The job of developing copy for web content is an art of its own kind. While many have mastered it, others are stumbling on their way to it. There is always an easy way out of this, which generally translates into copy-paste method, but doing justice to a creative would require much more than that.

So, here’s what a creative writer can do:

Keep a Sharp Eye: True, a copywriter would be required to have an eye for details. No matter how small but if a word, a caption or a slogan, seems impactful, should make way to the copy bank of the writer. This adds on to ideas and gives perspective on subjects related or unrelated.

Save the Searches: This is important because there are way too many sources that one comes across every single day. So, to keep a fool proof reference to a work, it is good to save it with proper indexes. This helps in getting back to the copy and pooling thoughts out of it.

Sort the Best: It depends entirely on the copywriter as to how he likes to shape up the work based on the brief. In which case, sorting out the best is his job. At the same time, feedback is always welcome as it helps bending and tweaking the fine lines.

Improvise Critically: When nothing else works from memory and resources, the only possible solution lies in innovating. Trusting that the person is creative, this should be a cakewalk. But one may hit the writer’s block. Don’t fret, have patience. That works too. It does come along and from a very odd place indeed.

Keeping these nuances in mind can help any creative person get over the copy blues over time. However, it is important that this becomes a habit as natural as breathing for the best results.

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The ranking of a site in Google completely depends on the website copy. If a site is not properly executed then even the most advantageously planned site can be of no use. The role of SEO copywriting is to render content valuable, as readability of the viewers cannot be sacrificed.

If you do not have the budget to engage an SEO copywriter and are bound to do this task yourself, then here are 5 useful tips to follow:

1. Importance of Keywords: The title of the article is one of the most important places where the keyword should be included. It plays a significant role in grabbing the reader’s attention at the very beginning. Your keyword should also be incorporated in the opening paragraph. The opening paragraph is an introduction to the content, so it should also be catchy to draw user interest.
2. Keyword Stuffing: Over incorporating of keywords is called keyword stuffing. When you over use a keywords it leads to repetition, making the SEO copy boring for the readers. To avoid this error, you can read the content naturally to a human. This will help you hear any repetition in the copy.
3. Add Links: Links play a major role in SEO. Good content should provide links for your site as people want to share content that is appropriate, well written and useful.  You can increase your sites ranking by building links that are search engine optimized and are reader-friendly.
4. Meta Tags: Meta tags have enormous ranking value. You can use your title’s keywords in the title. Through meta tags and meta description tags, the webmasters can have constant access to relevant data on your site. But repeating keywords in these tags can be considered spam.
5. Structure of the Text: Well-structured content always catches the reader’s attention, as it makes it easy for them to read the whole content. Make sure that the copy is not too long and is broken into paragraphs and add subtitles.

SEO copywriting is all about making your content not only readable but also persuading visitors to stay on your site, thereby resulting in better rankings and higher ROI.

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Probably a few examples will cull out the crux of this write-up before we even start up with the explanation. Have you ever gone through sentences that at the first glance look absurd and at the second read seem absolutely hilarious? There is nothing so funny about the sentences in themselves but the tricky grammatical and spelling errors make them a blunder. Take for example, ‘Let’s Eat Grandpa’ without a comma that should have been placed before ‘Grandpa’.

Another example that strikes my mind as I explain the significance of the comma is that of a book titled “Eats Shoots and Leaves”. Look at the brilliance of the sentence (or if I may call it the brilliance of punctuation) that theses three words can be interpreted in three different ways owing to editing and punctuation or for that matter the lack of them. Say for example, ‘Eats, shoots, and leaves’, and/or, ‘Eats, shoots and leaves’.

Someone once said that that most of the writing is rewriting, and that’s how I derive the nuances of editing. The subject matter in a rough form takes the shape of the first draft that must be worked upon again for bringing out more refined work. Editing is something that comes into play during the rewriting phase. Broadly speaking there are three arenas that editing comprises of. These include copy editing, proof reading and structural editing.

Even though editing is a fluid process, all writers are not born with the editing germ in them. A few mature to the level of making their work error-free and some are born with a microscopic vision as well as a clear and organized thought process. The later make extremely efficient copy editors, proofreaders as well as language editors.

Editors are experts in language and refurbish your work in a manner that it fits your audiences’ need precisely. So be it content for marketing, academic purposes, financial analysis or concerned with dissertation, an editor gives it the right tone, language, style and direction. An editor makes sure that there is no redundancy and repetition in the work and that the document is free of all errors. As Mark Twain puts it, “Substitute “damn” every time you’re inclined to write “very”; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be”.

Blog has become a buzz word that can be seen everywhere on the internet. Like a ubiquitous identity, it has become a part of our lives and our internet friendly work environment. It is highly improbable that you open a page and do not notice the word- ‘blog’ written anywhere.

Rather than discussing how a blog can promote and affect a business let us find out what exactly it is and what has been its journey so far (but briefly).

Meaning or definition: According to Wikipedia a blog is a “Website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video.”

The above definition might work in the exam paper but I would rather call a Blog as a means to communicate and share personal perceptions about the world and to the world. It is a collective voice of opinions and ideologies that does not restrict or hinder anyone. Generally web users find the highlight of a Blog with ‘Knowledge’ but another important facet that make it a rage is its aspect of ‘Interactive-ness’. Blogs empower people to leave comments and send each other messages via widgets on the blogs which distinguishes it from other stagnant websites.

Origin:

The first term was ‘Weblog’, coined by Jorn Barger in 1997 which was further shortened as ‘Blog’ by Peter Merholz. Before becoming what a modern Blog is today, it passed through various versions of digital communities and Internet forum software. Initially, blogs were updated manually but as time passed various tools allowed posting of Web articles in a reverse chronological order.

Popularity:

Blogging gained momentum in the year 1999 and onwards as five major blog tools were launched.

• Open Diary in October 1998 which started the ‘Comment’ feature in the blog entries.
• LiveJournal in March 1999
• Diaryland in September 1999 that allowed the users to write more on a personal diary format.
• Pitas.com in July 1999 that facilitated maintaining a news page on a Website.

• Blogger.com in August 1999 that included a variety of options to the Bloggers to write.

What followed was a fusion reaction as every industry whether political, religious or commercial started using Blogs to outreach the masses. As per the latest records there were over 156 million public blogs operational in February 2011.

I admit it. I’m a gamer first and a writer second. I first played a video game when I was 4 years old and I got hooked. Fast forward 18 years and I’m still playing video games whenever I get some free time and I will most probably be playing video games till the end.

During my journey through the virtual world, I have come across a couple of great games which I feel will be a great asset to writers and lovers of the English language.

1. Bookworm

There is only one word which can be used to describe this game, addictive. I installed this game on my mobile a couple of months back. I have scored more than 500,000 points and I’m still going strong. The pick up and play aspect of the game makes it a great game for newbies or n00bs as they are referred to in gaming terms.

2. Typing Of the Dead

What are you going to do when there is a zombie outbreak? Grab a gun? No silly, you grab a keyboard. After all, you are a writer, not a fighter. As the horde of zombies approach, quickly type out the words that you see on the screen to defeat them. What better way to speed up your typing than by threatening you with death.

3. Scribblenauts

The object of this game very simple, you have to make the character collect things called ‘starites’. You can do that by any means necessary, you get a keypad that you use to create items out of thin air. You can use a helicopter, a dinosaur or anything. Your imagination is the limit. The only problem is that it is only available for the Nintendo DS. But there are ways you can get it for the PC.

These are just a handful of the games that you can play to improve your skills as a writer. A quick search will turn out more. Although when it comes to me, I personally prefer the latest version of the Call of Duty franchise, or a long drawn game of Age of Empires with some of my friends.

Good bye to the old shows. It’s the era of reality shows in the Indian television industry, where every possible effort is made to project the reality in the reel life. If you look at the content of these shows, I wonder how many of you will actually call them reality shows; for me they are merely scripted shows to draw attention of the viewers and for raising the TRP’s. If using abusive language and violence is called a reality show then it is far better to switch off the idiot box.

If we look at the past era of Indian television, there were some great shows that certainly had good content for the viewers, especially the sitcoms. I remember my childhood days sitting with the family and watching some great shows that contributed towards clean and wholesome entertainment. The present scenario has some weird concepts that are not even meant to be watched with all the family members, according to the values our Indian culture. The concepts are such that it seems as if the producers of the so called ‘reality shows’ are tampering with the values of our culture and beliefs.

Some of the concepts are so brash and in-your-face that the Indian audience is not even ready to accept them. Do we still call them reality shows and make them a part of our entertainment schedule. In my opinion, reality shows are scripted with zero percent reality. The new set of reality shows presented on the Indian television is not even worth categorising under the reality show genres.

Writers do care about the incorporation of the keywords, but they forget to care for their eyes that are generally affected with Computer Vision Syndrome, commonly known as eye-strain. Staring at your monitor screens can be very strenuous and at the same time affect your performance. There are a few tricks that can help you keep your eyes sparkling and healthy.

Tiny Breaks

It is important that while working on systems for the whole day, you should look away from your screens every half an hour. Just leave your chair and move around for five minutes and feel fresh to come back and continue with your task. This will not only help you from eye-strain, but will also keep your mind refreshed.

Look Away

This small exercise can do wonders for your eyes. When you work on your desktop your eyes tend to get stuck in one focus, therefore it is important that in between your work you should look at an object that is placed at a distance from your seat for ten to fifteen seconds. This will help in maintaining your eyes focusing ability.

Palming

Well known yogic technique that you can practice while sitting on your seats. Just rub your palms till they get warm due to friction and them put them on your eyes for thirty seconds. Remember, not to press your eyes with your palms.

Acupressure

If you have frequent headaches, itching and burning sensation in your eyes then acupressure can help you a lot. Close your eyes and use the tip of your fingers to slowly massage your eyes, inner corners of your eyebrows and orbital bones. Relax, concentrate on the massage, do not have unnecessary thoughts in your mind and you will feel the difference once you open your eyes.

Blinking

Other than your keywords, do remember to blink in order to avoid dry and irritated eyes.

There I was, standing in the metro with my headphones glued to my ears and my thumbs dancing away on my phone as I try and defeat Darkseid, the final boss of the Superman/Batman game that I was playing. When suddenly, *beep-beep*, ‘LEARN PUBLIC SPEAKING…..’. “NOO…” I exclaimed as quickly deleted that message, but alas, I was too late. Batman had been defeated and the only option I had was to start the whole game all over again and I was too angry to do that. So I just stood there, one part of my brain worshipping Iron Maiden, while the other was thinking of some choice words for the advertiser who sent that message.

We live in the information age. We live in a time where a person can locate the nearest pizza parlour at the touch of a button and we can find out all the important details of a girl/guy before we even meet them. Unfortunately, everything has a positive and negative side. The flipside to the information age is that we are no longer shown advertisements, we are bombarded by them.

They are everywhere, look out the window, open the newspaper, turn on the TV, visit a webpage, and , thanks to the miracle of 3G coverage, you can get advertisements straight to you, even if you are on the top of Mount Everest (that’s a fact). Aggressive advertising has become such a pain that the ‘100 sms/day’ rule was passed just to contain it. Think about it, people are willing to give up a bit of their freedom just to avoid advertisements.

Of course, that doesn’t change anything, we still are bombarded with advertisements and promotions as though we are mindless cattle who wouldn’t know what to do if left to their own devices. Take for instance a certain actor who ran an extremely long and complicated publicity campaign for his new movie. How bad is your product if you have to force feed it to the public to make sure that they use/see it.

I get it, advertisements have to be there. People would like to know about new and interesting products. But keep in mind that there is something called ‘too much’. Subtlety and class will still get you customers, forcing them to buy something via constant texts and humongous billboards in front of their noses will only make them mad.

I hope that advertisers will read this blog and understand the plight of the consumer. Now if you’ll excuse me, Batman has a score to settle.

Blogs have come up a long way from a platform where people expressed their personal thoughts to the business world where they are considered a vital tool for marketing. It was just a few years back when people were expressing their opinions on different issues through blogs and slowly it became a publicity tool where celebrities started communicating with rest of the world. The success of blogs soon made them known to the marketing world where increasing competition was treated with this new tool. A drastic change has been seen in the formats of blogs. They are no plain web pages as content has become more organised, sorted and presentable. With the speed blogs have come up to a professional level shows blogging power and popularity in present business scenario.

Recent surveys have showed businesses that indulge in blogging are successful in maintaining their image and popularity compared to those who have still not experienced the blogging power. Blog definitely deserves the top status for the benefits it offers and the wonder it has done for small and large businesses. It will not be wrong to say that soon online marketing will have one chapter within the whole concept and this will be “blogs.” Firstly, blogs have provided one on one communication platform where through comments people can participate and express their views and opinions. Secondly, brand building is something where blogs have acted like catalyst, increasing the rate of speed in climbing the ladder. Thirdly, blogs have helped in building public relations with the key customers for expanding the business. Fourthly, web traffic is one of the most important factors that have made blogs come in the online marketing world. Lastly, nothing is free in this world, but blogs cater to every aspect without any fee charged. There are free blogging sites where you just have to get, set and go writing.

As it is with most things in life, practice makes perfect. This is also true when it comes to writing. Writing is a skill which requires patience, practice and repetition.

One way to make writing a regular habit is by setting you a number of goals. You could set yourself simple goals like starting a blog, but it would be a better idea to set yourself a number of specific goals which are a bit harder to accomplish, a goal which isn’t impossible and can be accomplished through diligence, like for instance writing 3 or 4 blogs per day.

Another thing you can do is to commit yourself to a scheduled routine. Choose a date which can be easily fit in to your already tight schedule. If you do not have a fixed schedule, writing will become a victim of procrastination and will never be completed. If you do make a schedule, writing an article per day will come as naturally to you as brushing your teeth.

If you do not feel connected with whatever you are writing, the solution can be something as simple as a change of topic. It is perfectly natural if a writer churns out a lousy article if he can’t connect to it. Try to choose topics which are to your interest. If you have to choose a certain topic, try and put your own angle to it so that it gains a bit of interest

You can also create an ideal work environment around you which will stimulate your mind’s eye. Maybe you need a clean work environment with no sounds or distractions. Or maybe you need a bit of music and a cup of coffee to kick start your brain. Find out what works best for you.