Live Blogging Session #4
Erik Deckers, Pro Blog Service
5 Simple Rules of Writing Quickly
Quality is important, but you have other stuff to do with your day.
Plan first.
Think about it during your downtime—in the car, in the shower, etc.
Plow through.
There’s really no such thing as writer’s block. It’s really just lack of motivation or getting stuck on what to say. The best cure for writer’s block is just to sit down and start writing. The rhythm of writing and stream of consciousness will eventually lead to what you want to say.
Fill it in later.
Start with an outline or bullet points and create paragraphs out of it later.
Write a lead; string leads together or space them out and add content to each lead.
Write everyday.
Writer’s write. They don’t watch tv, sleep, etc. Write everyday, no matter what it is.
Keep it short. Real short.
The shorter it is, the more likely people are actually going to read it.
If you end up writing a huge post, chop it up to create multiple posts and post date so you’re ahead of the game.
Series posts bring people back.
5 Simple Rules of Writing Well
Write for a Clever 12-year-old
We don’t like to read things written at a college level. We only have so much mental space and don’t want to fill it with heady articles.
Blog readers don’t usually want to think too hard.
Funnel—all the big, important information is in the first sentence/paragraph so the importance of the information gets smaller as the article goes on.
Bloggers should skip the background information that doesn’t need to be there. Keep posts to 300-500 words.
Be clear.
“For sale: baby shoes, never used.” ~Ernest Hemingway (the 6 word short story)
Use short words. Use short paragraphs too.
You can have 1 word paragraphs, despite English rules.
Edit mercilessly.
Revise and rewrite. Cut out useless words.
Don’t overwrite.
Say what you need to say with the fewest words possible.
5 Simple Rules for SEO writing
Write for readers, not spiders.
Being number 1 on Google doesn’t do any good if people leave 3 seconds after they arrive because they don’t want to read crap.
If you write for readers, readers will come. Write good, quality content that interests people.
Use unique keywords.
Erik is number 1 on Google for “It’s in my raccoon wounds.” for a post on his child’s vomit.
Integrate Keywords Naturally
Title
Lede
Subheadings
Related words and synonyms
Don’t repeat your keywords.
Don’t pack key words. This is bad writing. No one is going to stick around to actually read it.
Anchor text
Be sure to use keywords in the actual post. It must be relevant.