The best blog doesn’t use the most complex sentences nor the most stylish choices of words with advanced vocabularies. In this short attention span economy of the Internet, the best blogs have the cleanest copy. It’s important not merely for reading pleasure, but also for monetization purposes.
What is a “clean copy”? In this article, we’ll discuss what it is and how you can write clean copies for your blog. And why having clean copies is the best way to monetize your blog.
Clean Copy: A Definition
A pioneer in ad copywriting David Ogilvy once said, “A good advertisement is one which sells the product without drawing attention to itself.” In blogging, an excellent blog is one that informs and educates readers in a targeted way. In other words, a good blog article is easy to understand and readable even by those with an 8-grade reading level.
In short, a “clean copy” is a clear and highly readable copy with no unnecessary words, no unnecessary sentences, and no unnecessary paragraphs. This being said, a clean copy is efficient with words, sentences, and paragraphs. Thus, the whole copy contains words that tell the story well without unnecessary embellishments.
How to Write Clean Copy
Writing clean copy can be learned, just like learning any other skills. In general, there are 5 ways to make a copy clean.
- Understand who the readers are. Maintain grade 8 reading level, which you can check with the Hemingway app.
- Use the common correct spelling of words, don’t try to be cutesy with proper spellings. This can create confusion among readers.
- Refrain from using fancy words, terms, and phrases that only a handful of people would understand. Never just slap terms that sound sophisticated merely to impress readers. Most likely, they wouldn’t be.
- Every sentence must have a noun and a verb. Double check on this to ensure that every sentence structure has a subject and a predicate. Otherwise, it’s not a complete sentence.
- Keep things simple, don’t overwrite and don’t overstate. Be clear about what you want to convey and stick with it. You may, however, include multiple angles on an issue, but remain simple in word choices and types of sentences used.
To check spelling, punctuation, and grammar, editing software like ProWritingAid would be very useful in catching errors, providing recommendations, and making corrections. This tool allows you to understand your own writing weaknesses and challenges better so you can progress.
Clean Copy is the Best Way for Monetizing
To monetize your blog with affiliate commissions, membership subscriptions, or selling digital products, you’d need to ensure that the site looks and feels professional. With magnetic titles, people would likely read the content, and if it’s engaging and empathetic to their problems, they’d be compelled to purchase your products.
An overall good copy also creates a potentially long-lasting bond with viewers, and it has the power to persuade them to graduate from being “casual readers” to paying customers. Whenever the copy content is excellent and emotionally affecting them, it might get shared multiple times, making it “viral.” Without a good clean copy, none of these could occur.
Jennifer Xue is an award-winning author, columnist, and serial entrepreneur based in Northern California. She is also a digital strategist for several e-commerce and app companies. Her byline has appeared in Forbes, Fortune, Esquire, Cosmopolitan, Business.com, Business2Community, Addicted2Success, Good Men Project, Positively Positive, and others. Her blog is JenniferXue.com.
