Ida Berg

How do we structure our writing to be convincing?

We know that all the elements in writing are designed to get the first sentence read and wake up the interest with the reader so you can take them step by step to your conclusion.

We also know to keep it simple and clean and the importance of an attention-grabbing headline.

So whats about the content?

The structure of convincing writing aren’t written in stone, but convincing copy will do certain things and contain certain elements time and time again. Whether you’re writing a sales page, long blog post or promotional ebook, the flow will determine effectiveness.

This is some guide lines that will help you:

♦ First you focus on the reader. Make a promise early, either in the headline or in the first sentences to let the reader know whats in it for her. Never make the reader wonder why they even bother to keep reading.

♦ Each separate part of your content should have a main idea, something compelling, and a main purpose to rile up the reader, to counter an opposing view, etc. That supports your bigger point and promise. Don’t digress, and don’t ramble. Stay laser focused.

♦ Be ultra-specific in your assertions, and always make sure to give “reasons why.” General statements that are unsupported by specific facts cause distrust with the readers.

♦ Demonstrate large amounts of credibility by using statistics, expert references and testimonials as appropriate. So if your not an expert on a subject do your research properly.

♦ After you have built your credibility make sure you don’t forget the most important person around, the reader! Restate the hook and the promise that first got her interest captured.

♦ Show how you fulfill your promise by summing everything up and return to your original promise.

If you use this guide lines you will achieve better results. But it’s up to you

Now that you know the importance of a good headline and how to make one, lets move on to the content. If you struggle a lot to make a post and it takes a lot of time you need to read this! I’m going to make it short but it’s still very important.

A great blog post is simple! Keep it concise, clear and use simple words that get your point across. You will not hear people complaining about a copy that is to easy to read. Do you want to struggle trough a long and hard-to-understand copy? If you don’t really have to, I think that you had given up quickly and moved on. So why make it harder than it is?

Take probably the most famous word that William Shakespeare ever wrote. To be or not to be? The first six words of Hamlet’s Act III, Scene 1 soliloquy. That is a good question But not a single word were more than three letters long. It’s simple and it works!

You can fracture the occasional rule of grammar too, if it helps to make your writing more digestible. Sentence fragments, one-sentence paragraphs, beginning with conjunctions and ending in prepositions are all fine, even desirable.

So my next post will be about the structure of convincing writing and how you do that. Just keep in mind simple works!

What is your primary purpose of any piece of writing that you put out online? It doesn’t matter if it’s a blog post, a sales letter or a networking email.

The answer to this question is still the same.. You want to get what you’ve written read. Of course that makes sense.

So, what’s the primary purpose of your headline, your graphics, your fonts, and every other part of your content? The answer will maybe surprise you but it is kind of obvious.

You want to get your first sentense read!

People attracts to great, intressting and catchy headlines and thats where it starts. If you have the perfect headline people will start to read your blog post or what ever you are writing but if the first sentenses are really boring the will stop reading and continue on trying to find the next and maybe better way to spend their time.

Many times when we start to write we will find ourselfs so eager to arrive at our conclusion that we forget how to get there. The importance in the “how to get there” is undervalued. You need to structure your writing and catch the readers intrest to be able to make a sell or what ever you want to accomplish with your writing.

The key to getting someone to read your writings is to write one sentense at a time. To make that sentense so that the reader is so compelled by that sentence that they want to read the next. You can say that it’s simple, how you say it is how you get there. The hard thing is to make it happend

The headline is the first thing that attracts your potential readers. So that will be your first and perhaps your only chance to make a good impression.

You can spend hours writing an awesome blog article with great content but if nobody reads it there is no point wasting your time. That is why you need a headline or a post title that will turn browsers into readers.

Your headline has to be connected to your body text. You can’t have a headline that says “Internet marketing” and then write about your cat. I know it’s kind of obvious but I have to point it out any way. If you attract readers with false information you will lose your readers very quick.

Your blog post will steal valuable time from your readers so your headline or post title should promise some kind of reward or benefit in trade for the time they spend reading more.

A headline can do so much more than just grab attention, a great headline can also communicate a full message to its intended audience and it absolutely must lure the reader into your body text.

This is the eight categories of different headlines:

T-shirts – 50 Percent Off is a Direct Headline and states the selling offer directly. It will go direct to the matter without any attempt at cleverness.  

There’s A Something Valuable Inside This Column… And It Could Be Yours For Free! That is an Indirect Headline the purpose with using that is to use the curiosity to raise a question in the reader’s mind and answer it with the body copy. 

“Exclusive interview with Ida Berg” or“Iphone 5 is finally here” are both  News Headlines. It is kind of obvious what a News Headline is, it is just news and can be a content scoop, an improved version or a product announcement.

Do You Want to Get Rich Online? Is a headline that is used way too much on the internet to promote all this different Internet marketing gurus. Do You Love to Travel? This is both Question Headlines. It’s not just simple questions, it has to be something that the reader would like to have the answer to or that the reader can empathize with.  

How to Write Headlines That Work is the headline of this blog post and it’s a How to headline.  It’s probably the easiest way to creat a great working headline. It’s the workhorse of all headlines and it promise you useful information.

Start Your New Life Today! Is the Command Headline. It will simply tell the readers what to do and you should start it with a strong verb demanding action.

100 Reasons Why You Should Go To Asia! Belongs to the popular category Reason Why Headline. You build your blog content on a list or tips to do something and you don’t even have to include the “reason why” in your headline. It can also be a list or tips on how to do something.

“I love the blog whoisidaberg.com” admits Paris Hilton is the last one of the eight categories and it’s called Testimonial Headlines. It’s a very strong and important headline and it’s a “we sell you” instead of an “I sell me” it is highly effective because it presents outside proof that you have great value to offer. Quotation marks let the reader know that they are reading a testimonial, which will continue in the body copy.

One day maybe she will say that