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Four Reasons Good Writing is Important
by Editor on 02/15/12
1. Good writing is important because it is clear. Why is clarity important? It enables the reader to easily understand what product you are selling or what service you are offering. The reader doesn't have to scratch his head or furrow his brow in confusion. He can easily see the point . He can easily follow the train of thought. It all flows easily, it all makes sense, it all follows logically. It doesn't force the reader to decipher what the writer really means. It gets to the point and it stays there. It doesn't wander off topic.
Most important, the reader can grasp immediately what is going on. And when another competitor is just a click away, that becomes very important. If a reader has trouble figuring things out, he will be on his merry way to another website instantly...and you've lost a potential customer
2. Good writing is important because it is interesting and lively. It makes the reader sit up and take notice. It pulls the reader in so that he wants to find out more about your product or service. It makes reading about your product or service a pleasurable experience, an enjoyable experience. And by creating those feelings of pleasure while reading, they become associated with what you are selling.
If the writing is drab or dull, reading becomes a chore. You go through the motions, you work your way through it, but it's no fun.
Creating an article or website page that's interesting is not easy. There is more to it that just throwing in a question here or there, or adding an exclamation point. Interest comes from the way you tell your story, with each and every word you use, and the way you connect those words to each other.
3. Good writing is important because it covers all the bases. It leaves nothing important out. There are no holes or gaps in the reader's knowledge about your product or service. You can tell the writer thought about what the reader needs to know.
That's not the case with bad writing, where you don't get the whole story, and what you do get comes in a haphazard, so-convoluted fashion that the reader doesn't know whether you're coming or going.
4. Finally, good writing is important because it helps your reader take action. Good writing must inform, engage (and perhaps even entertain) a reader. But the content on your website or in your article fails if it doesn't help your reader take action. Whether you want the reader to buy your product, join your membership site, move to another page, or whatever you want a reader to do, if the writing doesn't help the reader take that action, the content has failed.
Writing well isn't necessarily easy, but it needn't be hard.
A professional writer can show you how to "do
writing right."
Get Your Reader's Attention and Don't Let Her Go!
by Editor on 10/20/11
Good writing is interesting. It's lively. It gets your readers attention and keeps it.
The second part of good writing engages your reader. It makes her sit up and say "Hey, this is interesting."
It may be interesting all on its own -- it may be a topic in which the reader wants or needs to read more.
But even if what she's reading is something about which she's passionate, if it's dull, if it's bland, if it's pedantic, reading it can be a slog.
Good writing, in other words, makes the very act of reading a pleasure.
What's more, as your reader enjoys your work, she'll associate her enjoyment with whatever it is you're selling. Whether it's a product or a service, if your words are interesting and engaging, you'll create goodwill. Goodwill builds relationships. Relationships lead to sales.
How can you make your writing more engaging? Follow these tips:
- On the Web, people prefer short sentences and paragraphs to long. Keep your sentences short(ish). Do the same with your paragraphs.
- White space rules.
- Make the "look" of your text interesting in and of itself. Break your copy up with subheads, bullets, numbered lists, etc.
- Write in the active tense. It is best not to write in the passive tense. (Did you sense the difference in those two sentences? The first says "write." That's active. The second says "is best" and "to write." Those verbs are in the passive tens and -- hoo, boy! -- is that sentence ever dull!!!)
You won't find dull writing around here. Not at The Content Scribes. If you're the type of webmaster, marketer, business owner or service provider who enjoys good writing and who "gets" how important it is when it comes to selling, give us a call at 610-698-7225 or drop us a line.
Happy writing!
Good Grief, Folks! Don't Put THIS on Your Website!
by Editor on 10/19/11
Get ready for a major rant!
We interrupt our three-part series on what makes good writing to mention a site we came across today.
Two sentences on the site prove that good sense too often goes out the door among businesses in the business of serving others. You'd think they'd know better.
But, to their detriment, no.
It was at the bottom of a contact form on the website of a search engine optimization. We contact these companies regularly to see if they need great, affordable SEO content, blogs and other copy written for their and their clients' websites.
At the bottom of the form was this sentence (verbatim):
If you are a third-party SEO, PR, web design, social media, 'Twitter' extraordinaire, etc., who would like us to outsource our projects, please wait by the phone for further instructions. We don't care how 'cheap' your services are because the cliche 'you get what you pay for' originated for a reason.
Talk about smarm. Talk about rude! Talk about stupid!
My, God, people, you're in the business of providing a service. You more than likely have sales people who go out and sell your services.
So what's with the snark when others approach you as they go out and look for business?!
Yes, I agree too many writers, SEO consultants, social media marketers, etc. devalue their services and go about finding work by touting themselves as "inexpensive." And, yes, perhaps this company is tired, tired, tired! of being approached by these folks via its contact form.
But to say so in print?! Online!? On your own freakin' website!?
If you don't want to do business with "cheap" outsourcers, simply don't reply to their queries. But keep the bloody snark off your website!!!
Customer Service 101: Always, always -- damn it! -- always! be professional and polite on your website. Keep the snickers offline when approached by low-ballers. Keep it to yourself.
Your potential customers are watching. They're reading. Don't think they don't notice the snark; they definitely do. And, even if they agree with you, they'll sense that you're not quite, um, "professional" yourself. After all, professionals aren't nasty in public but if you are, they may -- consciously or unconsciously -- wonder if you really have the savvy you say you do. Plus, who wants to do business with a bully?
Will I ever forget the name of this SEO company? Never! But not in a good way.
End of rant.
The Three Parts of Good Writing. Part 1: Clarity
by Editor on 10/18/11
So we talk a ton here about how important "good" writing is when it comes to websites.
But just what is good writing? How do you "know" it when you see it?
Good writing is clear. Your reader understands exactly what you're trying to say. There's no scratching of the head or furrowing of the brow trying to figure out what you offer. Your reader doesn't have to wonder how it will benefit him, how much it costs, how he can buy it, and so on. He'll know..
Good writing allows a reader to follow your train of thought. Your words and ideas flow easily and logically. Your writing makes sense and doesn't make your reader have to work to decipher what you're trying to say. Your reader gets your point…and it stays there.
In fact, good writing doesn't raise questions in your reader's mind; it answers them.
In addition, your reader gets your point right away. Now. Immediately. Not tomorrow. Not in a moment. Now.
What happens if you have a website, direct mail piece, e-mail or blog post with poor writing?
Ever hear of the term "bounce rate"? That's where people come to your site, take a quick a look around (usually visiting just one page) and then leave (bounce off). And when they leave, they tend to do it quickly…as in just a handful of seconds.
Good writing can help your readers stay on your site. Great writing can help them take the action you want: signing up for a newsletter, buying your product, downloading a free report, and so on.
For example, if you want people to download a report, you ask them to download the report. Sounds obvious, doesn't it? But you'd be surprised how many marketers or website owners forget this simple truth.
We’ll write next time on the second part of good writing: engagement.
In the meantime, if you're looking for a terrific team of writers who can produce great content and marketing copy for you at reasonable prices, contact The Content Scribes. We look forward to hearing how our writing can help you bring in more business!
Why Good Writers Accept Lousy Pay...But Why We Won't
by Editor on 10/12/11
This is not an easy post to write. Why? Because it's going to be dismissive of writers who willingly accept work at terrible rates. As a writer myself, I want writers to succeed and it crushes me to be at all disapproving of how they conduct their writing business.
What do I mean by "terrible rates"? I'm talking $15 for 500 words (not to mention $5 for 500 words).
Why, oh WHY do so many writers do this?
There can be just two reasons I can think of:
1) They don't believe they're worth more or
2) They don't ask for more (which really means they don't believe they're worth more).
There really is no need to work for such poor wages. None!
We get what we ask for in this life, we truly do. If a writer signs up for such sites as elance.com and accepts gigs paying $10 or so for work, well, he or she asked for it.
But there are other ways, much better ways of finding clients. What about sending queries to companies? What about calling local firms on the phone, asking for the marketing department and announcing that you provide news releases, marketing materials, that you write Web copy? It's by doing so that a writer can build a real business. A business that can earn him or her $50K, $100K or even more a year. Truly.
Yes, many companies don't understand the importance of good writing and why it will cost them considerably more than $10 per article for it. Too many people don't understand how hard it is to write well. How much practice and experience needs to be put in before a writer can create an action-producing sales letter or even a "simple" engaging, informative keyword optimized article.
After all, writers simply sit at a computer and type. Easy peasey, no?
No.
If you think writing a direct mail sales piece -- one that actually brings in sales -- is easy, go ahead and write one, send it out and see what kind of results you get.
Sure, writing articles is a bit easier than writing sales copy. But easy? Putting together an article that gives a reader real, solid information takes research. Writing it so that it's interesting takes talent. Put them together? There's no "easy" involved.
Yet too many website owners and others purchasing Web content writing services believe $5 is a fair price.
What's more, far too many writers accept it.
If writers refused such shoddy pay, would the $5 jobs disappear? I think they would.
But too many writers for a variety of reasons (just starting out; lack of confidence; willingness to take any assignment that pays anything because something is better than nothing, isn't it?) probably always will accept lousy pay.
Not here. Not at The Content Scribes. Our writers are professionals with years of experience. They deserve to be compensated well for the considerable value they bring our clients. We expect -- and will accept nothing less -- than fair and reasonable compensation for the good work we produce.
We look forward to hearing from clients who understand the work and skill that goes into producing good writing and who are happy and willing to pay appropriately for it!
