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Create High-Quality Content For Your Website Or Newsletter by Jurgen Wolff
publication date: Sep 20, 2011
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author/source: Jurgen Wolff
I am delighted to welcome Jurgen Wolff as a guest contributor to The Directors’ Centre online Business
Club. (If you haven’t yet signed up for membership then click here for Lite/free or Full Membership options to boost your business sales and profits).
Jurgen Wolff is a writer and creativity and writing coach. He is the author of 9 books including Creativity Now and Do Something Different. Here he offers you six tips on how to improve your website, blog or newsletter. This is an excellent tool to help keep your online content interesting and attracting readers. If you don't have a blog, website or newsletter for your business start one today using Blogger (Blogs), Wordpress (website/Blogs) or Mailchimp (Newletters). As with all Business Club contributors, he wouldn’t be here if I didn’t personally rate him. See what he has to say and do follow him up. Robert Create High-Quality Content For Your Website Or Newsletter by Jurgen Wolff  Many of us feel so overwhelmed by the internet’s information deluge that we don’t even open half the newsletters or blog post notices we get. Yet there are always at least a few that we make a point of reading. What sets these apart—and how can you learn to create high-quality content that will satisfy your readers the same way? Here are six strategies: 1: Don’t repeat the same old same old I have a particular interest in creativity and I can’t tell you how often I see posts and newsletter articles about the same dozen ideas on how to be more creative. That’s why the one or two newsletters and sites that offer something different stand out so much. I’ll bet it’s the same in your business. If you’ve seen it more than once before, probably your target group has as well. Don’t use it. 2: Challenge assumptions What belief or assumption in your field is open to question? If your competitors are citing figures or telling stories, take the time to check whether they’re true. In the field of personal development just about every big-name guru cites the study done at Harvard (or, in some versions, Yale) in which a class of students were asked how many had written goals. Only 3% did, the story goes, but twenty years later a follow-up study showed that this 3% had earned more than the other 97% combined. What a great confirmation of the power of goal setting! The only problem is that it’s not true. There’s no evidence at Harvard, Yale, or any other university that such a study was ever done. Where the story originated is also lost but people like Tony Robbins are still repeating it today. If you can explode a common belief in your field, people will take notice.  3: Look outside the usual sources for ideasOne great way to come up with fresh content is to find interesting information in a field outside of your own and relate that to your target group’s interests. For instance, in a health magazine I came across a research study that showed the smell of peppermint energises people. If your target group is salespeople, how about an item about how to get your energy level up before making cold calls? If your target group is managers, how about an item about using smells to create a lively atmosphere in meetings? 4: Find the useful lesson One of the most popular formats for blog or newsletter items is “What you can learn about (whatever) from (a well-known person or book or movie).” As long as there is a genuine connection between the two elements, this is an intriguing hook. There’s the danger that this format is being over-used but when the connection is valuable and amusing or surprising it still has power. 5: Tell a story If you’re writing about a general issue, find a story to illustrate it. Politicians know the power of this—hence the usual “I was speaking to an unemployed man in Leeds…” references. Use real stories, not the kind of hypothetical case studies often featured in books where the characters are given twee names that remind us of children’s books (“Careless Carl often forgets to tell his boss when he’s going out into the field…”). As you read newspapers, magazines, or books, be on the look-out for stories that you can use to illustrate your points. For instance, my book “Do Something Different” (Virgin Books) is comprised of 100 entertaining true stories of people who found inexpensive and innovative ways to market their services or products. 6: Make it personal Who do you like to be around? Do those people happen to have strong personalities and a lot of energy? Isn’t that what you like about them? Consider the business leaders people find interesting—Branson, Sugar, Dyson—love them or hate them, they attract our attention because they’re outspoken. Those are the same elements we look for in blogs, websites, and newsletters. Don’t be afraid to give your writing a personality, because bland is boring. Be sure that your headlines have these qualities, too. Make them intriguing because curiosity is one of human nature’s strongest forces. Will writing that has a strong personality turn off some people? Yes, probably. However, the number of fans you’ll win will outweigh those and even people who disagree with you may read your material just so they can weigh in with an opposite view. If you put together these six elements, you have a prescription for material that gets read. More about Jurgen: Website: jurgenwolff.com Twitter: @jurgenwolff Contact Details: jurgenwolff@gmail.com Find out more about the benefits of Business Club Full Membership. It will offer you 100s of useful tools, ebooks and videos like this one to help improve your business' sales and profitability. |
