After going through a short tutorial on how to write a great blog post,
let me now introduce to some writing styles and approaches. Well,
before that here is a short background. I remember joining the online
freelance writing around 2011. Back then, the field was not as
competitive and Google and other major search engines did not care about
quality. You would land on very highly ranked websites with some of the
worst spun articles or (in some cases) exact duplicates.
That
has since changed. Today, quality, uniqueness and relevance matter. If
you are a Kenyan blogger or online freelance writer like me, then you
know too well that even being approved by Google Adsense is
not possible if your articles are not of good length ( and by good
length we are talking a minimum of 500 words), informative and unique.
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| Typical Online Writer’s desk (Public Photo) |
You may be wondering how you are expected to come up
with unique articles considering that most topics have already been
covered by even better writers than yourself. Well, you can and even
produce better articles in competitive trade like writing.
Here
are some tips you may use as Kenyan Blogger or online freelance writer.
For clarity purposes, these are some powerful tips I have learnt from
experts over the years. First, identify the topic you have an idea
about. You then need to research what others have written about that
topic.
Do not restrict your online search to Google
alone; try Bing and Yahoo too. You may also want to try the All-in-One
search engines like DuckDuckGo, Dogpile and Surf Canyon.
With
multiple search engines, you can be certain that you have understood
the topic from the various angles present by other writers. Then all you
will do is give your readers a different perspective from what they
already know.
Your blog post will be unique by all
standards and rank high in major search engines. In fact, if you write
on freelance sites like iwriter.com, textbroker.com etc you can be
certain that no client is going to reject your articles. Here are some
approaches you can use to write numerous articles on one topic, what I
call ‘premium blogging tips for kenyans’:
1. Question & Answer (Interview) Approach
approach, you need to identify what most people would want to know about
a particular product or subject. You then answer them in a Frequently
Asked Questions (FAQs) form.
Let us say you are
discussing the best smartphone, all you need is to ask questions like
what a smartphone is and give an accurate answer. The interview approach
often works like charm and many readers love such articles. They will
certainly share, link back and even Reblog your post (if you are on
WordPress).
2. Progression (Evolution) Approach
account of how living things have progressed from very simple single
celled microorganisms to complex beings like us. Personally, I do not
believe such things. However, for the sake of sharing tips for online
freelance writers, let us assume that that is true and you wanted to
write on a popular topic using this approach.
All
you need is to take the reader through the history. If you are writing
about blogging for instance, then you can take the reader back to times
when social media was not such a powerful force, discuss how backlinks
became important and any changes that took place. Ensure you leave your
modern reader at where things are today as far as blogging is concerned.
3. Negative /Pitfalls Approach
you but may also prove tricky. Remember, your intention is not to paint
the product in a bad light per se but to, in a way, warn the prospective
buyers of the cons and pitfalls of using the products. It is tricky
because, you may have to provide the reader with a better alternative.
Otherwise, your article will not serve its purpose well.
4. Audience’s Viewpoint (Perspective) Approach
decided not take the reader through history but to write as if your were
the reader. No need to get mixed up, this isn’t something strange. We
are often told who our audience is (by the clients of course). Our work
as article writers is to ask the questions the audience would and give
the answer they need. This is called perspective approach.
You
should know that this tip works so well if you are marketing a product.
Just mention why the product is important to the customer and where it
can be found.
5. Review Approach
simply go to the manufacture’s website, pick a few lines here and there
and come up with what we think is a ‘product review’. No, that is not a
review; it may be a product description but certainly not a review.
Listing the number of pixels on a Samsung Galaxy phone without comparing
it with other competitors cannot sell as review.
A
review is giving your personal experience with a product. In fact, you
have to compare it with similar products and tell the buyer why it is
the best/ worst product. The review field is very competitive that you
have to be good at what you do.
I once wrote a review (or what I thought was a review) of Samsung Galaxy S4 and cannot tell up to today what page of the article is on Google Search Result it is on. All I know is that it is indexed.
My
advice to you therefore is look for a catchy title. A good title is
your only tool to compete. After all, there is no way you are going to
list product features and pray that major review sites do not list the
same.
One more thing on the review approach, avoid
being promotional (even if it is a paid review). Instead, give both the
pros and cons and then give your verdict. The verdict section is where
you tell the reader why they should buy the product. Was this one of
the tips for online freelance writers you ever read? Answering that
question is in itself a review.
6. Tutorial/Guide Approach
actionable tutorials can be your best approach to a popular topic. In
fact, when you are writing on a topic is easy to duplicate such as
recipe, diet plan or fitness formulas then your only road to uniqueness
is to introduce a step that others have left out.
Topics like ‘steps to effective SEO or how to buy a Smartphone in 2014 will attract many readers. Just ensure you share updated tips. Do not talk about stale information as if it were new.
There
are two ways to write effective tutorials; writing for the newbie or
for experts. Do not write about advance SEO, or Programming or Computer
Repair when it is intended for newbies.
Bottom line,
choose the audience and be factual without beating around the bush. You
may also want to write exhaustive posts, not ones that will still prompt
questions and force the readers to look for answers elsewhere.
7. Features/Benefits Approach
the easiest and commonly used approached. Simply put, you resort to
telling your audience about the new product features and or the
benefits. One secret though, be updated and try to get the information
before everyone else.
If you are going to repeat
what others have already written, then pick another approach since you
will not make it in search engine results. Search engines show
‘authority contents’ before yours. I mean contents that are unique and
were posted before yours will always come first.
The
tips for online freelance writers for example, may be a popular field.
Therefore, it is upon me to share something new or at least not
popularly written about but one that people are looking for. Even if it
is the latest Twitter Redesign, Yahoo Contributor going down or Google
dropping Authorship image; just make sure you are among the first people
to write about it.
Like I said in the beginning, I’ve
come to learn most of this these writing approaches from others. Article
sites like Article Teller and writer.com are so helpful. I hope this
post helps you with your online freelance writing. You may share more
tips via the comment box or contact me using the contact form should you
have any questions.
thank you for this great post .
العاب مصارعه
Thank you, this was really helpful and interesting! My favourite approaches: Audience’s Viewpoint (Perspective), Progression (Evolution), and Negative /Pitfalls. But it is great to try and experience different writing styles. The same goes when you are writing statements of purpose. The most important part is to put all your passion, determination and skills into it. Focus on your strengths and keep up the positive attitude. Best of luck!
Took me time to read all essay writing services the comments, but I really enjoyed the article. It proved to be Very helpful to me and I am sure to all the commenters here! It’s always nice when you can not only be informed, but also entertained!