Blogging Basics

Whether you're writing a book, an article or a web copy, you need to have a basic background on topics that may not be related to the writing process itself than planning for it, for instance, your blog should have a distinctive voice and you need to know how to plan for your writing goals.

Words are powerful in business

Writing is not optional anymore.

It's becoming an essential business skill that is required for completing everyday jobs. When setting up our business, we made writing an essential part of any job description to empower our teams to write more and express their ideas. It also gives them a sense of belonging when they want what they wrote published in the main blog.

On the other hand, writing helps in organizing thoughts and increases the ability of a person to persuade and win arguments. The more you write the more you get to explore territories in your mind and thoughts that you never passed by before.

It gives you perspective. And although it might seem like a tough process from the outside. Writing is totally not having someone setting on his desk with a pip waiting for the inspiration to come.

This is what they did to us in fiction, But the truth is, Writing is more like engineering. Each day you build up a part of your first draft, you go home plan, plan for your next day adventure then come in the next day to add little more to your pile of papers. This is basically how you generate books and articles.

When writing for business, we are not expecting you to be the next Charles Dickens. All you need is the ability to communicate your ideas clearly and help other people absorb the benefits of your content easier.

Whether you’re writing for an eBook, an email series or a blog post, it’s almost the same process. First, you go with the prewriting phase in which you do the required research for your content before you go to the writing phase and putting everything you came across on paper to come for a first rough draft ready for the editing phase.

Of Course, it doesn’t always work this way. Sometimes you need to go back for further research to fill the holes in your content and it’s totally okay.

As long as you’re keeping your readers in mind and taking care of the writing basics, your efforts are not wasted.

Setting your writing goals

When you start with your wiring process, you might have heard that you should set to yourself a target of 7 articles per week. Well, for some people that might be encouraging, but for others that is just the start of the disappointment roller coaster.

So they set high goal today, then can't hit it. They come the other day and have this goal doubled, and by the end of the week, you're drown in the bottom of your frustration.

You started the week with an intent of finishing 7 articles, where did all the time go? How did all of this disappear in the black hole time?

Well, you were too busy focusing on what you haven't done and thinking about how much you're behind the schedule instead of putting your effort in the creative process.

Don't listen to what they tell you about writing. Create your own path. If you're a challenger and that keeps you going, set bigger goals and aim for the stars. But if that doesn't work for you, don't push yourself on it.

Get a paper and pen, then start writing down doable goals of the week that can be achieved. Like writing 700 words. Every day, you will be adding another page, another sentence and by the end you will find your big hairy task done without you even noticing.

But what kind of goals you should be sitting?

According to the planning giants of the world, your goal should be S.M.A.R.T. The following table outlines an example of how you can perfectly lay the ground for your goals:

This doesn't only help you create your content faster, but helps you cut through your fears as well by diving these scary one goal into small achievable goals. Whenever you doubt the effectiveness of this technique, remember that we tend to underestimate how much we can achieve by doing small amounts of work on a regular basis, and by making tiny changes.

Pick Your Fights and Readers

As in wars, a country can’t conquer all the world. They first need to define one strategic target to attack. This target should be accessible and easy to defeat.

The same with writing. You can't solve all the problems for all the readers. You need to find your ideal reader and write for him only. Your full focus and dedication should be devoted to helping out this person with his struggles.

When writing for the web, don’t talk about yourself or the services you master. You need to make it more about your reader. Tell him how you can make him happier. Inspire him to take actions and give away your secret recipes. The more you share, the more people will come for more. and only then they might think of communicating with you directly for business or just for being friends.

Defining your ideal reader is not a hard thing to do. You just need to know about your business or the business you’re writing for through an in depth research.

Quality Vs. Quantity

Should we write more content or should we write less with a higher quality?

For us, a good writer never compromises quality.

But why we should hang on to this if the recent studies and researches showed that writing more grows website visitors. And either it's a new eBook or article, it still contributes to your overall growth.

Let's take Hubspot for example, in a research performed on their customers in 2015, they found that writing more content helped them attract more visitors. But is that the ultimate goal?

Should content creation be all about generating a bigger number of visitors? Of course not.

After all, more websites visitors don't mean higher return on investment.

So when thinking about the importance of content, we think about the benefits it gives or the problems it heals. We think valuable content is the type that lasts and never wastes readers or online surfers time.

And because the world is moving towards producing more content, this doesn't mean you should be following the same approach without reflecting on your strategy and testing your capabilities of producing something of value and quality. Because even if you're writing a short blog post, you need to follow the standards.

But there are times when you definitely need to produce more content in shorter time so you need to train yourself on writing more content in less time.

Doing this doesn't take much time and can be done by implementing simple tips to twist the mindset of the person writing.

Shifting to we can if ...

When you're asked to write a book as a beginner writer, you might feel overwhelmed at first. You don't know how to starts and you might think to yourself that this task is almost impossible to be accomplished.

Words like " Impossible" " No way" or " I can't" are blocking for the writers' thoughts and unhealthy for any creative process. A recent research approved that the things we keep telling to ourselves are the things our mind believe to be true.

In their book, “A Beautiful Constraint” Adam Morgan and Mark Barden, show how organizations use constraints to kindle creativity and to innovate.
He didn’t let people start with “We can’t because.” He forced them to start with “We can if.” So, for example, instead of saying “We can’t use that type of new packaging because it will slow the line down,” the person would be forced to say “We can use that kind of new packaging if we run it on someone else’s line.”

When working with such techniques in writing, you should first list all the possible reasons why you wouldn't write. Your list may include reasons like:

• I have too many other things to do
  
• I don't know how to write
  
• I think my writings are not good enough
  
• I don't know what to write about
  
• I don't feel like writing today

After gathering all the reasons that may be stopping you from starting with your writing sprint, use " I can if " after every excuse so you could try:
"I can block some time in my schedule on a weekly basis to work on the book".

And this is how you can turn yourself from the victim mindset into the transformer mindset. According to the authors, a victim mindset tends to complain about not having a good chance or being given a hard to accomplish task. They find really comfortable to blame anything or anyone for the constraints they are facing even if sometimes not logical.

While a transformer mindset would feel energized by having challenges and problems to solve every day.

Victims and transformers are not personality types.

They are a status of mind through which you can shuffle easily by playing on these three strings:

• First, you need have faith. You need to believe that you can find a solution to write more or with better quality. This might seem like motivational speech and pep talks but the truth is without writing down your reasons to believe you can do something or pass a challenge, you're leaving all the constraints taking place in your mind and control over your willingness.
  
• Second, you need to find a method to get started. This could be through developing a simple habit that becomes a ritual by the end. For example, you can decide to start writing for at least 5 hours with full concentration every day so by the end of the week you get piles of papers and an almost finished article.
  
• Third, Motivation to find energy. And this bursts out of your root cause reason. In the root cause analysis methodology of problem solving, it's stated that for every action we do, there are many reasons that are not equally important. Some of them are obvious for anyone to see while others are buried down in soil. And it's your job now to dig deeper for these reasons.
  

Adding voice, tone and personality to your writing.

Do you ever read a book and feel like the reader is talking directly to you?

His words and the pictures he is painting are so vivid and you’re swimming in his world of beauty. You don't know what he is doing but suddenly, it's like you are almost hearing him talking while you are scrolling between the lines.

These types of pieces are unique but not because of being well structured. They contain what is more than just valuable information, a personality.

Animation and writing are almost identical when it comes to personality. Pixar calls a character with a personality a fully developed character. They note to it as character with both internal and external features. The external features are their design and what they look like. While internal features are basically their traits; are they insecure, brave or jealous.

A copy has both sides too. There are internal features like the word selection, the voice and the tone of the brand. While there are external features like the overall paragraph length, the caps usage and the punctuation.

Usually, a voice and tone are mistaken or used interchangeably. But this doesn't mean that they are the same thing.

There is a difference between the two concepts that can't be overlooked. When reading, we get a sense of a writer’s or the brand’s personality. This is what we refer to as voice. Word choice, sentence length, and rhythm help define your voice.

While the tone is basically how that voice varies with every situation. Just like when you talk, the tone of your writing can vary depending on your mood and your audience.

For example, when writing for advertising, you need to keep a tone of encouragement while when writing your company legal your tone differs to get more into being specific.

Keeping a unified voice and tone is not always easy, especially when there are many writers. That’s why brands create a writing guide that contains all their instructions on writing and punctuation hints. Any writer within the brand should refer back to this guide whenever working on any piece of content.

Word Choice

Few drops of lemon juice or a punch of caramelized onions can turn your bland dish into a top chef supreme recipe. Every ingredient can add a different flavor to your plate and cooking is much like writing, you can’t underestimate the power of a word to you overall voice.

Top chefs select every ingredient with care they smell it, taste it and try different mixes until they find the best combination. But best combinations take more than this in writing.

Writers usually fall into the trap of excessively using everyday words without mixing it with other sensory or powerful words so readers would feel like they are reading a shallow unengaging piece of content. You sound like everyone else.

When writing, your readers can only see you through your words. And it’s important to deliver every emotion and gesture you feel through arranging your words and shifting between different sentences length and sensory words.

The words you choose have different impressions and it’s up to you to shape your personality. Are you happy? Splendid? or feeling lifted up from earth?

And to select the perfect words, you need to first identify how you want to write by thinking in three different dimensions:

1. Jargons and everyday language usage

Think about your audience, does they understand technical terms or everyday language would be more suitable for them. Analyze how they talk in real life and try to communicate in a way that they can understand and find engaging as well.

2. What feelings you want to evoke

Humans have main 5 feelings that control their behaviors in case of extreme happiness or extreme sadness. And it’s up to you to choose which feelings you want to hit. Do you want readers to feel fear or optimism because of tomorrow.

3. Will you use seductive, sensory or emotional words

Every writer has his own way of flaming things on. They can create immersive experiences with sensory words like smell, sniff, sour, bland or colorful and use metaphors to get the meaning closer to the reader’s mind. Any piece of content can contain all types per what is more important is having them in rhythm.

In her blog post about playing with different words, Henneke illustrates how simple words can shift the entire sentence:

• The standard, drab version:

I’m a copywriter on a mission to improve web content.

• The power-puncher:

I write powerful copy for explosive conversions and skyrocketing sales.

• Another strong-armed copywriter:

I write damn good copy for businesses who must stand out in cut-throat competition.

• The competitor:

I write the ultimate sales-boosting copy so you can give your competitors the middle finger.

• The sparkling personality:

I’m a creative copywriter on a mission to add sparkle to boring web content.

• The seductress:

I write copy so seductive your favorite clients fall in love with your work.

• The sensory cook:

I cook up delicious copy, zesty emails, and tasty blog posts to help you grow your business.

• The quiet rebel:

I’m an irreverent copywriter on a mission to stamp out gobbledygook.

Picking words is art as much cooking. You can’t master it unless you have a fearless heart, passion towards writing better and of course a list of good words to choose from.

Creating this list is not a hard thing to do, you can even use google translation to bookmark the words you like most on the web then  export your favorites list into an excel sheet and print to be your reference when you need a spice up[ your content.

Henneke from enchanting marketing gives some of her best magical words and their effects on her blog post on the different types of powerful words saying that:
“ Weak words have a shallow meaning—they don’t make readers feel something and they don’t allow readers to visualize your words.
In contrast, power words tend to have strong meanings. They nudge people to take action—to download your report, to contact you for a quote, or to implement your advice.“

Punctuation

In school, we were asked to write essays or summarize a book, we often got into writing the body, the introduction and the conclusion. And once we got our grades we used to complain about not getting a higher mark because of punctuation. Who would waste his time with commas, apostrophes and semi-colons.

We seldom realize the importance of punctuation until we read sentences that are so embarrassing and wish to never fall in the same mistake like those writers.

In this magazine edition, the editor made a huge mistake by not using the proper punctuation for the sentence which totally destroyed the meaning.

A small comma can change a sentence form:

"Thank you. Your donation just helped someone. Get a job".

to:

"Thank you! Your donation just helped someone get a job".

So you know get that pun cation is important for meaning and it is as well for copy voice. Great writers spend much time refining and proofreading the content for spelling mistakes and misused punctuation.

Oscar wilde was one of these people:
I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again.

Again, punctuation changes your voice completely. It goes hand by hand with your word selection to put signs in your paragraph for readers to stop. Slow down, or feel excited!

Full-stops

The power of a full stop is usually underestimated when compared to an exclamation mark. However, a full stop can give you more authoritative and precise feeling in the copy. But using it too often Is boring. You don't want your readers to stop every now and then, you need to create a flow and sparkle some rhythm on your copy.

Commas

Your readers are in rush most of the time and when reading text that is free of punctuation they tend to skim than reading sentence by sentence until they find a full-stop at the end of the line. Commas help you make softer pauses in your content that content rather than an interrupting end.

Question marks

You may think that writing is a monologue. You are the writer. You share your thoughts.

But empathetic writers engage their readers with questions.

Exclamation marks

Do you ever go through a text and find it all screaming at your face? There are exclamation marks everywhere and the writer is CAPS as well. But how this kind of text is supposed to evoke feelings?

The excessive use of exclamation is known is an indicator of laziness in the writer's world. Because why use an exclamation mark while you can use a strong word to give the same feeling. Instead of writing a very powerful tornado! try a destructive tornado.

Hubspot outlined the cases in which an exclamation mark is allowed in one infographics with a spoiler alert; Don't use it.

The process of blog post writing

Writing a blog post for the first time can be overwhelming so instead of thinking of it as a whole, chop the task into small doable phases.

• Idea generation
  
• Outlining
  
• Writing a crappy first draft
  
• Editing
  
• Formatting
  

Now, let's tackle each point individually.

Stage one: Idea Generation

In most cases you will have already a pre settee topic to write about so you won't have much problem as long as you are not the one planning the strategy only the you will need to generate ideas.

And this is not hard task if you keep a swipe file near you all the time and once you read something interesting or have an idea you write down in one place and keep it for later.

At the beginning of your day, start by flipping through the pages of your swipe file and highlight the ideas that you're most excited as much as your readers.

If you don't have a swipe file you need to have one immediately. Start browsing and search for topics that readers you're targeting will be most interested to hear about. Spend 30 mins in brainstorming then write down all your ideas no matter how crazy or stupid they seem. Filter and pick the best one from your reader's perspective.

Working Title

Write down your working title, which is a title that is a basically (A how to do anything). This title is not the final thing it's only there to outline your scoop of wiring and unify your ideas around one key message.

That's why you need to make sure that your working title explains how your reader will benefit from your post? Which problem it solves and what he will learn?

Do a basic research

To know more about the topic, you will write about and figure your post outline, you need to do a basic research. Let's say that we are writing a blog post about the eCommerce industry.

You can start by a basic thing like writing the keyword in Google and browsing to see the results. Create a mind map that has your main keyword in the middle and the subs resulting from your first Google search.

There are many ways for doing your basic research. If you have time, you may start your research by reading a book on that topic. Or you can flip through different books addresses and check their indexes for inspiration. Whatever your most suitable way is, you will eventually come up with a mind map and that is all you need for the next step.

Stage Two: Outlining your post

By now you have formed an idea about how your post will be putted out, all you have to do is to document that outline in a logical manner, so you start placing your subheads until you reach the end of your blog post.

While outlining your post keep in mind that the topics generated are only guidelines for your thinking process. You can always edit them later and anything you think is missing or should be added.

Do a thorough Research

There many different types of content that can included in any blog post like quotes, statistics, interviews, infographics, reviews, stories, facts and scientific researches. When doing your research keep a note with all the things you think should be included into your content to add substance.

Writing your first draft

If you ask any writer in the world what's the hardest part of the writing process, they would definitely tell you coming up with their first drafts is a journey to hell.

You have to deal with all the insecurities and possibilities of things going wrong. Your inner critic will keep telling you that your quality is not god enough. Your writing is full of cracks. Your piece of content is not valuable enough for readers. And fighting all this requires courage and a strong desire of getting your thoughts out.

Writing is a lonely process and while working on your first draft, ignore everything that pops up to your mind and only focus on getting your ideas on paper because they are out there you can freely edit and refine until you're satisfied with the results.

While writing you need to set the environment around. Make sure it's a comfortable place that intense your creative energy. There is no ideal atmosphere for writing and it differs from one person to another.

Don't feel guilty that like listening to music while writing or because you love the dead silence around. We have different brains that processes information in various ways and maybe some cafe white noise in the background could be helpful sometimes.

What you need to understand that there are two different moods for writing, the creative mood and the productive mood. In the creative mood, you're thinking about metaphors, and trying to select shinny words. While the productive mood, you're trying to get as much possible as done. You're putting all your ideas on paper and focusing more on quantity.

In both moods, you need to get yourself away from being interrupted. Turn off your phone, stop any kind of notifications that might get you distracted and write as fast as you can. Don't worry about grammar, punctuation or using the perfect words because you can always get back to this in the editing phase.

It's better to follow the following sequence in writing specially when writing for the first time as it gets you to do more less time:

1. Skip the opening paragraph for now

We know it's usual to be told this but these a few lines are enough to make you confused and doubtful. Should you start with a question or a fact? Should the opening be surprising or should you tell a story? What will readers like better and what makes them go through the whole article?

When you keep repeating these questions to yourself, it's easily to get distracted. Also in the beginning you don't have the full story yet created in your mind and you might need to add extra topics later that may inspire you to write a different opening paragraph.

2. Work in sprints

Set your timer for a certain period of time that repeats on a continuous basis. Let's say 30 mins. And keep a paper and pen to record your progress. For example, you may have a target of writing 700 words a day and you start writing at 10:00 am in the morning and each 30 mins you take a 5 min break to refresh and then hit another sprint.

You may hit that target in the first two or three hours. Keeping a record will help you define your productivity per hour so you can know for later how to improve and measure the time required for writing articles.

Keep writing in sprints until you bring the first draft to the light. Depending on how fast you write, the topic you're tackling and the length of the post the time will vary, but try to always limit yourself with one day for any blog post.

3. Delay the final paragraph

It's similar to the opening paragraph. It takes time to think about how you should encourage your readers to buy from you or subscribe in your mailing list and it’s not something that can be written in a hurry.

Stage Three: Writing a crappy first draft

After this phase you will have a draft of the article body but you're still missing 3 essential parts:

The headline

Which you will need to have more than one draft for it to compare and select the most relevant one.

The Opening paragraph

That must be catchy enough to grab the readers' attention and make them read sentence by sentence until the end of the article.

The ending paragraph

With an inspiring call to action that encourages readers to act on now and remove obstacles from their way.

Later in this chapter we will be discussing how to do these three parts in detail.

Stage Four: Editing

In this stage, you get to feel relieved from all the guilt. This is where you edit your post and spot on issues that has burning in the back of your mind. And in order to do this, follow this simple checklist extracted from the revision process illustrated at the end of the chapter:

• Remember the headlines you generated? It's time to pick the one that is most convenient to your readers and place it as final title for your article.
  
• Look through all the subheads you've wrote and ask yourself, will readers feel excited to continue after reading this subhead? If not, then your subhead needs more spices and a rewrite maybe a good solution.
  
• Read your content sentence by sentence and edit each one. Ask yourself if each sentence gives an extra meaning to your flow, if not then it's better to chop it off.
  
• Spot on the weakness points like flabby adverbs, weak words and jargon. Use the guide of the weak words in this chapter as a beacon in your editing phase.
  
• Check for grammar and spelling mistakes.
  

Stage Five: Formatting

Breath. You're almost there with a final draft that is proofread. Now it's time for making it ready for publishing. Start by finding pictures that illustrate what you wrote. Include diagrams. Look for custom illustration and try making your blog post more vivid by using a variety of pictures.

If you recall writing a post that is related, try referring to in this new blog post and vice versa. By the end of the fifth stage, you will have a polished and published piece of content that is ready for social media promotion.

Writing headlines

Imagine receiving a party invitation that says 98 out of 100 people may read only your headline, and fewer than 2 of them click through.

If your headline is not attractive enough, then all the efforts put into the blog production process is in vain. Readers are skimmers and in order to hook them you need a bold and eye grabbing headline.

However, writing misleading headlines for the sake of gaining more clicks has the opposite effect on your as your web ranking. It affects your authority and leave a bad reputation about your blog because online readers share what is useful and warn others about heroine content.

The art of writing headlines

Writing headlines is both art and science. It's an art because you still need to ensure the headline is catchy, looks good and memorable enough. And science because you have to be strategic while deciding it.

For instance, composing irresistible headlines doesn’t start with applying a nifty formula. Instead, start with getting to know your readers. Understand which issues keep them tossing and turning at night. Find out why they can’t make up their minds. Ask them what they’re struggling with. Answer their most burning question.

And in general, your headline must have these 4 characteristics:

1. Meaningful and reflective of the content your article presents and of value to your audience. 
   
2. Respectful for your readers' experience and their expectations of the value they will get after investing their time in reading what you wrote.
   
3. Exciting and inviting for readers to click through and explore the topic discussed.
   
4. Concise and communicating one single message to readers.
   

1. Questions

Start your headline with a question word that entices the niche you're writing for and touches the truth seeker inside them. You could start with (How - How to – When – What – Why – Who –  Where) or even an outrageous / hypothetical question that start starts with what if.

This formula works because it makes readers curious to know more about the topic. It also promises an answer to a problem we are facing. You can simply create it by digging deep in the industry to know what are the burning questions and problems then capitalize on it in your headlines. The more specific you get with this type of headlines, the more it gets attractive for your readers.

2. Case Study

Usually, people look for evidence and in detail processes to follow. They are curious about the way things came out to be in this way. In case study headlines, you are supposed to provide the reader with a glance of how you or another company or person solved a certain problem so it works as an inspiration and guidance for them at the same time.

A case study can be a story from your business backstage or a valuable insight from a project you have been working on. In both cases, remember to add specific details and share your most valuable tips.

3. Comparison

When buying a mobile phone, a laptop or even a new hairdryer, people tend to look up things online first before buying it. They simply type a keyword Vs. a keyword and expect to find a solution to their problems. And this is exactly where you're going to step in to provide an advice for your wondering readers.

Comparisons shouldn't be only about products or services. You can use this formula to shift people's mindset and refute theories. You can also use this formula to provide your opinion on the most trending debates of the industry.

4. Mistakes

We hate making mistakes because it affects our self esteem especially when they are silly ones. That's why when writing about your mistakes you can grab people's attention because they want to avoid it or because they have made it and want to solve the situation now.

When writing this headline adopt your readers mindset and try to imagine all the possible things that might have gone wrong with them and highlight how this can be solved easily. Shedding some light on the errors you have made too makes you look more human and gets people to interact with you.

5. Lists

List posts are most effective when you have tips to share with other people or when there are books, quotes or generally when you have small chunks of information that readers can quickly learn and implement.

You can use this formula when writing. And keep in mind that list posts are not superficial and should have the same value as any type of posts.

6. Surprising facts

Sometimes you will have outstanding findings to share with the 2:07 world or conclusions that you came across after trying a product or going through a project development like why strategy A is never as good as strategy B. These stuff make a really good meat for your headline writing.

When using surprising facts in the headline make sure that they are really surprising because you don't want share basics and write surprising after it. These type of headlines are kind of risky for your reputation so you have to make sure that the information you're providing is accurate and tested.. at least from your point of view.

Because headline formulas are infinite and writers are innovating in every way possible to grab their readers' attention with every word and piece even if that meant cursing or using the F word in their headlines.

Remember that headlines are the most important part of any piece you write so it's fine to invest time tailoring it. Come up with at least 10 headlines before selecting your final and use different formulas and powerful words.

You need to understand that writing writing headlines and writing in general requires practice so the more headlines you come up with for each post the better you train your writing muscles.

Writing opening paragraphs

Headlines hook your readers to start exploring the post.

A catchy sentence of 5 words can make them click through but it's not enough to make them read through.

And that's the rule of an opening paragraph.

Readers are looking for someone who experienced something similar to what they are going through and can help with an advice.

It's not hard to empathize with your readers and you can start out with on of the following ideas.

1. Addressing directly

You can start your article with a question or fact using the word " you" to grab reader's attention. Put yourself in their shoe and describe a situation in which they would feel stuck then ask something like:

Do you ever read back a draft of your writing and wonder what happened?

2. Telling a story

People relate to stories in which heroes are facing troubles as theirs. It touches their feelings as they can recognize the pain.

When writing a blog post this technique is really effective but you should limit the story to take only a small portion of your article. For example, if your article consists of 1000 words, the story could be 100 words or less.

One of the really good examples for blogging stories is the what Henneke does in her articles about blogging:
With a deep sigh, Helen Fields switches on her PC. Another Monday. Another article to write about leadership.
“Hasn’t everything been written already?”

3. Sharing your experience

Instead of making up a story, you can tell yours. Start with the problem then reveal that you faced it too or you can tell the story in a way that shows you're the one having troubles from the beginning like" I used to have issues with my children".

Blogging is like having a conversation with a close friend. You don't need big intros to talk to him, instead you use simple words to describe the situation and get him with the flow.

Writing ending paragraphs

You have reached to the end of your blog visitors are almost leaving. Since you're a good host and provided beneficial tips, you can let them leave without a proper goodbye that they would remember you for.

But how to do this?

By the end of the article your reader might be a little confused about what to do next and as a good friend, your duty is to show support.

Imagine him reading your article, what are the things you think he might have missed while reading and what are the things holding him back from starting right away.

Address your readers' concerns and remind them of the reasons why this could help them in different ways.

Keep in mind that you were writing this article at first place to help them out with an issue so at the ending paragraph you can ask them directly to " Start exercising today" and always use short sentences that are full of power mixed with one of the following techniques:

1. Repeat the essence

When you're writing a long post, it's easy for readers to forget the key message you're trying to communicate so in the ending paragraph you can empathize on the one thing you want your readers to remember.

2. Link to the introduction

When you start your article with a metaphor or a story, it makes you look smart when you end it with a referral to the opening part. This technique is usually used in presentations to wow the audience of how things are connected and can be used in writing for the same reason as well.

3. Remind them of the consequences and reasons

You shouldn't look scary when doing this. And instead of making them panic if they didn't follow your advice, make them want to follow it by using an encouraging language that makes them aspire to implement your plan because the results of its effective results that meets their reasons and end goals.

4. Motivational Speech

Reader maybe exhausted and stressed out of all the solutions they tried and didn't work. Maybe because the problems they are facing a too big for them to handle so you need to give them a pep talk that courage's them to start and blows the spirit of excitement again in their souls.

5. Make them feel they can, too.

Since you're the expert, readers may stats doubting their ability getting things done in perfect way as you do. They don't see the many times you've failed or the struggles you have been through and telling them about this part is a good way of ending your article with a comforting message that makes them feel they have a companion.

Turning your draft into shining content

You just finished your first draft. You know the flaws and mistakes of every inch. You want to work on fixing them but your mind keeps pushing you to procrastinate. DON'T.

Leaving your draft editing for a week later is a dangerous thing to do in the world of writing. In the beginning, you will feel like it's a super easy to do thing but with time, it becomes a burden and you start feeling not like it.

It's recommended to leave your draft for a day or two to give your mind a space to get away from the ideas always poured on paper. Then on the third day out can start editing with a focus on the good things you produced and plan of fixing the bad things.

You should keep in mind that there is a difference between revising and editing and that Turns your draft into shinny content requires passing by three steps:

1. Revision

Checking the sufficiency of content and the clearness of the key message.

2. Editing

Checking sentences, the writing voice and choosing the right words.

3. Proofreading

Checking for grammar mistakes, misspellings and punctuation.

Revision

1. Define one core message

As we agreed, the revision process is about making your core benefit crystal clear for readers. In a blog post, it's usually the main idea behind writing the post that strikes.

If you followed an organized technique while writing you probably now have an outline that would help you turn each point and use it to lead the reader towards the desired action. But if you free wrote your article, you will first have to make your content focused.

And in both cases Try reading your draft quickly to define the actions you expect readers to take and why this article matters. When you do this you may discover new ideas that needs to be added so don't panic and list them all down to consider them later.

2. Content Flow

Remember when reading a novel and for a few moments you feel that you're not here anymore? Like a hole was opened beneath you and swallowed you into the character world?

This is what you can call a good flow. The sentences and the ideas of the novel were so logically ordered that you immersed yourself within it. And this is the exact experience you need your article to create for the readers.

If you outlined the article already then may have to do some slight touches to the draft like moving one chapter ahead of another or using a story somewhere else.

But in case of free writing, you will need to rethink the whole thing. You will find some ideas falling in place while others maybe out of scoop so remember that you can't keep all the ideas and it doesn't matter how much you find the concept brilliant, if it doesn't fit with the overall flow of your website, then you can't force it.

After the edits, and to check your content flow, read it all aloud if ignoring all the misspellings and the punctuation flaws. What you need to check is the logic flow of ideas, any extra forced ideas that can be removed and any important missing ideas.

3. Adding substance

After chopping off the irrelevant parts you might feel like your post is lacking information. And let's be honest about it, if your content is average, not a 10 hours editing session can fix this.

The solution is pretty simple, it is the time of going back to your ideas list and doing further research to add more meaningfulness to your message.

You need to understand that substance has nothing to do with the post length and it's mainly about the depth of your insights and the values you're offering.

Editing

By now you have your article fully written with a harmonic ideas flow and great value for your readers and the goal of the editing stage is to maximize the benefits of this article.

Careful editing has a magical power on well written content the same as ... has on precious stones. And just like a jeweler treats a diamond you have to deal your piece of content and we assume that you really perceive it that way regarding the time and effort you have given so far to come up with it.

So how do you polish your content?

To understand this, you need to get back to the basics of writing. Back in school when you used to put a word beside another to formulate a sentence. Then a sentence by a sentence to formulate a paragraph. Then a paragraph beside a paragraph... got the idea right?

It's eventually about the small parts. You can't edit a whole article at once you need to divide it into pieces then audit each one with care.

1. First, eliminate the weak words
   
2. Second, get rid of wordiness
   
3. Third,  use sensory words
   
4. First, check your sentences compositions
   
5. Second, check for sentences transitions
   
6. Third, check for rhythm
   

Eliminating weak words

Even great writers can find it hard to choose the right words. And because writing is part art and part science, you can easily learn the bad words diagnosed over time with science and use your artistic sense to replace them with powerful ones.

It's mainly like collage. You are playing with sentences and words like if you're trying new clothes everyday. You pick different styles and sometimes you choose to create your own mode. But be careful of those types while letting your fashionista out to the world:

Type 1: Unnecessary accessories

Like the extra socks or the silly hats our mothers forced us to wear when we were kids, there are unnecessary and meaningless words that we put ourselves into the content. And as much as these clothes chucked us, the words we add are also chunking for our readers. When revamping your content you need to chop of all the words that are similar to:

• Very, actual, in my opinion, really, just.
  

Type 2: Wearing "Okay" shirts

We all have regular and everyday shirts. These are easy to wear clothes but can easily get you out of style of formed your entire clothes. Your content can get out of style too if you used these words too often. And as you still get to wear your comfortable clothes with care, use these words with care as well:

• Them, it, there, he, and other pronouns.
  
• Is, are, was and other forms of to be.
  

Type 3: Old fashion glamour

We all love our old clothes. They were once cool stuff but now they better stay in our closet. There are some words that were once powerful as well but as time went by, they lost their strong sensation and turned into a cliche and better not tb be used.

• Ultimate, Stunning, amazing, wonderful.
  

Type 4: High copy / First Copy

They seem like they give you a style or a good look but they only look cheap as much as the words that have no meaning. For instance: What is a good design? Do is it mean functional, interactive or beautiful?

• Nice, bad, effective.
  

Type 5: Get rid of wordiness:

We all ramble sometimes or at least we know someone who expresses his ideas in too much words while it could have used simple words. And as much as we get annoyed by those who ramble in writing we should avoid it in our articles.

1. Too long sentences

You are enjoying the conversation that you keep talking without noticing that you're wearing off your reader.And to spot on this wordiness you need to:

• Get your get done with the whole editing phase and then read sentence by sentence to spot on the longest ones, chop them in half and remove unnecessary words.
  
• Read your sentences one by one again for a final refine and make every word count.
  

2. Too complex Words

When writing, we sometimes use complex words to communicate our ideas or even to show off our vocabulary. And to avoid using jargon in writing try reading your content aloud to an imaginary reader. By predicting his reactions you will be able to spot on places where your ideas are not clearly communicated.

3. Overwhelming look

Before publishing any piece of content, check the overall look of it. If your sentences are good but chunked in one place, then you need to replace big block texts with a maximum 6 lines paragraphs.

Fixing Transitions

Moving from one idea to another needs flexible transitions. Just like in manual cars, if you move from one speed level to another when the car is not ready, the engine stops and so does your readers when you shuffle quickly between ideas.

And to gradually get your readers ready for the shift you need to use one of the following techniques:

1. Transitional Words

You can use transitional words to link between two sentences that are in relation with each other:

• And
  
• But
  
• Or
  
• However
  
• In contrast
  
• Because
  
• For instance
  
• So
  

2. Transitional questions

Questions are also a good way of moving between ideas. For instance, you can have a conversation with your readers and ask them directly if they are ready to move on:

• Ready to get started?
  
• Sound good?
  
• Shall we begin?
  

3. Transitional Sentences

To keep your readers on the same page with you, you need to keep your words connected even when explaining one idea by using sentences like:

• Let me explain why.
  
• And now comes the best part.
  
• Not only that.
  
• What’s more.
  
• Even more importantly.
  

4. Pronouns

Words like they, it, he, her play a similar role as word connectors, but you have to be careful what or whom the pronoun refers to.

Proofreading

It's easy to fall into depression when you see a typo. Like great readers don't mix between their and there . Well, they do and this is not the end of the world.

When you enter the proofreading phase with a doubtful mindset in your abilities it's easy to get frustrated after the first few lines. Leave all the worry at home. You have been writing a shitty draft, if you found it too polished, only then you need to worry.

And to have a less painful proofreading process, you can follow these tips:

1. Use a spellchecker

There are plenty out there but we recommend using grammarly or ginger as they are most advanced when it comes to correction. And what is always better is to use both of them (of course, if you have time).

2.  Proofread on paper

Whenever available, print your article and use a pen to follow line by line and spot on the little typos and punctuation goofs.

3. Use our checklist

These checklist of common writing mistakes to keep track of the things you should be looking for.

Stop wasting time on blaming yourself and care less about word correction until you arrive at this phase. Most importantly, learn to trust the process.

Blogging hacks

Writing a blog post faster

The illusion of writing takes time

When you have a lot of things to do on your schedule an article will surely be your last priority. Why? Because we all have this image in our minds that writing must take time.

Great authors took years to come up with their bestselling books so we have to do the same. Well, that's totally untrue.

Great authors have their own cases. They write books that are innovate and requires a lot of thoughtfulness a research behind it so they follow a different writing methodology.

While you and me are blogging for businesses that are trying to solve actual readers' problems on ground. We are not innovating theories, philosophies or equations. And when something innovative is done, it's our role to document it.

You simply have to pitch on the reader's problem and solve it so this doesn’t take a year or even a month to be done. If you are aware enough of what you're writing about, it's just a matter of days to get your first version completed.

The more time you think your writing process will take the more time it will consume.

According to Parkinson law "Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion." Meaning that, the more time you give for a blog post, the more time it will take. If you decided that a blog post will take two days, the work will expand and take it all. So don't fool yourself with the fact that writing process takes days.

To write with fast base you can simply follow these tips:

Use simple post structure

A Post that is built entirely upon a metaphor will probably consume more time to be structured. Also, using many stories and complex structures will leave you disappointed with your progress if you're working on a tight schedule.

Use an easy headline formula

 How-To headlines and tips are easy to generate and shows the benefit behind your article without much effort.

Collect your ideas once and for all

Do your research and collect all the tips you want to provide in the article. The main ideas should be positioned as subheads while the subsidiary tips are explained in further detail under each subhead.

Write your introduction

You can start writing it at the beginning but this might consume time until you figure out the perfect kick starting technique.

Set a timer for editing because it could take you ages toe did a blog post and you will never get done with refinement without a putting a limit to yourself.

Much easier right? So what is the secret?

It's all about brainstorming and normalizing your ideas first before going ahead and writing your blog post. However, good writing takes time. That's true.

Avoid writing holes

It happens all the time. You're in the middle of your writing flow then suddenly, an idea pops up or you remember a TED talk that is related to the topic you're wiring about. You close your draft and go online to search for and totally forget about your article. This is when you fall into the hole.

The next time this happens write and describe the thing you want to go search for. By the end of your draft writing, you can simply use Ctrl+F to find the places where you had  and start replacing them with real content.

Writing while groggy

A recent research discovered that we are more creative when we are at our groggiest conditions because our inner critic is still asleep. This means if you're a night owl you should write in the early hours of the day and if you're an early bird, you may want to try wiring at late.

Setting timer

When working on a tight schedule, this helps you focus more to done. When setting a timer for 25 mines and watching time ticking away while you only write 100 words, you will definitely find a way to write more... faster.

Adopt the right writing mindset

When you keep telling your mind that you must finish this article today, this becomes more like a task not an enjoyable word playing process. So instead of telling yourself " I must write 2000 words per day" try a more encouraging self-talk like " I love to write today as much as I can".

Make a specific commitment

This trick is described in the “British Journal of Health Psychology.” Researchers found that understanding the benefits of exercise doesn’t increase the amount of exercise we do.

What makes us stick to an exercise regime is the simple act of writing down when exactly we’re going to exercise next week.

So, at the end of your day it's healthy to outline the tasks you need to do for tomorrow and assign it to a specific timetable.

Use an outline for your writing process

Whether you have a writing routine that keeps you productive or you will be following our routine of idea generation, research, outlining, writing first draft, revising, editing and formatting. you need to chop it into stages.

So, at the end of your day it's healthy to outline the tasks you need to do for tomorrow and assign it to a specific timetable.

Writing with more clarity

We know t struggle. You have a lot of ideas in mind but when you put them on paper it feels like a roller coaster. You keep rolling round the main idea without hitting the point. Why this happens? Probably you are doing one of these four mistakes:

1. You don't have a clear destination in mind

You are just wandering randomly without a defined key message to deliver. And without a map for your content, you can't possibly communicate. So let us show you how you can do it as professional:

• If you haven't written down the purpose of your content or that purpose is too wide, you need to have another one that is narrow enough to be defined, clear enough to understood and important enough to attract readers.
  
• Create a mind map of all things you want to include into your post and narrow the topics down.
  

2. Your post is free of signs

Your article is an unknown for your readers. They need signs to show them the way and assure that they are taking the right direction. Using subheads as signs is a good technique to keep readers engaged.

3. Avoid complex metaphors

Painting visual pictures makes your content more vivid. But using too complex metaphors makes it dull not smarter. If you want to describe something, use simple words for this. Don't be strict professor in three idiots movie.