Writing Prompts

Content Marketing: What Is It, Really?

Rarely has a buzzword been so, well, buzzy.

The term “content marketing” is hot, hot, hot right now (check out what Google Trends has to say about it). “Content marketing is the new SEO” reads one headline. “Content marketing is the new go-to promotional strategy” reads another.

All you need to do, so the claim goes, is produce a ton of content, load it with keywords and links, and distribute it everywhere. No writing staff? No problem! Outsource your content overseas for dirt cheap. You can even “spin” it with software to get hundreds of variations on the same piece. Just have the intern manage it all!

And presto change-o, the search engines will happily send hundreds of customers your way. All you need to do after that is open your wallet and let the money pour in.

That’s the promise behind the hype, and frankly, it’s giving content marketing a terrible rep.

While the aforementioned approach might work, any success that it results in will be temporary. Companies that use cheap, badly written, or spun search engine bait will eventually be caught by Google. While they may generate some revenue, they’re really just one Panda or Penguin update away from having zero revenue.

Worse still, this kind of tactic typically only works for dodgy weight loss products or suspect pharmaceuticals, and even then it will only convert a tiny, tiny fraction of site visitors. That means that for every 100 visitors that a site gets, 99 will instantly recognize the cheap content for what it is, roll their eyes, and click away in a heartbeat. What you save in content production you will lose a thousand times over in direct revenue, branding, and reputation.

Does that mean that content marketing is a sham?

Far from it. The truth is that contenting marketing is actually one of the most successful marketing techniques around. In fact, it has been around for centuries.

That’s right: centuries.

Consider Deere & Company, home of the John Deere brand, which is one of the most famous agricultural companies in the world. They began producing a magazine with tips on how farmers could be more profitable in the late 1800s, called The Furrow. Nearly 120 years later, it’s still going strong.

Or what about the Michelin Guides? First published by the tire company in France in the 1900s, they became so popular that they are now a major media brand in their own right.

How about the Be-Ro Cookbook, a bible in British kitchens? The Lego magazine for kids? Heck, haven’t you ever wondered where the term “soap opera” comes from? Those compelling, addictive, serial radio and television programs were originally backed by soap companies, including major brands like Proctor & Gamble.

Content marketing is really just the latest name for a proven, solid strategy: giving your customers what they need or want.

It should be written by humans, not computers, and it should be written for humans, not just for search engines.

Still not sure about content marketing? Still on the fence as to whether you should take the easy road or even do it at all? Consider the companies I’ve mentioned above.

They weren’t big brands when they started, but they sure are now, aren’t they?

How to Learn English Grammar

Whether you are a native speaker or a foreign student, your English grammar skills can always be improved. Grammar is the set of rules that govern the use of the language. A strong grasp of English grammar is an essential tool in effective speaking and writing.

There are many tried and true tips for how to learn English grammar. The following nine tips are often recommended to foreign language speakers studying English. They can also be useful for native English speakers trying to improve their grammar skills.

1. Learn how you learn

Recent research has shown that most of us have a preferred way of learning. Understanding this is a crucial step when deciding how to learn English grammar. If you are a visual learner, you can link language to pictures and images, watch films with subtitles, or try to visualize yourself in imaginary situations speaking English. If you are an auditory learner, you have a “good ear” for language and should listen to as much English music as possible and watch movies in English. If you have an analytic style, spend time studying grammar and comparing your native language with English. A learner with an interactive style needs to spend as much time as possible speaking with others and discussing the English language and the conventions of grammar. The most effective learners try to combine all these styles.

2. Learn memory techniques

Learning English grammar involves a lot of memory work. A myriad of books are available on how to improve your memory. This is a skill that successful learners take very seriously.

3. Read

One of the most effective tips when you are learning English grammar is to read. Read a book, newspaper, or journal in English that is just above your current reading level. Use a dictionary to help you learn new vocabulary words. Reading can help you understand the building blocks of grammar, such as nouns, pronouns, articles, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections, as well as sentence construction. Even 15 minutes of reading per day can drastically improve your English grammar skills.

4. Listen

Listen to speeches or watch movies or documentaries about subjects you aren’t familiar with to help improve both your vocabulary and English grammar skills. Again, pay attention to how sentences are constructed.

5. Journal

Keeping a diary allows you to use all your English skills: reading, writing, and grammar. You can regularly review your recorded entries, and note areas that require improvement.

6. Practice, practice, practice

Surround yourself with people who speak and write English well. This is the one tip that will force you to exercise all your skills. As an English learner, it is extremely important for you to take every opportunity to speak in English. Many English language learners have improved their grammar by working with a mentor or friend with a strong command of the English language. Ask your mentor to point out your mistakes. Such real-time feedback can be very beneficial.

Another good way to get in some practice is to teach. Perhaps you can mentor someone who is working on their basic English grammar at a level or two below your own abilities.

Helping them sort out their issues and answering their questions will force you to use your own grammar skills and will reinforce your confidence.

7. Relax and enjoy speaking

When you use English, don’t worry about making mistakes. The important thing is to learn from the errors you make. No one learns to walk without falling over a lot!

8. Get connected

The Internet is a valuable resource when deciding how to learn English grammar. There are great online tools for learning vocabulary and practicing grammar, listening, pronunciation, and speaking. And many online resource actually teach you how to learn English grammar.

9. Get motivated

Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today. And after all your hard work, don’t forget to reward yourself. Learning something new and different is not always easy, but with these tips on how to learn English grammar, you are definitely heading in the right direction!

What is Search Engine Optimization?

If you’re new to doing business online, you’re probably asking yourself, “What is search engine optimization? Is it something I need for my website?”

The answer to the second question is an indisputable yes. Whether you write a blog celebrating the daily adventures of your Persian cat or you’re the webmaster for a multinational corporation, you want people to visit your website. The more visitors you get, the more success you’ll have with your website. But, with over 1.5 billion sites on the web, how will anyone find yours?

Search engines, such as Google Search, Bing, and Yahoo!, will almost certainly be a major source of traffic to your site. Since very few people click past the first page of search results, you need to make sure your site gets listed on the first page of results, as close to the top as possible. This is where search engine optimization can help. Now, let’s get back to the first question.

What is search engine optimization?

The answer to that first question takes a little more explanation. Let’s start by looking at how search engines work.

Search engines use a complex series of algorithms. They crawl through the web gathering information about the content of websites. When they find a page where certain words or phrases—keywords—are repeated often in the text, the search engines get an idea of what that site is about.

For example, if the search engine encounters the phrase “what is search engine optimization” several times in a single article, it can conclude that the page is about search engine optimization. The search engine stores that information, and the next time someone types the search term “what is search engine optimization,” the search engine will include that article in the results.

But if thousands, even millions, of web pages cover the same topic, how can you make sure your page is one of the first results the search engine shows?

How can you use search engine optimization?

Keywords are extremely important for search engine optimization. The more a keyword appears on the page, the easier it is for a search engine to categorize that page.

But be careful!

It can be tempting to write for the search engines and forget that your intended audience is human. People will be put off when they read a page where a keyword is constantly repeated and that appears in odd places within a sentence.

Even worse is when you try to trick the search engine by including a popular keyword that is not relevant to your content. Visitors will quickly see that your website doesn’t actually contain the information they’re looking for and will quickly leave, unlikely to ever return.

It’s always useful to do some research to find out what search terms people usually type when searching for your kind of content. Choose appropriate keywords that are relevant to your website, and include them often but naturally within your text. Overdoing it will get your site penalized for “keyword stuffing.”

Search engines also categorize the content depending on where the keywords appear in the text. Include the keywords in the page title and in subheadings to help the search engine recognize that these words are important to the content. It also helps if the keywords appear often at the beginning of the text.

Freshness and dwell time

Another aspect of search engine optimization is how often you add new content to your website. Search engines assume that sites that are updated frequently are more likely to have relevant and useful information. So it is important to keep your site “fresh” by adding new material regularly. You can do this by having a blog or articles section on your site.

The content must be useful however, and one of the ways search engines measure this is by the average “dwell time” of users on your website. If a web surfer comes to your site and finds poorly written material or nothing of use, he/she will likely exit the site quickly. If, on the other hand, they see compelling material, and stick around for a while to read it, you’ve clearly provided something of value. How do search engines measure this? By calculating how long it takes users to come back from your site to the search engine results page for the same term.

Other factors

There are many other factors involved in search engine optimization, of course; SEO experts have estimated that there are anywhere from 80-200 critical factors. No one knows for sure, because search engines don’t want to reveal the secret sauce to their indexing process. But there is one special factor to rule them all, and it’s one that search engine representatives have stressed over and over again: provide value and quality on your website. Then again, that should come as no surprise, because customers want that from your products and services too.

By writing much, one learns to write well.

Content Marketing: What Is It, Really?