Conversational Writing Online Your English Teacher Would Hate

So what is conversational writing, you ask. I'll give you the simple answer. Write like you're talking to a friend. Tell your friend what you want to put into a post or article. But, tell that friend via written word instead of spoken word.

Simple Conversational Writing Starts with Practice

Yes, that sounds simple. But, doing it is amazingly hard for many people. How in world will you accomplish this? Another simple answer. Practice.

• Start writing. 
• Start telling your friend something. 
• Tell her or him in your mind. 
• Write it down on your paper or computer. 
• Keep imagining your conversation. 
• Keep writing it down.

Push Your English Teacher Out of Your Mind

If you keep thinking about what is proper English and what you learned in high school, you'll have a

hard time getting to conversational writing. So stick your English teacher on a top shelf. You want to talk to a friend, not get a good grade on a term paper.

Think in shorter sentences. Impact sentences. Think in casual terms. This means things like: it's okay to end a sentence with preposition. "I don't know where it came from." instead of "It came from I know not where." Conversational instead of formal.

Notice one of the things I have done often so far. Incomplete sentences. You don't talk to your friend in full blown sentences all the time. You use short, incomplete sentences, probably more often than you realize.

The Anonymity of the Internet

The vast majority of your online readers have no idea who you are. They've never met you. Why should they trust you and what you say? They'll trust you because you sound like a friend.

While they read, if they feel like a friend is telling them something, they will trust it more. You trust your friend to be straight forward with you. Online readers will also.

Test this out for yourself. Go find a bunch of random articles and posts on the Internet. Read them and pay attention to how you feel as you do. When you hit one that sounds like a term paper for an English teacher's good grade, how do you feel? When you hit one that sounds like the writer is talking directly to you, how do you feel?

Now, start writing to your own online audience as though they were all great friends. Have a conversation with them. Just do it in writing. That is conversational writing online. By the way, don't show this to your English teacher.

Get to the Point in Your Online Writing

Writing online is different. The structure of your article/content is important and can turn "scanners" into "readers".

Your title is your hook, your content is the line you use to reel them into becoming a reader. So, what type of structure do you need when writing online?

Getting to the Point Early is Key

Writing online is not like a book where you have to set a scene with descriptive words. Get. To. The. Point. Quickly. Or, you risk losing the hook or advantage you gained from creating a great title.

Online writing, the format is a combination of the two well known formulas (see below). Try to follow this rough outline when you write content for the web:

• Intro -- Outline questions, problems, information you will be writing about in your article. This needs to have a bit more flair to make it interesting to online scanners and readers since it may very well be the only part of your article they actually read.
  
  Build credibility and authority here by mentioning your experience but this is not the place for long stories -- short, to the point sentences. Be sure to include targeted keywords.

• Body -- Start your paragraphs with the important information scanners and readers are looking for, then finish the paragraph with supporting info, short stories or experience.
  
  Pepper CTA's (calls to action) with well placed relevant products as images or other relevant images within your body. Use styling tools so there is lots of white space. 

• Conclusion -- Close with reminders of answers to questions or problems, more CTA's and even by pointing readers where to go for further information (whether it's your website or another.) 

Journalism Style

In journalism, writers are taught to layout the important facts of a story up front. They know newspaper readers often scan stories too. By putting the important info in the first paragraph (or first few) they hope to entice them to read the rest of the story.

The middle is used for a more detailed account of the story, interview quotes and other supporting facts. The end of the article is reserved for the least important or minor information. Things like contact or background information.

Journalism writing is like starting your article with what English class would call the conclusion or an "Inverted Pyramid" style of relaying information. (see diagram)

English Class Style

In writing theme papers for English class, visually it would look more like a regular triangle. It's a seemingly more logical way to write but not the most interesting -- at least from a scanner or reader point of view. The format means you will have to hunt for the information that really interests you.

The style works more like this: In the introduction you introduce your topic, angle and what you will write about in the body. In the body of the article, you follow through with your promise from the intro (and the title) and deliver the important information.

The conclusion is where you summarize everything you have written about in the body -- reiterating main or key points.

Tweaking for Online Content

If you are a blogger or webmaster, internet marketer or have a website for your real world business, "how" you write online is key. You want your content read or it's a waste of time. Avoiding the 5 most common mistakes and knowing how searchers read online gives us the opportunity to format our writing in a way that searchers will become scanners and scanners will become readers.

The 5 Worst Mistakes for Online Writing

You've been writing online for awhile and still your only reader is your mother. Are you guilty of making the 5 worst mistakes in your online writing? Sounds like it to me. Let's look at each mistake. Let's see what you can improve with your writing for the Web.

Worst Mistake #1: Unclear, Unfulfilled Title

What does your title say about your article or post? Does it tell readers immediately what your page is about? Look at the title of this article. You know immediately what this article is about, and you expect me to give you all 5 mistakes. You might have even skimmed down the page to make sure there are 5.

A Dream About Betty Crocker. It's an interesting title, but what in the world would I find if I read that? Would I find information about better cooking? How to write a cookbook? How to create a huge business? Sounds like a great title for a mystery novel to me. But, not a good title for an online article.

Worst Mistake #2: Fluffy, Useless Intro

So, my friend and I were chatting yesterday and we talked about doing some fun craft projects and she thought I should write an article about how to make my felt flower bouquets. Then we kept talking and I realized...zzzzzzz. Time to hit the back button.

Let's get real here. I don't care what you and your friend were talking about. I care about what the article is supposed to be about. How it came about that you wrote this article or post is not of value to your readers. Get to the purpose of your article right away. Right in your intro.

Worst Mistake #3: Fluffy, Useless Content 

You might have heard that 300 words is the minimum your article should be. But, you've written your information in 200 words. If you start adding in a bunch of fluff just to get your word count up, you are guilty of Worst Mistake #3.

Instead of adding fluffy, useless content, find more information that can help your readers. Suggest ways they can use this info in their own lives. Offer tips for making this info more helpful. Give your readers more value. Skip the fluff to get the word count up.

Worst Mistake #4: Bulky Blocks of Text

Online readers are actually skimmers. They will scroll down your page letting their eyes be grabbed by:

• sub-titles
• images
• lists
• short paragraphs

The first thing they will scroll right on past are large blocks of text. Test it out for yourself. How often do you stop to read 15 lines of text all bunched together?

Keep your information grouped into short paragraphs. A few lines per paragraph are great for online readers.

Worst Mistake #5: Formal, Stiff Writing

Let your high school English teacher cringe. You don't want formal writing online. You want comfortable writing. This means short sentences, familiar words and talking to your reader. You are not writing a term paper for a grade. You are giving information to a person. Another human.

Comfortable writing does not mean bad writing. Watch your spelling. Use the right contractions. Remember, "your" means it belongs to you, while "you're" means you are. Online writing is not the time to mix those up.

Review Your Own Writing for the Web

Take a look at your own articles and posts for the Web. Are you guilty of making even one of the 5 worst mistakes? If you are guilty of all 5, then you have an article or post that only a mother could love.

5 Differences Between Writing for Web and Writing for Print

Writing for print is different than writing for the web.

There is a huge difference between writing for the web and writing for printed articles. The sooner web writers figure this out, the better. Readers, their reasons for reading and what they read are very different online than they are in printed materials.

If you want to write for the web, you have to first forget ideas that were drilled into you about writing for print. The online reader is a different breed. They aren't ruled by proper grammar, sentence structure and flourishes of  descriptive writing or back story.

The key to being a successful writer online is to know what your target audience wants and give it to them. Check out the list of 5 differences below. You might have an "Aha" moment.

#5 -- Online Readers are actually "Online Scanners"

Rarely do they read word for word like a book or newspaper might be read. Accept this and embrace it in your writing by changing the style or format of your text on the page.

#4  -- Get to the point

While magazines and books can afford a flowery version, searchers online want to quickly verify your article or webpage has the information they are interested in.

#3  -- Use relevant images

This not only helps break up the text but a picture about your topic reinforces the idea the searcher is in the right place for information they seek.

#2  --  Make a promise...

with your title or headline and follow through in the body of the article or post. Trying to trick searchers will only hurt your credibility in the end.

#1 --  Use conversational writing whenever possible

The web is filled with people of different education levels and from different backgrounds. English composition writing takes time to read and write. Write like you are talking to a friend and everyone will understand the gist of your post or article.

Now, try an exercise. Pull up an article or post you've written. Check your writing against the differences listed. Rewrite the article (or parts of it) if necessary and re-publish it. See if your comments and/or traffic changes for the better...