Girlz Rule

Priscilla Pretty loves pink. Anything pink will do. Her pink fetish creates a voracious spending appetite and she needs money. She’s about to graduate from college and she decides to start her own business instead of working as an intern in a stuffy office cubicle for peanuts while she lives in her parents’ basement and pays off her student loans. She comes up with an idea for Girlz Rule, an online shop that sells all things pink, girlie, and great.

Her dorm roommate is a design and IT major, and after some haggling over the trading of a pair of pink Jimmy Choos they both love, she produces an awesomely pink, edgy website for Priscilla’s new business. Priscilla chooses her favorite pink products on the web, taps into an automated checkout system that lets her visitors order from her website, and sets up the products to ship directly form a third party vendor.

Easy-As-Pie, right? Wrong. Even though Girlz Rule has the new 5th generation hot pink iPod nano for $100, no one is ordering because no one is visiting the website. It’s lost in CyberSpace.

So, what’s Priscilla to do?

Content (and girls) Rule(s)

She can optimize her content. Contrary to popular opinion, SEO content does not have to be boring or stuffed to the brim with keywords.

You can have exciting, spunky, sassy, classy, or edgy content and be search engine optimized. SEO writing can be as fun and creative as any other type of writing, it just takes a skilled SEO writer to pull it off. So Priscilla hires an SEO writer to produce her website content and she starts getting natural, relevant traffic to her website- and a few sales. But she needs more sales to save up for a down payment on a loft apartment, so she asks her SEO writer for help, who recommends an SEO press release.

SEO Press Releases

In Priscilla’s case, an SEO press release is a news-style article detailing the arrival of Girlz Rule. It contains all the details of the new website, its owner, the products sold, guarantees offered, special promotions, and background information. It’s sort of like a newspaper article and sales flyer combined. It even includes a link back to a special landing page on the Girlz Rule website.

The SEO press release is then distributed to key websites throughout the Internet, where visitors can read about the new business. But more importantly, the information (and the link back to Girlz Rule) is indexed and crawled by search engine spiders- on a regular basis. The repeated mention of the Girlz Rule link boosts Priscilla’s search engine ranking because her website content has been optimized for relevancy to her target audience and it draws relevant visitors to her website who buy her products.

Proof in the Pudding

WebPro News recently published a report on How Press Releases Can Be Great for Search. They cite a study by Arketi Group, that shows the media regularly uses the Internet as a tool to help determine what gets covered in the press. Wouldn’t it be great if the media came across your business on the Net and found it to be newsworthy?

By the way, Priscilla is doing great with her new business. She moved out of her parent’s basement and recently struck up a deal with a clothing designer to produce eco-friendly pink t-shirts to sell to Prius owners. Sean Platt is Priscilla’s biggest fan. He is anxiously awaiting the arrival of this week’s package. (He bought three iPods and a t-shirt, cause real men aren’t afraid to wear pink.)

Click here to view the embedded video.

How to make Money With SEO by Seth Godin

Oh! And because bloggers are on top of things today, Aaron Wall of SEOBook has written a post about Seth’s latest. You can read it here: Aaron Wall on SEO strategies.

With that in mind, I have an innovative thought for you: you can be your own SEO writer. Yep, you don’t need to hire me unless you are too strapped for time to learn the basics and write your own content. In fact, most of my clients come to me after they have been writing their own content for some time. Perhaps they have gotten too busy, sometimes they admit to exhausting their knowledge on a subject, often they are desperate for better results. That’s what I’m here for. But, if you have your own website, are strapped for cash, and have some free time on your hands, welcome to the world of SEO writing!

Paying it Forward

Rather than have you blunder your way around the web for the next six months, I thought I’d give you a hand up and share a few SEO tips to help you get started in SEO writing. Why would I do such a thing and endanger my future business profits by teaching you my business? Because someone did it for me, and I like to pay back my debts. God has blessed Blue Duck, and I believe He will continue to do so. But if He decides it’s time to close the doors and pass the business on to some young talented SEO writer, then so be it. So welcome to the first ever Blue Duck Copy SEO Writing Tips for the Rest of Us.

SEO Writing Tips for All

I had a hard time deciding where to start in all this. Do I start from the very beginning and define SEO and the terminology? Do I dig right in and give you the steaming hot latest SEO news from the experts? I decided to take the middle ground and go for something you can immediately put to use, keywords.

What This Tip Is Not

This post is not about how to choose the right keywords, or what keywords are, or how they should be used on a website. This is not a discussion about keyword density or siloing, or any other keyword building techniques. Those topics may appear in the future, just not here and now.

The Prerequisites

Before you put this tip to use, you’ll need to understand what a keyword is and how it is used to help people find your website. You’ll also need to have a list of the most profitable and relevant keywords for your website. The process of choosing the right keywords is often a hotly debated topic. If you don’t have a primary keyword phrase for your website, get one through whatever process you think is logical and acceptable.

You can find scores of information about keyword selection. I recommend visiting a few websites like SEO Book, Bruce Clay, SEOmoz, and Court’s Internet Marketing School. (And in case you noticed and are wondering why I’m suggesting marketing websites for SEO research, search engine optimization and search engine marketing are like peanut butter and jelly; you can eat them separately, but they go better together.)

For archival and search purposes, I’m going to publish the actual SEO tips separately in their own little posts. This may be a slight inconvenience for some, but it will give you a few minutes to do your research if you need to and give you something to look forward to in an hour or so.

You can read the the first installment of Blue Duck SEO Writing Tips here.

photo credit: Dan4th

SEO: Varying by Degrees

SEO can be very simple yet complex at the same time. For the average website owner, all the SEO you need to know can be learned in a couple of days. However, if you are serious about promoting your website or making the most money from a PPC campaign, SEO can quickly become a monster.

Overall, SEO is not that difficult to understand, the complexity comes from the sheer volume of information you need to absorb to institute full-scale search engine optimization. Algorithms are constantly changing, trends emerge and die off, and the Internet continually evolves to meet the needs of the never-ending stream of information seekers flooding the world’s servers with requests.

SEO Writing Services

Blue Duck Copy is first and foremost an SEO writing service. We started out as a one-woman show, freelancing for some of the best companies on the Net. We did our marketing the old-fashioned way (so to speak). We sent out individual emails offering our writing services at reasonable fees to SEO companies as we came across them. More than a few took us up on the offer, and took that writer under their wing to learn the ins and outs of SEO practices in exchange for keyword articles, website content, and blog posts that were original, affordable, and search engine optimized for maximum profit. It was a cozy deal and everyone was happy.

Then, a freelance writer here and a hopeful writer there came to Blue Duck, asking for a piece of the pie. So, they got an assignment with a drawn-out email with a very condensed version of how to write for the SEO client they were assigned. The fresh influx of ideas and words was good for business. Now, Blue Duck is even more valuable, because when times get tough, competition gets fierce. That’s where SEO can make the difference between making money and going back to your day job (or filing for government assistance). Online businesses need SEO to thrive, now more than ever.

Changing Times

People are getting laid off, they sit at home and perhaps they try filling out online surveys for a few bucks, or they post to online job boards, trying to find work. More than a few will stumble upon a website telling them how online business is the key to making all their dreams come true. So, they plunk down $50 for a domain name and hosting, and set out to make a living in their pajamas.

The Net is seeing an influx of new online businesses. That means more competition for your website, no matter what your product or service is. Do you have a plan to stay afloat in these troubled financial times? Are you one of those newbie website owners looking for a path to success?

SEO may be the answer you are looking for (even if you didn’t know you were looking for it). Over the next few months, Blue Duck will be providing a sneak peak into the world of SEO. We’ll give you basic SEO instructions, free SEO tips, and SEO advice for the small business owner looking for an edge.

Ask an SEO Writer

In preparation for our SEO lessons, we’ll be taking questions from people just like you about SEO and SEO writing. So drop us an email, a comment, or visit our contact page to toss your inquiry into the hat. (We’ll also be holding a few contests along the way.)

It’s going to be an interesting journey, make sure you subscribe by email or RSS, or bookmark Blue Duck to join in the fun as we journey toward SEO success.

SEO Content Creation: What it Is

So, what exactly is SEO content creation?
It is content with a dual purpose. The goal of SEO content creation is not purely to entertain, persuade, or inform the reader, it is to help the client’s website rank higher for a given set of planned out keywords.

This is not merely slapping up a bunch of loosely related words, bridged by boring or rambling sentences and concepts, with a dash of sales copy thrown in for good measure. It is a lot like composing a song, solving a puzzle, or constructing a model.

I Love Legos

Many times, SEO content creation is not straight-forward writing. In order to meet special requests of clients, work in awkward keyword phrases, or construct a silo of related search terms, the SEO writer must look at the whole picture, as well as the individual parts, and find a way to make them interesting with a nice flow throughout.

Once the key pieces are in place, I can work on the whole, paragraph by paragraph, and work in captivating sales copy, benefits to the reader, bullet points, subheadings, and other important aspects that give SEO content creation its MoJo. Not everyone is cut out for SEO writing, even if they excel in other areas of writing because of this complexity.

Why You Need SEO Content Creation

If you make money from a form of online advertising, or offer online goods or services, you need SEO content creation to succeed. Search engine traffic directly affects your conversion rates. If consumers can’t find your website, you aren’t going to sell anything, even if you offer the best product or service in your niche.

Search engine algorithms change constantly. Search engines like Google are getting better and better at determining the purpose of website content, and having a high keyword density is no longer enough to rank well for a given keyword.

Learning the Dance

SEO for a website can be extremely complicated. Content with a too-high keyword density is penalized. You may also be docked for broken links, irrelevant content, linking to a BlackHat website, or any number of other Google No-No’s. Too many penalties, and your website could be lost in cyberspace for eternity.

Search engines provide the roadsigns and billboards for online consumers to find your website and SEO determines where your website is on the World Wide Map. If you are serious about making money from your website, you need to understand SEO.

*If you think you might be a crafty SEO content creation writer, send me an email. We’re hiring talented, reliable, and honest freelance SEO writers.* (And you don’t have to be a Christian to work for Blue Duck Copy, in case you’re wondering.)

What Reputable SEO Execs Know

A good SEO company knows that quality counts. Building relationships with customers is important. And your business must be trustworthy to survive. (With the current economy concerns, many disreputable online companies will be closing their websites. Consumers want to hire a company they can trust. They are being more careful how they spend each dime.)

Busting Myths

“Outsmart the Search Engines with Keyword Saturation”

Many get rich quick bloggers claim to be able to outsmart search engines. While this may have been possible 6-12 months ago, search engines are getting smarter by the day. Google employs a whole team of geniuses who work night and day to improve algorithms and improve the validity of SERPS. If your website contains quality, relevant content search engines will value your website over keyword stuffed websites.

“Long Posts Increase Relevance”

When I first started writing SEO content creation projects, it was commonplace to write single articles of 1200-1600 words. Those articles were great for improving search engine ranking, but were awful for attracting regular traffic. No one reads a five page article online, no one. Web surfers are fickle with their time. They expect immediate gratification. They begin to skim the second a post loses their attention. Online content is more effective in bite-sized chunks of 200-400 words.

“Article Banks Draw Traffic”

Providing a smorgasbord of information for readers may seem like a good idea, and many bloggers claim to have made money using article banks and content carnivals. Consider this, the last time you needed quick information from the Net (good quality content and trusted facts) where did you point your Web browser? The number one answer is Wikipedia.

The chances are slim that you browsed through 800 pages of content topics on some website that ranked 150 on a SERPS. On-topic content is best. If your company sells pink flip flops, blog about flip flops, sandals, pedicures, and foot fetishes if you like, but don’t blog about snow shoes, hiking boots, or fan socks just because those keywords are ranking high this month.

Tomorrow’s post concludes this Blogging for Dollars mini-series. (Sorry, there’s no free iPod or tales of a sordid love triangle.) Read one, read two, or read them all~ Blogging for Dollars provides solid information for the serious professional blogger.

The Way of the Web

Websites that proclaim they make millions of dollars from a blog that is painful to read, is either lying or has very loose business ethics. But the sad fact is that websites who claim to make tons of money do get tons of traffic from poor souls looking for a better way to earn a paycheck. (Or not earn a paycheck, but collect one anyway.)

Blogging for Dollars

I’ve been blogging nearly exclusively for SEO companies for a couple of years now. (I could tell you which ones, but then they’d send out a team to waterboard you and your family in retaliation. ) What I know about SEO and marketing is from on-the-job experience. I’ve taken a few classes, read dozens of books, and had hands on training by SEO executives. I work for reputable companies that have been in business for many years and take pride in a job well done.

Can you use Black Hat SEO to increase traffic? Sure. Can you choke your blog full of flashy ads and affiliate programs to bring in a few extra bucks every week? Of course. The real question is, should you deceive the average Joe to line your own pockets.

Tune in tomorrow for Part Two of Blogging for Dollars.