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3 Tips to Make Writing Less of a Struggle

Struggle

Let’s say you want to blow up a lab.
What do you do?
You take two explosive chemicals and mix them together, right?

But what if you took Na + Cl and mixed them together somehow.
What would you get? You’d get salt.
What’s worse is that the lab would not be “blown up.”

And you’d be a failure.
The more labs you tried to blow with Na + Cl, the more you’d fail.
And the more you fail, the more you’re going to fail.

And this slides us right into why most of us struggle to write.
You see we don’t struggle to write an email.
We don’t write, re-write, re-think and then write something boring.

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How to Avoid Insulting the
Intelligence of the Reader

dumb reader

Imagine I was telling you the story of Goldilocks and The Three Bears.

Imagine I told you about Goldilocks, and how she found this house of the three bears. And how she ate their porridge. And how she sat in their chairs.

And… Are you getting impatient yet?

You should be.

Because like most people, you’ve already heard the story many times before. And when you tell a story that your readers already know, your readers do two things in rapid sequence.

  1. They try to stay engaged, hoping the story will somehow reveal some hidden mystery.
  2. They realize that there’s nothing new, and they start to nod off.

In short, you’ve insulted the intelligence of your reader.

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How To Avoid Overdoing the
Curiosity-Factor In Your Headline

Curious Cat

If you’re going to write a headline, you want the headline to attract. And one of the many elements of attraction is ‘curiosity.’

The more curious your headline, the more you have a chance of the reader stopping long enough to get interested. But hey, in the desire to write a really curious headline, we inevitably risk overdoing the headline.

So let’s analyze a headline for an example:

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How to Jolt Your Reader Into
Paying Attention

Jolted

Drama.

Drama jolts a reader into paying attention.

Novels use it. Movies use it. TV uses it.

There’s no reason why your content shouldn’t use it.

And one of the best ways to create drama is to disagree with your headline. (Yes, I said disagree).

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Why Urgency Succeeds Like Nothing Else
In A Bad Economy

Urgency

Let’s say you have to pee.

So this is a normal bodily function, eh?

It means if you feel that sensation and you don’t go soon enough, you’ll be in trouble. But how many of us go use the facilities when we first feel the sensation?

And how many of your customers are buying your products or services in a bad economy?

  • Should you discount?
  • Should you put in bigger signs?
  • Should you send out a zillion emails?

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How a Few Measly Words Can Dramatically Improve Your Blog Headline and Content

Just Words

Put a couple of tablespoons of fuel in your car’s tank today, and see what happens to the car.

I’ll tell you what happens.

It’ll probably take you a few inches further down the road.

And you’ll say to yourself: “What the heck? What difference will a few inches make?”

Just as you’d say: “What the heck? What difference will a word or two make to enhance the power of a headline?”

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