Now’s the fun part. Since you’ve already slogged through the process of researching your niche and outlining your content, you’re finally ready to let loose on your keyboard and write some valuable content.
But to make sure your writing actually gets read, you’ll want to follow these steps as you hammer out your thoughts.
Get inside your reader’s head
You’ve carefully researched your target market, right? Well, now you can now use that knowledge to figure out exactly who you’re speaking to. Ask some questions to get to know them:
- What are their fears, frustrations and desires?
- What objections and doubts will they have?
- What problems do they want you to solve for them?
Figure out who they are and what they do—you should even give them a name. And remember, by writing to just one specific person, you’ll speak to the masses far more effectively.
Write precise points or dump your thoughts
How you flesh out your outline, is up to you, but you should choose between two basic methods:
- Use bullet-point notes to express your ideas and bring them to life later.
- Spit your random thoughts onto a blank page and then wedge them into your outline.
One’s methodical. The other’s more chaotic and creative. And the one that works best will depend on how easily your words flow.
If you’re used to writing regularly and meeting deadlines, you should have no trouble unloading your ideas in a logical order. But if you’re a little less seasoned, coughing up even random ideas can be intimidating. So in case you freeze up, try one of these tricks:
- Write briefly about an unrelated topic—make it something you’re personally interested in.
- Copy the words of a favorite writer. The memory of why you started writing—as well as the mechanical action of typing—can be inspiring.
- Take a walk. Get your blood flowing, and your words will follow suit. You’d be surprised by how mentally stimulating a bit of physical activity can be.
Write your first draft
As you start writing, never forget that your content will be published online. So, to hold your readers’ attention and make the most of this fickle medium, you need to apply the eight elements of effective web writing.
To resonate with your readers, your content needs to be:
- Concise: No one wants to read a novel when they click on your page. And million-dollar words and long-winded sentences are just as bad. Cater to how people read the web by keeping it brief and simple.
- Scannable: Reading online isn’t like reading a book. Web readers don’t trace the page from left to right—they scan for whatever holds their attention. And by bolding key phrases and tactfully using bullet lists, you’ll make sure your content catches their eye.
- Objective: The web is full of spam, scams and outrageous claims, which means web readers have become suspicious. Steer clear hyperbole and superlatives and earn trust with honest, balanced language.
- Personable: People spend most of their time online chatting with friends and family. So don’t expect to make a connection with cold, corporate language. And always make it a one-on-one conversation.
- Searchable: Great content means squat if no one can find it. So carefully select your keywords and include them in your headings, links and body text. And don’t forget to link to your page whenever possible.
- Updated: Currency is everything on the web, where flighty readers can click away before you can say “2007.” So once you’ve written your content, be sure to regularly update it and weed out anything that becomes irrelevant.
- Organized: In case you skipped your outline, put the stream of consciousness on hold. Web readers demand short chunks of immediately recognizable, immanently useful information. So make them happy with literal headings and plenty of paragraph breaks, and stick to one idea at a time.
- Hyperlinked: How you use links says a lot about your savviness. Leave obvious, self-referential links like “Click here” to the amateurs. Instead, insert organic links into your sentences—and make sure they’re loaded with keywords.
Review and rewrite your draft
Don’t expect your early attempts to be perfect—no one’s first draft ever is. In fact, all professional writers constantly rewrite their work at least once or twice before publishing it. So why should your content be any different?
As you review, ask some critical questions:
- Do the sections and ideas flow logically from one to the next?
- Will readers have an immediate sense of your subject?
- Can readers quickly scan your content and still get the gist?
- Are there any sections that don’t contribute to the whole—passages where you’re showing off your knowledge instead of supporting your main theme?
- Have you tried to hold your readers’ interest by mixing up sentence and paragraph lengths and including questions they may have?
- Does your content speak in a consistent voice?
You should also expect a decent chunk of your first draft to end up in the trash. Focus on tightness and concision—you never want your second draft to be longer than your first.
And if you’re not working with a professional copy editor, you’ll want to be extra obsessive about eliminating errors and sticking to your established style.
Polish your content
Once you’ve rewritten and revised your initial drafts, set your work aside for at least a day. After letting it settle, you’ll be ready to professionally polish it with a fresh pair of eyes.
For content that’s absolutely friction free, put these polishing techniques to use:
- Read it out loud. Your copy should be a conversation, right? So give it a voice—literally—and see which awkward phrases trip you up.
- Send it to a friend. Sure, you know what those technical terms mean—and where the emphasis in that winding sentence should fall. But it’s a common error to assume thateveryone else knows too. Get a second opinion, and you’ll know which phrases you should simplify and what terms you need to unpack.
- Print it. Reading on paper is a whole different ballgame. You’ll always catch errors that went unnoticed onscreen.
Once you’ve written, rewritten and polished the heck out of your content, you’re finally ready to publish. And if you’ve taken your time and followed the above advice, you can rest assured that whatever you publish will stand well above the glut of poorly written content on the web.
But how do you know for sure? Well, you must measure your content—and continuously optimize based on what you find.