1. Don’t add fluff words.

People hate advertising. I work in advertising and even I hate viewing it. So don’t make your writing sound like an Ad please, even if it actually is. Here’s an article with funny examples:

Executed from a formula adequate to meet the perspiration breakdown byproduct odor offensiveness detection threshold reduction requirements associated with masculine subbrachial cutaneous excretions, marketed to a target audience of the opposite gender.

Simplified Version: Strong enough for a man but made for a woman.

It may be funny but it’s surprising how many people still use too many words to say something that was originally simple. If you want to learn more about simplifying your writing, Angela at Girl Meets Business wrote an excellent article about writing concisely and sparingly.

2. Write less.

Don’t write an essay. Nobody has the time to read lengthy copy about what you’re selling. You’re not going to have their attention long enough to stuff all 10 concepts down their throat. The point is to communicate just 1, maybe 2 points to them strongly. If you try and get too many points across in a message, by the time they get to point #3, they’ll start to forget point #1 already. You’re in a hurry to make money, and they’re waiting for you to get to your point.

3. Show Pretty Pictures

Now that you’ve cut down significantly on your writing length, add something even simpler. Visuals. In combination with simple and direct words, visuals can complete the imagery in their minds without taking more than a few seconds. Even if you’re not at the point of sale, the simple combination will keep your product fresh in their mind for longer. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words. (Especially if they are properly ALT tagged)

4. Talk to them as a friend.

That’s right, time to get off your high horse. It’s all about being real and community sharing lately. If you can talk to them as a human being, instead of acting like you know what’s best for them, they’ll actually like you and buy your junk. Also use words that are conversational and try not to sound like an ad. After you write, read it back to yourself and see if it sounds like a greasy car salesman. If so, start over.

5. Sell to the right people.

Figure out which market segment would actually like to use your products, so when you speak to them, you would genuinely have their best interest in mind. You wouldn’t sell something useless to a real friend would you?

This may sound logical, but most companies still try to sell to the wrong people. Now that you know how to write sincerely and picked your target group, think about how your product will actually help them. Genuinely try to improve people’s lives with your product, and they will give you their loyal support. Imagine that, loyal customers in this day and age.

6. Create a two way dialogue.

Write and persuade your audience to give you feedback. With the internet, this is easy. You no longer have to include prepaid-postage envelopes to gather feedback, all you need is a widget or two on your site. (You can practice this by leaving a comment at the bottom of this post) The internet changes quickly, with the assistance of regular feedback from your customers though, you will be able to stay on top of trends. This doesn’t have to be a multi-million dollar marketing effort. A well-placed button on a website is all that it takes.

7. Online: Use high traffic keywords

Here’s an extremely effective SEO trick for Internet writing. Go to Google’s keyword suggestion tool here. Enter in a few keywords related to what you are writing. Find relevant words that have high search engine traffic. You don’t need to spam the keywords, just sprinkle the words here and there. It’s not cheating, it’s just making it easier for your potential customers to find you.

By following these writing tips, you’ll be able to create a good relationship with your customers, be a responsible citizen, and then increase your business revenue. Using any of these tricks already? Know any other good writing tips?

There are many people in various job positions where creativity is frowned upon. That is also one of the reasons why as soon as something goes wrong, the speed of adaptation and response to the situation would be slow. Just do what you’re told and stick to it.

Like the classic sci-fi robot that is only programmed to do certain tasks and nothing else. Something out of the scope happens and you have a headless chicken running around.

On the other hand, The joy of giving birth to that creative moment is priceless. It is a great fulfillment and affirmation of the immeasurable brilliance that humans are capable of.

And besides, creativity can actually lead to job fulfillment. No way… but it’s true! It makes a person feel surprisingly good when they are acknowledged and their ideas actually accepted and implemented. How about stress relief? Or even finally finding a solution to tricky relationship issues? The list goes on, and all it takes is exercising a little creativity.

There is an elitist mindset out there for designers who think that anything not blessed by a designer is sure to be ugly and desperately needs to be saved. Sure, there are many Ads or business card designs that begs to be redone, but the important key is to realize that any one of us can be creative, as long as you let it happen. And that’s exactly what I hope to achieve with this blog.

Having killer graphics software skills is one thing, and having 100% open minded, unbiased creativity, is quite another. You can’t buy that kind of creativity with all the money in the world, yet it doesn’t cost you a single cent.

Do not fall for the stereotype of a creative person as someone that merely has moneymaking skills in a creative area. Creativity is idea sharing based on our individual experiences. You might say, I just use my creativity to think of new ideas, but it doesn’t mean I will share it. Oh right, we don’t share anymore, not unless someone gets billed for it right? The idea will eventually be shared in one form or another, it’s just that we have gotten used to entering money into the equation.

We should nurture creativity in others and in ourselves. With the abundance of problems in relationships and in the world today, we need solutions that actually fixes the problems instead of sweeping them under the carpet for another few years. Creative solutions, not the same old crap that never worked.

I have been wondering what I should write about for my first blog post, or even what this blog should be about. After all, there are already tons of sites out there promising to make you a Photoshop Super Star in 10 easy steps. Or those sites that will deliver crazy Search Engine Optimization for your blog all before dinner time. While I see the benefit of such guides, I just don’t see that as the most worthy goal for me as a person.

*Flashback* Now that I think back, I first started with the idea of using Advertising to convince people to help improve the world. So I went and learned all about marketing and advertising. Well actually, the start wasn’t quite as noble as all that, but it sure made me feel better for having to sell useless corporate crap to people.

Then I realized that perhaps I could distill that idea into using any form of Design to accomplish the same goal. Of course, many media visible designers are already on that boat and I’m definitely not trying to get on that overcrowded vessel.

So that brings us to today. Is it possible to make creativity a wonderfully engaging, amazingly fun, supremely practical lifestyle that anyone and everyone can relate to? Creativity, the life band-aid! I believe that creativity not only empowers you to advance in your career, but it can also bring you a greater joy and fulfillment in every day life. Instead of feeling frustration with a difficult problem, creativity will allow you to connect all the knowledge in your head to many innovative solutions. It’s really a win-win situation.

And who knows, maybe with enough people being happier and able to think of better solutions, we may make this a better world yet.

Hate it? Love it? However you feel, please share it here, I would love to hear it! Welcome to CreativeHerb.com ~