This week, I’ve devoted my Say It For You blog posts to sharing writing wisdom from Brandon Royal’s The Little Red Writing Book, talking about “downhill” structure (putting the conclusion at the beginning of the piece) and about how examples and details make SEO marketing blog content more memorable and engaging.

“In general, the active voice is preferred to the passive voice because the active voice is more action oriented,” urges Royal. “Not only are passive sentences are less direct, but they often fail to mention the doer of the action,” he adds.  By saying Today the computer files were erased, for example, the writer’s goal may be to hide the identity of the person who made that terrible mistake.

Few business blog writers are trying to hide the identity of the business or professional. In fact, the opposite is the case – the very purpose of the blog content is to showcase the accomplishments of the business and products and services it brings to customers. That’s why using the active voice makes so much sense in corporate blog writing.
 

Author’s agent blog:

     Passive: Book contracts will always be reviewed before the author signs them.

     Active: As your literary agent, we carefully review book contracts before you sign them.

(In business blogging, the words “we” and “I” can be keys to keeping the content active.)

 

Jewelry store blog:

     Passive: Our jewelry is worn proudly by all types of people, from homemakers to business
executives.

     Active:  From homemakers to business executives, people of every type are proud to wear ABC
             jewelry.

(Indianapolis blog writers can follow this simple rule: To “keep active”, make people, rather than things, the subjects of the sentences in your blog content).

 

Estate planning attorney blog:

     Passive: Building and properly equipping a comprehensive plan with expert advice will help assure that both you and your loved ones will be protected.

     Active:  At XYZ Law, we help you build a comprehensive plan to protect yourself and your loved ones.

Nonprofit organization blog:

     Passive: Without sufficient financial support from donors, many diseases in less developed
              countries cannot be treated.

     Active:  Without sufficient financial support from donors, doctors don’t have the resources to treat diseases in less developed countries.

(It’s difficult for readers to picture the situation from the general subject of “many diseases”, but they readily picture “doctors”. Skillful blog writing professionals create images in readers’ minds.)

“Gain active power,” advises Brandon Royal. Freelance blog writers certainly have much to gain by “staying active” when writing for business!

“Strategically, the summary or conclusion whould come at the beginning of an expository piece, not at the end,” says Brandon Royal in The Little Red Writing Book.

 

The Pow-Opening-Line idea I teach in corporate blogging training sessions focuses on that very sort of descending writing structure, one in which, as Royal explains, “we move downhill from conclusion to details.”

Getting to the point straightaway is even more important in writing SEO marketing blogs than in writing books or academic essays, given the notoriously short attention span of online readers.  The sooner it becomes clear there’s a match between what the searcher wants and what’s to be found in our blog post, the more favorable our chances of having that prospect take some action.

In order for blog writing for business to actually turn into business, the well-known What’s-In-It-For-Me? question needs to be addressed in the blog title and in the opening lines of the blog post.

As a professional ghost blogger, I absolutely loved the two versions of a dialogue between co-workers offered by Brandon Royal:

Version A:  “Sheila, can you do something for me when you’re downtown? If you’re taking the subway to Main Street, get off and take the first exit out of the subway and walk down to Cross Street.  At the intersection of Cross Street and Vine, you’ll find Sandy’s Stationery store. Can you go in and pick up a couple of reams of A5 paper?”

Version B: “Sheila, can you do something for me when you’re downtown? I need a couple of reams of A5 paper.  The best place to get them is Sandy’s Stationery store. You can take the subway to main Street, get off and take the first exit out of the subway and walk down to Cross Street. The store is at the intersection of Cross Street and Vine.”

“Once you finally find out what the speaker’s point is,” comments Royal about Version A, you’ve forgotten all the necessary details. It’s just as frustrating,” he adds, “when you’re reading a piece of writing and you do not know where the discussion is going.”

If we freelance blog content writers frustrate our online visitors by being unclear about our point`, they’ll be gone in a click.  Unless we learn to “blog downhill”, it will be all uphill going in terms of engaging any interest in what we have to say!