Here are two ideas that are easy to write up, and draw readers in every time:

1. Take a conversation, and add to it. The most popular topics aren’t just discussed and then left alone. They are bandied back and forth all over the net for months at a time. To create great content, all you have to do is add your voice to the conversation.

The advantages: this is a more than usually good content idea because it taps into the zeitgeist. If you write up a piece about an issue you’ve seen discussed that day, you’re tapping into a trending topic. This helps draw readers, but even more importantly, can get you noticed on the search engines. You can talk to us at Content.co.uk about writing SEO articles to catch Google’s eye.

2. Collect the best of your industry. This is such an easy idea it’s amazing that more site owners don’t pursue it. Drawing up a ‘top ten’ of anything is an easy way to create an article. Making that top ten a list of interesting or helpful pages or resources is a way to guarantee your page will be read.

The advantages: Collating content is much easier than drawing up your own. Long-term traffic is another major benefit, and you might even get some reciprocal links.

When you get to that point, it can help to remember these three indisputable facts about blogging.

Some blog posts are duds. It’s a plain fact that every blog has some posts that just don’t work. Even the most popular blogs can struggle to be interesting all the time. It may not seem encouraging to know that every post is a fresh start, but it’s true nonetheless.

Constant posting is a habit to get into. At first, blogging is a bit like exercise. It’s as hard to write content every day as it is to go for that daily jog. Keeping it up builds up a valuable habit that will serve you well down the track.

Your work will build. One of the best things about blogging is that it gets better with time. This is not only because writing skills get better with exercise, but also because your connections with your blogging community will increase, supporting you and encouraging you.

Finally, remember this: you don’t have to do it alone. Content writing services, like the ones we provide here at Content.co.uk, are around for a reason. Using a content writing service can help to get your blog off the ground, and relieve the pressure from you once you’re up and running.

The biggest mistake you can make with online press releases is to simply post them on a press release site and leave them be. Press releases need to be put to multiple uses to really earn their keep.

For this reason, you need to get into the habit of sending your press releases out into the wider world.

1. Post snippets in social media feeds. Your social media profiles should be your first go-to place when promoting any kind of content and the case is no different for press releases. Besides, with the social media information highway moving so swiftly, it’s a waste to let good content just sit on a site somewhere

2. Post updates on your site. A snippet should also be posted on your site. Re-posting whole press releases does present a duplicate content issue so it’s a good idea to discuss the potential issues with your web copywriting service, such as here with us at Content.co.uk

3. Use the PR as material for your email campaigns. Press releases are ideal material for a newsletter or other email marketing strategy. They provide useful information and some relief from your marketing message. Newsletters can in turn be used as content for your website if you set up a newsletter archive

1. Zeroing in on keywords at any cost. It’s a bit of an SEO myth that keywords have to be included in as many titles as possible. You can talk to us about this at Content.co.uk. With Google cracking down on ‘thin’ content over the last year, it has become apparent that keywords are often the thing that’s holding a piece of content back. Put yourself in the algorithm’s place – if you see 100 articles with ‘FitPlus 1000′ in the title, you’re going to assume they all cover the same territory.

2. Not matching the content to the title. This one’s more about losing the reader than losing the search engines. How many times have you clicked on an interesting title only to find that the article doesn’t match? News article writing traditionally added the title last and it’s best to keep title-writing until the end to avoid this particular issue when writing SEO articles.

3. Forgetting the search engines. You may say that it’s unlikely that content written for SEO will overlook the search engines but people do it all the time. Remember, titles are usually what appears in the SERPs so write something eye-catching.

How do you get ‘great’ content?

Obviously, writing great content isn’t easy. If it was, there would be far more of it on the net. However, there are a few simple rules that all great content conforms to:

1. It’s meaty. The best content comes from experience and passion, not ten minutes of research. Use your knowledge to get the best effect.

2. It’s share-worthy. Ever read an article that makes you want all your friends to read it? That situation didn’t happen by accident. Concentrate on ideas you know your audience wants to share. Talk to our experts at Content.co.uk about share-worthy content writing techniques.

3. It stays with the reader. Great content gives something to the person who reads it. Give your reader an idea to mull over.

A final note is time. Really great content takes time and effort to write, both of which are an investment in a busy world. It’s an investment that proves worthwhile when your blog or website starts attracting organic traffic.

It’s almost impossible to make every piece of content truly great but with an investment of time, it can be achieved fairly regularly. If you’re blogging for SEO, aim to post at least an entry a week that catches the attention of your niche. By doing so, you’re investing in your audience and in links for your site.

It’s a fairly simple task and takes up very little time. To specifically envision who is going to read the piece, you need to explore two paths:

1. First, ask yourself, ‘Who is going to want to read this?’ This first step allows you to set the tone. It also sets you on the right track in terms of fine-tuning your words for an internet audience. If you know you’re writing for a social media group with little time on their hands, you’re more likely to write a concise article that packs a punch.

2. Second, ask the question, ‘What sites will link to this?’ This is possibly even more important than the first question when writing SEO articles and you can talk to us at Content.co.uk about this. Writing for link targets increases the likelihood of links.

There is a big need for content these days. With so much content being churned out, it can be easy to lose sight of what’s important. Whether you’ve invested in a content writing service or you’re doing it yourself, asking these questions can help you maintain specificity.

Some of the things you should be aiming for in your home page copy are:

*Sharp, hard-hitting text. The main thing to watch for with your home page’s content is that it opens doors to the rest of your site. This means that the standard heading, body text and sidebar format is not appropriate. Content for the home page should be written in easy-to-absorb bursts, with links placed strategically. Which leads us to…

*Plenty of room for links. Links should be kept in mind during the writing process for the home page. Preferably, they should be decided on before you hand the brief over to your website content writing service, such as our expert team here at Content.co.uk. Knowing what your most important links are will help you place them in the most advantageous positions.

*Compartmentalisation. Finally, a certain amount of compartmentalisation is necessary for a home page, and this needs to be borne in mind when you’re drawing up a content plan. Instead of presenting a 250 word chunk of text to your site user, you need to provide interesting little snippets. Your plan needs to set out sections and the words allocated to each.

‘Content’ and ‘social’ aren’t exactly two terms that go together naturally. So much of the interaction on social media sites is person-to-person. This doesn’t mean that a lot of planned content isn’t used, however. Much of the business activity on social media sites has been very well planned indeed.

What your social content plan needs

Social content writing involves a mixture of things, depending on the time you can devote personally to your social media plan. It can be anything from writing announcements, which are much like the online press release writing services we offer here at Content.co.uk, to hiring a web copywriting expert to take care of your Twitter account. The level of writing services you choose will depend on your budget, and your own schedule.

It’s important to work social content into your plans. Only this way can you coordinate your social plans with your site for premium effectiveness.

Most of the point of social activity seems to be spontaneous interaction – at least from the outside. Spend just a little time within social networks, however, and you can detect a lot of planning going on behind the scenes. Successful socialisers plan out their content very carefully. If you want to succeed on social media sites, you need to plan your way too.

Traditional copywriting was all about the power of the word. Website copywriting is still about the power of words, but with a few important extras. Web copywriters need to know how to tack words together not just to convey a message, but to catch the eye of the search engines. The SEO demands of copywriting are far more technical, and some copywriters just can’t handle it.

Knowing that you need an SEO copywriter doesn’t make it easy to find one. If you’ve been working on your site’s SEO for a while, you probably won’t have trouble recognising good content when you see it. If you’ve been relying on an SEO company, it might be a little more difficult.

The best way to protect your business is to equip yourself with knowledge, and you can discuss this with us at Content.co.uk. When reviewing copywriting offers, look for the following:

*Brevity. Short sentences are best for online reading. Some copywriters from print backgrounds have trouble with this.
*Invisible keywords. It may sound like a strange requirement, but the best SEO copywriting makes keywords invisible. If you can easily detect them, your site’s users are likely to be annoyed by them.
*Good reading. Finally, good copywriting will always be about readability. If you find samples boring or clunky, it’s a bad sign.

Time stamping works for web copywriting because time is now an important factor on the net. The search engines love time stamps because they help them list timely results. Internet users like time stamps because they help them avoid outdated information. Website owners and marketers have come to love time stamping for just these reasons.

While a publication date might work when you’re blogging for SEO or press release writing, it won’t work for all content. For example, say you’re a retailer with a special Easter holiday page. Time stamping that page means that you will have to refresh every year, causing work for what is really an evergreen page. The content of this page should be able to be used for several years in a row.

Another area to avoid time-stamping is standard website copywriting. The practice was once to place a time stamp on every web page, including the copy pages such as ‘About Us’ and standard home page content. The trouble with stamping these pages is that the content should survive in the long term, if written well. You can discuss this with us at Content.co.uk.

When it comes to time stamps, the general rule of thumb is to use them for fresh content. For your evergreen content, keep the dates away.