I’ll be adding a few more tools as I discover them, and the ebook is loaded with a lot more tips for writers so make sure you stay tuned for when I will be releasing the ebook. It will be available for free, albeit to subscribers only, and it should be released sometimes next week, so stay tuned!

14 Tools that Make me Super-Productive as a Writer

You need tools to succeed as a writer, and your knowledge of which tools to use and how to use them can have a huge impact on your writing career. Below are some of the top tools that can help your online writing career; not all of these tools will be applicable to you, but make sure to go through all of them to ensure you don’t miss the right tools.

1. Problogger Jobs Board

Getting clients has always been the number one challenge most freelance writers face and surviving today as an online writer requires you not only to find clients, but to find the right clients. Trying to look for clients on online freelance writing portals like Elance.com and Guru.com can sometimes be unproductive, and if you happen to find a gig that suits you the fees might be very low. The Problogger jobs board is a job board that features advertising mostly for bloggers, and also from people who require various forms of content written, and you will often get better writing job offers by making use of it.

The quality of the jobs found on the Problogger Jobs board is significant when compared to other online portals for one major reason; the jobs listed are heavily moderated to ensure they are “suitable”, and the advertiser has to pay a $50 fee to list a job for 30 days. Those two measures will ensure only people with quality offers are able to contribute (not clients who don’t value you as a writer).

2. Blogging Pro Jobs Board

The second resource on this list is the Blogging Pro jobs board, and it works exactly like the Problogger jobs board.

3. Writeroom / Darkroom

We’re faced with various challenges as writers; the biggest one being distraction. Before working on improving your productivity, you need to realize that there are two kinds of distractions; external distractions and internal distractions.

External distractions are distractions from things and people around you (the kids, TV, the noise etc.) while internal distractions are distractions from inside your computer (Twitter, that new Gmail message popping up, the latest Facebook/chat notifications etc.). While you can easily overcome the external distractions by having an office, or by dedicating an office to your writing, how do you deal with the distractions coming from within your computer? While going offline might be a solution, you will sometimes need to research some facts, and have to waste time getting online again.

The solution is to use software that helps you block out every other view except for your writing software, and that is exactly what the Darkroom software (for windows), and Writeroom software (for Mac), does.

4. Typingtest.com

Being super productive as a writer can do a lot to help improve your earnings, and one great way to ensure your productivity is to improve your typing speed. On all accounts, someone with a typing speed of 75WPM (75 words per minute) will be able to turn out more work than someone with a 30WPM, all things being equal.

Typingtests.com is a website that offers various typing tests to help ensure your typing accuracy and your familiarity with the keyboard. To get the best results, I’ll recommend that you use it every day to be more effective with the keyword.

5. A Standing Desk

While I don’t use a standing desk as much as I used to, it is one thing I want to improve on, and it is also one of my most effective tool when I wrote this article with productivity tips for writers.

There have been studies on the dangers of sitting, and there have also been reports on it contributing to obesity and ineffectiveness in those who spend the most of their day sitting. The solution, in this case, is to look for a way to balance your every day sitting and standing, and using a standing desk for the most part of your day can have a huge impact.

To be more specific, working with a standing desk has been observed to increase my productivity more than 100%.

Before determining not to use a standing desk, it is also important that you realize that exercising regularly cannot even help you prevent the dangers that comes with sitting, so make sure to consider this section again (and read the above linked study) before determining what to do.

6. An Additional Computer

A new computer costs less than $1,000 (I’m referring to a Windows laptop here), but if you are someone who has a good database of clients but find it difficult to work, it can end up adding ten times the amount of your purchase to your pocket in no time.

The new computer will be dedicated to your writing and nothing else. In other words the internet won’t even be installed on it. Whenever you want to write it is this new computer you will use, and when you need to use the internet you can use your other computer.

You might be wondering why I will recommend having 2 computers, but considering the fact that the majority of the distractions online writers face is as a result of the internet (Twitter, Facebook, Email etc.), having multiple computers can go a long way to save you time and money.

7. An idea notepad

Some of my best ideas as a writer were gotten when I was away from my computer, and this has made me realize that preparing to get ideas whenever you are “out there” isn’t necessarily a bad thing. If you’re not that technology savvy you might want to have a notebook and a pen that can be used to jot down your ideas, but if you’re more technology focused you might want to try using a digital notepad, a tablet computer, or your mobile phone to jot down ideas whenever you are on the go. Personally, my Blackberry bold 9700 is my own notepad, and I use it to jot down new ideas whenever I’m on the go, or whenever I’m not around my computer.

8. Eye Defender

This is one software application I recommend you have installed on your computer, especially if you spend more than 2 hours in front of your computer screen every day. What the Eye Defender software does is that it helps prevent you from straining your eyes in front of the computer by introducing a screensaver at intervals. By default, a screensaver will be introduced after every 45 minutes to signal that you need a break, and the screensaver will last for just 2 minutes, after which you can continue your work. Of course, you can adjust the settings in the software settings once you download it (I set mine to introduce a 2-minute screensaver after every 30 minutes).

9. F.lux

Like Eye Defender above, F.lux is another software application that helps protect you from the dangers that comes with spending a lot of time in front of the computer screen. What f.lux does is that it helps adjust your computer screen resolution based on the time of the day wherever you are, in a way that ensures you don’t have eye problems if you spend a lot of time in front of your computer.

10. Mozy Backup

Protecting your work should be a priority as a writer, and I wouldn’t recommend letting your creativity waste due to carelessness on your part. Backing up your files should be a must, and automatically backing it up is even better. Mozy Backup software is software you can install on your computer to automatically back up your files every day in case your laptop is stolen, or in the case of a computer crash. You can configure how many times a day you want your files to be backed up, and you can also configure which folders you want Mozy to backup automatically so as to save time and bandwidth compared to backing up the whole computer.

Your files will be backed up to your Mozy account online, and they can be accessed from any computer in the world. Mozy also costs around $5 a month, but I can guarantee it is going to be one of your best investments.

11. Free Mind

There is always a clear difference between the ideas we get and how developed those ideas are. Sometimes, you only get the title for a blog post, and sometimes you get a whole article idea and the points you need, you might also want to include resources you need when you want to write your articles. Free Mind is a mind mapping software that makes this easy for you, and it makes it extremely easy for you to break down your points in a way that is easy to use and remember in the nearest future.

12. TIPP10

TIPP10 is a touch typing tool like the Typingtest.com website above, but in this case it is an application that can be installed on your computer. It has various lessons, words, and symbols that you can use to practice so as to improve your touch typing skills.

13. Freelance Writers Den

The Freelance Writers Den is a premium membership site for freelance writers that I’m an affiliate for. It costs $25 a month, and is a good membership site you should try if you really want to improve your skills/knowledge as a freelance writer. As a member of the Freelance Writers Den you will get free access to courses and guides on freelance writing, interview with expert writers and a support forum where you can ask questions that bother you and get expert answers.

Plus in case I’m yet to say this, I’m a member myself!

14. OutstandingSETUP

I believe you should only focus on things that matter, and leave the technical aspects to the experts. OutstandingSETUP provides quality hosting and support for anyone interested in having a website, without you having to go through the hassles. It only costs $19 a month, or $190 a year, and they will help you install your domain name, they will help you install your wordpress theme, and they will also ensure you get the best service.

I’m a proud affiliate for OutstandingSETUP, which is why I recommend you use them for your hosting needs.

What are Your Favorite Writing Tools?

What are your favorite writing tools? Which other tools do you think writers will benefit from? Kindly add your 2 cents below! Also, take a minute to spread the word with your writer friends, the tools listed below can make a difference in their lives!

If you enjoyed this article make sure you join YoungPrePro on Facebook by being a fan at https://www.facebook.com/pages/YoungPrePro/282289621833216

Writing isn’t just about writing an article that mesmerizes people; it is also about getting as much people to read your writing. In most cases, there is no point in writing an article if no one will read it, especially online.

I have been learning the basics of search engine optimization, how content get ranked in the search engines, and as a result I’ve been able to make some changes to my site that has resulted in significant growth in search engine traffic; at the moment, an average of 800 people visit YoungPrePro from the search engines every day, so I believe I have a few insights that can help you take your blog to the next level.

Some of these tips helped launch my blog in the search rankings, and some of these tips helped increase my traffic by over 200% in only a few months, so make sure you utilize them on your blog for better results.

What is SEO?

Most writers are only familiar with the process of writing articles and getting it published, and very few people really know what SEO is.

SEO is an acronym for Search Engine Optimization, the process of optimizing your website in a way that is search engine friendly to publishing content that is search engine friendly and building quality offsite signals that helps the search engines know that your website deserves to be ranked well for a particular keyword.

In most cases, SEO isn’t just set-and-forget or something that you can do once and expect to be ranked well for every keywords. Of course, traffic to your articles will be consistent, but you have to keep optimizing for new keywords to get them ranked, and in some cases you have to keep optimizing even pages that are already ranking well for highly competitive keywords.

In a few words, SEO is the process of optimizing your online presence, optimizing your content to be search engine friendly and getting links, shares, votes and other signals to make it rank.

I know the process might be a little complicated right now, and that exactly is why I wrote this article. I’ll be giving you a basic breakdown into how SEO works, so that at the end of reading this post you can take necessary actions with your blog and begin to get results.

Why You Should Care about SEO

I keep hearing from people who hate marketing and who are not ready to learn the “jargons” of SEO. Most people write online, yet they believe that all they need to do is focus on what they’re good at, writing, and expect the results to come.

It just doesn’t work that way!

Traffic is the currency of the web, and no matter the quality of your content and your eloquence with words, you won’t survive online without traffic because not even an ant will read your content. And traffic, my friend, is what brings results; it is what brings sales, it is what leads to subscribers, it is what brings about clients and it is what leads to fame.

Search engines control a larger fraction of all the traffic online, and a great way to ensure you are getting as much traffic as you want is to learn how SEO works. Here are a few quick benefits of SEO.

• It helps you get discovered; by publishers, by readers, by fans, by fellow writers, by clients and by the media. Getting your message heard is important, and search engines help make this possible with little efforts and possibly no charge on your part.
• Targeted traffic; an added advantage to getting your content ranked well in the search engines is that you get targeted traffic. Most people only use the search engines when they want real solution to a problem, and this can be your leverage towards getting the results you want. Search engine visitors are people with real problems who desperately need a solution and are not just visitors from other sources like social media that just happen upon your website because the headline compelled them; these people weren’t interrupted by ads, nor were they forced to click over from a social media site due to the cleverness of your headline. They have a problem, they need a solution and they came to you just to get that through the search engines.
• Results that can be tracked; While it’s easy to go for an advertising campaign you think might be effective, you can’t really be sure of what works until you track your results. Search engine traffic is easy to track and optimize for even better results.
• Long term results; Unlike traffic from other sources, or online advertising campaigns, you only need to optimize a particular content once and reap the benefits for years to come. I haven’t done any conscious SEO for this blog for months now, and I’ve seen an almost 300% increase in search traffic.

Terms You Should Know

I will be talking about some terms below. These terms are used generally in the SEO community, and I will also be using them in this article so I think I should give you an idea of what they mean.

Keywords: Keywords, or key phrases, are words or terms used to discover your website in the search engines. Examples are “writer”, “writing website”, “how to make money writing” etc. If you could rank for these words/terms, whenever someone type them into the search engines your website will come up and you will get traffic when they decide to click through to your site.

Backlinks: Writing quality articles well-optimized with keywords alone won’t help, you also need backlinks to get your rankings to improve. Backlinks are links back to your articles from other websites online as a signal of recommendation of your article. The more backlinks you get, the better it is.

How to Optimize Your Content for the Search Engines

Now that we’ve covered some important points above, let’s get straight into the main article. Here are a few tips on how to optimize your content for the search engines.

1. Heading Tags

Heading tags are tags like H1, H2 etc., to H6 and are used to let the search engines know how important a particular heading/subheading is. The heading tags can be used to highlight important “point headings” in your article. The H1 is the most important and mostly used for the article title, the H2 tag is commonly used for the subheadings and the other tags are used for probably less important point headings. To see these headings in action, the title of this article itself is in H1, and the point above that says “How to Optimize Your Content for the Search Engines” is in H2.

Heading tags lay emphasis on a point, better still if that point includes a keyword you plan to rank for.

The heading tag can easily be abused, though, so make sure you only use it when there is a “point heading” you need to emphasize.

2. Use Special Formatting to Highlight Points

Bold, Italics and Blockquotes can help place more emphasis on your points so that readers get your point while at the same time letting search engines know that the keyword or key phrases highlighted is very important. Special formatting can be used for definitions, keywords, key phrases and even whole paragraphs.  It all depends on the point you want to pass across and how much emphasis you want to place on it.

3. Break Down Your Points Using Bullet Points, Numbers etc.

Bullet points, ordered lists and use of numbers also break down your points and make your articles easy to understand, and as a result they prove to the search engines that you know what you’re doing and are focused on the readers, which in turn helps improve your rankings.

4. Keyword Density, Synonyms and Co-occurrence

Keyword density is the level of your keyword use in a particular article. Synonym usage is your use of synonyms to represent your main keywords, so as to make your article look natural, and co-occurrence is the process of using terms that co-occur.

Search engines are becoming smarter daily and are starting to work more like real humans, so with a simple process they can easily detect what is natural and what isn’t. A great example of co-occurrence is the use of “pet” and “dogs”; these two words usually co-occur and, naturally, you will come across the word “pet” in almost any article that talk about dogs.

The keyword density is the level of your keyword use in an article. In this respect I’ll recommend that you don’t worry about this and that you don’t try to use any keyword excessively. Just write with a particular keyword in mind and let your writing flow. Also try to use synonyms in your articles and not just stuff it with the same keyword.

5. Use Images to Aid Rankings

If you’re writing for the web, using images not only help your readers better understand your article but it also helps your rankings. There are several things you should consider when using images for SEO benefits and here are they below.

• Image Description: What does your image description say about the image you’re using? Does it have anything to do with the keyword you’re trying to rank for? If not, make sure it does!
• Alt tags: The alt tag is a shortened form of alternate text, a text that is rendered whenever a reader of your article mouses over to your image, and it also helps the search engines better understand your content. It is also the text that shows if a browser can’t display images. Using the keyword you want to rank for as alt tag can also help your rankings.
• Image URL: Your image URL should also be optimized to help your rankings. For example, if your article is about “dog feeding”, you will get better results if your image URL is something like http://www.website.com/dogfeeding.jpg compared to if your image URL is http://www.website.com/image1.jpg – Image URLs can also have huge impact in how your content is viewed by the search engines.

6. Keywords in Headings, First Paragraph of Article and in URL Slug

Having keywords in your headings, main article paragraph and URL slug can also have significant effects. The keyword in the title and first paragraph introduces the keyword to the search engines, the keyword in headings and subheadings emphasizes the keyword and the keyword in the URL increases your chances of being ranked well.

A great example of keyword in the URL slug if you’re trying to rank for the keyword “dog feeding” is http://www.websitename.com/dog-feeding.html instead of something generic like http://www.websitename.com/article-1993.html

7. Interlink Your Articles

You can also ensure search engines find it easy to crawl your articles and give it more value by linking to related content on your blog in each of your articles. So that you see how this is done, interlinking will be more effective if I were to link my guest blogging guide whenever I publish an article about guest blogging on this blog. The keyword, “guest blogging guide”, is linked to an article on my blog and as a result will get a little link boost the more popular this article gets.

What You Can Do Outside Your “Website Sphere” to Influence Your Rankings

I shared a few tips above on what you can do to your content to increase its chances of being ranked well in the search engines, but the reality is that a huge part of the results you get will be influenced by what happens outside your site and people’s vote of recommendation of your content. This section will be explaining what can be done outside your website to increase your rankings.

Step #1: Gain Authority Backlinks that Influence Results

For a very long time now, links have been controlling the web and I’m sure they still will for years to come.

Search engines don’t just rank content based on how well-optimized it is for them because such metrics can easily be gamed; what they focus on, instead, is vote of trust from other websites. In other words, search engines value natural and organic backlinks on other blogs more than anything else which is why the first thing you should do outside your website to help improve your rankings is to gain backlinks.

I know you don’t want me to go too technical, and that you will also like to get as much people to see your writing, that is why all the techniques I will be explaining in this section will be focused on helping you gain authority backlinks that influence results.

Backlink Building Techniques You Can Use as a Writer

Below are some of the top backlink building techniques you can use as a writer. All the techniques listed below are based on my experience, some massive and some slight, and it is important to know that you don’t have to use every technique listed, just focus on one or two and let the results come. However, if you have more time on your hands and want results quickly, you can develop a schedule for all the techniques listed below and still get results.

Guest Blogging: Guest blogging is my favorite content marketing technique, and it is also my favorite link building technique. I have been writing guest posts for around 2 years now and the very foundation of this blog is built on guest blogging.

Most people are only aware of guest blogging as a marketing tactic, but the reality is that it can also be effective for link building. When you write guest posts to be submitted on other blogs, most of them will allow you to include a short “author bio” with a link back to your website; you can use this opportunity to link to your content with a keyword you want it to rank for and get results from doing just that.

I won’t be going into the nut and bolts of guest blogging in this section as I have written quite a lot on the subject already. Below are some of my favorite guest blogging resources that will help you learn how guest blogging works, how effective it can be for backlinks and how you can use it for just that.

• The Ultimate Guide to Guest Blogging
• An Inside Look into the Results of 31 Guest Posts in One Week
• Why Guest Blogging is More Powerful than You Think

If you really want to use guest blogging for link building make sure you click the above 3 links and read those articles right away. Bring out your pen and paper, jot down new things you learn and work on implementing them right away. The faster you act, the better your results.

Article Marketing: Article marketing is another tactic writers can use to gain backlinks to help their content rank. It’s just like a basic version of guest blogging, and if applied properly it can help you get great results.

There are countless directories online that thrive on free articles written by others; they publish hundreds/thousands of articles every day and are favored by the search engines as a result. The good news is that most of them will allow you to link back to your site, and you can also use this opportunity to link back using the keywords you plan to rank for.

I’ve written a few articles for article directories in the past and the results are good – I still get new backlinks today whenever someone syndicates an article I wrote a year ago – so make sure you give article marketing a try if you think it is for you.

I haven’t written any articles on article marketing and how it affects SEO yet, but here are some good resources online to help you with your article marketing efforts.

• List of 50 Article Directories by Traffic and Pagerank
• Pat Flynn’s “Niche Site Duel” Backlinking Strategy (includes some quality tips on article marketing and a few resources)

Forum Participation: You can also improve the rankings of your content in the search engines by actively participating on forums. Look for the top forums in your niche, create a permanent account, update your signature with two links – one to your homepage and the other to any of your favorite articles you want to rank well – and start contributing regularly on these forums. Whenever you create a new thread or respond to an existing thread your signature will be displayed below your message, and it will also have an effect on your rankings as a result.

The key to effectiveness in a situation like this, though, is to have a few trusted forums; make sure it isn’t too much, and make sure it isn’t too few. Five forums is a good starting point, but make sure you’re always active on them all to get the best results.

If you’re confused about which forums to start with, a good place to start is Big-boards.com. Big-boards.com is a database of the top forums online in every niche, and you can find the top forums in your niche by filtering the results you’re shown, or by searching for keywords using the search box you are provided with on the site.

EBook Distribution: It only takes a few hours to research and write a quality 4 – 6 pages report that has potential to be shared across the web, and this short report can have significant impact on your SEO if you know what you’re doing. Most ebooks are in PDF format, and every search engine indexes PDF files and as a result values the links in them. You can also gain more quality SEO backlinks by writing short reports relating to your field, embedding a few keyworded backlinks in them and submitting them to the top ebook sharing sites online. The search engines will eventually end up indexing the ebook, and as a result add more value to articles you link to.

To really get results you need to ensure you only distribute your ebook to the right sites, and you can also share it on forums and as well encourage other bloggers to share it with their readers. If you’re looking for a list of ebook distribution sites to get started with, here’s a resource that helps with that below.

• 30+ Websites to Download free eBooks

Document Sharing: This also entails the process above but can be extended to PowerPoint presentations and the likes. Create documents that are useful, valuable and contain a keyworded link back to your site and submit them to document sharing sites for quality backlinks. Below is a resource designed to help you find the best document sharing sites online you can check out.

• Top 29 Document Sharing Sites for Backlinks

Press Releases: Press releases can also be quite effective and they are often cheap and easy to publish. A press release is often news announcing a new feature about your business, and you might want to try making it a little bit informative. Make sure you include one or two links to articles you want to rank well on your blog, with or without backlinks, and then submit them to the top press release sites. Below are some resources to help you find top press release sites to try.

• 25 Free Dofollow Press Release Sites
• 50 Free Press Release Submission Websites

Yahoo Answers: The final option on this list is Yahoo!’s very own Answer site. Thousands of people ask various questions on Yahoo every day, and some of these questions are from people in your niche. Answering these questions can help you build your reputation while also serving as a potential source of backlinks for you. Yahoo! Answers has a place for you to include your sources for the answers to a question, and you can include a link to your article that answers the question. Make sure you don’t abuse this method, though, as doing so can lead to you being banned.

Step #2: Use Social Media to Build Your Influence and Article Authority

Social media is becoming increasingly popular, and ignoring its influence as far as SEO is concerned has its dangers. While having quality backlinks is important, social media is quickly gaining influence, even with the search engines, so getting as much people to share your content can have great impact on your rankings.

How to Use Social Media for Effective SEO

Social media is quite simple, and not as technical, compared to link building. It’s about what we do almost every day, networking and socializing with people and getting them to spread the word about us. There is a simple rule when it comes to achieving success with social media, which also applies to real life interaction. That simple rule is this; just be AWESOME. People always talk about awesome, probably because they don’t have a choice. If you have a friend that is really awesome, you will always talk about that friend to your other friends, and if you have content that is awesome people will always spread the word about it.

Sometimes, the talking won’t happen naturally, so you have to kick-start it; below are a few tips on how to effectively use social media for SEO as a writer.

Get Influencers to Share Your Content: Connect with influencers and get them to share your content. Starting a connection can happen in so many ways. It can happen by you looking out for them and letting them know if something is wrong, telling them if there’s a problem with their site, interacting with them in the comments section of their blog and social networks, and sharing each and every one of your post while at the same time linking to them regularly. Influencers respect their big fans, and they will happily do anything to make sure they are happy.

Get Friends to Share Your Content: Friends can be your best support, both online and offline, so make sure you’re always leveraging your friendship to move yourself forward. You should realize, though, that friendship isn’t just about receiving, it is also about giving. You also need to be helping your friends share their articles while at the same time regularly linking to them, that way, they will be happy to repay the favor whenever you need it.

Understand What Works on a Particular Social Network and Tailor Your Content to it: Every social network is unique, so make sure you watch out for what goes well on the social network of your choice. Tailor your content towards the social network you want attention from and ping the influencers on that network to check out your work. Hopefully, you will be able to get a lot of shares, and as a result success.

Step #3: Use Web 2.0 Sites to Bolster Your Rankings

Web 2.0 sites are also becoming increasing popular, and as a result their effectiveness should not be underestimated. Web 2.0 sites still work, and if you know what you’re doing they can be a great source of backlink to you.

How to Use Web 2.0 to Increase Your Rankings

Below are a few tips on how to use web 2.0 to make your content rank well in the search engines.

Online Content Hubs: Sites like Squidoo and Hubpages, known as online content hubs, are great examples of web 2.0 sites that can be used to increase your rankings. Online content hubs are just like mini blogs, and you’re free to publish your content, which will be available throughout the site, and reap the rewards.

Video Streaming Sites: Search engines are also putting more importance into videos, and having a video in your article has the potential of increasing your rankings by up to 50x so while it might be more convenient for you to write, try creating videos and embedding them in your content every once in a while.

The good news about videos is that you can also gain backlinks by submitting them to other sites. Just make sure you include a link back to an article on your blog. If you’re looking to get started here’s a resource to help you.

• List of Top Video Streaming Sites

Image Sharing Sites: Another way you can use Web 2.0 to help improve your rankings is by using image sharing sites. There are countless image sharing sites online, most of which allow you to add a description to your images, and you can use this opportunity to gain quality backlinks to your blog. Most of these links won’t be anchor text links, but they will still add some value to your site so make sure you don’t ignore them. If you’re looking to get started the resource below should be of great help.

• 7 Best Free Image Hosting and Sharing Websites

The Reality

Online, writers need more than just content or fancy words or formatting, we need traffic to survive and a nice approach for that too. While this article is not the all in all when it comes to SEO, I believe it contains all you need to get some great results as a writer, or at least for now. Make sure you reread the article, take some notes and implement what you just learned. Also make sure you tell a writer friend or two about this article, it will go a long way to help their business, and you will look really cool for helping them discover this article.

P.S. I might have used some SEO terms you’re not that familiar with in this article, and that I made no explanation of. I decided not to explain them because they might have been too advanced at this stage, and also because they will further extend the length of this article. If you’re completely new to SEO, it is worth learning more about so make sure you check out the resources below to further help you understand SEO.

• SEO: The Free Beginners Guide
• 40 Essential SEO Terms You Should Know

P.P.S. Kindly take a minute to pay it forward by spreading the word about this article. You only need to share it on one of your favorite social networks (more is appreciated, though) so please use a button of your choice below to share it with your friends; it could be on Facebook, Twitter, Stumbleupon or even Email.

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This is a super awesome guest post written by Josh Sarz.

Do you know what it takes to build a Master-Class blog?

When you’re new to blogging, you’re bound to make lots of bad choices.

And who can really blame a new blogger? There’s a huge amount of pressure for someone who’s just starting.

Pressure that comes from thoughts about your blog being buried in the dirt. Turning into a ghost town. Having lots of posts, but zero comments. I could go on.

So how does a new blogger actually get to build a Master-Class blog?

The secrets to a Master-Class blog is to become… a Pirate!

“What do you mean, a Pirate?!”

In the blogging world, it’s all about capturing your readers’ attention with your magnetic headlines and providing solid content to back it up.

Jon Morrow talked about it in Copyblogger, with his report about using effective headlines to attract traffic to your post. He had mentioned that successful blogs, even famous magazines all over the world, tend to reuse their headlines on more than one occasion. That’s good ol’ fashioned Pirate moves there.

Now let’s talk a little bit more about being like a pirate in blogging.

Learned: Pirate Class +1 Pillaging + 1

1. Zero in on your target

It’s been talked about a lot. Knowing your audience.

You need to figure out who your target reader is if you want to be successful at marketing your blog.

James Chartrand of Men with Pens talked about “writing for Dorothea.”

Or basically, not just writing for a demographic, but actually creating a fictional character with traits, personality, desire, problems, etc. That way, you’ll be writing with utmost detail and are able to zero in on your target.

Skill learned: Perimeter Scan + 1

2. Find out what your readers want the most

Now that we’ve found out who we’re writing to, let’s find out what they really want.

What do your reader’s want the most? Why are they reading your blog in the first place?

• Do your readers want to learn how to dominate with their marketing strategies?
• Do your readers want to know how to cook the perfect Beef Wellington?
• Do you readers want to lose weight effectively without resorting to diet pills and magic drinks?

One of the best ways to find out your readers’ desires is to plainly ask them. Ask them in a private message, or at the bottom of your post.

If you don’t have that many people in your list yet, then you can opt to check in your comments section. What are your readers saying? Are there negative comments about your previous blog posts? How can you make your future blog posts better, based on that negative comment?

If you’re not getting that many comments yet, because you’re still a beginner blogger, then here’s a neat pirate trick to find out what your readers want.

You visit other related blogs in your niche, and check out THEIR popular posts and THEIR comments section.

Find out what kind of topics Master-Class blogs are currently talking about. Check what’s hot.

Find out what their readers are saying in their blog posts. Are they getting negative comments?

Skill learned: Stalking your Prey +1

3. Stick to your flag

Master-Class pirates have their own image. They have their own flag, their own style, pattern, target preference.

The same should go for blogging.

Be consistent with who you are as a blogger and a writer, with what brand you’re making for yourself.

• Are you blogging about method acting and other arts? Stick to your flag.
• Are you a a blogger who writes about… blogging? Stick to your flag.
• Are you going to write about copywriting and marketing?

Focus on writing about topics related to your niche. This tells your readers that you’re focused on what you do, and they know what to expect from your next posts.

So it’ll make them more open to subscribing to that ever-valuable email list.

Skill learned: Hard stance +1 Poker face +1

4. Invade the Master-Class blogs

Pirates of the high seas don’t just invade defenseless towns. They seek out other pirate ships, invade them, kill their men, recruit some of them, take their loot and gain more pirate fame.

In the blogging world, there’s something similar. It’s called guest posting.

Why should you be writing for someone else, when you’re still trying to establish a name for yourself? What’s the deal?

Well, here’s the deal.

When you’re writing awesome guest posts on established blogs, you’re actually leeching off of their fame and influence. Plus, some of their readers might be interested in what you wrote, and decide that they want to read more of your work.

If they liked your guest post, they’ll check out your blog. And what’s more? When you’re guest blogging, you don’t have to be overly strict about sticking to your own niche. Find common areas between your niches and write about them.

What’s so hard about guest posting? If you’ve tried pitching and offering guest posts before, you probably know by now that your proposed topic won’t always be accepted. Do you really have to build a solid relationship with the owner of the blog so you can write a post for them? They won’t let just anyone post on their blog, will they?

The answer is, they do! Some bloggers only accept guest posts from people who are graduates of a certain online course, but the majority of them allow just about anyone to write for them. It’s all in your approach as well as your content.

Here are some quick ways to improve your guest post pitching:

Have your email subject line stand out – When a pirate is in the middle of a crowd, he’s definitely going to stand out. If you’re trying to pitch a guest post for an A-list blogger, chances are they’re getting flooded with emails from other bloggers like yourself. Do yourself a favor by using unique headlines.

“This is the best thing ever!!” is generic, spam-like and over-the-top. Subjects like “Guest post proposal” is common.

For this guest post, I emailed Oni with the subject line “I was about to quit, but I saw the light.”

For another guest post on a different blog, I emailed the owner with a subject like this “This part is killing me (Guest Post Proposal)”.

There are lots of ways to write your email subject line, and reception is never always guaranteed regardless of what headline you use. Keep on using different methods and test out which ones work for you.

Jump right into the action – Avoid taking up a whole paragraph kissing up to the blogger and telling him/her how long you’ve been an avid fan. Don’t talk too much about yourself. Here’s my formula:

Problem > Twist the Knife > Intent > Content of Proposed Guest Post > Who you are (with examples/links of past work) > Reason why it’s benefiial> Close

The first two would take up the first paragraph. The intent and content take up the second paragraph. Third paragraph talks about who you are (keep it short) and some samples of old work. Then the next paragraph includes why the guest post is beneficial to the readers. Then you close your email by thanking him/her for taking time to read your email.

This formula often works for me, but it might not work for you. The most important thing is to test out different methods.

So make sure you step up your game, and try to write the best guest post you can muster up.

Skill learned: Invasion +1 Adaptability +1

5. Dress to Kill

Let’s be honest. Pirates look cool. Not the crew members, but the Captains of famous pirate ships.They stand out. You’ll know immediately that they hold a position of power and authority.

No we’re not going to dress up as pirates (unless you want to, of course).

I’m talking about killer blog design.

If you have the money to spend for a great blog design, then go for it.

James Chartrand talked about the split-second test, where you take a look at random sites that come up in Google, and take a split-second to look at their website. No reading, no browsing, just looking at the site for a split-second, and see if it grabs your attention enough for you to stay a little longer.

Then go do it on your own blog. Does your website pass the split-second test?

Why is this important? Because you only have a split second to make first-time visitors to like your site and decide to continue reading your content. If your blog fails this test, your visitors won’t even have the chance to read your master-class content. So you would have been writing for nothing.

Whether you decide to get killer WordPress frameworks and themes like Genesis, Thesis, Woothemes or other premium themes, try to add a personal flavor to it, and try to get your blog to pass the split-second test.

Here are some tips for your blog to pass the split second test:

• Have a banner/header that immediately grabs the attention of your visitors, and example for this is the blog you’re reading this on. Oni’s blog flaunts a header that instantly tells you what his site is about, and makes you want to learn more about what he does.
• Remove unnecessary ads. We’ve all heard before that if you’re running Adsense ads on your blog, it’s a good practice to stick it above the fold for maximum clickability. The problem here is that if you have too many ads on your site, it will look less professional. Plus, ads throw your visitors to external sites. You don’t want to earn pennies with ads and miss out on a loyal subscriber, do you?
• Increase the font size on your website. Your visitors won’t have to read your content to notice that the text on your site is too small to read. Make reading a pleasure for your visitors so that they’ll actually want to stay.

Skill learned: Class + 1

6. Chart your course ahead of time

Pirates don’t just sail along the ocean waiting for unlucky passers-by and pounce on them like hungry wolves. No.

As a blogger, you need to chart your course. This means writing several posts ahead of time, and keeping them as drafts. This might be draining to beginner bloggers, but here are a couple benefits to preparing ahead:

• Having a well-written, proofread post ahead of time assures a consistent flow of quality content on your blog
• Being able to publish a post when you’re suddenly feeling a little under the weather, or when you’re busy with something else
• Having enough time to proofread your draft for possible grammar and formatting mistakes
• Being able to take advantage of the spark of genius that occurs every few mornings by using the motivation and sudden inspiration to get more ideas in creating content

Charting your course isn’t only about planning ahead, but it’s also about research, research and more research.

When Master-class pirates sail the seven seas, they know precisely what they’re getting into, and know how to approach every operation.

Do you know why Derek Halpern of Social Triggers has gotten so much hype in a short span of time? He did massive research on whatever he is blogging about even before he had the blog. He had the data ready before he had to write the content for his blog posts.

Ramit Sethi of Iwillteachyoutoberich.com has spent years upon years of doing massive research on human behavior, job interview strategies, earning money on the side and a lot more. And the thing is, his research shows on his posts and classes.

Here are a couple of things to plan for your blog:

• Who is your target audience? And do they know about you and your work? If so, do they like what you’re producing?
• What type of topics on your niche are good to write about, good enough for people to actually read your work and convert
• Are your conversion strategies working for you? Multiple opt-ins might be a good idea, but if you’re not seeing any difference after doing it, then it might not work for you or your niche
• Do you have sufficient data to backup any shocking claims that you make on my blog posts?

There are many other questions to ask yourself and to use the power of research with. Don’t leave out the important data for your blog posts. Quality is much better than quantity.

7. Be the biggest and baddest Pirate the world has ever seen

How do the Pirates gain notoriety?

They plunder and pillage again and again. And they don’t stop. No matter if they are being hunted down every single day of their lives, they still stand proud and continue to do what they do best.

How can you do this with your blog? How can you become one of the most notorious bloggers in the world? What you do is you rinse and repeat all six of the previous Master-Class Pirate secrets.

You see, when you’re marketing your blog, it doesn’t happen in one go. You’ve got to be consistent at always delivering quality content, geared toward your target audience.

• So forget about ad placement for now.
• Stop worrying about SEO. It’s also important, but there’s lots of time for that later.

Keep writing awesome content, and continue invading other Master-Class blogs with guest posts, and stay true to your brand.

Oh, and with all those Pirate skills that you’ve learned, you’ve finally opened up the Skill tree toward learning the final skill.

Skill available for learning: Master-Class blogging

So what do you think?

Are you ready to be on your way to build a Master-Class blog? Do you have other tips in mind that we can add to the list above? Let’s talk about it in the comments section below.

Josh Sarz is a Freelance Writer, Blogger and the founder of Sagoyism, which talks about The Journey with Content Marketing, Storytelling and World Domination . He also likes punk rock and metal, among other things.

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Learning to write effective emails is one way smart writers adapt to using the internet for their business, in this article Sarah gives some tips on writing effective lead nurturing emails.

    Sarah Goliger is an inbound marketer at HubSpot, a marketing software company based in Cambridge, MA that makes inbound marketing and lead management software.

Once you’re generating leads for your business, one of the most critical components of a good lead management strategy is setting up lead nurturing campaigns to guide your leads down your sales funnel.  By sending well-timed and closely-targeted emails, you can further engage your leads with educational content and other offers in which they may be interested.  But so many emails go unread these days, or even worse – get marked as spam – so how can you ensure that your messages will be read?  Here are 5 ways to make your lead nurturing emails more effective.

1. Provide valuable content.  The first priority of your lead nurturing campaigns is to make sure you have something valuable to teach your leads.  You should be looking to educate them about your industry, your company, and your product or service, but you shouldn’t dive into product-centric messaging right away.  Follow up with your leads by suggesting they check out an ebook of yours that’s related to the one they just downloaded, or view your webinar on a similar topic.  Take the perspective of your lead by asking yourself, “If I were in their shoes, what would I be looking to learn right now?”  Figure out what information would be helpful at each point in their buying cycle and time and target your email messaging accordingly.

2. Stay focused.  Your leads are bombarded with messages all day long, and they’re probably looking for an excuse to delete your email.  Give your leads a reason to read your emails by keeping the content tied directly to the topic the lead initially converted on.  Each email should be focused around one topic in order to maintain a clear focus of your messaging.  You should always include a relevant call-to-action to encourage your leads to download another offer, which could be more educational content or a free trial or demo of your product, depending on their position in your sales funnel.

 3. Keep it short.  Your leads are busy people.  Structure each email so your recipients can glance at it and understand the value it provides to them within five seconds.  Information overload happens quickly, and including too much copy, secondary calls-to-action, and unrelated links will detract from the effectiveness of your message.

4. Maintain a natural progression.  It’s important to map the content of your lead nurturing emails to the leads’ position in the buying cycle.  The idea behind lead nurturing is to set up a well-rounded campaign that guides your leads further down your sales funnel.  Work with your sales team to determine what qualifies a lead to be “sales-ready,” and craft your lead nurturing strategy accordingly.  The first email you send after the lead’s initial conversion might be very educational, while subsequent emails should continue to educate while giving the lead an opportunity to convert a second time.  Ideally, as they learn more, your leads will gain more interest in your product or service, giving you a chance to promote more product-focused offers. 

5. Change it up a bit.  Since you’re emailing your leads more than once, it’s important to make them significantly different from one another.  Don’t act like every email is the first they’re receiving if it’s not, and make sure you coordinate your email sends so they don’t sound like they were written by different people in different offices.  If you sent someone an ebook two days ago, don’t just throw another content offer at them and hope they’ll download it.  Replace the endless email offers by asking them for feedback in your next message, or see if they had questions about the previous email’s content.  Offer to connect them to a sales rep or someone to help answer their questions.  At the very least, mention the content in your last email and make a connection to the content you’re offering in the current email.  There is a right and a wrong way to reach out to people in your lead nurturing campaigns, and hitting them with a different offer every time and praying for a reconversion is not your strongest option.

Follow these 5 tips to start writing emails that your leads will actually want to read, and you’ll be well on your way to more effective lead nurturing before you know it.

This guest post is written by Sarah Goliger.

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I sent this email to my subscriber list last week, and I got some great replies so I’m reposting the content of the email here. BTW, you can subscribe here if you’re not yet subscribed!

The One Word (or Action) that Can Change Your Career this Year

You might be asking if that word really exist, or if I’m about to feed you some garbage? But yes, that word, and action, really exists, and it is so powerful that it can be classified as a magic word.

The funny thing is that very few writers use this word I’m talking about, and it is costing them their careers. This word is costing a lot of writers money, it is costing some writers time, it is costing some writers their productivity, and it is even costing some writers their entire career.That word is NO!

Say no to fear of rejection; you can’t be sure of success or failure unless you try.

Say no to distractions and things that don’t matter; things like TV and the latest movie in town can look so gentle, but if you’re not careful, they can cause irreparable damage to your career.

Say no to low pay; you might be worried about not being able to get another gig, but you have to stop clinging unto what you have before greater opportunities are unleashed

Say no to your fear of selling; selling is an integral part of our lives, and we have to do it, sooner or later, at one point of our lives.

Say no to overbearing clients; you have to lose them to get clients that will learn to treat you better.

Say no to lack of rest; it might be tempting to stay late to watch that TV show, but its impact on your career will be worth more than a night of sleep.

Say no to wasteful spending; having enough money saved in your account can have a huge impact in the quality of your decisions, and what you’re able to accept or not.

Say no to emotional breakdown; eating good foods, and a few minutes of exercise daily can have a huge impact on how you feel throughout the day.

Finally, say NO to perfectionism!; obsession with being perfect can cost you your career. A better approach is to release your work and refine it over time. It’s your gift to create, but creating alone won’t make your work perfect; you have to refine it based on feedback you get from the outside.

What else do you think you should say no to? Kindly let us know in the comments!

Do you think this one word, or action, can really make a difference? Spread the word by sharing this article with your friends on Facebook and Twitter!

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When it comes to increasing your chances for earning more as a freelance writer and getting more quality offers, one major thing I advice is that you expand your services. In other words, don’t just restrict yourself to doing one form of freelance writing; expand your skills, expand your offering, grow your database of clients and earn more money.

I’ve been an advocate of guest blogging for almost as long as I’ve been blogging now, and even though guest blogging wasn’t that popular when I started, it is now being used by almost every business online. Both individual bloggers and big companies, everybody is now using guest blogging, and this creates new opportunity for you to make a living as a writer.

The tips in this article will be tailored towards those who want to learn more about making money online as a guest blogger. In other words, you need to have prior guest blogging experience before the tips in this article are applicable to you. If you’re not familiar with guest blogging and need a quick-start guide, I think this article will cover all you need. Read it first, and come back to this article later!

The Evolving Guest Blogging Market

The concept of guest blogging only started to become popular around 2 – 3 years ago. I’m not trying to say that guest blogging hasn’t been used before then, though. There were highly successful bloggers who have built a great audience for their blogs just by guest blogging, but very few people paid attention to it then. Now, not only individuals are guest blogging, even big companies are starting to make use of guest blogging for their blog.

Guest blogging has a lot of advantages. It can help an individual/organization dominate a market, it can help build a brand, it can help garner SEO backlinks and then increase rankings, and it can be used as a medium to write quality content that kicks out the bad reviews about your business away from the search engines. It doesn’t matter which aspect of guest blogging you’d like to focus on, there is someone out there waiting to hire you.

So that you know the potential in this, even big brands and companies (yes, fortune 500 companies) are using guest blogging to position themselves as an expert in their fields, and for SEO backlinks, and a lot of these companies will be happy to pay you well if you have the skills they need.

I made tens of thousands of dollars from guest blogging in the last year alone (2011), so I think having the skills of a guest blogger has potentials, and you will be able to get more clients than you can handle if you market yourself properly.

By making money as a guest blogger, this article isn’t referring to writing guest posts for big blogs and getting paid. Instead, it is referring to looking for top brands in your field, letting them know about the importance of guest blogging for their brand, and helping them get published on relevant blogs in their field – in other words, instead of using guest blogging to build your blog and brand, you write guest posts on other blogs to help your clients build their own brands, and you get paid for it. The good news is that many of these brands already know how important guest blogging is, so you only need to let them know that you have the skills they need, and that you’re worth being paid well.

What You Need to Know before You Start Offering Your Services as a Guest Blogger

Like I said above, I have been offering my services as a professional guest blogger for almost a year now, and I came to realize some things the hard way. Below are a few things you need to know before you start offering your services as a guest blogger.

Being Prolific has its Advantages: If you want to be able to make enough money guest blogging, you need to learn, and master, the art of being prolific. In other words, you need to be able to write a lot of articles at a faster rate without sacrificing quality, you need to be able to research effectively without wasting time, and you need to be able to cover topics you have no previous experience of.

The good news is being prolific isn’t inborn, it is learned! It might be easy to pass up a guest blogging job opportunity because you’re not yet prolific, but you don’t have to worry about that; your skills will improve over time. Just work on writing more guest posts to promote yourself outside of your client’s guest posts, and you will learn a lot from that.

You Only Get Better with Time: Statements like “I’m not like Onibalusi who has written hundreds of guest posts” or “I don’t think I can be good at guest blogging” are only statements made out of share laziness. I’m sorry to say, but that’s the truth! I didn’t start guest blogging immediately I was born; in fact, I didn’t start until after around 3 months of me starting my blog. I started one day, I started writing guest posts on a regular basis, and I’m getting better with time.

Perfectionism can be your greatest enemy as a writer. I’m not trying to tell you not to strive for the best, nor am I telling you to be writing junk articles for your clients. Instead, you need to be creative with your writing, and you need to realize that your guest blogging skills will only get better with time.

Succeeding as a Professional Guest Blogger takes More than Just Good Writing Skills: In fact, sometimes, your writing is just a minor part of the process. Guest blogging involves you knowing how to write well, it involves you knowing how to format your articles for blog usage, and it also involves you knowing how to research effectively. You need to make Google your friend, because you will need it for most of your activities sooner than later.

Of course, there are a lot of other tools that can aid your work as a guest blogger, many of which I will be sharing later in this article, but with Google, you can easily find anything you want online.

The More Clients You Have, the Better: Like with most other markets, the amount you’re paid for your services would soon be impacted by the economy and competition, and it can become a little bit difficult to continue working with some clients. The solution in this case is to have a lot of clients. I used to believe you should only have as much clients as you can work for, but my perspective has changed with time. Have more clients than you can handle; distribute your workflow for them equally without sacrificing quality, and quickly move towards the favorable ones over time. Also, don’t reject potential clients; just tell them you are not that available at the moment, and that you will be able to work with them once you’re less busy. One of my clients that I “postponed” early in my guest blogging career has now made me over $10,000; I’d have lost that much if I had rejected that client downright.

How to Get People to Hire You

Since I’ve given you a rundown of some things you should know before venturing into offering your services as a guest blogger, the next step is to get people to hire you.

There are several ways to get “potential” guest blogging clients to hire you, and below are some of the top ways I recommend. All the tips listed below are from my own personal experience. I have even used some of them for my friends, and personally for myself.

Guest Blog to Market Your Skills: My favorite approach for getting guest blogging clients is by guest blogging on other blogs, and it is through this that most of my clients got in touch with me. Think about this, what better way to hire someone to guest blog for you than to find them through a guest post on another blog?

Write and maintain a quality blog that showcases your skills, create a hire me page, publish a few guest posts on related blogs in your field and start getting clients. It’s that simple! To be sincere with you, some aspects of being a professional guest blogger are challenging, but getting clients isn’t one of them.

You might think you need to write hundreds of guest posts to get people to hire you, but you’re wrong! In reality, you only need around 5 – 10 guest posts to get great results; write around 2 – 3 guest posts for top blogs in your field, write a few more guest posts for smaller and relevant blogs, and make sure to include a link to your hire me page, and a small statement in your bio telling people you’re offering your services as a guest blogger.

It doesn’t have to be in the blogging/internet marketing niche alone. It can be in any field. As long as there are companies that need marketing and as long as there are top blogs that accept guest posts, this approach will work.

Use Freelancing Job Boards: If you aren’t that confident about guest blogging working for you (which is a mistake if you really want to make a living guest blogging), you can try using freelancing job boards to find guest blogging jobs that apply to you. There are a lot of quality job boards online, and you can also search the top freelancing networks and forums in your field to see if there are people interested in hiring you.

My brother, and a friend of mine, has used this approach successfully, so I can assure you that it works.

One thing you should know, though, is that with this approach and some of the other ones listed below, the best way to get people to hire you is by including up to 3 – 5 samples of your guest posts in the first email you send to them. Potential clients can get a lot of offers, mostly from people who don’t know their stuff, but by showing them you have great experience with guest blogging you will be able to get on their priority list.

I will be recommending one or two job boards in the “tools section” below, so make sure you keep reading!

Contact SEO/Marketing Companies: Sometimes, the big companies might not even trust you enough to hire you. After all, which big brand will want to leave their marketing to a single individual? The good news is that most big online brands have already handed their marketing to SEO/Marketing companies, and you can use this to your advantage.

Research for a list of 10 or more SEO companies that offer link building/brand building services, send them an email telling them that you know how important guest blogging can be to what they do, and include a link to two or more quality guest posts you have written. More often than not, you will get more client replies than you expected, and a lot of them will hire you.

If you are to use this approach, it is important not to send mass email to these companies. Research any company you’re to contact, look for important but relevant figures in the company, and send a personalized email to each of them letting them know about your offer.

Use Google to Track Guest Blogging Offers: Google is my favorite website online, and for good reasons. Google already has everything you need to get quality job offers within it, so all you need to do is learn how to leverage them to your advantage.

You can also get guest blogging job offers through Google. First, you can use the Google search engine to research paid guest blogging opportunities, and you can also add your keywords to Google Alerts so that you will be notified whenever a new page that has what you need is indexed.

You can use Google effectively for quality results by searching for keywords you think people will use when looking for paid guest bloggers.

Sample keywords are:

paid guest blogger needed

guest blogger for hire

guest blogger needed for quality backlinks

Etc.

You can also get more refined results by adding your field to your search after a plus e.g., “paid guest blogger needed + weight loss” (without the quotes, of course!)

Use Social Media: Twitter and Facebook can also be a good source of clients for you if you do your research. I have gotten someone contact me for guest blogging work using Twitter before, even though I ended up rejecting the offer due to me not agreeing with the price. Either ways, my point remains the same; social media is increasing in influence every day, and it will only be disastrous to ignore it.

You can try searching Twitter or Facebook for example keywords listed in the Google section above, and you can even post a Tweet or Facebook update to ask if there is anyone interested in hiring you for their guest blogging needs.

7 Tools You Need to Make Your Work Easier

To succeed as a professional guest blogger you need quality tools, and below are some of my favorite tools that aid my effectiveness as a guest blogger.

Tool #1: Yahoo! Answers. To really succeed as a guest blogger you need ideas. Some of your clients will need you to write dozens of guest posts a week and some of them will need you to write hundreds of guest posts a month. The only way to ensure you’re able to get unique ideas without compromising the quality of your blog posts is to make sure you have good source of ideas. Yahoo! Answers is number one on my list for idea generation tools, and getting ideas for your next 20 guest posts is as simple as searching for your keyword in Yahoo Answers, reading the responses, and generating ideas based on the questions asked and the responses to them.

Tool #2: Delicious. Once you’ve gotten ideas from Yahoo! Answers, the next step is to research your ideas so that you have enough information to write your articles. Using Google might be a smart idea, but it is even smarter if you can find articles to read through Delicious. Just do a quick search of your keywords using Delicious, read some of the top posts you come across, jot down points you discover and the new lessons you just learned. Use this to form the basis of your article, and repeat the process for every new article you write.

Tool #3: Technorati. Technorati should also be your friend if you want to succeed as a pro guest blogger. Guest blogging isn’t only about the ideas or your article, but also about the blogs you contribute to. Technorati has a database of thousands of blogs in almost every niche, and you can easily find blogs related to your client’s project by searching for your client’s keyword in Technorati. You should realize to be broader with your keywords when using Technorati, though, so as to get the best results. E.g., if you were to write an article on the benefits of exercising to improve your health, instead of searching with your whole keyword, you can just search for “health blog” or “health tips” and you will find a list of top health blogs to contribute your articles to.

There’s no limit to what you can do with Technorati, so make sure to put your imagination to work!

Tool #4: Alltop. Alltop is also an online directory that helps you find the top blogs in your field. Alltop has categories for almost every niche available online, and each category has at least hundred blogs. All you need to do is look for your own category to see the top blogs listed to determine which ones you want to contribute to.

Alltop contains links mostly to top blogs, so if your focus is on the best blogs in any field make sure to check it out!!

Tool #5: Google Search. Google can also be very useful for you when looking for top blogs to contribute to. All you need to do is search for your niche keyword + write for us (and other variations of it) using Google.

Some example keywords you can use if you were to be writing in the blogging field are listed below; make sure to replace the quoted keywords with your client’s niche keyword.

“blogging tips” + write for us

“blogging tips” + submit guest post

“blogging tips” + contribute an article

“blogging tips” + guest blogging

Make sure to replace “blogging tips” with the keyword your clients provide you with.

If you also want to have a better understanding of how to research blogs to publish your clients’ guest posts on, make sure you check out my ultimate guest blogging guide.

Tool #6: Problogger Jobs Board. If you’re looking for quality job offers from clients that will appreciate you, make sure to check out the Problogger jobs board. New jobs are added almost every day, and you will come across guest blogging jobs every once in a while. Make sure to check it out every week (or even subscribe to its RSS feed) for new jobs!

Jobs posted on the Problogger jobs board gets a lot of responses, so being quick to reply to an offer might give you upper hand.

Tool #7: BloggingPro Jobs Board. The BloggingPro job board is similar to the Problogger jobs board, and you can find some relevant guest blogging jobs on it every once in a while.

5 Lessons Learned from Offering My Services as a Guest Blogger

As someone who’s being guest blogging for clients for over a year now, and who has made thousands of dollars in the process, to say I have learnt nothing won’t be true. Below are some of the top lessons I have learned guest blogging for clients. I recommend you go through them all, they’ll be useful to you at some point!

1. Take as Many Clients as You Can: Like I said above, don’t just take one client, or two; take as many clients as you can handle, and you will end up thanking yourself for it in the near future.

2. Don’t be Afraid to Raise Your Rates, but Offer More Value with It: There are two sets of people in every field; people whose rates are never affected, and people whose rate are always tanking. Don’t be afraid of raising your rates. It might seem impossible, but it is totally possible if you’re ready to increase the value you provide. After all, every client appreciates more value even if they have to pay more for it.

3. Build Your Base: You might not like to hear this, but guest blogging is still a budding market and it will become overly competitive and ineffective over time. This is the hard reality, and you better face it soon. The solution, instead, is not to be too dependent on what you’re making from your guest blogging efforts at the moment. Build your blog, invest in courses and online education, and venture into other fields. Having a base creates more opportunity for potential income, so make sure you don’t discount it.

4. Think Outside Just Getting Clients: I recently wrote a post about me writing 31 guest posts in one week to improve my blog SEO. The reality is, at an average of 600 visitors from Google alone every day at the time of writing this post, those 31 guest posts had a huge impact on my blog, contributing to over an additional 250 visitors a day today.

While there are clients looking for people to write for them, why not think about ways to use guest blogging to build your own business. Focus on ranking your services pages, on building your own base and authority and on getting your name in front of a wide, new, audience; guest blogging can help you with this.

5. Don’t Write Crap: Business success is all about providing value, and by focusing on value for your clients you will end up building your potential, creating chances for future opportunities, and making the blogosphere a better place. There are a lot of guest bloggers today contributing keyword loaded craps to other people’s blogs, but that will only end up hurting their clients’ brand and the space for everybody. Make a difference by only contributing your best, and aside from making money by offering your services, you will also end up contributing to, and impacting, someone else’s’ life.

Some Frequently Asked Questions about Guest Blogging for Income

Before writing this article, I sent an email to one of my lists asking them what questions they have about guest blogging for income, and here my answers to the most common, and relevant, ones!

1. Do you set the amount to be paid for your guest blog or does the other blogger–or is it negotiated? If it is negotiated, do you have any hints as to how you go about that successfully?

Actually, you will be writing for clients who want you to help them write guest posts for other blogs, and yes, you can set your rates. One piece of advice is to make sure you hear what they have in mind before suggesting your prices. When I just started guest blogging for income, my first client asked me how much I would like to charge, but as someone with little to no writing experience I asked the client what he had in mind, and I was surprised to see that the client was willing to pay double what I had in mind.

2. Do you have a format, a model outline you follow when you write a proposed guest post or a regular post for that matter? Or do you just wing it each time?

I think your approach will differ based on how you write, and I’ve written some articles before on how I write my articles and guest posts. Here is the post on how I write a complete article from scratch, and here’s a post on my process for my guest posts.

And yes, I wing it every once in a while

3. What do you see as the strengths, the best aspects, of really good guest posts?

I think the strengths of a good guest post is a guest blogger not thinking of his/her guest posts being different from other writings. In other words, write your guest post like you write every other article you write – don’t treat it to be special or different, just write your mind and let it flow.

With that in mind, quality research and referencing data in your guest post can also make a difference.

4. I wanted to find out; can you give a step by step guide on how you approached blog owners to guest blog?

Yes, I’ve written about this before here. I even included a sample email for one of my Problogger guest posts, so check it out!

5. I’d like to know more about the analytical side of guest blogging. How do we know a post has reached a successful metric? Do we lean on the host, or are there other solutions / services that provide an easy way of tracking the success?

I think it will be difficult to track this, especially when writing for clients. Some things to lookout for are how many social shares or comments a guest post has, and how many visitors it sends if it is published as a guest post for your own blog.

Conclusion

After writing for so long now I decided to take a look at my writing and I noticed I have exceeded 4,000 words. I think this is the right time to stop so as not to bore you; if you have any questions about what I wrote above, or any other aspect of guest blogging, please do not hesitate to ask in the comments below. If you also have experience guest blogging, and have additional tips to share, please let us know in the comments below.

Finally, kindly help as many people know about this article by spreading the word; share it on Facebook, Twitter and any of your favorite social media sites!

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If you’re ready to build a successful freelance writing career this year, I have an offer for you.

There’s a 4 weeks freelance writing course you need to check out.

This course is organized by Carol Tice and Linda Formichelli; both successful freelance writers with years of experience.

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The course isn’t a free course. It is a premium course packed with value, and the organizers are people I can vouch for.

Instead of looking for ways to make a lot of money online without spending, why not invest in quality education every once in a while.

This course contains both videos, pdfs and worksheets to help you accelerate your learning and take actionable steps to achieve results.

There are 3 payment levels available to you if you decide to join, and you can learn more about the course through the link below.

http://www.freelancewritersden.com/idevaffiliate/idevaffiliate.php?id=153_7

P.S. I’m an affiliate for the course and I totally recommend it. You might want to do some research before signing up for the course, though (as you should do with all your purchases online!).

Thanks!

-Onibalusi

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Heard this oldie but goodie? “If you treat your business like a hobby, it will cost you like one. If you treat it like a business, it can pay you like one.”

I love that one.  Why? Because that clever little cliché rings so true in the jolly ole world of blogging! Let’s look at the 11 sure ways to treat your blog like a business.

Before you begin, first ask -What is the purpose of my blog?  If your answer is “just for fun with no intent of ever making a profit or selling for profit,” then bail on this blog post and head on over to Facebook and see what’s happening with your friends!

But if you want to make some blogging bucks and have millions of fans reading your stuff each day, these 11 tips are a must.

1. Be at The Office Every Day: Whether you are a full time or a part time blogger, you must emphatically keep to a schedule, just like a job.  Bloggers often fail when they do not treat blogging as a job.

2. Create Deadlines and Stick with Them: Creating and following a content calendar builds trust with your readers.  They know what to expect. They know when to return for fresh content. And they develop plenty of confidence to share your blog with their friends and fans. No one wants to refer a flaky blogger.

3. Eliminate Distraction: My distraction is another person’s motivation.  You’ll have to figure what keeps you from being productive.  However, some of the things that help me stay focused are turning off email, phones, Facebook, Twitter and the TV. Find what works for you, but email, phone and Facebook are definite concentration killers.

4. Do Your Research: Make sure your blog posts are filled with correct, accurate facts.  Believe it or not, not EVERYTHING on the Internet is true! Use  multiple sources to get your information and use your own personal experiences to make your post personal and engaging.

5. Hire an Editor: This is often overlooked, but SUPER important if you want the blogging world to take you serious as a professional blogger. Trust me, the investment is so worth it. I didn’t begin with an editor, but thank goodness I have one the best in the business,Terri S Turner. It will pay big dividends in the near future!

6. Invest In Your Blog: Day after day I meet bloggers who are looking for the best FREE solution for their blogs. What?  I just don’t get it! Why would you only look for the free solutions when we are talking about your livelihood? Whether it’s a WordPress theme, a plugin, design work or any other tool, free is not always the way to go. I’m not advocating spending like a drunken sailor, but sometimes you need to invest money in your blogging business. Here’s my best advice when making purchasing decisions, consider how the blogging tools move your business forward as well as the price of the tool.

7. Stop Overthinking: Blogging is not rocket science, which I hear is a bit tough. It’s more about helping your community. Create great, useful content the way you would like it presented and then run with it.

8. Measure Results: Use some of the most popular analytic tools to measure the progress of your blog. Start with Google Analytics. Remember, you can’t get where you are going until you know where you have been.

9. Tell the World: Believe it or not, many bloggers don’t even use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Google + to share their own posts when they are published. Seems like a duh, but if you don’t tell your friends and fans about your posts, how do you expect anyone else to do it for you? Also encourage your friends to spread the word for you as well. Don’t be afraid to ask.

10. Reward System: Yes, we all like rewards! And you should set a reward system for yourself as well.  Try something like this. If you complete your scheduled blog posts for the week, then treat yourself to a couple hours of golfing, shopping or whatever floats your boat. Yet, if you miss your deadline, be prepared to work Saturday morning ‘til noon. Consequences, my friend. If success is what you are looking for, implement a structure with checks and balances.

11. DO NOT QUIT: You WILL get better as a blogger the more you do and you WILL get more followers the more consistent you are. There are millions of dead blogs on the Internet because the blogger quit. Don’t go the way of the dead blog. Oh, and did I mention…DON’T QUIT!!!!!

Sure, I could offer tons more advice on what to do to run your blog more like a business, but in my two decades as a web trainer, these 11 tips have served me well. Always remember, the fundamentals of running a business have not changed over the last 200 years. A blog is no different. Enjoy blogging. It’s one of the greatest business models available to us today! Rock On!

Zuckerberg was toddling with his blankie when Rick Nielsen, TheWebTrainer, ventured into the World Wide Web.  Now, nearly 20 years later, Rick’s passion to share his untold secrets for online success continues to grow.  His motto: “Do it right, or go home!”   Don’t know how? He’ll train you. A WordPress specialist, speaker, blogger and video expert, Rick has built more than 500 websites, trained thousands of business owners and is creator of TheWebTrainer.com, an online resource chock-full of advice to navigate the complexities of Web World (not Wally World) as easy as 1, 2, 3. 

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This guest post is written by Ruth Zive.

So everyone knows that content is king, right?

NOT!

Recently I read that conversation, not content, is king, and that notion really resonates with me, as a content marketing strategist.

Content, for the sake of creating content, is a futile exercise.  Content should engage, inspire and initiate dynamic conversation.  But some writers struggle with how to craft content with these goals in mind, so I have compiled my top 5 strategies for initiating conversation through a streamlined content marketing strategy.

I’d love to hear what you think in the comments section below:

1.     ASK QUESTIONS

 Dialogue is a two-way street.  Have you ever sat through a meal with a group of people and you’ve struggled to get a word in edgewise?  You don’t want your blog to mirror that type of experience.

Ask your readers questions.  Solicit their feedback.  And CARE about their responses.

Here are some easy and generalized questions that you can integrate into any content:

• What do you think?
• How have you experienced this?
• Are there points that I’ve missed?
• Do you disagree with my opinion?

Posing a question not only elicits a response, but it demonstrates a sense of authenticity – that you are interested in engaging the reader beyond the content.  It implies that you care about an ongoing relationship.

2.     BE PROVOCATIVE

 Admittedly, I have room to grow in this regard.  I’m a bit of a people-pleaser so my content tends to be fairly agreeable, but I know that controversial content is more likely to inspire conversation.

Now, don’t get me wrong; I’m not suggesting that you engage in political argument and advocate fringe policies and practices just for the sake of igniting debate.  However, just about every topic can push hot buttons to make the conversation a wee bit spicier.  For instance, I might suggest in this post that:

• You consider the use of profanity for shock value
• You leave goading comments on other people’s blogs (not mine J)
• I’m sick and tired of the polite, love-fest that goes on between bloggers.  Write content that is REAL and stop worrying about what other people think.

Those points are a bit out of my comfort zone, but they are provocative concepts that I’ve considered (and even implemented in some cases).

What do you think?  Is controversy a risky content marketing strategy? (Note my thoughtful placement of the question!)

3.     GO BEYOND THE BLOG

Conversations initiated on your blog (or someone else’s) can continue on other platforms.  Extend the discussion beyond the blog, onto Twitter, Facebook or even LinkedIn.

By mixing up the medium, you will find other opinions and points of view and you can keep the conversation alive.

Dialogue on Twitter, for instance, tends to be faster, punchier and more pointed. Facebook is more social; LinkedIn is more professional.  Mix it up!

4.     DON’T BE SELF ABSORBED 

Chances are, unless you are JB or Lady Gaga, people don’t want to know about the minutiae of your life.  They don’t really care what you ate for breakfast or whether or not you had a good night’s sleep.

They want to know how you are going to help them.

Speak to your readers’ pain points; address their needs and interests; get to know your audience.

And eliminate too many “I/Me” references from your writing.

5.     CRAFT QUALITY CONTENT 

This one might seem obvious, but you’d be surprised how much garbage content lurks behind every corner, on and offline.

Who wants to have a conversation with someone who can’t string together a meaningful sentence?

Take the time to write well.  Correct errors.  Proofread.  Solicit feedback from writers you trust.  And don’t push your content until it meets your highest standards.

So…it’s time to start the conversation?  What do you think about these strategies?  Do you have other tips and tricks that have worked for you?  Share them below in the comments section!

Ruth Zive is a freelance copywriter and content marketing strategist.  She is mom-to-five (plus pooch), special needs advocate, designer handbag enthusiast, Ashtanga yoga devotee and vegetarian chocoholic.

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This is a guest post by Carol Tice.

Carol is a successful writer who teaches “The Freelance Writers Blast Off Class for Newbies“ with Linda Formichelli. I’m also proud to be an affiliate for Carol’s and Linda’s class, and I recommend that you check it out!

Do you feel like you live in a writer-pay desert? I hear this complaint from freelance writers a lot. Some typical comments:

“I live in a small town where there are few opportunities.

“My area is economically depressed, so rates are very low.

“There are no big businesses nearby, so there aren’t any good gigs.

“I’m not in the United States, and there’s no good pay here.

“My English isn’t that good, so I can’t earn well.

“All the writing jobs on the Internet pay $5 an article now. I can’t find anything better.”

Think you can’t find good-paying work as a writer where you live?

I think you’re wrong.

Actually, I know you’re wrong. How? I live on an island with a population of about 25,000. And I earned six figures from freelancing in 2011.

Here are seven ways you can find good-paying freelance markets, no matter where you are:

• Realize it’s a global business. If you have a computer and Internet access, you can do writing work for clients anywhere in the world. I live near Seattle, and have had clients in New York, Canada, Australia, and the U.K. Stop thinking of your potential client base as who’s in your neighborhood, and target the clients you want, wherever they are. Yes, some companies and publications prefer to work with someone local –but increasingly, more and more don’t care where you live.
• Swim in a different pool. If all you can find are low-paid keyword article assignments on Craigslist, guess what — you should stop looking on Craigslist. Start thinking about what industries or hobbies you know about, where few others are experts. Then, proactively target publications and corporations in that niche. Send them a marketing email, a postcard, cold-call them — whatever marketing mode you prefer. But you’ll always make more from a client you prospect and find than from one that’s looking at a stack of 300 resumes.
• Tap the government. No matter where you live, there are federal, state, county, province, prefecture, township, city, and other government agencies. No matter what your interest — healthcare, transportation, child welfare, energy — you can find a government agency involved. Governments are constantly marketing to promote the benefits of their programs. They hire freelancers, and usually at moderate to high hourly rates. I did my first government contract this year, for a regional transportation agency, at $60 an hour. Do some networking to connect with marketing managers, or scour government-job websites for opportunities.
• Go back to school. Universities, think-tanks, and research institutions dot the globe. They do copious marketing as they try to encourage alumni to donate, seek research grants, and release papers that explain their discoveries or political views. If you’re a college grad, start with your own alma mater to explore the freelance possibilities.
• Check the newsstand. In particular, look for local editions of U.S.-based major magazines, and business papers. If a U.S.magazine does a special edition for your country, they may be looking for some local feature stories — and usually pay first-world rates. Wherever you live, local business weeklies and your newspaper’s business section are packed with information about companies big and small. Discover the largest corporations based in your region. Keep an eye out for fast-growing medium-sized companies or startups that have landed venture-capital money. Don’t assume only American companies pay well for writing — big companies pay writers well the world over, and in every language.
• Watch for U.S. companies abroad. America abounds with multinational companies with branch offices around the world. If you live abroad and there are U.S. companies operating in your area, they can represent great pay opportunities. They may need a local bilingual writer to help them explain their programs or products in a culturally sensitive way, or to promote a local branch office — and you could be perfectly positioned to help them out.
• Write travel. If you live somewhere exotic, market some travel articles about what there is to see and do in your part of the world. There are a boggling number of U.S.-based travel publications and websites, and many pay well for pieces on far-flung locales.

How did you find your best-paying gigs in the past year? Leave a comment and share your strategies.

Carol Tice writes the award-winning Make a Living Writing blog,and teaches The Freelance Writers Blast Off Class for Newbies (aff link) with Renegade Writer Linda Formichelli.

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