KEEP IT SIMPLE

Delivering the message in a way that makes sense to readers means using accessible language and defining anything that is obscure for non-experts. You don’t have to dumb down your writing, but you do need to use common sense. Reading your own work aloud will often help you identify areas where you can simplify.


Back to my engine catalyst example: Let’s say in my first draft I wrote that the government is monetarily penalizing gross polluters. Upon reading through my article, I might decide to use the word “fined” instead of the awkward and multi-syllabic phrase “monetarily penalizing.” I also should probably define what constitutes gross pollution, unless I’ve already included the information earlier.


Making your text accessible also includes some visual tricks. Reading text on the web can be hard on the eyes. You should make your paragraphs shorter than you would for printed material, so that there’s plenty of white space allowing site visitors to rest their eyes. Let them take in a thought or two and then chill out a second before moving on.


Subheads are also helpful. These are little headlines, usually bolded or set off from the rest of the text in some way, that identify the topic at hand. They look good, typographically and they help readers who want to skip through the article and scan for the information they need. You can check out the subheads I used on this article for an example.


Don’t forget to edit your work as closely as possible. Look for spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors and double-check that names are spelled right. Get a friend or family member to read through your work.

Are you dyslexic or a legendarily bad speller? It doesn’t mean you can’t be a writer, but you do have to make sure you compensate for this. Get two friends to read through your work. Use spell check, even if you won the regional spelling bee when you were in school, because we all make mistakes. Spell check is included in nearly every word processing program and on most blogging platforms. It'll save your life.


Make sure your work is clean, whatever you do, because if your client doesn’t notice your mistakes, their site visitors will. Errors mean a loss of credibility which means a loss of customers. Period.

Avoid Being Underpaid

AVOID BEING UNDERPAID
This is where the real work of writing comes in. Don’t worry, you don’t have to be a journalist to do this. You just have to think like one. One caveat: many employers out there underestimate the time it will take for you to complete a writing project, because they don’t figure in enough time for research. Because of that, many potential clients have budgets that seriously low-ball you.


Many people are also working with a faulty paradigm: If an article is short, then it takes a writer less time to complete. The truth is, writing informatively and short can take even longer than rambling on and on. The 18th century British author Samuel Johnson famously delivered this apology to a correspondent: “I did not have time to write you a short letter, so I wrote you a long one instead.”


Research and editing take time. If a potential client wants you to write five articles and pay you $100, turn him or her down unless they are a friend or you’re willing to take the work in order to build a portfolio. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself working for far less than minimum wage. I speak from hard-won experience.