If you are one of those who think that a conference is just a waste of time where people keep rambling on the topic of discussion, then you are in for a huge surprise. Even if you consider yourself to be very experienced in this line of work, there are a lot of things which you might not even be aware of. Never let over confidence get on to your head. It is very terrible. There are quite a lot of grounds on which you can attend conferences on search engine optimization. Come, let us explore them

In such conferences one comes across a lot of people from the same business with whom you can strike a good conversation. When you and the person to whom you talk start sharing views, you tend to come across a lot of things you never knew of and in the process also end up teaching that person a thing or two. It is beneficial for both. The topic for conversing is same. It will really interest all the people. This is a nice chance to strike a good rapport. When someone finishes debating, come out with questions that challenge the person. You will gain a lot of admirers.

At such forums, you would often find lots of CEOs and Directors who are scouting for talented individuals. If you are good at your craft, there are very strong chances that such people might consider you for your services and a good job offer may come your way. Talk to people who are veterans in this field. You get to learn a lot from them. If people ask for your contact details, hand over you business cards. This makes a very good impression and you will be remembered. If you do not have these cards, get them made.

Most of all, when the whole environment is flooded with search engine optimization; you can expect to come back home with lots o data sufficient enough for the next couple of months. Enjoy the ambience, the food and the privilege of meeting industry leaders.

They say matches for matrimony are made in heaven, but down here on earth, matches for jobs are made in placement consultancies. There are hundreds of placement consultancies today which are making right talents meet right organizations. Now if you have to develop content for one such placement consultancy, then how do you position it as an exclusive and distinctive agency when it is doing the same job as thousand other companies? Let me share my experience of developing content for a placement consultancy’s website.

I had no clue about the consultancy business when I was handed over the project. So the first task that I undertook was to do research and analyze. Having a clear view about the competitors and the company differentiators is the most important thing while you are straining your brains to come up with a brilliant idea that can place your client, a large HR consultancy in the league of leading companies rather than the routine ones.

In any kind of creative writing it is important to understand the business as well as the target audience. Placement consultancies are a bridge between job seekers and employers, so their target audience consists of both. So after understanding their business and industry nuances, I interacted with the client to know about the services that they offer for their clients and job seekers. Developing a content to address to different work groups where in the website would be scrolled by a company CEO who is probably an MBA from IIM to a college student who is looking for a temporary job, was tough job.

After doing all the preparations from research and understanding, I began to write the content. Now there are three key fundamentals that one needs to keep in mind while you are developing content for a placement consultancy-

Make it fresh and distinctive- HR consultancy is a flourishing business today, and there are more than 3000 placement consultancies that are registered on naukri.com itself, so then how do you expect readers to stop on your client’s website? This can be done by positioning your client as a company which has the competence to stand in line with the leaders. Bring out their efficiency and professional approach in the content. As content writer you are not paid to write, but to charm with your words. Address the pain areas of employers and job seekers and address them in away that convinces the reader that this firm understands their problems and has solutions for the same.

Build trust – HR solution companies are corporate match makers. Job seekers hand over their professional lives in their hands and organizations entrust their company integrity, hence it is important that the website content of any placement consultancy exudes dependability and confidence. The content needs to have an emotional quotient to connect with the audiences.

Use industry jargons- Don’t let the world know that the one who wrote the copy doesn’t belong to the industry. It is good to build an emotional connect but that doesn’t mean you get too verbal. Using professional language and industry jargon is necessary to bring out your client’s expertise in the field. The maximum business for placement agencies comes from employers and not job seekers who can easily register themselves on the various online job portals. Hence the language needs to be prove the credibility of your client’s experience and industry expertise.

Like every other child, even I used to dream about being an astronaut when I grow up. I used to fantasize about going in the space where earth seemed like a colorful crazy ball and stars looked like giant balls of fire. But like every kid around me, that dream was lost. Instead of choosing a profession that could help me go to space, I chose a profession that required signals to be transmitted, Media. I never thought that I could write, I always thought I was a boring writer who never got good marks in English essay writing and who always wrote clichéd stuff. But after sitting unemployed at home for 1 month, I tried my hand at content writing. Initially I was little hesitant but as I progressed, I realized even I could do it. I realized that content writing means far more than just writing. Here are a few aspects of content writing profession that I have explored during my 2 month long profession as a content writer. Most of these aspects are elusive to a majority of people.

• Content writing is not about making tricky sentences loaded with heavy vocabulary, but about building new relationships with the usual simple and colloquial words. This is because as every other media, content is also targeted at masses; hence it needs to have a language, a style that is comprehendible by all.

• Content writing doesn’t require just knowledge of language, but it requires you to be observant about everything that is happening across you. As a content writer one comes across myriad projects where you have to write for individuals as well as businesses from various industries. You are expected to speak your customer’s language; hence it is very important that you have a wide scope of knowledge about various industries and businesses.

• Content writing also requires research and analysis. I was a little surprised when my boss told me that every creative job requires a thorough research and analysis of the objectives of a project and now after having experienced it myself, I couldn’t have agreed more. I have come to realize that as a writer you would need to know the aims and the target audience for a particular project to articulate it successfully. An extensive research will be required to understand you client’s industry and the target audience’s psyche, only then you can match their pulse and grasp them through your content.

I never believed in this, but now I think everyone of us can write, the only pre requisite for it is to put your soul into each and every word that you write. I have enjoyed my last two months as a content writer and never felt exhausted after a day’s work, because as they say, if you love thy labour, you would never get tired of it.

Readers and the loyalty that they show towards a specific writer is what serve as the very existence of writing. If there were no readers, the writing fraternity would face strong prospects of annihilation. But the million dollar question is that, is a writer not supposed to identify the people who love his work and write on genres which they prefer to read knowing the fact that it is because of his readers, he is surviving competition? It is time someone took the initiative and told all writers about the importance of targeting that specific group who love to read his work.

How would a reader feel if he is forced to read blogs on business where as he relishes reading more on sports? Disgusted, he would never even bother to open that blog again. There are different groups of readers ho prefer to read on different topics and themes. So it becomes imperative for a writer to identify that group and write which the group relishes to read. This has many added benefits. The readers realize that the writer is making efforts to give them some substantial material to read and hence become loyal. They give their inputs which makes writing even more inspiring. The writer gets the niche that he yearns for and a reason to keep crafting masterpieces.

There is a saying in the business that a writer is supposed to be a master of all the trades and jack of none. But there is no reason to get carried away as we all have our own strengths and should write extensively for those who love to read our work. The writers should remember that readers are anxiously waiting for the time when the writer would come out with his next chapter. The writer needs to be accountable for the stuff that he writes as the readers have lots of expectations and expect good articles or blogs which would captivate them. These things need to be considered as one wrong move and the writer would loose his audience.

The target audience needs to be thought about for many reasons. They make the writer what he is, they are a major source of motivation to write better and it is because of them that the writer makes a living. So writers, keep your readers in mind when you sit and write next time.

1) Long and Brawny: Writing for websites is not the type pf writing which you would get to read in newspapers and magazines. Agreed that the length of the articles might be equal, but brevity has to be the epitome of priority. Readers are very impatient. They will not read everything that you have written. Now all the writers who will be reading this might bruise their egos, but the fact remains that the first couple of lines should tell the tale. That is the hallmark of a good writer. Crisp stories should be given precedence.

2) Marking Limits: There is no such thing as word limit when you write. It varies from person to person and the kind of stuff that an individual prefers to read. As a writer myself, I am unashamedly biased towards long articles as I find them captivating and engrossing. Seldom have I come across short articles which are informative and which do the job within those few sentences. Most of them are shallow and have no direction. It depends entirely on the craft of the writer. Small articles last an impression throughout a lifetime and big ones sink without a trace.

3) Writing Style: No, do not go for it. Never have the same writing style. You will limit your potential. Keep trying various writing styles as that will make you more versatile. Try to make use of the inverted pyramid genre as all the vital facts are revealed at the top. So even if the reader runs out of patience, which is not acceptable for us, he/she will get to know everything. We will derive solace from the thought that at least something that we wrote was read.

If there were no language, life would have had no meaning. If the world is a huge body, then language is its soul. Language forms the very basis of communication. Similarly when a piece of writing is being scripted, then language has to be given top priority. Language is the catalyst which helps in the formation of connections, influencing people and forwarding opinions. Language is one of the most destructive weapons if used in a wrong way as it has the power to divide people, create differences and instigate riots.

Whenever a writer starts crafting something creative or factual, the first thing that needs to b taken care of is language and its essence. It has the ability to convey thoughts, feelings and emotions in a very obtrusive manner and connects with the reader at once. It has a very strapping effect and hence its usage has to be done in a very delicate manner. Good language makes the simplest of things look so innovative and spectacular and bad language has the ability to massacre the delight of words which would make the book look nothing less than the bible.

The hallmark of language is that it sees no culture, cast, creed and race and is available for everyone to learn and use. No person can be stopped from using the various forms of language prevalent in the society and is given complete freedom for expression. Language does not adhere to any boundary nor does it carry any stipulation. It can be considered divine as it gives life a meaning and can be considered disaster as it also inflicts pain and misery in a very terrible mode.

So be it spoken or written, one needs to make sure that the usage of language should be subtle or volatile depending on the situation as the effects can both be pleasant and repentant.

It has been quite a while since I have been writing articles for the Internet. I have covered almost all the topics under the sun and at the cost of being labeled pompous; I think I can call myself a complete writer. But I was recently told that there is still some way to cover before I even earn the title, ‘amateur writer’. This comment has drained out all the enthusiasm that walked with me hand in hand. I argued but to no avail. So let me tell you all about the factor which taught me that life is not that easy and the road is quite long.

A colleague asked me whether I have ever written small articles for online promotions of an idea or a product. I was puzzled? Now where did this come from? Okay, I told him to explain. This was new to me. Advertisers get their products promoted from writers who write short descriptions high on impact which are targeted at the attention of potential customers. Wow, so does that mean that I am obsolete? Does that signify that whatever I have written till date is being counted as zilch? No, it is not like that. I will not let that happen. I have done this before but not the exact way in which it is supposed to be done. Of late I have been writing articles which require heavy and power packed promotion. To be quite honest, I have also started emphasizing on the actuality that it requires efficient marketing, something to which the user connects and responds in an authentic way.

So for the meanwhile, I am happy with being labeled as an ‘amateur’, but hey, never count me out. You never know when I may take you off guard.

It becomes quite tough a task to write something which really enthralls the reader and shakes him off his seat. Very few writers succeed in doing that. The daunting job of preparing a magnum opus gets to our head and deteriorates the level of performance. For a writer to understand what works with the reader is half the job done. All that needs to be done is the successful execution of those factors which will make the piece of writing automatically work with the readers. So here are three points which will help all the aspiring writers understand the psyche of the reader and captivate his interest.

1) Accentuate on significant points: The vital facts which form the base of a story need to be highlighted and nicely written. All the important factors need to be stressed upon as they are the ones which will determine the kind of impact that the user has been inflicted to. Such points exploit the depth in the story and tell the readers its importance. The main points always have a huge impact on them.

2) Make use of catchy headlines and introductory notes: Headlines which are highly creative always play their part in the article or the blog’s success. There are times when readers are in a great hurry and do not have time to read the whole thing, a headline which summarizes the whole story in one line conveys the message to the readers. Introductory notes, the first three to four lines in a piece of writing, also helps restless readers a great deal in understanding the story without having to go through the whole thing.

3) Be concise; do not beat around the bush: Whatever you write, make sure that it is relevant. The crux of the story should be given emphasis instead of the whole background. Readers like crisp stories. As a writer if you are able to give them what they want to read, then your purpose is done. Never exaggerate anything as your credibility might be questioned and never underplay anything that needs to be highlighted. Just by increasing the number of words and the length of the article, you will not be able to carve a niche. Readers want appropriate content.

There are certain certified morons in this world who create websites which are hardly viewed once in a blue moon. If you are an aspiring entrepreneur who wants to create a successful website so that it gets good viewer ship, then you need to take care of certain things so that your venture sees nothing but success. The foundation that a website gets is through search engines like Yahoo, MSN and Google. So if you plan to design a website, make sure that it is search engine friendly. This will help you in scoring high with the search engines and will get you lots of users.

The search engines have this ability to index websites hence enabling them to list the website on their result pages. This way people can easily access your website and view all the content posted on it. Never make use of frames on your websites. That would spell disaster. This also restrains users from book marking pages which they would like to visit again in the future. Also never use flash movies and images to insert content. If the text is not readable, then the rankings could be considerably affected.

Make suitable use of meta tags wherever necessary. This tells the search engines clearly all about the website and it will be quite clear whether the website deserves to be indexed or not. These are very minute details which need to be taken care of while building a website. Points which are not to be neglected, if you get them right then your project would be triumphant within no time.

Blogs have created a huge wave these days ever since the concept of writing for the internet has exploded. People have started writing blogs unceremoniously and have started expressing their views without any apprehensions. All those who never picked up a pen in their lives have taken this form of expression like a storm and leave no stone unturned to make I sound highly explosive. But the question is, are these so called ‘bloggers’ even aware about the art of writing. Yes I am biased, so my answer is no.

A blog has no set pattern, no language culture and a rebellious way of writing. It has become a pedestal to compete for bragging rights as who is a better writer. But ask all those conventional writers, have they approved of this form of expression where there are no holds barred? People want to make bold statements as they have found a perfect platform in the form of a blog to express themselves in a very versatile manner (when I say versatile, I refer to all those juvenile ways).

But I guess, my voice will be suppressed even before it reaches a couple of people as all the avid bloggers will unleash a storm of criticism which will sabotage all the confidence that I have gathered to speak against this new phenomena called blogging. But in hindsight since India is a democracy, I think I have the right to write. So be it.