Article Surfing Archive

Writing articles is a good way to promote your website or business and to explain product benefits. But you can't just put anything together and expect it to do its job of bringing in traffic. You need to think about what it is you want to say and then put some effort into saying it well. You can enhance the written polish of your article by observing a few article writing tips:

1. Develop a plan
There is nothing worse than not knowing what you want to get out of writing your article. Do you want to be considered an expert in your field? Do you want to be thought of as innovative? Do you want to be controversial? Before you actually say or write anything, work out your pitch.

2. Think about the structure
A standard way to layout an article is with an opening paragraph which sets out what the article is going to be about. Then comes the main bulk of the article - usually several paragraphs that cover the topic in depth, followed by a closing paragraph which needs to pull the different points together into a natural conclusion.

3. Length is Important
Keep the length of your article between 400-600 words. Anything longer and your article may be too long to keep your reader's attention or you will have completely answered all the reader's questions and they won't be inclined to visit your site.

4. An article is not a press release
Don't use an article to blatantly plug your products or site. You need to offer information of value to the reader to make them want to read what you have to say.

5. Use detailed information to back up your main points
Rather than just saying you liked a product, it is better to talk about specific features, what you liked and why it was helpful. Being specific will help you to connect with your reader and demonstrate that you are a credible source of information.

6. Keep the personal stories short. It's not about you!
Keep your own stories to a minimum and use them only where they illustrate a point that you are trying to make, but not as the focus of the article.

7. Have strong paragraphs to open and close the article
Your opening needs to be catchy enough to hook your reader into reading the rest of your article. The closing is important because it should reinforce the key message you want them to take away and lead into them taking action after reading your resource box which can be more specific about the action you want them to take. Think of the conclusion as the warm up to the resource box.

8. Learn to edit your own work
On almost every publication over a certain size you'll find that the writing process is divided into writer and editor. The person who writes the articles is not usually the editor. While you may not be in a position to hire your own editor, you can gain some perspective by putting the article aside and looking at it again later.

Whether you are writing articles for promotion or web writing, article writing is a skill like any other and one that you would be wise to learn more about. Seek help writing if you find it difficult and follow the article writing tips above and when the visitors start rolling in you'll be pleased you did.