Sunday, January 22, 2012

How to Make Your Writing Reader Friendly- 5 Steps

Many of you may not know me, and some might have heard about in at the Wealthy Affiliates website. One thing for sure, as a Affiliate Marketer, it is essential to write in this business. Writing doesn’t neccessary have to be for Affiliate Marketers. Medical Assistants, Copywriters, even Journalists have to write everyday. And the ways things are looking now and the future, writing has made a major turn in the online world and outside of the online world.

A few weeks ago, one of the owners of Wealthy Affiliate wrote an article on how to write reader friendly articles and I ended up doing some research to add on to what he mentioned.

Making your writing reader friendly is the most important thing now days when getting your point across online. Many of us hate reading long block text and get bored quite frequently, so you better spice it up and make it easy on the eyes or else your readership will drop and your sociable effort will be for nothing. In this article, I will give you 5 ways to make sure your writing is reader friendly.

Get strait to the point


Procrastination is not your friend. When someone wants an answer to a problem or situation, they want the answer fast and now, so it's important to address what you will be giving your readers at the beginning of the first paragraph, that way, they know what to expect throughout your article.

Short paragraphs are better than long paragraphs

The days of endless paragraphs is over, especially online. People do not have the patience like they use to for some crazy reason. This is why places like Twitter and Facebook only allow a certain amount of characters to be typed. If I were you, I will definitely follow the big dogs and copy what they do, because what they do totally works. Write in smaller chunks and you will get more people to actually finish reading your articles.

Leave as many white space as possible

Everybody can not see the same way you or I do, so it's important to be considerate when writing. Some people can tolerate paragraphs written close together and others find it difficult to read that way. Instead of putting all your paragraphs under each other or separating them consistently in your articles, alternate in a way that doesn't throw your format off.

Create a list


The perfect way to organize sequence of events or give ideas in your writing is to use a list. Bullets or number list should work fine. Using a list separates other titles you might cover in your articles; it's also a great way to show steps in how to do something in a particular order so that your reader doesn't get confused. Using a list can also be helpful to people that have a hard time reading in paragraphs to.

Avoid using all caps in your headings and anywhere else in your writing

"10 WAYS TO STOP SMOKING"... Isn't this annoying? Not only it is annoying, but many people find it offensive and think you're cursing at them or yelling at them. Think of certain conversations you have online. Whenever someone writes in all caps, do you sometimes wonder if they're telling you off or being sincere? I know I do. Writing in all uppercase letters sometimes makes it hard for people to read and understand what you're saying. You don't have to write like THIS to emphasize a point. The only time I suggest you write in all caps is when using abbreviations.

Writing has changed a lot over the years, and that doesn't mean you can't adapt. If you follow these steps in your writing, your articles will become more reader friendly and you will more than likely get more readers and followers or even get more people talking about your content.

Always have a conclusion

A conclusion is an answer to a problem. At the end of any article or writing, especially essays, you should always have a conclusion to give your reader something to think about and answer for themselves. The way to have a conclusion is to talk about what you’ve already talked about in a very short sentence that gives your opinion about what you’ve talked about.

Give a call to action


This is a very important step that many of us miss. Giving a call to action is the main reason why people respond to your emails, Facebook status, articles, etc. For most Affiliate Marketers like myself, it’s the very reason why people click on our affiliate links. Don’t be vague in what you want them to do, be direct and open. Ask a question, make a serious statement, or even tell them what to do, because believe it or not, most people will not know what to do unless you tell them.

10 comments:

  1. I once had a writing coach who said that if he could only give me two words of advice it would be "shorten everything." Shorter words. Shorter sentences. Shorter paragraphs. I've tried to follow that as much as possible. You want your readers to understand what you're writing. A confused reader will stop reading.
    I also like your tip about the call to action. Good suggestions all around.

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  2. This is good stuff! firstly, I like ur chosen background, its nice and it doesnt hurt the eyes if stare for too long as opposed to the plain white. second, you hit the nail right on the head! I like how you backed up your points with simple and easy to read guidelines. I agree, some writers tend to drag on to prove a point,which can get off-putting. This is helpful. I will definitely keep this in mind when I start writing my articles. Keep up the good work! -Jona

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. Hi Jona,

      Thanks for your comment. I was unsure of the background, but you just made me think different:-)

      Yea, easy is what I intended and I'm glad you can learn something from this article.

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  3. Very journalistic view of writing. Great tips! These can be used in writing articles for online use really!

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    1. Glad you found it creative Chamalatics. Yea, online writing is totally simliar to Journalism:-)

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  4. stumbled onto your blog and just wanted to show some blog luv! def enjoyed this post! def some gr8 tips

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    1. I'm glad you've found it helpful. More post to come very soon!

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