I hope you’ll get a chance to read the forum thread I referenced in part one of this two-part series regarding Internet writing and writing content for websites/blogs.
For affiliate marketing purposes, I would come down on the side of the “argument” mentioned in part one which says “content” on marketing websites must primarily be SALES content. As one of the longtime members at the forum I linked to in the previous post would say — marketing is about selling, not about writing encyclopedia or library articles. If you want to share information regarding how a product works and how it would be of benefit to someone visiting your site, you really should emphasize the BENEFIT aspect, not the “how to” or some sort of “where to buy” feature.
Read more on Writing 1,000 articles in a month — Part 2 of 2…
Five or six years ago, Stephen King came out with a combination memoir/instruction book he titled “On Writing.” If you haven’t read it yet, you really should. I also would recommend it as a source of inspiration and some good “how-to” knowledge about writing novels. At the very least, it’s a “how-to” of how Stephen King SAYS he writes novels.
Read more on Stephen King fan or not, you really need to read his ‘On Writing’…
Maybe I’m coming late to the parade on this one, but I just ran onto “wikiHow — The How-to-Manual That You Can Edit,” and it looks like a very useful site for writers and researchers. It’s one of those great places like Wikipedia, where you can get caught up and spend hours of your time, if you aren’t careful. Or, maybe that’s just me. One of the best memories of my childhood was reading through five or six volumes called
“Junior Classics” that my parents brought home from a rummage sale when I was a small kid.
Read more on Here’s a useful reference site for researchers, writers…
When your plot bogs down and your characters have started to ignore you and you have nothing in particular to write for the middle of that story, you might try this little trick. It works for me:
Read more on This sometimes works for me when I’m stuck about what to write next…
Once again, I just got a grim reminder of how sorry Internet writing for money has become. Indeed, slave labor for writers is alive and doing well on the Internet.
One of the forums I visit regularly is for people using their software to build content on specific affiliate marketing websites. As part of the discussion there, people are always looking for “good” writers to write articles for them which target keywords the website owners wish to feature on their websites.
Read more on Slave labor for writers alive, doing well on Internet…
I made another change to the “theme,” or template for this site a few weeks ago, and I don’t really like the way it looks all that much. I’ll probably tinker with it and do something different in the near future. (If I were making any serious money online, I probably could afford one of those industrial equipment-type blogging themes that have lots of options and bells and whistles built into them. But until I can afford that, I’m stuck using the free themes out there.)
Read more on Today’s writing demands a good sense of graphics, design…
(EDITOR’S NOTE: This post is the first of two I plan on doing related to writing Internet articles for marketing. I cannot do the concept justice in even one or two posts, but I have an approach in mind I want to share with you in this post and one later today. So consider this “Part 1 of 2.”)
Read more on Interesting forum discussion: Could you write 1,000 articles per month?…
(EDITOR’S NOTE: This may be the very last “recovered” or “re-run” post I make on this blog. After one more serious search through my hard drive, I found one more blog post from before the Terrible Server Crash of ’07, and I want to re-post it to share my shining words of wisdom with those of you out there who haven’t seen this particular post before. Or something like that. As far as I can tell from the few records I keep about such things, this was originally posted in early August 2007.)
Read more on My Number One cure for writer’s block — guaranteed to work every time…
We’re in the late summer doldrums here in Springfield, Missouri. Those are the days around here when the heat is still hanging on, the humidity is generally at the uncomfortable level, fish aren’t too actively jumping in the lakes (sort of worn out, I guess), the pond filters and pool filters are starting to clog, and I’m generally impatient for the cool breezes of fall.
Read more on What are you reading, writing as summer winds down?…
When I was in high school, I was flattered that one English teacher I had complimented me on my writing style. She said I was good at short, concise sentences that led to clearly written prose. Something like that. But what I remember most is that she compared my writing style to Ernest Hemingway. Now, I’m far from Ernest Hemingway in so many ways (no pun intended). But I appreciated her comments.
Read more on Word games — we’re never too old to bolster our vocabulary, are we?…
I know you’ve heard this a lot and I’ve said it before here myself: When you’re writing sales copy, forget about “features” and focus on “benefits.” This sounds really simple, but do you really “get it”? Do you understand the difference between focusing on a feature and focusing on a benefit?
Read more on More copywriting fundamentals: Focus on benefits…
It’s almost embarrassing for me to admit this: Until a month ago, I had never read any of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher novels. If you find yourself in a similar situation, go to your nearest bookstore, Amazon, even your local library — and find one of Mr. Child’s gritty, funny (yeah, sort of funny) novels featuring Jack Reacher.
Read more on Found a new writer to recommend to mystery fans…
I want to say a little about website and blog issues, all related to Internet writing and stuff you need to know if you’re writing and putting anything on the Internet. As I sit comfortably here at my modern desk — the sort of computer and desk setup everyone needs, a “Tablemate” stand for my laptop adjusted just right in front of my massive maroon colored recliner chair — I think I’ll start with a mysterious techie term I only partly understand myself. I’m talking about “bandwidth.”
Read more on Beware of bandwidth thieves, they can cost you money in webhosting…
When I was in high school, my best buddy and I found Lewis Carroll’s poem about the Jabberwock absolutely hilarious. We would often pass each other in the halls, or walk together into classrooms eloquently reciting parts of it in unison:
Read more on ‘Beware the Jabberwock’ — or, avoid using jargon in your writing…
(EDITOR’S NOTE: This is another of those posts I’ve mentioned in recent weeks which originally appeared a year or so ago — but was lost when I went through the webhost’s server crash a few weeks ago. I have rewritten some of it and I am “reposting” it because I think it has some useful information for writers. Thank you for your patience as I recover “old” posts like this as I run onto them on my hard drive.)
Read more on Transcription, a very different sort of writing skill, may help you write dialog…
