Content Writer Micky's Blog

Archive for the ‘My Work Projects’ Category

I recently completed another copywriting project. I wrote the text for a flyer for a new website, BuyAustralianMade.com.au. The aim was to convince manufacturers of products made in Australia to have their goods featured in the product directory of this website.

I gathered the strongest selling points, wrote the copy up in easy to read blocks of text with subheadings and bullet points, and the Melbourne graphic designer turned it into an attractive looking flyer.

Download the PDF of the flyer.

BuyAustralianMade, which launched on 1 June, will be promoting and advertising their website to the increasing number of people interested in buying genuine Australian made products and using local Australian services.

The idea behind the flyer is that everyone who proudly sells an Australian made product (services are featured as well) feels they need to be listed on this website. They will gain a lot of extra exposure to a targeted group of potential customers.

I am Micky Stuivenberg. My company is called Triple W Communications. My website is called Content Writer. I write content and do SEO for websites, write and edit copy for marketing and other communication materials, and am a freelance journalist.

Visit my website for further information or contact me to discuss your project.

Writing content for websites is never the same. I deal with completely different clients with completely different requirements and preferences and write about completely different subject matters. What I like about my job is that I learn so much about such a varied range of topics and industries.

One thing that all my website copywriting projects have in common, is that I approach things as if I were my client’s customer, the visitor to their website. I think “If I came to this website, what would I want to know, do,  buy or find out?” 

Then I make sure I write clear and concise copy that answers the most important questions and highlights the main benefits of the company’s products or services to the customer. This is especially important on the homepage or other main landing pages that people may come to straight from search engines or online ads.

Most people who click on a website take just a couple of seconds to see if they can find what they’re looking for. If not, they leave. And you lose a potential client.

One of my recent clients is RosterPortal.com, a new service that lets company managers and supervisors create staff rosters and shift schedules online. All employees get a log-in and enter their availability for the coming week or weeks. The software automatically sorts it and presents it in an easy format for the supervisor, who only needs to shuffle things around a bit to create a new staff roster – in just a few minutes.

RosterPortal also acts as an internal communication tool, like a staff intranet. To make things even easier, the online staff roster software can send email and SMS alerts to staff with new rosters.

“Why would people be interested in something like this?” I asked myself and my client. Because they’re going crazy doing things manually, trying to sort out everyone’s availabity and creating a roster that suits everyone. Staff forgetting to say they’re away. Spending another hour or so shifting things around. People not being aware of a new roster. Basically, their main problems are: 1) they’re not being efficient, 2) they’re losing valuable time (and time is money), and 3) a lot of people are constantly annoyed.

So I made sure the website content clearly explains that using RosterPortal solves those problems. Hopefully people reading it will think – “I need this program! Where do I sign up?” And to make that task as easy as possible, there are various obvious links to a free 1-month trial. 

I wrote search engine optimised content for RosterPortal’s five main pages, while the client himself will be adding further information such as FAQs, help files and tutorials.

That brings me to this point: Some people may think they need to hire me to write or edit the content of their entire website. Although that is ideal (for maximum success, consistency, continuity and individually optimised pages), you can hire me as your SEO website copywriter for as few or as many pages as you like or your budget allows. Or do things in stages, starting with just your Home and About us pages, for instance.

Need professional, persuasive website content for your website? Written not from YOUR point of view but from that of your potential customers – so they like (and understand) what they read and ultimately buy from you or get in touch with you?

Contact me, SEO Web Copywriter Micky Stuivenberg, via my Content Writer website to discuss what you need and get a cost estimate for your project.

Just another completed project I wanted to mention in my blog – writing appealing, search engine-friendly and sales-oriented website copy for Surfers Century Oceanside Apartments on the Gold Coast.

The website had existing pages but the content wasn’t very strong nor was it optimised for search engines. There were also a couple of blank or very short pages. New pages were also added to specifically target different types of visitors - couples, families and groups.

Gold Coast holiday accommodation is a very competitive market, and it can be difficult to differentiate between all the beachside holiday apartments in Surfers Paradise. For me, the project consisted of trying to understand what visitors want from their Gold Coast accommodation and highlighting exactly those positive points right away.

People coming to the website now immediately get confirmation, right in the first paragraph, that Surfers Century Resort is 4-star accommodation, very close to the beach, near all the shops and restaurants in Surfers Paradise, but in a quiet street, the apartments are modern, self-contained and have fantastic ocean views, and they are available at attractive rates. They can then read on or click on any of the other pages to get further details.

I hope that thanks to the new content, this client’s central Surfers Paradise accommodation will perform better in search engines and more people who visit the website will end up visiting Surfers Century Resort.

I manage and update the content of websites for various clients across the globe. Many of these businesses don’t have the in-house skills, the software or the time to update their own websites. So I do it for them, at a minimal cost to them. Because I’m an expert in this, it doesn’t have take me too long to change content on a website. And I only charge for my time spent.

One of the sites I’ve recently updated again is the Coffs Coast Waste Services website. This regional domestic waste collection and recycling business has just published new bin collection calendars and a new ‘Waste-Wise’ booklet for residents.

I’ve posted the new materials and have made some changes to other content that had become outdated on some of the inside pages. While I was at it, I also changed some of the page titles for SEO purposes, to try and rank higher in search engines for certain relevant keywords and search phrases.

If you have a website that needs updating, as a one-off or on a regular basis, contact me at Content Writer to discuss the options, or read more about the possibilities and my charges on my web page about my Web Content Updating Service.

Also read this related blog post for further information.

Among the things I do, besides writing content, SEO and creating websites, is public relations and writing media releases. Between mid January and mid February, I spent four weeks filling in for the media officer at the City Council of the city I live in, Coffs Harbour. This is something I had done previously in my job managing the Council’s websites.

The past few weeks have been a bit crazy, first with the horrible bushfires in Victoria and then with some areas of Coff Harbour and surrounding areas being flooded when we had more than 200mm of rain in two days.

Russell Crowe, who has a home in Nana Glen near Coffs Harbour, and spends time there with his family now and then, was here for an NRL pre-season match of the South Sydney Rabbitohs, a team he partly owns.

During a live fundraising telethon broadcast nationally, he announced an iniative to raise funds to build a new community centre in one of the fire-ravaged areas in Victoria. Coffs Harbour City Council was to be the organiser and call centre for the appeal.

That ensured we had a couple of very busy days after that, organising all legalities, getting information up on the website and sending out media releases. (See the first Russell Crowe bushfire appeal media release and for further info see the second one.)

Other aspects of the job were responding to media enquiries, arranging interviews and photo opportunities, and editing and proofreading documents and letters from Council’s many departments and facilities before they were published or sent out.

One morning, I got to witness the release of Dodger, a koala who had been hit by a car several months ago and broke his leg. He had undergone surgery with the financial help of Council and was nursed back to full strength by members of WIRES, our local wildlife rescue organisation. The members of the local media, Dodger’s carers, the vets who had operated on him and myself were all very pleased to see Dodger quickly and happily climb up high into the tree he was released in. Let’s hope he stays in the forest and away from the highway! The release got good coverage in the local papers and on a regional television channel. (See the press release I wrote that led to the media covering the story.)

Anyway, just a little story to illustrate that public relations and press releases are part of what I do. If you’re looking to get a story out there, I may be able to help you. I have many years’ experience as a journalist and in public relations and know how to write an effective media release.

Get in touch with me, Micky Stuivenberg, Content Writer, if you need help with your public relations in Coffs Harbour, the NSW Mid North Coast or elsewhere.

I’ve written an SEO article titled “How To Select The Best Canvas Shape For Your Photo Canvas” for my client Prints R Us, which I will be posting on various article submission sites soon.

The idea is to get more incoming links via anchor text links with the targeted keywords, which should help rank Prints R Us higher in Google for those keywords. And if it generates extra traffic to the site, that would be nice too, of course!

Before I can post it elsewhere, Prints R Us has put the article on its own website and we’re just waiting for Google to index the page. This way, if it later finds the same article on various other websites, it will recognise Prints R Us as the originator of the article and won’t penalise it for publishing duplicate content or anything.

Here’s another finished project that I’d like to report on in my blog: a new website for Park Beach Physiotherapy & Sports Injury Clinic, Coffs Harbour, NSW, Australia.

I’ve designed the website myself and have written all the SEO content based on information provided by Park Beach Physio. The site is fully optimised in terms of design, page names and titles, META tags and content.

With just one back link at this point (from my site), the new website already ranks second, third and fourth on Google Australia for most of the important keyword combinations (variations of Coffs Harbour physiotherapy / physiotherapists Coffs Harbour and Pilates Coffs Harbour / Pilates classes Coffs Harbour etc.).

It even ranks #1 already if you search for ‘sports physiotherapists coffs harbour’.  The homepage also immediately picked up a Google PR2 (page rank).

I’ve used a photo slideshow at the top of the website, instead of a static banner. We had a number of good images we could use and I thought this was a great way of showing them. They slowly roll from right to left and it’s in a loop so the same photos come around again when the series has reached the end. Visitors can look at the photos at their own leisure.

I created the moving photo banner (have a look) with Amara Flash Slideshow Builder, which is a great tool that doesn’t cost much and is very easy to use & flexible when you want to make changes later on.

The website contains all the information about Coffs Harbour Pilates classes at this fully equipped Pilates studio and it mentions and shows some of the equipment used. There’s emphasis on the fact that at Park Beach Physio, you get physiotherapy guided Pilates and an individual Pilates program based on your needs and limitations. It also has all the physiotherapy & Pilates pricing information, hopefully reducing some repetitive phone enquiries.

This project is another good example of a complete Web Design, SEO & Content package that I can do for clients.

Many other web design companies only hand a design (an empty template) to their clients and leave it up to them to populate the site with content. Often, the resulting pages are NOT optimised for search engines so are difficult to find in Google etc., and are written from the company’s point of view rather than speaking directly to the visitor/potential client. That business will then lose out on traffic, i.e. customers, i.e. potential buyers, i.e. money!

Interested in getting an optimised website and/or content, or need an SEO review or copywriting or editing services? Contact me, Content Writer, to discuss your project or ask for a quote.

This is a project I completed a few weeks ago and that I’m very pleased with. I created an entirely new website, wrote all the content and did the on-site SEO for Tensindo Sports.

Tensindo is a tennis ball manufacturer, producing its own ITF-approved TENS tennis balls as well as tennis balls for other brands (that are very well known but can’t be named).

Tensindo’s old website was done entirely in Flash, had little content that was difficult to read (in little frames with scrollbars within the Flash file) and was not optimized at all. It was a real challenge trying to find their website via search engines. You wouldn’t find them at all if you typed any of their product names in Google.

I was provided with the company logo, some images and basic information on the company and each of their products.

Based on that, I created a clear & effective website with an external CSS file to keep the code in the pages to a minimum for SEO purposes.

I’ve optimized each page with unique title tags and keyword-rich, informative content.

I’ve also tried to make it very clear in the new website that there are two sides to Tensindo Sports (with different target markets):

• they manufacture high quality tennis balls for other brands; and
• they produce & market their own TENS brand tennis balls (same high quality, lower price).

The new website was uploaded last week and we’re now just waiting for Google to come by for a visit and index the new pages. Then the SEO testing can start. I can’t wait to see how they rank!

Last week I wrote an SEO article for a client called Busycode, who are Flex developers based in China.

The article is titled “What Is Flex, Why Use Flex & How to Find a Good Flex Developer?” and is currently only published on Busycode’s own website (click on the link or image to go to the article).

Most people have heard of Flex software but don’t know or understand what Flex is, how it works or why you would want to use Flex on your website or for your business. Or if they know more about Adobe Flex software and want to use Flex, they don’t have the skills to build the Flex application.

The article explains in easy to understand language what Flex is and what you would typically use it for (to present data-rich information in a visually appealing and really interactive way).

The article concludes it’s easy to outsource development of Flex applications to Busycode because they are absolute specialists in Flex and don’t require a deposit to get started, so it’s completely risk-free to start a project with them.

Next week I’ll submit the article to a couple of article directories to increase the article’s exposure, get more incoming links for Busycode and hopefully get them more business – creating quality Flex applications at a low price for their clients.

Prints R Us is a Melbourne-based online photo canvas printing business. A few weeks ago I spent a couple of days rewriting almost all content for their website, and their revamped website (it also has a new look) has just been launched.

Their web pages now have loads of useful information, incorporate all their important SEO keywords, especially on their individual product pages, and should entice visitors to submit their images online for a free evaluation or order a photo canvas or one of their other photo printing products.

Besides the wellknown photo canvas (I like the ones with ‘gallery wrap’, i.e. the photo is stretched around the edges), they can also print and affix your high-res photo or poster on a thin wooden board for a professionally mounted print (block mounting) or for a ligher, perhaps temporary solution, mount it on a foam board (foam mounting). They also do normal, but very professional photo printing, but the product that really stood out for me is what they call ‘framed canvas blocs’.

It’s difficult to explain what framed canvas blocs are (they’re a new ‘invention’), you’ll have to check it out on the Prints R Us website, but basically it’s a canvas print of your photo that’s fixed inside a thick wooden block frame that you can simply place anywhere. It’s unlike any photo frame you’ve ever seen. Because they’re new, unique, very stylish and not expensive, they make excellent gifts – that’s how Prints R Us market them and I agree.

For all these products you simply upload your own images online and they will check whether they’re suitable for the product you’re ordering. You’ll get your image home-delivered within a week.

Now that they’ve got their excellent website content, they’re ready for the world (well… Australia mostly) to come and visit their website and check out their products – which make fabulous Christmas gifts!

OK – Just thought I’d share a typical SEO web copywriting (rewriting) job with the readers of my blog.