Your Best Chance to Securing that DAO Copywriting Bounty!

3 stages to drafting the perfect DIA DAO copywriting layout

A short guide to help you secure your DIA copywriting contribution and win that ETH bounty.

Feeling lost on how to construct that “winning” outline for DIA DAO Copywriting Tasks announced each week?

Interested in gaining an unfair advantage over competitors not willing to read this resource?

If so, welcome to this simple guideline, created specifically to help you draft winning proposals during your time at DIA DAO.

Check the “dots” as you go.

Stage I) Basic Elements

The first step is for you to understand what is expected within the outline, in addition to the bounty-oriented deliverables.

1. Catchy Title

• Make sure you repurpose the title into something that is clickable.
• The title should neither understate nor overstate the purpose of the document and accurately capture the essence of the research.
• Not only that, but it should be so enticing for the readers that they could not help themselves but click on the title you create.
• For this to happen, you must be well-acquainted with the psychology of your prospective audience.

Interesting Fact: 8 out of 10 people only read headlines (Copyblogger)

Good Resource: How to Write Killer Headlines (eBook)

2. Meta-description

• Be sure to add a 160-character (or more if needed but will be truncated on SERP) description of what the topic is.
• This tag is added to assure users that the content covered in the article is related to their search query.
• This segment is extremely important for increasing the click-through rate (CTR).
• The copy-writing guild expects a non-spammy, not over-optimized metadescription that convinces the reader to check the article out for answers.
• Intelligent use of keywords (SEO) within the metadescription will be taken into account.

Interesting Fact: The #1 result in Google has a CTR of 27.6%

Good Resource: Semrush guide to writing stellar metadescriptions

3. Hook

• Who is not aware of the importance of an opening statement?
• Imagine your piece as a bag of chips. Can you ever stop at just one chip if it’s good? Hence, make each sentence a delicious, crispy chip, forcing the reader to go deeper into the bag 😉.
• You can either raise a question, promise entertainment, or just intrigue them, making the readers ever more curious.
• It should not disappoint the reader but rather capture their attention or ideally pique their interest.

Interesting Fact: Hooks force people to keep on reading

Good Resource: How to write good hooks (Academia.edu)

4. Story Telling Capability

• Brand loyalty is dependent on storytelling, it is that important.
• Stories help you connect with your audience, and are the most powerful tool you will ever own as a marketer.
• Add power to your wordsmithing by immersing the readers in stories that embed images into their brains.
• The narration should lead the reader to understand that joining DIA DAO is a “no-brainer” (avoid going too deep/complex and try to write as if you are having a one-on-one conversation).

Interesting Fact: 73% of companies hire someone for their content strategy

Good Resource: Ultimate guide to storytelling

5. Value to Readers

• Readers seek value like crazy, even though it is subjective (based on their own beliefs).
• They prefer strong imagery and characterizations, and that is why infographics, memes, and stories are so popular — but without inherent value, they are mere illustrations.
• Your job is to sell value up-front.
• What questions will your text answer? Those answers, and options you give, will then offer real value to your readers.

Interesting Fact: Readers only consume 20% of content on a page (Nielson Norman Group)

Good Resource: The ABCs of Copywriting

6. Logical Progression

• Going from one paragraph to another should be as natural and unstoppable as going from one chip to the next.
• The logical order of the text helps the reader follow your ideas in perfect harmony.
• What we look for lies in the literal meaning of this word (Logical = makes sense in the reader’s brain. Progression = the order of things).
• No argument can ever be logical if the author doesn’t understand it and write it in a reader-friendly manner.

Interesting Fact: A compelling copy draws 7.8 times more site traffic and produces brand recall which brings higher engagement rates

Good Resource: Organizing for Logical Progression in Informational Writing

7. Proofreading Mistakes

• We do not expect you to be perfect but those who will succeed do endeavor for perfection.
• Any grammatical mistakes and typos would cost you points.
• Make sure your work is clean and aesthetic.
• Re-read your work carefully before sending it in. One more read-through might just be all that is preventing you from winning.

Interesting Fact: 74% of web readers pay attention to the quality of spelling and grammar (RealBusiness)

Good Resource: Quick Proofreading Tips

8. Conclusion

• Effective conclusions make the reader come back to the main points of the text.
• One great way to come to this point is by answering the So What Question?
• Give a sense of closure to the reader, as if concluding a well-thought and sincere advice.
• Present the way forward and link with DIA — Always.

Interesting Fact: Conclusions are often what readers remember the best

Good Resource: A Brief Guide to Writing Conclusions

9. Call to Action

• Encourage your readers to take action through CTAs after convincing them (gaining trust) through the 8 points mentioned above.
• CTAs are context-specific and should either be standardized (not generic) or (ideally) unique, depending on your scenario, story, and writing style.
• The best CTAs create the fear of missing out on the prospects DIA has to offer.
• Remember that it is through your stories and CTAs working together that you convert readers into customers or contributors. Hence, this ability of yours shall be judged.

Interesting Fact: Personalized calls to action are 202% more effective (HubSpot)

Good Resource: Effective Call to Action guide (HubSpot)

Stage II) Structure of the Winning Layout

The second stage is where you rise to the occasion, breaking down your ideas into a sentence and paragraph outline.

• You have to “outline” a break down of your idea into subpoints, using BOLD headings for H2s (i.e., I and II) (H1 being the title itself), underlines for H3s (i.e., A and B), italics for H4s (i.e., 1 and 2), and both bold and italic fonts for H5s (i.e., a and b).

Example 1:

Break Down your Idea and Be Sure to Add Depth

• Once your ideas are divided in the form of various sentences under a specific hierarchy, add the meta description, and work (adding more depth to each sentence) your way down from there

Example 2:

Meta description: The decisions I have to make in choosing college courses, depend on larger questions I am beginning to ask myself about my life’s work.

I. I have two decisions to make with respect to choosing college courses in the immediate future.

A. One is whether to elect a course in art history or in chemistry.

1. One time in my life, I planned to be a chemical engineer professionally.

2. On the other hand, I enjoy art and plan to travel and see more of it.

B. The second decision is whether to continue a third year of French beyond the basic college requirement.

1. French might be useful both in engineering and travel.

2. Furthermore, I am eager to read good books which are written in French.

3. How necessary are these considerations in light of other courses I might take instead?

II. My problem can be put in the form of a dilemma involving larger questions about my whole future.

A. On the one hand I want to hold a highly-trained position in a lucrative profession.

B. On the other hand I want to lead a certain kind of life, with capacities for values not connected with the making of money.

III. I will have to make a decision balancing the conflicting needs I have described.

A. I will hold open the professional possibilities by electing chemistry.

B. I will improve and solidify what cultural proficiency in another language I have already gained, by electing French.

Note: The greater the depth and the more seamless the logical progression of the hierarchy created, the better the chance for acceptance.

Stage III) Originality and Plagiarism

The final stage is not the least important. Many great copywriters are blacklisted for plagiarism in this industry.

DIA DAO’s Community Hub aims to become the Wikipedia of Web3, but of scholarly repute.

Better be prepared to face serious consequences if copy-pasted work is uploaded.

Even if you are taking various aspects from other sources, they have to be broken down and written in your own words.

On this note, I would like to end this guide, hoping that the lessons you learned here would serve you well both inside and outside DIA DAO.