One of the most consistent topics on the internet today is about the quality of content. Digital media company Digiday recently published two articles – one voicing the frustrations many readers feel about content on the internet, the other essentially asking the question: what is quality content?
It isn’t boring
Fair enough, we all have our ideas about what quality content might be. But one thing it isn’t, is boring. There’s a logic to support this too: content is always created with a target audience in mind. The subject matter should therefore be interesting, if only to that audience.
Interesting can either be something of your own – a story, a recounting, or even a list-style post. As long as it’s interesting. Therefore, here, for your entertainment, is a collection of some of the shortest stories ever written by professional writers, proving that ‘interesting’ can really be anything, even only a few words.
“For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” – Ernest Hemingway
“The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door…” – Frederic Brown
"Longed for him. Got him. Shit.” – Margaret Atwood
It isn’t necessarily well-written
Look at some of the best copy around today – not always grammatically correct, and sometimes, just sometimes, endowed with a typo or two. Or three.
“Ima Love u 4eva” still manages to convey the intended meaning when addressed to the right person, regardless of spelling or grammar.
“I don’t know the rules of grammar… If you’re trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language, the language they use every day, the language in which they think. We try to write in the vernacular.” – David Ogilvy
But, being careless with grammar and spelling in your business blog or website copy is asking for trouble. The odd grammatical oversight and a typo or two might be forgiven, but too many of them and you’ll start losing credibility with your audiences. Which bring us to…
Quality content is edited
Legendary copywriter David Ogilvy, in a letter to one Mr. Ray Calt, proclaimed “I am a lousy copywriter, but I am a good editor. ” You can read the full letter at Letters of Note. Editing can turn copy worth a dime into a thousand dollar piece, or at least something that’ll get the message through to your audiences.
Of course, the key to good editing is to distance yourself from whatever has been created (editing also applies to graphical material). While many creatives have their own strategy, a general rule of thumb is to let your work breathe a bit; once you’re done with the first draft, do something else for a day or two. Then return to your work, and be merciless.
“Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings” – Stephen King
If you’ve followed these three steps, you’ll be left with content that’s interesting, written in a way your audiences can related to, and edited. In the end, that’s probably all they really wanted in the first place.