10 Tips for Improving Your Writing Website
Starting a new website is as easy as choosing the topics you want to write about, spending 3 to 5 minutes to register to a directory service (you can use most of them for free) and populating it with your words. That’s it. Virtually everyone can get their writing website up and running.
On the contrary, maintaining your site seems quite harder. According to published studies, as many as 95% of websites are inactive. This happens because the majority of the writers don’t pass the passion + motivation + commitment test.
Before you start a website to showcase your writing, ask yourself if you feel you can truly give a valuable contribution to the writing world. You’ll also need to understand if you like the idea of dedicating your time to keeping your site fresh and neat.
If the answer is “yes, absolutely” – congratulations! That is half the battle.
Here are 10 tips to help you turn your site into a compelling, top-class, popular one.
1. Stay focused
Choose a topic and stick to it, whether you are writing about yourself or about sports, technology or cooking. People sharing your interests will find you easily – and stick to YOU.
2. Be unique
The more original and innovative you are, the better. Finding something no one has ever posted about can be hard, but still you can have a distinctive approach to a well-known topic. Maybe you have exclusive insights to share, or you’re an expert in your field, or you simply have your own, appealing way to present things and opinions.
3. Post often
A website is not a magazine, and readers expect frequent updates. Try to write something at least once or twice a day: even a small post will work. You also might want do some planning, and note down topics and ideas about which to write in the future.
4. Engage
Involvement is the first step towards the building of a loyal and enthusiastic audience. Allowing comments on your site, for example, is a good way to give your readers a chance to participate in the discussion.
5. Use the right tone of voice
Try to write the way you would speak with your friends. If it’s appropriate to the subject of your blog, use an informal language and jargon, so that it’s apparent to whom you’re talking to.
6. Go straight to the point
Try to be concise: avoid cryptic headlines, and make sure your readers catch the subject of your post right from its first lines.
7. Interact
Besides keeping an eye on the comments to your posts and responding to them, it is a good idea to synchronize your site with the other social networks you’re into; you can find some nice tips on how to do it (even if you are a code dummy) on the internet – or you can leverage Badged.net, a free service that lets you add your favorite social networking badges to your website.
8. Give suggestions
Don’t be selfish: share your resources and bookmarks with your readers. And don’t be afraid to lose your following. If your site is actually unique, original and engaging, redirecting your readers to other interesting websites will only make your site look like a valuable source of information – they’ll stick to you and keep coming back for more!
9. Add external references
Similarly, if the arguments inside one of your posts are endorsed or supported by external, trustworthy sources, do cite those sources and link to them in your post. It will help invigorate your site’s reputation.
10. Make it look good
Even the coolest design cannot replace compelling and readable writing- your site will also need to catch the eye: a good-looking site will attract first-time visitors and increase the chances that they keep on reading through your pages. Again, you don’t need to be a web designer to enhance the aesthetics of your website. Most website creation services let you choose from a range of free templates that you can easily customize, or you can go scouting over the Internet for something different. Type “free website templates” on Google, you’ll be amazed at how many sites you will find!
Do you have any other tips to help writers improve their website content?
Laura Averna is a Copywriter – well, being in charge of Marketing Communications she’s supposed to look after a batch of different tasks, but writing is what she has the most fun with. You might find her raving on Twitter
So much good advice in one post – Excellent post, Laura! I wish I would have read this when I was first getting into blogging.
It’s a tough battle for bloggers interested in engaging readers and contributing to the community – it requires a lot of regular posts and usually gives nothing back … at least for a while.
That’s what I found to be true with my own work at least – both professional and personal. One such endeavor has been over at ScriptXRay.com (a blog about screenwriting) – I started posting their a little over a year ago and found that there wasn’t much of a response until I really focused and started posting every day.
Here’s another point that branches from number 2:
11. Be Transparent
While just 10 years ago, everyone was worried about publishing their full name online, creating a transparent profile is one of the most important aspects of the web today. Transparency is the measurement of how honest, upfront, and revealing you are about yourself as a person with your readers … it’s the face behind the site.
The more transparent you are with your readers, the more likely they’ll connect with you … we’re all interested in learning more about each other, so it’s exciting when someone enables that possibility.
This doesn’t mean you have to write about your personal life (though sometimes it can be effective), but that you have to let people know who you are and why you’re unique as a person and blogger rather. Avoid hiding behind your company or blog logo, blog name, or masked picture – it’s rare these techniques still work with readers. One of the most common ways bloggers try to protect themselves as individuals is to create an illusion that their site or blog is bigger than it actually is – they might say things such as “contact us,” “we’re,” and “the team.” Again, be honest and upfront with your readers.
Another way to create a sense of transparency is through social media platforms. Just as it’s common to try and add different values to your different social profiles (pictures on flickr, updates on twitter, videos on youtube, etc.), you should consider ways to create transparency with these mediums. In addition to adding helpful video tutorials on Vimeo or Viddler, try adding personal reflections, tours of your home office or blog-station, or random things of interest. likewise, consider tweeting interesting things with your followers, even if they’re not necessarily related to your niche. For example, though you blog about videography, you might share what you’re watching on YouTube with your followers. This enables your followers to become more engaged with you.
Hiding behind the curtain is so 1999 – be real with your readers and they’ll be real with you. Just my two cents. Look forward to future posts from you Laura.
I read 2 post at one page! they were both excellent!Especially for me as a new blogger.I came up with what Will Smith said:if you are shy,be shy ,if you are out going ,be outgoing! is that right?
Hi Christopher, I’m happy you liked the post!
I totally agree with you on the importance of being… Ernest
Seriously, this is something that I might have taken for granted (and that’s why I didn’t mention it), but I believe that being genuine is actually the best advice you can give when it comes to writing and using the social media – so, thanks you for adding point #11!
Hypocrisy smells fishy, doesn’t it?
Great tips, Laura. But posting once or twice a day is a little hard, what with all the writing that has to be done for the clients plus your own personal writing.
Laura – great article!
Anis – I think that most consistent bloggers are simply “being who they are” even if it doesn’t seem that much on the surface. So they can jot down their thoughts once in a while without much stress. Eg there are people who can happily rant for hours, and I just adore those blogs. There are people who post interesting snippets of their everyday lives along with an insight or two, in a very relaxed manner. Their audience might be smaller, but it’s bigger than the average audience of a dead blog.
Another way is to write several articles over the weekend and stack them up for the future. It never really worked for me, but there are people for whom it goes brilliantly.
Thanks, Ieva, for the tips. And you’re right about “being who they are” – because each of us is different.
I totally agree with you on this and one point to add. Adding NEW unique content regularly is the key.
usually most blogs start off with a bang but lack the consistency (frequent updates) to sustain it. which results in a slow death
Thanks,
Great blog. Do you know of any relevant forums or discussion groups?
yea definitely great tips Laura ! My favorite is #6. I’ve been really trying to leave out what is not necessary in my blog posts. Thanks for the article!
Be unique. Out of all, this is the most important. Post often can help you to attract more readers and to make sure your readers are loyal readers so they will keep coming back for more.
best article I read about this yet!
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