With notable exception, I look at the Web as a gathering of grandmothers. They come to my articles hoping to find something interesting, engaging, and relevant to read.
I can easily give them that. But the question is, will they stay to hear it? If their mind starts to wander half-way through my article, their mouse will soon follow, and then they'll have left my website entirely.
My articles are an explanation of some point I'm trying to make. I don't want a "That's nice, dearie." I want a "Oh, I get it now."
Because that latter reaction gets me a customer. The former will only get me a pat on the shoulder.
Human minds work via association. Smells conjure up unbidden memories. Songs remind us of people we've lost. Certain tastes remind us of vacations abroad. Taking something complex and then attaching it to something simpler and more familiar is why our brains are so efficient. This is why examples and analogies work so well in instruction, just like how metaphor and simile perform so admirably in poetry (see what I did there?).
Taking the complex and comparing it to the simple isn't easy. It takes an agile mind, and more importantly an in-depth understanding of the complex subject to see just exactly how to break it down. If you can look at something large and deduce where to best divide it, then you must intimately understand it. And that's what Einstein meant.
Content writing and copywriting are both meant to convey vital information to the reader. A reader that, with each successive generation, retains less and less of an online attention span. If they aren't interested in five seconds, they're gone. You must communicate to them in that five seconds enough information to convince them to stay and read onwards. If they do not understand enough to become convinced, they will leave.
Admittedly that can be done with just a catchy-enough headline. Now they're reading, but you're starting to lose them. Any loss of interest can be attributed to lack of understanding.
Loss of interest comes from any one or combination of:
- Confusion: The verbiage is too difficult for them to understand. Perhaps too much jargon without explanation? Perhaps written too technically and therefore unappealing to the uninitiated?
- Indifference: The subject of your article doesn't appear to pertain to the interests of the reader, as far as they can tell.
- Distraction: The subject matter did not appeal as a priority to the reader, so they let it be pushed aside by other priorities.
So good content writing, like a good explanation, must be clear, relevant, and important.
How would Einstein explain his theory of relativity to his grandmother? She likely doesn't understand the fine language of physics, doesn't care how it would affect her day-to-day life, and therefore doesn't focus as young Albert tries to explain it.
So Albert has to look at his theory and make the following distillations. He must first simplify it to the terms his grandmother would likely connect with. He must look at how relativity works, and then at how his grandmother lives. And then he must explain, in those simple terms, how his theory intersects with her in a meaningful way.
Writing is important because it attracts and holds visitors, period. More visitors allows for more gain, whether that gain is measured in hits, purchases, or ad clicks. Understanding the principles of good content writing, such as these, lead to better content writing, and therefore more visitors, therefore more gain.
What are your tips for good content writing, or for better writing in general?