Five Inspirational Quotes to Get You Writing and Blogging

Image Source

Literary art in whatever form is beautiful but quite complicated and arduous to make.

Though passionate writers and bloggers have an endless stream of ideas and seem like they never run out of things to say, the reality is there are days wherein writing becomes more of a chore than a cherished hobby and activity. And when this occurs, inspiration can be rather hard to come by. However, for those who are employed in perhaps a digital marketing agency and are paid to do write-ups every single day, merely calling a day off and taking a break for a day is not exactly feasible—especially when you have a weekly (or even worse, daily) quota to meet. So, how do you get the inner cogs of your brain working? Well, this article does not have a step by step guide for that. But, it does offer you a five diverse quotes and adages from various authors, bloggers, and writers alike to inspire you to get started with your writing.

So while you are here (and are probably looking for something to distract you or inspire you to do some writing), let this article fuel your mind and give you some of the wisest aphorisms from the well-known pundits as regards writing.

“I think the word blog is an ugly word. I just don’t know why people can’t use the word journal” –Moby

Moby may be a songwriter and a musician, but he does have interesting thoughts regarding writing. In a way, his statement does make a lot of sense considering that some blogs are written in the manner of which personal journals are written. However, this is a rather limited view of a bigger picture as blogs nowadays cover an array of topics that range from advice columns to technical guides. The blogging sphere has expanded to be more inclusive of aa muopics rather than the ones we used to see before which chronicles a certain individual’s personal experiences and trials.

“Only on the Internet can a person be lonely and popular at the same time” –Allison Burnett 

In an age where your value as an individual is misguidedly measured by the number of likes you get on social media, truer words have never been spoken. Allison Burnett has pegged our society right as being popular on the web does not always equate to your real life popularity. If you are using your blog as an avenue for popularity, then you may be in for a disappointment. I am not saying it is not possible, but if this is the sole reason you are blogging, then you may want to consider a better way of going about it.

“I don’t want to go viral. I want to set hearts on fire”  - Coco J. Ginger 

Recognition is a great thing, but knowing you have helped someone through your work and through the articles you have crafted is, even more, rewarding. This is why when you are writing articles because you want to help genuinely, you will garner a lot more readership than you would be when you are just trying to get more shares and likes and have it go viral.

“Put your blog out into the world and hope that your talent will speak for itself” - Diablo Cody

Do not be stingy with your talent. Let your voice be heard and start blogging and writing about anything that appeals to you. This is one of the ways you can express yourself and may be your stepping stone towards an even bigger venture, such as writing a book perhaps. Do not let the small things hamper you from doing what you are most passionate about.

“If you want to continually grow your blog, you need to learn to blog on a consistent basis” – Neil Patel 

Practice makes perfect and the more you write, the better your articles will become. Just think about it, your favorite bloggers, authors, and writers started somewhere too and through their perseverance and continuous efforts, they became so much better in their designated craft. During the incipiency of your blogging venture, specific niche topics may be hard to write about and creating an entirely new content is a skill that must be acquired and learned. Through practice, this is achievable and will largely contribute to the success and growth of your blog.

Four Small Steps to Start Improving Your Writing Today

Image Source

“Content is King.” 

Bloggers, content writers employed in a digital marketing agency are all too well versed with this maxim. In fact, as a content writer or blogger, this is ingrained in them the moment they took the job. It is basically what they do and is essentially the driving point of their jobs.   However, this aphorism is all for naught if the writers themselves cannot deliver efficient and compelling content that would motivate readers to keep coming back for more. True enough, content writing is not only about meeting your weekly quota—it is about publishing online articles that writers themselves feel are worthy of reading.

But crafting articles worth reading and sharing does not happen overnight, it takes years of grueling experience, dedication, and hard work. Although, that may be true, it does not necessarily mean that you cannot incorporate small changes today that would aid you in your endeavor in becoming a better writer. After all, that is why you are here—this article has somehow piqued your interest, and you want to craft and write better articles. Well, for any writer out there, there is no hard and fast rule and the logistics towards bettering your craft are not ineludibly the same for everyone but undoubtedly, you can start today with these small steps.

KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WRITING AND BLOGGING 

A lot of people are under the misguided notion that there is no real difference between writing and blogging and that in essence, they are one and the same. This is a novice misconception for non-writers, and those who do write should know better. The stark difference between writing and blogging lies in what an individual does with his or her craft—a blogger casually writes, would add links various photos and videos that they would incorporate into their content. The words they utilize are mildly important and are just a small aspect of their show.

Writers, however, have a more in-depth understanding of what they are writing about. They endlessly do research, have their notes handy, open up a blank document and zero their focus on the words and just the words. Writers would only edit after they have made sure they have reached the end of their piece; they do not edit it as they go. And they definitely do not break their mental flow just to embed a video into their content. This is because writers need to operate on an uninterrupted wave of initial thought and inspiration and when it is gone; it can be hard to begin that sort of rhythm again.

Now that you have an idea what the difference is remember that it is much better to write than to blog if your endeavor is to become a better writer.

USE YOUR ADVERBS JUDICIOUSLY

Adverbs are hardly your friend when it comes to writing better and effective articles. However, this is better said than done considering that most writers have a minimum word count to meet. If such is the case, then do make sure that when you utilize adverbs, use them sparingly and sensibly and do not just lump them anywhere and everywhere you think appropriate. A well-known writer so vehemently dislikes the usage of adverbs that he has concluded that they were “created with the timid writer in mind” and would tell us that the writer “is afraid he or she is not expressing himself or herself clearly.”

In any case, the overuse of adverbs makes for a lazy writer and would produce lethargic writing. Express yourselves better, vocalize your thoughts, paint a clearer picture with your words and do not simply resort to adverbs when you are falling short of your needed word count.

CHANGE YOUR PERSPECTIVE 

Sometimes the most difficult part in writing is trying to begin. Every writer is familiar with the feeling of having a daunting blank white page stare at you—the sheer white expanse is enough to make some writers quail, and the thought of filling that up with words is, even more, formidable. True enough, writing needs the necessary inspiration for one to begin and more often than not, that may be rather hard to come by. After all, there are certain times of the week wherein you do not feel like writing at all. When this occurs, simply take some time off the computer or from your desk then breathe and relax. Then have a change of perspective.

As an example, you can envision someone, think of a friend or a family member. As your words begin to glide on paper, imagine them reading as you go or better yet think of them as being the solitary audience of your article—that you are writing for them. In this way, you are writing to one person instead of writing to no one or everyone all at once. Additionally, it would be easier to put your ideas into words as your goal would be to explain your idea only to one person.

OBSERVE OTHER SUCCESSFUL WRITERS 

This one bears no further elaboration.

Observer how your favorite writer's do their craft online and take a leaf or two out of their books and incorporate their practices into your style of writing as well. Learn from them and utilize their best techniques and maybe one day, you will end up being just like them.



Becoming a better writer does not require you to make any bold and sweeping changes for you to become one. Just try to incorporate the three small changes above and never underestimate the power of practicing your craft. After all, the adage “practice makes perfect” never failed anyone. And it certainly would not fail you or hurt to start becoming a better writer today.

7 Motivational Quotes for Marketers this 2016

Image Source

Everybody needs motivation. Agree? Who doesn't? When we have the right motivation, we get to do the things we love passionately. And if you are an online marketer, doing a guaranteed SEO is just a piece of cake since you are motivated enough to achieve a great outcome. But some stress is inevitable, sometimes, having some motivation to continue might be a tough thing to do on our part.

Stress comes when we are too bombarded with the things around us - and it is inevitable. Some of you here might be catching up a strict deadline, plus experiencing unwanted situations such as uncooperative clients, demanding boss, and even annoying co-workers, which is are the common stressors we usually have. And as a result, these things can lose our focus and motivation to see great things ahead.

Whether you realize it or not, stress has been a part of our lives. But it doesn't mean we just let stress gets into our system. Of course, we can face our stress head on if we know what right approach we are going to do when it comes on our way. Reading some inspirational quotes can help us overcome our stress. Of course, it also gives us some encouragements and motivations to pursue the things we love.

1. "Life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you react to it."

                                                                -Charles R. Swindoll-

When you are a marketer, it is expected that not all business transactions would have a smooth process. Sometimes, if not always, there will be some minor or major problems that get on your way. Especially when you and your client are not on the same page, it is troublesome on your part.
However, if you have the right character or attitude towards the situation, then you can sort things out in no time. Always remember that there will be no problem too big if you just have the right approach not just towards the situations, but also towards the people around you.

2. "If you can dream it, you can do it."

                           -Walt Disney-

Every successful business always starts with an idea. You dream of being a marketer, and then you make it as a goal, and of course, reaching your goal is one of the things you should do. If you are just determine enough to pursue your dreams, then there is nothing that can stop you in achieving those dreams and make it into a reality. Remember, it will always be up to you on how to determine, hard-working and courageous enough to face circumstances head on just to achieve your desired dreams.

3. "Just when the caterpillar though the world was ending, he turned into a butterfly."

                                                                          -Proverb-

Just like any other people, marketers struggle too. They struggle when they know that the sales are not growing; clients are not cooperating, and other unwanted situations that they might be experiencing. However, just because we all experience these things, it doesn't mean it is the end of us. In fact, it is in these situations we learn, grow and succeed in our career. Again, your character and the right approach towards the situation matters the most. When things get tough, pause, think, focus and face the problem head on.

4. "Courage is resistance to fear, master of fear – not absence of fear."

                                                                 -Mark Twain-

Fear is everywhere; they exist. And whether you realize it or not, fear has been a part of our lives. We fear of being unsuccessful in everything we do, fear of losing the things that are dear to us, we fear that this might be the end of our career, etc. Just like stress, it is inevitable. However, a true marketer move forward, face their biggest fears and overcome things that keep them from being stronger and better person.

5. "Where there is love there is life."

                     -Mahatma Gandhi-

One of the main ingredients if you want to be successful in your career and being as a marketer is to love the things you do. Facing and overcoming circumstances head on is easier to achieve if you love what you do.  Of course, when you put your heart on it, you will also know your work or business by heart.

6. "Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going."

                                                                 -Jim Ryun-

Always remember that merely reading inspirational quotes will not get you to nowhere. Yes, it gives you encouragements, but it is in your habit that makes a difference. Again, if you want to be successful, make a good habit that leads to a desirable result. Overcoming bad habits would lead to achieving a larger goal.

7. "The risk of a wrong decision is preferable to the terror of indecision."

                                                              -Maimonides-

It is understandable that making a mistake in marketing can affect the business – sales, clients, etc. But a true marketer would prefer making a mistake than not doing anything at all. In fact, it is in our mistakes we learn what strategies that are not working, and how we are going to make it work the next time. Without making mistakes, we can't move forward and succeed.

Catching up the Trend: How to be an Influencer Online

Image Source

Ok, let's admit! 2015 has been a tough year for some marketers, especially for starters who are working in an online marketing agency or as a freelancer. Because there are thousands of online marketers, competing with them might be a tough one to do. But let's break that down this year. 2016 might be the breakthrough of your blogs and other websites that you have when it comes to quality traffic. Of course, one of our primary goals is how are we going to make that work.

Whether you realize it or not, being an influencer creates a significant impact on your presence online. This is the time when you got to make connections with online audiences and other well-known influencers. It is also the time where you can be active and creative at the same time with the quality of your content. Moreover, making sure that your content gets through your audience is one of the things that should be on your priority list.

There's always a caveat, though, being an influencer doesn't just mean you have a lot of followers of your blog or website. That also means you got to make sure that your followers trust your expertise in your particular field. With that, your followers might recommend you to their friend or family that helps expand your influence even more.

Well, if you are one of those online marketers who are still struggling when it comes to online marketing, then below are some tips you can apply to have a productive and successful career.

Start with what you know

Never try to create contents where you don't have any idea about it at all. This might be the reason your readers are won't trust you anymore. Moreover, remember that there are other marketers out there who know better than you and might question you for having a crappy content about a particular topic that you make.

However, if you want to try that particular field or subject, you have to make sure that you have enough knowledge about that before posting or publishing it online. With that, you expand your niche and try something new. Just make sure you are not making a crappy one.

Be consistent and focus on quality over quantity

There will always be a danger when you go for quantity over quality. Yes, you may have lots of content, but are you sure that you are making a good one? And yes, a constant update is a must for us to do, but you also have to make sure that you focus on the quality of the content itself. Moreover, you also have to be keen on how you incorporate interesting things on your post. When you audience notice that you have an interesting content, they will most likely visit and read your post.

Additionally, your readers would expect more of your content when they know that they can get some information or knowledge out from it. Considering that fact alone, making sure that you can deliver what they want is one of your top priorities.

Pay attention to the demand

One of the things you should consider and do is you have to pay attention to what your audience are saying. That means you have to engage in a conversation with them. Know what they want or what interest them the most. With that, you will have an idea on what content to create next. Also, listening and considering the suggestions of your audience is not a bad thing after all. In fact, you can have more ideas on a new topic that you will have. Well, just make sure that what their suggestions are relevant enough to the field of expertise that you have.

Another thing, by meeting your audience's expectations means you are valuing their opinions that help make you boost your presence online. Of course, your potential audience will know you with that.

Four Actionable SEO Techniques You Can Utilize Today!

Image Source

Without a doubt, search engine optimization (SEO for brevity) has been one of the pinnacles of that enables many and various businesses to flourish in this technological and information age. Naysayers may say that traditional SEO would inevitably die out, but statistics says otherwise and since its inception, it has been shown that SEO is a major factor in contributing to the overall success of an individual company’s marketing strategy.   Digital marketing agencies specializing in link building services are still major juggernauts when it comes to shaping a business marketing strategy. After all, every single day 3.5 billion searches are being made (which is consistently growing over time); it would only show and prove just how significant and more competitive search optimization still is and will still be for many businesses in the years to come.

Over the years, SEO as a channel for online traffic acquisition has not seen much change over a decade of its existence—save for continuous optimal updates and polish for a variety of search engines. A pivotal objective in the practice of SEO is pretty much unchanged, and that is to provide an easier avenue for people and searchers to get the essential information or solution they sought for and needed. People successful in SEO do two things quite well which is identifying those techniques that would get them desired results and then putting one hundred percent of their resources into executing and scaling those techniques. And if you possess sufficient SEO acumen, you would exploit these techniques. However, some of you may be wondering how you can find strategies that would guarantee you results—well, look no further as this article made it easy for you.

All you need to do is select one and see if that works for you.  

UTILIZE THE BROKEN LINKS IN WIKIPEDIA 

Wikipedia is teeming with SEO opportunities that you could largely take advantage of. And it has a multitude of benefits as it is white hat, scalable and powerful. However, some of you might not want to put that much of an effort in finding broken links considering how tedious it is, but if you are aware of Wikipedia’s kink in the editing system, you may soon find many broken link opportunities in your hands. Apparently, the kink lies in the fact that when a Wikipedia editor finds a dead link, they do not delete it right away but add a footnote next to the link that says “dead link” instead.

To expedite the search for dead links process, use a simple search string: “site:Wikipedia.org{keyword}+dead link”. Then visit a page in the search results that is relevant to your site, hit ctrl+f and search for “dead link”. Your browser will then scour the page for any dead links in the references section. If you are looking for an easier way, you can use a tool called WikiGrabber which would allow you to search for dead links on the Wikipedia pages.

SCOUR REDDIT FOR UNCOMMON KEYWORDS

Undoubtedly, Reddit is a hub for untapped keywords as the people who regularly hang out in the website talk about every possible topic there is under the sun. Because of this, you would find a lot of untapped keywords in various conversation threads that you would possibly never find in the Google Keyword Planner. So how is this possible? Say you ran a website that sold phone casings, search for that in Reddit’s search bar and if there is any subreddit, head to that as well. After which, look for the threads where people tend to ask a lot of questions (such as a Q&A thread), and then you can start scouring the thread for potential untapped keywords (bonus points for terms that frequently pop up).

Dedicate a portion of your time in finding potential keywords in Reddit, and you might just find yourself with enough keywords that would last you for a long time.

WRITE A DESCRIPTIVE BLOG POST FOR YOUTUBE DESCRIPTIONS 

Undoubtedly, YouTube videos have been dominating Google’s first page considering how in demand they are. And apparently, since Google owns the popular video site, you may likely find that it is not a trend that is going to change anytime soon. However, people uploading these videos seem to neglect the fact that Google cannot read videos and mindlessly throw a few words into the description box that would barely give any definitive content of what the video is about. Remember, Google relies on your video’s text based title and description to determine what the video is about.

Remember, adding a mini blurb, even something as little as a two hundred mini blog for your YouTube video makes it look more professional and would do wonders for your Youtube SEO.

PUBLISH CONTENT WITH AT LEAST A THOUSAND WORDS 

Undeniably, longer contents would win over short hundred word blog posts. Longer blog posts work as they are evidently providing more substance and in-depth information to searchers. Additionally, compelling and in-depth content would encourage your readers to share your content online potentially making it into a viral content.

Work on your blog posts, research longer, add any relevant information to it and make it comprehensive enough that would leave your audiences in awe. Then you will see that long and in-depth blog posts would work like a charm.