Writing for Myself & Business

For this Write Anything Wednesday, I want to talk about writing in general.

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Writing for Myself

As you can see by this blog, I want to write for myself first and foremost. That’s the way it should be, although, I love an audience.

Since others will be reading what I write from time to time, I want my stuff to look good. I edit from time to time, mostly due to correcting grammar and spelling mistakes.

Where I Need to Improve

On Saturday, April 30, 2016, I spent a little time going over old blog posts. During this time, I noticed something. Whereas I could say that I tried my best to have good spelling and grammar, the text was hard to read.

It’s normally hard for me to read over my old work. I fear that there will be misspelled words grammatical mistakes. There usually are errors. In the back of my mind, I feel those errors will make me look dumb. I can be my own harshest critic at times.

Now, the errors aren’t what I’m focusing on right now. What was the problem? Some sentences in particular were hard to read. Those sentences were often too long.

When I have the time to sit down and write blog posts or essays, I could put down quite a lot. These posts are jam-packed with my thoughts and I might not remember all that I want to say.

The problem is I want to do too much with some posts. That is, of course, reflected in some of my sentences. Sometimes, I have flowery speech when I just need to get to the point.

There are also paragraphs in my older posts that were too big, as well. When I’m at my best, I can keep paragraphs to 3-5 sentences. Some paragraphs need more sentences, but I would say 3-5 is normally a good range for a personal essay.

Additionally, I can give myself bonus points for linking the paragraphs together. As a result, I’m thoroughly pleased with posts that have those features.

Yet there are good posts that still have the problems I’m talking about.

My Ultimate Goal

Why am I bringing this the above?

Well, I really want to earn some serious money as a writer, among other things. In order to succeed on the writing front, I need to improve as an editor. Right now I need to work on improving the readability of my posts. And it all starts with sentence construction.

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Writing for Businesses

I have been getting practice in between building this blog and working on a company blog. One of the most important things I have learned so far is SEO.

Working with SEO

What is SEO, you might ask? The letters stand for search engine optimization. (There are a number of posts about it on WordPress for those inclined to know more.) Anyway, SEO is important for web developers and companies because their ultimate goal is to gain customers.

Having an online presence is vital for most companies, especially those that are virtual. They need to use web content to drive traffic to their websites. This is done with a series of practices that start with keyword usage. Readability is also very important.

Speaking of that, I would like to focus on one factor: The Flesch Readability Score.

If you haven’t heard about The Flesch Readability Score, it’s an important score that affects an overall SEO score. It’s based on one of the Flesh-Kincade Readability Tests, but moreso on the Reading Ease Test.

In short: You should aim to have your posts score at least in the 60’s for optimal readability. When working for the company blog, this became second nature to me.

I’m not sure how my personal blog posts score, though.

The Hardest Part

Last week has been the busiest time I have had in my online life. I have recently stepped up my efforts in pursuing a career as a blog writer.

Writing for a business is not hard if you know your subject. Optimizing posts and pages for SEO isn’t hard once you understand SEO principles and practices. The hardest part for writing for a business is all the damn research required.

Sometimes you have to read articles that go well over 5,000 words. I hate that the most since I wish I was a faster reader. And I don’t believe I have ever broken 3,000 words on any post I have written in life!

Speaking of, I’m procrastinating right now. I have various projects that are due in the next three days. I got to get my butt to work!