Give Your Content Some Backbone - How Not To Write Insanely Boring Content

It may seem like quite a challenge to write content that makes people fall asleep, but surprisingly, it's not that difficult these days. Unfortunately there’s far too much insanely boring content online. There’s many reasons for this. Firstly, too many people who aren’t writers have the opportunity to post information online.

Another reason is that despite numerous Google algorithm updates which encourage people to do otherwise, people still feel compelled to write mundane content for SEO purposes only. Snore. I could go on (people are lazy with their content, some businesses still won’t invest in quality content, people focus on quantity over quality), but I won’t.

So how do you make sure that the content you are putting out there doesn’t make people want to rest their head on their keyboard and take a nap? There’s no simple answer, but the most important thing is that you need to put time and resources into your content.

Of course there are immensely boring topics that some businesses have to write about, but dull topics don’t have to be dealt with in a mundane way. Even the most snooze worthy subjects can be approached in a fresh way and made vaguely interesting, it just takes a little creativity.

Being an online copywriter, I have had to write about topics that make me want to claw my eyes out. Instead of complaining about how horrendously dull a topic is, I see it as a challenge. An interesting topic is easy to make fascinating, so where’s the fun in that?

As a content writer, if you can take a topic no one wants to read about, and make people see from a different perspective, you are onto a winner. I have plenty of experience writing about boring content, so I thought I would share some of my knowledge. Here’s how not to write insanely boring content.

Find a unique angle

Lots of SEO experts like to write on topics that get a lot of traffic, which often means writing about topics that have been exhausted. Instead of changing the title slightly, try and find a completely new angle. Look at the subject from a unique perspective so that it will stand out from the 104838 other articles on the same topic.

For example, instead of writing an article about ‘how to lose belly fat', (which was the most searched for question in Google last year), research the most effective and popular stomach exercises - ‘10 Killer Belly Exercises That Will Give You Abs of Steal.’

Inject some personality

I really appreciate it when brands I work with take the time to explain the tone of voice they want to use, and I get even more excited when they say they want their writing style to be different to all the other brands out there. This gives me the freedom to stamp some personality on the content, which makes it a whole lot more enjoyable to read.

Don’t just write in the normal, boring and painfully dull corporate way. Add some originality to your content, it is possible to write professional content that has a bit of flavour to it.

People take notice of content that isn’t the same jargon and meaningless words that they read day in day out.

The internet is basically an enormous book full of stories, you need to decide what character you are, and channel them when writing your content.

Consider different types of content

You can just use words to convey your message. Or you could use pictures, images, graphs, graphics, cartoons, augmented reality, slideshows or podcasts. We have so many different ways to communicate stories, yet so many brands fail to take advantage of this. It’s simple, people like visual forms of communication. Perhaps people will read this post because of the main image, it's eye catching ad unique. 

Visual content was a huge part of the strategies of most social media sites last year, and this isn’t going to change.

Researchers found that coloured visuals increase people's willingness to read a piece of content by 80%.

A really long post filled only with words is unlikely to grab attention unless it’s been written extremely well.

Use attention grabbing stats

Spice up your articles with some attention grabbing stats that tempt people into reading them. An article about why you should eat Avocado may not get noticed in the sea of similar articles, but perhaps ‘People Who Eat Avocados Are x% Healthier, & Here’s Why’ would.

Write when you are feeling fresh

This is something I have discovered myself. If you aren’t feeling productive and can’t seem to string a sentence together, perhaps it’s not the best time to be writing. You need to know when to call it a day.

On the other hand, if you are feeling particularly creative and switched on, take advantage and get all your thoughts down before you lose your inspiration. It’s pretty obvious when someone has written an article at the end of the day when all they want to do is stop working. If you have staff dedicated to copywriting, make sure you give them the flexibility to work when they are most productive. 

So those are my tips, I hope you find them useful. If you want more advice, or would like some fantastic and original content for your website, please feel free contact me. You can see examples of my work and feedback from my clients here.

Oh and if you get a moment, do check out my lifestyle blog, which I believe has bags of personality, but that's just my opinion. The awesome dinosaur image I used for this post is one of my talented sister's paintings, check out her site here.