Raising Money and Awareness- the Write Way

The internet is a great source of information but unfortunately there is a lot of rubbish out there too. People are hungry for good reliable content, especially in niche areas. I worked in the eating disorders field for a long time and I know that one of the hardest things for sufferers and parents was finding decent help, especially if they lived rurally. The internet can offer a remote lifeline to these people but equally the 'pro-anna' type of sites can make things worse. If you have expertise in a niche area and a sound value system, you could be one of those lifelines and help people get the information they need.

So you're going to give it a go...a few things to think about.

This page is written and hosted by Blogger. It's free and easy to set up. There are clear instructions and lots of blogs that will show you how to do it.

Be clear and concise, especially in the first paragraph. Think about what you want to say and tell the reader what to expect.

Keep your content useful and easy to understand. Bite sized chunks are good. People don't tend to read, they skim so make sure your blog or article is really easy on the eye.

Remember who you are speaking to. If it is a 'user' you might want to keep it really simple, if it is potential funders or researchers, you may need to go into more detail and make sure you reference properly as you would offline. Be careful about making unsupported claims.

Let people know how to contact you for more information or to donate, and make it easy for them to donate.

Let people know who you have helped and how, people love to read about personal and real life experiences. If you can convey the benefits of your organisation you will be much more likely to get paid to write and to attract traffic to your pages.

Point your reader to other resources or useful sources of information, if you send links to good respectable sites, you will also find that this helps with your search engine ranking.

Try to include lots of keywords that will help people find you. Think of what people will type into the search bar if they were looking for your information. This includes the title of your site, try and tell people what you are about in your domain name and blog/article title.

Don't worry if you are not about to win a literary prize for your work, the main thing is providing your reader with reliable information. If you do start a blog, keep it going. Be regular and keep it fresh. Hubpages is a fantastic place to get going too, you can create a 'hub' of information about your work. Adding videos and images will also add to the viewing experience and help people to remember your work.

And lastly, have fun! I hope this article will inspire you to start getting your word on the e-streets and see how easy it is to get going! Tomorrow I will tell you more specifically how your charity or social enterprise can start raising money from writing.