The World of Online Copywriting

      Credit: dbdbrobot

Be a Web Copywriter   Online copywriting has become a multi-billion dollar resource for companies that utilize the Internet. There are ads, publications, banners, websites and articles that are written by freelance copywriters through the Internet.

Copywriting persuades or draws attention to whatever is being promoted. Good online copywriting invites a person to actually read the ad whereas bad copywriting can quickly be navigated away from.

The Internet has turned into a billion dollar revenue source for thousands and thousands of companies throughout the world. Online copywriting is more often associated with a form of article called a Search Engine Optimized (SEO) article. The SEO copywriter writes articles, varying in lengths, to fit a series of keywords or phrases that will turn up prominently in an internet search through such search engines as Google or Yahoo.

The web copywriter must be internet savvy. Often links are used within the article that will direct the reader to an additional webpage. Online copywriting is a valuable tool used by companies who want to reach a wider demographic audience.

Many website articles are tailored to meet the demands the customers are expecting and as a way to draw potential visitors in, the web copywriter must have online copywriting articles that are suited to that audience.

Words have power. We see that day in and day out through the commercials and ads we see each day. But one form of online copywriting we do not often take into consideration when thinking about copywriting in general is that essays or reviews against a particular subject are considered a form of marketing.

Take for example, the government and organization ads against smoking. The articles and commercials are very much against use of any form of tobacco. Their use of health statistics show the detrimental effects that smoking has on our bodies, not only as a tobacco user, but through second hand smoke as well.

As more people turn to the internet for personal enjoyment, shopping and to stay informed, online copywriting will continue to be a formidable force to be reckoned with. Jobs will be created and the opportunities to advance in this career field will continue to rise. If you find yourself intrigued by the idea of being a copywriter, it is definitely worth checking into.

About the Author: Learn Copywriting Information at http://copywriting.answersaboutwriting.com/

Be An Info Broker and Make Money

   Credit: Alex Barth

Information for sale  Information brokers are researchers who sell information. The spread of computers into every facet of  life has made information brokering a viable small business. Before the computer revolution, a small scale research service would not have been able to retrieve, catalogue, store and sell information to clients in a cost-effective way.

The explosion of information - thanks to the Internet - allows businesses to gain access to new data on general and specific subjects that affect them. To keep a competitive edge, businesses must keep abreast of the latest developments in their fields and conduct various forms of market research.

However, many businesses lack either the time or the money to hire others on a full-time basis to sort through the mountains of publications that might contain the data they are seeking - even on the Internet.

This is where the information broker steps in. Normally hired on a per-project basis, the broker finds information in published and/or electronic sources, organizes it in a form that best suits the client's needs, and sells it based on the time expended and the expertise involved.

In some ways, an information broker resembles a clipping service of the old days; both the information broker and clipping service professional gather data on a specific topic from a variety of sources, i.e. newspapers, magazines, etc.

But this is where the similarity ends. Clipping services search publications for articles containing key words and submit the clips in the bulk to the client. These articles are neither read nor analyzed by the clipping service. The client is left to sort through the data to see if they are useful.

The information broker, however, not only obtains information from public libraries or at wholesale prices from electronic databases but also analyzes the material to ensure its usefulness to the client.

Depending on the agreement between broker and client, the broker may even be expected to present an in-depth analysis of the information.

Brokers who produce reports based on their information, rather than just finding the information, are the ones who tend to make more money. It is better to specialize in one or two fields of information rather than becoming a general information broker.

A new info broker who approaches a big corporation and claims to be able to do database searches on any subject will not meet with much success. Our increasingly specialized society demands experts in every discipline, even information retrieval.

Specialization is the key to success as an information broker.

Why would a company hire an individual entrepreneur instead of a large brokering firm to retrieve general data? One reason: companies often complain that the large brokers don't offer as much.

About the author: Freelance writer, copywriter, publication design consultant and blogger Mark Kho administrates several niche blogs and some websites. Mark blogs at www.thenextpost.com  with insightful articles and tips on blogging and everything in between.

Nostalgia: Back to the Spirit of the Onion

We are presently riding on the back of blogspot.com, a Blogger free site for  bloggers like us. In fact, The Onion Spirit was a happy, web-hosted Wordpress blog until some 'bloodthirsty' hijackers wrenched the domain name from us because we failed to renew it.

We admit we screwed up because we were sleepy-eyed onion aficionados allowing our onionspirit.com to be spirited away right under our nose  in the middle of the night.

We lost everything and had to restart again with this Blogger site. We love the Onion Spirit title so much that we have to carry on with the title no matter what. So shall we say this here blog is like fresh onions - and not the ones lying in the box in that corner where they're all wrinkled and dried.

We have checked on the stolen onionspirit.com and found it has become a nonsensical directory of some kind. What a shame. But we will plod on with a  renewed spirit on our new Blogger platform.

We'd think we have a great header showing two silly onions with bouncy spirit. Each time we look at the red onions on our header and immediately we get tears in our eyes!

We'll be around this part for a while until we've decided on who will be our new website host farther down the road.  We certainly would like to see a traffic build-up before we jump ship! Or maybe we stick with this one, being free and all that. -  RedOnion.

Choosing a Web Host

Meanwhile, we've been browsing around for some tips on how to make a smooth switch to another host. We'd like to share with you some of the things we've learned about choosing a web host:

1.  Support - always check on this to see the response from the host. One of the best ways is to test them by calling in their support desk.

2.  Beware of scam - be wary when a host claims to have unlimited space or bandwidth. The average web site only uses about 50MB space and less than one gig bandwidth a month. If the host offers big numbers and small bucks, it's time you start to smell something - not the onions though.

3.  Yearly payment? -  A hosting company should not insist you have to make a yearly payment. If you're gonna be happy with the host, you'll be sticking around for a long time. Does it matter whether it's a monthly or yearly payment? But, of course, the choice is yours.

4.  Domain name - Only buy your domain name from a hosting provider if you know very well that they will place the information in the WHOIS. They could blackmail you if your domain info is not in the WHOIS.

[ For all technical purposes whoever has their information in the WHOIS is the owner. A domain owner doesn't go by who paid for it; it goes by whose information is on the WHOIS. To check a WHOIS on the domain, go there and type "domainname.com" and click submit. You're the domain owner if your address, email, and phone number show up.]

5.  Web Hosting Reviews - You're advised not to believe anything you read on these hosting review directories. Search Google to find real reviews by individuals who have used their hosting.

6.  Uptime claim - There's no 100% uptime. If they say so, then they are lying. It's all about server maintenance, security and software updates.

So there you are, some food for thought before you pick the right web host. - RedOnion