Quick Online Tips

Better Tweeting Equals Better Writing, And It All Starts With A K.I.S.S.

Posted: 01 Apr 2010 08:30 AM PDT

Guest post by Cori.
Alright. You probably don't see it, but Twitter can actually help you become a better writer. Of course you may likely scoff a bit at this— (jeepers however did I arrive at such a conclusion?!) and even claim that Twitter encourages people to become bad writers… especially when the typical Tweets you see look a little something like this:

ShopaL00za143: WTH it jus stopped!! :( #verybadsituation im starving*

kirstenIZthabest: #itsreallyannoying how you wanna b flip floppyyy make yo mind dawwggg!*

PlinkyT0ez: @JMezzyHair “-picks something- this?” -laugh- those are pants darling “ohh! ^-^ -giggles, gets purple jacket- this?” *

*Please note these are actual Tweets. Actual names have been changed for the protection of the individuals and so I can avoid a beat down when I say they are dumb and need to go back to school. I vote kindergarten. OK that was mean. 3^rd grade then?

Good Writer Good Tweeter

OK, so first of all, these aren't exactly what you'd call good quality Tweets. Not exactly engaging and compelling content, not by a long shot. And I say that with the utmost of sincerity and just a hint of sarcasm.

In no way should anyone continually Tweet like this, especially if you want to attract a loyal following. Granted, I am guilty of using the Twitter 'shortening' feature which can often turn plain English into readable numbers, BUT… I don't use it all the time, repeatedly. Nor do my Tweets resemble the above Tweets in any way, shape or form.

Thank goodness eh? That's just a little scary. And totally not in a good way.

Now don't get me wrong… an occasional rant here and there is fine, in fact expected. And sometimes we just can't quite fit all the characters we want into a Tweet rant. So we must shorten it somehow. Unfortunately the end result is usually some weird, decidedly pale version of the English language that is barely intelligible. Yuck.

So do the Twitterverse a favor and please make it intelligible. Pul-leez! (See? Totally intelligible right?) Or consider using TwitLonger. That helps too. Oh and secondly, if these are the typical Tweets you see in your feed, I say "Run! RUN!" in the opposite direction. Either that or I highly recommend you start looking for other, more interesting Tweeps to follow.

But I digress. Honestly, if you're serious about becoming a writer, being active in Twitter really will help you.

Here's how -

Twitter can help you become more conscious of the basic rules of writing. Remember the 4 C's?

Any writer worth their salt should know how to write (1) concisely, (2) coherently, (3) concretely and (4) clearly—and this is exactly the type of writing that Twitter forces you to do. Well… forces most of us to do at any rate.

So let's explore that a little deeper shall we?

1. Twitter forces you to write concisely

This one is pretty darn obvious. You're given 140 characters or less within which you must convey a message. You have 140 characters to say something that makes sense and hopefully makes you sound and appear smart to your followers. (No, you don't actually have to be smart… no, really you don't!)

Just kidding. You should be at least a little smart if you're trying to sound and appear smart. I read that somewhere. Seriously, you only have 140 characters to make a good impression. So make it a good impression.

The 140 character limit works because you really don't need too many words to send a message out when you're shooting for concise. Just remember to keep the K.I.S.S. method in the forefront of that little noggin of yours and you'll do spectacularly well.

K.I.S.S.= "Keep It Simple, Stupid" in case you were scratching your head and wondering.

2 & 3. The fear of being un-followed forces you to become coherent and concrete

While Twitter doesn't exactly penalize badly written Tweets, your followers certainly will. They will do this by *shocker*… un-following you! There's a reason why people follow other people on Twitter. Ask yourself, why do you follow hundreds of people, perhaps even thousands, on Twitter?

It's usually-

Because they make sense.
Because they teach you a little something each time they Tweet.
Because they post funny snippets.
Because they don't write like they're always high on something! Or failed 3^rd grade.

You need to be coherent and concrete if you want to keep your followers.

To be coherent means following the correct structure and form of a sentence to make sure that every word counts. And with only 140 characters to use, you'd better make each one count. For a Tweet to effectively get the correct message across, it must be free of spelling errors and grammatical mistakes. This is a little bit tricky, especially when you have 140 characters to fill.

You will be at times forced to condense the words and write in short hand by taking out some of the letters. For example, instead of "which," you may need to write "w/c." This is acceptable, just as long as you make sure that the message is still clear. It should also follow the basic rules of punctuation. I cannot stress enough the importance of punctuation. A friend put it succinctly:

"Remember, commas save lives!"

"Let's eat grandpa or Let's eat, grandpa. SEE?"

Now I don't claim to be the grammar police. Not by a long shot. I'm a ghostwriter but I make mistakes just like the rest of the planet and I'm the first to say so. Sometimes they're just accidental, sometimes they're on purpose. And I forgive a lot from others as well. But there are times when grammar is just so poor it's unacceptable and totally ruins what you're trying to say.

So if that's the case, why even bother saying it?

You also don't want your Tweets to appear vague. While you probably have the urge to Tweet something philosophical and thought-provoking to rise above the noise on Twitter, posting something like "my life resembles the bursting of a pimple" (actual Tweet … no lie!!!) makes you sound rather stupid and pretentious. So keep it simple and straightforward. Or you can… Keep It Simple, Stupid.

4. Finally, Twitter forces you to be clear

This is probably a no-brainer, but there's really no beating around the bush with 140 characters is there?

There's just not a lot to go with.

So it's not that difficult to be clear.

Much like this paragraph is pretty clear.

All you need to do is to learn how to use the right words and to edit properly.

And use short sentences rather than 10 mile long ones.

I repeat, use the rights words and edit properly.

Use short sentences rather than 10 mile long ones.

Writing clearly means that you need to improve your vocabulary and editing skills. It means using simple language whenever possible. And it means always keeping in mind that a huge percentage of the people on the web who will read your content are working with an 8^th grade vocabulary level…

So go ahead and try out Twitter, if you haven't already. Don't be scared, I know there is a smarty pants in you somewhere that can write intelligible Tweets. Just remember to use the 4 C's and seal it with a K.I.S.S.

Then let me know how it all works out for you and if you see an improvement in your writing by dropping me a comment or shooting me an email.

Guest author Cori is a wildly hire-able freelance 'ghost' and the creative brains and dubious brawn behind her blog Big Girl Branding. She'd also like to note that 'big' does not mean what you think it means. It was meant to indicate being a grown up. Sigh… Of course you probably didn't get that, and it totally loses its effect when she has to explain it. You can make her feel 10 times better about the whole misunderstanding though if you drop in and say hi. Don't be shy now! You can also submit guest articles and share youir Twitter ideas.

Original article: Better Tweeting Equals Better Writing, And It All Starts With A K.I.S.S.
Copyright 2010. Quick Online Tips. All Rights Reserved.

How To Get Your New Website Indexed Quickly

Posted: 01 Apr 2010 06:30 AM PDT

Guest post by Thomas Griffin.
Within this article, I will reveal to you the steps to getting your new website indexed quickly. With massive amounts of new websites pouring into the internet on a daily basis, it is absolutely crucial that you as a webmaster invest time into getting your website indexed.

For many people, getting search engine spiders to crawl their content for the first time is one of the toughest things to do. And even tougher still is the task of getting those spiders to come back and crawl your content on a regular basis. But alas, it is possible to get your brand new website crawled, indexed and visited frequently by search engine spiders – you just have to know the right tricks!

This is completely possible for even the novice webmaster who knows nothing about how websites work. The reason why I can say this is because I was a complete novice as well, but I managed to get my website crawled and indexed within the first 48 hours of it being on the web. Sweet deal, right?!?!!?

I want to share with you exactly what I went through in order to get my website crawled and indexed so quickly, and hopefully you will find it helpful, insightful, beneficial and inspirational. Without further adieu, let's get into the nitty gritty of getting your new website indexed quickly.

1. Plan, research, plan, research and plan some more!

So you want to get your website indexed within 48 hours too, right? The most important thing I can tell you to do before you even think about publishing your website is to plan and do research. I will expound on some of these topics later in the post.

Map out what your site will look like – literally draw out a rough sketch of your website. Design each page to your liking on paper, and then transfer that into building your website on the web. This will drastically reduce the amount of time you spend on hunting for a predesigned template or building your own template from scratch.
Brush up on your SEO (search engine optimization) knowledge and gain a general understanding of how it works. Write down any useful information and keep it handy for when you go to publish your website.
Scope out your competition and see how their website flows. While you do not want to copy work from your competition, you do want to learn from them so that you can avoid future mistakes.
Research what you can do in order to promote your website quickly. For example, reading this article is an excellent place to start! Simple Google searches like "how to get your website indexed", "how to get traffic to your website" and "how to promote your website" will bring up plenty of content for you to digest.

2. Create at least 10 pieces of quality content ready to be published before you go live on the web.

I made sure that I had already written, proofread and edited my website content before I purchased my domain name and hosting. Because I had already mapped out the niche I wanted to enter, I prepared quality content that would be ready for publishing as soon as my website went live. This allowed me to gear up my website quickly and focus on designing the website rather than having to rush around to write "quality" content.

3. Add in your content and start building your internal link structure

I think this is a crucial mistake that far too many new webmasters commit. They research on how to get their website indexed quickly, how to promote their website, and how to get traffic to their website, but they forget to actually develop their website. Indexing, promotion and traffic are all wonderful bonuses, but the quality of your website must always be of first importance.

Depending on your website (you may own an informational website, a blog or a combination of both), create the necessary web pages that are needed for the site. For example, I created these pages right from the beginning: "Home", "Blog", "Articles", "Misc", "Contact" and "About". It is beneficial if you have already prepared the staple information (Contact, About, etc.) so that you can just toss the information in as soon as you publish your website.

Once you have created and edited your pages, begin the process of adding in your prewritten content and linking the pages to one another. Make sure that every page links to at least one other page in your website and that each individual page has at least one link pointing to it. This is vital for helping those spiders crawl and index the majority of the pages in your website. Make it easy on the spiders by thoroughly linking to your web pages. Make sure that your link structure flows logically – a.k.a., don't just randomly add links into your web pages. Make sure that each link is a cohesive fit and that each link will make surfing for your visitors (and the spiders) easier.

4. Optimize your content for keywords in your niche

Looking back at when I first started my website, I wish I would've researched more about how to optimize web pages. Use the Google Keyword Tool to analyze what people are searching for in your niche. Once you have found a few phrases that you think fit your website's content, start optimizing your pages by strategically placing those keywords throughout your content.

Don't overstuff your content with those keywords or the spiders will think your website is a bunch of spam. However, make sure you use those phrases (and variations of those phrases) enough to attract attention from the search engines. If it flows well, also make your anchor text (the text that appears for a hyperlink) mimic the keyword(s) highlight the keyword phrases you have chosen. This will help those search engine spiders understand what your content is all about and tell them how to rank it in the respective search engines.

5. Start submitting it to search engines and web directories

This is the point in which you will start receiving some attention from the web spiders. I first started out by submitting my website to the big three search engines: Google, Yahoo! and Bing. To make things easier on you, each of those terms is hyperlinked to the page that you need to access in order to submit your site to those search engines. Submit your main URL to each of these search engines to get started.

The next thing I would suggest that you do is sign up for Google Webmaster Tools. Once again, it is highlighted for your convenience (please note that you must create a Google account first before you can use their tools). I would also sign up for Bing Webmaster Tools (you must create a Hotmail account) while you are at it. Bing does take longer to index pages than Google, but it would be wise to go ahead and sign up for their tools anyways. Yahoo! also has their own type of webmaster tools for you to use.

After you have submitted your URL to the search engines and have signed up the for Webmaster tools, it is time to create a sitemap for your website. This allows the search engines to see and understand the link structure in your website and, more importantly, allows the spiders to crawl your website with more freedom and ease. You can easily create your own sitemap by clicking here and filling out the necessary information.

Now that you have done all that work (phew!), it is time to start submitting your website to some web directories. I will go ahead and warn you that there are myriads of directories out on the web, but not all of them are necessarily good. Below is a list of directories (both paid and free) that I would recommend for submitting your website.

Paid Directories

InCrawler.com – they have a good directory that is not cluttered. It is a PR5 directory with a basic fee of $25. You may also choose to pay $50 for a premium listing if you so desire.
JoeAnt.com – they have a wonderful directory that truly can bring traffic to your website. It is a PR6 directory with a onetime, non-refundable fee of $40. The only downside to this is that you are not guaranteed acceptance into the directory. If you are not accepted, you can always apply for an editor position and submit your website from there.
BOTW.org – this is a huge directory that has clout with Google. It is a PR7 directory with two, non-refundable options: a $100/yr recurring fee or a onetime submission fee of $300. You are not guaranteed inclusion in the directory, so I would be cautious to submitting your site to this directory right off the bat.

Free Directories

DMOZ.org – just submit your site to this PR8 directory anyways. The backlog is insane, so don't expect to get your site included anytime soon. However, I would go ahead and recommend that you submit your site to them. It has a lot of presence with Google (Google basically copies their directory).
Tsection.com – this PR5 directory is excellent for free submission. It is laid out well and provides a good backlink for your website.
LinkCentre.com– this PR3 directory is nice and they accept your site very quickly. The only drawback to this directory is that it is very full because of the automatic approval factor.
SoMuch.com – this nice PR5 directory will review your site quickly for inclusion.

7. Submit your content to social media sites

Now that you have setup your website and submitted it to search engines and web directories, it is time to submit your content (that you have hopefully already created) to some social media sites. I would recommend that you submit your content to the following sites (as they get indexed quickly and/or produce large volumes of traffic): Digg, Reddit and StumbleUpon. While there are other social media websites (feel free to submit your content to them too), I would first start out with these three.

Digg is crawled very frequently by search engine spiders, so you have an excellent chance of getting your content crawled once it is submitted. I have found that Reddit can bring good traffic to your website and that Reddit users tend to tweet about their newest findings (good advertising). StumbleUpon has the potential to bring tons of traffic to your website in a short amount of time, greatly increasing the chance that your site will get indexed quickly by the search engines.

8. Sit back, relax and watch while your site gets indexed

While I cannot 100% guarantee that this method of getting your website indexed quickly will work, I can say from personal experience that doing this got my own website, Forever Singing, indexed within 48 hours. And, because I took the time up front to do all this labor, my blog posts generally get crawled and indexed within 5 hours of me publishing them on the internet. Did I mention that I have only been at this whole website thing for 2 months? Many people can't even get their website indexed in two months, much less their newest content!

Using these steps above, I got my own website/blog indexed within 48 hours. Two months later, my website gets crawled at the very least every other day (if I don't make any new posts) and it is always crawled the same day I make a new post. Remember folks, I've only been at this for two months. Take time to follow the steps that I have provided for you, and you will start to see results in no time!

Thomas Griffin is a devoted student of vocal technique who just happens to know a little bit about website promotion. His website, Forever Singing, is dedicated to helping people learn how to sing better. Image by danardvincente under CC. You can also write guest posts and share your search engine tips.

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