The WordsManShip

Author: The WMS CEO

  • The Fundamental Guide to Press Releases for Online Businesses

    Using the great tool of press releases to create attention for your business

    Press releases are, without a doubt, one of the most underrated tools of online marketing. Unfortunately, not many people can see their value and end up opting for other modes of online marketing such as PPC or internet article marketing. The reason for this is simply that press releases are ideal for online businesses that are dynamic in nature. What this means is that a press release should be used by online businesses that have regular innovations and movements in their operational and marketing structure.

    This could be anything from new wings being opened, new products being launched or even new tie ups being formed. In effect, press releases are ideal for online businesses or companies that already have a decent presence and are looking to maintain or expand their customer base.

    Relevance of Press Releases for You

    If you have an online business or company that has already created a certain role for itself in the established markets, then you should look into using press releases for garnering more hype and attention for your company. Ideally, you should look for conversion writing services to write the press releases for you. However, it is also possible for you to write them yourself. While writing press releases is not the easiest thing in the world, it is very much possible for an individual to learn how to do it. The following are the basics of writing press releases that you should adhere to for your own project.

    The Information in the Press Release Has To Be Relevant

    A press release is supposed to provide the reader with some item that is newsworthy. This is why press releases are mainly used by businesses or companies for telling people of new developments related to the company. Therefore, as mentioned above, the information that the press release is based around should include things like product launches, landmarks achieved, deals clinched, tie ups formed or even new offices opened.

    The Journalistic Aspect of Press Releases

    Press releases are very similar to a journalistic article in that they follow the inverted pyramid structure. The inverted pyramid structure means that the most important content has to be in the beginning of the article. This means that your press release should begin with the main information in a way that it interests the reader to continue reading it. Effectively, the first two to four lines need to be focused on the news and nothing else.

    The difference between a press release and a journalistic article is that the former is inclined towards a company while the latter is designed to be neutral and unbiased even if the news is about a company. This is evident with the fact that most press releases tend to end with the bio of the company or companies related to the news item.

    The Tone of the Press Release Needs To Be Informative

    The tone of a press release is something that most people mess up with. The common mistake with press releases is that the writer decides to use it to praise the company through lots of superlatives, adjectives and, in some really bad cases, hyperbole. The primary purpose of a press release is to inform the reader of any developments that have occurred with regard to the company involved. The news being reported in the press release should, in itself, be enough for the reader to view the company positively. Therefore, a press release needs to be informative and dry as against fancy and full of claims.

    Supporting Aspects of a Press Release

    The press release needs to contain some very critical aspects to be successful. The first is that it should contain a lot of contact information so that any media personnel or potential clients can use the press release as a launch board to get in touch with the company. If the news item being reported is worthy and the press release written well, it can result in the company getting a lot of enquiries from either media professionals or potential clients.

    As mentioned earlier, every good press release also contains a small bio of the company in the end. This bio needs to include various facts about the company starting from its inception to its current involvements and achievements. In addition to the company bio, the press release should also contain statistical or factual information about the news in question in bullet points. The idea is to make it easier for media professionals to create articles or reports about the company for their organizations.

    Write It Yourself Or Go For SEO Content Writers?

    A press release is regarded as a reflection of the quality and stature of the company that it reports about. Therefore, the press release needs to be of exceptional quality and there should be nothing in it that makes the readers wonder about the professionalism or the quality of the company. This means that the person writing the press release needs to not only have a strong command of the language but also understand the intricacies of writing press releases.

    Ideally, the press release should be written by a person with a conventional media background. This means that you can use an ex journalist, public relations expert or even an events professional to write your press release for you. If you have such a background then you should write your press release yourself. However, if this is not the case, then you should look to hire SEO article writers or SEO content writers that have such a background.

    The WordsManShip is run and operated by a former journalist and has a team that consists of various former journalists as well. Therefore, we would be more than capable and willing to undertake your press releases project.
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  • 5 Things I would look for in an online article

    So, for the longest time, I wrote about what an ideal article should contain, and what it should look like. Today, I decided to take a more subjective approach and write about what I would like in an article. Now, I am not a great writer or a critic myself, but I speak as a member of the general public. So, here goes:

    1)      Content

    2)      Size

    3)      Humour

    4)      Relevance, and

    5)      Point it makes

    So, talking about the first criterion… Content, as we all know, can make or break an article. The content is all what the article is about. Having an article with shoddy content puts me off big-time. I opened an article to read about a specific topic, not to listen to some random rant on something completely different. Or worse, a badly written article which makes neither head nor tail.

    My idea of good content is meaningful, coherent, nicely arranged text which makes sense while you read it.

    Now, let’s talk about how the size of the article affects me. Let me be honest, ladies and gentlemen, and tell you that when I see a big wall of text which goes on and on, I get scared.

    Yes, that’s right. I am scared of long articles. There! I said it!

    No matter how interested I might be in the topic, looking at a long article makes me think ‘Do I really want to read this? Really?’

    I like articles that are broken into manageable ‘bites’, wither through small, spaced out paragraphs, or page breaks where each page is a short sub-article. This prevents information overload, and the sinking ‘Omigod! What have I gotten myself into?’ feeling.

    This brings me to something that can make or break an article for me immediately. I like a writer with a sense of humour. It makes the article easier for me to read, and also makes it FUN! Articles that read like news reports or science journals are boring, and even if they aren’t long and dreary, that’s what they feel like!

    That said, it is also important for the article to be relevant. Cracked.com articles are known for injecting a lot of humour into subjects that might not actually be funny, but then, that is their forte.  When one goes to that site for their articles, one is looking for ‘the funnies’. It might not work for someone looking for a business article, or a science article. Humour and content can directly affect the relevance of the article for the reader.

    However, humour, irony, sarcasm can all go into emphasising the point an article makes. Any article needs to have a point that it is making. When the content is right, and the tone of the article is spot-on, the only thing that might pull it down is the fact that the extremely well-written article does not have a point to make, in the end.

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  • Various Components That Product Reviews Must Contain

    Any action, if broken down into smaller parts, can become very easy; writing product reviews is no different

    Putting up product reviews is very similar to SEO article marketing in that it attracts people to a website through direct traffic and through improving the search engine rankings. However, the point where online article marketing and the use of product reviews differ is that product reviews turn out to be pivotal when it comes to the conversion rate of a website.

    The Role of Product Reviews in an Individual’s Purchase Process

    The reason for this is deeply connected to the way people shop in the modern day. Most online shoppers, these days, are extremely skeptical of buying anything online without reading detailed product reviews. In fact, various researches, studies and surveys have revealed that the actions of around 83 percent of online shoppers are heavily influenced by product reviews. Moreover, more than 50 percent of shoppers in the world actually seek out good and unbiased product reviews before making a purchase decision.

    Product Reviews for Online Businesses

    This makes writing product reviews becomes very important for any website that has a shopping cart or is offering some kind of a product. For example, an unbiased product review provided by a web storefront would not only help people make a decision about the product but also make the storefront more respectable in the eyes of the buyer. As most online entrepreneurs know, a more respectable web storefront means more sales.

    Writing Product Reviews

    A web storefront can only leverage product reviews if the product reviews are written well and appeal to the end user. This is where the quality of product reviews enters the picture. Most reputed content writing services in the industry make sure that their product reviews are unbiased because they believe that the end user is much smarter than what the general belief says. Moreover, most writing services online write product reviews by breaking it down to smaller components which gives it structure, coherence and, most importantly, appeal to the end user.

    A Detailed Description of the Product

    The bid to make the end user believe that you are a genuine reviewer and not a paid lackey begins from this point. The more detailed your description of the product is, the more the end user will see you as a genuine reviewer. This means that you product description needs to go miles beyond the established descriptions in the market which are usually provided by the manufacturer himself. Therefore, your product description should include everything from dimensions, color, ordering process, shipping details and even number of pages or font size if you are selling eBooks. Needless to say, actually owning the product can help significantly.

    Benefits of the Product and Description of the Problem That the Product Solves

    Every product or service in the market exists to cater to some kind of a problem. Whether it is a movie which solves the problem of boredom or nutritional supplements which resolve fitness issues, every single product in the market exists to solve some problem. Describing this problem to the end user through the product review is a very good way to prepare him for the purchase. Following the description of the problem, you should describe how the product goes about solving it i.e. its benefits and working principle behind it. Going into as much details as possible, again, can be of extreme help.

    Listing the Flaws and Providing Counters

    As every content writing service on the internet knows, the true measure of a product review, in the eyes of the end user, is whether it is all about praising and appreciating or if it also mentions drawbacks. Most buyers know that everything in the world comes at a price. This is true for products as well in their eyes. If a product is truly great in what it aims at achieving then there would have to be some kind of flaw related to it. Therefore, the product reviewer should cater to the end user’s whims by providing them with one or two flaws.

    Providing one or two flaws would immediately establish the product review as authentic and genuine for the end user. However, as providing flaws will not really help sales, the product reviewer would also have to take the bite out of these flaws. Pick out flaws that are inconsequential and dealt with minor modifications. For example, if you are talking about a non perishable product, you can say that the shipping is a little slow or if you are writing about nutritional supplements, you can say it causes allergies to one in every 20 people. As is more than evident, through this method, you establish the impartial nature of the product review while also nudging the end user towards a purchase.

    Providing the Call to Action

    Most online shoppers are extremely busy people with very short attention spans. Hence, the end user would not have time to search for the purchase link. In fact, there are numerous product reviews on the internet that are written very well but are unable to make sales simply because they do not have enough calls to action. Providing regular and measured calls to action would make it easy for the end user to click on the link and make a purchase as soon as he gets convinced about the product.

    Any Sequence Is Valid For a Product Review

    Depending upon the kind of content you are using and the nature of the audience that you are targeting, you can use any sequence of the modules mentioned above. Usually product reviews start with calls to action for extremely casual target audience, flaws are utilized for extremely skeptical target audience, which is very rare, benefits are used for most audiences and detailed descriptions are employed when they are relevant to the actual purpose of the product in the hands of the end user.

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  • A Breakdown of Everything Related To Writing Product Reviews

    Writing product reviews is all about making the reader believe you are genuine

    There are two different schools of thought in the affiliate industry when it comes to product reviews. The affiliate marketers and web content writers in one school state that product reviews need to be as positive as possible, if they are to encourage individuals to become buyers. Alternatively, the other school of affiliate marketers and web content writers suggest that the end user is incredibly smart and that a product review can only have the desired effects, if it is written with this fact in mind.

    We, at the WordsManShip, firmly place ourselves in the second category simply because we believe that if an affiliate marketer or internet marketer has to err, then it is better that he errs on the side of caution.

    The Significance of Product Reviews in an Online Affiliate Business

    It is a well established fact that the majority of shoppers, these days, go to the internet to make up their minds about any product that they are considering. It is even likely that you have gone through the internet looking for product reviews, regardless of whether you have done it before buying a car or before buying shampoo. Product reviews, as various researches and studies have revealed, are critical in many buyers’ decisions to either purchase or reject a particular product.

    Using Product Reviews in Internet Marketing Strategies

    Affiliate marketers and online marketing experts, for a very long time; have been looking to hire content writers for writing product descriptions and reviews for them. There are even numerous eBooks on the internet that teach people on how to write product reviews in general and product reviews for websites such as Amazon and eBay. What this means is that product reviews have been a major part of online marketing strategies for a considerable amount of time now.

    As it is already established that people look for high quality product reviews, before purchasing any kind of product, these days, you would do well to pay heed to various SEO content writing tips and product review advice and write exceptional product reviews for your products.

    Establishing Objectivism in the Mind of the Reader

    Writing product reviews is not very difficult and especially not a subject that requires eBooks to be dedicated to it. There is one principle that is at the very core of a product review that works. This is the fact that the product review should seem like an objective piece of content to the reader. Modern day readers have become extremely smart and aware of the way online marketers have been manipulating them. Content on the internet, while still considered extremely important, is taken with a heavy dose of skepticism by many people. In effect, a product review that seems like it was written by a sales representative is never going to work.

    Objectivism in a product review can primarily be achieved by honesty. This means that the product review, that you write or have written by web content writers from an external agency like the WMS, needs to be authentic in the way that it includes both, the benefits and the flaws of the product.

    Taking Out the Teeth of the Negatives in a Product Review

    Now, the above mentioned advice may put off many affiliate marketers who believe that selling a product by revealing its flaws does not make good business sense because the reader will never buy a product like this. This is why the flaws or disadvantages that the product review reveals need to be rendered redundant by the product review itself.

    Enter the concept of giving lots of benefits along with a few minor flaws but making these flaws seem small by providing simple solution to them. Hence, if you sell a nutritional supplement and there is a risk of allergies to the user, you state the risk along with advice on consulting doctor to check for potential reactions and also the suggestion that allergies are extremely rare.

    There are two benefits to this strategy. One is that, as the reader is always going to read multiple product reviews, he is bound to come up with the flaws in the product in some. By providing the flaws in your own product review, you are preventing the reader from moving on to other websites. The other benefit of this strategy is simply that you ensure that the reader takes you and your website seriously, which may result in a sale.

    Calls to Action to Simplify Things for the Buyers

    Regardless of whether you read an eBook on how to write product reviews or approach web content writers for advice on the same, you would find that each source would tell you to include calls to action in your product reviews. The modern day reader often does not have time to search for relevant links to click on or the right web page to go to, he needs everything simple and concise. By providing a clear and rallying call to action, you give your reader this simplicity on a silver platter.

    Using Image as a Psychological, Content and Relationship Tool

    The product image can also make a significant amount of difference to your success because, according to psychological theories, the human mind is more open to visuals than anything else. Including a product image with your product review would give your readers the chance to connect with you and your product review. Product images would also ensure your authenticity further because it would show that you have used the product and know what you are talking about.

    Keyword Optimization to Cater To Specific Needs

    Finally, keyword optimization is something that you will find in all types of SEO content writing tips, irrespective of the kind of content involved i.e. product reviews, web page content, article marketing, blog posts, press releases or anything else. The power of keywords is all too evident to any online entrepreneur who has been around for more than a few minutes in the business. Thus, do not miss out on picking out the right keywords and giving them to your web content writing services when you are assigning a product review project.

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  • Writing Newsletters that are Effective!

    I play a game called travian, and it is a team game. There are alliances and there are leaders, and there are wars and politics. Because the teams, or the alliances, can be quite heavily populated, it can be difficult to get everyone to communicate, and to inform everyone of the group’s agenda and goals. Most of the daily requirements are mass-messaged out. However, for a regular player who is not actively involved in leadership and diplomacy, it can get very boring just following instructions without knowing what the latest developments are. This is why some of the most successful alliances, and leaders, are the ones that send out interesting and informative newsletters on a regular basis!

    Everyone must be familiar with newsletters, and their function. However, writing one that is effective is not something everyone can do. For example, I know a person on the game who writes very interesting newsletters that read like a story and can give the players a great overview of the week. I also know a person who writes newsletters that have a lot of words but don’t actually SAY anything! As a business owner, I would definitely not want the latter to be writing my company’s newsletters.

    But What Makes the Former’s Newsletters so Interesting?

    Well, the first reason is that the newsletters actually contain news! A good newsletter should have the latest happenings and developments. Why would anyone want to read about something they already know, or is out of date?

    The second reason is that the newsletters are interesting reads. The information that is being shared is written according to the audience. If your newsletter is for members of the public who may not be specialised scientists or technical people, you would not want the language to be very technical, even if the news you want to share is. However, if your newsletter caters to a group of people who are technical, trying to simplify the language would make your newsletter seem ignorant.

    The third reason for this person’s newsletter-writing success is because he sticks to a theme. He focuses on an event and wraps the entire story around it. This is a very important point since a lot of writers tend to forget what the focus of the story is. Too much information that is scattered tends to make people confused. On the other hand, doling out the information in a structured manner, in the form of a story, makes people read the information and remember it.

    There is a fourth reason which a lot of people overlook, and this is consistency. This consistency is three-fold: consistency in language, consistency in format, and consistency in publishing times. Like I said earlier, the language of the newsletter should be compatible with the people who are going to read it. There should not be major changes in the kind of language that is used in your newsletter.

    Most people who regularly read newsletters also get used to a certain format in which the newsletter is published. Just like You would know where to find the important news, the crossword, and the comic strips in your daily newspaper, your audience should know where to look for categories of information in your newsletters.

    And most importantly, your readers should know exactly when the latest newsletter will be published! It does not matter whether you publish once a month, once a week, or every day. There should be a consistency in the time of publishing. This is very important because you want your readers to become habituated to reading your newsletters, and make them look forward to them!

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  • Why Should You Have an Email Marketing Campaign?

    Some reasons why email marketing and inbox newsletters are still relevant today

    There is this belief amongst the online entrepreneurship circles of today that email marketing is a relic of the past and that any resources, whether time wise or money wise, spent on it would go to waste. However, the seasoned online businessmen beg to differ from this quite myopic view of the way the internet is moving. These experienced entrepreneurs state that email marketing would never be entirely deal and would only convert into social media network inbox marketing, if anything. In fact, most of these entrepreneurs used email marketing as a significant part of their online marketing campaigns and swear by its effectiveness.

    So, what is it really that makes email marketing still a success? What benefits would you gain if you use it as a part of your internet marketing campaign? Here are some answers.

    A Major Boost for Your Conversion Rate

    Research has revealed that online entrepreneurs that start using email marketing as a part of their overall strategy tend to see a significant difference in their sales figures. This, as is obvious, happens because of the number of people your emails reach on a repeated basis. There are two ways through which your email marketing campaign can boost your conversion rate.

    The first is that your email marketing campaign allows you to capture and recapture abandoned sales. There could be many reasons why a customer starts a buying process but fails to come through with the purchase. This reason could be anything from second thoughts about the purchase to an actual distraction in the buyer’s surroundings. If you have this buyer’s email id and have an email marketing campaign in place, then you would get to stay in his mind and get a chance to get him to complete that sale.

    The second way through which your email marketing campaign would help is through repetition. For example, if an individual keeps seeing your email in his inbox then he would find it easier to remember your product or service when he actually needs it. Moreover, sometimes, out of boredom people do tend to open newsletters and just go through them, without needing to purchase anything. This is even truer if your newsletter contains a business marketing article because such articles are business oriented and provide a lot of information

    Accessories and Complementary Product Purchases

    If you are consistent in terms of sending your newsletters then you can even use them to cross sell your products. For instance, if someone has bought a certain product and you also sell accessories related to such a product then you can use email newsletters written by great online content writers to get them interested in these accessories as well. In fact, you can set up an auto responder to send a newsletter regarding certain accessories to people who have bought an item related to these accessories. Moreover, this newsletter can contain a coupon code for discounts if the buyer buys the accessories in a certain period of time.

    Get the Response of Your Customers and Connect With Them on A Personal Level

    A newsletter can also be used as a form of a market research tool. You can simply attach a survey form with your newsletter and provide discounts to people who are willing to fill up the survey form for you. This way you would not only be able to get good feedback from your customers but also get them to use your services again. At this point, however, it is crucial that the survey form within the newsletter or attached to it is either designed by a seasoned marketing expert or a professional from online writing services because not only does it have to be useful to the business owner but also compelling for the customer.

    In addition to the feedback, the concept of email marketing would also allow you to connect with your buyers on a personal level and, hence, create a relationship with them so as to provide them with the kind of service that keeps them coming back to you.

    Make Sure That You Send Quality Newsletters

    Email marketing can only be successful, if you use the right kind of content for your newsletters. Your newsletters need to not only have great written content which can be provided by numerous content writing services but also brilliant images which you will have to source from established designers.

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  • Is Email Newsletter Marketing Dead?

    Has this world of BB Pins and dirt cheap text messages pushed email marketing and newsletters out of the frame?

    The question of whether the new wave of technology has pushed email marketing and newsletter totally out of the picture is one that needs analyzed on the basis of varying perspectives. The first thing that needs to be done for this is to split the perspective from that of the western world to that of the Indian market. In the western world the email marketing, while not as critical as it used to be before the influx of mobile marketing and social network marketing, is still effective. In contrast, the Indian and other similar developing markets are desperately in need of email marketing innovation as this aspect in various companies’ marketing strategies is still quite crude. The reason for this is nothing but poor content quality, formatting and strategizing.

    Consider an email newsletter in terms of some of the most basic questions

    What is it? It is an amalgamation of images and written content aimed at persuading the reader to read through and then click through it onto the sender’s website. Once this happens, it is up to the website content to convert this into a sale.

    What are its most important components? When you receive an email newsletter, what makes you open one and send another to the bin? The answer is the subject line and the sender id. The subject line and the sending email id is the first representation of the email sender to his customer.

    When you open an email newsletter, what attracts you? The Indian audience is much more measured when it comes to its purchases. What this means is that the Indian customer is much more calculative than your western audience simply because the standard of living is significantly different. This is a marketing research study that is taught in all major marketing courses and instructional diplomas. Coming back to the question, there are a slew of things that would attract you ranging from large flashing discounts, well formatted and written content and, in some cases, even a fancy image.

    Now that we have covered these questions, we should analyze how Indian email newsletters fare with regard to these markers

    Designing and synergy: Most Indian email newsletters are designed in a very haphazard and disinterested manner which results in a newsletter that contains poorly formatted and worded content with simple and poor resolution images derived from Google search.

    Email ids and subject matter: Most Indian email newsletters are sent from email ids which are either personal or made on free servers. Similarly, the subject line in most email newsletters are either too mundane or too sales based as both are created in house by a multi tasking employee of the company.

    Psychology and market studies: The Indian email newsletters are often made in an undignified manner i.e. the moment they are opened, they are too forward or too persuasive. While various market studies of global markets reveal that this technique works in the western world, similar market studies of the Indian market show that this is not that ideal for the Indian market because the Indian customer has a tendency to doubt something too persuasive.

    Comparing the effects of Indian email newsletter campaigns and western email newsletter campaigns

    These reasons are exactly why the email marketing in the Indian markets only show click through rate of around 5 percent. When this is compared to the western world, the dichotomy between preferences of the two markets is made obvious. The western market newsletters click through rates are, inconclusively, estimated to be between double and triple of the Indian numbers. This leads us to the question of how can email newsletters be made more effective so as to generate more click through traffic.

    It is possible to turn your email marketing campaign into a huge success

    If you as an entrepreneur want to make your email marketing strategies more effective, then the answer is simply that you should devote some more time and resources to your email marketing campaign. This means that you should either employ some professional content writers or, if hiring content writers permanently is too expensive for you, get help from a web content writing service on a project by project basis. However, if you decide to hire a web content writing service, then you should ensure that they have the ability to create content for newsletters i.e. have custom writing services.

    As for the type of content that you should have in your newsletter, you have multiple options depending upon your target audience and the kind of business you are running. Here are some tips regarding email newsletters.

    1. You can formulate your email newsletter around industry news and statistics but only if your business is technical in nature. Needless to say, the common man would not like to see numbers and graphs and would prefer coupon codes and discounts.
    2. An instructional email newsletter almost always generates a lot of attention. A simple thumb rule to follow here would be to use ‘how to’ before providing some genuinely helpful tips and instructions on some action, process or goal.
    3. Providing case studies or testimonials is one of the more time tested methods. However, the problem with case studies and testimonials is that most entrepreneurs only focus on superlatives and exclamation marks. A balanced view is better because it creates confidence in your reader.
    4. Making the newsletter interactive has a lot of potential but most entrepreneurs tend to avoid doing this because it entails work even after the email newsletter has been dispatched. If you have a weekly newsletter campaign then this might appeal to you and your readers alike.
    5. Creating an expertise in a certain topic or industry is something that is extremely reliable not only in terms of the initial click through traffic but also for customer retention and recall value. Becoming an authority in some subject would have people seek you out as well.

    Having a successful email marketing campaign only requires you to have the right amount of desire because people want to buy and purchase things and it is not that difficult to get them to buy your product. All you have to do is give your audience and the concept of email marketing a little more respect. Along with this, getting professional help from the right web content writing service can also go a long way in having newsletters tailor made for your audience and, hence, your success.

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  • Writing When You are Sleepy and Tired

    Okay, so I got a call from the client saying that the article needs to be submitted in half an hour. I have worked really hard all day and am dead tired. What do I do? Well, I could always say no, but let us assume that I really need this assignment. So, okay, I say ‘Sure!’…

    You could ask me why any article could be that important. There are a few reasons for that. One is that article submissions on a blog or a site need to be very regular. Consistency is the key. If the articles aren’t submitted in regularly, it affects the ranking.

    My client might also want to be the first (or one of the first) to write about some event. This could drive a lot of traffic his way. Time may be of essence here.

    Either way, ours is not to question why, ours is but to do or die! So I plough on and plan my strategy!

    1)      Know what you want to write about: This must be based on the client’s brief. If I have been given a brief, I try to follow it as well as I can. If I haven’t been given a brief, my first step is to plan what I want to write and how I want to write it.

    2)      Research: Writing always comes easier to me if I know what I am writing about. When it is a subject I know well, it takes me less time and less effort to write about it. If I don’t know anything about it, I try to read up as much as I can, so that for the next 20 minutes, I can claim to be an expert on that subject (Never mind that I might not remember anything about it the next morning!)

    3)      Plan the Story: I always start writing it out in my head before I put it on paper (or on MS-Word). This makes it easier to start, and believe you me, starting is the hardest part! Once I start, I can go on… and on… and on!

    4)      Break it up into points: I often list the points and then start building them up. This helps me keep the flow of the story, helps me remember everything that I need to include, and makes it less daunting.

    5)      Write it!: I have realised after so many years of writing, that the only way to get a story done is to write it!

    I am sure that most writers would be looking at these points and going ‘Wait a minute! That’s how you would write ANY story!’. But see, the trick is to break it down into steps, and that makes the entire process of writing when you are half-asleep so much easier!

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  • Writing Press Releases: Do’s and Don’t’s!

    Before online promotion became the trend, the world used press releases for promotions and information broadcasting. Writing press releases was a specialised job that was given to experienced writers. Once the internet became a popular medium for business promotions, press releases started being written by web content writers rather than people who had experience writing them. However, in order to write effective and professional-sounding press releases, it is essential to keep these do’s and don’t’s in mind.

    • Appropriate Content: As the name suggests, a press release needs to be a news update about the product or the company. A general article about a company is not a press release. This form is specifically for news announcements
    • Responsible Reporting: Like any journalistic endeavour, press releases should be based on facts and figures rather than generalisation and sweeping statements. Press releases are not articles that present the web content writing company’s opinions, but news items that should be verifiable.
    • Language: As is evident from the earlier point, the language of the press release should be formal and professional rather than grand or casual. One should also avoid sales pitches within the press release body. It is recommended that the article is written in the third person instead of first or second person, which sounds more conversational and less formal.
    • Contact Information: Most press releases should have valid contact information of the company that the press release is about.
    • Headline: As is true for almost any article or story, a relevant and catchy headline, that reflects the story of the press release, and which invites the reader to read more, is extremely important for any press release!
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  • Tips for Preparing Optimized Website Content

    There are numerous resources on the internet which are aimed at helping people write high quality articles and content.  However, the problem with most of these resources is that they seem to ignore the fact that there are different types of writing or, if they are a little more advanced, consider only macro view writing styles such as fiction and nonfiction. Even within the aspect of writing content for use on the internet, there are different categories.

    For example, content writers for websites have a different way of approaching their tasks than content writers who are writing articles for article submission, even press releases or even for blogs. Here, in this article, we will provide you with the best practices that content writers for websites employ so as to make the web page more compelling for the clients’ visitors.

    The Basic Principles of Writing:
    Most resources on content writing for websites found on the internet focus on the basic tenets of writing. While these, by themselves, may not be sufficient for someone to prepare specialized content such as web page content, the web page content would be severely lacking if they were not use. Writing web content without knowing and practicing the basic tenets of writing would be like learning to drive a car without knowing how to walk.

    The first fundamental of writing any kind of content is readability. Readability means that the reader can go through the content without any extra effort. There are three aspects that readability can be split into.

    1. Command of the Language:
      This point does not need any description as most web content writing freelancers and clients know that knowing English properly is crucial to writing any content.
    2. Simplicity of the Presentation:
      One mistake that most good writers end up making is the use of complex language. Good command of the language is good, but content that tries to incorporate whole dictionaries are not welcome by the visitors, at any level.
    3. Clarity of Structure:
      Apart from simplicity in terms of the vocabulary used, simplicity is also crucial with regard to how the content is structured. A basic thumb rule should be to have one paragraph for each idea, concept or point.

    The Journalistic Concept:
    Now that the simple things are out of the way, we can focus on how content writers for websites differentiate between content for web pages and other forms of content. The principles of journalism will be of great help here. Consider the following.

    1. The Inverted Pyramid:
      The inverted pyramid is a core concept in the field of journalism. The inverted pyramid concept basically means that the writer needs to arrange all his information in such a way that the most important tidbits are at the beginning and the least important or the supporting ideas are at the bottom. The descending order of importance is also crucial for content writers for websites because most people, these days, do not have the time to go through wordy pages.
    2. Objectivity and Neutrality:
      The second journalistic principle that can stand content writers for websites in good stead is objectivity. Objectivity or neutrality is something that will show the visitors of the website that the website is professional and very authentic about what it is offering. Just stating the benefits of the website’s services and no focusing a lot on superlatives and lots of adjectives should, ideally, be enough for conversions.

    The Psychological Aspect:
    The psychological aspect is where most web content writing services get their bread and butter from because this is the point where web page content truly differs from blogs, article submission or press releases. In fact, web content writing rates that various web content writing services offer are based upon the extreme importance of getting the content on the web page fine-tuned to the target audience.

    While facets such as calls to action, targeted information and even alleviating the right concerns may seem easy, it is very difficult to get the content to conform to the visitor’s expectations, which is why most seasoned online entrepreneurs approach professional content writers for websites.

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