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.

Harvard University promised to upload 1,000 digital books to Scribd. How’s that for star power and authority status behind your social media site?  It’s a drop in the bucket for Harvard, however – what they’re really trying to do, I suspect, is to get fellow scholars to break with tradition, get with the times – and go digital.

For the rest of us who post our own works to the world’s biggest online library, its good for our SERPs and stats! And patrons like Harvard University is one of the reason why Scribd’s Alexa rank this morning sat at a heady 245.

Other companies and institutions that have added Scribd’s authority site status, such as Simon and Schuster, uploading 5,000 books. Other publishers quickly discovered the advantages of uploading excerpts of their top authors’ books, driving interested readers to purchase hard copies and paid downloads.

Smart Marketing or Helpful Gesture?

Scribd also distributed a document-reading tool to major newspapers, according to msnbc – one specially intended to display documents that don’t normally display well for research.

The Chicago Tribune was one of the first to accept; and that also may be the reason you see so much about Scribd on authority blog, TechCrunch. It’s also reportedly working with the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

This gives Scribd a decided advantage in page rank and popularity over the myriad of would-be online publishing sites.

One other huge advantage to using Scribd as your online publishing company, if you’re a small business owner: It is the only online document sharing company, last time I checked, who has its own copyright protection system. This was developed after Scribd was made aware of a problem with published works being illegally copied and uploaded.  Their plan is to go above and beyond the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998.

Like any major sharing site or business, it has had its detractors and occasional glitches, but has proven itself proactive in ensuring problems are dealt with right away.

There’s virtually no risk for the business owner who wants to upload documents (and indeed, hopes people will find and use them!)

As for paid works – well, that’s why Scribd now has an online store!

Most people are used to simply typing keywords into search box, when they’re looking for a particular type of content – and you can certainly do that with Scribd – but it’s not the only way to find what you need.

The best way to search on Scribd depends on what type of content you’re hoping to find. Here are some suggestions…

Looking for Ideas

If you’re looking for ideas, hoping something will spark you out of writer’s block, suggest a topic to blog about, or give you ideas for information product creation, click the “Trending” tab on the Explore page.

Looking for Documents within a Subject

Check the left-hand side of the Explore page for a list of categories. Jumping straight to a section such as Puzzles and Games, Spreadsheets, Illustrations & Maps or How-to-Guides & Manuals is a handy shortcut.

Looking for Something Unique and Interesting

On the Explore page, you’ll see a row across the top with thumbnails of “Featured” documents.  The most catchy or offbeat books – ones that are high on the curiosity factor – will always be featured here.

For instance, this week, subjects range from “Mobile Internet Report” to “Lemons or Lemonade: An Anger Workbook for Kids” to “I am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced” (and they usually feature a couple of good magazines or periodicals).

Other hyperlinks you can click on, immediately under the “Featured” row, include:

- Most Read
- Highest Rated
- Most Discussed
- Most Recent

(As well as “Featured”, of course).

Finally, Scribd is great not just for finding things… but for finding them again, if you want to refer back to them. Not only can you easily download your favorite documents in TXT or PDF format, but you can bookmark them for easy retrieval, using your “Reading List” tab.

Being able to streamline your searches this way really helps make Scribd not only time-effective and feasible to browse – but fascinating and satisfying, too.