It’s one thing to learn the technical aspects surrounding the website building process, and its quite another
when it comes to building your site with content.
The heart of your site, is the content. If your site is more focused around, “bells and whistles– (looks and design of the site),” rather than quality and engaging content, then it’s a no-brainer that your site will not be as successful as you would want it to be.
So, today I am going to share with you my 8 essential content writing tips for beginners of website blogging. I find that this helps tremendously during the architecting process of my page or post and allows me to get material completed fast so that I can share it with the 3 billion people out there.
Remember the Most Important THREE letter word : SEO
Before, I dive straight into these tips, let me first remind you about one teeny weeny thing called SEO.
At the end of the day, you would want your site to rank? Correct?
So that means it must be SEO friendly. This is the implementation and usage of techniques and tools such as keywords, images, headlines etc. all to get your article loved by Google(and the other Search Engines) and ranked high so that you can get traffic and ultimately sales.
Don’t stress, if you don’t know much about this, I have explained it all in my article, “How to write SEO friendly content?”
Check that article out too, I am sure you will find some helpful stuff.
So, now that you know what to do to make your content SEO friendly, how do you actually get started with writing up your content?
The 8 Content Writing Tips for Beginners
1.Have a Plan
I remember when I was in school, that essay writing had to have a structure or a plan before I could even start writing out a single word. The basic structure of my essay would comprise of an Introduction, The Support or “Body“ and the Conclusion. Same story applies when you writing out a page or post for your website.
Have your introduction, divide the body into 3 paragraphs or so and then have your conclusion. I would recommend this technique for beginners. Mainly to get you into the groove of things. Fortunately, when you starting a blogging site, your minimum is around 500 words!
Using the above framework, you can set 100 words per paragraph. High Five!! You’ve already got your 500page article. That’s not bad!
Your introduction is going to introduce your readers to what the article is about. It will be the baseline for the rest of the article and will give some background of the article and offer hints as to what to expect.
The Body will discuss the “meat” of your original idea. Break your topic up into smaller topics within the three paragraphs.
For instance, if you are talking about,” the best way to assemble a hammock,” divide your paragraph as follows
Body one Paragraph : How to choose a suitable place
Body two Paragraph : Which is the best hammock to use
Body Three Paragraph : Assembling the Hammock
So, this makes it easier to fill content within the paragraphs.
Are you with me so far? Cool!
2. Don’t Overwhelm Yourself
I know that when you doing research, it can be quite an “exhaustive” and overwhelming task.
The internet gives you boatloads of information, making it hard to decide what to talk about and what not to include in your article.
I like to use MS Word, or Notepad, when I am doing my brainstorming. If you prefer to use a pen and paper, that is perfect as well.
How will I sort out this information?
With all the information that you have researched, try to categorize the ideas. In this way, you can filter out what content you going to use in your current article and save the rest of the information for later posts.
You’re still giving your audience valuable information but you are giving it to them in bite-sized pieces and not big chunks. They will be able to take in the information easier. Furthermore, it will make them return for more value.
3. Easy Layout of Your Article
If you were a “reader” reading your article, ask yourself, is the article one that requires a lot of effort and is a struggle?
I am referring to the paragraph layout here.
Would you prefer reading smaller paragraphs with images that break up the content rather than big paragraphs that looks like an encyclopedia to go through. I prefer the former, and I am sure you would too.
I try to make my paragraphs consist of three to four sentences the most.
What are some of the benefits of “de-chunking” up the paragraphs?
- Breaking up the content into smaller bits, makes it easier to read.
- People will tend to stay longer on your site
- Gives your readers an opportunity to absorb the material
- Gets the Search Engines to notice that people are staying longer. This increases the user experience and therefore increases the traffic to your site.
Awesome Stuff!! Don’t you think? I am sure you can breeze through this part with no struggle at all.
4.Write Naturally
It is going to make this business easier for you as you go forward. In fact, it’s going to make the business not feel like work, but more like your favorite pastime.
You must be thinking, that I must be loosing my marbles here….truth be told maybe I might have lost a couple already. But on a more serious note, build your site around something that you’re really interested in or are keen to know more about.
In this way, people will see the passion that you have for the subject and will automatically gravitate to your writing. Secondly, it will be a breeze for you to find new topics to do research on and to talk about.
Bonus Tip :
I find what helps me to write is to imagine that I am talking to just one person.Not the world. I am helping him or her with a problem, or helping them to understand something better. Then I start writing,
I don’t look at the grammar or content, there is plenty of time for that later. Just stick with your train of thought and keeping talking to your imaginary friend, till you have finished your story.
Thank him/her for their time. And end off. When you are done, you will have realized that you have just written a 1000 words and it was easy as pie…..
How cool was that?
5.Let the Storyteller inside of you loose
Believe me when I tell you that people enjoy reading stories. If your story can be based around something that’s a little personal, you will find that you will be able to connect with a lot of folks.
Either they had a similar experience or can somehow relate to your plight. You will gain more credibility in their eyes and they will trust you more.
6.Be visual, be Funny and Have Fun…..
Use different tools out there to make your content visually appealing and gripping. Info graphics and videos can bring your content to life. It provides a break from the reading and presents your data in a way that makes it easier to remember or refer upon.
Think emoticons are not Effective! Think again!
Did you know ?
That there are over 6 billion of these emojis and that about 92% of the population are using them on a daily basis?
Wow! That’s amazing stuff!
They are effective in “improving enjoyment, personal interaction and the perceived richness of our messages.”
Some research has shown that a smiley face online is equivalent to seeing real people smiling. Using them helps to boost your credibility and makes the content more engaging. 
So go ahead and lighten up the people’s lives.
(Want to learn more, Check out this article, “ The Emojis are coming.”)
7.Wrapping Things Up
When you have come to the end of your article, you would want your work to achieve TWO very important goals.
Goal Number one : Give people a quick summary of what the article is about
Goal Number Two : You would want your reader to take some action!
By ACTION, I mean do you want your reader to
- Share or Like your page on Social Media?
- Be directed to another page or posts?
- Purchase something?
- Comment?
- Sign up to an opt in subscription form?
Whatever it is, make it stand out and BE catchy to the eye.
How can you attract your audience?
Use color
Here are tips for using color in your Post
BLACK – sends a signal of LUXURY and SOPHISCTICATION
YELLOW – is associated with WARNING.
BLUE – Represents CALMNESS, TRUSTWORTHINESS,LOYALTY and SERENITY
I have heard that whilst WOMEN don’t react very well with GRAY, BROWN or ORANGE, MEN don’t fancy PURPLE, ORANGE AND BROWN.
WOMEN and MEN react well with GREEN AND BLUE.
In addition WOMEN fancy PURPLE and MEN will go for BLACK.
So, what colors would you use in a CALL TO ACTION(CTA)?
The most popular colors to use in a CTA would be GREEN, RED, BLUE and YELLOW.
Note: These are just guides and are not cast in stone, you are welcome to go with what you like. Test it and see if works and change if necessary. The point is make it such that it gets your reader to take the NEXT step…
8.Practice! Practice! Practice!
My final tip for content writing tips for beginners is, to repeat the process and it will get better as time goes by.
You may not get the hang of all this stuff at once. At one point in your life you had to “learn to crawl, before you could walk.” Take your time and enjoy the process…
It’s ok to make mistakes as you will learn from it. The more you do it, the more fun and easier it will be.
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Conclusion
Thanks for joining me today. Hope you enjoyed this article and found it helpful. If y
ou need any help with content writing, please don’t hesitate to ask.
If you feel this will be helpful to another, then please share with family and friends.
Don’t forget to use the comments below, should you wish to ask something, or if you just want to say hello…
Regards
Roopesh
Roopesh, you have a great article about content writing tips. Clear and easy to understand with great recommendations. One of the things I do when I plan my articles is to write down 3 or 5 points I want to make about the subject. And that becomes the body of the article.
Your article should be used as an example for beginners to follow. While your recommend paragraphs of 3 or 4 sentences, you show that even 1 or 2 sentence paragraphs work. You also show how effective it is by varying the length of sentences. That’s cool!
Hello Glen
I appreciate the complement, thanks a mill.
I think what helps me when writing, is to look at your material from the reader’s perspective. Would they like to read your article, is it looking presentable enough, or does it look like it would be easy to read through?
I ask myself these questions as I work my way through and at the end of the day, once I know I have given my best, than its out there for the world to decide.
Thanks for stopping by
Regards
Roopesh
Hello Roopesh,
Thank you so much for this writing tips. I honestly find research the most time consuming task, but yet it’s the first thing I start with after deciding what subject should I write about.
We should provide our audience with the best information and researching it’s vital. It’s not really like taking ideas from other sites, but seeing what they covered in that particular subject and how can we improve and write a more comprehensive article.
I usually tend to look only at first 10 results from the first page in Google. When you want to write an article you want to be on the first page, so your goal it’s to write a better article and hoping that you might be able to rank.
Now of course there are many ranking factors, like site age, trust, domain authority, page authority, backlinks, but content will always matter.
Cheers,
Cristina
Hello Cristina
You are very welcome.
I believe that the longer you take for research the better. Its means that you are doing your job as a blogger and that your article will have the best all rolled into one. Though, its a heavy time-consumer, I agree with that!
Good tip on researching the top 10 articles. In that way, you get to see what others are doing and do it better.
Content is king, as you mentioned when it comes to ranking. Learning about the other metrics is essential as well. This is one of the reasons why I find affiliate marketing so exciting. Its involves so many things. At the end of the day, when you get to see your page ranked, its when you can sit back and smile.
Thanks for your comment.
Regards
Roopesh
Hi, Roopesh. You have a good checklist here. This will definitely come in handy when I start my next writing project.
I have one problem, though. Most gurus will suggest that an article is at least 1500 words. (for good SEO and Google ranking). But some readers find it hard to scan through, even with good spacing, white spaces or with photos. They prefer shorter article. If possible, the article to be less wordy and have more ‘list of things’ for easier reading.
What do you suggest we do to compromise on this issue?
On the subject of colors, I agree with your suggestion. But personally, I use orange for my CTA button and sometimes, red.
Hey There
Glad to have helped you out.
On the subject of length of articles, I tend to be flexible with the idea. Sometimes, if I can only stretch it up to 800 words, then I go ahead and publish it. In fact, what I find works, is to try to not let all content be the same length.
Ideally, you would want to get a 1500-2000 word article. It is good for SEO. The main thing is have the content engaging. Otherwise, you can get readers getting bored and leaving your site.
I like your choices of colors for the CTA’S.
All the best
Roopesh
8 great tips here! I particularly think the one about not overwhelming yourself is extremely important. It’s so easy to suffer information overload when first learning something new, and research can do that too, for sure. Having fun with the writing is also a good one. It will make reading the content that much more enjoyable. And practice, practice, practice is a must.
Thanks for these great tips on content writing.
Hello Darren
You are spot on with that one. Especially with changes happening all too often within the industry, it can become hard for one to keep their eye on the ball.
At one point, it took me three days of researching just for one article! It really can send you all over the place.
I have learned though, to try and keep the reader in mind, and give him or her little by little. In that way, its not overwhelming for me and them.
Its a given, the more you practice, the better you become. Not just with online business, but with anything in life!
Thanks for your visit.
All the best
Roopesh
Great write up! You really simplify writing content. I agree with you in that organizing everything into smaller steps is key. I didn’t realize certain colors were more favorable to specific genders. I’ll have to keep that in mind going forward. Do you think an orange boarder along the sides of a webpage is a bad idea?
Hello Josh
Thank you very much.
If you like, you can send me your URL, and I can check it out for you. As long as does not look ‘cheesy’ or too bright on the eyes it should be fine.
The main point is capture the viewers attention and make it pleasing and easy to read your content. And make wherever you want them to take action, stand out.
All the best
Roopesh