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What about an article makes you feel it has real value?

by Harry Behrens
4 replies
A part of the research involved in writing any article (or batch of articles) is usually reading a lot of other people's articles. In doing this I'm sometimes impressed by the sheer difference in perceived quality that one article can have to another.

This is a subjective thing of course, but every so often I'm struck by that feeling of having found something that really shines with value in the middle of the usual "kinda valuable but i could do without it" type of SEO-feed that populates the article directories.

So today I sat down and pondered, what exactly does an article have to have to get that particular "shine"? Obviously it's not the same thing every time. There are many different ways to touch the reader, even in a span of 300 or so words. Here are ten that I came up with:
  1. Giving a practical tip that the reader can use
  2. Stimulating the reader's emotions in some way
  3. Being particularly well-written or entertaining
  4. Solving a problem that the reader has
  5. Making complex information easy to understand
  6. Making a boring topic be not so boring after all
  7. Letting you know of a problem you might have in the future
  8. Pointing you towards the 'top' or 'best' players in a very crowded market
  9. Comparing two ideas with pros and cons of each
  10. Giving personal experience of having applied a method or idea

Clearly not an exhaustive list... I'm curious what other ways other warriors can come up with? What general thrust or point can an article have for you to consider it a "diamond in the rough"?
#article #valuable #ways
  • Profile picture of the author artwebster
    Sorry, I see what you are asking but I fail to understand why you are asking.

    Articles now fall into two very distinct categories - stuff for schlocking on to a web site, blog or forum in order to bulk it out and give the impression of 'value' and real, bona fide articles that have been researched and address a particular subect or element in a reasoned and comprehension favourable manner.

    The schlocked articles are full of thesaurus excrement, incorrect word usage and juxtaposition and are redolent of a '5 seconds to spin that? I was robbed!' attitude.

    Bona fide articles are a pleasure to read and address whatever it is they are supposed to be addressing. They are usually 'one-offs' and reflect the care and attention to detail that has gone into them.

    Bluntly, the typical article spinner (should that be writer?) has arrived at the point where the need to produce has overwhelmed the need to produce quality.

    For me. an article that has been written by the author for the pleasure of imparting knowledge, information, humour or any other aspect of human entertainmment is the sort I will read.
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    • Profile picture of the author Harry Behrens
      Originally Posted by artwebster View Post

      Sorry, I see what you are asking but I fail to understand why you are asking.
      Well, I am asking because I write a lot of articles and I'm very interested in having those articles provide the best possible value to the reader and be actually useful while also providing SEO, backlinks, traffic etc.

      Originally Posted by artwebster View Post

      Articles now fall into two very distinct categories - stuff for schlocking on to a web site, blog or forum in order to bulk it out and give the impression of 'value' and real, bona fide articles that have been researched and address a particular subect or element in a reasoned and comprehension favourable manner.
      I completely agree. That is a great way to look at it from a general point of view: articles are either SEO-motivated crap, or they are actual good content. That's totally true.

      However, as soon as you start actually writing every day, and reading the things the other people also write every day, you realize that the second category isn't just one big lump where all "good" articles fall, but is actually composed of many different categories. There's the "how to" article, the "humor" article, the "slice-of-life" article. I am trying to identify as many of those categories as I can.

      Originally Posted by artwebster View Post

      For me. an article that has been written by the author for the pleasure of imparting knowledge, information, humour or any other aspect of human entertainmment is the sort I will read.
      Those are unquestionably the very best articles one can find, for sure.
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  • Profile picture of the author shellyl
    I think this is a good question. I like when the opening paragraph connects with a person emotionally and sort of reels them in to read the rest of the article. This doesn't work for every type of article, but it's nice when it does. I also think that an article should offer 3-5 solid tips or points so the reader walks away knowing more than before reading the article.

    You can take a high quality article and spin it, and the spun versions are still high quality. Of course, if you try to rewrite and spin junk, all you get is more junk. ;-)
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  • Profile picture of the author mikey1090
    When I read an article obviously the first paragraph/intro is important. Otherwise i'll skim read the rest or likely close it.

    It needs to be decent in length - 300 words is a good average. It most certainly must be professionally written. Something that's been badly written and has cheap outsource screaming from it won't get read at all.
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