The oft repeated phrase in SEO is “content is king”. It is, consistent, well written, targeted and useful content is sucked up by the search engines as quickly as it can be written.

My brother often talked about how my mother would spend hours chasing quarters in business while the dollars flew by over her head. It was true, she spent more time rearranging the stock on the shelves than worrying about getting the stock sold to customers or giving the customers something to come into the shop for.

It is true for many trying to make a dollar online too. We design and redesign, tinker and tweak while the job of writing content continues to beg for attention.

So how do we crank out this targeted, well written and useful content? We need to:

1. Get stuff out the door.
2. Focus on keywords but make it natural
3. Get input from coaches
4. Group your assignments
5. Protect your hands
6. Develop and refine your system over time
7. Hire writers if you can’t do it yourself

For more information on each of the above points view this article at Solo SEO.

I’m as guilty as the next person for not getting consistent content written on my blogs. In the coming weeks, it is my intent to change that. Come on for the ride.

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7 Steps to Cranking Out Content

Okay, you know, everyone likes to have their own style on their blog. We strive to stand out from the crowd not only with our writing but with our the look and feel of the blog. So why do so many bloggers practically drive their visitors away with bad font choices?

It is frustrating enough when I visit a blog and find the font small. At least when that is the only problem in Firefox I can press the CTRL key and the ‘+’ key to enlarge the type to a size that is easier on the eyes.

When the font owner decides to use colours either on their fonts, or their backgrounds, which don’t contrast well, that I can’t overcome. I have to either choose between straining to read the post or moving on. Often I choose to move on.

You know, as much as we might like and want to use colours to present our text, the easiest to read contrast is black text and white background. In fact, while writing this post I went and had a good look at the text on this blog. In particular I had a hard look at the text at the top of the post where there is a very light blue background before it graduates to white. The text was a very dark grey. I changed it to black, and immediate improvement in the contrast at the top of the post.

On my own blogs I tend to stay away from serif fonts (those are fonts with the little ‘legs’) except for titles, if at all. I notice a lot of bloggers tend to stick to Times Roman (a serif font), I don’t find that the easiest on the eyes for reading but if it is a decent size and well contrasted, it is not a struggle to read. I think that is more a personal preference on my part more than anything else.

So, the bottom line is, if you are going to spend the time and effort to write a post — don’t you want your visitors to be able to enjoy reading it?

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Bloggers!! Think About Your Readers

Today I finally got around to reading some articles I’d tucked away for a future time. Mostly because I’ve been too busy for my own good. One of those articles was on the Associate Program site, hosted by Allan Gardyne. Sally Evans has written an excellen article on improving your productivity and writing your blog posts. Her hints could be applied to any writing really.

Her twenty-three points include:

1. Work when you are at your best.
2. Walk or do something similar before you get going
3. Get distractions out of the way
4. Stay hydrated
5. Set a timer
6. Schedule breaks
7. Glue your butt to that chair
8. Avoid the internet trap
9. Get unplugged
10. Get better with search
11. Be prepared
12. Start wherever you want to
13. Use your unscheduled breaks
14. Rewards yourself
15. Start writing — any writing
16. Resist the temptation to format copy too early.
17. Stay free
18. Choose a specific subtopic
19. Start small and build
20. Keep your “copy orphans”
21. Think about your next post as your finish the current one.
22. Print your post and read it aloud.
23. Get someone else to read it for you

If you want to see details on the above points, you’ll need to go read the article here. While you are there, take the time to read the comments. There are some more gems hidden there.

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Maximize Productivity With Blog Post Writing

Most people start blogging as a hobbies and a way to share their interest with friends and others on the web. Still others start their blogs as a source of income tight from the get go.

In order to generate income from your blog or website, you need to generate traffic. The greater the traffic, the greater effect your monetizing will have. You also need to approach monetizing with care. You want visitors drawn into the site for what you offer, not turned off by your monetizing.
When to Start Monetizing

Many are the debates online as to when to start monetizing your blog. Some feel you need to carry some authority as a blogger before you do so, others feel you should begin as you mean to go on.

Some believe if you start right off monetizing then your visitors wont stick around because they will think you are just an advertising blog. Others argue that providing good quality content will not only keep your visitors but will attract others.

Some argue that if you wait until later to monetize that your visitors will not be happy when you do introduce it and will leave you. If you are providing quality content, that shouldn’t make a difference. Others suggest waiting until you have developed a following gives you greater leverage in dealing with advertizing networks.

The bottom line is, the choice is yours.

Your Primary Focus Needs to Be Visitors

Regardless of the approach you take to monetizing your blog, you still need to focus on creating a good flow of visitors to your blog. You’ll want to be sure you have effectively engaged search engine optimization (SEO). Ideally, you should be shooting for a minimum of 500+ unique visitors per day.

As your traffic flow increases, the dollars will follow. Avoid purchasing traffic, it is usually short lived. You’ll be able to convert a few of those you’ve paid money for into regular visitors but the return on investment is usually pretty low.

Shoot for developing responsive traffic. Traffic that shows up when you post, engages in communication and responds to your message.

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When to Monetize Your Blog?

Many People write blogs specifically to make money off of their content with PPC ads all optimized and such around their blog. Don’t get me wrong, this kind of thing works, and probably will not stop working for as long as the internet exists. Now there seems to be a new way to make money blogging.

This alternative to “content blogging” would be to turn your blog into a site that reviews other websites. Certain blogs charge up to about $200 dollars just to review somebodies website, which most likely only takes about 10-15 minutes. Of course the blog that is doing all the reviewing has to be quite well established before it can take off as a site review blog.

I’ve got the idea pretty simple in my head now though. So here’s how it goes:

1. You start a blog

2. You build up it’s content and get known for whatever your write about

3. submit your blog to web directories for back links (addurl) increasing your pr, and making your blog a place webmasters would want to see a link to them on.

4. Eventually start offering review services. There are sites like Review Me which could help you out a lot.

5. The trick is to not just completely convert your blog into a review site, then why would people want to come back? Now you have to be careful about what type of sites you review, and how often you review them. You have to review site’s that are similar to your blog’s niche (what your blog is about)

And now you have a good, sturdy blog review service! by Web Jedis

Web Jedis Giving the stumped webmaster, new ideas.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Scott_Sire

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Creating a Succesful Site Review Blog

Josh over at Time for Blogging has an interesting post on the Top 77 Mistakes New Bloggers Make. He’s compiled them from his experience and observations. Most of them are pretty self evident while some I’ve never really thought about. Of course, that is the easiest way of making mistakes, not thinking through your actions.

That’s ok though cause if we were all perfect, life would be damn boring. It is being able to own up to them and fix them that makes the difference. Yes, as I read the list, I had to wince as some of them applied to me. OK, as soon as I finish writing this post, I will remove the requirement to register in order to comment. I do have spam filters on and the ability to delete spammers so it really shouldn’t be a big issue.

What’s your mistakes?

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The Top 77 Blog Newbie Mistakes