We all know that improving your craft of writing can help you land lucrative gigs, improve your communication with prospects and customers and can even help you do well in jobs where you are not paid to write. So, where do you look online for inspiration to improve your writing skills? Fortunately, there are plenty of resources that we can tap into. As a follow-up to these tools, 25+ must have tools for content writers, here are some great learning resources that will help you write better copy.

Resources to help you write better

1. Copywriting 101 by Copyblogger
Copywriting is one of the most highly paid professions in the writing world. The ability to write good copy depends upon your ability to convince people to take some form of action. Copyblogger has a great beginners guide to copywriting that includes tips on writing good headlines, writing persuasive copy, the difference between good copy and bad copy.
2. Writing Kick-Ass Website Sales Copy by Nick Usborne
Nick Usborne has written several eBooks for freelancers and web content writers. This eBook is a great guide on how to how to write web copy that sells.
3. Plain language course by NIH (National Institutes of Health)
If you’re interested in clear communications as most writers are, you will love plain language. NIH puts out a course on plain language that goes through all the basic rules for getting your message across clearly.
4. Strunk and White’s Elements of Style
In 2011, Time magazine named Stunk & White one of the 100 most influential books written since 1923. Even though this classic book is over 50 years old, (longer if you count the first publication of Strunk in 1920), some of its advice is still relevant today. Use the active voice. Omit needless words…Look it all up on Bartleby.com, a site that publishes thousands of free online classics of reference, literature and nonfiction.

Useful blogs for writers

5. Daily Writing Tips
Get writing tips sent to your inbox, daily. Topics range from grammar to punctuation, from spelling to usage and vocabulary.
6. Grammar Girl
Grammar Girl’s description is “Your friendly guide to the world of grammar, punctuation, usage, and fun developments in the English language.” Her tips are mostly on grammar, punctuation but once you polish these, you will always have a better, clearer document.

Books on writing well

7. The Book on Writing: The Ultimate Guide to Writing Well by Paula LaRoq
From the importance of clarity to the value of a conversational tone, this book shows you some easy guidelines to good writing,
8. 100 Ways to Improve Your Writing by Gary Provost
Don’t let the fact that this book is often used as a textbook intimidate you. Gary Provost maintains a good conversational tone and explains with concrete examples. He even has tips to overcome writer’s block and how to develop your style.

Grammar resources

9. EduFind
Do you have a question about the correct use of a semi-colon or how to place relative adverbs in a sentence? At Edufind, you’ll find examples and a collection of exercises to test your mastery of English grammar. You can even test your current level of English with an in-depth exam.
10. Grammar Handbook
Writers workshop at the University of Illinois addresses common problems in writing such as dangling modifiers, homophones, run-on sentences and sentence fragments. A quick read of the workshop’s everyday grammar will strengthen your grammar and your writing abilities.
12. Purdue University’s OWL (Online Writing Lab)
The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University houses writing resources that help with general writing skills, grammar and punctuation.
13. Common errors in English usage
The concept of language errors is a fuzzy one and this is acknowledged by the author who wants to leave it to the linguists for technical definitions. It’s helpful to use this site  to see the differences in words that are common pitfalls for even seasoned writers.  Words such as affect and effect, allude and elude.

Style Guides

14. Ap Stylebook online
The AP Stylebook online is one resource that requires a small annual fee of $25 to join but is an indispensable tool and needs to be included in this list.
15. Chicago manual of style
The online edition of the Chicago manual of style Online provides recommendations on editorial style and publishing practices for the digital age.

Online Writing Schools

17. Writers Digest University
Writers Digest University has workshops for fiction, non-fiction, short stories and for freelance copywriting.
18. American Writers & Artists, Inc.
AWAI is a recognized resource for freelance copywriters. As a member you’ll have access to an archive of helpful and original articles. Their most popular and effective program is called The Accelerated Program for Six Figure Copywriting.

Forums

19. English forums
Stumped by a tricky grammar moment? Join these forums to get advice from others who love the language.

Tools to help you write better, clearer copy

20. Techterms.com
The goal of TechTerms.com is to make computer terminology easy to understand. While definitions of computer terms can be helpful, explanations with examples are even better. Most TechTerms.com definitions include examples of how the term is used.
21. Thesaurus.com
Thesaurus.com is easily my favorite tool online. I’m always looking to simplify my message and thesaurus.com helps me find synonyms.
22. Reference.com
I was writing content recently for a highly technical industry and reference.com was a huge help to me. Not only did I learn the meaning of essential terms, I also learned when they were used.
23. Dictionary.com and MerriamWebster.com
Both are essential dictionary resources for all content creators. Synonym.com is a great resource when you’re searching for alternate terms. Using synonyms instead of repeatedly using the same keywords is also recognized as an seo best practice .
24. Content Experiments
Content Experiments is a great conversion testing tool. It’s right inside of Google Analytics which makes it easy to use for everyone that has a Google Analytics account. It allows you to increase the value of your existing websites and traffic, as you can test your site content and design. You can show several versions of a page to different visitors. Google Analytics measures the popularity of each page version. If the user performs the action you want them to perform you know that you have hit upon your winning version of the page. It’s very effective in determining which copy works better.
25. Scrivener
Scrivener is a powerful content-generation tool for writers that allows you to concentrate on composing and structuring long documents such as story scripts, non-fiction eBooks and theses. While it gives you complete control of the formatting, its focus is on helping you get to the end of that awkward first draft.

Your Turn

Do you have other writing resources you’d like to share? I’d love to hear from you.

Please share your thoughts in the comments below. Thanks.

Stories sell. Stories excite our imagination and increase our passion.

Above all a good story can make our audience relate to our brand by touching their hearts. And there’s no more powerful way to make a connection with your customer.

Stories connect us to our listeners. When we share our own real-life stories or the stories of others our audiences feel that they know us and that builds trust.

There are many different stories you can tell to help a prospect find that connection with your brand. You can use stories to inspire, teach, caution people or use everyday events to relate to your audience.

So without further ado, lets look at an example of brilliant storytelling.

This is the Google “Reunion” story – I always feel a bit tearful watching it. It’s from Google Search. They came out with it a few months ago and it went viral with over 11 million views. And once you experience it, you’ll see why. Here it is:

Google’s Reunion story that went viral with over 11 million views

The backdrop is the partition of India. In this story, a woman in India reunites her grandfather with his childhood friend (who is now in Pakistan) following six decades of separation with a little help from Google.

This story is sure to resonate with you even if you haven’t experienced all the subtle nuances that are part and parcel of this tale (borders, separation, political tensions between the two countries).

Lessons we can learn for when we prepare our own stories

Always speak about the benefits, not features

The story is an example of how Google Search can help us find what we need. It speaks to the benefit of using Google but in a way that touches our heart. Research shows that most of our buying decisions are made to fulfill an emotional need.

Make your customer the hero of the piece

The heroes who brought the separated friends together were users of Google Search. It’s all about your customer.

Don’t be intrusive and push your brand as the best

It’s obvious that this video is promoting Google. But the use of Google as a brand is woven into the storytelling in a way that feels natural.
Even though we saw the use of Google on laptop and mobile devices, nowhere was anyone pushing us to use Google. It’s perfect for these days where marketing needs to be subtle and you cannot push your brand on your customers anymore.

The story has a clear beginning, middle and end

Every story needs to have all three to work well.

The story has a clear message

The message of the video is clear: We’re Google, and the work we do is making the world a better place.

The story speaks to and touches our hearts

I know that I’ve mentioned this point an umpteen number of times in this post, but the essence of a good story lies in its ability to capture your heart.

Storytelling may seem like an old-fashioned tool, today — and it is. That’s exactly what makes it so powerful. Life happens in the stories we relate to another. A story can go where data is denied admission: our hearts. Data can persuade people, but it doesn’t inspire them to act; to do that, you need to wrap your vision in a story that fires the imagination and stirs the soul.

Your Turn

What are your thoughts on using storytelling as a creative tool? I’d love to hear from you. Please share your thoughts in the comments below. Thanks.

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A few years ago SEO was mostly technical. Nowadays, it’s all about content. Due to rapid changes in SEO in the past few months, old SEO practices no longer work and may harm you.
On the other hand, spending the time and doing the right things will result in better rankings and more visibility for your business. So how do you know what to avoid anymore? By listening to people like Matt Cutts.

These SEO practices are frowned upon and we know this by piecing together several of Matt Cutts’ videos. Check out one of his videos below.

#1. Not having the right search terms on your page

Include the words that people are actually going to type. Matt Cutts posted a video, on the top 3-5 SEO mistakes he constantly sees by volume. Not having your keywords on the page is a mistake he sees all the time. He said, “You don’t just want to say Mount Everest elevation, you want to say words like how high is Mount Everest because people are going to type: how high is Mt. Everest?” If you’re a restaurant, include a menu. Include your business hours on the page.

Here’s Matt Cutts’ video where he describes the top 3-5 mistakes that businesses are making:

Matt Cutts’ video on top SEO mistakes businesses make

#2. Keyword stuffing

Even though keyword stuffing has been a frowned upon practice since the past decade, the change came about with the Panda update. Sites that didn’t conform were slapped with penalties. Last year, Google’s Hummingbird update was also a complete shift away from using a single keyword excessively on a page. Hummingbird looks for natural language queries and synonyms. With Hummingbird, these strategies work best:

• Use specific keywords sparingly, in the right places. Such as titles, meta descriptions and once or twice on the page.
• Write articles that focus on the overall meaning of your content and less on a specific keyword.
• Consider synonyms – the alternate words or phrases that describe what you do and that people might use, rather than focusing your content around an exact-match keyword. For example, if I were optimizing content for a hotel site, I would use synonyms such as lodging, motel, accommodation, tavern and inn.
• Use focus terms that are related to your subject. For example a page on cancer care will have related terms such as radiation, chemotherapy etc.

#3. No Title and description tags

What is the title of your home page? Does it say untitled or is it giving people a good idea of what your site is about. Think about the description of your best pages. Your description often determines what shows up in snippets. You want to create something that people want to click on.

#4. Not creating link-worthy content

Traditional inbound-links are still valuable after all these years. However, the links that count these days are links from high authority sites. Mat Cutts advised that instead of focusing on link-building, try to create compelling content that people want to link to and share. Some things to keep in mind about links and how they work these days:

• Instead of thinking of where to buy links (this technique has long been considered spammy), think clever guerrilla marketing. “What can I do to market my website to make it broadly known in the community?”
• Can I talk to newspapers, conferences and forums. Who would be interested in my content? How can I share this with them?
• Think of quality vs. quantity. There was a time when the number of links that you had were important. This was before the days of link-spammers and sites selling you links. Nowadays, the links that count are from high-authority websites.
• Pay careful attention to comments and who you allow to link to your content. Links from the wrong sites may also get you into trouble. Use the Google disavow tool if necessary.
• Create a rich system of internal links. This helps search engines better navigate your site. It also points them to links relevant to the topic of your page.

#5. Poor quality, too little, duplicate or plagiarized content

Many brands are facing the pressure of constantly having to churn out fresh content. Sometimes, this leads to a temptation to put out duplicate or poor quality content. After the Panda and Penguin updates, sites get penalized for these practices. It also has negative ramifications for your brand. People are constantly assessing your brand. Are you a trusted source of information? Do you deliver quality and value? High quality content speaks of these qualities.

#6. Not focusing on user intent

Hummingbird encourages us to understand user intent right from the start of the buying process. Focus on what you know that your customer came to your site to research.Identify intent, needs and problems. Provide solutions and answers. Look at queries and what customers need.
Here are some ideas to understand user intent:

• Use tools such as Qualaroo to understand user intent and preferences.
• Talk to your team’s customer service people to find out what customers and prospects most want or need from your product.
• Use Customer feedback forms, quick surveys and polls to identify customer needs.
• Talk to the actual sales people to find out what customers want from you.

Also, try to understand the long-tail queries users are typing in, especially these days with mobile search. Long-tail queries indicate that the prospect is very close to buying and just needs to be matched with the right product. Even though we can no longer look for keywords in Google, there are several ways to determine long-tail queries:

• Use the insights you receive from the Search box on your site
• Tools such as Google Suggest, related searches, Uber Suggest, Twitter Search and even social media Q & A sites such as Quora are great to tap into for long-tail questions.
• Last but not the least, check out the competition. Type in the terms that you are interested in and see who shows up first in search results. You will be able to get an idea from their pages the kind of queries they are trying to optimize the page for.

#7.Not integrating content marketing with your SEO efforts

In 2014 and into the future, content marketing and seo work hand-in-hand. You need to seamlessly go from one to the other. A good digital strategy now means having a great content strategy in place. This includes having a content plan, content audits and creating different types of content in the sales funnel. Like whitepapers, blogs and newsletters.

#8. Poor social media marketing

Social media of-course has many SEO benefits. Besides the fact that social shares alert search engines that the content is share-worthy, it’s an important trust symbol for visitors landing on a page. You’re also increasing the reach of your brand when you spread the word through social media. In order to get the most of social media you need to invest the time and effort in growing your communities and reaching new customers.

#9. Not having a local search strategy

Ed Parsons, the Geospatial Technologist of Google, has indicated in a recent talk at Google PinPoint that “about 1 in 3 of queries that people just type into a standard Google search bar are about places, they are about finding out information about locations. …this isn’t Google Maps just people normally looking at Google”.
Last year, Google started rewarding local businesses with the interaction between Hummingbird and the Venice update – a tweak that lead to more localized organic results for non-geo-modified keywords. What this means is that there are even more opportunities to capture local traffic. For example, if you are in Philadelphia, regardless whether you type in a search query for: ad agency Philadelphia or just ad agency, you would get local results first.
I recently interviewed David Mihm and he included some excellent strategies on how to optimize your content for local search.

#10. Thinking that SEO is a one-time job

Google has made several changes to SEO. What with the animal updates, Panda, Penguin and now Hummingbird and the semantic web. What works today, may not work tomorrow. To survive in the digital world, you need to be up-to-date or your site will lose its visibility. It’s good to have an SEO consultant come in and tell you what to do. But that advice will not stand the test of time. In order to increase your online visibility, you constantly need to read up and be open to trying new things.

Your Turn

What do you think are the top mistakes people are making with their content? I’d love to hear from you. Please share your thoughts in the comments below. Thanks.

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Albert Einstein once said, “If you can’t explain it simply enough, you don’t understand it.” It’s the same with our writing.
Clear communications can help us to:

• Increase conversions
• Increase audience engagement
• Improve readers’ understanding of our message

The best way to convert prospects to customers is through plain, simple and direct communications. People will only buy from you if they understand you. If your message is garbled, then they will be confused by your brand and your product.

The core principles of clear communication come from following plain language guidelines. Plain language (also called Plain English) is communication your audience can understand the first time they read or hear it. Most business sectors now use plain language in their writing. Even the government has a special website for plain language. The Plain Writing Act of 2010 requires the federal government to write all new publications, forms, and publicly distributed documents in a “clear, concise, well-organized” manner.

These principles and more are also part of an online course on plain language put out by NIH (National Institutes of Health). Joining and participating in this course is free. The Center for Plain Language also has workshops on plain language.

#1. Identify your goal and purpose at the beginning

Begin by identifying in your own mind what your goal is: What do I want my reader to do or understand after they finish reading? What action do I want them to take? Do I want them to buy this product or enroll in that program? Any copy that doesn’t support the realization of this goal can be cut. If you don’t have a clear cut goal, then the other tips in this post will not work.
After we identify our goal, we need to let our readers know the main benefits of this goal at the beginning, preferably with the headline and lead text.

#2. Write exactly as you would speak

Imagine that you are talking to your target customer. What would you say to him to convince him of the benefits of your product? Write as you would speak with that same informal tone. Imagine that you are directly talking to these customers and their reaction to your discussion. How can you speak so that your message comes out to them loud and clear.

#3. Write clearly and concisely: Fire words that are redundant

Wordiness endangers your meaning – precise words convey it. Keep your sentences short. And avoid redundant expressions. Get rid of every word that isn’t doing anything special or useful. Those are unhelpful, and a drain.
Extra words don’t just take up space. They suck the power from your writing. Compare these two sentences:
In the event of a fire, you will need to communicate with us and indicate to us that in view of the fact that you have lost your material, you cannot come.
So many extra words. Let’s try again…..
If there’s a fire, inform us that you have lost your material and cannot come. Much more understandable.

In consideration of the fact that
in view of the fact that
given the fact that
due to the fact that
on the grounds that
in as much as
Because is a better substitute for these words.

#4. Cut out big words – Use short words and short sentences

Don’t use a $10 word when a 5 cent word will do.
Derek Halpern just put out a blog (video) post talking about how using big, pompous words may make you sound stupid. He talks about a recent University of Princeton research study with 3 experiments. In one experiment, they tested different essays going from simple to very complex. The simplest essay was given the best rating. In another experiment, they asked people to rate translations of a text. The translations ranged from simple to very complex. Again, the simplest translation got the highest rating.

#5. Use the active voice

Try to write as far as possible in the active voice.
She was loved by her family (passive)
Her family loved her (active).

#6. Use bullets, subheads and white space to help readers quickly scan the main points

Help your readers to quickly scan your content. When you break up your content with subheads and bullet points you organize and separate each point. This helps a reader quickly grasp the important points.

#7. Avoid jargon

I came across this piece of jargon:
My organization believes in three-dimensional third-generation projections.
The consultants recommend remote transitional flexibility. Huh? Whazzat???
Jargon and acronyms confuse the reader. If you must have an acronym, then be sure to spell it out as well.

#8. Use pronouns

“You” is the most important word in marketing. Use it often. This will automatically make you think from your customers point of view. Use of the pronoun “we” eliminates confusion. Customers know that you are referring to you or your business and not some third party.

#9. Use parallel construction

Parallel structure means using the same pattern of words to show that two or more ideas have the same level of importance. Bulleted lists need to be parallel.
Dr. McAfee lectured, was shouting, and waved his arms.
Here is the same information in parallel construction:
Dr. McAfee lectured, shouted, and waved his arms.

#10. Write to an eight grade reading level

Writing to a lower grade level doesn’t mean you are dumbing down, contrary to what many people believe. It’s smart business to do so.
How do you find out what grade level your writing is? Use the Flesch-Kincaid index. The index is a tool available in MS Word 10 (and above)
If your document is easy to read, you get a higher readability score (which is a score from 1-100). Shoot for a score between 60-100. You can also see the grade level of your document.
It’s easy to use the index. After you write and edit your document, simply go into Review – Spelling and Grammar. Word will proofread your document and at the end will give you a score that looks like this:

Microsoft Word shows you how readable your document is and it also shows you the grade level your content is optimized for

Your Turn

What are you doing to make sure your writing is crystal clear? Do you have other tips to share? I’d love to hear from you. Please share your thoughts in the comments below. Thanks.

Are you creating mobile-friendly content? The world is rapidly moving to mobile-first communications. And you don’t want your brand to be left behind in this revolution.

In the U.S today, we have more customers that visit via mobile devices than via desktop. Chances are that soon your customers may only look at your site on a mobile device.

A recent comScore study – More than 50% of users use various mobile devices in the U.S

Some quick and simple steps to easily make your content stand out and look awesome on mobile devices:

#1. Invest in responsive design

This may sound like a no-brainer for most, but you’ll be surprised at how many people don’t know that responsive design is taking over the internet. The best part about responsive design is that you don’t need to direct a user to a special mobile site. The site is designed to adjust to your mobile device so that the content is presented to you in the most pleasing way. For example, if you visit my homepage via a laptop, you should see two columns. If you visit via a mobile device, your will see a one-column layout for maximum reading ease.

Investing in a responsive site need not be expensive. WordPress responsive themes can cost you as little as $40. You get many free responsive themes on the market as well.

#2. Keep headlines short, punchy and less than 10 words

No one knows the value of a short and punchy headline better than content creators. With mobile content, it’s best to keep headlines short and sweet, preferably less than 10 words. Some mobile marketing experts advise keeping them between 5-8 words. Whatever length you choose, the old rule of copywriting – speaking to your customers’ needs applies even more for mobile content. And woo your audience with benefit-driven headlines.

# 3. Create links and icons that are touch friendly

In the absence of a cursor, clicking on an exact element on a smartphone screen can be difficult. Users can get frustrated if links are too close together to select the link they intend. And this means they will stop reading your content.

Designing best practices for mobile content requires increased space between different touch targets within your content. If you are trying to attract viewers to a product page, it’s preferable to include your link as a call-to-action at the end of your para. This makes it easier for your users to tap on your calls to action and links to your additional content or to your social media channels.

When designing your content and landing pages, follow guidelines provided by different mobile platforms to decide on the size of the touch targets you should use. For example, iOS Human Interface Guidelines recommends a minimum target size of 44 pixels wide 44 pixels tall.

#4. Create content that is snackable – in easy, bite-size pieces

Studies show that people are task oriented on their mobiles. They come in, want to finish their task and leave. Simplify their time by providing them with these conveniences:

• Use big fonts that are easy to read
• Give your audience the most important info first. Use the inverted pyramid style of journalism, where the most important info is first.
• Use:
  • bullet points
  • numbered lists
  • lots of sub-heads for scannable text

#5. Keep your tone conversational – Use plain language principles

The good news is that the use of plain language is spreading. Most corporate and government websites are now embracing plain language as their preferred style of writing.
Here’s how you can keep a conversational tone:

• Write as you speak
• Avoid jargon, even if your industry has a lot of jargon
• Use more action verbs
• Keep sentences short

#6. Design a mobile app for customers

Even though a mobile app is not yet a must-have for every retailer and industry, creating the right one may lead to more conversions. You need to research and see which mobile apps are traffic drivers for your industry. Studies show that certain industries have more than 80% of their users coming in through mobiles apps. For example, Pandora, Yelp and Twitter show substantial traffic via mobiles.

80% of Pandora users listen in via mobile devices

#7. Measure and research what’s working with your mobile audience

Measure, measure and measure. Your analytics report will give you a breakdown of what your mobile customers are looking for when they visit. The greater the depth in understanding your audiences’ mobile habits, the more compelling your content will be. And understanding their needs will help you to create content they want to see.

Webcontentblog’s mobile audience statistics
Looks like a lot of my crowd uses IPhones. My bounce rate is higher with my mobile audience. This tells me that they are coming in, reading the article that they came to read and leaving. If I was engaged in selling, I could set-up conversions to get an accurate sense of how many mobile visitors are converting into paying customers.

There are many mobile content marketing strategies. Choose what suits your business needs and will help convert the most prospects to customers. With mobile device usage becoming predominant, it’s time to start creating a mobile-first content marketing strategy — and then work backwards to cater to your desktop visitors’ needs.

Your Turn

Do you have a responsive site? How are you making your content mobile-friendly? I’d love to hear form you. Please share your thoughts in the comments below. Thanks.