"Mom, knower of all things worth knowing... what words of wisdom would you give in crafting an engaging blog.""Chell, its not about the content. Pay attention to your layout!"
My mom is a master copy writer, just like James Patterson. And like James Patterson, her copy sells... big time.
What can us bloggers learn from copywriters?
Make your writing easy to skim. Use headings and lots of white space. Put blank lines in between paragraphs. Give the eye a place to rest and a place to focus.
Write in short chunks. Dense copy is boring. You don't want your blog to look like a white paper. Paragraphs should never be longer than six lines, and even that is too long.
Write for a 5th grader. "What? Don't we want our intelligence to shine?" "Nobody will know how intelligent you are if they don't read what you have to say." Use short sentences; avoid obscure vocabulary.
These same words of wisdom apply to your e-mails, Facebook posts, newsletters, anything you want people to read. Captive your audience.
... Mom, did I do it right?
Hi Leader Librarian,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the tips! These tips are like the tips I use when I make PowerPoint presentations. The writing should be easy to skim, be in manageable chunks, and should be at the education level of your readers. Blogs are essentially published material so it makes sense that we should frame our work using techniques similar to the ones copywriters use. What are your thoughts about page layouts, besides incorporating white space?
Hi Shiba Inu Owner,
ReplyDeleteI am not a copywriting expert. But I did attend a webinar yesterday about blogging, by Michael Hyatt. He reinforced the same copywriting guidelines my mom gave about short sentences and paragraphs, easy words. He did not talk more about layout but he did make other recommendations in his "Recipe for a Killer Blog." I would say the most important one is the headline. Michael has the #1 blog in 2015 business list, which is how I found him. Check out his website: http://michaelhyatt.com/