Are you stumped on how to write a good article?
You know, the kind of article that actually gets read, is linked to, re-tweeted, and mentioned on other bogs and websites?
If you articles aren’t making the impact you want, don’t be discouraged. Writing good articles isn’t hard, you simply need the secret sauce for writing useful articles that gets readers’ attention.
Knowing How to Write A Good Article Starts With a Good Title
Your article’s title is your lure. A good article title will do more than be descriptive, it will grab your reader’s attention.
“How to lose weight” is a descriptive title but “How to lose 10 pounds in 3 days” is an attention grabber. Do you see the difference?
Using numbers in your title is also a good strategy. For example “How to Plant a Rose Garden” isn’t going to draw as much attention as writing “The 5 Steps to the Perfect Rose Garden”?
Numbers let the reader know exactly what they are getting and in how many parts. Readers like that.
A Good Article is Easy to Read and Has a Logical Flow
The paragraphs in your articles should be no more than 2 or 3 sentences, 4 at the very most. This makes the information easier for the reader to understand and digest. A paragraph with too many sentences is a lot to read on one idea and you’re likely to lose your readers attention.
The first paragraph should give a good summary of what the article is about. It should be written to entice your reader to keep on reading.
Your ideas should flow logically. Skipping around from idea to idea can confuse readers and muddies the waters. Keep your thoughts logically controlled.
The last paragraph should conclude or sum up the main points of your article. This is where you can highlight the ideas that you want your readers to remember.
Use Bullet Points in Your Article
Readers are scanners, they pick out the ideas that catch their eye, so make it easy for them to get those ideas quickly by using bullet points.
Bullet points will break up the look of the article and help readers digest information faster by helping them pull out only the points they are most interested in.
A Good Article Writer Knows Their Audience
Have a clear picture in your mind of your reader. What emotions, concerns and struggles will someone reading your article have?
If you’re writing an article about homeschooling for example, your reader will probably be a stay at home mom. So what would the wants, desires and concerns be of a mom that home schools her kids be? They’ll probably be somewhat different than for the stay at home mom who sends her kids off to school every day.
Know what those concerns and cares are and address them when writing your article.
Craft a Yummy Article Resource Box
A good article doesn’t stop with writing great content, you need a resource box that compels your reader to find out more about you or your business.
If your reader found your article useful, they’re be curious about you, so encourage them to find out.
Before composing your resource box think about what you your goal is for your article. For example, are you looking for more home page links and traffic or are you trying to increase newsletter subscriptions? The goal you have in writing your article will guide you in how you craft your resource box.
Use these article resource box examples to help you get started.
Need to improve your article writing? You must understand the goal of your article, if you don’t know that, you don’t have a competitive advantage. Article Autopsy will give you that advantage. With this little 17 page, no fluff guide, you’ll never write a dull article again.
From a reader’s point of view I feel that its important to keep the readers in mind while writing. There are many passionate writers but if they write only for themselves there is no connection with the readers. The article has to connect with the reader.
Because the internet has so much information, it’s easier to connect with readers on a personal level, they typically respond better to that verses writing in text book mode. At least that’s what I’ve found
Thanks for your feedback.
Awesome article. My favourite suggestion was the one about writing like you speak. My biggest weakness has always been writing factually instead of personally. Cheers!
Great tips especially the resource box one.
I would really love to know how to write a very good article, I haven’t written one before. With these points of yours I will try my best.
Impressive content is the way I am going to describe this article for starters. Your gift for original informative content is unsurpassed on this subject.
Hey Dee, Glad to hear that. It only takes a few strategies and a little practice and you can create some good articles and posts. Thanks for your feedback
Great article i see things that i am doing wrong. Now that i am learning the right way to write (due to this article) I feel like there is a whole new outlook. Great article
Hi Richard, writing an article is a good way to get traffic and you hit the nail on the head, it has to be interesting and informative. Thanks for your feedback
I’m glad that i stumbled upon your article. I’ve enjoyed reading, writing an article is nice way to get a good traffic just write something which your target reader will be interested you must provide clear information about your services.
traffic grab review
Hey Heather, I don’t think it’s important to be perfect, but you do want to be effective and that’s often, like you say, writing from your heart and sharing what you know. Thanks for your feedback
Twitter: stephensheather
on February 8, 2011 at 2:13 pm said:
HI Liz,
Great article on writing articles. I know that my blog posts and articles are never perfect, so I’ve learned not to stress it too much, but when I’m writing from the heart and sharing what I know in my own words, things start to flow.
Bullets, subheadings, lists, numbers, etc. are all great ways to break it up and make it readable. I also agree with the benefit of shorter paragraphs.
Great job!
Heather
Hey Marcus, you are so right! I’ve had to pretty much toss some of what I’ve learned in school. But in some ways it’s easier writing. Thanks for your feedback
Twitter: marcus_baker
on February 7, 2011 at 10:33 am said:
Hi Liz,
Really enjoyed this article. What I can add as an ex-English school teacher and freelance creative writer is that marketing articles require a totally different set of skills to those I learned. Basically one has to learn to become a copywriter without sounding like one which is exactly what your article covers. Well done.
~Marcus
Twitter: ziggy2get69
on February 3, 2011 at 12:39 am said:
Thanks for this post, I am not real sure how well my writing is but you did help to realize some things I need to work on like summing up what my post was about at the end. I can see how the would help my readers remember my post.
Thanks
Patrick Simpson
Twitter: surefireformula
on February 2, 2011 at 10:04 am said:
Good post Ms. Liz. I especially like the point about writing the way you speak to friends. It certainly is less confusing and conveys warmth and feeling that attract. Also appreciate the tip on paragraph length. At times it’s easy to get carried away, so it’s always good to remind ourselves to keep it simple and appealing. Thank you for sharing this helpful info.
Hey Mike, I really do think keeping it simple is best, you don’t want to lose your audience by being long winded. Thanks so much for your feedback
Twitter: JymTarrant
on February 1, 2011 at 10:22 pm said:
Love it Liz!
Great to have your overview as well as some really juicy nuggets on writing style. Write how you speak is a brilliant one for instantly transforming the feel of your posts, as is the adive to appeal to your reader emotionally.
Brilliant stuff!
Jym
Twitter: GrowOnlineBiz
on February 1, 2011 at 4:40 pm said:
Hi Liz,
Great points you are sharing here. The key is to write with your reader in mind and write like you speak as you have shown in your example above.
Thanks for sharing these tips, Liz.
All the best,
Mavis
Thanks so much Devesh, you’re awesome
Twitter: luckyoliver70
on February 1, 2011 at 11:40 am said:
Hi Liz,
thanks for sharing your advice. It makes perfect sense to me to keep paragraphs short and to choose attention grabbing and precise headlines. I just read the headline “70 % return on investment in just one hour” – it is certainly attention grabbing but what serious person would ever click on that one ? I wouldn’t.
Take care
Oliver
Pingback: Featured in Blokube.com
Twitter: wpkube
on February 1, 2011 at 11:40 am said:
Great Post liz, as usual. These are some awesome tips. Just Retweeted.
Thanks for sharing this great article.
Twitter: Lintre
on March 21, 2010 at 9:02 pm said:
Liz you’ve got some comprehensive information here. I’ve found article writing/submission not only to be an enjoyable means of marketing to a niche target market, but it’s great for seo when using the right keyword strategies. Better yet it usually doesn’t cost much if anything at all.
Thanks for some great content!
Scott, being too wordy is one of the biggest mistakes I’ve made with my writing. Now when I write something I always go back and ask myself how I can say each sentence with fewer words and still keep it comprehensive. Sometimes that’s tougher than it looks
Liz, an excellent article. Like you say, writing to a targeted audience is so important. You can write an educational article that is valuable to a certain audience. But if the keywords you use are not being searched for by that audience, then you are wasting your time.
I need to focus on writing shorter, to-the-point sentences. I tend to be too wordy, and my reader probably gets lost in what I am trying to say. Thanks, Liz.
I am a year book writer for the 7th grd. I have to write an article about the Girls Volleyball team. This site was really helpful. tnx
Wow, always glad to hear that
Thanks for the tips, i always want to make grat articles but don’t know how to start it. I agree with you.
Twitter: PeteSelectingDomains
on January 24, 2010 at 4:27 pm said:
So true that you can’t underestimate how much practice it takes to get good at article writing – or anything for that matter. The more you do it however the better you get, the more you learn and the better yield that work produces.
Great Post, Ms. Liz! I’m always looking to improve my writing. I’m glad I stumbled upon your blog
Best,
@RBeale
Great tips, I am actually not the creative writer type although I can actually write but I want to improve my writing skills. Let’s face it, article marketing is a big factor in terms of SEO technique but it’s frustrating to know somehow that some sites offer articles which actually non-sense in terms of it’s content, but if try to make a closer look, those articles are full of keywords. I just hope webmaster should also consider that readers are also into content, it’s not just about page ranking.