Whether or not you are new to writing at Constant Content, finding writing ideas that will sell is a constant challenge that merits the use of a bit of creativity blended with a consistent effort to stay on top of which topics are currently trending on the site. Try the following tips.

1. Check out the Recent Search list as well as the current selection of Popular Search topics. Pick a topic out, throw in a unique angle, and tap your fingers on the keyboard to create content that is refreshingly new. Take into consideration seasonal swings and the fact that some topics are needed months in advance including holiday-related themes.

2. Utilize popular keywords - in the title, summary, and body of your article. The site’s search function looks at these aspects of your article to generate suggested content for potential customers. You need to invest a bit of time to incorporate SEO facets into your work, if you want to sell it quickly.

3. Watch the Recently Sold Content List. This task is a bit tricky due to the frequency with which it changes. Anytime that a private customer comes in and scoops up 20 or more articles, it’s tough to discover what is selling to other customers who may or may not have a request in. Your best bet is to look at this list at least twice a day, several hours apart.

4. Review category inventories. Since most writers like to compose content on favorite topics or material they know well, some of the existing categories are lightly represented on Constant Content. Consider edging into and creating a niche for yourself. For example, Water Sports and Math have only 5 pages of content each and Tennis has 2.

5. Watch current trends in popular subjects in both the real world and on Constant Content and compose articles along those lines. In any given month, one topic may suddenly become "hot," giving writers the opportunity to jump on the bandwagon with articles offering unique insight into the subject matter.

6. Look to the practical in life. Writing about topics offering value to the average individual goes a long way to finding ideas that generate sales. Put on your thinking cap and ask yourself, "What would I like to read more about? What kind of topics would I be interested in if I had a website catering to people interested in technology, electronics, parenting, pets, or gardening?" While it may be true that a lot of articles have been written on any given topic, you can provide a unique perspective.

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Constant Content’s catalog of unique articles grows by the hour. As a writer, you may be wondering how you can attract customers to your articles in particular. Keep in mind that all elements of the submission form, along with the article itself, can work together to make your writing especially appealing. Think about each section carefully and use them effectively. If you have spent your time on a stellar article, doesn’t it make sense to help it sell by putting that same effort into its on-site presentation?

Title

A catchy title that accurately reflects the content within the article will always stand out from other articles. For example, instead of:

Enclosures for Small Yards

Or

5 Enclosures for Small Yards

Try:

Over the Fence: Enclosures for Small Yards

Short Summary

The short summary is the first glimpse a customer has of your writing. Make it count. Briefly describe what information the article contains. Avoid value judgments of the article. If your short summary reflects your writing skill, you won’t have to talk up your article.

Small yards often feel smaller when they are boxed in by a fence, but an exposed yard often goes unused. Creative landscaping or deck options make the most of even the smallest yard without giving its occupants a “fenced in” feel but still provide the privacy that creates a useable space for parties, barbecues, or children’s playtime.

Article Content

A sure way to make your article content stand out from all others is to choose topics to which you can give original insight or an interesting slant. Try coming at an old topic from a new angle or applying the topic to a particular niche (within reason, and only if it makes sense to do so).

Stop yourself if you begin repeating the same information thousands of other content writers have offered about the topic. For example, budget articles often suggest the readers alter their daily latte habit and make coffee at home, advice everyone has been hearing for years. Health articles often tout medical recommendations that have since been challenged or debunked. Alternatively, they present common-knowledge information as if the reader hasn’t heard it before: drink 8 glasses of water a day, eat fruit and vegetables for snacks instead of junk food, get 8 hours of sleep per night. If the information continues to have merit, include it in such a way that acknowledges your reader, as an active participant in the world of digital information, may have come across it once or twice in his or her data searches, and pair it with new facts that will give it fresh relevance.

Keyword Field

The keyword field on the submission form helps customers find your article and should include those words central to your idea. The keywords you should include here are not necessarily the same keywords that a search engine would use to find the article. Choose a handful of relevant nouns for the keyword field, or use short phrases that a real person might use to search for an article. Remember to accurately represent the main themes of your article.

The keyword field for the article about small yard enclosures might look like this:

Small yards, fencing alternatives, landscaping, decks, yard enclosures, yard privacy?

Notice how the short summary and keyword fields are in agreement with each other!

Also notice how the keyword field leaves out words such as parties, barbecues, and children’s playtime; the article is not about these topics even though it may mention them. It also uses the plural form of the relevant words because people intuitively search for plurals.

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Given that a majority of Internet users search with Google – enough that “Google” is a verb now – updates to the search engine can be scary for website owners. Every time Google changes its algorithms, you're at risk for losing your site's search rankings.

Remember, though, this is not the end of the world, even if you were negatively affected by the Penguin Update. Optimized websites are no longer optimal, and low-quality content has been penalized. There are a few practical steps you can take to try to recover as soon as possible.  If you weren't affected, the following tips offer a good course of action to follow to make sure your site continues to thrive.

Don't rely on “old techniques” of website optimization

In the past, experts recommended articles of specific lengths and with specific keyword percentages for optimal search engine friendliness. This may no longer apply, and has been shown to be negative now in some circumstances. Rather than ordering your writers to create articles using a specific keyword phrase repeatedly, try suggesting three or four variations of the keyword to be incorporated whenever appropriate.

If writers have to “stuff” keywords, it will show with awkward phrasing and repeated use of specific phrases. Instead, natural content has variations of related keywords, a few uses of the keyword that is the topic of the article, and doesn't force more than a few uses of the keywords.

Don't focus on backlinks

There's a sharp division in the ranks of internet marketers when it comes to types of articles. Some prefer the cheapest articles possible so they can spin and backlink repeatedly, while others want professional-quality content to post once or syndicate.

Focusing on backlinks too much will mean you aim for irrelevant backlinks. Instead, look to create quality unique content that is worth sharing first. Google is good at detecting which type of content is which, and future updates will almost certainly hone in on the best content, so even temporary “tricks” won't work for long.

Website owners looking to syndicate fantastic articles will want to choose high-quality and informative articles of good length (shoot for 800-1000 words), so aim to create content that is long, filled with information, and relevant to readers on your website.

Try various types of content

It's impossible for the average webmaster to know exactly what Google is looking for. If you have more than one type of website, you're in the perfect position to experiment and see what Google seems to like on your website.

Some website owners have reported that tightly-focused pages providing very specific questions and answers (under 300 words but no fluff content and pure information) perform better now, while others say that longer website pages packed with quality content still perform fine.

What's likely happening is that Google is getting good at determining what type of content best serves its users in a given query.  Try to focus on the same when creating content, and you'll likely succeed.

In the end, only Google knows the direction they are going, and there's no point in trying to trick it with low-quality content. The ultimate goal of Google is most likely to point users to the exact answer to their question and the most relevant result, and that is usually high-quality unique articles. Don't skimp on content and remember this goal when building your site, and you won't need to worry about recovering from algorithm changes.

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By: Meghan McKenzie, Account Manager with Constant-Content.com

Inbound links are a vital factor in driving your website up the search engine rankings. They are an indication that your website is credible and respected by other industry experts. Attracting high-value inbound links is one of the most challenging aspects of search engine optimization (SEO), largely because the publication of links on other websites lies outwith your control. You must encourage or persuade other people to link to your website. Publishing unique, reliable website content is paramount if you want to attract the types of inbound links that will boost your search engine ranking.

Get Blogging:

 A well-written blog is a crucial tool in developing and publishing linkable website content. Dry, promotional blogs that are rarely updated will not attract vital inbound links and are likely to bore any readers that happen to stumble across them. If you want your blog to attract high-value inbound links, ensure that it is updated regularly with fresh, compelling content. Whether you want it to be witty, edgy, or controversial, finding a personality for your blog that suits the subject matter will help to attract and retain and loyal readership.

Don’t Just Ask For Links, Build Relationships:

 When you are approaching another website, blogger, or industry expert seeking an inbound link, ask yourself what is in it for them. What are you offering that will encourage them to link to your website content? Perhaps you could collaborate with them on a project, interview them for an article, or contribute to their blog. A link building strategy is a long-term project. Solid relationships will help to underpin and maintain your strategy in the future.

Publish Socially Shareable Website Content:

 The online world is no different to the real world when it comes to news and gossip. Everyone wants to be the first to share interesting and juicy tidbits. Share the link to your compelling and unique website content with your social media connections. Encourage readers to forward it on to friends and colleagues. This will create a buzz that will help you to earn inbound links.

Some Inbound Links Are More Valuable Than Others:

 It can be tempting to use directories for link building, but take care. Search engines will only give you credit for inbound links that come from respected directories that are discerning about the links they publish. Focus on local, industry-specific, or niche directories that are edited by a person, not a robot. Take care when paying for inbound links as paid links may contravene search engine guidelines.

Use Content Writers to Reinforce Your Link Building Strategy:

 There is no easy way to develop the types of inbound links that will help you reach the top of the search engine rankings. Cheap inbound links that any website can attract or buy are worth very little. High-value links take time, effort, and planning. You need to publish fresh, interesting, unique content regularly to attract inbound links from credible sources. By engaging content writers to produce compelling, shareable website content, you will find that your readers, other websites, and industry experts are keen to share your links. These are the inbound links that will pay dividends in attracting both search engines and potential customers.

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Google's biggest updates often knock webmasters for a loop. Even with hints beforehand that Google was planning an update targeting over-optimization, no one really knew what to expect before Penguin came about. Since Google doesn't tell us exactly what they're doing- or even what they've done, after the fact - it leaves SEO experts to analyze their changes to sort out what happened to the algorithm and what ranking factors are most likely to get you into trouble.

Now that the Penguin update has been launched, it is easier to see what Google was targeting, but the only way to know for sure is to study a large number of sites and look for a common thread between those that were impacted by the update. Microsite Masters has done the research and published the results on their blog. They found two factors that the penalized sites had in common:

1. Targeted anchor text: Every single site they found that was penalized used keyword-optimized anchor text for at least 65% of their incoming links. Yes, that's right--every single site. Out of all the sites they checked, not one site with less than 65% keyword-optimized links was penalized.

2. Links from irrelevant sites: The other pattern found in this study was that sites with links from websites in unrelated niches were more likely to be penalized. Almost half of the penalized sites had no links from other sites in the same niche, and over 70% of the penalized sites had less than 30% of their links coming from related sites.

Recovering from the Penguin Update

Now that you know what the penalized sites have in common, it is a lot easier to figure out what to do to fix it. You need to add links to your backlink profile that come from other sites in your niche and do not over use keyword-optimized anchor text. Use a combination of your site name and website URL as anchors instead. Keep building links until at least 30% of your links are coming from related sites and at least 40% of your links use anchor text that does not include your keywords.  It comes down to having a diverse backlink profile.

What's the easiest way to ensure you have a natural looking backlink profile?  Focus on running your site in a way that provides value to your visitors.  Share great unique content and articles with them that they'll want to share.  Publish press releases to distribute news about your company on a regular basis.  Engage visitors on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Reddit or Google Plus.  You'll find that if you're actively doing these things the links will come naturally.

Is this strategy guaranteed to get your site's rankings back? Of course not. Nothing with Google is guaranteed. However, if you base your recovery strategy on solid data, your chances are a whole lot better.  Really what we're advocating is doing things the right way and with your users' experience in mind, and that's what Google wants to see your site doing too.

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