“Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue”, besides weddings can also be applied to writing for a happy marriage with your audience!
Use all 4 tricks together or just one if you wish to make your every professional article special, more human and definitely different than what's already out there.
Often, you will be asked to write an article that has already been written lots of times in the past by the competition. No matter how well your research is, it will be hard to write something new, let alone make it stand out. Yet, things can be much simpler.
You see, one thing e-writing brought to our lives and helped awesome writing stand out, is stats. Every online article is completely measurable on its reach and results.
At the beginning, many tried to trick search engines to increase their audience but soon the means adapted and now ranks only what’s truly interesting and useful to the users.
So, one more article containing just the info, even if it’s well researched and according to your audience's exact search terms, won’t make much difference.
What will, is a human article enriched with a few extra info that your readers will
want to know about. A story, in other words.
Most writers, when they are about to write a non-personal article, forget themselves.
What do I mean? They simply hook to the professional writing and totally forget their style, personality and those own personal touches that would easily make a difference if added in any other, maybe a bit more personal article.
So, even if you write about real estate or you are a ghostwriter that no one knows your name or you don’t have a clue about the industry, add one or all the below 4 elements to your article and see how much better it can be.
Something old
Find old books, reports, historical sources or just interrogate any old folk you can find. Use any means you’ve got to add a small interesting story to your article.
In an article I was asked to write about painting houses, I had remembered a story my grandfather used to tell me about the difference between the words “aspro” and “lefko”. Both mean white in greek.
So, he had told me that when people used to whitewash their houses, they poured a few drops of blue into the white paint and that changed their colour to "lefko".
According to him, "lefko" is the famous white colour of the Aegean houses and if you put it next to white colour you’ll see the difference.
He also used to say that whitewashed houses with a drop of blue are more bright in the sun. I have no idea if this is true but I thought it was a lovely story to add to a boring guide about painting houses.
Of course, when it was time to translate it, it was too late. :)
Something new
Nowadays, it is a piece of cake to find out the latest trends in any industry. Try to add one or more technological discoveries or trends that are more likely to prevail in the next few years. You will soon see that your readers will find it very interesting, too.
Once, I attended a futurist’s speech. I thought it was too weard to have someone telling the future at a digital marketing conference lineup.
I soon realised that futurists are a well-respected scientific profession, researching all technological discoveries to prevail in our future lives.
Since then, futurists are my main source to discover the most “magical” trends in any industry. Visit their websites and blogs and you’ll love them too!
Something borrowed
For every piece of article you are writing there is always a report, a study, a research or even a quote from a famous or historical person to add.
I prefer researches and data but in case your client is not
that social and doesn’t allow links to external sources, then a small quote or a phrase from a recent study, will add value to your article and the needed prestige to make it stand out.
Wikipedia is the most "innocent" place to quote or use information. Yet if you have the freedom, a relevant video with instructions on your subject will skyrocket your article.
Something blue
We are humans and so, we should not forget the human element even if we write about wardrobes or plaster walls. Your reader should always feel that what he reads was written by a person not a robot.
Connect with your readers and make them feel that they are not the only ones with the same questions and the same need to learn this specific piece of information.
A funny or an awkward moment of yours or even a problem we all have faced, will make your reader feel welcome and will establish a deeper connection with you aka your article.
In any case, the most reliable technique to write truly unique articles, even for the most dull subject is good research.
You have to read at least 4-5 articles on the subject - I prefer the first 5 from Google’s first results- to see what has been included, what hasn't and which of the above 4 elements will help your article get a higher position.
