Writing Powerful And Capturing Blogs

Ask yourself: What should I do to help people solve particular problems of their life? This might be a good question to ask, most particularly if you want to write blogs. Bloggers are self-proclaimed problem solvers. They are writing contents published on the web to help people remedy their daily dilemmas. So, like them, before writing your own blog, you must also ask the same question as theirs.

Source: Google.com

Ascertaining the purpose of writing a powerful blog post is necessary. By doing this, you will be enlightened, in one way or another, on what, why and how to write. This purpose should serve as the guide and light on how you are going to come up with certain facts and information you will provide to your audience through the Internet.

The preliminary facts shown will lead you to another question: How to write powerful and capturing blogs? To answer this, you are advised to take a look and understand the pieces of information mentioned in the subsequent contents.

The Basic Steps In Writing Blog Posts

• Think of the right topic.

Thinking of the right topic is the first step. It is quite significant. Why? This is where you are going to draw your contextualized blog. You have to contextualize your entire content, based on a chosen topic. It must really be specific and related to a certain problem.

• Gather facts online and even offline.

Before writing your blog post and publish it on the web, you should gather the necessary facts and information. This is where you are going to extract the pieces of details you really need to explain the chosen topic. There are 2 sources of facts, online and offline. Online, you can read certain facts about certain things. For instance, if you are going to write a blog about how to cure diabetes naturally, you can use the Internet to have the substantial facts.

Offline, you can do library-based research in gathering the details and information related to your topic. You can read relevant books about diabetes, for example. This will deepen your understanding of the chosen topic before writing the entire content.

Then, you have to also take original pictures, in order to add additional explanations. Picture can provide visual insights and depictions. You can also get relevant photos from the web. But, you have to be very careful in choosing images online, since there are images that are copyrighted. In this case, you should know about attributing to the owner of the images to avoid legal repercussions.

• Interview people who have knowledge about your topic (optional).

Although this is optional, you can still do personal interviews with people who have knowledge about your topic. Back to our example about diabetes, you can have an interview with a health expert or a doctor. If you know someone, who is expert with your topic, you can optionally get facts and information directly from him or her.

• Make the necessary outline.

When you have the facts and information at hand, you should start now writing your own piece. But, writing an outline should be the first thing you do. The outline will serve as your structural guide. With this, you can easily complete the topic of your choice.

• Write the blog using the inverted pyramid approach with a very capturing title.

This is a very important approach in writing. For most writers, they choose the inverted pyramid style, where the most important facts are written first, followed by the least important. Through this process, you will present the details and information based on their weight, relevance and coherence. Although this is popular in press release writing, this author deeply believes that by using this approach, you can catch the interest of your readers to read completely your content.

• Put bullets especially in how-to-do blogs.

In specifying steps, specifically in how-to-do blogs, you should apply the bulleting technique. Putting bullets to explain particular steps is quite important. It provides your reader a clearer picture of your article, how it helps them solve their individual problems.

• Start and end the blog by citing its significance and relevance to the human problems.

This is just a reiteration of the importance of ascertaining the purpose why you write a blog article. The start and end of your content should emphasize why you write it. So, it implies citing the significance of your write-up to your readers.

The specific steps in writing blogs will make your write-ups so vivid and clear to your audience. The steps presented will easily lead you to come up with effective and powerful blog posts, which can aid people in addressing their particular problems and dilemmas.

Writing Effective Feature Articles

A feature article also means narrative journalism. This form of writing is using a style that is more complex than the orthodox press release or news article writing. You should follow the narrative context of the story, but still adhere to the valuable essence of the facts. It does simply mean that you have to still apply the pyramid form in explaining the narrative information.

Source: Google.com

The very unique distinction of writing a feature article is that it can use the first person perspective. Using a third person angle, on the other hand, is necessarily applied in this form of journalistic writing. You can use the third person approach when citing a story of other people’s events and circumstances. But, the subjective nuances are really recommended.

Feature article writing is following the so-called Kabob format. It usually starts with an anecdotal statement about the subject matter (the person or thing involved). It then observes the inverted pyramid approach, when the facts relative to the topic of the story are presented.

Suggested Sequential Format In Writing A Feature Article

• Write A Unique Title

Like any other forms of writing, the title of your feature article should be very catching and captivating. It must catch the attention of the readers in the Internet. It must be written as bait for people to completely read your entire content. In a feature story, your title can be metaphoric.

• Start With Anecdote

This is the difference. In news article writing, the first part after your headline is the lead paragraph. In this content form, however, you should start with an anecdote that can catch the attention of your readers. It must contain a ‘descriptive narrative lead.’

• Create A Lead Paragraph Or A Nut Graph (Nut Graf)

The lead paragraph may contain 2 or 3 sentences right after the anecdote. In this part, you are going to write down the main or general facts of your feature story. This must be very catching, as it has to answer the usual 5Ws (who, what, when, where, and why) and 1H (how).

The nut graph is also called as the essential statement in a nutshell. This is to be put in lieu of the lead paragraph, when the 5Ws and 1H cannot be answered. Citing a statistical figure can be done in this part. In simple terms, this is written in a paragraph form, where the facts are stated essentially to explain the main context of the whole story.

• Put The Relevant Facts And Quotes Of The Story (Meat)

Here, you are going to place the contextualized facts, paragraph after paragraph. It is usually put right after the lead paragraph of your feature story. The facts are presented here, following again their order based on informational significance or value. The most essential facts are placed first, and the least important should be placed below before the ending. You have to remember that placing subjective quotes can be very useful for your feature article.

• End With Another Anecdote

When ending your feature story, it is important that you finally describe your story with another anecdote. By doing this, you can have a more enticing and catching feature article.

Characteristics of Feature Articles

• About storytelling or narration
• Subjectively personified
• Empirically opinionated based on subjectivism
• With pictorial substantiations (if available)
• Metaphorically written (particularly the title)

A nice feature article must contain 1,000 up to 2,000 words. By observing the guidelines on how to write the feature story, you can easily come up with a content that can attract more readers. The guidelines are set to make you understand that writing this journalistic content is not very hard. It just requires passion, commitment and practice.

Writing A News Or Press Release Article

Writing a news (press release) article is crucial and not easy. It will require a certain technical knowledge. However, mastering it is not so difficult. Upon paying attention to the set of rules cited in this blog, you will be able to write a good and newsworthy content.

Source: Google.com

The main goal of writing a news article is to ultimately provide clear picture and emphasis of a particular problem. There should be complications of the problem chosen as the topic, together with clarifications based on facts and information. Citing the possible remedy of the problem may also be helpful. Meaning, everything about a particular newsworthy story should be elaborated through factual data.

The main gauge of the newsworthiness of the story you are going to write should be based on the following questions:

• Is the story new to the readers?
• Is the story unusual to people?
• Is the story concerned about people’s daily problems?
• Is it interesting and significant for the readers?
• Is it about people, events or circumstances affecting mankind?

Through the 5 contextualized questions mentioned above, your news content is going to be very fascinating for the readers. You should then have enough data and facts when writing a news article. Having interviews and researches where the facts and details are drawn is advised. Conducting personal interviews about the concerned subject is helpful. If interviews cannot be done, reading verified online facts is useful.

How to write a newsworthy article? Easy! Try to think of an inverted pyramid shape. On top is the general idea of the story. This is where the main meat of the article is supposedly found. In other words, you have to follow the inverted pyramid way of writing when trying to release and publish a news article.

To understand better how to write a newsworthy article, cited below is the suggested format. 

• Headline/Title

The headline or title of your news article should be catching. This is where you first get the attention of your readers. I call this the ‘bait part.’ It must contain 6 to 10 words. It must be written in a way that the readers are ignited to read your entire news story.

• Lead Paragraph

This is the most crucial part of your news story. After writing your headline, this is where you discuss the general idea of your article. In the lead paragraph, you have to answer directly the 5Ws (who, what, when, where, and why) and 1H (how). Here, you will summarize your story having the main idea and at least 2 to 3 supporting sentences. 

• Meat Of The Article

In the succeeding parts of your news article, you should be writing the specific explanations that are related to your story. But, again, you have to remember that the shape you should follow is the inverted pyramid shape. So, it means, right after the lead paragraph, you should then put the hierarchical explanations based on their weighed importance and relevance. Quoting statements also deepens your news article, and it must be done with the required attributions.

• End Of The Story

In ending your news article, you must re-emphasize again the essence and implication of your lead paragraph, where the general idea is presented. In this part, go back to the general emphasis of your story and explain it in a concluding manner.

A newsworthy press release article must contain 350-500 words. This number of words is enough for you to write a worth-reading content for the online readers to appreciate. Again, writing a news article requires you to only follow the pyramid approach of writing.

Writing A Powerful Product Review

Writing a product review aims to show how a certain product works for the consumers’ needs. It is important for people to know exactly about the nature of a particular item they are going to use. The consumers should be aware of the pros and cons before decision is done. Thus, by proving an information-rich review article, you are helping them to reach a certain level of understanding.

There are certain rules to follow when writing an objective and non-promotional review. It is significant that the review article should not be sales-pitching. Instead, it has to appear as a credible source of information. Otherwise, your article is badly written and the consumers may not like it.

Source: Google.com

Aspects To Know And Understand When Writing A Review

• A product review is far different from a sales letter. A sales letter deeply venerates the beneficial points of the product in a promotional manner, but a review is not going this way. It must be written in an informative approach.

• A product review is informative, giving specific information and value about the product. This is very important to follow. A review about a specific product should be rich in details and facts. The details and facts must be empirically observed and objectively comprehended. If you are not using the product yet, you can somehow read first-hand contents about it from the consumers.

• A product review should be reasonable and unprejudiced. Putting pros and cons is a must. To write only the benefits will make the content to sound like a sales letter, invoking the readers to purchase the product. Every review should not be overconfident in telling the readers about the benefits they can get from using it. Rather, every article should look like a justifiable basis of purchase. Therefore, people should know about pros and cons.

• A nice review article can help the online marketers promote their affiliate sales, but avoid being a direct salesman. The idea about “affiliate sales” must not over-twist the informative approach of the content to be published on the web. The implication is that the written review article should not be written in an over-promotional tone.

There are particular points to consider when writing a product review that is not overly promotional.

• Focus on the purpose of the product
• Cite the pros and cons
• Emphasize features and benefits
• Disclose the quality and value
• Talk about service features (i.e. product delivery)
• Cite personal experiences (only if you are using it)
• Mention the price and justify whether it is reasonable or not

You have to also understand that a nice product review may be allowed to have a call-to-action message (i.e. Click Here to buy…) once or twice in the article, depending on the number of words.

Suggested Powerful Product Review Format

• Title

It must not be more than 70 characters and must be keyword-based, like (Product Name +) Review: Catching Phrase! The tile should be catching the attention of the readers. It’s like writing a news article headline, wherein the moment the readers read the title, they are ignited to read completely the entire story.

• Introduction

The introduction must contain the general idea why you are writing the review article. This is where a particular situation is being discussed. The purpose of your review should be expounded here. Every review article should follow the inverted pyramid style of writing, where the introduction contains the general idea of the entire content. A powerful introduction should have a maximum of 2 paragraphs only.

• Description of the Product

(Optional: This part may contain a video about the product being reviewed.) The description will come right after the introduction, where the general overview of the product is initially explained. In this part, it is important to explain further the features of the product. This is where the product itself is explained deeply, specifically its descriptive characteristics. This may contain a maximum of 100 words.

• Benefits of the Products

This part is where the explanation on how the product works should be placed. This is important because this may lead to people’s clearer understanding on how the item may help them and why they may have to purchase it. You have to be honest in this part. Don’t put false claims, as it may disrupt your review’s credibility. Citing the benefits can be done in a bulleting approach. However, there should be a connecting statement to be written at the onset of this review part. The optional call-to-action message can be put here.

• Tech The Readers How To Use The Product Being Reviewed

This is to make things clear about the product being reviewed. You must teach the readers how to use it. It is a must that people, in advance, know about the product’s proper application or usage. This can be done by itemizing the specific steps (steps 1, 2, 3…).

• Pros and Cons

Again, the purpose of review writing is not just to convince your readers that the product being reviewed is amazingly beneficial. The purpose of the review is to cite things fairly, so that the decision to be made will be based on the readers’ understanding. It is thus important that you have to mention both pros and cons, so that the readers may really understand of whether or not the product itself is vital for them. This can be written in bullets.

• Tell The Readers About Product’s Legitimacy In The Market

The purpose of this part is to allow your readers to know that the product is not a scam. So, you have to tell them that it is legit and authentic in the market. Justifying its authenticity and legitimacy can help them a lot. It must contain 30 to 50 words.

• Rate The Review Based On Personal Testimonials

Here, you have to provide your own rating of the product based on what you have read and known so far. You can also support your review’s credibility using other people’s factual revelations (or the consumer’s personal reviews). It may contain 2 short paragraphs.

• Availability Of The Product And Price

In this context, you have to tell your readers where to find the product (i.e. Amazon webpage or official website). Then, you can explain the steps on how to purchase it. Lastly, don’t forget to mention the price of the product for the readers’ cognizance. Another call-to-action message can be written in this part.

A powerful product review may contain 500 to 1000 words. With this number of words, the aspects cited above should be the bases in writing. Otherwise, your review article may not be good and impacting enough for the online searchers or readers. To reiterate eventually, people may read your review just to have the needed information and facts for the right decision to be done. 

Effetive Writing Techniques For Bogs, Press Releases, And Product Reviews

Source: Google.com

How to Write Online Non-Promotional Articles and Blogs?

Whether for SEO or not so long as it is written for online purpose, the following steps are important:

• Create an ‘igniting’ Title. In creating title, incorporate the main keyword you’ll be using. Title is the first one to ignite the interest of the readers. You title should grasp the spark it intends to have.

• Create your ‘outline.’ Your outline will serve as a guide and gauge of where you go along the way while writing. Your outline should contain bullets that will serve as your marking point down the line.

• Start writing with your own ideas to be supplemented by the ideas that emanate from researches. To ensure quality and originality, use your own words when writing. And make sure to adhere to the subsequent sub-steps.

First sub-step: Start your first paragraph like a ‘bomb.’ The first paragraph should contain the general idea of the entire article. It must answer the question: what should I read in this article? Put yourself in the position of a reader for you to understand this. This is the most crucial point. Ultimately, this paragraph should have at least 3 simple sentences.

Second sub-step: The second to the fourth paragraph, depending on the length of the articles, should contain larger pieces of ideas. The essence is that every online article should be written using the ‘inverted pyramid format’ where general arguments are presented first to expound the article.

Third sub-step: The succeeding paragraphs should have the smaller pieces of ideas. Narrowing down the larger ideas is important. In this context, the specifics of the arguments should apparently be done.

Fourth sub-step: End your article with a synthesized statement affirming the first paragraph. In ending your article, you should write at least 2 to 3 short paragraphs synthesizing and affirming the thought of your first statements in the first paragraph.

How to Write Press Releases?

Press releases should contain stories regarding certain phenomena with supporting substantial ideas and arguments. The following steps are significant to arrive at well-written and must-read press releases for online purpose (and even for print purpose):

• Create an ‘explosive’ Title or Headline. Your PR Title or Headline has a magnitude and intensity of 70%. The power of the press releases reigns in it. Your Title or Headline must not exceed 80 characters all in all. And every first letter of every word in the Title or Headline should be capitalized and avoid using ‘be form’ of verb and articles like ‘a’ and ‘the’ at the start of the title.

• Create your ‘powerful’ outline. Your outline is important as it guides you in writing. Write bullets when doing this. Again, this is just a guide so that you will not be lost when writing your press releases.  In your outline, don’t forget to have a portion where you can write your summary. Summary normally comes after the headline.

• Start writing after you have all the ideas to contain in your stories. Researching online and even through hard copies is also important. You can’t write if your mind is empty. So, there’s a need to be fully equipped when writing press releases.

• Start the first paragraph of your story (normally after the summary) with explosion. If your Title or Headline has a 70% magnitude and intensity, your first paragraph will supplement this 70%. This is where the situation of your story is first presented. The very first sentence should have the ‘situation.’ The second statement should possess the complication of the situation. And the third and last sentence must have the answer to a specific question where the general thought of your press release lies.

Important Tip: Conventionally, the first paragraph should answer the questions that start with who, what, where, why and how. You have to write three simple sentences in the first paragraph containing situation, complication and answer to the question. But there are news (to be found in Google and Yahoo for instance) where there are single sentences to be found in the entire PR story. Your first sentence could have ‘statistical figures’ to set up the situation that will absolutely ignite people’s interest.

• The next paragraphs after the first one should have the general presentation of thoughts. Again, an inverted pyramid format should be followed in writing PR. After the first paragraph, the succeeding ideas should possess the general viewpoints and arguments of the PR story.

• The succeeding paragraphs till its outset must have the specific arguments. Piece by piece, the ideas should be fragmented for people to digest well what is being fed. This is to narrow down the broad concepts in the preliminary statements and paragraphs.

• Avoid using first or second person when you’re the one stating. In writing your press releases, it is a general rule to write them using ‘third person.’

• Use quotes from reliable sources to substantiate your story. This is the backbone of your story- the quotes from people whose statements have something to do with your story presented. This is where your story lies- they talk relevantly, your sources talk relevantly.

• Each paragraph should have at least 2 to 3 sentences. So many sentences in every paragraph do not work. They will simply ruin the readers’ good mood in reading. Thus, it’s better to simplify each paragraph to become concise yet precise by writing at least 2 to 3 sentences.

How to Write Reviews?

Reviews are consumers’ or users’ subjective viewpoints on certain products or services. The challenge is how to write them in a non-promotional way though they may have to contain subjective viewpoints. The following steps are important to arrive at this goal- writing them in a non-promotional way without compromising the essence of subjectivity.

• Write a Title in an Informative Way. It might not be that difficult to write a title in an informative way. How to do it? Just think of writing a title that is educational in nature. Don’t forget to incorporate the keywords of the reviews.

• The first paragraph should have an overview of the products or services being reviewed. In a detailed way, write something about the products or services having 3 to 4 sentences. Avoid using first person in this paragraph.

• The second paragraph should have your personal viewpoints. This is where you put in your personal opinions based on your personal experience or usage. A brief storyline will work here containing 3 to 4 short sentences.

• The third paragraph should have another person’s opinion. This is to affirm your idea by using another person’s ideas. In this paragraph, you can cite one statement from somebody else who have also tried using the product or service being reviewed.

• The fourth paragraph should contain the advantages of the products or services. Bulleting will work on this. Under each bullet, 2 lines of explanation will work effectively. And 4 to 5 bullets will suffice this paragraph.

• The fifth paragraph should have the disadvantages of the products or services. Another bulleting technique will work in this paragraph. Try to explain briefly each bullet the range of disadvantages of the products. But, remember that you’re doing a review on products or services; thus, your inclination should be in the positive aspect. Use slight negation process.

• Revisit your review in the sixth paragraph. This will reaffirm your positive thoughts and viewpoints about the products or services. However, avoid being over-promotional. There should only be an indirect emphasis to come out when trying to present that ‘you should consume or use this or that since…’ Then, 2 to 3 sentences will work on this.

• Conclude your reviews with dynamism. Being positive is vital in this paragraph. This should answer your self-asked question: ‘why did I consume or use such product or service?’

General Rules to Apply in All Types of Articles

Writing online is a challenge. It is in this sense that not all people can write online articles. Further, writing for online audiences is coupled with difficulties. The question is how can you suffice your readers?

The following steps are known as ‘The General Rules in Online Writing,’ to wit:

• Apply One-Idea-Per-Paragraph Rule. Brilliance in writing is gauged first and foremost using this rule. The application of one-idea-per-paragraph rule resonates the understanding of the writers, like you, in relation to online writing. There should only be one idea in each paragraph in order to bring apparent transmission of thought and to avoid readers’ misconception.

• Connect the Points. What does it mean? Writers like you must connect the dots. Every paragraph’s end should have a connecting idea to the succeeding paragraph. This is to show relevance and coherence of thoughts or ideas.

• Use only Simple Sentences. Online writing is not like writing a hard-copied novel with intention of getting the readers’ positive impression out of complexities and intricacies. Online readers are best known as ‘skimmers.’ So, they don’t need complex sentences and longer statements. All they need is ‘simplicity.’

• Use Bullets. Using bullets is applicable in the context of writing more particularly ‘online writing.’ Bullets help the skimmers to understand better the ideas in a more efficient way. Explaining each bullet does not require longer statements. 1 or 2 lines will work for it.

• Keywords Usage. Keywords are important in online marketing, particularly to the so-called indexation process of the search engines. Firstly, main keywords should be included in the titles of the blogs, press releases or reviews. Secondly, for blogs purpose, repeating the keywords twice will work. But the placement would depend on the submission sites. And remember that there are submission sites, like Ezine, that don’t like keywords to be placed at the onset of the articles’ body.

Important Tip: In writing Press Releases, using of main keywords should be done only once to avoid punishment of being spammy. In writing Reviews, there are times that you’ll be repeating keywords based on density requirement. So, there’s a need to understand the process based on it. Eventually, the online writers should also have knowledge with respect to ‘main keywords’ and ‘long-tail keywords’ to be effectively used in online articles.

• Stay Being ‘Non-Promotional’ and Avoid Call-To-Action Texts. Call-to-action texts like ‘click here,’ ‘please refer to this,’ or ‘for more information, please refer to this link’ should be avoided. These texts are promotional in nature. Then, to stay being non-promotional, the essence of writing should be placed in a way that you, as a writer, are just educating your audiences with respect to what they should do when certain problems or dilemmas will arise. Online articles, using the non-promotional perspective should be written in an informative and detailed way. “Don’t teach them to eat burger when they’re hungry; instead, teach them what to do when they’re hungry.”

The challenge in online writing should tickle your mind as a writer. Taking this challenge is good with respect to your drive to become a well-rounded writer by which a vast opportunity for progress is anchored.