4 Tips To Writing SEO-Friendly Blog Posts (via Mashable)

When you write blog posts, it’s not just about writing for human readers – you also have to consider how search engines seek out relevant results based on the key words you use in your blog post. Since most would-be readers use search engines to find blog posts, you need to make sure that Google ranks your site highly when those readers search for terms related to your business and the content you’re writing.

Here are four tips on how to write SEO-friendly blog posts courtesy of Mashable:

How To Proofread Your Own Writing

Since a major part of my current portfolio entails a huge amount of writing and editing/proofreading (including my own work!), I thought this set of advice via Sitepoint was particularly helpful. Out of the six, I use 3, 4 and 6 most.

1. Make Your Own Shortcuts
2. Get a Stylebook
3. Read It Out Loud
4. Print and Read Backwards
5. Use Spelling and Grammar Checks
6. Give It a Rest

Full article here.

Been Thinking About Self-Publishing

I’ve been thinking about self-publishing… well, at least the idea of “self-publication”. I haven’t really figured this out yet, so I’ve been investigating around. Here are a few good sites I’ve come along my way… stay tuned, this might turn out to be something great!

• How Self-Publishing Works – by How Stuff Works
• Wikipedia: Self-Publishing
• Lulu.com – A Self-Publishing Company

(I’ll be updating this page as I accumulate my findings)

The Power Of Pull – Steve Rubel

Steve Rubel blogs about the power of pull marketing (The Power of Pull), especially in light of the way social media and the internet is changing consumer behaviours today. Essentially, Steve makes the case for stronger pull marketing, compared to the traditional strategies of push marketing… and gives three ideas on how to achieve that:

Rejection Letters Can Be More Important Than Cover Letters

I thought this was very interesting – leveraging on the opportunity to turn rejection letters into something that will actually land you a job. From Careerealism: Single-Most Important Letter You May Ever Use in a Job Search

This is a very good example of what the article talks about:

15 Copywriting Formulas

I got this via Pro Copy Tips – AIDA and 14 secret copywriting formulas.

Gosh, I didn’t know there were so many! My recommendation is to basically stick to one that’s clear, concise and which works for you. I personally prefer to stick with AIDA. (All 15 tips after the jump)

9 Ways To Write Headlines That Work!

I’m becoming a big fan of Copyblogger! I was moseying around his site when I came across this great article: 9 Proven Headline Formulas That Sell Like Crazy. Having been in a variety of writing/editing roles in the past (copywriter, PR manager, editor, corporate “go to” guy for the English language), I thought these were pretty spot on (examples of how in the full article here):

Writing: Hook, Line, Sinker

A long time ago, I wrote that good copywriting (any writing, in fact) is like using a fishing reel – you’ve got to have a hook, a line and a sinker:

• HOOK: Good copy will first hook the audience – catch their attention and engage them
• LINE: Good copy threads them along – it is interesting and engaging enough for them to follow through the rest of the copy.
• SINKER: Good copy, finally, has a sinker – it spurs your audience to action.

Thank you, Seth Godin, for the refresher:

The first goal of copy is to get you to read more copy.

The second goal is to tell a story that spreads.

And then, finally, to have that story get people to take action.