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Word Wise Blog: Content Writing Made Easy
Award-winning writer Kathy Widenhouse has helped hundreds of nonprofits and writers produce successful content , with 750K+ views for her writing tutorials. She is the author of 9 books. See more of Kathy’s content here.
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Jun 24, 2025
Simple tip for writing better headlines: 3 + 3
The traditional view among writers is that a short headline is better. (Disclaimer: longer headlines are gaining traction in social media.)
Web usability guru Jakob Nielsen champions writing better headlines by using a short, snappy format...
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Jun 23, 2025
Simple tip for finding online freelance writing jobs
I use a simple tip for finding online freelance writing jobs.
This tip works for writers no matter why you’re looking for work.
For instance, you may want to get paying gigs. Or maybe you’re looking for guest posting opportunities so you can become recognized as an authority in your niche or drive traffic to your site. Or you may be looking for online writing jobs to establish your writing credentials and get publishing clips.
Regardless of your motivation, this tip works...
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Jun 22, 2025
Do you write differently when you write for free?
Writing for free or writing to get paid: does the paycheck or lack thereof affect how you go about your writing process?
I was immersed as a volunteer with an organization when the leader asked me to write some content for free.
I didn’t mind comping my services. The organization was first-class and well run. In fact, my family had benefited from its work...
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Jun 21, 2025
The simple rule to follow when you're researching content
Plenty of trial and error have taught my husband a simple rule to follow when planning a project: order extra supplies. If he estimates that he needs eight 2 x 4s for a project, he gets ten. If measurements show he’ll need at least fifty ceramic tiles for the bathroom floor, he orders sixty.
His “Get Some Extra” rule saves him effort, time, and money. The padding prevents frustration from the inevitable...
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Jun 20, 2025
How to identify your ideal reader
Identifying your target audience BEFORE you write allows you to create powerful, relevant content.
This worksheet helps you to find your unique target audience for any piece of content you create...
Jun 19, 2025
How to write a PS with punch
Should you include a PS (a postscript) as part of your project – and if so, how should you write it?
Way back when people wrote letters without access to Wite Out, erasers, or the Delete key, a postscript was a handy way to add a piece of news or a tidbit at the bottom of the letter without rewriting the whole thing. The origins of the Latin name post scriptum, meaning “written after,” explain it all.
Fast forward to today when the postscript has morphed into more than an afterthought. It is a full-blown, persuasive writing tool you can use to ...
Jun 18, 2025
20 of the best lead magnets for writers
Everybody online has a freebie. Maybe you call it a complimentary resource, a no-cost download, or a lead magnet. What’s yours … and is it working to help you gain comments and followers?
If your answer is no, then help is here.
I created my first lead magnet in 2006 and dozens since then. My best lead magnets accomplish two things ...
Jun 17, 2025
Where to get free images for your blog, website, content
I love freebies. Most of us do. And what better way to enjoy free than with free images on your blog or website?
But I and so many others have learned that it’s not right or legal to simply hop on the internet, find an image, and then just copy and paste it onto my blog or website.
There’s a little issue called “copyright” which assigns ownership to photographers, just as copyright applies to writers, too.
As a content creator, I ...
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Jun 16, 2025
Writing a book outline: it's easier than you think
Writing a book outline is easier than you think.
This is a distinctively different process for nonfiction books when compared with fiction, which requires character development and conflict.
Getting your nonfiction outline on paper is an important step.
It helps you move beyond inertia to concrete action in writing your ...
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Jun 15, 2025
The Self-Promotion Trap
When I think of promoting my content writing services, I want to cower in a hole. An email I recently received from a reader confirmed that I am not alone in this.
“I am horrible at self-promotion, whether it’s a cover letter, a one-paragraph bio, or an annual self-review,” wrote Dave. “I was raised in an age where ...
Jun 14, 2025
A useful way to manage passwords
Security guidelines recommend that you change your login password every 30 to 180 days.
Then, once you change your password, you need to remember it. If you have multiple accounts and multiple passwords, you may face plenty of login confusion. Passwords can add another layer of complications to your busy, distracted life.
Nancy, an administrator with a large insurance firm, has found a way to leverage these required password changes and incorporate them into her walk of faith...
Jun 13, 2025
Writers: try this book of encouragement AND tools
Writers need encouragement. And we need tools to equip us. Both of those are found in scripture.
That’s the basic premise behind Writing By The Book.
I discovered this principle when I started writing...
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Jun 12, 2025
My top grant writing tip
As a grant writer or grant writer-to-be, you’re schooled in the seven elements to include in your grant proposal.
Yet as you read grant application after grant application, you’ll notice this: they vary widely.
Every request for proposal presents its opportunity in a different format, with its own eligibility criteria for grant applicants and its own unique application process. When applicants don’t adhere to the instructions, their applications are eliminated from consideration...
Jun 11, 2025
How to write a strong email marketing message
Speed dating is hard. Writing email campaigns is harder.
Studies say speed daters have less than 30 seconds to make a good first impression and connect with a potential dating partner.
But 30 seconds is an eternity compared to email marketing statistics.
With email, you’ve got 2 seconds to make a good impression.
Yep. Two measly seconds. A recent tracking study by …
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Jun 10, 2025
How to write a book summary that sells your book
If you’re writing a book, then you need to know how to write a book summary. It’s a short piece of content that answers the all-important question, “What’s your book about?”
You’ve read zillions of book summaries. But you might not have even known the impact a good (or not so good) book summary has had on you...
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Jun 09, 2025
3 types of links yoru website needs -- and how to build them
There are 3 types of links you need to include on your website or blog. For your site to succeed, you need all three of them.
The reason is simple. Your website or blog is your online home. You want plenty of visitors to your home, right? The way those visitors find you is through links...
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Jun 08, 2025
Writing persuasively begins with ...
Early on in my writing life, the idea of writing persuasively made my skin crawl.
That discomfort was a bit of a problem for me, a newbie copywriter, since by definition copywriting is writing to persuade.
I equated writing persuasively with manipulation.
In writing persuasively, I had understood my goal to be ...
Jun 07, 2025
How Paul connected with qualified leads
A qualified lead is a person who has shown interest in your writing services.
Maybe this person has responded to your phone call, email, or letter. Or maybe the qualified lead has interacted with you on social media … as a referral … by downloading your lead magnet. Regardless, something about you snagged this person’s attention.
Your job, when you follow up, is two-fold...
Jun 06, 2025
Create your own strategic plan with this workbook
If you’re a nonprofit organization, small biz owner, or solopreneur, then you need a strategic plan.
And you don’t need an MBA to create one. Nor must you pay big dollars to a consultant to get started ...
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Jun 05, 2025
Top article writing tip
I wish I could have known this one article writing tip when I began writing:
Focus on one point per article or blog post.
I call this principle the “One Point Rule.”
Sure, there can be secondary points along the way.
But for your piece to be effective, you need to ...
Jun 04, 2025
How to get started writing eBooks
I had five books under my belt, all produced by the traditional route through a publishing house, when I decided to get started writing eBooks.
What pushed me to dip my toe into the digital waters?
In a word, hassle. I wanted less of it.
I didn’t want to hassle with convincing an editor to give me a book contract. And even if ...
Jun 03, 2025
3 tips for getting freelance writing gigs
These three tips in getting freelance writing gigs have little to do with creative genius or brilliant word smithing and a whole lot to do with cultivating a particular character trait.
That trait? Dependability.
Please don’t misunderstand – of course, it’s important to ...
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Jun 02, 2025
Want to persuade? Write to a real person
That’s because writing persuasive copy is a lot like talking on paper.
Which is why one of the most persuasive writing tips you can embrace is this: write to a real person.
The more you write with that reader in mind, the more persuasive your copy will be...
Jun 01, 2025
Writing an article: success is in how you slant it
“There are no new article topics,” explained the writing instructor.
Other students, like me, shifted uncomfortably in their chairs. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who wondered why I was in an article writing workshop if there was nothing new to write about.
“However,” the instructor continued...
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May 31, 2025
You don't need to always obey the Paragraph Police
Do you follow traditional rules when writing paragraphs?
For instance, your language arts teacher insisted that you communicate one idea per paragraph, preferably in a topic sentence. Additional sentences develop or support that idea. You close the paragraph with a transitional sentence that leads to the next paragraph.
Speaking of sentences ...
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