The general topic of your article and type of article you are going to write will be dictated by the topic of your blog or by the client that you are writing for. Once you know what you are going to write about, the very first step is deciding if you are going to write a “hard news” or “soft news” type of article.
Hard news articles (also known as “straight news”) are usually based on breaking news, niche interest and the nature of your market or industry. Writing this type of article requires you to either be well connected or to move fast on your research to capture the immediacy of the event you’re writing about.
Hard news articles are based on a factual account rather than opinion, but may be slanted by your personal perspective (enter the world of spin doctors). Typical websites with a predominant “hard news” focus include TechCrunch and CNN.
Soft news articles (also known as “lead articles”) give you much more creative freedom, since they are not restricted to a specific subject or freshness threshold. Soft news can be how-to articles, profiles or interviews of noteworthy people in your industry, reviews, human interest stories, discussion of issues, etc.
Soft news articles are preferred by bloggers because this type of article gives you a chance to express your personal opinion and focus on different aspects of the story. Websites with a “soft news” preference include Problogger and Seth’s Blog.
Always remember that the main goal of your web content is to provide the best and most informative experience for your visitors. Only by achieving this goal will you be able to brag about having “outstanding web content” on your website.
Stay tuned, very soon I’ll be sharing a few strategies about creativity and idea generation for your articles. (If you haven’t done so, subscribe to our newsletter or via RSS right now so you don’t miss the rest of this article series).
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