INTRODUCTION

Look, I get it.

You publish post after post after post, write (and rewrite) your
headlines, and even find a “trendy” topic to write about.

But you aren’t seeing the fruit of your hard work

(or, at least, the kind of fruit you’d like

to see).

It seems like you are “invisible.”

People don’t comment.

People don’t share.

People don’t care.

Frustrating, isn’t it?

And you can’t help envying those

bloggers whom everyone loves and

admires (which is completely

understandable. Everything they

“touch” seems to turn into gold).

How can they write so damn good?

Well, I have three theories, and each of them is equally possible.

Your task now is to read them and let me know, at your very own
judgment, which is the most accurate. Deal?

Here they are:

Theory #1: Maybe they have a “writing fairy” standing on their
shoulder, whispering those perfect words, and they only have to
transcript the already-done article that has been inspired by the writing
gods.

Theory # 2: Perhaps, they’re just lucky – I mean, come on, not

everybody can write that well, don’t you think?

Theory # 3: It could be that, maybe, those bloggers know something you

don’t know. And, that means those ‘secrets’ are something you can
learn too.

So, what do you think?

Which of these theories is more accurate?

Yep, number three, of course.

There’s a “secret” that can transform even the most mediocre writing
into something extraordinary...almost immediately.

In fact, this is the “secret” that makes those envied bloggers so

successful.

Do you want to know what it is? You sure? All right, here you go:

It’s called…

The three pillars of “can’t fail” content.

Look:

Strong writing is like building a house – ignore the foundation, and your
house will fall in less than a second.

The same way, when you ignore the pillars of writing, you’re… hmm...
(how can I say this without being such a jerk?) ... well…

...BEYOND ALL HELP!

And I mean it!

Most bloggers focus 100% of their energy on the writing process – they
build the house without a solid foundation, and that’s why they fail.

They look for templates, writing “tips,” idea generators, beautiful

imagery and the like, but they forget the fact that – as everything else in
life – writing is driven by universal laws (a.k.a pillars), and those who
learn and master such laws will always see good results.

Now, before “revealing” what these pillars are, let me make you a
promise…

If you decide to implement what I’m going to teach you now, all your
writing will be much more compelling, effective, and... most
importantly… more extraordinary than your “average” articles.

But you need to commit to complete each step before actually writing
your content. If you can do that, you’ll get this nailed!

So, here are the three pillars of “can’t fail” content:

● The audience
● The message
● The voice

In simpler terms:

The audience is the “who,” the message is the “what,” and the voice is
the “how.”

Once you’ve answered those crucial questions the right way, and only
then, you can start the writing process.

Now let’s break down each pillar:

 CONTENTS

1 The Audience

2 The Message

3 The Voice
 CHAPTER
ONE
The Audience

Do you know your readers? If you said “Yes I do,”

think again…do you really know them?
Do you know what keeps them up at night? Their fears? Their Desires?
What about their frustrations? Or how they talk? How they think? Who
they admire? What are they favorite books? Or what kind of blogs they
read?

I’m not exaggerating.

If you want to start writing extraordinary copy, you need to know your
audience in such a profound way.

Why? Brian Clark puts it well in his ebook “The 5-P Approach For
Copywriting That Crushes It”:

“The most important aspect of copy that works is how well

your message matches up with the way your prospective

“ customers view things. You’ve got to understand their

motivations and desires. You’ve got to match their basic
expectations and then exceed them.”

Later in the ebook he also says:

“Put me against the best writer in the world, and if I know the audience
better, I’ll kick her or his ass, every time.”

Brian is onto something there…

Now, I don’t want you to go crazy and survey thousands of people

because “you need to know your audience.”

Those things can help, but at this stage, all you need to do is answer
three crucial questions:

CHAPTER 1 - THE AUDIENCE

CHAPTER 1
 1. Who are they?
Don’t think too much about it. If you chose this business, you’re very
likely to know who your target reader might be. So answer the question.

Do it right now. Describe your readers as well as you can.

How old are they? Are they women or men? How much money do they
make? Are they employees or entrepreneurs? Do they have children? If
so, how many? Where do they live? What language do they speak? Are
they married?

By answering those questions, you’ll be able to “put a face” to your

audience and “visualize” them as real human beings.

Some people call them “buyer personas.”

Others call them “avatars.”

You can call them whatever you want. The point here is to “humanize”
your readers.

I’m not going to dig more into this since there are plenty of articles on
this topic you can read. In fact, here are 4 of them:

● How to Create Detailed Buyer Personas for Your Business [Free

Persona Template]
● 9 Steps to Profiling Buyer Personas
● Persona Driven Content: The Secret To Explosive Blog Growth

2. What do they want?

This is the easiest question to answer. If you’re in the nutrition business,
for example, people want to lose weight and have a healthier lifestyle.

CHAPTER 1 - THE AUDIENCE

If you are in the copywriting business, people want to increase their
sales.

If you’re selling expensive cars, people want status.

Again, don’t think too much about it. At this point, you needn’t be that
specific about your audience’s desires. As long as you know what your
audience wants, in general, you’re good.

3. What are their fears, frustrations and

desires?
Here’s the step where you’ll need to dig deeper.

Once you’ve identified who your ideal reader is and what they want, it’s
time to “understand” how he or she sees the world.

But how? You might ask. Well, it’s actually quite simple: You need to put
yourself in your reader’s shoes.

Here are some steps that will help you do that:

First, you need to segment your reader’s worldview into three

categories:

● Fears
● Frustrations
● Desires

To illustrate, let’s say you run a business blog for a weight loss coaching
business. Let’s also assume that your ideal reader meets the following
description:

Gender: Female

Age: 40 to 45 years old

Marital status: Married

CHAPTER 1 - THE AUDIENCE

Description: “Claire” is a full-time mom who has been trying to lose 20
pounds for almost a year without success. She has tried several diets,
nutrition plans, and, although she hates to exercise, some workout
routines. She is happily married and has three kids whom she loves.

Now, if you were an overweight woman, had three children, and a

husband you love, what would be your fears?

Right now, I can think about three:

● “What if my husband stops feeling attracted to me?”

● “What if I got sick due to being overweight?”
● “I’m afraid of what people might be saying about me.”

Now, let’s think about her frustrations:

● “I’ve tried a lot of diets, and nothing works for me.”

● “I hate exercise. It’s really not my stuff.”
● “I can’t go to the gym. I have three children to take care of.”

What about her desires?

● “I wish I could lose 20 pounds in 30 days.”

● “I want my husband to think I’m sexy again.”
● “I want to feel comfortable and satisfied with myself.”

Is this making sense?

Here’s another example:

In this case, I’m going to assume my target readers are young men of 25
to 30 years old who want to learn how to climb the executive ladder.

You ready?

CHAPTER 1 - THE AUDIENCE

You ready?

Fears:

● “What if I lose my job?”

● “What if I never get a promotion?”

Frustrations:

● “I don’t know how to negotiate my salary.”

● “My co-workers are better than me.”
● “My boss don’t even know I exist.”

Desires:

● “I wish I could get my dream job.”

● “I wish I could earn more money.”
● “I wish I could be more successful.”

Easy, right?

Now you might be wondering: “How can I use this information to

improve my writing?”

Well, the answer is very simple:

When you know who your readers are, what they want, and have also
identified their fears, frustrations, and desires, you’re able to write the
right message and use the right voice, every time – this is the heart and
soul of effective writing.

Now listen:

From the three pillars, this is the most important one, without question.

Your success will largely depend on how well you answer the three
questions we just discussed.

CHAPTER 1 - THE AUDIENCE

CHAPTER 1
 CHAPTER
TWO
The Message

This concept is super straightforward. What do

you want to say? In other words, this is the
“theme,” or topic you choose to write about.
Most bloggers go straight to this part, skipping the “audience
questions.”

Actually, they do one of two things:

1. Write about topics they “think” will work

2. Write about what everyone else is writing

BIG mistake.

If you really want to stand out; if you really want to be admired by your
audience, you need to write about your audience’s interests, and about
nothing else.

And here’s where the work you did in the last point will start paying off.
If you always write about your audience’s fears, desires, and
frustrations, you’ll always get your audience’s attention.

That’s it.

You DON’T need to write about anything else.

If you do it, and I mean, really do it, writing will be the easiest part of
the process.

Now, there are some other aspects you should also consider when
writing your message:

1. Emotions
We’re all emotional beings. Just think about it. The only purpose of
every word in the English language (and any other language) is to
express some meaning.

Our brain relates those meanings to certain emotions, and those

emotions to certain memories. In other words, we have a story for each
word.

CHAPTER 2 - THE MESSAGE

Bear this concept in mind. Effective content is full of emotions…or
better said...effective writing is full of the “right” emotions; emotions
the writer carefully select to evoke certain reaction in the mind of the
reader.

Now, how can you do this?

The answer is very simple (and obvious, I think):

By choosing the right words.

As a blogger, you need to create a list “power words.”

And you’re lucky because many marketers have done the work for you.

Here are some articles in which you’ll find the most amazing lists of
power words to spread over your content:

● 317 Power Words That’ll Instantly Make You a Better Writer

● 380 high emotion words guaranteed to make you more
persuasive
● List of feeling words

2. Unexpectancy
In this crazy new era, attention is a scarce resource, isn’t it?

Today’s readers are “busier” than ever, and their attention span is
incredibly limited (some studies suggest you only have a few seconds to
capture someone’s attention).

A good way to command attention is to write unexpected content.

Something your reader would never imagine you would say.

How can you be unexpected? Very simple, just say the opposite of what
everyone else is saying – contradict the conventional wisdom.

CHAPTER 2 - THE MESSAGE

Here’s what I mean:

If the conventional wisdom says that if you want to get more traffic you
need to publish content more often, for example, you should say the
opposite: to get traffic, publish less content and spend more time
promoting it.

If experts say that eating chocolate will increase your weight, you need
to say eating chocolate will help you lose weight.

Now, you have to be careful here because if you just throw mud in the
face of conventional wisdom for the sake of it – you’ll cause a stir that
could blow back on you.

Only use unexpectancy when there’s a good reason (and proof) to

challenge conventional wisdom.

A good example of this technique is the well-known Social Triggers’ post

“The Content is King Myth Debunked.”

If you’ve been in this industry for a while, you probably know that
people have always said that content is king, but in this blog post, Derek
Halpern proves that’s not true.

After doing some research, he found that when people visit your site,
they pay more attention to your design than to any other element in
your page.

Worse yet…they will judge your credibility based on your web design
alone. This means that if your site sucks, they’ll assume your content
sucks, too.

This is one of the most popular pieces of content within the Internet
Marketing industry.

CHAPTER 2 - THE MESSAGE

Anyways, the point here is that you need to think “outside-the-box,”
contradict the conventional wisdom, and back with proof everything
you say. This will strengthen every piece of copy you write.

3. Usefulness
All content needs to be useful in some way (even if its purpose is to
entertain). Most people won’t read your content because you’re a “nice
guy or gal.” They will read it because they want to satisfy a very specific
need. At least in the beginning, that is.

In my opinion, this is the easiest aspect of writing, but you need to

always bear your audience in mind.

So focus all of your writing on how to help your audience overcome

their fears and achieve their goals. Your readers will love you for it.

4. Clarity
Above all the other points, clarity should be your priority. Here’s why:

If people can’t understand what you’re trying to say – if you’re

confusing – they will leave your site and will never come back. People
don’t like complicated stuff. Period.

Sadly, this is one of the most common mistakes bloggers make (if you’re
one of them, read this closely)…

Clever phrases, jargon, and babble won’t help you achieve anything but
confusing your reader.

Avoid them at all costs.

Your message should be concise and clear. Always.

CHAPTER 2 - THE MESSAGE

CHAPTER 2
 5. Storytelling
Have you ever been at a boring conference or event, lost in thought, but
when you realize the speaker is about to tell a story, you automatically
start paying attention?

I experience that all the time.

It’s because our brains are wired to think in stories, metaphors, and
similes. Think about it. It’s much easier to remember a story than a fact
or a statistic.

That’s why storytelling should be in the arsenal of every good writer.

But here’s the thing:

Storytelling isn’t an easy art to master. It’s hard work.

But the web is full of resources that can help you out here.

Here are some books and guides that will get you on the right path:

● How to be a better storyteller

● The 5 Common Elements of Good Storytelling
● Wired for Story: The Writer's Guide to Using Brain Science to
Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence

6. Personal
Something I’ve seen a lot (especially when the person writes for a big
company) is that the blogger writes like if she or he were talking to a
group of people, and not to an individual.

If you want to be a good communicator, you should always share your

message at a personal level.

CHAPTER 2 - THE MESSAGE

Just think about your ideal reader. Picture their face in your mind, and
write like you were talking to her or him, face to face.

This will help you frame your message in a more friendly and
understandable way.

CHAPTER 2 - THE MESSAGE

CHAPTER 2
 CHAPTER
THREE
The Voice

The voice is what makes or breaks your message.

After all, it’s not what you say, but how you say it
that matters, right?
If you were to run an a/b split test on any platform – use the same
message and the same audience, but change your voice, and the results
will be very different.

But, what’s “The Voice,” anyways?

Some people would argue it’s the verbiage you use.

Others would say it’s your tone or how you frame your message.

And those concepts are good, but don’t tell the full story.

You can define Voice as your entire presentation – all the elements that
form your message. From word choice to style, structure, language,
vocabulary, and even grammar.

The way you use these elements will define your voice.

Here they are:

1. Likability
People like people who are like them.

That’s a proven fact.

Remember when we talked about getting to know your readers? Well,

this is where it’s applied.

When your ideas, style, vocabulary, and all the other elements I’m
about to show you match with your reader, they will like you more, and
here’s why you should care:

If a reader likes you, they’re much more likely to trust you. And, when
your readers trust you – that’s when everything will start to fall into
place.

CHAPTER 3 - THE VOICE

 2. Style
Your style will depend on your ability to use different writing elements –
like grammar, punctuation marks, content structure, and vocabulary.

A good style is necessary to effective writing. I mean, a good style will

give you the “spark” every good writer needs to stand out.

To illustrate, let me show you how a paragraph’s flow can change by the
use of different style:

The art of writing isn’t something easy to understand, and if you want to
master it you need to practice a lot and read a lot. Most experts suggest
that you read something on rhetoric every once in awhile, and if you
follow their advice, I’m sure you’ll improve.

This is how I would write that:

Face it: Writing isn’t easy. In fact, there’s only one way to do it right -
reading and writing a lot. Now, if you want to take your writing to a
whole new level, make sure to read something on rhetoric at least once
a month (experts said so).

All right, that might not be perfect, but it’s better than the first
paragraph, right?

Now, I’m going to be straight with you:

This is one of the things you can’t learn by reading a single blog post. In
fact, there’s only one way to develop a good style…

Practice. Practice. Practice.

The more your write, the more you’ll improve.

CHAPTER 3 - THE VOICE

But first, you need to learn the rules of style, don’t you? So here’s one
of the best books written on the topic: The Elements of Style.

3. Vocabulary
You can define vocabulary as the language you use.

For instance, if you’re writing to a group of children, your vocabulary

would be different than if you were writing to a group of young adults,
right?

Also, women and men think very different, and often, use a different
vocabulary. If you know that 99% of your audience are women, using a
“masculine” vocabulary won’t be your best option.

That’s why it’s crucial that you know your audience. How do they think?
How do they talk?

If you’re able to answer those questions, you’ll be able to use a very

effective vocabulary.

4. Imagery
Many popular bloggers claim you need to use a lot of images within
your content. To be honest, I don’t believe that’s necessary.

Here’s why:

When you add images just for the sake of adding images, you’re only
showing you don’t trust in your ability to write well.

You’re using images to hide your timid writing.

Take Copyblogger as an example. Their writers rarely use images – and,

as we both know, they’re some of the best writers on earth.

CHAPTER 3 - THE VOICE

Now, don’t get me wrong. I do believe images can help you, but only
when they meet the following criteria:

1. The image supports one of your ideas

Does the image help the reader understand the concept you’re
explaining?

2. The image explains an idea

Images can form entire ideas and when removed, the reader would
have no clue what was happening.

3. The image is in harmony with your voice

When images are in harmony with your voice, they command attention
and evoke the right emotion in the reader.

CHAPTER 3 - THE VOICE

 Over to you
Now it’s time to put what you’ve learned to the test.

You don’t need to take my word for this. Just test it out and see it for
yourself.

Even though I spent over 7 hours writing this guide for you, I don't want
you to do it for me. I want you to do it for you.

Give this stuff one shot, and I’m sure you’ll thank me later.

But that’s your call.

P.S. I’m considering the “writing fairy” might actually be real. Have you
ever had the experience of writing a really good post in a very short time
(like 2 hours or so), as if someone from the outside were actually
dictating you what to write? Only those who have experienced it will
know what I’m talking about.

Just think about it…

OVER TO YOU
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