Content Writers and Pay: How do you know if you need a pro?

The trend seems to be that more and more companies understand that they need quality content on their sites, they want blogs, they want ads and they want articles.....but, they do not want to pay.

Of course that is incorrect, how much writers are paid is based on what the market supports. For example, you are not going to pay $5 for a donut when the bakery across the street sells the same type of donut for 50 cents. That is just simple mathematics.

But when it comes to writers, it may not be that simple, because all writers are different. Some writers are working for as little as $3 per blog post or less, 15 cents per forum post and (at least in Utah) for as little as $10/hr for full-time web site content writing. The other thing to consider is that most writers have been trained through universities, who do little content development education. Graduates have been taught to write essays and prose, and if you are lucky they have have been taught to write magazine articles. Even those who graduate in journalism are not taught SEO extensively. Whereas, trained SEO writers and content development professionals make 35K to about 65K per year, so in summary, you get what you pay for.

So how do you know if you need a pro SEO writer?
If you have or want to have a profitable and busy online business, then you should consult a pro. However, the pro may not be doing all of your writing, it may make more sense to hire less expensive writers to write things like product descriptions, Google ads and so on, under the direction of the pro content development or SEO guru. You may be tempted to skimp on your blog writer, but according to the latest studies, blogs are read, subscribed to and shared, when they are well written, above all other criterion, so you may want to invest in a good writer. In addition, in my recent experiences, I have a client who receives more traffic to their corporate site from their blog than from any other source...so put some thought and some cash into your blog.

What is the difference between a writer and an SEO specialist?
Writers, to put it simply are trained to write interesting and compelling copy. Nowadays, they may also know a little about keyword selection, keyword density and keyword rich titles.

SEO specialists, are often also writers (or started out as writers), but they know more about the technical and marketing side of producing content for the web, for example they understand search engine friendly code, keyword campaigns (Google, Yahoo and so on), article promotion techniques, network marketing, traffic analytics, pay-per-click campaigns, link sharing, link promotion and much, much more.

So when is it not worth the money to hire an SEO specialist?
If your site is just going up because you think you should have a web site, but you don't expect to get business from it, for example a tire shop in a small town really only needs to be able to be found if someone wants to know where the shop is, what their business hours are and other simple details, but it is not a web business. In a case like that, it should cost very little and the site should require few changes once it is live.

However, if you want to have an internet based business and expect to receive all or most of your business from the web, you should hire an SEO consultant. In addition, if you are launching a high profile site, such as a university site or a hospital or other large organization, you will need a content specialist as well as a team of great web programmers and writers. Another reason to hire an SEO pro or at least a really good writer is when you want unique content that reflects your personality or the personality of your company. This type of writing is more complex than simply writing a product description for a ream of paper.

Ok, so in summary...hire a pro for web content development, for leading a team of writers and for high profile or internet based businesses. Hire a writer for simple writing, product descriptions and the like, hire a really good writer for blogs, articles and high profile pages.

If you are confused, not quite sure what kind of writer you need or need helping hiring a writer, email SEOjive for a consultation, seojive@comcast.net.

Corporate Blogs: To blog or not to blog

To blog or not to blog, that is the question curious SEOers and marketers are asking. Blogging can be quite effective. But before you invest a lot of time into blogging consider the following:

• Do you have anything to say? Now really, not too many people are interested in just reading more of what you have on your corporate site. So you will want to think about what you can offer to the blogosphere.
  
• How much time do you want to invest? The best blogs add new content often (more than SEO Jive does, for example...)
• Can you compete? There are likely millions of blogs out there, can you compete, can you find a niche?
  
• Will it help? If you already have a high ranking site and you do not need the blog for links back or help with your ranking, then do you need it?

Ok, if you have decided that you really can benefit from a blog, then what next. There are several ways of starting a blog, for example:

Online Blog Service: Such as blogger, WordPress, LiveJournal and so on. These services offer the benefit of a link back from a higher ranking site, but they do not offer the benefit of the content on your site. However, they are extremely easy to use and you can launch your blog immediately. I really enjoy using Blogger and have experienced success using it, but I also really like WordPress products (WordPress.com or WordPress.org). These types are also the easiest to update, since you don't have to deal with your service or FTP and so on.

Blog Software: Blog software can be used to develop a blog to be self hosted or published on your own site. Self hosting gives you the benefit of the content, but not the benefit of a high ranking link back.

HTML, XHTML. etc: You can write you own in DreamWeaver or whatever product you use and publish your own unique blog. You can publish these blogs yourself using your web host and benefit from the content, you could even host it with a unique url and link back to your corporate site if that helps.

So should you blog? Simply put, yes if you have something to say and you think it will help your ranking or company marketing.

Author: Pamela S. Stevens, SEO Jive

Fonts: The Most Popular Fonts of 2007

According to Fonts.com their hottest selling fonts are as follows:

10. Papyrus
9. Gill Stans
8. Monotype Corsiva
7. Interstate
6. Helvetica
5. Futura
4. Citadel Script
3. Frutiger
2. Optima
1. Phenix America

Most people do not put much thought into fonts beyond readability, but for some fonts is everything, what they live and breath. There is even a movie about Helvetica, called Helvetica which is about typography, graphic design and global visual culture.

If you are interested in the basics about choosing fonts, see my article 10 Font and Text Tips.

If you are interested in purchasing a font, please use on of my affiliate links, please...

Author: Pamela S. Stevens, SEO Jive

Gaming Laptop for Web Page Building?

Why not? Often the specs needed for gaming are similar to what you would need for building web pages and running Adobe products. I just found one of my first CES favorites for the year that satisfies these spec demands.

Introducing the Gateway P-171XL FX, yes Gateway.

Specs:
17 in screen
2.8GHz Core 2 Extreme CPU
3 GB of RAM (sweet)
Dual 200GB hard drives
512 MB Nvidia GeForce 8800M GTS graphics card (I am drooling at this point)
9.3 lbs (a bit heavy)
About $3000 (ouch)

Well, I am not in love with the price, but I think I am in laptop lust anyway.

Check out a few pics here:
Pic 1
Pic 2

Here is what other bloggers are reporting:

Wired Blog Network

Laptop-Computers

Gizmodo

Author: Pamela S. Stevens, SEO Jive

Computer, Software and Service Requirements for Building Webpages

Computer requirements for building your website can range from a pretty basic set up if you are using a web based web page builder like those offered by Yahoo Business or more demanding, like if you are using Dreamweaver.

Let's start with the advanced set up:
Intel Pentium 4 or Better
1024x768 monitor resolution with 16-bit video card
DVD-ROM drive
Internet or phone connection for activation and site loading
2GB of RAM or more recommended
Enough hard drive space for software and site folders

Software:
CS3 Professional or Dreamweaver and PhotoShop

Services:
Web page host (See Lunar Pages, in right nav ads)
Domain name registration (Go Daddy or other, web host may also provide)
FTP program (may be offered through web host)
Template or build your own (See Template Monster)
Web Stat Tracker, such as Statcounter.com or Google Analytics
Training if needed: Lynda.com
Stock Photography if needed: See Jupiter or Getty sites

Over 2 GB of RAM is definitely recommended for multi-tasker types, because when I tried to use Dreamweaver, Illustrator, Photoshop and a security program on top of the operating system my system was not happy even with 2GB of RAM, not to mention that I also usually add in Word, an email program and Pandora for music.

Really basic (and limited) set up:
If you use something like Yahoo's SiteWizard or Microsoft's FrontPage you only need something like this -
A 133MHz processor
32MB memory
28.8KB modem

Though I have a friend that could not get the SiteWizard to work on a Mac so you may want to research that if you own a Mac. But basically, any newer laptop should be able to publish these type of pages.

Software:
Microsoft's Front Page if desired

Services:
Yahoo Site Builder or similar service
An Internet connection

Software:
Photo editor for resizing and cropping of images

Of course once you get the computer, the software and set up the services you face the hardest part, building your site.