Article marketing, article PR, article submission, article distribution… Whatever you want to call it, it’s a great way to generate backlinks. But are those backlinks really of any use? I decided to find out. For quite a few years now, I’ve been using article PR as a link building method. For an SEO copywriter, it [...]

If you’re selling online, then this post will certainly be good news. Recent research by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) shows that more of your target customers are online, and they’re buying more often. Here are some of the more relevant stats from their report, Telecommunications Today (2008). 73% of Australian households are [...]

Which do you use? US or British (Australian) English in your web copy? Your website is globally accessible, so your readers could come from anywhere. It may seem a trivial consideration, but many readers really care. British readers, for instance, tend to have a strong preference for British English. US readers tend to prefer US [...]

If you run a phpBB forum (as I do), and it’s older than v3 (as mine is), and search engine presence is important to you (as mine is) then you should probably consider upgrading to phpBB v3 (as I am). Apparently older versions of phpBB create something called a ‘bot-trap’ because they generate urls with [...]

If there’s one piece of advice I’d offer to copywriters (other than embrace SEO), it’d be, “Use more contractions!” I’ve lost count of the number of freelancers who’ve sent me samples chock-full of things like “we will” and “you are” and “we are”. Even fairly conservative audiences like to read the way they speak (within [...]

I’ve just upgraded FreeCopywriting.com. Here’s how it works: You write some copy and submit it to FreeCopywriting.com Google automatically displays ads whenever someone views that copy Google pays a commission whenever someone clicks on one those ads Half the time, that commission goes to me. The other half of the time, it goes to you [...]

Although I try to blog about copywriting most of the time, I just couldn’t help myself with this one. Strictly speaking, it’s not really copywriting related. Having said that, I think most copywriters would find this tool useful. But then again, I think most computer users would! If you’re anything like me, your desktop is [...]

I was recently asked if I’d be interested in writing some articles to increase a company’s search presence. I had to turn the job down, though, because the client was only prepared to pay US $10 per 500 words. (Actually, in light of my article PR experience, they generously upped their offer to $15 per [...]

I’m working on an SEO copy job for a natural therapist, at the moment. They’re doing their own keyword analysis (with a little help from me along the way). Over the weekend, they spent a lot of time thinking about and researching their keywords. Having never done any keyword analysis before, they found this process [...]

We all know the advertising truism: focus on the positives, not the negatives. You’ll sell more by talking up the benefits of buying, than you will by harping on the risks of not. In his book, ‘Scientific Advertising’, legendary ad-man, Claude Hopkins, says: “We are attracted by sunshine, beauty, happiness, health, success. Then point the [...]