Freelance Writing 101

You asked for it....Writing Info:

Learn First, Write Later:

Keywords ****Must read!
http://blog-guide.blogspot.com/2008/05/getting-your-blog-to-rank-highly-in.html
More on Keywords ***Must Read!
http://thehappyhubber.hubpages.com/hub/Using-Keywords-in-your-HUB-for-Search-Engine-Ranking
Blog Organization Using Labels as Categories
http://blog-guide.blogspot.com/2008/07/how-to-add-labels-or-categories-to-your.html
Blogger Gadgets in the top of the Post Column
http://blog-guide.blogspot.com/2008/07/blogger-gadgets-on-top-of-post-column.html

Getting Started:

1.  You need an account with Google Adsense if you don't have one already.

2.  I recommend Blogger (www.blogger.com) to write a blog on.  Blogger is owned by Google and makes it really easy to set up to work with Adsense.  Once you have an adsense account number, you'll see where you can add that into Blogger and set up ads directly within blogger.  You DO NOT need to set up ads in Adsense and paste code into blogger.

3. Now that you have a Blog set up, go back to adsense.  You can create a channel in AdSense for your blog.  If you have more than one blog, or you publish articles to hubpage (we'll talk about that later), then create a channel for each of these.  Then you can see which blogs and which articles are earning money and how much.  This will help you write more about the topics that earn you the most money.

4.  Next set up an account with StatCounter (http://statcounter.com/).  This is free. StatCounter will allow you to see how many people are visiting your blog, which pages they look at, how they found you (direct enter your site address or through a search engine), and what keywords they searched for to find you.  StatCounter will give you instructions on how to put their code on your blog.  Put a StatCounter on each and every blog you create.  This will allow to you know which keywords are bringing you people and which topics are the most popular.  Check it at least once a month.

5.  Hubpages (www.hubpages.com) - this site if free to join and allows you to publish articles on any topic you want.  You can earn ad revenue directly from Hubpages but also connect it to your Adsense account.  They do a profit share on the Adsense revenue but they're pretty fair about it.  The up side to this site is you can write on random topics and they help to drive traffic to your articles.  You can link to your blogs in your profile too.  You can also get ebay and amazon revenue but it's never done me any good and seems like a waste of advertising space.  This site is also very easy to use.

Submitting your Writing to Search Engines and Pinging:

Submit the URL for each article or blog post you write.  Not the site URL such as myblog.blogspot.com but full URL to get to just that article (such as the ones I provided above in the education section.)
Pingler
http://www.pingler.com/
Google
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/submit-url?continue=/addurl&pli=1
Bing/Yahoo/MSN
http://www.bing.com/toolbox/submit-site-url

Tools:

Research Keywords to get ideas for similar keywords and phrases.  Also look for keywords that have a high search volume and/or low competition.
https://adwords.google.com/o/Targeting/Explorer?__c=1000000000&__u=1000000000&ideaRequestType=KEYWORD_IDEAS
Google Hot Searches:
http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends
Google Trends:
Shows you the search popularity of a keyword over time.
http://www.google.com/trends/

Finding Other Writing Jobs:

You will need a few good samples of your writing style and skill online before you apply to online and freelance writing work.
About.comhttp://beaguide.about.com/gdapplynow.htm
Blogger Jobs:
http://www.bloggerjobs.biz/
Search Tempest will allow you to search Craigslist over multiple locations at once.  Since Freelance Writing Jobs are not generally tied to a location, this is the best way to look.  You can find real writing work in here, and you can find a lot of scams.  Be careful.
http://www.searchtempest.com/

Cuil Search Engine turns Google Results on its Head

Cuil, launched on July 28,2008, has taken the search engine to a whole new level. Cuil's unique approach to search combines the largest index of Web pages to ever exist with content-based relevance. The result, highly relevant, spam free (or at least less) search results that surpass Google's wildest dreams.


Cuil for Searchers
Cuil searches for and ranks pages based mainly on their content and relevance. When Cuil finds a page with your keywords it then analyzes the rest of the page for not only more keywords but its content, its concepts, its coherency and how it all relates to each other. These innovative algorithms provide highly relevant results.

Cuil doesn't stop there. Oh no, search results that are immediately more relevant then Google are not good enough. The results themselves are not just a bland list of links with some text that might make sense. Cuil organizes the search results to make it easier to find the information you want. The search results are organized into columns that are read from left to right and top to bottom. The results are sorted by ideas and offer images and full text descriptions. Cuil’s goal is to guide you towards answers to the questions you’re not even sure how to ask.

Cuils Features:

Navigation Suggestion
As you begin your search, a drop down box may appear below the search field with potential search terms and sometimes even a direct website.

Drilldown
Cuil's drilldown is a panel that appears on the righ-hand side of the search results that provides you with a list of related search terms. Roll-over one of those terms and box will pop-up with the defintion of the term.

Tabs
Cuil's tabs at the top of the search page also offer ways to clarify your search and narrow your choices.

What Cuil means for Webmasters and Spammers:
Cuil has developed new architecture and algorithms designed to handle and even organized the mammoth porportions of the internet. For the millions of honest hard working webmasters who toil day in and day out to deliver useful knowledge to the world, your day has come. For spammers, well none of us liked you to begin with and we won't mourn you when your gone.

Cuil puts a far larger emphasis on page content and relevance. While they recognize that popularity has its usefullness it is not the sole or even the best means of determining a site's value in relation to a give search term. Establishing relevancy is more than a numbers game. Cuil prefers to find all the pages with your keyword or phrase and then analyze the rest of the content on those pages.

As Cuil grows in popularity, SEO will see some dramatic changes. Scouring the internet to find social networks, blogs, directories, forums and other places to put links to yourself will become more a waste of time, as it should be, and quality content will truly become king and take its rightful throne on the top of the search results hill.

Webmaster's Submit your site to Cuil here.

Cuil is an old Irish word for knowledge. If knowledge is power, then more power to Cuil.

Search Cuil here.

Or go here and download a toolbar that lets you Cuil search directly from the browser.

Custom Domain Names in Blogger

Now, having a custom domain name using the Blogger platform is as simple as a couple of clicks.  One of the reasons WordPress gained so much popularity is the ability to have custom domain, but Blogger has stepped up to the plate and even made it easy. 

If funds are tight, you can get a 100% free blog from Blogger and put as many different revenue forms on it as you want.  At any time such as once it starts earning some money, you can publish that very same blog to a Custom Domain rather than the blogspot.com one offered by Blogger.  Blogger will even automatically redirect your blogspot.com domain to the custom domain, so there is no risk of losing traffic from the move.

To set up your custom domain in Blogger, go to the Settings Tab/Publishing and click on Custom Domain. You have the choice of purchasing your domain name from a third party registrar like GoDaddy or directly from Blogger. Personally, it seems easier to purchase from Blogger, but might not be the cheapest.

You also have the option of purchasing third party hosting or using Blogger to host. I HIGHLY recommend you use Blogger to host. There is talk that they will be phasing out support for third party hosted blogs, plus Blogger offers unlimited space and bandwidth, all for free.

Free Online SEO Tools

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) must be high on your priority list if you are blogging with the intent that people will actually read what you write.  The good news is you don't have to do it all on your own.  There are a lot of different tools out there to help you analyze, track and improve your blog's SEO.   Ann Smarty at Search Engine Journal has just put together a list of 142+ free SEO tools.  Read Online SEO Tools - the Ulimate Collection here.

Blogger Gadgets on Top of the Post Column

Did you know it is possible to put gadgets including Google Adsense at the top of your post column in Blogger?  Of course you did!  You just saw it on this site.  But how?

This step is insanely easy if not at all obvious.  On the Layout tab, create a gadget in your side column, then drag and drop it above the Post Box. Viola!  Your done.