Thank you to guest writer Shanmugam Piramanayagam for the following writing guide!
This is a complete step-by-step guide that explains how to write an article, attract readers, drive traffic and earn money. The information is suitable for both beginners and experts in freelance writing, blogging and article writing.
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How To Choose A Good Topic For Your Article
Please note that this sub-topic is not about choosing the title, but choosing the topic. I have a friend who is a great blogger and his only source of income is Google Adsense! He always carries a small notebook with him to make short notes. and collect topic ideas. He is well known for choosing unique and interesting topics.
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Step #1: Choose a topic that is unique or interesting, answers an important question or gives a lot of tips about something that you know well or something that you can research and learn. The topic should be entertaining or educational.
Image credits: The Italian Voice's photostream on flickr
The topic is the essence of your article. I usually let the topic "incubate inside my mind" for a few days before writing about it That is why I prefer having a collection of topics ready.
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How To Do The Necessary Research For Your Article
My friend’s little notebook also served another purpose. Whenever he was free, he either did some research on his topics and noted the things he needed to cover, or he wrote down his own ideas on the topic as they came to him. If you make this a habit, you will be able to write articles using the notes you already have for your existing topics. At the same time, you can research your new topics to continue writing articles later. Where to look for information? Google is your best friend! And resources like Wikipedia, Yahoo Answers and forums are there to help you.
Step # 2: Do a detailed research about your topic and take short notes.
Image credits: The Italian Voice's Photostream On Flickr
Make your article great by giving detailed information
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How To Make Your Article More Compelling To Readers
People don’t like reading rewritten drivel or just personal opinions. The reader has a problem to solve, a question to be answered or needs information. (For example: if a person feels bored and looks for entertainment online then he or she has a problem to solve: boredom!)
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Step # 3: Search on forums and resources like Yahoo Answers to find specific questions or problems that readers are having on your topic. Then, try to answer those questions or give tips to solve those problems in your article!
Image Credits: The Italian Voice's Photostream On Flickr
Always ask this question when you begin to write your article:
How beneficial is this article going to be for my readers?
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How To Make Sure People Will Find Your Article With Their Keywords
A person who has a slow computer may not type ‘PC performance is poor’ but most likely will type ‘my computer is slow’ in the search engines.. You need to find the related keywords a person would type to get the information your article is offering.
Step# 4: Use keyword research tools like ‘Google Adwords keyword tool’ to find the relevant hot keywords on your topic and make a note of how many searches each keyword gets for a month.
Image Credits: Craig Key’s Photostream On Flickr
Selection of keywords plays an important role in optimizing your articles for search engines. .
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How To Choose The Best Title For Your Article
The title of the article (as well as the title tag) plays an important role in SEO. It should have the primary keyword phrase you are targeting. Target keywords based on how many searches the keywords get per month and how many other good quality articles are competing for those keywords. Just searching for the keyword in "Google search" will tell you how good the pages are in the first page of the search results. The title should also compel the reader to read your article. An article titled ‘Dog training tips’ may not be as interesting as ‘7 Effective Dog Training Tips That Experts Recommend.’
Step# 5: Select a title that has your target keywords (keywords which get many monthly searches but not too high to compete for) and make sure that it catches the eye of readers.
Taking some time to finalize the title is definitely worthwhile!
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How To Hold Your Reader's Attention Throughout Your Article
I heard someone say that an article shouldn’t be too long because online readers won’t have much patience to read long articles. This might be partially true, but I always write long articles and haven’t regretted it! The key lies in making the reader enjoy your article. Your article should be written in a conversational tone and your reader should feel as if he or she is listening to an interesting conversation, not reading a boring long page with white space and black letters!
Step# 6: Write your article in a friendly conversational tone, with sentences that sound like you are talking to a friend sitting next to you. Don’t be too formal or make your sentences sound bookish!
Image Credits: Search Engine People Blog on Flickr
Don’t tire your readers but make them to relax into your words!
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How To Write An Article That Speaks Your Reader’s Language
Once you start writing your article, you may be tempted to show your expertise by using a lot of buzz words that are known only to the people who are in your field. You have to keep in mind the type of reader you are targeting.. Are you targeting beginners, experienced people or experts? Your words should be meaningful and should sound like "plain English" to your readers.
Step #7: Come down to the level of your readers and use simple words they can understand, not technical jargon.
Image Credits: Jakeliefer On Flickr
If your reader had to perform another online search to understand even one line in your article (unless you ask them to do so) you need to improve your writing skills!
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A great success in article writing is to make the reader feel they are in contact with an individual while reading. You should show your personality here!
Step #8: As you write your article, refer to some of your personal experiences, crack jokes and use the word ‘I’ often.
If I have fun reading your articles, I will be earnestly waiting for your next article, won’t I?
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How To Relax While Writing Your Article
After reading stuff about SEO, keyword density etc, your thoughts might revolve around the SEO in your article and the search results you are going to get. But if your focus is just on your search results while your fingers are in your keyboard, your articles will sound totally artificial!
Step #9: Be relaxed and don’t worry about SEO or end results while you are writing. These thoughts will interfere with your flow of creativity. Remember that articles can always be altered and optimized later.
Image Credits: SashaW On Flickr
When you write an article, just write the article.
There are other times in a day when you can analyze, dream or worry!
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Why You Will Benefit By Taking Breaks While Writing Your Article
Many people start an article and finish it at a stretch. They just allocate a certain time and finish writing the whole article in that single time frame. This is bad! One must learn the art of ‘incubation.’ Here is Wikipedia’s article about incubation: It explains the process as the experience of leaving a problem for a period of time, then finding that the difficulty evaporates upon returning to the problem. Or, even more striking: that the solution "comes out of the blue" when thinking about something else. Many guides to effective thinking and problem solving advise the reader to set problems aside for a time.
Step #10: While writing an article, take breaks - sometimes breaks for more than a day. When you ponder an idea and set it aside for a period of time, the idea is more likely to flash out of the blue during your break!
This is an important concept to keep in mind for creative writers.. Taking breaks is useful!
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How To Make Your Reader Like Your Article At First Glance
When your reader scrolls down your article page, they should feel that it won’t be tiring to read. This can be achieved by formatting your article neatly.
Step #11: Split your article into shorter paragraphs, include proper sub-headings, format the important text with bold or italics and insert relevant pictures if possible.
A lot of readers judge an article by first glance.
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How To Write Keyword-Rich Articles
In one of our previous steps, we talked about keyword research. You might have successfully chosen a keyword-rich title. After writing your article, it is good to go through your article to spread your keywords throughout the body of the article.
Step #12: Make sure that the body of your article contains your main keyword phrase in a lot of places and try to fill up to 2.5 % to 5% of the words in your articles with keywords, while making sure that it sounds natural.
‘Keyword density’ is a very important factor in Google Rankings and you might want to do some additional research on that topic.
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How To Help Your Readers Learn More About Your Topic With Useful Links
You intended to write your article only to cover a specific topic. But your readers would want to learn more about a few words you mentioned then and there in your articles. No problem. Direct them to other sources!
Step #13: If you feel that your readers can get more information from other valuable pages, be sure to link to them.
I have sometimes bookmarked web pages just because they have valuable links.
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How To Clear The "Pimples And Scars"From Your Article
By "pimples and scars," I mean the mistakes in grammar and spelling and other corrections you could make with a little extra work. These errors do not create a good impression!
Step #14: Once you have finished writing your article, check for any spelling and grammar errors and other mistakes.
Image Credits: AngelaShupe.com On Flickr
An article can spoiled by a single misspelled word.
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How To Be Sure Your Article Is Ready To Publish
Once you have completed all the proof-reading and everything else, take a break for a few hours or a day and read your article again. You may be surprised to notice things that you didn’t notice before.
Step #15: After completing your article, take a break for a few hours or a day and read the article again for a fresh look.
You can’t judge your own article the moment you have written it. After a break, you will be able to judge your article much better.
Posted by The One Minute Humanitarian
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