While there hasn’t been a massive shift in the search habits of Americans, the latest comScore numbers indicate that Bing may be slowly catching on. The numbers suggest that Bing is taking searchers away from both Google and Yahoo.
According to the comScore stats, the Google search engine saw a 3.53% drop in search traffic from June to July, while the Yahoo search engine saw a drop of 4.83%. Bing, on the other hand, saw their searches grow from June to July by 5.39%.
Microsoft has to be happy with these numbers. Even though Google and Yahoo have 64.7% and 19.3% of …read more

Today, Deb Ng posted a piece called “Yes, Your WILL Be Googled” that talks about the fact that potential clients probably will use Google to search for your name. There are a number of problems with this:

Other people may have the same name as you.
You may have personal accounts that pop up attached to your name.
Someone who’s not a good Google searcher could find bad or confusing information.
You may write under multiple names.

What does this all mean to you? It means that when someone googles you, they could find your work, a page for a nude modle with the same …read more

Often, I’m hired to write pieces that use keywords or include descriptions. The client usually sets the parameters here, telling me exactly what he wants as far as search engine optimization.
I know that some writers refuse to take jobs that involve SEO at all. While I respect that decision, since it can cramp your writing style, I believe that there is such a thing as white hat SEO. Some would disagree with me and say that all SEO work is manipulative and, therefore, black hat.
If you’re new to freelance writing, though, you probably have no idea what those terms mean, …read more

According to Yahoo Inc. CEO Carol Bartz, the internet search giant is open to a partnership with another company. However, any company that wants such a partnership would need “boatloads of money” as well as compatible technology for Yahoo to even consider it.
Just last year, Yahoo turned down an acquisition deal with Microsoft, a drawn-out spectacle that resulted in Carol Bartz replacing Jerry Yang as CEO of the company. In a recent interview, Bartz confirmed that she had been in a couple talks with Microsoft, a company that definitely fits her stipulations.
Currently, the search engine business is all but dominated …read more

When it comes to marketing in the internet world, search engines remain king. A good placement on a search engine is worth the weight of the mouse clicks in gold. Which search engines are the ones you should target? Here are the top five search engines in terms of volume in the last week:
1) Google
Google is far and away the leader in the search engine industry. Combine all the other thousands of search engines on the planet and Google would still be bigger. Getting your website listed on Google is extremely important.
2) Yahoo
During the internet boom, Yahoo was the biggest …read more

Identifying potential clients is a considerable research project. Regardless of the industry in which you’re freelancing, it’s likely that you have many obvious prospects. But what do you do when you have mined those for all you can at this point? The answer: keep digging.
 
The most successful freelancers are those who have an uncanny knack for searching in all the right places. They are dedicated and tenacious, hunting down potential leads in places that may not occur to the less committed. To sum it up, I guess you could say that a successful freelancer needs to be an investigator of …read more

I think I first read this in one of Hugh Prather’s books. As I recall it appeared in my life when my ability to type 89 words a minute seemed to lead only to some sort of secretarial job.
But the saying works for me as a freelance writer as well. Consider: Just because I can:

write SEO articles
do copywriting well
edit a magazine or newspaper
write magazine articles

…doesn’t mean I must.
I’ve actually done all of these and I generally don’t do them anymore. That kind of writing doesn’t fit where I am in my freelance writing career. Some of it doesn’t pay well …read more

Rico who blogs at Contract Worker has an article about search engine optimizing (SEO) aimed at freelance writers. It’s a pretty good overview of the process.
SEO writing can, if you’re careful about who you deal with, can provide a steady stream of income. In most cases its small income. I’ve done it and my minimum was $10 a page and sometimes I’ve gotten as high as $25.
SEO writing works best if you’re fairly quick and if you write in an area you already know. Most of my SEO writing has been in real estate, which is part of my …read more