by Courtney Ramirez

Successful content writing is about two things – using the right keywords and creating engaging content. And the second part is where research can really stump you. There are dozens of ways to find the right keywords and in many cases your client is providing them. But where do you go to find great research to create engaging, compelling and (most importantly) accurate content?

The truth is – it can be hard. With websites like ehow.com and other content farms paying writers a pittance to produce keyword rich content, even the simplest of keyword searches can produce poorly written, barely researched and inaccurate information. It’s gotten to the point where the first page of Google is completely unreliable for some keyword terms.

In addition, it can often be hard to get information from the right perspective that fits your client’s needs and individual perspective. Take global warming for instance. If you’re working on an article from a client that is coming from a conservative point of view, how are you going to find the right resources that support that view?

Fortunately, there’s a new search engine that has solved both of these problems for me, and I hope you get a lot of mileage out of it as well. It’s called Blekko.com and despite the funny name (it reminds me of trying to give my kids medicine) it has some great features that make it an excellent research tool for writers who care about accuracy and perspective.

Blekko.com is good for search for two specific reasons. First, it is being heralded as the world’s first “spam free” search engine. The team at Blekko actively works to eliminate spam from their results. In fact, they have completely banned a list of 20 sites from their search engine results that are considered to be content farms (see the list). This reduces my search time significantly because I don’t have to wade through dozens of results from AnswerBag and other similar sites. If you see a site in the listing that isn’t appropriate, you can click the “spam” link and it will be removed from your personal search results.

On top of this, Blekko categorizes results with what it calls “slashtags” – these take a little getting used to but are really helpful when you get the hang of it. A slashtag is a way of classifying information within the search. So for our “global warming” search, we’d use “global warming/conservative” and Blekko pulls up a list of results from websites with a conservative point of view. The same goes for /liberal or /ecofriendly.

Slashtags can also help you organize information by date, which is critical if your content is related to a specific event and you need to get the latest. Other slashtags can be used to narrow down your results to specific websites (like /youtube if you want to see videos on the topic).

Finally, Blekko makes search easier for me because I can create a customized list of my own slashtags with websites and resources that I prefer to use. While I haven’t used this feature as much, I look forward to exploring it more.

There’s a lot of bad content online – so it’s important to choose your sources wisely for creating the original and engaging content that your clients are looking for. Give Blekko a try and it might make your writing process easier. Be sure to watch the intro video and you’ll be using slashtags like a pro in no time.

Courtney Ramirez is owner and head copywriter at Six Degrees Content, where she blogs about content marketing and connecting with search engines and readers. Follow her on Twitter @CourtneyRamirez or @6DegreesContent.

Have you turned into an Einstein since you've been writing?

Last week, I started my post by saying that I love both words and knowledge, before going on to talk about my adoration for certain words.

Since that post, I’ve been thinking about the knowledge part in more detail.

I’m fairly intelligent.  I always performed well at school, like to consider myself to be relatively worldly wise and enjoy being able to hold a conversation with most people on at least some topic of mutual interest, whether that’s sport or politics.

Since I started writing for a living a few years ago, however, I’ve found that not only has my love for knowledge and learning increased substantially, but my actual knowledge has grown tremendously.

Something that I consider to be a positive by-product of the writing process, it dawned on my a while ago that due to the different clients I’ve worked with, I’ve gained somewhat of a vast knowledge of a number of different topics.

Putting my primary writing knowledge and experience to one side, a few years ago I couldn’t tell you the first thing about home swimming pools – today I could tell you how to build one yourself, as well as what you needed to do to maintain it regularly.

I also feel like I’ve been on a crash course on Forex.  Before I was a writer, I tried to get into it, but it all seemed a little over my head.  As soon as I started working with a client who wanted some specific Forex articles, boom, within a matter of weeks I could have held my own easily on any number of Forex conversations.

When I was first starting out as a writer, I used to take on whatever work I could get, irrelevant of the topics.  It did take its time, as the research involved often meant I’d have to spend just as long trawling the internet for information as I did writing the piece, but it was fun.

I’ve tended to stick to what I know lately – small businesses and online development, primarily – but I do have one client who provides the opportunity to work on an array of different topics and it’s this variety that I love.

A lot of my work skills have come from my 9 to 5, but I’ve gained a lot from being a freelance writer – other than the continual development of my writing – most notably an increased adoration for knowledge, including a will and determination to constantly want to increase my understanding of a variety of different topics.

Some writers say it’s better to specialise in one or two areas, focusing your work around what you know, whilst others argue the flip-side, asking just why someone should stick to where their experience is –  if they feel confident they can write on a topic after some research, why not go for it?

In all honesty, I’m not entirely sure which side of the fence I sit on.  I just know that I love writing about small business and how to develop them, but my love for expanding my knowledge will always be there and only seems to be getting stronger.

As a writer, putting your writing skills to one side, what have you gained from writing?  Do you feel you have an understanding of an array of different topics?  Do you enjoy working with new clients who have varied topics to increase your knowledge or do you find it a chore, preferring to stick to what you know?

Image:  Père Ubu (Flickr)

I was chatting with a friend the other day and we got to talking about skills. Specifically, how to parlay the skills you’ve acquired into something that’s useful for building a freelance writing career. Transferable skills have been a career development buzzword for some time now, and that’s exactly what you need as a freelance writer. They turn up in the oddest places, too. Here are a couple of examples of transferable skills that can help you in your writing career.

Research

Way back when I did a BA – in modern languages as it happens. I don’t use them much unless I travel, but I did learn something from that process that helps me every day – how to research. Researching is not just about finding information, but about sifting it and triangulating it. (Triangulation is a fancy way of saying you should check things from multiple sources so you can make sure there’s a common core of information that’s likely to be right.) Good research is also about checking that your sources are reliable. I’m more likely to trust health information from the Department of Health than from someone who’s trying to sell me something. Although I research more on the web than in books, the skills I learned then have stood me in good stead now.

Organization

If you’re planning a writing career, then organization is key, and the skills you need are not specific to writing. In any job you have done, you will have had a list of tasks to complete and a way of keeping track of them. That’s a good starting point when it comes to managing your writing business. If you’re managing your own business, you need to know when work comes in, who it’s for, when it’s due out and what pay you will receive. Subbing work out makes it even more complex, as I’ve discovered in the past. Think about whether you have used any organizational systems that will help you streamline your writing career. If you think of any, let me know, as I’m always open to new ideas.

What skills do you use in your writing career that you learned in other places?

(Photo: somadjinn)

When Research Wizard Pro (also called Search Accelerator Pro) asked me to review their product, I thought I had to check it out. Anything that promised to save me time on research had to be worth a look. They were very efficient in providing an evaluation copy and it took no time at all to install. While it was installing I skimmed through the manual which comes with it, looking at all the things I could do. The manual does a good job of walking you through some of the main features and you need that walk through. Here’s why.

When I opened up the software I was blown away by the number of icons, toolbars and buttons that appeared on the screen. And let’s not forget the sidebar where you input your queries. I could not hope to talk you through these any better than the manual, so let me just say that though the interface is cluttered, it contains a lot of useful features.

The top left of the screen has a few menu links, a date screen (with a couple of other functions and a search box. When you search, additional options appear in the left sidebar. The right of the screen has about five rows of buttons and links and a built in browser window in the bottom right. These allow you to conduct searches on specific engines, in specific countries and for specific types of content (there’s also some fine tuning in the left hand search box.)

So, on to the field test. I had three research projects for which I usually use Google: a real estate article, an article on energy efficient homes and a lesson on journalism ethics. I decided to try Research Wizard Pro on these to see how it performed.

Case Study 1: The Real Estate Article

When I write these articles, I need a map, an MLS search and a community profile. That’s it. So although using Research Wizard Pro helped me find those things, it wasn’t an improvement on plain old Google. I didn’t need any of the bells and whistles for that project, so they were a distraction.

Case Study 2: Energy Efficient Homes

This was when it started to get interesting. While the main window gave me the standard Google search result (and you can change the default search engine if you want to), the side window gave me the option to narrow my search. I could look only for PDFs or for tutorials or for buying guides or for manuals – or for about 15 other things. I clicked on buying guides and got some great guides to energy efficiency in homes.

Effectively the software adds the resource type to your search term to narrow the search. Sure, I could have searched for that myself, but I might not have. The software has given me some additional ideas for focusing my search terms – and I thought I was already a pretty savvy searcher.

Case Study 3: Journalism Ethics

When I did the third search, I was seriously impressed. I had started to research this topic a few weeks earlier so I was able to make an on the fly comparison of Research Wizard Pro. I found stuff that I didn’t know was out there. I was able to search for tutorials, which helped as that was what I was creating. I will be using the tool to research the rest of the lessons in the course I’m creating. It shaved hours off the time I spend looking for quality resources.

More About Menus

Having tried it a few times, I was ready to look at the huge bank of toolbar icons. This time, they didn’t seem quite as daunting. The related searches bar at the top led me to a new tool, KWMap, which connects keywords related to your search. The next row led to some drop down menus for searching other search engines, RSS feed, video and more. The row below included other search tools and the final row had an address bar and buttons for adding bookmarks.

That leads to one minor gripe. I would have liked to mark resources as favorites within the program, rather than having to add them to my browser. However, I’m told that this functionality is coming in the next release. I have no hesitation in recommending Research Wizard Pro. Once you get accustomed to the interface, it puts a range of search options at your fingertips.