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Word Wise Blog: Content Writing Made Easy
Award-winning writer Kathy Widenhouse has helped hundreds of nonprofits and writers produce successful content , with 750K+ views for her writing tutorials. She is the author of 9 books. See more of Kathy’s content here.
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Dec 25, 2025
Recipe writing tips: How to share your holiday recipes
"May I have your recipe?"
It's a familiar refrain at holiday gatherings, potlucks, and get-togethers. I've lost track of the number of people who have asked me for my mom's Cranberry Pecan Pie recipe.
When it comes to what tastes good, I'm not shy about requesting the recipe...
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Dec 24, 2025
Use this simple planner to set and achieve your 2026 writing goals
One secret of success as a writer?
Set a writing goal. Then, working backwards from that goal, list smaller steps to take to achieve that goal.
And simply work the steps.
Isaac Asimov (1920-1992), one of the world’s most prolific writers, demonstrated this approach in his writing habits ...
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Dec 23, 2025
12 tips for writing winning Asks
These 12 tips for writing winning Asks follow a simple fill-in-the-blank format you can use to write an important part of a call to action: the benefits of your product, service, or cause.
They’re helpful because they give you a model to use to explain benefits to your reader.
An Ask (a call to action) is the point in your project where you tell your reader what to do. Any piece of persuasive writing includes an Ask, whether it’s ...
Dec 22, 2025
How to create your biz objectives for 2026
Have you written your objectives for next year?
An objective is a specific statement that outlines one measurable step you will take to achieve your goal.
Writing objectives is a crucial skill for writing grants, writing business plans, and strategic planning – a skill that I wish I’d known when I first started out writing.
It ain’t a bad list of tips to have on hand just in general, either, when you're trying to write with clarity...
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Dec 21, 2025
Links: Make an effort to make them - and see how they pay off
A link is clickable text.
A contextual link on your web pages or blog posts leads readers to related information.
A contextual link allows you to stay on point as you write. You can use it online to refer to a related topic.
That helps you to ...
Continue reading "Links: Make an effort to make them - and see how they pay off"
Dec 20, 2025
Can you write a sentence? You can write a book.
Write a sentence and you can write a book.
Or an article, blog post or any other writing project.
That’s a different way to look at overwhelm, isn’t it?
Consider this: the average non-fiction book is 12 chapters long...
Continue reading "Can you write a sentence? You can write a book."
Dec 19, 2025
Perfect gift for the young girls in your life
When my editor asked me to write a book of fun children devotionals for girls ages 6-9, I saw a perfect opportunity to help young ladies understand that God is their friend.
I knew that God & Me! 3 (ages 6-9) would be part of a series of children devotionals, but didn’t know then that the book and series would become an iParenting media award winner … and a best-seller...
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Dec 18, 2025
Use a year-end online appeal to snag last-minute gifts
A year-end online appeal is cheap and simple to send.
With December 31 as biggest electronic giving day of the year (according to some gurus), a year-end online appeal at the eleventh hour makes sense.
Leverage the year-end online rush when you create an email campaign (or short series) to send between Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
All you need is ...
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Dec 17, 2025
Maker Time vs. Manager Time for freelance writers
I wondered why my early freelancing days felt uncontrollably busy, yet strangely unproductive.
I wasn’t writing nearly enough. Guilt reigned.
I learned the hard way about maker time vs manager time...
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Dec 16, 2025
DIY graphics in 2026 (and save time and money)
I created this simple tutorial of 3 writing tips to help content writers and freelancers like me get started with using graphics in our online projects.
Preferably to help you DIY (Do It Yourself) at no cost or low cost.
We know we need to do this – to add images to pages on websites and blogs. When was the last time you opened a web page or social media post and saw text only? Like, never...
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Dec 15, 2025
Update your identity content for 2026
Identity content explains who you are and what you do.
You know yourself. But do you explain who you are and what you do to others in a way they can grasp?
No matter whether you’re a small to medium-sized business, an organization, or a sole proprietor, you want people to understand your work. It’s the essence of building your ”platform” ...
Dec 14, 2025
A good critique is gold. Here's why.
Early in my content writing life, I received a valuable writing critique – by mistake.
A client forwarded an email from his fundraising consultant, thinking to pass along the consultant’s contact information so I could schedule a conference call.
The email contained a line-by-line critique of a recent campaign I’d completed for my client.
Once the initial wave of humiliation passed, I stopped to ...
Dec 13, 2025
A tip from the Apostle Paul: how he defined his audience
Have you defined the audience you write for?
A successful blog provides helpful, valuable information for a specific group of readers.
To determine the audience you write for, ask yourself this question: what distinguishes your readers from ...
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Dec 12, 2025
Build your blog in 2026- just 20 minutes at a time
The main problem, most bloggers say, is time. They don’t have time to blog or write consistently.
But the truth is this: if you have 20 minutes, then you can build your blog...
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Dec 11, 2025
Avoid the most common appeal letter trap
“This appeal letter doesn’t get to the point until the fourth paragraph,” said the development director.
Oops … she was right.
Your first few sentences rank up there as one of the most important elements of an appeal (along with the carrier teaser and the P.S.)
If it takes several paragraphs or even pages to get to your point, you have what's called ...
Dec 10, 2025
Is this writing job for you?
“Copywriting as a job. What’s it like?” asked the high school girl as she interviewed me for a class project on careers.
This young lady excelled in her English classes … was an avid reader … loved to write … but she was afraid she would not be able to make a living as a writer or editor.
“Take a look all around you,” I told her, pointing out websites, social media sites, newspapers, magazines, reports, letters, and printed matter of all kinds. “Somebody has to write all of this. And they get paid to do it.”
Why couldn’t that somebody be her – or you?
Dec 09, 2025
3 tips for writing short content stories to hook readers
Fiction writers can find plenty of helpful tips for writing short stories. Newsletters, online articles, books – even full-length courses – explain how to write fiction that’s got engaging character development, conflict, plot lines, and resolution.
But what about content writers? We, too, are storytellers.
Sure, you can open a post or article or letter plenty of other ways: with a shocking statistic. With a quote from a celebrity or expert. With a summary statement.
But stories are universal in articles, blog posts, web pages ...
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Dec 08, 2025
The 10 commandments of newsletters
Newsletters are a powerful tool to use to keep you in touch with your readers, donors, and prospects.
In fact, no matter what your industry – from media to publishing to tech startups to services to retail – you can get in front of readers regularly with a newsletter. Especially if you publish one online.
This is especially true for small businesses, nonprofits, and solopreneurs...
Dec 07, 2025
One powerful way to limit writing distractions
Want to write more but have trouble staying focused?
A recent study explains that you’re not alone. Microsoft found the average person’s attention span has dropped by a third since 2000.
In spite of its increasing frequency, distraction has been a common challenge through the ages.
Take a look at ...
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Dec 06, 2025
How to write a sidebar with value
A study Bible has extra notes, information, charts, maps, and illustrations to help readers understand the scriptural text.
Much of this information appears in extra articles or sidebars.
Study bible sidebars are not part of the original text.
They’re extras that ...
Dec 05, 2025
Make a personalized plan to get your book done in 2026
“I want to write a book.” You’ve said that more than once. In fact, your book idea has been floating around in your head for some time.
But an actual manuscript? You haven’t made much headway on that, if any.
What you need is a book writing plan — a plan that is simple enough to ...
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Dec 04, 2025
What your fundraising letter MUST have
An effective fundraising letter contains certain key elements – pieces that must be included in order to accomplish its goal of persuading the reader to give.
While this list is not a template, it offers a good sequential order to follow in a fundraising letter body.
Not every letter will follow this formula exactly. This particular order is simply a logical one to follow.
In fact, each of the elements is 100% necessary...
Dec 03, 2025
How to choose topics for your 2026 content plan
How do you choose content topics for your upcoming content calendar?
If you write with regularity, a content calendar helps you stay organized so you can produce your material on schedule — whether you’re a solopreneur or you work on a team.
My content calendar includes …
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Dec 02, 2025
How to write a Christmas letter that people want to read
When my husband and I had children, I began to write a Christmas letter each year.
Until that point, I had sent handwritten Christmas cards with a short note. Yes, more than 100 of them every year.
I admit it: Christmas letters had just ...
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Dec 01, 2025
Avoid these 5 deadly fundraising mistakes
When times are hard, one of the biggest nonprofit fundraising mistakes you can make is to complain.
Partners and prospects read negativity, and click “delete” or toss your letter quicker than the latest stock market indicator plunge. And why not? They hear plenty of it already on the news.
Whining is deadly.
Even in down times, you can cultivate your readers and build your audience...
Continue reading "Avoid these 5 deadly fundraising mistakes"
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