Blogfeeder - The Copywriting and Marketing Blog from Wordfeeder.com

Lawncare Professional Asks How to Search Engine Optimize His Website

I may or may not have mentioned that Wordfeeder Copywriting has a new online business discussion forum. Right now we have very few members, but I'm hoping that with the addition of some great information, that will change.

I got a question today from a new member, Mike of 4 Seasons Lawn Care in Whitehouse Station, NJ. Mike writes:

Hi.  I have a lawn care business, and I'd like to see if I can get my website to actually bring in some new business.  My initial approach to the website was that it would look good to have a website address on my business card, but the site wouldn't probably be a big factor in recruiting new business.

I'm thinking if I could get my company to come up in a google search, I might have better visibility to prospects. 

Can anyone shed some light on how I can do this?

Read my response to his question by clicking the link below.

http://biz-feeder.com/forum2/index.php?topic=98.msg105#msg105

Wordfeeder Copywriting Can Search Engine Optimize Your Website! We use organic methods such as constant content addition, keyword-rich copy and linking strategies, and inbound keyword links.

For more info, contact dina@wordfeeder.com.

Microsoft Smart Quotes and Your Email Newsletter

Did you ever notice that sometimes your email newsletter comes across as having weird looking code in it after you publish?

For example, you know you typed the below sentence normally. And yet after you hit SEND, your email spit back this gibberish:

This month’s featured article discusses...

I've likely mentioned this before but I'll say it again for the new readers. That oogy code slips in there every time an apostrophe or set of quotation marks is translated from Microsoft Word to HTML.

HTML docs do not understand the Microsoft "Smart Quotes" feature - those curved quotes and apostrophes that look so much more precise than inch marks (") and footmarks (').

So, what you're ideally supposed to do is SHUT OFF the Smart Quotes feature in Word before you type any text that will be pasted into a web page later.

You do this under the TOOLS menu up top - where the autocorrections lists are. Microsoft Word will offer to auto-correct other things, like automatically capitalize, automatically continue numbered lists and so forth. You want to uncheck the box that says "automatically correct Smart Quotes" or whatever it says. While you're at it, just shut off all auto-correct functions. (I can't stand it when the program does things that I didn't ask it to do.)

I offer "writing support" for many clients, who then integrate my articles, snippets and partial drafts into their completed newsletters before sending out. As I edit their copy, I change the curved quotes and footmarks back to straight. This can be time consuming, and it can put hours on the clock as there is no way that I know of to make this a "global" change on existing text.

But of course I can't edit the parts of my copywriting clients' newsletters that they create themselves. So what ends up happening is that when their ezine is published, I eagerly open the email, and GAH! There are those danged weird code marks that I detest so greatly.

This is a really simple solution - just SHUT OFF the Smart Quotes feature in Word, like I said. I ALWAYS have mine turned off. But none of my clients do, it seems.

Another tip from the web-savvy mind behind Wordfeeder.com Copywriting and Marketing.

The Google Keyword Tool

The first thing you should do before you build a website: keyword research!

Here's a tool that Google has thoughtfully provided to help you along in your mission:

Google's Keyword Tool

Find out what people are searching for and then make sure you have that in your keyword copy, links and meta-tags - on EVERY page of your website!

Dina at Wordfeeder.com - Marketing and Copywriting for the Masses

 

Happy Web Content Awareness Day!

Well, it's here - the moment you've all been waiting for. I know you felt it... creeping down the stairs in your footie pajamas at 4 am... hoping to get a glimpse of the Man With the White Beard. Oh wait - wrong holiday.

For those just tuning in, my name is Dina Giolitto and I run Wordfeeder.com Copywriting and Marketing. Last year, I created a new holiday - Web Content Awareness Day - "dedicated to all those who create content for this great Web of ours!"

In 2007 we continue the WCAD tradition. This year's theme was "An Information Celebration Taking Place in Your Email Inbox."

I emailed a total of TEN articles containing information you NEED to know if you plan to grow a successful business online.

I also royally hooked my list up with trusted experts who can help them build and maintain a quality website that gets them targeted traffic and sales.

 

Topics we covered in the mailings:

Web Design
Copywriting
Article Marketing
Ezines
Podcasting
Public Relations

If you missed all the fun, have no fear. You can tune in to the FINAL ezine issue and free copywriting giveaway that I JUST sent out to my WCAD readers:

http://webcontentawarenessday.com/ezine-wcadgiveaway.htm

ALL of the articles are accessible via that link, and you really do not want to miss all that we reveal!

If you like what I sent out during WCAD, maybe you will find my copywriting and marketing ezine useful as well! Sign up - click the link.

Tell the Wordfeeder What You Want.

So, I have this yearly promo going on from January 9th through February 9th, called Web Content Awareness Day(s). What I do is give the floor (meaning, space in my copywriting ezine) to a group of trusted web marketing experts. I then share articles these professionals have written that contain tips and advice on how to get your website noticed and generate more sales.

So far, we are up to Mailing 4 out of 6 of Web Content Awareness Month. *To sign up, click the link and drop your email into the box at the bottom of the page.

Now, some folks who took my WCAD Survey (still open by the way!) expressed the desire to receive more copywriting tips - which only makes sense, this being a copywriting and marketing-geared website and all.

However, to be fair to all WCAD participants, over the celebration it's my goal to strive for a good balance of content. This is one of the few times I'm able to share NON-copywriting tips (meaning, all those other things you MUST do to get your business out there in front of the right eyes. And believe me, this is stuff that I didn't know about when I first arrived on the web - so it's been VERY helpful to me in my own business growth).

Now, in terms of what everyone is asking for - I'm delivering a Copywriting Grand Finale on Web Content Awareness Day proper, which takes place on February 9th.

The sixth mailing will contain a free copywriting giveaway - a special report, created by Dina at Wordfeeder.com Copywriting and Marketing, designed to teach you web copy techniques that bring real results.

Now, here's the problem: I can't make up my mind which copywriting report I should share with you. In my estimation, they're all terrific (if I do say so myself).

I cover three different key aspects of copywriting in my reports.

• The mechanics of web copywriting - word placement on the page, directionals, links, etc.
• Emotion, psychology and persuasive tactics
• Logistics, categories, and keyword placement (believe it or not this is FAR MORE CRITICAL to driving targeted traffic than you would ever imagine)

Each report I'm thinking of offering covers one of the above three aspects of writing copy.

So, here it is: if you want to have a say in the type of report I deliver on the big day, take a moment and cast your vote in our WCAD Copywriting Gift Poll!

Design Your Website to Naturally Attract HOT Prospects

Wordfeeder.com Copywriting and Marketing is releasing another special report. I'm not sure if I should give this one away at the Big Finale of Web Content Awareness Day, or stick with the one I planned to originally offer (from the summer).

This one is a very insightful peek into how copywriting and website navigation will naturally help you to attract sales. Yes, simply by designing your website in the "correct" way, you will begin to garner search engine results that bring HOT, not warm but HOT prospects who then become your immediate customers.

To receive your free copy of this report (or maybe the other one - like I said, can't figure out which one to send), sign up for the Web Content Awareness Day mailing list if you haven't already. "The Day" will be here sooner than you think, on February 9th.

Wahoo!

Web Content Awareness Day Strikes Again.

So, last year I created Web Content Awareness Day - the first-ever holiday for online business owners, and anyone who uses the Web as a major vehicle of communication.

The catch phrase was:

Web Content Awareness Day: Dedicated to All Who Provide Content for This Great Web of Ours.

Even though I had no idea what the heck I was doing, I dove headfirst into Dreamweaver Web Design and even attempted to run an email list before I had signed up with an official list manager (BIG mistake!).

I went full tilt with this thing, managing article submissions from qualified experts from the comfort of my email inbox while simultaneously running an online discussion group on Ryze.com, sending out email alerts, a month-long article and PR campaign, with blog teasers leading up to the Grand Finale of Web Content Awareness Day on February 9.

(I wrote it all bunched up like that instead of neatly bulleted out, to emphasize what a complete whirling dervish I felt like while trying to manage this thing in three months).

I partnered with a talented designer by the name of Lisa C. Boyd who compiled info from marketers who I knew "from around the web" and offered my audience a free downloadable book of special offers and deals. Heidi Caswell of RememberGreetingCards.com even custom designed a WCAD printed card that I mailed to all my best contributors (if you click her link, scroll down to the testimonials and you'll see the card she made for me!). We even did a "Guess the Baby Marketer" Contest, for fun.

What I succeeded in doing, at least the way I see it, was:

• Supply a group of inquisitive, do-it-yourself individuals with a free education on ways to grow your business online
• Fire up a small army of marketers to ramp up their traffic generating efforts and grow their businesses
• Push my own name further out there and build my own credibility - I swear, despite the internal calamity that this even was for me, it really worked and I advise you to run your own nifty parties online - but DO IT RIGHT AND GET BACKUP HELP!
  
• Shed some new light on the proper and effective use of article marketing, blogging, ezines, web PR, design, SEO, and online networking as business builders
• Introduce a bunch of good and decent people who didn't know each other before
• Slut some names of famous marketers around the web a bit (and pay homage to the Web Greats)
• Solidify connections between online marketers who already had been acquainted but maybe had more to learn about each other
• Exemplify selected content providers who are either experts in the craft (of publishing web materials), or know how to use the web for good.

And these are the lessons that I learned for myself:

• It is completely impractical to think that ONE PERSON can actually do all this and also run "business as usual" back at their own copywriting and marketing website. For me, it was a good lesson on "getting my sh*t together and learning that delegation is critical
• In extremely frenzied times like this when you are drowning in a self-created hell, you learn which friends of yours are pure gold - the kind who would  simply drop everything and come to your aid at the hour of need.
• And possibly most importantly - you MUST get an autoresponder and list management system before attempting to send out an email campaign!

This year, Web Content Awareness Day will be a MUCH cozier and less maniacal affair. You will be able to partake in the festivities simply by signing up for our Limited Time Only promotional ezine (translation - once Feb. 9 is past, no more WCD emails until next year).

Dates: January 9th through February 9th.

Details: Visit this year's newly designed Web Content Awareness Day homepage at http://webcontentawarenessday.com, and drop your name in the subscriber box for your free, month-long, free marketing education.

Thanks. :)

Dina at Wordfeeder.com Copywriting and Marketing
Creator of Web Content Awareness Day

Does Google Hand Out Demerits?

A few weeks ago, I was listening to someone complain that their search engine status had dropped from the first page of Google. While this indeed spells tragedy for most internet marketers, search engine heartbreak is never permanent. The pain of falling out of favor with Google is thankfully, only a temporary and easily remedied thing.

So, this guy was bemoaning the disappearance of his site for his chosen keywords. Trying to be helpful, I went to his homepage and clicked on the source code. There were a few things that I didn't see there, that I should have seen. Some really basic stuff, like the aforementioned keywords, which should have been part of the page title tag, but alas, were not. Basic, yet critical things.

And there were some other picciune items, like an oddball way that he had chosen to name his metatags. Could the misnomer of the tags be a problem? Well... who can say, but the fact is this. If I'm staring at four other sites that are ranking well for your keyword, and you're the only one who's NOT ranking well (in fact not ranking at ALL), and the major difference is that your tags are oddly labeled... well, stop yerr bellyaching, fix the tags to match everyone else's, check back in a week and see what transpires.

I dispensed advice to this nice gentleman, and then I waited, hopeful for him, that things would return to their previously pleasant state over on the Google Search Bar. But then, instead of him taking a chance and making an adjustment to fit the changing times, I saw him a week later.  He was bitching to someone else about the same problem. Looked at the source code, saw that he hadn't done a thing with it. I shrugged. Hey, it's not my job to keep after people after I offer them free tips.

That said, here's my theory on Google. Everyone speaks in hushed voices about the dreaded Dupe Content Penalty. Everyone quivering in fear, dreading the day that Google strikes back at them for some unholy website act they didn't know they committed. Or, if they're not cringing beneath the Wrath of Google, they're taking the Rebel stance. "Nyah, nyah, I don't need to know about search engine optimization! I'll just write great content and keep publishing it and you'll see!"

Let's take a sane approach to this issue. Websites have certain functionality features that help search engine spiders find them. If these features are used incorrectly or not used at all, that makes it more difficult for them to be found. If SOME of the pages of a website utilize these features, but others don't, then only PART of the site can be properly categorized. So, all this really is, is you trying to get found. For your keywords. Using the tools that web developers gave you for this very purpose.

The truth is, nobody who works at Google has any CLUE what you and your website are up to. There is no Google Squad of Human cyber cops, waiting to hunt you down, lest you make a wrong move. There's no evil Google nun, eager to whip out her wooden ruler and thwap you on the back of the hand for breaking the Google laws. There's not even a Google meter maid, handing out tickets to websites who have parked but failed to pay the Google dues. And there is most certainly no Google Hell, where Bad Website Owners are cast for all eternity. (But people sure make out like there is one, don't they??)

Google rank is based on an algorithm. It's just math. There's some kind of fancy equation programmed in there, and being math-phobic I shudder to think what that equation might look like. But I know it's there, and all it's doing is making calculations of some kind for "must-haves" that it expects the good website owner to follow.

And, being logical about it, one would think that Google might put a PLUS-SIGN by those aspects of web content that are meant to communicate the keywords and "help" the search engine bots index the content quicker. Things like links. Navigation. Pyramid structure, with the broadest subjectmatter on top and the category heads in links beneath, with the "deep content" being housed on single pages, linked to via headlines, using keywords of course. (This is why everyone wants niche-based articles. Articles are deep content. The more you have, and the better you index it, the higher you go.) Also, things like image alt tags and page titles, and link titles, which I just found out about two months ago by some kind blog commenter (thanks for that tipoff, buddy!).

So, to sum this up in a nutshell. If you've got something screwy about your site, instead of wailing to the high heavens that you're on Google's Poop List, try this. Just fix it. Find out what you have to do, or what you did but shouldn't have, and correct the problem. Because by fixing whatever isn't web-bot-friendly about your site, you make it easier for the web crawlers to come back, find you, scan your site and reindex your content.

And then when you're reindexed, all the boo-boos and wrist slaps are magically erased. And then Patsy Cline will be singing, "I'm back in Google's arms... how I missed those loving arms... I'm back in Google's arms, back where I belong."

God, I am a dork.

Your Google-crazed pal,

Dina at Wordfeeder.com Copywriting and Marketing

PowWeb, Need a Copywriter Maybe?

I have a theory that PowWeb.com is in serious need of a copywriting professional and/or site logistics planner. Someone who knows how to explain things simply and clearly, while using directives to move the guest from Point A to Point B in a straight line, without any roundabouts or detours. Is there a proper title for a professional of this kind? Because there should be, and s/he should be paid top dollar for his/her gifts. Maybe this is the what the term web developer used to refer to before wingnuts like myself decided to become website owners.

Today PowWeb decided to issue me a new password, of course with no warning. So I'm logging in over and over using the same password I used yesterday, but having no success. I'm going practically insane:

"Is it me? Is the caps lock on? Num lock not on? Did I change the password myself while sleepwalking?"

I finally do the old "email me my password" and that's when I get the news that they've taken it upon themselves to change it up on me for no apparent reason. (Security breach? Hacker? What gives here, PowWeb?)

So now I'm on the "change my password" page, and I assign myself a new password because I don't care for the one they've provided. But then they inform me on this page, that in order to access other areas of my site, I will have to visit yet another page, called Domain Central, where there is yet another opportunity to change a different password.

"Domain Central" is not hyperlinked. Naturally. I mean, why would they do something like guide me to the next necessary stop in my whirlwind password-changing tour?

So I let my weary eyes pass over the entire page, scanning for the words "Domain Central" - but of course there is no tab or section of that name, so I select "Domain" instead.

Apparently this is in fact Domain Central, but I guess someone thought it would be cute not to name it that. Just to throw in a little extra layer of protection, maybe? So that only the truly agile-minded will be able to crack the code?

Now that I've supposedly reached the Holy Grail of password control on PowWeb, as luck would have it this page contains THE EXACT SAME MESSAGE that I read on the other page, that instructed me to go change my internal passwords over on "Domain Central."

I throw up my hands. PowWeb, you are on the verge of losing a customer.

Seriously. This is like pulling elephant molars.

Maybe the Dingo Ate Your Header Tags.

I design my own web sites because I'm a do-it-yourself junkie. However, if I were smart I'd stick to my true calling, which is copywriting. Yesterday a kind individual informed me that my web site, Wordfeeder.com, is absent of header tags. How can this be? I put them in myself, using Dreamweaver. I fretted over keyword combos and labored over the perfect meta-description. I even WATCHED MY CHANGES show up in the search engines.

So, um... where are my header tags now? Did someone REMOVE them? Did the server migration over at powweb.com result in my header tags flying the coop?

Did the dingo eat my header tags?

This is why you should do as I say, not as I do. DON'T DESIGN YOUR OWN WEB SITE.

Happy day-after Fourth of July! :)