Writing articles is easy, it’s really not as not as difficult as you think. The important thing is that you catch your reader’s attention. You must make them want to read what you wrote. Here are the tips that you can follow when writing your article?

You and Your Readers

Grab you reader’s attention. Your introductory words or paragraph must tell your readers how reading your article will help them out or improve their life or situation. Remember that at first glance your title must reflect the benefit they would receive from reading your article. Writing compelling titles is an art itself. It must have pizzazz and it must sizzle by itself. You must create a title that will grab your reader’s attention and hold it. Do not be afraid to be outrageous even. It must be formatted in such a way that when your readers scan your article, it would be viewed as a light, easy and interesting reading. How do you ensure that your article is easy to scan? Use bullets, headings, sub-headings, numbered lists, and steps.

Talk to your reader. Learn to be specific in your purpose and narrow down your article to its exact target audience. Make sure that your articles will be understood by varied audience regardless of their age, educational background or race. Connect to your reader as a friend, giving him an advice. Make your article friendly.

You and Your Topics

Prepare an outline. Writing would be easier also if you have an outline on hand. Determine the number of paragraphs you would like your article to have, your outline headings and sub points for each heading. Your outline headings must not vary from the main topic of the article but must be supportive of the main heading. Your subtopics for each outline headings must be related to the main heading and to each outline heading.

Take note that your article should be concise, informative and interesting. Do not write lengthy paragraphs that would bore your reader. Keep it short and readable. You can give examples, but make sure that they are short. It is also important to write simple sentences and use words that are understandable to almost any reader. Use the simplest words. Avoid using words which are very technical except when it is really necessary. Use words of direct and powerful actions and expressions. Use active voice in writing sentences. This would be more positive in impression. Do not include unnecessary or excessive words.

Be informative and substantive. Your article must be practical and valuable. You must do your research to make sure that your article will come out like you really know what you are talking about. Avoid lengthy idioms, analogies, quotes, anecdotes, and stories, but if you must give an example, make it short. This will ensure that your reader will get the information while appealing to their emotions. Your readers want information and definite summary of the whole article. It is this way that they will connect with you.

Writing Past Fear: 10 Ways To Stop Worrying And Start Writing

Many people claim that they want to write. Most won’t because of a giant monster called FEAR. It looms over individuals and paralyzes them. “What if I’m no good?” “ What if I’m wasting my time?” “What if…” “What if…” “What if…” Fear creates these never-ending questions, but fortunately the beast can be conquered. It’s conquered every day. Here are ten ways to get over fear and start writing:

1) Handwrite. There’s something informal about writing longhand. Just grab a piece of paper and jot notes down. They do not have to be anything brilliant. What you write could be something as simple as “I wish I had an idea about…” Don’t worry what your handwriting looks like, just fill the page with free thought.

2) Send yourself an email. An email isn’t “real writing” so use this format to jot a story down. You can write about an imaginary day or a neighborhood event. This is a great exercise to get in the storytelling mode and you don’t have to worry about the recipient – it’s you!

3) Commit before you’re ready. Tell someone you’re a writer and let them give you an assignment. Anything from writing a menu to a libretto. There’s no grading involved and to encourage yourself to accept the challenge promise yourself that you get a prize when you start.

4) Write out the fears. I know it can be scary to face them, but you can’t defeat what you don’t acknowledge. List all your fears. After you’ve finished writing them down, come up with ways to get rid of them. For example if you wrote, “I’m afraid I’m no good.” You could counter this statement with “I don’t have to be. It’s only a rough draft.” Counter “My ideas are stupid.” with “No, I’m trying to be perfect and I don’t have to be.”

5) Pretend to be someone else. Write in a different style, say an 18th century writer or one of your favorite bestselling authors. Mimic their rhythms and patterns. It’s not for you to compare, just to experiment. Write your article as Mark Twain would. Or start a short story about a kitten, first in the style of a horror writer then as a literary one. As children most of us didn’t have a problem with make-believe, it works for us a adults too!

6) Find a postcard. Look at the image on the front and jot down ideas about it on the back. You don’t have to fill up the entire space, this exercise is about getting ideas flowing.

7) Come up with a mantra that allows bad writing. “I will succeed as long as I write.” “Bad stories can be rewritten. A blank page can’t.” Keep these mantras (you can have as many as you want) close by and say it/them out loud when fear raises its ugly head.

Remember you’re reading the finished product. When you’re reading a published book or article you’re rarely (if ever) reading someone’s first draft. The book or article has gone through who knows how many revisions, editorial review, copyedits, etc… Once your work is finished, it will go through the same process before it’s shared with the public. So relax, you don’t have to be perfect.

9) Fear means you care. Far too often a writer may become too egotistical and ignore the benefit of being fearful. Not to the extent of being paralyzed, but using fear as a guide. By caring about your work and being concerned that your readers like or accept it will help you make sure your work is the best that it can be.

10) Procrastinate. You can always worry later. Write now.

Writing articles is probably the best way of promoting your website these days. It gives you the chance to seriously increase the amount of backlinks your website has, links which are also on a one way basis and helps you to spread your message and website across the net.

In this article I describe how to write these articles to make the biggest impression and to get the maximum impact.

I write articles for my own websites and am also asked to write articles for other people. These are the areas I think are most important when writing articles:

Article length

Your article should not be too long, the reader should be able to read your article in between three and five minutes.

Keep it simple

Not everyone who reads articles on the internet are brain surgeons. Keep it simple by using easy to understand text.

Short paragraphs

Keep each paragraph fairly short, on average about three to five lines.

Make it interesting to read

When writing, try to write from the heart with a passion. Keep the reader interested and make it fun.

Give the reader a reason to read the article

The article should have lots of free advice and information which is likely to be of use to the reader.

Write a Top Ten List

An easy way to get started with an article is to come up with a Top Ten List. Find a topic related to your business and jot down ten reasons why someone should purchase your product or offer advice on a topic that’s related to your website. Examples would be top ten ways to get your baby to sleep through the night, top ten reasons to write articles, or top ten reasons to buy car insurance. Once you have your list of ten items, write a little paragraph about each, explaining the reason in a little more detail.

Next you add an introductory paragraph that pulls the reader into your list. For example an introduction to the baby sleeping through the night article could mention how hard it is to make it through the day and how sleep deprived you are until you get your baby to sleep through the night. Then close your article either by summing up what you just told them in your top ten lists or encouraging them to act on what you just told them about.

Congratulations, you just wrote an article. Of course you can easily shorten this to a top 5 list. Just write a little more about each of your points.

Record Your Article

Some people prefer recording themselves while they are talking about a particular topic and then transcribing and editing it into an article. If you have an easier time talking about a particular topic than writing about it, this may be a great option for you. Most MP3 players now come with a record option, or you can pick up a cheap tape-recorder. Pick a topic and just start talking as if you were explaining it to a friend. Just start babbling and the ideas will start to flow. Now listen to your tape. Write down and arrange the major points you mad in order. Add an intro and a closing and you have another article.

Hire a Ghost Writer

If you are having a hard time writing articles, or just don’t have the time to do it, you can still benefit from article marketing by hiring a ghostwriter. Ghost Writers will write unique articles for you that become your intellectual property. You can post them as your own work to your site, your blog, as well as the article directories. You can find a ghost writer on sites like elance. There are also some freelance writers with their own websites out there. You can usually buy articles anywhere from $5 – $65.

Write an Outline and Have Someone Else Turn it into an Article

Another option if you don’t want to do all the writing yourself is for you to write a basic outline of the article and the point you want to bring across. Jot down any ideas you have for the article, then ask a friend or hire someone to flesh it out for you into an article. You may be more comfortable with passing these articles off as your own, since the content of the article was your original idea. Someone else just put it into an article format for you.

There is no reason for you not to get started with article marketing one way or the other. Get a few articles out there and then sit back and watch the traffic come in. You’ll be so impressed by the results you can get even from a handful of article, you’ll be writing them and submitting them all the time.

by Chris Farrell

How To Write Your First Article
The first thing you need to do is have some idea of what you want to
write about.

Brainstorm. What is your site about Marilyn?

Use your keyword research to study what people are asking. Go to
forums. Use the SEARCH facility.

Write down a general list of 10 or so topics on your niche market.

As an example, in the Real Estate Market, manufactured homes,
mobile homes, tax breaks, foreclosures, auctions, flipping homes,
geographic hot spots, tax breaks etc

Write down 10 questions/problems for each of the 10 topics.

Can’t seem to think of any? Again – it’s back to the forums in the niche and use the search tool.

Or go to article directories and see what others are writing about and use this as inspiration.

Now with your keyword list — it’s time to write.

The best way to write an article is to break it into three sections:
TITLE
CONTENT
RESOURCE BOX

TITLE:
What makes or breaks most articles, is how popular they are in the Search Engines.
You already have a keyword list, so your title is almost written for you.
Start your title with your keyword. This will appeal to humans — as well as the Search Engines.
The true goal of every article title is to convince the reader that you can provide them with a solution
to a specific problem.
If your title is keyword rich and tells of solving a problem — that is a winner.

CONTENT:
In the content you must follow through on the promise made in the title.
Use small chunks of text with visible breaks — so the article looks easy on the eye for the reader.
Your article does not have to be long — 300 words is enough.
Be aware of something called Keyword Density — this is how many times you use your keywords.
You want to aim for around 2% — 3% – ie use a keyword between 2 and 3 times every 100 words. No
more — or you’ll be accused of keyword spamming (ie writing an article that appeals to Search
Engines more than humans)
Within your content — be sure to answer the problem you promised in the title.

RESOURCE BOX:
The final part of every article — is the section that allows you to link back to your site.
This is the whole point of the article in the first place — to get a reader to click to you. Needless to
say — it pays to get this right.

So many people fall at this hurdle — and simply list their web address.

Use the Resource box forcefully.

Give a direct call to action.

Tell the reader what to do NOW.

If they don’t click now they never will — so make sure you tell your reader to take action on the
techniques discussed in your article immediately — by clicking for more information to your site NOW.

(c) Chris Farrell 2009
Chris Farrell is a full time Internet Marketer,
Product Developer, Writer and Broadcaster.  Since
2008 Chris has helped thousands begin their own
online business.
For more information visit:
www.ChrisFarrellMembership.com