Content Writing | How To Write VIRAL Articles?

Content Writing: There is no secret that writing (writing content) is today one of the most important professional skills that anyone can have.

Whether you are a blogger, a marketer or an entrepreneur, if you know how to write well means you can send messages more easily, more coherently and more powerful.

In fact, if you want to attract people's attention through texts (and make them go to action), you need a combination of skills: from the very good knowledge of the language empathy, power observation, critical thinking, attention to detail, etc.

No wonder why so many people have trouble in Content Writing original texts to capture and maintain the reader's interest.

Issues such as the fact that they do not feel creative, they do not know how to start a text, they have no steps to guide them in the Content Writing process, they do not know how to support the attention of man, etc. are found everywhere.

Well, enough with that!

The purpose of this content writing guide is precisely this: to help you take the first steps in writing content, or if you are already at an average level, to recall some important things and discover new tactics.

If you want to learn how to write content (whether it's blogging or any other content) that makes people read, you're in the right place. This content writing guide is intended primarily for those who want to write blog articles, but the same tips can help you create more interesting content for social networks, websites, or any other context. Effective Content Writing rules are the same.

Let's go!

Content Writing
Content Writing

ONE // How All This Started?

  On February 24, 2015, I started an adventure that would convince me, if need be, that some of the most pleasant feelings we can live as people come from when we contribute to something bigger than us when we offer something. Even Dragobete was living, a "blog" about Timisoara, which was meant to change how people see their community. Running as a test, in just 9 months of launch, the site had over 40,000 views and I managed to accumulate on average more article distributions than some of the most read newspapers.

It was obvious that something was doing well.

Since then, I have been writing other dozens of articles and guides, whether they were fore TechDean, where the main strategy of attracting customers is by writing quality content, whether they were for other websites and blogs, or they were for your personal blog.

I have written more or less constantly for almost all business sites, from Republic to or Startupcafe.

I have learned valuable lessons about how to write in the online environment, how to send a message or an emotion and, most importantly, bring value to people.

The tips below are based on a combination of literary writing, in the classic sense of fiction, but also marketing knowledge, especially copywriting, content writing and psychology. All these along with an understanding of the online environment helped me to have the above mentioned results, but also to repeat them in other projects.

I also shared these ideas with training, and the result was that people who did not think they did not have the talent to write received feedback from those close to " I did not imagine you were so beautiful." Works.

Because it is best to start with the end, so it seems from my point of view a great article: It's written in a simple way;

  • It is written in the second person singular "you" or the person I plural "we";
  • It uses all the opportunities of the digital environment (video, images, links);
  • It addresses a new topic or perspective;
  • It has a clear structure and is easy to read by the reader.

On the other hand, a weak article:

  • It is written in a hurry;
  • Has grammatical errors;
  • It contains no image;
  • Uses formal or difficult language;
  • It does not bring anything new;
  • Does not add value to the reader;

These are the things that determine, in my view, the basis of a good article or the elements of a weak one. Besides that, we also have to add a few writing articles. Let's see what it's all about.

TWO // The Process Of Content Writing

The things I will explain below can be defined as a process, because there is a temporal order. I also use them as a checklist to self-identify and to be sure that I have a control mechanism to help me constantly manage to create quality content.

After all, the difference between a professional writer and an amateur is precisely this constancy in the results.

Let's go, then.

  1. Research

A good article is already written on your head, just before you can even type a comma. The most successful materials I have ever written have been brilliance when I came up with brilliant ideas of approaches, why words to use, what structure to have the article. Or at least that's what I thought.

However, we know better, and these "glamorous" moments are actually ideas that have been formed and developed over time. The "twinkling of the moment" took several hours, days or even years to develop into "background", subconsciously in our brains. That's why when it came out it looked so good and well thought out. It really was.

This is one of the reasons why the research side is so important: it gives us an overview of the subject, examples of how it has been approached, new information and, in general, a better understanding of the topic we are writing about and of things that have been omitted in previous attempts to approach it.

Also, if we are going to do an interview in order to write our article, I cannot emphasize how important it is to know the person we are going to interview.

Especially if he responded to other interviewers, it is a sign of respect for us to show that we have done our homework and not repeating questions already touched on in other articles. There is an opportunity to ask more questions about topics that may not have been well covered and about which we feel it would be worthwhile to go into more detail.

Research can take different forms. Depending on the theme we are dealing with, we can go from looking for Google to sink into different books or send emails to people in the industry.

The aim is to better understand the context and what are the questions that it is worth answering.

So never jump over the research side!

  1. Define The Purpose Of The Article

Now that we better understand the theme and the whole context, we are a step closer to writing. But not yet, dear ones.

A good article needs to be clear and easy to read by others. That means we were clear when I wrote. The most important thing to succeed in this is to define from the beginning what is the purpose of the article. Why do we write it? What does the reader need to know or feel when he finishes reading?

Do not confuse the purpose of the article with its idea. The idea can come anytime and anywhere. But after this occurs, we need to define more clearly what we want to achieve, what we are following. This is the purpose.

Defining a precise goal before we can write an article or text will help us enormously to keep everything simple and clear. You will see that, most often, you will not be confronted with too little information about the topic of the article, but with too much.

But if you include all the information in the work, it will make no sense, and the reader will not be left to the end. And then, what was the point of trying to write?

We have to decide what we include in the material and not.

This helps us define the purpose of the article. Once well established, we will be clear about what information helps us to reach our goal and who does not.

As I said, a goal is specific and helps you make decisions.

Here are some examples:

  • At the end of the article, the reader will understand why it is better to have a positive attitude towards life;
  • The purpose of the article is to show that it is possible to travel with little money and that Xulescu has proven this;
  • In the end people will understand that there are plenty of beautiful things around us if we are open and present to see them.

And so on.

For the reader to be clear, you must also be clear why you are writing what you are writing.

Now I have suffered several times that during the Content Writing of the article I realize that its purpose is (or must be) another. So it's possible that it will change over time, especially if you manage to go deeper. It is important to be aware of this.

Before going any further, I'd like to try a little game. I rely on your integrity not to jump further (especially as it is more fun like that) and not to look at the answer.

Buuuun. What should you do? I will give you some information about a particular situation and you have to write the beginning of an article. Basically the title and 1-2 paragraphs. Both. Abstain from fictitious data or from the Game of Thrones. It's a hypothetical situation, take it as such!

This article will be published in high school newspaper for high school students.

Here we go:

"Next week, all high school students you learn (yes, you are high school / high school) will go to the neighboring city to attend a seminar in the EU.

Among the speakers will be Mr. John Snow, the President of the EU, 2 Romanians who are civil servants in Brussels and other respected people in the field.

The event will take place at the Museum of Contemporary Art from 10:00 until 14:00. Departure will take place in front of the high school at 09:00. Transportation is provided by high school.

This event is part of a national event suite that aims to promote the impact that the EU has had on Romania since our accession in 2007. "

Okay, now it's your turn. You have 4 minutes and 37 seconds (on the clock) to write the title and 1-2 introductory paragraphs. The goal is to do everything as interesting as possible.

Good luck!

I caught you! You wanted to get straight to solving. Go back and write. The exercise is important.

Really, do not cheat!

Well, now (I hope) you have made the effort to write the introduction, at least mentally, let me make a guess. In fact, it is a tested hypothesis: over 90% of those doing this exercise make a big mistake in Content Writing.

If I'm right, your title sounds like "John Snow, the EU president holds a speech at the X event," or "The EU President talks about the EU's impact on Romania."

There are no bad titles, but they have a major problem and you know what this is? They are bleeeeah. Boring! Let's be serious, what students are willing to listen to a public servant (even if it's John Snow)?

So, unfortunately, you most likely, like most of those doing this exercise, have failed to fulfill your purpose. Namely, put yourself in the target audience (the other students) and write something interesting and worthwhile.

A fair answer to this task would have been to start with a title like " Next Tuesday is not hours " and then go on explaining why. Do not you think you'd be more attracted to such a title?

If you wrote something like that, my congratulations. Or you're still in high school, or you're a very empathic person, and you're going to do great things in life!

To make sure I'm not misunderstood, this exercise is not about promoting an unproductive attitude towards students, but simply about seeing whether we can put our target audience in place and write for it.

And that leads us to the next step in content writing:

  1. Remodel The Article For Readers

What we forget, most of us, when we write, is that we do not do this for ourselves, but for the readers.

If readers look demographically and psychologically like us, we're lucky. But, most of the time, it will not be so and we have to put on their slippers and write for them.

Once we have defined the theme and the purpose of the article, it is time to ask ourselves the question: is this interesting for someone other than me? Why would it be worthwhile for someone else to read my blah blahs? How can I do everything as appealing to readers as possible? What is the most interesting point in this article?

If you ask these questions and then answer them, you will see that your Content Writing will have far more impact.

Another thing to keep in mind at this stage is "the curse of knowledge." Practically, it means that once we know something, it is almost impossible for us to behave as if we did not know it.

We, the writers, risk that in the process dedicated to research, let us go from the assumption that our readers are equally informed on that subject. And so we can use terms or names without explaining or giving them a little context around them.

And so we fall into the curse of knowledge! And our readers will, unfortunately, remain with gaps that will affect them throughout the reading of the article. That if he does not give up because I do not understand anything.

Never leave the idea that the people you are writing already know as well as the theme and other information around you. Provides an introduction, a little context, and generally imagine: if you, now, hear about the subject for the first time, what would you like to know?

At this stage, we filter the purpose of the article to make sure it is interesting to the target audience, but also to keep it in mind throughout the Content Writing.

One thing I've been practicing for some time is that when I write an article, I can clearly imagine one of the readers. Viewing a person who is representative of most readers.

This helps me from the big decisions of approach and perspective, until the choice of a certain word in different places in the article.

For example, at I have defined (in Content Writing!) Three types of readers, because I realized that these are the main categories of followers of the blog. Each category has a name, and we have clearly defined what that person looks like, what age he has, what interests, how he wears his foot, etc. I'm kidding about the foot count. Or maybe not ;). Do not ask me how I came to know so many things, but I can tell you that my stalking ability is over 9000!

So, clearly define your person for whom you write and imagine it before you when you do that. You will see how much this Content Writing influences and how it helps you to make an article where the man almost feels that you sit next to him / her and tell him.

  1. Organize

Have you noticed how articles, books or writings are generally easier to read than others? You seem to pass through them easily, what follows closely links with what was before, everything flows logically. Well, there are chances that the "guilty" be the structure.

One of the articles that influenced my way of Content Writing was Structure, by John McPhee. It's long enough, but to summarize it, it's great! When you have time read it, it's worth it.

This article helped me sort out the Content Writing process a lot and figure out why some of the materials are much easier to read than others. Also, after reading it, it was much easier for me to choose between things that come in an article and those that do not.

The point is that the vast majority of writers we adhere to emphasize on the structure. Garcia Marquez, for example, never started a book without having a clear, even very detailed structure. Often, he says, he knew how many pages the book was supposed to have at the end - even when we talk about 600+ pages mammoths such as " Live to write," his biography.

Before you put it all on the paper ... sorry, screen, make a clear structure. It's a basic rule in content writing!

If you do not want to go from one idea to another, do not miss the key points of the story among the unimportant and generally not be associated with someone who writes "just blah blah without saying anything", organize your thoughts.

Think of all the ideas you have gathered from the research, the interview, and identify the red thread of the story. Do not start until you know what your "way" is.

There are chances that the notes and ideas are chaotic. After all, research means exploration. Organize information on sub-themes, ideas, chronologically, how you feel it needs.

Generally, I have noticed that a chronological approach is the easiest to use (i.e. to take things from the beginning to where they are today). And you can, at certain points, make a horizontal leap and detail things from another point of view. So, in the end, you will have a story that the reader can easily track.

Also, besides the key points of the article, I recommend that you define your sub-points, even if we are just talking about having some dashes. When you see everything so simple, I can easily catch your eye on things that do not "rifle".

For example, for the TechDean blog, I'm trying to define a structure for the sub-points of the article. I keep everything simple, at the level of: What is - Why is it important - What to do - Example. If you use this throughout the length of the article, you would be amazed to see how the reader simply "understands," or as the angels say "I get it."

  1. Create First Ugly Draft (PDU)

It's time to dance

We all know how difficult the beginnings are, especially when we talk about a text. We look at the blank screen, the dash that appears and disappears before us, but the words do not want to come.

Or, if we can get started, we get stuck in minutes because we do not find the right word.

Well, I think this is one of the worst things we can do in such a situation: focus on what does not come out of us.

Can we be Hemingway, rarely or never we will not write very well medium or long text first.

You do not even want to imagine what the first version of this content writing guide looked like. But I did not care, I simply put the words because I knew they would not see the daylight in that shape.

If you block a little detail, such as a sentence that does not sound good, or an inappropriate word, you will lose all the "mojo," all the rhythm that you have.

So when you feel something "no rifle," do not worry. Simply writes. Do not worry too much about grammar, a wrong letter, two words that do not work together well, or a repetition.

Simply write, take your thoughts and transfer them into a document, get rid of them. Let them take the form of this first nasty draft. No matter how "ugly" it is, it is important to exist, to have this stage.

Crucial at this stage is to use your creative state and put all the ideas that come to you . You can jump from one point to the next, leave unfinished phrases, make notes to replace certain words.

Just do it!

  1. Remove Yourself

After we have made a first version of our article, we go to another critical point. Let's take a break. Ideally it would be to let things go from one day to the next, from experience we have seen that then it seduces and clarifies the ideas best.

Pause is crucial because it can help us easily solve certain situations that seemed difficult at some point, help us move away from the text and then look at it critically.

When Content Writing we are very focused on a certain point of view and we have a narrow view. But it is almost magical that if we go a little, everything becomes simpler and clearer.

If you want to write really great texts, the break is not just a fad, it's a very important step. Remove yourself from the text and do something else, relax. Then come back with a fresh look and you will see how you look a little differently!

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  1. Rewrite And Edit

I hope you have not been scared that you have to show the world that ugly draft, huh? 🙂
Now is the moment when we deal with the details.

So far, 2 important things have happened that will help us create that great text: firstly, at the subconscious level, we have a certain structure of the story and we know the key points, and the information on the subject was more organized and clarified.

Secondly, we took a break that now allows us to see everything with other eyes.

Now is the time to look over all the "idiots" that we have laid down and see what makes sense and what does not.

That's why it was not important for us to pay attention to these details at the first writing, because now we can take care of them because we have a draft, we have what we work on, we have made progress.

In the editing part of the content writing process, besides simpler things like grammatical corrections, avoiding repetitions and things like that, we need to be very careful about the power of words and writing. Analyze your Content Writing and see if the idea you want to transmit is clear enough if you even used the right word, and if there are any other things you can eliminate, simplify everything and make it stronger?

We called this point rewrite and edit because there are situations where a simple correction is not enough. And again, returning to what a text is really nice to send something, it's the effort that created it.

  • If there are "no rifle" things, do not let them do that.
  • If you feel that an idea is not clear enough, do not leave it like that.
  • If the chosen structure is not necessarily the most appropriate, do not leave it that way.
  • If you feel there are voids in the information you have presented, do not let them.
  • If you're not sure of certain things and you should go back to the source, come back.

The crucial part at this stage is critical thinking and, wait for it, empathy. Remember that I was telling you to remodel everything for the reader? Put yourself in his slippers? We have to go back to this (if we have somehow removed). Do not just edit to sound good for you or be grammatically correct, make sure the article fulfills its purpose.

  1. Give It A Great Title

Did you know that only 1 out of 5 people reading a title get to click and click on it to read more? And sincerely, in my view, this statistic is wrong. Correct would be 1 out of 20 or more. We live in a world where we are bombarded with information and our attention is weaker than that of a golden fish that is known for its short memory.

Therefore, it is crucial to make sure that all the work done to write the article is not in vain.

Unfortunately, many writers, once at this stage of giving a title to the article, are too tired or time-consuming to give them the necessary weight. And so it is that all the effort sustained will unfortunately have an impact 20 times smaller than it was possible.

Ghost, showbiz, or Buzzfeed, Upworthy newspapers are best to come up with titles that draw our attention. That's why they are among the most visited websites in the world in most countries. Because it specifically addresses human needs such as curiosity.

I'm not saying to do like them, on the contrary. The reason we all reckon them is because they promise us a lot, but they deliver a little. The title sells you something sensational, unique, but when you get to the content, you see that there's really nothing consistent, you've been tricked.

What we need to do is find the most interesting thing in the article from the perspective of the reader and turn it into a great title. It is very important to be specific in the title, to give people clear why the article deserves to be read.

How do we do that?

Here comes the funny side, but you probably will not like plaque: for each article write at least 20 titles. No, I did not go crazy. Even the experienced writers, which you said to have written "in the blood" are trying many variants of the title.

Most of the time, the best idea comes at number 14 or 17. When we challenge the brain to come up with this number (or a larger one), it is clear that you have to get out of the ordinary patterns of thinking and see things differently.

And so magic happens.

You will notice, certain types of titles work best. I do not necessarily mean lists, questions, and other things like that. This depends on the case, but you will also see in your case that using the protagonist's name, an allusion to something more familiar, or a word game works fine.

What I recommend here is to pay attention to the titles that attract your attention, to those you like and save them somewhere. Make yourself a "Great Titles" document and put them there. You'll see what's good when you do not have inspiration. Even though your final title may look totally different, you have lit the spark of creativity.

Attention is the most valuable thing we have to win, and the title is our main weapon. Do not ignore it.

  1. Take A Final Look For Ease Of Reading

One aspect that does not worry before the development of the digital environment is the reading side. If you publish a book, you do not care if it's easy or hard to read from the point of view of the page layout, you focus on words, the theoretical, the publishing house.

But you certainly hit cards where a paragraph had about 3 pages. It was kind of a wall of text! And you remember how hard it was to read and watch.

Imagine yourself as well as getting into a website and hitting something like:

Text wall in writing

But here it is like another life, is not it?

Easy to read website text

See what good is the spacing between the letters, between the lines, between the paragraphs? The font itself is special for the web, and images are used to help us navigate the information and share the text.

Without going into technical details related to example fonts (if they have serifs or not), if you write for the digital environment, readability is crucial.

If a text is hard to read (from any point of view), we lose interest faster. And even if you want, it's more tiring to read from a 10 cm screen than from a book.

If you want to have easy-to-read text in the digital environment:

  • Use short sentences;
  • Do not forget to press enter and divide the paragraphs;
  • Put in Bold certain important words to give the reader the reference;
  • Use pictures that help you tell your story.

  1. Pray Someone To Edit Or Correct

Funny is that, no matter how grammar or attention to detail is, biology is playing to you. If you work on a particular material for a long time, your brain will become accustomed to it so much that it will be hard for you to look at it critically and to observe any mistakes.

That's why it's very good that once you feel you've finished a piece of material before publishing, you can give it to someone to read it. You will be surprised by the grammatical mistakes that have escaped you, or how unclear your ideas may be, and yet you have left them that way. I, for example, received about 3 pages of feedback for this guide. And it can still be improved.

That's why all publishers have an editor that does this: get the texts scrawled. But as I suspect you are not in this situation, you can ask a friend who is good at grammar or is in the target audience of the article (ideally both) to help you. Look for someone you know is careful about the details and it's not uncomfortable to be honest with you.

If you went through all of the above steps, you should now have a great text that inspires your readers to want more, do something or at least share the article and friends.

Here are a few tips, some tips & tricks that I have learned over time and that help me write texts that make people read and distribute.

THREE // Content writing tips & tricks

Any story ...

He must have a hero but also a negative character. One of the patterns I noticed writing for Grozav was that the articles with the greatest impact were those in which we presented not only the achievements of the protagonists in the article, but also the heavy moments. The moment of "Aha!" Came as I looked at a storytelling presentation of Pixar, the creators of the best animations in history, those who manage to make children and adults alike live in emotions strong.

The negative person in your story can be anything and everyone, starting from a bad person, but generally, it can also be the difficult moments that the writer you are writing about, the negative parts of a job that you analyze, what the world does not know about your subject, the problem that your product solves, etc.

If you want to have a strong story, your structure does not have to look like this: it was once, and, and, and then ... the end. It was like that: it was once, and, and, but someday ... and yet ... the end. You always have a "but ...”.

A picture

Makes as many as 1000 words. One thing that the digital environment allows us is to use the power of the images. If a color print is a few times more expensive than black and white, in the online environment the color does not cost you anything.

Imagine just how would you write about a tourist resort without showing pictures? If you put a picture of the person you are writing about, the reader will be much more connected with him and your text.

Use the power of the images. Show them to people, it's not enough just to tell them.

KISS - Keep It Short and Simple

Or, as I like to say, Keep It Smart and Simple. An error we make as writers is that we want to say everything about everything in one article. But then, the only thing that's the result is a joke that the reader no longer understands.

Hold short sentences, keep short phrases. If you want to say something, say it. Do not diverge in 100 directions. Accepts that certain things must be left out. Think about the purpose of the article, target the target audience and prioritize them according to them.

Put 140% of your talent in the title and introduction

I've said it up again, but I will repeat it here too: If you do not attract the attention of man and do not stimulate his interest, all your work is for nothing. The most beautiful work of art in the world, hidden behind a locked door, does not bring any benefit to anyone.

Beyond the title, it is important that the first paragraph raises the interest of the reader. Give him some clues about the most interesting things you will discover if you read on.

In marketing, copywriters know they need to show you the benefits at first, otherwise you lose. So do you, give some clues about what's next and ignite man's curiosity for more.

What we have discovered over time is that in the case of the first draft many times the first or the first two paragraphs are full of my blah blahs. Only in the third paragraph I offer some interesting and valuable information. So, in the editing part, I just delete the first or first two paragraphs and the whole introduction becomes stronger.

How do we get rid of the writer's blockade?

Another solution I discovered to get rid of the reader's blockade, that we do not know how to start is a simple trick.

Simply visualize in front of you the person to whom the article is intended and start with " Hey you ... " and then continue as if you were telling a friend. Imagine telling him / her about the subject and writing exactly how you would tell me.

It's magic, I know, you can thank me later.

Do not forget about GAP theory

Have you noticed how, in some articles, the writer gives you a piece of information, followed by "but about that down?" It's annoyingly curious, is not it? It makes you read on to see what it's all about!

Well, professionally speaking, this is GAP theory. Gap can be translated through hole, missing, empty, etc. You are told something, but lacking information, is a lack you want to fill.

It simply provides clues for other ideas that will be explained below.

Instead of conclusions

These are the lessons of content writing learned in recent years, the lessons we apply daily at TechDean to make sure we can create texts people read, texts that are considered useful by readers and possibly also recommended to friends.

This helps us to overcome the writer's blockade, to capture the reader's attention and to stimulate his interest, to edit the texts in such a way that our readers can easily be traced and many more.

We recommend that you first create a checklist that you can hold when you write.

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