WritingThoughts

What Is Quality Web Content? 7 Characteristics that Indicate Quality

Along with social media engagement, quality web content is one of the vital elements of effective content marketing. Yet many small businesses get content wrong.

Most small businesses think that just because they publish often or publish extra long pieces, it’s enough. They’re wrong and that mistake could be costing them clients.

In this post, we’ll explore what really makes quality web content.

Do You Make These 5 Careless Small Business Social Media Mistakes?

Recently I shared the three vital elements of content marketing. Leave out one of these elements, and your content marketing strategy is likely to fail.

In the next few weeks, I’ll examine each element separately for the needs of a small business–starting with social media engagement.

Are you a small business owner? Are you using social media to promote your business? If not, you could be missing a vital opportunity.

The 3 Vital Elements of Content Marketing

Content marketing is one of the latest catch phrases–as well it should be. Content is vitally important if you do business online.

As a result of the new interest in content marketing, there are many folks out there doing content marketing. Unfortunately, many of those new content marketers are also doing it wrong.

In this post, I’ll identify three vital elements of content marketing–elements that many people miss.

A Banana’s a Banana, but Not All Web Content Writers Are the Same

As I was buying our weekly groceries last week, it struck me (again) how much writers vary.

You see, I always buy a bunch of bananas during our weekly shopping trip. In fact, the store I go to really only offers two different kinds of bananas: organic and non-organic. (Once in a great while, they also offer plantains.)

Bananas are pretty much the same wherever you get them. But that’s certainly not the case with web content.

Is It Still Possible to Earn a Living as a Freelance Writer?

The recent Internet uproar about a freelance journalist, Nate Thayer, who was asked by a major magazine to revise one of his articles for free has mostly died down. But for many the question remains–is freelance writing a viable career choice?

Can you really earn enough money from freelance writing to pay the bills?

Book Review: The Freelancer’s Bible

If you’re thinking of becoming a freelancer, it can be hard to know exactly where to start.

That’s where The Freelancer’s Bible by Sara Horowitz with Toni Sciarra Poynter comes in. Not long ago I received a review copy of the book.

Now that I’ve had a chance to look at the book, I’d like to share my thoughts.

Gems from the Freelance Writing Community

The freelance writing community has always been vitally important to me.

In fact, when I first started this blog I attempted to profile as many writing blogs as I could find in my Of Note series. (Sadly, some of the blogs profiled in the series no longer exist.)

Today, I’ve once more decided to highlight some of my favorite writing blogs. I’ve also linked to last year’s writing community post.

Should You Start a Sentence with And or But?

My sixth grade English teacher would have said “no.”

If you’re a sixth grade English teacher, you probably need to stick to the rules when you write. After all, you don’t want your students picking up any bad habits.

If you’re a blogger or a marketer, however, you have a bit more leeway.

What Is Your Client’s Communication Style? What Is Yours?

Everybody has their own communication style. Yet many freelance writers do not realize this, and try to use a cookie cutter mold to communicate with all of the clients.

The cookie cutter approach doesn’t work.

You need to be aware of how your clients prefer to communicate and how you prefer to communicate.

Book Review: Social Media Marketing All-In-One For Dummies

Social media should be a big part of your freelance writing marketing efforts. If it’s not, you’re missing out.

That’s why I was excited to receive a copy of the new book from Jan Zimmerman and Deb Ng, Social Media Marketing All-In-One For Dummies.

In this post, I’ll outline some of my thoughts about this new resource. I’ll especially cover how I think that writers ought to use this book.