Posted on June 29th, 2009 in copywriting and marketing with no comments
The New York Times reports that most blogs are set up in a flurry of enthusiasm… then abandoned.
So says Technorati. Apparently a massive 95% of the blogs they surveyed hadn’t been updated in 120 days.
Which is understandable. Once the novelty wears off, a lot of businesses give up blogging because they’re simply too busy. It’s hard to keep a blog going if nobody at your place likes writing, or writes well enough. And people run out of ideas.
The thing is, a healthy blog is still one of the best ways to keep a website fresh, updated and exciting for search engines and visitors. And it is an extremely cost effective marketing / SEO medium.
Like many things, the more you put in the more you get out. One blog post a week will work harder than one a month. Three quality posts a week should soon win you some serious attention from search engines. Consistency is important, regularity is vital.
If you leave your blog unattended for 120 days, like most businesses, it won’t do a thing for you. If you make regular, frequent updates something you do as a matter of course it’ll soon bear fruit. And you’ll be several steps ahead of the 95% that languish in the doldrums.
If keeping your business’s blog alive is proving impossible, for whatever reason, hiring a freelance copywriter won’t break the bank. A good UK copywriter should cost you about £40 an hour. They’ll be used to coming up with creative ideas out of the blue. A unique, intelligent, relevant, entertaining blog post - complete with key words and links - should take about half an hour to write.
I charge £20 per blog post. When I write directly into a customer’s blog, I include an image in each post too. Just follow the Blogroll link to my freelance copywriter website and send me an email from there.
Posted on June 25th, 2009 in copywriting and marketing with no comments
… for small UK businesses employing ten or less people.
Even if you only employ one or two people, the paperwork can be a killer.
Which is why free offers don’t come better than this. A nifty Employee Database System – Ed for short - that automates all your employment related processes and procedures.
Whether you employ people on a PAYE or self employed basis, it’ll save you a whole load of time, hassle and cash.
UK employment regulations are alarmingly tough and, because they’re always being updated, it can be a challenge to stay legal. As well as giving solid protection against litigation, Ed includes a load of clever alerts and reminders designed to keep you well within the law.
Best of all, Ed is wonderfully easy to use. You don’t need to know anything about Employment Law. .. nada. And you don’t need any special IT skills.
All of which gives small busines owners the time and space they need to concentrate on important things like making a healthy profit. Rather than drowning in employment-related paperwork.
Visit the Ed site to find out more about this excellent free Employment Database offer.
Posted on June 16th, 2009 in copywriting and marketing with no comments
Small but beautiful - make the most of meta description tags
A web page’s meta description tag lives in the header section of the source code. It is used to describe the page’s content to searchers. Written well, it is a powerful little advert that inspires people. Inspired, they’ll click through to visit your site.
Here’s a few hints and tips to get your meta descriptions in great working shape:
- restrict them to 150 characters including spaces - if it’s too long search engines will cut it off mid-way and you’ll dilute it’s effectiveness
- use a sentence or phrase that describes the page’s content really accurately
- avoid repeating words - it wastes valuable space
- don’t include your site URL in the meta description
- use key words or key phrases that are directly relevant, targeted tightly to the content in each page
- don’t use ’special’ characters like ! @ # $ %. Some browsers and search engines can’t understand them
- make it exciting enough to attract click-throughs
Posted on June 11th, 2009 in copywriting and marketing with no comments
Are your products made or supplied by other people? If you’re a drop-shipper, franchisee or ecommerce business you might find yourself with duplicate content issues.
If your suppliers provide you with ready made product descriptions and information, that’s great. It’s useful to have a starting point.
The thing is, search engines don’t like duplicate content. Because human searchers deserve variety, search engines much prefer website content to be unique. If you blatantly copy stuff from elsewhere and bung it on your site - or put the same stuff on more than one site - you could even get banned.
You can get software that checks pages for duplicate copy. Or do a quick ‘n’ dirty. Just copy and paste a chunk of words into Google to see if they pop up anywhere else. If they’re not on page one of the search results you should be OK.
If your site’s packed with duplicate content, the best thing to do is to get it edited by a good copywriter. Why? Because:
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a clever, creative edit will make your site unique
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it’ll have it’s own recognisable, cohesive tone of voice. Together with your design, that’s the beginnings of a brand
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search engines will like it and it’ll help site visibility
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site visitors will appreciate and enjoy it
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it’ll have a strong focus on response and sales
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your grammar and spelling will be spot on
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it can be adjusted to suit your target market / country
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it will include intelligent use of key words and key phrases
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it will entertain, inform and inspire!
