Blogging
Web Content 102
Aug 22nd
As you have heard us say before, there are millions upon millions of online blogs and other informational websites, but what makes for great web content?
Clear and Concise
Being vague is one of the biggest mistakes a web content writer can commit, as it can compel your audience to instantly evaporate. No one wants to stay a second on something they find too complex or vague to understand. The mark of an expert lies in his ability to make complicated things clear and simple. Don’t use 200 words to say something that could easily be written with 50; people don’t have that kind of time these days.
Know Your Audience and Be Compelling
Know what your customers or general readers care about. If you think that your content can catch people’s attention because YOU are really passionate about the subject, you’re falling into the trap of assuming visitors will care because you care. Most people won’t spend a second on topics they don’t care about.
(…now it certainly does help to have a strong attachment to your topic, but you need more than just that!)
And “compelling” means that your web content not only grabs attention, but has purpose. Typically this is a sales conversion, but More >
5 Tips to Attract New Readers to Your Articles
Jul 18th
Attracting a new set of readers to your articles or other web content isn’t always an easy task.
Of course, you’re always looking to grow the size of your audience, but it can be tricky hard to pinpoint exactly what makes one article more interesting/exciting/entertaining than the next one.
Increasing the reach of your article writing requires a balance of focus on not only the quality of your content, but also your ability to promote articles after publication. And every step in the process is important, but today’s focus is on the first basic requirement – writing good content. Here are five steps you can use to create a good article:
1. Tell a Story – Create a central theme or hook for each of your articles. Craft a story that your audience can relate or connect to versus just plainly stating facts with little narrative. How you choose to present information to your audience can make a big difference. A well-written story will attract and influence more readers.
2. Speak to One Person – Write your article as if you are communicating directly to a single reader. Try to use “you” instead of “they”, “he”, “she”, etc. This creates a perception with the reader More >
“Voting” For Good Content
Jul 4th
If a movie is no good, it bombs at the box office. If a sitcom just isn’t very funny or entertaining, it gets canceled.
And if your content online isn’t any good, you may not realize directly but visitors begin to “vote” by not staying long or coming back to your website.
This applies even more to articles that are “spun” (articles that have interchangeable words within them, but often end up quite grammatically incorrect) or are written by folks in other parts of the world (cheaply) where English is not their first or even second language.
So what questions should you ask to make sure you are creating good online content? The first critical point is that the article or post, etc. be free of grammatical errors, misuse of words and typos. There are many techniques to do this.
In general you also need to make sure your audience cannot get this same exact information from another source. In other words, you need to add a unique take to what you as a content writer are creating. And the material must go beyond the “general knowledge” to be expected of most Internet users, unless your topic happens to be remedial and for the More >

