To the contrary, it’s a great time to be an internet marketer for those who hold their ground and continue to drive sales through their doors. Those businesses will come out the far end of this storm as survivors. The rest of the herd will be culled out and killed off. It’s always better to be the hunter than the hunted. It’s as simple as that.

Many businesses are cutting back on marketing programs. I understand the source of their thinking; even though I believe they’re dead wrong to do so. Sales are generated by getting the word out about a business, what they offer and where they may be found. Business owners who market most effectively yet efficiently will still be standing at the end of the long day ahead of us.

The Internet is about content; in fact that’s all it’s about. Whether it’s articles, blogs, sales pages, solo ads, podcasts or videos, people come to the Internet in search of some form of content. Make it yours they find and I guarantee your success will be greater than those that don’t.

Search engine optimization and pay-per-click advertising are great ways to get targeted traffic to a web page. But it’s what happens once they get there that makes sales. If your content doesn’t generate trust in your expertise, you have gained nothing. If your content doesn’t excite visitors to the point that they jump at your “call to action,” what have you really accomplished.

A few internet marketers are accomplished copywriters and that’s great; if you’re one of them. Not trying to hurt anyone’s ego by saying this, but most internet marketers are mediocre at best when writing copy and some are down right terrible. It’s a skill that requires a good bit of training and practice to master.

There are two ways to deal with the latter two situations:

* Get the training needed to become a competent writer or

* Outsource to a professional writing service

There is a lot of good training to be found online for anyone interested in pursuing writer’s training. I would encourage everyone to become at least functional as a writer if they intend to conduct business on the Internet. The only real problem with is option is that it takes a good bit of time to become proficient at it.

Time is the golden commodity in most businesses. It is in high demand and short supply on a continuous basis. Even business owners who are excellent at writing their own copy and articles will eventually run out of time to get it done effectively. They turn to outsourcing.

There are many top-notch professional writing services available online today. Look around and find one that fits your personality and business goals. A good writing service is like a good barber: a lot of people cut hair, but no one does it as good as your barber. Hook up with a writing service that’s serious about you image and makes you look your best at all times.

About the Author: Mike Lawson is a freelance writer, entrepreneur and internet marketing professional. Learn more about effectively marketing your business here:

Cutting-edge internet marketing information, products and services: Bluegrass Merchants.

Custom web content, articles and copywriting from an established professional writing service: Bluegrass Solutions.

No longer are blogs restricted to personal online journals published for friends and family. Blogs are big business and are used by big business to enhance the companies that run them. There are quite a few blogs out there netting in the millions of dollars every year.

Forum sites, for example, are often affiliated with many blog sites; all inter-linked and mutually supportive of one another. Of course, the goals of many of those sites and blogs is not to make money except through residual advertising to offset the time and expense of running them.

The potential is there and limitless, however, to make a killing through this medium of communication. Where else can you publicly market, sell, ship and deliver your wares to a world-wide market for virtually no overhead? For about $300/year you can run a large variety of web sites, blogs and e-commerce sites that reach a global market. If you can reach and sell to 1/10,000th of that market, you will be living pretty high up on the hog; all done from the privacy of your home or off your mobile laptop.

There are probably as many marketing strategies to build a successful blog as there are blogs. The Internet is rife with sites that do nothing but teach you how to be a better, more successful blogger. I have reviewed several hundred of these sites and I have found what I believe to be the common core secret to them all. It’s so simple and obvious that a lot of people just overlook it.

People don’t visit blogs to look at all the pretty colors and flashing lights or hear the bells ring and whistles blow. They come because they are in search of content; the meat and potatoes.

Imagine, if you will, a fine five-star restaurant you have stumbled upon. They’ve had a cancellation and usher you in to be seated right away. Pretty good so far, eh? A whole staff of servants waits on you and flutters about while you wait on your menu. It finally arrives in the hands of a smiling server and you open it and are immediately perplexed!

It only offers one thing: PB&J Sandwich – $40.00 ($50 w/chips and a drink).

My guess is you would lose whatever appetite you had and let your feet do the talking as you headed for the door!

Blogs, or any other website for that matter, need to offer up the ‘meat and potatoes’ if they want return customers. And the way you do that is by offering a variety fine, delectable treats that they can’t wait to be served – each and every trip.

To sell something to anyone, you first have to get them inside your shop. Window dressing may catch their eye and get them to peep inside, but if they view empty shelves and cobwebs, chances are they will never be back again. You failed to offer the incentive to return.

If there is one truth in the business world, it is this:

“It is often very hard to gain customers, but it’s almost impossible to get them back once you’ve lost them.”

Content. That’s the secret thread that holds all successful online sites together. It is no easy task writing good, effective web content, but it can be done with a little study and good practices.

Many writers’ forums are available across the Internet to develop these skills in authors wishing to write articles for marketing. Blogs with good, well written articles and web content gets much attention and use. It is the wave of the future in all manner of commerce, whether you are selling a product, service or even yourself (as a writer). If you are looking to learn or improve upon your skills in this area, find a good writer’s forum to tutor you along the way.

About the Author: Mike Lawson is a freelance writer, entrepreneur and internet marketing professional. Learn more about effectively marketing your business here:

Cutting-edge internet marketing information, products and services: Bluegrass Merchants.

Custom web content, articles and copywriting from an established professional writing service: Bluegrass Solutions.

Writers can be classified into four basic categories:

1. Bad writers
2. Competent writers
3. Good writers
4. Great writers

Bad writers: These are the hacks that either can not or will not use the fundamental skills of the written language. Their misspelled efforts are grammatically inconsistent, eaten alive with adverbs and lack continuity in content. Albeit poor examples to emulate, they too have a purpose we will discuss later.

Competent writers: These are writers that possess the fundamental skills of language, can put together a cohesive work and convey the intended message. But their abilities end there. They simply lack luster. If they do get published, it will probably be in the middle of mediocrity.

Good writers: This is the kill zone! This is where you desire to position yourself as a writer. These writers produce excellent content that is fundamentally sound, stylish, entertaining and informational. They have mastered fundamental skills and have a collection of specialized skills that allow them to tweak every word and phase to their advantage. These are writers that readers hate to put down as opposed to pick up. While it is impossible to turn a bad writer into a competent one, it is possible with hard work, for a competent writer to become a good one.

Great writers: The Grand Masters, the literary legends: Shakespeare, Hugo, Steinbeck, etc. The rules here are simple enough. You either are one or you are not. It is not a learned skill or acquired trait. You cannot make a master out of a really good writer any more than you can make a bass fiddle out of a drum.

Keep this hierarchy in mind. Do an honest assessment of yourself. Where are you on the writer’s scale?

If you are a bad writer, then I am sorry. There is not much help to offer that will bring you along.
Are you a competent writer? Are you content with that? If you are, then you may as well go on your way, too. You will be able to find a niche writing somewhere that will afford you a level of mediocre success.

Are you a competent writer that is motivated to put forth the effort to become a good writer? Or the good writer that has a desire to be even better? Good then! You are the target audience of this series of articles.

Writing is a complex system comprised of many simple parts. The stronger the foundation of the fundamental elements, the more stability in the structure that rests on it. The cornerstone to success in anything that you do is to have a set of obtainable goals laid out before you with an end in sight; a road map, if you will. If you don’t know where you are going, how will you know when you get there?

You have already assessed where you are now and where you want be. Once you know this, you can make a plan that takes you there. Develop a mission statement of what kind of writer you will be.

A mission statement forms the constitution that governs the implementation of your plan. Shy away from weak words and phrases: “I will try to, as best I can,” etc. They predict failure. Instead use powerful words and phrases! Your mission statement should be full of will statements. “I will master the grammatical aspect of the craft,” or “I will continuously improve my editing skills.” Make these commitments to yourself and stick to them!

Before you ever pick up a pen or type the first word of a project, you should have a mission statement committed to making you a better writer. It doesn’t have to be a long, drawn out, complicated matter. Maybe just a paragraph or so that lays out your personal creed as a writer.

About the Author: Mike Lawson is a freelance writer, entrepreneur and internet marketing professional. Learn more about effectively marketing your business here:

Cutting-edge internet marketing information, products and services: Bluegrass Merchants.

Custom web content, articles and copywriting from an established professional writing service: Bluegrass Solutions.

This happens when an author, for whatever reason, can’t effectively put their thoughts down in print. Whether writing a novel or doing some article marketing, writer’s block  stops the writer dead in the water.

If you find yourself afflicted by this, it may become very frustrating, very fast. There are some things you may do to overcome this obstacle before it becomes incapacitating.

Here are a few tips to get you back in the saddle again:

* Many writers find it helpful to change their surroundings. Even the smallest change may affect large results in freeing the creative juices again.

Take your laptop on a short, local trip. It’s not the distance that matters as much as the change in atmosphere.

It may be all is needed is to try a different location right inside your home. Maybe you need to be out of the office for a bit; even if that means just walking from end of the house to the other. That may be all it takes to change your whole outlook on things and put you in a new frame of mind.

* Another trick of the trade to get out of the writer’s rut, is to change your topic to something new. I’m not talking about picking another topic within a niche. Go outside the box and challenge yourself by learning about something new and writing about that.

How many times have you been to the gym or other sporting event and warmed up or stretched before the game? Think of this writing practice as a “stretching exercise” for the creative mind.

The very worst thing that could happen is you are still blocked. You will, however, have invested your time in learning something new all the same. That knowledge may be useful down the road in ways you can’t yet see.

* Focus on a different target audience. Stop thinking about customers and website visitors. Write to a family member or close friend. Tell them about your topic; much the same way you would in a verbal conversation.

Don’t allow yourself to write to strangers. Write to someone you know and to whom you can relate.

* Don’t try to edit while you write or you will never be done. When you write, write and when you edit, edit. Avoid anything that disrupts the flow once you have it started.

As aggravating as writer’s block seems at the time, it is usually not terminal and will pass in time. The worst thing you can do is beat yourself up about it. It only exaspirates the problem and it’s worse than ever.

Maybe the best thing to work through writer’s block is to walk off from it totally for a while. Read a book or go to a movie or take a long walk.

Unless you are working for a professional writing service under deadline, who cares if your write today or tomorrow? And if you are a professional writer, no worries. There seems to be something magical and powerful in an editor’s boot when properly applied to the posterior.

If you write for enjoyment, only write when you  enjoy it. If you must write for your business, practice makes perfect (or at least passable). You will either improve over time or find a good professional writing service to outsource your work. Either way, the job gets done and that’s all that really matters anyway.

Mike Lawson is a freelance writer, entrepreneur and internet marketing professional. Learn more about effectively marketing your business here:

Cutting-edge internet marketing information, products and services: <a href=”http://www.bluegrassmerchants.com”>Bluegrass Merchants</a>.

Custom web content, articles and copywriting from an established professional writing service: <a href=”http://www.bluegrasssolutions.org”>Bluegrass Solutions</a>.