Wikipedia: Need Advice On Writing an Entry

[koolmeg]

Ok so I was going to go and write an entry for a site I've been doing SEO work for. When I got there I was a tad bit intimidated! The format is a little complicated and they seem very strict about content.

Any advice and experience would be great!

Help me warriors!

[Tyrus Antas]

Unless your site meets notability guidelines it's likely to end up being deleted. You need to back up what you write about the site with sources from other sites.

Tyrus

[Paid Surveys]

What do you mean by an entry do you you mean and article? Or other online content?

My advice is to be confident even if you don't feel it, you are capable of delivering to their exacting specifications because they wouldn't have hired you in the first place if they didn't like your work.

[koolmeg]

What I'm actually trying to do is create an entry for the product that the site sells. There are only a handful of sites selling the product. Essentially the site being the source.

I mean I want to add this product to wikipedia I am just a little bit confused of proper format. It explains it but I would LOVE some advice from some of you have accomplished this successfully

Thanks for your support PS! You are right I do need to just go in guns a blazing!

[koolmeg]

No one has experience in making a first entry on Wikipedia?

[deskmonkey]

I don't have the experience writing Wikipedia articles that you're looking for, but my advice to you is to first forget all the formatting and syntax rules and just write the article. Pay particular attention to the rules on writing Wikipedia articles, particularly the section on spam/advertising. This is important because if your entry is marked as spam, your article will be deleted and/or your wiki account or IP address will be banned. When you write your article, do it from a neutral point of view, ie. like an article you would expect to see in an encyclopedia. Be careful about sounding like an advertisement — citing features or benefits is considered obvious advertising and will get your article removed.

Regarding the product that the article is about, try to look around Wikipedia for any articles that may relevant to the product (eg. see if there are articles for similar products). If a category is available that is relevant to your product, then chances of your article making it through the moderation process is higher. If you find a relevant article that already exists, try to look for a way to link your entry to that article. Make internal links (links to other Wikipedia articles). If possible, only link to your site from the references and not from within the article itself. Finally, have someone else review the article before you submit it to Wikipedia. Wikipedia has very strict rules about this sort of thing so you want to be sure you get it right on the first try.

[koolmeg]

Great advice!

I however took the plunge and wrote the article and deskmonkey and healymedia came in after!

I did find some articles that were worth linking and I did that as well. I kinda went out on a limb and wrote the article for the search term (which is what linked it back to the other articles) and found some news articles on the products as well.

I'll let you know how the submission fares!

Thanks again!

[Justin Wheeler]

Originally Posted by koolmeg

Great advice!

I however took the plunge and wrote the article and deskmonkey and healymedia came in after!

I did find some articles that were worth linking and I did that as well. I kinda went out on a limb and wrote the article for the search term (which is what linked it back to the other articles) and found some news articles on the products as well.

I'll let you know how the submission fares!

Thanks again!

So what happened to the submission? Did I miss it in any of your awesomely kool trend reports? I am on tenterhooks here!