Online Marketing for Local Business
jhaynes
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Posts by jhaynes
Hiring A Reliable Web Content Writer
013 years
by jhaynes
in Uncategorized
The quality of your web content is critical if you really want to build your brands online and increase your web presence.
It’s vital that you provide quality content not only on your website but everywhere else you communicate online as well, such as article directories, press release sites or your email marketing efforts. Great content helps you achieve the two most important goals of your online marketing – increased sales conversions, and revenue online, and also creating future sales opportunities in the form of better SEO rankings for your website.
If you can’t provide the content that your target audience is looking for on your website, you should get someone to write it for you. Publishing often is a key to higher SEO rankings, as the search engines like Google LOVE frequently updated sites, it shows them that someone is actively managing your site and continuously communicating with your web visitors.
Here are some tips you should consider when looking to hire a content provider:
1. References
A reference refers to a personal testimony from a former or current client or a co-worker regarding your prospective contractor’s performance, attitude and work ethic. References can be included on an individual’s resume, on their business profile, or provided upon request. You need to contact those references in order to learn the background of your potential writer.
2. Writing Samples
Ask your potential ghostwriter to send you a few writing samples so that you can determine their writing ability and style. They need not be proficient in your niche (though it can be a big plus if they have some prior knowledge about it.) What you should consider most important is the writer’s overall ability to give your website a personality and character that your readers will love and relate to.
3. Search Engine Optimization
You must be absolutely sure your prospective writer is familiar with SEO. This is critical, since their written articles and webpages must get noticed by the search engines to have the most value. You should ask them to explain what they know about SEO, since their understanding of it may include mistakes such as spamming their articles with keywords.
4. Keep an eye for small details
Before you select a web content writer to interview, there will always be some exchange of communication between the two of you. Read messages carefully, and try to spot any mistakes in grammar or spelling. Simple typos are common and understandable, but poor writing is something that you should never consider when hiring a writer to represent and build your brand online. Ask the question: Would I be proud to have this quality of writing attached to my business, my brand, my product or service?
5. State the rules
As the paying customer, you have to state your policies regarding deadlines, quality, quotas or rewrites and edits, just in case you’re not satisfied with the work delivered. You should also specify any documents such as non-compete clauses or confidentiality agreements that must be signed before any work can start.
The mission of Hat Trick Associates is to provide one-source online marketing and consulting services to small and medium-sized business owners. We provide the expertise and resources of a large, nationwide marketing agency, with the responsiveness and flexibility that you would expect from a small, nimble team such as ours. “Big agency” results without the big agency price, we can handle all of your web and social content writing, SEO, graphic design, website programming and email marketing needs, among a number of other specialties. If it’s web, we can help. And our goal is to be as seamless and easy to work with as humanly possible, so you can spend your time doing what you do best – running your business. Take just a moment and contact our team if that sounds like something you might be interested in taking advantage of, and let’s get the conversation started today.
Why Add Fresh, Quality Web Content to My Site?
13 years
by jhaynes
in Uncategorized
Even if you are brand new to the world of Internet marketing, you’ve probably already heard, multiple times, that you should keep adding fresh web content to your blog and your website in general.
So, now you’ve got your blog set up and getting ready to start adding content on a routine basis, but before you get started you’d really like to know – why am I supposed to do this?
A primary reason is because the search engines like Google want you to keep adding new content. To them, it shows that you’re actively running your site, and you’re not throwing up random pages or “spammy” ones and letting them sit to collect some AdSense ad revenue. When a visitor conducts a search, Google wants to deliver them to sites that are made by real people to benefit real people, NOT those designed to skim ad revenues. Keep adding content on a regular basis and the search engines get happy; they will reward you by brining you up in the ranks into better search positions.
The next big benefit of adding fresh content is the opportunity to create a website that is “the” authority on whatever field or industry you are in, a “trusted resource” if you will. All of this content can be huge in terms of gaining the trust of your readers – potential customers – and building your name and brand online. So this is where the “quality” in quality web content comes into play; what you write and share must actually be “good stuff” that you’re proud to attach your name to once it is published. We’re all seen the sites and pages that AREN’T written with any sort of standards, built simply for SEO value and almost certainly won’t covert a visitor into a customer.
Though this certainly won’t pertain to everyone, but for some small business owners or those with multiple companies it can pay off to think about someday, perhaps very far off, when you may want to sell your business and move onto other projects. If this happens, the loads of content you’ve added over time will help you get more money out of the sale of the website.
When you add fresh content, you’re giving yourself platforms on which to promote your own products or “pre-sell” affiliate products. Every new article or blog posted gives you yet another opportunity to monetize your site. And if you’re adding links in new pages to content on other pages within your site, you’re not only monetizing your new page but boosting your SEO with internal linking. This is a good SEO practice.
Lastly, the more pages you have on your site are more in which you can show ads. This can be quite helpful if your site is showing AdSense or something similar. Keep in mind this is different than throwing up a site just to do AdSense, as we mentioned in the first reason above. Your site has been created to share relevant and helpful content with the reader; the ads are just a bonus.
So here are 5 good reasons why you should continually add fresh material to your site. Try it and you’ll see that adding quality content on a regular basis can only help you with your Internet marketing. And if you’d like help coming up with a content strategy for your business, or would like to look into getting some help in creating all of this great new content, contact me and we can get the web content writing process started.
Maximize Your Web Content
013 years
by jhaynes
in Uncategorized
We’ve made the case several times that a challenging economy is probably the worst time to slash your online marketing efforts.
And for those following this sound advice, it also makes sense to optimize every piece of web content that you produce and publish, both from a sales conversion and SEO standpoint.
Though it may seem like common sense, many authors forget to figure out what they’re trying to say before they start writing, and thus waste resources creating content that doesn’t achieve its potential or goals. Here are some tips to maximize your web writing:
Tip #1 – Create an Outline
Outlines are useful tools for giving your article or webpage structure, but if you’re not a big fan of outlining, at least answer the following questions before you start writing:
Who am I writing for? What’s my ideal audience?
What do I want my readers to learn from this article?
How will I explain/prove my point?
Tip #2 – Be Informative
Readers seek informative content, so provide the “give” in your article body and leave the “take” for your Resource Box or website. The quality of your information should make a good impression by providing value to the reader, not leaving them wanting more. Resist the temptation to sell in your articles.
Tip #3 – Share Your Experience…
You’re an expert in your field or niche, your readers are not. Don’t worry about making your writing sound smart, just think of some questions your readers will have and then answer them. Use article templates to help you structure the information in your article and generate new ideas.
Tip #4 – …But Not All At Once
You have a lot of knowledge, so you’re understandably excited to share it. But be careful not to overwhelm your readers. Break up large topics into smaller components, in separate articles. This gives you more articles to write and won’t scare readers with extremely long articles.
Tip #5 – Consider Hiring a Ghostwriter
Weigh your options. Is your business better served if you outsource the article writing (or blogging, newsletter or web content writing) and focus on other aspects of your business instead? Return on Investment is all about taking your available resources and using them in the most effective way. This is especially true during tough economic times, when the reduced overhead of freelance partners has the biggest financial impact.
It doesn’t matter how big your business is, or if you’re from New York, Boston and Washington DC to Los Angeles, San Fransisco and Vancouver, Hat Trick Associates can help you build your web content online. (If you happen to be from one of these cities, the fact that I included your hometown might be a reason you found this page, for example!) Contact us to learn more about how your website content / text can help your customers find you, too.
