SearchInfluence

You work hard to promote your business, providing your clients with the best services and customer experience possible. However, in order to develop a loyal customer base, it’s necessary to first attract potential clients who may be interested in the services that you offer. This often begins with their first glance at your webpage. Not only is web content important for these same visitors to reach your site, it’s instrumental in keeping their attention on your company.

I am terrified to write this post. As anyone who has ever corrected someone else’s grammar in writing can tell you, I’m going to make a mistake. I have no doubt that someone will notify me of my horrendous grasp on the English language via irate (hopefully misspelled) comments. I assume the ensuing grammar rage will look a little like this:

Bring ‘em on, I say (reluctantly)!

Being a copywriter can often times be stressful. If you’re developing content for your own business, you often have to consider the impact of what you’re saying and tweak your wording to sell your product in the best light possible. Developing the art of copywriting takes times and involves developing compelling content that get people to take action. Whether you’re updating your company’s blog or creating an array of new product pages for your sales endeavors, you have to take the time to craft something that is informative, original and authoritative. The following are a few tips to keep in mind when you’re copywriting.

Graphic by Kate Voisin

So a couple of weeks ago we had a little thing called Hurricane Isaac roll through New Orleans. In preparation, we took a divide and conquer approach to all the work that still needed to be done regardless of the gale force winds howling down the deserted streets. On a regular day, we’re all comfortably seated relatively near one another in our spacious Oak Street office. For Isaac, we all went home to prepare for the hurricane and work until the lights went out and our laptop batteries died.

Better do what he says, honey. He's got a badge.

As a writer, one of the first and most integral choices you have to make before you put one single word onto the page is disarmingly simple, and yet deceivingly complex: what authority, if any, do I have?

The answer to this one simple question will define the tone of whatever it is you are writing. It doesn’t matter if you are delicately constructing a poem, building a larger narrative one matchstick at a time, or sitting down to crank out 250 words for a roofing company’s website as a freelancer, you have to know where you stand, especially if you are using content to build online authority.

Having clean, edited online copy is vitally important. Whether we’re talking about content for a website or a blog, it can make a big impact — for better or for worse. As Mitt Romney’s campaign recently found out, even text written for mobile apps should be given a close look before going live.

While most people assume that they have a good enough grasp on the English language to get by, the facts are simple — typos are easy to make, and a second pair of eyes can be your saving grace. As a former reporter for a daily newspaper, I know the importance of having an editor work their magic before copy is printed. But in today’s Internet-minded world, writers can be too eager to hit the publish button, sending unedited content to the masses in an instant.

A trusty team of writers maintains a near-constant flow of content here at SI, and we’re constantly looking for ways to streamline the process and turn out the most polished, engaging and effective product for our clients.

To that end, we are implementing a grading scale for the raw material turned in by our freelancers. While we do have copy-editors in place to read for errors and optimization, it’s simply the best practice to turn in the most well-worked pieces possible to begin with in order that they can polish the final result into the best it can be.

Are you now, or have you ever been a contract writer for Search Influence? If you answered yes, you’re in the right place, because this FAQ post can answer any and all questions you may have. If you said no, you can read all about our guidelines for freelance writers anyway. You just might learn something.

• When and how do writers get paid?
• How many articles should I ask for each week?
• How do I get new assignments?
• How important are deadlines?
• Why does Search Influence use Copyscape?
• What do I do if I’m going to miss a deadline?
• What happens if I end up on Search Influence probation?
• How do I get in touch with Search Influence?
• May I bring in help to get my articles done?
• I’ve got a serious case of writer’s block and I need some inspiration. What can I do?

StumbleUpon: Where Should You Share? [Infographic] — Social Times

StumbleUpon is one of the most powerful sharing vector services out there, allowing users to “stumble” to your page based on their set of stated interests. This Social Times infographic provides some valuable data on how sharing your content via stumbling can work for you, from hard numbers on how much social media traffic the service actually drives to comparisons of the “half-life” of links distributed via different venues (Twitter, Facebook, et cetera).

Microsoft Wants You to Search the Web Like Miley Cyrus — Search Engine Watch

SEO Copywriting is a critical facet of online marketing. We are constantly giving our writers SEO copywriting tips to help them deliver better content for our customers.

SEO Copywriting Tips from RoboScribe

As such, we’re going to start giving SEO copywriting tips right here. Some of these content tips may be more applicable to our writers, some may be appropriate for the general public.

Writers: Please give us your feedback and let us know if there’s anything you’d like our guidance on. Chances are if you have an SEO copywriting question there are many others who share that concern.