Catholic Web Content Development Articles Series (3 of 7) - Writing Catholic Articles and Blog Posts on Church History and the Lives of the Saints

Introduction

Another idea for writing Catholic articles and blog posts is to write on Church history and the lives of the saints. These two topics have a range of information that is easy to organise, since both are commonly presented in the form of a narration. (Narration is a basic form of writing that describes a subject in a chronologically linear form - from beginning to end). As narrations, you can make your writing more effective when you also include descriptive details as regards a saint's life or a specific era in Catholic Church history. According to authors Lynn Kelsch and Thomas Kelsch, in their book "Writing Effectively: A Practical Guide", narrations can be presented "powerfully, if you set the scene with description".

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) techniques in developing this form of writing

One effective technique is to use key words that are popularly used in current news items. For example, if a current news item includes a specific historical place in its news presentation, you can get the key words used for that historical place, then research how that place played a significant role in Church history, and then develop a Catholic article or blog post about it. With right timing, you can develop content about that historical place, get it indexed in the search engines in real time, and then benefit from the traffic generated by the popularity of the key word. Important things to remember with this technique is to consider: timing, speed in writing, good research, and effective optimization of the key word.

Effectively writing for a specific audience

The specific audience for this form and content in writing are English-literate people on the Web. With this specific audience in mind, you can select English words that will be easily understood by those who understand English as a primary language and those who understand English as a secondary language. Writing how the Catholic Church was born in English-speaking nations like the U.S.A., England and the Commonwealth of Nations (where English is spoken and understood as a primary language), and the Philippines and other select countries (where English is understood as a secondary language), can generate a good harvest of visitor traffic to your Catholic web site or blog. Here are other ideas to generate visitor traffic when writing Catholic articles on Church history: 1. English-literate people on the Web will have a natural interest on how the Catholic Church was born and inculturated in their own native country; 2. there is an added advantage when using the British (Oxford) spellings of words (like organisation, instead of organization) because there more people use the British spelling when make a search query in the search engines.

Organising your web content on Church history

Since the history of the Catholic Church now spans two millenia of historical events, you can be guided by established authors who follow a simple method to divide Church history into just six major divisions. One book that provides this idea into just six essential divisions, is the book "The Catholic Church in the 21st Century: Finding Hope for its Future in the Wisdom of the Past". This book divides Church history into six historical divisions:

• The New Testament eras
• The First Millenium
• The Medieval Church
• The Tridentine and Baroque Church
• The Nineteenth Century Catholic Church
• Vatican II and post-Vatican II years

Writing biographical sketches of the saints

To make a marked difference from the many written sources on the Web on the lives of the saints, you can add in your biographical sketch how the spirituality of a saint helped in the growth of the Church during his/her time. You can include direct quotes from the saint's writings, letters, prayers, or poems which express his spirituality. You can also provide greater positive impact on your readers if you also highlight that special charism which the saint had been gifted with for the growth and expansion of the universal Catholic Church. This content development specifically applies to a select group of saints: founders of religious orders and congregations; writers of mystical works; miracle workers and healers; and visionaries.

Using anchor text optimization in writing on the saints

As you write more and more about the lives of the saints, you can employ the advantage of anchor text optimization (a Search Engine Optimization technique wherein you use a key word together with a link to another page). An example of anchor text optimization is centenerian saints. This technique helps your Catholic articles and blog posts rank higher in the search engines results pages.

Many saints in the history of the Church, worked together or have influenced one another in the Church's universal mission. When you write an article on the life of one specific saint, you can also mention other saints who have been a part of his life and work. Each time therefore, that other saints are mentioned in the biography of one saint, you can then create anchor text links (like the example above on centenerian saints) to articles that have biographical sketches of their lives.

Summary and conclusion

Developing content on the history of the Church and the lives of the saints can be a very enriching experience - both on the part of the writer and the readers. For the reader in search of information, he can obtain comprehensive presentations you have produced on the history of the Church and the lives of the saints. On the part of the Catholic web site owner or blogger, he can obtain inspiration for his spiritual life from this study and writing activity.

Important things to consider when writing content on Church history and the lives of the saints: 1. avoid producing duplicate content (copying and pasting whole passages of writing into your content development); 2. edit your writing so that you can present something unique and comprehensive; 3. create a positive difference and impact by providing the reader some space in your writing for deeper thought and reflection; 4. you can use the Creative Commons License in your writing to make your work based on creativity, expression, and sharing online.

If you want to search for ideas in developing content on Church history and the lives of the saints, you might discover something you like in the Librarything.com list of books given below:

Related resources

• A New Guide to Better Writing, by Flesch and Lass
• Catholic Web Content Development Series Main Page
• Basic Form of Writing - Forms of Writing Catholic Articles
• Promoting a Brand of Writing Catholic Articles
• Good and Effective Writing Techniques
• Basic Organisation of Form and Content in Effective Writing

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