You might be eager to develop great content for your business. You might be anxious, wondering if the audience will connect with your words and lead to more clicks, shares, sign ups, and comments.
You also might be asking a common question: How do you write for the web?
Here are a few practical tips you can consider to write posts that charm your readers:
Achieve Clutter-Free Writing
If you can’t explain it to a seven-year-old, you don’t understand it yourself.
Clutter is contagious. We’re a society struggling with too many distractions and strangling in worthless words, senseless jargon, and pompous frills. No wonder it creeps into our writing.
But, if you can THINK CLEARLY, you can write clearly. Good writing can inform and enlighten your readers with its aliveness and hook them to your post. Here’s the secret sauce:
- Strip every word and sentence that serves no purpose
- Get rid of long words, sentences, and paragraphs. Try using short ones as they are easy to read and quick to process (Eg: Assistance-help, Implement-do)
- Cut back on passive construction that confuses the readers
- Reduce the use of adjectives and adverbs
You need to prune these and other adulterants ruthlessly, as they can weaken your writing. Ensure every word and sentence you write is doing new work.
English can be weird. It can be mastered through tough thorough thought though.
Figure Out Your Audience
Who is your audience? It’s a basic question, and it has a simple answer― you are writing for yourself! Remember, every reader is a unique person, so don’t try to imagine the great mass audience. Write what you would want to read. Besides, readers have no idea what they want to read until they read it. The good news is they are always searching for something unfamiliar, current, and new.
Writer: A person capable of changing caffeine into ideas.
Warm Up Your Style
The best athletes need to warm up before scoring game-winning touchdowns. The same is true with writing. Warming up with first drafts then editing can be what separates good writing from great writing. Here are some things to consider when writing and rewriting:
- Try writing in the first person―use words like “I” and “we” and “me” and “us.” It will warm up your impersonal style. However, if you are not allowed to use those words, then imagine or write the first draft in the first person. You can take the “I”s out before publishing.
- Avoid overused synonyms (common currency) and aim for freshness in your writing.
- Make use of contractions like “It’s” and “I’ll” and “can’t” among others as it will help your writing to be warmer and truer to your personality. Although don’t invent words like: “could’ve.” They ruin your style.
- 4.Never be afraid to imitate another writer… as long as you aren’t copying their words! It’s part of the learning process. Thoreau and Dickens didn’t spring full-blown as Thoreau and Dickens; they too needed inspiration and models. Discover, the best writers in your niche and read their creative work.
Your Best Resource Tool
In conclusion, don’t squander your richest source: YOURSELF.
Remember, words are the best tools you’ve got. Strive to make good use of them with care and originality. Your content should leave the reader with at least one interesting thought that he/she didn’t have before. Express yourself simply and clearly as somebody out there is listening.
Media Shower’s Genesis Abel Akula is an experienced technology & internet marketing writer.
