Wednesday 3 December 2014

How To Start Developing Good Writing Skills In 10 Ways And 10 Days

how to improve your writing skills

Sometimes, it hurts to see your post getting ignored and also getting read by fewer eyeballs. There's so many reasons why this happens, but do you know a virtually bad writing can be a major culprit?

How do you write? And how do you sound to your own ears? do you sound like a salesman? are you always straight to the point and informal? could you read your article ten times without actually falling asleep?.

To help you improve your writing skills, I'm going to share with you the top ten tips to dramatically improve your blogging skills.

Let's tap into them!:


Stop writing like wikipedia!


The truth is, when you publish a blog post, it looks good and okay to you, right?. But you're as well making your readers yawn unnecessarily.

But How?

Good Question.

Because there's nothing special and different between what you produce and what's already out there on the web.

Maybe you produce the most detailed content on the planet, but how you frame those juicy information in words matter a lot.

Being too direct in answering questions with my blog post is something I always did with my previous blogs.

After months of writing straight-to-point, non-stylish and short articles, I was not getting 5 page views per day, so I quit and my blog got hit by panda algorithm for too many low quality content.

Readers need answers right? but they also need a little fun and an irony to make them keep reading.

What makes you unique and different from other bloggers is the ability for you to present information to your readers easily and with your unique voice.

You should follow the path of bloggers like Darren Rowse, Brian Dean, Michael Dunlop, Neil Patel and Pat Flynn.

These bloggers have something in common when it comes to blogging, they are conversational-style bloggers.

They don't write like big brands (but they sure are), they don't write like the Google's favorite Wikipedia.

When you start writing, keep your readers in mind and be simply conversational.


Always outline your points


Don't just wake up one morning and expect to get a fresh post ready in 60 minutes, else you're gonna pushout crap content.

Ensure all your points are well outlined before you start writing, it makes it easier to come up with a nice post from scratch.

You can even outline the main points for a yet composed article a day or two before getting it composed. Just to quicken things up.

This post you're reading is the result from what i outlined days ago. I already put my ten points together the day before, then added a little description to each point. And ready it was.

Afterwards, i looked up for typos before I clicked the "publish" button.

You can always get something out of nothing by using this "outline" method.

And make sure to land a conclusion or a roundup paragraph at the end of your post to make a perfect ending.

Outlining your points in h3 tags will also let the point be clear to your audience, thereby aiding a good user experience…

…and giving readers more reasons to come back for more points and useful info.


Be passionate, write without stopping


This was one of the biggest problems i almost gave in to, but somehow i've developed a passion to living beyond it.

When i write about nine lines, I'd stop for a while to either reward myself with a cold glass of water or monitor the word count for that post.

But somehow I've learned to live above this.

When you write without stopping a second, you keep up the flow of information between you and the people who read you.

And you also make the post more natural.

Don't always expect yourself to put something down when writing nonstop, you're only being natural, at least you're still gonna need to fine-tone that post into something more pleasant.

And readable.

People say practice makes perfect, but practicing what you have no passion for will definitely end in waste of time and frustration.

So, be passionate about blogging as this will further enhance your ability to write more.


Put simplicity under consideration


Blogging isn't lecturing.

And a post composed by you isn't an English text to be scored by Vocabulary Gurus and professors.

Obviously, more bloggers are beginning to spot their mistakes and are doing quite good at getting them fixed.

The most dynamic errors I seek out to erase from my posts are heavy words, advance vocabularies unable to be understood by a 6-year old.

Always use simpler words to explain complex things or topics to your readers. It makes you a genius.

If no one understands the message you tried conveying in your post, then it's as bad as not writing the post in the first place.

People sure as hell need answers, not jargons.

Avoid using 5, 6 or 7 syllable words in your posts, instead use a phrase to pass your message easily.

Nothing makes me falloff to sleeping quicker than a piece of jargon-packed, boringly long content.


Read more quality stuff, and more often


The one major thing that's kept going is reading.

When you read, you give yourself a chance to explore into the writing skills of others.

You'll be able to perceive a boring writing from one that's fun and engaging.

Apart from that, reading widens your knowledge about a particular topic - you're becoming a better blogger

Be an addicted reader.

Read more than you write and write more with what you've read.

Your familiarity with reading good articles will also sharpen your skills to produce similar or even better content.

Follow quality content sites about blogging, read sites like jeff bullas, content marketing institute and bloggers passion to build up your blogging skills.


Write when you don't feel like


The ability to break through environmental and mental hindrances is what puts you in top position with other pro bloggers.

Sometimes it's really hard for me to start typing (for hours), because I do most of my blogging at night, but it doesn't stop me from walking straight to the left corner of my room and start doing what I do best.

It's kind of hard to consciously stay away from bed at 1:25 a:m, but I still do, I still put on my device and type till the next day, till my fingers chameleons to red.

No blogger learns to become so good at blogging without first becoming so lame at it.

I know typing sucks but what you should do is stay focused. And you'll find that you're actually improving technically.

It might suck to keep writing for an hour or two, it might suck to sit in front of your laptop or whatever you use when blogging, but it won't suck forever.

At least, you learn and gain new experiences daily as you blog.

The more you think of blogging as a stressful act, the more stressful it will be for you.


Ask questions within content


By asking questions within your posts, you're creating a sense of communication between you and your audience.

Often times, I do ask questions, to make you read more and give you fewer reasons to click that red back button by the left hand side of your browser.

Asking questions more often will literally increase your user engagement and give readers more reason to browse deep into your site - you're becoming an authority with this.

By dropping questions within your posts, you'll be able to grasp the attention of readers more easily and carry them along.

This doesn't mean asking questions with Quaraloo to identify user personas and potentially increase sales by fine-tuning content to suit user personas.

It doesn't mean collecting data from surveying users and using that data to improve your content marketing strategy, No. It's almost self explanatory, ask questions.

Quick Sprout's 10 reasons why your list post sucks is an example of a post that makes quite an entrance with asking questions.


Encourage yourself and be yourself


If your writing looks lame and weird at the same time to your eyes, don't damn fake it. Be yourself, when you write, be selective with words.

You might have the most brilliant strategies, the most brilliant ideas and whatever! but how you present your ideas will decide it's greatness success.

Encourage yourself to blog more often.

And never get intimidated by either some multimillion-dollar company or pro bloggers who probably are far better than you are.

Except you've been a clerical typewriter and editor for years, don't expect to find blogging fun so easily.

2 years ago, I couldn't write 100 words in 6 hours because I'd either fall asleep or walk away.

I'd rather watch the green grass at my yard grow instead of sitting and typing for hours.

Today!, that isn't the case.

If you're having a hard time producing content on a particular topic, it's either you have nothing to say about the topic you've chosen, or you're not motivated to write just yet… don't beat up yourself!.



Use common intensifying words


Reading something more interesting and promising is obviously more preferable to reading a plain and boring text, right?.

When you compose a blog post, or the instant you start writing, make use of intensifying words like "super", "guaranteed", "great" and other words that can easily get your reader's curiosity hyped.

You're only probably so cool, but playing the cool guy with your writing will leave those reading with nothing but boredom… Yeah.

Sound smart, funny and proactive with your writing.


Tell stories and be just right on point!


It's cool to tell stories about yourself and your experiences like Neil Patel does.

In fact this will sort of create a closeness and build trust between you and your readers.

But, like the point here says, don't sway in too many stories and forget about the main goal of the post or writing.

Let your readers know what's up with the point you're trying to covey with your stories by falling back to the main topic of the post or subheading.

Don't just tell stories to increase word count, tell stories to give hope to your readers and enlighten them.

I've found that most bloggers who share bits of their real life experiences tend to get more fans and larger readership base than multimillion dollar companies.

So, let people know about you through your writing by revealing facts about yourself and sharing your experiences.


Key takeaways


  1. Write when you don't feel like it.

  2. Always being straight to point and giving accurate answers without adding a little sense of humor and fun won't always go well.

  3. Be funny, sound smart and be proactive with your writing.

  4. Never get intimidated and encourage yourself to blog more often.

  5. You can't be a super blogger overnight, it takes time. And if you're a slow learner, it'll take like forever.

  6. Always outline your points before falling back to composing a detailed post.

  7. Picking the wrong or unfamiliar topic to blog about will craft you a wrong mood to start blogging around. And you'll have nothing much to talk about definitely. So, write on a familiar topic.


Summing up


Blogging is fun when you're pretty much acquainted with the rules and techniques.

Focusing all your efforts in producing a great blog and leaving great content and audience out of the big picture will have you demotivated.

Success in blogging shouldn't be a big deal if you really have something of unique importance to offer to your audience.

Be yourself, be natural and proactive with words. Just in time, you'll see your writing skill skyrocket. And don't freakout!

So, how else can yoi improve your writing skills?

1 comment:

  1. The key to good marketing is to have great images. Have short bullet points with the image.

    Chris
    Owner CEL Financial Services
    http://www.taxprepfillmore.com/fillmore-tax-preparation-service

    ReplyDelete