Many companies are using sponsored blog postings to increase their Internet profiles. Unfortunately, far too many bloggers think that writing an original blog entry involves nothing more than copying a paragraph from somewhere, linking to it, and then adding a one line comment. This is not original content: it is little more that filling space on the screen.

A blog posting should be approached as you would any other piece of written work. You need a beginning, a middle and an end. Or, as my old tutor used to say, an introduction, a body and a conclusion. The introduction tells your readers what you are going to do. The body of the essay does it - and then the conclusion summarises everything.

It sounds easy, but if it was then everyone would do it, and we wouldn't have all those cut and paste jobs, would we? Luckily, it is a skill rather than an art, so you can learn how to write workmanlike sponsored posts; all it takes is a bit of practice - and this article!

Let's say that you have to write 300 words on The Widget Company. You have been given three keywords, and each keyword is linked to a page on the company's site. Go and have a look at each page, and if you are new at this game, take a few notes about what is actually written there.

Make sure that the notes are in your own words. This is very important because you cannot copy and paste from the company's website. If you do then your career as a copywriter will soon come to an end because Google will think that the company is spamming, and they will mark them down in the rankings. Of course you must use the keywords that have been provided to you, just don't copy all the text - use your own words.

Start off with an introductory paragraph that sets out, briefly, what the Widget Company actually does,then go on to introduce the three concepts that the keywords embody. Let's say that the first of your keywords is "John Smith," who turns out to be the owner of the company. The second is "blue widgets," and you find out that this company specialises in this type of coloured widget. Finally you have "easy credit," and from your reading you know how the company's credit policy works.

How can you link those three together in the introduction? Something like this would do at a pinch:

The Widget Company has been in existence since 1856 and specialises in the production of the blue variety of the product. John Smith is the current owner and he is offering some very easy credit terms.

Do you

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