A Content Writers Guide to The Copy Writing Process
February 26th, 2010
A Content Writers Guide to The Copy Writing Process
As any professional content writer will concur, there is a lot more to content writing than just writing! While it would be incredibly convenient and far less time consuming if all copy writers had to do was write but as experienced website owners and bloggers know, creating quality web content is a process which can be broken down into 4 key stages.
Pre-writing is the first stage and is where a content writer gathers their thoughts. The objectives in the pre-writing stage are to understand the writing task at hand, and to research the relevant information required to complete it. Mapping, brain storming and free writing are all techniques that are frequently used by professional freelance writers to help them create an outline or plan for the written task.
Drafting is the second stage of the process. The objectives in the drafting stage are to bring together the information you have gathered and formulate a coherent piece of text that will inform, interest and persuade the reader. During drafting the content writer will order the information and structure it for presentation to the audience.
Reviewing & Editing is the third of the 4 writing stages. The objectives during review and edit are to fine tune your work and ensure the effectiveness of the content. Good content writers are meticulous in this stage and remove any technical, grammatical or spelling errors. Non-contributory sentences are omitted and the writer is left with a well-written piece of copy that serves the purpose for which it is intended in a concise manner.
Proofreading is the final stage in the process, in which, the content writer makes a final review of the content and double checks for errors. This is the part of the process that tends to get neglected and many content writers attempt to undertake the task of proofreading too quickly. After completing your copy, put it aside and forget about it for a while before starting to proofread. Another excellent tip is to use a hard copy to proofread.
Using this simple 4 stage writing process to create your web content will help you improve the quality and your also your skills as a competent content writer. It is attention to detail that will ensure that any mistakes are picked up before your readers see it and thereby show you to be credible authority in your niche. Remember, you do not have to be the fastest content writer in the world, but you should strive to deliver quality in your copy.
A Content Writer Guide To Audiences
February 25th, 2010
A Content Writer Guide To Audiences
One of the benefits to hiring a professional, experienced content writer to create your web content is that they often have a superior knowledge of audiences. Understanding your audience, or target market, enables you to create content that speak in a style and voice that directly appeals to the visitors to your website.
The history of audience research and the relationship between media and reader or listener is incredibly complex. A good content writer, who is both experienced and academically qualified can produce web content that captivates their imagination and draws them to your product, simply by employing their knowledge of what is known in academic circles as “Media Effects”.
Whether your product is an e-book on quitting smoking or a eco-friendly garden shed it has a target audience and that audience has specific wants, needs and desires. Knowing your audience is the first step to creating web content that appeals to the readers that visit your website. As a professional content writer who is often commissioned to create large amounts of content for high profile websites, one of the tools I employ is to create a profile or pen portrait of a typical buyer for the website.
Let us imagine your product is home theater equipment. Who would buy it? What age would they be? What could their occupation or income be? Are they more likely to be male or female? While you can never rule out the occasional trendy millionaire who happens to be an 80 year old woman and loves watching the latest horror flick, the likelihood is that will not be an every day occurrence. The likelihood is, your typical buyer will be male and for now we will call him Thomas. Thomas is probably between the ages of 21 and 50, middle to upper class, with a relatively high disposable income. How do we know this? Home theaters are not cheap and to have a home theater you need a fairly large home.
Thomas is your typical audience to who your content should be directed. What other things can you assume about Thomas? How would Thomas speak to his friends? What other things would Thomas like to do? Is Thomas the quiet type or is he a loud confident type? Once you have established all you can about Thomas, you can choose your writing style and “voice”.
We all adjust the way we speak or ‘our voice’ to suit the environment we are in. For example, if we met the president or the queen our ‘voice’ would be different than it would if we were, say, in the bar with our friends because we want to fit in with those around us. It is the same principal at work for a content writer. The key is to make your content ‘fit in’ with the end user who will be buying your product. Make the buyer feel like you are talking directly to them, that you understand them and more importantly that you understand what they want.
Understanding your audience is a pivotal part of becoming a competent content writer. Professional freelance writers go through the process of identifying the target audience, creating a pen portrait and establishing the appropriate style and voice very quickly and with practice, you will too!
A Content Writer’s Guide to Improving Your Proofreading
February 25th, 2010
A Content Writer Guide to Improving Your Proofreading
All experienced content writers understand that putting words on the page is merely the first stage of composing high quality web content. As with any form of writing, there is a process of proofreading, editing and revising that is required to ensure your copy is error free.
Proofreading is a skill that many content writers find difficult. Rather than checking their web content for errors during a read through, they simply read it in their own mind and miss what can be quite obvious mistakes. Another common error that content writers make is to rely too heavily on software, such as Microsoft Office to pick up errors through spell check.
As a professional writer with 17 years experience in the field, one would assume that proofreading would be second nature for me. It is not! There are key tips and tricks that professional freelance writers employ to check their work and it is these strategies that will be shared here.
First and foremost, when you have written your piece of web content, give yourself a period of time before you proofread. Set the text aside for at least a few hours and allow your mind to clear. Reading with fresh eyes is more likely to result in you picking up on your errors and where possible, you should review a hard copy.
Next, read your text aloud at a slower pace than you would normally read. This tends to highlight any grammatical errors and help the content writer to determine if the web content reads as they intended. The way the text flows is very important in sustaining the interest of the reader.
While spell check and other such software facilities are useful, they should not be relied upon too strongly. If you must rely on something, make it your dictionary. Remember, that all software packages are set to a default, for example, US English or UK English. If you intend your copy to be read by a particular market, ensure your software is set appropriately.
Another effective way to ensure all errors are uncovered is to check for each type of error individually using a checklist. Read through once for spelling mistakes, again for grammatical errors and so on. Make your amendments on the hard copy using different coloured pens to ensure you correct each error you discover.
Finally, never be afraid to ask someone else to double check your content. Even the most experienced content writers do this! If you do not have anyone else on hand that you could entrust with this task, most professional writing services, including my own, offer a proofreading service at very reasonable cost.
Your business relies on your ability to effectively communicate with your readers and for them view you as an competent authority in your field. Implementing these strategies and developing your proofreading skills will help you to become a more competent and more effective content writer who will be viewed as a trusted authority.
Content Writers – The Importance of Researching Freelance Writers When Outsourcing Your Web Content
February 23rd, 2010
Outsourcing your web content can be a tricky business and when you are seeking a content writer for your website or blog, it is vitally important that you do due diligence and research any freelance writers you are considering working with.
Essentially, anyone can set up a website call themselves a writer. They can and do make wild claims about their expertise when in reality, they have very little knowledge or experience. Freelance writers are not created equal and often the ‘expert’ writer you are paying to enhance your rankings or convert your visitors is totally incapable of doing so. In short, you could be paying a content writer to produce content which is of no higher quality than you could write yourself for free!
This is not to say that web writers are completely unnecessary, or that they are all a bunch of charlatans. Quite the contrary, they can offer exceptional value to your website. However, you have to find a freelance writer who has the knowledge, experience and skill to craft articles that have SEO benefits while captivating your readers.
There are several ways you can research a freelance writer, check the quality of their work and establish if they are an authority in their field. Always remember, that there are plenty of writers out there and therefore, you have a plenty of choice. If your chosen freelance writer does not meet or exceed some very simple criteria, it is never difficult to another content writer that does!
1. Content Writers Write Content!
Every genuinely experienced freelance writer has a large body of existing work. Content writers, by their very nature, write content, so there should be a variety of their work online for you to review, including the content on their website. Before you outsource your web content, always ask for links to existing work and/or testimonials and check with the website owner that they are indeed the author. Also, check websites such ezine articles to see if they have published work that you can be sure meets submission guidelines.
2. Background.
Never be afraid to ask questions about a freelancer’s background. Their academic qualifications, work history and prior experience will help you determine if they are qualified to undertake your project and if they are knowledgeable enough about SEO and Internet marketing etc. to provide you with value for money.
There is no question that investing your money in high quality web content can increase targeted traffic and conversion for your website or blog. However, unless you choose your content writer with care and ensure that any freelance writer you entrust your web content to is suitably qualified and experienced, you may not reap the rewards of your investment.
What You Can Expect From A Professional Content Writer
February 22nd, 2010
What You Can Expect From A Professional Content Writer
For many website owners the decision about whether or not to enlist the services of a content writer for their business is a difficult one. There is no shortage of ‘article mill’ websites that will sell website owners cheap, generic web content somewhat related to their niche, and if all you are interested in is ‘filling the page’ with keywords for the purpose of boosting your search engine rankings, then by all means, go ahead. However, for web owners who look beyond traffic statistics and are concerned about conversion, generic, dull-as-dishwater $5 articles are simply not good enough.
- So what can you expect from a professional content writer?
- What benefits does using freelance writers to create your web content bring to your business?
- Why bother?
Lets explore these questions….
First of all, let me be honest with you, I am a professional freelance content writer and it would be understandable for website owners to, perhaps, question my objectivity on this issue. After all, I have something to gain, right?
Actually, I don’t! I have made a very healthy living as a professional writer for almost 17 years and while I am always keen to welcome new clients, I have plenty of existing ones that already know the benefits that outsourcing web content to an experienced and qualified content writer can bring!
So what can you expect from a professional content writer?
First and foremost, a professional content writer saves you time. For most people, churning out web content is a difficult and time consuming process. Running an online business is difficult enough and spending time slaving over your web content rather than focusing on the business side of your website is often counterproductive.
Secondly, a professional and experienced content writer understands the needs of your business in terms of the content you require. They have extensive knowlege of audience, SEO and the art of persuasion, which is vital when seeking to covert your traffic to sales. The skills required to learn about audiences and how to produce persuasive copy can be acquired by anyone, but again, that takes time. A freelance writer who writes copy on a day-to-day basis honed and finely tuned their skills many moons ago and can whip out an article in a fraction of the time it will take a novice.
If you are using a well-respected freelancer, you can expect a consistent, friendly and reliable service and someone who will work WITH you rather than FOR you. Most web owners do not want an employee, they want a knowledgable professional who can offer them more than just word count.
What benefits does using freelance writers to create your web content bring to your business?
In addition to the time saving benefits and the fact that your web content will be captivating and motivate your readers to buy your product, professionally written copy provides a consistent ‘voice’ to your website. Purchasing generic web content from what I lovingly term “article mills” usually involves receiving poor quality copy that is overloaded with keywords and makes the reader click the x! Often, it is written by students in countries where English is not their first language which makes it tiresome to read and uninspiring.
Therefore, main benefit to having high quality content from a skilled content writer is CONVERSION! It doesn’t take a genius to determine that reading a good piece of copy that inspires the reader and convinces them that they NEED your product, is far more likely to result in a sale than boring generic content that tells your visitors your product is equally boring!
Why bother?
Quite simply, because your business is <u>WORTH IT! </u>Invest wisely in your business and it will pay dividends, increasing your authority, traffic and sales. Cut corners and pay peanuts…you’ll get monkeys!
Don’t take my word for it…try it for yourself! There are hundreds of canny website owners who use our service who can testify that quality content written by a professional content writer works!
The Professional Writing Service Is Back and Better Than Ever…
February 17th, 2010
The Professional Writing Service Is Back and Better Than Ever…
With our move to new offices complete, The Professional Writing Service is back to business, and back to what we do best…providing high quality web content and other writing services to both our existing and our growing list of new clients!
Our new facilities have allowed us to invest in the company and we are more determined than ever to become the fastest growing online writing service by the end of 2010!
We have had a number of new clients asking if we offer or will be offering a complaints letter writing service. With our expansion, we will now be offering this service and we will be adding a guide to writing complaint letters in our writing tips section.
This is a new chapter for The Professional Writing Service and we hope our new and existing clients will enjoy the changes!!
The Professional Writing Service: Our Services
February 1st, 2010
The Professional Writing Service: Our Services
The Professional Writing Service is on the move to a new premises!
There will be a short break in service between February 9th and February 16th 2010 to enable us to settle in to our new offices.
While we will not be taking any new writing or editing contracts during this period, we will continue to respond to your enquiries and will commence business as usual on February 17th 2010.
We apologize for any inconvenience this service break may cause and hope that both our existing and potential clients will bear with us.
Regards,
The Team at The Professional Writing Service.
Professional Writers Guide To Writing Effective SEO Web Content
June 29th, 2009
Professional Writers Guide To Writing Effective SEO Web Content – Keyword Richness not Keyword Overload
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is something of a beast in the Internet Marketing world and professional writers who provide a professional writing service to website owners and bloggers have had to learn a trick or two about how it works and what techniques are effective to ensure the web content they produce meets the needs of their clients. Equally, they have had to learn a thing or two about the damage it can cause if common techniques, such as keyword richness, are poorly applied or misused.
Effective web content is not solely about Search Engine Optimization (SEO). For professional writers, the focus when writing high quality, effective web content is primarily to inform, interest and/or persuade the reader. In order for the web content to be effective, keyword richness must be an important, but nonetheless secondary consideration.
A skilled professional writer can write informatively and interestingly while maintaining keyword richness but even the professionals know there is a limit to the number of times you should use keywords and keyword phrases within a piece of web content. Too many keyword repeats makes the text tiresome and tedious to read. Let us be realistic, who wants to read a 400 word article that repeats the same keyword or keyword phrased 30 times?
When writing web content, always remember that it has to be interesting for the reader or meet a need they have or they will give up and switch off. The visitors who come to your website or blog are looking for information, they are looking for you to meet a need they have, they are looking for you to provide a solution to their problem. Unless you provide what they are looking for they will move on to the next website or blog that does.
Optimizing your web content for your target keywords and keyword phrases is important for your search engine rankings and therefore your traffic volume. This is without question and The Professional Writing Service certainly do not advocate that you overlook this. However, writing your web content with the main purpose of SEO is a huge mistake. You should work your keywords in to an interesting piece of content, not write your content around your keywords.
To ensure you do not overuse your keywords or keyword phrases within your web content, limit them to 5 repeats per 500 words. Always plan the content to meet the wants and needs of the reader and give them information they can relate to or use. Make them interested in what you have to say so they view you as an expert in your niche.
As a professional writer with some 15 years experience and a successful professional writing service, my livelihood has always depended on my ability to stimulate the reader and keeping them reading. The introduction of SEO and keyword richness has created a further element that professional writers have to incorporate into their web content production, it can never and will never replace the requirement to keep the attention of your reader.
To create effective SEO-friendly web content follow this simple methodology;
- Keep every piece of web content focused on one aspect or area of your niche.
- Make every piece of web content as interesting and informative as possible about that specific aspect or area of your niche.
- During the drafting process actively avoid incorporating your keywords or keyword phrases to ensure you remain focused on the quality of the information.
- Read over your draft to ensure your web content is informative and interesting and identify 5 or 6 places to add in each of your keywords and do not exceed one appearance per paragraph.
Always remember the term is keyword richness not keyword overload!
Ensuring that keyword usage is secondary to web content quality will pay dividends. Being the top of the google rankings is great, in fact it is phenomenal, but the last thing you want to do is attract high traffic volumes to pointless and uninteresting web content. It is better to have 100 visitors who love what you do, view you as an authority, and buy your products than it is to have 100,000 visitors who are bored by your web content and buy nothing.
Your readers are your bread and butter, after all, they are your revenue source. Giving them web content that keeps them happy, keep them reading and convinces them to spend money is what Internet Marketing is all about. While SEO is very important, remembering that it is not as important as connecting with your readers is the key to your success.
Professional Writing Service Guide To Improving Your Web Content
June 26th, 2009
Understanding the Writing Process – A Guide to Improving Your Web Content
By Jay Neaves
As any professional writer will attest, there is a lot more to professional writing than just writing! While it would be incredibly convenient and far less time consuming if all we, as professional writers, or you as website owners and bloggers needed to do was put words on a page in some semblance of order. Unfortunately, the writing process and creating high quality web content is a far more complex series of 4 overlapping stages.
For website owners who are looking to improve their web content, developing their understanding of the writing process is an important first step. Skipping the steps of the writing process in the hope of ‘winging it’ is incredibly counter-productive. While you may make savings in terms of your time, the cost implications in terms of both the quality of your web content and the conversion of traffic will be far greater.
Professional writers have been doing this for a very long time. Their livelihoods depend on them creating high quality, effective web content for their clients. If professional writers understand that following the writing process through all 4 overlapping stages is the route to success, there is probably reasonable cause to believe that website owners and bloggers who write their own web content could benefit from following it too.
For professional writers, the writing process starts in the pre-writing stage. Before a single word is produced, there is a process of discovery that needs to take place. For professional writers, this often involves a period of researching the subject matter, as they are usually given a specific topic to work with. However, for website owners, this is more likely to be a process of discovering new ideas or discussion points within their niche.
Pre-writing is a means of gathering your thoughts. The objectives in the pre-writing stage are to understand the writing task at hand, and to research the relevant information required to complete it. Mapping, brain storming and free writing are all techniques that are frequently used by professional writers to help them create an outline or plan for the written task.
Armed with both a plan and the relevant information, the drafting stage can commence. The objectives in the drafting process are to bring together the information you have gathered and formulate a coherent piece of text that will inform and interest the reader.
During the drafting process, the professional writer will order the information they have gathered and paragraph-by-paragraph start to structure it for presentation to an audience. While some professional writers choose not to pay too much attention to writing technicalities such as grammar, spelling and sentence structure, others will be more diligent in an attempt to reduce the time required in the later stages.
The next stage of the process is to review and edit the draft of your web content. While it may not be the case for all personal writers, most of us opt to take a short time out from our draft at this point. Immediate review can easily lead to the writer missing things that need to be edited. Reading your work with fresh eyes is often more congruent to finding any areas of weakness or inconsistency.
The objectives in the reviewing and editing stage are to fine tune your work and achieve writing effectiveness. Professional writers have a tendency to be meticulous in this stage of the process and for most, this is the most time consuming stage of the process. Any technical errors, non-contributory sentences, or ordering errors should be addressed, edited or omitted at this stage. Thus, the writer is left with a carefully crafted, well-written piece of web content that serves the purposes for which it was intended.
The final stage, proofreading, is the stage that is most commonly overlooked. The objectives in proofreading are to find any final errors or glitches that need to be made. Common errors are spelling mistakes, typing errors and missing punctuation. Professional writers will often print their final version out and in teacher-like style, go over it with a red pen, correcting any simple errors. Most professional writing services ensure their work is then checked again by another professional writer. The text or web content then goes back to the editing stage for the final errors to be rectified and the final piece of copy is complete.
Using this simple 4 stage writing process to create web content will help you improve the quality of your web content and ensure that any mistakes are picked up before yours reader see it. While it may take a little extra time, the alternative is poor quality web content that is often littered with errors. Remember, your credibility and authority in your niche is judged by the quality of your web content not by the speed at which you produce it. Quality, not quantity is the key to traffic and conversion for your website.
Jay Neaves BA (Honors) Communication and Media – Author, Writer
Jay Neaves is a highly qualified, professional writer with almost 15 years experience in the field. His work has been published in over 50 publications and appears on hundreds of websites and blogs. During his career he has produced everything from academic text to fictional short stories.
This year has been an exciting time for Jay. After almost 15 years of freelance writing through reputation alone, he has taken his business online. The Professional Writing Service was launched in April 2009. With the support of his existing clients and the welcoming of many new ones, The Professional Writing Service online has quickly established itself as a front runner for the production of outsourced web content and article marketing.
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The Professional Writing Service Online Courses
June 26th, 2009
The Professional Writing Service Online Courses
Would you like to be able to produce quality web content like a professional writer?
Would you like to understand and implement effective Seach Engine Optimization?
Would you like help to create your first website?
The Professional Writing Service has received an overwhelming response to the writing tips and articles our professional writers have produced in recent months. We are frequently asked for more information on how to produce the high quality web content, how to use SEO techniques effectively and how to create a website.
At the Professional Writing Service, we are committed to helping our clients improve their web content and their writing skills. To this ends, we have teamed up with other organisations and are delighted to announce that we will be running a variety of excellent courses.
These classes will be held online in a virtual classroom enabling us to keep the cost of the courses low. Starting at just $39.95 for a 3 session course, these courses will offer exceptional value.
Details are still to be finalized but we anticipate the first course, “Creating Your First Website” will commence at the end of the summer. Courses will be run by our professional writers who are published authors, qualified teachers and successful website owners.
For more information or to register your interest and sign up for updates, contact us today!