Some article writing tips

[ArticlePrince]

Learned a ton here, thought I'd try to give back (I say try cause a lot of you might already know this)

6 Great tips that will get your articles clicked on:

1. Make your titles long - Most of you know this one, but it's best to start off with the basics. Longer titles stand out in the long list of titles in article directories. Also, longer titles require more focus to read, so you get a few extra precious seconds of your reader's attention. Now, don't over do. I'd say 10 words is good, but 15 is pushing it.

2.Numbers – Again, nothing new here. Numbers in article titles work fantastically for whatever reason. Odd numbers are best. For example, "3 Great Ways to", "5 Tips You Absolutely Must Know About…" Make sense? This one is very tricky to overdo, just make sure to avoid making your lists too big, or the reader will get bored.

3.Expert - If you put the word 'expert' in your title, in will work in one of two ways: either the reader will subconsciously trust you as an expert and read the article, or they will wonder who you are and what makes you an expert and will click to find out. Either way, you get clicked.

4.Parentheses – This is tricky and very very easy to overdo, so be careful with it! Basically, write a title like you normally would, and then add an all lowercase 'bonus' in parentheses. For example, '5 Great Tips to Get Rid of Acne (that are all free)'. However, when people look you up as an author and see that every article has the parentheses, they're going to get annoyed by it. So, I'd only use this maybe 1 out of every 3-5 articles.

5.Emotion – Now, I know that everyone under the sun knows this, but most don't know how to do it. Putting emotional draws into your article titles will vastly improve your click-through rates. Now, I'm sorry, but I have to get negative to explain. The two main roots of all emotions are pain and pleasure. While some may disagree with me, pain is a bigger motivator. So, while I do think that a positive emotional draw will work, it won't work as well as a negative draw will. Want an example? A good emotional version of the above title would be '5 Great Tips to Clear Your Embarrassing Acne Fast (that are all free)'. See how that works? By using 'embarrassing' (a negative emotion), when remind the reader how their acne can make them feel, and they click to learn how to avoid that feeling. I know, it's not very nice, but it works.

6.Big Search – When you do your keyword research, try to find a keyword with at least 5000 searches a month (I go for 10000, but they can be hard to find) with less than 150,000 competing results (when you search in quotes). Try to fit that keyword into your title in addition to your main keyword for the article. If you can fit it into the title of 1 out of every 3 articles, one of them will stick and you'll rank for that keyword. Like I said, this is tricky to do without sounding stuffy, but if you can do it your views will be outstanding daily.

[Ty Maier]

Nice tips!

Number five is a big one. People that master this get HUGE CTRs from their article title.

That same tip goes for the author box. Don't make it just your plain old ordinary: this is awesome... click here. Be creative and emotional! Why do they NEED to click to learn more or what not?

[davidac]

Great information!

I didn't know about the long title idea.

I am goiing to try that out.

The information on keywords was great too!

Thanks.

David.

[ArticlePrince]

Im trying to get some resource box tips together, probably post tonight or tomorrow. Glad they at least got read! :-)

[AdamHolland]

Here's another one for you that's getting me as high as 38% CTR on my articles:::

Do NOT use the same "canned" author bio box on every article!!

Instead, take your LAST PARAGRAPH of the article and put it in the bio box. Use your keyword phrase in that last paragraph - and since it's now "in the bio box" that keyword phrase can now be used as anchor text in a link pointing to your site.

Obviously use some good 'call to action' in that last paragraph to entice the click..

WHY DOES THIS WORK?? Psychologically, if you're reading an article and finish the last paragraph.. you now look down and it says "Joe Schmoe is an expert on this topic you just read, blah blah blah..." they stopped reading at 'joe schmoe'..

KEEP their attention by moving that last paragraph into the bio box and NAIL that call to action w/ your link to your site.. ;-)

Rock On!

Adam Holland

[willyboy104]

Great tips here although some are basic tips still good share, suprised no one has thanked you yet...

[ArticlePrince]

no worries, but does anyone else have any good title tips?

[JeffLam]

Great tips!

Though I must say I do know of such marketing tactics too.

But nonetheless, good contribution and I thank you for writing it all up.

[UBotBuddy]

ArticlePrince,

Great suggestions btw. I almost did not read because it was 6 suggestions and not an odd number. lol So I added Adam's suggestion and it worked out. Whew!

[PRsubmits]

Nice tips thank you.

I am sure if someone takes this information and commits to writing 4 or 5 articles a day for a month, they will soon see results.

[GeorgR.]

Those are good tips, especially #5

But i am not sure about "the long titles". I always chose my titles matching my keywords - example: If i would find that "How to Save on Bills" would be a GOOD keyword i would try whatever i can to use this phrase in the title also.

I dont know whether a longish phrase (like 10 words) would negatively impact ranking effectiveness of the keyword in title.

Here some more tips:

*) Always think "Problem <--> Solution"

"The XYZ Virus - How to fix"
"Computer Crash - Here is a quick fix"

Etc. are good. Note that EZA says somewhere that the first three words in the title are crucial!! If "Computer Crash" is supposed to be a good keyword - feel free to use this first - and don't forget to add "How to Fix" <--- this is important since it immediately shows the potential reader you will have a solution, right there! (And not some useless blah blah)

*) Furthermore, "post-maintenance" is ALSO important. Once your articles are submitted and live, bookmark them, link to them. Give them additional power from outside. Submit your EZA author RSS feed, things like that. Refresh your article once in a while, submit backlinks on a regular basis.

[Wham]

thanks for the tips

my question is, is it good to focus on just one keyword an article? and should you write several articles for that one keyword?

for example if i were to write 5 articles a day, each one to a different directory, would I use the same keyword for all 5, and then choose a new keyword the following day for my next 5 articles, or a different keyword for each article?

[mkayius]

Nice share man. Very informative thread. Thank you!
For anyone who wants to know more here you`ll found some other nice tips. It`s not my article, so don`t get any ideas.
Other article tips

[Jason_prz]

For a Blog Newbie like myself theses are great tips! Thanks for the Post!

[JAIDEEP2959]

Last tip is very important for ranking in search engines.

Thanks for the useful tips.

[ArticlePrince]

To Wham: If you are writing 5 articles a day, I would write 5 articles around 5 different keywords. So, each article is centered around one keyword. Then, submit each article to 5 directories. Google may or may not ignore your backlinks as duplicate content (for 5 manual submissions i doubt it); but you are increasing the chances of your article being published. One other note: Everyone says that you must use EzineArticles, but heres the problem. They only allow a website to publish 25 websites a year to the same domain. So, even if a webmaster likes your writing, if they publish the proper way they can only do one every other week. Now, I know that most people just copy paste, but still. Just something to keep in mind.

[adamsad]

people scan when they surfing. will they read the longer title compare to shorter one?

[bahnsurf]

Hi,

Great information on tip number 5.

Words tell, emotion sell.

This is how article writing works.

Great Job!!

[GeorgR.]

>>
They only allow a website to publish 25 websites a year to the same domain.
>>

what, what? Where did you read this? I am 100% positive that i publish way more than 25 articles *a week* all pointing to the same site

[travlinguy]

Maybe a little nit picky here but I'd take issue with the long title for all situations. In some venues like posting to an article site, yes you want a long and descriptive title. But if you're publishing to a blog where the actual title becomes the link back to the article you don't want a long title as the link becomes cumbersome. In that case you'll want an extremely keword-rich title with five, six words at the most.

[ArticlePrince]

When I've written long title articles vs. short title articles around the same keyword, the longer title gets more views. There's certainly an exception to every rule, but I think it's because you can get more across in a longer title.
-as to the 25 articles, that's what I was told by ezine customer service when I tried to publish more articles on a website. That being said, Ezine's customer service has never been particularly stellar for me, so it could be wrong. Still use them though, it's too much traffic to ignore.

[Sam Mlambo]

Great tips! I also like add in a solid strategy for those who have trouble writing. Start with an outline FIRST.

Put together a simple outline of what you're going to say in your intro. The 3 main points to support your article topic. And at least 2 sub-points to support your main points. Then what you're going to say in your conclusion.

So it would look like this:

-Introduction

- Main Point 1
- Sub point 1
- Sub point 2

- Main point 2
- Sub point 1
- Sub point 2

- Main point 3
- Sub point 1
- Sub point 2

- Conclusion

Your outline doesn't have to be detailed. It should just have the key points that you'd like to highlight in your article. By doing this you can easily write your article without worrying about "what to write next" or getting writers block.

Hope that helps!

[mello]

Any information is good information, even if only serving as a reminder. Thanks for the tips.

[DASHBOY]

Hey nice tips some I already know as you say. The number in the titles totally agree. Wonder why that is?

Thanks

Graeme

[Vic Shake]

Review on Article Writing Basics

Where do you start when you are writing an article? You know writing articles for online distribution is important to your internet success, but you sit down at the computer to write and your mind goes blank.

Here is how I do it.

I pull up the categories section in my favorite article directory, and search through the categories and subcategories to find out what I want to write about.
I give my article a simple title, for example, “How to…..”, or “The Best 10 Steps to…”, or even “What (insert topic) means to me”
Next, I outline in my mind how the article will be structured to get the most information across with the fewest words possible.
After that, I begin to write. I write some introductory stuff about the topic, in the first paragraph.
Then I start writing, starting with the first thing I want to teach or give. And then to the second. Etc.
I remember that my audience is not going to be captive for long, so I tend to write short articles.
I write in a conversational tone. Like you and I are sitting at lunch in our favorite booth at the neighborhood diner.
I try to give specific, useful points in each article, things that the reader (you ) can immediately take away from the article and put to good use.
I include a compelling bio so that people reading my articles will click through to my websites to see what I offer.


That is about it–Oh, one more thing – I write a lot. A couple of hours a day. Some days 10 articles, some days 15 or 20.

I believe that if something is working for you, you should do it right and do it big. And article writing is working for me, and driving a ridiculous amount of traffic my way.

Do not be afraid to write 10-20 articles per day. Constant article writing and submission do several things for you.

Article writing becomes easier with practice
The more articles you have on the web, the more traffic you receive
If you are like me, the more traffic you receive, the more money you make


Simply set aside a few hours a day and write and submit. With growing traffic, your profits will increase and you can also do tests to try different ways to make your conversions better.

[patselby]

For more information on tip #5, you should listem to Tony Robbins. He teaches about how and why people respond more to avoiding pain, than they will respond to pleasure. Very interesting and true. Bring it back to your own experiences when you have done somehting avoid pain. It is a strong motivator.

[trytolearnmore]

just out of curiosity. Do people read articles? As for me, the content should be very unique and super before I even start reading.

[greenowl123]

Thanks for the great tips... number 5 was really helpful. I sometimes neglect that one ! I bookmarked this article.

[mattlloyd]

I don’t know about the long titles. Won’t that make the reader dismiss the article entirely because the title is too long? But putting the word “expert” is a great idea, and I entirely agree with the use of negative emotions. Makes people consider the article.

[ArticlePrince]

People read articles if and only they think that it will benefit them in some way. This post is a great example, it was long but a few hundred people have read it in a week. The key is to use keywords that represent a problem for the reader, then partially solve the problem with your article. Make your presell page show them how the product WILL solve their problem, and you're golden.

[blingblam]

What about having a picture in your bio? Has anyone found click thrus increased or decreased with a photo?

Also, are there peak times to release articles? I just opened a premium account, and sent in 10 articles yesterday. They were all approved within a couple of hours, but so far I only have 167 views for all 10 of them and only 11 clicks altogether. I'm guessing release time plays an important role in how many views your article gets.

[ArticlePrince]

My articles get the most views on sundays, and having a picture in your profile will increase clicks through your profile. Also, submit them a few hours apart so that as one falls from the recently submitted list, a new one takes its place.