Business Writing & Copywriting Blog

Focusing on your readers when writing

Dec 15, 2008 No Comments »

There is an avalanche of articles and blog posts teaching you how to write well. Even “reputed” and “revered” bloggers and content publishers cannot resist publishing these clichéd blog posts and articles that are perpetually regurgitating the stuff that has already been told to you at least 133 million times. They almost, always begin with: put the reader first. What exactly does that mean? Does it mean always trying to please your readers and write about things that only cater to their whims and fancies or does it mean actually writing something that benefits them? Most writers who teach you how to write seem to be focusing on the former. It should be the latter.

Whenever you are starting to write a new blog post, an article, or even a business webpage for one of your clients or for yourself think about why the reader should read what you are writing. Are you merely trying to please your visitors so that they visit your blog or website again and again or do you really intend to communicate your actual feelings?

To be honest I too have tried my hand at a couple of blog posts that were merely written to generate traffic because I felt people wanted to read such blog posts. But this is a myth promoted by web writers and bloggers who don’t want you to try something new and want to keep the territory safe for them. Don’t write for your readers to please them, write for them to really share something genuine with them otherwise it begins to sound stale and inconsequential eventually. Have you noticed the deluge of how-to lists and resource lists that tell you 50 ways of doing this and 100 ways of doing that? Do you ever follow those 50 or 100 methods? I am sure you save them (as I often do) thinking that someday you will definitely use them. These people publish these lists simply because they know that such lists draw lots of traffic and encourage people to bookmark them. They rarely go beyond that. So how can you really benefit your readers?

Share with them instead of presenting to them chunks of information and lists of methods and tips. Be one of them. For example have a look at Steve Pavlina’s blog; I think life improvement blogs will come, make a mark, create some ripples and instant celebrities, and go, but Steve’s blog is going to sustain. This is because he doesn’t present lists of things that can help you become a super achiever. He simply shares with you his experiences. He doesn’t sound like an expert or an authority figure. He automatically becomes an authority by sharing whatever he experiences and learns.

This is how you focus on your readers when you write; you become one of them. Don’t preach them, don’t tell them to do this and that in order to attain Nirvana. Simply, share your growth with them, share your experiences, and encourage them to share theirs.

Doing what you love and making money off it?

Oct 17, 2008 2 Comments »

Can you actually love your work and earn money doing it? This is a question Seth Godin ponders upon on his blog. Loving your work does not mean loving to earn money because if that is your passion than of course you can earn money while loving to do it. He talks about creative things like painting, poetry, creative writing, music etc. People love these arts, they love to consume them and be entertained by them but can you actually make money without compromising on your values vis-a-vis your artistic sense?

I think to an extent you can. This may sound clichéd but I love writing. A few years ago I wrapped up my web designing and web hosting business and started writing to make a living. It was a shaky decision but I knew that there was a great demand for writing services and for people who could provide quality content. Blogging was just beginning, and the search engines had just started ranking websites according to the quality of their content. Sure, the sort of writing I do, you cannot call it literary, but I definitely have to use my creativity. I am not ecstatic – I will be ecstatic if I start writing novels and can support my family through them – but I am not frustrated too. I am always dabbling with words; they are my tools. It is a lot better than creating websites and writing code as far as my passion goes. My current profession allows me to perpetually remain in the company of words and this doesn’t let my writing muscles rust. I would have totally lost the touch had I been doing something else and not writing.

You can surely do something that you love and also make money while doing it if you are ready to make some adjustments. Take for instance painting. There is lots of scope for creative arts and you don’t even have to create professional art all the time. Do commercial painting during the normal working hours and then afterwards you can do the sort of painting you love just for the sake of passion and love. The same you can do with other creative arts such as photography, creative writing, poetry, even pottery.

The whole point is trying to remain in the company of your art no matter what happens. Although some compare it to something like prostituting the most important part of your life but it doesn’t have to be like that. The problem arises when people get trapped in solely earning money.

Improving you writing skills

Oct 01, 2008 1 Comment »

If you make a living writing then it goes without saying that your writing skill needs to be as impeccable as possible.  Not everybody is perfect and there is no harm in being a bit less than perfect but as a writer you should always work towards improving you writing skill no matter what language you use to render the service.  I use English and therefore I found this article on improving you writing at Techrepublic quite engaging.  Although I didn’t learn something new it was a refreshing experience because I see such errors cropping up on various blogs almost on a daily basis. I wish the article had explained a few more things for those who really need some guidance.  For instance the writer says that all the items in a list should be parallel. A bad example of a list would be (taken from the article):

• Backing up the registry
• The Registry Editor is your friend
• Using REG files
• Use a GUI tool
• Searching the registry
• Take advantage of Favorites
• Clean the registry

This should be rightly written as (you may not agree but this is just my take on it):

• Backing up the registry
• Making the registry editor your friend
• Using REG files
• Using a GUI tool
• Searching the registry
• Taking advantage of Favorites
• Cleaning the registry

I don’t know the technical explanation but you can notice that every item begins with an “ing” word.  Another example would be (without the “ing” word):

• Backup the registry
• Make the registry editor your friend
• Use REG files
• Use a GUI tool
• Search the registry
• Take advantage of Favorites
• Clean the registry

Another good explanation in the article is the agreement of verbs. The wrong usage is

• Neither of the doctors are very smart
• The dog, as well as the goat and chicken, are easy to parallel park
• One-third of the company are color blind

I would rewrite the sentences as (somehow I’m not sure of the second sentence, please advise in the comment section)

• Neither of the doctors is very smart
• The dog, as well as the board and the chicken, is easy to parallel park
• One-third of the company is color blind

How do you make sense of the verbs here? I use my commonsense and since I never learned the language  formerly I cannot explain it.  Please do so in the comment section.

When I get stuck while writing

Sep 23, 2008 No Comments »

Writing is not a faucet from where words start pouring out the moment you turn the contrivance on. It’s like a feral mountain stream, with its own bent of mind. It twists and twirls, it flows with great gushes, and sometimes, sadly, it vanishes. As a professional writer I simply cannot afford to let this stream vanish. No matter what it has to flow.  I cannot depend on the streaks of creativity when the client has paid an advance and is waiting for his or her document.

Jonathan at Copyblogger metaphorically asks, are you a spineless blogger? Quite an interesting thought and I would like to implement this metaphor to regular professional copywriting too. He says in order to write prolifically you need to have a creative spine, for, spine is the most important part of our body — it practically supports our body and without a spine there is nothing much we can do.  The same applies to writing too; without "spine"  writing is not possible especially when you’re feeling "the block". Developing a spine is not as hard as it may seem if you look at it casually.  It is about organizing your thoughts in a logical manner and then expressing them.

But what if you have lots of things to say but there are no words coming forward?  A good trick that I follow is randomly start writing words. It doesn’t have to make any sense. Just write with great speed whatever comes to your mind.  You don’t even have to complete your sentences. Eventually you see a pattern emerging.  Sometimes you just have to add a few words here and a few words there and you are done.  You may say, well easier said than done, and I totally agree.

Jonathan talks about writing in the list format — you simply start creating a bulleted list of your thoughts.  If you’re creating a copy for a corporate website this would involve creating a list of benefits offered by the product or the service being promoted by the company. You may also create a list of steps to be taken in order to acquire the product or subscribe to the service.

What if you had to explain, compellingly, the features of product you are not much aware of?  Ask questions to the client because he or she is the best person to give you the needed feedback.  You can create a list of questions and ask the client to provide the answers.  Then simply rewrite the answers in your own copywriter sort of way.  And what if the client doesn’t give you any information?  Then plagiarize from other websites. No, not in the criminal manner; just do some research and see what you can find and then present a rehashed version to the client.  This time the client responds with what all he or she does not want. Surely, this requires more work. let your client no about the extra effort you had to put in and then charge accordingly.

Getting stuck while writing I think is just a state of mind.  When you know that you have to write then you write. It is a matter of life and death to be frank.  If you don’t write you don’t earn money and if you don’t earn money you cannot pay the bills and if it cannot pay the bills… well, you get my point.