Writing effective content that engages the reader is almost second nature for skilled copywriters; and, they are paid very well for their craft. These wordsmiths are passionate about using the written language to evoke thoughts, ideas, emotions, and action for the reader. To the talented writers of the world like these, writing effective content is a fine art; but for the vast majority of the rest of the human race, writing effective content is more like an abstract art.
There is good news and bad news when it comes to writing effective content. First the bad news. The bad news is that the highly paid copywriting positions where a single sales letter can yield as much as $50,000 for a gifted copywriter are few and far between, and reserved only for the best of the best in the copywriting industry. The GOOD news is that gaining the skill sets necessary in writing effective content is a lot easier than you might imagine.
For those who want to build this necessary skill set into their lives, if you are willing to do a little planning and utilize some easily learned writing techniques, writing effective content can become almost second nature for even a novice writer. Whether you are new to writing, working as a copywriter for others, or you are a seasoned writer of content for your own website, this short tutorial provides some important planning questions to ask before you begin to write. While each of the questions are a topic in and of themselves, if you will address these questions prior to beginning your writing, you will find them to be a great help for improving your writing skills.
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When it comes to online marketing and seeking to get high page rankings, the better written the article, the higher the page rankings with search engines. The higher the page rankings with search engines, the more traffic that you will get to the website that you are writing for. The more traffic that you get to our website, the greater the opportunity you have to connect with your visitors and build a long term relationship with them.
The following is an article planning check list for effective Web-based articles that will help get you noticed on the World Wide Web. Used in conjunction with easy to read and understand content, these writing techniques will help to catapult your article - and thus the Website - into top page rankings.
In order to better plan and write effective content, ask yourself these questions before you begin writing any content:
What is the audience that I want to write this article for?- Is this a subject that I thoroughly understand or will I need to compile research for the article before I will write it?
- If this is not a subject that I thoroughly understand, what sources will I use to compile the content of the article?
- What will be the main point that I will be conveying to my audience?
- What will be the emotional trigger or triggers that I will use to grab their attention?
- What will be the call to action trigger?
- Will the article be indexed by search engines, and if so, what will the keywords or key phrases be that I want to build my article around?
- Will the subject of the article be able to be broken up into multiple parts, allowing me to write this article as a series instead of a stand alone article?
- What will be the main points and supporting facts or insights that I will use to draw my conclusion and present my call to action?
- Who do I know that knows more than I do on this subject that would allow me to quote him or her in the article to add a third party expert opinion or insight to build the validity of my article’s thesis (central truth)?
- If I intent to use quotes or reprint portions of someone else’s article, how will obtain permission to use those excerpts and give credit to the writer if there is a need to?
- Will this article promote my personal and/or business brand and further my online marketing efforts to establish myself or my business in the industry or market that I am choosing to focus my attention on?
- Will my article bolster or dilute the ‘know, like and trust’ factor of my brand to those I am building rapport with?
- Will this content be generic enough to syndicate should I want to earn royalty income from my article in the future?
- Does your article/content meet the rules of optimization as required by the search engines that you wish to be ranked competitively with, i.e. Bing and Google.
As you can see, there is a little more that goes into the writing effective content than just words. If you will take the time to work through these questions as you work to learn how to plan and write effective content, you will find that your writing skills will improve quickly and that the website your content will be posted on will begin to get a substantial amount of traffic that you did not think possible.