3 Simple Tips To Improve Your Website Ranking

 1: USE KEYWORDS AS A GUIDE, but not the be all end all 

• Keywords are great for giving us an indication of topics that readers are interested in
• Use keyword phrases that point to niche topics, eg. most expensive car, harley davidson rather than generic terms, eg. motorbikes
• It helps to determine preferred word usage eg motorbikes is a preferred search term in Australia and motorcycles in Thailand.
• Don't stuff similar keywords in your article for the sake of repeating it, eg. intentionally repeating camry again and again just because it is a popular search keyword will hurt rather than help. Instead, try placing it in the title and or in the first sentence. Again, don’t force it if the sentence becomes unnatural. 
• You can use a few popular keywords in the same article. Eg. car dvd player, car camera and car audio are popular searches in China. They can be put together for an article about upgrading your car accessories with more emphasis towards China; for instance, adding an example of a Chinese person who had spent thousands pimping up his ride
• Don't let the keywords limit your ideas. Giving readers what they know they want is great, but giving readers what they didn't know they want is better – readers will consider your site as a genuine news provider. Refer TIP #3 below.

 2: SHOUT IT TO THE WORLD

• Facebook, Tweet, Email every article (sharing buttons are available at the bottom of each article).
• Place the link to the site everywhere, anywhere possible - your Facebook account, websites, blogs, email footers, etc.
• Search engines will assume that your site is worth reading if other sites are ‘recommending’ it.
• Online advertising (Facebook, Google) is a useful boost of initial traffic to the site or steady flow if carried out regularly. Be mindful that if this is only conducted once off, your site ranking may just as easily fall if not supported by good content.

 3: CONTENT IS KING! 

• Quality content will organically elevate the site in the search ranking. And when you get to the top this way – the hardworking way - it will be harder for you to fall.
• With good content, readers will naturally spend more time on your site and click on to other pages, both of which are good for your site’s ranking. Your pages will register a low bounce rate, ie readers continues to click on other pages in your site (this can be determined from your Google Analytics, if you've installed it or something similar).
• Readers will also share your site on social networking sites of their own accord, which leads to more links out there leading back to your site (refer TIP#2).
• Duplication of content from other sites is a big NO-NO. Search engines are able to determine which content came first, and the copycat will be deemed as a low quality site. Avoid copying content verbatim unless it is a quote.
• What is good content? Just put yourself in the readers’ shoes:

1. is the information useful, unique or valuable to you?
2. Is it engaging and newsworthy?
3. Does it offer intelligent observation, well-balanced and comprehensive narrative?
4. Does it blow your mind and make you go “WTF! I’ve gotta share this!”

If you get excited writing the content, chances are that your readers will get excited reading it too.


I wrote this '3 Simple Tips To Improve Your Website Ranking' for a client whom I helped set up Automology, a news portal cum blog for the automotive industry. The client contributes articles aggressively and wanted to know how they could improve their site's ranking (hurray for pro-active clients!).

I've picked up a few tips along the way, but at the end of the day, quality content is of utmost important. Hence, hire a copywriter! (pick me! pick me!)

A PSA from W&W for GE13, considering the intense emotions felt by the public

Enough said

I don't owe the rights to this image. I do not know who does (my friend just forwarded the image to me). But whomever she or he is, thanks.

Listen Listen Listen....Nando style

Another witty Nando ad in their usual tongue in 'chick' style, making use of the latest hot topic in the local scene. It's good enough for me to voluntarily click 'like' on their FB page, and decide to go to Nando's for a meal soon.

If you do not understand that, it's in response to this incident:
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/listen-listen-listen-listen-sharifah-zohra-jabeen

Update (17 Jan 2013):
Oh my. It's catching on!

Perception change

I had recently met up with a potential client who told me that they had recently changed their name from Tsunami--. Before she even explained the reason for the name change, the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami crossed my mind. Even in that flitting moment, I thought that maybe it was just because I am working on Hotel Tales 2 and had recently met a hotelier who survived the horrific day. I had been researching the event, watching videos and reading up on survivors' accounts, facts and other information.

She went on to explain that it was indeed because of that tragedy that the name brought on such negative images and connotations. 

Prior to the incident, I suppose that 'tsunami' would have been associated with great strength, speed and majesty. Now, it just means death and destruction.

Other phrases or words that has undergone a perception change must therefore include 'twin towers', 'nuclear', 'earthquake', 'hurricane' and so forth. Not that the world had not seen great tragedies before, but because we are now so connected globally that almost all sad events will touch us in our own corner of the earth. So, be wary when naming your company or product. Always know what's going on in the world, especially where your clients are from. And don't be afraid to rebrand if necessary!

Goodbye 2012, Hello 2013

2012 has been exceedingly kind to me. There are many things to be grateful for on the business front.

I've had opportunities to meet new clients and complete interesting projects. My clients are fun, interesting, adventurous and prompt payers (in fact, some of them urge me to invoice them before I even intend to). They understand, without me even saying it, that small businesses have limited cash flow.

When I started, I wasn't even sure if there was a demand for copywriters that I only registered my company for one year. This year, upon expiry, I renewed the license for 3 years. Not the full 5 years allowed, simply because I do hope to convert this business into a Sdn Bhd eventually.

I've learnt  from my clients that there sorely lack good copywriters in the market (the same as, I believe, good designers) and the good ones tend not to get recognized except for a few. I aim, eventually, to have a large group of skilled writers who look beyond the words on the computer screen, be able to analyse the context that make these words some important, and that their skills are duly recognised and valued (read: paid what they are worth). I've met talented (experienced and aspiring) writers and designers, whom I hope will persevere to see the local industries recognise their worth.

So, 2012 has come and gone without the expected doomsday occurring, but as harbinger of good things to come. I ended it by finishing an online florist website - Pureseed, www.pureseed.com.my (another wonderful client!) and start 2013 with a name development project for one of my very first clients - Kytera. If there was a good time to be a writer, it is now!

Revamped mascot

As I said, I am my worst brand consultant. I can't settle and always itch to tweak, change, add or remove something. But I think this should have been done from the beginning. 

Revealing my revamped mascot!

The Word Artisan

It's a great improvement from my original stick form, and I do not know why I didn't do a better one earlier. And so, yet again, my website has something new and so will my next batch of namecards. Sarcrilege! (for branding).

Do what I preach, but don't do what I do!

Marketing the Undesirable

I had an interesting conversation with someone from Yayasan Sejahtera yesterday. I met her to discuss the possibility of working together, to promote their cause. They "help the extreme poor create a better life for themselves by equipping them with the necessary tools, skills, infrastructure and opportunities to break out of the poverty cycle", a cause that I believe to be extremely important. I once wrote about how those who need help the most are the ones who don't know they need it, or are utterly helpless to do anything about it. If they are lucky, someone outside the cycle is able to intervene.

Aishah shared the difficulty of 'marketing' their cause: to the public, the sponsors and even the people they are trying to help. Just like a commercial product, it is extremely difficult to promote something so far from 'sexy', so time consuming to see results. Yes, even humanitarian causes can be sexy or not. Disaster relief, for example, is extremely titillating. Helping a Mak Cik to sustain her keropok business, to feed and school her children, is not.

Another difficulty is that the cause is asking us to face the undesirable truth. In Malaysia, where there are comforts and luxury in the urban cities, it is hard to believe that in certain corners of the country, there are still fellow citizens who have no access to clean water and live in shacks, much less have electricity. Indeed, telling the well-to-doers that such living conditions still exist in Malaysia usually evokes disbelief. It's not a pretty picture that it's trying to sell, hence, it's hard to get people to 'buy' into the truth, before we can even get around to rectifying it. A weight loss ad promises that we can lose 10 pounds in 10 sessions, and we believe it because we want to. A property ad promises great investment returns, and we believe it because we want to. These ads can achieve great impact with very little effort because they are selling highly desirable products. On the other hand, Yayasan Sejahtera will have to put in a mountain of effort to achieve a molehill of a result. Because poverty is something that makes us uncomfortable.

So, what do we do? We need to give poverty a makeover. It needs a good stylist. Feature a young, kampung girl, with fresh, natural beauty, tending to her vegetable farm, with butterflies flitting around her like an exotic Snow White. Capture images of handsome, muscular young men, casting the fishing net, while the setting sun reflects off his wet body like a golden Adonis. Show good looking children playing by the river, like a GAP ad.

You, reader, may roar rahr-rahr at my suggestion. But black cat, white cat...what does it matter as long as it catches the fish?

Branding for Charmnote

Year-end is always a busy time for Wit & Words.

It's the time that companies begin to think about revamping their profiles, websites and brand. Perhaps it is also when they find they have some leftover in their marketing budget to spend on copywriting services. I'm more than happy to help them find a way to use the remainder...in a value adding way, of course.

This week, while most were merry-making throughout the Deepavali and Awal Muharram holidays, I've been delving into several projects. One of them brings me back to the time when I was involved in the spa industry.

Charmnote Asia Pacific is the manufacturer and distributor of eco-friendly cleaning products. They've recently created two retail product brands, for household cleaning and pets, which they wanted Wit & Words to help craft brand stories, product packaging content and fragrance names. It's quite unique to find such a variety of fragrances for cleaning products. Usually it's just lemon, lime or floral.

So I've spent a few days sniffing the miniature amber bottles (pictures above) interspaced with a whiff of coffee grounds (in the green cup) to clear the nose in between. 

A naming project is always nice to have in between heavy writing ones. Although less words are required, sometimes it takes even more time to  find the right direction and meaningful words that say a lot with very little. It certainly challenges the creative mind, which I firmly believe requires occasional prodding or it just dies a boring death.

TAMBI needs YOU!

Oh, I love this!

http://www.tambi.my/

It's an outright appeal by Malaysian, obviously Indian, comedian, Kavin Jay, to advertisers to feature more Indians in their ads.

'Manipulate us!', 'Exploit us' and 'Sell to us!' he says.

Brilliantly stereotype jokes aside, it's true that the Indians are seldom represented in the media (unless it's near Deepavali or election). It explores the problems of Malaysia's biased society in a very, very funny way. I hope the message is not completely lost on the viewers.

Created by Creative Juice (who also brought us my favourite Nandos Ads), this campaign (simply because I lack a better word to describe 'this nonsense') is cheeky and sassy, and I'm happy to say wholly local production!

Entrepreneur Mindset

A fellow business owner once said to me that the most important thing a business owner needs is hope. Those profound words have replayed in my mind many times. Indeed. Most SMEs 'wrap up' their businesses within the first five years. As a start-up, you may falter, you may despair, you may consider giving up, but dammit, with hope you'll carry on!

And so I take a moment to give myself a boost of hope. 

According to Wikipedia (so it must be true), the founders of several renowned multinational ad agencies started out as copywriters.

| See the List here |

That's Hopeful.

To add to that, Google recently performed another crawl and my website ranking has gone up again.

We must remember to celebrate even the small successes.

Bodyform Brilliant Comeback on Social Media

Bodyform is a sanitary pad company in the UK.

They created this video in response to a man's sarcastic remark on their facebook page, angry that their advertisements lied about periods.

His remark included: 

"There was no joy, no extreme sports, no blue water spilling over wings and no rocking soundtrack"

Bodyform's comeback was much more clever in its sarcasm and brilliantly funny:

My favourite parts are the 80s test subjects 

and the phrase "the blood coursing from our uteri like a crimson landslide".

(We'd never see such marketing ploy in Malaysia. We're too 'polite' and safe).

Berita Tan & Tan 2012 completed!

It was a 6-month labour of love. Working hand in hand with the client, our work on Tan & Tan's revamped annual newsletter is complete:

To view the newsletter in its entirety, click here.

Logos Are Pictograms

I've been thinking about logos lately. 

Essentially, they are pictograms that summarise

the name and business/product

of the company. 

I stumbled upon this website - Logo Faves 

which have a great collections of 

clever, cute and beautiful logos.

Here's some of my favourites:

These designers were just brilliant 

at capturing the whole business in one tiny icon.

DOs and DON'Ts of Logo Designing

I'm late in posting this logo, but I wanted to do this after Independence Day to show a little respect to my country. Or am I just reopening old wounds?

The Don'ts 
(1) use multiple font types, sizes and colours
(2) have too many elements (in the example below, they are the '1', 'M', 'erdeka', '55', 'Janji Ditepati' and the flag.
(3) overlap the elements
(4) repeat elements (Malaysian flag pattern within the '1' and an undulating flag)

The Dos
(1) check if the individual elements will be clear and aesthetically pleasing when in black & white or grayscale, for news print, or colourless collaterals (the flag would not survive the transition).
(2) check if it is still clear when scaled to a small size, for it is such on advertisements, t-shirt embroidery, sponsorship acknowledgement, etc (the flag would be unclear, the multiple elements difficult to decipher).

When the design was revealed, it received so much negative response and even sparked competitions and voluntary designs for the logo that should have been. The government eventually denied that the above was the official logo and used the '1' (only).

Pity. They could have a good laugh with the citizens, announce a nationwide competition, since it had already gained some traction, and get the entire country involved. Another marketing mindset we must always have - there may be an advantage lurking in a disadvantage.

Big Bad Wolf Book Sale Marketing Ploy

BookXcess created a mascot for their annual book sale and used it thoroughly to promote the event. They've used the Big Bad Wolf with great wit, creating an entire personality and story for the fictional character.

The next sale isn't until September, and the marketing campaign has already begun: pseudo news coverage spinning a fictional story surrounding the disappearance of The Wolf. It's wholly unrelated to books, but Facebook Fans are already a-flutter, getting excited about the event.

Here's the first three 'posters' in the series so far...

https://www.facebook.com/bbwbooks

Wit & Words Website on Page 1

i always believed that (in most cases) that whatever takes time to develop is harder to undo (love, for instance).

After many rounds of fine tuning during the initial stage, a little bit spent on paid advertising (<RM200) to boost traffic, and then simply months of patience while the website gained traction by itself, it's finally listed on page one a year after its launch!

I'm going to open a bottle of wine and clink glass against the monitor.

Overused words: BESPOKE

 The title says it all. It is the trending overused word. Its predecessor, customise. 

I did a quick search on Thesaurus.com to predict the next trending word, with the same meaning. Now which could it be?

I like transmogrify. 

"We transmogrify our services to suit each client's needs"

Attune?

"Our flexibility allows us to attune to every situation"

Refashion or reshape?

"We refashion our products to suit your style"

...

...

...

Yup, I'm betting on transmogrify.

Inspirational Everyday People

In my last post, I said that the favourite part of my job is client liaising.

Occasionally, I'd come across individuals who have inspirational stories of their own. In the last month, I met a hotelier who started out as a factory worker and is now the GM of a hotel in KL; I met an executive chef who worked the paddy fields at age nine and broke his spinal bone carrying 40kg of rice on his head; I met a lady entrepreneur whose paper trading business makes millions, allowing her to now pursue her real passion of interior design; I met the founder of an international training company whose first job was making roti canai.

They are humble people with great stories to tell. Perhaps this will one day be a Wit & Words project - Working title: Dream Big

Tan & Tan Developers engages Wit & Words to craft their annual newsletter

I'm really excited to embark on a new project with Tan & Tan developers, writing for their annual newsletter and providing designing services with my associate designer, Sarah. And I'm always glad when the client tells me they want to differ from the norm. While many people like to do things the 'tried and tested' way, I don't. Sure, trying to be different is always riskier, but the results are always well worth it.

Observing the property arena is my current passion, and I'm delighted when my client's nature of business coincides with my interest. For some fortunate reason, this happens rather often.

For instance:

I'm writing the company profile for NetDomination Sdn Bhd, a digital marketing company, and it gave me ideas to improve my own website.

I'm in the midst of finalizing details with a potential client, The Decorateur Sdn Bhd, who is an interior designer. I've been obsessing with furniture and design ideas for a home I've yet to buy (still looking!). The owner is also a very successful businesswoman in her own right, which is very inspiring for an aspiring entrepreneur like myself.

Perhaps I'm lucky to be so interested in other people's 'business'. Am I shooting myself in the foot to say that I enjoy the client liaising part of my work first, then only the writing? Oh well, bang! bang!