Advice On Writing - How To Avoid Writing Crappy Content

If you're a web content writer whose online writing jobs are the typical brainless topics, it's extremely easy to get lazy.  You know that you can basically slop together a bunch of utter crap and your clients may be completely happy with it as long as it has the keyword phrase X number of times.  You can get paid to write total bilge and slap it out as quickly as your fingers can hit the keys.  You can base a very successful ghostwriter career on being a crap-writer.

But late at night, after the clacking of keyboard keys dies down and the computer is off, there'll be a little nagging voice in the back of your head.  It's that stupid inner perfectionist that all writers have; that obnoxious voice that tells you your squandering your talents as a writer churning out more of the same garbage the internet's already filled with.

Or maybe not.  Okay, it might be just me.  I guess I get a little bit of a conscience sometimes and wonder if the web needs more articles on the health benefits of fish oil.  So, I've thought of some ways to write your 100 articles on upholstery cleaning while still being true to the real writer (you know, "artist") inside.

Imagine Your Name Is Going To Be On It

Ghostwriting gives you an excuse to let things slide, but imagine that your content was going to be published under your name!  Sure, your old friends would be saying, "I didn't know Greg knew so much about breast enhancement," but that's not the point.  The point is that it has to be GOOD.  Write those infant massage articles so that your old friends would be impressed with what you're doing these days.  Make those articles on wart removal so good you'd put your name on them (but you won't).

Write What You Want To Read

Ask yourself this, "If I were going to read an article on why your business should invest in the latest paper shredding technology, how would I like it to be written?"  You'd want it to be fun, original and informative.  It should give you the straight dope on shredders, while also keeping you engaged and/or entertained along the way.  I think this goes for anything you write whether web content or avant-garde poetry, but write what you'd want to read.

Imagine Your Mom Reading It

Your mom, your dad, an English teacher you liked, your mentor, a better writer, or anybody the thought of whom reading your work makes you cringe.  Actually, I picked this tip up somewhere and it really terrified me because both of my folks are teachers and writers.  The thought of them reading my content made me a lot more careful about how I wrote.  I think the major thing keeps me in line writing quality content.

I know it's a tall order to fill when somebody tells you that you should make those online property auctions articles really shine, but I'm not saying you have to put your heart and soul into them.  It's just a way to make sure that the content you write isn't like everything else out there.  When you're ghostwriting, it's easy to write crappily and avoid responsibility for it, especially when it's web content on topics like garage door openers, vein clinics and tradeshow display rentals.  But when you do good work, you make yourself and your inner writer voice proud.