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SEO Writing
Taking the Next Step SEO writing is the easiest type of web writing. The next step up is writing informative articles, which you can read about on the Web Writing page. If you've advanced beyond that, you can do online copywriting, which pays extremely well for a writer with a specialty. Or you can write articles for online magazines, do web journalism, become a blogger, or take on corporate clients and write reports, ghostwritten articles, and white papers. |
The success of online advertising has created demand for short, keyword-rich, content-light articles known as SEO (search engine optimization) articles. These articles are used to create websites whose main purpose is to rank high in the search engines, draw in lots of people, and get them to click on ads. Cheesy? Yes. But cheese brings in opportunity. Someone has to write articles for webmasters, and because speed, not skill, is of the essence, the field is wide open for beginning writers.
But... beginning writers are too daunted to try. It's a new kind of writing, they're not familiar with the style, they're intimidated by the thought of asking strangers for work. Often they still think of any kind of writing as highly skilled work that takes tremendous talent and luck to get; and because they're not Real Writers, professional writers, they couldn't possibly write for the web.
Bullpucky.
Keyword articles are amazingly easy. Get a keyword phrase--say, "home mortgage." Do 15 minutes of research on home mortgages so you have something to say. Then write 400 words about home mortgages. 400 words is so short that you barely have time to start before you're done; once you've knocked out a few dozen of 'em, you'll be dreaming of longer articles. Reread your article for grammar, spelling, and punctuation, and make sure the keyword phrase repeats the right number of times. (For an article with 3% keyword density and 400 words, a two-word keyword phrase would have to be repeated six times.) Then turn it in and get paid. That's it.
Getting work writing keyword articles is also ridiculously easy. Here's absolutely everything you need to do:
- Do a little research. Take a look at several typical sites to see what kinds of articles people want, how much they're offering, and how to approach potential clients. Check out the competition. (You'll feel much better afterward, I promise you.)
- Put together a few writing samples. Two or three short articles on any topic are all you need.
- Set up a basic web site to advertise your services. Using premade templates on a free site is fine—you only need somewhere to park your writing samples and your contact info.
- Sign up with the forums and services you plan to use, and get a Paypal account if you don't already have one.
- Start answering calls for writers.
- When you get an acceptance, write and deliver the articles. Get paid!
- Repeat steps 5 and 6.
So get out there and write!