1. Know your target audience – This is arguably the most important part of improving your writing. You need to know who you are writing for, what they want from your website and what they expect to hear from you. Only by knowing your target audience can you know what sort of editorial tone you can get away with, how much jargon you can use and whether your content is satisfying the needs of your readers.

2. Inspiration is everywhere – Stuck for something to write about? You can find inspiration everywhere. For starters, look at what your competitors are doing (and how they are doing it). Can you give the same topics a unique spin? It’s also helpful to look beyond your own market for inspiration. The books on Amazon are a great source of article ideas and headlines, as are the websites and blogs in competitive markets like Internet Marketing and women’s lifestyle. In fact, women’s magazines often work the hardest to make their content stand out from the crowd. Spend 10 minutes looking at different titles on the newsstand to see what you can learn.

3. The basic rules of web copy writing – Unlike print-work, writing for the web requires more brevity. You often need to get to the point. Fast. So web copy writers will use shorter sentences, compact paragraphs and sprinkle the editorial with relevant keywords. A good headline is crucial – it needs to hook the reader’s attention and encourage them to read the first sentence. Subheadings are also a useful device. Not only do they break up the text and make it easier to read, but they provide additional ‘entry points’ into the copy, i.e. extra hooks designed to bait skim-readers.

4. Know your keywords – It’s vitally important to ensure that your copy contains relevant keywords. You need to ensure that the keywords that apply to your articles appear in the article titles, sub-headings and in your website copy. Use Google’s Adwords tool to research appropriate words and phrases.

5. Proofreading and editing – Read through your work again. And again. Good copy can be ruined by bad spelling and grammar. It’s not enough just to run a spell check of your work. Do what a web copy writer would do and read your work aloud. This process will allow you to hear whether your copy scans, has the right tone and moves at the right pace. It’s also a good way to spot grammatical errors that the spellchecker didn’t pick up on.

The store is called Bath Baby Naturals and you can find it here.

I’ve learnt a great deal this time around – this is my third stint in the freelance writing business. It’s also been exciting to move away from technology journalism and into different areas of writing. I wouldn’t have had the chance to do any technical writing or SEO copywriting if I’d stayed in my previous position.

If you’d like more information about me and the freelance writing services that I offer, then visit my main website – www.deanfreelance.com.

As the year hurtles to a close, I’m also working on a number of different projects (that I can’t talk about just yet).