A great foundation of content marketing, whether you’re dealing with blogs or articles (and just good copywriting in general) is a sturdy conversational tone within your content. This gives you the ability to snatch up the grammar rules and bend them a little. Sometimes a lot. The main point of it is not to generate the perfect thesis for college, it’s to emulate the way people speak – even if there is a dash placed somewhere it shouldn’t be.
It may very well make a professional editor twitch, a college professor tug on his mustache curls and my own mother smack her forehead in frustration but it works. Many people find it credible, and enjoy the conversational tone that flows through much of the copywriting these days.
The problem with writing in a conversational tone, and content marketing in general, is that sometimes we don’t always use the brightest people to make our content sound like it’s written like people. Content marketing is a big part of any business online, especially when you use content syndication in social media. To anyone writing that content, a simple mistake in grammar might seem silly. Unfortunately, the truth is that a number of people (especially educated ones) won’t bother with your content and likely won’t subscribe or continue through your marketing process if you make simple mistakes that make you look dumb.
It’s harsh, but it’s extremely true. Buying from dummies is out of the question.
There are an uncountable number of mistakes to be avoided but not everyone has a bachelor’s degree in English. Let’s simplify it for the crowd – 5 Mistakes To Avoid
Here are five mistakes to avoid when blogging and writing web copy.
You’re & Your
I don’t even carry a degree in writing and this obvious flub makes me pull my hair. Unfortunately the next generation of bloggers is, in my opinion, getting extremely lazy and this one is becoming a lot more common. This is one of those “you forgot to proofread your content” errors and it tells your readers that you just don’t care.
If you are having an issue differentiating, then here’s the basic rule: “Your” is a possessive pronoun as in “your blog sucks”. “You’re” is a contraction for “you are” as in “You’re destroying your content by mixing up your and you’re”
Its & It’s
This is another common mistake in content marketing and copywriting that can be avoided by taking the time to review your content and think about the message you’re trying to convey.
“It’s” is a contraction of “it is” or “it has.” “Its” is a possessive pronoun, such as “I think that monkey is about to fling its poo”. Try to use this easy rule of thumb that’s common in the writer world – Speak the sentence out loud and use “is it”. If it doesn’t fit then “its” is likely the right choice.
There vs. Their
I think short of the people in every generation that just don’t care about what they say or how they say it (I’m biting my tongue) this is more often a simple typo than any major “duh” issue. It can be avoided with an appropriate proof read – that means stop rushing through your content and take 2 minutes to read the copy over you lazy git.
Keep these examples in mind: “There can be used a multiple ways – as a pronoun (“there is no spoon”) and a place (“I went there once”).
“Their” is a plural possessive pronoun (“I was staring at their funbags”). If you’re talking about more than a single person and something they possess then “their” is the way to go.
Affect vs. Effect
I think we can all claim a mulligan on this one. Even I have to stop and think about which one is appropriate and mentally sort it all out. Ignorance is no excuse, nor is laziness, so if you take the time to sort it out you’ll get this one right in the end. Worst case scenario – dictionary.com
“Affect” is a verb as in “My ability to haggle about my copywriting prices will directly affect how much I get paid for this content”. “Effect” is a noun, plain as can be. “The special effect left something to be desired.”
If you still have difficulty remembering, just remember that you can’t put “The” in front of a verb. No “The” before “A”.
The Dangling Participle
I once had a teacher who used to tell me that my participle was dangling, and I never understood it – mainly because I refused to follow the rules. I’m an animal like that and I just can’t help it. It’s probably the most egregious of writing errors and yet it does generate some amusing content. Amusing, but almost impossible to understrand
Check out this example from Tom Sant’s book Persuasive Business Proposals:
“After rotting in the cellar for weeks, my brother brought up some oranges.”
Please keep your decomposing family at a distance
The issue with the example and similar forms is that the participial phrase beginning the sentence isn’t intended to modify or change what follows. Readers however mentally expect that when it’s read. They think everything is related. When speaking in a conversational tone you need to set things up so that your opening phrase does modify what immediately follows otherwise you leave your readers hanging, cialis online and your participle danglin’
