How to Write a Better Article

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Forget what you were taught in school about proper English, that's champagne and caviar writing. If you want to reach the biggest audience you need steak and potato writing.

What is steak and potato writing? I'm glad you asked.
  • Don't try to impress your readers with your intelligence unless academicians are your target audience. The point is to communicate, and according to my publisher most people read at an 8th to 9th grade reading level. You exclude a lot of people if you write over their head.

  • Similarly, don't use big words when small words will convey the same thing.

  • Have each paragraph be about just one idea, and keep your paragraphs short and punchy.

  • Be yourself - let a little personality shine through!

  • If you're writing for ezine directories your articles only need to be roughly 250 - 700 words. If you can keep your call to action above the fold some say that is better. I haven't tested it, but it does make sense on at least one level.

    If you're writing content for your website, longer articles fair better in the search engines in my experience.

    Case in point: When I uploaded my sales page for my SEO for YOU ebook, there was very little on my site about search engine optimization That page debuted in Google with a PageRank of 4. Now with Google's new caffeine algorithm the PageRank jumped to 5. The sales page is a little over 4,000 words. I think the page length had a lot to do with that PageRank since there was little else on my site to support a high ranking for this topic.


    Side Note: I'm really liking Google's new algorithm. My home page went from a PageRank of 5 to 6. Most of my pages increased at least 1 level in PageRank, and many that had no PageRank before now have a PageRank of 2 or 3, and a few even jumped from 0 to 4.


  • Given what I just said about article length, don't add fluff to make your content longer or leave out content that should be there to make it shorter. What is needed is what is needed, feed the need.

  • Use bullets to list items when there are three or more points to make rather than separating by commas and stringing them out in one long sentence.

  • Write like you talk, and by that I mean use a conversational tone, like you're writing to a friend.

  • Quality is important if you're writing for more than backlinks!

  • Do your research and write your articles to educate your readers. Citing sources can add instant credibility to your article.

  • Avoid generalizations. Saying something like "most people today blah, blah, blah" ...that's projecting your opinion as fact and you will lose credibility for that. This one is sneaky. Even knowing this and making an effort not to do it, I catch myself doing it now and then anyway.

  • Do the keyword research, and use the target keyword in your title. Anything less is just guessing at what will work. You'll have more misses if you don't do the keyword research.

Writing the Resource Box

Novice writers use the resource box to impart whatever biographical information they want to include, along with a note about their blog or web site and the URL. Who cares?

Instead of blowing your own horn, use the resource box as a lure. For example, suppose you're in the real estate industry and wrote an article about five mistakes homeowners make when choosing an agent to sell their home. Anyone preparing to sell their home would want to read your article so they can avoid those mistakes.

Then in your resource box you write something like this:
Have you prepped your home the right way to get top dollar when it sells? Don't leave money on the table! Get full value for your house with Joe Whoever's free report, Stage Your Home for Maximum Profit.
If your article was good, what home seller wouldn't want to follow that link to see how they can get the most money for their home?

Answer: Almost everyone will follow that link!

I think you can see how that short blurb will draw much more traffic to your site than the usual bland blurb novices write. Here's a typical example of that:
Joe Whoever has been in the real estate business for 19 years and is a member of Some Professional Organization. Mr. Whoever has written over 50 articles about real estate. Visit Joe Whoever's site today.
Ack! That just doesn't have any traffic pulling power.

Having said all that, be sure you proofread and spell check your article. You want to be down-to-earth and casual, but you don't want to look stupid.

Well, that's all I got for you today. Hope it helps.
#article #write
  • Profile picture of the author ArticlePrince
    Good post, especially the part about resource boxes. I can't tell you how many people write a fake bio about their pen name in the resource box. Huge waste :-/
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  • Profile picture of the author Dennis Gaskill
    Wow AP, you're fast. I accidentally clicked the submit button instead of preview and before I could even make my last second touch ups you already posted a comment. Mighty impressive speed!

    Thanks for the kind words. I wanted to make my 1,000th post one that might help others rather than ask something I wanted to know about.
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  • Profile picture of the author EverNoticeThat
    You know what? i was just looking over some ezine articles and noticed that very thing, wasted space in the resource box. I wondered also after reading some of the dry articles if they wouldn't read better if the writer had used the dragon software to make it read better.

    quick question: do most of you writing on ezine open your accounts using your real name? and then use pen names afterwards?

    or do you open the account with a pen name?
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  • Profile picture of the author R Hagel
    Good tips, Dennis.

    A note...

    Originally Posted by Dennis Gaskill View Post

    [*] Avoid generalizations. Saying something like "most people today blah, blah, blah" ...that's projecting your opinion as fact and you will lose credibility for that. This one is sneaky. Even knowing this and making an effort not to do it, I catch myself doing it now and then anyway.
    This particular tip reminds me of some of the irrelevant crap people put into their articles -- especially in the intro.

    For example, they might have an article about dog training that goes something like...

    Dogs truly are man's best friend. They are one of the best companion animals.


    Or an article about SEO that starts with...

    More and more people are using search engine optimization to drive traffic to their sites.


    Ahhhh... that kind of filler makes my eyes bleed! And your target market is probably saying, "SO? Who cares?"

    I think what happens is that people start writing their article, but they're not sure exactly how to start it. So while they warm up their writing muscles, flimsy filler spills out onto the page.

    That's ok. But just be sure to go back to delete that flimsy filler and replace it with something a little more engaging.

    Speaking of engaging...

    Look at how Dennis opened this post. He didn't say, "more and more people are using articles to drive targeted traffic to their site." Nah. He engaged us and intrigued us. That's how you do it.

    Cheers,
    Becky
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    • Profile picture of the author Dennis Gaskill
      Originally Posted by R Hagel View Post

      This particular tip reminds me of some of the irrelevant crap people put into their articles -- especially in the intro.

      For example, they might have an article about dog training that goes something like...

      Dogs truly are man's best friend. They are one of the best companion animals.


      Or an article about SEO that starts with...

      More and more people are using search engine optimization to drive traffic to their sites.
      Ah yes, filler is a killer! Thanks for bring that up. I bought an ebook, actually it was part of a package, but anyway, the author spent 15 pages saying not to add fluff and bragging how the ebook I was reading was different.

      I gotta tell ya, 15 pages of saying your ebook has no filler is way too much filler! Might have even been more later into the ebook, but he actually lost me on about the 3rd page, I skipped ahead to see how far the filler went.

      This was one of the rare times I've asked for my money back. The guy apologized, and made the excuse that he hired someone to write it for him and he hadn't reviewed it.

      Hello? If you hire someone to write for you don't you want to know what they're saying?

      Sheesh.
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  • Profile picture of the author YourProfessional
    Thank you for the awesome post As a writer, I love to learn how to better my skills.

    Do your research and write your articles to educate your readers. Citing sources can add instant credibility to your article.

    I have actually started doing this for my own article marketing, however, some buyers don't seem to like it.

    [*] Avoid generalizations. Saying something like "most people today blah, blah, blah" ...that's projecting your opinion as fact and you will lose credibility for that. This one is sneaky. Even knowing this and making an effort not to do it, I catch myself doing it now and then anyway.

    I do this as well! I try to stay away from it but I think I'm going to print out your tips so I can have it as a constant reminder of what NOT to do Will find it easier to avoid that then.

    Thanks again for the tips.
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    • Profile picture of the author Heidi White
      Originally Posted by YourProfessional View Post

      Thank you for the awesome post As a writer, I love to learn how to better my skills.

      Do your research and write your articles to educate your readers. Citing sources can add instant credibility to your article.

      I have actually started doing this for my own article marketing, however, some buyers don't seem to like it.

      [*] Avoid generalizations. Saying something like "most people today blah, blah, blah" ...that's projecting your opinion as fact and you will lose credibility for that. This one is sneaky. Even knowing this and making an effort not to do it, I catch myself doing it now and then anyway.

      I do this as well! I try to stay away from it but I think I'm going to print out your tips so I can have it as a constant reminder of what NOT to do Will find it easier to avoid that then.

      Thanks again for the tips.

      "most people today blah, blah, blah"

      It's easy to put this kind of stuff in ones prose, especially if you talk like that naturally.

      I've found that I can usually delete the beginning of many sentences I spew in my first drafts.

      Good writing is rewriting. - Zizner?
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      • Profile picture of the author Dennis Gaskill
        Originally Posted by Zeus66 View Post

        Nice, Dennis. Very nice!

        You're really adding some great value to the forum these days. It's a real pleasure having folks like you around these parts.

        John
        John, stop it, you're embarrassing me. I'll give you just 10 or 20 days to stop it.

        Originally Posted by MostlyHarmless View Post

        "most people today blah, blah, blah"

        It's easy to put this kind of stuff in ones prose, especially if you talk like that naturally.

        I've found that I can usually delete the beginning of many sentences I spew in my first drafts.

        Good writing is rewriting. - Zizner?
        Excellent point, thank you! Rewriting lets us improve the flow and flavor, as well helping us to locate and correct mistakes.
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  • Profile picture of the author Sparhawke
    I agree with most of what you say, I remember reading a book by Donna Tartt and her use of big words was just too confusing,, she is way too overly impressed by her knowledge of big words!

    For every page I must've spent twenty minutes buried in a dictionary lol
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  • Profile picture of the author soniia21
    Thanks for this post.

    It's good to split the article itself into three sections: introduction, body and conclusion. Keeping to this helps write them faster
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  • Profile picture of the author Zeus66
    Nice, Dennis. Very nice!

    You're really adding some great value to the forum these days. It's a real pleasure having folks like you around these parts.

    John
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  • Profile picture of the author yachi
    Awesome post...I learned so many new things about writing a better article. Thanks.
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