Explosive Tips For Great Web Content Writing

Writing on the web requires a different "language" than say writing for a magazine or newspaper. Great web content doesn’t just appear from nowhere. It is often the result of intricate studies of reader behavior, long hours slaved over writing the right copy and a thought process that follows the need of the reader.

It all starts with the title.

If the title isn’t attractive enough, nobody will likely take the time and read what we have got to say. A title has to tempt us with a short and sweet overview of what’s to come. People who know this exceptionally well are copywriters. See below for more info on copywriting.

In blog posts this tactic is often referred to as link bait. Link baiting is the art of writing attention and traffic sucking titles and articles/posts. While this is a great method to fall back onto every now and then, you shouldn’t overdo it.

Here are some ideas for link bait:

• Be controversial about a hot topic
• Disagree with a well known authority in your industry
• Offer a valuable tool/information for free
• Interview celebrities and blog about it
• Write a tutorial that spans over several posts
• Write a series
• Call out a scammer
• Crack a joke on a celebrity in your niche
• Be the first to crack a news event
• Write funny

You have permission to tease, amuse, shock, delight, inform, sizzle

Writing copy that sells is a gift that pays rather well and so it should. After all, top Internet marketers are often successful because of the copywriter who wrote their sales page. You can also use copywriting practices in your posts. By mixing them carefully with your own seasoning (character) you will find that it attracts readers to you.

There is nothing worse than a blog who bores us to death. As bloggers we should be entertaining, amusing and shocking at the same time. Dare to be different than the millions of others out there and you will soon find a loyal following.

Your voice is another important factor when you write on the web. It’s time to get personal. When you tell a story you can do so by talking to your audience as if they were your friends. Since our readers can’t see us when they read our content, they will have to find other means to identify with us. I really like this, since it allows me to inject my personality into my writing.

When readers feel like they are right next to us in the same room, we have truly mastered the concept of great content writing.

Emotions play a huge role when we write. As a writer my intention is to reach out to you by evoking your emotions. I will do my best to tease, play, provoke, or even annoy my readers depending on the subject. As long as I can get a reaction from you I have done my job well.

Don’t forget technicalities

Unfortunately this is something that often gets overlooked. When you write for web content you will need to consider the technical aspects of the platform you write for. For most of us this means blogs.

Blogs aren’t just blogs by slapping a post on it and then forget about it. Oh no, there is more. I always try to inject some structure into my posts. With the help of:

• bullets
• numbers
• images
• sub titles with h3/h2 title tags
• and paragraphs…

… I can keep the post free of navigational issues for my readers. Plus since most of us are skimming posts due to lack of time we have to make it easy for readers to do that. Many of times I have come across a blog that happens to show everything in one big chunk. This makes it impossible to read.

Is it French, Italian, Spanish, Chinese or English?

While most of us blog and write web content in English, we still have to make sure that our content is user friendly to all. The easiest way to do this is by using clear and concise English language.

I admit that sometimes I fall into the slang habit just for fun, but at the same time I also try to insert a proper translation.

By using short sentences you will further help your readers to digest your writing without indigestion.

Now… the grammar thing. I know, I can already hear some of you going "ouch". Grammar is actually an arguable entity when it comes to writing. Since there is US English, British English and Australian English it would be really hard to find the perfect tone of voice at all times.

While the Brits (British) and the Aussies (Australian) heavily use the letter "s" in words like plagiarise, monetise, urbanise, etc., the Americans use a "z" instead.

I think we could argue forever on who is right and wrong here but common sense says to me that unless we are really anal about these things we should stick to the US version since it is the most commonly used.

Much worse is the fact that some web content writers can’t remember the rules of engagement from way back in grammar school. They conveniently leave out all types of punctuation in their writing or type everything in lower capitals, even at the beginning of each sentence.

Grrrrr…..

Which brings me to the next and last part.

Proofread!

I know, we can all get better at this. No matter how many times we proofread our post before we hit publish, some spelling mistakes will sneakily find their way onto the canvas.

This just goes to show that double checking your content before publishing should be a given.