The power of the written word is the first (and one of the most important) bridges between you and your  readers. Your content must not only be well written but must also entice the reader and compel them to continue.

You have heard the term “Content Is King” on many different occasions and in many different contexts. You can do so much with words in a positive direction or a negative direction. It all depends on how you spin it. Before you take any action whatsoever to reach out to your readers, you need to make sure that your content will touch them and that they will want to establish a connection with you and will want to continue to interact. You may have the most brilliant ideas of all time but if  you are not able to express them in a way that is extraordinary, they won’t do you much good. The connection must be an emotional one. The emotions will drive your readers to ultimately make decisions about buying what you are selling at some point in the future. There are some critical steps that you need to follow in order to entice your readers through your incredible storytelling.

• Use authentic, sincere, informal language: If you have any hope of reaching your readers through your content, you must always maintain authenticity and sincerity. Your readers will always be able to tell if you are being insincere and they will act accordingly. Part of that authenticity means that you have a deep understanding of your readers as people and focus your content on their wants and needs. You need to make your readers understand that you have the full intention of solving their problems or at least making them feel good by reading what you are sharing with them. You should try not to inject too much technical, dry information into your content. It should be a pleasure for them to read.
   
• Use language that allows your readers to visualize: It is important for you to remember that you have 3 seconds in which to capture your reader’s attention. If you are not able to do it in that amount of time, you will lose them. Not only do you need to capture their attention but you also need to entice them to continue reading until the end. You should make your content as visual as you possibly can so that your story is one that they not only read but one that they can see with their mind’s eye as well.
   
• Always write in the active voice: Writing in the active voice strengthens the power of your words. When the verbs that you use are active and strong, it has a much greater impact on the reader. Active language leaves no possibility of ambiguity. The meaning of what you are writing will be crystal clear. Active language is also easier to read and is more engaging for your readers. It is important to remember that when most people read, they are not reading every word. They are skimming the content to see if there is something that grabs their interest. People don’t have a lot of time in their busy lives and the more compelling your content is, the better your chances will be of enticing them to read on.
   
• Give them a call-to-action: With each and every word that you write, you must give your readers a way to get in touch with you. The way to do that is through a call-to-action. You can give them an Email address or phone number with which to contact you. Also, it is important as part of the call-to-action that you ask them to do something, such as signing up for your business newsletter, asking for  your free white paper, etc. You will be establishing your relationship with them and you will be building it from there.

Conclusion

The way that you seduce your readers is through your content. Everything that happens after that is a result of what you offer them and how you influence them. Your storytelling must be exceptional. Good storytelling will go a very long way. Your content will unite your audience through common interests. If you content is incredibly well written and tells a compelling story, your readers will keep reading your content, will return to you over and over again, and will eventually turn into loyal customers.

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Your blog is for your business but it is also intended to grab the attention of your target audience, which is not such an easy thing to do. You need to write exciting and compelling content that captures their attention.

It doesn’t make any sense to spend a great deal of time on research, thought, and subsequently, writing your content if nobody but you actually reads it. In this day and age of technology, everyone is constantly being bombarded with vast amounts of content on every topic imaginable. So much content is being fed to people that they don’t know what to do with it on many occasions. If people read everything that came their way, they wouldn’t have time to do anything else in their professional or personal lives. With that concept in mind, it is very important that the content that you are writing and sharing with other people is so strong and compelling that it is constantly being kept at the top of the pile of important things to read.

A brilliant opening paragraph

The first thing that you need to consider is your opening paragraph. This paragraph is also called a teaser paragraph because it teases the reader just enough to want to continue reading. Remember, you only have three seconds to capture the attention of the reader enough for them to want to read on. So, you better make it really good. It is critical to your success as a content writer that you share content that is thought provoking and really grabs your readers. Considering that the first few sentences of your opening paragraph are the ones that will be picked up by the RSS feeds, they must really pop. When people scan an article, their eyes move across the page. That is why using bold type and bullet points or numbers is so effective. Once the reader’s eyes have moved across the page, they tend to look down the page as opposed to scanning subsequent lines horizontally.

Use emotion

Whatever your content is about, there must be an emotional element to it. People react with feelings. Knowing that, you need to make sure that you use keywords and key phrases that affect people emotionally. Whatever the reason other people have for taking an interest in your content, they definitely have a reason. Your main objective when it comes to relating to other people is to help them to solve their problems. If you can do that, you will not only be building meaningful, lasting relationships with them but you will also be gaining loyal clients at some point. If you use the most effective keywords and key phrases, there is a guarantee that you will touch your readers. It is also very important that you speak to your readers at a level that is comfortable for them. Don’t use big words merely because you feel that it makes you seem impressive. If you use words that they don’t understand, what good will it do for you? If you use simple, straightforward language and the concepts of what you are trying to say are ones that they can relate to, that is really the best approach to take.

WIIFM (What’s In It For Me)?

When other people read your content, they are spending the time to do that because they are looking for a solution to their problems. They aren’t interested in how great  you and your business are. They aren’t even too interested in what you have accomplished so far (in your business or otherwise). All they need from you is to help them make their problems go away. If you are considering writing something that you think is interesting but that doesn’t really benefit them in any way, it isn’t worth writing. People want to learn  from you and they want to be excited by what you are offering. If you want to maintain the relationship with them, give them something that they can walk away with. Strong relationships are ones where the two people trust each other and feel that the other is credible.

The presentation of  your content

There are several different approaches that you can use when it comes to capturing the interest of your readers. You can write from the perspective of vulnerability. This will show your readers that you are human, just like them. At the same time, you should always come up with a moral (or solution) to your story. This is the educational part for them. If you taught them something the first time that they read your content, the chances are great that they will keep learning from you. It is definitely worth their while to check it out each time. However you choose to present your content, it needs to touch them in some way and they need to feel that their lives have improved in some way because of it.

Conclusion

With the amount of information that is available online today, everyone must be choosy when it comes to deciding what to read (and write). You must write content that is valuable, engaging, and educational, and magnetic. Your content should never be about what you can gain personally. It should always be about how you can help the other person to benefit. Their needs are what come first. Remember that if they benefit, you will benefit as well.

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Now that you are writing content and posting it on your chosen social media channels, your writing skills are bound to be improving. Even if you were a great writer before, social media can help you become even better.

When you write content for business, your approach to the language should be totally different than it is if you are posting content for personal use. The language that you use for business is much more formal than when you are sharing it with friends and family. The chances are great that the quality of your writing is a lot better now than when you first started writing and posting your content. The approach that you now take is much less selfish and focuses much more on other people. It is geared to reaching out to them and addressing their needs and wants. The following points may illustrate the differences that you see from your original writing to your writing style now:

• More “them” and less “you”: You now write a lot less about what you need and want and how wonderful you are. Instead, you gear your writing toward how you can help other people to solve their problems. In other words, you practice the marketing principle of “WIIFM” (What’s In It For Me).
   
• Clear and concise: Your writing used to be verbose and unending. Now, you write clearly and concisely. You choose your words very carefully, knowing that your readers don’t have the time or the patience to read encyclopedias. At the same time, you want to give them something of value that they can benefit from.
   
• No editing required: You no longer see the value in big words that are only used for the sake of appearing impressive. They serve no purpose for your readers (or, in turn, for you). Knowing (or hoping) that your content will be shared by others, the last thing that you want is for someone else to have to edit what you post in order to make it suitable to share with other people. If your content needs to be edited, people will not make the effort as frequently to share it as they would if all they had to do was push to button to send it to other people.
   
• Social media appropriateness: Writing content for social media is very different than writing content for any other medium. You are now able to effectively communicate your ideas in short and compelling ways. If you have a lot more that you feel you want to write on any given subject, you use a different forum (such as a blog or Ebook) to do so.
   
• No more writer’s block: You used to experience writer’s block quite frequently. Now that you have been writing for a while, your creative juices are flowing more easily than ever before. One of your biggest sources of inspiration can be what other people are writing. Ideas for your content can come from many different sources.
   
• Interactive discussions: You are involved with a lot of interactive discussions based on the content that you are posting and sharing. Those discussions (on many occasions) result in ideas for more content. People love to know that their needs are being met and that their interests are being satisfied. If you write on topics that other people tell you they would like to read about, you will be building strong relationships and they will eventually become loyal customers of yours.
   
• Write everyday: The more you write, the better your writing skills will be. If you make it a point of writing something every single day, you will find that the effort will pay off for you. By writing everyday, you are forcing yourself to evaluate your work carefully and really hone your skills, including identifying both your strong and weak points.

Conclusion

As important as it is to be persistent and consistent when it comes to your writing online, it is also important to make sure that you manage your time effectively when it comes to your involvement in social media. You should make a commitment for a certain, finite amount of time and stick as closely to that as you possibly can. When you are not interacting (or doing other important, work-related, necessary things), you should continue to hone your writing skills. The more you write, the better a writer you will become. Other people are bound to appreciate the quality of your writing and you will be tremendously proud of what you have accomplished.

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You have been blogging for some time now. Since you started, you feel that you have established a momentum. However, your content isn’t getting as much as attention as you want. You need get it noticed by more people.

There is a mutual need when it comes to online content. You need to share content that will touch other people to the point where they will react positively and want to interact with you and build a relationship because of your content (with the eventual goal of their becoming your client). On the other side, your readers have a need to absorb content that they can learn from and that helps them to solve whichever issues they are encountering. High-quality content gets noticed and it helps you to gain more traffic and to be recognized for your accomplishments by others.  There are several approaches that you can take when it comes to writing content that is attractive to other people. Before you start, you must be very clear on what your goals and objective are, who your target audience is, and exactly what you are offering to other people.

Your reason for existing

It is a known fact that you only have three seconds to attract your readers enough for them to want to continue reading. If you don’t grab them within those three seconds, it’s over as far as that particular piece of content is concerned. With that in mind,  the way in which you state your purpose for taking up the space with your content must be very clear and extraordinarily compelling. Always keep the concept of WIIFM (What’s In It For Me) at the forefront of your mind. I must always be about how you are going to help the other person. In doing so, your needs will also be fulfilled. If they can’t glean the information of how you are able to help them from your content, they will quickly move on to someone else’s content. Upon first glance, the most important elements of your article are the title and the teaser paragraph. They better really pack a punch.  Other elements that you should keep in mind are your domain name, tag line, and look and feel of your blog. All of those elements will give your reader a really good idea of what they can expect from you if they decide to engage with you and your business.

Your content should never be long winded. Bullet points work very well in the blog setting. They allow the reader to understand a lot of important information in short spurts, which means that they will probably do a good job of remembering what you have written. Lists work effectively for the same reason. The majority of people scan rather than reading entire articles. People don’t like to work too hard when it comes to reading content. Along those same lines, your paragraphs should be short (no more than three or four sentences) for the same reason. People will be much more likely to absorb your information is it goes into their heads quickly and easily. A one-paragraph in a blog article (under the right circumstances) is acceptable also.

Enticing headlines

If your headline grabs the reader, they will definitely want to read more. Your headline should tell the reader what the rest of your article is about and how it can solve their issues. A great way to come up with compelling headlines is if you gather compelling headlines that other people have written. If you can identify why they work, you can mimic them in your own writing and captivate your readers.

One of the main objectives when it comes to your headlines is to get to understand your target audience and how they think and what they feel. Try to identify which keywords and key phrases they are using to search for the content that they need. Basically,  you need to try and get inside their heads. If you can do that,  you will be golden. Also, always remember to write with the emotional element in mind. People respond to ideas that touch them emotionally.

Using graphics

Nobody wants to read only words all of the time. Graphics and other images are very important because they break up the content and make it pleasing for the reader. Images (if used appropriately) can be even more effective than words are. Readers will react favorably to them and will want to continue reading and will really want to be a part of whatever you are offering.

Give others the benefit of your expertise

Other people are constantly thirsting for knowledge. The more you can share, the better they will feel about you and your content. For that reason, you should be very careful with the way in which you choose your keywords and key phrases. There is definite skill involved with choosing the most effective ones and it is well worth the time that it takes to learn how to do that most effectively.

Choosing the best topics

Always choose topics that excite you. If they excite you, other people will be excited by them also. If you have a passion for the topics about which you write, other people will understand that passion and will react to it favorably. The choice of topic is critical to your success.

Conclusion

Your content should be the absolute best that it can be. It should be exciting, informative, educational, compelling, and enticing. Remember that your topics should vary over time but always be interesting and always offer solutions to the issues of your readers. If you always write with others in mind, you will succeed at getting your content noticed over and over again.

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The content that you write and share with others is critical to the success of your business. Does your content truly tell a story and is it persuasive? If done effectively, it will go a very long way.

The social media world and how it relates to business is entirely different than any other world. As a business owner, the most effective way to boost your reputation and exposure online is to share as much high-quality, informative, educational and exciting content as you possibly can. With that in mind, you need to ask yourself if your content is exciting enough to your readers and if it really tells your story.

It is well known that the success of your business using social media is based on the relationships that you develop and maintain. The next step after establishing a relationship is to get the other person interested in what you are offering. There are some key questions that you will want to ask in your effort of convincing others to be a part of what you are doing. Some of the answers that you will need in order to proceed are:

• What are the current opinions and beliefs of the members of your target audience?
   
• What reservations do they have before deciding to do what you are suggesting?
   
• Which factors influence them the most?
   
• Which factors motivate them to behave the way that they do?
   
• Which outcomes are they looking for?
   
• What might stand in the way of their deciding to do what you are suggesting?

Once you have been able to secure answers to those questions, you can use the information as part of your social media marketing campaign. You can craft the information into a story that is complete and effective. Effective and compelling content is very powerful. It can take a nonbeliever and turn him or her into someone who is in full support of what you are doing and what you are offering. The entire decision is based on the effect that the content has on them. A wonderful way to reach your target audience and to turn around their thinking is by writing content that touches your audience members in a way that makes them believe that you will be solving their problems. By the way, you don’t have to confine your content to words only. You can also share video content, graphic images, events, etc.

There are several approaches that you can use when trying to touch your audience.

• Enhancing content: You take the original content, which contains your business proposal and customization, and you make it better and mix it up a bit.
   
• Content sharing: This is content that you promote by word of mouth, republishing, referrals, and sharing socially.
   
• Internalizing content: This is the persuasion of the change in the behaviors of your target audience to get them to come around to your way of thinking.
   
• Understanding the content: This is a deep understanding on the part of your audience members. It is a grasp of the big picture on their part.
   
• Engaging content: This is when your audience wants to get more involved with you and your business than merely reading your content. They interact with you by posting questions and comments on what you have shared with them.

Your storytelling content should include success stories that demonstrate the point(s) that you are trying to make. Additionally, as part of your social media marketing campaign, you should have a process in place from the beginning that engages prospective clients, converts them at the appropriate time, implements the work that you will be doing with them and promotes success. The stories of success can be a variety of different types, as long as they all express the same message. Once you have developed a relationship with your audience to such an extent, you should look upon them as people who can be strong advocates for you and your business in the future.

Conclusion

You have heard the expression “Content is king” thousands of times. It certainly is true. Your content must be compelling, creative, exciting and extremely helpful to others. It must make sense on a persona level to your audience. Your content needs to tell a story—the whole story.

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You have become adept at social media. Your next step is to start blogging on your own. There are many ways to begin. Study other bloggers’ work and then start to blog about your business and about your passions.

As the technology continues to be more and more developed, it is more important for than ever for business people to use blogging as one of their main avenues of communication. Content in the form of a website was considered the most advanced way of delivering content to other people for a very long time. However, the content found on websites is now deemed to be static. With the advent of blogs, which has been around for several years at this point, the content that is being shared online is dynamic. The content is fresh and new content is being offered (and delivered) on a very frequent and regular basis.

As a business person, you will be doing yourself and your business a tremendous disservice if you don’t start to blog about what you do, what you have to offer, and how you can help other people to solve their problems. Blogging is definitely a means to your being able to build relationships with other people and to interact in a very effective manner that will hopefully lead to greater success for you and your business.

As a new blogger, one of the challenges is to deliver regular, high-quality content on a frequent basis. It is one thing to be able to write a few blogs and be done with it. It is quite another thing to write and publish two or three blog articles a week on an ongoing basis until the end of time.  It is very important to build up your momentum when it comes to your blog. Once you have a rhythm established, you will find it less difficult to keep up the pace of frequent blog articles.

Being a blogger involves a serious commitment. You can’t simply start writing and expect to be a success in one second. Just like it is with all relationships in life, you need to build your online relationships. You very well may someday be earning a nice amount of money from your blog, although that could be down the road a bit. Initially, however, you should focus on your first (and one of your most important) objective, which is connecting on a personal level with other people. You have made a commitment to creatively come up with new ideas on a regular basis and the commitment is not only for you and your business but is also for the people whom you are trying to reach. As a new blogger, in the beginning, there are several stages that you will experience. They are:

• Listening: When you first start to blog, you should do as much research as possible. You should research topics about which you are interested. Additionally,  you should read the blog articles of other successful bloggers so that you can focus on what they do that has made them successful.
   
• Euphoria: You have done a lot of research and you are confident that you are ready to actually start writing and to share your interesting and valuable thoughts with other people. You may very well experience a feeling of euphoria after you have launched your blog. People will start to read what you have written and you will be on top of the world.
   
• Fear: Once you have moved past the initial stage, you may see that your readers are not reading your blog articles as faithfully and consistently as they were in the beginning. You begin to feel afraid that you won’t be able to come up with new and exciting topics to keep them enticed.
   
• Being in control: Once you are more deeply into your blog writing, you may start to feel that you must write. It may not seem as though you are having as much fun anymore. The longer you think about it, the more frustrated you start to feel.
   
• A feeling of isolation: You get the sense that, of all of the bloggers in the world, you are the one with the most difficulty when it comes to creating new ideas. You start to feel as though you are working in a vacuum and that everyone else has a large, good-quality readership and that those readers interact regularly with the other bloggers. It will come to you also.
   
• Resentment: You start to feel resentful about having this huge commitment that you have made to blogging every week. The mere idea of blogging makes you uncomfortable.
   
• Acceptance: If you did the right thing all along when it comes to your blog, you will have moved past all of the obstacles that you felt were preventing you from becoming a successful blogger. You will begin to understand why you made the commitment to blog in the first place. You start to feel excited about writing your blog and striving to come up with new ideas on a regular basis.
   
• Determination: At this point, you have put a blogging strategy in place. Your goals should be reasonable and not impossible to reach. You will need to develop the blog by continuing to offer valuable, useful, and perceptive information on a consistent basis to your readers. Another one of your goals should be to engage your readers and generate interesting and thought-provoking discussions on all sorts of interesting topics.
   
• Constantly learning: Once you start blogging, you will see that you are also learning a great deal from other people. The more you learn, the more interesting and insightful information you can offer to others.

Conclusion

The stages that have been described are, in some ways, very similar to the stages of grief. Not unlike those stages, it is important to persevere until you have gotten to the point emotionally where you feel really upbeat and excited about what you are doing and until you gain the confidence to know that your contribution to other people (in this case, in the form of a blog) is valued and helpful.

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You are diligent and consistent when it comes to posting articles online that are informative and educational for other people. The quality of the writing is superb but you notice that you don’t have a lot of readers. Why not?

If you find that the number of people who are reading your articles is smaller than you would like it to be, there are ways in which you can write that will drive many people to your articles, not only to read what you have written but also to compel people to leave comments and have meaningful interactions with you. Remember that the topic of your article must always touch your audience in some way and make them feel as though you have the answer to their problems.

The metrics of how many people are reading your articles are measurable and very valuable when it comes to being able to understand whether your social media marketing campaign is really working effectively or if it needs some adjustments. Remember that the greater the number of people who read your articles, the greater the potential number of people who will connect with you and eventually will become clients.

Of course, the number of readers will depend, to a certain extent, on your particular niche. However, there are other steps that you can take in order to help increase your readership:

• A fantastic title: The power of your title rests with the first three to five words. If you choose the correct words for your title, you will be shocked at how dramatic the increase in your readership will be. On the other hand, if you choose a title that is ineffective, it will do nothing for your readership. Your title must contain high-quality keywords and it must give a clear idea of what the article is about. The success of your article is in the title, so you need to make sure that it is everything that it should be and more.
   
• Keyword research: Before you write one word of your article, you need to do some research to identify the more powerful and appropriate keywords. You want to choose the keywords that will get the most attention from your readers. Part of your research will involve your target audience. Once you have learned as much information a as possible, you will be able to choose the keywords.
   
• A killer summary: The article summary must be a real attention grabber. It is the part of the article that entices your readers to click on your link and want to read the rest of the article. After the title of the article, the summary is the next most important thing when it comes to grabbing the reader’s attention. The summary should be clear, concise and well organized.
   
• Promotion of your articles through social media: Once you have posted an article, it is extremely important that you tell everyone whom you know about it. You not only want to share your article with those people but you also want them to share your article with other people. When it comes to social media, that is the only time when “viral” is a good thing.
   
• Call-to-Action: It is very important to always include a call-to-action with your article. The main objective of offering an article is to get people to interact with you and they won’t be able to do that if they don’t have a way of reaching you. You should make it as easy as possible on them by including contact information (your URL, phone number, etc).

Conclusion

All of the tips that were mentioned here are simple, straightforward and effective. Sometimes it isn’t enough to just write a high-quality article. The promotion of that article as well as the strategic placement and distribution of it are as critical as the article itself. There is a great deal that goes into offering a successful article online. If you follow the advice given here, you will see that more and more people will want to read your articles and will reach out and interact with you.

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Your blogging goal is to consistently deliver compelling and informative content that contains solutions to the problems of your readers. Now that people read your content, you need to give it a distinctive voice as well.

When it comes to blogging styles, there are many different approaches and each style comes with its own unique set of rules. One of the first rules of blogging (and it is a rule that applies to all styles) is that your content should always be fresh. Another critical element is the originality and work that goes into each of your blog posts.

When it comes to blogging, the most successful articles are the ones with fascinating topics and excellent writing. The blog should be interesting to the niche audience as well as to the audience around the world. If the writing quality is not good, people won’t waste their time reading more than the first few words. The online competition is so stiff that the last thing you want to do is turn people off because your communication skills are not up to par.

There are many different blogging styles that can be used, depending on what you want to achieve from others reading what you are putting out there.

• Brand blogging: A blog about your brand and products and/or services. This type of blog will offer an informative look at the brand and should include positive features that are a part of your offerings.
   
• Link blogging: This is a compilation of a group of links to other websites, blogs or other useful online content. You are offering it as a resource list that leads back to one of your blog postings.
   
• Video blogging: Video blogging is an extremely effective marketing tool. If you create a video and post it online in a blog posting, you will find that there will be a large number of people who are interested. Videos are very effective because they are aesthetically appealing and because they appeal to people who don’t have the time to sit down and read and who also prefer a visual medium by which to learn new information.
   
• Photo blogging: If you have the type of business where photographs effectively tell your story, this is a wonderful blogging approach. You may want to include a small amount of copy (in the form of captions). However, you may find those to be unnecessary, depending on what you are trying to express.
   
• List blogging: List blogging is a style that is used by many bloggers. If you do an online search on almost any subject, it is a guarantee that some of your results will include articles that discuss the “top…” number of something. People find that interesting and useful.
   
• Survey blogging: Readers love to answer questions that you put out there on subjects that are of interest to them. The reason that this is such an effective approach is that you are communicating with them that their opinions are valuable to you and your business.
   
• Event blogging: After you have attended an event, you can blog about your opinions and thoughts about the event. There are many different events about which you can blog, for example, conferences, seminars, and conferences. Other people, who were not able to attend the event, greatly appreciate your information. It makes them feel less like they have missed out.
   
• Insight blogging: Blog postings that share ideas, thoughts, and the discussion of trends in a particular niche are very interesting to readers. This type of blogging is more formal and perhaps less “fun” than other types. However, it is considered valuable and will generally carry the discussion quite far.
   
• Response blogging: This is blogging that is a direct response to a question or a challenge of some kind that another blogger has posted. Many times, the original source of the challenge was reaching out for help because he or she was in the middle of a crisis. Your response will be much appreciated and will often compel other people to jump in on the discussion.
   
• Meme blogging: In this type of blogging, you start a discussion by responding to a question and reaching out to other bloggers to respond to the same question on their blogs in whichever way they choose. This promotes interesting and exciting discussions that will continue (potentially indefinitely).
   
• Review blogging: Review blogging is a blog where you, as a subject matter expert, give your opinion on a new product and/or service. Other people love to give their opinions on new products and/or services also. Before you know it, you will have a long string of valuable comments.
   
• Guest blogging: This is a blog that you write with the specific objective of having it posted on someone else’s blog. This type of blog generally promotes a great deal of discussion and the writer and the person doing the posting both stand to benefit.
   
• Interview blogging: Interview blogging is very effective and very interesting. You can either publish an audio or video interview or you can publish the transcript from the interview.

Conclusion

The most important thing to remember when it comes to choosing a blogging style is that the tone of the style matches the content that is being offered. Your blog style should express your passion for your topic of choice. Also, remember that it is extremely important that the writing itself be flawless. You should think of your blogging style and your branding as one and the same.

We are pleased to provide you with the insightful comments contained herein. Please contact us at CompuKol Communications for further discussion on how we might be able to assist you and your team.

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“All the words I use in my stories can be found in the dictionary – it’s just a matter of arranging them into the right sentences.” Somerset Maugham. As a business person with an online presence, you write for the Web.

It doesn’t really matter which type of business you are in. If you have a website and/or a blog (which the majority of business people do nowadays), you either write the content yourself or you have someone else write the content for you. So, how do you get your web writing to stay consistent and compelling over time?

Which style guide should you follow?

The answers that you get to that question will vary, depending on whom you ask. There are several style guidelines to which web writers defer. Among them are the Associated Press (AP) Stylebook and the much newer Yahoo! Style Guide: The Ultimate Sourcebook for Writing, Editing, and Creating Content for the Digital World.

It is interesting to understand the differences between the style guides and the motivation behind why Yahoo felt compelled to release a style guide when AP has been considered the “gold standard” for such a long time, including the approach on a large number of commonly used online terms. The bottom line for you as a writer is that if you have integrity about the content that you are offering to others, you still care about editing, attribution and the assurance of reliable and credible sources of information.

Yahoo says that their style guide is different because it offers guidelines exclusively for writing on the web and that it discusses web-related topics, including topics on how to help people optimize web pages. The big question is whether AP and Yahoo can work together successfully to truly help people to write their web content and not confuse anyone.

The Associated Press and Yahoo style guides both offer useful guidance for everyone who consults them. The combination of the two books gives comprehensive advice on traditional writing as well as optimization for the web. People may be inclined to go to the AP Style Guide more often because it offers broader guidelines for the English language, grammar, punctuation and usage. The Yahoo style guide, on the other hand, targets a much narrower audience and focuses on the particular needs of certain writers.

Some people are of the opinion that the Yahoo style guide is not necessary because people have deferred to AP for such a long time. However, it is important to think in a more flexible and open-minded manner with the popularity of social media and peoples’ heavy involvement with online communications.

Which style guide should you consider the “gold standard”?

The AP Style Guide has established standards that, if followed, give the writing a journalistic voice, which also works well for the web. Short, clear and concise writing not only appeals to readers of print media but it also appeals to readers of online content. People don’t have the time or the patience to read long, complicated, involved content no matter how it is delivered.

Of course, there is some overlap between the two style guides. The most sensible approach may be to consult the AP style guide first and if there is some issue or question that has not been answered by AP, you should consult Yahoo. In other words, use AP as your primary source and use Yahoo as your secondary source.

Conclusion

Two reputable style guides have been discussed here. Both guides offer valuable advice, with one offering guidance that is more traditional in nature on the whole and one that is more contemporary. They are both essential to achieving consistency in your online writing and in presenting writing that flows, is well written and that appeals to the readers and makes them want to continue reading whatever you and your business offer them.

We are pleased to provide you with the insightful comments contained herein. Please contact us at CompuKol Communications for further discussion on how we might be able to assist you and your team.

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“Easy reading is damn hard writing.” Nathaniel Hawthorne. You know that the road to the success of your business online is paved with rich and informative content. The more content you generate and syndicate, the better.

Writing does not have to be an arduous or excruciating process for anyone. Writing involves a creative formulation of thoughts and ideas and the ability to put those thoughts and ideas on paper. The more you write the easier and more enjoyable it will become for you. It is critical to devote a certain amount of time to your writing each week, including the first phase, which is the thinking phase in the process. It is important to remember, of course, that your writing needs to satisfy (and please) your readers and the search engines. Remember to write in simple language that is easy for readers to understand.

Inspiration

Inspiration can come to you from many different places and many different people. You can train your mind to always be receptive to ideas around you, which you may be able to use in writing for your business. Possible inspiration is all around you. You just need to recognize it when you see and hear it. Another wonderful source of writing inspiration is people. You can glean ideas from conversations as well as other people’s writing.

Once you have decided upon the topic for your content, your next challenge is writing it in the most perfect way possible. With business writing, you run the risk of the content seeming dry (or even boring). With that in mind, it is very important to make sure that you keep your content as lively and interesting as possible. An excellent way to do that is to have some humor in your writing. Another good way to capture the attention of your readers is to open with a quote, which will lay the conceptual groundwork for the entire article (as was done here).

Passion

As a business person, you have a passion for whichever topics you are writing about. The topics (or concepts) are precisely the reason that you have chosen the business that you have chosen. You have a passion for your brand, products, services, website and business. Because of that passion, you have a guarantee that your writing about your business will be of high quality and exciting.

If you were to publish mediocre writing, you would be putting your business’s reputation and longevity in jeopardy. Your expertise and vast knowledge is critical to the success of your business and your successful writing of content, business articles and press releases for your website is an extremely important component for you and your business. You definitely will not be offering up fluff because you know that your readers will read right through the fluff and what keeps drawing them to your website and your content is your deep understanding and credibility in your area of expertise. Smoke and mirrors will ultimately not help you to help anyone or to sell anything.

Good qualifications

You are extremely well qualified to give advice, tips, tricks and other pearls of wisdom in your industry. With that said, if you are feeling insecure about smoothly converting your knowledge into words that other people will be drawn to, will find helpful and useful, and that will increase your business’s online reputation and exposure, the following tips will help.

• Always write and publish original content: Always providing original content to your readers is what will produce positive results when it comes to increasing your website traffic and ultimately allowing your business to become more successful. The idea of always providing content that is fresh and valuable and that hasn’t been written by anyone else anywhere else is critical to the success of your business. Of course, there will be other people who will write on similar topics; however, they will write differently than you will write. Duplicating other people’s content is never a good idea (not to mention that it is unethical) and you will also not please the search engines if you do that.
   
• Be meticulous about grammar, spelling and punctuation: You have finally reached the point where you are able to put your wonderful ideas on paper so that others may benefit from them. The last thing that you want or need is to have grammatical, spelling and/or punctuation errors in your content. Having mistakes in your content is one of the easiest ways to lose readers. Errors distract the reader from the content and they make a giant statement about your lack of attention to detail. If you are not confident that you will catch those types of errors, it is advisable to ask someone else who you feel is strong in that area to help you.
   
• Choose a writing style that works well: Everyone who writes has a unique “voice.” You need to establish your voice and stick with it consistently. Another thing to consider is that different voices are appropriate for different types of writing. For example, you will write differently for your business if you are selling auto parts than if you are an attorney who specializes in criminal law. The voice should come easily once you have really established your writing style.
   
• Have fun with writing: The more you write on topics about which you feel passionate, the more fun your writing experience will be. Additionally, once you start to see how offering high-quality content is paying off for your business, it will drive you to really want to write more and more.

Conclusion

Writing high-quality content will achieve several results, among them, your writing will compel people to come back to your website repeatedly. Great content is at the heart of the success of your business. The more content you write and publish, and then, subsequently syndicate to social media channels and business directories, the more people will notice what you are doing, be interested in what you have to say and want to build a relationship with you. So, keep writing as often and as much as you can. Content is the yellow brick road to a successful and exciting business.

We are pleased to provide you with the insightful comments contained herein. Please contact us at CompuKol Communications for further discussion on how we might be able to assist you and your team.

You might also like:

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