Blogging

In the past during the Wild West era of the Internet, many businesses struggled to connect with their audience.

They were forced to rely on non-digital methods such as print and radio advertising in order to get their name out there.

But, in 2018, the Internet offers more capabilities than ever before for entrepreneurs, and one of the most effective is blogging.

Having high-quality blog content on your company’s site allows people to find you on Google, and can lead them to provide you with their personal info or make a purchase. It’s simply too useful of a tool to forego.

Let’s take a look at seven reasons you need to incorporate a blog strategy into your business’s marketing plan.

1. Brand Awareness

While it’s important to always strive to deliver a quality product/service to your customers, it won’t mean much if nobody knows about your company.

But, having a blog that provides readers with relevant, quality content is a great way for people to learn about what your brand has to offer.

With proper keyword research and a solid SEO strategy, you’ll be able to ensure that members of your target audience find the content you post, at which point they’ll have the opportunity to explore the rest of your website and find out what you can do for them.

2. Establish Authority in Your Industry

Trust is crucial in all aspects of life.

People are much more likely to make a purchase from a company that they trust.

But, you can’t expect your audience to have this sentiment about your brand without offering them something first. That’s where blogging comes into play.

When you share useful insights and information about your industry that your audience can benefit from, they’ll develop a respect for you and begin to see you as an authoritative source in the space.

As with brand awareness, this will lead to more interest in your brand, which will, in turn, lead to more sales.

3. Connect with Your Audience

People love to buy goods and services, but nobody likes to feel like they are being sold something. If your brand comes off as a faceless entity that only wants to move as much money into your pockets as possible, your audience won’t have anything to relate to.

However, a strong blog strategy will offer your readers an inside look at who you are as a brand and provide a level of humanization that’s difficult to achieve through other methods.

It’s also a great channel to convey your beliefs, interests, and even insight into who you (and your team members) are as a person.

To learn more about what’s working well for other brands and businesses, take a look at this Zappos social media case study. At the end of the day, it’s all about relating to your audience and giving them what they want, while also gaining their trust and business in the process.

4. Increase Your Site’s Google Ranking

As previously mentioned, you’re going to have a hard time making any sales if nobody knows who you are. The simple truth is that you’re going to have to increase your Google ranking if you want anyone to see you online.

Luckily, blogging is one of the most efficient ways to get your site on the first page of Google, which will drastically increase the number of people who come across your website.

As a business, this is invaluable when it comes to boosting your online presence.

Your ranking will also grow exponentially as your site generates more traffic and you post more content, as you’ll create more opportunities for people to find you on search engines.

If you need some help getting traffic to your site, businesses like Sweetgrass Marketing have all the tools you need to help achieve this.

5. Potential for Sharing

When it comes to getting content out on the Internet, there are few things more beneficial than having someone share your blog posts.

This is especially true if a business that has a similar audience as you share your content with its followers, as you’ll have access to a vast amount of people you may have not been able to reach on your own.

To help achieve this, you should make sure that it’s as easy as possible for your readers to share your content. A simple method is having one-click buttons to share with their social media followers.

The type of content you create should be shareable, too. Blog posts such as how-to’s and “listicles” are great options when looking to encourage your audience to share your content.

6. Increase Conversions

Having a blog that you consistently upload quality posts to will show your audience that you are active on your site and constantly generating topic ideas to write about.

If you bought something online, would you buy it from a brand that’s active every day or one that hasn’t posted in three months? If it looks like nobody’s home, don’t expect anyone to come knocking.

When you convey that your site has life to it, people will be more likely to make a purchase form your business. Your high level of activity will also show that you’re going to respond quickly to any potential your customers may have.

7. Gather Contact Information

Even if you can’t make a sale right away, you can still use your blog posts as a method to acquire your readers’ contact info.

When you get their email address, you can add it to your mailing list and send them specialized offers in the future. When backed by a carefully-crafted email marketing copy, you’ll see a nice upward trend in sales over time.

Efficient ways to get this information is to offer readers something in return for it, such as the opportunity to sign up for a weekly newsletter.

Offering free downloads, such as eBooks or guides, is another great method to get your audience to provide you with their contact info.

Developing a Blog Strategy Can Seem Difficult…

But it doesn’t have to be. The truth is, a good blog strategy all starts with knowing who your audience is and what they’re looking for. The rest will fall into place as you go along.

Not sure where to start? Feel free to contact us and see how we can help you.

Are you currently happy with the look and feel of your website? What about your audience… how do they feel? When it comes to your site design, this is something you simply can’t skimp on and hope for the best.

Close to 75% of all small businesses use the power of blogging to increase consumer engagement and sales leads. Whether you’re blogging to attract attention to your business or to give the world your point of view, having an appealing website is essential.

Rushing through the building of a blogging website will usually result in several mistakes getting made. Rather than having to deal with the fallout from these mistakes, you need to take your time to ensure all your bases are covered.

Instead of trying to handle the blog design and website building process alone, you should reach out to professionals. With this professional assistance, you can bring your vision of the perfect blog site to life.

Read below for some great blog design tips.

1. Blog Design Starts with Using the Right Fonts

The first decision you’ll need to make in relation to your blog design is what type of fonts to use. Usually, a bit of trial and error is required when trying to make this important decision.

When choosing fonts for your site, avoid using too many. Having too many different fonts can be both confusing and very unappealing.

Ideally, you want to use a font that is easy to read and large for the header section. When it comes to your body text font, you need to avoid getting too fancy. If the font you choose is reminiscent of calligraphy, it may be very hard to read.

2. Utilizing the Power of Color

Making sure your blog page is colorful is also important. Having a primary color, a grey shade, and a call-to-action color is a good idea.

The primary color you choose should be something eye-catching and easy to look at. Instead of going too harsh with the coloring, think about using a lighter color like blue.

The shade of grey coloring on your site is there to emphasize certain aspects of the web design. Typically, this coloring will be found on page headers and other elements that need to stand out.

Your call-to-action color will need to be used sparingly to maintain its impact. Limiting the use of this color will make it stand out more. Making sure visitors to the website notice the calls to action your page is an essential part of garnering sales leads.

3. Don’t Make Reading the Content Hard for Visitors

Some newcomers to the world of web design have a tendency to make their design too complicated. While having an appealing and original site is important, you need to focus on functionality above all else.

If visitors to your blog site are unable to read the content due to a cumbersome design or misplaced menus, they’re less likely to come back. You want to provide your visitors with the ability to scan your content with ease.

Making this process too difficult is a recipe for disaster. Arranging your content on the page properly may require you to seek out some professional web design help.

4. Be Mindful of Page Load Speeds

While putting a lot of pictures and videos on your blog site can make it look great, it can also lead to slow page loading speeds. If a page features lots of high-definition pictures and videos, it could cause visitors to have to wait for it to load.

The modern consumer has a notoriously short attention span. This means that if your pages take forever to load, you’re bound to lose a number of visitors.

The best way to fix this issue is by compressing the media files you currently have and removing some unneeded design elements. Looking at your blog site objectively will allow you to see where you can trim some of the fat.

5. Your Content Needs to Be Readable

Another mistake you should avoid with your blog is putting large blocks of text on your pages. Failing to properly structure your existing content can make it hard for readers to scan.

Rather than putting large blocks of text on your page, think about breaking it up with subheadings and bullet points. With these elements, readers can scan the content to find the information they’re looking for.

When putting new blogs on your site, be sure to proofread them. Having blogs filled with errors can lead to readers losing interest. While proofreading all of your content will be time-consuming, it’s well worth the effort considering the mistakes it will help you avoid.

6. A Mobile-Friendly Website Is a Must

Did you realize that there are nearly 4 billion mobile users on the internet around the world? In the fast-paced world of today, people have to get their news and browse the internet on the go.

Making sure your website appeals to mobile users is a must. If your site is not responsive, it will alienate a large portion of your audience.

Are you curious about how to use a mobile design to your advantage? If so, you can check it out here and see how some of the top design agencies are tweaking client websites and blogs to not only make them mobile-responsive but also loading faster and minimizing distractions as well. They are all key factors when it comes to the overall engagement and usage of a website — especially when being accessed through a mobile device.

Most mobile users will quickly sign off of a site that requires them to resize all of the pages. With the assistance of an experienced web designer, getting a responsive website will be a breeze.

7. Showcase Your Best Content on Your Homepage

The first thing a visitor to your blog will notice is the appearance of your homepage. Using this space to showcase some of your best content is a good idea.

If you have articles that have produced a lot of traffic for your site, linking them to your homepage is a good idea. Enticing visitors with your most popular content on the homepage will usually make them stick around to read your newer blogs.

A Great Blog Design Requires Professional Assistance

Trying to figure out and implement all the elements of a blog design alone can lead to mistakes being made. This is why hiring an experienced web designer is a good idea.

Are you looking for information on how to start your own blog? If so, we can help.

Check out our resource page for valuable info. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us today!

Building a blog takes effort. It takes time and passion and dedication. And there’s nothing worse than getting no hits after putting in all that hard work.

Most new bloggers learn fairly quickly that getting their site in front of people, let alone the right people, also takes time. With more than 70 million new blog posts published through WordPress every day, it may seem impossible to ever build an audience.

Don’t fret! That number seems scary until you realize that over 400 million people view 21+ billion blog pages every month. If you want to make money from your blog, you need to learn how to promote your blog and get your own views.

One avenue you may not have considered yet is pay-per-click advertising (PPC). Read on for this brief introduction to PPC, why it works, and how to market a blog with PPC.

Types of PPC Marketing for Blog Promotion

PPC marketing refers to the method of promoting a blog or website by paying for advertisements through a platform. Every time someone clicks the advert and gets directed to your site, the PPC platform charges a fee. It may cost $2 for that click, but the click could result in a new subscriber or a big sale.

When marketing professionals talk about PPC, they usually refer to one of two kinds of PPC: social media and search.

Social Media PPC

Many social media networks now offer PPC marketing through their platforms. Most of them offer at least some kind of advertising, but the following have PPC:

• Instagram
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Pinterest
• Twitter

You may also use PPC advertising on YouTube through Google Adwords.

Search PPC

Most people think of search PPC when they hear pay-per-click advertising. These ads appear on search engine results pages as “promoted” results. Google, Bing, and Yahoo all offer their own versions of PPC specific to their platform.

Advantages of Using PPC to Promote Your Blogs

Using PPC to promote your blogs can turn those zero views into hundreds or thousands within a short period of time. PPC offers many advantages to old and new blogs alike, including:

Partnership with Analytics

Most PPC platforms, like Google and Yahoo, also offer analytics. Knowing what marketing efforts worked and what didn’t pose a challenge in the past. Using analytics alongside your PPC campaign exposes the strategies generating the most return on investment (ROI).

This helps you to stop spending money on marketing tactics that don’t attract your target audience. You can then focus your funds on expanding the ones that generate more traffic. You can also automate Adwords management with scripts to make it even easier.

Massive Reach

Do not underestimate the massive reach of PPC. Both social media PPC and search PPC put your blog in front of big audiences. Millions of people use social media every day without thinking twice about it. It has become as normal as breathing.

Google searches occur even more frequently with an average of 40,000 searches occurring every second. Appearing in front of your audience within these billions of search queries happens more often with the help of PPC.

Customizable Targeting Options

Not only does PPC advertising get you in front of people. It gets you in front of the RIGHT people. This makes all the difference when learning how to market a blog.

The customizable targeting options allow you to play around with settings until you find your ideal target audience. Change your parameters based on many factors from the placement of the ad or targeted age group to geographical data and consumer interests. The more narrow your target audience, the higher your ROI.

Huge Return on Investment

A high ROI should always drive your digital marketing campaign. PPC proves time and time again to be worth the investment.

For every $1 spent on Google PPC advertising, you average $8 returned. PPC ads help you make more money from your blog.

How to Market a Blog with PPC

When first learning how to promote a blog using PPC, you must keep a few general tips in mind to succeed. Follow the five tips below to put your blog in the best position to gain more traffic and make more money.

1. Know Your Target Audience

Trying to make your blog appeal to everyone often results in no one liking it at all. Choosing a niche and owning it helps you build a stronger audience base of readers who truly care about your blog.

Pay attention to the types of people who find themselves on your blog and stick around. The custom audience targeting options offered by your PPC platform become more useful when you do. Once you know your target audience, you can narrow down where the platform displays your PPC advert based on age, interests, salary range, gender, and more.

2. Perform Keyword Research

The most important part of any online marketing campaign, you must perform keyword research for both social media and search PPC. Knowing your target audience will only get you so far. You also need to know what terms they use when searching for your type of blog.

Keyword research identifies the very specific terms that your target audience uses. It also shows you the competitiveness of each keyword. The bidding process of PPC advertising and how much you pay for a click directly relate to the keyword’s popularity, so take the time to find the keywords with the highest ROI.

3. Write an Eye-Catching Ad

Paying for someone to click on your ad does not work if no one clicks on the advertisement. You need to write an eye-catching ad that encourages your target audience to click.

Think about what your blog offers or what problems it will solve. You can always include a special offer to attract attention. Just be sure your call-to-action (CTA) makes people want to click.

4. Create a Killer Landing Page

A killer landing page can make the difference between that paid click leading to a subscription or sale versus bouncing off. Sending the user to a landing page rather than your homepage helps you achieve your goals faster.

Be sure the landing page delivers on the promise made in the advertisement. It also needs to include another CTA to encourage the action you want the user to take.

5. Monitor and Adjust Based on Analytics

Continually monitor the analytics reports from your PPC platform. The longer time you spend running a campaign the more data you collect and the better you understand if it works or not.

Make small changes, review the analytics again, and record how they affect your strategy. Playing around a bit until you find out the perfect digital advertising campaign for your blog will yield you better traffic in the long term.

Making Money with a New Blog

Once you understand how to market a blog online with PPC, driving more traffic to your site becomes second nature. PPC advertising gets the ball rolling for new blogs and revitalizes established ones.

Just starting your first blog? Don’t miss out on my comprehensive blog resources and a step-by-step guide to starting a profitable blog. You too can be a Blog Ninja!

Are you in need of extra cash and currently looking to put your website or blog traffic to use? Wish you knew an easy (and effective) way to generate additional cash flow, while also still being able to build an online business and brand in the process? Well, why not trying to make money with Google AdSense?

Not sure what Google AdSense, how it works, or how it can make you money? In this article, we’re covering 10 low-effort ways to make moolah with Google AdSense.

What is Google AdSense?

Google AdSense is a free Google program that makes it easy for website publishers of any size to earn money for their website. It works by helping them display target Google ads on their website. Essentially, it’s a form of website monetizing that pays you whenever anyone views these Google ads and clicks on the said advertisement.

The great thing about Google Adsense, is that there is really no work or technical design skills required. All you need to do is create a Google Adwords account, add your site, copy their banner ad code, and then you are good to go! Google will look at the content on your site and find relevant advertisements to serve. As the site owner or blogger, you will then earn a commission for every click sent to their advertisers.

Super easy and effective… which is why it’s become one of the greatest and easiest ways to make money on the internet with a website or blog.

10 Ways to Make Money with Google AdSense

Now that you know what Google AdSense is, you’re probably wondering how you can effectively use it to make money. Here are 10 tips to keep in mind for a successful AdSense strategy:

Identify Your Audience

The first step in a successful AdSense campaign is figuring out how it works in relation to your blog or website. This means doing some research (both quantitative and qualitative) to figure out who’s visiting your website.

Are your site visitors women or men, or people of a certain age? Survey your audiences, find out who they are and what they like, and the types of content that resonate with them.

Once you do that, you can better understand what your audience is looking for from your website. From there, track any data you have so you can accurately determine the type of ads your visitors want most, so you can encourage interaction.

Choose the Right Keywords

In order to take full advantage of AdSense, you need to learn the ins-and-outs of keywords and choose the right ones for your website. If you don’t choose the right keywords, you’ll end up with an ad experience on your site that doesn’t match your content or speak to your users.

And avoid over-indexing on keywords. If your keyword density is too high, Google will penalize you. They may even remove you from the AdSense program.

Pick the Right Ad Design

AdSense advertisements can come in a variety of sizes and formats, so you’ll have to do some testing to figure out which ones work best for your website or blog.

In terms of performance, the largest 336×280 rectangle-shaped advertisements tend to perform the best. This may be because it’s right in front of the user’s face, so there’s no way they’ll miss it. This ad size also enables you to present video ads, which are generally more engaging for users.

For anyone using Genesis or StudioPress, be sure to take a look at any of their top themes. Not only are all of these themes custom-built and used by some of the top brands and blogs on the internet today, they also have premium placements for ad banners and Google Adsense.

Avoid Putting Too Many Ads Above the Fold

While advertisements can drive revenue for your website, they can also hurt it if site visitors find them overwhelming or distracting. Not only can this be distracting to the end user, it can also annoy Google and their automated site-updates as well. In previous Google updates, there have been several websites and blogs that have been penalized for having too many ads on the top portion of the page, and making users scroll down to access the real content on their sites.

That’s why you need to avoid putting too many ads above the fold, which is the portion of the web page that’s visible to users without them needing to scroll. Putting too many ads here makes it hard for customers to find the content they’re looking for and causes them to exit your website.

Focus on Visual Balance

The visuals of your ads will impact their discoverability and how much they stand out to your audiences. Experiment with text ad unit colors to increase their visibility, and find one that works with your website them.

If you’re looking to display unobtrusive ads, match the background and border color to the ads. If you want them to pop, try out different styles, and avoid matching background and border colors too much.

A great way to accomplish this is to consider adding gifographics within your content. While GIF and JPG visuals will be a nice break between your text content, gifographics gain even more attention and pull in the reader with their unique designs and in-design animation.

Go Responsive With Your Ads

Part of running a successful website is making the website experience as great as possible. This means making your website responsive, so it scales to meet any device size.

Generate codes for responsive ad units so your ads can automatically resize themselves for the optimal mobile experience. By going mobile-first with your website design and Google ads, you can impress users with your website and make your ads more appealing.

Stay Up to Date on Your Analytics

In order to make money off your Google ads, you need to know how they’re performing, and when you need to modify them for your website. That’s why you should absolutely link your AdSense and Google Analytics account. This will give you insight into metrics like revenue, click rate, and overall impression, so you can understand how well your content is monetizing.

This can help you optimize your website, focus your content efforts, and gain insights on optimal ad load. You can also use these results to refine and optimize your AdSense units, which will help you make money fast.

Keep Your Users in Mind

As you aim to generate revenue with your ads, it’s important to remember that your users should come before everything else. This means your content (and ads) should provide value to your users.

The best way to do this is by being strategic and thoughtful about how you blend ads and blog content. Don’t place ads haphazardly without thinking about the aesthetics of your site or overall usability.

Be Careful with Your Blocking and Filtering Efforts

You may be wary to allow certain disruptive or irrelevant ads on your website. But you should know that every time you block an ad, you’re reducing your earning potential for that specific ad space. You may even turn off advertisers and make them less likely to advertise on your website in the future.

Rule of thumb: don’t block ads unless absolutely have to. If your ads aren’t speaking to your website’s content or audience, focus on your keywords and how you can optimize them.

Publish Content Regularly and Often

In order for your advertisements to perform, you need to do everything you can to drive visitors to your website. If you don’t have traffic, you won’t generate clicks, and in turn, won’t get any revenue. Google’s algorithm will reward you if you publish content on a regular basis, which will drive your site ranking and bring in more traffic.

Struggling with creating content or unsure what types of ads are most relevant for your site? Contact an advertising agency for assistance!

Final Thoughts On Making Money with AdSense

If you’re a website or blog publisher, you should absolutely try to make money with Google AdSense. It’s such an easy way to make money, especially if you follow the tips in this article! If you take in these tips and plan an effective ad strategy, you’ll end up creating more valuable content, and driving better business for your blog or website.

Are you struggling with your blog or looking to create one? Not sure where to start? Check out our blogging resources to get insights into how you can effectively do this!

Over the past few years, the importance of content marketing as part of a company’s overall digital marketing strategy has steadily grown. Potential customers who have become saturated with traditional ads and largely unresponsive to their message are now more likely to be influenced by forms of advertising that are subtler – ones that provide real value while weaving in the company’s message in a way that is engaging – and content marketing perfectly fits the bill.

In addition to the changing perceptions of consumers, search engines such as Google have also played a large role in the increasing prominence of content marketing. In an effort to supply better results to their users, Google has begun to prioritize websites in the search results that are filled with large amounts of high-quality, valuable content.

All of this is to say that securing well-written, engaging blog content is now more important than ever for companies of all sizes across a wide range of industries. The question that we’ll address in this article, though, is where should companies go to order this content?

The good news is that there are plenty of platforms online today that are designed to connect companies needing high-quality content with talented freelancer writers who are able to provide it.

Best Freelance Writing Job Sites to Outsource Content Writing

Below, we’ll cover five of the top freelance writing job sites on the internet today to help you narrow your search for a freelance writer who can set your company up for content marketing success.

FreelanceMyWay

A relatively new addition to the internet’s selection of freelancing platforms, FreelanceMyWay is making waves in the freelancing market by offering a number of key, much-needed features to both freelancers and clients alike.

The first and arguably most important benefit that FreelanceMyWay offers is the screening process that all new freelancers on the platform must undergo. One of the biggest issues plaguing most freelancing writing platforms is the plethora of low-quality freelancers that clients must wade through in order to find an experienced, talented individual that is right for the job. These freelancers make their living by offering bottom-of-the-barrel rates and convincing budget-minded clients that they are getting a bargain. However, the results that they deliver are most often not up to par with the type of content that companies need in order to succeed in their content marketing efforts. To make matters worse, it’s often difficult to distinguish between low-quality freelancers and high-quality freelancers on a platform with no screening process, turning the hiring process into a game of roulette where clients spin the wheel and hope for the best.

On FreelanceMyWay, though, this isn’t the case. All freelancers on FreelanceMyWay – including all of the platform’s freelance writers – are hand selected based on their experience and work samples before they are allowed to bid on projects that are posted on FreelanceMyWay. This feature provides clients with a high degree of confidence that, no matter who they hire, they will be working with a writer who is at least proficient enough to pass FreelanceMyWay’s screening process.

In addition to a screening process that effectively weeds out low-quality writers, FreelanceMyWay also offer a number of other advantages including access to a wide range of talent from all over the world, an intuitive, responsive, and easy to use user interface on their website, and payment protection procedures that ensure clients get what they are paying for while at the same time ensuring that freelancers on the site are always paid for their hard work.

Hiring a writer on FreelanceMyWay is simple and straightforward. You simply post your project on the site for free to begin receiving bids and proposals from freelancers. You can set a budget to let writers bidding on your project know how much you are willing to pay, but freelancers on FreelanceMyWay are allowed to bid below, at, or above this budget. Once you’ve chosen the writer that you would like to work with, you simply hire them for the job and begin the project. FreelanceMyWay facilitates all communication between clients and writers and handles all payment transactions as well. Upon completion of a project, FreelanceMyWay deducts 20% of the amount that you pay to your freelancer for their fee.

FreelanceMyWay may be somewhat new to the freelancing game, but it is a platform that is well worth checking out if you are looking to hire a talented freelance writer.

Textbroker

Textbroker is one of the oldest and largest content creation platforms on the internet today, offering a number of useful features that the site has honed over the years.

Rather than screening writers on an accept/don’t accept basis, Textbroker evaluates the writing samples and profile of writers on the website and assigns them a rating on a scale of 2 to 5 stars. This rating is designed to reflect the talent and experience of writers on the site, and higher rated writers on Textbroker command higher payment.

Unlike most freelancing platforms where writers set their own rates and place bids on a project, the amount that a client pays on Textbroker and consequently the amount that a writer earns is based entirely on the writer’s rating.

Textbroker does allow clients on the platform to choose between either managed services or self-service, though. The self-service is similar to the setup that most freelancing platforms employ, where clients are responsible for posting a project, choosing the writer that they would like to work with, and working with that writer until the content is delivered.

Clients who deposit more than $2,500 into their accounts on Textbroker, though, have the option to save time and avoid hassle by choosing managed services. If a client chooses managed services on Textbroker, all they are responsible for is providing the topic and their preferences for the content they would like to order. The Textbroker staff then chooses a writer for that content themselves, works with the writer, and delivers the content to the client once it is complete.

There is one aspect of Textbroker that serves as both a benefit and a drawback to clients on the platform – the pay rates that they offer to their writers. While the payment that 5-star writers receive on the platform is a respectable 5.0 cents a word, the drop off in pay between 5 and 4-star writers is considerable, with 4-star writers earning just 1.4 cents per word. The majority of high-quality writers will be able to earn much better pay on other platforms, meaning that clients may experience a drop off in talent between 5 and 4-star writers on Textbroker that matches the drop in pay. Of course, the lower rates will also allow clients to save money, so it’s up to you to decide whether or not the likely tradeoff between cost and quality is worthwhile.

iWriter

Like Textbroker, iWriter is a content creation platform that makes use of a writer rating system and predetermined pay rates. However, both the pay rates and differing features that iWriter employs differentiate the platform from Textbroker in a few significant ways.

For one, iWriter gives clients the option to submit their project to a pool of writers as well as an individual writer. For example, if a client decides that they want to have their content written by an Elite Plus writer – the highest rated group of writers in iWriter’s rating system – they can submit their content to a general pool where it can be picked up by any Elite Plus rated writer on the platform. This feature helps clients save time when ordering content by virtually eliminating the hiring process. Alternatively, though, clients do have the option to choose the writer that they would like to work with directly as well.

Pay rates on iWriter are a little complex, but they’re easy enough to understand once you get the hang of them. iWriter divides writers on the platform into four categories based on their skill and experience, ranging from Standard to Elite Plus, with higher rated writers commanding higher pay rates. iWriter also divides pay rates up based on the type of content that you are ordering, though. For example, you’ll pay a little more per word for an eBook than you will an article on iWriter.

As with Textbroker, though, the drop off in pay rates between the highest rated writers and second highest rated writers is considerable, bringing up the same tradeoff between cost and quality that we discussed regarding Textbroker. On iWriter, you’ll pay $72 to have a 1,000 word article written by an Elite Plus writer, but just $20.25 to have a 1,000 word article written by an Elite writer, the next tier down. Writers on iWriter, meanwhile, earn 81% of what the client pays if they select the project from the general pool and 86% if they are hired directly.

Freelancer.com

Freelancer.com is a platform that has more in common with FreelanceMyWay in regards to its structure than it does with Textbroker, iWriter, and WriterAccess (the platform that we’ll cover in the next section).

On Freelancer.com, clients post projects on the site for free and begin receiving bids on those projects from freelancers who are able to bid any amount that they wish. Like FreelanceMyWay, Freelancer.com is not a platform that is specific to freelance writers and instead services a wide range of freelancers and clients. However, there are certainly plenty of talented writers on the platform to choose from.

As one of the largest freelancing platforms on the internet, Freelancer.com boasts a total of over 30 million freelancers and clients from all over the world who work on the platform. Once you’ve chosen one of these freelancers that you would like to work with, Freelancer.com facilitates all communication, file delivery, and payment transactions between you and your writer.

While posting a project on Freelancer is free of charge for clients, the platform does offer a number of add-ons that can be purchased for a fee. For example, if you want to feature your project on the platform so that it gets more bids, you can pay a fee of $9, or if you want to require the writer you hire to sign a non-disclosure agreement, you’ll need to pay a fee of $19. Freelancer.com also charges clients a fee of 3% of what they pay to their freelancer and charges freelancers a fee of 10% of what they earn.

WriterAccess

On WriterAcess, writers are divided into star ratings based on their talent and experience that range from 2 to 6 stars. In order to receive their initial rating, writers are required to fill out an extensive profile, provide multiple writing samples, and complete an online test that gauges their knowledge of core copywriting concepts. After they have been given their initial star rating, though, writers do move up or down in their ratings based on their performance.

For clients ordering content on WriterAcess, there are three options. Clients can choose to submit their project to the general pool of writers on WriterAccess, and the writers who are available to pick up the project will depend on how much the client is paying. For example, if the client is paying the 3-star rate for the project, then it will be made available to 3-star writers and higher. Even if a 6-star writer selects the project, though, the client will still only have to pay the 3-star rate.

Clients can also create a “love list” of writers and send their order out to the that list. All writers on the “love list” will be able to view and accept the project, and it will be awarded to the first writer on the list to accept it.

Lastly, clients on WriterAccess can create “solo orders” that are sent out to a single writer.

The pay rates on WriterAccess are a little more evenly distributed than they are on iWriter or Textbroker, which is arguably a benefit for both clients and writers on the platform alike. On WriterAccess, you’ll pay 10 cent per word at the 6-star rate, 8 cents per word at the 5-star rate, 6 cents per word at the 4-star rate, 4 cents per word at the 3-star rate, and 2 cents per word at the 2-star rate. The writer you hire will then receive 70% of this amount. WriterAccess also offers a variety of managed services to clients who deposit certain threshold amounts to their account on the platform.

Where to Find the Best Content for Your Blog

As you can see through each of the outlines above, there are plenty of great sites for outsourcing your content and finding new writers. While each of them are unique in their own way, the one that works best for you will ultimately come down to how much money you have to spend, the quality of writers you are looking for, and how much time and effort you spend on vetting new writers and comparing their work.

Take the time to explore your options with each of the freelance marketplace above, and also don’t forget to get started with a blog of your own if you haven’t already!

Did you know a great way to push your SEO results is by creating a sitemap optimized for SEO? Here’s how to make a sitemap, completely easy and DIY!

93% of web traffic comes from search engines. Of those searches, 92% of search engine traffic was to Google.

This means if you want to attract readers to your blog your website has to be search engine friendly. And more importantly, Google friendly.

But how do you create and plan a website that’ll improve your SEO rankings, especially on google? It all starts with the sitemap.

Now you may be wondering what is a sitemap and how do I make a one?

The good news is, making an XML sitemap is simple and easy — even if you don’t know how to code! We’ve created the perfect tutorial to teach you how to make a sitemap to improve your SEO rankings.

Check it out below!

What is an XML Sitemap?

When you hear the term “sitemap,” you may be thinking of long complex charts and detailed graphs with tons of information.

In reality, an XML sitemap is a list of all URLs on your website that you submit to google.

The XML refers to eXtensible Markup Language. This language is a way of communicating information that will get displayed online to humans and machines.

Why Do You Need an XML Sitemap?

Now you may be asking yourself, “If an XML sitemap is just a list of URLs, then why is it so important?”

The answer lies in how search engines work.

Search engines use crawlers. These are robots that search or crawl through the internet to index web pages. An XML sitemap makes it easy for the crawlers to know what is on each page and so it’s easier to index.

Think of an XML sitemap as a table of contents for your webpage. The crawler refers back to the table of contents to figure out what’s on each page so that it knows where to index the information.

The sitemap tells the search engine how important the page is to the site. As well as how often the page is updated and when it was last updated. And it allows the crawler to find pages buried within the site.

There’re more benefits to an XML sitemaps than telling crawlers what is on your website.

Because XML sitemaps tell crawlers when the webpage was created, it helps search engines know where the content is originally from. If other people have copied your content, Google may think that your original content its duplicate content. This is important for SEO rankings because search engines like original content and often punish duplicates.

Luckily, sitemaps can provide simple proof that your content is original, which helps improve your SEO rankings.

Let’s Start Making an XML Sitemap

Now that we know what an XML site is and why it’s important, let’s learn how to create an XML sitemap!

Because Google is the most popular search engine in the world, we’re going to learn how to create a sitemap for Google by using xml-sitemaps.com.

The process is easy. Just paste in your website’s URL into the correct field and press start. In a couple of seconds, the site should generate an XML sitemap.

Next, download and save the sitemap.

The last step is to submit your sitemap to Google. We’ll get more into detail with this process later. But first, we’re going to create an XML sitemap for WordPress.

Make an XML Sitemap For WordPress

Creating an XML sitemap for WordPress can be simple and easy as long as you use Yoast. It’s a free plugin for WordPress that helps improve SEO rankings.

First login into your admin account for your WordPress site and open the Yoast plugin. Next, select the “Dashboard” option and click “features.”

Then click “Advanced settings pages” and make sure that it is enabled. After that, save changes.

Next, go back to your dashboard and when you click on the Yoast icon you should see a feature labeled “XML sitemap”. Once you click this, you can customize your sitemap.

In the “general” tab under “Your Sitemap” click “XML sitemap.” This should allow you to see your XML sitemap. Then copy the last portion of your sitemap’s URL sitemap_index.xml.

The final step is to submit to Google. No matter which method you’re using to create a sitemap the method for submitting to Google is the same.

Making Sure Your Sitemap is Google-Friendly

According to Google, using a sitemap can improve your site’s visibility in their index. This is important if you want to improve your SEO rankings.

Since we’ve already learned how to create a sitemap for Google, we’re going to learn how to submit your sitemap to Google using Google Search Console.

Google Search Console is a free web service provided by Google. It allows webmasters to index and to check the visibility of their website.

Google Search Console contains other features like statistics about how often your site is being crawled by Google Bots. It will also tell you the keywords that are leading people to you.

The first step is to sign into Google Search Console. Then choose your website from the sidebar.

Click “index” and choose “Sitemaps.” If there’re any outdated sitemaps remove them and the type sitemap_index.xml in the field. The last step is to submit your sitemap.

You should see a report from Google telling you how your sitemap is working.

Now That You Know How to Make a Sitemap, Wanna Learn More?

Knowing how to make a sitemap is one of the most important parts of improving your SEO rankings. But it’s only the beginning.

There’s a lot of other factors involved that make successful blogs work. If you want to know how to launch an awesome blog or how to make money by blogging, contact us.

We’ll help you start blogging like a ninja!