Tag Archives: quality writing

If you don’t want to pay even a decent amount for writing services, you don’t need a writer

Nothing wrong in paying for quality content writing and copywriting

Although for many years I have been turning down low-paying content writing and copywriting assignments, on an average I get 2-3 queries every day from clients who think paying for good writing the amount it deserves, is waste of money, especially when cheap writers are available.

My standard response is, “Good for you! If you want such writers, your business needs those writers, and you should stop looking around.”

I think, in most of the cases, somehow, they get the idea that my writing services are very cheap (I really, really don’t know how I give this impression on my website), even cheaper than what they are paying now, or pretend to be paying now.

Because, otherwise, if they are paying dirt cheap and if such writing is working for them, why are they looking for another content writer unless they want to pay even less?

Fortunately, most of the clients who contact me understand that their business needs quality writing and they are going to have to pay for quality writing.

My content writing and copywriting services are not very expensive, but they are also not cheap.

I don’t undersell myself.

I run a business.

I need to maintain the cash flow.

Over the years, I have gotten an idea of how much my clients are ready to pay for the quality of writing I provide.

I charge slightly less than that.

Why you shouldn’t refrain from spending money on quality content writing?

Your written content is the main point of contact when people come to your website or access your blog or receive your email message.

When people read your content, you are talking to them.

You are trying to sell them.

If your writing is not convincing, you don’t convince your customers and clients.

Every headline counts. Every sentence counts. So does every paragraph and every bullet point.

If your writing is less than professional, your customers and clients think, well, if this person cannot write properly, how can I expect him or her to deliver his or her services professionally?

You may say, “Oh well, I am a mobile app developer, so, it doesn’t matter how the content is written on my website. The client is going to hire me for my programming prowess, not my writing abilities.”

I agree with you. In your case, the client or the customer is not looking for a writer.

Assuming you are a programmer, do you think a coder or a programmer will be exploring your website to hire you?

No, he or she will be a manager, a business owner, a digital marketer, or someone who is responsible for taking serious decisions, decisions that involve spending lots of money.

Even if he or she is a coder, he or she is also responsible for hiring people.

People on such posts are very particular about messaging, presentation and above all, professionalism.

It can easily put them off if the writing on your website is not good.

Only when they are impressed with your writing, they will consider reading about your coding prowess.

This is one thing.

Another thing is, visiting websites and reading content on websites is a highly individual activity.

Your text should be conversational and interesting.

It should be able to hold the attention of the reader.

Your writing should be able to sell your idea strongly.

The passion must drip through your words.

And, if you have such writing on your website, it will constantly generate business for you.

Otherwise… do I need to say more?

Therefore, when you are investing in a good writer, in quality content writing or quality copywriting, you are investing in your business.

Writing is the oxygen your website needs to survive.

If the quality of the oxygen is not good, your website is going to suffocate.

If you think such writing is not worth paying for, for your case, it is really not worth paying for.

After all, it’s you who are responsible for the good health or the bad health of your business.

How to improve your bounce rate with quality content writing

Improve your bounce rate with quality content writing

Improve your bounce rate with quality content writing

This blog post will explain to you how quality content writing and copywriting can help you keep your bounce rate low.

Having a low bounce rate is beneficial to your business at multiple levels.

It improves your search engine rankings.

It keeps people longer on your website and hence, improves your conversion rate.

The converse is also true: having a higher bounce rate is detrimental to your SEO and it also has an adverse effect on your conversion rate.

SEMRush says that your bounce rate is the 4th most important factor in deciding your search engine rankings.

Though, according to Search Engine Journal Google does not directly take into account your bounce rate in its search ranking algorithm, Google is increasingly using RankBrain and then consequently, searcher intent, to decide your search engine rankings and in this resspect, bounce rate becomes very important.

What is website bounce rate? Explained

Do you use Google Analytics?

When you check your details in Google Analytics, at the top you can also see your bounce rate.

Image showing bounce rate of a website

Image showing bounce rate of a website

If the bounce rate has increased, you see the information in red (meaning, not good) and when the bounce rate has decreased, you see the information in green (meaning, good).

How is the bounce rate calculated?

It is something like this:

Suppose in a given timeframe

  • X people visit your website, let’s say from Google,
  • Y among these people leave your website without checking another link

then,

Y divided by X and then the whole thing multiplied by 100 gives you your bounce rate.

In terms of mathematical formula,

Website bounce rate formula

Website bounce rate formula

Ideally, people should stay on your website to explore further.

When you have a lower bounce rate, it indicates to Google that there is valuable information on your website, and you are not simply tricking your way into better search engine rankings.

What’s a good bounce rate?

It differs from industry to industry.

On an average, 20-40% bounce rate is good.

You can use quality content writing and copywriting to improve your bounce rate

Recently I published the following blog post: Content marketing success is impossible without quality content writing.

A long time back I wrote a web page on the difference between content writing and copywriting and in there I had briefly touched upon how good copywriting affects your conversion rate.

The same holds true for your bounce rate: sales oriented content writing is almost same as copywriting so when you are thinking of reducing your bounce rate you should think like a copywriter also.

This post was inspired by this Search Engine Journal blog post on more or less the same theme: if you are not aiming for the #1 position, you are fighting a losing battle.

Why is it so?

It is because publishers (or service providers) who enjoy higher search engine rankings (top 1-5 spots) are giving Google exactly the content Google looks for, for higher search engine rankings, and this gives them a leverage for all the content that they publish.

One of the important attributes Google looks for when it is ranking your content, is your bounce rate.

This is because Google wants to evaluate the overall quality of your website rather than one off blog posts or articles or web pages.

Primarily, there are two reasons why people leave your website after just accessing the link they have found on Google:

  1. They were not impressed by your content and hence, didn’t expect to find anything worth a second glance on your website.
  2. Although they were satisfied, you didn’t give them an incentive to check out other links on your website.

The second point is just a usability issue.

Maybe a navigation bar is missing on the link.

Maybe there is no other link on the web page or blog post.

The first point is a dangerous point.

If people are not impressed with your content, they don’t stay on your website and if they don’t stay on your website, they don’t do business with.

Why is it important for people to stay on your website after they have checked out the link they found on Google?

Although there might be multiple web pages and blog posts that draw people to your website from the search engines, you need people to check out relevant web pages that prompt them to do business with you.

For example, if you land on this blog post trying to find out how you can improve your bounce rate with quality content writing, and if you are looking for a good content writer, you will need to check out my other web pages to be able to make up your mind and then submit my contact form.

Of course, if you are mainly looking for information and if this blog post satisfies you there is no problem in your leaving immediately after accessing this web page.

But, there is a problem if you need a quality content writer but you still leave my website without checking out other web pages.

It means as a content writer I haven’t impressed you and convinced you.

To get business, I don’t need to stop everyone from moving away from my website, I just need to stop those people who are looking for a reliable content writer.

Similarly, the quality and relevance of your content should be able to convince people into checking out the relevant sections on your website.

Quality content writing has a cascading effect on your bounce rate

When I talk about quality content writing, I am primarily focusing on relevance.

Quality in terms of writing without mistakes (factual and syntactical) I take by default.

Relevance is very important. Is your particular blog post or web page relevant to the person who has just landed on this particular link?

If you have come to this blog post straight away, does it give you the answer you were looking for when you used your query on Google or any other search engine?

After relevance, another factor that contributes to what quality content writing (and consequently, a lower bounce rate) is the way you format your text.

On the Internet, especially when people access your content on their mobile devices, it is very important that people are able to read your content easily.

It means keep your sentences are short.

Keep your paragraphs short.

Avoid overtly complicated words and expressions.

Basically, keep your content to mobile friendly.

Maintain a flow in such a manner that the previous sentence connects to the next sentence and form a collective narrative. This is very important to keep people reading what you have written.

After that, keep your writing conversational.

When you are writing, write as if you’re talking to someone. Don’t write as if you are talking to 50 people. Write as if you’re talking to just one single person.

Use internal linking strategically. Don’t overdo, but use other links from your web site or blog contextually.

Make sure that the link doesn’t needlessly take people away from what they are currently reading, but encourages them to check out extra information if need be. This way, they will have more reason to stay on your website.

Repeatedly I come back to relevance, problem solving and serving the purpose. Take care of these attributes while content writing and you can definitely improve your bounce rate.

Why you should pay for good quality content writing

Is quality content writing worth paying for?

Is quality content writing worth paying for?

Over the years what I have learnt is that it is not difficult for people to understand the importance of quality content writing. Everybody knows he or she needs good content to improve conversion rate as well as search engine rankings.

What is difficult is, convincing people to pay for quality writing.

Yesterday someone who had been inquiring about my content writing services called and told me that he was getting content 60% cheaper than what I was quoting.

Until a few years ago I used to get worried. Fortunately, situation has changed.

If there are 5 clients were more worried about the money they’re spending and less about the quality of content writing, there are also 5 clients who understand that for quality content writing, they need to pay, because it is a job for the content writer they are hiring.

“Good for you,” I replied. “Please hire him or her.”

Of course, he was trying to bargain because even when I curtly told him to go to the writer who was charging a lot less, he asked for my samples and insisted that he was more interested in getting his writing done from me.

Why it’s worth it to pay a good content writer for quality content writing

As rightly explained in this blog post, your content is long-term investment.

It is going to be there all the time.

If you’re serious about your business, if you’re confident about your proposition, if you know that you are providing value for money, it needs to show through your content.

Frankly, everybody can write.

But when you’re writing for a business website, it is less about writing and more about communicating, and communicating convincingly.

When you work with an experienced content writer like me, the writer brings along the entire package of experience, knowledge and ability.

When you are writing for a business website or even an email marketing campaign, it isn’t just about writing. Even an 8th grader can writer.

It’s those sentences. Those pauses. Using right words at right places. Knowing when to use shorter sentences and when to use longer explanations. The call to action words.

There are scores of things that you use when you are writing for a business website to make the right impact.

You cannot immediately learn these things and then start writing. You acquire them through years of practice and writing for real businesses.

The above blog post lists the following reasons why it is worth it to pay to an experienced content writer for quality content writing:

  • Good content generates business on an ongoing basis: As explained above, quality content is a long-term investment. It goes on generating business for you. If it is written well, for years it will draw customers and clients to you. You pay for it just once but it gives you repeat business.
  • You get well-researched content: Research is essential to quality writing. Whenever you make claims in your writing, you need to back those claims with credible data and research. You have to quote your sources, and those sources themselves must be credible. An experienced content writer is used to the rigors of writing high-quality, research-based content.
  • Quality content conveys personality: People should be able to recognise your content by its quality. A capable and experienced content writer knows how to adapt to your personality, or the characteristic of your brand and then write content accordingly. Without personality, your content will be unable to engage and draw audience to your website.
  • SEO (search engine optimization): SEO is and the way it used to be. There was a time when you could use some keywords and search terms by splattering them here and there and you could improve your SEO, this no longer works. SEO these days depends on the quality of your content, its relevance, and the purpose it solves. Only a good content writer can deliver content that gives you lasting SEO benefits.
  • You get a higher conversion rate: Ultimately, the only thing that matters is conversion – how many people become your paying customers and clients. There is no use improving your search engine rankings if you don’t improve business. Only an experienced content writer can achieve this for you.
  • Sounding like a human: Most of the cheaper content writers seem like machines. The use poor grammar. The use half-baked sentences. They simply use key words here and there thinking that it will improve your search engine rankings. They don’t communicate. They don’t convey your passion. They don’t talk to your audience. They don’t engage in conversations.

These days I don’t argue much with people who tell me that they can get cheaper content writers.

Well, maybe this is a business model and maybe it even works for them.

But if you’re looking for quality content writing, you must know that it comes at a price because the person who is writing that content does it for a living.

Does quality content writing worth paying for? Definitely.

Why I’m negotiating with my clients less and less for better content writing

Saying "no" to negotiations

Saying “no” to negotiations

Around a year ago when I changed my targeting I became quite open to negotiating my rates with my new clients. I was too eager to take up new assignments because I was trying to get into an entirely new market.

Since then, two things have happened and now I’m negotiating with my clients less and less.

  1. Lowering the rates more than I can comfortably offer reduces the quality of my work.
  2. I have got enough work on the rates I need to deliver quality.

Why negotiations are harmful for quality content writing?

I’m not saying negotiations are always bad – every business, every company does them and besides, everybody is entitled to a good bargain.

In my case, I always offer the best rate I can offer. I always feel uncomfortable offering a higher rate assuming that the client will ask me to lower it and then I should say something like, “Okay, fine, I will do it at a discount for you.” Feels like cheating. Doesn’t sound dignified.

This is why, I charge just the right amount I think I should be making while delivering high-quality content writing.

The rates that I charge allow me to spend good time writing good content. If a charge less, then I have to make it up by focusing more on quantity and less on quality which is not good for my clients, and more importantly, not good for my own skill.

Yes, it puts off many clients, but then, there ARE clients who find my rates fine and eagerly pay me what I ask.