29 Aug 10 Why Should You Write One Article in One Sitting

As we discussed in an earlier post, organizing or sponsoring a contest is a very effective way to pull visitors to your blog. We also discussed that contests could be divided into two broad categories — based on the nature of human involvement — Content-based contest and click-based contest.

We will take that discussion forward in this article, and we will talk here about 3 content-based contests that could help you skyrocket your blog’s readership.

2 content-heavy contests

Comment here contest

This is one of the best contests to host. The idea is quite simple. Ask your visitors to post a comment in the comment box to get a chance to win the prize. Also remind them that each comment will get one entry into a lucky draw, so they can enter more than one comment to get more than one entry. At this point, do not forget to tell them just one-line generic comments will either get filtered out by your spam filter, or will be weeded out by your staff. Remind them that the comment that will add to the discussion will only get accepted. Comment done just to get multiple entry and which does not take the discussion forward, even a bit, will automatically get disqualified.

Review me contest

This is another form of contest that you can run. Ask your readers to write a review for your website on their domain, in Facebook, or wherever they want, as long as it is written on the websites talking about topics like pornographic, abusive, racism, etc. make an e-mail ID, and ask them to send the URL to that mail ID. Promise the announcement of the result on your blog, and tell them that 3 best reviews will get the prize. To win the prize, it is important for them to include two links to your website in the review — one to the home page, and another to any other page. For deep lining, you can provide some options from your blog posts.

Guest post writing contest

The third form of content-heavy contest is guess post writing contest. Ask you readers to write guest posts for you. Announce that the best written guest post will get the prize, and the second and the third ranked guest post will also get prize. To motivate them to write a guest post, tell your visitors that each guest post will be published, and writer will get the byline for the guest post along with 2 links back to their website, Facebook page, twitter, etc.

Content-based contests are time consuming, so the prize should be good, otherwise people will not get motivated to spend time on your blog.

Tags: blog, Contests, Deep Lining, Domain, E Mail, Facebook, Human Involvement, Lucky Draw, Mail Id, Racism, Readership, Spam Filter, Writing Contest

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23 Jul 10 Writing for Web – Where to Get Ideas From

This is a classic. Often web writers feel this pang, and interestingly enough, they do not know how to soothe this pain of having no topic to write on. Some people make their way around this problem of “having no idea” by calling it writer’s block.

Whatever we may call this, but the fact remains the same. You cannot write, as you have no idea. And because of that you keep on staring at the plain white sheet of your word processor. Fortunately, there is bright source of light at the end of proverbial tunnel. There are ways to get ideas for not just one but 100s of future posts. In this article, I will show you some of the idea sources that you can use to generate blog posts, months after months.

Forums

A forum is a place where people interact in a real time. A place where people ask questions, discuss about issues that bother them, and people, on the other side, try to solve the problem. You can pick a topic from here for your next blog post. This has two benefits: (1) You find the topic that people are willing to read about, and (2) through your blog post you may solve the problem, which will place you as an authority in your niche.

Answer websites

Websites like yahoo Answer, Answer bag, etc. are nice place to get ideas for your blog post. Dig through the topics, and sub topics until you find the issue you know something about. Craft a blog post and suggest the solution to the problem.

Blog comments

This is another place to find ideas for your posts. People write many things in comments, and at times they ask questions even. Some of the questions asked there are important enough to warrant a blog post. Pick a question and write a blog post on the same. To promote the blog post, you can piggyback on the original blog post. Just post a reply on the blog post and paste the link of your blog post in the body. Do not forget to attract attention of the original commenter.

The blog post ideas that you generate from the above sources are potent ones, as each of the blog post solve a problem that some readers in your niche are jostling with. And an insightful post on the ideas drawn from the above sources will also give you the status of authority in your niche.

Tags: blog, Bright Source, Find People, Interact, Many Things, Niche, Pang, Place Where People, Real Time, Reply, Source Of Light, Time A Place, Warrant, Web Writers, Word Processor, Writing Ideas, Yahoo

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27 Jun 10 Freelance Writing and Writing Experience

Do you need to have some writing experience before you start your freelance writing career? The answer is yes and no. Yes because you cannot get any client – at least not the serious ones – if you do not have any prior experience, and no because you cannot have experience without getting to work for some clients. It indeed is a hen and an egg problem, but there is a way out of this situation.

How to gain writing experience before even getting a client

Do you really think you do not have any writing experience? You are wrong in thinking so; what about your term papers and assignments that you submitted in your school and college? Yes, those were writings as well – though not professional, may be not even grammatically correct, nevertheless they gave you some experience.

But, when starting as a freelance writer we are not concerned about just any writing. We are, in fact, concerned about proper experience, which one can get only when one writes professionally, which brings us to the original question of how to get writing experience as professional without having any client. The following points will help you answer that.

Start your own blog and post articles on it. Make sure each article is at least 500 words long.
Write articles for social communities and motivate your friends to read and give feedback to you. This will be a valuable asset which you can use to show your clients to get work.
Write articles for free. This will help you build portfolio — this may be an option, but I will not suggest putting this into effect unless you have exhausted all the available options.
Write for charity website. They like contributors.

There are many ways to build your portfolio and have some writing experience. The question is are you will to find an avenue and pursue it to the end?

Tags: blog, Charity Website, Egg Problem, Feedback, Freelance Writer, Freelance Writing Career, Friends, Portfolio, Proper Experience, Social Communities, Term papers

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29 Aug 10 Why Should You Write One Article in One Sitting

2 content-heavy contests

Comment here contest

Review me contest

Guest post writing contest

23 Jul 10 Writing for Web – Where to Get Ideas From

Forums

Answer websites

Blog comments

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