now you just have to perfect working well with others and good listening skills.

Get out there and launch that new business. You can write from home and not only be well heard but well paid!

Writing to be Read

KISS (Keep It Simple Silly) is the perfect acronym for authors to embrace.  Short simple sentences are not only easier to read but get the point across faster.  When people really “get” something in your book they are more likely to talk about it and spread the word. Spread the word and sell more books.

Readers today do not want to reflect on or respond to lengthy parcels of writing. They want the meat and potatoes of the work laid out for them in language that is easy to follow. Honestly, while James Joyce and Herman Melville produced outstanding literature that has stood the test of time, who reads their work casually? Academics may read it but most students will look for the movie version or the Cliff notes. Why?

Think back to kindergarten…writing was fun! Exciting! When we were first introduced to learning how to write it was a socially active engaging experience.  We used simple language to learn phonics skills and built word walls.  Writing was interactive! Reading was Dick and Jane and Spot and Puff and all their silly adventures. Then we graduated to Dr. Seuss and the art of rhyming word families. Oh, the places we did go with our reading!

As authors, we need to get back to that simple carefree use of language. We need to write to be read in a way that engages the reader and makes them excited about the content. Throw out those long passages of describing the scenery. Economize on the length of word and the details.  This is not 11th grade where you have to show your knowledge of the language, the rules of grammar, and the depth of your vocabulary. 

Readers prefer:

• Dialogue and lots of it
• Showing and not telling by the author
• Less detail

 Everytime an author interjects more than a “said” in dialogue they are butting in the scene.  The author should remain as invisible as possible in the work. Show readers through dialogue the conflict and action of your story.  If you are describing a snow storm does the reader really need to know what each flake looks like as it falls to the ground? Remove words that are not found in everyday language. Honestly, who really uses words like “ubiquitious” and “mendacious”?

Writing to be read means tightly scripted work. Cut, pare down, and chop away at pretentious writing no one really wants to read.  Sometimes the simplest writing can put forth the most complex ideas. Make every word count.

Critique Groups – Feedback Sessions for Authors

Do you belong to a support group for writers or speakers? Belonging to a collaborative critique group can be both and boon and a bane for authors and speakers. They are a boon because of the incredible insight you get into your work from various perspectives of others. They are a bane because you may not like what they have to say or how they deliver it. Author critique groups provide the system of checks and balances that are necessary for producing useful content related feedback.

Feedback – Feedback can be a powerful source of inspiration that provides new direction for work you are currently slugging with on a daily basis. Critique groups can be virtual, coffee shop, or home-based with a wide variety of structure and organization.  On Bainbridge Island, WA there is a wonderful group called Field’s End that promotes authors by providing workshops, presentations, and other events. Like minded people tend to gravitate toward each other in the framework of the organization and many of them go on to form critique groups.

Some people prefer small intimate affairs, others prefer large group settings where they can remain more anonymous. A new version of the critique setting is emerging on line inspired by authors like John Kremer. He has founded an author/agent/publisher social network that is now over 1000 members strong that harbor among other things critique groups.

Making the Most of Your Time – Whether you pursue traditional publishing or self-publishing, a critique group can be invaluable to your work’s overall success. Think of it as an inexpensive way to “road test” your work before it goes to an agent or editor to be eviscerated.  How do you make the most of your critique group’s time with your work?

• Be specific in what you need.
  • Don’t say, “Help, I don’t know where to go next!”
  • Say instead, “I am struggling with getting the protagonist’s inner conflict to be evident to the reader in a seamless method.” 
  • Or, “Does the humor in this scene fit with the character’s later development?”
• Have clean copies for the group.
  • Run spelling and grammar check prior to distributing to your group

A good critique will help you remove the clutter in your writing, indicate your weaknesses, and valuable insight to your work. If you only get feedback that is glowing, filled with nothing but praise, and make you feel like the next Stephen King…then run! Feedback is only effective if it is balanced and has value that benefits your work and not just your ego. 

Find a critique group that fits your style on line, in a round table forum or in a small intimate setting. Good critique groups are instructive, inspirational, constructive and promote positive community building between authors. Like a good pair of boots, find the right style and fit for you…

Self Publishing or Traditional Publishing? Which Way Do You Go?

In some circles, self-publishing carries a certain stigma that insinuates that the author does not “have what it takes” to produce a real book. Nothing could be further from the truth!

Some of the greatest literary works in America were self-published. Thomas Paine’s and Benjamin Franklin’s works were printed on small printing presses in the predecessor of what is today the modern garage workshop. Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn and Henry David Thoreau’s On Walden’s Pond were all self-published works that have stood the test of time and are recognized around the world as great standards of literature.

Your mother probably has The Joy of Cooking on her shelf. It was originally self-published in 1931. It has never gone out of print! Many authors who are turned down by agents and publishers quietly paper their study with the rejection slips as they tuck their beloved novel or non-fiction into a bottom drawer to be dusted off on rare occasion.  What a shame!

What do you get today if you sign with a major publisher? What are the benefits? What are the drawbacks? Just because you have been turned down by your publisher does not mean your work is not worthy of an audience.

Here are some good writers who originally self-published as they had been turned down by every traditional publisher:

L. Ron Hubbard – Dianetics

James Redfield – The Celestine Prophecy

Richard Evans – The Christmas Box

Patrick Snow – Creating Your Own Destiny

Richard Nelson Bolles – What Color is Your Parachute

The list goes on and on…never give up on your writing dream or your passion. If you sell 20,000-30,000 copies of your book, you already have done better statistically than 2/3 of the authors published by traditional publishers.

Go out there and join the growing ranks of self-published authors. You will be in good company with e.e. cummings, Edgar Rice Burrows, Virginia Woolf, George Bernard Shaw, and Rudyard Kipling just to list a few. 

Keep writing, have courage, be dedicated to making sure good writing (and not just popular writing) is made available to the public. Writing and promoting your book is hard work.  If you chose to self-publish and work hard for yourself, you will no doubt take great pride in not only retaining control of the content but reaping the profits as well. 

 Shannon Evans, senior editor and owner of www.mywritingmentor.com lives with her best friend Rick on Bainbridge Island in the Puget Sound just a “ferry ride from Seattle.”

She works with her two Labrador assistant editors, Mocha and Luke, and her feline copy edit assistants, Caesar and Yoda. Shannon is widely recognized as one of the top writing coaches for non-fiction authors. With over 17 years  teaching composition and technical writing to native and non-native English speaking students she knows how to help every writer make every word count.

Sticky Secrets of Blog Headlines and Blog Titles

Blog titles, blog headlines, and blog sub-headlines need to be ”sticky” for SEO spiders to crawl in and out of your work and catalog the content. Becoming a master of stickiness is much like become a master of yoga…you better be ready to put in the effort, study, and practice or you won’t make the cut!  

Creating sticky titles and headlines takes a little bit of familiarity with the key words and ideas that are popular search terms in your niche on the web. This is not really a closely guarded secret. With a little research in Google and other Search Engines you will find what works best for driving traffic to your blog and expanding your audience.

Sticky Headlines:

1.   Incites interest – Titles that are provocative or controversial stimulate the reader’s interest. They act to inflame the emotions of the reader who feels compelled to stay and read.
2.   Questions and Queries – Headlines that ask questions and raise uncertainty keep the reader hooked.  They will continue to read until resolution is achieved. These readers want answers and will hang around as long as they think the writer is working toward one.
3.  Benefits – Readers want to know that they will gain some kernel of information or knowledge from your work. They will hang around as long as there is something in it for them that promotes, assists, or gives them an advantage in their world. 
4.  Power Words – Certain types of words appeal to readers who are looking for a bargain, a particular benefit, or are trying to solve a problem. Words like ‘benefits,’ ‘rewards,’ ‘secret’ and ‘free’ all make readers pause. If you reveal a secret or provide breaking news you will capture reader attention.

Accurate, clear and concise titles that truly relate to your main topic are crucial to the success of your individual blog entries. Think of each headline as a definition of your article. If you stick to that and use keywords that define your article’s content you will attract readers and search engines.

Longer titles are often more persuasive giving readers the extra “hook” that gets them to stick around and read the content. Make sure the title is not so long that the keywords are lost on the reader. People scan headlines they don’t really read them carefully. Make the title jump out and grab the reader, holding their interest.   

Shannon Evans, senior editor of www.mywritingmentor.com lives with her best friend Rick on Bainbridge Island in the Puget Sound just a “ferry ride from Seattle.” She works at her desk with her two Labrador virtual assistants, Mocha and Luke, and her feline copywriting assistants, Caesar and Yoda. She is widely recognized as one of the top writing coaches to authors of non-fiction.

7 Blogging Rules to Live By

1. Subject – Determine your primary theme for each entry and stay on it! Never stray or your readers will jump ship like rats leaping off the Titanic. If you are not clear on the topic discussed in a particular entry for your blog, how do you expect your readers to follow along? A simple thesis statement will help you stay focused on the theme.  
2. Informs the Reader – Chatty news that wastes a reader’s time is annoying and serves no purpose. Have something of merit to say.  It does not have to be earth shattering but it should make them think.
3. Originality - If the reader does not feel that they walk away with a new piece of information or a new perspective they probably won’t come back to visit your blog again. Offer an innovative or creative view that provides the reader with that “aha” moment.
4. Content – Clarity and simplicity make your content readable and “sticky”. Stickiness is important if you want to hook a reader and keep them engaged with your material. Too much information, too much detail, and too many meaningless adjectives make the content difficult to follow. Avoid jargon, techie terms, and extra adverbs (“ly” words) that add nothing to your content. Create compact segments of content that have sub-headings that act like directions to the key parts of your blog. Spell check and proof read all entries before and after they are ‘live’. You can and should go back in to edit if there are errors.
5. Headlines and Keywords – Be bold and daring and keyword rich in constructing headlines. Remove articles (a, an, the) and prepositions from your title. This makes it easy for search engines to pick up your latest entry and blast it out on the web. Readers search Google, Lycos, and Mozilla by keywords, not sentences. Keep your headlines short. If you have ten words or more in your headline, you have probably said too much.
6. Disciplined Blogging – Create a publishing schedule and stick to it. Perhaps you write a week or a month’s worth of blog entries in one sitting, you still have to faithfully log in and publish each entry. Put it on your day calendar right. If you schedule it in writing you are more likely to stick to your plan.
7. Blogging Rate – frequency and regularity of blogging submissions does count. Search engine spiders will visit and notice you and your site if there is change in your site. Blog regularly, blog often, and blog well.

 Shannon Evans, senior editor of www.mywritingmentor.com lives with her best friend Rick on Bainbridge Island in the Puget Sound just a “ferry ride from Seattle.” She works at her desk with her two Labrador virtual assistants, Mocha and Luke, and her feline copywriting assistants, Caesar and Yoda. She is widely recognized as one of the top writing coaches to authors of non-fiction. Shannon has over 17 years in the academic world teaching English composition to native and non-native speaking students.

Publish Regularly – Don’t Become Blogstipated

Publishing consistently is a huge commitment but does not have to eat up large chunks of your time. If you create a schedule and put it on your calendar you can carve out time to write and post 2-3 times a week. Some people write once a week. They create all their articles for the week in a single sitting and then jump on-line each day to upload articles separately.  

Finding Your Voice – Writing larger amounts at a single sitting will help you to find and establish your voice and the tone for your blog. Content that reflects the blog author’s personal experiences and “lessons learned” are more widely read then standard narratives.

What will you write about? How will you create a voice that readers will return to time and again? Statistically, blogs that relate on a personal level to readers are the ones that get the largest readership. Readers do not want to know about you and your business. They want to know about information and resources that help them in their business. Readers want to know about a problem you had and how you resolved it…not how you felt afterwards!

Writing Strategies

Provide your readers with:

• Stories of what you or a client or reader experienced that was a problem or a concern.  
• Examples of decisions and actions that made a change or improved a process.

 Your strategy for your blog should be to create a community that helps others or that provides a forum for readers. A reader focused blog encourages participation through shared experiences and suggested solutions. Encourage and foster that and your blog will take off and create an enthusiastic audience that sees you (the author) as an authority figure. Blogging can be a powerful author promotion and marketing tool.

About the Author: Shannon Evans, senior editor of www.mywritingmentor.com lives with her best friend Rick on Bainbridge Island in the Puget Sound just a “ferry ride from Seattle.” She works at her desk with her two Labrador virtual assistants, Mocha and Luke, and her feline copywriting assistants, Caesar and Yoda. She is widely recognized as one of the top writing coaches to authors of non-fiction. Shannon has over 17 years in the academic world teaching English composition to native and non-native speaking students.

Size (and Content) Does Matter…in a Blog

Blogging is a great way for authors, entrepreneurs, and speakers to generate an audience for your books/products/services.  People love blogs that present the writer’s personal perspective on a lesson  or experience.  Now that is not to infer that the article entry should be a boring rendition of how you baited a hook and caught a trophy fish last summer. That would make people run shrieking for cover.

Content – Authors and speakers who blog want to populate their blog with information and resources  that their readers will find helpful, beneficial, or interesting. Content in your blog should be stories about what you have experienced in a particular situation that resulted in decisions and actions. What did you do? How did you either get out of the pickle you were in or how did you improve your approach?

Size – How much do you say? How long should you make each paragraph? The general rule of thumb is to write for the short attention span of the modern reader. We are inundated with material to read and process each and every day. Keep it short and sweet. Ask a question, tell a brief and pointed story, and then provide an answer or pertinent point for the reader.  Less is more. If readers want to know more let them comment or go to your website and hire you!

Now get out there and practice! Find what works for you and your audience. Carve out your niche and start building your audience.