Thursday, December 30, 2010

The Best of Copyblogger 2010

Best of Copyblogger 2010

Every year on the 24th of December, we tell you we’re taking the rest of the year off. And every year, we instead slip in a “Best of Copyblogger” post before New Year’s just in case you missed something from the past year.

Sneaky, huh?

So here are the best Copyblogger articles from 2010, based on your enthusiasm via comments, links, retweets, and indecent propositions made to our writers for creating exceptional content (I hear it happens … how’s that for a guest blogging incentive?).

So let’s see who got lucky this last year, in chronological order:

How to Do 500 Times Better than AdSense

Johnny kicked off the year telling us how he worked months of 15-hour days in order to make $111 from his AdSense sites. And then he did something else, which resulted in a business that’s stronger than ever almost a year later. And just to be clear … there’s no truth to the rumor that Johnny is still a meth dealer.

SEO Copywriting: The Five Essential Elements to Focus On

My friend and business partner Chris Brogan likes to say he liked me better back when I was a blogger, but contrary to that sentiment, I actually did write a few posts in 2010, and here’s one of them. It’s on SEO copywriting, and it’s part of a long line of content that’s taught Chris Brogan everything he knows.

11 Smart Tips for Brilliant Writing

Dean Rieck delivers 11 much-needed lessons in brilliant writing, which can be summed up as “trying to sound smart makes for stupid writing.” A related tip – ordering the second cheapest wine on the list instead of asking for advice means you’re getting ripped off.

The 8 Habits of Highly Effective Bloggers

With a slightly remixed headline based on Steven Covey’s famous book, we were already swinging for the fences. Luckily, Annabel Candy delivered with the content by distilling for you the common character traits shared by people who’ve made it in the blogging biz.

Four Steps to Finding Your Ideal Writing Voice

People talk about authenticity all the time when it comes to online content, but what does that actually mean? It’s about developing the ideal voice that makes you click with your audience. English teacher Joy Tanksley takes us back to school to discover what authenticity really means.

20 Warning Signs That Your Content Sucks

Jon Morrow is Copyblogger’s resident “tough love” writer, and he pulls no punches here. If your content sucks, you need someone to let you know now so you can fix it. It’s just like when your ass looks fat in those pants — only a real friend will tell you.

The 7 Secrets of Running a Wildly Popular Blog

Where else will you find a Meryl Street quote used to explain why blogging is like high school? Except this time no one stuffs you in a locker just as you approach the homecoming queen to see if she wants a ride home in the second-hand AMC Concord your mom gave you.

101 Ways to Make More Sales Online

Sonia Simone went a little nuts and packed 101 solid conversion tips into a single post. Plus, there are lots of links to related content for deeper exploration. Strangest tip – know when to put a sock in your mouth.

60 Ways to Increase Your Influence Online

Sam Rosen brought together 60 of the web’s brightest minds for a free online conference, built an opt-in email list, summarized the content for Copyblogger, and ended up with one of the top posts of the year. Make that 61 ways to increase your influence online.

6 Online Marketing Mistakes that Will Kill Your Business

Another popular article that demonstrates the power of the “negative” headline and our attraction to avoiding mistakes (or delighting in the mistakes of others). Melinda Brennan’s one and only Copyblogger post hits the big list with these common online marketing mistakes.

Why Being Naive Can Make Your Fortune

Who knew being naïve was a business asset? Turns out it can be, as Sonia deftly proves with her own personal path. Coming next year: “How Being Feckless Can Make You More Productive.”

8 Bad Habits that Crush Your Creativity and Stifle Your Success

This post was the most popular of the year in social media channels. Creativity as a topic always does well, especially when paired with another compelling “negative” headline. This is also Dean Rieck’s third post of the year to make this list, which has other Copyblogger writers whispering about “liberating” him. Not sure what that means.

50 Can’t-Fail Techniques for Finding Great Blog Topics

What to write, what to write … it’s the eternal question that nags bloggers. Carol Tice gives you 50 methods to generate strong blog topic ideas, and not one of them involves watching your cat for its next adorable scampering behavior.

7 Tips for an Authentic and Productive Writing Process

This article from Logan Zanelli makes a great companion to Joy’s post on finding your ideal writing voice. Here Logan explores the intersection of authenticity and productivity, which is way safer than the intersection of 51st Street and Memorial Drive in Tulsa.

Five Ways to Write Magnificent Copy

This post from D Bnonn Tennant had two really strong things going for it: (1) the advice to write drunk and edit sober, which many really wanted to take literally for some reason, and (2) the author’s name is D Bnonn Tennant. I could repeat that marvelous moniker over and over if I had any idea how to pronounce it.

How to Beat “Invisible Content Syndrome”

Everyone deals with invisible content syndrome when they first start out. But if it’s been going on for too long, you might want to check out some advice from Sonia. This post really struck a chord, most likely due to the tight relationship with “invisible money syndrome.”

The Mad Men Guide to Changing the World with Words

The piece from Jon Morrow uses the hit show Mad Men to demonstrate that changing the world boils down to 3 essential W’s: whisky, womanizing, and words. Okay, it’s really only about words, but sometimes you have to coax those little devils out.

7 Ways to Improve Your Writing … Right Now

Everyone can use a bit of immediate improvement for their writing, so this article from James Chartrand received a lot of attention. Or maybe it’s because one of the subheads is “Talk Food, Sex, and Danger” and James is a woman pretending to be a man. Choose whichever hook works for you.

8 Incredibly Simple Ways to Get More People to Read Your Content

Make no mistake, what you say is most important, as long as people actually know what you said. Pamela Wilson points out 8 simple ways to present your words in the friendliest way for online readers, so, you know, they actually read it.

Actually, Blogging *is* Dead

And finally, we close out the year with my little tongue-in-cheek rant against those unmentionable people who unsuccessfully try to declare blogging dead each and every year. Whether you call it blogging, content marketing, or something else … the people who create content benefit the most from the explosion in social media. So keep going.

How to Supercharge Your Blog

2010 is coming to an end and now is the time for bloggers to begin to have new plans for moving their blog ahead in the new year.

Many of us have invested a lot of effort into our blogs and we’re now reaping the rewards and many of us have wasted a lot of time doing things that contribute nothing to the success of our blog in the year 2010. It is time to revise your blogging plan and this article will be giving you some tips to supercharge your blog.

Focus on Your Content

Writing quality content is essential to your success as a blogger and there is no point in writing a post if it won’t have an impact on others. The more effort you put into your blog posts and the more impact it has on people’s lives the better results you will get from your blog.

When I was still a fairly new blogger, I was averaging 150 visitors a day and I wrote a guest post for a particular top blog. I didn’t focus on giving the best of my content and I believed traffic and marketing is all that matters. My guest post went live on that blog and I ended up having over 1000 visitors to my blog on the same day, fast forward to 3 days and you will hardly believe I went back to getting the same number of visitors I was getting before that particular guest post.

There is a great difference between getting traffic and making your traffic stick and as a blogger your main aim should be to get quality traffic that sticks – that can only be done by providing quality content.

Lead by Example

If you try to estimate the number of blogs we have online about how to make money blogging you will end up finding out that there are millions of them.

The truth is that very few of these bloggers truly make money online and this explains the reason why most of them find it very difficult to make money from their blogs.

There are a lot of hypes on the internet that people are tired of reading just any content; they want to read from someone who has been there.

The only way to successfully make money blogging is not only by blogging in the how to make money online niche, in fact, you will easily achieve success with other niches you’re more knowledgeable and passionate about.

If you’re yet to be making money online try to search within yourself to see what you’re more knowledgeable and successful at; focus on building a successful online business in this area before teaching people how to make money online.

A true blogger would lead by action and not by words. You should let people see clearly that you not only know what you’re saying but you’re getting results from it. This will give you more credibility and will make people trust anything you say, it will also make them willing to share your content while referring their friends and family members to your blog.

Promote! Promote! Promote!

It doesn’t matter how knowledgeable you are about a subject or how sticky the content you write is, people won’t know about you if you don’t market your blog.

While it is highly important to focus on giving the best of your content while at the same time building trust by making sure you’re successful at what you preach it is also highly important to spend more time and focus your efforts on marketing your blog.

Actually, doing the first two things will help your blog market itself but you need momentum to give your blog a head start. Once you have this momentum you will find everything very easy.

There are several ways to promote your blog, and below are 3 methods I’ve found great success with.

- Guest Blogging: Guest blogging is the process of writing for another blog in order to get the word out about your blog. There are several benefits of writing guest posts for other blogs but the two immediate benefits is that it helps you gain traffic and instant credibility. Other benefits such as link building follows.

Guest blogging is the main way I promoted my blog in 2010 and it has yielded far more results than I expected.

- Blog Commenting: Another great way to get the word out about your blog is by commenting on other blogs. Promoting your blog successfully through blog commenting is more about commenting smartly and not in the numbers. Look for the top blogs with the best posts and community in your niche, read their posts and make well-thought out, highly sensible comments and you’ll be amazed at the type of quality traffic you will get back to your blog.

- Collaboration: Collaborating with other bloggers is the best way to build a great community fast if you’re a new blogger. Do your best to network with other bloggers and make them see that you truly care about them, let them know you’re interested in collaborating with them and “carefully” outline what they’ll be gaining from it. Once you’ve gotten a reply from them and the post is live, try to notify them about it and tell them to share it – with time you will have built a great community.

Conclusion

Note that building a successful blog is not something that can be done in a day, many few drops of water make a ocean and the more you work on building your blog with combination of little efforts you will achieve success in due time.

Image Credit: Shutterstock

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

How To Create Link Bait Content

This guest post is by Brandon Connell of BrandonConnell.com.

Throughout my blogging career, I’ve worked hard on my writing style. I’ve improved over time, and I’m at a point now where I believe I have perfected my ability to write link bait articles. A link bait article is an article that makes many readers want to reference it within their articles, or link to it as a general resource.

The thing I love about link baiting is that it allows your blog to build some quality backlinks and increase search rank over time. It also means additional targeted traffic is attracted to your blog, which can mean more subscribers. Let’s see how you can start writing such articles, and increasing your presence on the web.

Why do articles go viral?

The main reason why articles go viral is because they offer something that of value to a large portion of the population. This is usually something that people feel that they cannot be without, and with the way that social media works, everyone automatically shares links to that content which spreads it like a virus; hence the name “viral”.

Think about viral content as being like the latest craze during a holiday sale (e.g. Tickle Me Elmo).

Two common link bait post types

Some articles are just so good that they grab the attention of the reader immediately.

One example of such an article is a list post. These are posts that are easy to read, and usually provide solutions to problems or reasons why things are needed. Examples of list post titles are “Top 10 Must-Have WordPress Plugins”, or “5 Methods To Increase RSS Subscribers”. The titles of those articles are meant to get the attention of the person who has a need for those things. When they access the article, it is broken down into a list for easy consumption.

A controversial post is another example. Consider the blogger who refused the screening process by the TSA. He recorded the entire confrontation, and posted it on his blog. The next thing you know, not only was he on the news, but everyone was linking to his blog when they talked about negative reactions to the TSA backscatter xray machine and the aggressive pat-downs.

Making your article stand out

When I first guest posted on ProBlogger, I intended to write an article that I knew would be referenced in the future. I wrote about blogging styles, and I made sure to create an in-depth article. So link bait posts don’t have to be list items or controversial articles. They can simply be articles that cover a topic in depth, and which another blogger can reference within his or her own posts into the future. You see this all the time among bloggers and site owners who link to wikipedia articles.

In order to make your article stand out, it’s wise to write a detailed post and cover the key bases of the topic. Break your article into sub-sections and lists, and reference other materials where you need to. The most important part of standing out is to be original. If you write a me-too post, then you aren’t likely to get comments, let alone inbound links.

Using leverage while remaining original

Let me stress this. Go out of your way to be original. Once, I created free banner ads for some of my regular readers in order to show my appreciation for their loyalty. It only took five hours of my time to design those ads, but I knew that they would appreciate the effort for a long time. I had no intention for getting inbound links from the exercise—they were an unexpected bonus.

I love when I come across a massive article with links to a lot of useful tools. Once, I came across an article on traffic sources. That article listed hundreds of websites that we can leverage to get traffic to our blogs. I bookmarked that bad boy and referenced it in my own article.

Those kinds of articles really get my attention, and easily turn me into a regular reader. The person who compiled the article wasn’t lazy, and took their time to make a valuable resource for someone else. They didn’t do a quick article just to get some link bait. And if their intent was to get link bait, they did it the right way by taking their time to make a valuable resource.

Make an effort for style

When I talk about style, I’m not telling you to go out and make sure your socks match. When I speak of style, I’m talking about how you present your articles.

Do you break them up with pictures related to what you are writing about?
Do you use H1, H2, and H3 tags?
Do you change the color of your header tags to look different than the article text?
Do you throw a video or some audio in there to appear to be keeping up with the Jetsons?
Do you style your social media accounts to look like your blog?
Do you use an occasional list like this one to make your point?

There are many ways to go about creating style for your brand. The lesson here is: don’t be lazy. If you take your blog seriously, present it in a unique way, while at the same time completing the maintenance your readers expect.

Size does matter

You may have heard that phrase from an ex-girlfriend, but I am talking about the length of posts here. There’s a big debate that will remain a debate for years to come: whether or not to write long posts.

I wrote both long and short posts. Some of my articles are as small as 200 words and some of those are just personal update; others can get up to 5,000 words. The fact is that search engines love longer articles with original content. So do readers. They may not read the entire thing, but they will skim that article like tomorrow wasn’t coming. If you pack a longer article with many eye-catching subtitles, you can easily attract links to those articles.

Longer articles are more likely to attract backlinks. Let’s take, for example, a post titled “7 Ways to Come Up With Blog Post Ideas”. What if we were to take the same concept, but create a piece titled “100 Ways to Come Up With Blog Post Ideas”? Guess which one will attract more attention. 100 ways is better than 7 ways; that article is a sure-fire bookmark post.

I’m not saying that you can’t have a successful blog with 500-word articles. Many great blogs that I visit every day post short articles, and short articles are easy to read. What I am saying is that you are less likely to create link bait articles with shorter posts. It’s not impossible—I’ve done it myself. But if you want a consistent solution, then longer articles that are 1,000-5,000 words are best.

Contests aren’t just for traffic

Have you ever held a contest on your blog? They’re usually used to attract traffic, because everyone taking part in the contest will promote it. But contests also generate a lot of inbound links through that promotion. Take, for example, a guest post contest. You’re likely to get many links to various articles in this contest, rather than just one to the contest itself. Each guest poster will actively promote their article on as many social media sites as possible, as well as the sites and blogs they own or partner with.

You can really utilize contest by soliciting sponsors. To do so, post an article on your site that invites sponsorships for an upcoming contest. In addition, contact companies directly and let them know you have a contest coming up. Offer them major exposure if they contribute cash, tangible items, or software licenses, for example, as prizes. This is a great way to build up a link-baiting plan around your contest.

Is it broke? Report it!

I recently broke a story on my blog. At first I wasn’t going to, then I realized what I’d be passing up. The story announced a new web platform that was coming out for bloggers and readers alike, called Newsgrape. I gained some quick traffic by breaking this story before the mainstream media got hold of it.

More recently, I started getting some extra links to my story, because I was the first blogger to write about Newsgrape. An added bonus was that I gained a link to my article from the Newsgrape page. Aside from the backlink on a PR6 site, I started receiving traffic from that site, which keeps coming to this day!

If you can manage to get your hands on a big story before anyone else does, you can create some serious link bait. Some blogs actually focus on breaking news stories, and other bloggers only hope to come across a story occasionally. But the great thing is that you don’t have to be the very first in order to benefit. If you can manage to be just one of the first bloggers to write about it, then you’ll get in before the audience is saturated with the story. Your article is also likely to gain favor with Google for being one of the first t report that topic.

How can you can find breaking stories to report as “one of the originals”? Look at news sites and stories, like the Yahoo! homepage. Don’t hesitate: write about it, then publish it quickly. That would be one of the only times I actually advise writers not to take their time on a story. Make sure you are original when you write it, though: don’t be in such a hurry that you only report an article that’s already been written by another or news site. You can reference a sentence or two, but provide your own opinion and ensure that your thoughts are mentioned by others in the near future.

The art of link baiting

Writing link bait content is easy. It’s an artform, but any blogger can do it if they just apply the science and avoid laziness.

Make sure that you’re not being selfish by only seeking links. Rather, work hard to create a valuable resource that others can’t resist.

What tips can you share from your experience writing successful link bait content?

Brandon Connell is a full time blogger, and internet marketing expert. He can be found on his blog teaching you how to make money blogging, and you can follow him on Twitter.

The Numbers to $1,000,000: How is Your Blogging Progress?

million-dollars-blogging

My multimillionaire uncle told me to always have three projects: a short term source of income, a medium term project or two, and a long term goal that you are making a reality. And the only way to assess whether this work is making you good, sustainable income is to look at the numbers again and again.

In this post I want to look at the numbers to $1,000,000 and see how your blogging progress is going.

Why a million?

A million dollars is a large number that most people dream about. And while it seems far off and distant for many people, for others it is quite achievable. And as bloggers we have something that other generations did not. The Internet. Google. Facebook. These giants are capable of sending tens or hundreds of thousands of visitors to your blog every week. All you need is a domain and a host and you are on your way.

Compare that to the old days when you needed a railroad or a factory or an entire office building to make that kind of money and you will realize that we have a very unique opportunity right here and now. And if you think its not possible to make a million dollars from blogging alone then you might want to think again. Darren Rowse does it. So do a bunch of others.

The numbers to $1,000,000

Lets take a look at some figures to see whether you are on track for your goal. Remember, you don’t need to make a million to change your life and perhaps even change the lives of others. You might only need $40k or $50k a year to completely change things. That’s what this post is about.

Let’s say you start a blog and you are going to make money by selling an eBook. Here are some very rough, small and static numbers to think about:

You write three posts a week aiming to grow email subscribers and build a community
You do some light SEO work and begin to get traffic from Google as well as social media
You get around 100 visitors a day after six months
You convert 10% of those visitors into email subscribers
In one year you have (182 x 10) 1820 subscribers assuming none were gathered in the first six months
You sell an eBook at $49 to 50% of your list and make $44,590 in your first year (910 x $49).

Sure, the reality could be totally different. It could be better or it could be worse. Some factors will push the income up and others will push it down. On Blog Tyrant, for example, I have written only 20 posts and already get around 40 to 60 new email subscribers per day. So after a year I could have closer to 14,000 subscribers to sell an eBook to. And the above equation doesn’t take into account ongoing sales, affiliates, etc.

As a blogger you need to constantly assess your goals and your targets. If you want to get to a million dollars you need to adjust the numbers and set them as targets. There is absolutely no point blogging aimlessly and hoping that one day you might strike it rich. If you aren’t getting the 1000 or 2000 (or 10,000) daily visitors that you need, then you have to take a look at what is going wrong and fix it.

What is your plan?

I am really interested in hearing about your plan. Are you aiming for a certain level? Do you have the numbers and the strategy all worked out or are you kind of just floating through and hoping that it will all add up in the end? More importantly, are you growing? Please leave a comment and let me know.

About the Author: The Blog Tyrant has sold blogs for large sums of money and blogs about how you can build your blog fast and do the same. He is a 25 year old guy from Australia and answers all the comments on his website.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

6 Blogging Mistakes You Might Not Have Considered

Talent and smarts don’t always equate to successful blogging. For example, you could be a great writer and use Twitter effectively to promote your site, but still miss the mark in other critical areas of your blog.

Lists with blogging mistakes are pretty common, and useful, but there are some mistakes that usually are not included. I created a list with 6 of them, and I suspect you might not be paying attention to those, so check it out.

1. Publishing a series of posts consecutively all on the same subject

I have nothing against doing a series on a blog as long as it’s done right. If done wrong, you’ll have created a scenario in which it’s painful to read your blog.

For example, you’re a personal-development blogger and writing a series on positive thinking. If you post five consecutive days on this subject you will have destroyed one of the greatest assets a blog can have, variety.

If you’re planning on doing a series on a single subject, I advise you don’t do it over consecutive days. Publish some posts on a different subject in between your series posts. This way you can still do a series without killing variety on your blog.

2. Not using pictures

While there are occasions when not using pictures is wise, much of the time it’s a costly mistake.

The most obvious benefit a picture provides is that it encourages people to dive into your post.

Another thing you must realize is that a picture is not merely benefiting the single post it’s in; it’s also benefiting your entire blog design.

People are often shallow when they land on a new blog. If they see you include pictures in your posts, they’re more likely to investigate your blog further.

Text without a picture is like a store without windows.

Just think of how many more subscribers you could gain over the long term by taking the time to include pictures with almost every post.

3. Failing to use subheadings

I used to rarely use subheadings in my blog posts because I don’t particularly like them. I later realized that just because I don’t like them doesn’t mean that everyone else feels how I do.

Unlike me, many people scan posts when they read them. If scanners come to a post that isn’t scanner friendly, they’re not going to give you the time of day.

Every post you write that’s not short should have subheadings.

4. Making paragraphs too large

I’m not going to give you a specific rule on what constitutes a large paragraph, but you know it when you see it.

Paragraphs the size of mountains are extremely intimidating to the eye. If I see a blog post with large paragraphs, I won’t read it no matter how good the content may be.

Keep your paragraphs short to encourage as many people as possible to read your content.

5. Not displaying all your content in a subscriber’s feed reader

Some bloggers opt to only provide a link to their posts in the feed reader.

While doing the above will get more people to click over to your blog from the feed reader, you’ll also upset your readers, encourage them to unsubscribe and will end up with a significantly smaller readership in the end.

The fact that virtually all successful bloggers have their entire post displayed in their RSS feed is all the proof you need that it’s the most strategic thing to do.

6. Waiting to do guest posts

If you have a blog with a giant readership like this one, it’s understandable that you don’t feel compelled to guest post.

But for most of us, the objective is to grow our readership so that one day it’s huge like this one.

With a small readership you can publish a remarkable post and receive almost nothing beneficial from it.

In fact, some very talented bloggers will publish remarkable post after remarkable post and never really go anywhere with their blog.

When you consistently publish great posts on your blog and get no retweets, and no new subscribers, it’s time to ensure that a significant percentage of your finest material is submitted to other blogs so that your blog not only gains subscribers, but also gets on the radar of other influential bloggers.

While nothing can guarantee you become a successful blogger, there are definitely things you can do to at least ensure you have a fighting chance.

About the Author: Bamboo Forest created Tick Tock Timer, an online timer that helps you stop procrastinating, get to work, and stay focused.

Things You Should Do Before the New Year

The year is quickly coming to a close, and while it’s mostly just a psychological change, there are something tasks that need to be taken care of before year’s end. Not only is this a list of tasks that you should take care of, but most of them are relevant to myself as well.

2011 GOALS & PROJECTS

It’s amazingly easy to start new projects and get side tracked while running a business online. How many times this year did you lose focus on your main projects, or want to start something new. With the new year right around the corner, it’s a great time to make a list of your top goals and new projects to work on. I know I will be weeding out the smaller sites/campaigns and tasks that got me side tracked in 2010 and will either let them die off, or outsource their management.

DOMAIN NAMES & RENEWALS

I’m sure most of you have you have your domains on auto renewal, but it’s always a good idea to take a good look at your domain names and still have a good idea on when they expire. I have several hundreds of domain names and they are pretty much all over the place, mainly with GoDaddy, NameCheap and eNom. Before crossing over into the new year, I’m taking some time to consolidate and transfer my domains names into one large account with NameCheap.

CLEAN YOUR INBOX & OFFICE

I’m guilty of always having a messing inbox. No matter how many times I find myself clearing out my GMail account, it’s loaded up with hundreds of unread emails within days. The same holds true for your desk or office room. head into the new year with a fresh start. A clean inbox and office will get you started on the right track!

SALARY, BONUSES, PAYMENTS & STOCKS

Manage your finances and make any necessary purchases, employee payments or stock sales before the year ends. Head into the new year without any pending debts or payments looming over your held. Also make sure to make your final contributions to 401k/IRA accounts. You never know what the new year will hold for you and your company, so make sure your finances are in order.

Other quick ideas you should take action before the new year include… updating your DMCA/copyright/privacy policies, back up you site and data, clean out your social accounts of “non friends” and change your passwords. Feel free to leave a comment with any ideas I may have missed, and what you’ll be doing to make 2011 your best year yet!

Monday, December 27, 2010

Watching Out For Shoddy Business Practices

Anyone that works on the Internet will be able to tell you that while there are virtually limitless business possibilities available for writers and bloggers, there are also a lot of people who do shoddy business on the web and are out to take your work away or pay you nothing for it.

Last year I noticed there were more than a few of these snake oil salesmen out there and even though I’ve learned over the years a few things to avoid, sometimes your only recourse is to cut your losses and start looking for another client when one of these people cross your path.

Hired Guns Without Any Bullets

Although it’s not always the case and you should not take this piece of advice as gospel, it’s quite often true when a company or individual you are working for hires some kind of a consultant or editor to oversee your work, it’s a red flag. Just this past year I lost a lucrative contract in Toronto to somebody whose resume reads like he might be a programmer or a comic book aficionado or some combination of the two, but I didn’t see him as qualified to take over the social media and blogging he did. That happened as soon as I’d got the blogs running for the firm in a professional way. Watch out for these hired guns. They don’t want qualified writers hanging around but they like to learn from you.

That brings me to another point concerning social media and the less than qualified hackers who come along and often convince business owners they can get them the traffic and Google rankings they are looking for. Social media is the latest thing in Internet advertising if only because it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy but it certainly attracts a fair share of people who convince naïve business owners that it’s worth a lot of their hard-earned money. It is, in a way, but unfortunately it has also become the domain of a bunch of scammers who charge exorbitant amounts of money for maintenance on Facebook or Twitter that’s really a lot more affordable when they use a professional writer.

Sample Sorrows

I’d like to be able to sit on the mountaintop and tell anyone who’s ever written a sample blog or article and then never got paid for it, ‘I told you so’ but I’ve fallen prey to the same creeps who ask for these samples and then take off with your work. Here’s a great way to get around those prospects who ask for 200 to 400 words on a subject to ‘test’ your skills:

Make sure you have some samples on your website. Understandably, that could be hard since you’re more than likely ghostwriting and the client wants to adopt your work as their own, but there are usually smaller clients who don’t mind you using your work or at least a link to it. Then anyone who wants a sample can be directed to your website.
If you’re just starting out and don’t have a good resume yet, the best thing you can do is get the right contact information from the client to check their credibility. Ask for a telephone number and give them a call over Skype or the other VOIP system you use to make sure they have nothing to hide and look for something more than just an email address for contact information.

The Internet is like any other business in that you’ll meet all kinds. While an overwhelming majority of your clients will be upstanding people who pay on time, you do need to be on guard for others who use questionable practices.

Blogging World

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Thursday, December 30, 2010

The Best of Copyblogger 2010

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