Ah, the RFI. If you've been in business for awhile, you've seen the multi-page "request for information" documents prospects use during the vendor-vetting process. Some companies love filling them out, figuring it's a great chance to showcase their successes and land the client. Other companies dread the time and manpower RFIs take to complete, preferring to opt-out of the process. With questions like, "Share your philosophy about working with clients,

Is you fear holding you back from SEO copywriting success? At first read, you may think, "Fear? My fear isn't holding me back from success." I used to think that too. About a lot of things. But ask yourself if any of these statements ring true for you: "Our home page copy is really spammy, but it's ranking well. I don't want to change it and cause our rankings to drop." "We hired a copywriter a few years ago. Her writing was horrible.

Picture this: I'm working away in a cramped London hotel room. I'm there for SES London, along with many other of my geeky SEO friends. Suddenly, I get a Facebook fan page request from a person who shall remain nameless. And then I got another. And another. All from the same person. At the end of the deluge, this person had sent out about eight "become a fan" requests )it could have been more, actually,( all within five minutes. A few minutes later,

So, I turned down a SEO copywriting job today. No, the reason didn't have anything to do with what the client would pay )the money was pretty good, actually.( Nor did it have anything to do with what I'd be writing about )the content was fairly interesting.( The reason I turned down the gig was because there was no content strategy in place - and although I could easily write the copy and take the client's money, I knew that what I'd be doing wouldn't help them.

A few days ago, my husband and I were watching an ad for ProFlowers.com. It was your typical Valentine's Day ad - a woman received flowers at work - but they were brown and wilted. She was obviously disappointed. The lesson: If you don't purchase your flowers from ProFlowers, the love of your life may question how much you really care. The ad made my husband angry. First, he said, why are all Valentine's Day ads targeted towards men?

Ever since I launched my SEO Copywriting Certificate Program , I've heard from a number of people who want to dip their toes into the SEO copywriting waters - but they're not sure if it's the right career choice for them. If you're looking at SEO copywriting as a career choice, here are the 10 most frequent questions I hear'and the answers I provide: 1. I have zero copywriting experience. Can I still be a SEO copywriter? Sure you can'after some training.

Last week, I heard from a very frustrated prospect. This nice man had been working with a SEO firm for a few months. The firm had been doing all the back-end stuff that needed to be done: Cleaning the code, creating new Titles, building links and generally sprucing up the site. In general, the company did an OK job making the site more visible to search engines. But here's the thing: The prospect comes from a marketing background. He knew his existing copy didn't "pop.

Recently, Junta 42 released their 2010 content marketing survey )if you haven't read it, do it now - it's good reading.( One of the oft-reported stats is that smaller companies )those with less than 99 employees( are spending two times more on content marketing than their big-brand counterparts )40 percent versus 18 percent.( To those of us in the content marketing trenches, this is not surprising. And here's my theory on why.

I remember it like it was yesterday. 15 years ago, I was working for a small-press publisher. After months of begging, I finally got my chance to write my first back-jacket blurb - you know, the promo paragraphs designed to snare you into buying the book? What's more, it was for a well-known author in the self-help field. Needless to say, I sweated and slaved over every word. A week after I turned in the copy, the publisher called me into her office. Apparently,

Want to know a secret? When prospective buyers visit your website, they are looking for more than just their desired product or service. The secret is, they're looking for reasons to NOT buy from you. Yes, that's right. Your prospects - no matter how motivated they are - are coming to the virtual table with a chip on their shoulder. Like the person burned by too many bad dates )you dated that person too?

For those who didn't see the Twitter sneak preview announcement yesterday, I'm excited to announce the release of my new SEO Copywriting Certificate Program.  I've copied the press release here - enjoy! New SEO copywriting certificate program teaches marketers, SEO companies and copywriters how to write optimized Web copy. Portland, OR ) PRWEB ( January 13, 2010 " Heather Lloyd-Martin, CEO and President of SuccessWorks Search Marketing, Inc., www.seocopywriting.com ,

There is a lot of SEO copywriting information online. Some is good. Some is excellent, making me excitedly think, "They get it! They really really get it." And some advice makes me bang my head against the wall. Why? Because the advice is confusing, only applicable in certain situations, or just plain wrong. Here's an )unfortunate( example. This post by Michel Fortin makes some good points. It really does. But there was one line that concerned me,

Copywriters don't like to talk about it. Heck, they don't even want to admit it to themselves. But, they're often stuck in their own content marketing hell, suffering in silence. The affliction?  "Copywriter's burnout"- and it can decimate your SEO and social media strategy. Back in the day )say, 1998 or so,( there weren't as many online content marketing avenues. You wrote copy for your Website. Maybe you wrote a monthly article,

Happy New Year! By now, you are probably knee-deep in emails, phone calls and a to-do list that seemed manageable before the break. But now. Not so much. Sound familiar? As early as the first week in January, it's easy to let our good intentions )and resolutions( fall by the wayside. You may have swore to yourself and anyone else who would listen that you'd post three blog posts a week. And now you're thinking,

SES Chicago was one fun conference. For the first time this year, audience members seemed hopeful. Maybe it's because 2009 is drawing to a close. Maybe it's because the recession is )finally( unhinging it's iron-locked jaws off everyone's pocketbooks. Whatever the reason, the SEO copywriting session I did with @byronwhite was darn near standing-room only. Not to mention, the audience was fantastic! For those who missed it,

Couldn't make it to PubCon )or were there so many fantastic sessions that you couldn't hit them all?(. For those who missed it, here's my presentation from last week's "Real World Winning Tactics For Content Creation" session.  I discuss how to improve existing sites and how to leverage the power of content for better search rankings and conversions. Enjoy )and zip me at tweet at @heatherlloyd if you have any questions!(.

Well, it's official! My new Target Marketing Magazine blog about SEO copywriting and content marketing has finally hit the streets. I wrote my first post on the way home from DMA '09 - a conference, where I )sadly( saw marketer after marketer ignoring their content marketing strategy. Check it out, read, comment and enjoy! C'mon - I'd love to hear from you!

I'm often asked if small businesses can really compete in the SEO content marketing space. After all, between creating customer personas, writing the copy and understanding the SEO nuances, a good SEO copywriting campaign seems like it would be out of reach of the typical business owner. Hardly. I want to share a site that "gets it" from a SEO and a content marketing perspective. The man who owns it, Daniel Iversen, isn't a SEO expert.

PubCon is one of my favorite conference series ever. It's not just the speakers )always top-notch( or the vibe )always fun.( PubCon is a great combination of smart people, talented speakers and excellent content - much of which you won't find anywhere else. And it's coming up in less than two weeks. Are you ready? If you're new to PubCon, you'll find your "survival guide" below.

Talk about frustrating. You thought what you wrote showcased your best work ever. You expertly followed your client's content marketing strategy. You chose good keyphrases. And when you finished writing your SEO copywriting masterpiece, you could almost hear the harp music playing softly and feel the sunshine on your face.  Your copy didn't just sound good.  It sung. Then a week later, you see what the client actually uploaded. All of your tricky turn-of-phrases were gone.