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There is good content and there is great content. The difference being?? Good content will often satisfy a reader - great content will not only satisfy them, it will have them talking about it and wanting to be a part of it, either by commenting or by referring and linking. How do you write great content?

1. Unique - unique does not necessarily mean finding a new topic that no one else has written on - it is however about putting a unique spin on a topic. Fifty people can report the same story, but one will always stand out. It stands out because they have put their own unique stamp on the story.
2. User Focused - people search the internet looking for something. Provide that something for them to find. Focus on what people are looking for and you will find your readers.
3. Honesty - don’t try to write about topics you have limited knowledge about unless you are prepared to do the research. Write crap and you will get a crappy reputation. People will always find you our when you try to write in areas that you have no knowledge off.
4. Well Written - you don’t need to be an English master to write good English. Simple spell checkers will solve many problems. Having a proof reader also helps. Writing in a natural style using plain English will win you more readers than by trying to bamboozle them with highly technical terms.
5. Easily Read - make your content easily read, easily scanned and easy on the eye. This is a combination of font style, size and content design. Bullet or numbered points are easy to scan. Using bold or italics where appropriate enables easy scanning.

These five steps will ensure your content is good - very good. What about great? Great comes from the heart and sole. Not every article can be great. However, if they are not on the road to being good, they will never be great.

We live to think we provide good content with that occasional touch of inspirational ‘great’ content. If you struggle to write regular content for your sites, talk to us at Blog Content Provider. We have a range of solutions that may help you achieve a regular reader base.

Humans communicate in many different ways, the major one being language and the use of words. If you can master the art of communicating using the written word, you will be on your way to writing first class blog posts that your readers will want to come back to time and time again.

Although we use words on a daily basis, learning how to use them effectively to write great content is not an easy ask. After all, if we could master this art we would be off writing best seller novels, not writing blog posts. Having said that, there is a lot you can do to master some of the written language.

Your first step to learning the power of language is to read. Find material, particularly on other blogs, that is popular and that find easy to read, informative and/or entertaining. Look at the writing style and look at the choice of words. Have the keywords been cleverly inserted or do they stick out and make the piece difficult to follow?

Once you have a little understanding on how to use words, write on your own test piece. Have a few friends or colleagues give it an honest appraisal.  If they hand is back saying its fine, give it back asking for real critiques. You want to hone your writing and the only way forward is to get that honest feedback.

Finally, publish your piece and test the response. You will not see a major change in readership immediately. However, over time you should see your reader number increase as your writing improves. A good place to check is through any good analytics program that measures bounce rates. What you are hoping to see is a decrease in that bounce rate as visitors stop to read more and more of your posts.

A good place to start can be with article content providers. Have articles written for your niche and check out how they use the power of words to deliver their message for you. Mastering the power of words starts by watching what the professionals do. Over time you too can write powerful posts that not only provide a worthwhile experience for your readers, they actually new readers through the power of word-of-mouth.

Recent news from Technorati should have all WordPress bloggers checking their blogs, particularly their blog content for any hidden links. If you have used WordPress versions pre 2.3.3 then your blog may have been compromised.

It seems spammers had found a way of getting into your posts and leaving small hidden links to sites - generally speaking, sites that you would not want to be connected to. This has several consequences which as bloggers, could be quite serious.

Google Penalty

As they are using hidden text, this could see you coping a penalty from search engines like Google. They consider hidden text within your blog content to be a black hat technique to get higher rankings.

Lose your Technorati index

Technorati will discontinue indexing blogs that are using WordPress pre version 2.3.3 because of the security problems and the potential for spam links.

These issues have serious consequences for anyone who blogs. If you rely on a blog to promote your business then you can ill afford the loss of resource such as Technorati.

The solution of course is very straightforward. Either upgrade your WordPress blog to version 2.3.3 or go straight to the top and do the upgrade to 2.5. The bottom line is, can you afford to have your blog compromised? Can you afford to have your Google ranking penalized? Can you afford to lose a valuable resource such as Technorati? Three strikes and your out. I think its time to upgrade.

I’ve been deleting my Facebook friends. The reason is pretty simple. I’ve discovered that the best way to go about social networking online is the same way you’d go about it off line. I call it the segmented approach.

Let’s say that you have a day job where you make specialty marketing products, you have a networking marketing business on the side where you sell herbal health products, and your hobbies include bicycling and gardening. Obviously, these are very different interests and many of the people currently in your networks within those three areas won’t have any interest whatsoever in your other interests. That is, your marketing customers won’t all enjoy bicycling or gardening, nor will they all be interested in your herbal health line of products. Why waste their time trying to talk about things in which they have no interest.

When you go to your motivation meeting for your herbal health products, you don’t stand around talking about biking up your favorite mountain range, do you? That is, unless you meet another bicycling enthusiast there. And you don’t stand around discussing gardening with your marketing specialty customers who have no interest in gardening. So why would you do that online?

I’ve decided that, in order to manage all of my interests better, to focus my networking efforts at each social media site that I use on specific goals related to my areas of interest. And that’s why I’ve been deleting Facebook friends. I’m about to completely delete my MySpace profile (because I’ve started another one that is specifically geared toward one of my interests).

I virtually have two interests that I manage online. Naturally, Internet marketing is one of those. The other is poetry. For those of you who don’t know, I write poetry and have done so for 20 years. I’ve decided to use Facebook and MySpace completely to network with other poets and people interested in literary topics. I’m using both of those networks to market my poetry and connect with others with that interest. If I decide to start networking with others interested in Internet marketing through either of those sites, I’ll set up another profile geared specifically toward Internet marketing.

But I think I can network with other Internet marketers in other ways. Sphinn, for instance, is a great networking site for Internet marketers. So are a few other places that I like to hang out. But because of the content nature of Blog Content Provider, we are a service provider to a variety of types of businesses, some of which may not be Internet marketing specialists, I have other ways of connecting with potential prospects.

There are a ton of social media sites that are useful. The trick to using them most effectively is to find the ones that can benefit you the most and through which you can meet the type of people you want to meet. I’m a big user of StumbleUpon and I’ve figured out that it’s a great place to show my versatility of interests. I can network with poets and other literary types, Internet marketers, other small business people, and persons interested in politics - all through StumbleUpon. Otherwise, I’m segregating my social networks.

That’s a bit like asking ‘what sort of book should I write?” It is up to you what you put into a blot. Your blog’s content depends very much on what you are attempting to do with your blog.

Blogs can be personal diaries relating your day to day activities. Blogs can be vehicles used to promote yourself or your writings, be it political, sport, celebrities, poetry, short stories or any other genre. Many blogs are business blogs  written specifically for their customers or potential customers. The content needs to match your reasons for having a blog.

Looking at business blogs as a prime example. Posts on these blogs can be written as pre-sales information articles or as post sales FAQ’s and ‘how to’s’ - or perhaps catering to both groups. Pre-sales posts often include photos or graphics with associated text designed to sell the virtues of the product. Post-sales posts may describe how to maintain, update/upgrade or carry out minor repairs to the product.

Personal blogs can be written as journals or daily accounts of the writers life. They can often include pictures, photos or graphics that appeal to the writer that they wish to share with the world.

In between sit blogs that are of both a personal and income producing nature. The writer produces content that they feel the general population may be interested in. At the same time they have a variety of income producing options such as Adsense or affiliate advertising.

Your blog should be a tool that helps you to achieve something. For personal blogs, this could be as simple as personal satisfaction. For businesses, their blogs are generally aimed at the development of customer relationships and by providing quality before and after sales service.

A good business blog can have a substantially positive affect on your reputation, your sales and ultimately your profitability. Well written blogs demonstrate a real professional approach to customer relationships - if you are not able to produce that quality content on a regular basis then it could be well worth your time looking at professional blog management assistance.

If you’re like me, you sometimes have a hard time explaining to people what a blog is. They don’t quite get it. Especially if they don’t spend a lot of time online. But it really isn’t hard and your customers can benefit if you tell them just what to expect from a blog.

First, you have to get them to understand that it isn’t illegal or unethical. It’s simply a daily tip sheet or communication tool to bring you closer to them without having to speak directly face to face or by phone every single day. You can communicate with all of your customers at one time, and even potential customers, through your blog. Once they understand that concept then they will be interested in reading your blog.

But how do you get them to subscribe? Well, that’s a different question altogether and if they didn’t understand what a blog is then they definitely won’t understand RSS. You’ll get frustrated trying to explain that one. But everyone understands e-mail. And if you want your customers to be able to read your blog posts in their e-mail inbox and they’re interested in the convenience of doing so, rather than try to remember your blog’s e-mail address every day, then a blog promotion newsletter just might be for you.

Find out more about blog management and blog promotion newsletters from Blog Content Provider.

You may feel that a blog is, well, just a blog. In fact many business professionals view a blog as being a toy. In reality, with the right content, a blog can be one of your businesses greatest assets.

Blog content is the single most important aspect to getting well rated, not just in the search engines, but in every aspect of the online world.

In simple terms, if people don’t like your content, they wont come back. Not only that, they will not recommend you, particularly when it comes to any of the social bookmarking sites and it’s through these sites that web pages can become viral, or at least increase in popularity.

Having content that not appeals to the masses but also satisfies a need within the online community is a must. Ensuring the content is also optimized for search engines means that searches can find it.

One of the realities in life is that many people can be experts in a given field, but find it difficult to put their knowledge into the written word. Take a motor mechanic. They may be able to pull a motor apart (and put it together again) totally blindfolded, but ask them to write an interesting article on the subject and they may struggle for hours putting it together.

Situations like this require the services of a good article writer. They can take the knowledge and turn it into well optimized user and search engine friendly content that the site owner could be proud of. The added benefit and the outcome you are looking for is increased readership and possibly increased sales.

If you are an expert in your field but struggle to get your knowledge onto paper, consider an article writer who can provide that blog content for you. With good quality content, your reputation will grow and your expertise will be acknowledge. Remember, it is your expertise on a subject that is important, not your writing skills - you can leave that to us at Blog Content Provider - you can also give us a call at 786-317-8774.

Many small businesses and companies entering the blog marketing arena for the first time are a little bit confused about the purpose of blog marketing. While it possible, and we’ve had some success with it, that blogging can lead to sales, that is not the primary purpose for starting a company blog. Most consumers are not going to make a purchase from a blog. That’s not what they read blogs for.

Blog marketing can be seen as a lot of like TV and radio advertising. No one buys an ad on TV or radio expecting the ad to sell their product - that is, unless they are in mail order. Local businesses that have a service or product to sell - especially retailers - use TV and radio to drive consumers to their businesses, either in person or by phone call, to discuss business opportunities. That’s when the sale is made - in a face-to-face or voice-to-voice meeting over the phone.

Blogging is a lot like advertising on TV or radio. The purpose is not to close the sale right then. You really just want to spark enough interest in the consumer to drive them to your website and that’s where you’ll close the sale. So what needs to happen before that?

How A Blog Fits Into Your Sales Cycle
Successful companies build their sales funnel then chart their strategy for making sure the sales process is followed. Do you have your online sales funnel drawn out? If not, then isn’t it about time?

For most businesses, the company website is the place where the sale is going to be closed. If you have a local retail store then you might use your website to provide information to people in your community who will drive to your store to purchase an item, or they may place the order online and pick it up in person. You may want them to call you to place the order. That’s fine. Whatever your sales cycle is, you need to define it and make it work for you. But where should your blog fit in?

Your blog should be seen as a pre-sales tool. Whether you close the sale on your website, use the website to drive traffic to your brick-and-mortar store, or have your customer call you, you’ve got to get them to the website. A blog is a great tool for driving customers to the website. Here’s why:

1. Your website is a static tool that doesn’t change often
2. Your blog is updated every day, increasing your chances of getting your website crawled daily
3. A blog can be used to add new pages with fresh content to your website every day; that in turn brings the search engine spiders back to your website to crawl it more often
4. An off site blog can be used to build link popularity for your website, which in turn affects the search engine rankings and authority of your site within its niche
5. The longer you keep your blog running, the more effective you’ll be in gaining a loyal readership over time; that loyal readership can translate into increased links and traffic for your website
6. Your blog can drive targeted traffic to your site as the traffic to your blog increases

So, to boil it all down, your blog can be used for three overarching purposes:

• Search engine saturation
• Link popularity
• Traffic

And, of course, all of that translates into branding.

Two More Tools To Make Your Blog More Effective
Your blog fits into your overall sales funnel by being a conduit between the search engines and your website. As more and more websites compete for your key terms due to more and more businesses going online, adding a blog can give you an added advantage in your niche. New businesses entering your niche to compete are less likely to start a blog so you’ll be ahead of the game. Your blog can be most effective in achieving the three stated purposes above if you make it effective in these three areas:

• SEO
• Social Media Marketing
• Viral Marketing

We’ve talked about SEO - remember? Search Engine Saturation and Link Popularity? - but what about social media and viral marketing? The key to social media is to use sites like Digg, Technorati, and StumbleUpon to reach traffic that you might not find through SEO. Plus, SEO and social media marketing reinforce each other. When fellow Stumblers and Diggers see your website in the search engines, they’ll recognize it because they’ve seen you on the social sites. Again, that’s branding. That’s why we offer the additional service of social bookmarking, to add to your edge.

Viral marketing is a bit different. Social bookmarking can be a part of that, and so can SEO. But viral marketing involves giving your customers a reason to do your marketing for you. One term that is used is customer evangelism. It’s a term that encompasses the idea of customers talking you up and driving traffic your way. One tool that is excellent for doing that is a newsletter. Some of our customers use a blog marketing newsletter to keep loyal readers. The newsletter goes out weekly and highlights that week’s blog posts so that busy professionals who don’t have time to stop by your blog every day and haven’t quite figured out the RSS thing (which is most small business people and new Internet consumers) can receive your newsletter in their e-mail inbox and visit the blog posts that interest them based on this unique viral marketing tool - and you can make it easy for them to share your newsletter with their friends!

So, you see, it’s all about your marketing funnel. If you have not added a blog to your sales cycle or you’re not quite sure what a blog can do for your company, find out more by paying a visit to Blog Content Provider or give us a call at 786-317-8774.

Blogging about the news as it happens is one of the most exciting and controversial forms of blogging.  As a writer, there is nothing like being the first to get into print. As readers, we want to read and see what is happening as soon as it happens.  You can update a blog instantaneously, so the news on blogs tends to be more current than the news in the paper, or on television - unless they have a live feed.

The online world has taken to this form of posting with relish, an event in one part of the world can be broadcast worldwide in a flash including photos and perhaps audio. You can now use a mobile phone to record images and broadcast live to the web from that mobile phone.

To blog news stories as they happen requires the ability to quickly convert what you see and hear into words that accurately describe the events. Accuracy is important if you are going to build a reputation for providing valuable content. You also need to be dedicated and ready to act at a moments notice.

Sports blogging is a niche that is slowly growing using a combination of RSS feeds and written blog post that provide updates and final results. A lot of sports bloggers develop affiliate links with many gambling sites.

Being able to type quickly and accurately is a must if you want to blog news stories as they happen. It also helps to know where to find the news. If you want to be first online, it is no good looking online for leads. Radio and television can provide a good source of information.

If this sounds a little to difficult then perhaps reporting on the news could be effective. If you get stuck for content at any time you can at least find a ghost writer to fill write articles for you.

I have often been asked to write keyword rich content that will get the page ranked highly in the SERP’s.  I cannot help but say, “no, sorry, cannot do - tell me who your target audience is and I will write content to satisfy them”.

The bottom line is that all content should have a keyword and search engine optimization slant; but that is after it has been written for your target audience. So who is your target audience? You could possibly use the following as a guide:

• Sales: This is a blog designed to provide information about products or services with the aim of encouraging the reader to visit your web site or sales pages.
• Affiliate: This type of blog is only slightly different to a sales blog. The end result is the same, getting your reader to your sales page.
• Newsletter: Blogs that are promoting newsletter subscriptions do so in a variety of ways. One popular method is to write content that is short with the promise of longer or more in depth articles in newsletters.
• E-books: Similar to newsletter campaigns. Articles are short and to the point with the promise of more in depth content through an e-book.
• Income: Blogs that are developed purely for income are often trying to target high priced Adword keywords. The intent is to encourage visitors onto your blog and have them leave by clicking on any of the pay-per-click ads that are running on your site.

All content should be optimized for search engines including appropriate use of keywords. The aim of is to get to the top of the search engine results pages so that searches see your link and click through to your site. The question is, what do you want them to do once they arrive on your site?

Create content that promotes that action and you will have achieved your desired results. Adding fresh content daily is the easiest way to achieve this.