Improve Your Blogging by Understanding Copywriting
This post was guest blogged by Steven York of Seopher.com. They offer $40 off a review this month.
Copywriting. This word strikes fear into the heart of anyone who has little understanding of what it means; but had you thought that taking an hour to study it could improve your blog, net you more subscribers and therefore help you achieve your objectives?
What Is Copywriting?
Most people think copywriting is the process of writing content for someone else with very strict guidelines; word limits, tone, etc. Whereas this is true for professional copywriting it’s not even half of the story.
Understanding How Content Is Read
One of the most important aspects of copywriting is formatting. You can have the best content in the world but if it’s displayed in an unformatted lump it becomes very difficult to read - and on the Internet that means it doesn’t get read.
Use Useful Subheaders
When you’re writing your content you need to break it up into sections - although you probably do this naturally even if you’re not using subheadings already. This allows readers to scan down the page and gather an understanding of what you’re discussing. 10 subheaders gives you 10 chances to capture the reader’s attention - which is a much better prospect than just relying on the title.
Useful Subheaders As An SEO tool
Don’t forget that if you’re using subheaders, it’s a great opportunity to mark them up as h2/h3/h4/h5 (depending on your design) so that search engines can add more weight to them.
Remember That Sex Always Works
I bet that sub-title got your attention. It’s well documented that using sex in a title, caption or quote captures readers’ attention unlike anything else. Don’t force it in; your content will become unreadable if you’re trying to cram it full of sexually suggestive statements (although that sentence itself is filled with it).
Shorter Paragraphs
People find it easier to read shorter paragraphs; reading 100 lines of unbroken text is a daunting prospect for a lot of users and many will just navigate away from your site - and that’s not what you want at all. So break your content up into shorter paragraphs (with useful subheadings too) to allow people to get the most from your content.
Understand most readers have an information requirement Once your content has slipped into your archive, search engine users will become your key demographic. Users from search engines will reach your content because they were told the answer to their question is on your page. These users need to find a specific part of your content, so making it as easy to scan is beneficial.
Be Careful About Your Wording
Good content doesn’t need to be challenging to read; after all most users don’t want to need a dictionary while browsing your blog. Furthermore, using deliberately complicated language can make your readers feel stupid for not understanding and that’s just going to alienate part of your demographic.
In Conclusion
Copywriting isn’t a scary concept, nor is it difficult to get a working knowledge of it; yet the gains from formatting your content properly can be massive. Have a look at Copywriting.com and this post on Copyblogger for a bit more information. Just don’t neglect it, excellent content has no value without someone to read it.
- Posted in The Net
- 55 comments what's your take?
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Good pratical advice. I can always use more info on how to write better copy. Shorter paragraphs are something I’ve been doing for some time now.
Reply to this commentYou may also wish to consult a book entitled “The Elements of Style” by Strunk and White. This has been the standard style book used by many Newspapers anc taugh tin journalism schools for many years.
Good consistent style is very inviting to the reader. it makes you sound like an old familiar friend!
Reply to this commentGreat Post and Great girls (some of them).
I use headings in my posts on my new blog, but don’t use sub heading tags, so this is a great point I will try and remember!
Reply to this commentYea, that one on the far left is kinda scary looking.
Reply to this commentwait what did those girls represent? a game?
Reply to this commentThese are pretty helpful tips. I hate when people write in one big long paragraph.
Reply to this commentIn paragraphs should be divided only if one sentence is slightly changing or going to change from the previous. Using multiple paragraphs even where it is not needed will not make anything special.
Reply to this commentOr the annoying cousin of long paragraphs - ALL CAPS.
Reply to this commentWas there an article here? All I saw was a picture of seven scantily clad women. Must be something wrong with my eyes again (and yes, it certainly got our attention!).
Reply to this commentIf you place the ladies below the bottom of the browser and then above the top you can actually read the article.
Reply to this commentSex sells…and gets you dropped from Google
Reply to this commentYa. But may be not-too-much sort of pictures can do the work.
Reply to this commentVery useful info. I am not a native English speaker but even for me it was indeed easy to read the article. Thanks for the great tips.
Mr. Chow,
Reply to this commentBy the way, I downloaded your e-book and it inspired me a lot. Thank you very much.
Not necessarily new, but structured practical advice.
I also, highly recommend Copyblogger.com if you want to have more experience in copy-writing. It’s so awesome.
Well done Steven!
Reply to this commentThanks, I too recommend copyblogger for things like this. Having a working knowledge of copywriting should make your writing easier for the reader to absorb.
Like I said in the article, you can have the best content in the world but if no one is going to read it, then why bother?
Reply to this commentEven worse though is to have traffic and crappy copy!
You often only get a chance to convert to long term traffic once!
Reply to this commentThere is nothing worse than reading a long post with unbroken text. It just makes for boring reading. Make small paragraphs is a great tip. Thanks for the advice.
Reply to this commentsome good advice, I didn’t know subheaders helped in SEO optimization
Reply to this commentIndeed they do. Obviously the H1 should be applied to the title of the post, but correct use of the subsequent headings (h2-h5) will allow engines like Google to analyse more keywords against your content (because if they’re in a heading then they have increased value).
Correct markup and good formatting, win-win.
Reply to this commentI’ll need to check my WP theme and config to make sure subheaders are used. I never bothered with them before
Reply to this commentGood Post… Many Online marketers would do better if they understood the importance of quality copywriting. How many neebies are “sold” by copywriting alone ? Top marketers have understood this for a long time and their success is in direct relation to the quality of their sales copy. I just blogged about 472 Catch Phrases that will help you with your copywriting and retaining your reader till the end.
Reply to this commentJohn, I read the article about you in Entrepreneur and was inspired to push my blog further. Best wishes to you.
Reply to this commentI haven’t read this article yet…I’ll have to read it…
Reply to this commentdid you get this idea after seeing my blog or something? haha
Reply to this commentNo but seriously I need to implement this on my next postings because I think I have used like one subheading total in my whole blog.
The most important part of copywriting is crafting good titles. the Second is speakingto your audience. If your are writing a Finance blog and you write like McMoney you aren’t gonna get very far. On the opposite side, if you write for a hip-hop newsletter and sound like Thurston Howell, well Lovey…you’re hosed.
Reply to this commentYou are write, reading a long paragraph without unbroken lines really makes the reader bored. Animated text coud also help, and some attractive and cool colors like green wich can make our eyes relaxed.
Reply to this commentGreat advice…I needed a refresher in Copyrighting 101
Reply to this commentWow! This is my read of the day
Keep up the good work!
-Mike
Reply to this commentSmall paragraphs with proper sub-titles makes it very easy to read and allows reader to grab it fully.
Reply to this commentHi John,
Reply to this commentGreat article, short and sweet, with knowledgeable content.
Great job.
Paul Glover
admin@largeprofitwebnews.com
Yes John, sex always does sell, haha nice post.
Reply to this commentI think shorter paras is good idea as no one esp. blogger would like to read a long article but “careful” wording seems does not work well with non-english speaking blogger like me, what do you think?
Reply to this commentScrew short paragraphs!
I like short, sexy Asian girls!
Reply to this commentHa ha ha!!
Reply to this commentI’d like to point out John added the sexy picture himself, my original article was without busty asian girls.
I’m not complaining, just thought it was worth mentioning
Reply to this commentHello Chow,
Images with sexy ladies always works to target the masculine public. Continue the great work.
Adriano Lopes
Reply to this commenthttp://blog.belive.ws
Great post, I would assume that good copy blogging is critical for getting a spot as a guest blogger, along with formatting the less the blogger has to do the better I would assume.
Reply to this commentHi John, great article and nice girls in that picture
Reply to this commentGreat article. You used every concept you mentioned in full.
Do as I say AND as I do
Reply to this commentI’ll admit that picture made me click the post title in my RSS reader lol!
I pick the one short hottie in the middle
Reply to this commentSome very solid advice. Even the most seasoned pro should stop to consider these things and make sure they are ticking all the boxes.
Reply to this commentLots of good advice I’ll have to keep in mind. Thanks!
Reply to this commentThanks for all the great tips on Copyrighting. I never understood it until now. I totally agree with you that paragraphs that are too long can be annoying for others to read. I will take your helpful advice and learn more about Copyrighting.
Thanks again for your great Post
~Katie
Reply to this commentAnd be funny!
Reply to this commentFor the neophyte here…what does h2 and h3 headers have to do with how the search engines see your page?
Reply to this commentI just loved the part in which the pic is posted.
Reply to this commentActually writing a better copy convert your traffic to sales better.But the most outstanding site that i have ever seen about copy is one crappy site that sucks in sales because of the quality of information it offers.
Reply to this commentI love the pics that was used as a bait.It was just like the crappy site I went to today.The site was something else.
Reply to this commentThe best part about this post is that it effectively illustrates the premise being discussed. Very short paragraphs with headers for each one. It’s amazing how easy it was to read this compared to other posts. This is definitely something I need to work on.
Reply to this commentBeauty is best when shared. A great article !
Reply to this commentThat really works and if you promote it with pretty girl then most likely it will be famous.
Reply to this commentSimple words indeed are better than complicated ones.
Reply to this commentThank you. This was so helpful. It is so true that blog writing needs to be simple, organized, short, and to the point. If you want to attract traffic, you need to make your content attractive to the average reader. Here I am, an English major, trying to write an essay, and all I have to do is simplify everything. Thanks for the information!
Reply to this commentI should consider putting a little more sex in my blog. I haven’t thought of that, but putting little innuendos as titles could help. I would, of course, need original photos, since I don’t feel right about taking stuff off of Google images.
Reply to this commentforget all the advices the only thing that i saw in there was sex …
Reply to this comment