Thursday, July 19, 2012


Free Article Writing Tips to Increase Website Traffic




If you're not doing so already, you may want to consider writing articles about your website's topic. Writing copyright free articles is a great way to:
  • Establish your credibility and build your reputation and brand
  • Establish yourself as an expert in your field
  • Increase your exposure on the internet
  • Gain laser targeted traffic to your website
  • Increase the number of one way links to your website, which should help your website in the search results.
Writing articles about the topic of your website is a fantastic way to demonstrate your expertise and credibility and at the same time allows you to build your reputation and your brand. Submitting your articles to the various free article sites gives your articles the opportunity to be picked up by other webmasters for their websites and newsletters. When your articles get used on these other websites they must be used with the author bio section un-edited. This means that you can generate one way links to your website, which in turn leads to greater exposure and better rankings in the search engines. If the readers of your articles on other sites click through to your site, you gain targeted traffic.
Some Article Writing Tips
To get the greatest benefit from your article writing endeavors, try to keep the following article writing tips in mind:
  • Try to stay away from turning your article into a sales pitch. Give your readers credit - they will be able to distinguish a sales pitch right away. Once they think they're just reading another sales pitch they will quickly click away from your article. I can just about guarantee that no one will pick up your sales pitch and use it on their website, unless it's one of your affiliates.
  • Don't include too many hyperlinks within the article body and stick to only one in the author bio section. Most webmasters will not pick up an article, no matter how good it is, if there are too many outgoing links. I would recommend not having any links within the article body but sometimes this is unavoidable.Which situation would you rather have: 1 article with 1 outgoing link to your website that gets picked up by 1,000 webmasters or 1 article with 10 outgoing links that gets picked up by 10 webmasters?
  • Check, re-check and then check your article again for typos and grammatical errors. Have someone else proofread it for you before submitting it. Nothing says amateur more than typos and grammatical errors.
  • Write articles that complement the topic of your website. Don't write about something totally unrelated to your website. Remember, you want to establish your credibility and expertise. Write about what you know.
  • When adding that one link back to your site, make sure to include a keyword targeted link back to your site. I'm talking specifically about the words between the anchor tags. For example, this is how you should structure the link back to your website: <a href="http://www.yourwebsite.com">keywords go here<a>.When the search engine robots come across this link they will index the anchor text and it will help you with those keywords in the search engines. Do not waste this valuable link by just having your website address (www.website.com) as the anchor text unless you have your main keywords in the website address. Try to vary the keywords a little as well when creating this link. There is speculation that having too many "uniform" links to a site may hurt you - just something to keep in mind.
  • Do not place a copyright notice at the top of your article. This leads to confusion and may cause webmasters to stay away from posting your articles on their website and in their newsletters.
  • It may be a good idea to write completely new content for your articles. Some writers just copy and paste parts of their websites and put them into articles. This may lead to a "duplicate content" penalty and may end up hurting your search engine results. I would recommend that you should play it safe and come up with totally new content for your articles.
How Many Articles Should I Write?
The number of articles that you will have to write really depends on how good your competitors are. If you're competing against many highly optimized websites, then you may have your work cut out for you. On the other hand, if you notice that your competitors are not all that great at the SEO thing, your road to article writing will be much shorter. Any way you look at it, writing articles can bring too many benefits that are yours for the taking.
Author Bio
John Michaels is a part-time editor for ArticleGeek.com. John has developed many websites over the years in many different business areas. He is a professional web developer/designer/architect. ArticleGeek is a free website content resource for publishers and webmasters and a place where authors may submit articles for FREE!
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Tuesday, July 17, 2012


HOW TO RESURRECT A STALLED MANUSCRIPT

Categories: Creative Nonfiction Writing, How to Improve Writing Skills, How to Write a Horror Story, Writing Horror, How to Write a Mystery, Writing Thrillers, How to Write a Romance Novel, Romance Writing, Humor & Comedy Writing,Literary Fiction Writing, Memoir Writing & Memoir Examples, Spiritual Writing, What's New, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy, Writing Short Stories & Essay Writing, Writing Your First Draft Tags: manuscript editing, manuscripts, Revision Tips, write better.

Are you working on a nonfiction writing or fiction writing project that needs the mirror test just to see if it’s still breathing? If so, take a break from completing fiction projects. Hit the “Save” button; file it under “manuscript drafts.” Then check out these three prescriptions to help resurrect a stalled project. Which one does your book need? Take the time to diagnose it now, and you’ll be primed to take a healthy manuscript into its next phase: completion.

Do your homework.

Sometimes our narratives flounder under their own ignorance. The writing turns insipid because we simply don’t know enough about our subject. When this happens, be ready to put the writing on temporary bed rest and plan how you will get more information. I’m not talking a quickie Wikipedia search—I’m talking a solid research strategy, complete with a list of sources, including the people you may need to interview.
For example, if your main character is a landscaper, it may be time to consult your Yellow Pages to set up some informational interviews or job-shadowing. Writing a family memoir? Check out the hours at the local museum or the archives at your public library to deepen the historical context of your family story. Ask family members you have already interviewed who else you should talk to: Is there someone in the extended family who can enrich the story?
Ramping up the research can unearth some fascinating details, or it can help you to understand your characters—fictional or real—in a whole new way. (A word of caution about research versus writing, though: As you line up your sources and set your research timeline, also set a date by which you’ll finish researching and return to the actual writing.)

Heighten the conflict.

Fact or fiction, short story or novel, every story is about conflict. The conflict is the fulcrum on which the story tips, rises and finds its balance. Some conflicts are big and loud and bloody (Braveheart). Others are quiet and small and introspective (Mrs. Dalloway).
Large or small, true or made up, your story’s narrative tension derives from the fact that two people, two sets of sensibilities or two life situations are at odds with each other. Have you spent the last six months with a huge, unwieldy draft that’s gotten away from you? To revive your project, play the “What if?” game to heighten the stakes. How can you wiggle those opposing points of conflict just one step further apart? Let’s say the story is about how Mary and John are getting divorced because they’ve fallen out of love. Sad? Yup! Exciting story? Ho-hum. Now, what if their marriage is ending because … wait! … John is actually having an affair with Mary’s sister? OK. Does that unlock your plot a little? How about if John is actually having a secret affair with Mary’s brother? You get the point. By raising the tenor of the conflict, your story can suddenly sing.

Mix up your writing.

I often envy those über-specialized writers who have found and excelled in a single, distinct genre. But the envy only lasts as long as it takes me to get a new idea and start a new gig—often in a completely different genre.
Switching genres and narrative voices—from fiction to nonfiction, from witty to somber, from short stories to novels—gives you more toys in the toy box … enough that you never get bored or cranky.
So, if the end of the year finds your self-esteem flagging on your current project, try something in a whole new genre. Dabbling in another form can jump-start new ways of using language, structuring plots, looking at characters. Think of it as teaching yourself to write with your left hand or taking a different route home. You may eventually go back to your habitual genre, but you’ll go back with a whole new insight or approach. Or, who knows? You may discover that you are bi-textual and enjoy writing in two voices and for separate markets. Regardless, it’ll give you a fresh approach to that project you’re stuck on.
Also, if you find yourself trudging through a long, unwieldy project, taking a little time out to write something short and different can provide you with a short-term reward as well as a much-needed sense of completion.

The Writer’s Workout

Also check out these items from the Writer’s Digest’s collection:

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