Writing Archives - Page 38 of 64

Blog Promotion: How to Write for People and Search Engine Spiders

November 28, 2006 by Liz

Blog Promotion by Writing Well for the Web

Writing online serves two audiences — people and search engine spiders — those little crawly bots that move from link to link indexing information that ranks my pages. People are my readers. People are also the users who search for information. Spiders locate the content for search engines to index and serve up when people go searching for information. Keeping those facts in mind helps me handle the balance between the people and the coded arachnids that search out quality, relevant content to serve them.

The best blog promotion is to write well for the web. I keep my focus on people and give a nod to spiders by following these basics.

Write for People

I write for people. I use my own voice. I write with the way people read as my guide.

I read over my work as a reader would. When I read what I’ve written listen as a person would hear the message.

I look for words, phrases, errors, and overly-long sentences that would get between readers and my message. I also have a proofreader check things behind me. If you find something, she’s not been here yet.

After the work is “people-ready,” I go over it another time for my secondary audience Ã¢â¬â- those search engine spiders. I make sure the spiders donÃ¢â¬â¢t trip and have plenty to eat.

Feed Spiders

Spiders like to eat keywords. I make sure they find some in titles and subheads and key sentences. I don’t mind a bit of repetition.

I avoid the word “here” as link anchor text. Spiders place more value on outgoing links when the anchor text shows how they are relevant.

I add related articles. Spiders like to know how my pages relate to each other, and they like to have those pages to serve up when someone is searching for a related idea.

I link out or trackback to quality blogs.

These last crumbs to feed spiders didn’t really change the content. So I give the piece a final read, fix what I find, and hit that publish button.

Readers are happy because they get my best writing. Spiders are happy because people get my best writing — that means the people will use their search engine again.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Bookcraft 2.0: Why Consistency Makes Authors Look More Intelligent

November 27, 2006 by Liz

This week Phil and I reached a benchmark. We finished the first edit on the first of four parts of his book. This first section will serve as the prototype for the rest of the book. As the prototype section, we used it to test our ideas for how the book would work. Could the vision we talked about be a reality when we tried it out across a complete section of posts from Phil’s blog?

As we moved through the section, we were to careful keep to these standards.

The content and structure work together.
If one isn’t working, don’t force a fit. If the structure works for all but one page, that page doesn’t belong. If many pages don’t fit, the structure needs to be refit.
Consistency is a value, a benchmark of quality, and a support for readers. It also makes authors look smart.

That’s right. Consistency makes us look more intelligent.
In fact,

It’s better to be consistently wrong than inconsistently right.

Why Being Consistently Wrong Is better than Inconsistently Right

When we meet someone who thinks and talks like we do, we call that person someone who “gets” it. We think people who think like we think are intelligent . . . and those who donÃ¢â¬â¢t, well, theyÃ¢â¬â¢re not.

I can adjust when I talk to someone. I can put my “best brain” forward. I can listen actively and organize what I say to meet how someone takes in information. Teachers do that every day.

But how does an author do the same thing? Book readers think in many ways. An author can’t adjust for each reader.

The answer is one word, consistency.

Why is it better to be consistently wrong than inconsistently right?

You can spell the word house as hous, and if you do so consistently, readers will accept it as an alternative spelling. Miss once and they will see the mistake.

How Does Consistency Make Authors Look Smarter?

Consistency is key to a predictable book. When a book is predictable, readers know where you’re going without thinking about it — they “get” how you think. Giving readers consistency in every facet of a book means they can concentrate on what you’re saying. Your message and it’s brilliance can shine right through.

At the Book Level — A consistent structure offers orderly navigation. Readers know what to expect and what will come next. The experience is predictable and repeatable. Readers can feel safe that they know where the author is going. That can make an author look smarter, because readers feel the author is following a logical, predictable progression.

At the Detail Level — Many companies have a house style that determines how they phrase terms and spell certain words. Publishers and journalists follow a style manual for the same reasons. A consistent style provides credibility and accuracy. If an author is consistent in matters of detail, he or she establishes trust on matters of accuracy — inconsistency undercuts that bond and makes readers wonder whether the thinking is equally inconsistent and flawed.

Staying consistent lets a reader know how an author works and where he or she is going. Authors can’t adjust for readers, but they can make it easy for readers to follow their thinking. When authors do that, readers feel like the author “gets” it.

We all know that someone who “gets” it is really intelligent. — as intelligent as we are. It proves itself out consistently.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
If you’d like Liz to help you find or make a book from your archives, click on the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

A Blue Sky Thanksgiving

November 23, 2006 by Liz

Thank You!

My wish for you . . .

Reflection, a Blue Sky Thanksgviving

Happy Thanksgiving to all of the world!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Adventure Mode and Airports . . .

November 17, 2006 by Liz

Thanksgivng is the busiest travel time of the year.

I used to travel a lot — not as much as some, but way more than most. For almost three years, the longest time I spent with my pillow was 21 days and that only happened once. Several times I was away over 40 days. I got good at traveling.

What I learned was to go into adventure mode. I bet you remember adventure mode from childhood. It’s that way of looking at the world as if everything is an adventure — a game, something fun and exciting.

When a plane was delayed, adventure mode would kick in. I would start looking for where the story would begin. Everyone knows that no matter how awful a traveling delay can get, if you get a good story, it’s not a total and complete wipe out.

My best story is when I was stuck in an airport for four days.

If you travel over the holidays, be safe, travel well, and come back to us. If you run into delays, remember adventure mode . . . and bring back a story to tell us.

Liz's Signature

Stop Writerâs Block: 10 Minutes to Ideas to Write About

November 9, 2006 by Liz

Plenty of Ideas — Make Things Up!

A young man wrote this week,asking how he might open his mind to be more creative. We passed emails back and forth. He said he knows that he stops his ideas. He asked if I might point him to how he might open his mind to let the ideas flow.

Do you have that problem too? Let’s check.

Stop right now and make something up. I’m sure you know how. Make me taller or shorter or older or younger, or any some such. Invent a new character in your life who is all evil or who is all good. That wasn’t so hard, was it? Okay we’ve got the making things up part covered. Most of us learned that in childhood.

Making things up is the stuff that ideas are make of. The exercise training for getting better at doing that involves time spent test driving your subconscious and unconscious a bit.

I’m going to show you one way to do that using a photo, your brain, and about 10 minutes.

C’mon turn the page.

[Read more…]