SEO for Authors Part4 - LSI Keywords

We're on to Part 4 of the SEO for Authors Series. This part goes a bit deeper into using keywords.

Okay, I can hear you mumbling, "What the heck is LSI keywords? Aren't regular keywords enough?"

Before you start to bite your nails, LSI keywords sounds complicated but it’s NOT at all.

We’ll get to that in a second though.

First, let’s discuss why you’re blogging.

If you’re a blogger or content writer, who are you writing for?

If you answered the reader. You get the jackpot.

But, even if you think you’re writing for the reader, in the back of your mind you know you need to please the search engines also.

So, which is it?

Should you be writing for the reader of the search engines?

You’ve got to write for both, because if the search engines can’t quickly find, understand, and index your content they won’t be able to use it in their search results. This means the reader won’t get a chance to see your article.

Okay, this does create a bit of a dilemma, right?

Well, not really.

You can write powerful content that’s helpful to your reader while being search engine friendly. It’s a simple matter of using basic SEO techniques.

I’m guessing most of you reading this article know about keywords. And, you know they’re an important element that allows the search engines to find and index your content. It’s keywords that online searchers use for their search queries.

While your reader is your number one concern, appeasing Google comes in a close second.

But, there’s another little problem: 

Google doesn’t like you using the same keywords throughout your content. If you do this, Google will assume you’re doing it for ranking.

This doesn’t work. In fact, you could get a ‘slap on the hand’ for unethical SEO practices.

Instead, the power-blogger uses LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) keywords.

Yep, another marketing acronym.

LSI keywords are simply synonyms for keywords. They can also be other words or phrases that are closely related to your ‘original’ keyword.

According to Web CEO, “LSI keywords are words and phrases that are semantically related to each other. They include not only synonyms or keywords with similar meanings. They are often keywords that are commonly found together.” (1)

Suppose your keyword is “book marketing.”

There are a number of topics that may fall under that keyword, such as:

- Author platform
- Book promotion
- Selling books
- Author website
- Book reviews
- Book signings

It’s the LSI keywords in your article that will allow Google to scan your content and better understand what it’s about. This in turn makes it easier for Google to index the content and use it as the results of a relevant search query . . .  as long as Google believes your content is quality.

An example of this strategy in action is my article:
Shaun the Sheep and Marketing with Animation

Shaun the Sheep is an animated kids’ movie with no words. I used it as the basis for an article on animation and marketing. While the title might be catchy to readers, it may have been a bit confusing for search engines.

But, the article itself has lots of LSI and other terminology that is search engine friendly and gives them the information they need to know exactly what the article is about and which search queries it’s relevant to.

Next time you’re writing a blog post or web copy, think of the LSI keywords you can use.

To find LSI keywords related to your primary keyword, check out this free tool:
LSI Graph

Along with finding those LSI words, your blog posts should be easy to read, understandable, and helpful for your audience.

TO READ ALL THE ARICLES IN THE SEO FOR AUTHORS SERIES, CHECK OUT OUR WORKSHOPS PAGE:
http://www.writersonthemove.com/p/workshops.html

References:

(1) https://www.webceo.com/blog/long-tail-vs-lsi-keywords-which-do-you-need-to-increase-website-traffic/

Karen Cioffi is an award-winning children’s author and children’s ghostwriter as well as the founder and editor-in-chief of Writers on the Move. She is also an author/writer online platform instructor with WOW! Women on Writing.

If you need help getting your author platform off the ground or want to get it soaring, check out Karen’s 4-week, interactive, eclass through WOW! Women on Writing: Build Your Author/Writer Business

MORE ON BOOK MARKETING

SEO for Authors Series Part1: The Basics

Keywords and Search Engines (What Every Author Should Know)

5 Good Reasons to Secure Your Site

SEO for Authors Part2: Keywords and Descriptions

Writers on the Move will be giving some basic tips on using SEO to get more visibility and build authority in your niche . . . and hopefully sell more books. Part 2's topic is keywords and descriptions.

KEYWORDS

If you want to be a savvy book marketer, every thing you do online should have keywords in it. This goes for your webpages and your blog posts.

With that said, you definitely don't want to overdo them.

Keywords are simply words or phrases that people use to search for things online and help search engines to determine what your website and/or post is about. And as an author, you should know the basics for your book marketing journey.

As an example, let's look at the title of this blog post:
SEO for Authors Series: Keywords and Descriptions

This is a heavy keyword title. I didn't do this for search engine optimization in particular, I just wanted to make the article's intent clear to the reader.

Google and the other search engines have come a LONG way. You don't need high-handed antics to get them to know what you're talking about.

But, let's go over the keywords in the title: SEO, authors, keywords, and descriptions.

Since 'descriptions' is kind of a generic term, it really doesn't help searchers. But Google, from the rest of the title and from the article itself, will know that it means in regard to SEO and book marketing. Because of this, they may very well use if for a searcher looking for information on descriptions for search engines.

I wouldn't advise using a lot of keywords in your articles or webpages. This article is full of them because it's the topic and I really couldn't avoid them.

Ordinarily, you only want two or three uses of a particular keyword. In fact, with Google's advancements in their algorithms, they can get the gist of your article without any keywords. That's how advanced it's become.

Other places to use keywords is in the sidebar when you're creating your blog post. You have  areas where you can input keywords. This further helps the search engines index and categorize your article. And, it's a quicker way for them to find them.

Here's an picture of the area in Blogger - the Labels section is where your keywords go:

Here's what it looks like in WordPress:

DESCRIPTIONS

Now it's on to descriptions. As you can see in the Blogger picture above, there's a separate area to input a brief description of what your article is about.

Unfortunately, most authors don't take advantage of this feature and it's a mistake.

When Google looks for the answer to a searcher's query, it looks at everything, including titles,  keywords, the article itself, the description, and even the optimization of photos. And, if it decides to use your article as the results of a search query, it will use the description along with the link.

If you don't provide a description, Google will, it seems, take the beginning of your blog post.

Now, if your post doesn't jump into a motivating pitch to get the searcher to click on YOUR link, then s/he will  click on another results supplied by Google.

On the other hand, if you create an effective description, you'll have a better chance of getting that click back to your website.


Below is the results for a search for 'book marketing.'

This is what the searcher will see when the results of his query comes up. It's the description that will be a determining factor if that searcher clicks on your link.

And in the Blogger picture above, you can see how I filled in the 'search description' area for this blog post.

So, where ever you have the ability to input information to make it easier for the search engines to use your link and people to find and be motivated to click on your link, DO SO.

SOCIAL MEDIA

The same goes for using social media. Make your posts keyword effective and ALWAYS include a description.

Here's an example from Twitter:

It's an effective, motivating description that will encourage searchers or readers to click on your link.

The next article in the series will be on Outbound Links in your blog posts.

IF YOU'D LIKE TO FOLLOW THE SEO FOR AUTHORS SERIES, CHECK OUT OUR WORKSHOPS PAGE:
http://www.writersonthemove.com/p/workshops.html

Karen Cioffi is an award-winning children's author and ghostwriter. She is also an author/writer online platform instructor with WOW! Women on Writing.

To find out more about Karen's online platform classes, visit:
http://www.articlewritingdoctor.com/content-marketing-tools/



MORE ON WRITING AND MARKETING

Keywords and Search Engines (What Every Author Should Know)

Why Purchase Your Own ISBN?

Does Your Author Business Card Include the Basics?

Keywords and Search Engines (The Bare-Bottom Basics Every Author Should Know)

If you’re online trying to sell something or even simply working to generate visibility, chances are you’ve heard of the term ‘keyword.’

Keywords are simply words or phrases that people use to search for things online.

So, suppose I wanted to look up ‘horse breeds’ for a story I’m writing. I’d input ‘horse breeds’ in a Google (or other search engines, like Bing and Yahoo) search box.

Google will scour its millions of bits of information to find content (blog posts or other web pages) that it feels will be the best answer for that search query – that keyword.

But, to make it more understandable, you should know the very basics of SEO (search engine optimization).

According to Wordtracker.com, “There are three pieces of software that together make up a search engine: the spider software, the index software, and the query software.”

Search engines, like Google, have ‘spiders’ that find new information – new web pages. This might be your new blog post, a new sales page, or new content on an existing web page.

All the new information the spiders gather is given to indexing software. This software analyzes words and word/link combinations to determine what the content is about. The information is then sorted and stored. There it’s ready to be picked up by Google in response to a person’s search query. Say my ‘horse breeds’ one.

So, as mentioned, the spider software finds the new content, gives it to the indexing software which stores it and makes it ready to supply to the query software.

It’s the index software that actually figures out what the content is about.

When I input ‘horse breeds’ into a Google search box, the query software takes over. It goes to all the information stored in the index software to find the best answer to my query.

You might think of it as a filing system in an office. A new document is created (from found sources) and stored in a filing cabinet, in a specific place. When that document is needed, the query software knows exactly where to find it in the filing cabinet. It is retrieved and ready to use.

Pretty simple, right.

So, what about keywords.

Well, while the spider and index software are very sophisticated and can get the gist of your new content just by its terminology, keywords make their job a bit easier.

While keywords are not overly powerful anymore, they still make the finding and indexing process easier.

Going back to my ‘horse breed’ keyword, if a web page matches that keyword, and Google believes that web page has valuable information related to ‘horse breeds,’ it will use that web page as the results of my search query.

And, what’s amazing, this all happens in a fraction of a second. It’s hard to believe that millions or billions of bits of information can be scoured and the best results are served up in under a second.

And, considering that Google processes approximately 40,000+ search queries per second, it’s mind-boggling.

References:
http://www.wordtracker.com/academy/keyword-research/getting-started/keyword-basics-part-1-how-search-engines-work

Karen Cioffi is a children's ghostwriter and author/writer online platform instructor for WOw! Women on Writing.

You can connect with Karen at:
Twitter: http://twitter.com/KarenCV
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/writingforchildrenwithkarencioffi/
GoolgePlus: https://plus.google.com/+KarenCioffiVentrice/about

This article was originally published at:
http://www.articlewritingdoctor.com/2016/05/keywords-and-search-engines-the-bare-bottom-basics/

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Helping Children Find the Main Story Idea
Are You Living the Writer’s Life?
4 Social Media Marketing Tips to Being More Productive

The Evolved SEO Marketing – Content Discoverability and Socialization (the top 3 strategies)

By Karen Cioffi

SEO marketing has evolved significantly over the past couple of years. While the fundamentals are the same, it now includes socialization and organic inbound content marketing that promotes discoverability.

Search Engine Watch describes the new SEO as “web presence optimization.” The site goes on to note that it’s “an all-encompassing approach to optimizing an entire web presence for organic search including the website, social channels, blogs, articles and press releases.” (1)

Of the many elements of SEO, there are three strategies that are at the top of the content discoverability popularity list and the ones you should be most concerned with.

The 3 most popular SEO marketing strategies:

1. Blogging with Effective Keywords, Content, and Socialization

One of the basics of the ‘evolved’ search engine optimization strategy is organic inbound content marketing. It’s the process of bringing traffic to your website through discoverable content, such as blog posts.

A major element of your content should be the ‘tried and true’ use of keywords. Keywords will drive search traffic to your website and ultimately drive conversion.

Conversion is the process of getting visitors to become subscribers, customers, clients or say YES to some other call-to-action you have in place.

It’s the combination of effective and targeted keywords and quality content that will produce the results you want. It delivers visitors to your site and motivates them to share your content with their networks.

Part of this optimization process that brings traffic to your site is sharing your content with your own social networks as soon as it’s published.

2. Guest Blogging

Spread your wings. Research sites that are relevant to your niche and that have high authority and query the owner or follow the site’s guidelines if available.

Guest blogging helps you take-it-up-a-notch. This content marketing strategy brings you to the attention of the high-ranking website you’re guesting on and to the attention of that site’s readers.

Guest blogging has a two-fold benefit. It helps you develop a connection with the site owner, possibly leading to other things, and it broadens your visibility.

To make your guest blogging gigs worth the time and effort, you need to create an effective ‘About the Author’ for the end of your articles. It’s important to make the author tag focused on the reader, not about you. Let the reader know what she’ll get if she clicks on your link.

3. Article Directories

While article marketing via article directories has been around a while, it’s still a top SEO marketing strategy.

As with guest blogging, it’s about using relevant keywords that will allow readers to find your article and it’s about writing quality content that other blog owners will find of value and ‘shareable.’ Other blog and website owners will read your quality content and want to share it with their own audience. This will prompt them to post it to their own sites, especially since it’s free content.

And, as with guest blogging, you need to have an effective ‘About the Author’ with a call-to-action, usually leading to your email list opt-in. Make your Bio count. An effective Bio will let the reader know that if he clicks on your link, he’ll get even more helpful information.

Summing it Up

The evolved SEO marketing strategy is all about discoverability and shareability. The means to this end is optimized content that is driven by organic inbound marketing strategies.

In other words, if you write it using optimization strategies (keywords and valuable content) they will come. And, they will share what you’ve written. This will please the ‘search engine powers that be,’ which in turn will give you higher ranking and authority.

Higher ranking and authority = more perceived value and more traffic, resulting in more conversion.

How About You?

What SEO marketing strategies do you use?

Reference
(1) http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2288392/Time-for-a-New-Definition-of-SEO

Like this article? Please share it!

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MORE ON ONLINE MARKETING

Marketing with Newsletters and Blogs – Your own and Others
Book Marketing and Beyond Book Sales: Marketing and Diversification
Email Marketing – Your Opt-in Landing Page

Keyword Search and Article Marketing Content Tips for More Effective Book Marketing

As an author you may not realize the necessity of keywords. You may feel they’re something a marketer or affiliate marketer needs to be aware of. It’s their area of business and their problem to find these mysterious words that help increase the ranking on search engines. But, that’s not really the case, not by a long shot.

Authors and book marketing go hand-in-hand. This area of online marketing is like any other and needs to use the same strategies to be effective.

Today, if you are promoting yourself and/or your book, service, business, or product, you need readers to now several things:

•    Who you are
•    Where you are
•    What you have to offer
•    Why what you’re offering is what they need
•    Why you’re qualified to be offering this product/service

Yes, there are a lot of requirements that need to be met in order to be successful in this ever expanding and competitive internet arena.

One of the basic strategies used to get noticed is writing or providing content – this is considered article marketing. I’m sure you’ve read or heard a hundred times that “content is king.” It is absolutely true. Imagine being a spec in the sky . . . so tiny and far away that you are invisible to the human eye. Well, that’s you in the internet universe.

So, how do you get a flickering light going and build it into a steady strong beam?

Valuable Content and the Keyword Search
The only way to get on the internet radar is to create valuable content, provide it regularly, and make sure it is keyword effective. As I mentioned, content is essential, without it you don’t have a chance. But, even with it, you need to fine tune your ‘must read information’ with a keyword search tool.

Don’t fret though. Finding and using keywords is not difficult to do; the search tools make it easy. Most of it is really common sense, using words you would use to search for your topic.  But, a keyword tool affords a much larger pond to fish from and is search engine specific.

For this article I plugged in the word “keywords” at freekeywords.wordtraker.com (a free tool). The number one phrase for this keyword is “keyword research,” number two is “keyword analysis,” and number three is “keyword.” I really didn’t have to do a search to realize the word “keyword” would be there, I didn’t know, however, that “research” would be part of the number one phrase. Knowing the number one keyword phrase provides valuable information; this also means it is a highly competitive keyword.

The Long Tail Keywords

To make your keyword rich content even more effective look for what’s called long tail keywords. These are words that will move you away from the general querying crowd—and the heavy competition.

For example, if your niche is children’s writing your key words would be: writing, children’s writing, and possibly children’s fiction and/or children’s nonfiction.

To elaborate on these keywords - to get more specific and narrow your target audience - you might use: writing for kids, children’s fantasy chapter books, picture books, middle grade fiction books, or kids’ nonfiction magazine articles. You get the idea; you need to focus in on your niche. Instead of aiming at the outer rim of a bull’s eye, go dead center, or at least very close.

To get started in this area of book marketing, try a free keyword search tool from the three listed below:

http://wordstream.com/keywords/
http://keyworddiscovery.com
http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/

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MORE ON ONLINE MARKETING

Email List - 10 Giveaway Freebies to Get Readers to Opt-in
Guest Blogging – Advantages for the Guest Blogger
Your Author Online Platform and Social Networks – Blog Page Views and Twitter Followers

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P.S. If you haven't yet, please sign-up for The Writing World newsletter (top right sidebar). 

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Karen Cioffi
Award-Winning Author, Freelance/Ghostwriter
Author-Writer Online Platform Instructor

Create and Build Your Author/Writer Online Platform
6 Week WOW! Women on Writing E-class Starting May 6th

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Clever Ways to Promote Your Ecommerce Website

GUEST POST: Clever Ways to Promote Your Ecommerce Website

By Margaret Jules

Until yesterday selling your product was all about maintaining your local customer base and today it’s all about marketing your ecommerce website for a successful business model. However there are no shortcuts to success. You can only apply some smart techniques to get more hits. Website promotion is actually integral to virtual sales. Try multiple ways at a time to drive traffic towards your website. There are a variety of free and paid promotional methods that you can adapt to hit the bull’s eye. Here are some clever ways you can experiment with to increase your customer database gradually.

1. Apply Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO tops the charts when we talk about ways and techniques to get more hits. This is fast becoming one of the essentials for attracting prospective clients to your webpage. Develop internal WebPages focused on each of your target keywords. Your page title should be keyword rich. Try to do away with the filler words to the extent possible and focus on keyword prominence. SEO makes it easier for the search engines like Bing or Google to locate your website and place it in front of your prospective buyers.

2. Create and follow your blog

Blogging is not all about writing; it is also about staying connected. Your blog should have interesting content that can lure your potential visitors and help them learn about your service or product offerings. You can also ask some relevant bloggers to write for your product or proved service reviews. Who knows…you might get lucky. Try to invite guest authors to your blog. Offer links to relevant content on your webpage in your blog. Link your webpage and blog together. Respond to queries and fan comments on your blog. This will help in creating some brand image about your company.

3. Use social networking sites

Social networking is the latest buzz. Social networking platforms like Twitter and Facebook can help spread the word. Create your company page on Twitter and Tweet as often as you think is desirable in the interest of business. Tweet about your latest promotions, discounts or any new service offering. Create a dedicated Facebook page and encourage your current customers to become fans and leave comments.

4. Other simple techniques like Pay Per Click

Pay Per Click (PPC) can help you in topping the charts of the search engine results. Every time a person clicks on your sponsored advertisement you pay a small predetermined charge. This can serve as a tool of viral marketing. This will also help you create immediate traffic for your ecommerce website.

Conclusion
Ecommerce website promotion is all about real time marketing and creating brand awareness. Google+ pages can also help you promote your product and brand, apart from other various simple and easy methods. Letting your targeted audience know about your existence is the key to a successful virtual business.

About the author:  Margaret Jules lives in Finland and has been doing internet marketing for last 5 years. She loves travelling, meeting new people and works at SEO Morpheus.

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Other Online Marketing Reading

Headlines That Increase Website Traffic and Website Conversion Rates
Beyond Book Sales Income: Book Marketing and Diversification
Facebook Timeline Banner
Engage in Social Networking the Twitter Way

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To keep up with writing and marketing information, along with Free webinars - signup for The Writing World newsletter on the right top sidebar!

Karen Cioffi
Multi-award Winning Author, Freelance/Ghostwriter, Editor, Marketer
Writer’s Digest Website of the Week, June 25, 2012

Find Karen’s eBooks on writing and marketing at:
http://karencioffifreelancewriter.com (check the sidebar for titles)

Karen Cioffi Professional Writing Services

http://karencioffifreelancewriter.com/karen-cioffi-writing-services/

A Ghostwriter - 5 Features That Can Help Build Your Business Part 2

A Ghostwriter - 5 Features That Can Help Build Your Business Part 2 

(Features two to five)
By Karen Cioffi


2. A Ghostwriter Provides Informational Content

Information rules in today’s ever changing world. Providing informative and/or instructive content to your staff, customers, and potential customer is now essential, especially with business transparency being a desirable feature that employees and customers look for.

While businesses and marketers can generate their own content, a ghostwriter frees up company time for more productive and revenue generating work.

‘Informational gifts’ is another content product that businesses need to be aware of. Of the thousands of websites within your industry available for customers to find and subscribe to, why should they choose yours? That’s where an ‘ethical bribe’ comes in to play. Providing an informative report or e-book with valuable information that your potential customer will appreciate tends to motivate that individual, company, or visitor to click on your opt-in box, thereby increasing your mailing list. And, every business knows the importance of having a mailing list – it’s crucial with the increasing e-commerce trends.

It’s this offering of valuable and quality information that helps build a relationship with your site’s visitors and keeps them coming back. This ongoing relationship will eventually lead to an increased mailing list and sales.

3. A Ghostwriter for Your Business’ Landing Pages and Products

The first impression an online searcher – potential customer searching for your product or business type - will have of a business, is its landing page. Obviously, a business needs to have an attractive, quick loading, SEO friendly, and informative page. Now, while a ghostwriter will most likely not be a web designer, she can create the needed content for the site, content that will engage the visitor and motivate him to subscribe to the mailing list and make contact with the business.

The mailing list is what generates long-lasting relationships and sales. Through the mailing list you can offer information, along with product and/or business promotion. Marketing experts advise though, to offer a 75 to 25 percent ratio of information to promotion.

Again, information is what people want today; they want to know how to find a solution to their problem or need, and they want to be informed. If you provide that, you will have sales.

Along with creating effective landing page content, a ghostwriter can produce product descriptions and guides. Through the information you provide and additional research, she can create informative and customer appreciated content, thereby fostering customer loyalty.

4. A Ghostwriter – Copywriting and Keywords
In addition to writing articles, newsletters, e-books, reports, and other content, a ghostwriter should know copywriting. While this skill isn’t essential for some aspects of the job, it is important in the event a client requires projects such as landing pages, email marketing, product guides, articles, or other.

And, being aware of SEO and keywords will help the ghostwriter create traffic effective content, leading potential subscribers and customers to the business’ website.

Knowing copywriting and SEO is a surefire way for a ghostwriter to increase her value to business clients.

5. A Ghostwriter Must be a Good Writer
Lastly, the number one quality a ghostwriter needs to have is being a good writer. It’s also a good idea for the ghostwriter to specialize in a couple of different areas – this also increases her value to specific clients.

If you are thinking of hiring a ghostwriter, you might ask for samples and/or testimonials. Note here: testimonials from ghostwriting clients may be difficult, if not impossible to come by . . . for obvious reasons. If the ghostwriter can’t provide testimonials, it’s important to understand why and ask for writing samples instead.

If you missed Part 1, you can read it here:
A Ghostwriter – 5 Features that can Help Build Your Business Part 1

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More Freelance Writing Articles

Freelance Writing Work: The Possibilities
You Can Write for Money

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To keep up with writing and marketing information, along with Free webinars - signup for The Writing World newsletter on the right top sidebar!

Karen Cioffi
Multi-award Winning Author, Freelance/Ghostwriter, Editor, Marketer
Writer’s Digest Website of the Week, June 25, 2012

Find Karen’s eBooks on writing and marketing at:
http://karencioffifreelancewriter.com (check the sidebar for titles)

Karen Cioffi Writing Services
A Team of Professionals for Businesses and Individuals
http://karencioffifreelancewriter.com/karen-cioffi-writing-services/

SEO and Marketing: Basic Tips and Definitions

SEO and Marketing: Basic Tips and Definitions

In its simplest form, promotion is a tool or strategy under the marketing umbrella. The marketing umbrella covers the creation or manufacturing of a product or service, R&D, distribution, and any other elements needed to get a product from creation to the consumer. Promotion creates visibility.

Utilizing online promotion means you will be using the internet, search engines, and SEO. SEO is the process of getting the search engines to find and rank your content. You obviously want a high ranking so when a searcher (potential customer) types in a search term (keyword) your site may be one of those on that first SERP.

Marketing and especially SEO can be confusing and seem like a daunting task to undertake, but once you understand the basics it becomes less intimidating.

SEO and Marketing Definitions

1. SEO – search engine optimization: “the process of creating and adjusting website content with the goal of improving search engine rankings.” (according to Compendium.com)

2. SERP – search engine results page – the page results from a search query.

3. Keyword – “any word or phrase a searcher might use to describe or identify a desired resource on the Internet.” When using keyword in your title, it’s important to use the keyword in the beginning of the title. Rather than use “How-to-Guide for SEO,” opt for “SEO: A How-to-Guide.” (according to Compendium.com)

4. Organic Traffic or Marketing – free strategies, such as Twitter, blogging, article marketing, etc.

5. Paid Traffic or Marketing – utilizing paid/sponsored ads, such as Google adwords, etc.

6. Ranking – your position (how high up) on the SERP: the higher the better. In other words, you want to be on the first SERP, or at least within the first few pages.

7. Anchor text – linking to other websites and/or pages directly from text within your content. This strategy should be used to bring the reader to your products, to other related articles you’ve written, to another site that has useful information pertinent to your post, and/or to link to a site you’re mentioning.

Providing readily accessible information and links through anchor text will give your readers more “bang-for-the-buck.” It will give the reader a broader reading experience, and she will definitely appreciate it – this builds a relationship . . . and trust.

Using anchor text links will also help search engines, such as Google and Bing, relate your content to other relevant content, and create a target for searchers to hit.

One last note about SEO, keep your keywords simple and concise. And, often it’s of greater benefit to use long-tail keywords. These keywords may not get as many search hits, but they do get a much more targeted audience; this leaves you with less competition.

An example of a keyword might be, “allergy relief.” Allergy relief is a very generic and heavily used keyword. In order to make it more specific and hone in on a narrower audience/searcher, you might use, “allergy air cleaners,” or maybe, “remedies for allergies,” or, “allergy sinus medications.” You want to narrow the playing field.

There are free tools to test out and analyze keywords; here are three of them you might try:

http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/
http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/search.html
http://www.wordstream.com/keywords/

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Learn about writing and marketing with Karen Cioffi at http://karencioffiwritingandmarketing.com. Sign up for her free newsletter, A Writer’s World, and get TWO free site-related e-books - get ONE more just for stopping by. For professional and affordable writing services check out http://dkvwriting4u.com

Check out the eBooks pages on writing and marketing for useful information - it's at my Karen Cioffi Writing and Marketing site, the link is just above.

Facebook vs AdWords

I've come to realize that promoting my book is going to require some form of paid advertisement; that's the hard reality of it. I have a FB ad that's been working particularly well for me and I'm on my way to doubling my sales this month and that's just by increasing my CPC (Cost Per Click) by an extra $0.10.

But still, I was dissatisfied and wanted to sell 10-20 books per day instead of 4-5 books per day. I kept running into these $75 Adwords coupons all over the place; so I clicked on the "coupon" which was really a sorta credit application that had to be approved. I went ahead and filled out the application (they don't ask for your s.s.) which asked some basic questions about my project. A few hours later I received a rejection letter, they didn't tell me why I was rejected but there you have it. After that I decided to set up my own account just to test the waters of Google advertising.

The process was complicated and tedious. I felt like I needed to hire a savvy ad-executive just to get me through it. It took me a couple of days to figure it out, but I was then successful with setting up the ad and all the components that came with it. The downside was I wasn't allowed to market to anyone under the age of 18; well that's my entire audience (13-17), but I proceeded anyway.

The most important part of the set-up was picking the keywords. I chose 34 relevant keywords. I was ready to go. I put in my cc information and set the date for the weekend only, between the hours of 6pm and 3am, because those are the hours teens are wasting away in front of the computer.

Now, for the grand finale, after I put in my cc information my keywords lit up with the minimum prices of CPC. My average CPC was $1.25. Kiss my butt Adwords. Some keywords were $0.40 per click but with my 34 keywords my daily budget would exceed $25 per day. I set my daily budget to only $12 per day. My FB ad runs at $1.50 per day. Needless to say I deleted my account and increased my daily budget on FB. I figured that's where teenagers go to live anyway.

Share your paid advertising stories by leaving a comment. http://vicihowardblogspot.com

Write for Money - You Can Do It

Write for Money - You Can Do It

It’s amazing how the road to ‘making money’ for writers has opened. Maybe you’ve been thinking about it, or maybe you’ve even tried your hand at writing to earn an income or simply to supplement your income, but just haven’t seen the light at the end of the tunnel.

Well, take a step back, look around, and take a new stab at it, because now’s the time to write for money.

You might be wondering what it means to ‘write for money.’ The answer to that is simple: any form of writing that provides payment is writing for money. You may ghostwrite articles or books, maybe you write your own articles and books and submit them to publishers, or maybe you write white papers, e-books, newsletters, landing pages, greeting cards, or other content, if you get paid for writing it, it’s writing for money.

Write for Money – Create Content

But, it does go a bit beyond that simple answer. Along with actually being paid for the content you produce, you can also write a 300 - 400 word post for your monetized blogsite or website. While you’re not actually paid for the post content itself, the content will bring you traffic from which you have the potential to earn money. The relevancy of the content to the product you’re offering is an important factor for conversion, as is the quality of the content, so keep that in mind. Another important factor is to post your content on a regular basis.

Conversion is when a visitor to your site actually buys what you’re offering, so you will need to create a webpage that motivates visitors to click on the BUY button.

But, back to how you can write for money.

Write for Money – Create an eBook

One content format that is taking off is writing and self-publishing e-books. Due to the ease of creation and easy access to self-publishing services such as Amazon’s Kindle, and other sites such as Smashwords.com and Lulu.com, writers now have a platform to publish e-books with absolutely NO out-of-pocket costs.

No more endless submissions and rejections, now you can just write and self-publish in e-book format. And, most of the selling price goes to you - the self-publishing services do take a small percentage of your sales.

While being able to self-publish with ease and no cost is great for writers, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll make money. If your intent is to write to make money you will want to produce informational e-books. Information is the most effective type of content for earning money.

Informational content can be in the form of a simple three - five page report or a 100+ page e-book. Whatever the word or page count is you will need to make sure the information you provide is something online searchers are looking for, and it needs to be valuable and polished.

How do you determine what people are looking for?

To find what online searchers are looking for you will need to do keyword searches.

For example: I wrote an e-book on marketing books. I came up with a few titles and then did a keyword search using http://googlekeywordtool.com. I found that adding “How to” at the beginning of one of my titles was within my target number of searches, so I titled it How to Attract Customers With Informational Marketing.

You should be cautioned though that marketing information is an ever-changing topic. What’s relevant and savvy today maybe useless six months from now – marketing technology is constantly evolving and therefore marketing strategies are often changing. While some basic marketing information is steadfast, it may be wiser to go with an evergreen topic, like writing, health and fitness, gardening, etc.

Whichever write for money strategy you use be sure your content is polished. This means self-editing and proofing your work before you publish it. Just because self-publishing is easy to do and no one is monitoring your writing, your content is still a reflection of your writing ability and your professionalism.

PLEASE SHARE THIS ARTICLE.

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Related Articles:

How to Create an Ebook: 5 Simple Steps
Outsourcing Articles: Is it Right for You?
Selling eBooks – Reach Your Market Through Free Services

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Until next time,


Karen Cioffi
Author, Ghostwriter, Freelance Writer

http://KarenCioffi.com
http://DKVWriting4U.com
Karen Cioffi Writing and Marketing
Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/karencioffiventrice
Twitter: http://twitter.com/KarenCV
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3 Key Phrases (Keywords) Needed to Create an Effective Website

All writers need a website; it’s just the nature of the writing business these days. But, just throwing a website up won’t cut it. You need to create an effective, engaging and appealing website.

According to a number of marketers, the most essential words on your site are: SIGN UP. These two little words are the building blocks of your empire. They are the link to developing a relationship with the visitors to your site.

With attention spans dwindling and competition increasing, the main goal of your website is to get email addresses that convert into sales. During an initial visit, your visitor may not have the time to spend browsing your site for information to entice him to make the decision to purchase your book or product. This is where those two little words come in; it takes less than a minute to type in a name and email address. And, if you have a FREE GIFT offer for signing up, you’ve made the sign up decision even easier.

While it’s important to offer that Free gift, which is considered an ethical bribe, if it’s of no value to the visitor, he probably won’t bother signing up. So, how do you decide if your gift is valuable enough to grab that email address?

The answer to this question is easy: you know who your target buyers are. Think about it . . . what do they want? What would you want? If your site and product is about writing, guess what…your visitors would probably appreciate an e-book on that topic, maybe a how to write guide. Or, if you’re into marketing…offer an e-book of marketing tips and guidance. If your site is about cooking, offer recipes, or an instructional cooking e-book. The idea is to establish yourself as an expert…as someone your reader wants to learn from. They need to want what you’re offering, whether it’s for instructional value, information, entertainment, or other

So, that’s pretty easy, right? But, a word of caution here: make sure your new subscriber is able to get his free gift. There are a couple of sites I’ve signed up to because I wanted the free offers. When I received the link to the offer, either the link didn’t work, or I couldn’t download the gift. Either way, I unsubscribe to the sites. I have on occasion sent an email to the site owner and ended up receiving the gift, but most often I don’t, and I’m sure others don’t, have the time to do this.

Just a quick note here: you need an opt-in box in order to acquire those email addresses. Services such as Icontact, GetResponse, and ConstantContact offer this service.

The next two words that are essential to every website that is selling a book or other product are, BUY NOW, or some other call-to-action. The call-to-action words or button needs to be visible and near the top of your home page. It should also be throughout your site on the sidebar. It’s been said over and over that only 1% of first time visitors will buy a product. It’s usually after developing a relationship through your newsletter, information, and offers that your potential customer or client will click on the BUY NOW button!

These are just three of a number of items that your website will need, but they are three of the most important.

Karen Cioffi is an award-winning children’s author and children’s ghostwriter/ rewriter. She is also the founder and editor-in-chief of Writers on the Move and author online platform instructor with WOW! Women on Writing.

If you need help with your author platform, check out:

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