Technical Writing Trends in 2010 has become a Great Niche According to Yahoo

This little piece of writing further illustrates the need for new types of writers. Below is an excerpt from an article recently posted on yahoo.com. The title of the article is:

"High-Paying, Low-Stress Jobs" - 5 ways to earn big bucks without major stress." 

5. Technical writer
In this high-tech age, new groundbreaking tools, mobile devices, and innovative gadgets are released on practically a daily basis. Obviously, someone has to write about these ingenious doodads and complicated thingamabobs. That's where technical writers come into play.

Although they sometimes face tight deadlines, technical writers typically enjoy flexible hours and a comfortable, quiet workspace. Quite a few of them have an enviable 10-second commute--from their bedrooms to their desks. Because all they need is a phone and a computer with an Internet connection, many technical writers work from home.

What's more, technical writers are in extremely high demand. As technical companies continue to release pioneering new products, someone has to transform their complex technical-ese into everyday language the average customer can comprehend. Technical writers generally earn between $47,000 and $98,000 a year."

- Source YAHOO.COM,
by Amy Bell, Investopedia.com

This is great  news for writers. I've posted other articles from yahoo about the resurgence of journalism on the internet, technical writing is now more popular than ever. There are many successful "gadget" based blogs and most of them are advertised directly to net savvy individuals.

Isn't it interesting that the same people using the latest gadgets first are blogging and then getting paid for it? The occupation of Technical Writer has breached top five jobs because of it's complete lack of stress combined with potential for high pay.

As for niche writing, this is a perfect example of how knowing one specific topic well enough automatically has value. In the past you would have to get hired to write about something very specific such as an ipad or an HD Camcorder. Today, people don't bother fishing through physical pages for much, they get their answers not from the paid experts, but from reliable word of mouth posted in relevant forums like blogs, community bulletin boards, social networking sites, etc.

People are free to judge for themselves which reviews are credible on the internet. In the field of gadgets and technical writing, it's very difficult to plagiarize or fake knowing more than you do. Readers who own or have examined the products will likely know it better than you unless you extremely educated on your niche. This is what real journalists call a "beat," which is really just an old fashioned way of referring to your area of expertise, good journalists have multiple fields they can be consulted on.

Technical Writing also means having some cash to spend on gadgets, or at least a few friends who work at Radio Shack. Accessibility to resources is a major factor in blogging. For those who wish to explore areas of writing that are new, I would first suggest that you look in your own backyard for something that you might already be an expert on. If you have a craft, trade, job, or a passion that you consider yourself an expert on, then you might already have all the niche writing you need. To actually get paid you simply need to connect with the forums that NEED relevant writing whether it's technical writing or otherwise. Either way, getting paid to write quickly and productively is the ultimate goal for freelancers and bloggers of all levels. This article is positive sign that even more opportunity is on the horizon with new and valuable technical writing niches that are still undiscovered. 


Read the Full Article by Amy Bell

"Which NFL Team Made the best of Their Off-Season?" - Website Review: Polldaddy.com

Here's an example of a poll I created through polldaddy.com:






With either a free poll service, or two customized paid versions, Polldaddy can set up anyone with basic polls to spice up their blog, website, profile page, etc.




Questions?

Amazon.Com

Best Web Copy is Excited to become an Amazon Affiliate.

Amazon has over the years become the quintessential go-to website for books, movies, DVDs, and all kinds of other entertaining and useful media!  For bloggers of all sorts this is a simple and new way to monetize, especially through blogger.com.

Spider Simulator

Still Not sure what a "spider" is? The term web crawler is synonymous with spider here referring to the "bots" that are constantly walking the internet and indexing new sites.

Spiders are the Key to getting traffic to your site, because if a spider doesn't recognize your SEO efforts, or your site isn't being recognized at all, then you simply won't get indexed. Web designers traditionally have looked to making their web sites as user-friendly as possibly. Although this is a positive for the user, usability isn't the owners primary concern when trying to run any type of web-based-business.

The most important thing to think about before writing content, or coding one for a website, is that... 

Written text alone is what generates a spiders interest, and that's it! Keywords should be picked and placed in as many relevant places as possible for easy recognition by all spiders, especially Google.                    

If you'd like to test how your site is currently performing with the big search engines, a SPIDER SIMULATOR can show where improvements can be made, or give light to some more qualified keywords.

SPIDER SIMULATOR - This will simulate a search engine spider crawling your website! 


*Best Web Copy is now an affiliate of Amazon.com:

Why Are Blogs Useful in the Web 2.0 Era?

What most people are just beginning to understand, is that the internet is morphing into something brand new to all of us in new ways. What people have come to term Web 2.0 is referencing a very simple idea on a massive and complex scale.

What most people don't understand about the task of Google, is that they have taken control of organizing the internet, and because everything is on the internet, that means everything has to be organized. That needs to be said in different way to emphasize how much everything actually is. Look around the room, every object in view has been categorized by Google, and clustered to hundreds of thousands of websites deemed relevant  in specific order.

Without understanding anything about Search Engine Optimization, you can basically summarize the entire task by saying optimization means making your website more relevant.

Key Factors in Googles' algorithm for site indexing include:

- Keyword Density - How many times do Specific Keywords Appear within text?
- Keyword Placement - Where specifically do keywords appear on a given website?
- Freshly Written - Is your content recent? Updated? Well written? About Keyword related subjects?
- Web 2.0 - Is your site user friendly? Simple navigation, feeds, email, networking, comments, quick-links?
- Site Map - Easy Breakdown of site URL's for smooth indexing. (This is coding not writing.)
- Backlinking - How many relevant websites are linked to you. How many of them are one way links?
- Anchor Text - Use of keywords in hyperlinks often without keyword stuffing or becoming a link-farms.

There are many other factors and nuances of factors that Search Engine Crawlers consider before indexing. Conversely the competitive webmasters in the 2.0 era  are building sites based each of these factors.

That also means that there is a sudden boom and need for Fresh Relevant Content about keyword specific topics. The value in real writing has come full circle from print to the internet and suddenly journalism has evolved into something much faster, more accessible, and easier to syndicate. Content writers, freelance or otherwise, now have a new value in saving the webmasters valuable time. Most coders, ironically, are not great writers, let alone great copy-writers. The value for the writer in the 2.0 era is sudden profitability in short steady bursts. The great news is you can become an expert on anything and get paid for it with basic writing ability.

The biggest factor to consider is that web crawlers look for text and text only. Fancy dynamic sites with Java, Flash, images, and media are very user friendly, but as far as relevance to Google, only what's written will  determine your website's relevance. That's why all images  and videos should be accompanied by subtitles and captions with targeted keywords.

In summation, blogs are useful in this sense as well. Although blogs are really considered dynamic sites, they offer many of the other satisfying elements of a good website. WordPress, and Blogger aim to be the most easy to grasp and beneficial blog hosting sites. They take the mindset that blogging software whether self hosted or on-line can act like a content management system for a website. Blogs offer everything a great website can offer at it's base. They are user friendly, easy to index and link to, and blogs can build a following of networked subscribers over time.

Even if blogging seems like a waste of time, marketing past the year 2010 will live and die on the internet. Marketing plans will have more often have to start with a website and everything else will follow in stride.
If you can get your website indexed in the top 2 pages of Google for your business keywords, you stand to increase your business over 500%. That's because Google web searches account for roughly 80% of all the searches on the internet. Yahoo, Bing, and the rest of the like compete for what's left, the general rule is aim to make Google happy, and the rest will catch up.

The task of organizing everything has taken some time, but there is definite opportunity for copy writers, bloggers, webmasters, and entrepreneurs to help blaze along the business new frontier of "searchability". Those brave pioneers might even find themselves getting paid.