13 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}
13 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}

Article Writing Advice

by Idreamalldaylong
11 replies
I'm offering content for food, travel and motivational websites. I chose these because I have the most experience and passion about them.

In writing articles for syndication, I have a question.

I recently read a post on the forum that 1 way your articles wouldn't drive traffic is if your resource box links to something "totally irrelevant."

If I write an article about say...coffee and the link in the resource box goes to my website offering content for travel, food and motivation, is that considered "totally irrelevant?" Do I have to be an affiliate to make this relevant? I'm just a little confused about this. Any help would be great! Thanks Warriors!
#advice #article #writing
  • Profile picture of the author IMWinner
    Not entirely irrelevant as you may think, since when you write something about coffee, as what you have made an example and your site offers a content for food, travel and motivation. You can simply just try to make some niches of coffee in relation to the topic of food that you are presenting. And also, when you say content for your travel, you can add and simply share the different types and kinds of coffee that other places have to offer. In such way, your article written about coffee will not simply be considered an irrelevant article.
    You can relate what you will be writing to the content of your site so you may link what you have been writing to your site. It's just a matter of trying to link the article to the niche of a site.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4649138].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author sappacis13
      Good for you guys your english is perfect.

      Me, I can read english and I can understand but my english is not perfect.

      Anyway, I need to improve.
      Signature
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4649169].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author bcagle
        Hi sappacis13,
        I see comments like yours everyday. Perhaps a bit of advice that may help you.
        Do you have MS WORD? or a similar program that has a grammar check feature? As a teacher I advise my 'speakers of other languages' to utilize the feature when writing as it helps them spot errors in grammar. As many other native languages have alternative grammatical rules, using this feature may alert you to some that you may miss. After all, it is said that English is one of the hardest to learn to write.

        You can create a document in word and paste into a text file or save as text as well.
        Good luck.
        Barbara Cagle
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4649294].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author DireStraits
    As an author/marketer, you should be better placed than most to determine what's likely to be relevant to your readers' interests. To some degree you even have control over what's relevant to their interests.

    I don't see that anyone here can give you a perfect, one-size-fits-all answer. There isn't one, anyway.

    However, if you're looking to use article directories as a means of achieving passive syndication or as a portfolio of your work, you need to be adhering to their editorial guidelines (at least with those that have any :p). EzineArticles now require that your articles be relevant to your resource box and your website in order for them to be accepted, but it's kind of "pot luck" as to how relevant they actually need to be. Some of it rides on how knowledgeable your assigned editor is of a subject, and/or how much time, effort and thought they invest into reviewing your articles and your site. Some may immediately see a connection, others may not.

    As for what's relevant to your readers, though ... who knows? It's part of your job to find this sort of thing out. Undoubtedly some coffee lovers will like travelling, etc, and vice versa, but whether there'll be enough of a convergence of reader interest there to justify the commissioning/writing and syndication of those articles remains to be seen.

    Also, in addition to any intrinsic connection between two or more subject matters, some of this comes down to the angle/spin you give your articles, right?

    I'm not particularly interested in coffee (much more of a tea man) so I won't likely be searching out articles on that topic, but if you can make the case for coffee somehow being beneficial to my spiritual wellbeing and productivity in your personal development article, I'll read it with great interest and maybe buy your recommended coffee beans. (Actually I won't, because I'm not much interested in "personal development" and don't have a coffee machine, either, but you get the idea :p).

    It's not always quite as simple as "is there enough of a known, clear and definite connection between these two things for readers of one to be already interested in the other?". Not unless you're hell-bent on thinking and looking at things linearly, anyway.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4649231].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Deltagci
    Banned
    [DELETED]
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4649242].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Originally Posted by Deltagci View Post

      keyword density must be 2-4%
      This isn't right at all - far from it!

      At EZA, if your keyword density reaches as high as 2%, that (rightly) earns you an automated rejection from the submission software, without even getting your article in front of a human editor.

      There are reasons for that - and they're good ones.

      In any case, it's much better to write for people than for search engines.

      SEO is not the primary objective of article marketing. Article marketing success is about getting well written articles in front of highly targeted traffic.

      Originally Posted by Deltagci View Post

      words count not more than 550.
      This, also, isn't right at all!

      Every single time there's been a discussion here on that subject, over the last 3 years, it's impressed me (a lot) how often all the Warriors I judge and know to be truly successful, high-earning, professional article marketers have reported that they're routinely writing 900-1,200-word articles. As I am myself, now.

      I consistently get far more traffic and backlinks, and opt-ins, and sales, out of a 1,000-word article than I ever did out of two 500-word ones (even though the latter arrangement obviously provides twice as many resource-boxes).

      Quite apart from the purpose of article marketing being to get high quality articles in front of highly targeted traffic, nothing helps my websites to rank highly as much as syndication of my articles to relevant sites. And almost nobody's syndicating short articles (for all the obvious reasons - and then some). So, sometimes, it appears, "length matters".
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4649385].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author DireStraits
        Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

        So, sometimes, it appears, "length matters".

        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4649442].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Richard Van
      Originally Posted by Deltagci View Post

      keyword density must be 2-4%
      words count not more than 550.
      keywords should be with title.
      Apart from the third point, please enlighten us on these points.

      Where did you get the 2-4% from? The OP is writing for syndication, why the need to stuff the article with keywords? do you feel the reader needs constant reminding what they're reading about?

      550 words? Why? Please don't post your opinion or what "someone" told you. Please post some proof.

      Are all the things you read less than 550 words?

      :rolleyes:
      Signature

      Wibble, bark, my old man's a mushroom etc...

      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4649416].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author bcagle
    Hi Idreamalldaylong,
    If you are writing about coffee and your link goes to a page focusing on food you SHOULD be ok. You may want to add something on the page that references coffee, perhaps a great recipe for making a latte or something. You may also want to look on clickbank to see if you can find a product you can sell. Hope this helps a little.
    Barbara
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4649275].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author DanteRomero
    You can put things in your bio box that aren't related if the article targets the same demographic as what you are linking to. You'll still find your customers there.

    But it's best to completely cover all things that are 100% related first. As you'll find a higher percent of your ideal customers there.
    Signature

    "Perfection isn't important. Improvement is."

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4649452].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author socialsearch
    Article writing is an art. you have search new and fresh content and new information about the product which would be more of related to the product and essay to understand to the customers.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4649459].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author drmani
    Originally Posted by Idreamalldaylong View Post

    If I write an article about say...coffee and the link in the resource box goes to my website offering content for travel, food and motivation, is that considered "totally irrelevant?" Do I have to be an affiliate to make this relevant? I'm just a little confused about this. Any help would be great! Thanks Warriors!
    If I drink coffee, it doesn't automatically make me ONLY a coffee-lover!

    As long as your content targets my interests, I'll be likely to browse around
    and consume more of it.

    Psychographics is an art that you can hone with experience. What ELSE do
    coffee-lovers do, like and want? Answer that, and you've cracked the code.

    Hope this helps

    All success
    Dr.Mani
    Signature
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4649602].message }}

Trending Topics