Write about what you know
Fact: There are currently over 75 million blogs. WOW!
Obviously you MUST stand out. It’s the how that’s the trick. The easiest place to start is to take an inventory of the hobbies and interests you have. When you discuss things that you are passionate about, that passion pours out through to your readers.
Research
Now that you have selected a topic you are passionate about you must learn more! Keep up to date with current events with your topic. Take time to learn the lingo. These basic steps will not only help you to come up with topics to write about, but they will help you to write intelligently, and to include those all important keywords and hot topics that will attract your readers.
Have a Plan
Before you write your first article you need to decide your plan.
Determine the Purpose
This is really a subset of number three. Why are you writing your articles? Do you want to sell the best blue widget ever? Are you trying to sell ad space and therefore want to attract any and all forms of traffic? Do you want to inform your audience about the differences in products or sell them off of the article? Most authors never think this through. They just sit down and begin to type. If you don’t know why you are writing how will your audience, and if they don’t know how effective will you be?
Entertain
The average online audience has an extremely small attention span. This is true whether you are selling, teaching, or simply writing for the fun of it. In order to engage you need to also entertain. The level of entertainment required will depend on your subject matter and your audience but do yourself a favor and don’t bore your audience to death. Case in point: the iPhone fart app pulls in over $10,000 a day.
Inform
Selling 101, don’t just give a list of features. You need to understand your audience and what they want. Then give it to them. That’s it. The best content development writers understand this and keep it in the forefront of their minds. If your selling blue widgets don’t tell me that it is blue and made in China. Tell me how it will change my life. Tell me why I NEED it.
Keep it Original
Your work needs to be your own. Shortcuts may sound like a great idea, but shortcuts don’t breed lasting success. Creating original content will make you more successful and give you a reason to be proud of your success.
Keep on Track
Remember that plan you made back in step 3? Make sure that you follow it. If you allow your content to wander you will miss your target and lose your audience. The best method is to quickly review your purpose before and after completing new content.
Size Matters
HaHa. Seriously though, articles need to be at least 450 words to be accepted to most places on the web. This is also a good idea as extremely short articles don’t give your audience enough content to keep coming back. In the same token most articles should be below 800 words. If your articles are larger than this you will tend to lose your readers somewhere in the middle.
Make sure you have readers
This goes back to marketing. You can have the best content in the world but if no one reads it you have failed. Make sure you have a plan and are marketing your product well.
10 Steps to Writing Killer Content!