4. Good Writing Is About Technical Skills And Expertise
Writing, in a technical sense, involves sentence structure, spelling, grammar. In an aesthetic sense, it involves flow, appeal, emotion.
Words, strung together the right way, can make a grown man cry, a sad woman burst out laughing, a deadbeat 'loser' get inspiration to succeed.
The pen is a MIGHTY tool - and so is a word-processor when wielded by a skilled writer.
Technical skills in writing are only possible when backed by language skills. Without a good command over a language, it is practically impossible to come up with the best content.
I write fluently in English. But when asked to write a basic article or report in another language I speak fluently, I find myself struggling.
How then can a non-native English speaker write great articles in English? Yet hundreds of 'writers' do just that.
There is no excuse today for letting spelling or grammar mistakes creep into articles written professionally. Most word processing software has built-in spell and grammar check features. Online dictionaries and thesauruses (or is it thesauri ?!) let any writer quickly and easily find the right word or synonym to use in a particular context.
Yet how many articles are 'perfect' in this respect? 'Laziness' is an attribute shared by 'lowly paid' workers. Writers are no excpetion. $5 per article writers are paid little - and want to work less. Perfection is a luxury they cannot afford!
5. Good Writing Is More Than Stringing Together Sentences
A good writer will work with an outline.
Step by step, this is how my own article writing process works - and I am by no means a 'professional writer'.
1 - Plan an outline or theme for the set of articles, including a long term strategy if the work is likely to be ongoing and involve periodic updates
2 - Create a list of topics to cover - includes 'in demand' issues that show up in my research which involves browsing forums and email lists, reading popular blogs, following news stories, looking at best sellers on Amazon.com, Magazines.com and other trend-setting websites.
3 - Come up with a list of article titles - catchy attention grabbers designed to hook the interest of the target reader.
4 - Draft out a small 'table of contents' for each article, listing out the points or issues to cover within it. For short articles, this may be just one or a few burning issues. For a longer 'opinion piece', editorial or review article, it would be more comprehensive and cover all relevant aspects of the topic being discussed.
5 - Do keyword research to find the most important keywords relevant to the title and content of the article, so the article can be optimized for it
6 - Go through my research notes and pull out the snippets of value to the article being written.
7 - Create a first draft of the article by fleshing out the outline.
8 - Revising the article, adding more content or removing redundant or repetitive bits.
9 - Spell, grammar check the article.
10 - Read and re-read it to assess 'flow' and 'tone' and make corrections wherever necessary.
11 - Leave it for a day or two, and come back to read it again, just to make sure everything is 'perfect'. Often at this stage I will make further tweaks and improvements to further enhance the article and make it more attractive and appealing.
I have probably left out a step or two, but even if I haven't, you get a fair picture of what it means to write a 'killer' article starting from scratch.
At a very conservative estimate, this means a good article will take even a skilled writer a minimum of an hour or two to create. Often, it takes longer because the writer is not an 'expert' in the subject matter of the article.
6. Good Writing Has A Purpose
Cheap writers - and content spinning software tools - specialize in stringing together words into sentences, sentences into paragraphs, paragraphs into 'articles'.
Good writers begin with a purpose.
They spend time thinking about what an article they write is expected to do.
Is it meant to pre-sell a potential prospect into buying something or joining some service? Is it for influencing a reader's viewpoint or getting them to consider a controversial issue? Is it to inform and educate them on the reality of a problem or situation (like this report seeks to give you the REAL facts about article writing!)?
This is not just important - it is critical. Because without a clear focus and purpose, your articles will just meander all over the place without DOING anything.
If you have a good writer working on your content, you can rest assured that the writing will deliver you results - whatever your desired result is.
On the other hand, if you go for 'lowest price', well... just remember, you get what you pay for!
7. Good Writing Is Profitable
Look, your clients already are paying for articles - or thinking about doing it in the near future.
They're paying for articles because those articles are making them money - or supposed to be doing it.
They're disappointed or frustrated because this whole thing is NOT working out the way they expected.
Chances Are They Are Blaming The Wrong Thing For It!
They think their writers dropped the ball by creating worthless content.
They feel the site design is wrong, and needs a tweak to enhance response.
They wonder if they need that latest script, software or template pack to add pizazz to the site.
They want to spend money driving more traffic to their pages.
They wish those JV partners would line up to endorse their site and drive visitors their way - and earn them a fortune.
They Can Do All Of This - And Still Fail
If Your Content Is NOT Up To Scratch!
You need GREAT articles, professionally crafted, unique to your website, targeted at your ideal reader, designed to influence their behavior and act in the way you want them to... and created for you at affordable, reasonable cost.
Is there any logical way a writer can do all of this... for $5 per article?
Their website ranking, their website visitors and their exploding business profits will have you to thank for it!