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WritersNotes.Net: Helping Writers Follow Their Dreams Through Information, Inspiration, and Encouragement!
Just wanted to remind everyone to stop by Word Sell to read my debut post. A lot of research went into the writing of 5 Great, Free Keyword Research Tools, a post that can help you attract more traffic to your website or blog. Keywords aren't just for e-commerce sites. Everyone who has an online presence can benefit from effective keyword use. So, check out my first Word Sell post, which will point you to five great FREE resources that can help put your site on the Internet map!
Don't forget to say Hi!
Jeanne
Free Online Resources That Are Worth Resurrecting
Over the past several months, I've provided my readers with numerous free online resources, written about in various posts, all of which have done the inevitable disappearing act that happens when blog posts move down the page and out of sight into the darkest depths of the archival abyss. Today, I'd like to resurrect some of these posts, so you can more easily access the helpful and/or fun tools, tests, and resources that can make your writing/blogging life much, much easier and a whole lot brighter.
So, without further ado, here are the links to these posts, divided into three helpful categories, for your convenience:
Resources
One Look Dictionary Search: Your One-Stop Word Shop
The Free Library: Your Online Literary and Information Portal
Bibliomania: The Modern Way to Read the Classics
GCF LearnFree.Org: Free Online Computer Training and More
Need Ideas? Let the New York Times Help!
Tools
Write Engaging Headlines: Use the Emotional Marketing Value Headline Analyzer
Check the Viability of Your Site with Website Grader
OpenOffice.Org: Free Alternatives to Popular Brand Name Software
Rate Your Blog: Handy Blog Rating Tool
Keyword Density: Your Key to Better Search Engine Ranking
Tests
Test Your Online Identity With Career Distinction’s Online Identity Calculator
If You Like Tests, You’ll Find Plenty at Tickle.Com
Test Your Skills: Take the Blogger Spelling and Grammar Test
Hope they help!
Jeanne
This is not a sponsored post.
Did you enjoy this post? Was it helpful? Which tool/resource do you especially like? Please feel free to comment!
Mining the Archival Abyss
With the speed at which new content is posted to many blogs today--including this one--older (though equally valuable) posts quickly become buried in the deep, dark recesses of the archival abyss, where they can do absolutely no good. So, in the interest of fairness to those who may not have read some of these earlier pieces, I've decided to resurrect those that I believe to be the most helpful, by linking to the original posts, here. (In fact, you'll find quite a few more links than might at first appear, since the first post on the list which follows is itself a list of links to other great articles on writing.)
Tips, Techniques, and Tools to Help Writers Succeed
Add Color, Clarity, and Style to Your Writing: A Linkfest
Failure-Tolerant Leadership for Writers and Others
Magnetize Your Blog: Always Reply to Comments!
Write Engaging Headlines: Use the Emotional Marketing Value Headline Analyzer
Need Ideas? Let the New York Times Help!
Google Alerts Can Help You Detect Misuse Or Abuse of Your Writing
More About Google Alerts and Your Blog
Keyword Density: Your Key to Better Search Engine Ranking
One Look Dictionary Search: Your One-Stop Word Shop
Hopefully, you've found some information here that's helped bring you closer to meeting your writing/publishing goals!
Much luck to you in all your endeavors!
Jeanne
Did you enjoy this post? Was it at all helpful? Have any questions? Please feel free to comment!
Whether or not you are extremely SEO savvy--or have any particular interest in Search Engine Optimization per se--it would probably behoove you to pay a bit of attention to the frequency with which certain words or phrases (known in SEO lingo as keywords or keyword phrases) appear in your online writing. Why? Because keyword density (or the frequency with which specific topically targeted words and phrases appear in a piece) is one very important factor used by search engines to determine page rank.
If you've written a witty, winning, and wonderful article or blog post, and its keyword infrequency puts it on page 45 of the search results, chances are good that very few people will have either the patience to locate it or the good fortune to actually read it--including those people who are searching for that topic!
Luckily, there are many websites that can not only explain SEO to the technically challenged among us, but also provide us with SEO tools that can greatly simplify our task of making our writing more keyword-friendly.
As a general rule, your main keyword or keyword phrase should (according to those in the know about such things) appear anywhere from 3% to about 8% of the time (give or take a percentage point or so). Anything over 10% is usually considered excessive and can cause your piece to be penalized by the search engines for "keyword stuffing."
One great place to begin your quest for SEO sophistication is to use the Keyword Density Tool at 123 Promotion to see where your piece falls on the keyword density spectrum. This can be done either before or after publishing on the Net and is done by simply copying and pasting your piece into the text box on the screen and inputting the keywords you want to determine the frequency of into the appropriate boxes. The tool then calculates the percentage of the piece that each keyword or keyword phrase represents. You can search for three keywords or keyword phrases at a time with this tool; and if you'd like to search for others afterward, you may simply delete the previous words and replace them with new words for a convenient recalculation.
This is a great way to prep your article or blog post for publication, if you'd like to be sure that it contains enough keywords before posting it online. If it's already appearing online, this is still a great way to check on keyword density so you'll know whether or not to add more instances of your most important keywords to your piece.
For work already published on the internet, however, there are other SEO tools available on various different websites that can make your task even easier and provide more comprehensive keyword and keyword phrase analysis. On these sites, you may simply enter the URL of your piece, and the SEO tool will generate a list of nearly every conceivable word or group of words that might qualify as keywords or keyword phrases, along with the percentage of frequency of each. (Some even allow you to enter the URLs of two sites whose keyword frequency you'd like to compare.)
Bear in mind, though, that the tools that allow you to enter the site's URL will generally calculate keyword density on the entire web page (though some offer options to exclude certain info). So, if, for example, you're calculating keyword frequency on your blog, all info included in your sidebar and elsewhere on the page will generally be included in the results, which might not give you an accurate reading of keyword density within your blog post; whereas with the first-mentioned keyword analysis site listed above, only the text you paste into the box will be analyzed for keyword density, thus enabling you to restrict the analysis to the blog post alone.
Each of the following sites has various highlights in the exact services it offers; therefore, checking them all out will help you determine which one will best meet your specific needs or whether, perhaps, different ones will suit your purposes better for different projects or at different times. These sites also offer a wealth of information on Search Engine Optimization; so don't neglect to do a bit of reading while you're there--particularly if you're somewhat less than SEO savvy.
The following sites are some of the most visible ones on the internet. No doubt there are others; but, I have the feeling that you'll be able to learn most of what you'll need to know and do most--if not all--of the keyword analysis you'll need to do by visiting one or more of these sites:
The Webconfs.com SEO Tool Set
LinkVendor Professional SEO Tools
Mike's Marketing Tools
Keyword Density - The Analyzer
thesitewizard.com
On the Worldwide Web today, keyword density is everything! Checking out--and using--some of these convenient online SEO tools can help put your work, your blog, or your website on the seach engine map!
Happy analyzing!
Jeanne
Did you enjoy this post? Don't leave me lonely--Please comment!
I realized just today what often motivates site owners, editors, or managers to alter web content--even in violation of clearly stated clauses which they agree to when purchasing a particular type of license for that content: SEO makes them do it!
Search Engine Optimization apparently reigns supreme in the world of internet publishing today. In many--if not the majority of--cases, it matters not to the individuals who run these websites whether or not the writing they post is particularly good. It generally need only be competent. And that's fine with me, if this is what they want or need for their websites. I have no quarrel with that. Why, I might even be willing to consider writing SEO articles myself at some point--and actually I have considered it--though not very seriously, since it doesn't tend to pay very well, and I'd much rather do more inspired writing, writing where I have the freedom to say what I want to say the way I want to say it.
While SEO writing may not be my favorite kind, I do recognize that there are many individuals who are very good at it and who can actually create quality articles while seamlessly incorporating the prescribed number of keywords and keyword phrases into their articles in all the right places. And I applaud them. They are filling a need, and they are doing it well.
The real problem is when the two worlds collide. When an article which is written for the express purpose of saying something and saying it well is offered for posting to a buyer's website through the purchase of a "usage" license by a site such as Constant Content, that article is sold "as is." The buyer is not authorized to change the work in any way. This presents a dilemma for the buyer whose site uses SEO articles. Since the article wasn't originally written with SEO in mind, it generally doesn't contain quite enough key words or key word phrases in its present form. It would only take a few changes here and there to make it work...
But this is precisely where the integrity of the original article is compromised. It's just too easy to do--and entirely too tempting for many buyers to resist.
It became clear to me just this evening, as I looked over the criteria for submitting articles to a particular SEO site--which just happens to be the same site that purchased the usage license for one of my altered articles (as I learned through a Google Alert)--that this was the reason for the changes they made. No sooner had this site made the purchase, then their content editors went right to work. They immediately proceeded to add an entirely new introductory paragraph to the beginning of the article in direct violation of their usage license. And SEO was the reason for the change. They needed to have enough repetitions of the keyword phrase in the article's first paragraph. SEO made them do it!
I hadn't realized it until that moment. Here I'd been furiously typing up a message earlier this afternoon, indignantly proclaiming to C-C how this site had lowered the quality of my article, and on and on and on, without having the slightest inkling what was really going on. I understand now.
Of course, none of this changes the fact that this website violated its usage license, and only time will tell what will happen. I am not really certain precisely how C-C will handle the issue.* But I do know one thing: At Constant Content, they don't like it when clients violate the limitations of their usage licenses. And I must admit that, as a writer who works very hard to produce high quality content, I don't like it either. I don't like the integrity of my work to be compromised.
Where do we go from here? I admit that I really don't know. There's little question that SEO is here to stay. There's even less question that it's in very high demand. Yet I truly hope this doesn't mean that literary integrity will not be able to peacefully co-exist with it.
Till next time,
Jeanne
*UPDATE: Since this post was written, Constant Content has notified the offending website, the site's administrator was very apologetic, and he has since changed the article back to its original form. This is good news for all of us writers who care very much about the integrity of our work! Bravo for C-C and for this site, which, unfortunately, must remain nameless!
Did you enjoy this post? Don't leave me lonely--Please comment!
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