Writers’ Best Practices for Improving Online Writing Performance This Year and Beyond
- Anne Marie Ianko
- May 24, 2016
- 4 min read
Does this sound familiar? Sometimes, as a content creator, you strive to find the most effective cure for a mean case of writer’s block. You might even reach the conclusion that your pen is a bit rusty. Even when you have one or more brilliant ideas that you could turn into solid gold, you can’t seem to be able to find the shortest, most concise and compelling method to tell the story of the concept you’ve been working on for so long.
5 Tips on How to Improve Your Online Writing Without Losing Any Sleep
If any of the above sounds familiar, you should know you are not alone. Oftentimes, writers lose their focus and can’t figure out how they could unstick their stuck narrative; others can’t find a way to reinforce their dialogue with their audience and cultivate the interest and loyalty of their readers. If so, then maybe you could use some of the expert tips listed below, meant to turn you into a more enthusiastic and successful online writer.
Opt for High-Impact Headlines Let’s put it this way: your headline is your first and probably most important opportunity to sell your million dollar idea. In this context, would you put your prosperity and good name on the line by opting for a dull title? Probably not! Instead, you would do your best to raise the curiosity of your audience by promising to reveal a secret that could improve their lives, one way or another, or by creating mystery or intrigue. If you’re looking for tried and true headline formulas that still work, remember that the most effective patterns revolve around the same elements: surprise factors, questions, numbers, curiosity gap, audience referencing and how to guidelines.
Shorter Paragraphs Are Your Best Friends You may want to factor in that online readers have a hard time identifying and grasping all the details that you may be willing to serve on a silver platter through your writing. According to a recent article published by The Guardian, the daily actions of modern readers are influenced by their lack of deep thinking and loss of patience. These content consumers are interested solely in writing that could satisfy their need for quick fixes and instant gratification; this is why you should anticipate and address this specific demand by offering them well-structured content incorporating small paragraphs that are easy to scan and skim, and organizing tactics such as numbered or bulleted lists, which enable readers to visualize and assimilate important data with more ease.
Keep It Short Most inexperienced online writers try to convey multiple messages via one single content piece. The end result oftentimes fails to meet their expectations, simply because it includes more than one call to action, and tons of unsorted chunks of information that the reader may find it difficult to scan and decode. Here’s the simplest way to avoid this situation: write shorter sentences. Use easier words to improve the readability of your text, and write compelling copy that could be easily understood by seven graders. When in doubt, don’t hesitate to use one of the many online readability tools put at your disposal.
4. Use Templates As a creative freelance writer, you probably dread the idea of using certain templates to guide your online writing in the right direction. While we can all agree that following certain patterns can limit your creative thinking to some extent, following some predetermined rules may be beneficial. Delving into the colorful world of online writing templates can actually improve your concentration, maintain your focus and make it easier for you to bond with your readers by catering to their needs. For instance, a blog post or article should comprise three key sections serving three different purposes:
An introduction anticipating and presenting the problem that you, as the know-it-all expert writer, are getting ready to solve
The body aiming to provide the most feasible solutions to the problems that your readers may experience
Conclusion meant to wrap up your writing and engage your readers in further dialogs, or stimulate them to respond to your CTAs.
Go Beyond Writing Here’s something that you probably don’t want to hear about your readers: most of them are looking for accessible solutions to their problems, which they could understand and apply while watching TV or eating lunch in front of their consumers.
These multitasking specialists are craving for quality multimedia content that saves them the trouble of navigating through large text fragments. Images, slideshows and videos are self-explanatory, and fairly easy to create and distribute. These powerful tools can help you craft valuable multimedia content offering a higher number of benefits, including a great opportunity to optimize on-page SEO, better branding, and more time spent on your blog or website.
So there you have it: while there is no classic, sure-fire recipe for success that could take you from zero to online writing hero in a split second, remember that an individualized writing style, a reader-friendly structure, and the presence of multimedia elements can do wonders for your web content. Apply all these changes to see the first signs of improvement, and don’t forget that practice makes perfect!
Looking for a content provider that could use your writing skills? Check us out and contact us with your portfolio.
Comments