Relationships
The Three Keys To Relationship Success In Writing
Can you guess what they are?
The three keys to relationship success are really not that difficult to fathom out. It's not rocket science as they say. And yet so many of us fail to recognise them and take full advantage of that knowledge.
It doesn't matter if we are talking about a business relationship or a personal relationship with a member of the opposite sex, or even the same sex in these enlightened times. And the same goes for writers seeking to get on either here or elsewhere in the world of publishing.
First you have to decide, or select, a target. Then you have to create a way to connect with that target and after that learn how to engage, or relate for want of a better word.
Let me simplify what I'm talking about here by referring to the writing of an article.
Select: For the purposes of this piece I have selected the subject of personal relationships. The reason I have chosen this topic is because it is the most universal in terms of just about everybody being in some sort of personal relationship. It could be a relationship with your parents, your siblings, your partner or your own offspring. So a well written piece on relationships has an excellent chance of finding success in terms of gaining an initial audience and an ongoing readership.
Connect: At this point I have already decided on a sub-topic, personal, intimate relationships with another adult, a partner if you like. Now what I need to do is come up with an arresting headline, image and subheading. I need something which will stand out in a crowded market, something that will catch the attention enough for the reader to want to know what the article is about. You can treat the subhead as a teaser to egg the reader on to explore the text.
Engage: Now it is the job of the text to engage the reader with content that interests them enough to read all the way through to the end. Also what you are doing here is trying to establish a relationship with the reader. In my most successful articles it has become clear that there are a great many readers with similar experiences to mine. They wanted to know perhaps how my experience differed from theirs. Maybe I dealt with a relationship problem better, or worse for that matter. The all important thing is that I found a common ground.
My most successful piece to date with 8500 views, with a fifty percent read ratio, took off in such a way it caught me completely by surprise. Rather like a woman twenty years younger than me accepting my proposal to get married, she said yes!(This is a true story).
I am sure that this piece found a large audience due to the fact that sadly lots of people have had horrible experience of being cheated on. Here I put a positive twist on the tale and perhaps that was what caught peoples attention.
A very good friend of mine, fellow writer and editor of Illumination publications, Aldric Chen, asked me if all my successful stories were about cheating. I must admit, it does seem to be a very rich vein to explore. However, at the self same time as the above story went viral so did three others, though not to quite the same degree. Here's one that was about finding true love rather than losing it.
And here is yet another article about enjoying the beauty of a loving relationship which although not yet viral, is showing early signs of going that way.
Ok, so using the self same three point system, select, connect, engage, one can very easily apply it to finding a new partner in life or indeed in business. At the end of the day it all comes down to one word, RELATE.
If you relate to your target readers, your hearts desire or a business customer base you will find success. It's all about how you relate to others, to the world at large, to the animal kingdom and everyday objects, indeed to the entire universe. Relate, relate, relate.
Blue74girl Random Jones Nemesisesq Kare Ariza Sue Jesse Morgan Jack Albrecht Esther George
