This is going to sound weird.

But I am not writing this blog post to you with my fingers typing on a keyboard…

I am sitting in front of my computer and speaking to my screen. It’s recording what I say and turning it into the text you can see in front of you now.

This is not because I have pain in my hands… or RSI… or arthritis.

It’s because I am trying to demonstrate to you a clever way to create great content that sounds really natural… and avoids you getting “writer’s block”.

It will also stop you from feeling that you haven’t got the skills necessary for creating emails, sales pages, social media posts and all the other stuff you might need to do in your online business.

Because you might have experienced this yourself…

Writing Anxiety!

You sit down to create a piece of content and you immediately find yourself struggling.

That flashing cursor on the screen taunts you!

Suddenly, doubts flood into your brain…

How am I supposed to begin? What should I write? What if it sounds stupid? What if I just can’t write well enough? Why would anyone read my stuff?

It can be paralysing.

Sometimes, it’s not the doubts that stop you, it’s just that as soon as you put your hands to the keyboard, your brain goes completely blank.

This is known as “writer’s block”.

Lots of professional writers have complained that they get this ‘block’ out of nowhere, which stops them from doing their work.

But the jury is out on whether this really exists…

For professionals, it’s more likely to be a form of anxiety caused by the pressure of an important goal or deadline.

However, what’s for sure is that many people find it difficult to write… particularly first-time course creators who might not have any experience, skills or interest in writing at all.

It’s no surprise that the act of writing down thoughts and ideas feels intimidating!

So if you’re experiencing this problem yourself, please don’t panic – there’s an easy way around it…

The hands-free secret of great writing

There’s a great quote from the marketing guru Seth Godin, which goes like this:

“No one ever gets talker’s block. No one wakes up in the morning, discovers he has nothing to say and sits quietly, for days or weeks, until the muse hits, until the moment is right, until all the craziness in his life has died down”

It’s so true, isn’t it?!

Talking doesn’t become ‘blocked’ like writing.

For instance, if I were to sit down in front of you now and ask you to tell me about something that interests you, I’m sure you’d be able to start talking right away.

Okay, you might occasionally stutter, or tail off, or repeat yourself. But you’d get your point across.

Now imagine that you could have everything you said written down automatically by a machine… so you could go back afterwards, tidy it up, add punctuation, make corrections…

That’s what I am doing right now to this email content – I’m turning what I spoke out loud into something easy to read.

It’s really easy too…

If you have Word on your computer, simply hit the ‘dictate’ button (it should be on the top right of your screen) and it will start recording.

And if you don’t have Word, you can use Google Docs to write your content, which also has a similar dictation function.

Or try something like Converse Smartly or Speech Notes.

There are also numerous dictation apps that you can download onto your smartphone, which will allow you to do this anywhere.

Just activate the recording, then start to speak. Don’t worry about the grammar, punctuation and any errors. Let it flow so that your page fills up with content.

Once you’ve finished speaking, you can use this as raw material to go back and tidy up and if you can’t bear to edit it then just outsource it on somewhere like Fiverr.

It’s a hands-free approach that will get you off the starting line instantly and easily.

Even if you don’t have any problem with writing, and don’t ever get stuck with a flashing cursor and a blank mind, you should still try this.

Because the results may be BETTER than you’re getting from your current writing.

Here’s why…

A golden rule of copywriting

One of the golden rules of direct response copywriting is that you should always ‘write like you speak’.

The aim is to be as direct and natural as possible when communicating with your reader.

It’s absolutely not to impress them with your literary prowess, or hit them with loads of complicated information… or, heaven forbid, BORE them.

So what you NEVER want to use is flowery language, obscure words, jargon and technical terminology… this just gets in the way of their understanding.

Neither do you want long sentences and dense paragraphs which just make everything look difficult and dull to read.

Worse still, you need to avoid writing like you’re a business marketer or professional copywriter, who is simply trying to sell to them.

Instead, you need to come across as a genuine human being who sincerely wants to help.

And the best way to do that is to write as if you were sat opposite your reader in a café or cosy living room, speaking to them directly.

The more natural you sound, the more honest you sound, the more likely the reader is to engage with you.

This goes for everything you ever write for your business by the way – email content, social media posts, blogs, adverts…

It will all improve by sounding like clear, natural, everyday speech.

And the good thing about this is, it’s really about simplifying things, rather than complicating them.

So it’s worth trying a dictation device to capture your natural speech first, then turn that into written copy and see what you come up with.

At the very least, there’s no harm in giving it a go.

You might find that your ability to write is instantly transformed!

Try it this week and see what the results look like (and if you love it – do let me know!)