The first step when considering social analytics is to establish a listening strategy.

In social media, listening acts as a guide through the ever-changing and interesting world of the blogosphere.

Why? Because listening is an ongoing process that is necessary to keep a strategy fresh and competitive. It enables decision-makers to find and better understand opportunities and stakeholders.

So, exactly how do you go about listening?

#1: Determine your target audience

Once an organization has determined whom to target, it’s critical to understand where to engage them online. A common misperception is that all social networks are the same and therefore everyone is on the same platform.

For example, according to Anderson Analytics, Generation Z (13- to 14-year-old) social network users were more likely to use MySpace than Facebook; only 9% used Twitter and none were active on LinkedIn. If your company is targeting Generation Z on Twitter, you’re listening in the wrong place.

An example of an organization successfully targeting and engaging an audience is Seton Hall University. In an effort to increase their revenue and student enrollment, Seton Hall marketers decided to target prospective students using Facebook to build relationships.

They launched the Class of 2014 Facebook page and tagged custom Class of 2014 tabs, making it possible to identify any www.shu.edu visitors who had also interacted with Facebook. Using social analytics and reporting, marketers then examined the behavior of these visitors.

The Seton Hall staff began responding to prospective students’ requests for help, from orientation to deposit status to placement tests to housing. Soon, “declarations” (posts where prospective students announce a decision such as major, orientation date or interest in a club or sport) had risen to 47% of all posts.

The data showed that visitors who interacted heavily with the Class of 2014 pages demonstrated a high level of engagement with the university website as well.

For example, they were more likely to request information and fill out applications than other visitors. The data collected revealed that Facebook was not only important to Seton Hall, but was critical to the following year’s enrollment.

By midsummer (two months before classes were to begin), tuition deposits for the class of 2014 were 25% higher than the previous year at the same time. Moreover, enrollment was tracking at 13% ahead of the previous year’s class.

Audience and location are foundations for a listening strategy; thus, step one is toknow who your audience is and where to find them.

#2: Identify the influencers

A research report from Meteor Solutions found that the type of people who follow or friend you are more important than the numbers.

On average, approximately 1% of a site’s audience generates 20% of all its traffic through sharing of the brand’s content or site links with others.

This was backed by a Forrester Research report that showed a minority (about 6% of people) generates 80% of the impressions, and roughly 13% of the online adults generate 80% of the influence posts.

This is where social analytics come into play. Through social analytics, an organization can determine which individuals are sharing content and links and their sentiment about it.

Facebook and Twitter are likely places that influencers and target audiences frequent, but are just the tip of the iceberg.

For example, if you were tracking a Java programmer, Java blogs and community forums would provide a stronger platform for listening.

Another example, RTL Nederland (an entertainment company in the Netherlands) is using analytics
to help interpret audience (tippers) feedback from a variety of social data sources for reality television programs, including “X Factor” and “So You Think You Can Dance.”

RTL Nederland is able to better understand audience needs and preferences by analyzingblog posts, Twitter feeds, Facebook posts and more. They’ve been able to make real-time changes to the programming, such as choice of candidates, music and the judging panel. This has led to increased viewer satisfaction and ratings.

Finding these like-minded souls is important for success, but can require some digging. In the end though, it’s worth the effort. Determining influencers will make all the difference in a listening strategy and ultimately, a social business agenda.

Analytics tools can paint that picture by analyzing and interpreting vast quantities of data—customer demographics, product-purchase histories, Internet experiences and online transactions—turning information into insight and developing conclusive, fact-based strategies to gain that competitive edge.

#3: Know the keywords and trends

Determine the topics that are important to your business and identify them as potential keywords. Then through listening, establish if that is the language your audience is interested in.

For example, “cost cutting” would seem like a viable term to use during a recession; however, as a result of listening, it’s clear that “cost reduction” is actually the preferred term.

If you’re in the wireless telecommunications industry, you would investigate dropped call, 3G, mobile apps, smartphone, data plan and so forth. Keywords should reflect what’s important to your business.

Though it seems like a simple thing, refining the listening approach to get exactly what you want and constantly searching for new keywords and noting keyword trends can help to better reach a key audience.

Telecom provider XO Communications is using state-of-the-art business analytics tools to predict customer behavior and proactively reach out to customers most likely to go elsewhere.

Through predictive analytic software, XO Communications is able to accurately predict customers who are likely to leave.

#4: Form a social business strategy

An organization’s social business strategy should address the goals and approach the company will take.

Relevancy and reputation management should be part of the goals.

How many times are you mentioned? In what context? By what audience? You can influence this by listening to the things your audience cares about and relating to their needs.

Secondly, how do you set up your organization to both listen to and brainstorm changes based off of the listening feedback?

One solution is to establish a virtual task force for sharing information learned.

For example, within IBM we have an informal Social Media Council with representatives from across business functions who gather to share best practices, comments and sentiment.

Another choice is to have a formal group whose mission is to listen and then respond to information across an organization.

In closing…

Social analytics starts with listening. The future is all about hearing what your business ecosystem (customers, business partners, constituencies, employees, etc.) has to say and collaborating internally and externally to meet their expectations.

Listening is not just a discipline. It is an embodiment of a social business strategy to address the mass volume of data every company faces today and offer a means for evaluating this information to drive business results.

What do you think? What is your company using for a listening strategy? Leave your questions and comments in the box below.

I would personally like to thank Simon for allowing The Entrepreneur Club to republish the following article.

You can’t have not heard of the term ‘personal branding’ yet I feel there is a stereotype about it that requires adjusting: many people are going down the wrong road with it and a superficial road at that.

I feel many people would actually benefit from seeing personal brand not as a superficial set of techniques for ‘presenting yourself’ to the world, but as something more profound, which has the potential to help people to reinvent themselves. And for many people who feel stuck or trapped or whose ambitions seem to be impossible to achieve, reinvention is precisely what’s required. What we call our brand is really the collection of perceptions that others have about us.

But it’s not just about what other people think: it’s what you understand about yourself that counts more profoundly, because that governs how you behave, the actions you take, and the reputation that you ultimately create. It’s your life and reputation to manage: and using personal brand in the deepest sense can enable you to do that effectively.

I suggest you consider your personal brand strategy with the same thoroughness that successful companies like Apple, Virgin and others do for their brands. You are a brand too and even if your preference would be not to think of yourself in this way, the reality is that what you do and who you are creates perceptions and feelings in the minds and hearts of others, just like what happens with brands. And your customers are not limited to the people who buy your products or services. Your ‘brand’ customers include your staff, your business associates, your suppliers: everyone with whom you have relationships. So your personal brand really matters.

Take time to look at what you want your purpose to be, whether as an established business owner or newbie start up. From a solid purpose you can then build strategy and a powerful personal narrative. In short, the only way to build a powerful personal brand, one that will actually make a difference to your life, is to do it profoundly and deeply, to actually ‘reinvent’ yourself – authentically to be YOU.

I’ve done this for myself many times. I am a qualified teacher and a registered nurse. I’ve been an advertising agency copywriter and creative director and board director of two successful agencies. I am a serial author and the front man of the roots-country band ‘The Proposition’ and I am founder of a specialist music retailer business ‘Left Hand Bear’ which serves left-handed musicians all over the world.

And that list doesn’t even include the ‘day job’: which is running my brand consultancy ‘Brand Strategy Guru’ and speaking about branding at conferences in many countries.

All of these activities are possible because I have learnt to reinvent myself and I have now done it many times. But the real trick has been to make those reinventions work together, and to weave a personal brand story which, though it has many different strands, all makes some kind of psychological sense. My brand story has remained authentic even though it has continually developed.

Many people get trapped by fear and feel unable to change: and thus never achieve their dreams. The dreams stay in their heads, unfulfilled, until they wither away. It happens to too many people, but it needn’t, and one great way to avoid that trap is to look at yourself as a brand.

Simon’s 10 TIPS FOR REINVENTING YOURSELF IN THE WORKPLACE:

1. Your personal brand isn’t about your qualifications or even how smart you are: it’s about making yourself of distinctive recognisable value, no matter how modest your role. Even if you have the lowliest job, if you do it with an absolute commitment to excellence then you will get noticed.

2. The greatest skill of all in a modern business or organisation is to be able to solve problems and to create more effective strategies. So instead of trying on the one hand just to ‘fit in’ or on the other hand to be ‘innovative’ for its own sake, strive instead actually to solve real problems. And remember that doesn’t mean having to be cleverer than others: sometimes it just means applying a little more attentiveness.

3. The second greatest skill is to be able to communicate your ideas with regard for others’ understanding and position. Nobody likes a show off or stubbornness, least of all managers in organisations. So be clear and make your case with conviction, but never be arrogant or uncompromising.

4. In a small business, or in a team within a big organisation, your personal ‘brand’ is best expressed through a compelling narrative about how and what you contribute. It’s no good claiming to be valuable. That’s like a comedian claiming to be funny. You have to ‘be’ valuable.

5. Along the way, and especially when your contribution is being noticed, you will find others who try to stop you, trip you up, or trap you. Pay no heed to those, other than to be aware of them. Engaging in inter-staff warfare can only damage your personal brand and will never enhance your career.

6. Great brands are founded on authenticity, not on lies. Never, ever, invent a better back story for yourself. You will, ultimately, be found out. Instead tell your real story: but tell it better by engaging emotions and imagination.

7. Don’t go for promotion just because you think you should. Don’t follow the career path as though it was pre-determined. It isn’t. Think about your career strategy. What do you really, truly want to be doing in two or five years time? If a promotion helps take you there that’s great. But if it doesn’t, consider other approaches. A different company? Working for yourself?

8. Learn to balance hope and fear. Anything worth doing (new job, big presentation etc) will induce fear and anxiety. But you need to step around that fear or your personal ‘brand’ will never progress. But don’t fall into the X-Factor trap of assuming that you will succeed just because you want something badly enough. Never try to wing it! Prepare, prepare, prepare.

9. If you hate your job but there appears no prospect of changing it in the near future, don’t despair. Change your attitude to it instead: treat everything you do as ‘training’ for what comes next.

10. If you’ve made an error of judgement, or any other kind of mistake, do not try to hide it. Own up to it and take the flak. Learn something from it, explain what you have learned, show why having been through the experience you are now more valuable than ever, and be the guy who made the famous recovery!

Simon Middleton is an EBA Millionaire Mentor.

His new book, Brand New You, Hay House, releases in May 2012. Simon’s evening masterclass Reinventing A Brand New You is in central London on Wednesday October 26th. For further information visit www.simonmiddleton.com

It is hardly surprising that the major ingredient to online success as an affiliate is the quality of your chosen keywords. This should not be groundbreaking news to you. However, it never fails to amaze, despite the supreme importance, the number of affiliates that fail to research the keywords that are essential to their niche website profitability.

Many affiliates make the common mistake of finding the most searched keyword lists, the keywords with the highest demand in their niche and build a Google PPC campaign, SEO and article marketing strategy targeting this list.

The Result: The sales do not come in and you end up scratching you head and wondering where did it all go wrong.

Let me tell you, in profitable niches, the high demand keywords are the keywords with the most competition that every Tom, Dick & Harry affiliate are fighting for too.

Let me assure you that if you do what everyone else is doing you are setting up your campaign and ultimately your business to mediocre results.

Tip from the school of hard knocks: Search out the keywords with little demand.

This is not counter intuitive.

Let me state my case…

Keywords that have little demand tend to have little competition, unlike the popular searched keywords. Therefore the little demand keyword nuggets are easier to get high rankings for. Theses keywords in turn can also therefore be highly targeted and resulting in better quality traffic and sales conversion.

If the above is true, why do so many affiliates turn a blind eye to these targeted keywords?

Answer: They think its not worth the time or effort to create SEO content for them. They think “Why bother? They only get a few searches per day.”

Do not overlook my point: If you create the correct keyword SEO content that caters to the small demand, highly targeted, profitable keywords your traffic will grow expotentialy and sales will also follow.

I ignored the point above for my first four, yes four years online. I achieved poor results and blamed Google adwords for being too expensive per click. I spent my family time chasing the keywords that are searched 100,000 times per day because I believed the money would roll in as I climbed the Google Search engine rankings!

Four years later I achieved high rankings, the sales were not as I believed they would and I shut down the site. I was deflated.

During these years I had gathered enough information that advised me otherwise about keyword research and so I started testing using the expensive keyword tool Market Samurai. I became obsessive in my testing and tested persistently. I was pleasantly surprised at the results.

If for example you are promoting a product that helps alleviate depression, you may not want to target “depression” or “depression treatments” or “depression symptoms.” You DO want to go deeper and target phrases like “natural remedy for depression and anxiety,” “herbal remedies for depression.”

The next best tip I can give you with your internet keyword research is to go broad.

Too many people focus on only the base keyword of their niche and never realize that lateral keywords may have even higher relevancy and convert just as well into sales, if not better.

I recommend going broad and digging deep into those lateral categories, You WILL open up entirely new horizons of targeted keywords that will help you rake in the sales.

Think how you can go broad and deep in your niche market to mine it for highly targeted traffic and frequent sales and let the other uneducated affiliates fight for the rest.

Whether you want to earn a few dollars a week or work part time from home with the goal of giving up your full time job – Blogging can be very lucrative. Why not join the tens of thousands of bloggers who make money online blogging.

How to Make Money Blogging.

There are numerous ways to monetize a blog. I will cover these in detail in a few moments. Right now I want to share some of the basic methods on how to make money from your new blog for beginners:

• Affiliate Programs (Clickbank, CJ.com etc)
• Physical Products (books, DVD’s , merchandise)
• Virtual Products (ebooks, audio, video, webinars)
• Advertising (Ad networks, CPA, CPM, CPC, Newsletters)

All the above actually deserve an article to be written specifically on each. I will provide this at time passes as I do concur to this fact. However for now I am sure you can get a basic understanding of monetization.

Now let me start by sharing my own methods for making money online blogging using various profitable techniques. Before you read it all the way to the end, as it does get better – keep in mind that every blog is very unique in its money making methods. Many of the income streams will work well on some blogs and not so good on others. The key is to experiment and track results until you find what works best for your blog.

The following have helped me earn a great income over the last few years from blogging. I have more than one site, all are monetized using the methods I outline below. I have built these sites on the principle of “$10 per site per day and building”

As you can see if you have ten sites, you can easily generate $100 a day. You can do the rest of the math!

I hope you find the following useful.

1. Affiliate Programs

Affiliate programs in general pay you a commission for selling someone else’s product, training course etc. I run a few on this blog, most of which bring in sales each month. This can quickly add up.

I recommend on this blog Yaro Starak’s Blog Mastermind & Aweber’s Autoresponder Service. The reason for these two in particular is simple. They are of such high quality service providers that they sell themselves. I actually get emails from members who thanked me for the recommendation!

2. AdSense

I do not use AdSense at The Entrepreneur Club, however I do use it on other sites

with mixed results. I personally only use text and images based adverts. I have tested different formats and found the above to be best suited to my websites.

3. eBook Sales

This is undoubtedly my best income source (should I have placed this in the number 1 spot?) I have released 2 ebooks in the last 12 months. Blogging Professional and Niche Super Sleuth. One sells for $37 and the other $17, both contribute well to my monthly income and certainly have been worth the time invested in each product. I will be adding more ebooks in the coming months, watch this space!

4. Continuity Programs

This is my latest category or page in my blog.  A continuity program is a site – generally a membership site -  where you earn a recurring income from people who subscribe to a service you offer.

For me this is a new venture that currently consistent of regular sign ups each day and building well. At the time of writing our first members newsletter has yet to be broadcast, so the potential looks good.

5. Ad Sales/Sponsorships

We frequently receive requests to advertise on our blogs. This is generally the result on one particular keyword search (You need to learn keyword research)

Currently we only accept 125 x 125 ads on the site. Revenue does vary greatly depending on the current economic climate. Advertising on the site has real concentrated focus from myself. If we get the request we consider it. I accept adverts as incidental income.

6. Amazon Associates

To date I have never made a significant income from Amazon, however I have colleagues who rave on about its potential. I am currently investigating this further. I have experimented with physical book delivery and sold at intervals.

Worth greater consideration. If you are experienced with Amazon I would love to hear your comments below.

7. Jobs Board

Again not on this blog however I do have a Jobs board on others and earn consistently from it. Posting job opportunities for employers looking to recruit your target market can be lucrative. Ensure the jobs are “on topic” and relevant to your readership.

Our jobs board is an exciting growing revenue stream. We are considering this blogs potential?

When writing a blog, it is important that you keep the interest of the reader alive throughout so that he is tempted to read on and on. A small percentage of readers actually make it past the first paragraph. Unless you write well, most of the viewers will be dozing off. Only a handful of writers can make reading a blog fun and make the reader ask for more. The problem is that most of the writers don’t want to shoulder the blame for visitors turning away from the blog and not making money. More than often, they blame the design of the blog, calling it unappealing. In fact, the design is the least important thing when it comes to the blog and hardly any blogs are present on the internet, which have ineffective designs.

The problem lies with what you write and not the design of the blog; and that is where most of the work needs to be done. Engaging content in a poor design can work, but poor content in a wonderful design won’t. Avoid the blame game. You may be Shakespeare but if you can’t get people to read your blog, then it is goodbye for you. Every writer considers himself to be the best, so how to know if what you are writing is readable or boring?

The best option for you is to use the many tools which have been supplied to you by the internet; most of them are free. Google has a program known as Google Analytics which has been designed to know if a blog is making the people stay on and read, or they are just passing through. You can see for yourself how many people are actually taking the time to read your blog and how many are just stopping for a glance before moving on to other websites.

There are millions of yawn inducing blogs which can be an effective cure for insomnia! I tell you that unless you keep it simple and relevant, even the most avid readers will be cursing you in their hearts. Here are some tips to help you get the boredom out of your blog and make money.

Be Confident

You know yourself and no one else can do it better than you. You have to be confident in your ability to write before you actuallymake an effort to write out a blog. The requirements for writing a blog are different than writing an essay or a story; therefore, it is difficult to be an effective blog writer even for someone who is good at writing. The way you write has an effect on the reader, and confidence in your tone compels the reader to believe that you know what you are talking about.

Variety is the Spice of Blogs

Make sure that you don’t get stuck in a rut while writing your blogs. Some writers are confined to one writing style and end up using it in everything they write. Though it’s good to have your unique style of writing, but it should not be rigid. You should have some flexibility in your writing style so that you can adapt it to any topic or pattern and don’t have to face any problems if you are writing about something new. Having variety in your writing will attract more people to your blog and as a result, your readership will increase.

Take Some Risks

No, you don’t need to do anything life-threatening. Just break out of your comfort zone for once. Writers often get caught up in a routine where they keep using the same words over and over and instead of improving their vocabulary, use clichéd words which look very unappealing to the readers and reduce the impact of the written text. A good tactic is to tell a story than writing a bland block of text of 600 words, which no one is interested in and hardly anyone would bother to read. It would be a waste of both time and energy, and you stand to lose your readership.

Don’t Just Think, Do It

You may think that once you have read these tips your writing will improve automatically. That unfortunately is not the case! You have to drag your bottom off the couch and start applying what you have learnt to see an improvement. Once you start implementing these tips into your writing style, you yourself will see the difference in your blogs and they will be of the level which you wish them to be. It is the best way to remove dreary elements from your blogs once and for all.

I will talk later in this post about how you can get your piece of twitter hysteria!

We possibly by now all know that Internet marketers use social media sites to promote their products and sell services. Similarly Internet marketers only using other social media platforms should seriously consider twitter in their arsenal to generate and drive targeted traffic. Traffic is without any doubt the key to success for Internet based businesses. twitter is well known as one of the giants of social media with the largest number of users as explained earlier. Therefore it is a genuine source for mass traffic to your business.

Here are some useful tips I use to effectively generate traffic using twitter.

The key to getting traffic is by staying in touch with your current followers and being interactive. You need to stay current and remain informative. You need to update your posts and blogs as regularly as possible. It is however important not to substitute quality content for the sake of being able to tweet a junk article. Keep the focus on your website content and always tweet each unique quality post you write.

Tweets must be as polite and as transparent as possible. There will be occasions when people do not agree with your posts or your views on things, or maybe just simply misunderstand you. Don’t be afraid of these people. Many such tweets have received the highest number of comments on blogs and raised awareness of the author. Controversy can be lucrative however don’t be inflammatory.

Engage your followers. Ask questions and conduct surveys about peoples’ opinions to certain blog posts, websites or the latest news. On twitter you get the most responses to status updates. You can share anything and get the quickest response. So feel free to share whatever is on your mind and get your traffic increased within a short time. The survey will also help you improve your products and services, and attract more traffic.

On twitter the latest trend is the key to getting the right attention.

People like being the first to know. Share the latest updates on whatever is happening in your niche, whether it is a conference, training, webinar, or anything that will entertain your traffic. Encourage your traffic to comment on your posts and reply to their messages to maintain the flow of sharing and interaction.

Share as much information about yourself with your clients. However ensure that it is always genuine and authentic. Be responsive and listen to what your followers say to you. Whatever you share should be witty and exciting, not boring or slow. For those who need traffic for business purposes, holding online webinars and forums to discuss business issues is a good idea. Additionally share links to information about other blogs you may have found to be useful.

Always update your twitter web page with the latest about your products and services. For up coming new products, begin by sharing the news of their launch long before time. This way the current traffic will help automatically by sharing the information with people they know, retweets. With time this will attract more traffic to your blog.

You should also send emails to your current followers and people who visit your blog or website by asking them to subscribe to your newsletters. Sending newsletters as we all know is a good way of keeping your followers hooked on you. For those who visit your page for the first time, create a popup message where they can enter their name and email address and encourage them to post comments on your blog. This way you can address the follower by his or her name and communicate with them in a very friendly yet personal manner. However, as a tip and warning, never abuse the email addresses of the follower and never send them spam (not trying to teach you to suck eggs here, we all just hate spam).

Upon getting this new traffic always acknowledge their arrival. This helps makes them feel appreciated and they participate more.  Direct them to your website or blog and encourage their involvement. Your blog reader will benefit from the backlinks with every comment they leave on your site. It’s a win – win situation. I personally never visit a blog without commenting. The backlink is important and I believe in making the most of my time online.

How do you plan on spending yours?

Ghostwriters are hired guns that do the writing for you in a style you require and enjoy reading yourself.

Such a person (hired gun) should have the talent and time to write at least three blog posts for you per week. The writer should have the potential to communicate the right message with the audience, as clearly as possible. The goal is to grow the traffic and maintain the traffic on your website. The only way to do this is by providing them with something new and intriguing. The writer must be able to provide you with the kind of layout that suits your requirements. Therefore the best option in my experience for you to create a great blog without doing all the writing yourself is through Elance.

What is Elance?

Elance is an internet marketplace where freelancers or freelance organizations negotiate and work with other business organizations that hire professionals to provide internet content. This internet market is available at elance.com.

Elance.com allows these selected business organizations to manage people and projects online and charges them a fee for providing them with access to this facility. It is a rich source for creative writers, website programmers, sales writers, web designers, and other internet related activities. Therefore all you need to do to create a great blog is to access Elance and find the right business organizations which will help do it all with you. There are other benefits of using Elance and these include:

• Access to Skills: Through Elance.com people in need get help with whatever project they may be working on. They can as well help people looking for specific skills to produce the required work. Elance.com is an well oiled website which makes it easy for users to find and post what ever they need help with. All the person looking for a specific skill needs to do is to submit the proposed project or topic and people willing to work on it will get in touch.

• Security: Elance.com is a safe site and businesses and organizations enlisted on this website are genuine. You can easily carryout a background check on the buyers and providers of services. Once people work with each other the clients and providers rate one another. This provides information on how good the skills provided were and how well the deal worked. For future reference and new clients this serves as a guarantee for satisfaction. So clients looking for certain skill can select the best freelancer to deal with.

• Verification Credentials: Elance.com has verified credential programs where the freelancers can display recommendations made by previous clients for the work they had done. This helps by proving freelancers to be genuine and good performers. This also helps the employer of the freelancer because recommendations bring more clients.

• Classification: Elance.com groups the information bases on category. When searching for the freelancer, users of this site need to search for a specific category and they get all the data. Therefore information on these sites is organized and easy to use.

• The Escrow Program: Because Elance.com provides security and reliability for both the freelancer and the client. The freelancers have little risks of not getting paid for their work because the escrow program ensures that the transactions get through successfully.

How Elance Works?

There are three simple steps to working with elance:

1. Hire the right people: To begin with this you need to find the right people by posting your job. There will be reviews in response to your requirements. Go through them and select the best one that suits you.
2. Work with the people: You will need to explain what you need in your work, guide the people working on what your requirements are. It is more of a team work. Keep a constant track on the progress of the work through regular feedbacks and share new ideas with the team.
3. Payment: Once the work is completed you will need to review and approve it. Once you are satisfied you have to pay only for the time taken in doing the work. There is no extra paperwork required.

With elance, creating a great blog without doing all the writing yourself allows you to look at other areas of your blog business with the piece of mind that content is being professionally delivered, unique and frequent.

Copywriting can be segmented into two parts. One is the sales copywriting which is used for promotion purposes. The other is search engine optimization copywriting. In essence, both of them are the same but search engine optimization is geared towards bringing visitors to your site rather than convincing them to buy your product. However, the copywriting techniques for both promotional copywriting and search engine optimization copywriting are pretty similar, if not the same.

There are no guarantees to the effectiveness of a copywriter. A professional copywriter may be able to generate sales for your products but the chances of success and failure are pretty much equal. In the current economic climate, not every business can afford the services of a professional copywriter. A good way to cut costs is to do it yourself. Yes, you can learn some copywriting techniques that will help you get started and once you start doing it, you can move on to more advanced techniques. It is only sensible for you that if you do copywriting, then you should.

There are simple copywriting techniques that can help you with the basics.

Avoid Typos

Typos can ruin the impact of even the greatest piece of writing. When writing copy, make sure that you avoid typos and that there is not a single typing error in the content. Imagine a wonderfully worded article that you have written, but there is a typo in the middle. The reader will think that the writer is irresponsible and careless; moreover, he will apply that same image to the product that you are writing for. Typos are the biggest turn-offs for potential customers.

Grammar & Punctuation

Another key basic thing in copywriting is the grammar and punctuation. Both of them should be spot-on in your writing. Poor grammar will make the reader disinterested in your writing and incorrect punctuation can change the entire meaning of the text that you have written.

Your writing needs to be free of any errors whatsoever, or else there would be hardly any person who would read it. Remember, you don’t have to be Shakespeare when it comes to writing copy. All you have to do is write coherent content and make it free of all errors. Readability is the key and you should keep that in mind at all times.
These were the very basic and fundamental copywriting techniques. Once you have gotten the hang of writing copy, then you can incorporate a few other copywriting techniques to make your writing even better and more effective as well.

Get Into the Minds of the Readers

You have to focus all your energies into writing for the audience only. Don’t write to please yourself, but concentrate on getting into the mind of the readers. Once you are getting through to the reader, you would have no problem in communicating what you want to say to him. This is often ignored by copywriters as they write to satisfy themselves and end up alienating the readers. Relevance is important when it comes to writing copy and you should keep it in mind.

Tell a Story

Rather then writing a boring and drab article about a product, construct a story. You can be as creative as you want. Writing a story will be more interesting to you and the readers will be more attracted to it then they would to a large block of text filled with heavy words.

Keywords

Keywords are important in copywriting, particularly in search engine optimization copywriting. Copywriting requires you to use keywords, but you should not go overboard in the usage of keywords. Some writers tend to do so and end up filling their content with a lot of keywords, most of the time forcing them in even when they are not fitting in.

Organization & Presentation

Organize your content in the best way possible, so that it looks pleasing to the reader and makes it easier for him to read through it. The best option is to use bullet points and short paragraphs. Having a good presentation and organization makes the content readable to the visitor. After all, readability is the key when writing copy.
These were some copywriting techniques that you can use to make your content readable and more effective. Whether you are writing a sales copy or doing search engine optimization copywriting, it is imperative that you follow these copywriting techniques.

Search engine optimization copywriting is the same as standard copywriting. There is a slight difference in the content, where specific words and phrases, known as ‘keywords’ are used. Strategic placement of these keywords is done in the content so that the readers don’t feel as if the narrative is being hampered by the repetition of the words and phrases.

Point of View

Copywriting should always be done from the point of view of the readers. Putting yourself in the reader’s shoes is a good idea to get a feel of what he/she would like to read and then writing copy according to it. Focusing the content on your target audience is essential to improve your copywriting skills. Place subtle but strong emphasis on the benefits that the reader will enjoy if he does what you are asking him to do. A strong ‘you’ attitude in the content while writing copy will help you get your point across to the readers effectively. Be conversational instead of being preachy. The reader should feel that you are talking to him but not lecturing him.

Organize

Organization of the content while writing copy will make it easy and interesting to read. First of all, you should write down the key points that you have to communicate to the readers. You have to stress upon the key points in the content so that your readers buy the product. Make the key points clear so that there is no vagueness or ambiguity in the reader’s mind. The next step is to write. Using bullet points and paragraphs is a good idea to make is simple for the reader to read through the article and it also helps with search engine optimization. Use short sentences and avoid being wordy but make sure you give as much information as you can to the readers.

Avoid Technical Jargon

A common mistake made by copywriters is the use of technical jargon in the content. Always keep in mind that you are writing for a layman and not for a rocket scientist. You are free to use technical jargon as long as a majority of the readers you are targeting are familiar with the technical terms you are using in the content. Use simple words as much as you can. Don’t use a technical word unless there is no alternative for it at all.

In a nutshell, don’t use any words that don’t fit there. Clear out all the extra content that is just taking up space. Some white space between the paragraphs is better than a hundred meaningless words which the reader won’t even bother to read.

These were 3 general tips that will help to improve the copywriting skills. Now let’s look at some search engine optimization copywriting tips.

Keywords

Keywords are an integral part of search engine optimization copywriting. The proper use of keywords has to be done so that you are able to show up in the results when a user searches for the keywords you are targeting. Scattering the keywords across your content is a good idea as it helps improve the web ranking. Don’t post irrelevant content just for the sake of using keywords. Misinformation can drive people away from you.

Title

Using an effective and attractive title is also a good way to grab the attention of the reader. Using the keyword in the title will be a masterstroke and help with search engine optimization. There is no guarantee that the user will read the article with a great title, but he will surely be attracted to it. Remember, there will be hundreds of results that come up after a web search and you have to stand out from the rest to convince someone to click on your article.

Approach

There are two approaches you can use while writing copy. The first one is the ‘hard sell’ where you place strong emphasis on the reader to get him to buy your product. This approach is not conducive to search engine optimization. The other approach is the ‘soft sell’ approach where all the information about the product is provided to the reader but the final decision is left to him. The ‘soft sell’ approach can be used in search engine optimization copywriting because you have to provide a lot of content to the reader to convince him to act.

Using the copywriting tips that have been provided to you will help you improve your copywriting skills as well as help with search engine optimization.

Some affiliate marketers do everything correctly, but still fail to generate any real volume of sales. They were able to get their affiliate marketing website up and running and were able to get plenty of traffic to their site or blog, but are not seeing any profits. How can this be? What I am doing incorrectly? Their lack of success may be due to falling into some common pitfalls that can easily be avoided.

Trying To Actually Sell The Products Do You put every ounce of your effort into creating a sales pitch for your affiliate product? If so, you need to stop yourself from doing this. As strange as it may sound, as an affiliate, you do not have to sell. This is how it works. If you are trying to sell, when a visitor comes to your website, reads your sales info, and clicks on your affiliate link, they will be presented with yet another sales letter. Will he/she buy it? Not really. However, if you pre-sell the product on your affiliate site instead of selling it you can escape this crap, sorry! meant to say… trap. Your job as an affiliate marketer is to interest your prospects and send them directly to the actual sales page, not sell the product. By doing so you complete a vital stage in the buying cycle. Your role is to attract the casual visitor, keep their attention, and then send them on to where they can be transformed from potential customer to buyer.

Not Keeping Yourself Updated. You always want to keep your options open and watch for new product launches in your market. By having an eye on the affiliate marketing industry you’ll know firsthand what’s going on. You can also use this information to keep your previous customers up to date on any changes or promotions. Your customers will appreciate your efforts, this slowly and steadily builds your brand name. Plus, if you want to stay ahead of your competition, this is what you need to be doing.

Not Tracking Conversions It is your responsibility, as an affiliate, to be aware of what product is converting and what product is failing to convert. By not tracking your conversions, you are losing a lot of potential profits. This is especially true if you use PPC to promote your affiliate products. By keeping track of conversions, you will be able to turn losses (and you will experience losses) into profits. When you see a product is failing to convert, you can research to find out why it is not converting. If you find that the product’s sales page is not convincing enough, you can choose to switch to a different product. If something is not making money do not waste more time than you need to with it, once it is clear it is not selling, move on to another. You need to be quick on your feet.

There is great potential to make money with affiliate marketing, some people however still find it hard because they make simple mistakes. Share your experiences below and let us know how we can help. If you want to become a high end affiliate, you need to learn from your mistakes and those of others, share your experiences below….