Part 4d - Article Marketing - Writing Your Article
In a sense, your articles should practically write themselves. Remember, you will be writing about some aspect of a topic that's familiar to you — your products or services. And I'm willing to bet you have a wealth of information swimming in your head right this very moment that pertains to your products and services.
Also , if you've been using your business blog on a regular basis (see previous chapter), then you should have plenty of article material to work with. In that case, your article writing would be more of an assembly process, using material from your business blog. Even easier! You see how all of these channels support and reinforce one another?
Here are a few guidelines to remember when writing your articles:
- Make sure your article follows a logical flow. Choose a path (step-by-step, top ten, a series of related items, chronological order) and stick to it throughout.
- Optimize your article for online reading. Use short paragraphs, meaningful sub-headers, list, bullets, etc. Keep your language simple (Hemingway, not Faulkner).
- Keep the article reasonably short so it can be comfortably read or perused online. Aim for 300 - 500 words, but don't obsess over those numbers. Remember, shorter articles are easier to write, so you can create more of them!
You might get some ideas from the hundreds of articles I've published over the years. Fortunately, you can find many of them in one spot online:
http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Brandon_Cornett
Questions to Ask When Writing Articles
- Does my article state the purpose and benefit, in the title and first paragraph?
- Does it move the reader forward smoothly and logically?
- Is it Web-friendly (with short, easy-to-read paragraphs, lists, sub-headers, etc.)?
- Does it stick to one topic, sharply focused?
- Does it deliver on the promise made in the title?
- Is the information genuinely helpful to my key audience?
- Is it lively and interesting? Does it have personality?
- Does it speak directly to readers in the second-person (using "you" and "your")?
So now you have an article completed and you're ready to publish it online. Not so fast. You have yet to add one of the most important ingredients ... the author's bio.