A Handful of Content Writing Tips for Enthusiastic Writers

August 4th, 2011

“The pen is mightier than the sword.” This expression symbolizes the power of writing that can bring a topsy-turvy in the current state of affairs. When a particular write-up receives an appreciation, whether it’s for a story or an article, it’s the writer who is brought into the limelight. Concentration, skill and dedication are the three keywords that make writers produce brilliant write-ups.

Moreover, the demand of writers has increased rapidly in the last few years especially after the worldwide popularity of SEO businesses. In fact, websites earn huge revenues from their articles and blogs written by professional content writers. So, if you are planning to kick start your career with the profession of content writing, you must take a look at the following tips and suggestions:

• What are you writing – This is a basic question which you should keep in mind. For instance, if you are asked to write in order to promote a product, you can’t produce a flat article on the product description. Your sole intention will be to attract your readers by your write-up. This is applicable for any topic you choose.

• What to include – There are various types of readers. Some prefer to dig deep into the article; some take a glance at the beginning and the end while some like to read only the informative section. So, if you are the writer, make sure you maintain a perfect balance in your piece. Remember, irrelevant information will make a negative impression on the reader’s mind.

• The purpose of your writing – It’s vital for every writer to know about his target audience. If you are writing about a particular gift, excite your reader and convince him to buy that particular product you are writing for.

• Where will your writing be posted – The client for which you will be writing must provide you certain guidelines based on which you will frame up your blog or article. Make sure your written piece matches up to all his orders and instructions.

So, content writing can be fun and interesting if you can accomplish your job with perfection and motivation. Follow the above mentioned tips and you can be the best content writer of your company.

Seven Ways of Generating Traffic through Twitter

July 6th, 2011

The use and the effect social media has on people is enormous. The use that is garnered by social media transcends a wide range that includes building contacts and performing customer service among other usages. However, when we talk about Twitter, generating quality and useful traffic to your site is its USP. The biggest question that hovers round every marketer on the social media platform is: How to achieve the attention and traffic that we yearn for.
Driving incoming traffic has come up as the priority reason among people on Twitter. Good reasons and interests also back this need among people, as a good incoming traffic indicates –
• Media and interviews
• Prospects and subscriber opt-ins
• Spreading your message far and wide
• Customers, increased sales and leads
• Attention, conversation, engagement, and recognition
If you wish t get more traffic on your site, you need to consider some of the key points that can help generate the targeted traffic from Twitter –

1. Know your audience
As a first priority, you need to know your audience to get the business right. Uninterested “hits” from untargeted audience is nothing but a waste of resource. You must always know the need and want of your audience and how would they like it delivered. It is also advisable that you research a bit on the trending topics and try to understand the topics that are on your audience’s mind. To understand your audience better, you can also make a research on their speaking style and the catch up with the common terms and phrases used by them.
This factor clearly indicates that the first step towards generating traffic to your website is listening and observing. To achieve this at best, you can use the tool search.twitter.com to find out the latest and trending topics in the world. You can also join the conversation depending on your interest and service.

2. Get the “right” followers
A number of applications generating the interest of growing your follower counts do the round on Twitter. So much so, that it often seems that number is all that matters in the business. However, the idea is all wrong. All you need to do is, make people hear what you say. This idea clearly indicates that you do need to increase your follower count with robots, as called in Twitter terminology, for no good.
The type of followers that you want must be people who follow your site in their own interest. You are most likely to find these types of followers via re-tweets, referrals from other Twitter users, through comments on blogs of other people, and by clicking your forum signature, as when you take part in discussions. It is advisable that you put your Twitter name, where it will be seen or visible.

3. Build engagement
The first step towards building engagement is talking to people. Do not just open a Twitter account and behave like a robot, talk to your followers, interact on various topics, and treat the people on your network as real human beings. It is not a platform for being there and doing nothing. To build and maintain engagement, you can make use of ways like, holding conversations, asking questions, joining into others conversation, and encouraging feedback.
4. Get clicks
Another integral factor in the list, getting clicks hold high importance and significance, as it allows you to gain popularity in the network. Always remember that now, when you are seen as an interesting person to get into a conversation, your tweets will be noticed throughout. It is advisable that you tweet valuable links and avoid tweeting things about yourself. Also, keep in mind to re-tweet good things and links that are of great value. If you can do this, only then your tweets will be re-tweeted to. It is very important that you be known as a person who tweets good stuff.
Since, it is not possible for everyone on your network to be online at the same time, you need to repost a tweet a few number of times within the day in order to get it conveyed to all. While in Twitter, do not just act, and tweet looking at the time zone converter.
In generating traffic through Twitter, two main things affect your chance of getting a click. The first is your reputation and the second is the headline. To practice through the habit of gaining good headlines, you can free download 102 Proven Headline Formulas initially. These blank templates are sure to help you practice on writing interesting captions. If you get used to offering interesting title that matches the need and want of your audience, you are certain to get clicks.
Initially, you might not get it right with the headlines; in this case, you may try another variation in the form of split test. The steps involve phrasing questions, using curiosity along with facts, and making it into “How To” headline.

5. Measure performance
Measuring performance is another interesting factor that can be used to generate traffic to your site through Twitter. If you use a link-shortener with a built-in click-tracker like, bit.ly, you get to measure the performances of the various links posted by you, as to which one has picked up rapidly and which has not. While in Twitter, the re-tweets and shares are also responsible along with your links to drive traffic to your site.
6. Do more of what works, but test, test, test
This concept instigates you to indulge in things that offers valuable returns and works well. However, also keep in mind that if you go on performing the same thing, might be stuck on your results without any improvements. Always experiment with new thing, learn them, and blend it with your routine work. Always move and flow with your audience.
7. Encourage sharing
Your job does not end on gaining the initial click, but a lot more of it starts with your click. Always make sure that your article has the TweetMeme button, so it becomes easier for people to share the link. You can also choose to ask for re-tweets but stay away of overdoing it. Leave tour followers to their choice and you will get more response than ever.
The final word on gaining traffic to your site through Twitter lies on getting the right followers, sharing interesting stuff, and encouraging other people on sharing the same.

Google+ – Google’s Newest in Social Media!

June 30th, 2011

After, breaking through the domains of social media with Orkut and Buzz, Google eyed towards a bigger and better leap in the direction of social media. Finally, after a long wait Google announced its third attempt of making a mark in the social world with its newest launch of Google +. Google made the entire world and social media enthusiasts turn their heads with the launch of this much – awaited top secret project.
Google+ seeks to change the way people connect online. Much different from the Facebook’s way of connecting people, this robust application will allow the users create a number of small groups, referred as “circles.” These smaller groups that are based entirely on the user’s choice will let him or her share information and other news with only the people (friends and colleagues) they choose.
Much similar to the News Feed application of Facebook, Google+ will allow its users a dashboard featuring a flow of updates from people on their network. All other activities that include sharing photos, videos, comments are categorized into streams,” with one dedicated for each Circle of friends. Users will also get to customize their security settings according to their own choice allowing some on the network with the entire profile view and limiting only the basic information for others.
A re-designed navigation bar placed at the top of the page of any Google product will allow the users to regulate the social media application. Google+ users can access their profile and check all the notifications and other news along with sharing content within their circles with this bar.
In addition to all this, Google has also launched a friend-finding feature known as “Sparks.” This feature works like a search engine for your hobbies and interests; say, you keep an interest in single malt Scotch whisky; all you need to do is enter the specific keyword in the Sparks search bar to allow Google to deliver content of your interest.
Following this feature on the line of the amazing features of Google+ is known as “Hangouts.” This particular application enables a group video chat feature. With this, the users of Google+ can form a hangout session alerting all people in the network. Friends’ can join the session free, which is open to only 10 users at one time in a single hangout.

Final in the feature list is the mobile functionality application of Google+. This feature is at present available in the Android Market and will be soon available at the Apple’s App Store. The mobile feature includes application like “Huddle” allowing group messaging and an auto-upload feature that by design adds photos and videos clicked on your smart phone through Google+ on a private folder in the cloud. This can be shared for eight long hours, the next time you log on to Google+ on a computer.
Google+ is presently active as a “field trial” period and will be made live soon for the public, as the company says.

5 Essential SEO Tools to Better Manage Your SEO Tasks

June 22nd, 2011

SEO or search engine optimization is a technique by which the visibility of a website is made prominent in the search engine results. There are many websites which are being developed and hosted almost every day. But they do not become featured at the very first page of Google search. There are certain tools and techniques that are applied so that the rankings of these websites are enhanced in the various search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo. The best part about the SEO tools is that one can completely track the things that go on in the website from tracking the traffic to tracking the bounce rate and so on.

Doing SEO manually is quite a daunting task and the results are also farfetched. Therefore it is best to use some SEO tools that will help in faster search engine optimization and give you quicker results. These tools save a lot of time and energy that can be used in other SEO works like analyzing and comparing data from various sources. The greatest advantage of using various SEO tools is that it helps in accelerating the SEO process manifold times. Retrieving and gathering data also becomes much organized with SEO tools. Newer SEO tools are coming up every day and using them are making SEO easier.
There are both on-page and off-page SEO tools that can be easily used to get good search results.
Some off-page search engine optimization tools are as follows:

  • Open Site Explorer – This is one of the best off page optimization tools that can be used. The SEO tool is from SEOmoz and is a very powerful one. The Open Site Explorer is a tool that acts as link popularity checker along with back link analysis too. The tool comes in free as well as paid versions. In the paid version, there are more usability features that you can use for your SEO requirements. The tool also offers a 30 day free trial offer, during which you can test if this tool is really useful for your needs.
  • Link Diagnosis – This is a great SEO tool that helps you to check and analyze the websites’ link profiles. It is a free tool that enables in checking link profiles for not only your website but the website of your competitors’ as well. With the help of this tool, one can see the “no-follow” links, the “good” links as well as the “missing” links.
  • Whitespark Location Citation Finder – This tool proves to be very useful for local SEO. Finding the places of listings has become easier with Whitespark Location Citation Finder. On entering a keyword in their search field, you will be provided with all the citation sources. This tool also comes in free as well as paid versions.

Some of the on-page SEO tools that are highly beneficial are as follows:

  • Link Assistant’s Website Auditor – There is a SEOmoz tool exactly like the Link Assistant’s Website Auditor. This tool helps in doing an on-page optimization and analysis of your website along with the website of your competitor. This wonderful SEO tool is available in free as well as paid versions.
  • SEOmoz On-Page Report Card – As the name says, this tool acts as a report card for while assessing and analyzing the basic elements of a webpage. The tool gives a clear idea on the various ways as how the particular page can be optimized. After analyzing the page, the tools help in upgrading your webpage. However, this tool is only available for professional account holders.

How-to-do Tips on Social Media Marketing for Event Promotion

June 7th, 2011

The line of distinction between real life and social media is being blurred gradually. People are going social by shedding the guise of shame and coming out of shells. Social media has taken us out of the cocooned existence, put voice to protests, acted as a platform for making business, globalized local events and reduced the diameter of the globe in terms of distance. In brief, social media itself is a revolution.

Nowadays, be an event local, national or global, it is also tagged ‘social’. All events like meetings, conferences and parties go online before being held. Promoting an event on social media sites helps make it large in real life. It is the maximum number of visitors that makes an event a great gala. The more footfalls an event receives, the larger is it. Here is how you can maximize the online exposure of an offline event by means of social media marketing:

It is difficult to get noticed, publicize an event and get recognition for talents even in real life without buzz or hype online. So, put in the best efforts to create a buzz about your upcoming event on social media. It takes nothing but marketing creativity and costs nothing but time.

User Engagement on Facebook Event Page

The very first do to promote an event online is setting up a Facebook event page using your personal or business Facebook profile or Facebook fan page. It offers a great advantage to let your friends and followers and fans to connect with the event before, during and after it is held. Once you are done with setting up the Facebook event page, share it with your Facebook contacts and start inviting them. Make sure including in the info section of the event page the details of the event. Don’t forget to respond to the questions or comments posted as walls on the event page. An increasing number of Facebook users joining or liking the event page is not enough. Without engagement, there is no promotion.

EventBrite for Online Event Promotion

EventBrite is one of the online tools to promote events on social media. Create a registration page for the event on EventBrite. It offers unique features to customize the event page in keeping with the objective of the event and share it across social media sites to create buzz. Interested attendees can email the link to or share it with their friends in online social circles.

LinkedIn to Invite Your Professional Contacts

Don’t leave LinkedIn behind thinking that LinkedIn is only a professional network. It helps a lot to get an event searchable in Google and noticed by LinkedIn users. Create a page for the event on LinkedIn by clicking the ‘More’ tab. It opens a list of applications. Create a new event by using the Event application. Make sure to optimize the Keywords section with keywords related to the event. It helps people find the event online through Google. Once the event has been published, invite your LinkedIn connections to attend the event and share the invitation with their LinkedIn contacts.

Unique Twitter Hashtag for Event Promotion

Create a unique Twitter hashtag for your event. A Twitter hashtag consists of a hash sign ‘#’ and a relevant keyword. Choose a singular keyword that better describes your event in tweets or discussions and that is not being used on Twitter by anyone. It helps your Twitter followers and their followers identify the event. Use search.twitter.com to check the availability of your desired hashtag.

Twitpic & Twitter for Online Response to Event

If the event is a more-than-one-day long affair, promote it on social media when it is in progress. Take snaps of the event on the first day and use Twitpic to share the snaps with those who could not attend it on the first day. It makes them realize what they have missed and drives them to turn up at the event the next day. The similar is the purpose of using Flickr for event promotion. It encourages response from the attendees of the event too.

Now is the time to make a social media event promotion plan based on the above-mentioned tips and let the people go gaga over the event.

Exclusive Google Search Tips to Do Google Search Efficiently

May 30th, 2011

It is foolish to ask who does not use Google. Professionals like web writers, online learners and Internet marketers use Google multiple times a day. But many are not familiar with the exact ways of diving into the search world of Google. If your way of searching the Internet giant is all about typing a few phrases or words in the search box, you need tips to improve the search process. No use of keep changing the search words or phrases or queries to get information, images, videos and audios of your choice.

No need to make desperate attempts to get at what you are looking for in Google. Don’t frustrate yourself with futile searches so much that you feel compelled to snatch your hair. This blog post has brought to you the exact ways of Google search or unique Google search tips. My list of Google search tips is not comprehensive. However, you can rank among the Google search experts by using the tips listed below:

Explicit Search

Suppose, you need information about social media marketing. Most probably, you will type social media marketing in the search box of Google. Google will reply to your search with results both relevant and irrelevant to social media marketing. Therefore, it is better to make an explicit search by keeping the phrase social media marketing within double quotes. Explicit search will get you only relevant results on the topic of your choice.

For example: “social media marketing”

Exclude Words

Suppose, you are using social media marketing as the key phrase to get information on the same. The search result pages may return results related to social media content or social media advertising besides social media marketing. To exclude the results containing the term content from the search result pages on social media marketing, use the sign (-) between the your key phrase and the word to be excluded.
For example: “social media marketing” – content

Relative Search Word

If you want exclusive search results on content development related to social media marketing, use the phrase content development along with social media marketing in the following fashion:

For example: “social media marketing” ~ content development

Specific Document Type Search

If you are looking for search results containing a specific file type, to say PowerPoint presentation on social media marketing, you had better use filetype as the modifier in the search phrase.
For example: “social media marketing” filetype:ppt

This OR That

When you make search on a particular phrase in Google, the search engine conducts the search not only on the phrase but also on other terms closely related to the phrase. As a result, it presents mixed search results. If you work on two relative phrases and need information on any of them, you should type the two phrases in this pattern: this OR that.

For example: social media marketing OR advertising

Online Calculation

If you want to do an instant calculation, go online instead of using the calculator application and type the numerical digits along with the necessary instruction for division or multiplication or addition or subtraction in the Google search box.

For example: 54789 * 190

If you need the definition of a phrase or word or any other thing, go online and use the command “define” along with the word or phrase in the search box.

For example: define: rainbow

Hope, you will find these Google search tips much useful and helpful. If you know any Google search tip that is beyond this list, please share it with me in comments…

How-to-do Tips for SEO of LinkedIn Profiles

May 23rd, 2011

LinkedIn having a huge base of 100 million users tops the list of professional networking sites. Want to build a professional network, to promote your company website, to fetch traffic for your official blog and create a professional identity online? LinkedIn is the ultimate stop. Log on to LinkedIn and sign up to create a professional profile. LinkedIn profiles, if created and maintained from SEO perspective, can boost their owners’ presence on search engine result pages. Here is how to make your LinkedIn profile potential from SEO point of view:

Link with your profile – A social media profile with links for social, entertainment, communication or professional purpose gains momentum in Google. Similar is the case of LinkedIn profiles. You can link your website and blog to LinkedIn by attaching the website and blog’s URLs to My Website and My Blog sections of your profile. These two links are categorized as ‘follow’ links. Most of the users on a visit to your profile are sure to click their way to your blog and website through the attached links.

First impression of your profile – Google crawls the content of web pages in the top-to-toe fashion. Therefore, it is better to stuff the top of your LinkedIn profile with the most relevant info about you. Place the keywords related to your professional sphere and specialization at the top of the profile so that recruiters and others can easily get to know what you are at the very first glance. You can add the niche terms related to your professional identity in the ‘Summary’ and ‘Specialties’ sections of the LinkedIn profile.

Use keywords to make profile searchable – Many recruiters looking for PHP developers (for example) use a set of keywords like ‘LinkedIn + PHP developers’ to access the LinkedIn profiles of PHP developers. So, optimize your profile in a SEO-oriented way by including the right keyword relevant to your profession in the info of summary, skills and specialties.

Get hits for tweets on LinkedIn – Spice up your profile a bit. Link your Twitter account to the LinkedIn profile. It is a good opportunity to get hits for your tweets, from LinkedIn.

Customize the Profile URL – A LinkedIn profile with a random numbered URL is neither Google-friendly nor searchable. A customized URL with your name makes your LinkedIn profile searchable in search engines. You can customize the profile URL in the Public Profile section.

How-to-do Tips on Social Media Branding for Business

May 20th, 2011

Social media branding can be the Midas touch for your business, if you harness the potential of your social media profiles in a calculated way. Regular quality work is a must for successful business branding on social media. In the list of social media platforms for online branding, the most prominent are Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn where you definitely wish to promote your business on.

Having a profile on these three social media is not enough to make your business cover a larger space in the search world. There are many other online platforms where having a business profile means a new brand building opportunity. Some of them are as follows:

• Google profile
• Scribd profile
• SlideShare profile
• Wikipedia profile
• Quora profile
• About.me profile
• Crunchbase profile
• Reddit profile
• YouTube profile

Maintaining all of these profiles on a regular basis is another important key to social media branding. Furnishing the profiles with a piece of pithy and punchy info about your business does not mean having done the job to make huge profits. Keep the profiles alive and noticeable by updating them with a piece of engaging social media content every other day.

If the social media profiles of your page are not updated regularly, visitors will not show up and Google search spider too will not crawl them. Consequently, it will reduce the relevance and visibility of the profiles in the Google social search. Spending a little time out of 24 hours a day online is crucial.

If the purpose of your social media activity is complete business branding, make sure to get your business listed on six social media sites – Google Places, Foursqare, Bing Local, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Get a grip on how these sites work for business promotion and brand awareness. Follow the users who have already kissed success in social media branding.

The way you respond to the positive or negative comments made by people on your business is one of the makings of social media branding. Don’t overlook negative comments. Communicate with the poster and dig the reason for his or her negative view of your business. Ask for his or her suggestion and make necessary changes accordingly. It will let your social media branding activity go a long way.

Don’t neglect positive comments or reviews without responding to those. Thank the persons for having appreciated your business or brand just as we send a thank-giving note to those who we receive gifts from. Thank-you notes will help you earn customer loyalty.

Build relationship with the followers of your business profiles on social media sites by commenting on their posts. It is social media commenting akin to blog commenting. You can build links online and promote your business effectively through social media commenting. Social media profiles are a kind of marketing resource for your business and brand. How to manage this resource for promising online branding is up to you.

A1StudyCenter – A Distance Learning Initiative by Eparadise-India

May 11th, 2011

Eparadise-India a premier SEO and Web Development Company has taken initiative to build a world-class distance learning hub in India. The making of A1StudyCenter, the proposed distance learning institute, is in the initial stage. Soon it will rise as a prestigious seat of distance learning targeting the global online education market.

This initiative taken by Eparadise-India is intended to provide opportunities for learning beyond on-campus classroom, geographical boundaries and books. The online world is rich in academic treasure. A1StudyCenter is the headway to this new world of higher education.

The principle purpose of Eparadise-India behind this large-scale project is to make learning practical, easy and technology-oriented. Besides making learning fun and stress free, offering the benefits of studying online courses to career aspirants is another aim of A1StudyCenter.

Studying online means learning with flexibility and ease. The virtual space of learning is accessible round the clock and runs beyond geographical bounds. Students and professionals studying online courses through A1StudyCenter will be enjoying the status of global learners. Eparadise-India has made this long step for the benefit of working individuals in particular.

The uniqueness of A1StudyCenter is not only online learning but also quality education. Just imagine the value of project based online education and fun of learning through e-course materials.

6 Wonderful Ideas to Write Most Attention-grabbing Headlines for Social Media Content

May 9th, 2011

Building links on social media platforms like Facebook is in full swing. Sharing posts and videos on Facebook to update profile pages and fan pages on a regular basis is a potential do for building links to websites and blogs. When we share a blog post or article on Facebook, apart from the box labeled ‘Attach’ for pasting the URL of the blog post or article, there are other two boxes: one for the title of the post and another for a brief description about the post.

It is the headline or title of a post on Facebook, which gives visitors the first impression of the content. Only a gripping headline can drive your Facebook friends to click their way to the post. If the headline is compelling, they don’t hesitate to share the post on their Facebook profiles. Thus the post will go viral. How to write headlines that are worth clicking on as well as linking to?

Content writers had better take a journalistic approach to writing headlines for web articles and blogs. In the language of journalism, headlines are defined as pithy and punchy statements with driving force. Keep in view the content of a write-up while composing a headline for the write-up. Headlines are supposed to pack in the kernel or substance of write-ups.

Headline Writing Tips

Writing driving headlines is an art that a content writer or a copy writer must have a grip on. Article or blog or social media content writers should keep in view some aspects of headline writing to pique a visitor or reader’s interest. I am going to share with you a few ideas which you can use to construct attention-grabbing headlines:

• The headlines of posts intended to update your business or brand fan page must contain the business or brand name. It is because the followers of the page with feel concerned with your business or brand.

• Highlight the prominent features of your business or brand in the headlines. It is because the Facebook followers who take interest in you are curious to know more and more about your business or brand. Moreover, it helps to catch their attention and win their trust.

• Headlines that seem thoughtful or sound funny are more appealing than flat and dull headlines. As far as social media content is concerned, headlines should be presented as thought-provoking ideas or headways to something new.

• Researches on what makes readers click on headlines reveal that “how to” and “top 10” headlines are the most clickable. For example, “How to Cook a Most Delicious Lobster Recipe at Home”, “Top 10 Ideas for Home Based Business”.

• Using the superlative forms of adjectives like “funniest ideas”, “creepiest things”, “most important facets”, “yummiest recipes” in headlines is one of the secrets to writing clickable headlines.

• Human brains quickly understand something logical while minds understand something emotional in no time. Logical headlines with emotional appeal cut a mark with readers successfully.
Try these ideas to write attractive and effective headlines and get maximum views for your online write-up.