In 2011, SEO and writing is going to change big time as the rules of SEO game has changed and so has the readers’ mindset. People have stopped paying attention to copy that looks crappy, as lot of bad content has been littered on the Internet.

Not just the search engines, but users even are a lot more conscious of the value your content adds to his or her life, and after the introduction of snapshot feature in Google SERP, it has become more difficult for badly written content to make its way to the customers’ computer. Even when it gets a chance to get there, they are quickly thrown out.

So how to make a content interesting both for people and machine?

To make your content interesting for your readers you need to do the following:

• Use the language that your visitors converse in.
• Provide them the value they are looking for.
• Do not just write anything. Do a research before delving into the actual writing process.
• Read blog comments, forum posts, and watch YouTube videos to see what your customers are getting and what their requirements are.

Following the handful of tips given above will take your writing business to all new height, but how to make the same content accessible for machines (search engine bots).

If you are new to the field then the fact that you have to write content for machines as well may make you cringe, but this is what we all have been doing since always in the name of SEO content. We have been working to satisfy the needs of machine, so that it could display our websites when visitors come searching information on the topic we are writing.

To make your content standout with machines you need to do the following:

• Do not write for the machine. Even it does not want anything to be written exclusively for it.
• Place important keywords and other related terms at appropriate places.
• Do not go overboard with optimization.
• Write with audience in mind and SEO should be the secondary thought.

Content written for the two groups that we talked about above should not be mutually exclusive. You need to write content that meets the needs of both of them. This is not very difficult, all you need to do is practice.

The freelance writer gets confused whether he should write a free sample or not. He knows that refusing to write a free sample will mean losing the client, and writing a free sample may result in client’s disappearance, which is not unheard of in the business. Many clients, under the disguise of asking for free samples to evaluate the candidacy for a fictional big project, just take samples from various freelance writers and disappear.

The question is what should a freelance writer do, in situation like that?

There is not one single answer to this. You may or may not write a free sample. It all depends on you and kind of sample being asked to write. I cannot tell you that you should write or not, but I can tell you about the process I go through when deciding on whether to comply with the wish of getting a free sample or not.

Client authenticity checklist

Indeed, you need check the person’s authenticity before saying yes or no to his wish to have a free sample, and you can do this by doing the following things, at least I do these things:

1. Run a Google search with the client’s name, nickname along with the words like scam, cheat, fraud, scammer, etc., one at a time. This is done to find whether there is any reported fraudulent activity related to him. If he has done anything mischievous to people or service providers, you may find something. Well, this does not happen always, but most of the time, you will get what you are looking for.
2. I check the reviews and rating of a client, if I have been approached by him through a freelance exchange websites or forums. If there is enough positive reviews about a client then I think favorably of his request
3. Is the client giving me too rosy a picture to be true? A cheater will often show you a grand, often unrealistic, view of the future, in case you get the work, for which you will have to submit a free sample custom written on topic given by him. I stay away from such bait.
4. I never write a sample, if a client asks for a sample of 500+ words. From my experience I can say that such demands often come from clients with dubious intentions. I often offer to write a sample of not more than 250 words, and occasionally 300 words.

These are steps I run a client through before accepting or rejecting his offer. I think this will work for you. At least you should try this strategy, if you do not have any. Something is always better than having an absolute zilch.

In search business, Google, which is nobody’s guess, is a market leader in the United States. Google has 64.2% market share. At number two is yahoo with a 14.3% market share. Bing, despite its growth, is on number 3 with 13.6% market share. At number four and five slots are Ask.com and AOL search with 2.1% and 1.9% market share, respectively.

In terms of YoY growth, AOL search is the biggest loser. It has lost 38% market share. At number 2 is Yahoo Search which is slimmer by 17%. Google too shed some pound, but it is mere 1%. Two search companies to gain weight are Bing (51% YoY growth), and Ask.com Search (24% YoY growth). See image for detail.

Bandwidth shot through the roof

The speed with which we access the Internet is one reason behind such a sudden and huge proliferation of videos on the Internet. But, it is not just the increased bandwidth that led to this development. There are many more things. One such thing is laziness on our part.

We are lazier than ever

Video marketers are getting hotter because consumers are getting lazier. Lack of work has taken good of us. Now are lazier than we ever were. Reading is too much time consuming. It requires active attention from our side, but we can consume video lying on our back munching “junk”.

We became multitasking

This is paradoxical. We have grown lazy, but at the same time we have given in for multitasking. When we read, we just read. We cannot do anything else, but when we watch, we do quite a number of things — play with ball, cook food, babysit kids, do other less-involving works. Video gives us space to multitask.

It connects well

Video also sells on the Internet because it connects well. By sending audio and visual stimuli, video connects with us on an emotional level, which articles fail to do that — yes, it does not hold true for stories and well-written articles, of course.

Because video fools our mind

Through sights and sounds, video gives us an illusion that the person who is delivering the message is present here and now when we are consuming it, which any article cannot replicate. A video fools our mind in believing that the communicator is present in the room, which is not so.

I hope, you now know why video is becoming “the new article” (as in the new black) for the online world. What do you think? What else video does to us? Fire up your writing genius and post your comments below this.

These web content writing tips could help you in coming up with a better website.

Unique content

First of all, produce good quality, original and correct content. Poor quality writing and grammatical errors get easily noticed. They destroy credibility of the site owner. Content should be 100% original. Don’t get tempted to copy from other attractive web contents. Copied content easily gets tracked by Google and other search engines. The content should be correct, valid and credible. You just can’t afford to fill up the space with wrong, misleading content. It should add some value to the reader’s mind.

Insert keywords

Insert keywords in your web content with great care. Keywords shouldn’t look misfit or irrelevant. Choose your keywords as per your target reader.

Clear, legible text

The text matter shouldn’t look blurred, distorted, cluttered. Font should be formal, easy to read and clear. Don’t fall for the super stylish calligraphic fonts. Use bullets, bold headings and sub points. They break the monotony.

Internal linking

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the latest craze. Post highest amount of links online which will direct traffic to your website. It will naturally increase your search engine ranking.

Simple vocabulary and short sentences

Short and crisp sentences keep the reader involved and interested. Keep the vocabulary simple yet rich, matching your target audience. People fail to read long sentences on the web and comprehend the meaning. They also lose attention. So keep sentences simple and short.

Following these few simple tips could actually make your web content appear great.

Use twitter search to find the right people

This is as important as conducing a Google search. Twitter search will not only help you find people to network with, but it will also help you search for jobs. Just type in the keyword or hash tag to find the right person to network with. Do not add just anyone because you can. You will not want to get 1000s of useless tweets every single day.

Do not follow everyone back

This is a classic mistake. Most of the newbie do exactly that and end up becoming frustrated of twitter because of the low quality tweets in the timeline. You should follow people back, but only those whose tweets you want to receive. Do not follow everyone. You start doing that and you will start getting more invites. Spammers love this, so do not be the love interest of a spammer.

Follow your friends’ connections

Check out whom your friends are sending DM (direct message) to. These people could be the potential target of your networking effort. Keep a close watch on whom your friends are talking to, and follow those whom you deem suitable.

Promote Yourself

Promoting yourself is an important part of networking. Tell people who you are, and what you stand for. They will not know this if you do not tell them. Tweet links to your work, and add call to action in the tweet. This way you will be seeding your expertise in the community, which definitely will fetch desired result.

Networking takes time and effort, but the return is always good, so do not hesitate in putting time into it. I want you to start working on above suggestions now. You will see the difference.

This is what twitter has done to the giant, and it will also help you a great deal in searching for a job. In this part, I will tell you how you can brand yourself on twitter, and how it will help you.

Customize your profile

The best thing about twitter is it allows you to create a custom profile for your twitter account. You can choose whatever background you want for your twitter profile. Twitter background provides you a wonderful opportunity to brand yourself. Your profile page should speak volume about you.

Theme-based design

Do not choose just any background. This will not do any good. Always remember a good design begins with ideation. With finding a theme for the design. When I say theme I meant what is that one thing that you want to convey to the viewers of your twitter profile. Begin with writing down the points you want to convey until it boils down to one or two core points that you must convey. This will be the essence of your twitter profile.

Now think of a design theme of the blog based on the core you have found.

Designing background

Start designing a background based on the theme you have found. To find the dimension of the background, you can search Google. I do not suggest reinventing the wheel. Just conduct a Google search and you will find a twitter background template.

This is it for now. Go ahead and customize your twitter profile to impress your prospects.

If you have not believed this so far then start believing in it, as nothing is truer then the above statement is. And it will become more evident when you will read the best-kept secret twitter tips for job search in this series.

Twitter, as we all know by now, is a 140-word marketing nuclear bomb. It is also referred as virtual water cooler where people talk about things that matters to them. Twitter is not just a micro-blogging tool, but it is a search engine in its own right that has the strength to overpower Google. Twitter can be used in many ways, but we will focus on using it as a job search tool. All the tips in this and subsequent posts are geared towards that only.

For a novice, twitter may look useless, but so did search engines in their initial days.

Easy-to-remember username

Username is your twitter name, and this is the first thing that a person finds about anyone on twitter. This is akin to the first part of your e-mail ID — everything before @, and you will not want your username to spoil the party. Hence, do not use your nickname or any other silly things in there. While saying that I did not mean to say that your nickname is silly, all I meant was that your username should look classy. Cheesy stuffs do not cut it. Your twitter name should also be easy to remember.

Real name for real people

Use your real first and last names in the designated space. Do not use any cool-but-idiotic-sounding words in place of the first and the last name. It will hurt your image, and create hindrance in getting a job. A person without real name does not sound like a person, at least not on the Internet.

Real picture

I know how badly you wanted to look like Brad Pitt, but the fact is you are not him then why to use his picture as your profile picture? Believe me it will not impress your employer, and most of all they will come to know it is not Brad Pitt who is applying for the job. Take my suggestion and pull that picture down, and instead use your own picture, preferably in business attire.

In the twitter profile, nothing but close-up of your own picture should be there.

Start fixing your profile now and when you are done send me your twitter URL. That’s all for today, will meet tomorrow with some more tips.

According to Nielsen, 62 million visitors accessed the Internet on mobile in the month of December 2009; of which, Google had the largest share (36.7 million), Yahoo! received 33.7 million visitors, and Microsoft/Windows Live/Bing got 20.2 million visitors. Facebook (18.9 million visitors) and AOL (17.3 million visitors) were the other two websites that made the top 5 list.

It all started small, but soon it became a force to reckon with, and then online marketing became “the thing” for business. Every new finding, new idea, new invention, and new way of doing things is significantly affecting the nature of online marketing. At present, a marketer uses the following tools to promote one’s business on the Internet.

Various tools of online marketing

• Text Ads
• Banner Ads
• E-mail marketing
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
• Pay Per Click advertising (PPC)/ Cost Per Click advertising (CPC)
• Pay Per View advertising (PPV)
• Cost Per Action (CPA)
  • Affiliate marketing
  • Lead generation
  • Sponsored blog posts
  • Sponsored forum posts
  • Facebook, MySpace, and other social networking pages
  • Digg, StumbleUpon, Reditt, and other social bookmarking tools
  • Yahoo, Google, MySpace, and other groups
  • Blog directories
  • Website directories
  • Article marketing
  • Video marketing
  • Press release submission

As you can see, marketers are spoiled by choices, which at times are good, but most of the times are not. At least, I feel so. I believe in the school of thought that says too many choices cripple the decision. But at the same time if these tools are put judiciously to use, one can get amazing results. I have shown you both side of the story, the decision is yours which one to use and which not to. If you feel you can handle all then use all.

-Using too many keywords is one of the number one mistakes that many Adwords users make.  You want to stay away from generic keywords, and stick only to keywords that directly pertain to your ad.  Otherwise you’ll have a lot of clicks from readers that were misled, that don’t amount to anything.

-Remember to use your relevant keywords in your ad title and description.  A big mistake is forgetting to do this, and then you have an ad that doesn’t seem to pertain to what a reader is currently surfing.  The whole point of Adwords is to hitch onto keywords on other sites for your ads.  Leaving those keywords out means that your ad is less likely to be noticed.

-Walk that fine line between clarity and keyword density.  Your keyword should be prevalent so that any searchers have no trouble running into your ad, but don’t overload your statements so that the keyword is senselessly repeated too many times.

-Always track your results, if one keyword set up isn’t working switch to a different one.  There’s no sense in continuing a campaign that hasn’t been fruitful.  That’s just beating a dead horse.  Instead, try different things if you’re not seeing the results you want.

Wikipedia is not the destination but it can be a great source

This is my first tip. Wikipedia can be a great source to collect information for a project of lesser importance, but when it comes to find credible information to support the hypothesis then Wikipedia is not the place you should head to. Wikipedia in this case can be a good source of information but not the source of authority.

Look beyond Google

Well, it may sound absurd, but there is a world beyond Google on the web. Google will get you some information, but you will not be successful in getting reliable information for the keywords you search. Wolfram|Alpha is one good source to get objective data on any topic. It claims to bring expert level information on the subject. You can try Bing as well.

YouTube is not the end

If you could not find a suitable video to include in your class presentation, or a video presentation to support your work then you can try Viddler and Vimeo as well. Try Truveo Video Search to look for the topic you are searching.

You should also read professors’ blogs, various academic research websites, research papers, universities and colleges websites, and also should ask people in relevant forums. Blogs can also be used to form idea about the topic you are exploring. You should not limit yourself to using these sources to search for the information you are seeking. You need to be creative in your search. I will suggest learning nuances of advance search on Google, at least.

The biggest part about being successful writing is pretty much just being diligent.  You have to work at any career, and writing on the internet is no different.  You can’t allow yourself to second guess your career choice, or give up when the assignments seem too few and far between.  Something has to break eventually, but if you give up, you’ll never get that opportunity.

Learn how to use keywords, and to write SEO.  Search Engine Optimization is the most important technique for any internet writer.  If you want your articles to garner attention, and be read by the mass public, you need them to get noticed on search engines.  Because sites like Google operate searches by using keyword recognition, you need to have your articles formatted properly, and with the correct sprinkling of keywords.

Make sure that you make friends within the industry as well.  Network, network, network so that you can connect to as many job providers and writers as possible.  These are the people that have and will know about the best jobs.  Getting connected to them will open up as many doors as possible, and really get your career moving.

As long as you work hard, and are diligent, you can succeed.  Just remember to keep at it, and don’t give up on writing.

There are two kind of affiliate marketing: one is private affiliate marketing run by producers themselves through their websites, and another is syndicated or networked affiliate marketing run by affiliate networks like ClickBank, commission junction, etc.

Which one is better?

Well, I am always in favor of affiliate network because of the reliability factor, but again the big networks have their rules (and some time twisted), which may not liked by everyone. There are some basics of making money with affiliate marketing which you have to follow, regardless of which one you prefer. I am going to talk about it below.

Affiliate marketing: A step-by-step guide

Step 1: The very first step in starting an online affiliate marketing business is to find an affiliate program or network and register as an affiliate.

Step 2: The next step in the process is to find a product to sell (only applicable if you have signed in to an affiliate network because a private affiliate often have very limited products and that too in just one niche.)

Step 3: After selecting the product, you need to find the keywords (preferably niche) that will be used to promote the product on the internet.

Step 4: The next step in the process is to register a domain using the keyword followed by making a website to promote the affiliate product. Skip this as well as the next step if you want to use your existing website or blog to promote your services.

Step 5: Now you need to put at least one outgoing link and couple of incoming link in your website to avoid Google Slap. Build a blog and write some unique content for the blog. This will help you link some content to your affiliate site.

If you do not want to write unique articles then grab some from article directories and use it on your blog. Put one link each in each article that you post as well as in the blogroll.

Put a link of your blog at the bottom of your website, if you do not want your reader to go to your blog. You will want this because you have not created the blog for users, but for the search engines.

Step 6: Use a PPC program of your liking to promote your blog. You may choose Google Adwords, or any other PPC program. Every search engine runs its own PPC program.

This is it. Now you just need to review the performance and make changes when required.

So the best way to approach improving your PageRank, is simply by getting your website out there.  Network and exchange links with as many like minded sites and businesses as possible.  Try to search out sites with higher traffic volumes, and higher PageRanks, as these are the more likely to increase your individual PageRank.  The more quality websites that link back to yours, the better Google will view your site.  The importance of networking just can’t be overstated.  That’s your internet bread and butter, and the better networked you are, the better your website is going to perform.

Remember to use SEO (search engine optimization) for everything you write, as this helps with all things regarding Google.  Your PageRank is also more likely to be higher if you make effective use of SEO.  It will increase search engine success, and the popularity of your site.  Both of which you need to build your Google presence, and therefore your website’s overall presence.

But also remember that improving your Google PageRank isn’t as likely to increase traffic as SEO.  Just because your site has a higher PageRank, does not mean that you’re the most likely to pop up first with a given keyword.  The only way to make that work is SEO and linking to as many other popular websites as possible.  These will also build your PageRank, and should remain your focus for building website traffic.

In a poll conducted in December 2009 by Adweek Media and Harris interactive it was found that only people above 55 (64 percent) reads the news paper almost daily, whereas, only 23 percent young people (aged between 18 and 34) reads the news paper daily either online or in print. 17% youth in the same bracket said they never read the newspaper. See the image below for the complete result of the online poll conducted between December 14 and 16, 2009. It has a sample size of 2,136 U.S. adults.

The research will be a major blow to already declining newspaper industry as the major spenders do not read newspaper. The industry should gear up to move into related category before the revenue source dries out, or it should find a way to reinvent itself, if the industry wants to survive the digital blow.

Well, you have to think up a great domain name.  Your domain name is important, so you don’t want to take this one lightly.  Your domain name helps to register your unique brand with your users, and search engines, and is the beginning of the description of your website.  You want to pick something short and relevant, that’s also easy to spell and remember.  This way you’re more likely to gain memory recognition from your users, and anyone searching a web page is less likely to misspell your domain on Google.

Now that you’ve got a good domain name, you need somewhere to host that domain.  There are a variety of website companies that offer such services, for a nominal fee.  You’ll have to pay for registration, as well as maintaining that domain name every year.  While you’re purchasing the name, you’ll also want to look into data storage, as you have to have storage in order to put anything on your website.

Most companies that offer domain registration also offer data storage plans.  All have varying levels of cost, and you’ll have to factor in your companies needs when deciding which service is for you.  Factor in how much data, including photos and media you want to store on the page.  You also need to think about what sort of traffic you will be expecting.  Exceeding your traffic bandwidth is usually penalized by extra fees being charged to your account, so think carefully.

Now that you’ve got the site, remember that your engaging content is what’s really going to drive traffic.  Making the page available isn’t even half the battle.  Building a page that people legitimately want to visit is the real war.

Well, being as active as possible is a start.  Having no internet identity can be just as bad as having a negative one.  Employers want to see positive extra curricular activity, and work history.  These are cues to what sort of employee you are, so make sure an interviewer can easily find them.  Be active in professional forums, maintain a personal blog, and keep a professionally oriented social networking page.

Make sure that everything you put out there puts you into a positive light.  Anything you want an employer to see needs to be about creativity, positive, and showcasing commitment and hard work.  Don’t bash old employers and bosses, because that’s a big turn off to anybody interested in you.  In fact, don’t bash anybody, or have anything negative on a page that’s intended to be professional, because it will only show you in a bad light.

But don’t forget, what you put out there is only half the battle.  You need to search your name to see what other people are putting out in relation to your name.  Do a search, see if anything comes up from past employers, or if anything you wouldn’t want a potential employer to see pops up.  Takes steps to correct these, or have them removed from search engines if you’re uncomfortable with the material.  Most of the time places like Google are more than willing to work with you, so long as you’re polite and patient.

Keep in mind that content is key.  Converting a free blog into a money making blog is a long difficult process, but one that you complete by putting the work in.  Make sure that your blog has an attractive and visually appealing template.  Something that makes a user feel comfortable, and that allows your blog to be easily read.  A safe bet is to use cooler colors, as they are more calming, instead of anything too vibrant.

Your writing will also need a little bit of an upgrade as well.  You’re not just writing for yourself anymore, you’re writing to get people to find your blog and remain interested.  That means you have to write concise, not overly long, and entertaining entries.  Let your unique voice and personality shine, and make sure not to write entries that are too long.  Readers want to be entertained, but long articles can leave most doubting whether or not they want to read what’s written.

From there you should be able to steadily build an audience.  You want to pay attention to traffic and the amount of time the average user is on your site.  You can find resources for this through services like Google’s Analytics.  See what content inspires interest, and try and build on your good stats by writing to those strengths.

Now you should be ready to make a little money.  Use programs like Google’s Adsense, and look to websites like Amazon.com which offer payment for affiliate links.  Through these you can start earning money off the traffic from your blog.  Just remember, the longer you keep someone on the page, the more impressions and likelihood of clicks you’re going to get.  You want as much as possible of both.  With grabbing headlines and engaging content, you should be well on your way.

I am a big fan of the label feature. Currently, I am using around 125 labels and filter combination to short my mails. Labels in Gmail are such a lifesaver. It helps us organize our mails and keep the inbox tidy. You can use label along with filter option to create a rule to categorize the mails and even remove them from your inbox. I will tell you how you can use the labels.

Create a label and a filter rule

This is the very first thing to do. Let’s say you have created a label called Sweetheart, and in the filter you mention that any mail from your sweetheart’s mail ID (even more than one) should go directly to that label skipping inbox, or simply apply the label to the mails coming from her.

Color code your labels

Like me, you can also color code your labels. It makes it easy to visually scan through the kind of stuff is there. Like all my SEO newsletters have Orange code, online marketing ones has red code, and all my writing related newsletters has blue code. This has helped me visually scan through the labels.

Activate Hide read labels from Gmail lab

Click settings (you can find it near logout link in Gmail) followed by lab then scroll down to find “Hide read labels”. Enable this feature. This will help you keep the sidebar clutter free, and only labels with unread mails will be visible to you.

Using labels to search

You can also use labels as a shortcut to reach the mail you want. For this, you will need to enable “Go to label” feature from settings >> lab. (See pic for detail).

Hide Labels from subject

I personally do not like hiding labels from subjects, but not everyone shares the same view, therefore, Google has this feature to hide labels from subjects. To activate this, go to settings and then to lab, search for “Hide Labels from Subjects” and enable it (see pic). That is all you need to do, if you do not like seeing colorful labels beside subjects.