Writing for Profit

Any and all writing is creative in it's own way with exactly the same aim regardless of its creative level. Our aim when we write something is to convey our thoughts to somebody else and that at the very least requires us to use our imaginations and to think with empathy. Clear thinking is always very hard work but without a process and a plan to map or think out what the message you want to convey is you will fail to reach your reader.

William Stronk had 10 rules for aggressive and direct writing

1.All good writing is good for the same reasons[ All bad writing is bad in its own particular way}

2.Vigorous writing is CONCISE which means a sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences,for exactly the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. Make every word tell.

3.WORDS are the only tools we have as writers so use them wisely and remember somebody out there is listening.

4.SHORT words are best and the OLD words, when they are SHORT, are the best of all;

5.Grammar matters

6.Good writing needs a plan so map out what you want to say to your reader on scrap and read it to yourself.

7.Great writing is aware of itself. even in a 20 word advert online with a company like google you can tell the writers that plan the message they deliver. And the return they get will be 10 fold. [I will lay out what makes good short advertising copy in the next few days]

8.Writing is only reading turned inside out so always read what you have written back to yourself.

9.Write for your audience and have empathy be the person you are writing to. ie.vividly imagine the person you are trying to reach and be them for just a minute or two.

10.Writing is the most exact form of thinking.

In the online business i run i pitch ideas all day everyday and it wont surprise you to know that like most things in life things and people connect and fit just like a jigsaw puzzle.

I will give you an example about some products I was asked to promote online. I had a person with a big selling type from home program that started to have a slump in his online sales figures so I designed a campaign on google around the things that connected to the market he was trying to reach and then I wrote a number of short adverts aimed things indirectly linking back to his market.

Typing = sore hands = hand creams = designer handbags = coffee = yoga so I simply used key words to direct the placement of my ads and suddenly my clients market was beginning to grow exponentially. Who types anwser a lot of people including stay at home mums so write about babies and daycare but research your subject and write with knowledgeable passion and the marketplace will react.

Tomorrow I will write about how to write for your audience and how to develop true empathy so you can reach your buyer and really have buy-in.

Paul Ritchie

C.E.O Paul Ritchie Advertising Group

http//www.excitepro.blogspot.com

Paul Ritchie specialises in online Advertising strategies for large multi-national corporates as well as running his own online product catalogue. To gain instant access to Pauls ideas you can visit his blogs on Marketing. http://www.trafficpayouts.blogspot.com is all about traffic generation

http://www.TheGenerationGaps.blogspot.com is about demographics

http://www.Adminder.blogspot.com is about pop under advertising strategy.

Paul would welcome the reprinting of this article provided that no part of the article thereof is edited and this resource box is included.