Power Sellers Unite

elainebs63 · Joined: 27 Jun 2005 Posts: 32 Location: Sunny Florida

Where do you get it? Just write it up on your own,..hence the term ORIGINAL,....but I mean,...there's so much info already out there. Do I have to come up with new ideas and ways to do things to be interesting and legal??

Can I copy and paste large blocks of text as long as I give proper credit, and note where it came from? Is that OK?

Or are all these 'webmasters', writers as well? It's like having to do a bunch of school reports that include research, summarizing and writing it up in maybe 4-5 paragraphs??

If so, I need to get crackin' cuz I have A LOT of stuff I want to include on my site,..and it took me 20 minutes to just word this question! 2 Weeks to decide what to ask and the best place to ask it,.. and then finally then last 20 minutes to decide how to ask it. Ay yi yi,...how do ya'll do it?

I am anxious to read any hints, tips, or 'tricks' of the trade to get content for your website to make it valuable to viewers. Or, if you really do have to write everything yourself, please tell me that too.

EleganzaJewels · Joined: 20 Jul 2006 Posts: 519

Best to take your time and write your own copy (my 2 pennies). That way, you can change it any old way you want without having to ask permission or risk having problems!

Start out with an outline (just like good ole English class!), outline what you want to say. Fill in the outline with paragraphs without regard to grammar (too much!) or keywords.

Then re-write it again, after reviewing, change the grammar as needed to make it more "readable" and compact.

Re-write it a third time, this time trying to insert keywords where they could logically and easily fit in (can't stress that one too much - don't keyword stuff, make it readable!)

Do the research after the fact, add the footnotes as needed (research last because that way you won't be tempted or forgetfully pull a piece of someone else's doc into your own!) Spellcheck, add a copyright at the bottom, and you're ready to publish!

If you need to, though, here is a good site for articles - make sure to read and comply with the FAQs!

Go Articles

(search on desktop publishing, alot of good info there, too!)

G'luck!

Linda

elainebs63 · Joined: 27 Jun 2005 Posts: 32 Location: Sunny Florida

WoW! I am shocked at how little you all had to say about this! :) :)

Well, I have learned a lot about free content since I first asked about this issue and I appreciate the other poster's comments and advice,...

maxxgraphix · Joined: 18 Sep 2006 Posts: 39 Location: Kentucky

Good content takes years to write. I see so many pages that are just void of anything useful.

Write about your company, manufacturing, product types, product comparisons, product care, tips, faqs, links etc...

Once you have gone beyond 1 page then you should have your content searchable. I sell signs and printing. Would you believe that 50% of my page views are other sign shops reading my articles? After seing this I decided to offer wholesale princing to the trade. Guess what? I increased my monthly sales volume.

CrystalStar · Joined: 06 Mar 2005 Posts: 3571

I'm just wondering here....couldn't you do something like an editorial....like a paper...and change it every so often? Of course you would have to have topics to write about ...but it could be educational and interesting.

maxxgraphix · Joined: 18 Sep 2006 Posts: 39 Location: Kentucky

I do mine in the form of stories. Each story is about a particular sector of my business. Or about an interesting job. I try to include a photo and a couple paragraphs about the process and or product. I use PostNuke or you could use any CMS. Your content builds fast this way.

See my main website and you'll understand better if I am unlear here.

elainebs63 · Joined: 27 Jun 2005 Posts: 32 Location: Sunny Florida

Ok, no way around the hard work, huh? That's what I was wondering. Back to 5th grade composition class!! :-)

1. Tell them what you're gonna tell them
2. Tell them
3. Tell them what you just told them

I remember! :-)

I actually have some things already written and some things I am going to use from Go Articles. I have them uploaded to my FTP area, but I can't figure out how to connect them to my site,..I am going to ask this question in another thread, but if anyone can tell me, I'd appreciate it. All the other links and stuff on my site are to pages already on the web, I knew the addresses for. I don't know the address for these new pages. Or am I missing some sort of fundamental point?

EleganzaJewels · Joined: 20 Jul 2006 Posts: 519

Maxx, that's a fantastic website you have there, VERY nice!

It's like riding a bicycle, Elaine, it allll comes back to ya :-)

Are you going to put a link to the articles, is that why you are looking for the URL to them? If so, check your FTP settings to see where your FTP'd files go to, then use your file manager, should be able to find them. Do you use cpanel? It's real easy, just open your file manager and dig around, they'll be in your FTP folder.

If you're going to add the entire or pieces of an article, don't need to upload them. I know there a jillion gazillion html editors out there, but I prefer to do my code in notepad and test it on the practiceboard

(Practice Board)

Time-consuming, but just one of those tried and trues for me.

Fix yourself up a nice little HTML template in notepad that matches your store colors, etc., use an editor if you want, but save the HTML in a notepad file and name it "articles" or something like that. Play around on the practiceboard til you are positive of where you need to add changing text for a new article, and voila, should be all set. When you go to post a new article on your blog or store, just insert the finished copy into the right areas and upload

Not very good at explaining things, does that make sense?