Capitalize on Your Style to Create Compelling Content
Great content is something we all need in online entrepreneurship. In fact, it can quickly get overwhelming trying to keep up with the blogs, ezines, ebooks, press releases, sales pages and more!
The thing is…writing is not something that is as easy for me as I know it is for others. It comes much more naturally for me to speak than to write. And I want to share tips for people who aren’t writers and might not be able to afford to hire somebody to help them.
It can be done! You can still come up with some valuable content because you have good information to share even if you’re not a professional writer.
The key is to capitalize on your style of communication.
Focus on the form of conversation that comes the most easily for you. There are some people who can speak clearly on any subject they’re comfortable with. If that’s your style of preference, there are techniques you can use to take that style and generate written copy from it.
Techniques to get ideas out of your head when you prefer speaking to writing:
- Record yourself. If it’s easier for you to talk through your idea for your next article, then do that. You can record it and use a transcription service. Once you have a transcription all you have to do is edit it a bit and your article is done!
- Bullet point your ideas. Sometimes, jotting down ideas in bullet points is a great way to quickly spit out ideas without getting bogged down on the mechanical part of writing. After this brainstorming session, you can clean up the copy.
- Use an outline. Think about giving a presentation on the subject. This will help you focus on the main points you want to address instead of writing every word down. Once your outline is complete, it’s much easier to go through it and fine tune the writing.
- Mindmap it. I absolute love this process and it’s particularly great if you’re a visual thinker. A tool I’ve been experimenting with is Free Mind, and there’s also Gliffy. You can capture key points in bubbles and keep asking yourself “what’s next that I want to share?”
If you’ve discovered shortcuts on creating content I’d love to hear what works for you! Last year two of my favorite interviews from my online success summit shared very valuable information on this topic of creating content.
I interviewed Jennifer Odear, a copywriter, on how to confidently and quickly create compelling content – like blogs, newsletters and press releases. I also interviewed Caleb Scoville, an audio/video specialist, on how easy it is to repurpose the content that’s in your head (or on your hard drive) into multimedia marketing – podcasts, videos and teleseminars. I loved their ideas so much that I created a short report – Leveraging Your Knowledge for Profit – brimming with their tips and shortcuts that you can use right away.
Tags: Caleb Scoville, create compelling content, Jennifer Odear, repurpose your content, shortcuts on creating content
