Content Writing & Copywriting Blog

The anticipation of your readers

Feb 07, 2008 1 Comment »

Anticipation is akin to creating a demand or amplifying an existing need to know or acquire something. Anticipation keeps your readers hooked to what you’re going to say or reveal next. You must have observed this technique in the TV serials; if it is an ongoing story the episode always ends when things are just hotting up and you can’t wait for the next episode. Darren explains on his blog how to create anticipation in order to increase your RSS subscribers. The first step, as he rightly mentions, is to highlight the best you can offer.

I think this is the first and of course the best step you can take to create a sense of anticipation. This happens everywhere: people anticipate your future performance based on your past performance. Your past performance means creating high-value content on your blog or on your website non-stop. Every page, every blog post should give something to your readers and only then you will be able to increase the level of anticipation.

If people anticipate something from you as a blogger it means you have already raised their level of expectation  regarding your performance, and this means you have got an advantage here. Having a similar advantage while writing professional content for your clients or for yourself can be a bit difficult because, although people are okay with you being a novice blogger (maybe because you’re not charging anything from them) they have a big problem if you are a novice content writer or copywriter and this is fairly understandable because they are paying you for the job or buying things from you after reading your copy or pitch.

As a professional content writer and copywriter you have to use the existing knowledge of the reader to create anticipation. For instance if a reader is visiting your website to purchase an MP3 player he or she is already aware of the benefits of owning an MP3 player; he or she just needs to be convinced why it is better to buy it from you rather than from some other seller. Even if you’re trying to sell a product that is totally new, its need already exists and you simply have to highlight how efficiently that product can satisfy the need. If you can do that you are raising the level of anticipation in the reader. Given below are a few benefits of raising anticipation in your readers.

Anticipation brings them back to you again and again

Typically a sale never happens on the first visit; it happens on the third visit. This is not a hard and fast rule but it is a generally accepted phenomena. If you give them something to expect they will keep it in mind to visit your website again; they will either remember your URL or they will bookmark it. A similar thing happens in case of a blog. If you want your readers to come to your blog again and again they must be convinced that you provide good content consistently. When you convince them they not only take measures to keep track of your future posts they also recommend your links whenever they get a chance.

Anticipation generates more business for you

This happens if you maintain a business website and expect people to partner with you after reading your content on your business website. When they go through your content, when they go through what you have previously done, the anticipation level is increased and they contact you to give you work. Here, you don’t increase anticipation by holding back the most exciting things; you present to them the best work you have done up till now. Clients who are planning to pay you don’t like surprises; the only anticipation they have is that you will deliver what you have promised through the copy of your website.

Anticipation makes you an authority

This is something that I have already mentioned above; people only anticipate when they trust that it is worth anticipating. They start expecting good content, good service, or good product from you when they go through your track record and respect you for what you have done so far. When they anticipate further goodness from you they endorse your authority, ability and skill. Being known as some sort of an authority helps you generate business and people trust your message eagerly. Being an authority opens many closed doors easily.

Let me know if you would like to add something more here.

What are you trying to achieve when you write?

Feb 06, 2008 2 Comments »

A quick post today as I am busy developing a small time management program for my personal use, using PHP and MySQL.

Chris on his blog has asked his readers what they want their users to do when they read them? There can be many answers according to different perspectives but let us see from the points of views (is it the right phrase: “points of views”?) of  bloggers and professional copywriters/content writers. I haven’t exactly answered his question; these are just a few thoughts that I would like to share with you at this instance.

Both bloggers and copywriters aim to engage the readers. They both try to elicit some or the other reaction.

If you are a blogger you want your readers to bookmark your blog, subscribe to your RSS feeds, leave comments on your blog, help you create awareness regarding your product, service or philosophy, and link to your blog. Even if you’re not doing this consciously all these things or at least some of them happen as you continuously generate highly useful and engaging blog content. When you write, directly or indirectly you have all these objectives in your mind, but they are all a byproduct of your blogging efforts. All you are doing is engaging in a continuous and fruitful conversation.

A content writer or copywriter wants his or her client’s  website to do well in its objective, whatever that objective is. The online copywriter acts in the same manner as a blogger does  but he or she does it for the client’s business so the tone of writing slightly changes. But here too the writer wants to engage the audience and lead them to a desired action, something like buying a product or subscribing to service. As Chris rightly says, good communication starts with a clear conception of the goal. If you don’t understand the goal properly you cannot communicate your thoughts lucidly.

What do I try to achieve when I write? It may sound cliched but I try to convey a message. When I’m writing for my clients I’m trying to convince their readers what beneficial products or services they are offering. Write as clearly as possible and as compellingly as possible, using simple language wherever needed and using jargons whenever required.

On my blog I share my thoughts. Since I’m constantly learning I’m not in a position to tell my readers what to do in order to succeed or improve their lives; I simply share with them what I am learning and experiencing on a day-to-day basis (whenever I write, that is). but yes I do want to, and I do write, to communicate with my readers, with you I mean.

An Example Of A Great Headline

Feb 03, 2008 No Comments »

Online copywriters and content writers are always stressing upon the overwhelming importance of creating great, compelling webpage titles or headlines. You need great webpage titles to draw traffic from the search engine result pages as well as from the various social bookmarking websites you’re planning to target. I remember a few months ago I had written a post on the subject of creating great blog post titles.

Yesterday morning I was sitting in the balcony enjoying the winter sun with my wife and we were both sipping tea and casually browsing through our respective newspapers. Whenever we are sitting together my wife often jokes that I’m more interested in what she is doing and less interested in my own things. This was one of those moments when my eyes were on her newspaper instead of my newspaper. She gets a Hindi newspaper; I noticed this heading on the first page and immediately thought what a great headline it was.

If you look at the image included above I have encircled the headline. It translates to: Aishwarya Rai and Angeline Jolie may have a common ancestor. The news that was associated with the title had nothing to do with the two beauties, it referred to a recent research that has shown that all the blue-eyed people in the world may have a common ancestor. The team that created the front page layout of the newspaper knows that it would be irresistible for most of the people to ignore the title and in fact my wife headed straightaway to page 12 to see how Aishwarya Rai and Angeline Jolie may be related to each other.

Had they used a simple heading, something like, all blue-eyed people have a common ancestor, it wouldn’t have interested many people.

What makes this a catchy headline? The copywriter knows how crazy people are about reading about both the ladies. Although it is a Hindi newspaper and many readers may not be familiar with Angelina Jolie, even the stray dogs in India know Aishwarya Rai. The readers would certainly like to know with which foreign beauty she shares an ancestor. The copywriter has combined the celebrity status of both the names and created a headline that cannot fail to perform even when it doesn’t talk about them.

Would the readers be pissed off after reading the news because they find out that these two beauties are not related in the real sense? I don’t think so because the headline doesn’t mislead; they both have blue eyes after all and the blue-eyed people are supposed to have a common ancestor and hence they should too have a common ancestor.

Later on I discovered that most newspapers, at least in India, used the same sort of headline referring to Aishwarya Rai and Angelina Jolie.

Why original Internet content is worth the effort

Feb 02, 2008 7 Comments »

There is lots of regurgitated content on the Internet. Many people blame the Internet for degrading the quality of content writing and general writing because one, everybody can publish these days, and two, copying/pasting is so easy. This is a weakness as well as a strength. I think the ability to publish with least effort has empowered millions of Internet users to express themselves and share ideas with the fellow Net denizens. There is no dispute in the fact that the ability to publish easily is a great blessing. But many people exploit this ability and hence the problem of inferior content arises.

The problem is, after all, how much original content can be produced on limited topics? After a while the repetition is unavoidable and this happens in every form of expression whether it is writing, or photography, or painting, of filmmaking; you will find trails of repetitions everywhere. So how do you produce original content?

Many clients often approach me with pre-existing content; they want me to rewrite it in my own style. since it is mostly rewriting, they expect me to charge less than my usual rate and which I think is fair enough. I don’t reject such work because even if I have to rewrite something existing I rewrite it in my own style, rendering my unique voice to it so it is as good as original content. Sometimes I even go beyond the material the client has sent me; I gather my own information and try to learn as much as possible about the subject and then write it according to my own understanding and the clients often love it. Although I’m being paid less for the same amount of work I do for “original” content I feel happy that my clients always get original content from me even when they are not very crazy about the idea of original content.

I think it is not as difficult as it seems. Agreed, practically every topic under the sun has been dissected over the Internet but still, if you apply your mind to it you can always give your own take. People know that the same information exists on various websites and this is very much expected when they conduct a search on some search engine, in fact they may find thousands of pages more or less talking about the same thing and that is not the point. The point is whether you can present your own perspective or not.

But you may wonder that if the same sort of content exists on so many websites then what’s the big deal about going for original content? I’m talking from the perspective of a client who has to spend money to get content, and not from the perspective of a blogger who writes on his or her own.

Well, there is noise and then there is voice. You have to decide whether you want to become a voice that people would like to stand and listen to or you are satisfied being a noise — it doesn’t matter much whether it exists or not. The world  treats you the way you treat your content; just as you want people to take you as an individual who is quintessentially unique, the same applies to your content too. Original content lets people know that

• You take what you say on your website or blog very seriously.
• You have a point of view.
• You know what you’re talking about.
• You are alive to what’s going on around you.
• You have an in-depth knowledge of the service or the product your offering to your visitors.
• You take your business seriously enough to hire a professional content writer (this means that you are so confident about your business that you are ready to invest money in it without any inhibitions) or  spend enough time coming up with your own original content.

What do you think?

Random Thoughts On Content Writing

Jan 22, 2008 4 Comments »

After a long time!

This is genuinely ironic; in October I wrote about what should be the frequency of your blog posts and then I didn’t post for almost 3 months. I was planning to write but this blog on a daily basis; so much for sticking to the blog writing schedule. There is no particular reason, and in fact I wasn’t even writing content much. For more than two months I didn’t take up new assignments and it is only in January that I have again started accepting new content writing projects.

It’s not that I didn’t do any work. I started rejecting new assignments because I had lots of work — both PHP programming and content writing. I have a few permanent clients for both kinds of works. But I think this is temporary because gradually I would prefer to write just content. I’m going to revamp my website (actually it is already revamped; I just don’t promote enough) by writing lots of targeted content for it.

Another irony is that I am writing constantly for my clients so that their websites rank higher due to their optimized content and I don’t do that for my own website. My website does fair well for some keywords (for example, for “content writer” my website appears somewhere around the first spot on Google) but there are scores of other keywords and expressions for which I get very little traffic and this means a lukewarm response.

As a content writer am not very happy these days with the way I’m writing. I need to brush up both my reading and writing because it seems my writing is losing its edge; it is losing its soul. My strength is not the impeccability of the language, although I’m not saying that there are many mistakes in my writing; my strength is the way I write and many clients hire me for the way I write. Recently I lost a project because the client thought my work was not up to the mark and it was no way near to the quality of samples I had sent him or near to the quality of content I have on my own website. When I showed the work to my wife she agreed with the client: the “Amrit” factor was conspicuously missing in the writing.

I need to bring that factor back and I know that I can only bring it back if I start writing again on various other topics instead of just sticking to corporate web content. This means writing articles and analytical essays for newspapers and magazines, the way I used to do until a few years ago. This stimulates the mind, inculcates the research habit and makes the writing muscles flexible and strong.

Let me know what you think regarding content writing an online copywriting; should a content writer stick to writing content for websites and develop his or her writing skill vertically or he or she should write for the conventional media too for the purpose of acquiring broader writing experience?

Technorati Tags: copywriting, online copywriting, content writing, content writer