Keeping your blog authentic is important if you want to gain a loyal following of readers. Being authentic simply means that your “voice” and updates are always consistent and engaging, as well as follow a specific topic, genre or grouping of topics.
If you are a bit confused about the term your “voice” allow me to explain what I mean by that. A writers’ voice is his or her writing style. The way they write, the unique little quirks they have. Just like your real speaking voice is unique to you (no two people are ever exactly the same), so is each writers’ writing style unique. Some may try to copy a style they find particularly attractive, but in the end you will always have small differences and quirks in your finished piece that will make it 100% yours.
Finding the right voice for your blog is important since this is the way you connect and communicate with your audience and potential clients. Not every voice is right for you. Allow me to show you some examples of what I mean.
A blog run by a funeral home would not be suitable for someone who writes in a humorous voice. Funerals, death, bereavement are a solemn affair. It is something that should be handle with a bit of tact. A writer who is adept at writing in a casual but highly polished way would be best for you on this sort of blog.
On the other hand a blog dealing with toys, children, family activities can use a more entertaining and even silly voice from time to time.
A historical blog or site needs to have an educational voice to it which is on topic but not too dry.
If you are running a “new trends” blog you need a mixture between “excited about the products” and “realistic about the products”.
Entertainment blogs are by nature opinion based, so here you can go for different types of voices. From humorous, sarcastic, politically correct to… The choices are plentiful.
As you see each blog has a different need or goal in mind, and it all starts with the voice of the writer you chose.
The writers’ voice should feel natural and not forced. Most readers are smart enough to know if someone is putting on airs, or if they true personality shines through. They can see this in the consistency of the writing.
For example:
My writing voice is just like my personality. I am a mixture between wanting to educate, sharing of wisdom, opinionated, reason based and sarcastic humor done in a dry way. I have a habit of breaking things down for people in a way that even a younger person or someone from a different country can easily follow. I seldom use technical terminology or fancy words to describe things which can be explained in a simpler language. I leave that up to those holding degrees in the particular subjects. My writing voice is most suitable for the average to intelligent regular blue or white-collar worker of both genders and usual age target range of mid 20′s on up.
Politically I have no affiliations. I am neither a right or left wing person. Depending on the subject matter I agree or disagree with it simply from my point of view. Since I am a pagan I would be the last person you should hire for a Christian Blog, since I do not agree with a lot of their opinions.
If you are running an ethnic blog you are best served hiring someone who represents the particular ethnicity and even better yet if you can find two to three steady writers that range in age group and gender. Remember that depending on gender and age our perspectives are different. This would give your blog a well-rounded feel.
A parenting advise blog should be written by someone who actually has children, not someone who never had one them-selves. It always looks a lot easier looking from the outside in, but a parent knows the difficulties that come with raising a child and can not add to it from their hands on perspective and personal experience. Always a lot more valuable to your readers, than the childless writer just voicing their opinion on it.
The same goes for someone giving marital advise.
The main rule in writing always is: “Write about things you know! This gives you not only credibility, but allows you to share valuable information instead of simply reworking already published content topics which you really have no experience in.”
No matter what sort of blog you run, you always want to think as if you are the reader. What do you look for in a well run blog?
If you enjoy my writing please take a moment to join my networked blogs community and sign up for the weekly Newsletter. I will send my Newsletters out once a week every Sunday. I offer special discounts for my original and unique content to my loyal subscribers. Thank you in advance.
Regina Sunderland
New Years Eve is right around the corner and once again we are at the brink of many accidents which could be avoided by using simple common sense. As a public service let me remind you once again how to avoid physical injuries, house fires and more this holiday season.
Never allow your children to light fireworks unattended!
Children should be kept away from highly explosive and more dangerous fireworks to begin with under at minimum age 12, but if you are willing to allow your kids to light fireworks make sure you are present and oversee the procedure at all times.
Do not set off out of date fireworks or fireworks that appear damaged!
Fireworks that have reached their shelf life can easily back fire and cause physical injuries to you. Anytime a firework appears to be damaged in any way it is not safe to use. Find out where you can take damaged fireworks in your area for safe destruction. Do not just throw it in the trash where it can be set off by accident or little hands can get a hold of it.
Do not light fireworks in heavily populated areas or near your home!
Remember that what goes up, must come down again. Sparks can easily land on dried out brush, trees or roof tops and ignite your house and home. It is best to find safe places away from everything when setting up fireworks.
Do not handle fireworks when drunk or high!
Your mind does not work clearly when you are under the influence of drugs or alcohol and you can easily overlook safety precautions and warning signs. Be smart only handle fireworks when sober.
Get familiarized with the Fireworks laws in your community!
Setting off fireworks is illegal in many areas around the country. Make sure you are in an area that allows you to set of fireworks and find out which ones are legal. Breaking this law can hold some hefty fines if you are caught.
Do not drive while intoxicated or high!
Thousands of accidents happen yearly during New Years Eve because of intoxicated drivers. Not only is it highly illegal and have some major consequences if you get pulled over, but it puts you and everyone around you in danger. Take a taxi home or have a designated driver for your group who doesn’t partake.
Watch for alcohol poisoning!
Alcohol poisoning is no fun. Avoid it by making sure that you have something solid in your stomach before drinking and stop drinking when you feel yourself getting drunk. Don’t mix your drinks too much. Some drinks are sneaky and you don’t always feel them taking affect when you are enjoying them. If you have to drink to get drunk, know when to stop.
Party in groups of people you know and trust!
This goes especially for younger women. Date rape or rape while intoxicated is not unusual and neither is women using the word rape as an excuse when they are sober the next day and fearing shame because of their behavior the night before. Please do not destroy your or someone’s reputation because you can not control yourself while intoxicated. Being in a group of people you can trust while partying is always much safer than going out alone and getting drunk with a lot of strangers.
Do not give alcohol to children!
Kids have no business drinking alcohol. Their system can handle it even less than that of an adult. Children can suffer from alcohol poisoning a lot quicker. Make sure you do not leave your alcohol unattended in places your children can get a hold of it. Remember that a lot of mixed drinks look like soda or juice.
As I said a lot of these are just common sense, but yet they are forgotten by thousands of people every year. Have a happy and safe New Year everyone.
When it comes to writing content for your blog or website with an eye to driving traffic via SEO, you must always keep your ultimate goals in mind.
Your ultimate or main goal should always be to drive targeted traffic to you and your products or services allowing you the opportunity to build a loyal reader / client base and giving you continous potential to convert traffic to income. A well balanced combination between trending or short term seasonal topics and shelf life topics with long staying power, gives you the best chances to draw the traffic and keep it as well.
The use of "now trending" or short termed original content on your blog or website works very well for seasonal product sales, political issues, or fashionista blogs for example. Travel sites may too benefit from marketing via "now trending" or short termed original content. Timing is everything here since you only have a very small window of opportunity to make specific keywords work for you.
Let's use "Christmas" for an example:
People usually start searching the internet for Christmas related specials, products or get-a-ways around the beginning to the middle of November to about the first week of January wrapping up with after the Holiday blow out deals. This gives you roughly 2 months of traffic utulizing "Christmas" related keywords in you content which points to the product or service you are trying to sell. Those "Christmas" related keywords need to be complimentary in nature to your product or service and placed within your content to flow easily enough to make the conversion of traffic to sales more frequent.
With all this in mind you need to plan ahead if purchasing original content from a freelance writer for your blog or site. Be sure to place your order for the content you are planning on using with the keywords you have researched and opted for in time to be ready at the beginning of the season. It is advisable that you have enough original content on hand to space out evenly throughtout the season to continue to bring traffic and with that hopefully sales to your blog or site in a fresh way.
Now that you have the trending content in place which can give you the larger spurts of traffic during high volumn sales times you need to turn your mind to long lived content. Those are the topics which never go out of style and are always searched for. Here you need to think like the consumer again without going too cliche on everyone. Depending on your product or service you need to find the main benefits and zoom in on them converting those into keywords and from there create interesting and even entertaining content which once again brings the attention to you and your product or service. You see it is all a circle which is continued constantly.
I would suggest to interlink a few of your content posts as well. Make sure they are suitable to each other and flow easily from one to the other.
Let's say for example you are selling Baby Products and you have a parenting blog, you may use the long lived topic of safe and educational toys for your toddler (long lived) and link it to one of the hottest selling toys for Christmas 2012 (now trending). Do you see how smoothly this interlinks? It makes for easy transition from one topic to the next without actually breaking the flow of your readers interest.
I suggest setting yourself a monthly "content" plan for your blog or site which should include the number of updates you which to post, the main categories you want to utilize and of course the topics you want to touch on. If you hire out for your blog content or better yet are working with one or two regular freelance writers you can give them the plan at the beginning of the month with the keywords you want to use and the topics you want to touch on. They now can write the content with not only the subject matter in mind, but with the interlinking posibilities as well. The more familiar the writer you hire is with your blog or site, the higher quality content he or she can produce for you. Remember that just as you are looking to build a solid client base for your product or service, so does the writer you are creating a business association with. By hiring the same one or two people to create the content for you, it makes it easier for them to be familiar with you and your products or service. This in turn allows them to already know what has been written and how they can build on the already established content data base in a way that makes sense and is suitable!
Regina S.
If you are in the market for original written content for your blog or website building a business relationship with one or two steady writers instead of several different blog content providers can be very beneficial for you.
Keeping the voice on your blog or website authentic!
Readers like familiarity and often become a fan of a particular writing style. Each person has a specific writing style and readers often return to someone they can relate to. The voice the articles or posts are published in speak to them in a personal or professional way and they can easily follow along without feeling overwhelmed or bored. This means they will return repeatedly to read what this person has to say and with each time they return you have another opportunity to benefit financially from their visit.
Building a relaxed and comfortable business relationship that works!
It is a lot easier to deal with someone who already understands what you are looking for and who can deliver your product in a reliable fashion. This takes a lot of the stress out of the equation for you and guarantees you that you will always have your content within the deadline. You will be able to trust and depend on your business associate to come through for you and give you nothing but their personal best at all times.
Everyone appreciates loyalty!
Writers are just as much loyalty conscious as you are with your clientele. This means that often a writer may give you special deals which you would not get otherwise. For example I have a long standing business relationship with one of my clients and as a thank you for his repeat business I create original content for him at a reduced price which is about 20% cheaper than what I would charge someone who only uses my service once or twice.
Last minute content needs!
Last minute content needs are not a problem if you have already established a continous working relationship with a writer. It is a lot easier to get the quality content you are used to by simply contacting your regular business associate and asking him or her if he could do a "rush job" for you. Most writers will be happy to do this for you and squeeze you in even if they are busy already, simply because they appreciate your continous business. Otherwise you have to list your job on freelance market places and hope to find someone new who can do this for you last minute without guarantee that you will be able to pay what is feasable for your budget and receiving the content on time in the quality you are looking for.
Budgeting is much easier!
Once you have established a continous business relationship with someone you are already familiar with their fees and may even be able to work out a bulk deal with them. This means if you hire them to write 2 to 3 articles or posts a week or month for you, they may be willing to let you pay it once a month at a bulk price instead of paying the regular fee each time an article has been delivered or up front. This is something which can only be established with time and trust. You can trust him or her to deliver and he or she can trust you to pay as agreed upon. This makes budgeting a lot easier for you.
Those are only a few benefits of building a business relationship with one or two steady writers, but I consider those some of the most important ones to keep in mind when making your decision which route to go when hiring freelance writers for your original content needs!
Regina S.
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