|
|
| Article Writing Information |
|
|
|
|
Writing Articles To Build Your Online Presence - A Beginners Guide
One of the most effective (and free!) ways to get noticed on the web is to write articles. Even if you have no writing experience, it is easier than you may think, even fun. You can write an article on just about anything you want and choose how you want to publish it. The best way to start is to write about a subject you understand thoroughly, such as the subject of your ezine if you have one. Use a search engine to research what you want to write about, and browse some online discussion forums which relate to your subject to gain additional knowledge. There are article-writing ebooks and other literature available on the web that can provide you with useful advice if you are intimidated to write your first article. Just do some web searches to see what you can find. Some of the literature is free, some isn't. As you conduct your research, begin writing a rough draft immediately while ideas are still fresh in your mind. You can revise, edit and rearrange later. Your article doesn't have to be perfect, as long as it is presentable and easily readable. Keep your lines formatted to about 60 characters. The 'Lucida Console' font uses the same amount of space for each character, so you could use it then set your margins accordingly in your word processor program. I use Notepad which uses Lucida Console by default. I turn off word-wrap and set the window size to where I want it and hit 'enter' as my text fills a line. You may come up with a method that works better for you. When your article is finished, you'll need to add what is called a "resource box" at the end. This is where you place a few lines which include your name, as well as anything you'd like to offer your readers. You should make your resource box stand out by placing a line of asterisks or hyphens above and below it, for example: ********************************************************* When you feel comfortable with your article and ready to publish, you can choose from several different options available to you. You can use all if you so choose: * Article Directories Article directories are websites that you can submit your article to. They will review it then publish it on their site, making your name and links in your resource box available to all who are interested in the information you provide. You get an added benefit of having your website's search engine ranking increase as your link is placed in more and more article directories! It all depends on how much time you want to spend submitting to the hundreds of available directories on the web. You can also browse ezine directories, searching for ezines relating to your article's subject. Look for those which indicate they accept article submissions. Send a polite email to the publisher asking to submit your article, and include the article. If you prefer, send it as an attachment. There are also article announcement lists which you can submit your article to. These can be found by doing a web search for 'article announcement lists'. You have to subscribe to the list before you can post to it. When posting to an announcement list, include in your email your rules for reprinting your article, such as allowing it to only be reprinted if no changes are made and only as long as your resource box is included. These rules are up to you, ultimately. You can also use submission websites or software such as EzineAnnouncer which are designed to submit your article to a large number of places, cutting down on time you have to spend doing it manually. These programs come with a price, so look them up and decide for yourself if they are worth it to you. Read this article again, and formulate a plan based on the advice given. The methods outlined above will get you well on your way to boosting your online presence, and you will be surprised by how effective they are. Copyright 2005 Jeremy Hershberger Jeremy Hershberger is a computer specialist, Internet marketer, and webmaster of his "Plug-In Profit Site". For free training and essential advice on building and enhancing an online business, subscribe to his Internet marketing newsletter here: http://www.online-income-solutions.com
|
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
How to Write Money-Making How-To Reports This is the "real" Money Maker in the Mail Order business the basic "How To" Report. It's something anyone can produce, and with all the proper ingredients at the right time, you can become independently wealthy! The hard part, of course, is getting all the proper ingredients at the right time. Article Publishing Is A Key Component Of Internet Marketing Frequently when I am communicating with other webmasters and I bring up the subject of writing articles, I often get a response like "I'd rather have a root canal, I just can't write", or "my spelling is horrible and my grammar is not much better". In my view, the first excuse is just a matter of attitude. The latter excuse falls on deaf ears because the major word processing programs have good spelling and grammar checking capabilities. Eight Tips for Ezine Writers Have you ever wondered why Ezine Articles have become one of the most effective marketing techniques on the Web? Articles and Internet Branding: 5 Steps to Success Are you ready to become an internet marketing expert? Are you ready for a massive conversion rate plus unlimited residual streams of income for your web-based business? Excellent! I'm here to focus your mind on the job at hand. Today you will learn how article marketing is the means to the end, and that end is PROFIT. Understanding That Online Writing is Business Writing Will Make You a Fortune Never before in the history of the business of writing have opportunities opened up and presented themselves on such a large scale and in such huge quantities for writers to easily win so much regular business and revenue. Use Your Expertise to Write That Article! Have you ever seen articles that are not only related to your expertise, but ones that made you think, "I could have written that!" And of course you can! You are an expert at something, such as education or science or marketing or whatever. What's more, you have an in-depth knowledge of your field. Creating A Great Print Newsletter The traditional print media newsletter is still useful even in the rapidly changing age of the Internet and IT. Its uses are so multi-faceted that it can cover just about anything ? from the company's profile to promotions, home-order system and contests. Before the Internet homepage became so common, the newsletter was the main source of an organisation's communication to its customers. How To Submit Your Articles To Article Announcement Lists Get the Facts you need to start promoting you free articles for publication online... Ten Steps to Writing a Winning Top Ten Article Have ever wished that there were a formula for crafting your expertise into a Top Ten article that will showcase your knowledge, cement your credibility and promote your products and services? Article Marketing 101: The Perfect Author Resource Box If you want to really make your article "SELL" then you've got to craft the perfect RESOURCE BOX. This is the "author bio" that is below your article body and it's also known as your "SIG" (short for SIGnature). Write Articles That Get Results It's no secret that writing and publishing helpful articles is one of the best ways to promote your business. Writing articles can: Establish you as an expert in your field. Get your name and your company name in front of potential clients who you may never have been able to contact otherwise. Create valuable content for you to share with potential clients or convert into speeches and other marketing strategies. Marketing to Editors How are you marketing your articles? As a writer prospecting potential clients, your query letter is your marketing tool. What does it tell the editor about you? Reaping The Amazing Benefits of Writing E-zine Articles Marketing on a budget is tough. This is a universal truth that all small business owners face. The most effective small business frugal marketing strategy available is writing and submitting articles to web sites, e-zines, magazines and newsletters. Listed below are some of the amazing benefits you can gain by using this technique. 10 Tips For Promoting Through Ezine Articles What's the most powerful marketing technique on the Web? Search Engine positioning? Perhaps. But did you know that some of the most successful web marketers don't bother much with the Search Engines? Write Your Ezine Article in 15 Minutes or Less! Gasp! I can hear it from the purists now: Matt is advocating that writers really dumb down their writing styles to crank out more articles in less time. No, not really. Truthfully, writing for the internet, where the vast number of ezine articles can be found, shouldn't be a laborious process. By following these simple rules you should be able to produce an interesting, persuasive, and concise article in fifteen minutes or less. Interviews with Well-Known Ezine Writers #3: - Shelley Lowery MS: Shelley, you're an excellent person to talk to about Ezine Articles, because - as well as being a prolific Ezine Writer - you own and operate the largest article announcement lists on the Internet (www.web-source.net). How would you rate Ezine Articles as a promotion technique? Reprint Article Headlines ? the Reader is Secondary A great headline can be the difference between having your free reprint article published once (on your own website...) and having it published hundreds, if not thousands, of times all over the Internet. Sure, the content has to be worthwhile; it has to be helpful, informative, and not just a sales spiel. And there's no denying that a well written article can be very compelling. But if your headline doesn't cut it, the article won't stand a chance. The best article in the world will never see the light of day without an effective headline. Now, more than ever, article submissions need a good headline. But it's not just the reader you have to worry about. In fact, the reader is secondary! When it comes to reprint article headlines, your main focus should be the publisher. You may think the requirements of a good headline haven't changed over the years, but they have. Unlike headlines for traditional newspapers, magazines, etc., which target only the reader, online article submission headlines target first the publisher, then the reader. So how do you write a headline for an online publisher? Here's a few tips... 1) State your domainNo matter what your business, you can be sure that potential publishers of your article are inundated with information every day. Imagine hypothetical 'Publisher Pete'. He's the webmaster of a high PR site. He receives hundreds of article submissions every day. Additionally, he farms article submission sites (aka 'article banks', 'article submit sites', 'free-reprint sites') for articles on a regular basis. Because so many of the article submissions he sees are spam or unrelated, Publisher Pete is quick to dismiss anything that isn't obviously ? and immediately ? relevant to his website. So make sure your headline signals the general subject area of the article submission, not just the exact topic. 2) State your argumentEvery website has an agenda. Whether it's to sell, persuade, or inform, there's always an angle. When our friend Publisher Pete looks for free reprint content for his website, he wants something that complements his agenda. If he's selling chemical garden fertilizers, he doesn't want an article about the evils of chemical fertilizer. Nor does he want an article espousing the virtues of organic fertilizer. He wants an article promoting the value of chemical garden fertilizer. If that's what your article is about, make sure the headline lets him know. 3) Don't make empty promisesSensationalized headlines may work in traditional media, but they're not so effective in online article submissions. Few things frustrate an online publisher more than being lured in by a promising headline which turns out to be nothing more than hot air. For publishers who take the time to carefully filter content before publishing, empty headlines are nothing more than time-wasters. For publishers who are a little less meticulous, empty headlines result in a site which is characterized by disjointed, contradictory, low-quality content. Either way, the publisher isn't impressed, so make sure the headline of your article is relevant to (and validated by) the body of your article.4) Put yourself in the publisher's shoesAlways think about ways to make the publisher's job easier. It's as simple as that. Brainstorm 5, 10, 20 headlines, then put yourself in the publisher's position and ask which one you'd choose. That's the best headline for your article submission. 5) Think about your publisher's readersPublishers want articles that readers will open. But remember, your publisher's website may cater to an entirely different type of reader to your website. Whenever you find yourself thinking about your secondary audience (the reader), make sure you're thinking about the publisher's readers ? not your own. That settled, you can go on to focus on regular audience-headline considerations such as making the headline attention-getting, targeted, and benefit driven. ConclusionWith the emergence of article submission as a great way to generate a high search engine ranking, and the associated proliferation of article submission spam, the right headline is more important than ever. The important thing to remember is that you're faced with a gatekeeper, and you need to address their needs first. By following all the publisher-focused tips above, you'll not only see your article published many more times, you'll also see it published on more relevant websites. This will help both your ranking (because links from relevant sites are always the best) and your click-thru traffic (because the audience will be more relevant). Happy headlining! Web Design Information And Resources People who have an idea for a website sometimes require help in finding out relevant content to add to their website. This is where article websites are invaluable as you are able to use the articles on your site for free as long as you make all the links live. So You Want to Be a Web Copywriter? I get tons of emails from people who want to break into web copywriting. Are you another one who's itching to get in on the copywriting action but don't know how it's done? Article Writing: SEO, Expert Authors and the Dumbification of the Internet Article authors who use SEO (Search Engine Optimization) keywords to attract attention and falsely position themselves as experts, are like impurities in the water, clogging up the pipes. This is indeed a sorry situation. Unlike the days when the internet was young, if you want to find good information, you have to filter out the dirt first.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2005 |