That written content which is most effective is original, easy-to-follow, engrossing and to the point. Needless to say, this requires a lot of thought, research and editing on the part of the writer!
The best way to achieve these goals is to keep the target audience in mind. Your visitor or client must like your writing and it must provide the benefits he or she is looking for. There are many ways to make this happen:
#1
Try to think from the reader’s point of view. What questions is he or she likely to have? What promise do you make him the title of your article? Fulfillment of that promise is what the reader expects of you.
You may find it useful to create the title after you have written the article, or at least change it based on the content-sometimes it is hard to know exactly where an article is going to go at first. If you’re writing for a client and you are unsure of his or her requirements, then you should ask!
#2
Be sure to do your research. If you have any doubt about something whatsoever, you should verify the facts by either visiting the site of the company you are writing about or some other authoritative resource like Wikipedia.
If you are writing for a client, ask for useful links that will aid you in developing your content rather than writing something that is not even close to what the client wants.
#3
Remember that, although content writing is different from SEO content writing, there is no reason that the same piece of writing cannot serve both purposes. SEO content writing relies more on strategically placed keywords, but all writing must fulfill the same basic goal: to provide valuable or useful information to the reader. The difference is just that the SEO content writer must target the search engines as well as the intended audience.
#4
Some people find that they can write more freely when they aren’t bound to the keyboard. When their fingers don’t have to catch up with their brain, they can enter into more of a “stream of consciousness” mode that makes writing flow more freely. The downside of this is that it can cause one to be more verbose than otherwise, but good editing after-the-fact can usually resolve this problem.
Dragon Dictate for Mac and Dragon NaturallySpeaking for PC can help many people achieve this “stream of consciousness” style of writing, and it can also help to avoid repetitive stress injury for those who have to write a lot. Voice dictation is even built into some tablets like the iPad for those who wish to do some writing while on the go. Of course, careful proofreading will be needed, but this is always the case, whether you dictate or write by hand.
Content writers need to work hard in order to fulfill the sometimes conflicting goals of search engine optimization and the maintenance of a high standard in terms of interest and readability. At all times the writing should be creative, keyword centric and most of all useful and informative.
Author Bio
Tim Arends is the webmaster of InternetMacMarketing.com. A user of Macs since 1994, he has helped purchase, install, maintain and troubleshoot Macintoshes and Mac networks for business for several years. Get his FREE 75-page ebook that covers everything you need to know about running your Internet business using a Mac, iPhone and iPad.
