Good Writing Makes Good Publicity

If you’re a publicity seeker you should have a website or, at the very least, a blog.  And if you have one of these, you should be writing something about what you do (or sell) AND about you.  Good writing makes good publicity.

Getting publicity starts with getting your message out.  Generating GOOD publicity comes with a strong message and good writing.  That means having something relevant to say and making sure you use correct grammar.

Here are some tips I found useful from an article on the New York University website called Writing for the Web:

• Write clear, simple and effective content. The content of your site should be easy to read for everyone, preferably in a conversational style.
• Front-load your text. Put the most important content on your page in the first paragraph, so that readers scanning your pages will not miss your main idea.
• Chunk your content. Cover only one topic per paragraph.
• Be concise. Write short paragraphs and minimize unnecessary words.
• Write in active voice instead of passive voice. (Ex: ‘Tim taught the class’, instead of ‘the class was taught by Tim’.)
• Choose lists over paragraphs. When possible use lists rather than paragraphs to make your content easier to scan.

There’s nothing worse that trying to read content that doesn’t make sense, have a point or hasn’t been through a spell check.  That’ll get you some publicity but it won’t be the kind you’re really seeking.