When you’re first getting started with internet business, it’s easy enough to do your own web writing – whether it’s a 100-word product description for your e-commerce store or a longer article for directory submission. Unlike more complicated skills such as web design or internet programming, almost anyone can throw together enough coherent senteces to fill a web page. However, as your business begins to grow past its introductory stages, it’s time to think about adding a professional ghostwriter to your team.
Many people struggle with this step – after all, if you’re perfectly capable of writing your own content, why should you pay someone else to do it for you? For many internet business owners, the decision comes down to time. Yes, you can write your own website text, but how long does it take you to generate that single page of content? And what could you do with your business if that time were suddenly freed up? Most online business owners find that the additional income they earn as the result of the increased productivity they’re able to achieve with a ghostwriter far outweighs the cost of these services.
However, beyond the simple time-versus-money equation, working with a ghostwriter offers another significant advantage. Writing for the web is different than writing for traditional media outlets, so finding a professional ghostwriter who has experience with web content is crucial. A good web ghostwriter should be aware of the following rules:
Good web writing speaks to the lowest common denominator
Writing for the intended audience is important in any situation – you wouldn’t submit a highly-technical, jargon-filled journal piece to a popular magazine, just as you wouldn’t submit a simple report to a complex medical journal. However, writing for the web is a little more complicated in that you can never be sure who’s visiting your site. Sure, you can conduct in-depth market research to determine which demographic ranges your visitor most likely falls in, but you’ll never really know who’s on your site. Therefore, a good web writer understands how to write in a simple, yet sophisticated style that’s easily read and understood by all possible visitors to your site.
Good web writing takes on a conversational tone
Formal grammar and syntax are great for academic writing, but web content is all about the conversational tone! Therefore, web writing tends to use dashes, contractions and fragment sentences more often than traditional writing rules allow. For example, the sentence, “A word of caution, though,” is technically considered to be a fragment, even if it’s something we’d say naturally in real life. Good web writing attempts to mimic these natural speech patterns in order to form a connection with the reader – which brings us to our next point:
Good web writing builds a relationship
One of the challenges facing internet businesses is that we – unlike our brick-and-mortar relatives – rely on the language and images on our sites to create a sense of professionalism. Although people are slowly becoming more comfortable with e-commerce, the natural inclination is still to be distrustful of online sellers. And quite frankly, this makes sense – it takes a lot to trust someone you’ll never meet with your credit card information! Good writing can help bridge that gap by helping you connect to your visitor through the text on your site, eventually leading to more sales.
As I’m sure you know, there are literally thousands of professional ghostwriters working online today. Just do a search at Guru.com or Elance.com and you’ll turn up hundreds of names for both qualified and unqualified writers. But if I may make a brief plug, I highly recommend that you check out New Arbor Enterprise. Sarah, the owner, works with a small team of writers from around the world to produce some of the best quality content you can buy today. With over 500 articles published online – as well as several longer reports – she has the talent and experience to take on any writing project you need, regardless of the topic.
I’ve used her for a ton of my articles and she always goes out of her way to write informative, high quality content. For more information on her services, check out her site at www.NewArborEnterprise.com.
