Guest Post: Tips for Acquiring More Natural Looking Links

by Alicia Sparks on April 24, 2012

Did you know it's possible to grow your links TOO fast?

While we all know that link building is one of the key methods of improving search engine rank, acquiring natural looking links isn’t that easy. Google and other search engines are always on the lookout for unnatural links and they can easily penalize your website for unnatural links. Here are a few tips on how to keep your links looking natural.

Vary Anchor Text & Text Surrounding Links

Do you often use the same anchor text and the same description when you are submitting to different directories? If so, you are not fooling anyone. One way to create natural looking links is to vary the keywords used in the links as well as the words surrounding the link. SEO experts have known for years that the words surrounding the link can affect search engine rank.

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My Top 10 Inspirational, Witty, And Creative Writing Quotes

by Alicia Sparks on March 6, 2012

What would YOU put here?

This post’s title is a bit deceiving. I probably shouldn’t have labeled these as my “top” (or even “favorite, had I gone that far) writing quotes, as I’m a bit of a quote whore and love, well, so many.

However, I have at least managed to include only writing quotes.

(Let me tell you, it was tough.)

Nevertheless, these are 10 motivational quotes (in no particular order) that I often turn to when I need a professional or creative boost, my perspective’s a bit out of whack, or I just need to feel connected to someone else.

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Ask Alicia: Writers And Twitter: What The Hell Should I Tweet?

March 1, 2012

QUESTION: Dear Alicia, After about six months of freelancing (part-time – haven’t made the full-time plunge yet), I finally signed up for a Twitter account. I read your post on Twitter taboos writers must avoid, but my questions is: What should I tweet about? So far, I just pass along interesting links, retweet others, and [...]

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5 Resources For Writing A Kick-Ass Guest Blog Post

February 23, 2012

Guest blog posts are beneficial for both the blog owner and the guest blogger. Blog owners can harness the expertise of other bloggers (as well as take a break from writing!), and guest bloggers can spread their knowledge and build website traffic for themselves. Below are five resources you can use (I checked them myself) [...]

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Using Pinterest For Your Freelance Writing Business

February 21, 2012

So, are you using Pinterest yet? For your freelance writing business, I mean? I’ll admit I’m not, but that’s only because I didn’t think Pinterest offered any benefits to writers. Frankly, I thought Pinterest was a cutesy form of social media that I would so totally get into and waste a million hours using… …just [...]

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Ask Alicia: Characteristics Of Professional Freelance Writers

February 16, 2012

QUESTION: Dear Alicia, I’ve never told any of my “online friends” (or any of my clients), but I work part time at a bar-and-grill restaurant in addition to working as a freelance writer. I manage to keep up my “professional” facade online (I even keep my personal and writing social media sites separate), but I [...]

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