SEO tips – using plugins for bloggers!
With Google constantly shifting their keywords and SEO based analytics staying on top of things has become harder every day. If you are like me and really don’t have the time to sit back for several hours every day to research the most valuable keywords to use, now trending topics or are simply only interested in writing a good blog post in your niche, plugins can be invaluable.
For the last few days I have been testing out a few different plugins as I mentioned in the previous post. I do need to make one correction to it so, they are not the simply … plugins on WordPress, but strictly …
1. strictly google sitemap
2. strictly tweet
3. strictly tags
Sorry for the earlier confusion. So far those have already started showing a big difference for me in traffic via social media marketing (strictly tweet really automates this) and strictly tags is an awesome tool for your SEO needs.
Around the same time I found another awesome SEO plugin tool which is quickly becoming one of my favorites to use. It is called “inbound writer” and you will see the link for it on the end of this post.
I would like to tell you a bit more about this FREE WordPress plugin which can make a huge difference for you with your SEO skills. Of course like everything else it has its good and its bad sides. Since I never review a product without showing you both aspects of it I will do the same for this SEO based free WordPress plugin.
The negative:
It really slows your writing down! If you are like me having your writing constantly interrupted so a plugin working in the background can tally up the score would drive you nuts in a hurry. Sadly that is exactly what “inbound writer” does. You can write about 10 words before it throws you into draft mode and analyzes your post.
The good news:
There is a simple way around it. Open up a new post window. Click on the “inbound writer” plugin tool which is located right next to it. Type in the topic keywords you want to use and let it do its magic. Within moments you are going to see a list coming up with stars next to the word or phrase. The 5 star or best ones of course are the ones you want to shoot for. Now that you have your list, open up a Word Program just as I am using right now. Type your blog post out the way you want it to read. Copy and paste it into the html version of the new blog post and let it rest for a minute or two. “Inbound writer” will calculate your score and show you how well you did with the implementation of the keywords. It will show you SEO tips on how to make your score better if you didn’t do so stellar.
The positive:
It is so easy to use and as I mentioned this sweet little SEO plugin is free. As always you can give your thank you via a little donation if you are inclined to do so, but the developer doesn’t force you to. It is a huge help for those of you who have a hard time knowing which words in your topic text would make good keywords. It shows you how many times you used the keywords, the keyword value, and how many different keywords you should be using in order to have your post search engine optimized. It gives you tips on which words should be at the beginning of your title link and more. All in all this is a fantastic little SEO plugin.
I will keep you posted my dear Readers if I find any more worthwhile free to use plugins which can make your writing, SEO marketing and traffic driving workload easier.
If you found this post helpful and enjoyed my writing, please take a moment to hit the little Facebook like button and like my Facebook page for me. Your tweets and retweets are always welcome too.
As always
Regina S.
You can be an opinion writer without being obnoxious
Good morning everyone and thank you so much for stopping by!
I would like to address the subject of being an opinion writer for a moment today. To me it is ironic how many good folks have a low opinion of someone who shares their opinions in a straight forward manner on an opinion based website or blog. The funniest part about that is that unless you write pure text book blogs all blogs in one way or the other are opinion based. The difference is that it isn’t clearly labeled that way.
One of the misconceptions I encounter from time to time is that if you are an opinion writer you have to be obnoxious, rude, and without substance. Nothing could be further from the truth actually. In most cases being informed is a prerequisite before you can write a good opinion piece. This means you don’t just throw something out there, but actually pick a topic carefully and research it a little bit first. How can you form an opinion without being at least mildly informed to begin with?
Are some of the topics and opinions going to be offensive? Certainly simply because they voice a personal intake on a subject matter that some people will disagree with. Pay attention in your own circle of friends and acquaintances. You can’t go through the day without offending someone. You don’t even have to open your mouth half the time to be labeled as offensive. Maybe you wore something that is not within another persons moral standard. Maybe you are eating something you enjoy but someone else finds as wrong.
Reality is that you are going to offend someone today if you leave the house. Regardless of what you do, say or not do, someone is going to get their nose out of joint. It is sadly a simple fact of life these days.
I have published a book called “Not quiet Satan” a few years ago via lulu.com. The title alone was offensive to a lot of people. The book didn’t sell very often simply because the title seemed so “out of step” with many. Add to it that it is a pure opinion / sarcasm / humor book and you have a grand mixture of “How dare she?”
I have decided to edit, rewrite and extent the book within the next two weeks in the form of a second edition. Having learned from the mistake of the first title I am going to change it slightly, but the original title phrase “Not quiet Satan” will remain. By the way, no that isn’t a spelling mistake.
The book is held in a humorous way and depicts some of societies most noticeable idiocies these days. The reason it is titled ”Not quiet Satan” is because I am having “Satan” (as in the scapegoat) be my co-writer or sparing partner in it. With other words he refuses to remain quiet or silent.
As an opinion writer nothing is truly safe from me and that of course includes my own foolishness. As I pull the shades away from many topics and shine some glaring light on the dark recesses I most of the time uncover my stupidity as well. Don’t ever think that an opinion writer is exempt from making some really poor choices.
For me at least I think that is where my writing becomes a little easier to swallow for many. I don’t just point the finger at everyone else, but readily laugh and point the finger at myself as well. I am not greater than you, nor do I claim to be perfect in any way. Matter of fact one of my favorite statements is: “I am perfectly imperfect!”
I belief that the one reason an opinion writer is frequently so poorly thought of is that it seems as if they belief only their opinion is valid and counts. That is ridiculous actually since we are all entitled to our own opinions. Matter of fact I encourage people to form their own opinions about my writing an my opinions as well.
To me being an opinion writer is a service in many ways. I simply voice the things out loud many may be afraid to speak about in a public form. This not only gives them validation that they are not alone in their thoughts, but it also gives others the opportunity to think about the topic at hand as well and form their own conclusions.
Consider it as an open invitation for discussion. I try not to cuss too much or be overly rude in the way I word things. Of course at times when you feel extremely passionate about certain topics you may not edit your language as well as you might like. I am guilty of that myself at times.
The one thing that is for certain is that being an opinion writer means you need to have a lot of courage and grow a really thick skin fast.
Now my dear readers it is your turn. I would like to know YOUR OPINION on opinion writing.
As always yours truly
Regina Sunderland
http://iwriteforcash.com
http://theopionatedwriter.com
http://witchjournal.info
Yahoo Contributor Network getting harder to work for!
Ever since Yahoo Contributor Network took over a few things have changed and not necessarily to the better either. Before you were able to share your knowledge pretty much in any way you desired as long as it was written reasonably well. Now they “prefer” a particular writing style to which you need to conform in order to be able to get an up front payment, which is pitifully small to begin with. Is it just me or have the pre-payments been lowered?
Page views seem to be missing which affects your royalty payments. Remember that you get a certain amount of money per so many page views each month. I can track from my various blogs which of my Articles have been viewed and those alone don’t even match up with the page view claims that are made on my account. Very frustrating. Now please remember those don’t even reflect the views which may have come from search engines or readers happening on my content.
Many of the more prolific Authors are leaving Yahoo Contributor Network for this reason. Is it a glitch and growing pains or are we truly being ripped off? I don’t know and I would not presume to know the answer to it. At this moment I am simply making the assumption that Yahoo just doesn’t care about the Writers enough to assure they are happy and taken care of.
I have not submitted a new Article in about 2 months now after I saw the downward spiral develop and I am seriously debating if I should start spending more time on adding new material or not. It is a shame to leave a place in which you have already established yourself and have gained a few friends. For now I will keep my account active on there and probably try to publish a couple of new Articles a week again. Of course I will keep a close eye on the hits I receive via my blogs and which are credited to me. Afterall writing is not “just” my passion but my career as well.
My hope is that Yahoo Contributor Network will clear out the cobwebs soon and make it once more a great place for writers of all topic ranges to not only earn a few extra dollars, but feel appreciated and respected again.
In the meantime I think I will create a webring and a basic contributor link exchange page on my blogs http://iwriteforcash.com , http://reginasunderland.com and my new upcoming blog for writers who are interested in networking (to be announced soon).
Please feel free to join the webring and/or add your yahoo contributor profile URL as well as your personal website or blog if you have one to the YC Contributor Link Exchange page via the comment feature. I will take them and add them to the blog page itself as they come in. I only ask that you do the same on your own blog as well so we can keep the cycle flowing. Make sure you add your page address for this in the command box as well.
Thank you so much and good luck to all my fellow writers!
As always
Regina S.
http://theopionatedwriter.com
http://witchjournal.info
http://iwriteforcash.com
Yahoo Contributor Profile Regina Sunderland
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The most embarrassing moment in 2011 writing challenge – my Story.
I hate being rushed! Of course there is a good reason for this, usually when I am rushed I end up forgetting something extremely important. In this case it was two things I forgot which really put the clincher on the day for me.
I was running out of time and had to make it to the store at last moment before my company was due to arrive. Of course it couldn’t have been just a couple of items either. Oh no, I needed a few special food items for my impending guests since they were vegetarian while I am a proud meat eater. Well needless to say, I was under prepared since they had just given me the notice of their “surprise visit” due in an hour.
Out of the door I ran and walked in a brisk walk to the closest Market. I almost flew through the aisles gathering the things I needed and came to the checkout counter being slightly out of breath with well over 30 items.
As the Cashier was ringing the items up a line started forming behind me. It never fails, when you are about to embarrass yourself you are going to have an audience. I received the grand total, opened my purse and ….
Yup you guessed it my wallet was still nice and snug at home on my writing desk where I had left it after making an online purchase. Talking about my face being as red as a tomato and to my horror I didn’t even bring my cell phone with me so I could call my husband to bring me some money.
Needless to say the people in line behind me were none to happy with me and being forced to wait for the cashier to cancel the order.
When I arrived back home my guests were already there, waiting outside the front door with the air of long suffering. “We told you we were on our way!” Julie announced loud enough for my neighbors to hear clearly. I just swallowed and said to her turning even redder approximately the color of a fire truck. “Well if you think that is bad you will really hate it when I tell you that I just forgot to take my wallet with me to the grocery store to get you something to eat. I need to go back. Someone give me a ride down there?”
I hurried inside the house, grabbed my wallet and cell. When I got back to the store and after I gathered my items together again my luck sure held. The only Cashier on duty was the same lady who had checked me out before. When she recognized me, she asked with a smirk. “Want to make sure you brought some money this time before I get started again?” I hung my head and held up my money… “I think we are good!”
Yes, there is a reason I hate to be rushed and now you know why!
Fool me once shame on you – fool me twice shame on me!
Do you remember that old saying? I do and it has never been more real than today for me. A while ago I had reached out to the online community at large and the Las Vegas Artist / Entertainment Community in specific to let me write their story for them. To allow me to give them a hand in getting to know for their talents, art, passion and hopefully gain a bit more appreciation and of course financial success in the process.
Very few had taken me up on this offer. This actually surprised me since any “advertisement” and showcasing you can receive in those fields are good. Last month I had a few people contact me and offer me their story. I was truly excited since part of MY PASSION is helping others. One of stories I just recently reported on in my blog http://inandaroundlasvegas.com and I had originally planned on making an entire Series out of it. Here was a person I really thought could use the help and would appreciate it.
Now however I feel like a fool. You see the email to offer this story supposedly came to me from a friend of his who happens to have the same first name. If I would have paid a little closer attention I would have realized that not only did he have the same first name, but also the same last name, cell phone number and email address. With other words it was him.
I don’t like being lied to and I don’ t appreciate being played for a fool either. However I did both in spades and so I help my promise to talk about him, but by no means in the wide way I had originally planned.
When the story was first presented to me and I spoke to his “friend” on the phone, I was told that this was a true rags to riches story. You see we all can use a story of hope right now. We all want to cheer for the little guy making it at this moment and we all would love to see someone who really lived a horrible life come out on top.
Only problem with this is – this is far from rags to riches story. It is more like a story of rags to ok to rags again, but the love for music persevered. I don’t mind writing real stories, about real people. Matter of fact those are the types of stories I am looking for. What I mind is being fooled and lied to. It makes me turn very cold real quick.
In my case that made it difficult since I had promised already to write the story. I ended up compromising by holding my promise and writing it, but not doing as much with it as I would have if I had been treated with the respect of honesty that I should have received to begin with.
That is something everyone should consider in interactions with other human beings. Don’t be a jerk to others, don’t lie in order to get attention, and most of all don’t bite the hand of someone who may feed you.
As always I thank you for taking the time to read my posts.
Regina S.
Ghosting or “writing someone elses Story”
I am truly honored that you would try to hire me to be your “Ghostwriter” or to be the person who puts your life story on paper. Sadly I have to decline to both of those. You see, I am not the type of personality who can take dictation too well and to write someone elses experiences down without placing my own spin on things. I think it takes a huge talent for being “silently writing” in the background to be able to do such a wonderful job. Sadly I am a loud-mouth. I am opinionated as all get out and even in my Articles which deal with facts, are of historical nature or teaching materials my authentic voice always ends up coming through strongly. This is both wonderful since it brings my words closer to my loyal Readers and fans, but it also makes it just about impossible for me to write under someone elses directive.
Ghost writing, well that is one of those personal opt outs of mine for now. You see if I put my Articles up for sale as full rights content I am ok with having written a piece and someone else taking full claim over it. I can not see myself doing that on an entire manuscript. I guess I am just a bit too vain to give someone else the credit for a work which usually takes months to write. I prescribe in doing my own work and take credit or downfall for it. Maybe in the future I will go down this route, for now I won’t.
I guess that is why my “Articles for sale” Page stays so empty most of the time. I will start adding a few things to it soon however. I promise.
Another reason for me to refuse ghosting is that the pay which I get offered is too minimal to make it worth my while. Big projects like that need to be worth the time and effort. Offering someone $100 to write a 300 page book is not going to fly on this one. There was one project which actually interested me and I would have considered it but the person doing the hiring and myself could not come together on a price.
As I mentioned before I am aware that I do have some grammar issues still, which means I recommend an Editor to read through my writing. Unless of course you are stellar yourself at it. Gratefully I have my spiritual Sister who doesn’t mind doing this for me on my books or Magazine Articles. Yet still if I get hired I make that part of the condition. “I will do my best but do not guarantee you 100% grammar perfection, it is advised that you read the manuscript over or have an editor do it for you.” It may seem odd to you, but at least it is honest and up front. As to mimum payment I accept for something like this is 3 cents a word, which is a lot cheaper than most would do for you. As you can see typing a 300 page manuscript out would never be just $100 or even close to it. Sorry.
This brings me to a little piece of advise for you my beloved Readers. If you are aspiring or new freelance writers you need to research and decide how little you are willing to accept in order to make writing worth your while. Remember that as a freelance writer you are not just doing this for vanity. You are working as a writer in order to make a living for yourself and your family.
For me personally it took a little doing to come up with my own formula of what I expect and what I am willing to do. I have a small list which I have set up for myself. Here is how I put it together, feel free to copy it and use it if you would like. Of course it might not be how you organize your writing at all.
#1 What am I able to write about – which are my talents, interests and where does my understanding lay?
#2 How much time do I have available to write a week? (Remember that I run other businesses online as well, so my writing time is reduced from someone who uses writing as his/her income exclusively).
#3 What is my time worth to me? Being a fairly unknown writer it is hard to expect top dollar fees, and with the current economic crises a lot of Editors are leery about taking on a new writer. That doesn’t mean you have to settle for $1.00 per Article so. (Yes, I actually have seen offers in online markets for amounts like that).
#4 What are your bills like? Here is a tip, if you do this full time you should be able to make at mimum enough with your writing as a Goal to cover your bills, put food on the table and save about $100 a month. Freelance writing is fickle, you will need your savings!
#5 Try to aim for at least 2 cents a word when you start out as a Goal amount for Article Sales. Do not get discouraged if you don’t get it for a while. Remember that when you start out it is about setting your Goals to work up to. Once you get your name out and become well known, depending on your field and the companies you write for it is not unheard of that you can earn up to $150 an Article easy. That takes a lot of work. Feature writers make even more, but now you are looking at a lot of “Who do you know!” and “Being in the right place at the right time” along with your Talents.
Ok I hope that helped a little bit. For me I have to try to earn between all my venues a minimum of $700 a week just to make ends meet. Which means a lot of working, long hours and yes I keep stocked up on Motrin (Headaches can kill you).
With that I better get back to work. It may be Sunday, but for a freelance writer there is no such thing as a full day off if you want to allow yourself vacation time somewhere in the year.
As always thanks for reading and have a wonderful day my beloved Readers.
Yours truly
Regina S.
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If I see one more email like that in my inbox I think I will scream. Do you ever get tired of receiving that kind of hogwash in your inbox? Usually wrapped up nicely in a “legit looking” email header?
As a Writer or Freelancer of any kind and are already struggling to make ends meet, you can go from frustrated to beyond angry when you open yet another promising looking email just to see junk like that.
This morning was really great for that one when I went through my inbox for my writing proposals. What really upset me was that it came from a legitimate company whom I had trusted not to sent me spam mails like that for years. Guess the economy has sunk that low that even the good ones are now going bad.
What worries me more than anything is the lack of profitable work for freelancers these days. I signed up a while ago with online companies who list jobs for freelancers and even there it has become a heaven for under bidding. If you reside in the USA and your bills are high you can’t afford to work for $2.00 an hour or write an Article which you will spent 2 hours on researching and typing just to sell for $4.00 or less.
When you are working for those sort of job broker companies however a lot of the job seekers come from countries like India, Indonesia and more. With other words countries where $2.00 can take you a ways.
Now I know what you are saying, when you are broke $4.00 is better than nothing and trust me I have looked at it that way before as well. I have no idea how many times I swallowed hard and accepted a $4.00 to $6.00 offer for a 1500 Word article because it would buy me a Gallon of Milk and I didn’t have any other choices. It is frustrating to all get out however. At times it seems that once you get into that particular devils circle of the 7th hell, you just can’t get out. Why you ask me? Simple, because you are so busy writing 12 or more Articles for such a small amount that you are no longer able to come up with the time to write more and look for a better market.
Networking, marketing your products (writing or otherwise) are all wonderful, but it still will only give you so much exposure. Associated Content now Yahoo Contributer Network has tightened its acceptances up and lowered its payments it appears as well. I stand at a Cloud level 10 (the highest you can get) with them and still my monthly royalty payouts are only around $40.00
For those of you who are not familiar with royalty payouts it means the money you get per 1000 views on Yahoo Contributer Network. Basically it is what you get payed per “actual sale” or view in this case.
What makes writing these days even tougher is that everything has pretty much already been written about. Of course you can write sensationalistic articles (Celebratie, breaking news, etc) but those are short lived and often times won’t receive any up-front payments online since by the time they get around to approving it, the news is an old hat. Putting a new spin on an old subject is not as easy as you may think either. You need to make certain that you do not falsefie your information or plagarize in any way. Plagarizing being one of the deadly sins of writing.
So how do you get ahead? Keep trying, have patience and don’t give up. Sounds silly I know, but that is about the only really honest and good advise at this point anyone can give you. Think about it that way, the golden age of books is close to over. Everything these days has gone electronic. Money is tight and Editors as well as publication houses do not have the budget to take big risks on unknown authors. Which means if you haven’t already established your name in the literary world or know someone who can get you a hand up and a way in, you are pretty much stuck working for minimal income as a writer.
At least that is the experience I have had so far.
Are you a fellow writer? What are your experiences? What advise can you give the Readers out there?
I know I would love to hear from you and I am sure our Readers would too. Please feel free to respond in the comment box or link us to one of your own Articles on your blog on this subject.
For now I need to get back to work. Thank you for reading.
As always
Regina S.
New Ventures take so much time and planning!
As you have seen from my last post I am in the process of starting a couple of new Business Ventures. Creating lovely hand crafted items is nothing new for me, I have done so for many years now. What is new is making a lucrative business out of it.
The fact is that everyone is more than happy to receive this lovely heirloom type treasures as a gift or free, but few people these days want to spend the money they are worth.
Creating is only half the battle as I slowly build up my inventory. The other part and even more time consuming one is researching where best to list and advertise my store.
Price research is important as well. You can neither under nor over price your work. Selling something for too cheap is not only undercutting your fellow crafters and sure to make you a few enemies from the start up, but it also signals that not even you value your time and work. Overpricing takes you right out of the running. The name of the game here is finding a solid middle ground.
Marketing, marketing and more marketing. Oh did I mention marketing? I swear I have it coming out of my ears by now. Don’t misunderstand me when I say that marketing yourself is one of the most tedious and time consuming things you will HAVE TO do when starting out. Tedious simply because at this stage you would rather spend your time creating. Facts are facts.
Branding and designing your online presence! Again, as in other similar blog posts, building a solid foundation can never be over looked. If you are starting from the ground up, you want to build the foundation from quality brick and mortar. Even online you want to build something which is easy to navigate, in a good “neighborhood”, and easily recognizable. With other words plan a little instead of just throwing it all together without taking possible growth and browsers/clients into account.
Setting up your Policies and sticking to them. One of the harder things to do is setting up your Shipping & Handling, Payment, Refund & Exchange Policies. Depending on your products you are offering Refunds and Exchanges might be asking for trouble. Declining them will scare a wide percentage of clients away. You have to decide for yourself which of those two evils you want to content with.
Networking your networks. No I didn’t suddenly go loopy in the head. Most of us are part of large social media networks like facebook, twitter, myspace and more. If you want to take advantage of the maximum advertisement at the minimum cost you learn how to network your networks. Set up a plan and put it into actions which will streamline your advertisements as much as possible. Just don’t forget that nobody likes the MLM Soap Seller.
Don’t wait for excellence, but don’t offer crap either. If you wait until you believe something is perfect enough you will never start selling. It is in our nature to be our worst critic. So instead of waiting around for a miracle or divine intervention to let you know you are now ready to sell, stick your toe in the water and give it a go. Make sure your work is decent at least, good hopefully. You won’t sell right out of the Gates, but if you are not present and accounted for you can’t sell at all.
Now since I have written your eyes off again, I want to share my two new websites with you.
http://www.knitsbyregina.com (my personal website for my original art store and of course my hand crafted items etsy store.)
For all of you fellow crafty type folks out there, you might find this brand spanking new directory I just build of interest.
http://www.handcrafteditemsforsale.com
As always thanks for visiting.
Regina S.
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- Children don’t come with an instruction booklet!I would like to talk about parenting for a moment and it really doesn’t matter if that means in a two parent household, a one parent household, or an alternative lifestyle household. The results are always the same, it is one hell of a learning curve. No matter how many children you have already had […]shalamar
- Don’t get discouraged if things don’t happen overnight!Sometimes things seem to take forever to get off the ground. You put a lot of work and effort into what you are trying to achieve and you simply don’t seem to get anywhere with it. Maybe you are just starting out in a new business and your traffic is so slow no matter what […]shalamar
- Vampyre’s among us – no really!Before you think I have suddenly gone off the deep end, let me explain to you that I am not talking about the fictional Hollywood style Vampires or even pranic Vampyres, nor about those who are living with a very real illness called Porphyria. I am talking about emotional Vampyres – people who just by their […]shalamar
- Being a workaholic can destroy your health and relationships!Take it from a “recovering” workaholic the prize you have to pay for being stuck in your workaholic patterns is too high to continue on. A lot of us who have the workaholic gene in us don’t even realize what we are doing. We often confuse it with being responsible, just doing what we need […]shalamar
