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We have heard about the Ashton Kutcher: CNN battle for Twitter followers (Ashton won). We have Ellen and Oprah squaring up in the war of the talkshow Queens, but what about here in Australia?

To make it easier for followers of celebs – here’s a quick run down of some of the many Aussie Celebs on Twitter. Checking out their profiles most look like they are self-authored, with only Hugh Jackman admitting to the odd ghost-twitterer in play for some of his Tweets (some of the spelling is more US than Aussie & he did have the Opera Center gaff ).

If you want to know how to spot a real from a fake Twitter account according to my colleague Julie-Ann Amos:

• Check the posts – are they real and logical or seem slightly off.
• Is the person alive – Anna Nicole Smith apparently tweets from beyond.
• No posts = fake or spammer.
• Photo & background – check they are high quality (that said lots of Aussie Celebs are REALLY struggling with the whole background/photo thing, so it is not a deal breaker).
• Links – if they link to a domain in their profile is it an official one?

So here’s just a few of the more interesting Aussie celebrities on Twitter.

Politicians

@KevinRuddPM – Love the fact he has PM after his name in case we forget. You can DM Kevin.

@TurnbullMalcolm – Does it say anything that he has his name backwards? You can’t DM Malcolm.

TV & Celebs

@TracyGrimshaw - Very funny watching Tracy getting the hang of Twitter. At present her tweets are more like emails to her team asking for help rather than regular tweets.

@QueenKAK – Who else but Kerry-Ann. Possibly ghostwritten but interesting.

@Rove1974 – Sort of like watching a Rove show with lots of tweeting amongst mates.

@DHughesy, @hamishandandy, @peteandmyf - the usual Rove mates.

@RealHughJackman – possibly a combination of ghost-tweeting and genuine thing.

@Tara_Moss - great for book lovers.

@MaxMarkson - agent to the stars

@SoniaAndTodd – Sonia Kruger & Todd McKenney

@Guerrillas - Guerilla Gardeners

@Wil_Anderson – Will Anderson, Comedian

@bondirescue – Bondi Rescue team

@bondivet – Yes … the hunky vet himself

@sunriseon7 – Official Sunrise Tweets

@mikegoldmantwit – The man behind many voiceovers

Music

@natimbruglia - Natalie Imbruglia.

@WelseyCarr - Wes Carr.

@GuySebastian - yep Guy Sebastian.

@jessicamauboy – Another Idol made good.

If you are a dedicated celeb spotter, check out the profile of people you are interested in (and then check out who they follow. Chances are they have the “real” celebs in their follow file).

Who else have I missed? I’d love to hear of others.

Happy Tweeting!

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Freelance writers

I have been working on a new website for one of my products and late on Sunday night clicked the button to go live so I could have a few colleagues test all the links on their respective browsers, before final prettying up on the site and then sending traffic to it.

The site is currently very ugly as my web designer is still trying to decipher my cryptic notes. How we work is  I do the very rough draft for the foundation of the site and she makes it pretty.

The site has a few typos and grammatical errors (proof-reading is the last step on our list of things to do).

It also hasn’t been optimised for the web in terms of keywords in the metatags or images etc – that is still on my list of things to do once we get the design finalised.

The good news is the site and links all seems to work … and even without any promotion, SEO, adwords, social posting or the like – and only one very tiny obscure link to the hidden pages in one of my sites (just to test the flow through), it generated more sign-ups in 24 hours than the previous 6 months of the product on our main site.

The search engines found and indexed the main page and started to send organic traffic to it in less than 24 hours (remind me again about the web designers who say you need to wait up to 6 months before the search engines find you).

This experience has reinforced for me the power of:

• testing and measuring campaigns,
• getting the niche right,
• having a brilliant offer, and
• fantastic copywriting with the right keywords throughout the copy (even if there are typos).

It has also reinforced to me that ugly sites sell – you don’t have to have a beautiful site to get results if you have the other things in place.

So – what is the site address? Well …  I can’t tell you (yet). I want to make it a bit prettier (yes the girly part of me wants it to be a bit more attractive before I share it with you all).  But you can be sure I will be tracking the stats to see if my prettying up of the site has increased/decreased conversions.

Stay tuned over the coming days when I will announce the site with all appropriate fanfare.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Freelance Copywriter

Good SEO copywriting is designed to attract visitors to your website as a result of choosing relevant keywords and phrases and embedding them in just the right places throughout the copy

The challenge comes when SEO writers go out of their way to use the keywords as many times as possible – which can result in copy that is hard to read.

This means that while you might get the people to your site – once they get there they have no real idea what you are selling or what you are trying to actually say.

Your webcopy just looks like strings of keywords loosely woven together with the odd joining word thrown in for show (much like the plots of porn films, or so I am told).

All the SEO experts say that you need a keyword density of 3-4% to get great results in the search engines.  What this means is that out of 100 words 4 of them should be the main keyword. If you are targeting a range of keywords – then they also need another 4 words out of that hundred and so on.

In my experience this is great for the search engines, but very rarely flows for the reader. For example I had a new potential writer create an article for me with the term “Brisbane SEO copywriter” as part of their work sample (and yes I paid them for it).

The results were SEO perfect – but hilariously unreadable. “Brisbane SEO copywriter” appeared in every sentence, even ones that had absolutely nothing to do with Brisbane SEO copywriters! Needless to say the candidate didn’t get the job with me.

Following too slavishly the 3-4 out of every 100 rule may be great in theory, but in reality it can make your work unreadable and make you lose clients. It stops their concentration and derails them into thinking of anything else except what you are trying to sell them.

Good SEO writing needs to be a balance of fantastic sales words and SEO. They are not mutually exclusive!

Focus on the sales as the highest priority for your web writing as that is where the money is made for your business – then add in the SEO touches to give it that extra oomph. If you are not making sales – then no amount of SEO can save your business.

So how many keywords are too much? When someone starts to comment on how often a word has appeared (or bursts out laughing at the twisted combinations), then you have gone too far. If they read your copy without any stops or hold-ups – you have got the percentage just right (no matter what the SEO gurus say).

So – get someone to read over your web copy and avoid stuffing keywords into every nook and cranny.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Brisbane SEO copywriter

The whole purpose of SEO copywriting is to make sure that the website using it gets as high as possible in search engine results.  Poor SEO copywriting will have the exact opposite effect. Most companies just starting out don’t invest in SEO copywriting – and don’t realise the damage they are causing their business by writing their web copy themselves.

The main problem when writing your copy is ensuring the copy reads well by your customers, as well as is competitive in terms of other websites and content.

SEO copywriters help you hunt down less popular keywords that still get reasonable traffic to give you a much better chance of ranking highly.  For example, using the phrase ‘credit card’ in your copy isn’t likely to get you on page one of Google.  But if the content is more specifically written about 0% interest credit card deals, then when people are looking for that particular deal, they are more likely to find you.

One of the secrets to good SEO copy that performs well is simply to narrow the focus of what is being written.  This enables us to target a smaller but more responsive audience to your message – meaning higher qualified buyers for your product and service.

Of course it is also necessary to weave the necessary keywords into the copy with care and attention. If keywords are used too often, search engines may view this as keyword stuffing, which has the exact opposite effect to the one trying to be created.  The more expertly this is done the smoother and more effective the final result will be.

In the end great content has to be well written as well as carefully constructed with keywords.  The two together make a dynamite combination!

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Brisbane SEO copywriter

Sorry for the late running of the newsletter. Get Response (my newsletter email provider) must have a back-log and its instant delivery now means somewhere in the next 24 hours!  Reminds me again why I should have got Aweber the first time around.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words (when Get Response allows it!)

Heart Harmony – SEO copywriters

With the now you see them now you don’t changes to Facebook terms I contacted my colleague Kay Lam-Beattie, a specialist IT lawyer with her company IdeaLaw to get her take on the issue.

Kay is different to most IT lawyers – she started her life as a geek programmer before moving into law – so she understands the unique needs of people with net based businesses.

This is what Kay had to say this morning:

Most of the 175 million people who use social networking site Facebook have never read the terms of use on the site, let alone the revised terms of use that appeared a few weeks ago. But enough did for a major uproar to ensue which has resulted in the new terms being pulled and the old terms being reinstated.

But why all the fuss?  The new terms included a clause broadening Facebook’s licence to use any material that users posted to the site.  The licence was only limited by each user’s privacy settings.

In theory the licence was so broad that Facebook could have used user’s publicly posted photographs and material for anything, anywhere, anytime, even after the user deleted their material and left Facebook.

Facebook assured its users that it didn’t intend to use anyone’s material in a way that they wouldn’t want.  However it’s been known to happen on the internet before.

In 2007, a friend snapped a photo of a 15 year old Alison Chang goofing around at a carwash, and posted it online.  The photo was plucked from photo sharing site Flickr (apparently permitted under its user terms) and used in a mocking way in a Virgin Mobile billboard campaign, without Alison’s knowledge or consent.

While the old terms also give Facebook the right to use user content, the licence is worded a little less broadly and can be ended by a user deleting the content from Facebook.

Another of Facebook’s new clauses banned users from using their profiles for any ‘commercial’ purpose, which could have affected the many individuals and business networking groups on the site.

The problem being that as there are so many business related profiles and networking groups currently openly operating on Facebook it would be reasonable for everyone to assume that Facebook had agreed to the status quo – no matter what they publically stated in their terms of use.

Facebook has now reverted to its old terms of use, and set up a Facebook group for users who wish to comment on drafting the new terms, and has since apologised for the ‘confusion’.  Over 55,000 users joined the group within the first 24 hours.

This sort of response shows the depth of feeling and negative consumer response Facebook is experiencing from simply changing their terms of use. Facebook themselves are in damage control mode – frantically working to restore customer confidence in their site.

So what does this mean for people who use public sites and for businesses with websites?

Most websites contain terms and conditions of use somewhere within their site – generally somewhere in a back page with a small link to the page.

Unfortunately most terms and conditions are not drafted taking into account the full legal ramifications of what has is being required. They are often very loosely written and will not stand up in court if challenged.

Terms on websites need to be written in a way that people understand and which also clearly spell out what is acceptable and not acceptable use of the site.

In addition, for most sites there is no active strategy to let readers know and understand what is required to use the site.

This approach simply hasn’t been tested in Australian courts as to whether that will be enough to make them stick. If we look at law requirements for other matters such as sexual harassment policies in business – just having a policy in a manual is no defence. You need to actively educate users about the policy and what it means. Smart businesses should be proactively sharing this information with their users.

When in doubt, website owners need to seek competent legal advice on their terms and conditions. The challenge is that there are very few specialists in IT law in Australia – so be very careful about who you select to advise you.

Facebook failed dismally in their approach. Other businesses need to learn from their mistakes and take action on their sites now.

So there you have it!  If you have a website it pays to have your terms checked over by a specialist IT lawyer. You don’t want to be in the same boat as Facebook this morning!

For the many Facebook users – keep an eye on the terms and conditions and add in your thoughts to the debate.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – SEO copywriter

Today I was asked why businesses should blog – after isn’t blogging just a waste of valuable time? Doesn’t it just detract from your core activities and add to the plethora of junk on the internet?

So what did I say? Well there are different sorts of blogs. Some are just comments and observations. Others look all the world like normal websites. Blog platforms are becoming the default website for new businesses, with many using WordPress themes as the base for their site rather than traditional web design.

In terms of start-up businesses, Blogs quickly gain listing in Google (the best result I have seen so far was not listed to page 3 of Google in 3 hours of going live).

Blogs are Google’s favourite things. They love the fresh content so the algorithms seem to weigh more heavily towards blog content rather than traditional static content.  With the right keywords they can quickly outperform traditional websites no matter how well optimised. So in terms of new businesses I have a lot of sympathy for blogs as a great way to enter and quickly dominate the market.  They are also very cheap (free other than domain name and hosting if you are willing to do it yourself).

What’s my personal experience?

Blogs when done well can help demonstrate expertise and build more personal relationships with clients. What I have personally found is some people love my blog, others engage via the newsletter and some prefer Twitter. My approach is to match my communication style to their individual communication preferences in terms of how they like to get data. I haven’t yet spent too much time on video or audio, but they are other valid channels.

In terms of traffic – my Performance review blog is the main source of traffic to my EPR product – so it works in terms of generating traffic and a following.

The thing with blogs are they are just one marketing strategy and have to be considered in the overall context of what the person or company wants to achieve. They also are a big commitment and require time and focus, so are not right for every business. But if a client is serious about SEO or SEM – then a blog or blogs in my opinion are absolutely essential.

In terms of managing information overload from too many blogs, I use tools such as Google Reader to more effectively manage my time. That way I can track the 100 or so blogs I follow without wasting hours of effort each day.

So what do you think? Are blogs a waste of time for business?

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – SEO Copywriters

Have you ever wondered what are the average conversion rates for online sales?

Retailbiz reports a study by Coremetrics that shows online sale conversion rates for Australia have dropped from 4.4 per 100 to 2.9 per 100 over the past few months. According to Coremetrics, people are also preferring to buy from local companies in AUD$ rather than in US$ as a result of the falling exchange rate.

Coremetrics reported that internet sales were still strong, and Aussies convert to more sales online than their UK and Hong Kong counterparts.

I will be honest – most internet marketers will tell you that a 2% conversion rate is fabulous and anything above that is cause for major celebration. That said, I do expect there is some softening of online sales conversions as the global meltdown hits many industries.

From personal experience I can vouch that I spend less in US$ when the exchange rate trends towards 50cents per US$ compared to 95c per US$ (sorry Amazon!)

What this means for online websites is to consider offering your product in local currency rather than the standard US$.

It also means local businesses need to be more aware of the power of the internet and the need to increase their web presence in order to capitalise on additional sales opportunities.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – SEO copywriter

Commenting on other people’s blogs is a great way to generate back-links to your website. The problem is that many people forget the intent is to add value and become part of the community first, before leaping in with “all about me”.

My personal favourites are the people who post comments such as “I found your site when looking for blogs about (insert your keyword here), specifically sites about (insert long tail keyword here). I agree with what you say and/or you have a great site”.

Ed Dale from the 30 Day Challenge describes the sort of crap comments that I highlighted as making withdrawals from a bank you have no deposits in. It is called robbery!

I personally moderate all comments on my blog before they appear and take great delight in deleting the comment or listing the person as a spammer when they attempt to make these sort of comments.

You don’t have to publish spam comments on your blog just because someone made them. It will significantly reduce its value to the true community members who read your blog (as well as hurt you in search engine rankings). Delete them and stay true to your readers.

So … how can you comment on someone’s blog and not be seen as a spammer? Read the posts in some detail. Find out what the flow of the blog is all about and find a post that is directly relevant and related to a point you want to make.

Take some time to craft a reply expanding on a particular point in the post, commenting on a point in the post or adding in your own point. Yes, you can make a careful and considered link using your keywords back to your post BUT (and this is a big but) you have to add value first.

If you follow these simple strategies and focus on adding value first, everyone wins.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

Heart Harmony – Freelance Copywriter

We put your business into words

I received this great email from Bob Proctor on Insight of the Day.

The greatest stumbling block to achieving anything of importance in your life is circumstances. We let circumstances get us off the hook when we should be giving it everything we’ve got. More dreams are shattered and goals lost because of circumstances than any other single factor.

How often have you caught yourself saying, “I would like to do or have this but I can’t because…?” Whatever follows “because” is the circumstance.

Successful people use circumstances to catapult them on toward their goal, while the masses use them as road blocks. A circumstance may cause a detour in your life but you should never permit it to stop you. …

The next time you hear someone say they would like to vacation in Paris, or purchase a particular automobile but they can’t because they have no money. Tell them they don’t need any money. …

Explain they don’t need the money until they make a decision to go to Paris or purchase the car. When the decision is made, they will figure out a way to get the amount needed. They always do.

The circumstance they are using is one of the most common: a lack of money. The real cause of their problem is lack of decision. You always attract what you need when you decide it must be done. Try this yourself today. You know the task you have been putting off “because…” Make a decision, forget the circumstance … but get it done!

I see this a lot with small business owners. Once they make a deep heartfelt decision to fix their webcopy because they want to attract new clients, even before we have finished with the  web copy and it goes live, new customers start appearing for them. I don’t know why it works – but it does!

So as Bob says – what is a task you have been putting off “because …”. Make a decision to get  it done today.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

Heart Harmony

Brisbane Freelance Copywriters

We put your business into words