Writing articles-and distributing them to other sites-is a proven way to position yourself as an expert in your industry and to gain quality links back to your own site. To make the task easier to manage, break down the article writing process into these ten easy steps.
You have probably heard that writing articles is a great way to promote your business. But how do you reach the goal of writing an article? Mark Twain said it best,
“Write, write, then write.” All humor aside, to reach the goal you will need to spend some writing. Like a lot of things it is easier to find time to write in small chunks. Spending just thirty minutes a day on one or more of the following steps will move you toward your goal.
1.Define the specific thought, feeling, or action you want to stimulate in the reader.
Just like you do when writing good direct-response copy, you want to think about the purpose of your article. Do you want the reader to feel inspired? Consider changing his career? Visit a website or buy something?
If you are like most people, you will start having great ideas for articles, and then promptly forget them. Write your ideas down in a pocket notebook as soon as you have the idea. You won’t use every idea you write down, but some will turn out to be just the topic you wanted.
2.Outline how the article will help the reader
This step is similar to defining the benefits of the product or service you’re selling in a sales letter.It’s critical, because along with helping you write the article, the list of benefits will reveal if the article is even worthwhile to write!
Write two or three sentences about each of the other topics (paragraphs) in your thesis statement (e.g., retention, sales and referrals). Don’t worry about writing more now.
3.Include useful instruction on your topic.
The next step in this process has you identifying some sort of instruction you can give your reader. Just like with a sales letter, you want to engage him, and useful instruction will ensure that happens.
Now, this doesn’t mean that every article needs to be a “how-to.” The instruction could just be as simple as explaining how a marketing process works, or providing examples of what others do when faced with a similar situation.
Step 6: Finish up by writing a summation sentence and paragraph. Continuing with the “attention” example you might begin by writing, “You can see why paying attention to your customers is so important and can make life easier on you in the long run.” In general you will tell the reader what benefits they are going to get, the time they are going to save, money the are going to make, etc. I recommend you keep the last paragraph brief and to the point.
4.Identify how your reader will identify with the article.
As much as you want to engage your reader, you also want him to identify himself as someone who will benefit from the advice or instructions given in your article.
Now go back and carefully read your article. Fill in any information you think needs to be there and take out the unneeded. If needed, turn most, if not all of the passive sentences into active ones. Improve your sentences, making sure each one flows to the next. At this point you’re done, or at least almost done. Read it over a few times to make sure it sounds good to you and spell check it. If it does not sound good to you put it aside where you can find it in a few days or week
5.Answer the questions your reader will have.
Publish the article. The Internet has made this simple. You can publish it in your own newsletter or send it to other newsletter publishers.
Spend thirty minutes a day on one or more of these steps you will be at step 10 before you know it. Keep it up and in a short time you will have several articles in your portfolio.
This final step is not only a critical part of good editorial, but when done in advance, it will help you write your article a lot faster.
Simply outline frequently asked questions on the topic, and then make sure you answer them in your article.
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