Great content is very important, and you know it very well. I don’t have to stress this point any further. But most of the blogs, articles, or any other content many people write just suffers failure. You are not putting in your effort in writing the best you can come up with. There can be many reasons for this, but your hard work can well help you come up with great content. Here are some tips, mainly tailored toward writing online (in blogs and social media).
1. Arrest your readers with title: The importance of title is never to be underestimated. The title is what makes your readers come and read your content. Writing big titles like “How to seal a link exchange deal?” “How to make money indefinitely from home?” will rivet the attention of all readers. I had stressed its importance in a former post here.
2. Giving justice to the title: The title says something and your article says something entirely different? You are more likely to find this problem with amateur writers. You may come across advertisements in social networking sites from amateurs. I do. All these ads carry great titles, but we get pissed off soon at the fact that they do not carry any justification to their titles. They do not carry content!
3. Tell them: Importance of speaking to your readers cannot be stressed more. You are there due to your readers. So, speak to them, and tell them what you want to tell. This is extremely important. You are getting read by a very vast, diverse community. So, having a general idea of the age group, knowledge level, etc., of your readers can do wonders.
4. Your readers are not dumb: None of your readers is dumb. They can well estimate the value of something you are telling them. So, unless you do research enough and give them valuable suggestions, you WILL NOT be read.
5. Honesty is the best policy: Don’t sound honest, be honest in your opinions. Tell them what you know yourself, see the bottom tip about ‘assume.’
6. Importance of Resources: Anything you used for your research? Mention them in the article. All research information is important and gives credibility to the article you are writing. However, this is important for blogs. Certain online article marketing sites like Constant-Content may not allow links.
7. Importance of being concise: If you write some valuable content in paragraphs, each of which spanning two pages, in very small letters, then your reader can get to bed faster than you can imagine. So, have streamlined navigation like bulleted lists, numbered lists as you read now, or subheadings. Paragraphs in online writing must be small with two or three sentences only.
8. Diversions???: Topic diversion is not expected. When you deal with a topic, you deal with only that topic. You should not go out of it; that will get your reader bored easily. Stick to the topic.
9. Being unique in voice: Do not sound like others. You have a unique voice in yourself that resounds your personality and creative prowess. Use it to its maximum.
10. Assuming: Somebody said, “Assuming is making an ass out of u and me.” I don’t remember who, but I respect whoever he is.
Also, it is very important to keep doing it. Keep writing, and you will develop a unique voice from within you. Reading great authors is really important since it gives you inspiration, which eventually will guide you to the best writing you can do.
Copyright © Lenin Nair 2008
Thank you for sharing this solid primer on writing.
ReplyDeleteWhile following those tips may not "create great content", it does provide a reasonable assurance of quality writing.
Good job!
Of course, reading excellent material also helps develop a finer taste for writing too!
I have one more tips to add-
ReplyDeleteResearch your keywords and use it through out the content.Keywords help your content by making it more findable in search engines.
There is no meaning of a great content when nobody is able to find it.
Dr. Sandy, thanks for your comment, and the good suggestion. Good to see you enjoyed the post.
ReplyDeleteLenin
Great tips on blogging. I am still an amateur. But your advice is very useful. Thanks
ReplyDelete