Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content

49Biased and BalancedSeek Out Opposing Viewpoints

“There's a name for something with a single point of view: it's called a press release,” Joe Chernov, VP of content at HubSpot, once told me.

What does that mean for you? It means you should incorporate multiple perspectives when the issue lends itself to doing so. At the very least, don't ignore the fact that other points of view might exist; to do so makes your reader not trust you.

As I said right up front in this section on publishing rules, trust is critical in publishing, and you want your readers to know that you're watching out for them. To quote Hemingway: “The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shockproof, shit detector.” And you need to protect your readers from content that stinks.

Does that mean you should mention your competitors? Maybe. At the very least, acknowledge that they exist, or that alternative viewpoints might exist.

I like the approach of being biased and balanced, which sounds paradoxical but isn't. In fact, it's a hallmark of good brand journalism.

Biased and balanced coexist even in traditional journalism.

“The New Republic was always a biased magazine,” Dan Lyons said in an email interview. And so was Forbes, where Dan worked as senior editor.

“At Forbes we were not allowed to write stories that said, ‘On the one hand this, on the other hand that…,’” he said. “We were under orders to have an opinion, to take a side and defend it. But we were also expected to ‘fight fair,’ meaning ...