Writing for Your Website When You’ve Run Out of Things to Write

Need assistance with article marketing? Spider Writers is a full-service social media marketing company ready to assist with building your social media presence. Call us today at 757-499-1990, ext. 104 for your free estimate.

As a writer, you may fear the inevitable wall, that moment when you feel you have exhausted your idea repository and aren’t sure what to write for your website or blog. You know it’s important to keep your online presence relevant and fresh in order to maintain high readership – with certain fields, there is always something new to explore. If your business is slow to offer innovations and new events, however, it’s possible to spend more time staring at the monitor screen than filling it.

Whether writing non-fiction or a story, everything begins with an idea, a question that needs to be answered, or a “what if” scenario burning to be played out. If ever you find it a challenge to crank out a minimum of 300 words designed to promote your products and services you may wish to employ a few writing exercises designed to stimulate your brain and turn one uncertain sentence into a flowing narrative rich in key phrases to help readers find you via search. Here are a few I recommend, which have worked in different situations and may be applied to any topic:

Top Five: This is a good topic especially for retailers or those in the mechanical or technical trade. Ultimately, no matter what you do for a living, you will be asked about the top products or devices in your field. Contractors swear by specific brands of windows and plumbing, and boutique owners may recommend certain designers for formal events. Think about a topic related to your business where at least five brands compete for your and your clientele’s attention, then compare and contrast.

How To: The simple how-to article works to establish you as an authority in your field. If you sell goods, draft step by step instructions on how to use them, and if you offer services – labor or clerical – you can offer tips on handling certain issues without necessarily giving away the store.

I Remember…: Do certain products or services you offer tie in to a specific memory? Does what you do know require more advanced work and equipment than in years past? Take readers on a trip down memory lane and provide a history for your company in the process.

Anti-Top  Five: For every top five products and paradigms, there is advice on what not to buy and how not to do things. Offers readers the consequences of the wrong decisions and products for the work you provide, and you may find this strengthens your authority.

Worst Case Scenario: If troubleshooting constitutes a good part of your business, nip those frequent calls for assistance with a series of articles designed to help readers face different challenges.

Once you’ve exhausted these ideas, keep brainstorming. Check the daily news wires and set up keyword alerts for your e-mail to lead you to related blogs and sites. Sometimes it takes only word to spark an idea, be sure you search well for it.

Kathryn Lively is a social media specialist assisting clients with social media optimization and travel social media services. Clients include Gainesville hotels, European hotels, and Virginia web design firms.

2009 BlogWorld New Media Expo to Explore Social Media’s Role in the Future of News

LAS VEGAS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Organizers of the 2009 BlogWorld & New Media Expo, which will gather the leading voices of social media in Las Vegas from October 15 to 17, announced today a panel to explore the need for standards and ethics in social media, particularly in the area of public journalism and political opinion. The panel, devoted to The Future of Journalism, will feature CNN anchor Don Lemon; award-winning critic, NYU journalism professor and PressThink blog author Jay Rosen; conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt; and Current TV COO Joanna Drake Earl.

As online content, developed and published by self-described citizen journalists, has grown exponentially over the past year, it has also established itself as the originator of misinformation, distortions and accusations often picked up and given a wider audience by a mainstream media scrambling to feed a 24-hour news cycle, as well as bitterly divided partisan politicians looking to gain political traction.

“From the Obama birth certificate controversy, to rumors of FEMA concentration camps, to the death panel claims made by Sarah Palin on her Facebook account, to accusations of 9/11 cover-ups—all were spread online and then widely disseminated by mainstream media, often as substitute for serious discussion of issues such as health care reform and foreign policy that could undercut the profit motives of corporate owners and sponsors,” said Brian Solis new media analyst and architect and author of Putting the Public Back in Public Relations and the PR 2.0 blog.

“At times encouraged and supported by well-funded think tanks and then broadcast globally by television news stations or e-mailed to extensive subscriber lists, online content is disseminated faster than regulations can be legislated, and even faster than any specific corrections or examinations can be offered,” he continued.

Despite many examples of devoted and highly disciplined citizen reporters, can online content even be called journalism if it continues to lack basic standards? And given the increasing revelations of controversial and high profile inaccuracies of a press imbedded with political and corporate interests, does online content even want to be called journalism? As comedy shows become more trusted than mainstream news outlets, and newspapers suffer cutbacks and closings all over the country, what role does online content now play—and what ethical responsibilities should it abide by?

While Twitter, blogs and other platforms for self-publishing are rivaling traditional media, what is the role of journalism in the era of the real-time, “now” Web? As social media lowers the barriers to entry, empowering individuals to emerge as pundits and experts, is it also lowering the standards of investigation, fact checking and due-diligence? These far-reaching and difficult questions will be paramount at the 2009 BlogWorld & New Media Expo’s Future of News panel. Brian Solis will lead a discussion with leading authorities on the subject including Jay Rosen of NYU’s journalism department, Don Lemon of CNN, Salem Radio Network host and social conservative Hugh Hewitt, and Current TV COO Joanna Drake Earl.

“BlogWorld & New Media Expo has no interest in shying away from tough questions or heated debate,” said Rick Calvert, CEO and co-founder. “We are in uncharted territory in terms of democratized content creation and its influence, and there is no better place to have this conversation about the need for standards, accountability and ethics.”

Now in its third year, the BlogWorld & New Media Expo is dedicated to promoting and supporting the dynamic industry of blogging and new media as a mainstream news source, the most powerful and effective means of online communication and as a highly targeted and traceable advertising medium. BlogWorld attendees are aggressive technology consumers and mobile professionals, as well as the world’s most influential online content creators, citizen journalists, technology consumers, marketers and online community leaders.

In 2008, BlogWorld attendees had a combined monthly audience of more than 100 million readers, viewers and listeners. For the 2009 Expo, BlogWorld anticipates more than 3,000 attendees with a reach in excess of 200 million.

BlogWorld & New Media Expo conference sponsors include Ford, Ebay, PayPal, Johnson & Johnson, Collective Bias, Rockfish Interactive, Procopio, ShareASale, Calacles Consulting and Blame Society Productions. The Light Group is title sponsor of evening parties, with Anheuser-Busch as beverage sponsor. Media partners include Alltop, Mashable, Technorati, Fast Company, MacObserver and iPodObserver, Webgrrls, WomensRadio and more. Sched.org is social media scheduling sponsor. Yubby is the official video aggregator.

Additional information on BlogWorld & New Media Expo, including speaker topics, session descriptions and registration details, is available at www.blogworldexpo.com.”

About BlogWorld & New Media Expo

BlogWorld & New Media Expo is the first and only industry-wide tradeshow, conference, and media event dedicated to promoting the dynamic industry of new media, including: blogging, podcasting, social media, online video, music, TV, radio, gaming, entertainment and communities. In addition to the only industry-wide new media exhibition, BlogWorld & New Media Expo features the largest new media conference in the world, including more than 50 seminars, panel discussions and keynotes from iconic personalities on the leading-edge of online technology and internet-savvy business. The 2009 BlogWorld & New Media Expo is designed to give participants the crucial strategies, tools and technologies they need to leverage social media for publishing, broadcasting and growing brands and businesses through online presence and community engagement. More information can be found at www.blogworldexpo.com.

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2009 BlogWorld New Media Expo to Explore Social Media’s Role in the Future of News.

Blog Writing Proves Necessary For Any Business

There seems to be many rules about Web site maintenance these days. Twitter this, SEO that — sometimes it’s hard to keep up. Of all of the rules of thumb to obey, one rule stands out above the others: your company needs a blog.

Blog writing is important for many reasons. For starters, generating new content keeps people coming back. For your current customers, think of blogging as a way to write press releases in a way that will engage them and keep them updated on your products and services in a more personable way. Also, continuously writing articles about your business and industry can make your customers (both current and future) feel confident that you are well-researched in your field.

Blog writing also allows your site to be noticed by search engines. By constantly providing new content with specific keywords, it is more likely to move up the results list on Google.

Finally, blogs give you an opportunity to bookmark each entry on a social networking site like Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon or Reddit. By reposting each entry on different sites, you increase the chance of being discovered by different audiences, all of which will be directed back to your company’s home page. Providing the opportunity for site visitors to bookmark each page on each entry also expands your potential audience.

If you need help getting started in content writing or article marketing, look no further. Spider Writers has specialized SEO content writers to provide relevant content for your site, as well as manage social media accounts across the Web. For more information,  contact us today.

Jessica Swink is a freelance writer specializing in articles about Social Media Optimization and SEO for travel Web sites.

Increase Search Engine Hits by Improving Article Content

Here are a few scenarios that the average person has more than likely encountered at least once:

• Buying something from an infomercial or store that they couldn’t live without, but the product fell flat
• Finally scoring a date with that gorgeous piece of eye-candy, only to realize he or she is awfully boring
• Going to a restaurant because its food on TV looked so incredibly appetizing, but the commercial and the real thing appear completely different.
• Changing an outward appearance to get a desired result, however the transformation results in no net change, or something even worse

While these categories are pretty general, one scenario that happens all too often is visiting a “pretty” Web site, only to realize that there is nothing else the site can provide for you. All of the flashy graphics might get visitors to the site, but if there is nothing that keeps them there, why stay or ever come back?

Your Web site should be focused on SEO content writing, which uses relevant keywords to get your site noticed by search engines. By writing for these search engines, your site can not only get noticed by more Web visitors, but it will keep your content focused on your products and/or services. Keeping your site visitors focused will impress them, and they might feel respected that you aren’t enticing them by pizazz, but treating them like adults.

Spider Writers offers professional SEO writing services that assist your site in moving up search engine ratings. Specialized content writers can improve your site’s appearance, and can also market articles through social media optimization. Contact us today for more information.

Jessica Swink is a freelance writer is specializing in articles about SEO for travel Web sites and social media optimization.

SEO Copywriting Promotes Search Engine Marketing Placement

The days of the door-to-door salesman are numbered (if they even still exist anymore). While the marketing approach of “here’s the product, look at all the bells and whistles” might have sold a few vacuum cleaners or knife sets from many door steps, it simply does not work online.

When people go to the Internet to find their desired product, their first stop is Google, or a similar search engine. If someone is looking for a pest control company, they more than likely aren’t going to use search terms that describe the process of extermination, but they will search for companies in their area who are proven experts in their fields. That is where search engine market placement comes in.

SEO copywriting involves using the most popular searched keywords about your product or business and incorporates those words in your Web site to increase it’s presense in search engines. Once people find your Web site on a search engine, they then have the opportunity to visit your site and receive all the information they desire. Writing articles for your Web site should also be done in a way that site visitors won’t get bored and go to another search result. The average time spent on a Web site is less than one minute, so users need to be immediately captivated and interested in exploring everything your site has to offer. Statistics, customer reviews, product guarantees and fast bits of information may have a better chance of getting read by site visitors than long paragraphs of product descriptions and processes.

Spider Writers will provide the SEO-friendly content you need for your Web site to succeed. After your site is rich in popular search engine keywords, we can also market your content to drive traffic to your site by using social media. This improves link popularity and increase viral marketing for your business or organization, all the while increasing your home page popularity. Contact us today for more information.

Jessica Swink is a freelance writer is specializing in articles about SEO for travel Web sites and social media optimization.

Internet Marketing To Women Made Easy With Social Bookmarking

When it comes to social bookmarking, there is one main goal: users bookmark articles on sites they think are the most interesting, then put them in a popularity contest against each other. While most bookmarking sites are generally the same, one differentiates itself by catering specifically to women.

Kirtsy has the skeleton of Digg and Delicious, but makes articles easier to find for women by categorizing them into these categories:

• Arts & Entertainment
• Design & Crafts
• Family & Parenting
• Fashion & Style
• Food & Home
• Internet & Technology
• Mind, Body & Spirit
• Travel & Leisure
• Politics, World & Business

Here, users can post Web sites and articles in these categories, and women across the country can read them and choose to make an article popular, comment on an article, or “Lose” an article that is irrelevant to what women really want.

Kirtsy comes in handy in article marketing because this gives freelance writers a chance to post content on their sites, pushing into the desktops of women across the country. By having articles floating freely on this site, each click on an article generates hits to a company’s Web site, increasing traffic.

Spider Writers represents a specialized branch of SEO services of with a concentration on content and search optimization writing. If you don’t already have an active presence on Facebook, Twitter, or other hot social platforms, we’ll create them for you. As these sites gain popularity over various demographics, so their referral influence can help draw people to your main Web site. We emphasize the “social” in social networking, and will help build your audience. Contact us to discuss a social media optimization plan that is right for you.

Jessica Swink is a freelance writer is specializing in articles about SEO for travel Web sites and social media optimization.

Using Squidoo to Improve SEO Rankings

Do you Squidoo? It may sound racy, but Squidoo is actually a helpful marketing tool for Web site owners interested in driving traffic through social media. While Squidoo doesn’t allow for too much interaction between users like Twitter or Facebook, it can integrate other social networks and popular sites to create a dynamic online place card for any topic imaginable.

The unusual Squidoo logo, that of a squid-like creature bearing one all-seeing eye, best personifies the site in that its many tentacles represents the infinite number of modules one can place in a Squidoo page. Pages, better known as “lenses” among enthusiasts, are comprised of different widgets that permit the user to add different functionalities and content sections on the topic of choice. While it may sound daunting, creating a Squidoo lens to complement your main Web site is probably one of the easiest ways to help boost your inbound link popularity.

Creating a Squidoo Lens

Once you have registered as a member (it costs nothing), you are cleared to create your first lens. The simple creation wizard walks you through entering information that the lens will convey, and the vanity URL suffix that will display on launch. Let’s say you own a baseball memorabilia store and wish to create a lens on rare baseball cards. That will be your main topic, and a URL you could use might be “rare-baseball-cards” if it is available.

Novice users have the option of allowing Squidoo to choose starter modules in which you add content. These may be widgets connected to online bookstores and auction sites, photo galleries like Flickr, or simple text modules for articles. Advanced users can take advantage of a freer options that lets you create the lens from scratch. Suggested modules for your first lens include:

• Text Modules: Here you write about your products/topic, and include keyword-rich links back to your main site
• Link Modules: If you have an interest in a number of related sites, you can group them in this module as a handy reference
• Video Modules: Enhance your lens with embedded YouTube clips
• RSS Modules: Have a blog? Feed the RSS into your Squidoo lens and you will update this lens as you make new posts
• Twitter Modules: Similar to the RSS, you can add your Twitter information to post on Squidoo and in turn attract new followers.

Once you have all the modules in place (you’ll need at least four or five before Squidoo will allow you to go live), you can publish your lens for public consumption. With just the click of a button, you can add your lens information to a variety of social networks and stimulate interest in your content. The beauty of Squidoo, too, is that you are not limited to the number of pages you can make – create a lens for every aspect of your business, condense articles into modules and add related photo and video widgets, and you can turn simple Web content into a dynamic social tool that can increase awareness of your brand.

Kathryn Lively is a freelance writer specializing in articles on professional SEO writing and PPC management services.

Enhance Article Web Pages for Maximum Exposure and Distribution

The purpose of your Web site is to expose visitors to your products and services, and to confirm your expertise in the topics you convey. Having a resources section on your main site with articles and relevant links is a good way to deliver important data to customers and help boost relevancy in search. For every article you launch on an individual Web page, however, you should take measures to ensure the content can be easily found.

Optimization of Information

Whether you use a CMS program to generate pages, or create them the old fashioned way through HTML and FTP, you must take care that the bare bones of the page are optimized for the major search engines. Make sure the code is clean and the META tags correctly convey the purpose of the page, and for viewers take care that fonts are readable and anchor links offer visitors simple navigation to the main homepage and elsewhere important.

Consider, too, the keywords used in the page content. Is there a good balance of phrases under which you wish to be searched? Are those phrases made into linked text that directs the viewer to relevant points on your site?

Sharing Information

Articles are a powerful marketing tool in that they may be distributed and utilized to boost not only your brand but link popularity via search. For every page you create on your site, it’s helpful to have a widget that allows users to easily share the information through social media and book-marking sites. Implement code on the page that directs users to add the content and/or link to Digg, Delicious, Facebook, Twitter, and similar programs. Add This, a popular widget for blogs and social networks, uses one code to permit posting to dozens of such sites. The more you can expose your pages via this medium, the better the opportunity for strong rankings.

Enhancing Information

Once you have the attention of visitors, enhance the Web page through inviting interaction from readers. Set up code to allow comments or feedback, include links to Twitter accounts or newsletter signups so readers can receive more information, and of course link to other relevant articles within the site. Your site should be a continuous loop of information that is easy to browse and keeps interest. The more you add, the more you can enhance your online presence.

Kathryn Lively is a freelance writer specializing in articles on professional SEO writing and local ppc management.

Four Ways to Maximize Content through Social Media

In the real estate game, it’s all about location, location, location. To acquire prime real estate at the top of search engines, it’s all about content, content, content – the more relevant the better. As search algorithms become savvier and site owners more adept at unlocking the secrets to staying on the first page of results, it’s important to stay on top of trends and do what you can to get the most mileage out of your content. On-page search engine optimization remains an important factor, but the more you promote through social media, the better the chance people will see that content.

Depending on your skill level and knowledge of the site’s purpose, writing the content may be the simplest or most challenging task in achieving your promotion goals. Once you have the information written and made live on your site, exposing it through social media is perhaps the easiest thing to do, and it doesn’t take long to generate a buzz. Here are four ways you can help light the fire.

Add links to social media sites on your Web pages – If you make use of a blog program through Blogger or Wordpress to supplement your site content, you’ll know there are widgets available to help you advertise content for social media. Icons and links implore readers to add the content to Facebook or Twitter, all you have to do is click a link to make it happen. If you know a bit of HTML code, though, you can set up links on static Web pages for people to use to add your content to social networks. Decide which social sites you want to focus on the most, then get the code to create the links.

Import your RSS feed into Facebook – Whether you have a personal Facebook account or a fan page related to your Web site, you can use your profile to promote your work. Facebook’s Notes application allows users to import the RSS or XML feed of a blog or site, and will upload the content of the feed into your profile. Then, every time you add to the feed, it’s updated on Facebook and your friends are alerted. If you don’t use a blog for your site, you can create one just for use of the RSS capability for social media, then track referrals from Facebook and Twitter to see how effective it is.

Bookmark your content – Every time you write an article for your blog or site, add it to your social bookmark collection. Whether you prefer Delicious or Digg or any of the myriad of competitors, generating that buzz can help bring more attention to the rest of your site. Get friends and employees to set up similar accounts and help promote the links.

Write more content – For an author, the best way to promote a book is to write the next one. This tip applies to just about anyone using article or blog marketing to optimize Web sites…keep on writing! The more content you offer, the better the opportunity for showing up in search. A visitor may catch one article and come back to read more, and buy more.

Maximize your content through social media – writing, linking, and bookmarking. It’s a great way to maximize your business and your profits.

Kathryn Lively is a freelance writer specializing in articles on SEO writing services and local PPC advertising.

The Art of SEO Writing

You’ve launched your Web site and are ready to take on customers and clients for your business. If you possess some search engine optimization savvy, you likely have already a plan for promotion that involves using social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, and you have a blog attached to your site to help draw in traffic through regular, relevant content. How well your site appears in search on specific keywords will depend on a number of factors – including the popularity of search terms used, and the quality of the content you provide. If you feel confident enough to provide your own writing to boost rankings, it will be helpful to know that SEO writing, while similar to other styles of marketing, does have its differences.

Writing for the Web

It is argued that for Web sites to appear on the first page of search results, the HTML code must be clean, the content relevant, and the keywords plentiful. Unlike traditional journalism – which covers the who, what, where, when and why of an event in a concise, easy to read manner – the purpose of SEO writing is to combine strong writing elements with the right balance of words and phrases to catch the attention of search engines without appearing forced. As search engine spiders become more sophisticated in their mining for online data, they do better to weed out Web sites with an abundance of keywords stuffed arbitrarily in text. This practice, similar to spamming, can penalize a site when it comes time to index.

Let’s say your Web site is set up to sell baseball collectibles, and your best-selling items are baseball cards. You want to promote these items in your writing, so you blog a series of short articles on buying baseball cards. As you browse article databases for examples of SEO writing, you may notice that articles tend to run about 300-400 words and tend to stick to one subject. As you write your piece on baseball cards, however, it’s important not to repeat the term too often in your work. One rule of thumb in SEO writing is to limit your key phrases to a single occurrence every hundred words or so, and using a variety of related words to pick up on secondary searches.

So if you want to write an article extolling the benefits of collecting baseball cards, you’ll want to consider these and other phrases that may be used in search for your products: baseball cards, trading cars, sports memorabilia, baseball collectibles, rare baseball items.

If your site is set up for a different purpose, make a list of the ten most probable phrases used in search to find a site like yours, then work to use them in an informative on-site article or blog post for advertising your services. Link relevant terms to pages within your site to create a strong association to your site with the terms. The more you write and add to your site, the more search engines will note your authority on the subject at hand.

If you are unable to keep up with the volume needed to maintain high visibility on the Web, consider hiring the service of a professional SEO writer service to enhance the relevancy of your site. You’ll find the work will pay off as you gain the trust of new customers.