I try to cover as much of the basics as possible for creating a successful site online that will earn you a comfortable living. I’m not able, within a blog format, to really get into the kinds of detail that a full hard-cover book can get – on every detailed subject. Jon Wuebben, in his book Content Rich: Writing Your Way to Wealth on the Web, does a great job of really covering one very important topic well – how to create compelling, keyword-rich copy for your site. The right copy will convert well, it will enable your site to rank well in the search engines, and it will attract traffic and links. All of these things help to bring your site to the level of success that you’re looking for.

Here’s a quick look at what’s covered. Jon begins with the basics of SEO copywriting, which includes analyzing your site’s copy and usability, keyword research, and optimizing the content. He then moves on to discussing the various types of seo copywriting, such as site copy, articles, press releases, blogs, wikis, landing pages and newsletters. Next, he puts it all together with real world examples and case studies of various sized businesses. By showing you real-world examples and case studies, Jon helps to really clarify the benefits of seo copywriting, and gives clear instructions on how to do it right. Finally, he ends with showing how to outsource your copywriting project, discusses choosing seo copywriting as a career, and wraps it up with the future of seo copywriting.

Because I’m an old SEO by trade, I wanted to pick the book apart and find where he might have gone wrong, but I wasn’t able to do that, because he gives straight-forward, easy to understand information that is right on the money. If you want to write compelling copy that attracts traffic and converts visitors to buyers, you won’t go wrong by reading Content Rich: Writing Your Way to Wealth on the Web. It was a good read, and I’ve added it to my collection.

Oh, this just in…the author has informed me that he will be holding a “super 1 Day sale” on Amazon on Wednesday, February 18, 2009. If you order the book on that day, you’ll receive these extra goodies:

• Dianna Booher’s ebook “Affect or Effect? 258 Commonly Misused Words Along with Proper Usages” + her Online Grammar Assessment ($39.95 value)
• Scott Fox’s ebook “E-Business Strategy Basics” ($34.95 value)
• Bob Bly’s ebook “Online Marketing that Works” ($39.95 value)
• Free website copy analysis (priceless!)

That’s enough to make me consider getting a duplicate copy of the book just to get the extras.

*

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Amazon, Author, Bob Bly, Dianna Booher, e - business, Jon Wuebben, Online Grammar Assessment, online marketing, Scott Fox, search engines, straight-forward
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The magazine’s editor, Dan Schawbel, describes this issue in this way:

Many people rush into personal branding, without first taking precious time to discover who they are and what they want to do for the rest of their lives. In this issue, we expose how to unlock your true potential, unearth your passion, acquire the necessary skills and how to set achievable goals. We’ve interviewed some of the leading businessmen, such as Marcus Buckingham, to help you with your own personal development.

I’ve seen a pre-release version of the full issue, and as always, it’s a really good one! Obviously, you’ll get to read my take on combining SEO with your personal branding discovery process, but there’s so much more. Here’s a peek behind the curtains at some of the articles:

• Interviews with author Marcus Buckingham, executive coach & author Marshall Goldsmith, author Tim Sanders, and costar of The Secret John Assaraf
• How To Cross The Hurdle of Sameness by Liz Pabon
• Tips for Rebranding Yourself Online by Jim Kukral
• Grow and Use Your Personal Brand Online by Ian Lurie
• Empowering Your Inner Superhero by Chris Penn
• Boosting Sales with Your Personal Brand by Anthony Portuesi

and there are more than a dozen more that are equally impressive.

This magazine is always full of high-quality information, and it never disappoints. If you’ve already subscribed, you should be receiving your next issue on February 1st. If you haven’t yet subscribed, I suggest downloading the free sample issue, and if you are impressed, you can always subscribe to get the full issue. The price is only $12.95 for an annual subscription (4 issues). And as always, half of the proceeds are donated to the American Cancer Society.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: American Cancer Society, Anthony Portuesi, Author, Chris Penn, Dan Schawbel, editor, executive coach & author, Ian Lurie, Jim Kukral, Liz Pabon, Marcus Buckingham, Marshall Goldsmith, Tim Sanders
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Let’s face it, crafting a good blog post or site article takes time. If I can find ways to cut corners, without sacrificing quality, I’ve just saved money. And as far as I’m concerned, saving money is the same thing as making money.

So, here’s one way to quickly, easily, and legally find and use Flickr images in your blog posts or site articles.

First, a quick lesson in copyright issues. Flickr has tons of photos with Creative Commons licensing, which allows you to use them, without cost, but with restrictions. There are various forms of Creative Commons licenses. Generally, I like to stick with the least restrictive, so that I never have to really worry about misunderstanding the license restrictions. The least restrictive license is the Attribution (BY:) license, which means that you can copy, distribute, display, and perform the copyrighted work, as well as any derivative works based upon it, but you must give credit (attribution). In other words, you can pretty much do anything you want with it, including change it, but you must give credit back to the original license holder. In the case of using Flickr photos in blogs, for example, you would generally link back to the Flickr photographer or page it was originally listed on. (Note that the license actually says that you must attribute in whichever way the author specifies, however, in most cases on Flickr, the author doesn’t specify anything. In that case, simply linking back is considered acceptable).

To search for only those photos with the Attribution (BY:) license, just go to the Flickr advanced search page. Type the phrase you want to search for, and then at the bottom of the page, check the following:

__ Only search within Creative Commons-licensed photos
__ Find content to use commercially
__ Find content to modify, adapt, or build upon

This will ensure that you choose only a photo with the least restrictive Creative Commons restrictions.

Ok, now you’ve found a great photo to use. The problem is that it can all become annoying and time-consuming to download the photo, upload it to your site, and then create the attribution links, so I went on a search for a way to make it easier. Lucky for me, you can find almost anything on the Internet, and I’ve found a nice way to handle this.

To use this quick shortcut, you’ll need to first be using Firefox, as this trick won’t work with IE. In addition, you’ll need to download and install Greasemonkey, and then install a particular Greasemonkey script, called Flickr Photo Link. Greasemonkey is a Firefox extension that allows you to customize the way webpages look and function. More Greasemonkey scripts can be found here.

So what does this Flickr Photo Link script do? If you’re logged in to Flickr, it generates a small attributed photo link in the comment box on every Flickr photo page you visit. To post the photo in a blog post or elsewhere, simply copy the generated HTML from the comment box and paste it anywhere you like. Let’s look at an example. I’ve installed the script and searched Flickr for a photo. I found one I liked, and took a screenshot of what the page now looks like since I installed the script. (See below).

See the code that I circled in red and pointed to? Without this script, that code would not be there. Normal Flickr image pages just show an empty Comments box, but this script automatically adds the code shown here. All I have to do now, to be able to use the photo in this blog post, AND give credit to the copyright holder, is to cut and paste that code here. I’m going to do that now, and the result will be below.

from Polka Dots Fill The Sky

See that photo and credit link above? All I did to produce that was copy/paste the code I was provided by the script I installed. That was so easy. Now anytime I find a Flickr photo that I want to use, legally and easily, all I have to do is copy/paste the code I’m given on the photo’s page. It doesn’t get any simpler than that.

As you can see, it automatically chooses the Small version of any photo, so if you want a different size, you’ll need to go with the old fashioned route of downloading and uploading. But you can still make use of the attribution code (the part that starts with “from” in the code above).

So that’s my tip of the day for all of you who want to use Flickr Creative Commons photos, legally and easily. Have fun!

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2008. | Permalink | 20 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Author, Creative Commons, Flickr, Flickr photographer, Greasemonkey, HTML, images, photos, scripts
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Jane Doe, a graduate of Harvard Business University, is the founder and CEO of Acme Corp., a worldwide business and technology consulting firm. Jane shares her expertise in business management and technology at her technoblog, www.janescooltechnoblog.com.

Writing an author bio about yourself is one of the hardest things we ever do! Despite the fact that it’s just a few words, it’s very difficult to objectively describes ourselves and our talents in the third person. But as with so many of the exercises I like to throw out there, this one is not only useful in case you ever actually need an author bio, but it also causes you to stretch a muscle you may not use very often. Which muscle is that? Well, let’s call it the self-confidence muscle in your brain.

In order to succeed, especially in a self-employed one-person business, you need all the self-confidence you can get. You will have to put yourself “out there” on occasion, and you’ll need to put any shyness you might have off in the corner of a closet somewhere. Whether you are giving information to your readers, or networking with your peers, you’ll need to present yourself as a self-confident, knowledgeable person. And before you can convince others of your self-worth, you need to be able to convince yourself! So if you don’t already have an author bio, create one for yourself. If you ever need it, you’ll have it handy. But even if you don’t need to use it later, it’s a great little exercise for that self-confidence muscle of yours.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2007. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Acme Corp., Author, author bio, business management, founder and CEO, Harvard Business University, Jane Doe, technology consulting, www.janescooltechnoblog.com
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