Can anybody write an article?
Yes, I Can Write. Right?
When I was at school the creative subjects came naturally to me. English was a favourite and I was able to write fiction and poetry freely. I studied Creative Writing and English Language and was a published poet in my teens. I had learned how to write in essay form as well as creatively.
As I got older the online world became more established. When I decided to write here, I had to rethink what I had learned in the offline world. To be a successful content writer you need to ability to write well and informatively. You need to be interesting, to the point and keep your blogs keyword rich.
When I submitted my first article to a well known site, it was sent back to me after a couple of weeks. The editors had reviewed it and told me it was too ‘wordy’. I had to write in a clear and concise manner which was too the point. I had to cut down my sentences.
My second article was accepted. But my third was again rejected. I repeated my mistake and it was too ‘wordy’. I was too used to writing English essays and going into details. My creative streak had ran away with me, which is great in short story telling. It is not good however on the web. My second article was very matter of fact which was why they accepted it. Writing on screen is different. People do not want lengthy sentences or paragraphs leading off onto tangents. They may just skim the pages for key points relevant to them.
Write With An Outcome
Writing ‘how to’ articles are the most interesting and tend to be what people are looking for. If a piece does not have useful information then what is the point? When you search for websites, it is usually to find something out. Ensuring you have a wealth of knowledge on your subject matter will put trust in your readers, especially if they search a few sites to compare notes. Put trust in them in case they come across you site again.
Create Multiple Articles
One of the mistakes I made when I began writing online, was overwhelming my audience with too many facts. I would choose my topic and write a big article covering as much as I possibly could.
Instead, I should have focused on one issue or detail at a time. I then could write a reasonably sized article on each point, creating four or five different articles on the same subject. The reader would then be reading relevant information and I would have the satisfaction of writing more than I intended.
Research The Search Engines
Anyone who knows anything about a website will be familiar with Search Engine Optimization. It is a term which I kept coming across when I was learning about content writing.
If you are searching for a blog or website on a particular subject, you tend to type in main keywords into the search engine. The list of sites are in rank order of how popular they are and strength and quality.
The keywords you typed in will feature in the pages of the websites. The writer will research them and avoid over used phrases used by hundreds of sites. This is so theirs will stand a chance of listing higher. So not only does your website need great content which will wow your audience, but you also need to be clever with you keywords. Do not ‘keyword stuff’ your content as it is not an ethical form of SEO.
The popularity of the site will push it to the top of the search engine. Keep blogs updated regularly for an active account and interest to your readers.
Links
Linking to other sites may result in reciprocal linking (linking back to you). This is good for SEO, but back linking will strengthen your site more. You want a good quality webpage to link to you for best results.
You can write separate pieces yourself to link back, or ask other businesses to link to you. Submit articles to sites which include a resource box at the bottom of the page so you can add your link.
