The UC4C and Generating Article Topics

And the winner for the Ultimate Call for Content is Rodney Southern! Congratulations!

The top ten finalists and the winning article can be viewed from the AC News Team: "Ultimate Call for Content Winner and Runners-Up."

As for me, I'll just keep trying. I actually came up with several article topics from my submission, "Collaborative Media Editing is "What's Next?" for the Internet." (Now I just have to get to writing them). I believe AC was trying to push producers into thinking outside of the box with this contest, giving us free reign on article topic choice. Hopefully the trend will continue.

Generating article topics can be rough. Swubird, of Swubird's Nest, mentioned in his last comment that reading helps him come up with article topics. I use reading myself. Sometimes I read something and think, "I need to write about that."

Ideas don't just come to me from Internet reading. Junk mail, magazines, books, and sometimes even billboards give me leads. Occasionally one word will get me off on a writing spree.

I've been working on developing a wider perspective on things. For instance my article, "Go Green Eternally: Green Burials, Sky Burials, Cremation, or Promessa," developed from a conversation I had with my Father-in-law about his funeral preparations. Talking to people can generate many good article topics. Heck, even eavesdropping can give you an idea or two...

I keep a notepad handy to jot down things down when I get hit with an idea for an article. Most of my topics sit in contemplation before I actually get to writing about them. Some topics are scratched off or narrowed because they are too involved or overly done.

I'm finally figuring out the ropes at AC. They want articles readers want to read. They want articles that have good ad alignment--something I've read over and over on the forum. They want the articles to be well written with good SEO. I'm finally getting the SEO thing. With those things in place page views rise, the site makes money, and the producers get paid.

I believe I'm doing pretty well. Considering I've got a few articles that are dead, a couple of poems, seasonal, and local interest only pieces. My page view average for 51 articles is about 488 and continues to rise. Take away the poetry and the dead entries and I'd be well over a 550 average.

I need to keep up the momentum. My anniversary with AC is the end of August. I'd love to raise my average to at least the 550 to 600 range by then. Now I'm off to work on it...

Protect Yourself from Plagiarism ©

Lately you may have noticed I've been changing up the blog again. Widening the margins, playing with html, adding an index. Hey, it's a woman's prerogative.

One of the latest things I found hopping around to different blogs is Copyscape. Copyscape is a plagiarism deterrent tool. I saw the badge clicked it and checked it out because I'm just curious that way.

Notice the © symbol next to the title? The html for it is & copy ; of course the spaces have to be removed between the &, copy and ; for it to work for you.

You may have also noticed the pink banner and the little badge:



Now for the badges, banners, and a variety of choices for your blog, go to COPYSCAPE to get your code. The basic stuff is free, you know how cheap I am. With the free service you get 10 lookups for your pages per month. For unlimited lookup service you must pay.

For Blogger users, once you pick your individual page badge, copy it and go to "Customize." Click the "Settings" tab. Hit "Formatting" and scroll down to "Post Template" and paste the code you picked up at Copyscape there. Remember to save your changes.

Now every time you go to create a new post you will see the badge in your blogger editor. You can keep it at the top of your post or hard return it to have it on the bottom.

You may also want a banner for your main blog page as I did. For inserting one there, go to the "Layout" tab and select "Add a page element." Select the "HTML/Java Script" and paste your selected banner code there. You can keep the banner on the side, on top or bottom of your posts.

Using Copyscape is easy. You just copy the address for your blog page from the URL and paste it in the block on the main page at Copyscape. Hit search and you will see if your page has been copied anywhere. You can then check the page to see if there is a link back to you for credit.

Pretty useful tool and a good deterrent against plagiarism.

As the Internet grows it is important that we protect our work. Would you leave your house without locking the door? You should consider your efforts here the same as you do your home and protect them.

Promotion: Using the Tools to Link Myself Together

I did it. I took the plunge. I know, I've been straddling the fence on this for quite some time--I set up a myspace profile. That's why I have not posted in a couple of days.

The process was a two day affair. I wanted to do a few things to increase traffic to my articles. This morning I put up a blog post on myspace and I had a brainstorm.

I've started to link everything I'm doing. That's how promotion works, right? I've touched on it in my previous posts. (this one too). All of that research I've been doing is finally clicking in my brain.

Basically, If you want to gain readership you must bring it all together. Put all of your eggs into one basket, so to speak. However, I was always told not to put all my eggs into one basket. That was then, this is now.

Back to my brainstorm. I went to my blogcatalog profile and invited friends from my lists to myspace. I've already added myspace's link to the forum at Associated Content and have gained a few friends. Now I have to invite more friends.

I read other blogs, articles, and profiles and comment. Doing this has helped me, to not only learn more about others like me, to gain readership and Internet friends.

I have yet to link this blog and my me page to myspace. That I hope to get done today.

When I have it all together, I can concentrate on content. I know, I have some content here, there, and everywhere, I have to build more. Especially on the foundation: my articles.

There is a method to my madness. It's all becoming clearer the more I dive into this. Once I lay out this foundation, I will be able to branch out! Now that's inspiring.

Clearing the Fog: Seeking Clarity in My Reading and Writing

This morning there was fog. Not only fog (so thick I could barely see the back yard when I was feeding the animals) in the atmosphere, but in my head. I have some kind of allergy thing going on.

The other day I embarked on another reciprocal reading group on Associated Content. This group brought some new writers into my list of favorites on AC. I enjoy reading and peruse many blogs and other content throughout the Internet on a semi-daily basis. Doing this gives me insight into what others are reading, writing, and interested in.

In gaining that insight, I'm more interested in honing my craft. I know on this blog I am wordy sometimes. I am trying to pare it down.

Back to the reading group. Of the articles I read most were fantastic, well written, and made me feel tingly. There were a couple that left me empty and questioning why I even clicked the title to read it. Those were free of transitional and connective words and phrases. Is that how it's supposed to be? When I read them I felt I was reading a technical guide. They lacked personality, as if a robot threw out a bunch of words and made sentences out of them.

I remember in my Creative Writing course work the professor would chant: detail, detail, detail. Now I have to work to eliminate wordy expressions and tweak my articles to no end. Edit, edit, and edit some more. I'm getting better. However, old habits die hard.

When I read I usually scan. That's something I learned from speed reading techniques and a program I took in high school. It's an effective method for reading a lot in a short amount of time. Now, don't get me wrong, I slow the pace for books, poetry, and readings that I want to get more out of or read between the lines.

I read an interesting article on how people read on the Internet. It's actually been studied and tested. We scan in an F pattern. We read the first sentence, the first words of the block in the first paragraph, and scan through for keywords or phrases that bring the content to make sense. The article is F-Shaped Pattern for Reading Web Content from Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox.

This really the basis for speed reading. With the Web, we have become a world of speed readers. Ouch! I better work on fine tuning my writing.

Where's My Branding Iron?

(Today I've been working on a few marketing and promotion things. I registered this blog with BlogCatalog, Jiglu, and BlogRush. I have to thank a fellow Associated Content producer for her help and the links to get me there, so "Thank you Momie Tullottes!" (Give her name a click to read her terrific work))

What exactly is branding? Do I have a brand? I'm not marketing anything aside from my content, can I call that a brand? When I first heard about this I thought, "what?" So I'm here to say I have read a lot about it. What I gather it's all about what you're selling. The better your brand (content) the better your sales (page views), as applied to my work at Associated Content.

From "Bringing Sexy Back: The Eight Steps to Content Marketing Bliss" by Joe Pulizzi I gathered a bit of information and applied it to my own version of branding. He lists 8 steps and from those I pulled out what I wanted to use.

While weeding though this article, I began to get discouraged because I don't target my AC articles to one group (niche). Then I thought, wait a minute, I may be targeting several audiences, some may consider that a pitfall, why not work it to my advantage. After all you are Eclectic Muse.

In step 7 Mr. Pulizzi says, "Start out with niche content and build from there." Well I can't very well do that since I don't necessarily have a niche. But I can concentrate on delivering "focused...valuable content."

There are several great ideas that can be drawn from this article. I took step 3 "invest in design" and personalized this blog to reflect the season, added personal information, and added widgets and links. I also took the strategy over to my eBay page and changed it to include links back to my articles, my blog, and a few other ventures I have taken on.

Do I understand branding? No. But I know it relates to marketing. Am I a brand? Well, I'm not yet. But I'm learning.

Keywords, Keywords? Come Out, Come Out Wherever You Are!

Here we go again. I am still working on this keyword thing. I figure the more adept I become at creating articles with keywords that the search engines like, the better my page views will become. Of course I want to keep my articles in form where they don't sound like I'm just spitting out a bunch of keywords.

So we've already reviewed some keyword search tools I've learned about (here). Well, I've got a couple more for you. There are actually three and they are all on one website. The main one is a keyword search tool and there are two other tools for assistance in organizing and brainstorming. Be prepared because this is a download site. I downloaded the tools and my computer hasn't exploded yet. The site is Good Keywords. There is also a little beginner's guide to keywords ebook there to help you out if you need it.

I also found an article post that was pretty tip full: Part 4: Choosing good keywords. The website is useful for more than just keywords, and that's why I'm pooling it in. There's spidering, seo, web design, html, and a lot more. It's called Website Helpers.

Now if you want to get the skinny on what people are searching for, you should check out Google Trends and Yahoo Buzz. These two, I should really say, steer you more into article ideas but they are useful.

Applying all of this to my own stuff is just going to be a piece of cake! Right? I know, I've still got a lot to learn. But you've got to have the tools to guide you.

Knowing and doing are two different things. Some say that keywords should just come naturally. Well I've found that to be the case in some instances. But if you choose a keyword that isn't searched then you are dead in the water. If you over use it then you are spamming.

Talk about a catch 22!

Progressing

The more I write, the easier it gets. I have been putting a lot of effort into trimming my articles to be more web friendly. That being said, I've done a lot of research on writing for the web. I found a few good sites that might be of use for others like me:

• Writing for the Web
• Writing Well for the Web
• Web Writing for Many Interest Levels
• Alertbox: Current Issues in Web Usability (this is from the same site as the first article, lots of great information.)

Writing is of course re-writing. Edit, edit, edit! I cannot believe that some content producers churn out 10 or more articles a day. I'm lucky to do one. Maybe it's just me. Maybe I go over my articles too much with too much scrutiny.

I would like to leave it as it sits sometimes, just close the browser and move on. But I'm not like that. I can't just "let a sleeping dog lay," I have to edit. Some readers may not like my style, and that's okay, but I'm progressing. I will work on this until I have it because I am determined--that is my inspiration.

On Cloud 9

The editor accepted and paid for my articles! I posted (and here) about my dismay and I thought I better update. I knew just a little re-framing would do the trick.

When ever you are faced with opposition you should counteract not react. I'm glad I have this blog for the reacting part. Murphy's law: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Or something to that effect.

I should have re-framed the article I posted for PVs only a couple of weeks ago. Well, I've since learned that there are ways around the system. I don't want to beat the system. I just want to get my just dessert. I want to have my cake and eat it too!

I'm finding that writing is coming a bit easier for me. Not that I can crank out 30 articles a day like some; but I can write more concisely in a shorter time frame, opposed to the first articles I published.

Today's inspiration: give them what they want and you will be rewarded.

Learning SEO

I just don't know how some people do it. I have been reading everything I can about search engine optimization and I haven't been able to make heads or tails of this keyword thing. I have found a lot of great keyword tools:

• Live Keyword Analysis
• Free Keyword Suggestions
• Overture Keyword Tool
• TagCrowd
• Textalyser
• SEO Book

I even went as far as getting an SEO ebook. It was all Greek to me.

So what I have decided to do is take my written articles, put them on TagCrowd, and develop a title from the keywords I generate. Sounds simple enough, but applying it is for not.

Update on the butterfly book I talked about in my Rejection post. I changed the title again. Now it's Butterflies: Apollo to Zephyr Metalmark. Why? Because the editor program in the titles on Associated Content would not let me use the capital letter "A" in the title. I searched the new title and found that I may fair better with it anyway. We shall see.

I guess that is what the keyword thing is all about. That kind of search: to hone in on the words that are going to get the most hits in the search engines.

I'm sure this will not be the last time I talk about it. Stay tuned.

Today's inspiration finding the right title.

Facing Rejection

Today the editor rejected an article I wrote. Actually it was a children's book review. They said the title was not search-able. No big deal. I just reworded it and resubmitted. We'll see what happens.

I took that information and reworded two other article titles. Those were not reviews though. I've been learning so much about key-wording, writing, editing, and developing topics. Writing is re-writing. That's what they say.

Reading the Associated Content forums has been a vast resource of knowledge for me. I've only made a few posts but I lurk a lot. When I got the rejection, I decided to hit the forum to find some insight. I found that they don't necessarily pay for book reviews. When they do the review must be of a non-fiction work. Okay my review was non-fiction--The Butterfly Alphabet. Linking letters to butterflies and acquiring facts through reading and association. That's non-fiction, it's based on facts.

I changed the review title to omit the word review and made it just "Butterflies A to Z," which is more SEO friendly. I also put some stuff in the subtitle to beef it up. I hope it works.

My inspiration for today would be finding acceptance through rejection, but I don't know if I've been accepted yet. So I'm looking at the rejection as a learning curve for now. It's guiding me in the direction I need to turn my writing towards.

A Moment to Spare

Just look at that beautiful sunset! Talk about an inspiration. I know I said I was only going to make a weekly post, I lied. I felt the urge to write, but not research write, work write, or review write--I want to write for me!

I think I'm doing pretty well with Shared Reviews. I've written 9 (which count as ten) reviews so far, gotten paid for 5. I've done some promoting also to get some referrals under my belt.

I don't how many more reviews I'll write. I have been neglecting Associated Content. I really think that is the pay off for me. My page views are really getting up there and I seem to be on the right track.

Research is really bogging me down. I've been studying keywords in an effort to produce better paying articles. You know, keywords are what the search engines look for. I found a series of really great articles about them and I'm going to sit this weekend and see what I come up with. Maybe even write an article or two on the subject. Or maybe just write here about it. There are a lot of Associated Content articles about it already and I wouldn't want to step on any toes.

The household is beginning to think I've turned into some book worm (article worm?). Read, research, study, write--shesh it's like I'm back in school again. Okay, I know it's all going to be worth it.