Writing for Real People (Part 1)
If you’re viewing this in your RSS reader or email then you should definitely click through to the site and check out this week’s video, Writing for Real People (Part 1).
In a world where bloggers and webmasters are constantly working to attract search engine traffic with content packed with keywords, it’s refreshing to find sites with material designed to entertain and educate me…not Google. Let’s produce that kind of material for our readers.
Are you focused on filling your content with keywords and chasing after search engine traffic or are you developing content that’s compelling, exciting, entertaining and educating.
Learning how to write compelling content, not how to stuff our content with certain SEO keywords, is the key to attracting and keeping readers at our site.
Group Reflection
Is your content so compelling that people feel as though they just have to keep reading? As we prepare for next week’s video, let’s brainstorm together. What things can we do to really engage our readers? What can we do to make our writing more exciting and dramatic? What do you do?
Eric B. said:
I usually try to avoid writing only for search engines. Once in a while, I just try to remember to include a keyword somewhere in the content.
I don’t really like content written for search engines. It usually ends up sounding boring and repetitive.
Books don’t have this problem as much (at least not for the same reason) because I’m pretty sure books aren’t indexed by keywords in the actual content.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Eric B. –> That’s how I am. I still include a keyword once in a while, but I always do that after I’ve already written the article. Connecting and helping my friends is my first priority.
chandan said:
Your article on SEO series is really very nice. SEO is one important part of our blogging, but we have to know how to to ethical SEO.
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King Sidharth in Meditation said:
Err… I mean no offense, but have you even watched the video or just building back links? Irony!
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Nicholas Cardot said:
chandan –> We really need to have balance. This article isn’t so much about SEO as it is about developing ourselves as an online presence. It’s about putting off SEO enough to actually establish yourself as a real person and to connect with real people.
Robomaster @ CoolAppSite said:
No kidding! Please actually read/watch the post before you comment on it – it adds much more. I’m not sure if you did watch this, or just read the headline, but please make sure to do this in the future. Thanks!
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Annabel Candy, Get In the Hot Spot said:
Lovely story! I was listening with my ear pressed up against the speaker half expecting that a big bad wolf was going to come in between you and your grandma:)
I suppose this is step 2 when you stop writing for search engines and start writing for people: Find out who those people are!
Thanks for sharing:)
Nicholas Cardot said:
Annabel Candy, Get In the Hot Spot –> Ha ha. No big bad wolf. Sorry to disappoint you about that. LOL. It really is a step up when you can learn to write compelling articles that really draw your readers in.
Deepika said:
Readers are the real people. We have to optimize our article for them. And also we should write content fully on search engines.
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Blogging Guide said:
This is a great question and great thing to bring up to discussion.
In my opinion the best way to activate others is to just be active yourself. If you are passinota of the stuff you write, then people will feel that through your text. I try to always think of my readers when I write… I think about is this easy to read and understand and will my readers be interested in this
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Blogging Guide –> Exactly. And I always ask myself if it will be entertaining enough to get them to read it to the end.
Dana @ Online Knowledge said:
I try really hard so my content can comply search engine and also people still think it write for them.
But, if i must choose, i will chose to write for people instead for search engine. Search engine will be love yours if it is loved by many people.
King Sidharth in Meditation said:
Exactly! Google tells people again and again to write for people. And they want you to think of Google as blind person. So search engine is just another person in your list.
Why give so much importance to one? Let’s write for those who read – humans.
Nicholas Cardot said:
King Sidharth in Meditation –> That’s exactly how we should write. We need to focus on people and Google will find us.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Dana @ Online Knowledge –> Honestly, if Google doesn’t like my articles, I couldn’t care less. I don’t care if I ever get another search engine visitor. I focus on connecting with real people and I get tons of referral visitors from the links and stuff that people send my way. That’s much more valuable than a second rate article packed with keywords.
Mary E. Ulrich said:
Hi Nicholas, the tweet worked fine on the email feed today. But, any way to shorten the URL so it fits?
Nicholas Cardot said:
Mary E. Ulrich –> Yeah. I see the url that it used. That’s pretty weird. I’ll do some more research and see if I can figure something out.
Bryan J Zimmerman said:
Nick,
It is very ironic that you posted this video when you did.
Yesterday, I was catching up on one of my writing feeds, and there was a similar discussion. The topic was writing for your readers AND yourself, which will ultimately manifest into a learning, or possibly healing experience for all parties involved.
I am not concerned with search engines because I love to write and share. I look at the SEO as a fringe benefit. If Bloggers connect with one another, as you do, the rankings will follow.
As the saying goes, “If you build it, they will come.”
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Bryan J Zimmerman –> That’s exactly right. It is a fringe benefit. It’s something that’s nice to have, but the focus should definitely be on connecting with an audience and not with the Google bot.
King Sidharth in Meditation said:
I love videos and especially when it’s coming from you. This was actually very through provoking. Thanks for making a difference. A few days ago I wrote something similar on Blogussion, Check it out? : http://www.blogussion.com/meaning/lets-hangout/
And yea Nick, Please reply to ur mails dude. I’ve sent you an urgent one. Which needs your attention now. So Look for ‘KIng Sidharth’ in your already full inbox (I guess).
Let’s be awesome!
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Nicholas Cardot said:
King Sidharth in Meditation –> I’m putting together something to send back for your email. I’ll get something back your way as soon as possible.
Glen said:
I have been reading, and now watching, your site for a while now.
You do provide great content and a lot of inspiration. Thanks for that.
The comments on this post seemed odd to me when I viewed them.
You haven’t responded to the comments and I noticed that you seem to respond to them on other posts.
I do appreciate the information you are sharing.
Keep up the great work.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Glen –> Ha ha. I work a full time job so I’m only able to actually have the time to jump in and respond to these comments once I get home for work or if I can find a few extra minutes on my lunch break or something. You can count on it that I’ll respond to them all though. You can’t begin to understand how much I appreciate the amazing feedback that each of you in the community provide on here.
Glen said:
Sorry about that. I thought that may be the case the moment I hit submit..
Nicholas Cardot said:
There’s no need to be sorry about anything. I love interacting with everyone on here. I seem to learn as much from the readers who leave comments as they learn from me. It’s exciting.
My Latest Blog Post: Writing for Real People (Part 1)
David | ilcantone.com said:
Hi Nicholas,
Writing for real people is essential to engage our readers and to increase comments on our blogs. I always try to do a compelling writing but sometimes is not easy due to the lack of time.
Good video Nick.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Thanks. You’re right. Writing like that is a difficult task. It requires practice and effort. Sometimes when we’re faced with time constraints, we’re not able to produce the material that we would really like to. It’s just one of those challenges that we have to try to meet.
My Latest Blog Post: Writing for Real People (Part 1)
scheng1 said:
Well, there are real people behind the search engines. Writing for real people with seo techniques is an art.
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Sarge | BeginnerBlogger.com said:
This post comes at a time where I haven’t really looked at SEO for my blog but keep thinking I should but then I see posts/videos like this and keep thinking I should just forget about it really.
Unless I was operating a blog/site where I didn’t care about my visitors and it was just packed with affiliate links and targeted keywords I would focus on SEO, but I’m not.
With my beginner blogger blog I care about the people, I want to write content that they will enjoy and get value from. Not what google would enjoy.
To a degree some form of SEO may be important, only a slight margin. Like getting your site into directories like Dmoz and Yahoo is SEO but you’re not confusing your readers, in fact your helping potential readers who browse those directories find your site – as long as it’s listed in the appropriate categories etc.
Your videos continue to improve Nick – great job! What effects software do you use for the segment at the start of your video? It’s simple yet effective
Sarge | BeginnerBlogger.com
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Sarge | BeginnerBlogger.com –> You’re right. We still need SEO. But it needs to be a very low priority compared to our working to entertain, inform and connect with real people.
I use Adobe After Effects for the introduction. I think that I’m going to use the same introduction for a little while because they’re so difficult to put together. I hope that’s alright with everyone. Maybe I’ll pull a new one together every month or two.
Bryan J Zimmerman said:
Nick,
I blogged about your video and added a slightly different perspective taking the SEO factor out completely.
Your thoughts are most appreciated.
http://www.ldaofr.com/writing/why-do-you-write/
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Bryan J Zimmerman –> Thanks for blogging about it. I like your response to the video. Great stuff. Highly appreciated.
Gabe | freebloghelp.com said:
When I wrote for corporate blogs, I used many keyword tools in order to maximize SEO benefits.
However, for my personal blogs, I never even check for keywords and phrases. I write solely for the people. Whatever comes out of my fingertips is what people get. No cross-referencing whatsoever!
Sure, I might lose a bit of traffic but the bottom line is, I like to use my own words and don’t want my message to be influenced in anyway way.
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John Samuel said:
I have taken care that all of my posts are helpful for the real people. I have written a plenty of tutorials for this purpose and this has helped me to gain a lot of visits from search engines, but also from real people
Ron Leyba said:
A nicely crafted article with well established point of writing can gain you loyal visitors.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Ron Leyba –> That’s true. Providing something that really grabs their attentions is the way to find success in this art.
Lily said:
Just to tell you , that I enjoy your articles and learning lot from everything you post.
Genuine and highly energetic cyber ink with heart
Thanks!
Lily
@lilygiraud
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Randall P. Whatley said:
I like the title of your article, Writing for Real People, because that’s who we often forget about when we’re writing content for the Web and considering search engine optimization. Although it sounds cliche, SEO writing is both an art and a science.
To keep the writing focused on the audience, I find it helpful to craft language around each point to prove the point, clarify the point, or add interest to the point. In parlance of the day, this “keeps it real” for the readers, viewers, or listeners.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Randall P. Whatley » You’re right. It’s both an art and a science. I think that recognizing it is the first part of the struggle to create relevant content for real people and for search engines.
Pastor Wynn said:
Nick,
Great video with great thoughts. You are so correct. I thank you for the series. Looking forward to the others.
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