Observations on Writing Web Content

When people find out that I make money with the websites I publish, they often come up with a list of “Oh I could never [BLANK]!” comments of why they could never do the same. Comments like:

Oh I could never design a website!

Oh I could never do keyword research!

Oh I could never find the right topic!

Oh I could never figure out all that technical stuff!

One that I’ve heard lately is:

Oh I could never write in depth about something!

I’ve kept this in mind recently as I’ve been writing content. And I wrote this post for those people who see writing as some show-stopping obstacle to building a profitable content website.

What Makes Writing Good?

This is a odd post for me to make because I’m certainly not a good writer. Still, despite awful grammar and embarrassing typos, I’m usually able to get my point across. And that is the important thing.

I propose that you don’t have to be a masterful writer to communicate ideas. You just have to get your point across. It is one thing to write like Mark Twain. To do so probably takes a certain inborn spark and a lot of polish. It is another thing to write something that another person can read and use to accomplish some end. I’m convinced anybody can learn to write something useful.

Typically my web content writing falls into three categories: technical articles, commentary type articles and persuasive copy. Persuasive copy is a separate skill (but also a skill I think anybody can learn) so for this post I’ll only address the first two. The approach for both types of writing is a little different.

(By the way, by technical, I’m not talking about technology. I just mean an article where I get into the nuts and bolts of the subject in a methodical and factual way. )

Technical Writing

Technical articles are generally paint-by-number affairs. Everything you need to know about this type of writing you learned in middle school.

To start, I’ll typically do a few hours of research over several days, carefully recording facts and data along with their sources. Then I’ll let things sit in the back of my mind another few days.

When I feel like the topic has gelled in my mind and I have a good understanding, I’ll write out the main point of the article and then any supporting points. These might be the points of an arguments or the steps of a process. It doesn’t really matter.

This forms an outline that I can use as the main structure for the article. From there I just flesh out all the points with examples and details. A few rounds of fact-checking and editing and the article is ready.

I’ve written countless articles this way. There are variations of course but the underlying structure of the articles and the process is always about the same.

Commentary Writing

For commentary type writing, I’ll usually have to do a brain dump to get everything out on paper or on a screen. Sometimes I won’t even know exactly what is motivating me to offer commentary on a particular subject. I’ll ask myself:

Why do I feel compelled to write a reaction to this?

To uncover that motivation, I’ll open a blank document and simply write until I can’t write any more.

Then I’ll reread what I wrote and look for patterns. Usually the thing that is motivating me becomes clear. That’s my main point. Some supporting points start to stick out. From there I can create an outline as described above. After that, the process is much the same as with the technical articles.

Getting Unstuck

If I get stuck with either type of article I’ll usually do some or all of the following:

• Take a break.
• Write another braindump.
• Revisit the outline, asking myself what point(s) I’m really trying to make, tweaking as necessary.

It’s not fast or pretty. But that’s how I get it done.

Other Observations

I always write one sentence to a line in the beginning. This makes it easy to move lines to different paragraphs or different parts of a paragraph. If the final product is something like a Word doc or will be posted in WordPress, I’ll stitch together all the sentences into proper paragraphs. If I’m just publishing in straight HTML, I’ll leave all the sentences on one line and format with HTML tags.

My first pass at organizing a piece of writing is usually awful. It’s not until I’ve gotten most of it out on screen or on paper that I can figure out the best way to organize it. That’s why I like writing one sentence per line in the beginning. It is slow going when you have to move sentences around within paragraphs.

I write almost everything as a blank email in Gmail and just save it as a draft with a title. I give things labels to keep track of them.

I almost always keep everything I write even if I don’t use it.

More often then not, I’ll use the Google Keyword Tool to help me build a suitable headline. Why? Because key words tell you what people are looking for and will help them find what you wrote.

Photography is one of my hobbies and I spend time poking around Ken Rockwell’s website. I don’t have the link but somewhere he made the point that a good photo emphasizes what is important and de-emphasizes what is not important. You’ll see the same thing if you read books on the craft of writing, movie making, music etc. A lot of making something better is simply cutting away things that aren’t good and aren’t necessary.

I get the best results when I print out my writing, correct a whole document in pen and the go back and edit. If I read and edit too much with a live document it turns into a mess and takes forever.

It might feel silly but I’ve found that reading my writing out loud helps uncover a lot of dumb mistakes. It takes time to print something out and read it out loud a few times during editing. I don’t do it for everything. But I’ve found that when I do it the results are definitely better than when I don’t.

You Can Write

Any English teacher would start using their red pen within the first sentence of pretty much anything I write. I don’t have any special writing skills. If I can do it — you can do it. Just start writing. Don’t set the bar too high at first. Keep it simple. You’ll improve as you go along. Don’t let a fear of writing hold you back.