Web Content | SEO Writing

Twitter: Time Waster or Social Marketing Machine?

This article was written by me for Matt Bredel’s – Inside The Internet Marketing Mind.

The article explores various uses for Twitter for internet marketers and anyone looking to earn money online.

Twitter doesn’t sound like much. It suggests that you tell the world what you’re doing in 140 characters or less. So what? How are people using this social marketing tool to make more money online?

What You Need To Know: Follow and Be Followed!

The key to twitter is to follow and be followed. If you’re on the site talking about what you’re doing to nobody and not finding what anyone else is doing, it’s sort of useless and rather boring.  Once you get a few followers and start following a person, that’s when the buzz starts. You can update your status on the web, via instant messaging client or via a third party tool like Twhirl that lets you use twitter from your own desktop.  You can follow and be followed on your cell phone as well and be plugged in to the Twitterverse on the go.

You have a profile page that lets you manage the tool and lets people look you up to see what you’re all about in a few lines and with a URL. It’s the “What are you doing” section that counts.

Your Twitter friends or peeps (a.k.a your Tweeps) all carry on conversations with or without you and when you pop in and chime into various conversations, it gets rather lively. People ask questions, answer questions and share URLS of what they’re doing, what they find interesting and what they want opinions on.

There’s also the public timeline that tells you what other people are doing and you can search on that for more followers or conversations to eavesdrop on. It’s like a virtual water cooler that you can stop into during the day and check in with your tweeps.

Use Twitter when you:

-Post an update to your blog

-Want answers to a technical question

-Want to vent

-Want to tell people what you’re having for lunch (seriously, that can sparks some very interesting questions)

and more.

You can also send direct private messages as well as respond to people both directly but also publicly.  The more interesting of a Tweet you post, the more likely people will follow you and re-tweet. A re-tweet is when you post a URL and someone likes it so they share it by tweeting or re-tweeting it to their followers. Do you see how it can become a benefit to you in an area like affiliate marketing, product launches and technical challenges you need help with?

You can also post Twitter feeds on your website so that people can follow you, read your conversations, see who you’re following and visit their posts or URLS so it becomes a very viral way to share and communicate and even to collaborate. 

The downside to Twitter

Not only is the tool currently growing at such a fast rate that it goes down regularly but there is another downside and that’s productivity. Sadly there’s almost always a downside to social networking and bookmarking tools and as with many others, Twitter can be a time waster if you’re not careful so it’s important to use it and have fun but also to set limits for yourself.

Press Releases : They Can Help You Sell Your Product Like Hotcakes

Do you need press releases? How much syndication is enough?

I wrote this article for an internet marketer client and friend who doesn’t mind if I share his work on my own blogs. I thought this article would fit well here.

When you try to make money online, you need to get the word out about what you’re doing so people will be interested in visiting your website. Many people do this through press release distribution. Companies like PRWEB can help you mass distribute your news.

What is a press release?

A press release tells the media about your news and gives them an opportunity to publish your piece. If there’s something exciting going on in your business, this is a great way to spread some buzz.

How do you write a press release?

First, it’s a good idea to make sure you have something that’s actually newsworthy. What might be newsworthy? A new website, a new product, a staff change, a promotion, you get the idea.

Second, unless you’re a great copywriter you’ll probably want to hire a writer or press release service to do the writing for you. If you are a decent writer, you can find some templates to use to help you with your press release.

Then, you need to get organized and make a plan for where and how you’ll distribute it. There are free and paid options which we’ll explore here.

The anatomy of a press release

A basic press release is a news item. It follows the typical news format which answers the classic newspaper questions, “Who, What, Where, When, Why?” Generally, a press release starts off with an eye-catching heading and the first few sentences of the press release are what will create interest. If you don’t capture your audience in the first paragraph, chances are they’ll move on to something else before even reading the rest.

At the end of the news bit, you have an opportunity to list where people should go for more information and this answer is your website.

How will press releases help my online business?

The success of the press release is two fold. First, people that read it could visit your site and buy something. Secondly and perhaps just as importantly, the search engines will read that there are articles on trusted sources out there pointing to your website and this, my virtual friend, will help you with your search engine rankings which is what you want more than anything online because that’s the key to getting customers.

Ranking well for target keywords will get you not only search engine visibility but will get you traffic that consists of people interested in what you’re talking about. Now, your website copy needs to speak well so that you can convert visitors into customers.

Press releases are something you can often submit to free services that will syndicate for you but this is not full utilization of the press release. If you pay for a service like PRWEB, you could increase your reach and find that many more sources will display your article, which can result in an incredible viral marketing campaign. You could end up in places like Yahoo! News, Google News and more and receive visitors already convinced that you are an authority in your niche based on how well your press release reads.

To learn more about PRWEB and find out how it can help you maximize your press releases for great online exposure, visit TheWebReviewer and learn about PRWEB.

To get a quote on professional freelance writing services, contact me.

Questions A Freelance Writer Should Ask Prospective Clients

Whether you’re dealing with a ghostwriter, an SEO writer, a LSI article writer, press release writer or white paper writer, there are some things you should be asked. When you are choosing a writer for your business, there are some vital pieces of info that writer needs to know in order to do his or her job well.

For a client, being asked the right questions will illustrate that the writer you’ve chosen is working to understand your needs and help you sell your product or service.

What might you be asked? And, why?

Target Audience: A writer should know who they’re writing to. Writing style will differ for varying audiences. Knowing who will read the written work produced by your writer is something every writer should ask if it’s not very clearly evident by information you provide. If you are not aware yet of who your target is, you should spend time defining this. If you are targeting more than one demographic, you might need to take several marketing phases and approaches, doing one at a time.

Where The Written Work Will Live: A writer needs to know whether someone is publishing articles on their web, on a mini site pointing to their site, in a sales letter, on an article directory or in a blog. This knowledge helps determine the right tone and style of the work as well as helps a writer determine what content is appropriate.

Other items that might be discussed include whether the information needs to be timeless or not. If you don’t plan to update that information in the near future, you want the writer to provide information that is evergreen.

It’s also a good idea to tell your writer about your short and long term goals for the project. A writer can be an extended member of your team and very likely has a solid foundation of knowledge in your industry and / or with the business problems you are facing.

If you have any website analytics reports you’d like to share with your writer regarding keywords and traffic statistics, this information might also help your writer utilize specific SEO strategies when completing your work.

When you work with a freelance writer, the more information you provide, the better chances you’ll have of getting what you want the first time with little or no rewrites required.

If you are in need of a writer to help you sell more goods or get more website traffic, contact me. I’m Dana Prince, a web content writer who would love to hear from you.

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This post was inspired by James of the Men With Pens blog who writes a useful blog that helps writers and online entrepreneurs. I regularly ask clients the information contained in this blog when talking to them and James’ post illustrates why it’s so important for clients and writers to understand why sharing some information is so vital. Communication is definitely key in the writer / client relationship.