The WordPress team releases regular updates and it’s wise to upgrade your blog every time  a new version is launched. 

Why? Because if you don’t you leave your blog at the mercy of hackers, infections and other malicious mischief. I know two people who’ve been infected via weaknesses in old versions of WordPress.

As well as security fixes, updated versions include fresh functionality. And it’s easy – as well as free – to upgrade your blog in one click via your WordPress Dashboard.

If you haven’t done it before, check the instructions on the WordPress website first.

Great special offers are strong medicine. They draw publicity and attention as well as driving sales.

Here’s my latest, a Karma-driven offer that’s completely genuine, provides a valuable service and makes me feel good into the bargain. 

I’m devoting one day a month to free charity copywriting.

If you’re a charity in need of direct marketing and direct response focused expertise, a keen eye for SEO and masses of experience just email me at info@helpinthecity.com with the details of your copywriting project and we’ll take it from there. 

First come, first served.

I usually charge £60 an hour so you’ll get £420 worth of copywriting  / editing expertise for free. That’s enough to:

• write or edit a twelve page website av. 350 words per page, or create twelve 350 word web pages
• create ten press releases of around 500 words each
• write eight articles about 750 words each
• create twelve 350 word blog posts
• edit a twenty page corporate brochure

All written beautifully, delivered by 5pm the same day.

My first slot is August 12th 2010 so I’ll need your brief by the end of play on 10th August to give me time to digest things.

You’re very welcome!

Images don’t contribute much to SEO because search engines can’t ‘see’ pictures or analyse their content. But you can make the most of your on-site images by ensuring their ALT attibutes make sense.

Provided your images’ attributes are descriptive and accurate, search engines will find it a tiny bit easier to rate and classify your website correctly. 

It always helps to have a suitable tool handy. This one checks your website images and tells you how clearly - or otherwise - they can be’ seen’ by Google and co:  http://www.feedthebot.com/tools/alt/

It’s important to check raw website content when it’s in draft form, expressed as a Word or .txt document or whetever. But seeing new content in context gives you a final vital chance to weed out any imperfections. 

Wise site owners like to check new site content in situ before signing it off. Here’s why:

• it’s easier to see if the new copy works in sympathy with the design to make the biggest possible impact
• it’s easier to spot areas where the flow could be improved to make your message clearer or more powerful
• it helps you spot areas where the formatting could be changed to improve response and conversion 
• stuff like stray formatting errors, duplicated words and weak arguments are easier to spot on-site

How come it’s easier to spot improvements to content in situ?

It’s probably very simple. Presumably you’re experiencing the copy in a fresh visual context so improvements leap out at you. Whatever the reason it’s a foolproof way to make 100% sure your new website content works as hard as it can.

If you’ve set up a WordPress blog you can spend hours setting it up for SEO.

Alternatively just install the WordPress All In One SEO Pack plugin. It only takes a few seconds and you’re done. But don’t forget to back up your database first… just in case!

If you like, you can fine tune every aspect of it. But you don’t have to. It works perfectly well ‘out of the box’.

Inspired by the credits for TV series Justified, I’ve been searching for woodcut, hand drawn and Western style typefaces to refresh my websites’ header images.

After some research I decided to stick with the Dafont site because:

• there’s a broad choice of fonts and they add new ones regularly
• they classify fonts in a logical but creative way, making it easy to track down the style you have in mind 
• the site is simple to navigate and use
• it’s easy to download fonts and they’re almost all free for personal use
• you can make a donation to font designers… which is good Karma! 

Here’s a link - http://www.dafont.com/themes.php

I’ve used four unusual yet readable fonts in redesigned headers for three of my sites. It’s hard to pin down the actual financial benefits of cosmetic change, but it was time for a spring clean and it makes sense to keep your brand and image up to date.

As a freelance copywriter working from home, my only company during the day is BBC Radio 4. A recent edition of The Food Programme illustrated just how powerful the blogosphere has become.

Food bloggers are taking the world by storm. They’re starting and ending trends. They’re creating new celebrities. And they’re making people fortunes.  

A week or so later another R4 programme covered food photographers, again venturing into the blogosphere to marvel at the online manifestation of peoples’ fascination with the subject.

I know for a fact that this blog helps keeps my website visible on Google. I also know it nets me a fair amount of business. How’s your blog performing?

Bloggers are already hugely influential across all sorts of sectors. Blogging is still a relatively new marketing medium and we don’t fully understand the long term benefits yet. And I don’t think blogging’s influence influence has peaked. Nowhere near. It’s powerful stuff.

If your blog is sad and neglected now’s a good time to give it a boost. As well as working a treat for SEO and delivering fresh regular content to your visitors, you might even end up a big cheese in the blogosphere.

Jump on the bandwagon! Just ask me for a quote for writing regular blog posts. 

• you email me details of your project – number of pages / words, purpose, target market or whatever’s relevant
• I’ll write you a short test piece if you like, for free, so you can see what I’m made of!
• I email you a firm quote within 24 hours, no obligation. What you see is what you get – I never charge hidden extras
• we agree a timetable and I put your project in my diary
• if it isn’t already clear what’s required, you email me your brief. I can work from a bullet point list or a detailed briefing document - it’s up to you
• I email you the first draft for comments and feedback. I can send a Word doc, .txt or whatever you need
• I can write directly into your blog or site / shop CMS if you prefer. No problem, no extra cost
• I adjust the copy if necessary and send you the final draft
• I invoice you once everyone’s 100% happy and the job is signed off
• you can pay by PayPal, bank transfer or cheque

There are three reasons for distributing press releases. Online releases attract inbound links. Offline releases win exposure in

So how often should you send out press releases? The simple answer is, whenever you’ve got something genuinely newsworthy to say. You can distribute ten a day, one a day, one a week, one a fortnight or whenever the opportunity arises.

As a general rule if you bombard newspaper and magazine Editors with hundreds of releases they’ll soon get fed up with you. On the other hand feeding multiple press releases to distribution websites is common practice and can benefit your SEO strategy.    

I’ve covered this before in a previous post but I think it’s worth revisiting from a slightly different angle. Press releases are still an excellent vehicle for building quality links and – if they catch the attention of the newspapers - driving traffic to your website. Here’s how to write a successful press release.

• take a quick sanity check… is your news genuinely newsworthy or is it a paper-thin disguise for advertising your business? 
• write in the third person
• consider printed newspapers as well as SEO and write accordingly. If a national or local paper, magazine or trade publication picks up your story you’ll get a flood of traffic. I know someone who, having appeared in The Guardian, was shot to relative stardom in her field and is still reaping enormous financial and career benefits. Yes, include keywords and phrases for link building and SEO. But do it so subtly that nobody except an SEO expert would notice
• headlines are important for SEO as well as catching editors’ and media researchers’ eyes. So create a mighty headline that includes your top key word or phrase as well as appealing to human readers
• kick off with a powerful statement that explains the subject matter clearly in plain language
• raise a question - a useful little trick used by many fine journalists and editorial writers
• answer your own question succinctly and factually, including a quote or two to lend interest, credibility and variety
• conclude the release with a round-up that reflects on your news and reveals what might happen in the future
• avoid superlatives outside of quotes and avoid making sales pitches – this is news, not advertising

A killer press release can win you anything from a few lines in your local newspaper to a double page spread in the centre of The Sun worth tens of thousands of pounds. So they’re worth spending time and effort on. The better your releases, the more chance you have of taking your news offline into the newspapers… even on TV if you hit the nail on the head hard and accurately enough. 

There’s no reason, if your news is a winner and your release is the best it can be, why it couldn’t be you. If you’re not 100% confident writing your own releases DIY could be a false economy. Get a freelance copywriter on the job.

I’ve written a quick ‘n’ dirty fictional press release example to help you understand press release structure. Here goes:

FREE happiness for everyone - new happiness experiment delivers “astonishing” results

The Gross National Happiness index proved that the fewer resources we use and the less stuff we buy, the happier we are. Adding spice to the ongoing saga of establishing exactly what makes us happy, recent research by Brighton-based company Life PLC has revealed exciting new insights into the complex nature of human happiness.  So what’s the story?

Life PLC’s Chief Executive Katie Goldstone explains. “We’ve undertaken a massive worldwide social experiment, across multiple cultures and continents, to establish exactly how much control – if any – humans have over our own happiness. I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say the results are world-changing. This is huge.”

Life PLC split 20 million willing volunteers into three random groups. Group one acted as the control. Group two were given a series of simple mental exercises designed to help them modify their internal dialogue so it’s wholly positive. Group three were given the same exercises but designed with the opposite intention, to help them achieve an entirely negative frame of mind.

“We were astonished to find, a year later when we started analysing the detailed diary data our subjects handed in, that group two felt remarkably happy within themselves. They enjoyed their lives more than they’d thought possible and were amazed how much things had changed for the better.” reveals Goldstone. “In contrast group three reported being constantly depressed and unhappy with almost every aspect of their lives.”   

The numbers are impressive. Group three, the control group, exhibited the usual mix ‘n’ match of emotional states, everything from ecstatic to very unhappy indeed. 98% of group two reported dramatic, significant increases in overall happiness whereas 93% of group three claimed to feel absolutely dreadful almost all the time.

“There’s only one conclusion and the proof is conclusive” claims Goldstone. “With very few exceptions, the key to human happines lies within us.” 

So how will the world look once the news gets out? Potentially very different. When we’re unhappy we’re more destructive, unproductive, intolerant, angry, sad, bored and unattractive. When we’re happy we’re more generous and forgiving, kinder, healthier, more sociable, productive and creative. We even look better. 

“A hike in international happiness levels could be so powerful that it results in our solving global warming, ending poverty and putting a stop to war.” concludes Katie Goldstone. “On a grand scale the implications are nothing short of revolutionary. At the moment we’re busy identifying channels to market so we can get this happiness show – the greatest show on earth – on the road!”  

Contact details for Editors

Contact Katie Goldstone for details and comment. Email: xxx@xxx or phone: xxxxxx.