In our blog post titled Why Quality and Original Content is King we’ve talked about the importance of writing engaging topics for your site. As that piece revolves around the reason behind such strategy, now we’ll be talking about how you can write compelling topics consistently.
When writing an article about something it should meet three major criteria:
- It should be fresh
- It should be interesting
- And it should be original
Fresh Topic
This one is the easy bit. Simply go to Google, enter your subject on the search bar, and hit enter. The search result page will display articles regarding that topic you’ve search for.
Ignore all of this. Instead, click news below the search bar. This will show you the latest articles that have been published in the last 24 hours or so.
There will be a lot – both great ones and crappy ones. Now you don’t have to sift through all of them. A compelling article will stand-out by its headline alone. If it’s interesting, then that’s your bet, which brings us to our second criteria.
Interesting Topic
The most important thing to remember during this phase is you need to switch to a reader’s perspective. That means you’re there to be entertained. If an article is about a subject that pulls you in, that makes you want to read all the way to the bottom, go with that.
Obviously, the skill of the writer is factored in on this, but again, if the subject is compelling enough then it wouldn’t make much difference because you’ve clicked it in the first place, which means you, as reader, has been hooked by the topic alone.
Original Content
Now this one – second from writing the whole thing – will take in most of your time. How can you make an original piece when someone’s already written about it?
The answer is integration and opinion. When writing a fresh, interesting topic, you don’t need a single piece to reference from, but multiple. This will give you variety when you’re on the process of writing.
There’s actually a formula to this.
Positive plus positive. Negative plus negative. And positive and negative.
Blog writers often blend pros and pros, cons and cons, or pros and cons. It makes the article have different flavor and will help you find your rhythm during the writing phase.
So let’s say your topic is about gay marriage being recently legalized. Articles dealing with this matter shouldn’t be bias so your formula should be positive negative. Show the pros and cons of gay marriage.
But spice it with your own perspective to add more unique aspect to the piece. Just remember to tread lightly on this one as it is still a sensitive subject. Your piece should be standing upright; it shouldn’t be the Leaning Tower of Your Personal Opinion.
Getting back on the multiple reference part, how many should you fuse? Two is a safe number, but if you can manage to stretch it to three or four, then the better, but don’t go beyond that number.
Take the most interesting bits from those pieces you’ve selected and stitched them up together. After weaving it, adding your unbiased perspective, and wrapping it up with a compelling headline, your content is now ready to be publish.
But another question surfaces, how can you make a compelling headline? Well, let’s talk about that on our next piece, shall we?
