Tag Archives: term
Article Writing Tips: The Phrase
The hardest article writing tips to learn and apply are the ones that teach us to abandon bad writing and speech habits. This is especially true of a writer’s propensity to write in the same manner that they speak in. This is never a wise idea as any transcriptionist will tell you: most people speak terribly and constantly blurt all sorts of nonsensical crap. This means that if you already speak poorly your writing will probably seem amateurish at best. This includes the use of phrases like “Should of,” “Anyways,” and one of the most common idiotic phrases of all, “Try and.” Nearly everyone uses the words “try and” in everyday speech, but this is a perfect example of poor English. And when this phrase makes its way into the writing of even very good writers it can result in the loss of the most valuable readers: the intelligent ones!
In the first sentence of this article are the following terms: “learn and apply.” Let’s compare that to “try and write.” The word “and” is an operator that indicates there are two things being combined, or that one follows the other. So in the case of the first term, we know the usage of “learn and apply” is correct because there are two specific things going on: learning AND applying.
In the case of the second term, “try and write” doesn’t yield any real meaning once you examine it. We know that there is writing going on, but what is this “try and” part mean? What does this person intend to try in addition to writing? The phrase can be broken down into its two parts to clearly see why it’s ridiculous:
*Try
AND
*Write
Don’t forget, AND is the operator that combines the two words. The “try” part of this term is vague and makes no sense: what is being tried? The phrase really means that two things are happening: one is writing and the other is unknown.
There is never a time where you could use the phrase “try and” where it would be considered correct. Instead, you should always say “try to.” Compare the following sentences and you’ll easily see the difference:
“I will try and run 3 miles later.” Or “I will try to run 3 miles later.”
“Try and get this done quickly please.” Or “Try to get this done quickly please.”
So now that you know the difference, you shouldn’t use the phrase “try and” unless you’re running a tween blog that uses words like “coulda” and “ur.” But if you want to be taken seriously as a writer, you’ll TRY TO ensure that you never write as you speak. Chances are great that once you start writing correctly, you’ll probably start speaking correctly as well.
Search Engine Optimization SEO
Any Internet marketer who has been in the business for some time has probably heard the term “SEO” a thousand times by now. Internet marketing newbies should expect to hear it a lot as well because it will play a huge role and determine the success of their online career.
SEO stands for search engine optimization. This term basically refers to the use of keyword phrases to get a high page rank in the Google search engine. For online marketers, the process begins by picking out a few keyword phrases related to your niche. For instance, if you are promoting a weight loss product on your website, then you might pick out a long tail keyword like “how to lose weight fast” or “how to lose weight naturally”. You want to use keywords that web surfers will likely enter when searching for information about your niche.
The next step is to use a service tool like the Google Keyword Tool Bar. This tool will let you know how often a keyword phrase is searched. It will also give you an estimate of how competitive a keyword phrase is. Remember that other Internet marketers will be vying for the same keywords as well. Ideally, you want to use keyword phrases that get decent searches but are not too competitive. You should stick to long tail keywords about three to six words long. Going back to the previous example, a broad term like “lose weight” or “weight loss” may get a lot of searches, but it is also much more competitive. You will be more likely to make it to the first page of Google with long tail keywords.
Once you have your keywords picked out, include them in your website. They should appear several times in the text and in the title. Include it in the URL if possible. You also want to visit blogs and forums within your niche and include a link back to your website with the keywords as the anchor text. Article directories are another good place to drop off a link. Just write an article related to your niche and include a link in the resource box. This process is known as link building. Link Building takes time and involves tedious work. However, this technique will slowly improve your page rank.