Conveying your ideas better through story-telling

Jan 30, 2010 Comments

Does your content or copy tell a story? Story-telling engages your readers. When you’re reading a story, there is something in it that grips you, that exhorts you to read further. You want to know what’s going to happen next. Whether you can relate to the narrative or not (mostly you can) reading a story is always more than reading uninspiring, drab text

Smashing Magazine has an interesting post on creating a better use experience with story-telling.

A good story is like a journey, and when you start reading it, you join that journey. There is a beginning, there are various ups and downs, joys and conflicts, and finally there is an end that changes something inside you. The beauty of every story is that it brings about a change: significant or infinitesimal.

Although the post mentioned above mostly talks about design, you can apply the art of story telling better on content writing. I’ll soon write about this to further elucidate my point.

Overcoming the “So What?” problem while writing content

Jan 29, 2010 Comments

Don’t know what’s “So what?” problem? It’s when you write something seemingly great and your reader thinks, “So what, big deal!” Alright, there are some readers who have an insatiable penchant for being critical and they will criticize you no matter what, but you can drastically decrease the number of such reactions by devoting enough thought to what you are writing/publishing.

Why do readers reject outright what you have written?

• The information you have provided is of no real use
• The same information is available on hundreds of other websites and blogs
• People have been sharing the same “secret” since 1998, or may be since 1500 BC
• You are drawing wrong visitors to your website or blog (you are not creating optimized, seo-focused content)

What sort of content creates the “now this is something really great” effect?

• Your content reaches the target audience (or vice versa)
• You pack lots of information that can be used in the real world
• You are providing valuable information that is not easily available
• You are offering easily available information with an interesting twist

Is it always about informing and educating your readers?

Not always, but most of the times. You have to make sure your content solves your readers’ problem, that it provides a solution, that it delivers what your readers want. So what about content writing for businesses and corporate websites?

The same thing applies. If you are providing online copywriting services then you must (ideally) be attracting visitors that are looking for (or may need in the future) a competent copywriter. So if you say you’re a great online copywriter it’s not going to make much of an impact because there are thousands of “great” online copywriters on the Internet; in fact these days anybody who can type starts calling himself or herself a content writer or an online copywriter. Rather, you should immediately address your visitor’s problem (that’s why it’s advised you should have targeted pages) and offer the most apt solution.

Here’s a good blog post by Chris I cam across that talks about solving the “so what?” problem while publishing your content.

Keep your SEO goals in mind while creating your content writing strategy

Jan 28, 2010 Comments

It doesn’t help if you already have lots of content and then you realize that you are not targeting the right keywords. Although no situation is hopeless you can save yourself lots of time, and money, if you define your SEO goals properly. Make a list of keywords and keyword phrases you’d like to incorporate and then start generating your content around them.

There is also a business benefit of clearly defining your SEO goals — it keeps you focused. You know what sort of content you require for your website and blog and what you should avoid; yes, misplaced content is bad for SEO.

How do you keep your content SEO-focused?

• Create titles with your keywords. Your page titles are very important. They appear in the search engine result pages as hyperlinks when people search for the relevant terms. People click more on the links that carry the search terms they’ve just used. Even when people promote your content on social networking websites or link your your pages and blog posts they normally copy/paste your title — this associates these keywords with your brand.
• Use your keywords and key phrases when communicating your ideas. This tells the search engines that you have lots of content associated with the search term being currently used. If you provide content writing services then you should be talking about this subject a lot on your blog or website. But do it naturally; there is no need to use your relevant keywords excessively — this gets you penalized by almost all search engines.
• Link to your other pages not just the home page. Your different pages contain different bits of information and whenever you feel a particular phrase can be linked to a page giving more information about that phrase, create a link. It makes it easier for the search engine crawlers to reach other pages and it also creases the relevancy of your less prominent pages.

The basic idea of creating SEO-focused content strategy is keeping you focused and help you focus on the right search terms.

The benefits of updating your existing content

Jan 23, 2010 Comments

We are perpetually talking about adding new content to your website or blog but there is another way of having fresh content, as explained in this blog post titled 6 ways to give your old content new life. Personally for me it’s quite difficult to sift through my old posts and articles and update them. Although this does not increase the quantity of content, when you update your existing content, you keep it relevant, and you give the search engines a reason to re-crawl and re-index your older blog posts and articles.

This way you don’t have to create new content each time you want to drive traffic from social networking websites. Simply update your existing content and repost the links.

It also helps you refine your content. Frankly, we’re are constantly learning and evolving. I’m pretty sure I write better than what I used to write a year ago (although I feel my fiction writing has deteriorated considerably) and if you feel you could have done a better job with that post you wrote on providing better content writing and blogging services, you can try again and sound more convincing.

How I have been adopting minimalism and eliminating distractions while doing my content writing work

Jan 21, 2010 Comments

It started with using Q10 (a full-screen text editor). When you use this text editor there is nothing else on the screen: just the text you’re typing, according to your preferred column width and background and foreground. Prior to this I was already using EditPad for my writing needs. I don’t even remember when I used MS Word last. I kept using it for saving files though because clients prefer doc files.

There were three activities I was using bloated software for: MS Word for writing, Photoshop for random graphic work and Dreamweaver for PHP coding (all pre-installed by my Laptop vendor). I remember spending hours getting the right font shape or shade. Although I used Dreamweaver just for coding, it was so resource hungry that I couldn’t run another application while working on it. Frankly, I had no problem with MS Word, it’s just that I wanted to use a text-editor rather than a word processor.

About 4 months ago I switched to Ubuntu (a Linux version) completely and automatically stopped using all Windows software. For sending DOC files to my clients I switched to the OpenOffice writer. For doing PHP coding I started using Komodo Edit, which is lighter, and quite better than DW (although it has some problem with handling larger files). Since there is no better alternative to Photoshop (GIMP doesn’t even come near) I haven’t done a single graphic work for the past 4 months. In fact I redesigned this entire website to make the layout graphic-free. All the “cool utilities” I’d been using for years, I stopped using. I deleted 40 GB of software that I’d been downloading and backing up for years. I also deleted files and folders I haven’t used for the past 4 years.

Primarily, I need my laptop for

• Content writing
• PHP coding
• Communication
• Managing tasks

As you notice, I haven’t included graphics work because I was doing that simply for designing my own websites, and only I know how much time I’ve spent designing and redesigning my websites (and I regularly use just a couple of them).

Since I couldn’t find an alternative of Q10 in Ubuntu, I had to make do with OpenOffice writer for a while. I also used the gEdit text editor that comes with Ubuntu, but it had some line break issues when I transferred the text to the word processor (for final formatting).

For the past 3 years I’ve been using Google apps to manage my email. This means I can use the Gmail interface with my business email ID. I never configured its POP3 features and have been managing my email online from the beginning. It not only lets me manage different conversation threads, it also lets me find old emails fast. Of course I never have had to take email backups.

My writers keep sending me attachments when I outsource my work to them. A couple of months ago I started opening the files in Googledocs instead of downloading the attachments. Whatever editing and proofreading needed to be done, I did in Googledocs, and then sent the files to my clients straightaway as doc attachments. I created folders for different writers and started sharing with them so that they could directly save the files in those folders. Eventually I started using Googledocs for working on my own documents too, and now, no documents are saved on my local drive. I don’t need many word processing features and I rarely use spell checks and thesaurus etc., or use online references.

The only files I have to save locally are my media files and PHP files. Once I figure out how to edit PHP files online I’ll stop using Komodo Edit too. For managing my tasks I regularly use Tadalist and occasionally, Remember My Milk. To generate my invoices this month I started using Zoho. For instant messaging and voice chat I use Empathy and Skype. Since I’m not a power user when it comes to Twitter and FaceBook, using Tweetdeck was an overkill and hence I switched to Brizzly.

So basically I’m saving no information locally and I have minimum software installed. How does it let me get less distracted?

You get distracted when one, you can easily do the things that distract you, and two, when you spend more time trying to be productive, rather than actually being productive. Ubuntu versions of various software tools are not easily available and even if they are, it’s often tedious to make them work the way you like them to work. This encouraged me to install less and less software, and totally chuck away tools I use once in may be 3 months.

Now each morning all I have to do is, fire up my browser and start working. Even when I’m typing this, nothing else is visible on my laptop screen. In Googledocs you can remove the upper portion by pressing CRTL SHIFT F and in FireFox you can press F11 to get full screen view. So it’s just you and your text.

Putting everything online (in the Cloud) saves me the trouble of constant backups and a desire to do everything on my own. It also enables me to work from any machine…it means my work doesn’t depend on a single machine. It helps me focus on just the necessary.

And what if I need some graphic work? I’ll outsource. Ever since I started outsourcing my writing projects I’ve become more eager to pay for services rather than spending my own time. It’s not that bad to pay people for services that help you save time…you can put that time to some better use.

Result: my earnings from content writing this month so far have been the highest ever.

Doing better networking using social media

Jan 19, 2010 Comments

Networking is an exercise you have to conduct almost everyday if you’re in a business of selling — whether you work for an organization or for yourself (as a freelancer). Networking as a concept has existed since time immemorial but it has been taken to an entirely new level by social networking websites like Twitter and FaceBook.

Networking doesn’t just mean hanging around with people, although it also doesn’t mean befriending others just for commercial gains. It basically means knowing the right people (people who have use of your products and services or who can recommend your products and services to others) and establishing a communication channel so that you can reach each other when needed. It may involve:

• Attending the right gatherings
• Keeping in touch and communicating on a regular basis
• Letting people know how you can serve them

This Mashable blog posts highlights 7 things you can do for better networking. Basically, networking takes time and effort and some people do it as a full-time job, although this is not called for if you have to run a business. For instance, being a content writer, if I post messages and updates on FaceBook and Twitter all the time and keep interacting people will soon think, “Heck, when does this guy do his work?” And this is true indeed. If you don’t strike a balance you’ll end up neglecting your core business.

For most, keeping in touch is enough. Keep in touch, and help people if you can. Sometimes go out of your way, but you don’t have to be unreasonable. Give people an incentive/reason to remember you in good stead, and convey to them that you are available if they require a particular service, content writing and copywriting in my case, for instance.

Self learning as a content writer

Jan 14, 2010 Comments

Learning, or rather self learning, is a constant process. Once you start believing that you have learned enough, your growth stops. A content writer is always learning, not because he or she needs to be a genius, but because there are so many wonderful ways of expressing your thoughts. As a professional you deal with myriad clients on a daily basis (if you get regular queries) and you need to write on varied subjects; in fact not just write, but write like an expert; so unless you completely assimilate the knowledge required to do justice with the topic neither you (if you take pride in your work) nor your clients will be satisfied.

A blog posts at PickTheBrain has listed 6 steps to effective self learning and I believe you can apply this concept to anything in your life. Here I mostly deal with content writing and online copywriting I see it in this perspective.

One of the greatest advantages of the Internet is that you can learn as much as you want, without having to travel to different places or purchase expensive books. Provided you know how to sift through the junk, you can get a lot to learn.

But no matter how much knowledge you have access to, unless you are eager to learn, it’s of no use. We have a saying that you can take a horse to the water but you cannot force it to drink.

Focused content writing actually means SEO

Jan 13, 2010 Comments

What exactly does SEO (search engine optimization) mean? It means generating and organizing your online content in such a manner that search engines can appropriately rank it for the related keywords and key phrases. If you are writing a page on providing content writing services or blog writing services then the search engines should be able to rank that page higher on the SERPs (search engine result pages).

Of course your source code must be free of unnecessary clutter and you must have the right information in your meta tags, but the real SEO juice comes from your content — what you are writing to describe your message. It’s important to know what keywords and expressions must be used and avoided; you don’t want to rank higher for all the wrong keywords (there is no harm in it but that traffic gives you a false sense satisfaction and that might be bad for your marketing efforts).

So decide on the topic, make a list of the words you must use to describe that topic and then start writing. Talk about the subject and try to focus on it — the search engines prefer focused, targeted content. Just be careful not to overdo it. There is a very thin line between keyword stuffing and optimized content.

Does your content writing solve your reader’s problem?

Jan 12, 2010 Comments

What makes your content writing effective? When it addresses exactly the issue faced by your reader. Whether you are writing a product description, a corporate profile, a blog entry, a tourist destination description, your whole agenda should be solving a problem, because once you solve a problem, you have delivered a solution, and everybody is looking for a solution.

But how does your content solve a problem if all you’re concerned about is help yourself or your client sell more? When you’re writing content for a website that needs to sell a product or a service, you need to take into consideration the following facts:

1. Does your reader really need that product or service and is simply exploring various options by visiting multiple websites?
2. Is your reader looking for a solution that can be provided by your product or service? (better anti-virus protection, or better search engine ranking)
3. Is your reader there just to read some interesting trivia and has no intention of ever buying your product or service?
4. Does your reader has no clue why or she is here and plans to go somewhere else within half a second?
5. What sort of readers do you actually want to attract, and if possible, convert?

The first thing to do is, forget about trying to provide a solution to all the categories…it’s simply not possible through a single page and on the very first visit. Your most important readers is of the second category, and then the first category? Why second category?

Primarily we’re solution-oriented people. Even if we’re buying something just for a fad, we need to believe that that product or service actually achieves that. The reader of the second category has a problem. He or she may not be bothered about what product or service he or she is going to buy, provided his or her problem is solved. So you have a good chance of selling to that reader.

Take for instance your reader’s need to rank higher on various search engines on a long-term basis without having to spend lots of money. An SEO company can improve his or her search engine rankings, but so can a trained content writer. So how can you sell your solution (higher search engine rankings) by offering your content writing services? Explain to your reader as clearly as possible how good content helps improve search engine rankings. You can use client testimonials, you can refer to other authoritative articles, and you can use your own skill as a communicator: the basic idea is providing a solution to your reader, a solution he or she can afford, and believe in convincingly.

That is why you’re repeatedly told that don’t highlight features, highlight benefits. Of course some people do find features appealing (explaining the features of a RAID drive to a nerd) but basically we want to know eventually what a particular product or service is going to achieve for us.

Here’s another post on empowering your visitors by publishing solution-oriented content.

How to get new blogging ideas regularly

Jan 07, 2010 Comments

Publishing a regular blog is a great way of attracting new visitors to your website, from search engines, other blogs, online forums and social networking websites. But it’s not easy to get new blogging ideas on an ongoing basis. I’ve personally observed that when I ask my clients to send me blog post titles they run out of them after 20-25 blog posts. On the other hand if I find the topics the projects sustain for long durations. For instance there are around 3 blogs that allow me to send my own blog topics (plus content) and I’ve been supplying blogs to them for more than 2 years now.

Considering the overwhelming benefits of publishing a blog, how do you make sure that you always have something to post. Here’s a blog post that discusses 13 ideas to inspire your blog content. Briefly, they are:

• Using Google alerts
• Going through blog directories for ideas
• Subscribing (email updates and RSS feeds) to blogs of your interest
• Linking to blog posts from other blogs (like this one)
• Conduct polls (relevant to your blog topic) and discuss the results
• Write about interesting things in your own life (don’t over-do this, of course)
• Find interesting topics/debates and share them with your readers
• Create blog posts out of the sub-topics of other blog posts
• Ask your community for fresh ideas using your comment section and Twitter and FaceBook accounts
• Invite other bloggers to write guest blog posts for your blog
• Scan for ideas in newspapers, magazines, online forums and other websites
• Write lists…this is a fad on the Internet, like, top 10 free content management systems, for instance
• Get ideas from the classical literature.

You can read about these topics in detail on the link mentioned above.

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Recent Posts

• 5 Things to Know About Writing For SEO
• How to make your content more informative
• So what exactly is content strategy?
• Conveying your ideas better through story-telling
• Overcoming the "So What?" problem while writing content
• Keep your SEO goals in mind while creating your content writing strategy
• The benefits of updating your existing content
• How I have been adopting minimalism and eliminating distractions while doing my content writing work
• Doing better networking using social media
• Self learning as a content writer
• Focused content writing actually means SEO
• Does your content writing solve your reader's problem?
• How to get new blogging ideas regularly
• Why my content writing services are different?
• Is the Internet changing the way we write?