Become a Better Writer… Now!

How you communicate with your audience is a critical component of having a successful website.

And it’s an aspect of website development that is highly overlooked.

If your audience doesn’t feel that all-important connection with you, the chances of them buying products from you (or products you recommend) are slim to none.

Don’t underestimate the power of your written words and your writing style. It can make all the difference in how much money you make, or if you make any at all.

1. Use Active Voice

This has always been my achilles heel, but I’ve improved with practice. I have a habit of using filler words and write with long sentences.

Not only does this make your writing difficult to follow at times, but it makes your content wordier than it needs to be.

What is Active Voice?

OK, I’m going to take you back to grammar school for a sec so bear with me. Active voice simply means the subject performs the action expressed in the verb. For example…

The speaker will make his points at the debate.

In passive voice, the subject receives the action and often adds unnecessary words.

Points will be made by the speaker at the debate.

These two sentences may not sound drastically different, but when your writing includes several of these passive sentences, it makes for a difficult read. Passive voice tends to add extra words and can get confusing.

Save yourself some keystrokes and give your site a breath of simplicity. Remember to keep your writing as active as possible.

2. Write for Skimming, Not Reading

As much as you’d like to believe every visitor reads every word on your page, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Most people skim. They may read certain paragraphs in their entirety, but for the most part, people skim over your articles and only read 10 percent of your entire site (on average).

That being said, you should always break up your paragraphs into 4-5 lines at the most and make use of sub-titles to make your content easier to follow.

There’s nothing more overwhelming than an article with 15-line paragraphs that seem to go on forever. Your eyes get crossed because you’re trying to keep your place and follow the words.

That’s why books and newspapers are published with small paragraphs. The articles are much easier to read this way.

3. It’s Not About You!

This is a common mistake I see often. People open their websites talking about themselves…

Welcome to my website. This is my first site and it receives about 45 visits per day. I am working hard to make this the best site possible and it’s been fun.

My goal is to quit my job full-time so I can become self employed. I work about 25 hours a week on my site and I taught myself how to use FrontPage… yada, yada, yada….

If I may be blunt…

Who cares!

People don’t care about you until you tell them what your site is going to do for them. They did a search in Google for some kind of information (not your bio) and found your site, so they expect to get what they searched for.

So give it to them!

Your homepage should quickly and concisely tell them what your site is going to do for them. How is it different from the other 10 billion sites out there on this topic? Keep it benefit-rich.

When people arrive at a new site, their attention span is short and that Back button is never too far from the mouse pointer. So make a good first impression… and do it quickly.

Remember what you learned in point #2. People only read a small percentage of your site. And a big part of that is because people haven’t learned to write for their audience’s needs and desires.

If you want to tell your audience about you, that’s fine. Just save it for an “About Me” page. If people want to learn more about you, they’ll read it.

4. Use a Conversational Tone & Relax.

When people read my site, I want them to feel that I am talking directly to them and they’re in the same room with me.

So many sites are cold, distant and leave their visitors feeling disconnected. The writing lacks personality and the author talks AT their audience instead of TO them.

The Web can be impersonal enough in so many cases. No need to make it worse with your writing.

This is another reason I believe it’s so important to have a passion about the topic of your site. When you enjoy your topic, you are naturally more relaxed as a writer and your personality begins to flow through your words.

When you aren’t as familiar or comfortable with the subject matter, this is much harder to accomplish.

5. Download Make Your Content PREsell

I’ve learned many of my writing techniques from this book. Even though it was written a few years ago, the content is still very relevant for today’s online world.

Every Webmaster should go through this free book at least once.

6. Inform Before You Sell

If you have an information site that refers products (through affiliate programs), then it’s key you build up credibility through your useful content before you can expect to see any sales.

When you can help or teach someone through your content you develop credibility. This causes the visitor to trust you and they are more likely to buy products you recommend.

A classic mistake made by Webmasters is they launch their site with more ads than content and then wonder why they aren’t making anything.

Content drives traffic and credibility, not ads. So work on building that up first before you monetize your site.

Also, buy the products you refer on your site and write reviews. It makes people feel more comfortable if they know you actually use the products you push. There are very few products I promote that I do not use myself.

It’s also important to make your review believable. Show screenshots, results you’ve generated, etc. Saying “the product is great” does not make for a compelling or convincing review.