Check out Buzzwords’ new ‘Guest Blogger’ article on huliq.com

The following article by Mike Beeson was published today on US online news portal www.huliq.com:

http://www.huliq.com/1/82686/new-greed-stalks-financial-neverland

‘New Greed Stalks Financial Neverland’.

Check it out – Huliq’s a good place for some interesting stories!!!

SEO copywriting and meaningless links

We all know that link building is today’s main mantra for sucessful SEO copywriting with Google. And yet, I don’t see that links generated through article directories are necessarily a good guide to a site’s ‘authority’.

The quality of articles on some directory sites are pretty dire, even if they are the bees’ knees for search engines. The article directory concerned may have a respectable Google PR (Page Rank) but when they’re publishing dross, the net effect flies in the face of Google’s aim of delivering a quality search experience.

Which brings me back to a hobby-horse of mine that those pages at the top of the SERPs aren’t necessarily the best in that subject area. They are in fact the ones that most closely meet Google’s SEO criteria and are unfairly rewarded because their webmasters know how best to play the SEO game.

You could say that life – and publicity in particular – is like that.  Advertising and PR has always rewarded those who know how to shout the loudest. It’s just that Google claims to apply ultra-sophisticated methods (algorithms) to bring us a new marketing paradigm when the reality is that things haven’t really changed. In years to come, the likelihood is that building ‘links’ in this way – or any way? – will be seen as a wrong turning for SEO  .

An SEO copywriter’s dream – Buzzwords’ new CMS website…

As an SEO copywriter, I’m having a morning of barely contained orgasms as I look at my new content managed (CMS) website!!! (see: buzzwords.ltd.uk)

 I was always sceptical about CMS from a search engine optimization (SEO copywriting) point of view until I noticed that a fellow copywriter was ranking very well with the search engines thank you very much. 

What I like about the new CMS site is being able to add new content as and when I want to.  No longer do I have to go to my website coding man and wait an age for him to upload my new content – and then send me a bill!

Now, I’m free to add new pages, photos and files of almost any description as and when I choose.  It’s an SEO copywriter’s dream!

Buzzwords Copywriting Manchester on Facebook

Buzzwords Limited is now on Facebook.

 

Annual Report Copywriting – It pays to watch your tone!

Copywriting for Annual Reports will always be challenging. That’s where I’m at right now – writing away on behalf of a major UK organisation!

Annual Reports must rank as one of the most important documents any business will ever produce. Writing Annual Reports is all about balance – talking in an authoritative way about strategy, Key Performance Indicators, performance itself, people and plans for the future… but all the while making sure that key stakeholders will be able to identify with what the organisation does, where it’s going in the future, and how its achievements are measured and presented.

With all this corporate ‘background noise’ going on, writing effective Annual Reports is as much about acquiring and organising the right information as it is about a consistent copywriting approach. It’s vital to establish a structure from the outset, rather like a website sitemap. This should of course be established in close partnership with the Report’s designer. Decisions on page layouts, photography and graphics are dictated by content and how the information flows.

Achieving balance in the copywritten content is about combining readability with authority.  It’s all too easy to slip into inappropriate informality when writing copy that must always be ‘accessible’ to readers of all persuasions.  This blog, for instance, is written in a fairly informal style.  Taking a similar approach to the copywriting for an Annual Report might cut it with certain journalists or shareholders – but it’s not going to work with bankers and financiers who are looking for a serious and professional analysis of the organisation. 

They may go home and morph into ‘normal’ creatures like you or I – but for the purposes of Annual Report copywriting, it pays to watch your tone!

Freelance Copywriting Offline – Business Sectors

It’s amazing how many people call me with the question: ‘Have you ever worked in… beta blockers/timeshares/materials handling’ – or some other highly specific industry. Any half-way decent copywriter can turn his hand to almost any subject.  That’s simply because it’s experience of copywriting techniques that matters – not the subject matter being written about.  (That can always be researched.)  Just for the record, I’ve worked on some very obscure topics.  Here’s a few of the more ‘mainstream’ sectors:

Travel Copywriting – Upmarket or down dale.  UK hotels or jet-set hideaways.  Brochures, ads and direct mail.  Nothing fazes me with travel copywriting – although it has to be said that this is a more difficult writing genre than many imagine.

Industrial Copywriting – This is a catch-all label for what covers a multitude. If you want to find out about the diversity of UK industry, become a copywriter!  (I did – but not for that reason.)

Financial Copywriting - Banks, building societies, insurance companies, financial advisers, brokers and accountants – Ive written for them all.  Quite a mix, with some pretty impressive names too. 

Property Copywriting – Scene-setting and then getting to grips with the selling points of everything from a one-bed flat to a major mansion house – property writing has its own unique demands.  Brochures, news releases, ads – whatever your weapon, I’ve used it.

Advertising & Design Agencies – I know about agencies.  It’s where I started my advertising career, and I’ve written for hundreds of them since.  I know what agencies want – their target markets, the tone of voice needed.  If you have an agency and you’re reading this, I can probably help you get over the ‘cringe factor’ that comes from writing your own publicity!