What Makes An Article Great?

I like to adopt the structure of The Classical Argument.

It gives a natural opportunity for third party references and quotes. The added benefit for me is it keeps you on track.

The point about having a goal is vital.

A great article is something that someone can go and use NOW. Or setup, and let it run itself on autopilot. They could careless about the info, they just want the money. Not just info... actual step-by-step instructions, because people don't want to learn anything. If they can have it their way like Burger King, they'd setup 100 autoblogs at the click of a button and have a ton of content automatically fed to it, and make money with some commission program that makes them $500/month.

I was too tired to participate when I first noticed this thread, @tjr. Kudos for adding some much needed value to Main, and of course giving us a reason to discuss something constructive for a change. Keep it up! It'll probably go unnoticed this thread (you forgot to use dollar signs) but I for one appreciate the opportunity for more worthwhile discussion; the posts so far have been terrific.

What makes an article great?

Tell you what. I'll tell you what makes a screenplay great, and we'll see if it translates to professional article writing.

Back when I was maybe 15, 16, something like that, I decided to become a screenwriter.

Living the life of an expat with my parents on a relatively obscure Island, without the typical comforts (like book stores), I had no access to a screenwriting education.

What I did was plonk VHS videos in the player and, through pausing and playing, pausing and playing, hundreds of times for each movie, I transcribed them as best I could.

I figured: If I saw it on the page, black and white, the mystery of how to do it myself would soon become apparent. And it kind of did. But the education was almost a subconscious one. Transcribing those scripts, I developed an intuition for screenwriting. But I needed rules.

In the words of my younger self: "I need something or someone to show me the ropes."

Back then (and now still), I was big into horror. I read Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Richard Laymon, Poe, Lovecraft, Shelley, Stoker, Barker (I think), Bradbury (I know), Matheson. I could go on.

And I was writing more than scripts. I started by writing stories that took no longer than a sentence to tell. Not too long after, the sentences grew. Became paragraphs, then what we'd call "flash fiction" nowadays, and soon novellas, and a little later a novel, and later on still, novels.

King, more than anyone, he taught me storytelling. And, while all of my stories resembled rather bad King, hell, bad King was better than great Tom before he began learning the ropes from the master.

Trouble was, screenwriting. The novellas (which had become a concentration) were shaping up. The screenwriting? Pitiful, and I knew it. I was learning English literature and language in classes, and coupled with a better "Horror Education," the novellas weren't half bad. I knew, for them also, I needed rules, but even without those novel writing rules, the stuff was almost passable. Or so I remember, so I thought.

But. The screenwriting craft was the great mystery. And kids love solving mysteries, don't they?

We soon left the island and I was unceremoniously plonked in military school (boarding school). I make that sound bad. It wasn't. It was much preferred to the next destination for my parents. My father operated a business setting up telecommunications in developing countries, and not all of the countries where - how shall we say? hmmm . . . - all that cracky. Military school, then? Thumbs up, put it that way.

Unlike the rest of my friends, I didn't, for that year, go home for the holidays. (I think I would have refused, anyway.) Instead, that summer we took off to Florida, but more importantly Universal Studios. Oh boy. tell you what: Hog Heaven for young Tom. Hog freaking Heaven.

We did all the usual things; most memorably, watching Indie evade a mammoth rolling bolder. But it was the gift shop (one of billions, I guess) that I remember most. When I walk into any book shop, even now - magic. This gift shop? Back then? Rows upon rows of scripts and books on how to write scripts? No words, seriously, no words.

I only had a little spending money, and despite the 'rents having quite a bit of their own, they were never one to spoil me. I had enough, literally just enough, to purchase 2 things in that shop.

The first was a signed General Hospital screenplay. I'm shaking my head here. What the hell was I thinking? Ah, but the second. The second was "How to Write Screenplays That Sell," by Michael Hauge. The guy who finally - fuh-reaking-finally - showed me the ropes. In later years other folks would show me the ropes, but no one has yet to do it as well as Hauge.

What makes a great story?

According to Hauge:

"The goal of every screenplay, every movie, every novel, every story of any kind (and ultimately, every work of art) is identical: to elicit emotion."

Which finally - if you haven't clicked away already to read those dollar threads - leads me to my point.

What makes a great article?

I could spend all day (all year) talking about the mechanics of article writing. Instead, I'll try to be succinct (which is laughable, considering how long it took to get me here today).

I think a great article, just like a great script, elicits emotion.

The emotional response is, I think, the reason we writers write. It's our reason for doing what we do.

In a screenplay, I might want to make you laugh or wipe tears out of your eyes or have you running downstairs to lock all the doors (which you should, anyway; Boogeymen don't just live in closets).

But how about an article written whilst wearing our "Internet Marketer" hat?

No different. Pretty much, at any rate.

I want to encourage you to opt-in to my newsletter. I want to encourage you to share my article on socials. I want to encourage you to tell your friends, or heck, tell the world. I want you to buy something, give away your email address, purchase software, sign up for dating, get yourself a Dunkin' Donuts gift card.

I want . . . an emotional response from you. In fact, a great many of them. And I want you to take action.

Desirable action.

- Tom

Hi good day!

Articles have really high standards online and enable for you to have create a great articles you need be at the top of your game.

What I mean is from the title to the last word must get peoples attention. You need to create a catchy title, a unique but very easy to understand content.

If you want it to rank high on google you need to make it SEO optimized. You can search in google how to optimize content.

Glad to help thanks.

For me it's when you find valuable information no matter when the article was written. Without forgetting about the emotional aspect, as Tom Addams pointed out.

My formula for creating articles with really high click though rates is summarised as follows:

• Connecting with the readers intent and desired outcome from the content of your article
• Addressing fears and concerns, in other words addressing and providing relief any pain or fear the reader wants alleviated by reading your article
• Solve a problem or help them in some way, and demonstrate you can move them closer to their desired outcome.

Essentially in my experience a good article must answer questions based on really good research about your readers intent and end goal.

Create content around how they want to feel after reading your article, then go about creating segments that move them closer to that outcome in steps.

Nothing better than giving people actionable steps to follow that leave them feeling more confident that they can achieve what they are looking for - and they'll love you if you make this much easier for them.

This formula always works well for me - with an average of 10% to 25% click through rates when done right - and a great conversion rate too. :-)

Tom, I've been reading around on here, checking out your posts.

Earnest is the best term to describe the tone more often than not. Should someone be able to genuinely pull it off, I think that can be a big part of making a truly great piece.

Talk of words to elicit emotion refers not only to fiction, I should point out, myob, but to good writing associated with any medium, and nor is it suggestive of only the grand emotions. It refers to the entire spectrum of human feeling that connects reader to writer. Big emotions like lust and love and happiness and little emotions like satisfaction and interest and trust. The writer connects with his or her reader not necessarily to promote laughter or fear or anything quite so remarkable. He or she simply wants to make them care. Care enough to respond to a slogan, a company name, a TV commercial; wherever the words are presented, to care enough for some kind of response to happen.

Information and logic are insufficient alone. I could write The Old Man and the Sea and never sell a copy. But in the hands of Hemingway? Well. It becomes a masterpiece, and not because of the information, but because of how the information is related, how, masterfully, the reader is compelled to care about the plight of the old man. And (if we absolutely must talk shop) the same applies to articles; to, in fact, any medium where a response from the audience is sought, whether it's being overjoyed enough to clap, interested enough to listen, you name it. Words on a page can present information. Good words make us react to that information. Think of the past 2,000 years of human civilization. Should Van Gogh have merely presented information, drawn like a photograph, his sunflowers? Should Shakespeare have delivered bland prose? Should Lennon and McCartney have spent more time watching TV? The stuff that moves us? That's the good stuff. Ignore that, as a writer, and all you are is someone who understands grammar - but not writing.

Whether we respond merely with sufficient interest to read the article to the very end, or in any number of other ways, without some form of response from the reader (a single synaptic flare of emotion, even, flashing across the cerebral cortex), the writer has failed. And - more importantly - he has failed the reader. Slogans will not be remembered, neither will company names. Books will not be read, articles will not be shared. Nothing will happen because the reader (or the listener, or the moviegoer, or the gamer) feels nothing and will therefore have no reason to do anything as a response to that nothing.

People want to feel. Just ask Bob Dylan. He does quite well making us feel.

Cheers! - Tom

P.S: @tjr: If I could give you more than a thanks - two thumbs up and two big toes perhaps - I would. Cheers!

P.P.S: Apologies for the thread hogging, folks. Terrific thread by @tjr and I haven't been able to help myself. I'm weak, I tell ya, weak! Will be more restrained, I promise. Which is not to say I'll be sat here in a gimp suit and ball gag. After all, it's not my birthday.

Instead of guessing focus on actual READER BEHAVIOR.

Most of the info on this thread are guesses from the PUBLISHER'S PERSPECTIVE.

The publisher's perspective don't mean SQUAT.

Sorry.

What matters is what the people who PUT DOLLARS IN YOUR POCKET THINK.

Pay attention tot SOCIAL SHARE METRICS and BACKLINK METRICS

If a piece of content is blowing up on those fronts, you're on to something.

I use Quicksprout (free) and ahrefs (paid) to get to the bottom of which of my content assets are getting traction.

I then use tools like Topsy (free) to replicate their success.

Build your house on the foundation of SOLID DATA not guesses and opinions.

First and foremost the most successful articles have some VALUABLE information in them.

For example, I've just started using adf.ly, and the best articles I read were those who gave me really useful information on making money with this thing. The article writers didn't write up their stuff in a WSO - they blogged about it for FREE. As a result, I'd definitely revisit the site and maybe even blog about it myself.

It's hard to define a particular formula for writing the best article. It just cannot be done. I have articles that are poorly written and have a lot of grammatical errors and they make a lot of money for me as compared to my best ones.

Did I learn something reading it? If so great! Very few of us will ever be great writers online, but we do not need to be to be effective.