Hey dear,
Today we have a rainy day here on our lovely little island. I love those days. I get to put a cardigan on. And I get to drink tea. Love those days. As long as they are an exception, not a rule. I do not care for places that serve fall 11 months a year.
I took the picture above early this morning. it’s the view from our porch. I loved the light. And the view. I am addicted to the view.
One of the things that I have learned along the way is that you should never publish a freshly written article right away. Leave it be, at least for a few hours. Then go back. Edit. Leave it for a bit another time. Edit again.
But how do you know your copy is good enough? Will convert? You could get someone to proof read it for you. Preferably someone with ample experience in copywriting and conversion. If you are not able to, a checklist might help.
The guys and girls at copyblogger.com obviously know a lot about copy writing and conversion. And they created us a very helpful checklist. And it comes with an explanation.
Go check out their Ultimate Copy Checklist blog post.
Before you go
Please do me a favor. Leave me a comment.
- What are your biggest struggles with creating content?
- How do you deal with them? If you are a more experienced copywriter, what would you like newbies to know?
As a thank you for leaving a comment, a link to your latest article will appear at the end of your contribution.
Yvette,
I am VERY guilty of not waiting to post my content. You have given me reason to pause. I can write my post and then let it breathe a bit like wine. Then post it when it is perfect timing. Thanks for the useful tip!
Hi Faydra,
Most of the time the things I write are the things I need to hear too. I have hit “post” too soon quite often. But life would get all boring when we would not make any mistakes, right?
Hi Yvette!
I agree that all writing should be at the very least self-edited. But most bloggers don’t have a very large community and no matter the size, your people love you. I’m more in favor of writing it, proof reading it 2-3 times and then putting it out there. I can come back to it later, but I don’t have to because it’s already done and can move on to something else.
Done is better than perfect.
Plus, in my world, I have my lovely spell-checkers and grammar-checkers who happily point out what’s wrong anyway, even when I’ve gone through a longer process. It’s fun for them, I think!
Often, I will go back to a blog post months later and rework it for some other purpose. Then it gets a real editing! But in the meantime, it’s been out there serving people in it’s imperfection. 🙂
Just another perspective!
I love fall days, too. Maybe I should move to your island to have fewer of those days and more sun?!
Felicia
Thanks for your comment Felicia. You are so right. Done is better than perfect. I’m so glad I joined the Take Action Revise Later family!
A fun fact of living on this island is that, technically, you could write in your underwear. Or your bathing suit for that matter. 😀
This is such a great tip Yvette! It’s so important to give your absolute best work to your audience. Taking the time to proofread, edit, and consider how much more value you could add is one of the best things you can do to keep your audience coming back for more 🙂 Great checklist!
Thanks for your compliment Kristin, really appreciate that. I think it is all about balance (like everything in life, DUH!). Giving your best, yes, but not up to a point where it ends up never being published. I think the style and grammar police will have a ball here on my blog.
I’m with Felicia on this one. I’d never get everything out there if I wrote it and didn’t publish it right away. It’s hard enough for me to blog consistently as it is so if I did the write, edit, come back to it later thing…well it’d never happen. So for me it’s easier to TARL as I’ve learned from Bob Jenkins 🙂 (However, that doesn’t mean I just throw something up without proofreading it – I do take the time to do that! lol)
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Tishia. Gotta love Bob for teaching us to TARL. It has gotten me out of the perfectionism splits too.
😀
Anyone interested in knowing what TARL is, Bob wrote an excellent book. Go check it out at Amazon.
Take Action! Revise Later: A Simple Guide to Success in Business