Writing Rules that Help

Most writers have self-imposed writing rules. It could be anything – from writing one funny story every week to use of a quote in “inverted commas” on every page. What are the most successful self-imposed writing rules? Here are few that I read on different websites.

• 1.       Write fiction at least 10 minutes per day. If a day is missed, make it up the next day. Helpful in generating easy ideas.
• 2.       Deliver work 24 hours before a deadline.
• 3.       Aim to write at least 450-500 words a day. If there’s no assignment for you to work on, create it for yourself. Publish blogs because its good discipline to write every day.
• 4.       Keep spellings, syntaxes and grammar as accurate as possible.
• 5.       Spend 30 minutes a day in doing creative exercises.
• 6.       Make editor's life very easy. Revise at least 3 times.
• 7.       Submit enough articles to earn a minimum of INR 3000 every day. It will keep your mind focused on the business end of writing.
• 8.       Do not begin a new sentence with “but”.
• 9.       Make a writing schedule and stick to it.
• 10.   Keep the paragraphs short. They are easier to read.
• 11.   Respect your readers, and at the same time have a desire to entice them to read what you are putting out through thoughtful, measured prose. 
• 12.   Have a very engaging opening and quickly inform the reader what the piece is about. 

That’s my list. If you have anything to add to it, feel free to write to me at nitima@writingroutes.com

Top 10 Content Writing Mistakes that You can Avoid

Although content is considered king when it comes to attracting traffic on a website, most companies remain ignorant. They fail to estimate the power of good words, right punctuations and properly constructed sentences while posting their web content, Ezine article, blog post content or an Ehow guide. What to know what most miss while finalizing their content?

Spelling, grammar and punctuation: Basic but usually overlooked. When someone’s creating their web content, the easiest-to-avoid error can be their downfall.  Hard to believe but there are thousands of websites with the web content that has 30-40 run-on sentences.  You just don’t need to write the web content; you need to get it proofread as well to avoid this common content writing mistake.

Ever Changing voices: Some writers make such an amateur shift from first person to third that it becomes almost impossible to read the web content. “We” to “I”, “you” to “his” or “I” to “them” breaks the consistency of the web content leaving the readers to scratch their heads as to who you are referring to.

Excessive hype: Web content is written for a purpose, right?  Maybe you wish to promote your newest fashion line. If you could have it your way, you might probably want to write everything little detail about the product. Just how great it is going to be, how plus size women need not feel to be left out, the exclusivity of fabric and so on.  Caution: readers will at once shift from your web content if it is only promotional.  Give them something from what they scan.  There are millions of sales pitches lying out there and they don’t want to waste time reading one more.

Staying specific.  Your reader wants info. They land on your webcontent article because of the promise its title does to deliver. But if you start-off writing too broadly without any sense of direction, as a common error to do while compiling the web content, they’ll soon loose interest in reading and will shift to other resource.

Complicating the content: If you want to show your unusual talent of using ten different adjectives in one single sentence, write other things like novel, essays or case studies for that. Web content needs to be kept simple and straight.

Spelling conventions: Every website demands to be written in the local dialect. If you can’t distinguished between spellings such as ‘colour’ and “color”, “cheque” and “check” or “materialise” and “materialize”, then you ought to hire a professional web content writer.

Need of the content: Are your readers expected to take some action as soon as they hit on your page or your web content is just to give them weighty information? A news release is written differently than a promotional article which is unlike writing for kids. Unless you understand the precise requirement, you’ll not be able to write a good copy.

Weak headlines. Unique and creative headline have gathered more interest in past and they will continue doing so in future. Using a keyword in the headline ensures the web content gets picked up by search engines quickly.

Introductory paragraph. Make it dull and see your readers crossing your web content, or make it compelling enough to entice visitor go through your entire page – choice is yours. Ideally, the introductory lines should give a sneak peek of what’s in store for the reader in rest of the article. Making it witty, catchy or funny will get your content good response.

7 Ways to Enhance your Promo Writing

Chalking out your very own way to earn profit by writing killer promo campaigns is a gift only few people have. Moving readers at their own will, these veterans have finally let their secrets out.

1.       Write the way you love to read: Short sentences, clear words, simple meanings. The best promo writing is done in a conversational way, a warm tone – just like talking to a friend.

2.       Carefully chosen words: Every day words and phrases can give you much better results than carefully chosen dubious meaning words. Stilted style while writing a promo can create a distance between you and your readers and can even make them loose their interest in the writing.

3.       Personalizing the message: Although your message is meant for thousands of readers, each must feel that they are exclusively being spoken to, therefore, promo writing needs to be one-to-one and now as group advertisement.

4.       KISS: Like any other good writing document, promo writing also follows the rule of ‘Keep it Short and Simple.” You use more that necessary words and you lose the magic.

5.       Use persuasive words: There are some words that act the part of most persuasive words in promo writing. Some of these include

a.       suddenly

b.      now

c.       miracle

d.      magic

e.      offer

f.        announcing

g.       introducing

h.      improvement

i.         quick

j.        easy

k.       wanted

l.         amazing

m.    sensational

n.      challenge

6.       Call to action: Promo writing forces you to discover your own call-to-action techniques. Here are the top five ways to evoke a response:

a.       Talk to An Expert

b.      Start Your Trial

c.       Get a Free

d.      I Urge You To

e.      While Supplies Last – You hear this one on infomercials all the time. This moves people to act while what they want is still around.

7.       Break up the sentences: Long sentences in promo writing will only make your audience go haywire while interpreting the meanings behind those words. Consider this example:

"In brief, all we can say that the actual value of The Financial Marketplace to the end user is to be able to successfully find the complete manufacturer information which must be accurate, quick and efficient, which combines with other related information on manufacturing, suppliers and health issues, all together at once."

The revised version:

"We make it easy to find accurate manufacturer information. In addition, know the related facts on manufacturing, suppliers and health issues. All together at once. "

8.      Some examples of good promo writing

“Timely service without efforts”

"You're in the best of hands with your own personal CONSULTANT. We have earned ourselves a reputation as the industry's leading CONSULTANT. The one social journal discriminating analysts have time to read when they can't read them all. And because your success is our goal too, we invest in surveys and studies regularly, to give you the best possible service month after month. Time and time again . . . .”

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About the Author: Nitima is a seasoned content and promo writer. She has worked on projects related content writing, blog, brochure writing and creating marketing collateral. She also has hand on experience in technical and business writing. You can find more about her work from her website WRITING ROUTES Nitima also maintains a blog - Offbeat Spirituality which gets around 2500 hits every day.

7 Tips on Successful Blending of Web Content Writing with SEO

Writing web content that gives you not only satisfies your customers but gives you good ranking on search engines. There were days when only few sites were on the internet and people didn’t expect much from them but as the time is progressing, readers have become smarter and are immediately put off by bad content writing.

Blending SEO with web content writing is an art that only few excel in. Writing SEO enriched web page content is entirely different from article, blog, and other forms of writing. Your web page content is the mirror of your company and highly valuable for your website to be ranked high. Write it in a way that online users can interact with it and are left spellbound. Here are some tips on successful blending of web content writing with seo that can help -

1.       Write good content – Without it, you will be wiped out within days. The point to remember is that no matter what your subject matter is, your web content will reach a large audience and help your website beyond the SEO benefits only when its written well.

2.       Intellectual writing – Without it, you’ll look dumb. There are plenty of SEO Article Writers that know how to use crisp language and if you are one of those – well, congratulations!

3.       Credibility – Without it, your queries wouldn’t get converted into useful business. Credibility is the demand of all the companies looking out SEO writers. So, if you are a content writer, make sure that you track your work and create a list of link where all your articles are posted. This will help you to use them as samples should a prospective client asks for it.

4.       Get a professional editor – Without it, you’ll never get to know the quality of your content. Professional editors charge INR 60-70 per page and can correct your content with as little as one day.

5.       Look at the competitors’ websites – Without it, you wouldn’t know what’s latest in the industry. Yours visitors will not take interest in browsing your website if your competitor has shared information that is more relevant. Every reader will like to know what new you are offering and if it is the same, why would people like to stick to your website?

6.        Know your keywords – Without it, search engines will ignore you. Inducing keywords in your content is simple. However, avoid the temptation of stuffing them in a way that web content becomes totally useless.

7.       Recheck and change– Without it, you wouldn’t know what you’ve been missing.

Remember - Content development plays important role in SEO. So if you want to write for your own site, consider these points and you’ll do well.

_______________________________________________________ Author: Nitima, web content writer You can click here for her portfolio or Contact her at sood.nitima@gmail.com