Content Creation Secrets

Do you start writing with a hope? Most of the time we hope to finish what we start writing. If you’re new to writing, this is important - finishing what you start writing.

Anyway, after you’re used to finishing what you start writing, you begin entertaining a new kind of hope - hoping what you write will turn out to be a masterpiece.

This is a dangerous kind of hope. It can adversely affect your writing.

If what you write doesn’t turn out to be a masterpiece, you may end up with a deep wound which may not have healed the next time you pick up your pen to write.

The wound may be inflicted on you in the form of criticism from someone’s opinion you respect or rejection from a publisher you submit your work to.

The next time you feel like writing, you would be thinking of avoiding another wound, especialy if you’re not strong enough as a writer.

JK Rowling, before beginning her fisrt novel asked herself what was the worst that could happen if she started writing the novel.

The answer she got was it would be rejected by all the publishers in Britain. When she was prepared for the worst, she could write her novel without any doubt or fear.

The secret is not to entertain any hope and prepare for the worst when you write. A new kind of writing energy flows into you when you don’t expect or fear.

Conventional wisdom says one of the biggest mistakes made by beginning bloggers is signing up for a free blog.

The reason given is all your hard work may go up in smoke if the service provider decides to delete your blog.
Well, the risk is always there, but then a free blog has its advantages.

Firstly, if you’re on a tight budget and can’t spare cash for hosting and domain registration, a free blog would be an attractive option.

But this is not really why you should sign up for a free blog.

You sign up for a free blog to test the waters. You want to see how far you can go with a blog. You want to see if blogging is your cup of tea. You want to see if you’ll run out of steam after blogging for a while.

If you’ve self hosted your blog, you would have to keep up with the monthly and yearly payments to keep your blog alive over the Internet although you’ve lost interest in blogging.

You’ll certainly do this with a heavy heart especially if you’ve a few self hosted blogs you’ve lost interest in.

I came across a wonderful blog on blogging tips which discussed the technical side of blogging like working with templates, Javascripts and widgets, among others.
It is hosted on the blogger platform.

The blogger has not updated his blog since 2007 but the blog enjoys a PageRank of 6 and I’m sure the blogger is making good money with Adsense and the Amazon affiliate program.

If the blogger had self-hosted his blog, he would be forking out cash to maintain his blog he seems to have lost interest in.

The only advantage of self hosting a blog for the beginner is he has something to call his own.

But blogging should be more than an ego trip. Just put your ego aside and sign up for a free blog to test your blogging stamina. If you can last a whole year, then you should consider self hosting your second blog.

The fear that your blog may be deleted by the provider is actually quite baseless. If you’re blogging on a legitimate subject and adhere to the TOS of the provider, there’s no reason why your blog will be removed.

No provider in his right mind will remove a blog that offers genuine, valuable content.

If you’re new to blogging, don’t take the advice of self hosting your blog. Try out a free blog to see how far you can go before considering the self hosting option.

I’ve visited dozens of content sites which cover subjects ranging from automobile, computers, Internet, family and technology among others.

In very few of these sites is writing listed as a category. I always wonder why very little prominence is accorded to writing.

After all, isn’t the web all about writing? Why has writing been left out of these sites?

Could it be that not many folks who surf the Net are interested in writing? Or could it be that those who are interested in writing have really no need to learn anything new about it?

To ease my curiosity, I undertook a little research and found that there are about eight and a half million sites offering some form of advice or guidance on writing. There must be interest in writing. Otherwise these sites would not have survived this long.

To find out whether there’s really interest, I did a little homework on keyword search. There were only four hundred over searches for creative writing. Resume writing turned up over six hundred searches.

The main keyword – writing – turned up only a thousand two hundred searches. It’s not as impressive as the searches for dogs or golf.

Exploring further, I discovered writing sites and blogs with a high Google Page Rank. In the blogs, the number of comments left behind is impressive, growing by the day.
I have an email subscription to new comments and I receive at least one a day.

My research also uncovered Earn Money Writing is a hot niche. This niche interests even those who don’t seem to have much interest in writing.

A comment may go something like this: “I’ve always wanted to write. I’m glad to hear that you can make money writing. I’m going to give it a try.”

Well, it shouldn’t be a surprise. Earn money doing anything over the Internet is always a hot niche. Why shouldn’t non-writers turn to writing to make some money?

So, what do you reckon? Is writing a really hot niche over the Internet?

Anyone who has attempted to blog has a common confession to make: It’s easy to start a blog, but it takes a Herculean effort to keep it going.

It takes great stamina and will power to last the marathon race.

Many have the potential to last the blogging marathon. However, due to some self-defeating habits, they fall out of the race and give up altogether.

The first self-defeating habit is expecting every post to be perfect, to be of the standard of a New York Times article. If you expect that, you shouldn’t be blogging but writing for NYT.

You can’t expect every blog post to be perfect. It’s like a game of darts. You can’t expect to hit bull’s eye each time you unleash a blog post.

It is enough that you’ve said what you’ve wanted to say. So long as readers are not commenting how terrible your post is, you have no reason to doubt the quality of your posts.

Maintaining regular posts is more important than writing masterpieces. You don’t have to write to the highest standard. Just write to an acceptable standard. So, don’t send your posts to the recycle bin yet if you’re not entirely satisfied with it. Publish them and give your readers a chance to decide.

Then there are bloggers who worry about not getting enough comments or getting none at all. For them this means their posts are not good enough. Believe it or not, to some bloggers comments will determine whether they’ll go on blogging or not. They tell themselves what’s the point of going on blogging when nobody is commenting.

No comment is always better than a bad comment. You know people - when something is good they just remain silent. When something is not right, they would spring to their feet and point out the mistake.

Don’t worry, if you’re not getting any comments. Your blog will be around for a long, long time. Eventually the comments will come.

Meanwhile, look ahead to the next post, because your mission as a blogger is to keep making posts not worry whether they are good enough or whether you’re getting enough responses.

Some years back, I met a retired foreign service officer at a film festival. When he heard I live by my pen, he started talking about writing.

His knowledge of the writer’s craft was impressive. He talked about award-winning writers and how they went about getting ideas and turning them into great works.

Obviously, he had picked up these details from reading writer interviews.

He had some advice for me.

He said, “Keep on writing. One day a great idea may just fly in through the window and you’ll strike it rich.”

I asked him, “Are you a writer yourself?”

He said, “No, I’m not.”

I wanted to know why he was not writing when he knew so much about the craft.

He said, “Well, my English is not good enough.”

I told him his English was good enough for writing, He didn’t need anything better.

He shook his head and said, “No, you need good English to write.”

I gave up. Speaking English all his life and being a voracious reader did not yet qualify him to write.

I wanted to tell him, “You can write like you speak.”

I knew it was no use. This man was not going to take any advice because he had made up his mind not to write.

Now as I pen these words, I wonder, “Has he started writing or is he still complaining about his `bad’ English?”

I’m sure he has no idea when his English will get better but he will be safe in his my-English-is-not-good-enough excuse. This excuse will certainly shield him from the hazards of writing.

Even if a great idea flies in through his window, he’ll say, “Thanks for the idea, but I can’t write a word yet because my English is not good enough.”

So, what will he do while waiting for his English to be good enough? You guessed it right. He will continue speaking good English and most importantly, he will advise writers to keep pushing on because a million-dollar idea may just fly in through the window.”

Know anyone who gives this `perfect’ excuse?

Or do you yourself give it?

Have you ever treated your readers as listeners? Most probably not.

We have been trained to write for people to read. We have never been told that readers are actually listeners. who listen to the words on a page or a computer screen.

Readers themselves may not think they are listeners because in school they’ve been taught to read the words and not listen to them.

If you’re interested in keeping your readers coming back to your content, you will have to treat them like listeners.
Imagine you’re a radio deejay, when you create your content. You have to speak your content in such a way that your readers will sit up and listen.

This may not be easy if you’re just starting out to write for your readers to listen. Especially so if you have come from the academic style of writing, which strives to suppress any trace of the human voice in writing.

But then if you’re going to be a successful content creator for the web, you would have to learn to treat your readers like listeners and write accordingly.

Learning starts by studying writings which are conversational in tone. Read as many such writings as possible to get a feel for the chatty style. You’ll not be hard pressed for sources because your favorite magazine may already be adopting a conversational style.

Also start practicing conversational writing if you’ve not done it yet. Start a journal and write on matters that concern you. Write as if you’re talking to a trusted friend.

Before long, you’ll see your conversational voice emerging. When you feel it’s strong enough for readers to listen to it, go start a blog on any topic you’re excited about.

Blogs allows you to write in a conversational style without feeling guilty about it. The popular blogs are, more often than not, written in a chatty style. The readers feel as if they’re listening to a lively radio DJ and they always come back for more listening pleasure.

If you’re already writing in a conversational style, but feel your voice isn’t strong enough, here’s a tip you can use.
Read your content aloud. Does it sound like a human voice speaking? If it doesn’t, continue reading and make the necessary changes.

If you do this consistently, you’ll be on the right track to converting your readers into listeners.

Once you get into the habit of a creating content daily, you will expect to be at the top of your game every time you pick up your pen or sit facing the computer screen.

There will be times when your expectation will not be met. You either write badly or begin well and lose steam half-way through or can’t get started at all.

Most of the time, it’s a temporary condition. Through sheer discipline and will power you can bulldoze your way into keeping the words flowing even if they don’t seem to be taking you anywhere worthwhile. You could also go into the `patient mode’ – you refuse to be intimidated by the condition and just wait for the words to come to you.

These methods, effective though, may not work all the time.

At its worst, the condition can stretch on for the next few days.

If it does, the one thing you shouldn’t do is panic. Also don’t think of it as a writing slump and feel responsible for it.

Accept is as part of a natural cycle, just like high tide and low tide.

Acceptance wins you half the battle.

When I’m faced with such a situation, I just tell myself it’s not a chronic condition. It’s just the mind demanding a break especially when it has been working consistently on content creation.

Now it’s time to allow the mind to recharge. Yes, you can go and work on other content creation projects. But if your mind is already stretched, you aren’t going to get far.

One good way to allow your mind to recharge is do something totally unrelated to content creation.

Go chat with a friend on a common concern like inconsiderate neighbors, Better still do something physical – cleaning your study, organizing your computer disk space or washing your car.

By the time you’re done you mind would have most likely recharged.

I tell my mind in advance, “”I’m going to give you a break for a while. After that, I expect you to get down to work.”

While taking the break, I’ll not focus on the writing itself but on its goal – why I’m creating the said content. If you’re a freelance writer, your goald could be to earn X dollars a day or if you’re a blogger, to meet the challenge of updating your blog content daily to attract more traffic.

Focusing on the goal of your content creation usually gets your mind itching for work.

There are days when no matter how prepared you’re, the words would not flow. The muse takes time off for some reason. You can’t seem to coax it to work for you. The mood to create content deserts you.

So, what do you do? Fret and fuss and pull your hair in despair?

No, you don’t do that. As a content creator who has no shortage of self-belief, you swing into action.

You pick up a pen and start making lists. It makes you feel better because there are still words left in you to put down on paper.

When you put down a list you’re under no obligation to produce anything meaningful. You do it to take your mind off the bad start.

But then as you go about putting down a list on paper or the computer screen, you may hit goldmine and discover something that you’ve never thought of.

You begin to see a pattern emerge. The muse begins knocking on your door.

You now know you’re on the right track.

That’s the beauty of making lists. You start with nothing and, more often than not, end up with a goldmine.

But there’s one important thing you must tell yourself before you begin making lists. What is it?

You must tell yourself that you’ll be getting somewhere with your list.

You have to believe that you’ll get somewhere sooner or later.

The obvious advice you get about producing content is write about what you know.

That’s good advice, but wait a minute..

What you know may be important to you but not necessarily to your readers.

Readers usually visit web pages to find answers to their problems. They could be looking for ways to solve a task they have been struggling with. If your content provides solutions to their problems, they will be interested. But that does not mean readers will stick with it. They expect your content to be presented in such a way to make it easy for them to find answers to their queries. When that condition is satisfied, they expect your content to be presented in an easy-to-understand manner.

Your readers would also want your content to be accurate, current and credible. Consider this. What you know may not be accurate, or up to date or plausible.

Write from what you know but more importantly, consider what readers expect from your content.

When there are many writers writing on a similar subject, what makes one piece stand out from the rest? The content? Very rarely.

It is the writer’s voice. The piece that’s more compelling is the one in which the writer has truly found her voice.

When you say you can’t write, it’s not that you can’t write. You can write if you can speak. You can write if you can talk.

It’s just that you haven’t found your writer’s voice.  You may have stifled it over the years by trying to imitate the voice of your favourite writer. You may have stifled it  by worrying too much about style, vocabulary or grammar.  

 So, how do you free your stifled writer’s voice?

• Relax before you start writing. The more relaxed  you’re, the better your chances are  of finding your voice.
• Don’t tell yourself you are going to write. Tell yourself you’re going to talk to a friend. Better still imagine you are going to write a letter to a close friend.
• When you start writing, don’t think of anything. Just focus on the voice you hear in your head. Go on and put down whatever the voice says.

Don’t expect results when you write. Tell yourself that this is just an exercise to discover your hidden writer’s voice. Do this every day for five or ten minutes and rest assured that that you’ll begin hearing your writer’s voice louder and louder, clearer and clearer.