2005 / December 8^th/ Writing quality content

I think there comes a time in a site’s life when you must decide: am I going for quality, or quantity? This doesn’t just apply to blogs - I’m talking about news sites, informative sites, any kind of content-driven sites. But what do you want to do with it? Are you looking for masses of search engine traffic - or are you looking for loyal readership? Here’s some simple steps to help you write better content.

Throw it out

I throw out more than half the entries I write here right after I’ve written them. As I’m writing this one I’m thinking the same thing I think every time I start a new entry: Will this entry get my stamp of approval? Or will it go to the trash can? Throwing out content is good. Less is more — it’s like trimming the fat. I usually give my articles a once-over reading once I feel I’m done with the first draft. If I think the content is old news, bad news, or just a shitty idea — it’s gone. My time is better spent elsewhere.

Another thing to consider when throwing out entries is whether it’s already been covered by someone else. I could write articles upon articles about why standards are a great base for building websites, but seriously — who wants to read that any more? Try to think of new, more specific examples instead of broader topics.

Edit, revise, add delete

Try and re-read your content multiple times and see if you can’t change a few repetitive words or cut off a few sentences. If you can convey the same point in one sentence instead of two, take the superflous sentence out. Try and sum points up into bullet points and separate paragraphs. Long blocks of text are hard for people to follow. Spice up your article with pull-quotes, horizontal separators, and inline images. It’ll make your articles easier to read.

Remember: Don’t be afraid to delete more words than you publish.^?

Sleep on it

My biggest problem with writing entries for my blog in particular is my want to publish now. Go eat dinner, watch a movie — hell, take a nap. Now come back and read your copy. Is it still good? Alright then, publish it. Chances are you’ll find more things you’d like to change. If at all possible sleep on the article and read it the next day.

Come back to your title

Chances are now you’ve got some decent copy with a shitty title. Most pieces of copy form while writing them, and titles often get thrown aside for the meat of the text. Remember that the title is the most important part of any article. Imagine your site being linked to by the title you write. I nearly wrote an entry titled “Hello mother dear, I’m trying to think of words that rhyme with vagina.” Needless to say, the more effective title of “Building a rhyming dictionary” was chosen.

Publish and monitor

Now you’ve got a good article. Go ahead, hit publish. you know it’ll make you feel better. The next step is to re-read your entry again over the next few days. Don’t be afraid to make edits — chances are people will read the same entry down the road. Just be careful not to bother people too much with unnececary feed updates.

1. 

   Mark Hadley

   December 8^th | #

   Spot on!

   I was going to say alot more, but then after numerous re-writes, going to see a movie and sleeping on it, i decided that what i’d written just wasn’t worth publishing after all… :)

   But seriously, i’ve only had my blog up for a few weeks, so lack of content is my main problem, but i’m slowly learning alot of the lessons you’ve outlined here: throw stuff away, edit loads, don’t publish straight away etc.. thank God it’s not only me that has to do this!

2. 

   The Slakester

   December 9^th | #

   If you’re going to write about “Quality” content, maybe you should proofread your own work. Example: “I throw out more than half the entires I write here right”. You meant ENTRIES, right?

3. 

   Kyle

   December 9^th | #

   I apologize for not being a human dictionary.

4. 

   The Slakester

   December 9^th | #

   You don’t need to be a human dictionary - it wasn’t a misspelling, it was a “quality” error. Other that that little pecadillo, I tend to agree with what you’ve written.

5. 

   Marco

   December 10^th | #

   Wow this is really insightful. I’ve never thought about going through my older postings and nuke all stuff I’m not really satisfied with. I really like the idea. I’m definitely gonna skim through all of mine to improve the overall quality.

   Just like you I also have this ‘want to publish’ feeling. I can however sort of ‘inhibit’ that by working on my articles while travelling by train. From within the train I can’t publish anything which forces me to wait and results in me reading over my articles at least once or twice before they see the light of my blog. I do tend to make edits like you suggested. Edits are good, the better the quality, the better the blog.

   Thanks for the nice insight on deleting crappy old posts. I never thought about it. How clever ;)

   P.S: my condoleances on the Typo contest results. You really deserved better than this.

6. 

   Kaushal Sheth

   December 12^th | #

   Ditto. Most of my posts are thrown to trash, they never make it to main page. The idea of taking break after writing posts sounds like a novel idea. I will give it a try. Let’s see if I can just succumb to the temptation of pressing the publish button.

   May I add quality content needs quality graphic , images to go with it. I love Creating Passionate Users content for mainly for two reasons. They keep the content simple. And images even simpler to understand , relate to.

   P.S. : Though I haven’t been able to do the same with my blog. Maybe from now onwards… or maybe next year.

7. 

   Arjan

   December 12^th | #

   Great piece. If I may add a tip: pretend you’re into podcasting. Record yourself reading your article out loud. Then listen to it again. It takes a little time, but man does that improve your writing! As English is not my mother tongue, this has helped improve my word order, grammar and the general structure of my writing.
   Note that this tip is in serious conflict with the ‘publish now!’-want. Prepare to disappoint yourself.

8. 

   Mikey

   December 14^th | #

   I agree with most of what you’ve said. But what i’ve learned personally is the more you feel conscious about what you’re trying to write (i.e. Grammar, spelling, wordings etc.), the more you screw things up.

   Being primarily a satire writer, but speaking as a writer in general, I think what’s most important is getting your thoughts across to your audience.

9. 

   steve

   December 14^th | #

   hey kyle,
   i came across your site looking the your great hemingway theme,
   sadly the worpdpress port does not seem to be done yet :-(

   anyways, nice and swift site design!

10. 

    Greg Hartnett » Building Quality

    December 19^th | #

    [...] ent is Key For Search Engines Sitening Blog - What Will SEO Look Like In 2006? Warpspire - Writing quality content Idiot’s Guide to Web 2.0 - How to Blog Good [...]

11. 

    Good Blogger » Good Reads

    February 26^th | #

    [...] Warpspire’s Writing Quality Content, first published on December 8th, is a must-read for every blogger, but is especially meaningful to me because I write for a living, and ProBlogger’s How Much Money Can A Blog Earn is required reading for all would-be professional bloggers. [...]

12. 

    Civilunrest » Less, high quality entertaining content

    March 8^th | #

    [...] Warpspire » Journal » Writing quality content [...]

13. 

    J R Mortland III (Bob)

    August 26^th | #

    I love sleep

14. 

    “Give ‘Em What They Want” | Redefining Quality Content For The Web

    December 4^th | #

    [...] When I first started writing for the web as a freelancer, my conception of content was, naturally, focused on writing. As I was drawn further and further into the online world and my understanding of the web grew, I realized that content applies to a broader spectrum of web-related mediums besides writing. Recently I was browsing online and thinking about some forums I’d visited that were debating the definitions of quality content; needless to say, it got me thinking. [...]

15. 

    Yuri

    December 10^th | #

    Instead of writing and throwing out content, it’d be more efficient to remember about your readers before writing anything. Think of what you want to write before writing it. Just writing will surely result in lower quality content.

16. 

    | Social Media Systems

    March 2^nd | #

    [...] I first started writing for the web as a freelancer, my conception of content was, naturally, focused on writing. As I was drawn further and further into the online world and my understanding of the web grew, I [...]

17. 

    novye kvartiry alushte

    December 14^th | #

    prodazha kvartir m planernaya posutochnaya arenda kvartir g moskvy blagoveschensk arenda kvartir g yubileynyy sdayu kvartiru novye kvartiry alushte kupavna gorshkova kvartira prodazha kvartira elevatornaya sdam kvartiru gorod pushkino sdat kvartiru marksistskaya

18. 

    Idetrorce

    December 15^th | #

    very interesting, but I don’t agree with you
    Idetrorce

19. 

    nedvizhimost sdayu tomsk

    December 15^th | #

    nedvizhimost sdayu tomsk nedvizhimost sdayu tomsk nedvizhimost sdayu tomsk nedvizhimost sdayu tomsk nedvizhimost sdayu tomsk nedvizhimost sdayu tomsk

Name

Email (will not be published)

Website (optional)