Quit Annoying Your Audience! 3 Simple Steps to Write Better Content

Quit Annoying Your Audience! 3 Simple Steps to Write Better Content

Reader Comments (29)

  1. 1. Keep your goal in mind
    2. Simply start writing
    3. Let it marinate (my favorite tip of yours, Sonia)

    I, too, am doing my best to focus on just writing. Yet I’m still not doing it! LOL But coming back to this blog is a friendly reminder for me. Here’s to all of us procrastinators to simply start!

    • I’m with you man. Havent started writing yet but this blog educational content keeps reminding me that I should
      start soon. Great piece of work, Sonia!

      • I found what works for me pretty well is waking up a couple hours early in the morning. Even if it’s 4am… it’s quiet… I can think… and I just start typing in my pajamas. 😀

    • Starting is the hard part! We have a bunch of strategies for that in the Creative Foundations course also. 🙂

      I find that I’ll get overwhelmed if I think too much about the volume of content I want to get published, but if it’s “figure out the point of this piece and get the subheads together,” that I can tackle … and then come back to it the next day and I’ve already got some momentum.

      Good luck! 🙂

  2. Great advice. Most people don’t realize how fast people stop reading a blog post. The introduction is one of the most important parts because someone should know right away the benefits of keep reading the whole content.

    It’s pretty common to find boring introductions out of the topic, telling stories or even random stuff, even if the content is good, people think that there is a lot of fill and they want answers fast!

    That’s why tools like Google Analytics are there for anyone to use, knowing the issue, someone can think about a proper solution. Getting traffic is one thing but what’s the point if the audience retention is non-existent?

    Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn, reading other blogs is a great way to learn how to write better. I think that a personal touch can make the difference compared to a soulless content.

  3. 1. What are your goals for this piece of content?
    2. What one thing should your audience take away?

    These are powerful questions. Thanks for the post!

  4. Hey Sonia!

    This is super helpful information to improve one’s writing skills and for better blogging.
    One of the most important pieces of advice, I would say, is to just write and write, and then let that first draft rest for 24 hours. I heard similar advice before, I think from Derek Halpern at socialtriggers.com.

    This is something I like to practice myself. I like to just write, and then let that content rest and come back with fresh eyes the next day. Doing this has helped me craft better articles for my audience. It works!

    Thank you for sharing these helpful tips!

    Best regards! 😀

    • The “let it rest for 24 hours” is one we’ve been preaching for a long time, and Larry Brooks was kind enough to write a guest post for us about it as well. It’s amazing how helpful it is.

  5. Love it, Sonia! Great advice.

    Thinking about it, I always liked to write “how to” posts that give people practical advice.

    I’ve never been good at writing the “why” type of posts where you explain something, but in the end, there is nothing tangible for people to take action.

  6. HI Sonia,

    Thank you for this article. I’m just getting started with by first blog / website, and I want to make sure I’m writing engaging content. Your post is making me re-think everything I have already written.

    I’ll definitely be coming back for more advice. Thanks again!

  7. Hi Sonia,
    Great advice here for creating purposeful contents.

    Being diverted from the topic is normal for content creators.

    As you said, to keep focus on the topic, we need to ask both questions ourself before start writing.

    In fact, I always ask two question to myself before start writing. These are – 1. Why am I writing this post? 2. Why should my readers read this post?

    I know, these questions are same as yours.

    However, thanks for sharing this.

    Liton

  8. Funnily enough, I had this exact same problem with an article I wrote for an academic journal and the most recent chapter in my PhD. The problem? I got too excited by the content (horror films) and forgot to refer back to my research question. So I’ve got well-written content, it just doesn’t really do anything. As I’m revising them, I’m continually asking, “does this answer my question?” Once it does, I move onto the next part. I’ll definitely be doing the same with my blog content!

    • It’s a thing! In a way I think it’s a good sign, it means we’re writing stuff that’s inherently interesting. But then there’s that step of going back to the goal and making sure things are still on track …

      (Or sometimes setting a new goal, which is cool as well.)

  9. “But you probably won’t do all of those with a single piece of content. Instead of creating shaggy-dog content that wanders around trying to do everything, understand which single point in the constellation this piece of content will represent for you.”

    This paragraph was the most valuable statement of all. ^^^

    As a copywriter in the marketing organization of a Fortune 500 tech company, I often get asked to write and/or edit a piece that, what I like to call “tries to shove 5lbs of s___ in a 1lb bag”. Why do people insist on doing this?

    I therefore must also catch myself from doing it and picking up their bad habits. Not as easy as it sounds :).

    Thanks for the reminder to pick a single goal for the piece and achieve that one goal. It makes the article/ad/email/etc a better read for sure.

    Jim

  10. For me, the writing comes easily. It’s those 2 questions that trip me up. Sometimes I write a few hundred words just to get to an answer.

    I often just feel intuitively what I want to share and the purpose of writing it and the takeaway don’t come until later.

    Often, my answer is “this is just something I think you should know about” or “you should know this happens to many people” or “I’m sharing this so you know if it happens to you that you’re not alone.”

    I’m not sure what I want them to do with that, though.

    • It can be worth it to spend a little time (grab some tea and make yourself comfy …) to think about a plan of action for your person. “I want them to know this, this, and this, so they can do that, which will lead them to the other.” We’ll talk more about that in the connect the dots session in Authority. 🙂

      Not everything you create has to have that laser focus, but it’s really helpful to build a path (or multiple paths) to a destination that you’re conscious about. (I sent you a twitter dm as well …)

  11. Thank you so much the two questions are item I keep forgetting to ask myself. I will write what I like but often I get some shares but nothing earth shattering.

    So i am trying to get back to basics so I can find the bad habits I need to break. The big one is rereading a day or so later.

  12. Thank you so much for this article. This is probably my weakest area. I am relatively new to blog article writing. I feel encouraged that I will be able to produce better, more valid, content.

  13. I love the two questions to answer (What are your goals for this piece of content?
    What one thing should your audience take away?), that really made me think. I have been going over some of my earlier blogs and updating/reworking them and some of them have me grimacing. But the content is there, just lost a bit in waffle. Some of them just need a tweak, others a major restructure! I think my blogs these days are much sharper.

  14. Thanks for the great tips! I’ve also seen a lot of blog posts that don’t really have a point and they jump from one subject to another with no segue.

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