Social Bookmarking

I have touched on this subject before and from past experience I never thought it was very useful until I found the right way to use it.

Stumbleupon

The trick on Stumbleupon is to not only stumble your own articles but, others as well. If people recognize that your intentions are completely one sided then they will not add you as a friend and it will be a huge waste of your time.

Install the Stumbleupon toolbar, since this is the easiest way to get your articles out to the masses and your friends as fast and efficiently as possible.

Research your friends on Triond and ask them their user ID on Stumble and add them to your friends. After you do this, they will show up in you toolbar when you stumble your articles. Send your newest works to every one of your Stumbleupon friends and that will give you an immediate burst in page views.

Digg

I have to honestly say, I don't care for this particular site. Digg is based upon a tight click of people that tend to only digg each others stories. Granted you may be able to get  page views if you have hundreds of friends but, otherwise I find it to be a bit cold.

Twitter

Now a days, online bloggers and site owners find this site to be the newest and best thing. You can consistently post new articles, links to everything and anything, short statements about what your doing at the time.

This site is really great for a tight knit group or family. I am still investigating the benefits of Twitter so, you may like to check it out as well.

Blogger

Setting up a free blog at Blogger is a fantastic way to get more of your works as well as your friends out into the internet super-highway. It takes some time to build up traffic but, the strongest point about this is that sometimes it's much easier to get indexed by Google if you have a thread of great content on a regular basis.

Not only will you be able to post yor articles but, you will also be able to share your friends as well creating many external links that Google see's as quite favorable.

The more content you post old or new, the better off you will be. If you have any questions or would like a great example of some blogger sites that can be used as a cheat sheet check out:

My Blog Friends Revolution
RJ Evans Blog
Glynis Smy's Blog
RJ Chamberlain Blog
Lost in Arizona Blog
Amit Goyal Blog

Out-Sourcing to Third Party Blogs

There are hundreds of sites that will post a portion of your blog with link backs to your entire article. I do know that this direction might concern some writers but, there are perfectly wonderful sites out there that will happily put a link to your piece if it pertains to their site platform.

Check out sites such as:

WebUrbanist
Dark Roasted Blend

There are many more but, you have to do your research just like I did. I wouldn't want to give away all my secrets.

SEO

I know that this is a foreign practice to many blogger's and writers but, I am going to give you the basics. Since we are only talking about making your articles more SEO friendly, use some of these basic tips to provide more strings to your articles.

1) Keywords

The title that you use for your article should somehow be implemented into the first sentence of your article. The topic for the title should be repeated at least 5 times without sounding repetitous.

Example: Top 10 Things I Ate for breakfast

The top ten things I ate for breakfast were......

Keywords: Breakfast, ate for breakfast

Get the picture?

2) Links

Always implement links to pertinent articles of your own and your friends within your works. I have seen many Triond writers doing this lately since it's a great way to revive dead articles.

In addition, try to link keywords to pages in Wiki, high-traffic sites, and education and organization sites as these will place higher in the search engines.

Triond already provides a great internal linking system at the bottom of every article however, if you want to add more within the footing of your articles Triond will be happy to publish these as well.

3) Submitting to Search Engines

Check out my article Increasing Your Traffic and Earnings on Triond with Some Elbow Grease

It's all overwhelming I'm sure but, I have found that the more time I put into it marketing the more I get out of it. I know that submitting as many articles as you can as fast as you can seems like the only way to make any money. I'm here to tell you that it's not.

Quality articles can blow up over night if you know how to market them. Submitting 20 pictures of your dining rooms chairs, a leaf in your yard, or a picture of a flower out of focus is not going to get you more fans. It may get you .$10 more at the end of the month if that is your main goal. However, if you have hundreds of friends and feel like submitting a picture that's been laying around in your closet since the 80's considering you're just to busy to write, go for it!

Pot Settled and now for the latest edition of Triond Discoveries on Writinghood: and scroll down to submitting to search engines.

Note: For those of you that love to read a piece on a more cerebral basis, these are for you. If you like looking at pretty pictures move on.-Regards Chef Lauren the Pot Stirrer

Ralph Brandt-A Reuters Article with Some Interesting Problems

Ikee-History of African Literature

Mr Seen Recapitulating Thermopylae

Angela Mulligan Machiavelli’s Influence on the Rise and Fall of Claudius’ Power

Hires the company that specializes in search engine ranking.

Writes his own articles and hopes for the best

Hires a good SEO copywriter to do the job

As a copywriter it's my opinion that if an article looks like it was written by an amateur and has those all important keywords and keyphrases just stuck in as if they were not actually supposed to be a part of the flow of thought, your company will not be well represented. For the readers who do pull up your articles through google or whatever search engine they use, they will immediately get an unfavorable impression of whatever you are offering.

Imagine yourself selling insurance for example. You instruct the copywriter to use the keywords:

• automobile insurance
• car insurance
• premiums
• safety
• insurance protection

You request a 500 word article about the condition of roads in a given area. The writer puts one in the title such as "Car Insurance Is Important." Then in the first paragraph he would use automobile insurance once and safety once. Anyone can do that. Yes that's true but can anyone do that in a way that encourages the reader to continue through the entire article and think of your insurance agency as the place that will give him those things?

The keyword density is given a percentage value depending on how many times it is to be used in an article. This is usually achievable. However, in those rare instances where an excessive density would sound inappropriate a good copywriter or a good SEO service will then advise the inexperienced business owner of that fact. Protect him from presenting his business in an unfavorable way so to speak.

Of course it's his money and if he still wants inappropriate material used - give it to him. Your responsibility ends with offering advise based on experience. He is paying for your expertise but if he doesn't want to use it that's his choice.

The bad side of this is that if results are profitable he'll give himself credit for "doing it his way" and if the results bring in less profit than the amount he paid you he'll attribute those results to "your writing was not good enough." The truth of the matter is that good copywriters as a general rule are undervalued and underpaid.

Your Content Should Have a Good Title

Virtually every reader look at the title first and if it is attractive enough then he opens your webpage and goes on reading.

Your Content Should Be Written with Good Grammar

Grammar is the most important element of an article with the content itself together. A good grammar enables reading process. Using catchy words and avoiding complex and long sentences make the article clear and explicit.

Tagging

Tags are keywords related to your article. They are mostly the words in the content or general words describing it like travel, health and politics.

Now, you have a good article in hand but yet no visitor reading them. The first stage is being indexed by search engines. To do so, you should add your articles into other web pages which have already been indexed. Your indexing duration changes by depending on the pages you've added your link. Here is the ways of doing that.

Add Links to Social Bookmarking Sites

This is the most commonly used strategy by 90% of webmasters. Time for indexing changes depending on the site. Stumbleupon and Digg are the fastest ones. Mixx, Propeller, Sproose, Indianpad and Humsurfer are other alternatives. Checking the search engines for indexing process and recording the result may provide you useful information.

Pay attention to tagging while you're submitting your articles. Use general words and avoid very specific ones.

Add Your Sites to Directories

Directories are alternative to social sites. A group of similar contents are recorded in a specific titles in the directories. Most of the active directories demand fee for submitting, however there are still many free sites for submission. Check the search engines for “free directories and “free submission”.

Check the pr values of free directory which you submit your link. If the pr value of if is 0, it means nothing for you. Your article needs to be indexed by higher pr valued directories. Nevetheless,it is a backlink.

Add Your Links to RSS Feeds

Rss feeds are the best way of being indexed by search engines and getting backlinks. Add your rss feed link into popular rss services. My favourite one is Linkriver and Feedfury.

Use Your Links in Your Blogs

Blogs are effective in sending links. If you have a blog with similar contents in Triond, use the links of Triond articles inside it. Blogs are do-follow and search engines index it and evaluate it while calculating your pr value. Check the pr value of your blog first and if it is at least 2 or 3, then add your link into it.

The comment part of the blogs are usually no-follow and it has no effect on pr calculation. It is pointless for pr but it still works as backlink.

Use Your Links in Relevant Forums and Groups

Add the url of your link into signature part of forums. Join the forums and groups with the similar content. For example, if your article is travel related and being submitted in Trifter, then use your link in travel forums. Every comment with your signature showing the url is a backlink for you.

Check the pr value and visitor number of the forums prior to adding your url. Add yours to popular ones.

I hope that this article will help you somehow and be your mentor while impressing others.

What does any of this have to do with Improving my Earnings? Everything.

If you are one of those writers that charges full steam ahead despite what obstacles stand in your way. Without stopping. Without worries, then you are the type of writer that will go far and nowhere fast.

If you are one of those writers that slow to examine the obstacle in your path, but do not take the extra time to formulate a solution to move it out of your way, then you will be consistently stumbling over the obstacle the longer that you leave it in your way.

If you are one of the few writers that stops fully to examine the obstacle that is blocking the path, and then develops an understanding of what caused that obstacle to originally come to block your path, and then formulates a carefully thought out plan to remove the obstacle, then you are the type of writer that will become a successful content writer.

Becoming successful at writing or anything for that matter doesn't usually come by pure chance. It requires a lot of hardwork and patience, but most importantly, it requires an understanding of marketing, branding, and tweaking this and adjusting that, so that you can achieve any goal that you put your mind to accomplishing.

Now, let's get started with the lesson.

The following are 10 Important Things That Every Triond Writer Should Do To Improve Your Earnings:

1. Write your Triond Author Bio that is located in your account tab that is found in your Triond dashboard. Do not rush through these process, because if your Bio looks sloppy and poorly written, then your potential readers may be left with the impression that the rest of your writings will be much of the same, and then decide to leave without reading any further. Let your readers know a little about yourself, but do not reveal too much about yourself, leave that mystery to be revealed within the pages of that which you choose to write about within the pages of your writings. This way it gives those potential readers something to look forward to and they will be likely to read some of your published work.
   
2. Published a couple of articles, poems or stories before you start making any friends. Start sharing your writings with the rest of the world and Triond community, so to show the type of writer that you are.
   
3. Understand the difference between being a friend and being a fan, while at the same time trying to earn an income and building a solid reputation for your writings is extremely important. If you are a new writer to the Triond family and you start trying to make friends right away before publishing any of your own work, then this is what I consider to be a fan and usually I will not add you as a mutual friend. If you on the other hand have published some of your own writings or photos for that matter to Triond, and then you add me as your friend I will make you my mutual friend, because then I will also have a reason to be your fan, too.
   
4. Read everything that Triond has provided for its writers to learn from. Triond provides all new and current writers tools, so that they can learn the basics of self-promoting or otherwise known as marketing in layman's terms. Furthermore, there is a Triond School available for free to all Triond members, so that they will learn how the different social bookmarking networks work and other valuable information that is designed to get new and current writer started on the right foot.
   
5. Take time and make realistic writing goals and income goals that you can achieve within your own ability to learn what you need to learn and do what you need to do to see your goal through to completion. Making too lofty writing goals and income goals will only set you up for future disappointment, especially if something that you could not foresee happens where you cannot carryout your plans to achieve your goals that you set.
   
6. Decide what type of writer that you want to be and what type of writer that you already know that you are, and then choose to be just one of them and no, you cannot be both.

   If you are choosing to be the type of writer that writes poetry, stories from the heart or personal stories, then you should also be aware that this choice is much harder to earn a decent income from. The reason why, is because usually these types of writings contain fewer high paying keywords that are used by advertisers to determine the rate of payout that they are willing to pay to the publisher, which the publisher shares with their writers according to the number of views that an article receives in any given timeframe that the publisher sets.

   If you are choosing to write for an income, then writing about just anything is out the window. To be successful and begin building a steady income that will continue to grow over time, then you will need to start writing for the market. Writing about subjects that everyone is talking about or about subjects that will be talked about in the days, weeks or months to come. Yes, not every article will be successful even if you are a popular writer. It is the nature of the business and is something that you must get use to or quit writing, because obviously Internet content writing isn't your area of expertise.

   Just as important as earning an income is to a serious Internet content writer, it is equally important to build a solid reputation for yourself and your writings. If you are a writer that enjoys writing about the things that you like and enjoy or if you are a writer that writes for the market, so to earn a living income, then it becomes important to write and publish something new every few days. This way you will potentially have readers who choose to subscribe to your RSS Feed and when these readers choose to do this, then they want to be informed when you publish something new. This is what businesses would call repeat business and that is good.

7. When submitting your writings to Triond to be published, then you must know that using MS Word and saving your writings in the word document format is what I use and is an acceptable format for publishing. Triond does accept other document formats, but you will need to take the time and read through all the information that Triond provides to its members, so to learn exactly what these other document formats are for yourself.
   
8. Learn a little bit about SEO and Keywords, so that you are able to write an article that will return a better income (per view) in the longrun. Both of these subjects are very important areas to study, especially if you want to make your living writing. There is a lot of information about these subjects on the Internet and there are several Triond writers who have written excellent articles about SEO techniques and understanding the importance of keywording your articles. Take you time and learn this at your own pace.
   
9. Avoid becoming one of those writers that believe that you are in competition with every other writer out there on the Internet, because you are not. Even if you believe that you were the first to write about a particular subject chances are someone else have already published something about the subject before you even had the opportunity to record your thoughts on paper. It's OK, to have more than one or several other writers writing about the same thing, because every writer will uniquely write an original piece of work, thus giving the readers more choice to read possibly challenging points of view.
   
10. Triond writers it's up to you to market and promote your own writings on and off of the Internet. There are many different marketing techniques that work, but some require much patience and time to start paying off and other marketing techniques will payoff very quickly, however it usually will only last a matter of a few hours to a few days, and then the view will begin to slow down to a trickle.

    Joining social bookmarking networks such as: StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit, Faves and others like these, will give your articles the chance to be quickly noticed by potentially millions of other members belonging to the same social bookmarking networks that your articles were submitted to. However, you will still need to make friends at these networks to be able to build an effective marketing network, so to achieve your projected writing and income goals that you have planned for in advance.

    If you are a student in a college or school, then use this opportunity to tell your friends and other students about your published writing, and then give them the website address where your articles and/or writings are located. Be sure that you take the time to write down the address yourself, and then give it to your friends, because this way you are sure that the address was written down correctly and this extra little effort may have convinced that person to drop by and read some of your writings, you never know.

Surrounding an article around a good keyword is what makes the presence of the keyword felt. A keyword should principally be used at the topic heading. Repeating the keyword in the body should be just optimum which is around fifteen to twenty percent of the entire article to the maximum. Wavering from this percentage on both directions can possibly have unwanted effects. The keyword should be cleverly used so that the indexing faces no problems, yet the reader does not get bored.

A very high density of keywords causes the effect of the article on the reader to suffer and turn him off. Therefore, he just ignores it completely. You certainly do not want that to happen. So do your research for the keyword diligently and check the number of times it appears in the article before publishing it online.