Words to the Wise

A couple more facts for your day - as if you didn’t have enough:

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The annual amount by which McKinsey & Co. estimates the U.S. is "overpaying" for health care: $477 billion

The fraction of U.S. health care spending represents as part of global health care spending: 50%

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Percentage of Americans who had, by March 2008, made summer vacation plans: 16%

Percentage that did so by March, 2007: 48%

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Number of new ‘major’ airports China is expected to open by 2020: 97

Number of new airports expected to open in the U.S. in the same period: 2

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Estimated value of coins going unused in the U.S.: $150 billion

Value of unused coins per household: $90

Cost to the U.S. Mint to make one nickel: 7.7 cents.

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Sources: John Kador , CEO INfact research, General Administration of Civil Aviation of China , U.S. Mint , Coinstar , American Research Group

According to a report by Pew Internet & American Life Project, 49% of those who use the Internet also use search engines such as Google and Yahoo! on any given day. Sources with the project say this is an indicator of search engine users’ desire to be in the ‘driver’s seat’ and find what they want online as opposed to having it given to them passively.

I say it’s an indicator that someone’s lying to the researchers. 49%? For real?

The project began back in 2002 when, at the time, only 29% of Internet users said they used a search engine on an average day.

As for email, 60% of users claimed to use email on the average day.

I’m assuming the other 40% were lying or too busy checking email to respond the to the survey.

Also according to the report, search engine users tend to be “socially upscale” with at least some college under their belts and incomes of more than $50K a year. Younger users search more on a typical day and men are more likely to use a search engine than women…Don’t look at me. I don’t make this stuff up.

Jason Pedley is a professional SEO content copywriter based near Raleigh, North Carolina. Need SEO content that improves your online presence? Contact Jason Pedley today - mail@jasonpedley.com or (860) 886-3455.

Just a quick shout out to Google for wanting to keep the sun out of my eyes.

A tube of SPF 75 for my head would have been nice, too.

Oh well, now I have a thinking cap…er…visor.

If you got my latest Words to the Wise newsletter today, you might have noticed that when you click on a couple of the links, you get taken to a place call writing-for-web.com.

Don’t worry, it’s not some attempt to lead you from my main blog, it’s a way to get you to my “SEO summer home.”

I had the Writing for Web domain and it was just kinda sitting there like a piece of land with no home on it. So I took a few days last month, got some content written, found a great WordPress design by Nyssa Brown with no distracting bells or whistles and made the whole thing live for you. After all, a summer home is about relaxation, no distractions and just ‘being’, right?

SEO content copywriting is a growing part of what I do, and I felt that it would be best to have a home on the web dedicated to this service. Whether you subscribe to learn about marketing and copywriting, or if you’re a current or prospective client, there will be something you can use on either of my sites. And, of course, if you want more info on a topic, let me know. I’m more than happy to blog about anything you like.

Ok, time to get back to the summer home.

Part of the challenge in my day-to-day freelance life is writing content for my varied clients. And while it is a challenge, it’s also a lot of fun. Where else can I write about Central America second homes, mobility scooters for seniors and travel nurses all in the same day?

I suppose I could do that at an agency, but that might take some of the fun out of my job.

So how do I keep writing content for different industries day after day?

When I first get a client, I read everything I can about them. What they’ve done in the past, what kind of indexed content they have on Google, who links to the client’s pages, who client link to, how does their online marketing work with their offline marketing, what the clients keywords and phrases are etc.

Then, I find out what their competition is doing. This usually involves setting up some Google alerts and more web surfing, which I’ve blogged about before.

Once I’m familiar with a client’s business, their customers, their industry and their competition, it’s easier (not always easy, though) to write content that appeals to customers and search engines.

For example, if I’m writing a listing for a property like the Trump International Golf Club in Puerto Rico, chances are, I’ve already had oodles of links, PDFs, brochures and press releases sent to me by the client. Beyond that I’m sure to have scoured the web to see what others are writing to sell the property. Chances are, in this case, the competition all has one thing in common: They’re all doing the same thing. Whether it’s swiping info word-for-word from the press releases and brochures or stealing each other’s listing copy, there’s one way to step above all this and get attention:

Be different.

It’s that simple. I write compelling, optimized copy that is different from everybody else’s. We’re all marketing the same property with the same amenities, units and prices – but Condo Hotel Center (and all my clients for that matter) have realized that original, unique content is what sets them apart online. And the best way to be original is to see what everyone else has done and do something else.