Feb 1 2009

Good Writing Means Great Feeling

You know that satisfying feeling you get as a reader when you finally find what you’re looking for? Or how about when the piece you’re reading makes you feel smart, included, peaceful, or inspired? As writer, Don’t you wish you could give your readers that feeling every time? Consider this: When writing, there are three major audiences: Your readers, your client, and—believe it or not—you. It’s true. Without including your take on the subject you risk sounding wooden and false. To get your writing to resonate with you, your client, and your readers, discover how the subject relates to all three. Look for connections and common themes. When you connect what you and all your readers care about you generate a sort of harmony through your writing. You needn’t announce the connection. Your audiences will feel it. Like smiling through a telephone or cooking with love. They’ll just know.


Jan 31 2009

Top 11 Qualities of Exceptional CopyWriter

It is a given in an SEO copywriter to be creative, ingenious, and skilled in writing. But these facts don’t suffice for an excellent and highly efficient copywriter. There are specific and vital skills that a real “pro” in copywriting must possess – indispensable qualities that deliver professional service and convert excellent results.

Here are the top eleven exceptional copywriter traits:

1. Has sophisticated understanding of SEO

It is an imperative that the SEO copywriter has a solid understanding of the nuts and bolts of the Search Engine Optimization. An above than average copywriter knows that ranking is essentially the result of a website’s relevance. There are a lot of other factors to be considered, but if the SEO copywriter doesn’t understand the basics of the industry, it is the most apparent sign of future low conversion rates.

2. Capable of doing keyword research and keyword analysis

Performing keyword search and keyword analysis are basic skills that every SEO copywriter must know. There are some companies that hire keyword researchers who perform the task for copywriter. However, it is a big plus if the copywriter is capable of doing researching and analyzing keywords. It is also a sign if the copywriter is equipped with complex SEO knowledge.

3. Has proven and relevant experience

Experience is undeniably the biggest factor in hiring an SEO copywriter. It is not enough that they can write well, there are more to an outstanding copywriting than writing keyword-inspired copies. It can be very difficult to find an SEO copywriter who can work on both keywords and link generation. But these few copywriters have a broad and useful working understanding of search engines.

4. Has fluency in using modern marketing tools

An SEO copywriter must also have a sound knowledge on up to date online advertisement strategy and the techniques – for the prime goal of receiving high rankings on the web site. Such techniques help in employing the appropriate writing approach in creating press releases and articles.

5. Knows keyword density

A good SEO copywriter doesn’t just fill up every page with targeted keywords. Exceptional copywriters know that keyword bombarding dilutes the site’s relevance and also reduces readability. A skilled SEO copywriter talks about density measures. Keyword density measures the number of time the keyword or keyword phrases appears on a page. Copywriters must know the appropriate amount of keywords to utilize.

6. Understands word count principle

There are certain article submission sites that require a specific word count. An SEO copywriter must therefore understand the vitality of following the prescribed word count.

7. Knows where to place keyword

Keyword placement has been a controversial debate amongst SEO copywriters. Although placement worthiness is still unclear, there is a general agreement that generates some sort of impact in search engine friendliness. Good copywriters are aware of the popular opinion that keywords are more efficient if they appear in beginning of the page and bolded.

8. Has ability to use power words

Copies written by a good SEO copywriter can induce readers to take some actions. Knowing the technicalities in writing is not enough in a copywriter. Having the ability to use power words or compelling phrases is a prime requirement. It is important to generate action driven contents to get high results.

9. Understands the target audience

Knowing how and what to write are just the basics of copywriting. SEO copywriter also needs to consider another crucial dimension in writing copies – the target audience. Understanding target market makes writing copies highly efficient.

10. Has knowledge on structure & links

This means that the SEO copywriter knows how to link each page to every other page using text links. If the website is quite complex, the copywriter needs to create a hierarchical structure for the site.

11. Beats deadlines

All the essential skills that a professional SEO copywriter has will be put to waste if he can’t beat the deadline. Investing effort on writing quality copies remains futile if not done on time. Professionalism is best gauged in being prompt.

In looking for an SEO copywriter, exceptional talent and outstanding skills must be the only considerations. Settling for average writers only equal to mediocre copies – eventually leading to zero results.


Jan 22 2009

Great Writers with Epilepsy

Alfred Lord Tennyson described the experience as “the clearest of the clearest, the surest of the surest, the weirdest of the weirdest, utterly beyond words” [source: Epilepsy.com]. Before they happened to Gustave Flaubert, the Frenchman became terrified, writing that he felt “a whirlpool of ideas and images in my poor brain, during which it seemed that my consciousness, that my me sank like a vessel in a storm.” Lewis Carroll also shared this sense of growing unreality, writing that his made him feel strange, like another person [source: Epilepsy.com]. These descriptions aren’t nightmares or passages from science-fiction novels. They’re attempts to describe what it feels like to a have an epileptic seizure — in the case of these men, likely caused by temporal lobe epilepsy.

Flaubert, Charles Dickens, Edgar Allan Poe, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Lord Byron, Dante Alighieri, Sir Walter Scott, Edward Lear, Jonathan Swift — all legendary writers and all epileptics. The hallucinations, seizures and flood of memories associated with temporal lobe epilepsy influenced some of these writers profoundly. Dickens, Dostoevsky and Flaubert cast characters in their works as epileptics. Carroll’s bizarre, dreamlike fictions, such as “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” seem to share some characteristics with the above descriptions of seizures. Some critics have argued that the entirety of “Alice’s Adventures” is a symbolic representation of epileptic seizures.

Many of these writers with epilepsy recorded descriptions of their experiences, leading to posthumous diagnoses, although some were diagnosed within their lifetimes. Even so, the treatments available were fairly crude, especially when compared to modern therapies (suggestions included drinking significant quantities of water, castration and long walks in severe weather). In many communities, the disorder had great stigma attached to it, which is still a source of difficulty for some epileptics today. But now, epilepsy is much better understood and often treatable. We also know some of the risk factors associated with epileptic seizures. For example, alcohol probably increases the chance of seizures, a fact unknown to the aforementioned writers, some of whom, like Lord Byron, were known for their propensity for drink.

Epilepsy and Hypergraphia

Besides its tendency to induce hallucinations and other disturbing stimuli, epilepsy has been linked to a condition called hypergraphia, an all-consuming desire to write. The overwhelming urge to write — and to write constantly — and a form of epilepsy appear to come from the same part of the brain: the temporal lobe. A troubled temporal lobe may then both spur someone to write obsessively and also cause temporal lobe epilepsy, which itself can provide some interesting material for writers. Other disorders that have been reported to cause hypergraphia are Asperger’s syndrome, bipolar disorder, which shares some characteristics with epilepsy, and schizophrenia. It’s worth noting that many of these writers, and epileptic artists like Vincent van Gogh, were quite prolific, in some cases over rather short life spans. (Van Gogh, who may have had both epilepsy and bipolar disorder, painted constantly and wrote his brother multiple letters a day.)

Epilepsy and hypergraphia can be accompanied by depression, which for some artists is a bane and for others a challenging source of inspiration. But depression, with its many possible causes, isn’t likely a source of artistic talent. Instead, it often provides a reason for people to sort out their problems through art [source: BBC]. Similarly, the presence of hypergraphia isn’t a guarantee of talent. But creative thought, and writing in particular, seems to rely on the left temporal lobe, though both sides of the brain play important roles.

Source: www.howstuffworks.com