1. Choose A Topic.
You need to choose either a hot topic or a topic about which you are passionate. If you can find a topic which is both these things, you have a winning combination. Think about what people are talking about on forums and in ezine articles that you have read recently. Check with Google to find recent popular search topics. Your task will be easier if your article covers a subject people currently find interesting. If you are interested in the subject, this will show in your writing and enthusiasm can be infectious.
2. Research Your Subject.
Remember that people will read your article to obtain information. The type and extent of your research will depend upon the type of article you intend to write. If you are writing an article about your own experience or viewpoint, you probably won't need to do much in the way of research unless you want to add in references to some contrasting views which have been published by other people. Obviously, if you are writing an article which includes statistical information, you need to make sure your facts and figures are correct.
3. Invent a Title.
The title can make or break your article. A title for an article is just as important as a headline for an ad. The first 3-5 words of your title are the most important ones so don't waste them by using words like "The Ten Best Ways To?". Put your keyword in the first 3-5 words and make sure your title is relevant to the article content. If your title doesn't grab people's attention they will never read the rest of the article. If they don't read the article, they won't see your resource box. You get the picture?
4. Write In Sections.
Write 3-5 major points on your topic. If you find you need more points, it is probably better to split the information into two (or even more) separate articles. Make sure that each section really is a fresh point and not a continuation of something you covered a couple of paragraphs back. The key to making your writing easy to do and easy to read is dividing up the content so that it is logically organised and does not jump backwards and forwards.
5. Count Your Words.
Between 700 - 1200 words is the best size for an ezine article. If you write less than 500 words, your article is unlikely to be taken seriously and anything much over 1000 words might demand more space than an Ezine publisher wants to allocate. Few ezines will accept any article over 1200 words long. If you write an article amounting to over 1200 words, first of all check that your writing is not sloppy, repetitive or unnecessarily long-winded. If your writing is "tight" and every word is informative, split the work into two articles and call them Part 1 and Part 2. Add an additional paragraph mentioning that the article is one in a series and point the reader in the direction of the url for the other article. You also get double the number of resource boxes that way!
6. Create Your Resource Box.
This is your advertisement. Most ezines demand that a resource box is limited to about 5 lines. Some insist on as low as 3 lines but 5 is a good average to work on. You need to fit into those 5 lines your name, your website url and a couple of promotional phrases designed to attract the reader's interest so that he will click through to your website. You will get the best results if your promotional phrases relate to your article content. If you only ever write articles about one subject and your website is only about one thing, you can keep to just the one resource box. If the subject matter of your articles varies, revise your resource box to suit each new article instead of just having a standard resource box telling your readers they should visit your homepage.
7. Proofread And Edit.
Never send off an article immediately you finish writing it. Leave it overnight, sleep on it, then come back to it the next day to proofread and edit it. If yesterday's work of art seems less appealing in cold daylight, rewrite it until you are satisfied with the improvement and then leave it another day. Do a spellcheck but don't just rely on your pc's spell checking software, read the article carefully yourself (if you visit my website, you will find a poem dedicated to the pc spellchecker which will illustrate why this is important). It is amazing what a short rest will do for the creative process: you will probably find yourself making many small alterations which will result in a polished piece of work. Sometimes you will find yourself in possession of a completely unsatisfactory article which has to be rewritten numerous times but that is preferable to submitting a substandard article.
8. Send To Ezine Publishers.
Find a large section of ezine publishers and list their name and contact emails. Send your article to them with a short personalized cover paragraph at the top. Personalization is important since most ezine publishers receive hundreds of these emails every day. Make sure you format your email by making a hard carriage return at the end of each line. Keep your lines down to 60 - 65 characters so that your article will be displayed correctly by email servers. If you neglect the hard carriage returns, your article can end up with breaks in strange places, the general effect will be messy and the article will be difficult to read. The result will be that the busy publisher will skip your email in favour of ones that are easy to read.
9. Submit To Article Directories.
There are hundreds of article directory sites where you can submit your articles. You can easily find these sites by searching with any major search engine. The submission process can be very time-consuming and there are services which, for a fee, will submit your articles to the directories for you. If you are operating with a limited budget, these services might be prohibitively expensive but automation is desirable as your time is precious. When submitting online to article directories, read the site instructions. Submission is normally done by way of an online form where hard carriage returns (except at the end of paragraphs) are to be avoided as the site's own software will deal with correct formatting.
10. Target Your Market
Don't Spray and pray: avoid the temptation to be lazy and send every article you write to every ezine publisher and article directory you find, this is spamming. Take a little time to check what sort of articles the various sites want. If you consistently bombard a site with unsuitable material, you can find yourself blacklisted by a potentially valuable source of free publicity. Remember, there are real people at those sites who have to read the articles before they are accepted, so don't annoy them by wasting their time.
Copyright 2005 Elaine Currie
Elaine Currie publishes articles at her Plug-in Profit Site at: http://www.huntingvenus.com/plug-in_profit_site.htm
To see more about article writing go to: http://www.huntingvenus.com/plug-in_profit_site.htm
housekeepers near Buffalo Grove ..By now most entrepreneurs realize that the most cost effective... Read More
Here's a depressing fact if you sell anything on the... Read More
By default, Microsoft Word automatically changes straight quotation marks (... Read More
SEO writing is very different from content writing, article writing,... Read More
Writing articles for publication on the Internet is, at the... Read More
It's all the rage. It's what everyone is talking about.... Read More
You have decided on a great idea and researched a... Read More
How is it possible to turn an idea into the... Read More
Many internet home business owners today have learnt that one... Read More
The more you write, the larger your impact. If that's... Read More
Ok, today we are going to talk about one of... Read More
***What is the Resource box?'Resource box' is an information box... Read More
Search Engines are constantly on the "look out" for freshly... Read More
Article writing can be such an intimate act as you're... Read More
Submitting Articles for redistribution is the best way to get... Read More
This author started with a clean website and wrote 5... Read More
Writing and leveraging articles is my most successful strategy for... Read More
Every webmaster knows that to gain ranking positions in search... Read More
One of the best ways to build credibility and promote... Read More
Not every web designer has the time ? or skills... Read More
Have you been writing and submitting your free reprint articles... Read More
I have a confession to make.I think in "articles."As a... Read More
I was asked to write an article on a short... Read More
Often all the Web Surfer will see is your title,... Read More
Having an article published is one of the fastest and... Read More
custom home cleaning Mundelein ..Frequently when I am communicating with other webmasters and I... Read More
"Ten Tips" articles are the easiest piece to write because... Read More
Do you have problems finding ideas for articles and speeches?I... Read More
Okay, so you're getting a feel for this article marketing... Read More
1. Participate in chat rooms related to your targeted audience.... Read More
A Consultant could be an expert about absolutely anything.Calling yourself... Read More
Free publicity can help to spread the word about your... Read More
Your publicity dreams may include being featured in Forbes, Fortune,... Read More
You have probably heard that writing articles is one of... Read More
Publishing articles on the Internet is a tremendous way to... Read More
How many times have you read the following? If you... Read More
Would it be worth it to master a technique that... Read More
Selling books online means that you need to get interested... Read More
Been reading up on SEO? If so, you know that... Read More
Abandon your frustrations and get a fresh start by trying... Read More
Writing articles for your site and for the use of... Read More
Every time I run a course on Freelance Writing, students... Read More
Online readers love information, but be sure your information is... Read More
The ezine article is of major importance to the world... Read More
Why do so many internet marketers waste their time on... Read More
It has become common knowledge that the smartest and most... Read More
Submitting Articles for redistribution is the best way to get... Read More
When you frequently post articles on ezines, you might be... Read More
The sources of inspiration are all around us, in the... Read More
This is a perennial question among writers and wannabe's. Many... Read More
Article Writing |