Category: Blogs

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New Blogging Clients – the Writer Makes All the Difference

We’ve added some new blogging clients recently and wanted to share some great writing with you as well as some old favorites. With seven talented writers, we may just be the perfect match for your blog needs as well. Find out more information about our blog writing services.

Lindbergh Aircraft Tug Company

This blog is owned by DJ Products. We write for the main corporate blog and this is their second blog with us. They sell aircraft tugs that pull small aircraft out of hangers to the runway. The blog is interesting even though you might consider it a fairly complicated topic. The same writer has worked on the DJ Products blog for easily over a year and has developed a wonderful understanding of their product line.

PehnecGems’  The Lab Gem Supplier Blog

We have just started this blog on Wednesday September 2nd. I think as you review previous posts and then the post from Wednesday on this blog you will agree that a quality writer makes all the difference in the world. This is a new blog for us and we are still learning about the topic so stay tuned to see what we do with it. You can also follow PehnecGems on Twitter and review the tweets that we supply there as this client is also using our Twitter Executive Program.

Marks Psychiatry

Although this is not a new client for us, we have been writing for Dr. Marks for several months, the writing and information we provide on this blog provides tremendous value to the client’s website visitors. Even the Dr. has been favorably impressed with the quality and authority of the content on topics in her area of expertise.

Permanently Beautiful

We have been writing for this blog since it’s start up in October 2008. We have had a few different approaches taken on content and I think the new direction we have recommended to the client is “spot on”. Check out the last week’s posts that focus on celebrities and a younger market and then scroll back a few posts to see what you think. Sometimes on your own blog you have to try new things to see what works best for your readership. This is our real value to you, we recommend new approaches and direct our writers to try new topics when we feel that the writing is turning stale. We work hard to provide you with the great content you want and need, but with a very smart audience-centric approach.

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Associated Press Charges Now By The Word

You need to watch this video to understand the changes that the Associated Press is making in how writers on the Web can use their content. You can view the video blog that contains their new rate sheet at the Search Engine Guide blog.

What is very scary to content writers and bloggers is that if you use even just 5 words you will now need to pay $12.50 just as an example. Here is the Associated Press’ new rate sheet:

5-25 words $12.50

26-50 words $17.50

51-100 words $25

101 to 250 words $50

250 words and up $100

The Associated Press is also rolling out a special content tracking program and is clearly posturing itself to start raking in the cash if you use any combination of words that just might appear in one of their content piece titles or articles.

Seems like they should get something if they create the content right, but what if the article title was “Obama pushes health care” and you just by accident, without even reading their piece, use the same words in one of your blog posts. Are you going to want to click to PayPal to pony up the $12.50 when they send you a bill via email?

The Internet is changing our world, just look what it has done to travel agents! Now, you book your own ticket and hotel online and sometimes hotels even let you bid on their rooms. The world is way different in that regard and traditional travel agencies have had to cope with these changes. Some have gone out of business and some have focused on niche travel needs.  

The news media will also be having a major adjustment just like the travel industry did. They will need to look to new ways to provide value and cover their expenses. Personally, I don’t feel that what the Associated Press is doing is the right approach. I think for people such as myself and the speaker in the video it smacks of “old school” and a “death grasp” for cash.

I don’t begrudge a writer fair pay for creating a newsworthy piece but how we get our news is no longer through the traditional news mediums. It is time to brace yourself for big changes in the world of newspapers and magazines as well as online content in the very near future. You may end up not getting a paper on your driveway but have to subscribe to see your news online.

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Blog Posts Should Never Be Website Content

We’ve been hit with a real flurry of activity of website owners pretending that they want blog writing done, but we have to supply the content as Word documents and they have no online blogsite and a website that is under construction. I have to say that this smells to me like a client trying to get website content at a blog post price.

Yes, I know that some people like to do things on the “cheap” and it seems like a good idea, fool a quality blogger to write for you at a super cheap price when website content costs a whole lot more. But, I would like to explain why you should never use blog posts to build your website content.

1. Blogs are derivative works.  When we write a blog post, we find an article online on a news site, we read it and then put our own unique spin on it. Sometimes using our own point of view for the piece or a conglomeration of thoughts from other web news articles compiled into our own unique content. The content is unique but really not what I would consider suitable for website content.

2. Blogs being a more conversation medium than web pages. Blogs are also written in a different style and tone. Blogs are written in a more casual tone. Website content just sounds different when you read it aloud.

3. Blog writers, due to the market, are paid by far less money than web content writers. You will get what you pay for in this area. Although the content will be just fine and really even great for your blog, I would not recommend that a blog piece be passed off as authoritative website content or for that matter even as informational content on your website. Blog posts should stay as blog posts.

4. Website content is typically optimized for specific keywords and is written with a call to action and marketing language. This type of writing would be very boring for a reader to read on a blog, but is appropriate for search engines and a more sanitized selling message that is typically used on a corporate website.

5. Blog content needs to be timely to cater to readers and encourage interaction. Website content on the other hand should have more staying power and not speak to events that have passed or ask the client for input as there aren’t comment links on web pages as there are on blog posts.

Additionally, blog posts should not be used as Link Bait articles for similar reasons.

We are not fooled by clients who try to contract for our blog services and really want inexpensive website content. If you need website content don’t ask for blog posts. Get what you should have for your specific need. In the long run the extra money you pay for website content, that is created for this special need, will serve your site better in the long run winning you customers and communicating confidence in your products and services.

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Online Reputation Remediation Tips

I have been toying with creating a new service for reputation remediation but have decided not to pursue this as a service for my firm mainly because the vetting process would be so difficult. How do you really know who has been a victim and who really warrants the bad PR about themselves online? Typically I feel like I am a pretty good judge of character, but I have been fooled. I simply do not want to use my expertise to remediate someone’s online identity so they can hurt people again.

As I will not be rolling out the service, I have done enough research to know that for people who really need help and who may have been targeted without justification that this may be a very workable approach for them to take themselves.

1. Social Media Account Set Up 
In an effort to push down bad search results we recommend that you set up accounts on these selected social networking and social media sites: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, FriendFeed, Plaxo, Naymz, Tagged, and Xing. The more information you enter the more complete your online presence and more legitimate it will be .

Additionally if you have pictures of your family, pets, and a recent vacation we recommend you load them. Make yourself a real person one who is approachable.

2. Do 10 Days of Status Updates on Your Social Media Accounts
Update the status on each of the accounts you set up twice a day for 10 business days. You  want the search engines to believe that these are new active social networking accounts to allow them to be included in their search indexes.  

3. BlogSpot Blog Set Up 
In an effort to additionally remediate your reputation online we recommend that you blog set up a Blogspot.  Make sure to register your blog with Google and the other search engines.

4. Create and Publish 12 Blog Posts
In an effort to provide additional positive content about you, we recommend that you write twelve blog posts over a four week period posting on a Monday, Wednesday, and Friday schedule. Each blog post should speak positively about you and your services. Highlight different positive things about yourself such as non-profit participation, church activities, family events, things you are working on that will benefit your community or business environment. Link to your website and your social networking profiles.

At the end of four to six weeks take a look on the various search engines to see what has happened. I would love to hear feedback from you if you try this program to tell me if our recommendations worked to help drop down the bad search results on your name or business name. Typically Google will update their index the fastest. You may see an improvement in search results under your name in as little as 7 days. Yahoo and Bing update their index on about a three to six week cycle so results will appear on those two engines much more slowly.