Writing with Keywords: Targeting Ads By Choosing Your Words Wisely

Most us who write on the Internet for pay have two primary goals.

One is for the more traditional satisfaction of publishing a well-written article or blog that's useful, interesting or just tickles the reader's funny bone. The other goal is to earn money from our work. If you're writing content that's intended to earn revenue based on ad sales, then using keywords is a great way to make sure you get the right ads for your article, and thereby increase the chances that a reader will click on one of those ads. A lot of writers I've talked to worry that by using keywords, they're going to sound repetitive or obnoxious in their writing. But, with a little practice and some skill, you can "sneak" ad-targeted keywords into your blogs and articles seamlessly without detracting from the quality of your writing.

First of all, you don't always need to repeat the same term over and over again to get the same results. There are keyword tools online, like the one at www.wordpot.com that will help you get more terms - or different variations of the term - that are based on frequent searches. For example, if you're writing about car insurance, you can enter the term it will return more terms. (See photo for details.)

Keyword results have multiple benefits when you're writing online for ad revenue. First of all, by including as many of these search terms in your article as possible (Again, without getting carried away.) you increase the chances of your article being indexed by search engines quicker, which will lead to more traffic and more potential ad clicks. Secondly, you know what type of ads people are looking for you and can tailor your article to that audience. Also, do you spot the predominant pattern in the results? People are looking for the cheapest car insurance they can find and the lowest rate quotes available online. With that information in mind, I would go back to Wordpot and type in "online car insurance rates." The first three results that come back are: "online car insurance rates, lower auto insurance rate online car insurance rates, auto insurance online car insurance rates lower auto"

So, how does this help your writing? Simple, by picking through the results, you can generate a list of different keywords and phrases that you can incorporate in your article. We started with just "car insurance" as a keyword, but by picking through the popular search terms, you can generate a list of keywords. The list for this article might be: car insurance, rate quotes, online rate quotes, lower auto insurance, cheap, affordable, compare, classic car insurance. Even the terms like "cheap, affordable, compare, etc." may not seem like keywords themselves, but if they're used in the same article that was words like car insurance, they the search engine will pick up on them even if they're not used exactly in tandem, or even in the same sentence.

For an example, let's take a look at my recent article: Does It Take A Caveman To Get A Better Rate On Your Auto Insurance? The article begins: "I have a confession to make. A while back, I was lured into applying for a free rate quote from Geico by their slick - and memorable - advertising. They hooked me with the caveman. I'm not ashamed to admit it.

But, much to my surprise, their quote didn't live up to the hype. In fact, Geico's rate quote was $50 per month higher than I was paying with Nationwide Insurance. My first thought was that obviously their advertising was better than their rates. However, after doing some research, I learned that if I had explained the situation better and asked the right questions, I might have gotten a better rate quote from Geico.

Here are a few tips I've learned for getting the best car insurance rate possible..."

Did you even notice that in the first two paragraphs, and the start of the list, that I used 18 keywords in the first 129 words of the article. Take a look again with the keyword/search terms highlighted:

"I have a confession to make. A while back, I was lured into applying for a free rate quote from Geico by their slick - and memorable - advertising. They hooked me with the caveman. I'm not ashamed to admit it.

But, much to my surprise, their quote didn't live up to the hype. In fact, Geico's rate quote was $50 per month higher than I was paying with Nationwide Insurance. My first thought was that obviously their advertising was better than their rates. However, after doing some research, I learned that if I had explained the situation better and asked the right questions, I might have gotten a better rate quote from Geico.

Here are a few tips I've learned for getting the best car insurance rate possible..."

And, if you look up that article at www.PrintNPost.com, you'll see ads for car insurance quotes, Geico, etc. Google ADSense picked up on the keywords and targeted the right ads. I varied the usage and placement of the words in my sentences so that I wasn't repeating the same thought over and over again. But, what if it was a different car insurance article? What if it was article that was about something other than getting a cheaper auto insurance rate? Could you still use the same keywords to get the "clickable" ads without working them in awkwardly? Absolutely!