Fun fact before I start – I was supposed to write this a week ago but I had 827364+ other submissions so….
This is a rant about the life of a student, and the problems I face as a student, especially after the lockdown. Please don’t take it personally and start to cry (on second thought, you can, it helps). I’d like to first address the elephant in the room – Covid19. For disrupting my social life and forcing me to lock myself up for over 6 months – not that I used to party 24/7 but come on. Being with your family all the time and them not understanding that just because I don’t go to college it DOES NOT MEAN they don’t give us tonnes of assignments and submissions which are due in like a day, sucks.
My solution to this used to be scrolling through Instagram – looking at memes and people my age achieving their goals and feeling sad but low-key inspired. But lately even Instagram has become a toxic platform wherein people who don’t even have a voter’s ID are talking about why America was better with Trump as their President or how their partner of 2 weeks left them for their best friend. 2020 is really
All this being said (and sad), I can’t believe Covid has made my introverted self miss college, and hanging out with people. And honestly all I want right now is to go out and explore new places, try new dishes and not be stuck at home – confused about which assignment to complete when and submit where.
I do not believe in the concept of followers being those who cannot think or are not allowed to, or those who blindly follow someone and do not have ideas of their own. Followers, for me, are those who make a leader what he is – their faith and beliefs shape the leader’s ideology. They need not always agree with what he has to say and be bold enough to put forth their opinions.
As a CEO at a rather young age, one question I am asked quite often is “What is the function of a good leader?” Is it producing more leaders? Or just followers? And I always find myself saying this one thing – Why not both?
It is the responsibility of a leader to inspire his followers to think, to question and also to come up with solutions, instead of brainwashing them into thinking he is the superior one, and that they should always obey him. The very aim of a good leader, is to produce such followers. He should also always learn from them, for a leader is himself a follower. He should also understand and accept that he is nothing without his followers.
A good leader creates the path
A good leader is someone who understands the strengths and weaknesses of his followers, someone who sees the qualities they possess, be it leadership or something else – and guides them to the path of success. Hence, he should not be obliged to produce leadership, but should always look out for such qualities and if found, encourage them to grow.
I strongly believe that not everyone can be a good leader and it should never be a leader’s responsibility to produce more leaders or even followers for that matter, but, it is to keep doing what he ought to do – to see the skills in people and encourage them, help them get closer to their goals, and in this process produce more followers or even more leaders. The sole responsibility of a leader, I believe, is guiding his people and working towards the betterment of his society.
I feel a leader should never produce blind followers but at the same time make sure he’s not giving out the wrong message and giving rise to leadership which does not benefit the people, because leaders are the ones who hold the responsibility of either making or breaking this world.
Therefore I’m of the opinion that a good leader should always look out for talents and skills of leadership but never be compelled to produce more leaders, and also produce followers who have their opinions and thoughts instead of those who blindly follow the herd.
If you are reading this right now, I have succeeded. ~ An SEO Writer
Ever wondered why — every time you google something, only certain articles are shown on the first page? While others are way back on the 10th page? While some loiter around in the middle? What decides the order of the search list?
The answer is simple — it is the different web algorithms — but is there a way to understand these algorithms and make sure your piece is always shown first when someone searches for something in that field? Absolutely! But how? The answer is SEO!
Ok, but what is SEO?
The full form of SEO is Search Engine Optimization, and it is the need of today’s Industrialized society. Using SEO means optimizing your website in such a way that your sites and articles are ranked first in the search list of different web browsers such as Google and Bing.
Wait, but why does everyone need it?
What is a business without clients? SEO helps clients reach their businesses. It is not just crucial in large ventures or limited to the Writing and Media sectors but is equally important in all the other sectors as well as small businesses.
2020 is the year everything is online, so if you want to grow your business, help customers always find you first amongst so many others, then you must be at par with the latest SEO techniques and methods. It is the need of the hour today as everyone is getting more and more competitive. Be it the educational sector, the service, or even the agricultural one — in today’s fast-growing world, everyone needs to shift to online to grow their business — this is where SEO comes into play.
One cannot expect their websites, articles, or business news and information to reach desired clients without strategically writing the pieces with keywords that fit the algorithms of different websites.How do you SEO?Now that you know why you need SEO, the question is how do you use it? Well, there are different SEO tools to help and assist website owners and make sure that their articles are ranked higher on the search list.
Many companies offer specialized SEO services for their clients. These services help a lot in their business. In 2020 however, SEO is much more than creating the same old content by just adding a few extra words. It has become more complex and creative and is a whole different area in itself. SEO today has many types like on-page, off-page, and technical SEO.
Even though it is debatable if all the SEO tools are accurate, it is a fact that SEO writing is a must for small as well as big businesses. Since most of the marketing tools are beyond one’s control, SEO is one of the few ones which can be controlled and designed strategically to help ventures, irrespective of the sector.
You did this because you loved her. You did this because you wanted to protect her. You did not want to see her suffer. You did this because you love her.
Sitting near the pond, watching the sky lose its blues and the sun its charm you find yourself drifting back to her thoughts. They called you crazy for the love you had for her, but it really was the most genuine feeling you had ever felt, wasn’t it? She was your angel.
The chirping of birds reminds you of her pleasant voice. “Daddy, what are you doing? Where’s mommy?” She’d asked you with so much innocence that you just could not get yourself to tell her that mommy had left. How could you explain helplessly watching your wife burn to death, to your six-year-old daughter? All you could tell her was that you loved her, which was anyway the only truth she needed to know.
With each twinkling star blessing the dark sky, thoughts of her start to bless your empty mind. You miss hugging her tight after you would find her hiding under the table. Oh, how she loved playing hide-and-seek with you. You feel remembering those times.But not for so long, as the cold breeze brings the sad memories — memories of when they tried to take her away from you. Oh! to be without her, it still boils your blood and enrages your mind. What did they think of themselves? What did they even know about you? How could they even try to separate her from you?
But then again, soothing songs of the crickets save you from the sorrowful thoughts, just like you saved her from them. And brought her back home — and swore to protect her, your angel.
You really start to miss her now, even more when you see the full moon, it reminds you of her — she was just like the moon – a bright ball of hope in a dull sky, which is your life.
Looking at the red moon reflecting itself in the even redder water of the pond, you smile. You smile seeing her petite body float right besides the moon. And your smile grows brighter, contrasting to her skin growing paler in the cold water.
As you remember gently whispering “I love you my angel” into her ears. Right before tightly holding her mouth and drowning her in the cold water. You know mommy awaits her in heaven, for you had sent her there before sending your angel. You smile because you know you saved he. From this cruel world, from those people who wanted to take her away from you, you smile because you know she is with her mommy, you smile because you know that you gave your angel her much deserved heaven.
Reflection – I wrote this story for my creative writing class as my flash fiction.The father kills his daughter so as to save her from this cruel world.
“I wish to pursue a career as a freelance writer, but I don’t know where to start. I have some experience in b2b content marketing, but that’s about it. How can I boost my content writing skills to produce great content which will help me grow in this field?”
Why Content Marketing?
Are you passionate about writing and want to turn this hobby into a career? Are you tired of taking content writing and SEO classes from all the different places, but it just doesn’t seem to work? Is the traffic on your website still low, or your clients still unhappy? There is a high possibility that this happened because you were only focused on writing the content and not marketing it.
Hmm, what does this mean?
All you cared about was using SEO strategies, placing keywords in your article in ways that will attract the audience. You didn’t bother learning about one of the crucial things required in this digital world – Content Marketing.
Now, what is content marketing, why you should master it, and how it will help you immensely in the long run, irrespective of how much time you have spent in this writing world – everything is in this guide.
Ok, But What Is Content Marketing?
So before we dive into all the content marketing strategies and techniques, we need to ask ourselves one question – What is Content Marketing?
You surely have heard the phrase Content Is King. Even though this phrase is overly-used, it still stands true. Content is what makes your article, blog, video what it is. The SEO techniques you use, the keywords you strategically place, the tone you go with – all these things are secondary. What you have to offer is what matters the most, and that is your content.
Give it a thought,
Without content, what would the SEOs optimize for search engines? What metadata would they hunt for, for robots like Google and Bing to rank? Every email you compose, every blogyou write, every video you create, every podcast you produce is your content, and that is what should be of utmost importance before anything else.
So now,
Content Marketing is creating and publishing content for a specific audience. You know your audience so well that you produce exactly what they want and have content strategies designed specially for them. It is not searching for keywords and placing them in the headlines for the sake of it. Content marketing is much more than that.
The Better You Know Your Audience, The More They Will Like You
Create For An Audience
Even though both content writing and content marketing aimed at attracting a target audience, the latter will help you in the long run. Content writing may get your site some traffic but does not build a connection with your audience.
Content marketing, on the other hand, is about building a relationship with your readers – this makes them more interested in what you have to offer.
Maybe they will
Share your content with their friends
Add a comment
Leave a like on your blog or video
All these things tell the search engines that people like your page and, this, in turn, helps you gradually go up in the search list.
Sounds fun, doesn’t it?
As much fun and easy as this sounds, remember it requires a lot of time and patience. You cannot expect to top the search ranking by writing just one article aimed at a specific group of people. You are to write and fail and then write again.
The better you connect with your audience, the more they will like your content. Why? Because you will be writing what your readers want to read. Knowing your target audience will help you write the content they need – the language you should use and even the fonts and color schemes that would attract them.
Remember You Are A Human Talking To Other Humans
Now that you know your audience, their likes and dislikes, remember that they don’t want to read something written by a robot.
Many SEO strategies fail because
The writers focus so much on these techniques.
They forget that they are writing for people, not the engines.
Write as if you are sitting with your readers in a cafe and talking on this topic.
Wait, but what about the keywords and stuff?
You can work on them once you finish creating your content. Run it through some tools, and add whatever words you need to. But while you write, you write what you have to say and what your audience needs to hear, not what the engines demand.
Content Marketing Is Not Just Writing
Lastly, the greatest misconception of all – that content marketing is just about writing blogs and articles. It is absolutely not true.
You can use the content marketing techniques for video, podcasts, infographics, and literally anything which provides information to a group of people.
Can I Master Content Marketing?
Absolutely yes. But can you do it without lots and lots of practice? Nope.
Only knowing the techniques of content marketing is never enough. You need to try and fail and try again and again till you master this art. You can even come up with your own marketing strategies and grow and succeed in this online realm.
