#he would mass text the whole school american shows style

[rainparadefromhell]

this is what would happen if manuel ever came out to dante probably like 10 mins later

[citrina-posts]

Avatar: Cultural Appreciation or Appropriation?

I love Avatar: the Last Airbender. Obviously I do, because I run a fan blog on it. But make no mistake: it is a show built upon cultural appropriation. And you know what? For the longest time, as an Asian-American kid, I never saw it that way.

There are plenty of reasons why I never realized this as a kid, but I’ve narrowed it down to a few reasons. One is that I was desperate to watch a show with characters that looked like me in it that wasn’t anime (nothing wrong with anime, it’s just not my thing). Another is that I am East Asian (I have Taiwanese and Korean ancestry) and in general, despite being the outward “bad guys”, the East Asian cultural aspects of Avatar are respected far more than South Asian, Middle Eastern, and other influences. A third is that it’s easy to dismiss the negative parts of a show you really like, so I kind of ignored the issue for a while. I’m going to explain my own perspective on these reasons, and why I think we need to have a nuanced discussion about it. This is pretty long, so if you want to keep reading, it’s under the cut.

Obviously, the leadership behind ATLA was mostly white. We all know the co-creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino (colloquially known as Bryke) are white. So were most of the other episodic directors and writers, like Aaron Ehasz, Lauren Montgomery, and Joaquim Dos Santos. This does not mean they were unable to treat Asian cultures with respect, and I honestly do believe that they tried their best! But it does mean they have certain blinders, certain perceptions of what is interesting and enjoyable to watch. Avatar was applauded in its time for being based mostly on Asian and Native American cultures, but one has to wonder: how much of that choice was based on actual respect for these people, and how much was based on what they considered to be “interesting”, “quirky”, or “exotic”?

The aesthetic of the show, with its bending styles based on various martial arts forms, written language all in Chinese text, and characters all decked out in the latest Han dynasty fashions, is obviously directly derivative of Asian cultures. Fine. That’s great! They hired real martial artists to copy the bending styles accurately, had an actual Chinese calligrapher do all the lettering, and clearly did their research on what clothing, hair, and makeup looked like. The animation studios were in South Korea, so Korean animators were the ones who did the work. Overall, this is looking more like appreciation for a beautiful culture, and that’s exactly what we want in a rapidly diversifying world of media.

But there’s always going to be some cherry-picking, because it’s inevitable. What’s easy to animate, what appeals to modern American audiences, and what is practical for the world all come to mind as reasons. It’s just that… they kinda lump cultures together weirdly. Song from Book 2 (that girl whose ostrich-horse Zuko steals) wears a hanbok, a traditionally Korean outfit. It’s immediately recognizable as a hanbok, and these dresses are exclusive to Korea. Are we meant to assume that this little corner of the mostly Chinese Earth Kingdom is Korea? Because otherwise, it’s just treated as another little corner of the Earth Kingdom. Korea isn’t part of China. It’s its own country with its own culture, history, and language. Other aspects of Korean culture are ignored, possibly because there wasn’t time for it, but also probably because the creators thought the hanbok was cute and therefore they could just stick it in somewhere. But this is a pretty minor issue in the grand scheme of things (super minor, compared to some other things which I will discuss later on).

It’s not the lack of research that’s the issue. It’s not even the lack of consideration. But any Asian-American can tell you: it’s all too easy for the Asian kids to get lumped together, to become pan-Asian. To become the equivalent of the Earth Kingdom, a mass of Asians without specific borders or national identities. It’s just sort of uncomfortable for someone with that experience to watch a show that does that and then gets praised for being so sensitive about it. I don’t want you to think I’m from China or Vietnam or Japan; not because there’s anything wrong with them, but because I’m not! How would a French person like to be called British? It would really piss them off. Yet this happens all the time to Asian-Americans and we are expected to go along with it. And… we kind of do, because we’ve been taught to.

1. Growing Up Asian-American

I grew up in the early to mid-2000s, the era of High School Musical and Hannah Montana and iCarly, the era of Spongebob and The Amazing World of Gumball and Fairly Odd Parents. So I didn’t really see a ton of Asian characters onscreen in popular shows (not anime) that I could talk about with my white friends at school. One exception I recall was London from Suite Life, who was hardly a role model and was mostly played up for laughs more than actual nuance. Shows for adults weren’t exactly up to par back then either, with characters like the painfully stereotypical Raj from Big Bang Theory being one of the era that comes to mind.

So I was so grateful, so happy, to see characters that looked like me in Avatar when I first watched it. Look! I could dress up as Azula for Halloween and not Mulan for the third time! Nice! I didn’t question it. These were Asian characters who actually looked Asian and did cool stuff like shoot fireballs and throw knives and were allowed to have depth and character development. This was the first reason why I never questioned this cultural appropriation. I was simply happy to get any representation at all. This is not the same for others, though.

2. My Own Biases

Obviously, one can only truly speak for what they experience in their own life. I am East Asian and that is arguably the only culture that is treated with great depth in Avatar.

I don’t speak for South Asians, but I’ve certainly seen many people criticize Guru Pathik, the only character who is explicitly South Asian (and rightly so. He’s a stereotype played up for laughs and the whole thing with chakras is in my opinion one of the biggest plotholes in the show). They’ve also discussed how Avatar: The Last Airbender lifts heavily from Hinduism (with chakras, the word Avatar itself, and the Eye of Shiva used by Combustion Man to blow things up). Others have expressed how they feel the sandbenders, who are portrayed as immoral thieves who deviously kidnap Appa for money, are a direct insult to Middle Eastern and North African cultures. People have noted that it makes no sense that a culture based on Inuit and other Native groups like the Water Tribe would become industrialized as they did in the North & South comics, since these are people that historically (and in modern day!) opposed extreme industrialization. The Air Nomads, based on the Tibetan people, are weirdly homogeneous in their Buddhist-inspired orange robes and hyperspiritual lifestyle. So too have Southeast Asians commented on the Foggy Swamp characters, whose lifestyles are made fun of as being dirty and somehow inferior. The list goes on.

These things, unlike the elaborate and highly researched elements of East Asian culture, were not treated with respect and are therefore cultural appropriation. As a kid, I had the privilege of not noticing these things. Now I do.

White privilege is real, but every person has privileges of some kind, and in this case, I was in the wrong for not realizing that. Yes, I was a kid; but it took a long time for me to see that not everyone’s culture was respected the way mine was. They weren’t considered *aesthetic* enough, and therefore weren’t worth researching and accurately portraying to the creators. It’s easy for a lot of East Asians to argue, “No! I’ve experienced racism! I’m not privileged!” News flash: I’ve experienced racism too. But I’ve also experienced privilege. If white people can take their privilege for granted, so too can other races. Shocking, I know. And I know now how my privilege blinded me to the fact that not everybody felt the same euphoria I did seeing characters that looked like them onscreen. Not if they were a narrow and offensive portrayal of their race. There are enough good-guy Asian characters that Fire Lord Ozai is allowed to be evil; but can you imagine if he was the only one?

3. What It Does Right

This is sounding really down on Avatar, which I don’t want to do. It’s a great show with a lot of fantastic themes that don’t show up a lot in kids’ media. It isn’t superficial or sugarcoating in its portrayal of the impacts of war, imperialism, colonialism, disability, and sexism, just to name a few. There are characters like Katara, a brown girl allowed to get angry but is not defined by it. There are characters like Aang, who is the complete opposite of toxic masculinity. There are characters like Toph, who is widely known as a great example of how to write a disabled character.

But all of these good things sort of masked the issues with the show. It’s easy to sweep an issue under the rug when there’s so many great things to stack on top and keep it down. Alternatively, one little problem in a show seems to make-or-break media for some people. Cancel culture is the most obvious example of this gone too far. Celebrity says one ignorant thing? Boom, cancelled. But… kind of not really, and also, they’re now terrified of saying anything at all because their apologies are mocked and their future decisions are scrutinized. It encourages a closed system of creators writing only what they know for fear of straying too far out of their lane. Avatar does do a lot of great things, and I think it would be silly and immature to say that its cultural appropriation invalidates all of these things. At the same time, this issue is an issue that should be addressed. Criticizing one part of the show doesn’t mean that the other parts of it aren’t good, or that you shouldn’t be a fan.

If Avatar’s cultural appropriation does make you uncomfortable enough to stop watching, go for it. Stop watching. No single show appeals to every single person. At the same time, if you’re a massive fan, take a sec (honestly, if you’ve made it this far, you’ve taken many secs) to check your own privilege, and think about how the blurred line between cultural appreciation (of East Asia) and appropriation (basically everybody else) formed. Is it because we as viewers were also captivated by the aesthetic and overall story, and so forgive the more problematic aspects? Is it because we’ve been conditioned so fully into never expecting rep that when we get it, we cling to it?

I’m no media critic or expert on race, cultural appropriation, or anything of the sort. I’m just an Asian-American teenager who hopes that her own opinion can be put out there into the world, and maybe resonate with someone else. I hope that it’s given you new insight into why Avatar: The Last Airbender is a show with both cultural appropriation and appreciation, and why these things coexist. Thank you for reading!

[carryonsimoncarryonbaz]

Chapter Four of my Baz and Simon Travel AU! Continued thanks to @basic-banshee and @vkelleyart for reading it over! Excerpt below.

 Read the fic at AO3. 

Chapter Four

Baz

I couldn’t sit there for one more minute.

I’m pacing back and forth in our tower room. I’m expecting Simon to come in at any moment. I’m not sure if I’m grateful he hasn’t or desperately wishing he would.

I should probably be grateful he hasn’t. I’d be sure to snap at him and hate myself even more than I already do at the moment.

I’ve checked online. It’s as Sgt. Petty said. The flights are all canceled—from New York to Atlanta—for today as well.

Fuck it all.

With the cataclysmic storm paralyzing this entire part of the country it will take a bloody miracle for me to get home for Christmas Day.

Or even Boxing Day. Mordelia’s birthday.

I haven’t texted her since the storm hit. I don’t know what to say. I told her I’d be home for Christmas, just like that infernal song that’s been on continuous repeat on the radio for bloody weeks on end now.

‘If only in my dreams,’ like fucking sad Bing Crosby sang.

I hate that song.

I hate quite a lot at the moment, this fucking storm and my travel planning abilities currently occupying the top spots on my list.

It’s no use. My pacing is only agitating me more. I think about calling my father but I can’t let myself do it. I know what hearing his voice will do to me right now. Or Mordelia’s.

I’ve got to hold it together. Come up with a plan.

I’m good at that. Making plans. Not these bloody plans. I’ve made a right hash of this entire trip.

I pull out my mobile and start searching airline websites.

Flights for tomorrow are still listed—from Baltimore, Washington, Philadelphia. I’m tempted to book flights from all three, on the off chance one of those airports clears by then.

But that might be a bit much, even for me.

In the end it doesn’t make a bloody bit of difference because there simply aren’t tickets to be had.

British Airways is booked solid. Economy to First Class. All three airports.

And so it goes. Same for United. And American. And Virgin bloody Atlantic.

Fuck.

Delta has one seat left from Philadelphia. I don’t even consider it.  Simon and I are a package deal. I’ve not dragged him here with me to be separated from him now.

Or ever, a voice whispers in my head but I stubbornly reject the thought. It’s pointless to let myself indulge my fantasies. I know how he feels about me.

Running into Simon may be the only redeeming feature of this entire situation but I can't allow myself to dwell on that.

After what feels like endless searching I finally find two First Class tickets on an Icelandair flight departing from Washington tomorrow.

I click through to purchase them. I’m not worried about paying for Simon. I know he’ll pay me back. He’s never had much money but he’s an absolute stickler for paying his debts. Always has been. It’s a point of pride with him.

It’s not like I’m going to let him pay for the upgrade. That’s on me.

The price for these tickets is surprisingly reasonable considering the First-Class designation. Odd.

The reason becomes clear when I click through to seat selection. These aren’t British Airways style First Class seats. They’re essentially glorified Economy. Not single-seat pods but regular seats, two to a side, and wider than the basic offerings.

I’m not complaining. There are two seats together. It’s better than I could have dreamed. It will let me be near him for a few more hours, even if it’s simply sharing an armrest.

Booking session over, I collapse into one of the armchairs in front of the fireplace. It’s all ashes, the fire having burned out overnight. It’s quite chilly in the room. I’ve half a mind to throw a log in the grate and start a blaze but I should probably get myself downstairs to let Simon know I’ve found us tickets, for whatever that’s worth.

If the airport is even functional tomorrow.

I don’t move though. Now that I’ve got a moment to myself I find I need the solitude. To pull myself together.

It’s heady, being in Simon’s company again. I’d convinced myself I was over him, that it was just a youthful infatuation, a school-boy crush.

It didn’t take more than a minute in his presence to realize that was bollocks. I’m as besotted as ever.

More, in fact.

It’s harder to act detached, to keep up my disinterested demeanor, that bland mask of indifference and arrogance I had cultivated so carefully at Watford, when all I want to do is be near him, bask in the sight of him, have him hold my hand like he did last night.

I’m hopeless. Utterly pathetic.

I’d give anything to go back. To start over.

I don’t know how long I stare at the ashes in front of me, thinking back on every cruel insult, cold glare, or insensitive comment I’ve made to him over the years.

I sit up and lean forward, raking my hands through my hair in frustration.

Eventually the chill of the room gets to me. I wonder if that brief power outage shorted the heating system. I’ll have to ask Ebb. It will make for an unpleasant night if the room gets any colder.

An unbidden image of cuddling with Simon in front of a roaring fire takes over my thoughts. If only that were a possibility.

There’s no going back, I think to myself, as I make my way downstairs.

But maybe there’s a way forward.

Fate gave me Simon as a roommate. Now Fate has unexpectedly brought him back into my life. Maybe there is such a thing as a second chance.

I’d be an absolute knobhead if I let myself fuck it up again.

Simon

The cold finally drives me inside. I dawdle in the foyer for a few minutes but the other guests have taken over the dining room and it’s awkward to stand here and stare at them. It’s not like I’m going to take a seat and have a second breakfast.

It’s tempting but my stomach is too churned up from my conversation with Ebb.

I could go back to the room but I’m not quite prepared to come face to face with Baz, what with this realization I’ve just made.

I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to face him again without blurting it out or going down in a blaze of mortification.

Fuck.

The people eating are beginning to stare at me.

Even if she’s completely upended my world, Ebb is still a kind person. I’ll go help her with the washing up. It’ll keep me from running into Baz and perhaps give me chance to sort myself.

I desperately need sorting.

She’s at the stove again when I enter the kitchen.

“Need some help, Ebb?”

“Ah, you’re back then, Simon.” She shakes her head. “I’m sorry about earlier. Nicky says it’s one of my failings. I read too much into things and don’t know when to stop talking.” She wrinkles her nose at me. “I suppose that’s two failings. I’m sure he’s got a list of them for me.”

“No, it’s alright. I mean, I understand why you might have thought that. But it’s not what you think, I want to make that clear.”

“Understood.

“You need a hand then? I can do the washing up?”

Ebb grins at me. Her whole face lights up. “That’d be great, Simon. Thank you. I’d rather not use the dishwasher, to save generator power. You’ll be such a help.”

Ebb goes back to cooking and I lose myself in the repetitive mundanity of washing up.

But it doesn’t manage to distract me from thinking about Baz.

It makes a kind of sense, now that I think about it. Penny used to complain that I was obsessed with Baz. That I used to talk about him constantly. Seventh year she even put a limit on how many times I could mention his name in a conversation.

I’d argue it was because he was such a fucking wanker and as my best friend she should be an understanding audience for my litany of grievances. Not to mention she complained about Trixie just as much.

Maybe not as much. But certainly as vehemently.

But that doesn’t explain why I used to track him with my eyes. No matter where we were.

How I always knew where to find Baz.

Or why I nearly went mental eighth year when he didn’t show up for the first month of school. You’d think someone could have bothered to let me know he’d been hurt playing tennis and had surgery.

Or how I could recognize the scent of his posh shampoo if he’d been down a hallway before me, or what made me pause outside our room to listen to him play his violin.

How I still know the exact way Baz’s wet hair frames his face when he comes out of the shower.

Why the softness in his voice when he says my name now makes me shiver.

I am so fucked.

How am I going to share a room with him tonight, a bed with him tonight, when I want nothing more than to sink my hands into the silken mass of his hair and see the silver of his eyes gazing into mine?

I put the last dish in the rack and dry my hands on the nearest dishtowel.

Ebb’s hand taps my forearm. “Thank you, Simon. No need to worry about drying them or putting them away. I’ll be pulling them out for lunch anyway.”

I nod. “Right.”

I cast about for a topic of conversation and notice the hum I had heard at breakfast. “You said something about a generator earlier, Ebb?”

“Yeah. Power’s out all over town. The ice storm must have downed a line somewhere. We’ll be alright, never you worry. I had that generator put in a few years ago, thanks to Nicky’s nagging me. It does the job. Might find the house a bit cold as the day goes on. I need the power for the kitchen and freezer and the lights. That leaves me with less for the heating, if I want it to last.”

“How cold do you expect it to get?” I remember how Baz used to complain about the open window. He gets cold more easily than anyone I know. “Baz isn’t much used to the cold.”

“Shouldn’t be too bad. I’ve got plenty of blankets to spare and your room has a fireplace, which should help. Heat rises so the bedroom should be warm enough, if you keep the fire going through the night. I’ll make sure to put some of the extra blankets up there for you.” Her face creases in thought suddenly and her grip on my forearm tightens. “You’ll be alright up there another night, Simon? I had a different assumption when I put you boys there together . . .”

No help for it. I know she’s not got another room and after what I said to Baz last night about it not being a big deal to share a bed I can’t quite change my mind without arousing some suspicion on his part.

“No, it’s fine, Ebb. Just . . . uh . . . let’s just keep this conversation to ourselves? I don’t want Baz to have to worry about that too.”

“Worry about what?” Baz says, walking into the kitchen.

Fuck. How much did he hear?

“Uh, erm . . .”

Ebb saves the day. “I was telling Simon it might get a bit chilly upstairs tonight, with the power out and us relying on the generator. I’ve got plenty of blankets and firewood to keep your room comfortable.” She smiles at him and bumps my shoulder. “He didn’t want to worry you.”

Baz darts his eyes in my direction and there’s that softness in his gaze again. I’d call it fond, if I didn’t know better.

“I know you hate the cold.” I mumble. “Always complaining about the damn window.”

If anything, that makes him look even softer. “Thank you, Simon.”

I can’t even describe what it feels like to hear him call me that instead of Snow. I didn’t think he’d take me seriously, last night, when I told him I like it better. I thought he’d sneer or take the piss about it.

But he’s not called me Snow since I mentioned it.

Baz and I are smiling at each other and I can’t think of anything to say. It’s going to get awkward quickly if I don’t do something.

Thank the stars for Ebb. I don’t know what kind of fool I’d make of myself if it weren’t for her. She jumps right in again. “Simon’s been a dear to help me here in the kitchen. The dishwasher takes up more than its fair share of power.”

“You have enough to get through?” Baz asks, eyebrows coming together in concern.

“Oh, we’ll be fine. Not the first time and won’t be the last.” She grins at him. “I’m sure you boys have things to sort out about your plans. I’ll go fetch the extra blankets for your room and make sure you’ve enough firewood to last the night.”

And with that Ebb leaves the kitchen.

Which means I’m alone. With Baz.

Baz leans against the doorframe and arches one eyebrow. “I’ve been making some plans.”

“You’re good at that.”

Both eyebrows go up. “I’m glad you have such faith in me. I’m not so confident. Anything could happen with this blasted weather.”

It’s a bit surreal again, having such a civil conversation with Baz. I don’t trust my voice so I just nod.

“I found tickets to London. For tomorrow.”

This gets my attention. “I’ve got to do that myself, don’t I? With my refund voucher?”

He shakes his head. “I didn’t want to risk losing them. They aren’t ideal.” His face colors a bit. It’s the oddest thing, seeing Baz blush.

I like it.

“What’s the issue?”

“Everything was booked. All I could find were two seats on Icelandair. It’s not a direct flight.”

“But my voucher is for British.” I’m a bit nervous now. Redeeming a refund voucher for a flight is one thing but I’m not in a position to pay for an entirely new flight.

I’ve got money. Enough to cover my usual monthly expenses. The care home internship doesn’t pay much but I’d saved enough for this trip and tucked a bit away for an emergency.

I suppose this is an emergency.

I’ve not thought this through, have I? There’s the room here, the rental car, this flight Baz has booked.

I should have stayed at the airport in New York. I can’t afford much more of this. I’d not been thinking of the cost, when I’d agreed to go with him.

I just couldn’t seem to say no once he’d asked.

Baz’s words break into my spiraling thoughts. “It’s fine. I took care of your ticket.” That doesn’t help.

“I’ll pay you back, of course. For the ticket.” I swallow and keep going. “And the rental car. And the room.” It’ll be a pretty big dent in my savings but I don’t like the idea of owing Baz money. “As soon as . . . as soon as we get back.” I swallow again. “If it’s alright to wait that long?”

He’s giving me the oddest look.

Baz

I knew he’d start blustering about the money. I don’t want him to worry. I know he’s good for it and honestly, I’m the one who dragged him on this road trip. I’d never intended for him to foot any of the bill for the car or accommodations. Or the flight upgrade.

“Simon. It’s fine, truly. I didn’t want to lose the ticket. You’ll get the refund from British when you get back. You can pay me then. And I’ll not hear one word about you paying for the car or the room.” I take a step closer to him. “I practically demanded you accompany me on this disaster of a road trip. There is no way I’ll accept money from you for any of this. I’ll take no argument on that.”

“But . . . but . . .”

I frown. “Not a word, Simon. I’d be paying for all of it if I’d been alone. I won’t hear any more on the subject. We’ll sort the ticket issue when we get home. For now, let’s hope the flight I booked actually leaves tomorrow.”

I’m going to get an argument from him. I can tell by the way his jaw is jutting forward. I know this look.

Simon

A part of me is relieved to hear him say that but I also don’t think it’s fair. It’s not like he kidnapped me and whisked me away against my will.

I’m here because I want to be.

“It’s not like I’m here unwillingly, Baz. I should pay my fair share.”

He rolls his eyes. “I told you I’d be paying for this all, whether you were here or not. It’s been much more pleasant for me, to have your company, but that certainly doesn’t put any obligation on you. I invited you. If anything, you’re my guest. No more arguments, Simon. Let it be.”

Did Baz say my company was pleasant?

I blink at him for a moment, unsure how to process that. “I’m paying you back for the ticket, as soon as we get home.” I’ve said that already but my mind’s a blank.

“I know that. It never crossed my mind to doubt that you would. The rest isn’t important, Simon. I’m grateful to have you with me.”

There’s that softness again. In his voice and in his eyes. He’s saying things in Baz’s voice that I’d never imagined I’d hear Baz say. He’s looking at me in a way I’ve never seen before.

Ebb’s words come back to me. He is surprising me.

I don’t know what it means.

Baz

Simon eventually stops arguing about the money. I’m sure it’ll come up again, once we get home. But for now, he’s letting it rest.

We’re in Ebb’s front room, seated in front of a roaring fire. I’d finally managed to drag him out of the kitchen.

It’s a cosy room, lined with bookshelves, overstuffed chairs and long, low sofas. There are piles of board games and puzzles. Ebb brought in a platter of biscuits a short while ago.

It’s also full of all the other people who are staying here. There aren’t many but still more than enough for me.

We’ve made their acquaintance, thanks to their proximity in this room. Americans are so forthright about themselves. It’s quite unsettling.  

Simon is on a first name basis with most of them now and has uncovered such depths of back story on each of them that it’s making my head spin.

I’d finally retreated to this corner. There is only so much conversation with strangers that I can take under the best of circumstances.

Simon eventually made his way back to me, a plate of biscuits in hand. He’s polished them all off.

I managed to eat one.

He’s here and we’re bickering and it reminds me so much of how we used to be, except it’s got none of the bitterness.

“I’ve never been to Iceland.”

“It’s not like we’re going to see any of it. I think we’ve only got an hour or two at the airport there.”

“It still counts as another country I’ve been to, Baz.”

“Layovers don’t count.”

“Do to me.”

“How can they count if all you see is the airport and a lavatory? You don’t get any sense of the culture that way.”

Simon frowns. “You get plenty sense of a place from lavatories.”

I don’t want to think about that.

Midday comes and goes and Ebb feeds us all again. Simon volunteers to help with the washing up again and I find myself drying the dishes as he washes them.

It’s mindless work but it lets me be near him and indulge myself.

It’s inconsequential conversation but it makes me think that perhaps, in these new circumstances, that possibly we can find a way to be friends.

I’d like that.

I’d like that a lot.

Simon

I’d offered to help Ebb again but I hadn’t expected Baz to join me.

It’s oddly domestic and I can’t say I object to it.

The rest of the afternoon passes slowly. I unwisely convince Baz to play chess and as expected he trounces me handily. We end up playing three games and he annihilates me each time.

You’d think I’d be more frustrated about losing but I like watching him as he thinks through his moves. He’s seated across from me so it’s natural for me to face him. And study him. It’s probably why I’m losing so badly. I should be contemplating the board, not Baz.

Baz is far more interesting.

Ebb feeds us again at dinnertime and I swear I’ll not fit in my jeans if we stay one more day here. I can’t remember the last time I’ve eaten so well.

I can sense Baz has had his fill of people.

He’s a brilliant conversationalist and can talk to anyone but I’ve realized it wears on him. He far preferred hanging about in our room than loitering in the common areas at school. The first years I assumed it was because he thought he was better than everyone else. Or wanted to irritate me by always being around.

But that’s not it. People just wear him out.

Penny’s that way too. She’s got a few friends that I swear she’d die for but outside of that small circle she simply can’t be bothered. “You have too many friends, Simon,” she’d say. “You can’t invest yourself in that many people. It’s exhausting.”

“Ready to go up to the room, Baz? Call it a night?” It’s early yet but I can tell he’s done with small talk.

“Sounds good to me.” There’s relief in his eyes and also a glint of something else. I can’t place it. Probably just relief. I’m too eager to read more into every little thing he does tonight.

I grab a puzzle from the stack on the nearby table, in case we need something to pass the time. Knowing Baz, he’s got a book stashed in that bag of his.

That’s fine. I can entertain myself with the puzzle if need be.

Our sitting room is freezing. Blast it. Ebb told me to start the fire before we wanted to come up for the night and I’d completely forgotten about it.

Baz gets the fire blazing in no time but it’s going to take hours for these rooms to heat up.

“I’ll find the blankets Ebb brought, shall I?”

“Good thought. This feels like a bloody icebox. I’ll come up with you. I need another layer.”

The room upstairs is even colder. I don’t know how we’re going to sleep up here if it doesn’t warm up. I don’t think even the stack of blankets Ebb left us is going to do much.

We’re both back by the fireplace in moments, huddled on the floor, as close to the heat as we can get. I’ve got a blanket over my shoulders and Baz has another tightly wrapped around his.

I’m leaning against the armchair behind me, watching the flickering light play over Baz’s face. He’s bathed in the golden glow and he’s close enough to touch.

Baz

It’s bloody cold in here.

I’m as close to the fire as I can get, closer to it than Simon is. He’s leaning against one of the armchairs but I’ve tucked myself right next to the fireplace, curled up so the heat reaches me and turned enough that I can still see him.

He looks golden in this light—his hair, his skin, the light reflecting in his eyes.

He’s beautiful.

His hair’s a mess, curls springing up and flopping onto his forehead.  The blanket hides the rest of him, except for his legs which are stretched out mere inches away from me.

He has a hole in one sock.

In my fantasies I’d tell him I was still too cold. And he’d tell me to come sit next to him. I’d lean into his warmth and let him chase the chill away.

In my reality I lean against the cold stone of the fireplace and try to tuck as much of myself under the blanket as I can. The fire is warming my face and hands but isn’t doing much for the rest of me.

Simon  

I think about going upstairs and getting another blanket for Baz. He’s pressed up to the fireplace, blanket wrapped around him, just his face and hands out. He’s curled up into a ball but I can see he’s shivering.

I’m about to stand up when I get a better idea. I’m not sure I’d be daring enough to suggest it under any other circumstances.

But I feel reckless at the moment.

“Baz.”

He turns to look at me. “Yes?”

“Come here.”

“What?”

“Come here. You’re freezing. If we share the blankets it’ll be like we each have two.”

He stares at me, not moving, eyes wide and dark.

I’m an idiot. Of course, he’s not moving.  He doesn’t want to be further away from the fire. I don’t know what I was thinking to suggest that.

But a moment later he’s at my side, seated shoulder to shoulder with me. Baz won’t meet my eyes but he lets me drape my blanket over him too. He pulls his knees up and places his blanket over our legs, shifting closer to me as he does.

“It might be warmer this way.” He’s so close but I still have to dip my head to hear him, his words are said so quietly. The familiar scent of him, cedar and bergamot, overwhelms me. His face in inches away. I could reach out and tuck that strand of hair behind his ear. I could . . .

It’s awkward with our shoulders pressed together, bumping and jostling. We’d have more blanket cover if I put my arm around him and pulled him closer.

I stop thinking about it and just do it.

He tucks himself into my side, finding his position as if he’s always had a place there.

Maybe he has.

He doesn’t speak again but when his head drops onto my shoulder I feel like a puzzle piece has clicked into place.

I’ve got Baz Pitch in my arms.

It feels good. It feels right.

Baz  

My fantasies have become a reality. I am curled up in front of a fire, in the arms of Simon Snow.

Christ, I’m living a charmed life.

Simon

I could kiss him. I could dip down and kiss the top of his head. Could breathe in the scent of his hair. See if it’s as soft as it looks. Sink my fingers into it as I lift his face to mine.

Baz

I could kiss him. I could tilt my head up and look into those impossibly blue eyes and kiss him. Trace my lips up his neck, follow that line of moles up his jaw.

Kiss that mole on his cheek that I love.

I could do it.

Maybe.

Maybe not.

Simon

I need to stop thinking about kissing him. I’d not even expected this, when we came upstairs. I might have pictured it in my head, might have fantasized about it a bit when I brought the blankets down.

I thought he’d curl up in a chair with his book. That I’d sprawl out of the floor with the puzzle.

This is far better.

I don’t want to do anything to unsettle him.

I’ve got to stop thinking about kissing him.

It’s difficult when he’s so close.

I want him close.

So, of course, I decide to start talking.

“You all right, Baz? Warm enough?”

I’m such an idiot.

His head comes off my shoulder and he straightens up, shifting slightly away from me. “Yes, yes. Much better. Sorry, didn’t mean to crowd you there.” He shakes his head and tries to shift away a bit more. “I’m fine now. It’s warming up in here. ” It’s not appreciably warmer. I know he’s just saying that.

I tighten my arm around his shoulder. I should shut up but my mouth keeps forming words. “I didn’t ask because I wanted you to move away.”

That makes him turn to look at me. He’s so close. I could lean forward and touch his lips with mine.

But I don’t.

“Just stay, Baz. Stay with me here. Please.” It comes out as a whisper.

Miraculously he does just that. He looks at me for a moment and then he shifts closer again, letting me pull him to me.

When he finally brings his head to rest on my shoulder again I let myself exhale the breath I’d been holding.

I do what I wanted to do before. I brush my lips on his hair and then rest my cheek on his head. His hair is as soft as I’ve imagined. Softer.

I’ve got him where I want him.  Where he belongs.

Where I belong.

Baz

I think he kissed the top of my head. I may be delirious and just imagining it. I don’t know. I wonder if Simon can feel how rapidly my heart is beating.

I feel drunk. Light-headed. The clean, sharp scent of Simon Snow is all around me.

He’s all around me. I’m overwhelmed with his proximity. His arm is holding me close, my toes are tucked under his thigh, his head is resting on mine and I think I must be dreaming.

I don’t want to wake up from this.

[philipfloyd]

Copy: 66 Copywriting Tips that Will Boost Your Conversion Rates by 327%

The famous American television and radio host Larry King, used to say to his audience a very witty story about his father. He says that his father, a Ukrainian jew, came to the US thinking that America is the greatest land of all, where even the streets are paved with gold. However, shortly after arriving, his father realized three things:

The streets weren’t paved with gold.

The streets weren’t paved at all.

He was the one to pave the streets.

  There is no secret for anyone that content marketing is a must. And the truth is that copywriting isn’t just about writing blog posts anymore; it’s about telling good stories well. How do you get to create those stories that will increase your conversion rates hundreds of times?

We do not claim to have discovered the magic formula that will boost your business guaranteed. However, we’ve put together a comprehensive list of essential copywriting tips that will surely revamp your content, and it will blow up your conversion rate.

  Write in Short Paragraphs

Set Yourself a Word Count to Make Your Copy as Laser-Focused as Possible

Don’t Use Terms that Might not be Widely Understood

Forget Academic Writing

Make Sure Your Copy is Well Structured, Clear and Logical

Be Detailed when It’s the Case; Don’t Assume Your Readers Know Everything

Know the Goal of Each Piece of Your Content

Content Does not Necessarily Mean Just Words

Use Plenty of Paragraph Breaks and Quotes to Make Your Copy More “Readable”

Show Empathy with the Reader

Don’t Forget about the Power of Storytelling

Use Punctuation Carefully to Make Your Copy Impactful

Use Sub-headings to Highlight Your Key Points

Make Sure Your Copy Is Free of Spelling Mistakes

As Much as Possible Be Authentic, Honest and Trustworthy

Always Keep the Design in Mind when Creating the Text

Create a Style Guide for All Your Copy

Do Your Psychology Homework

Your Copy Should Be Much More about Solving Problems than about Self-Expression

Define Your Readers and Create Content for Them

Always Do Your Homework. Research your topics

Write List Posts

Include the Important Numbers in the Headline

Use Short, Well Structured Paragraphs

Write Your Copy in a Conversational Way

Take Advantage of Power Words

Make Efforts to Become a Better Writer

Make Efficient Use of Social Media

Remember that All of Your Content Matters

Use Synonyms and Help Google to Help You

Stalk Forums for the Exact Words Your Readers Use

Write Your Own Description Tag

Focus on Long Tail Keywords

Write Up to the High, Positive Expectation

Be Crystal Clear and Give Quick Previews that Make Your Points of View Acceptable

Deliver Something Valuable in an Intuitive Way

Go with the Status Quo Over Newly Presented Facts

Learn how to Measure the Success of Content Marketing

Learn where Your Readers Get Their News and Information from

Get Inspired by Your Community’s Interest

Thoroughly Document on Your Niche to Find Content Inspiration

Talk to the Sales and Support Team

Create a Content Strategy Calendar

Remember that Visual Information Makes Readers More Thorough

Harmonize Your Online Content with the Offline One

Always Keep the Attention Span Matter in Mind

Learn from Your Most and Least Shared Content

No Shares, No Likes, No Comments = No Traffic

Originality Is a Must

Existing Content Needs Love, Too

Timing Is Everything

Spot your competitor’s most engaging content

Make Use of Content Curation to Boost Your Influence

Analyze, Analyze, Analyze

Creativity Is Key!

Fill Information Gaps – Become a Reference

Targeting Longtail Keywords to Engage Your Audience

Repurpose Your Content

Make Use of Content Convergence

Make It Interesting and Diverse, not Just Relevant

Don’t Forget about the Content Monarchy

Quality Is not a One Time Act, It Is a HABIT

The Title of Your Content Will Influence Your Rankings

Ask Rhetorical Questions to Engage Readers

Choose the Fonts and Colors Carefully

Use Positive Frames to Describe Information

    1. Write in Short Paragraphs

There a few things more off-putting to a reader than a whole block of text with no spaces. You’ll do nothing but chase away your readers with such type of content. Writing in short paragraphs is an effective way to write on the web as it provides ‘eye relief’ throughout the page. Short paragraphs are easily digestible and can be skimmed over at a glance.

  2. Set Yourself a Word Count to Make Your Copy as Focused as Possible

  Long content or short content? Which one is better? What is the case? The more, the merrier, or less is more? Well, if you are looking for a short answer to this question you need to know that there isn’t one, as it depends on rankings, conversions, followers, popularity, authority, engagement, keyword optimization, etc. Yet, it seems that shorter articles are better correlated with higher ranks. We’ve detailed this matter in a previous case study we invite you to take a look at.

The bottom line is that you have to be very savvy about the number of words you use in your website copy, depending on what you want to achieve. Write according to your readers’ needs and remember that nowadays digital readers have a limited span attention.

      3. Don’t Use Terms that Might not be Widely Understood

  Big words don’t make you seem smarter.

Being able to explain complicated things in simple terms, however, truly is the sign of intelligence.

There are obviously times when you need to use technical terms or introduce complex concepts. But try not to get too comfortable using jargon and keep forcing yourself to remain accessible to as large an audience as possible. When not sure if you’ve met this, ask yourself: Would a newcomer to the field have an easy time following your text? Would an outsider grasp the importance of what you published?

  4. Forget Academic Writing

When we talk about academic writing we don’t necessarily mean scientific articles. But there’s a certain rigor to that writing which might not appeal to the general audience. This is not to say you should dumb things down. Essay Tigers expert recommends using everyday language to engage with as wide an audience as possible.  There’s a simple, two-step approach for making this happen:

Read what you’ve written out loud. If some parts don’t sound like something you’d say to a friend in real life, then change it.

Read what you’ve written out loud to someone else and ask them to tell you what the copy is about. If they can’t tell you easily, then change it.

  5. Make Sure Your Copy is Well Structured, Clear and Logical

We’ve touched on this before but it’s worth repeating: clarity is key. You’ve probably got the best lesson in writing in primary school: everything needs to have an intro, a body and a conclusion. And all of these need to be clearly laid out. Here’s a quick rundown of what you need to touch on: What is the point of your copy? You’re writing a new text because you have some claim to make, some wisdom you want to share.

If you were to write it in a single sentence, what would that sentence be?

How do you know what you claim is true? You need to present evidence (case studies, statistics, expert opinions) and explain why your evidence is relevant… Just because it happened in some instances, it doesn’t automatically mean it’s going to be true for everyone. Why does any of it matter? In public speaking, there’s the concept of “WIIFM” – “What’s In It For Me?”

The reader needs to know what they’re gaining by reading your article.

What’s the best thing they can do with the newfound wisdom?

  6. Be Detailed when It’s the Case; Don’t Assume Your Readers Know Everything

  This is a delicate balance because explaining too much could make knowledgeable readers bored, while not explaining enough could make inexperienced readers feel left in the dark. But it’s always better to err on the side of caution and explain the background of something. Why is phone encryption suddenly a problem? What is the deal with fake news? Even if a lot of your readers might know a great deal about your topic, you can still provide details while also putting a new spin on it.

Source: http://coschedule.com

  7. Know the Goal of Each Piece of Your Content

  You don’t just write to a mass content. Each piece you publish should have a goal in terms of the effect on the reader.

The best scenario is when the reader will actually take an action as a result of reading your piece.

For instance, if you publish a DIY instructable, you might get people who read or watched it try to do the same. That is, of course, quite ambitious and not all pieces need to elicit action from the readers for them to be successful. Yet, looking at the screenshot below, you can easily follow the steps presented, right?

  You could also write an article where you explain a new concept or study something people knew certain things about (but didn’t know what to think of it). That means your main goal was to expand your readers’ knowledge. Or you could simply publish a piece on a subject that’s quite well-known and invite people to comment about it, thus facilitating an exchange of good practices between people who otherwise might not have interacted with each other. There’s more than one way to make a difference and you just need to set up realistic goals.

Source: ideas.evite.com

  8. Content Does not Necessarily Mean Just Words

  Don’t have enough time to write a long piece? Having a bit of a writer’s block?

There’s a lot of ways to publish content other than text: mix it up with images, create a video out of it, make a podcast, etc.

Sometimes the choice about how to reach your followers is pragmatic (it takes less time to record a podcast than to write the same content); other times it’s about strategy – maybe your followers are more easily swayed by videos or maybe it’s easier for them to follow content as podcast (while driving) than writing. When in doubt, just mix it up – it’s always best to cover more ground. And always build compelling copy for each method. 

    9. Use Plenty of Paragraph Breaks and Quotes to Make Your Copy More “Readable”

Writing good copy should be a bit like writing good journalism.

“One paragraph, one idea,” is a very useful motto when it comes to structuring your text.

Set out a claim, explain why it could be true, illustrate it with an example and then see what the implication of that claim might be. Then discuss that implication in the following paragraph. When you have a longer text, bring out some quotes or poignant phrases that might draw the readers’ attention, so that they can better focus and find the section they need more easily.

  10. Show Empathy with the Reader

  Answering the reader’s WIIFM (What’s in it for me) question is a great start, but if possible, you should try to go beyond that.

Try to understand your readers’ frame of mind: what are their expectations, what might they be worried about?

Sometimes it could be as simple as tapping into their shared history

Look, we’ve all been there: trying to meet the deadline even though…

Other times, you need to tap into something that drives your readers and what their expectations (positive or negative) could be (“You’re probably thinking that this is too hard for you to do – that’s a normal reaction, but…”). All in all, it’s about putting a face to your audience and making the writing more of a dialogue than a monologue.

Source: brettrelander.com

  11. Don’t Forget about the Power of Storytelling

  Sometimes we can get too technical about things and assume our readers are information-parsing-robots. They’re not. They’re human beings and have a natural tendency to like stories and be attracted to the coherence and consistency of a well-told story. You can keep all the facts and all the logical analysis you wanted to pour into your copy, but if you really want to strike a chord, make sure to wrap it in some nice storytelling tropes:

Is there a hero to your story, trying to overcome difficulties? Is there an antagonist trying to stop the hero from succeeding? Does goodness get rewarded in the end, despite hurdles along the way? Etc.

Source: echostories.com

  12. Use Punctuation Carefully to Make Your Copy Impactful

  Read this aloud: “He only told her he loved her.” Which word did you emphasize? There wasn’t a correct way of saying it, but how you chose to say it made a big difference. It might also have been influenced by your traits, beliefs, experience and social background. This is not just about using correct grammar (which, as the Internet warns us, can save someone’s life).

It’s also about using punctuation with purpose.

You want to convey a sense of urgency? Use short sentences and replace semicolons with full stops. You want to make a short detour in the middle of your sentence? Pick your weapon wisely: commas, dashes, parentheses…

You want people to pay attention?

The exclamation mark may have worked before, but it’s now been so overused on clickbait sites, that people just tend to ignore it and what it’s meant to signify.

These may seem like details at first, but once you understand how punctuation impacts not only the reading, but also the understanding of a text, you might decide to pay these details a lot more attention.

  13. Use Sub-headings to Highlight Your Key Points

  We tend to like having a sense of completion. Especially with a work that’s quite sizeable, it’s nice to have smaller milestones. It’s encouraging to know that while the end is not necessarily near, we’re definitely heading in its direction.

Sub-headings help your readers stay motivated.

But they also serve a very practical purpose: they make particular content easy to find both for first-time readers and for recurrent ones.

  14. Make Sure Your Copy Is Free of Spelling Mistakes

  This should go without saying, but it’s important to understand why this is important. It’s not just that it can make readers annoyed because they have to do a double take on a sentence. It’s also not that even small typos can lead to inaccurate statements, in particular when they’re easy to miss (writing “you’re now allowed to…” instead of “you’re not allowed to…” changes the whole meaning, but is grammatically correct in both cases).

Spelling mistakes underscore lack of professionalism and lack of concern for the reader.

The message is pretty straightforward: “We didn’t care enough about the people reading this so as to spend just a little more time on making this copy look like a polished product. We think this is good enough.” And that’s not what you want them to think.

Source: liquidbubble.co.uk

  15. As Much as Possible Be Authentic, Honest and Trustworthy

  There’s a lot of carefulness and consideration put into most writing. But when they’re not doubled by authenticity, when the text doesn’t seem to be coming from a real person, or to be addressed to one, that attention comes across as disingenuous and unnatural. So try to stay honest with your audience and use your unique selling point. 

Be open about your intentions and about your experience and abilities.

Admit when you’re not up to speed on something. Don’t jump on bandwagons. Talk about what matters to you. It’s really hard to define what “authentic” is, because we should always try to get outside of our comfort zones. But I think authenticity comes from being able to admit, having tried something new or that everyone is raving about, that you didn’t like it that much and you want to do something else next time. That honesty is what keeps followers interested and engaged.

  16. Always Keep the Design in Mind when Creating the Text

  This goes beyond fonts and colors. It’s about page layout and how everything looks (and feels). In a way, it’s a bit like fashion – some types of content just go better with certain types of layouts. If your pieces are lengthy and complex, with pictures and charts and graphs, make sure you have a page layout that makes that kind of content attractive and easy to go through.

A more traditional style might help the reader keep focused on the text.

If you work in short bursts of content, be it text, photo, or video, create a layout where every other element points toward your content marketing strategy (rather than distracting from it). Once you’ve settled on a style, try to keep it in mind whenever you’re writing new content: where is this paragraph going to be on the page? Should you insert this picture to the left or to the right (or in a medallion)? How easy is it going to be to flip to the next page? Etc.

  17. Create a Style Guide for All Your Copy

  Try to define your style. There’s obviously going to be a lot of adjustment as you grow and find out more about design, but you should document these changes as much as possible. Coherence and consistency in style are rewarded by readers, even though most of the time their influence is subconscious. So keep up and create a manual to document your decisions: What font, size and color should article titles be? What about body text?

How big should the pictures, videos and other objects be? How much space should they take relative to other elements?

What colors do you use, aside from the colors already visible on your site? What colors and styles to highlight words, show hyperlinks or frame text boxes? Etc.

Of course, these things can be defined in various ways, so that you’re still left with enough flexibility.

  18. Do Your Psychology Homework

  We’ve referenced psychology quite a few times in this list already, when talking about what we want, expect or like. There’s a whole field out there about economic behavior and it’s still expanding. Turns out we’re not actually those rational individuals we believe ourselves to be (no, not even you, sorry to say). Most of us are actually pretty irrational when seen from an outside perspective, even though we abide by our own internal logic.

We don’t always make the best buys, the best choices or act in our best interests.

Why are so many of our behaviors counter-intuitive? There’s no easy answer (no single answer either, for that matter), but it will definitely help you to find out more about what the explanations might be. Writers like Ariely, Duhigg, Goleman, Kahneman or Taleb all featured extensively on the bookshelves in the past few years and with good reason.

Source: http://irrationalgames.com/

  19. Your Copy Should Be Much More about Solving Problems than about Self-Expression

  A lot of content comes from wanting to share experience. You know something most other people – even those in your field – might not know. You are excited about that and want to make them aware of your new gained wisdom. The important thing to remember is that the focus should stay on sharing and not on you as the source of wisdom. That’s not to say your opinions have no place in your writing, on the contrary. But always ask yourself these 3 questions:

Will this info help my readers to better understand the subject? Will this info help my readers to better apply this knowledge for doing something practical? Will this info help me to look cool but not add anything valuable to this piece?

If the answer to the first two questions is a resounding “Yes”, then you should definitely include that piece of information in your copy. If the answer to these questions is “No” and the only “Yes” comes from the third question, well… you’ve got yourself a pretty good conversation opener for the next party.

  20. Define Your Readers and Create Content for Them

  As you gain more readers, start thinking about them as potential clients. Who are they? How can you split them into smaller groups based on age, gender, line of business, interests, income, etc.? You might not have all this information all the time, but you should at least try to find out as much as you can about them. Because if you are to have an ongoing dialogue with them, you need to try and understand what they’re like. Are they typical representatives of a certain generation (X, Y, millennials)? Do they even fit the definitions or are they a group with much more specific characteristics? It would help if you could listen to them – have a way to collect their feedback and allow them to voice out their opinions.

The better you get to know your readers, the more likely it is you will be able to write directly to them and keep them interested in your company.

  21. Always Do Your Homework. Research your topics

With so much information at our fingertips, it’s easy to think we know a lot. In reality, we know very few things well. We know a bit more superficially. Most of the topics, we just have a very inaccurate understanding of. But what happens when we try to talk about something we know little or nothing about as if we knew and stumble upon someone with actual knowledge on the topic? The result, as you’ve guessed, is disastrous. Do your homework before publishing any new content. Do more than just a cursory overview of the information that’s been published lately. Go in depth:

Read books, not just articles; Watch documentaries and videos of experts in that topic; Try to get in touch with people who’ve actually experienced that topic first-hand.

You’re still not going to be an expert even after doing all these things, but at least whatever you write about that topic afterwards will be a valuable contribution to the ongoing dialogue. You can use tools such as BrandMentions to easily research topics that interest you an to get updated on the subject.

  22. Write List Posts

  List posts can be really useful – just look at this one. Joke aside, there is actual value to list posts. Sure, you don’t get to go into a lot of detail, but the richness and variety of ideas will compensate for the lack of depth. Readers are aware of the fact that lists tend to gloss over details and they’re OK with it, mostly because what they’re looking for is variety of ideas.

Quality usually beats quantity, unless it’s exactly quantity that you’re after.

  23. Include the Important Numbers in the Headline

  Lead with your most important data. Don’t try to attract users with cheap, vague clickbait tactics like the one below:

You won’t believe how many writing tips we have in this list!

A lot of editors seem to have forgotten that what people really need is information, not mystery. And people will read your article for what you promise them in the title – and leave satisfied after getting what they wanted. Moreover, sometimes the numbers are impressive in themselves.

Here are couple of examples of numbers that make you think and want to find out more:

Wi-Fi and mobile-connected devices will generate 68% of all internet traffic by 2017.

In 2015, 64% of all in-store sales, or sales to the tune of $2.2 trillion, were influenced by the internet.

Only 44% of web traffic is from humans; a massive 56% of web traffic is from bots, impersonators, hacking tools, scrapers and spammers.

A single second delay in your website loading time can result in a 7% loss in conversion, and 40% of web users will abandon a website if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load.

  Source: hostingfacts.com

  24. Use Short, Well Structured Paragraphs

  Ever heard of the KISS rule for public speaking?

Keep It Short & Simple.

That’s exactly how you should think about your persuasive copy. We’ve already mentioned earlier in the list that you should think of your texts as an ongoing conversation. Most people talk in short bits during a conversation, to allow the other person to process what they’ve heard (and also leave plenty of opportunities for interventions). This formula grabs attention easily. Admittedly, your readers can’t jump in while reading your text to alter its course, but they still need to process what they read. They’ll appreciate a clear and simple structure, where everything seems to flow naturally, rather than verbose paragraphs whose main purpose seems to be to obfuscate them.

Remember: one paragraph, one idea.

If you’ve changed ideas, it means you need to change paragraphs as well (or, at the very least, sentences).

  25. Write Your Copy in a Conversational Way

  Try to make your text read like a real conversation (with actual people). Obviously, that’s not 100% possible; you’re not writing plays, after all. But you get our gist.

People have conversations in their heads anyways.

You read a text and find yourself muttering out loud “true, true…”, “wow, that’s crazy!” or sometimes even “that can’t be right, can it?!…” You can even try to interact with the reader when you’re sure your text will elicit a certain reaction. Just said something counter-intuitive or shocking?

You could try to start your next sentence with something like “I know what you’re thinking: ‘surely that can’t be right.’ But it is entirely accurate.” It might not always work and you will have to even resist doing this sometimes, but it’s worth keeping in mind that this is a possibility.

Source: printwand.com

  26. Take Advantage of Power Words

  Do you know anyone opposed to progress? What about anyone who rejoices at the sound of the word suffering?

Not all words are created equal and some words have more power than others.

It is usually because of a specific cultural background of that word, the way it has been used consistently by people to mean a certain thing; so much so, that a particular association is now the only one that comes to people’s minds. Richard Weaver, a 20th century rhetorician, introduced the concepts of “god terms” and “devil terms” to refer to words that have an almost universal positive, respectively negative, connotation. There is a thin line to balance here between being rhetorically savvy and being manipulative, but power words are definitely worth exploring if you want to create better texts.

In his incredible book “Predictably Irrational,” Dan Ariely dedicated a chapter to the power of words in the process of decision making. Long story short, to test the power of the word “free” concerning concrete value, Ariely asked a group of people to choose between a 1 cent Hershey Kiss or a 15 cent Lindt truffle. Most of the people opted for the second version. Nothing intriguing so far. Another random group of subjects were asked to make the same decision just this time both products were cheapened with 1 cent. The results? As you can see in the image below, the subjects seemingly flipped on their opinion of these two treats.

Do not underestimate the power of “free”.

  27. Make Efforts to Become a Better Writer

  Writing is a skill, not a trait you’re born with.

Sure, some people have more talent than others, but just like with a lot of artistic skills, hard work, passion and determination can overcome a talent “deficit.” On the other hand, natural talent withers if it’s not exercised regularly. Read viciously what your favorite copywriters publish. Read books about writing. Go to classes about writing. Listen to podcasts and watch videos about writing. And most importantly?

Write every single day. Always with intent, always trying to get better at something.

Look into style and try to emulate various writing styles. Take what is useful from each of them. Look into creative writing and push yourself to write about things you never cared before. Not everything will stick – in fact, most likely won’t. But being better at writing is something that happens slowly and in bits and pieces. It’s also something worth pursuing.

  28. Make Efficient Use of Social Media

  We’ve touched on this before in our posts and it’s as relevant now as it was then: social proof can be a huge help, as long as you use it strategically. There are plenty of statistics out there about what works best: how many words to use in your posts, what time to post on each network, when to use tags and what to use them for. These statistics are a good starting point, but you’ll have to put in some work, too. They represent average findings of everyone online. You might discover different findings for your business or line of service, as long as you’re willing to put in some time for trial and error tests.

We’ve conducted a very in-depth study to figure out if social signals influence SEO and one of our findings was that a strong presence on social networks is correlated with better rankings, as you can see in the screenshot below.

  29. Remember that All of Your Content Matters

  Write every time like that’s the most important thing to publish.

Don’t think of anything you write as a throwaway or filler.

You need to believe that what you write is important, otherwise there’s little chance the reader will think it.

  30. Use Synonyms and Help Google to Help You

  Synonyms have been managed automatically by Google for years now, yet what you may not know is their high influence not only on your copy but also on rankings. We all use Thesaurus  now and then to “beautify” our content.

You might not know that you can use synonyms for rankings as well.

Let’s say that you are in the “laptops” niche and you write content on this matter. It wouldn’t be bad if you used not only the exact match laptops, but also synonyms or words from the same area with this one : computers, notebooks, etc. And this is because Google is becoming increasingly smart and it returns results not based on the exact matching word but by the intent of the user, using sometimes synonyms of the words or their lexical family.

Use synonyms smartly on your website in order to rank higher not just because you’re obsessed with ranks, but because your website might be relevant to people who search using similar but not quite exactly the same words. More on how to take advantage of this technique can be found on a previous in-depth research we’ve done on how to exploit the synonym technique to increase your traffic.

  31. Stalk Forums for the Exact Words Your Readers Use

  Most of the time we speak about things we think our readers want. But they may be interested in different things, or talk in different ways about those things. Think of a piece of software, for instance: how the developer might describe its functionalities (“Formatting text in XProduct”) is not how users might ask questions about it (“How do I make my text bold in XProduct?”). Therefore go ahead, check the forums and search for the exact word your readers use.

  32. Write Your Own Description Tag

  Copywriting doesn’t imply just blog writing and in-depth article research but also every piece of content written that is related to the business you are working for. Therefore, one of the things you make sure as a killer copywriter (and/or SEO professional) is that you write your own description tag for every important page on your site. Otherwise, Google will do that for you. And you might not want that.

Why is this useful for your copy?

Usually, when someone does a Google search they want answers really fast and very relevant.

This means that if they search for Copywriting Tips and Tricks they would expect to see at a glance exactly what they searched for. And if, along with the title, in the description tag you show them the quick wins they will have, you get more clicks.

  33. Focus on Long Tail Keywords

  Long tail keywords are those three and four keyword phrases which are very, very specific to whatever you have to offer. Regardless of the fact that it might be easier for your content to rank higher when using long tail keywords, it is also a better way to connect with customers. We’ve written more on this subject in a previous post.

  34. Write Up to the High, Positive Expectation

  It does hurt to say, but the more you read meaningless content on the web, the more you expect the next link you click on to give you hands on content.

If you’re unlucky enough to be the fourth or fifth and the reader is already bent out of shape, you clearly wouldn’t like to be in the position of disappointing him. It’s harder to work for content than it was for linkbait and clickbait years ago, because this time there’s no shortcut to get people’s attention. You’ve got to be fair and you’ve got to deliver. Let’s call this Attention Web.

Only promise what you can deliver!

  35. Be Crystal Clear and Give Quick Previews that Make Your Points of View Acceptable

  We all have belief biases – this means that when facing a logical argument, we’re more likely to believe it if the conclusion seems more plausible instead of analyzing the supporting evidence. Bold points of view are lifesaving. They raise eyebrows and tickle curiosity, while sending the impression of reliability. Which is why people will read the first sentence of your post – unfortunately, after this they realize you’re about to contradict their prior beliefs and leave. Just like that.

  36. Deliver Something Valuable in an Intuitive Way

  Suppose that you’re lucky enough to write about the topic someone’s recently been interested in – this only means they’ll notice your work, at best. From here to actually reading your content there is a lot of work paved with intermediary steps.

Digging too deep into a topic often implies taking a lot of extra risk.

We only read in-depth content analyses; we do our homework properly, we’re never out of touch and we can tell you what’s trending from sleep. And yet, there’s nothing easier than losing the interest of your readers.

Source: slate.com

  37. Go with the Status Quo Over Newly Presented Facts

  Status quo bias is an emotional bias; a preference for the current state of affairs.

The current baseline (or status quo) is taken as a reference point, and any change from that baseline is perceived as a loss. The truth is that we care more about maintaining our Status Quo (state of facts) than we do about truth; and if you’re saying otherwise, chances are your brain is playing some tricks on you.

Therefore, if it’s not imperative to change, innovation for the sake of novelty is the number one enemy of reader loyalty.

  38. Learn how to Measure the Success of Content Marketing

  Content we share doesn’t always equal content we’ve engaged with. It’s a lot easier to share content based on its title than it is to actually engage with it. Yet, it’s highly important to know how to measure the success of a piece of content. Metrics for on-page behavior, for SEO, bounce rates, average time spent on page, the number and quality of the comments or the metrics for social media performance are elements you should always keep an eye on.

It is not just the people who convert are important, but the pages they convert from.

Here you can find how to constantly monitor and learn from these metrics

  39. Learn where Your Readers Get Their News and Information from

  No, you won’t need night vision goggles or an invisibility cloak to monitor your community.

What you do need is to pay attention to your surroundings. Working inside of a system often makes us lose what’s most important in succeeding—the holistic view of the industry.

  40. Get Inspired by Your Community’s Interest

  There’s no place more insightful than your own community—you’ll find plenty of ideas there if you just take the time to look at it. Being part of an industry often takes a lot of time, especially in domains that seem to be so competitive, in a never-ending effort to become better. However, sometimes we should just stop. And see what it is that’s missing—there’s always a glitch—something that you haven’t discovered yet. Start from there. I know it might sound like a task hard to achieve but tools such as Brand Mentions  can really ease your job.

  41. Thoroughly Document on Your Niche to Find Content Inspiration

  Whether you are a content marketer who is interested in the content from a specific area or you are into more generic matters, first thing first, you need to check out what is going on in that niche and find some inspiration from those findings.

Correlating search trends with the most recent mentions on the web seems to be a great formula, regardless of the niche you are interested in.

  42. Talk to the Sales and Support Team

  Through all its efforts, a company/business/website is trying to find a way to best reach its audience. Some efforts are sort of an “indirect” contact with the public through online content but there are also some others who are in direct contact with the user. A discussion with the sales and support team might be a great opportunity for you to better understand your audience’s needs or challenges and adapt your marketing copy accordingly.

Source: helpscout.net

  43. Create a Content Strategy Calendar

  After collecting a bunch of great article ideas you need to gather them together in a way that will be efficient and effective for your website or blog. And creating a content calendar is a method to get the best results out of your ideas. Although “Content Strategy Calendar” might sound a bit pretentious and you might get discouraged or think it is a very complicated task, the truth is that even a simple Google Doc Spreadsheet can help you out. What you need to keep in mind for each article you are going to write is that you have to take in consideration items such as:

What type of content is it? Where do you intend to publish it? What is the article’s audience? How and where are you going to promote it? How are you going to scale the result?

  Source: meistertask.com

  44. Remember that Visual Information Makes Readers More Thorough

  The more we try to put information in pretty wrapping, the harder it will be to present it without visual support. It is just one among other smart copywriting formulas. Every attempt to make web content more interesting contributed to this borderline surrealistic change to the way we perceive content online. It seems that our brain really loves graphics more than you’d imagine:

visual information has increased by 9,000% since 2007

color visuals increase willingness to read by 80%

we receive 5 times more information than we did in 1986

we don’t read more than 28% of the words when visiting an online page

  Source: contently.com

  45. Harmonize Your Online Content with the Offline One

  The online and the offline often find themselves in competition and it shouldn’t be like that. In reality, although the two environments should not be compared, it’s impossible not to weigh one against the other. Yet, regardless of the advantages and disadvantages each one brings, one thing should be clear: they need to be coherent altogether and they both need to tell the same stories, even if with different lines.

Source: blog.hubspot.com

  46. Always Keep the Attention Span Matter in Mind

  Because technology today can store so much information, we can’t keep track of it anymore.

Writers in the 17th century claimed they had read everything written in their language throughout history.

Today, this statistic is unachievable even to those of us who try to keep themselves up-to-date in their fields of expertise.

Nowadays, our attention span is 8 seconds and falling. Approximately 66% of our attention is spent below the fold , especially when it comes to content, and we’re impatient to get over the (often) boring introductions directly to the heart of what interests us.

  47. Learn from Your Most and Least Shared Content

  Figuring out what works for your niche is crucial. Looking at the content that performs best in your niche might be intuitive. Even though you might think it’s redundant to look at the bottom of the list, there are insights to be learned from your weakest performing content, too.

You need to see which pages have attracted the least amount of visitors and what type of content is not of interest to your viewers.

Creating uninteresting content isn’t useful for anyone. It is not useful for your target audience, and it’s clearly not productive for your business.

  48. No Shares, No Likes, No Comments = No Traffic

  Content creation and shareability are parts of the content strategy concept and you can’t separate one from each other.

It would be a true shame to create great and useful content that does not receive any love from the community.

Just like us, you’ve probably seen a lot of bloggers create great articles that impressed you. But, they received little to no engagement. While creating content has its obvious benefits, maximizing shareability assures the success of your content strategy.

  49. Originality Is a Must

  You don’t have to re-invent the wheel on a daily basis.

You may also create content that has been done before as long as you augment it with a new spin.

As long as it’s a fresh and interesting approach to an idea, go ahead with it.

Remember that most of the times originality is nothing but judicious imitation.

The most original writers borrowed one from another.

  50. Existing Content Needs Love, Too

  When creating content, we tend to never look back and always think of the next idea.

You should always take your existing content and see what you can gain from it.

Maybe create a sequel, maybe an update, maybe there are some ideas in that piece of content that weren’t fully discussed. And even if it’s evergreen content we are talking about, remember that this kind of content is relevant for people now and it’s going to be relevant for them after a year, too. We’ve written a blog post on exactly this matter, where we put together some of the best ways to repurpose existing content.

  51. Timing Is Everything

  As the famous lines say, there is a time for everything : a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot. And this applies in copywriting as well.

It’s obvious that writing the right article at the right moment is crucial.

There are times when important changes occur in the niche you are addressing and clearly you need to react on the spot and have a piece of copy ready for the moment. Yet, there are times when you need to know what new trick you need to unveil in order to capture your audience’s numb interest. Also, an important part of this matter is maximizing the shareability of your copy. Therefore you need to figure out when you’re going to get the most out of your content, at which moment of the day, the week or month you should share the content to receive the most traffic.

  52. Spot Your Competitor’s Most Engaging Content

  Content marketing – done correctly – can be a very effective way to attract and retain clients, but the problem is more and more companies produce more and more content. It’s highly important to understand how to produce content that will engage your target audience, but is also vital to know what your competitors’ most engaging content is. To figure this out you don’t have to spend ages collecting and analyzing all that content, you can do things way easier and efficiently if you use the proper tools.

  53. Make Use of Content Curation to Boost Your Influence

  Everyone has wrapped their brains around the idea of content creation and knows they should create amazing content to engage with their target audience. And that’s how content curation, the less known brother of content creation, gets left out in the cold.

A professional content curator picks and polishes the most amazing content and serves it up to the community and also gives credits to the owner.

It is definitely a power that can be harnessed, and remember that content curation is not content marketing.

  54. Analyze, Analyze, Analyze

  This applies before actually writing the piece of content but also after the copy has been unleashed to the world. Learn to monitor the places your content is published and analyze the traffic. Visitors who come and go are an invaluable resource of information regarding the content’s usage pattern. Watch out for data like keywords, bounce rate, and click patterns to learn more about their interests. Also, ask about the blogs and social networks where they spend their time online. You may find discussions that may shed a light on their needs and interests.

On the internet, in an age where everything is monitored, you are bound to find data about anything.

  55. Creativity Is Key!

  There is this common perception that creativity is a taboo subject or that is a “feature” that only the chosen ones are gifted with. As Steve Jobs once highlighted, most of the times creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things.

  However, copywriting and creativity go hand in hand. This is why while sticking to your business plan, you enter a comfort zone, which is the worst enemy for creativity. When you empty your mind of all past concepts, you’re going to fill it with creativity. You have to liberate yourself from the limitations of what you already know.

  56. Fill Information Gaps – Become a Reference

  An information gap is a construct, a theory or an idea that the audience believes should be informed on, but doesn’t seem to be explained quite extensively. Rather, the reader feels like the information comes in bits and pieces, like an underlying premise of any discussion that derives from the matter. Here is where your content jumps in. Yet, for the strategy to work, the information will have to be relevant and systematized, while offering an in-depth perspective on the topic. Become a reference and the results will follow.

Once you’ve proven yourself as a trusty, authentic go-to blog, your leads and email subscription rates can dramatically increase.

  57. Targeting Longtail Keywords to Engage Your Audience

  Micro-targeting paints a big picture. The more you invest in targeting the right long tail keywords, the bigger a shot you have at accessing a key audience interested in a specific topic. Choosing topics for content writing should always be the result of a targeting process. Once you do this, the chances to grow a solid audience with an increase intent in your business are sizable.

  58. Repurpose Your Content

  Running a blog with constant valuable and high quality content might sometimes be difficult as it is a resource-consuming process. Therefore, why not getting the best out of the content that you’ve already worked on? Repurpose the content you already have. Not only will you save resources, but you’ll also extend the reach of your blog and maybe find new ways to reach your audience. Here are some great ideas of how to repurpose your content:

  59. Make Use of Content Convergence

  Before asking yourself how this might help you, allow me to explain what this is about.

It refers to merging one boring, dull topic with a more exciting topic, whilst giving it a theme which gets attention.

If you are to write copy for, let’s say, plumbing supplies or for air conditioners, you might find it difficult sometimes to remain consistent, creative, original, etc. Here is where convergence might help you. Try giving the content a snappy title, make it more about the reader than about the website, As we’ve detailed in a previous blog post, by introducing a new element to the narrative you’ve made a boring item more interesting and opened up your website to getting links from places your competition would find hard to replicate.

  60. Make It Interesting and Diverse, not Just Relevant

  Undoubtedly, relevancy is a must.

While being relevant, a diverse mix of content can be used in order to keep things interesting for your readers.

This might require videos, case studies, articles, e-Newsletters, webinars, blog posts, data visualization posts, competitions or photographs. This might require some market and consumer research skills in order to understand consumer expectations with regards to the kind of content they want to read. Yet, it’s totally worth it.

  61. Don’t Forget about the Content Monarchy

  Whether you agree or not, “Content is king” is one of the widest spread Internet memes. You will see the phrase referenced all over the place. And we tend to think that mostly Google is “the guilty” one for this matter. For a while now, Google has been promoting the importance of content and it has even shaped an algorithm on exactly this matter, ready to penalize sites that do not respect content quality guidelines.

The thing you need to remember is that you need to write good, relevant and qualitative content for the sake of your readers but also to avoid any Google Penalties.

  62. Quality Is not a One Time Act, It Is a HABIT

  As the saying goes, we are what we repeatedly do.

Excellence is not an act, but a habit.

You’ve written a blog post and you have thousands of shares and appreciations? That’s a great. Yet, that one time performance won’t keep you on the top for long. On the contrary, once you’ve set the bar high, you need to keep up with it to have killer content. 

  This is similar to the one hit wonder music bands.

We all remember the musical hit, we sing it at birthdays parties for a period of time, yet we probably won’t buy the album just for that tune.

Same thing may happen to your content. If you want your readers to look at your blog/brand/name with respect and put you in the trustworthy content category, make a habit out of delivering quality.

  63. The Title of Your Content Will Influence Your Rankings

  Every site owner’s dream (and goal) is to rank as high as possible for their target audience. Every search engine’s dream (and goal) is to make sure that the most relevant websites rank the highest. Therefore, it’s a vicious cycle.

Yet, keywords used in the titles of your copy have a high ranking importance. We’ve conducted a study where it seems that keyword appearance in the title makes a clear difference between ranking 1st or 2nd.

When creating the title of your content you should really think things through, as the title must not be only relevant and attractive but also SERP friendly.

  64. Ask Rhetorical Questions to Engage Readers

  Do you ever use rhetorical questions in your writing? Like this one, for instance?

Rhetorical questions make your arguments more persuasive.

Also, your audience will become engaged. And if your arguments are strong and valid, readers will be more likely persuaded by them.

  65. Choose the Fonts and Colors Carefully

Around here we put a lot of emphasis on content and go on and on about how it comes first. But that doesn’t mean we’re blind to aesthetic choices. If you have good, original, insightful, even life-changing content, but choose to display it in green Comic Sans over a pink background, you can count us out. And a few other readers, too.

Choice of font and color scheme can greatly influence the success of a piece by being a factor for accessibility.

Certain fonts make for easier reading when it comes to big blocks of text, while certain color schemes make it easier on the eye to spend long amounts of time on landing pages. Font and color also go a long way in terms of credibility: some combinations simply look slick and professional, while others give an “untrustworthy” vibe, despite potentially good writing.

  66. Use Positive Frames to Describe Information

  Negative frames describe something that isn’t taking place. Positive frames, on the other hand, describe something tangible, something that is happening. Studies  show that we need more mental resources to process negative frames as they reduce comprehension and degrade the impact of your message. Therefore, positive frames should be the one you should look for.

NEGATIVE: Don’t be late. POSITIVE: Arrive on time.

NEGATIVE: Don’t drink excessively. POSITIVE: Drink responsibly.

The post Copy: 66 Copywriting Tips that Will Boost Your Conversion Rates by 327% appeared first on SEO Blog | cognitiveSEO Blog on SEO Tactics & Strategies.

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Copy: 66 Copywriting Tips that Will Boost Your Conversion Rates by 327%

The famous American television and radio host Larry King, used to say to his audience a very witty story about his father. He says that his father, a Ukrainian jew, came to the US thinking that America is the greatest land of all, where even the streets are paved with gold. However, shortly after arriving, his father realized three things:

The streets weren’t paved with gold.

The streets weren’t paved at all.

He was the one to pave the streets.

  There is no secret for anyone that content marketing is a must. And the truth is that copywriting isn’t just about writing blog posts anymore; it’s about telling good stories well. How do you get to create those stories that will increase your conversion rates hundreds of times?

We do not claim to have discovered the magic formula that will boost your business guaranteed. However, we’ve put together a comprehensive list of essential copywriting tips that will surely revamp your content, and it will blow up your conversion rate.

  Write in Short Paragraphs

Set Yourself a Word Count to Make Your Copy as Laser-Focused as Possible

Don’t Use Terms that Might not be Widely Understood

Forget Academic Writing

Make Sure Your Copy is Well Structured, Clear and Logical

Be Detailed when It’s the Case; Don’t Assume Your Readers Know Everything

Know the Goal of Each Piece of Your Content

Content Does not Necessarily Mean Just Words

Use Plenty of Paragraph Breaks and Quotes to Make Your Copy More “Readable”

Show Empathy with the Reader

Don’t Forget about the Power of Storytelling

Use Punctuation Carefully to Make Your Copy Impactful

Use Sub-headings to Highlight Your Key Points

Make Sure Your Copy Is Free of Spelling Mistakes

As Much as Possible Be Authentic, Honest and Trustworthy

Always Keep the Design in Mind when Creating the Text

Create a Style Guide for All Your Copy

Do Your Psychology Homework

Your Copy Should Be Much More about Solving Problems than about Self-Expression

Define Your Readers and Create Content for Them

Always Do Your Homework. Research your topics

Write List Posts

Include the Important Numbers in the Headline

Use Short, Well Structured Paragraphs

Write Your Copy in a Conversational Way

Take Advantage of Power Words

Make Efforts to Become a Better Writer

Make Efficient Use of Social Media

Remember that All of Your Content Matters

Use Synonyms and Help Google to Help You

Stalk Forums for the Exact Words Your Readers Use

Write Your Own Description Tag

Focus on Long Tail Keywords

Write Up to the High, Positive Expectation

Be Crystal Clear and Give Quick Previews that Make Your Points of View Acceptable

Deliver Something Valuable in an Intuitive Way

Go with the Status Quo Over Newly Presented Facts

Learn how to Measure the Success of Content Marketing

Learn where Your Readers Get Their News and Information from

Get Inspired by Your Community’s Interest

Thoroughly Document on Your Niche to Find Content Inspiration

Talk to the Sales and Support Team

Create a Content Strategy Calendar

Remember that Visual Information Makes Readers More Thorough

Harmonize Your Online Content with the Offline One

Always Keep the Attention Span Matter in Mind

Learn from Your Most and Least Shared Content

No Shares, No Likes, No Comments = No Traffic

Originality Is a Must

Existing Content Needs Love, Too

Timing Is Everything

Spot your competitor’s most engaging content

Make Use of Content Curation to Boost Your Influence

Analyze, Analyze, Analyze

Creativity Is Key!

Fill Information Gaps – Become a Reference

Targeting Longtail Keywords to Engage Your Audience

Repurpose Your Content

Make Use of Content Convergence

Make It Interesting and Diverse, not Just Relevant

Don’t Forget about the Content Monarchy

Quality Is not a One Time Act, It Is a HABIT

The Title of Your Content Will Influence Your Rankings

Ask Rhetorical Questions to Engage Readers

Choose the Fonts and Colors Carefully

Use Positive Frames to Describe Information

    1. Write in Short Paragraphs

There a few things more off-putting to a reader than a whole block of text with no spaces. You’ll do nothing but chase away your readers with such type of content. Writing in short paragraphs is an effective way to write on the web as it provides ‘eye relief’ throughout the page. Short paragraphs are easily digestible and can be skimmed over at a glance.

  2. Set Yourself a Word Count to Make Your Copy as Focused as Possible

  Long content or short content? Which one is better? What is the case? The more, the merrier, or less is more? Well, if you are looking for a short answer to this question you need to know that there isn’t one, as it depends on rankings, conversions, followers, popularity, authority, engagement, keyword optimization, etc. Yet, it seems that shorter articles are better correlated with higher ranks. We’ve detailed this matter in a previous case study we invite you to take a look at.

The bottom line is that you have to be very savvy about the number of words you use in your website copy, depending on what you want to achieve. Write according to your readers’ needs and remember that nowadays digital readers have a limited span attention.

      3. Don’t Use Terms that Might not be Widely Understood

  Big words don’t make you seem smarter.

Being able to explain complicated things in simple terms, however, truly is the sign of intelligence.

There are obviously times when you need to use technical terms or introduce complex concepts. But try not to get too comfortable using jargon and keep forcing yourself to remain accessible to as large an audience as possible. When not sure if you’ve met this, ask yourself: Would a newcomer to the field have an easy time following your text? Would an outsider grasp the importance of what you published?

  4. Forget Academic Writing

When we talk about academic writing we don’t necessarily mean scientific articles. But there’s a certain rigor to that writing which might not appeal to the general audience. This is not to say you should dumb things down. Essay Tigers expert recommends using everyday language to engage with as wide an audience as possible.  There’s a simple, two-step approach for making this happen:

Read what you’ve written out loud. If some parts don’t sound like something you’d say to a friend in real life, then change it.

Read what you’ve written out loud to someone else and ask them to tell you what the copy is about. If they can’t tell you easily, then change it.

  5. Make Sure Your Copy is Well Structured, Clear and Logical

We’ve touched on this before but it’s worth repeating: clarity is key. You’ve probably got the best lesson in writing in primary school: everything needs to have an intro, a body and a conclusion. And all of these need to be clearly laid out. Here’s a quick rundown of what you need to touch on: What is the point of your copy? You’re writing a new text because you have some claim to make, some wisdom you want to share.

If you were to write it in a single sentence, what would that sentence be?

How do you know what you claim is true? You need to present evidence (case studies, statistics, expert opinions) and explain why your evidence is relevant… Just because it happened in some instances, it doesn’t automatically mean it’s going to be true for everyone. Why does any of it matter? In public speaking, there’s the concept of “WIIFM” – “What’s In It For Me?”

The reader needs to know what they’re gaining by reading your article.

What’s the best thing they can do with the newfound wisdom?

  6. Be Detailed when It’s the Case; Don’t Assume Your Readers Know Everything

  This is a delicate balance because explaining too much could make knowledgeable readers bored, while not explaining enough could make inexperienced readers feel left in the dark. But it’s always better to err on the side of caution and explain the background of something. Why is phone encryption suddenly a problem? What is the deal with fake news? Even if a lot of your readers might know a great deal about your topic, you can still provide details while also putting a new spin on it.

Source: http://coschedule.com

  7. Know the Goal of Each Piece of Your Content

  You don’t just write to a mass content. Each piece you publish should have a goal in terms of the effect on the reader.

The best scenario is when the reader will actually take an action as a result of reading your piece.

For instance, if you publish a DIY instructable, you might get people who read or watched it try to do the same. That is, of course, quite ambitious and not all pieces need to elicit action from the readers for them to be successful. Yet, looking at the screenshot below, you can easily follow the steps presented, right?

  You could also write an article where you explain a new concept or study something people knew certain things about (but didn’t know what to think of it). That means your main goal was to expand your readers’ knowledge. Or you could simply publish a piece on a subject that’s quite well-known and invite people to comment about it, thus facilitating an exchange of good practices between people who otherwise might not have interacted with each other. There’s more than one way to make a difference and you just need to set up realistic goals.

Source: ideas.evite.com

  8. Content Does not Necessarily Mean Just Words

  Don’t have enough time to write a long piece? Having a bit of a writer’s block?

There’s a lot of ways to publish content other than text: mix it up with images, create a video out of it, make a podcast, etc.

Sometimes the choice about how to reach your followers is pragmatic (it takes less time to record a podcast than to write the same content); other times it’s about strategy – maybe your followers are more easily swayed by videos or maybe it’s easier for them to follow content as podcast (while driving) than writing. When in doubt, just mix it up – it’s always best to cover more ground. And always build compelling copy for each method. 

    9. Use Plenty of Paragraph Breaks and Quotes to Make Your Copy More “Readable”

Writing good copy should be a bit like writing good journalism.

“One paragraph, one idea,” is a very useful motto when it comes to structuring your text.

Set out a claim, explain why it could be true, illustrate it with an example and then see what the implication of that claim might be. Then discuss that implication in the following paragraph. When you have a longer text, bring out some quotes or poignant phrases that might draw the readers’ attention, so that they can better focus and find the section they need more easily.

  10. Show Empathy with the Reader

  Answering the reader’s WIIFM (What’s in it for me) question is a great start, but if possible, you should try to go beyond that.

Try to understand your readers’ frame of mind: what are their expectations, what might they be worried about?

Sometimes it could be as simple as tapping into their shared history

Look, we’ve all been there: trying to meet the deadline even though…

Other times, you need to tap into something that drives your readers and what their expectations (positive or negative) could be (“You’re probably thinking that this is too hard for you to do – that’s a normal reaction, but…”). All in all, it’s about putting a face to your audience and making the writing more of a dialogue than a monologue.

Source: brettrelander.com

  11. Don’t Forget about the Power of Storytelling

  Sometimes we can get too technical about things and assume our readers are information-parsing-robots. They’re not. They’re human beings and have a natural tendency to like stories and be attracted to the coherence and consistency of a well-told story. You can keep all the facts and all the logical analysis you wanted to pour into your copy, but if you really want to strike a chord, make sure to wrap it in some nice storytelling tropes:

Is there a hero to your story, trying to overcome difficulties? Is there an antagonist trying to stop the hero from succeeding? Does goodness get rewarded in the end, despite hurdles along the way? Etc.

Source: echostories.com

  12. Use Punctuation Carefully to Make Your Copy Impactful

  Read this aloud: “He only told her he loved her.” Which word did you emphasize? There wasn’t a correct way of saying it, but how you chose to say it made a big difference. It might also have been influenced by your traits, beliefs, experience and social background. This is not just about using correct grammar (which, as the Internet warns us, can save someone’s life).

It’s also about using punctuation with purpose.

You want to convey a sense of urgency? Use short sentences and replace semicolons with full stops. You want to make a short detour in the middle of your sentence? Pick your weapon wisely: commas, dashes, parentheses…

You want people to pay attention?

The exclamation mark may have worked before, but it’s now been so overused on clickbait sites, that people just tend to ignore it and what it’s meant to signify.

These may seem like details at first, but once you understand how punctuation impacts not only the reading, but also the understanding of a text, you might decide to pay these details a lot more attention.

  13. Use Sub-headings to Highlight Your Key Points

  We tend to like having a sense of completion. Especially with a work that’s quite sizeable, it’s nice to have smaller milestones. It’s encouraging to know that while the end is not necessarily near, we’re definitely heading in its direction.

Sub-headings help your readers stay motivated.

But they also serve a very practical purpose: they make particular content easy to find both for first-time readers and for recurrent ones.

  14. Make Sure Your Copy Is Free of Spelling Mistakes

  This should go without saying, but it’s important to understand why this is important. It’s not just that it can make readers annoyed because they have to do a double take on a sentence. It’s also not that even small typos can lead to inaccurate statements, in particular when they’re easy to miss (writing “you’re now allowed to…” instead of “you’re not allowed to…” changes the whole meaning, but is grammatically correct in both cases).

Spelling mistakes underscore lack of professionalism and lack of concern for the reader.

The message is pretty straightforward: “We didn’t care enough about the people reading this so as to spend just a little more time on making this copy look like a polished product. We think this is good enough.” And that’s not what you want them to think.

Source: liquidbubble.co.uk

  15. As Much as Possible Be Authentic, Honest and Trustworthy

  There’s a lot of carefulness and consideration put into most writing. But when they’re not doubled by authenticity, when the text doesn’t seem to be coming from a real person, or to be addressed to one, that attention comes across as disingenuous and unnatural. So try to stay honest with your audience and use your unique selling point. 

Be open about your intentions and about your experience and abilities.

Admit when you’re not up to speed on something. Don’t jump on bandwagons. Talk about what matters to you. It’s really hard to define what “authentic” is, because we should always try to get outside of our comfort zones. But I think authenticity comes from being able to admit, having tried something new or that everyone is raving about, that you didn’t like it that much and you want to do something else next time. That honesty is what keeps followers interested and engaged.

  16. Always Keep the Design in Mind when Creating the Text

  This goes beyond fonts and colors. It’s about page layout and how everything looks (and feels). In a way, it’s a bit like fashion – some types of content just go better with certain types of layouts. If your pieces are lengthy and complex, with pictures and charts and graphs, make sure you have a page layout that makes that kind of content attractive and easy to go through.

A more traditional style might help the reader keep focused on the text.

If you work in short bursts of content, be it text, photo, or video, create a layout where every other element points toward your content marketing strategy (rather than distracting from it). Once you’ve settled on a style, try to keep it in mind whenever you’re writing new content: where is this paragraph going to be on the page? Should you insert this picture to the left or to the right (or in a medallion)? How easy is it going to be to flip to the next page? Etc.

  17. Create a Style Guide for All Your Copy

  Try to define your style. There’s obviously going to be a lot of adjustment as you grow and find out more about design, but you should document these changes as much as possible. Coherence and consistency in style are rewarded by readers, even though most of the time their influence is subconscious. So keep up and create a manual to document your decisions: What font, size and color should article titles be? What about body text?

How big should the pictures, videos and other objects be? How much space should they take relative to other elements?

What colors do you use, aside from the colors already visible on your site? What colors and styles to highlight words, show hyperlinks or frame text boxes? Etc.

Of course, these things can be defined in various ways, so that you’re still left with enough flexibility.

  18. Do Your Psychology Homework

  We’ve referenced psychology quite a few times in this list already, when talking about what we want, expect or like. There’s a whole field out there about economic behavior and it’s still expanding. Turns out we’re not actually those rational individuals we believe ourselves to be (no, not even you, sorry to say). Most of us are actually pretty irrational when seen from an outside perspective, even though we abide by our own internal logic.

We don’t always make the best buys, the best choices or act in our best interests.

Why are so many of our behaviors counter-intuitive? There’s no easy answer (no single answer either, for that matter), but it will definitely help you to find out more about what the explanations might be. Writers like Ariely, Duhigg, Goleman, Kahneman or Taleb all featured extensively on the bookshelves in the past few years and with good reason.

Source: http://irrationalgames.com/

  19. Your Copy Should Be Much More about Solving Problems than about Self-Expression

  A lot of content comes from wanting to share experience. You know something most other people – even those in your field – might not know. You are excited about that and want to make them aware of your new gained wisdom. The important thing to remember is that the focus should stay on sharing and not on you as the source of wisdom. That’s not to say your opinions have no place in your writing, on the contrary. But always ask yourself these 3 questions:

Will this info help my readers to better understand the subject? Will this info help my readers to better apply this knowledge for doing something practical? Will this info help me to look cool but not add anything valuable to this piece?

If the answer to the first two questions is a resounding “Yes”, then you should definitely include that piece of information in your copy. If the answer to these questions is “No” and the only “Yes” comes from the third question, well… you’ve got yourself a pretty good conversation opener for the next party.

  20. Define Your Readers and Create Content for Them

  As you gain more readers, start thinking about them as potential clients. Who are they? How can you split them into smaller groups based on age, gender, line of business, interests, income, etc.? You might not have all this information all the time, but you should at least try to find out as much as you can about them. Because if you are to have an ongoing dialogue with them, you need to try and understand what they’re like. Are they typical representatives of a certain generation (X, Y, millennials)? Do they even fit the definitions or are they a group with much more specific characteristics? It would help if you could listen to them – have a way to collect their feedback and allow them to voice out their opinions.

The better you get to know your readers, the more likely it is you will be able to write directly to them and keep them interested in your company.

  21. Always Do Your Homework. Research your topics

With so much information at our fingertips, it’s easy to think we know a lot. In reality, we know very few things well. We know a bit more superficially. Most of the topics, we just have a very inaccurate understanding of. But what happens when we try to talk about something we know little or nothing about as if we knew and stumble upon someone with actual knowledge on the topic? The result, as you’ve guessed, is disastrous. Do your homework before publishing any new content. Do more than just a cursory overview of the information that’s been published lately. Go in depth:

Read books, not just articles; Watch documentaries and videos of experts in that topic; Try to get in touch with people who’ve actually experienced that topic first-hand.

You’re still not going to be an expert even after doing all these things, but at least whatever you write about that topic afterwards will be a valuable contribution to the ongoing dialogue. You can use tools such as BrandMentions to easily research topics that interest you an to get updated on the subject.

  22. Write List Posts

  List posts can be really useful – just look at this one. Joke aside, there is actual value to list posts. Sure, you don’t get to go into a lot of detail, but the richness and variety of ideas will compensate for the lack of depth. Readers are aware of the fact that lists tend to gloss over details and they’re OK with it, mostly because what they’re looking for is variety of ideas.

Quality usually beats quantity, unless it’s exactly quantity that you’re after.

  23. Include the Important Numbers in the Headline

  Lead with your most important data. Don’t try to attract users with cheap, vague clickbait tactics like the one below:

You won’t believe how many writing tips we have in this list!

A lot of editors seem to have forgotten that what people really need is information, not mystery. And people will read your article for what you promise them in the title – and leave satisfied after getting what they wanted. Moreover, sometimes the numbers are impressive in themselves.

Here are couple of examples of numbers that make you think and want to find out more:

Wi-Fi and mobile-connected devices will generate 68% of all internet traffic by 2017.

In 2015, 64% of all in-store sales, or sales to the tune of $2.2 trillion, were influenced by the internet.

Only 44% of web traffic is from humans; a massive 56% of web traffic is from bots, impersonators, hacking tools, scrapers and spammers.

A single second delay in your website loading time can result in a 7% loss in conversion, and 40% of web users will abandon a website if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load.

  Source: hostingfacts.com

  24. Use Short, Well Structured Paragraphs

  Ever heard of the KISS rule for public speaking?

Keep It Short & Simple.

That’s exactly how you should think about your persuasive copy. We’ve already mentioned earlier in the list that you should think of your texts as an ongoing conversation. Most people talk in short bits during a conversation, to allow the other person to process what they’ve heard (and also leave plenty of opportunities for interventions). This formula grabs attention easily. Admittedly, your readers can’t jump in while reading your text to alter its course, but they still need to process what they read. They’ll appreciate a clear and simple structure, where everything seems to flow naturally, rather than verbose paragraphs whose main purpose seems to be to obfuscate them.

Remember: one paragraph, one idea.

If you’ve changed ideas, it means you need to change paragraphs as well (or, at the very least, sentences).

  25. Write Your Copy in a Conversational Way

  Try to make your text read like a real conversation (with actual people). Obviously, that’s not 100% possible; you’re not writing plays, after all. But you get our gist.

People have conversations in their heads anyways.

You read a text and find yourself muttering out loud “true, true…”, “wow, that’s crazy!” or sometimes even “that can’t be right, can it?!…” You can even try to interact with the reader when you’re sure your text will elicit a certain reaction. Just said something counter-intuitive or shocking?

You could try to start your next sentence with something like “I know what you’re thinking: ‘surely that can’t be right.’ But it is entirely accurate.” It might not always work and you will have to even resist doing this sometimes, but it’s worth keeping in mind that this is a possibility.

Source: printwand.com

  26. Take Advantage of Power Words

  Do you know anyone opposed to progress? What about anyone who rejoices at the sound of the word suffering?

Not all words are created equal and some words have more power than others.

It is usually because of a specific cultural background of that word, the way it has been used consistently by people to mean a certain thing; so much so, that a particular association is now the only one that comes to people’s minds. Richard Weaver, a 20th century rhetorician, introduced the concepts of “god terms” and “devil terms” to refer to words that have an almost universal positive, respectively negative, connotation. There is a thin line to balance here between being rhetorically savvy and being manipulative, but power words are definitely worth exploring if you want to create better texts.

In his incredible book “Predictably Irrational,” Dan Ariely dedicated a chapter to the power of words in the process of decision making. Long story short, to test the power of the word “free” concerning concrete value, Ariely asked a group of people to choose between a 1 cent Hershey Kiss or a 15 cent Lindt truffle. Most of the people opted for the second version. Nothing intriguing so far. Another random group of subjects were asked to make the same decision just this time both products were cheapened with 1 cent. The results? As you can see in the image below, the subjects seemingly flipped on their opinion of these two treats.

Do not underestimate the power of “free”.

  27. Make Efforts to Become a Better Writer

  Writing is a skill, not a trait you’re born with.

Sure, some people have more talent than others, but just like with a lot of artistic skills, hard work, passion and determination can overcome a talent “deficit.” On the other hand, natural talent withers if it’s not exercised regularly. Read viciously what your favorite copywriters publish. Read books about writing. Go to classes about writing. Listen to podcasts and watch videos about writing. And most importantly?

Write every single day. Always with intent, always trying to get better at something.

Look into style and try to emulate various writing styles. Take what is useful from each of them. Look into creative writing and push yourself to write about things you never cared before. Not everything will stick – in fact, most likely won’t. But being better at writing is something that happens slowly and in bits and pieces. It’s also something worth pursuing.

  28. Make Efficient Use of Social Media

  We’ve touched on this before in our posts and it’s as relevant now as it was then: social proof can be a huge help, as long as you use it strategically. There are plenty of statistics out there about what works best: how many words to use in your posts, what time to post on each network, when to use tags and what to use them for. These statistics are a good starting point, but you’ll have to put in some work, too. They represent average findings of everyone online. You might discover different findings for your business or line of service, as long as you’re willing to put in some time for trial and error tests.

We’ve conducted a very in-depth study to figure out if social signals influence SEO and one of our findings was that a strong presence on social networks is correlated with better rankings, as you can see in the screenshot below.

  29. Remember that All of Your Content Matters

  Write every time like that’s the most important thing to publish.

Don’t think of anything you write as a throwaway or filler.

You need to believe that what you write is important, otherwise there’s little chance the reader will think it.

  30. Use Synonyms and Help Google to Help You

  Synonyms have been managed automatically by Google for years now, yet what you may not know is their high influence not only on your copy but also on rankings. We all use Thesaurus  now and then to “beautify” our content.

You might not know that you can use synonyms for rankings as well.

Let’s say that you are in the “laptops” niche and you write content on this matter. It wouldn’t be bad if you used not only the exact match laptops, but also synonyms or words from the same area with this one : computers, notebooks, etc. And this is because Google is becoming increasingly smart and it returns results not based on the exact matching word but by the intent of the user, using sometimes synonyms of the words or their lexical family.

Use synonyms smartly on your website in order to rank higher not just because you’re obsessed with ranks, but because your website might be relevant to people who search using similar but not quite exactly the same words. More on how to take advantage of this technique can be found on a previous in-depth research we’ve done on how to exploit the synonym technique to increase your traffic.

  31. Stalk Forums for the Exact Words Your Readers Use

  Most of the time we speak about things we think our readers want. But they may be interested in different things, or talk in different ways about those things. Think of a piece of software, for instance: how the developer might describe its functionalities (“Formatting text in XProduct”) is not how users might ask questions about it (“How do I make my text bold in XProduct?”). Therefore go ahead, check the forums and search for the exact word your readers use.

  32. Write Your Own Description Tag

  Copywriting doesn’t imply just blog writing and in-depth article research but also every piece of content written that is related to the business you are working for. Therefore, one of the things you make sure as a killer copywriter (and/or SEO professional) is that you write your own description tag for every important page on your site. Otherwise, Google will do that for you. And you might not want that.

Why is this useful for your copy?

Usually, when someone does a Google search they want answers really fast and very relevant.

This means that if they search for Copywriting Tips and Tricks they would expect to see at a glance exactly what they searched for. And if, along with the title, in the description tag you show them the quick wins they will have, you get more clicks.

  33. Focus on Long Tail Keywords

  Long tail keywords are those three and four keyword phrases which are very, very specific to whatever you have to offer. Regardless of the fact that it might be easier for your content to rank higher when using long tail keywords, it is also a better way to connect with customers. We’ve written more on this subject in a previous post.

  34. Write Up to the High, Positive Expectation

  It does hurt to say, but the more you read meaningless content on the web, the more you expect the next link you click on to give you hands on content.

If you’re unlucky enough to be the fourth or fifth and the reader is already bent out of shape, you clearly wouldn’t like to be in the position of disappointing him. It’s harder to work for content than it was for linkbait and clickbait years ago, because this time there’s no shortcut to get people’s attention. You’ve got to be fair and you’ve got to deliver. Let’s call this Attention Web.

Only promise what you can deliver!

  35. Be Crystal Clear and Give Quick Previews that Make Your Points of View Acceptable

  We all have belief biases – this means that when facing a logical argument, we’re more likely to believe it if the conclusion seems more plausible instead of analyzing the supporting evidence. Bold points of view are lifesaving. They raise eyebrows and tickle curiosity, while sending the impression of reliability. Which is why people will read the first sentence of your post – unfortunately, after this they realize you’re about to contradict their prior beliefs and leave. Just like that.

  36. Deliver Something Valuable in an Intuitive Way

  Suppose that you’re lucky enough to write about the topic someone’s recently been interested in – this only means they’ll notice your work, at best. From here to actually reading your content there is a lot of work paved with intermediary steps.

Digging too deep into a topic often implies taking a lot of extra risk.

We only read in-depth content analyses; we do our homework properly, we’re never out of touch and we can tell you what’s trending from sleep. And yet, there’s nothing easier than losing the interest of your readers.

Source: slate.com

  37. Go with the Status Quo Over Newly Presented Facts

  Status quo bias is an emotional bias; a preference for the current state of affairs.

The current baseline (or status quo) is taken as a reference point, and any change from that baseline is perceived as a loss. The truth is that we care more about maintaining our Status Quo (state of facts) than we do about truth; and if you’re saying otherwise, chances are your brain is playing some tricks on you.

Therefore, if it’s not imperative to change, innovation for the sake of novelty is the number one enemy of reader loyalty.

  38. Learn how to Measure the Success of Content Marketing

  Content we share doesn’t always equal content we’ve engaged with. It’s a lot easier to share content based on its title than it is to actually engage with it. Yet, it’s highly important to know how to measure the success of a piece of content. Metrics for on-page behavior, for SEO, bounce rates, average time spent on page, the number and quality of the comments or the metrics for social media performance are elements you should always keep an eye on.

It is not just the people who convert are important, but the pages they convert from.

Here you can find how to constantly monitor and learn from these metrics

  39. Learn where Your Readers Get Their News and Information from

  No, you won’t need night vision goggles or an invisibility cloak to monitor your community.

What you do need is to pay attention to your surroundings. Working inside of a system often makes us lose what’s most important in succeeding—the holistic view of the industry.

  40. Get Inspired by Your Community’s Interest

  There’s no place more insightful than your own community—you’ll find plenty of ideas there if you just take the time to look at it. Being part of an industry often takes a lot of time, especially in domains that seem to be so competitive, in a never-ending effort to become better. However, sometimes we should just stop. And see what it is that’s missing—there’s always a glitch—something that you haven’t discovered yet. Start from there. I know it might sound like a task hard to achieve but tools such as Brand Mentions  can really ease your job.

  41. Thoroughly Document on Your Niche to Find Content Inspiration

  Whether you are a content marketer who is interested in the content from a specific area or you are into more generic matters, first thing first, you need to check out what is going on in that niche and find some inspiration from those findings.

Correlating search trends with the most recent mentions on the web seems to be a great formula, regardless of the niche you are interested in.

  42. Talk to the Sales and Support Team

  Through all its efforts, a company/business/website is trying to find a way to best reach its audience. Some efforts are sort of an “indirect” contact with the public through online content but there are also some others who are in direct contact with the user. A discussion with the sales and support team might be a great opportunity for you to better understand your audience’s needs or challenges and adapt your marketing copy accordingly.

Source: helpscout.net

  43. Create a Content Strategy Calendar

  After collecting a bunch of great article ideas you need to gather them together in a way that will be efficient and effective for your website or blog. And creating a content calendar is a method to get the best results out of your ideas. Although “Content Strategy Calendar” might sound a bit pretentious and you might get discouraged or think it is a very complicated task, the truth is that even a simple Google Doc Spreadsheet can help you out. What you need to keep in mind for each article you are going to write is that you have to take in consideration items such as:

What type of content is it? Where do you intend to publish it? What is the article’s audience? How and where are you going to promote it? How are you going to scale the result?

  Source: meistertask.com

  44. Remember that Visual Information Makes Readers More Thorough

  The more we try to put information in pretty wrapping, the harder it will be to present it without visual support. It is just one among other smart copywriting formulas. Every attempt to make web content more interesting contributed to this borderline surrealistic change to the way we perceive content online. It seems that our brain really loves graphics more than you’d imagine:

visual information has increased by 9,000% since 2007

color visuals increase willingness to read by 80%

we receive 5 times more information than we did in 1986

we don’t read more than 28% of the words when visiting an online page

  Source: contently.com

  45. Harmonize Your Online Content with the Offline One

  The online and the offline often find themselves in competition and it shouldn’t be like that. In reality, although the two environments should not be compared, it’s impossible not to weigh one against the other. Yet, regardless of the advantages and disadvantages each one brings, one thing should be clear: they need to be coherent altogether and they both need to tell the same stories, even if with different lines.

Source: blog.hubspot.com

  46. Always Keep the Attention Span Matter in Mind

  Because technology today can store so much information, we can’t keep track of it anymore.

Writers in the 17th century claimed they had read everything written in their language throughout history.

Today, this statistic is unachievable even to those of us who try to keep themselves up-to-date in their fields of expertise.

Nowadays, our attention span is 8 seconds and falling. Approximately 66% of our attention is spent below the fold , especially when it comes to content, and we’re impatient to get over the (often) boring introductions directly to the heart of what interests us.

  47. Learn from Your Most and Least Shared Content

  Figuring out what works for your niche is crucial. Looking at the content that performs best in your niche might be intuitive. Even though you might think it’s redundant to look at the bottom of the list, there are insights to be learned from your weakest performing content, too.

You need to see which pages have attracted the least amount of visitors and what type of content is not of interest to your viewers.

Creating uninteresting content isn’t useful for anyone. It is not useful for your target audience, and it’s clearly not productive for your business.

  48. No Shares, No Likes, No Comments = No Traffic

  Content creation and shareability are parts of the content strategy concept and you can’t separate one from each other.

It would be a true shame to create great and useful content that does not receive any love from the community.

Just like us, you’ve probably seen a lot of bloggers create great articles that impressed you. But, they received little to no engagement. While creating content has its obvious benefits, maximizing shareability assures the success of your content strategy.

  49. Originality Is a Must

  You don’t have to re-invent the wheel on a daily basis.

You may also create content that has been done before as long as you augment it with a new spin.

As long as it’s a fresh and interesting approach to an idea, go ahead with it.

Remember that most of the times originality is nothing but judicious imitation.

The most original writers borrowed one from another.

  50. Existing Content Needs Love, Too

  When creating content, we tend to never look back and always think of the next idea.

You should always take your existing content and see what you can gain from it.

Maybe create a sequel, maybe an update, maybe there are some ideas in that piece of content that weren’t fully discussed. And even if it’s evergreen content we are talking about, remember that this kind of content is relevant for people now and it’s going to be relevant for them after a year, too. We’ve written a blog post on exactly this matter, where we put together some of the best ways to repurpose existing content.

  51. Timing Is Everything

  As the famous lines say, there is a time for everything : a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot. And this applies in copywriting as well.

It’s obvious that writing the right article at the right moment is crucial.

There are times when important changes occur in the niche you are addressing and clearly you need to react on the spot and have a piece of copy ready for the moment. Yet, there are times when you need to know what new trick you need to unveil in order to capture your audience’s numb interest. Also, an important part of this matter is maximizing the shareability of your copy. Therefore you need to figure out when you’re going to get the most out of your content, at which moment of the day, the week or month you should share the content to receive the most traffic.

  52. Spot Your Competitor’s Most Engaging Content

  Content marketing – done correctly – can be a very effective way to attract and retain clients, but the problem is more and more companies produce more and more content. It’s highly important to understand how to produce content that will engage your target audience, but is also vital to know what your competitors’ most engaging content is. To figure this out you don’t have to spend ages collecting and analyzing all that content, you can do things way easier and efficiently if you use the proper tools.

  53. Make Use of Content Curation to Boost Your Influence

  Everyone has wrapped their brains around the idea of content creation and knows they should create amazing content to engage with their target audience. And that’s how content curation, the less known brother of content creation, gets left out in the cold.

A professional content curator picks and polishes the most amazing content and serves it up to the community and also gives credits to the owner.

It is definitely a power that can be harnessed, and remember that content curation is not content marketing.

  54. Analyze, Analyze, Analyze

  This applies before actually writing the piece of content but also after the copy has been unleashed to the world. Learn to monitor the places your content is published and analyze the traffic. Visitors who come and go are an invaluable resource of information regarding the content’s usage pattern. Watch out for data like keywords, bounce rate, and click patterns to learn more about their interests. Also, ask about the blogs and social networks where they spend their time online. You may find discussions that may shed a light on their needs and interests.

On the internet, in an age where everything is monitored, you are bound to find data about anything.

  55. Creativity Is Key!

  There is this common perception that creativity is a taboo subject or that is a “feature” that only the chosen ones are gifted with. As Steve Jobs once highlighted, most of the times creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things.

  However, copywriting and creativity go hand in hand. This is why while sticking to your business plan, you enter a comfort zone, which is the worst enemy for creativity. When you empty your mind of all past concepts, you’re going to fill it with creativity. You have to liberate yourself from the limitations of what you already know.

  56. Fill Information Gaps – Become a Reference

  An information gap is a construct, a theory or an idea that the audience believes should be informed on, but doesn’t seem to be explained quite extensively. Rather, the reader feels like the information comes in bits and pieces, like an underlying premise of any discussion that derives from the matter. Here is where your content jumps in. Yet, for the strategy to work, the information will have to be relevant and systematized, while offering an in-depth perspective on the topic. Become a reference and the results will follow.

Once you’ve proven yourself as a trusty, authentic go-to blog, your leads and email subscription rates can dramatically increase.

  57. Targeting Longtail Keywords to Engage Your Audience

  Micro-targeting paints a big picture. The more you invest in targeting the right long tail keywords, the bigger a shot you have at accessing a key audience interested in a specific topic. Choosing topics for content writing should always be the result of a targeting process. Once you do this, the chances to grow a solid audience with an increase intent in your business are sizable.

  58. Repurpose Your Content

  Running a blog with constant valuable and high quality content might sometimes be difficult as it is a resource-consuming process. Therefore, why not getting the best out of the content that you’ve already worked on? Repurpose the content you already have. Not only will you save resources, but you’ll also extend the reach of your blog and maybe find new ways to reach your audience. Here are some great ideas of how to repurpose your content:

  59. Make Use of Content Convergence

  Before asking yourself how this might help you, allow me to explain what this is about.

It refers to merging one boring, dull topic with a more exciting topic, whilst giving it a theme which gets attention.

If you are to write copy for, let’s say, plumbing supplies or for air conditioners, you might find it difficult sometimes to remain consistent, creative, original, etc. Here is where convergence might help you. Try giving the content a snappy title, make it more about the reader than about the website, As we’ve detailed in a previous blog post, by introducing a new element to the narrative you’ve made a boring item more interesting and opened up your website to getting links from places your competition would find hard to replicate.

  60. Make It Interesting and Diverse, not Just Relevant

  Undoubtedly, relevancy is a must.

While being relevant, a diverse mix of content can be used in order to keep things interesting for your readers.

This might require videos, case studies, articles, e-Newsletters, webinars, blog posts, data visualization posts, competitions or photographs. This might require some market and consumer research skills in order to understand consumer expectations with regards to the kind of content they want to read. Yet, it’s totally worth it.

  61. Don’t Forget about the Content Monarchy

  Whether you agree or not, “Content is king” is one of the widest spread Internet memes. You will see the phrase referenced all over the place. And we tend to think that mostly Google is “the guilty” one for this matter. For a while now, Google has been promoting the importance of content and it has even shaped an algorithm on exactly this matter, ready to penalize sites that do not respect content quality guidelines.

The thing you need to remember is that you need to write good, relevant and qualitative content for the sake of your readers but also to avoid any Google Penalties.

  62. Quality Is not a One Time Act, It Is a HABIT

  As the saying goes, we are what we repeatedly do.

Excellence is not an act, but a habit.

You’ve written a blog post and you have thousands of shares and appreciations? That’s a great. Yet, that one time performance won’t keep you on the top for long. On the contrary, once you’ve set the bar high, you need to keep up with it to have killer content. 

  This is similar to the one hit wonder music bands.

We all remember the musical hit, we sing it at birthdays parties for a period of time, yet we probably won’t buy the album just for that tune.

Same thing may happen to your content. If you want your readers to look at your blog/brand/name with respect and put you in the trustworthy content category, make a habit out of delivering quality.

  63. The Title of Your Content Will Influence Your Rankings

  Every site owner’s dream (and goal) is to rank as high as possible for their target audience. Every search engine’s dream (and goal) is to make sure that the most relevant websites rank the highest. Therefore, it’s a vicious cycle.

Yet, keywords used in the titles of your copy have a high ranking importance. We’ve conducted a study where it seems that keyword appearance in the title makes a clear difference between ranking 1st or 2nd.

When creating the title of your content you should really think things through, as the title must not be only relevant and attractive but also SERP friendly.

  64. Ask Rhetorical Questions to Engage Readers

  Do you ever use rhetorical questions in your writing? Like this one, for instance?

Rhetorical questions make your arguments more persuasive.

Also, your audience will become engaged. And if your arguments are strong and valid, readers will be more likely persuaded by them.

  65. Choose the Fonts and Colors Carefully

Around here we put a lot of emphasis on content and go on and on about how it comes first. But that doesn’t mean we’re blind to aesthetic choices. If you have good, original, insightful, even life-changing content, but choose to display it in green Comic Sans over a pink background, you can count us out. And a few other readers, too.

Choice of font and color scheme can greatly influence the success of a piece by being a factor for accessibility.

Certain fonts make for easier reading when it comes to big blocks of text, while certain color schemes make it easier on the eye to spend long amounts of time on landing pages. Font and color also go a long way in terms of credibility: some combinations simply look slick and professional, while others give an “untrustworthy” vibe, despite potentially good writing.

  66. Use Positive Frames to Describe Information

  Negative frames describe something that isn’t taking place. Positive frames, on the other hand, describe something tangible, something that is happening. Studies  show that we need more mental resources to process negative frames as they reduce comprehension and degrade the impact of your message. Therefore, positive frames should be the one you should look for.

NEGATIVE: Don’t be late. POSITIVE: Arrive on time.

NEGATIVE: Don’t drink excessively. POSITIVE: Drink responsibly.

The post Copy: 66 Copywriting Tips that Will Boost Your Conversion Rates by 327% appeared first on SEO Blog | cognitiveSEO Blog on SEO Tactics & Strategies.

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Copy: 66 Copywriting Tips that Will Boost Your Conversion Rates by 327%

The famous American television and radio host Larry King, used to say to his audience a very witty story about his father. He says that his father, a Ukrainian jew, came to the US thinking that America is the greatest land of all, where even the streets are paved with gold. However, shortly after arriving, his father realized three things:

The streets weren’t paved with gold.

The streets weren’t paved at all.

He was the one to pave the streets.

  There is no secret for anyone that content marketing is a must. And the truth is that copywriting isn’t just about writing blog posts anymore; it’s about telling good stories well. How do you get to create those stories that will increase your conversion rates hundreds of times?

We do not claim to have discovered the magic formula that will boost your business guaranteed. However, we’ve put together a comprehensive list of essential copywriting tips that will surely revamp your content, and it will blow up your conversion rate.

  Write in Short Paragraphs

Set Yourself a Word Count to Make Your Copy as Laser-Focused as Possible

Don’t Use Terms that Might not be Widely Understood

Forget Academic Writing

Make Sure Your Copy is Well Structured, Clear and Logical

Be Detailed when It’s the Case; Don’t Assume Your Readers Know Everything

Know the Goal of Each Piece of Your Content

Content Does not Necessarily Mean Just Words

Use Plenty of Paragraph Breaks and Quotes to Make Your Copy More “Readable”

Show Empathy with the Reader

Don’t Forget about the Power of Storytelling

Use Punctuation Carefully to Make Your Copy Impactful

Use Sub-headings to Highlight Your Key Points

Make Sure Your Copy Is Free of Spelling Mistakes

As Much as Possible Be Authentic, Honest and Trustworthy

Always Keep the Design in Mind when Creating the Text

Create a Style Guide for All Your Copy

Do Your Psychology Homework

Your Copy Should Be Much More about Solving Problems than about Self-Expression

Define Your Readers and Create Content for Them

Always Do Your Homework. Research your topics

Write List Posts

Include the Important Numbers in the Headline

Use Short, Well Structured Paragraphs

Write Your Copy in a Conversational Way

Take Advantage of Power Words

Make Efforts to Become a Better Writer

Make Efficient Use of Social Media

Remember that All of Your Content Matters

Use Synonyms and Help Google to Help You

Stalk Forums for the Exact Words Your Readers Use

Write Your Own Description Tag

Focus on Long Tail Keywords

Write Up to the High, Positive Expectation

Be Crystal Clear and Give Quick Previews that Make Your Points of View Acceptable

Deliver Something Valuable in an Intuitive Way

Go with the Status Quo Over Newly Presented Facts

Learn how to Measure the Success of Content Marketing

Learn where Your Readers Get Their News and Information from

Get Inspired by Your Community’s Interest

Thoroughly Document on Your Niche to Find Content Inspiration

Talk to the Sales and Support Team

Create a Content Strategy Calendar

Remember that Visual Information Makes Readers More Thorough

Harmonize Your Online Content with the Offline One

Always Keep the Attention Span Matter in Mind

Learn from Your Most and Least Shared Content

No Shares, No Likes, No Comments = No Traffic

Originality Is a Must

Existing Content Needs Love, Too

Timing Is Everything

Spot your competitor’s most engaging content

Make Use of Content Curation to Boost Your Influence

Analyze, Analyze, Analyze

Creativity Is Key!

Fill Information Gaps – Become a Reference

Targeting Longtail Keywords to Engage Your Audience

Repurpose Your Content

Make Use of Content Convergence

Make It Interesting and Diverse, not Just Relevant

Don’t Forget about the Content Monarchy

Quality Is not a One Time Act, It Is a HABIT

The Title of Your Content Will Influence Your Rankings

Ask Rhetorical Questions to Engage Readers

Choose the Fonts and Colors Carefully

Use Positive Frames to Describe Information

    1. Write in Short Paragraphs

There a few things more off-putting to a reader than a whole block of text with no spaces. You’ll do nothing but chase away your readers with such type of content. Writing in short paragraphs is an effective way to write on the web as it provides ‘eye relief’ throughout the page. Short paragraphs are easily digestible and can be skimmed over at a glance.

  2. Set Yourself a Word Count to Make Your Copy as Focused as Possible

  Long content or short content? Which one is better? What is the case? The more, the merrier, or less is more? Well, if you are looking for a short answer to this question you need to know that there isn’t one, as it depends on rankings, conversions, followers, popularity, authority, engagement, keyword optimization, etc. Yet, it seems that shorter articles are better correlated with higher ranks. We’ve detailed this matter in a previous case study we invite you to take a look at.

The bottom line is that you have to be very savvy about the number of words you use in your website copy, depending on what you want to achieve. Write according to your readers’ needs and remember that nowadays digital readers have a limited span attention.

      3. Don’t Use Terms that Might not be Widely Understood

  Big words don’t make you seem smarter.

Being able to explain complicated things in simple terms, however, truly is the sign of intelligence.

There are obviously times when you need to use technical terms or introduce complex concepts. But try not to get too comfortable using jargon and keep forcing yourself to remain accessible to as large an audience as possible. When not sure if you’ve met this, ask yourself: Would a newcomer to the field have an easy time following your text? Would an outsider grasp the importance of what you published?

  4. Forget Academic Writing

When we talk about academic writing we don’t necessarily mean scientific articles. But there’s a certain rigor to that writing which might not appeal to the general audience. This is not to say you should dumb things down. Essay Tigers expert recommends using everyday language to engage with as wide an audience as possible.  There’s a simple, two-step approach for making this happen:

Read what you’ve written out loud. If some parts don’t sound like something you’d say to a friend in real life, then change it.

Read what you’ve written out loud to someone else and ask them to tell you what the copy is about. If they can’t tell you easily, then change it.

  5. Make Sure Your Copy is Well Structured, Clear and Logical

We’ve touched on this before but it’s worth repeating: clarity is key. You’ve probably got the best lesson in writing in primary school: everything needs to have an intro, a body and a conclusion. And all of these need to be clearly laid out. Here’s a quick rundown of what you need to touch on: What is the point of your copy? You’re writing a new text because you have some claim to make, some wisdom you want to share.

If you were to write it in a single sentence, what would that sentence be?

How do you know what you claim is true? You need to present evidence (case studies, statistics, expert opinions) and explain why your evidence is relevant… Just because it happened in some instances, it doesn’t automatically mean it’s going to be true for everyone. Why does any of it matter? In public speaking, there’s the concept of “WIIFM” – “What’s In It For Me?”

The reader needs to know what they’re gaining by reading your article.

What’s the best thing they can do with the newfound wisdom?

  6. Be Detailed when It’s the Case; Don’t Assume Your Readers Know Everything

  This is a delicate balance because explaining too much could make knowledgeable readers bored, while not explaining enough could make inexperienced readers feel left in the dark. But it’s always better to err on the side of caution and explain the background of something. Why is phone encryption suddenly a problem? What is the deal with fake news? Even if a lot of your readers might know a great deal about your topic, you can still provide details while also putting a new spin on it.

Source: http://coschedule.com

  7. Know the Goal of Each Piece of Your Content

  You don’t just write to a mass content. Each piece you publish should have a goal in terms of the effect on the reader.

The best scenario is when the reader will actually take an action as a result of reading your piece.

For instance, if you publish a DIY instructable, you might get people who read or watched it try to do the same. That is, of course, quite ambitious and not all pieces need to elicit action from the readers for them to be successful. Yet, looking at the screenshot below, you can easily follow the steps presented, right?

  You could also write an article where you explain a new concept or study something people knew certain things about (but didn’t know what to think of it). That means your main goal was to expand your readers’ knowledge. Or you could simply publish a piece on a subject that’s quite well-known and invite people to comment about it, thus facilitating an exchange of good practices between people who otherwise might not have interacted with each other. There’s more than one way to make a difference and you just need to set up realistic goals.

Source: ideas.evite.com

  8. Content Does not Necessarily Mean Just Words

  Don’t have enough time to write a long piece? Having a bit of a writer’s block?

There’s a lot of ways to publish content other than text: mix it up with images, create a video out of it, make a podcast, etc.

Sometimes the choice about how to reach your followers is pragmatic (it takes less time to record a podcast than to write the same content); other times it’s about strategy – maybe your followers are more easily swayed by videos or maybe it’s easier for them to follow content as podcast (while driving) than writing. When in doubt, just mix it up – it’s always best to cover more ground. And always build compelling copy for each method. 

    9. Use Plenty of Paragraph Breaks and Quotes to Make Your Copy More “Readable”

Writing good copy should be a bit like writing good journalism.

“One paragraph, one idea,” is a very useful motto when it comes to structuring your text.

Set out a claim, explain why it could be true, illustrate it with an example and then see what the implication of that claim might be. Then discuss that implication in the following paragraph. When you have a longer text, bring out some quotes or poignant phrases that might draw the readers’ attention, so that they can better focus and find the section they need more easily.

  10. Show Empathy with the Reader

  Answering the reader’s WIIFM (What’s in it for me) question is a great start, but if possible, you should try to go beyond that.

Try to understand your readers’ frame of mind: what are their expectations, what might they be worried about?

Sometimes it could be as simple as tapping into their shared history

Look, we’ve all been there: trying to meet the deadline even though…

Other times, you need to tap into something that drives your readers and what their expectations (positive or negative) could be (“You’re probably thinking that this is too hard for you to do – that’s a normal reaction, but…”). All in all, it’s about putting a face to your audience and making the writing more of a dialogue than a monologue.

Source: brettrelander.com

  11. Don’t Forget about the Power of Storytelling

  Sometimes we can get too technical about things and assume our readers are information-parsing-robots. They’re not. They’re human beings and have a natural tendency to like stories and be attracted to the coherence and consistency of a well-told story. You can keep all the facts and all the logical analysis you wanted to pour into your copy, but if you really want to strike a chord, make sure to wrap it in some nice storytelling tropes:

Is there a hero to your story, trying to overcome difficulties? Is there an antagonist trying to stop the hero from succeeding? Does goodness get rewarded in the end, despite hurdles along the way? Etc.

Source: echostories.com

  12. Use Punctuation Carefully to Make Your Copy Impactful

  Read this aloud: “He only told her he loved her.” Which word did you emphasize? There wasn’t a correct way of saying it, but how you chose to say it made a big difference. It might also have been influenced by your traits, beliefs, experience and social background. This is not just about using correct grammar (which, as the Internet warns us, can save someone’s life).

It’s also about using punctuation with purpose.

You want to convey a sense of urgency? Use short sentences and replace semicolons with full stops. You want to make a short detour in the middle of your sentence? Pick your weapon wisely: commas, dashes, parentheses…

You want people to pay attention?

The exclamation mark may have worked before, but it’s now been so overused on clickbait sites, that people just tend to ignore it and what it’s meant to signify.

These may seem like details at first, but once you understand how punctuation impacts not only the reading, but also the understanding of a text, you might decide to pay these details a lot more attention.

  13. Use Sub-headings to Highlight Your Key Points

  We tend to like having a sense of completion. Especially with a work that’s quite sizeable, it’s nice to have smaller milestones. It’s encouraging to know that while the end is not necessarily near, we’re definitely heading in its direction.

Sub-headings help your readers stay motivated.

But they also serve a very practical purpose: they make particular content easy to find both for first-time readers and for recurrent ones.

  14. Make Sure Your Copy Is Free of Spelling Mistakes

  This should go without saying, but it’s important to understand why this is important. It’s not just that it can make readers annoyed because they have to do a double take on a sentence. It’s also not that even small typos can lead to inaccurate statements, in particular when they’re easy to miss (writing “you’re now allowed to…” instead of “you’re not allowed to…” changes the whole meaning, but is grammatically correct in both cases).

Spelling mistakes underscore lack of professionalism and lack of concern for the reader.

The message is pretty straightforward: “We didn’t care enough about the people reading this so as to spend just a little more time on making this copy look like a polished product. We think this is good enough.” And that’s not what you want them to think.

Source: liquidbubble.co.uk

  15. As Much as Possible Be Authentic, Honest and Trustworthy

  There’s a lot of carefulness and consideration put into most writing. But when they’re not doubled by authenticity, when the text doesn’t seem to be coming from a real person, or to be addressed to one, that attention comes across as disingenuous and unnatural. So try to stay honest with your audience and use your unique selling point. 

Be open about your intentions and about your experience and abilities.

Admit when you’re not up to speed on something. Don’t jump on bandwagons. Talk about what matters to you. It’s really hard to define what “authentic” is, because we should always try to get outside of our comfort zones. But I think authenticity comes from being able to admit, having tried something new or that everyone is raving about, that you didn’t like it that much and you want to do something else next time. That honesty is what keeps followers interested and engaged.

  16. Always Keep the Design in Mind when Creating the Text

  This goes beyond fonts and colors. It’s about page layout and how everything looks (and feels). In a way, it’s a bit like fashion – some types of content just go better with certain types of layouts. If your pieces are lengthy and complex, with pictures and charts and graphs, make sure you have a page layout that makes that kind of content attractive and easy to go through.

A more traditional style might help the reader keep focused on the text.

If you work in short bursts of content, be it text, photo, or video, create a layout where every other element points toward your content marketing strategy (rather than distracting from it). Once you’ve settled on a style, try to keep it in mind whenever you’re writing new content: where is this paragraph going to be on the page? Should you insert this picture to the left or to the right (or in a medallion)? How easy is it going to be to flip to the next page? Etc.

  17. Create a Style Guide for All Your Copy

  Try to define your style. There’s obviously going to be a lot of adjustment as you grow and find out more about design, but you should document these changes as much as possible. Coherence and consistency in style are rewarded by readers, even though most of the time their influence is subconscious. So keep up and create a manual to document your decisions: What font, size and color should article titles be? What about body text?

How big should the pictures, videos and other objects be? How much space should they take relative to other elements?

What colors do you use, aside from the colors already visible on your site? What colors and styles to highlight words, show hyperlinks or frame text boxes? Etc.

Of course, these things can be defined in various ways, so that you’re still left with enough flexibility.

  18. Do Your Psychology Homework

  We’ve referenced psychology quite a few times in this list already, when talking about what we want, expect or like. There’s a whole field out there about economic behavior and it’s still expanding. Turns out we’re not actually those rational individuals we believe ourselves to be (no, not even you, sorry to say). Most of us are actually pretty irrational when seen from an outside perspective, even though we abide by our own internal logic.

We don’t always make the best buys, the best choices or act in our best interests.

Why are so many of our behaviors counter-intuitive? There’s no easy answer (no single answer either, for that matter), but it will definitely help you to find out more about what the explanations might be. Writers like Ariely, Duhigg, Goleman, Kahneman or Taleb all featured extensively on the bookshelves in the past few years and with good reason.

Source: http://irrationalgames.com/

  19. Your Copy Should Be Much More about Solving Problems than about Self-Expression

  A lot of content comes from wanting to share experience. You know something most other people – even those in your field – might not know. You are excited about that and want to make them aware of your new gained wisdom. The important thing to remember is that the focus should stay on sharing and not on you as the source of wisdom. That’s not to say your opinions have no place in your writing, on the contrary. But always ask yourself these 3 questions:

Will this info help my readers to better understand the subject? Will this info help my readers to better apply this knowledge for doing something practical? Will this info help me to look cool but not add anything valuable to this piece?

If the answer to the first two questions is a resounding “Yes”, then you should definitely include that piece of information in your copy. If the answer to these questions is “No” and the only “Yes” comes from the third question, well… you’ve got yourself a pretty good conversation opener for the next party.

  20. Define Your Readers and Create Content for Them

  As you gain more readers, start thinking about them as potential clients. Who are they? How can you split them into smaller groups based on age, gender, line of business, interests, income, etc.? You might not have all this information all the time, but you should at least try to find out as much as you can about them. Because if you are to have an ongoing dialogue with them, you need to try and understand what they’re like. Are they typical representatives of a certain generation (X, Y, millennials)? Do they even fit the definitions or are they a group with much more specific characteristics? It would help if you could listen to them – have a way to collect their feedback and allow them to voice out their opinions.

The better you get to know your readers, the more likely it is you will be able to write directly to them and keep them interested in your company.

  21. Always Do Your Homework. Research your topics

With so much information at our fingertips, it’s easy to think we know a lot. In reality, we know very few things well. We know a bit more superficially. Most of the topics, we just have a very inaccurate understanding of. But what happens when we try to talk about something we know little or nothing about as if we knew and stumble upon someone with actual knowledge on the topic? The result, as you’ve guessed, is disastrous. Do your homework before publishing any new content. Do more than just a cursory overview of the information that’s been published lately. Go in depth:

Read books, not just articles; Watch documentaries and videos of experts in that topic; Try to get in touch with people who’ve actually experienced that topic first-hand.

You’re still not going to be an expert even after doing all these things, but at least whatever you write about that topic afterwards will be a valuable contribution to the ongoing dialogue. You can use tools such as BrandMentions to easily research topics that interest you an to get updated on the subject.

  22. Write List Posts

  List posts can be really useful – just look at this one. Joke aside, there is actual value to list posts. Sure, you don’t get to go into a lot of detail, but the richness and variety of ideas will compensate for the lack of depth. Readers are aware of the fact that lists tend to gloss over details and they’re OK with it, mostly because what they’re looking for is variety of ideas.

Quality usually beats quantity, unless it’s exactly quantity that you’re after.

  23. Include the Important Numbers in the Headline

  Lead with your most important data. Don’t try to attract users with cheap, vague clickbait tactics like the one below:

You won’t believe how many writing tips we have in this list!

A lot of editors seem to have forgotten that what people really need is information, not mystery. And people will read your article for what you promise them in the title – and leave satisfied after getting what they wanted. Moreover, sometimes the numbers are impressive in themselves.

Here are couple of examples of numbers that make you think and want to find out more:

Wi-Fi and mobile-connected devices will generate 68% of all internet traffic by 2017.

In 2015, 64% of all in-store sales, or sales to the tune of $2.2 trillion, were influenced by the internet.

Only 44% of web traffic is from humans; a massive 56% of web traffic is from bots, impersonators, hacking tools, scrapers and spammers.

A single second delay in your website loading time can result in a 7% loss in conversion, and 40% of web users will abandon a website if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load.

  Source: hostingfacts.com

  24. Use Short, Well Structured Paragraphs

  Ever heard of the KISS rule for public speaking?

Keep It Short & Simple.

That’s exactly how you should think about your persuasive copy. We’ve already mentioned earlier in the list that you should think of your texts as an ongoing conversation. Most people talk in short bits during a conversation, to allow the other person to process what they’ve heard (and also leave plenty of opportunities for interventions). This formula grabs attention easily. Admittedly, your readers can’t jump in while reading your text to alter its course, but they still need to process what they read. They’ll appreciate a clear and simple structure, where everything seems to flow naturally, rather than verbose paragraphs whose main purpose seems to be to obfuscate them.

Remember: one paragraph, one idea.

If you’ve changed ideas, it means you need to change paragraphs as well (or, at the very least, sentences).

  25. Write Your Copy in a Conversational Way

  Try to make your text read like a real conversation (with actual people). Obviously, that’s not 100% possible; you’re not writing plays, after all. But you get our gist.

People have conversations in their heads anyways.

You read a text and find yourself muttering out loud “true, true…”, “wow, that’s crazy!” or sometimes even “that can’t be right, can it?!…” You can even try to interact with the reader when you’re sure your text will elicit a certain reaction. Just said something counter-intuitive or shocking?

You could try to start your next sentence with something like “I know what you’re thinking: ‘surely that can’t be right.’ But it is entirely accurate.” It might not always work and you will have to even resist doing this sometimes, but it’s worth keeping in mind that this is a possibility.

Source: printwand.com

  26. Take Advantage of Power Words

  Do you know anyone opposed to progress? What about anyone who rejoices at the sound of the word suffering?

Not all words are created equal and some words have more power than others.

It is usually because of a specific cultural background of that word, the way it has been used consistently by people to mean a certain thing; so much so, that a particular association is now the only one that comes to people’s minds. Richard Weaver, a 20th century rhetorician, introduced the concepts of “god terms” and “devil terms” to refer to words that have an almost universal positive, respectively negative, connotation. There is a thin line to balance here between being rhetorically savvy and being manipulative, but power words are definitely worth exploring if you want to create better texts.

In his incredible book “Predictably Irrational,” Dan Ariely dedicated a chapter to the power of words in the process of decision making. Long story short, to test the power of the word “free” concerning concrete value, Ariely asked a group of people to choose between a 1 cent Hershey Kiss or a 15 cent Lindt truffle. Most of the people opted for the second version. Nothing intriguing so far. Another random group of subjects were asked to make the same decision just this time both products were cheapened with 1 cent. The results? As you can see in the image below, the subjects seemingly flipped on their opinion of these two treats.

Do not underestimate the power of “free”.

  27. Make Efforts to Become a Better Writer

  Writing is a skill, not a trait you’re born with.

Sure, some people have more talent than others, but just like with a lot of artistic skills, hard work, passion and determination can overcome a talent “deficit.” On the other hand, natural talent withers if it’s not exercised regularly. Read viciously what your favorite copywriters publish. Read books about writing. Go to classes about writing. Listen to podcasts and watch videos about writing. And most importantly?

Write every single day. Always with intent, always trying to get better at something.

Look into style and try to emulate various writing styles. Take what is useful from each of them. Look into creative writing and push yourself to write about things you never cared before. Not everything will stick – in fact, most likely won’t. But being better at writing is something that happens slowly and in bits and pieces. It’s also something worth pursuing.

  28. Make Efficient Use of Social Media

  We’ve touched on this before in our posts and it’s as relevant now as it was then: social proof can be a huge help, as long as you use it strategically. There are plenty of statistics out there about what works best: how many words to use in your posts, what time to post on each network, when to use tags and what to use them for. These statistics are a good starting point, but you’ll have to put in some work, too. They represent average findings of everyone online. You might discover different findings for your business or line of service, as long as you’re willing to put in some time for trial and error tests.

We’ve conducted a very in-depth study to figure out if social signals influence SEO and one of our findings was that a strong presence on social networks is correlated with better rankings, as you can see in the screenshot below.

  29. Remember that All of Your Content Matters

  Write every time like that’s the most important thing to publish.

Don’t think of anything you write as a throwaway or filler.

You need to believe that what you write is important, otherwise there’s little chance the reader will think it.

  30. Use Synonyms and Help Google to Help You

  Synonyms have been managed automatically by Google for years now, yet what you may not know is their high influence not only on your copy but also on rankings. We all use Thesaurus  now and then to “beautify” our content.

You might not know that you can use synonyms for rankings as well.

Let’s say that you are in the “laptops” niche and you write content on this matter. It wouldn’t be bad if you used not only the exact match laptops, but also synonyms or words from the same area with this one : computers, notebooks, etc. And this is because Google is becoming increasingly smart and it returns results not based on the exact matching word but by the intent of the user, using sometimes synonyms of the words or their lexical family.

Use synonyms smartly on your website in order to rank higher not just because you’re obsessed with ranks, but because your website might be relevant to people who search using similar but not quite exactly the same words. More on how to take advantage of this technique can be found on a previous in-depth research we’ve done on how to exploit the synonym technique to increase your traffic.

  31. Stalk Forums for the Exact Words Your Readers Use

  Most of the time we speak about things we think our readers want. But they may be interested in different things, or talk in different ways about those things. Think of a piece of software, for instance: how the developer might describe its functionalities (“Formatting text in XProduct”) is not how users might ask questions about it (“How do I make my text bold in XProduct?”). Therefore go ahead, check the forums and search for the exact word your readers use.

  32. Write Your Own Description Tag

  Copywriting doesn’t imply just blog writing and in-depth article research but also every piece of content written that is related to the business you are working for. Therefore, one of the things you make sure as a killer copywriter (and/or SEO professional) is that you write your own description tag for every important page on your site. Otherwise, Google will do that for you. And you might not want that.

Why is this useful for your copy?

Usually, when someone does a Google search they want answers really fast and very relevant.

This means that if they search for Copywriting Tips and Tricks they would expect to see at a glance exactly what they searched for. And if, along with the title, in the description tag you show them the quick wins they will have, you get more clicks.

  33. Focus on Long Tail Keywords

  Long tail keywords are those three and four keyword phrases which are very, very specific to whatever you have to offer. Regardless of the fact that it might be easier for your content to rank higher when using long tail keywords, it is also a better way to connect with customers. We’ve written more on this subject in a previous post.

  34. Write Up to the High, Positive Expectation

  It does hurt to say, but the more you read meaningless content on the web, the more you expect the next link you click on to give you hands on content.

If you’re unlucky enough to be the fourth or fifth and the reader is already bent out of shape, you clearly wouldn’t like to be in the position of disappointing him. It’s harder to work for content than it was for linkbait and clickbait years ago, because this time there’s no shortcut to get people’s attention. You’ve got to be fair and you’ve got to deliver. Let’s call this Attention Web.

Only promise what you can deliver!

  35. Be Crystal Clear and Give Quick Previews that Make Your Points of View Acceptable

  We all have belief biases – this means that when facing a logical argument, we’re more likely to believe it if the conclusion seems more plausible instead of analyzing the supporting evidence. Bold points of view are lifesaving. They raise eyebrows and tickle curiosity, while sending the impression of reliability. Which is why people will read the first sentence of your post – unfortunately, after this they realize you’re about to contradict their prior beliefs and leave. Just like that.

  36. Deliver Something Valuable in an Intuitive Way

  Suppose that you’re lucky enough to write about the topic someone’s recently been interested in – this only means they’ll notice your work, at best. From here to actually reading your content there is a lot of work paved with intermediary steps.

Digging too deep into a topic often implies taking a lot of extra risk.

We only read in-depth content analyses; we do our homework properly, we’re never out of touch and we can tell you what’s trending from sleep. And yet, there’s nothing easier than losing the interest of your readers.

Source: slate.com

  37. Go with the Status Quo Over Newly Presented Facts

  Status quo bias is an emotional bias; a preference for the current state of affairs.

The current baseline (or status quo) is taken as a reference point, and any change from that baseline is perceived as a loss. The truth is that we care more about maintaining our Status Quo (state of facts) than we do about truth; and if you’re saying otherwise, chances are your brain is playing some tricks on you.

Therefore, if it’s not imperative to change, innovation for the sake of novelty is the number one enemy of reader loyalty.

  38. Learn how to Measure the Success of Content Marketing

  Content we share doesn’t always equal content we’ve engaged with. It’s a lot easier to share content based on its title than it is to actually engage with it. Yet, it’s highly important to know how to measure the success of a piece of content. Metrics for on-page behavior, for SEO, bounce rates, average time spent on page, the number and quality of the comments or the metrics for social media performance are elements you should always keep an eye on.

It is not just the people who convert are important, but the pages they convert from.

Here you can find how to constantly monitor and learn from these metrics

  39. Learn where Your Readers Get Their News and Information from

  No, you won’t need night vision goggles or an invisibility cloak to monitor your community.

What you do need is to pay attention to your surroundings. Working inside of a system often makes us lose what’s most important in succeeding—the holistic view of the industry.

  40. Get Inspired by Your Community’s Interest

  There’s no place more insightful than your own community—you’ll find plenty of ideas there if you just take the time to look at it. Being part of an industry often takes a lot of time, especially in domains that seem to be so competitive, in a never-ending effort to become better. However, sometimes we should just stop. And see what it is that’s missing—there’s always a glitch—something that you haven’t discovered yet. Start from there. I know it might sound like a task hard to achieve but tools such as Brand Mentions  can really ease your job.

  41. Thoroughly Document on Your Niche to Find Content Inspiration

  Whether you are a content marketer who is interested in the content from a specific area or you are into more generic matters, first thing first, you need to check out what is going on in that niche and find some inspiration from those findings.

Correlating search trends with the most recent mentions on the web seems to be a great formula, regardless of the niche you are interested in.

  42. Talk to the Sales and Support Team

  Through all its efforts, a company/business/website is trying to find a way to best reach its audience. Some efforts are sort of an “indirect” contact with the public through online content but there are also some others who are in direct contact with the user. A discussion with the sales and support team might be a great opportunity for you to better understand your audience’s needs or challenges and adapt your marketing copy accordingly.

Source: helpscout.net

  43. Create a Content Strategy Calendar

  After collecting a bunch of great article ideas you need to gather them together in a way that will be efficient and effective for your website or blog. And creating a content calendar is a method to get the best results out of your ideas. Although “Content Strategy Calendar” might sound a bit pretentious and you might get discouraged or think it is a very complicated task, the truth is that even a simple Google Doc Spreadsheet can help you out. What you need to keep in mind for each article you are going to write is that you have to take in consideration items such as:

What type of content is it? Where do you intend to publish it? What is the article’s audience? How and where are you going to promote it? How are you going to scale the result?

  Source: meistertask.com

  44. Remember that Visual Information Makes Readers More Thorough

  The more we try to put information in pretty wrapping, the harder it will be to present it without visual support. It is just one among other smart copywriting formulas. Every attempt to make web content more interesting contributed to this borderline surrealistic change to the way we perceive content online. It seems that our brain really loves graphics more than you’d imagine:

visual information has increased by 9,000% since 2007

color visuals increase willingness to read by 80%

we receive 5 times more information than we did in 1986

we don’t read more than 28% of the words when visiting an online page

  Source: contently.com

  45. Harmonize Your Online Content with the Offline One

  The online and the offline often find themselves in competition and it shouldn’t be like that. In reality, although the two environments should not be compared, it’s impossible not to weigh one against the other. Yet, regardless of the advantages and disadvantages each one brings, one thing should be clear: they need to be coherent altogether and they both need to tell the same stories, even if with different lines.

Source: blog.hubspot.com

  46. Always Keep the Attention Span Matter in Mind

  Because technology today can store so much information, we can’t keep track of it anymore.

Writers in the 17th century claimed they had read everything written in their language throughout history.

Today, this statistic is unachievable even to those of us who try to keep themselves up-to-date in their fields of expertise.

Nowadays, our attention span is 8 seconds and falling. Approximately 66% of our attention is spent below the fold , especially when it comes to content, and we’re impatient to get over the (often) boring introductions directly to the heart of what interests us.

  47. Learn from Your Most and Least Shared Content

  Figuring out what works for your niche is crucial. Looking at the content that performs best in your niche might be intuitive. Even though you might think it’s redundant to look at the bottom of the list, there are insights to be learned from your weakest performing content, too.

You need to see which pages have attracted the least amount of visitors and what type of content is not of interest to your viewers.

Creating uninteresting content isn’t useful for anyone. It is not useful for your target audience, and it’s clearly not productive for your business.

  48. No Shares, No Likes, No Comments = No Traffic

  Content creation and shareability are parts of the content strategy concept and you can’t separate one from each other.

It would be a true shame to create great and useful content that does not receive any love from the community.

Just like us, you’ve probably seen a lot of bloggers create great articles that impressed you. But, they received little to no engagement. While creating content has its obvious benefits, maximizing shareability assures the success of your content strategy.

  49. Originality Is a Must

  You don’t have to re-invent the wheel on a daily basis.

You may also create content that has been done before as long as you augment it with a new spin.

As long as it’s a fresh and interesting approach to an idea, go ahead with it.

Remember that most of the times originality is nothing but judicious imitation.

The most original writers borrowed one from another.

  50. Existing Content Needs Love, Too

  When creating content, we tend to never look back and always think of the next idea.

You should always take your existing content and see what you can gain from it.

Maybe create a sequel, maybe an update, maybe there are some ideas in that piece of content that weren’t fully discussed. And even if it’s evergreen content we are talking about, remember that this kind of content is relevant for people now and it’s going to be relevant for them after a year, too. We’ve written a blog post on exactly this matter, where we put together some of the best ways to repurpose existing content.

  51. Timing Is Everything

  As the famous lines say, there is a time for everything : a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot. And this applies in copywriting as well.

It’s obvious that writing the right article at the right moment is crucial.

There are times when important changes occur in the niche you are addressing and clearly you need to react on the spot and have a piece of copy ready for the moment. Yet, there are times when you need to know what new trick you need to unveil in order to capture your audience’s numb interest. Also, an important part of this matter is maximizing the shareability of your copy. Therefore you need to figure out when you’re going to get the most out of your content, at which moment of the day, the week or month you should share the content to receive the most traffic.

  52. Spot Your Competitor’s Most Engaging Content

  Content marketing – done correctly – can be a very effective way to attract and retain clients, but the problem is more and more companies produce more and more content. It’s highly important to understand how to produce content that will engage your target audience, but is also vital to know what your competitors’ most engaging content is. To figure this out you don’t have to spend ages collecting and analyzing all that content, you can do things way easier and efficiently if you use the proper tools.

  53. Make Use of Content Curation to Boost Your Influence

  Everyone has wrapped their brains around the idea of content creation and knows they should create amazing content to engage with their target audience. And that’s how content curation, the less known brother of content creation, gets left out in the cold.

A professional content curator picks and polishes the most amazing content and serves it up to the community and also gives credits to the owner.

It is definitely a power that can be harnessed, and remember that content curation is not content marketing.

  54. Analyze, Analyze, Analyze

  This applies before actually writing the piece of content but also after the copy has been unleashed to the world. Learn to monitor the places your content is published and analyze the traffic. Visitors who come and go are an invaluable resource of information regarding the content’s usage pattern. Watch out for data like keywords, bounce rate, and click patterns to learn more about their interests. Also, ask about the blogs and social networks where they spend their time online. You may find discussions that may shed a light on their needs and interests.

On the internet, in an age where everything is monitored, you are bound to find data about anything.

  55. Creativity Is Key!

  There is this common perception that creativity is a taboo subject or that is a “feature” that only the chosen ones are gifted with. As Steve Jobs once highlighted, most of the times creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things.

  However, copywriting and creativity go hand in hand. This is why while sticking to your business plan, you enter a comfort zone, which is the worst enemy for creativity. When you empty your mind of all past concepts, you’re going to fill it with creativity. You have to liberate yourself from the limitations of what you already know.

  56. Fill Information Gaps – Become a Reference

  An information gap is a construct, a theory or an idea that the audience believes should be informed on, but doesn’t seem to be explained quite extensively. Rather, the reader feels like the information comes in bits and pieces, like an underlying premise of any discussion that derives from the matter. Here is where your content jumps in. Yet, for the strategy to work, the information will have to be relevant and systematized, while offering an in-depth perspective on the topic. Become a reference and the results will follow.

Once you’ve proven yourself as a trusty, authentic go-to blog, your leads and email subscription rates can dramatically increase.

  57. Targeting Longtail Keywords to Engage Your Audience

  Micro-targeting paints a big picture. The more you invest in targeting the right long tail keywords, the bigger a shot you have at accessing a key audience interested in a specific topic. Choosing topics for content writing should always be the result of a targeting process. Once you do this, the chances to grow a solid audience with an increase intent in your business are sizable.

  58. Repurpose Your Content

  Running a blog with constant valuable and high quality content might sometimes be difficult as it is a resource-consuming process. Therefore, why not getting the best out of the content that you’ve already worked on? Repurpose the content you already have. Not only will you save resources, but you’ll also extend the reach of your blog and maybe find new ways to reach your audience. Here are some great ideas of how to repurpose your content:

  59. Make Use of Content Convergence

  Before asking yourself how this might help you, allow me to explain what this is about.

It refers to merging one boring, dull topic with a more exciting topic, whilst giving it a theme which gets attention.

If you are to write copy for, let’s say, plumbing supplies or for air conditioners, you might find it difficult sometimes to remain consistent, creative, original, etc. Here is where convergence might help you. Try giving the content a snappy title, make it more about the reader than about the website, As we’ve detailed in a previous blog post, by introducing a new element to the narrative you’ve made a boring item more interesting and opened up your website to getting links from places your competition would find hard to replicate.

  60. Make It Interesting and Diverse, not Just Relevant

  Undoubtedly, relevancy is a must.

While being relevant, a diverse mix of content can be used in order to keep things interesting for your readers.

This might require videos, case studies, articles, e-Newsletters, webinars, blog posts, data visualization posts, competitions or photographs. This might require some market and consumer research skills in order to understand consumer expectations with regards to the kind of content they want to read. Yet, it’s totally worth it.

  61. Don’t Forget about the Content Monarchy

  Whether you agree or not, “Content is king” is one of the widest spread Internet memes. You will see the phrase referenced all over the place. And we tend to think that mostly Google is “the guilty” one for this matter. For a while now, Google has been promoting the importance of content and it has even shaped an algorithm on exactly this matter, ready to penalize sites that do not respect content quality guidelines.

The thing you need to remember is that you need to write good, relevant and qualitative content for the sake of your readers but also to avoid any Google Penalties.

  62. Quality Is not a One Time Act, It Is a HABIT

  As the saying goes, we are what we repeatedly do.

Excellence is not an act, but a habit.

You’ve written a blog post and you have thousands of shares and appreciations? That’s a great. Yet, that one time performance won’t keep you on the top for long. On the contrary, once you’ve set the bar high, you need to keep up with it to have killer content. 

  This is similar to the one hit wonder music bands.

We all remember the musical hit, we sing it at birthdays parties for a period of time, yet we probably won’t buy the album just for that tune.

Same thing may happen to your content. If you want your readers to look at your blog/brand/name with respect and put you in the trustworthy content category, make a habit out of delivering quality.

  63. The Title of Your Content Will Influence Your Rankings

  Every site owner’s dream (and goal) is to rank as high as possible for their target audience. Every search engine’s dream (and goal) is to make sure that the most relevant websites rank the highest. Therefore, it’s a vicious cycle.

Yet, keywords used in the titles of your copy have a high ranking importance. We’ve conducted a study where it seems that keyword appearance in the title makes a clear difference between ranking 1st or 2nd.

When creating the title of your content you should really think things through, as the title must not be only relevant and attractive but also SERP friendly.

  64. Ask Rhetorical Questions to Engage Readers

  Do you ever use rhetorical questions in your writing? Like this one, for instance?

Rhetorical questions make your arguments more persuasive.

Also, your audience will become engaged. And if your arguments are strong and valid, readers will be more likely persuaded by them.

  65. Choose the Fonts and Colors Carefully

Around here we put a lot of emphasis on content and go on and on about how it comes first. But that doesn’t mean we’re blind to aesthetic choices. If you have good, original, insightful, even life-changing content, but choose to display it in green Comic Sans over a pink background, you can count us out. And a few other readers, too.

Choice of font and color scheme can greatly influence the success of a piece by being a factor for accessibility.

Certain fonts make for easier reading when it comes to big blocks of text, while certain color schemes make it easier on the eye to spend long amounts of time on landing pages. Font and color also go a long way in terms of credibility: some combinations simply look slick and professional, while others give an “untrustworthy” vibe, despite potentially good writing.

  66. Use Positive Frames to Describe Information

  Negative frames describe something that isn’t taking place. Positive frames, on the other hand, describe something tangible, something that is happening. Studies  show that we need more mental resources to process negative frames as they reduce comprehension and degrade the impact of your message. Therefore, positive frames should be the one you should look for.

NEGATIVE: Don’t be late. POSITIVE: Arrive on time.

NEGATIVE: Don’t drink excessively. POSITIVE: Drink responsibly.

The post Copy: 66 Copywriting Tips that Will Boost Your Conversion Rates by 327% appeared first on SEO Blog | cognitiveSEO Blog on SEO Tactics & Strategies.

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[micaramel]

Artist: Justin Caguiat

Venue: Modern Art, London

Exhibition Title: Permutation City 1999

Date: June 25 – August 8, 2020

Click here to view slideshow

Full gallery of images, press release and link available after the jump.

Images:

Images courtesy of Modern Art, London

Press Release:

Modern Art is pleased to announce an exhibition of new paintings by Justin Caguiat titled Permutation City 1999. This is his first solo exhibition with the gallery.

In Caguiat’s large-scale paintings on unstretched canvas or linen displayed in wooden frames, layers of oil and sometimes gouache, pastel and acrylic synthesise into highly detailed patterns which fill and spill out beyond imperfect edges. Now and then, swathes of monochrome washes emanate like filters or planes of light across the surface. From this, landscapes and otherworldly scenes materialise, drifting in and out of legibility, or consciousness.

These are liminal paintings, both corporeal and cryptic. They resist an instantaneous reading, demanding time to decipher, and to search for compositional footholds within their archaic atmosphere.

Caguiat’s idiosyncratic style is informed by varied fields including science fiction literature, the baroque-folk hybrid aesthetic of early Filipino Catholic Santos, 60s psychedelia, les Nabis, Ukiyo-E, urban graphic art and the historical legacy of Manga. In scale and format they can be read like murals and landscapes, and while not narrative, have a reverential or devotional purpose akin to a fresco.

Though suggestive of Romanticism, the paintings are not illusionistic, demonstrating and not concealing their evolution through layers. The transposition of paint – ideas, information, figures and ornament – is fragmented, like the dissolution of memory.

A text of the same title written by the artist accompanies the exhibition.

Justin Caguiat was born in 1989 in Tokyo, Japan. He lives and works in New York City. In 2018 he had a solo exhibition at 15 Orient, New York and his work has been included in group shows at galleries and project spaces throughout North America, in Italy and Switzerland. He has curated exhibitions with themanilainstitute.org and other collectives and is a published poet having participated in readings and performances including in 2017 at the Kunsthalle Zürich, Switzerland.

    Permutation City 1999

After the outbreak he escaped to the Bay Area with his family. They had left New York and ended up crashing at a former youth hostel in downtown Berkeley an art collector had bought. It was under renovation prior to the shut down and was in the process of being turned into

He traded the collector a painting titled My meat is to do the will of him in exchange for room and board. In one of the rooms, by the side of the bed hidden between the bed frame and the wall he found a journal filled with observations written in fragmented prose, punctuated by drawings. He was so struck by the book that it ended up forming the basis of his work for the next three years, using the drawings as sketches, overlapping composites to layer and erase with paint, building up the surface over time.

He compiled some excerpts from the found journal. Each entry in the book was titled, borrowing each title for each painting.

“Thousand Year Old Laughter” He was a young lad. Discovered a video store carrying a large collection of American and Euro films with religious themes. Other half of the store was SFX Horror. Lurking around the store… the instructions have unfolded a spell Entranced by images of suffering grotesque eroticism Fell into images forbidden the name is not what it appears

This way was truly nothing already it disappeared as smoking trails left by the things made seemingly in desires shape

solitary in fluid sunlight reflecting off store window eyes that unsubstantiated the hollow form revealed another presence. generating heat but not light and melting snow it turned into water, we lived for 16 years in Tokyo.

“Extraction and Compassion” When Grandmother came to visit us from Manila she couldn’t be around the Japanese people. Only once she recounted to my mother the horror of the Japanese occupation of the Philippines

During the massacre of innocents their favorite method of killing was the bayonet The hotels in downtown Manila were turned into rape camps they would take women and girls there after they were forced to bury their children, siblings, and neighbors in mass graves Hospitals were set afire after patients were strapped to their beds Pregnant women were raped and their stomachs were ripped open with bayonets Their unborn children drowning in sunlight streaming in from the broken walls and shattered windows “O you dig and I dig, and I dig towards you, on our finger the ring awakes”

In our apartment in Tokyo she made a room for herself in the closet. She was a devout Catholic, she could speak to spirits

She was the matriarch of my grandfathers second and illegitimate bastard family. Grandfather died when mother was one years old, he played piano for the silent films and was a photographer Mother was the youngest and 13th child. when grandfather died, suddenly they were were poor; he had left them nothing

They lived in a tiny garage and slept on the floor in rows they moved dwellings frequently my Mother often didn’t have enough food to eat. Her first job was cleaning public toilets

In Tokyo people always asked me if my mother was a maid the echo of the occupation evolved with the diaspora after the colonization and military campaigns of the Spanish, Japanese, and Americans The Filipina maids of Tokyo are kind and hard working people

When my grandmother died she left my mother her golden crucifix. My mother later gave the crucifix to me,

and after a year my father kicked my grandmother out and sent her back to Manila

They had a broken television in the room and the picture was in black and white. We would watch TV and my Grandmother was happy and said it reminded her of the past.

“Branches Flower Windows” walking down quiet streets of my Tokyo I love the moss covered cinder block walls and overgrown gardens of ferns, parks and Shinto temples and under the shade of trees everywhere, ponds and streams reflecting viridian glow, small waterfalls and stone pathways. Moss grows everywhere Sleepy stray cats and small fields of dirt and wild grass. The hollows of bushes littered with the skeletons of cicadas at the end of summertime and in every apple lays a fetus curled asleep There is no land more beautiful fields of rice paddies from the train window on the outskirts of the city the wind shakes and branches flower windows personalities whistle out of these sectors of apples that are made to be regenerated

Ever-present crows calling from the trees, pockets of nature surrounded by hyper-evolved architecture and a totalized homogeneity. Animism and fascism are alive and vital here, but now the Japanese are pacifists.

“The Approach of Beauty its Body was Fungible” Starting when I was 13 years old I used to sneak out of my house at night. My older sister was secretly taking LSD everyday and going to school, an exercise in appearing to be normal while her mind pushed against the boundaries of reason I would leave at around 1 in the morning after everyone was asleep. Wandering around, sometimes walking as far as Shibuya or Harajuku or to an unfamiliar neighborhood I would break into apartment buildings and go to the rooftops and sleep there. I sleep in parking lots and in nooks in between buildings, hidden places underneath stairwells and behind ventilators and generators whole lifetimes of how we love the escape Forgotten atoms cradled in sweet music and the laughter of our memory of the buildings dropping seeds

Radiant spheres contain their hidden appearance to take the form of different species in the future Growing variegated subjects decay into a lonely view that the preachers of passion have seen through their vector making melody

meted out in pleasure the lyrics recorder quickly to their passing pain

“Anal Staircase of the Eye Reflected in the Fingernail” They began to sleep walk and hallucinate. Floating above their body: walking around the apartment at night, talking uncontrollably

Its psychotic dream state remember waking up on the floor of the bedroom, The walls and ceiling slowly began to shrink, Shrinking to the point of a needle, the point was a pupil, They were trapped inside the pupil, the pupil was the coffin.

Splash water on their face to wake them up, the knock on the head sent us reeling, I’m relieved to find him sleeping. Its safe to be here while I was dreaming I kept forgetting I am living as todays reflection.

I was watching everything, I was watching my body moving dislocated from its host, I was moving from room to room like a fly on the wall, I was walking and talking like a living doll.

“The Saint is Never Busy” I cry because hes dying, now hes dust an older shade of green across my eyes turns to red dust of the heart. now how to keep out of hell are the wheels that are turning, he used to be so violent but now so enfeebled yet His eye still holds violence, his other eye is blind and He has to wear a diaper

The wheels of the sun its done but dont forget about its shadowy child, For its picture you hate to keep even though it always lives developed the horror of an idea that wears you unrendered, Its been 14 years its paralyzed brilliant doors are locked forever, out of waves of memories life times locked.

He looks old He walks so slowly, he shuffles from room to room compulsively the dementia atrophied brain

He doesn’t remember anything about me. He knows I am his son but nothing else, no memories I am a shadow in the periphery of his mind. My mother hid the kitchen knives just in case

He thinks its the year 1999, a maddening coincidence to the primal year of my reveries.

I came to London and went to see him, who had returned to where he grew up in Wales

Mother sleeps with the house keys under her pillow and a change of clothes and money in case he becomes violent and she needs to escape He threatens her when he doesnt recognize her and she has to hide Crushed by her burden I see it in her face

Of course it wasnt supposed to end like this He refers to himself in the plural. pointing to his head Trapped in the year 1999, wandering amongst the reveries of whose youth?

“The Synthetic Memory Forming” –

  We are in California now. Its peaceful here. New York seems so far away. Here in the Bay Area there are lots of crows, whom I love. They remind me of Tokyo. Our son dances in the sun and in the water an ant to the outsider sea.

We have cut a silly figure against the walls crumbling cake with all our bags A cigarette in my mouth my hat is lost against the orbing sun

the light is confusion. This is my last song you yell across laughing after the pale band where you removed your golden ring. The sun is chasing your tanned skin your fingers fan across the buildings in the sand optical trails waving against their warped angles

“Ive got nothing but reason left behind” Events are tiny earthquakes constantly reorienting the same set of histories but for now every one here is perfect standing dreamlike and frozen under the blue sun

A huge mob of crows, in the early hours of the morning on the way back home, that sent me weighing sleep against a walk around the block I turned away and fled as they knocked over the trash cans, The contents strewn like intestines on the street, nourished by the abundance, crying in unison

When the wandering fire Strikes the heart of stone Will you follow? Will you leave your home? Will you leave your life? Will you take the Longest Road?

Link: Justin Caguiat at Modern Art

from Contemporary Art Daily https://bit.ly/2ZS1Wj9

[bise10thclassresult-blog]

How the 10 Worst NTS Test NAT Test Fails of All Time Could Have Been Prevented

The purpose of this text is to discover the WHY, HOW, and WHAT of the 1st Kaizen motivated workout system. I'll try this by speaking WHY Kaizen was crucial in establishing SGT Peterson's perspective of exercise routines. Then I will clearly show HOW the demonstrated method is excellent to the established order in the Health sector, and Finally it will go over WHAT sorts of training are included to the Kaizen exercises.

WHY: Developing up as an obese child I had been normally picked on because of my pounds. I constantly wished to eliminate weight, and like just about every American I needed to reduce it now. I turned obsessed with the simplest way to make it happen. I went from a Extra fat 9th grader to the lean, imply, quick combating machine in a single summer using the procedures which might be in the procedure.

In between my Junior (1997) and Senior (1998) year of High school I dropped about twenty% entire body Extra fat and have become a equipment by cross education, and by proscribing my calories. The entire explanation I did it absolutely was to ensure that I could serve our place in The us Air Force. I had been overweight and had to shed the burden to affix. After i initial satisfied the recruiter in 1996 I had been some thing like 40lbs about weight and he hardly gave me the time of day.

I grew up within a spouse and children wherever more than 50% of my relatives were being obese, and several morbidly obese. I saw my mother, and grandmother die inside their early fifty's from coronary heart problems and emphysema which were fully preventable. The opposite purpose I had been influenced to join the Health movement was involving my junior and senior 12 months by former Minnesota Viking Matt Birk. I saw him guide by instance and go away no person driving. Matt is, and remains to become, among present day correct leaders. At any time because then I have worked tirelessly to encourage Other individuals to "Be part of The Motion" and since 2000 I are already perfecting "Additional Than Just A Exercise routine".

HOW: The 30 Working day Kaizen Tested Method For Results was encouraged by my particular quest for the most effective way to get rid of weight. Due to the fact 1996 I used the method without having even being aware of it existed. Then, in a Total Excellent Management (TQM) class in 2002, I realized about the record and means of whole excellent administration and I understood I'd observed the answer I were in search of. I used to be over a quest for a coach for the final 10 years to describe my variety of training in English phrases. I would just describe it simply as "the best exercise session for your personal utilization of your time" then certainly one of my leaders googled the expression "ongoing advancement" and out popped Kaizen. I was right away reminded in the TQM roots that influenced The full detail and I was reconnected with my original inspiration. In all, the established approach for exercise results that we use currently begun in 1996 and it has officially been named "SGT Peterson's Kaizen Proven Method For Exercise session Effects."

WHAT: Dynamic, impressive, and Safe and sound PEC 5th Class Result for the normal population. We constantly deliver a full overall body exercise that requires multi joint movements. The exercise session expends quite possibly the most energy and builds probably the most muscle mass feasible without above education. Some days are more muscle mass constructing days where Just about every training can get you to reach Momentary Muscle Failure (MMF) generally working with Manual Resistance (MR), and some times concentrate a lot more on cardiovascular endurance. During a single on just one workout routines (Go) Companion Assisted Static Stretching is solely utilized to increase choice of movement and work on length rigidity muscular imbalances. We use modalities from the following disciplines which are incorporated into "A lot more Than Just A Exercise" to go well with the common populace:

1. Armed service Physique Excess weight Calisthenics

two. Group Concentrated Guerrilla Drills

three. Cost-free Fat / Lover Resistance Schooling

four. Essential Speed, Agility and Electrical power Instruction

5. Mixed Martial Arts (not MMA like in the UFC perception of issues), Calisthenics, together with although not limited to primary punches, kicks, elbows, knees, and blocks

6. Isometric Routines aka Static Maintain Workout routines aka modified Yoga style things that does not get boring

With that said, Kaizen is the one solitary term in almost any important language that we could discover Meaning "Continued Enhancement." This, with SGT Peterson's enjoy and experiments of total top quality management, from it's beginnings with William Edwards Deming, an American in Japan, designed the word great to describe the method!

[charlie-bezkorowajny-blog]

Contextual analysis of adverts

History of advertising.

1.      One of the most successful advertisement campaigns of all time is considered by many to be that of Absolut vodka.

      Absolute is a Swedish brand and in the 80’s they decided to try and market their product in the US for the first time but they need a strong and unique approach to make their vodka stand out from the competition. They decided to make the Absolute bottle the center piece of their adverts with it appearing on every single one of their 1,500 different printed ads. Ranging from the bottle itself to a house in the shape of the bottle to even New York taxis in the shape of the bottle, it was everywhere even if you couldn’t spot it at times, making it a sort of subliminal messaging.

     iIn 1986 Absolute wanted to target a more younger audience who live more vibrant and modern lifestyles, to do this they collaborated with Andy Warhol who created the first ever piece of art for an Absolut ad.

     Since then Absolut has collaborated with numerous musicians, artists and celebrities to help market their drink. Absolut continued to use this style of advertising using unique printed posters for 25 years until they decided to focus more on digital advertising due to the rise of the internet. At he start of this revolutionary ad campaign Absolut only had about 2.5% of the vodka market and by the late 2000’s over half of the Americas vodka consumption was Absolut vodka. This shows that  even something as boring as a bottle can be an incredibly effective marketing/advertising tool.

2.      Advertising in the 1920’s became much more about consumerism and having all the latest products. It was around this time that the economic boom was starting and lots of people began to have and more and more disposable income to spend on luxury goods such as radios and cars. Companies started to use celebrities and sports starts to advertise their products to try and appeal to as many people as possible. This period was known as the roaring 20’s and the American people were a lot more interested in going out and having fun, to try and capitalize on this new culture many companies tried to change how they advertised their product. A great example of this change is Coca-Cola who up until this point in time marketed the drink as a medicine but changed in the early 20’s to advertise it as a refreshing and fun food.

3.      The first ever official paid TV ad was broadcast in the US on July 1st 1941 over New York Station WNBT. It was shown before a baseball game that was between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies.

4.      On of the best and most successful ads of the 1950’s aired in 1958 and was for Chevrolet. It was named “Boy meets impala”. The advert broke the convention of having lots of talking in the advert explaining the product and how it works, instead the ad contained only 21 words and was focused more on the images that were being shown than what the audience could hear. The advert is about a boy who is about o go to prom only to find out his car has been vandalized so his dad lets him drive his new Chevrolet instead.

5.      Most early commercials were rather long at around 1-2 minutes and consisted mostly of someone explaining the product to the camera while in a relevant setting. The product would be displayed next to or in front of the person and then at the very end of the advert, this made the commercials feel very factual and rather boring especially compared to he adverts of today which don’t end to have much speaking in. The early ads would also tend to include song sort of catchy tune or slogan that would be played at the end and this can still be seen in some adverts today.

6.      World war 2 had a massive impact on adverting in the 1940’s. Most of the men were off at war during this time leaving only the women, children and elderly at home so companies started to shift their advertising focus more from middle age and young men to women as it was the women that were at home and the men who were at war. There were of course still adverts aimed towards men but most were propaganda that were trying to persuade them to join the military.

      Adverts became increasingly aimed at women and were often adverting work for the women. Many of these ads showed a strong woman or a woman with a  job acting independently without the help of a man. It was one of the first times that women were shown as equals to men in advertising. There was also a lot of propaganda posters around during the war and these were basically advertising hate towards Germany and its allies.

7.      Millions of people watch TV in the UK every day so why wouldn’t companies advertise on TV if their product will  be seen by millions of people and potential customers? The whole point of advertising on tv is to get people to see your product and want to go out and buy it. The time of day effects what type of product you will see advertised and companies take full advantage of this. Early in the morning from around 7-9 you are likely to see toys and kids products being advertised as many kids watch TV before school, there’s no point showing a car ad at a time when kids watch TV as they aren’t going to be interested and can’t even get the product. During the day you will see adverts aimed at mums who have to stay at home and look after kids so products such as washing up liquid and bay stuff is shown. Elderly people also watch more TV during the day due to being retired and not needing to work and to capitalise on this companies will advertise products aimed towards the elderly during the day, for example, stair lifts are regularly advertised around this time and chairs that help you stand up.

8.      The first ever British TV ad aired at 9.01pm on the 22 September 1955 on ITV. It was made by AB-Pathe and was advertising Gibbs SR Toothpaste, it lasted 70 seconds which is much longer than today’s adverts which are usually around 30 seconds.

9.     The creator of Britain’s first TV ad was Brian Palmer. He was 26 at   the time.

10.  Radio advertising in the 1920’s was seen as the “Golden Age”. During the early 20’s the economic boom began and everyone began to see an increase in the amount of disposable income they had, this meant they could afford more luxury items such as radios. Radio at the time was a very new thing and was exciting to most people, also there was no TV at the time so this was the main source for mass entertainment at the time. 1920 saw the first radio broadcast and by 1922 there were over 600 radio stations meaning advertisers had 600 options for advertising their product, the more radio stations they advertised on, the more people knew about the product. Between 1920-1930 60% of american families owned a radio making it the most popular form of entertainment at the time with hundreds of thousands if not millions of listeners.                                                                                                                                             Media theories                                                                                           Hypodermic needle theory was one of the first media theories, introduced in the early 1920’s, and suggested that people will wholly believe whatever the media says and shows no matter what it is. Today this theory is considered out of date due to how much choice people have when it comes to consuming media.                                                   Reference list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypodermic_needle_model

      2 step flow theory was first introduced in 1944 to study the process of decision making during an election campaign. It was created to see how mass media influences decision making. Somebody(opinion leaders) looks at the source and gives their opinion and people form their opinions from that persons opinion.Reference list: https://www.utwente.nl/en/bms/communication-theories/sorted-by-cluster/Mass%20Media/Two_Step_Flow_Theory-1/

     Uses and gratifications theory is a theory used to try and understand why people use specific media to satisfy their needs. It is an audience centered theory used to understand mass communication. An example of this is how people don’t just watch what comes on TV next, they will actually seek out ways to watch what they want and when they want through services such as Netflix or sites such as YouTube. A way of finding out what certain people use the media for, education, entertainment, social interaction, identity.                                                Reference list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uses_and_gratifications_theory

    Reception theory is how the audience interpret and make meaning out of what they have been shown. It is often referred to as audience reception.                                                                                        Reference list:http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100407730                                                                                                         Semiotic theory is a theory of what connotations things have towards people. An example would be that a rose has connotations of love but a gun has connotations of violence. Different objects, events, sounds and people all have different connotations and different people have different connotations towards the same thing.              Examples: Mcdonalds uses the colour red to make you feel hungry.          In my ad im using red to the same effect.                                                                                              Reference list:

http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/comm321/gwalker/semiotics.htm                                                                                                                                                                            Semiotics can be branched into pragmatics, semantics, syntactis. It is a study of signs and symbolism especially inn society. It is also the analysis of communication through, language, clothing or gestures. Semiotics in media is symbolism and the meaning of things in media.                                                                                           Denotation is the literal meaning of a word that contrasts to the ideas it suggests. The object or idea that is referred to by a meaning. Connotation is the idea or feeling a word provokes in addition to its primary meaning.                                         Hypodermic needle theory was developed by researchers in 1920’s and 1930’s, an example of the theory being successful is when Orson wells broadcast-ed a reading of war of the worlds to America and sent the country into mass hysteria.                     The audience theory is an element of thinking that was developed literary theory and cultural studies. It suggests that the audience is made up of the rhetoric and rhetorical situation that the text is addressing.                                                              Reception theory was developed by the cultural theorist Stuart Hall.                           Gratifications theory is used to see how and what certain people use the media for.

epti

[queermediastudies]

Greater than the sum of their parts

The fluidity that exists within the transgender community suggests that transgender people are far more complex than what is portrayed in mainstream media. Also, those more famous transgender people seen in popular media actively represent one end of the gender binary or the other. Not to mention, transwomen are often highly sexualized and hyper-feminine while transmen usually display hyper-masculinity. Moreover, contemporary media constricts trans people to the gender binary in only showing mostly hyper-feminine or hyper-masculine transgender people within popular culture. Thus being positively received by mass audiences on account of “respectability” and further reducing transgender people to the heteronormative gender ideology. More recently, Caitlyn Jenner’s transition has gained national attention. Andre Cavalcante’s (2017) “Breaking into Transgender Life: Transgender Audiences’ experience with ‘First of Its Kind’ Visibility in Popular Media.” discusses her story and why many transgender individuals find it so problematic.

Caitlyn Jenner first appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair magazine in 2015 with the caption, “Call Me Caitlyn.” Although some people saw this as progress, Caitlyn Jenner’s story and Vanity Fair cover are problematic for many reasons. One of the problems is that she was so well received because she’s rich, white, conforms to and reasserts cisnormative beauty standards. As Cavalcante’s (2017) research noted, “...many trans people have voiced their concerns that the world only seems to embrace us if we’re wealthy enough or lucky enough to adhere to white cisnormative beauty standards…” (p. 15). Also, the media focused on her surgery and seamless transition. This type of visibility objectifies transgender people because the focus on Caitlyn Jenner’s surgery perpetuates harmful ideas of gender (Steinmetz, 2017). Author Katy Steinmetz (2017) states in her article “...that focusing on surgery perpetuates the idea that gender is nothing more than genitals, in an era when transgender people are fighting for government institutions to recognize a person’s gender based on their sense of identity and for society as a whole to accept those identities as valid.” Transgender communities on social media responded by creating the hashtag #MyVanityFairCover along with a corresponding Tumblr page.

The “My Vanity Fair Cover” campaign featured custom Vanity Fair covers with photos of trans people from various ethnicities and non-binary identified presented declaring their own names. In doing so, they attempt to push back against the degradation of transgender people as “others.” and the reduction of transgender people to their parts. Not to mention, many trans people have no desire to undergo gender reassignment surgery or hormonal treatments.

Due to her high celebrity standing Caitlyn Jenner has a platform to discuss transgender issues to a broad audience, though she often chooses not to. Arguably, Caitlyn Jenner failed to use her platform to raise awareness of trans issues. For example, sex reassignment surgery is rarely covered by health insurance, and the cost prohibits those who want it from getting it. Conversely, Transparent (2014), can be seen as representative of a transgender breakout text. Per Cavalcante (2017), a breakout text is “as a particular form of media that offers “‘first of its kind’ visibility.” (p. 2). In this case, Transparent’s (2014) transgender character Maura Pfefferman is an excellent depiction of how transgender people look differently than the heteronormative gender binary. Moreover, the show successfully broke into mainstream media without having to over sexualize Maura and broke the heteronormative gender regime. Although Transparent (2014) is a good step forward, transgender people still face sexualization of their bodies and many present as hyper-feminine or hyper-masculine. This over-sexualization and hyper gender performances are harmful because they lead uneducated heterosexual viewers to believe that this is what it means to be transgender and perpetuates the notion that transgender people usually undergo sex reassignment surgery.

One transwoman who utilizes a hyper-feminine aesthetic is the internet personality Gigi Gorgeous.  With 2.7 million followers on her popular Youtube channel and nearly the same amount on her highly followed Instagram she is a highly visible transwoman.  She was also the star and subject of her own Youtube sponsored full-length documentary, “This Is Everything: Gigi Gorgeous,” that features the Google description, “One family's acceptance is tested when a champion diver, destined for the Olympics, announces he's transitioning into a woman and invites his YouTube followers along for every moment.”  A strong narrative of familial and social acceptance and the means that is acquired is popular among many trans histories. Gorgeous’ large following has catapulted her, and her channel into mainstream media.  Her most recent video posted October 17, 2017 is titled “Life Update: My New Boobs & Nipples, Drugs + MORE,” emphasizing the importance of including elements of her transition into her channel.  While her videos aren’t solely focused on her ongoing transition a majority are focused on maintaining and participating in her hyper-feminine look.  Much of her marketing also involves a very sexualized version of representation.  In the screenshot above featuring her last two months of videos one features a thumbnail with the word “Sex Talk” emblazoned in large red text over a photo, another features her and her girlfriend in the shower, advertising her “Girlfriend Nighttime Routine.”  While Gorgeous’ bubbly personality and openness regarding her transition can be a very helpful tool for people to understand a particular trans experience, it doesn’t always allow for a great range of representation.  In her article The Construction of Queer and the Conferring of Voice (2013) Hladky argues, “positive attitudes toward any group of people who are traditionally marginalized or persecuted is always a step forward, but only when people are seen as individuals instead of a static identity associated with that group marked as outside the norm will we achieve social justice” (102-3).

  Carmen Carrera is also an American transwoman who was originally popularized by her appearance on Ru Paul’s Drag Race and further as she transitioned in a somewhat public manner.  When searching for images of Carrera some of the suggested added search terms include: transitioning, before, family, and her very sexualized W Magazine feature.  The first two suggested results indicate an ongoing fixation with the process of transition for trans people and a diminishment of other, less outwardly obvious elements of transition.  A viral video of Carrera on Katie Couric’s daytime talk show featured the host asking questions like “Was the whole process painful, physically, for you?” and “Your private parts are different now, aren’t they?”  The well-spoken Carrera responded very gracefully and thoughtfully to the interrogation.  Couric was heavily criticized and later made a statement calling herself an “insensitive buffoon.”

Even before her transition Carrera has utilized a hyper-sexual aesthetic, particularly in her drag performances where she was frequently scantily clad and labelled “the body.”  Since her transition Carrera has continued to utilize a highly feminine look publically.  The third suggested result features the added search term “family” and shows Carrera as a classic bride with her husband and step-daughters.  Her racy W Magazine feature shot by renowned fashion photographer Steven Meisel features the words “La Femme” over photos of Carrera in lingerie.  This hetero-normative appearance and behavior was made perhaps in an attempt to help normalize Carrera and her trans identity to main stream media consumers.

In this Twitter thread famous transwoman Laverne Cox utilizes her platform to speak about a diverse number of trans issues.  She is particularly focused on the problems associated with the binary based femininity and masculinity enforced on all people, particularly transmen and women.  Cox gained fame from her appearance on the Netflix original Orange is the New Black and further gained recognition when she appeared on the cover of Time Magazine in 2014 next to the headline “The Transgender Tipping Point.”  Cox displays more than typical representations of femininity in her appearance.  She is most frequently seen with long, well styled hair and impeccable makeup.  It’s likely she wouldn’t have been cast in OITNB if her presentation hadn’t been so identifiably feminine but she uses her platform attained by her presentation to elevate and introduce important trans issues.  

On the other hand, we have Chaz Bono who is a famous, transgender male who adheres to heteronormative standards of masculinity. Becoming Chaz is a documentary released about Bono recounting his journey through transitioning from female to male. In the documentary, Bono says “I hated my body since puberty. In high school, often at night, I would pray that I would wake up the next day as a boy.” Becoming Chaz discusses Bono’s struggles through gender dysmorphia in addition to telling the stories of his family members and close friends, and how they supported him or felt through his transition. He shares that he felt “trapped” in his female body.

While his feelings are absolutely valid, this highly publicized account of transitioning is not an accurate representation of every transgender person. It is harmful because documentaries like Becoming Chaz are the only avenue of information for people who otherwise know very little about the transgender community. Being a transgender person is fluid, and isn’t outright being a heteronormative male or female, which is what Bono’s story insinuates.

Additionally, Bono’s transition is one that is based on privilege. Any sexual reconstruction surgery is costly, and hormone pills are not easily accessible for everyone. It’s clear that the documentary does not discuss the discrepancies of privilege and wealth within the transgender community.

This is a screenshot of a Buzzfeed article released in early 2016. Arguably, every transman included in the article abides by heteronormative masculine norms. In alignment with these norms, each transman clearly appears to be a self-identifying males.

While in nature, the article is intended to be lighthearted and relatable based on Buzzfeed’s content culture, it can be argued that the overall message of the article is that transgender men are people to be sexualized, and that being sexualized makes them more palatable human beings overall. Most of the photos included in the article depict trans men being sexually suggestive.

One of the transmen included in the article, Leo Sheng, shared his perspective on being included in the article. In an article published by MTV, Sheng shares that the image shared of him was originally a post regarding his journey in self-love—a detail that the Buzzfeed article left out. Sheng shares that he felt uncomfortable with the article because it perpetuated the unnecessary fascination with transgender people’s bodies.

Additionally, Sheng shares the importance of remembering that transgender people and transitions happen in many different forms, that they don’t all abide by heteronormative standards, and that the transgender community should be recognized beyond being hyperfeminine or hypermasculine.

Conclusion

As expressed, heteronormative standards are insidious and setback inclusivity within mainstream media. To create a more inclusive and accurate representation of and narrative for transgender people and the problems they face we must first critique heteronormative standards and challenge them. Additionally, current transgender representation within popular culture lack the experiences that other underprivileged trans people face. More to the point, transgender people are greater than the sum of their parts and coverage on trans people should not solely focus on sex reassignment surgery because it further degrades trans people to their privates when trans people are fighting to be recognized not for their parts, but for who they are. Therefore, famous trans people and mainstream media should use their platform to call attention to other transgender issues and make a note of the variety of identity expressions within the trans community.

Bibliography

Akita, Kimiko;Besel, Richard D.;Comeforo, Kristin;Drushel, Bruce E.. (2013). Queer Media Images. Lexington Books. Retrieved 19 October 2017, from <http://www.myilibrary.com?ID=486614>

Allen, S. (2017, February 5). MOVING ON ‘I Think I Made a Mistake’: Katie Couric On Her Transgender Evolution. Retrieved October 19, 2017, from Daily Beast: https://www.thedailybeast.com/i-think-i-made-a-mistake-katie-couric-on-her-transgender-evolution

Cavalcante, A. (2017). Breaking into transgender life: Transgender audiences' experiences with “First of its kind” visibility in popular media: Transgender breakout texts. Communication, Culture & Critique, doi:10.1111/cccr.12165

DeClue, J. (2017). To visualize the queen diva. Transgender Studies Quarterly, 4(2), 219-225. doi:10.1215/23289252-3815021

Steinmetz, K. (2017, April 22). Caitlyn Jenner: Why Focusing on Her Surgery Is Problematic. Retrieved September 28, 2017, from http://time.com/4745641/caitlyn-jenner-surgery-memoir-2020/

Bailey , F., & Barbato, R. (Directors). (n.d.). Becoming Chaz [Video file].

Talusan, M. (2016, February). 26 Trans Guys Who Are Way Too Hot To Handle. Retrieved October 19, 2017, from https://www.buzzfeed.com/meredithtalusan/26-trans-guys-who-will-make-you-thirsty?utm_term=.jqe9nz0P8#.tj04Ev5G7

Sheng, L. (2016, February 16). My Problem With Being Included On BuzzFeed's '26 Trans Guys Who Will Make You Thirsty' List. Retrieved October 19, 2017, from http://www.mtv.com/news/2740346/my-problem-with-being-included-on-buzzfeeds-26-trans-guys-who-will-make-you-thirsty-list/

[citrina-posts]

Avatar: Cultural Appreciation or Appropriation?

I love Avatar: the Last Airbender. Obviously I do, because I run a fan blog on it. But make no mistake: it is a show built upon cultural appropriation. And you know what? For the longest time, as an Asian-American kid, I never saw it that way.

There are plenty of reasons why I never realized this as a kid, but I’ve narrowed it down to a few reasons. One is that I was desperate to watch a show with characters that looked like me in it that wasn’t anime (nothing wrong with anime, it’s just not my thing). Another is that I am East Asian (I have Taiwanese and Korean ancestry) and in general, despite being the outward “bad guys”, the East Asian cultural aspects of Avatar are respected far more than South Asian, Middle Eastern, and other influences. A third is that it’s easy to dismiss the negative parts of a show you really like, so I kind of ignored the issue for a while. I’m going to explain my own perspective on these reasons, and why I think we need to have a nuanced discussion about it. 

Obviously, the leadership behind ATLA was mostly white. We all know the co-creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino (colloquially known as Bryke) are white. So were most of the other episodic directors and writers, like Aaron Ehasz, Lauren Montgomery, and Joaquim Dos Santos. This does not mean they were unable to treat Asian cultures with respect, and I honestly do believe that they tried their best! But it does mean they have certain blinders, certain perceptions of what is interesting and enjoyable to watch. Avatar was applauded in its time for being based mostly on Asian and Native American cultures, but one has to wonder: how much of that choice was based on actual respect for these people, and how much was based on what they considered to be “interesting”, “quirky”, or “exotic”?

The aesthetic of the show, with its bending styles based on various martial arts forms, written language all in Chinese text, and characters all decked out in the latest Han dynasty fashions, is obviously directly derivative of Asian cultures. Fine. That’s great! They hired real martial artists to copy the bending styles accurately, had an actual Chinese calligrapher do all the lettering, and clearly did their research on what clothing, hair, and makeup looked like. The animation studios were in South Korea, so Korean animators were the ones who did the work. Overall, this is looking more like appreciation for a beautiful culture, and that’s exactly what we want in a rapidly diversifying world of media.

But there’s always going to be some cherry-picking, because it’s inevitable. What’s easy to animate, what appeals to modern American audiences, and what is practical for the world all come to mind as reasons. It’s just that… they kinda lump cultures together weirdly. Song from Book 2 (that girl whose ostrich-horse Zuko steals) wears a hanbok, a traditionally Korean outfit. It’s immediately recognizable as a hanbok, and these dresses are exclusive to Korea. Are we meant to assume that this little corner of the mostly Chinese Earth Kingdom is Korea? Because otherwise, it’s just treated as another little corner of the Earth Kingdom. Korea isn’t part of China. It’s its own country with its own culture, history, and language. Other aspects of Korean culture are ignored, possibly because there wasn’t time for it, but also probably because the creators thought the hanbok was cute and therefore they could just stick it in somewhere. But this is a pretty minor issue in the grand scheme of things (super minor, compared to some other things which I will discuss later on).

It’s not the lack of research that’s the issue. It’s not even the lack of consideration. But any Asian-American can tell you: it’s all too easy for the Asian kids to get lumped together, to become pan-Asian. To become the equivalent of the Earth Kingdom, a mass of Asians without specific borders or national identities. It’s just sort of uncomfortable for someone with that experience to watch a show that does that and then gets praised for being so sensitive about it. I don’t want you to think I’m from China or Vietnam or Japan; not because there’s anything wrong with them, but because I’m not! How would a French person like to be called British? It would really piss them off. Yet this happens all the time to Asian-Americans and we are expected to go along with it. And… we kind of do, because we’ve been taught to.

1. Growing Up Asian-American

I grew up in the early to mid-2000s, the era of High School Musical and Hannah Montana and iCarly, the era of Spongebob and The Amazing World of Gumball and Fairly Odd Parents. So I didn’t really see a ton of Asian characters onscreen in popular shows (not anime) that I could talk about with my white friends at school. One exception I recall was London from Suite Life, who was hardly a role model and was mostly played up for laughs more than actual nuance. Shows for adults weren’t exactly up to par back then either, with characters like the painfully stereotypical Raj from Big Bang Theory being one of the era that comes to mind.

So I was so grateful, so happy, to see characters that looked like me in Avatar when I first watched it. Look! I could dress up as Azula for Halloween and not Mulan for the third time! Nice! I didn’t question it. These were Asian characters who actually looked Asian and did cool stuff like shoot fireballs and throw knives and were allowed to have depth and character development. This was the first reason why I never questioned this cultural appropriation. I was simply happy to get any representation at all. This is not the same for others, though.

2. My Own Biases

Obviously, one can only truly speak for what they experience in their own life. I am East Asian and that is arguably the only culture that is treated with great depth in Avatar.

I don’t speak for South Asians, but I’ve certainly seen many people criticize Guru Pathik, the only character who is explicitly South Asian (and rightly so. He’s a stereotype played up for laughs and the whole thing with chakras is in my opinion one of the biggest plotholes in the show). They’ve also discussed how Avatar: The Last Airbender lifts heavily from Hinduism (with chakras, the word Avatar itself, and the Eye of Shiva used by Combustion Man to blow things up). Others have expressed how they feel the sandbenders, who are portrayed as immoral thieves who deviously kidnap Appa for money, are a direct insult to Middle Eastern and North African cultures. People have noted that it makes no sense that a culture based on Inuit and other Native groups like the Water Tribe would become industrialized as they did in the North & South comics, since these are people that historically (and in modern day!) opposed extreme industrialization. The Air Nomads, based on the Tibetan people, are weirdly homogeneous in their Buddhist-inspired orange robes and hyperspiritual lifestyle. So too have Southeast Asians commented on the Foggy Swamp characters, whose lifestyles are made fun of as being dirty and somehow inferior. The list goes on.

These things, unlike the elaborate and highly researched elements of East Asian culture, were not treated with respect and are therefore cultural appropriation. As a kid, I had the privilege of not noticing these things. Now I do.

White privilege is real, but every person has privileges of some kind, and in this case, I was in the wrong for not realizing that. Yes, I was a kid; but it took a long time for me to see that not everyone’s culture was respected the way mine was. They weren’t considered *aesthetic* enough, and therefore weren’t worth researching and accurately portraying to the creators. It’s easy for a lot of East Asians to argue, “No! I’ve experienced racism! I’m not privileged!” News flash: I’ve experienced racism too. But I’ve also experienced privilege. If white people can take their privilege for granted, so too can other races. Shocking, I know. And I know now how my privilege blinded me to the fact that not everybody felt the same euphoria I did seeing characters that looked like them onscreen. Not if they were a narrow and offensive portrayal of their race. There are enough good-guy Asian characters that Fire Lord Ozai is allowed to be evil; but can you imagine if he was the only one?

3. What It Does Right

This is sounding really down on Avatar, which I don’t want to do. It’s a great show with a lot of fantastic themes that don’t show up a lot in kids’ media. It isn’t superficial or sugarcoating in its portrayal of the impacts of war, imperialism, colonialism, disability, and sexism, just to name a few. There are characters like Katara, a brown girl allowed to get angry but is not defined by it. There are characters like Aang, who is the complete opposite of toxic masculinity. There are characters like Toph, who is widely known as a great example of how to write a disabled character.

But all of these good things sort of masked the issues with the show. It’s easy to sweep an issue under the rug when there’s so many great things to stack on top and keep it down. Alternatively, one little problem in a show seems to make-or-break media for some people. Cancel culture is the most obvious example of this gone too far. Celebrity says one ignorant thing? Boom, cancelled. But… kind of not really, and also, they’re now terrified of saying anything at all because their apologies are mocked and their future decisions are scrutinized. It encourages a closed system of creators writing only what they know for fear of straying too far out of their lane. Avatar does do a lot of great things, and I think it would be silly and immature to say that its cultural appropriation invalidates all of these things. At the same time, this issue is an issue that should be addressed. Criticizing one part of the show doesn’t mean that the other parts of it aren’t good, or that you shouldn’t be a fan.

If Avatar’s cultural appropriation does make you uncomfortable enough to stop watching, go for it. Stop watching. No single show appeals to every single person. At the same time, if you’re a massive fan, take a sec (honestly, if you’ve made it this far, you’ve taken many secs) to check your own privilege, and think about how the blurred line between cultural appreciation (of East Asia) and appropriation (basically everybody else) formed. Is it because we as viewers were also captivated by the aesthetic and overall story, and so forgive the more problematic aspects? Is it because we’ve been conditioned so fully into never expecting rep that when we get it, we cling to it?

I’m no media critic or expert on race, cultural appropriation, or anything of the sort. I’m just an Asian-American teenager who hopes that her own opinion can be put out there into the world, and maybe resonate with someone else. I hope that it’s given you new insight into why Avatar: The Last Airbender is a show with both cultural appropriation and appreciation, and why these things coexist. Thank you for reading!