Summary: Using web-based services InboundWriter and Scribe, you can refine your copy and get real-time results on the effect it will have on search engine optimization of your website content—making the process more fun!

Bloggers who are seriously about getting search engine traffic always make sure they include the right “phrases that pay” when they write. They understand the underlying principles behind content/search engine optimization or SEO: Create relevant, quality content that is indexed properly by Google and Bing, and as importantly (perhaps more so) get backlinks from other well ranked websites as “social proof” that your content is rank-worthy in the first place.

Optimizing your website content for search engine optimization purposes strikes many people as a huge (and often mind-numbingly boring) challenge. But it doesn’t have to be.

Fortunately, there are some very good, affordable tools to speed up the search engine optimization process and give you more peace of mind vs. guesswork.

InboundWriter: A Fun Way To Achieve Search Engine Optimization

A web-based SEO service that I really like is Inbound Writer (affiliate link). They recently launched a WordPress plugin, and I’m using the free version now for content optimization on this post.

With InboundWriter, you either go to their site and optimize your documents there (similar to Scribe), or install the WordPress plugin. Here’s a YouTube video that shows how the InboundWriter WordPress plugin works:

Using InboundWriter, the content optimization process starts with identifying a select number of “focus terms” (relevant keywords) you want to rank for. Once you pick these, InboundWrite will whir and hum, then offer a laundry list of terms to include in your copy for  ideal search engine optimization. As you refine the text, you see  real-time results on the effect it will have on search engine indexing. You get a Document Score gauge that updates in real time as you write, which really makes writing seem like a game!

Two Ways InboundWriter Optimizes Search Engine Content: By Search/Social Or Reader Targeting

InboundWriter has two built-in ways to help you optimize your content. Their Search & Social is called a “balanced” strategy or you can choose selective demographic/reader targeting. Depending on which strategy you select, it will affect your real-time results. I haven’t played around with these enough to know how much of an impact either has, though I’m more inclined to go for the “balanced” approach unless my content was super-specific to a niche.

The free, web-based version of InboundWriter limits you to optimizing eight documents per month. Their single paid level, the Professional Plan, is $19.95/month and includes content optimization for unlimited documents.

Click here to try out InboundWriter.

Using Scribe SEO For Web Content Optimization

Another solution, Scribe (affiliate link), is very good at analyzing your content and suggesting keywords and phrases you may have overlooked. Using a web-based version (for use on any website regardless of the content management system), or plugins for WordPress, Joomla and Drupal, you use Scribe to create search-optimized content. Before you start to write, you can do keyword research to determine the best phrases to target for a particular article. Next, as you write the system prompts you to fill in proper information such as title tags, meta description on other “on page” factors relevant to search engines.

Scribe also has a neat feature that helps you build backlinks to your site, which are crucial to getting better search engine rankings. It will look for search engine optimization opportunities for you to cross link with other posts on your own site, external sites and even influential Twitter users you may want to share with.

Scribe’s “platform-agnostic” version is especially good if you are a writer providing content to multiple sites. You can use it to optimize your content before posting it elsewhere.

The system also lets you quickly create Content Optimization Reports to send to your clients. This is a fantastic way to demonstrate your value beyond simply writing “good” content.

Scribe has four packages ranging from $17 to $97 per month (with a 30-day, money back guarantee). Their pricing is based on how many “evaluations” and keyword searches you get in a month. In Scribe, each time you analyze your content using their algorithm, you use one evaluation. They claim it takes about 3-5 evaluations per page, so you can quickly burn through these.

Click here to try out Scribe.

My Initial Takeaways

Based on my preferences, I like the non-WordPress version of InboundWriter better than the WordPress plugin, which doesn’t offer all the bells and whistles. Plus, I hate writing directly in the WordPress editor.

I will say the process adds to the time I would normally spend in terms of worrying about search engine optimization. It also feels unnatural to me to keep repeating keywords just for the sake of moving the SEO needle. After several minutes piddling around with this post, for example, I settled for a 67 out of 100 score from InboundWriter—and I went with a crappier title and more repetition overall than I’d like. Sorry, Google, but I’m not gonna write like a machine just to appease your robots. My valued readers will likely abandon ship.

There’s also the issue of what you’re targeting in terms of keywords. Some phrases are just ridiculously competitive in terms of search engine indexing. I don’t care how many times I say search engine optimization here…the chances of this article ranking on page one of Google is very slim. However, if I’m going after a less competitive phrase, my chances are greatly increased by focusing on my word choices and placement in the title, URL, headers and body content.

I wouldn’t necessarily use either Scribe or InboundWriter every single time to massage my content. But certainly for “pillar” type content that I really, really want to rank for, I’d spend the time working with one of these tools. Both InboundWriter and Scribe make it more of a game and less drudgery to try to figure out how to appease Google and get your content better indexed.

For More Information

Click the links to learn more about InboundWriter and Scribe. Please note, I will make a small affiliate commission on these if you decide to buy through my links. If so, I thank you—and my wife and kids thank you!

A few years ago, I decided to write an ebook. My objective at the time was pretty simple: give away the ebook for free, in order to gain more followers (i.e., email subscribers).

Back then, Twitter was just getting hot, so I decided to make the e-book about how to master Twitter. I came up with a clever title, wrote and formatted the book fairly quickly, and put it on my site.

The results were pretty good. I got a few hundred new email subscribers within a matter of months. It got a lot of retweets, naturally.

But…

The results could’ve been a lot better.

• The book itself probably could’ve been better organized and written
• Iinstead of just giving the book away, I could’ve charged for it. (I even had several people tell me they would have paid for it!)
• Or…I still could’ve given it away, but potentially made money by including sponsored ads or affiliate links within the e-book

Avoiding Rookie Ebook Mistakes

Fortunately, I will not make these rookie ebook mistakes the next time around.

I had the good fortune of meeting mom blogger extraordinaire Angela England a few months ago. Ang was just finishing up her own e-book, appropriately titled 30 Days To Make And Sell A Fabulous Ebook (affiliate link). I was excited when it came out and dutifully bought a copy. (After all, she helps support a family on her blogging efforts!)

This is a wonderful 52-page ebook, chock full of stuff that will make your first (or next) ebook better.

Ang talks from her own experience and explains first of all how to discover what you’re good at and what you’re “known” for. She also talks about:

• Better ways to research topics using Google, Amazon, blogs and other tools
• How to price your e-book
• How to avoid writer’s block
• Multiple ways to monetize e-books (including free e-books!)

But perhaps the coolest feature if you buy the book is that you get free membership in a private forum with access to Angela!That is the first time I saw that tactic used, and I admit it’s pretty clever.

Trust me, Ang is a dynamo who gives excellent, no-nonsense advice when it comes to marketing yourself or your business online. Her ebook is well worth the money, and even better she opens herself up for direct communication in her free ebook forum. Here’s the link once more to buy 30 Days To Make And Sell A Fabulous Ebook.

One of my favorite new things is transcription.

For this article, I’m using my iPhone to make a brief recording that I will then translate into a blog post. What’s fascinating about this is the ability for me to quickly and easily put down my thoughts—in this case verbally—and then have them translated into written text that can go on my website or elsewhere. After I record this, I’m going to send this file to myself by email and use a program I purchased for my Mac called MacSpeech Scribe that will hopefully translate this very accurately so that I can have a blog post done in a fraction of the time that it would normally take.

I read somewhere recently that we as humans can talk about seven times faster than we can type. Imagine the possibilities for your own blog in terms of generating more ideas, saving yourself time in the process.

There are a lot of programs for both the Mac and the PC to do transcription, as well as services where you can upload a file and have it translated usually within a day or a couple of days depending on the price and they will send you the written transcription back out in short order. Recently, I did several interviews over Skype, and afterward I sent the sound files to a transcription service called Internet Transcribers. Within a few hours, they had translated these audio files into flawlessly written scripts of my Q&A sessions. One file was approximately 20 minutes long and another one was over 30 minutes long, and the process for me to sit down, re-listen to my audio recordings and translate that myself would’ve taken much longer than my time was worth (cost to me for transcription: about $1 per minute).
So take a look at some of these programs I’ve mentioned, as well as other web-based services like Audioboo or Cinch that will allow you to call a phone number,  do a recording, share it and also download a file that you can then translate on your own computer or through a service such as Internet Transcribers. There are great possibilities and it frees up your time to do a whole lot more!

I’ve been wanting to write this post a long time. But I’ve been sidetracked by all kinds of requests from people who wanted to “pick my brain.”

No more! I am taking a new stance against the evil brain pickers of the world and putting my foot down. If you want my advice, I’m happy to give it—but it’ll cost you. And the advice will be worth the money, I promise.

Actually, the fabulous Laura Roeder beat me to the punch with this important topic. Read her post, The Simple Tricks Experts Use to Always Get Paid For Their Time, over at Copyblogger.

Laura’s advice is dead-on. Namely, to clearly establish your service offerings and to stand firm against people who want something for nothing. As Laura says, it might be their prerogative to ask—but as a professional, it’s your right to state what you earn for legitimate consultations, and simply to decline the opportunity if it’s not in your best interest.

The toghest thing for me personally are expectations from “friends and family.” Unfortunately, there can be the sense that you “owe” those who are close to you your expertise, either free or at a sharply discounted rate. Once again, you must politely but firmly set expectations, especially if you provide a service vs. selling tangible products. I don’t know why, but a lot of people don’t seem to “get” that a consultant’s time and advice are worth just as much as a physical product.

And another thing: Treating someone to a free coffee/lunch/dinner is not an acceptable substitute for paying them for their expertise!

What about you? Do you have any advice on how to politely say no to requests for free advice? Please leave your comments below.

Photo credit: stevendepolo