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Whether you maintain a blog or develop user-friendly content for business websites, every writer fears getting stuck on a topic or a particular post. Fresh, relevant content is a critical component of any SEO strategy, and maintaining a steady and sustainable writing pace is essential.
Here are six strategies for overcoming writing setbacks you might encounter.
1. Learn How to Generate Content Writing Ideas
The best way to avoid a setback is to plan and brainstorm a wide variety of ideas. You should have a collection of writing topics handy so you only pick the ones that are most interesting and relevant for your website. Keeping a notebook or running list on your cell phone can help you accumulate writing ideas so that you can hit a blank page with a good deal of momentum.
Blogger and author Marelesa Fabrage shares some places where she finds ideas:
- A question a client asks you.
- A comment your 2-year-old makes as she is trying to avoid eating her vegetables.
- A slogan you read on a billboard.
- An article you read on another blog during a coffee break.
Inspiration can strike just about anywhere. Be ready for it!
2. Focus on the Goal for Content Writing
When writing content for a website, you can fill up your website with information and ideas. An idea doesn’t engage readers, deliver on any kind of promise, or provide a clear focus for your writing.
Brian Clark writes at Copyblogger:
“You have an idea, but what’s the goal? From a content marketing standpoint, you’re usually seeking to educate or persuade.” A clear goal will help you cut away the parts of your content that don’t belong.
3. Don’t Mistake Facts for Benefits
Before writing, you’ll need to clearly understand how your post will make a customer’s life better, translating your information into benefits. If your goal is to educate customers about your industry and to hopefully convert them into customers, make a list of benefits that directly meet the needs of readers. According the site Improve the Web,“The more benefits you describe, the more you connect your content to the needs, interests and reasons people buy from you, the more efficient your website content will be.”
4. Focus on Writing a Compelling Title
No matter how hard you focus on identifying a goal and the benefits your content offers, you still need to think of ways to draw the attention of your readers. A solid title that hooks readers may provide the path forward that you need.
Some benefits to crafting a solid title are explained at the Allison Jones blog: “Crafting the title allows me to refine my topic and figure out the structure of my post.” Learn how to writen effective title at ProBlogger.
5. Write with an Outline and Bullet Points
If you’re having a hard time figuring out what to write about your chosen topic, experiment with either an outline of sub-headings or even a series of bullet points. Jim Estill writes at CopybBlogger, “Bullet points… can make writing an article a lot simpler in terms of organization because you no longer have to figure out transitions from one idea to the next.”
Work with the most basic parts of your post to create a skeleton before filling in the gaps. You also may find that a skeleton is exactly what you need for your website or blog content.
6. Focus on a Specific Topic You Understand
If your writing is stalled, the problem may be with your focus. Are you trying to address a topic that is too broad? A stalled writing project is typically a symptom of not understanding a topic well enough.
The solution is to conduct research in order to sharpen your knowledge and to improve the quality of your content. Christopher Auman shares at Blog Critics, “If you try to cover a large topic in a mediocre or unconvincing way, people will probably not bookmark and return or even worse they many not even finish reading and move on.
If you’re still stuck after trying out these tips, don’t worry. There are plenty of ideas for writing effective content. Check out this list of 37 things to keep in mind when writing content for starters. Writing is a craft that requires practice and patience. Give yourself a few months of practice and you’ll be amazed at the progress you can make with your website content writing!
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