Have you ever written a letter to a friend? Ever written an outline for any project you were about to start? What about a shopping list? If you have, and I imagine most have, you can then write focused, brief, content articles for your online home business.
Why write? Well, of course you can spend lots of money to drive traffic to your site with absolutely no guarantee that you will obtain a single sale. Moreover, most of the traffic, although targeted, may leave your site and forget it ever existed. Writing puts you personally, your site, and your products/services within the same framework as a well-honed opt-in list of subscribers. People remember you, learn to trust you, eventually purchase from you, and most importantly return to purchase again and again, as long as you continue to offer what they need.
"So how can I simplify what seems to be the arduous task of writing", you ask?
Try this:
(1) Take out pen and paper and go someplace quiet where you can trigger the creative side of your brain. (Yes, I said pen and paper. Don't sit in front of the computer for this exercise.)
(2) Sit back and think for a moment about your online home business. What do you offer? What have you learned so far about building traffic? Have you noticed any patterns for certain promotion methods that work? What about anything that can be considered well needed advice to others just starting out?
(3) Now write down the first thoughts that come to your mind. Don't edit. Your not at that stage yet. Just write the ideas, and do this for several minutes, or until you have at least a single page filled up.
(4) Done? Good. Now go back to the top of the list. Slowly go through and hone the ideas. Anything that pops out as particularly intriguing or immediately brings up related ideas mark off for the next step. These are the ones to develop further.
(5) Now take out a sheet of paper for several of the ideas marked off and write the idea at the top of the paper. (You can use your computer now, but I tend to think better with pen in hand.)
(6) O.k. Ready? At the beginning I asked if you ever have written a letter to a friend? Remember? Keep this in the back of your mind always. Write like you speak. I promise you that for short content articles to develop your online home business, this is the tone that works. If people need a textbook they will buy one.
(7) First make a list, sort of a shopping list of related things to cover. Try not to get carried away. Remember - short content articles.
(8) Now fill in the details as if you were explaining it to a friend.
That's it. All there is to it. I think you will be surprised how easy it is once you write a few. Personally, I keep a notebook handy at all times just for ideas that I later cultivate into short articles. When I learn something new that I believe will be of benefit to others I make a note.
The power in this technique resides in the fact that you are not a robot and neither are your prospects. When you write, and take it from the perspective of friends sharing information, you step onto a personal level. Now who wouldn't pick up on that. Eventually, with continually writing and publishing your articles in newsgroups, e-zines, and other web site, your credibility builds, your persona builds, and your traffic and sales will build. You absolutely cannot loose with this cost effective traffic generating strategy.
Dan Fry, Ph.D. is the founder and publisher of the e-Kinetic E-Zine, a small publication devoted to delivering content that dispels of hype and focusing people to work on what will bring results. Copyright 2003-2004.
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