Your default position should be feeling sorry for your reader. Imagine they have a headache. It’s a Tuesday morning and they have a meeting with their boss which they’re dreading. They open LinkedIn and see your article, or receive a link to it in an email that you sent.

Now, here is the question: Are you adding to their headache, or are you offering them something which will make their job just that little bit easier?

What are you doing – in your headline, sub-heads, and in the content itself – that will make them bookmark it to read on the way home?

Ask yourself tough questions: Are you annoying your reader, are you waffling? Have you got clear take-aways right at the start, and can the reader scan your article quickly to decide whether it’s useful to them?

Put yourself in their shoes and make their life easy. They’ll reward you.