Three simple tips for better article writing

Do you love to write? Do you want to put those writing skills to good use? Perhaps you want to see your name published whether it be in a newspaper, magazine, e-zine or other forms of publication. Here's 3 tips to start off your New Year.

1. Brainstorm

Once you've decided what your writing is going to be about, brainstorm. Think of a new angle for your article. For example: If you're writing for your local newspaper about an author, don't necessarily write only the obvious details. Is there something about this author that makes them unique? What is so great about the book they've written, can you tie it with a current news event and or holiday?

2. Removing the Fluff is a Must!

When writing a first draft, it's expected to h ave at least some fluff. Fluff is words, sentences, certain aspects of your article that don't necessarily add to your article. An example would be: “I had no energy. My energy had been sucked out of me” Now that's not the great example, but you get the point. A good way to tell if you ave fluff is to put your article away for a while. Why? Because wen you leave your article for a bit, the next time you look over you'll see aspects of your article popping out. Certain words, facts and excess information that could easily be removed for a smooth flowing article. 3 fast tips that also apply are:

i. Editing- Proof read your articles and remember to use your spell checker. Grammar and spelling mistakes can easily turn your editor away.

ii. Simple Language Structuring- You may be an expert in your field, but for others reading about your topic for the first time, your content should be simple. Make sure your sentences aren't run-ons. Are you teaching something? Break down aspects of your article into steps. This will ensure your reader understands your topic better.

iii. Be careful of the word “the”- “The” is a common word that sometimes is repeated too many times in the article, causing your article to become repetitious. Use “the” repeatedly if you're trying to make a point.

3. Passion

No, I'm not talking about romance. Passion and excitement in your article. The topic that you choose to write about should excite you. It should be something you enjoy, something you love. If it's a topic you're not truly interested if, it's going to show in your writing. Especially if it's an article that you put together in 5 or so minute. Use words to “pump” up your article, actions, appeal to one's senses if it's about cooking. Have the reader become excited and motivated if it's a teaching article.

Lessons in article writing from SpongeBob Squarepants

Wisdom can be found in the most unexpected places. Today, wisdom bubbled up from a pineapple under the sea. I suddenly realized that everything you’d want to know about writing articles for your website can be taught by SpongeBob SquarePants and his friends.

When you write for your newsletter, blog, or website, which character are you most like?

Squidward: Squidward is B-O-R-I-N-G. When writing articles, are you a Squidward? Do you just get the words down on paper or are you finding a fun twist to entertain your audience and keep them coming back for more? Take time to make your articles stand out from the thousands of other dull articles out there by including personal stories or just having fun while writing. For instance, this article could be entitled "How to Write a Good Article", but would it stand out from the hundreds of other articles about article writing? Probably not.

Mr. Krabs: This crustacean is focused on one thing and one thing only, making more and more and more money. Only a cartoon could actually have dollar signs drawn in his eyes. He thinks of no one, only how he can benefit. Are your articles focused on you or on the reader? Are you providing information or do you have blinders on, thinking only about how you can make money from the article you are writing? If your article reads like an ad or is self-serving or full of affiliate links, you might write like Mr. Krabs.

Patrick: SpongeBob’s best friend, the starfish, has a good heart, but isn't the brightest creature in the sea. Do your articles make you sound like an expert? Are you providing valuable content or just pushing out sloppy articles as fast as you can? Always double check for typos and grammatical errors. If you're challenged by spelling and grammar, hire a Virtual Assistant or Copywriter to proofread and submit your article for you. Or slow down, set your article aside for a day and then reread it before you click the “submit” button.

Plankton: The smallest creature in the sea is also the sneakiest. He’ll do anything and hurt anyone to steal someone else’s work (the Krabby Pattie secret formula). Write your own material. Don’t be Plankton. Don’t copy and paste someone else’s work, edit it, and try to pass it off as your own. You will be caught, and it just isn’t worth it. Take the same amount of effort and work on your own thoughts and ideas. Plankton never gets away with his schemes, either. He’s on Plan “Z” and is still pathetically failing at his attempts to steal the secret formula.

SpongeBob: This little guy always tries to do the right thing, and is a hard worker. He may not always end up getting the results he hoped for, but he bounces back and tackles his work with a renewed vigor. SpongeBob works very hard, he's a good friend, he always thinks of others, and tries to have fun no matter what he is faced with. Hardworking, friendly SpongeBob is the guy to be when writing articles.

Although this is a silly lesson in article writing, I hope you'll remember the important messages our underwater friends have taught us.

1. Be entertaining. Not boring.

2. Write articles to help others, not with dollar signs in your eyes.

3. Proofread your articles carefully, and provide valuable information.

4. Write your own material. Don’t copy others.

5. Be a SpongeBob! Hard work and persistence pay off.

Before you know it, you'll develop a following for having informative and entertaining articles and you’ll be King or Queen of the sea.

Editorial guidelines and what you need to understand about them

Editorial guidelines, also known as writer's guidelines, are the rules set forth by publishers for contributing authors. In order to have your article taken seriously you must review the guidelines prior to submission. It is also recommended that you review previous editions of the publication to get a better feel for the types of articles favored by the editor(s).

Outlined below are the typical issues covered in editorial guidelines along with their definitions and any additional information you should know.

Length of article: The minimum and maximum word count of articles considered for publication. Online articles are usually expected to be 750 to 1,000 words while off-line publications will often accept a longer article.

Topics: The subjects of articles accepted by the publication. Never submit an off topic article as this is very annoying and may result in further submissions from you being banned.

Illustrations/Photographs: Some publications require/accept illustrations or photographs and will usually specify the size and format required for acceptance.

Editorial style: Consistency and accuracy governs the use of a style selected by the editorial department of a publication. Many publications require the use of the Associated Press Stylebook which covers spelling, capitalization, grammar, punctuation and usage.

Author Photograph: Some publications require or accept a photograph of the author usually included with the submission of the article. Guidelines will often cover the size and format of photographs.

Byline length: Also known as an author biography or resource box. Some publications have certain requirements for length, characters per line and what or how much contact information can be included.

Payment: Your byline is often the only payment you will receive for your article. However, some publications (particularly those in print) pay for articles by the word or per article.

Rights: Governs whether or not the publication will accept original or reprinted articles, how long they plan to use the material and whether the article can be used elsewhere at the same time.

Query requirement: A query is a letter written to the editor that proposes an article topic and asks permission to submit. Some publications require that you query the editor (by e-mail, fax or mail) prior to forwarding your article.

Submission methods: Methods of submissions may include via fax, e-mail or hard copy sent by courier or standard mail.

Editorial calendar: It is not unusual for a publication to establish an editorial calendar for each year far in advance. The calendar will cover topics, themes, article types and required submission dates broken down by publication dates.

Format accepted: Each publication will accept articles in certain formats such as Word, WordPerfect, text or Adobe Acrobat.

Audience: Demographics such as number of subscribers, gender, educational level, age and income level.

Notification: When you will be contacted about your submission. Many publishers choose to contact only if an article is chosen for publication.

Acknowledgements: In some cases you will be required to sign (either electronically or on paper) an acknowledgement that you have read the guidelines.

It is very important to understand and follow the editorial guidelines of your target publications in order to maximize your chances of publication. Not all publications will include all of the above items in their editorial guidelines. Contact the editor if any of this information is not disclosed and you need it to refine your submission.

Six power-tips for article writers

1. Offer an email course, multipart report or a free subscription to your ezine in your resource box.

Have your readers come to your site to get your report, course or subscription to your ezine so that they'll be able to see what your site has to offer them.

If you use your resource box to promote your ezine, provide a sample issue or an archive of your past issues on your site to get more of your visitors to subscribe.

2. Participate in article swaps.

You could run another publishers f~ree to reprint article in your ezine in exchange for the same.

You could also write a new article to run exclusively in the other publisher's ezine in exchange for her writing a new original article to be published in your ezine.

In addition, you could post other article writers' articles on your site in exchange for them posting your articles on their sites.

This will help you to get more reciprocal links and also help you to increase your repeat traffic by keeping your site updated with new content.

3. Make your articles available for your affiliates to publish with their affiliate URLs in your resource box.

Letting your affiliates publish your articles in their ezines or on their web sites with their affiliate URLs in your resource box will give them an easy way to effectively promote your business.

It will also help you to attract more people to your affiliate program because you'll be providing your affiliates with a valuable marketing tool.

When using your articles in this way, link only to your site in your resource box to ensure that your affiliates will earn commissions on all their referrals.

4. Create a mailing list that tells people when you've written a new article or articles.

Your list can help you to get your articles published on a regular basis by ezine publishers and webmasters who enjoy your writing.

Your list can also help you to keep your affiliates up to date on new articles they can use to earn commissions and help you to successfully get more people to join your affiliate program.

5. Use your articles to create a free ebook.

You could create an ebook compilation of your articles and use it as a bonus for joining your ezine or purchasing your product.

You could also offer your ebook as a freebie to get more people to visit your site.

To increase the profit you get from your ebook you could let people rebrand your ebook with a link to their website, business or affiliate program.

If you run an affiliate program, you could also let your affiliates rebrand your ebook with their affiliate URLs and use your ebook to earn more commissions.

6. Use your articles to create an ebook you can sell.

If you've written lots of articles you could put together a best of compilation of your articles and sell it to your visitors.

To increase your sales you could give people the resell rights to your ebook along with their purchases.

This will increase your ebook's perceived value because you'll be giving your customers a way to make money with your ebook.

Writing articles that addresses people's needs and solves their problems

If you are like me then topics and ideas for writing articles about my product, service or niche can be tricky and getting started even worse.

You will probably know the problems people have in your industry. If you don't then you should find out by asking your customers or searching on the internet. Forums can be a great source for finding problems people in your market suffer.

Over time I have found that writing to a formula works well as it gives you something to hang your words on and breaks up the writing into manageable chunks.

The problem solving article works so well because you have the opportunity to show that you know what you are talking about and help the reader at the same time. You build a relationship and they are more receptive to purchasing your services or products as a result.

Here is a simple formula that breaks up the task of writing your article into simple chunks that will make writing your next article a breeze.

Generally there are two main types of problem solving article:

"How to Articles" (eg "How to write the perfect article")

"Tips & Tricks" (eg "10 ways to promote your article")

Make the title of your article compelling to draw people in. Also, try to make your title unique that way when you search for it in the search engines (using the title of your article in quotes) you will know that all the entries which come up will be for your article.

Your opening sentence is vital. You need to grab the attention of the reader or they will not read your article. Here are some ideas to get you started:

Did you know that...

How many times have you...

Here’s an easy way to...

Next state the problem and make your first point followed by a more in-depth description. State your other points and go into more details for each.

Once you have finished making your points begin to wrap up your article with a summary and conclusion.

Finally you should end you master piece of problem solving with a call to action to get the reader to think or do something. That way when they see your resource box they are more likely to click on the link to your site or call you up.

Always check to make sure that your title still makes sense with respect to your article. Double check to make sure there are no spelling or grammatical errors.

So that's it. Problem solving articles help you build a strong relationship with your readers (customers) and are easy to write when you follow the simple formula.

Now go write your article and watch your business grow.

Writing articles that get read

When writing articles for publication, it is important that you bear certain matters in mind. If you want to write a good article that stands a good chance of publication you need to take the following into consideration before, when you are in the process and after completion:

Have you formed a full idea on what you want to write about? Which subject? Which topic?

Do you know where or how to find facts or material for your article?

Have you collected sufficient raw facts/data for your article?

Have you considered the article’s audience / market? Will it interest or captivate your readers?

Does your article have a main idea and secondary ideas?

Have you written enough to give readers quality and credible information?

Does the article offer any new, refreshing and useful advice or ideas?

Are paragraphs short, well arranged and flow smoothly from each other? Are sentences short and well constructed? Is punctuation all right and there are no grammatical mistakes?

Is your article descriptive? Is it sensational, thought provoking, emotive or inspiring? Does it evoke happy memories, sadness or inspire readers to action?

Have you revised the article to flush out irrelevant ideas, strengthen your points and checked it for any errors?

Has the article undergone rewriting through several drafts to polish it?

Does the article make sense?

Ten profitable tips to remember when writing your articles

1. Write to one person.

When you're writing your article picture one person that you are writing to. This will make your writing more personable and help you to keep your readers interested in your article.

2. Use lots of white space within your article.

Using lots of white space will help you to make your article look more professional and keep more of the skim readers interested in your article.

If you have paragraphs that are too long, try to break them up into two or three paragraphs so that your article will be easier to read.

3. Double check your articles for errors.

Make sure that you haven't misspelled any words, skipped words, or used a homonym such as "their" when you meant "there."

Remember, that spell checking only catches spelling mistakes so you'll need to go over your articles even after using your spell checker to find words used incorrectly and also to find words that were used twice in a row or omitted.

4. Pay attention to feedback you get for your articles.

Getting or seeking constructive feedback about your articles can help you to write better, get back on track with your writing if you're in a slump, and also develop new things to write about.

Even negative feedback or criticisms can help you if it shows you things you can work on. Just don't take everything to heart.

5. Improve your writing skills by trying different things.

When you first start writing your own articles, especially if you're new to writing, you might feel that you can only write list articles like this one.

Nonetheless try your hand at other types of articles that you would like to write such as how to articles or straw man articles.

Also try writing on different subjects that you haven't written about before.

6. Keep a file of articles you've written that you left unfinished or didn't feel were ready to be published.

Also keep parts (i.e., tips, paragraphs, etc.), that you've edited out of your finished articles in this file.

You might be able to rewrite your unfinished articles later on, get new ideas to write about, or get a new tip or two for your list articles from this file.

7. If you run an affiliate program, let your affiliates publish your articles with their affiliate URLs in your resource box.

You'll be able to effectively increase your sales by giving your affiliates an easy way to successfully promote your business to their visitors or subscribers.

8. Create an ebook compilation of your articles.

You could use your ebook as a bonus for subscribing to your ezine or you could let your affiliates brand your ebook with their affiliate URLs.

If you don't run an affiliate program, you could let people brand your ebook with a link to their site or business to get more people to offer your ebook to their visitors or subscribers.

9. Participate in article swaps.

Your swaps will help you to get your articles run in ezines that have subscribers interested in your business.

Your article swaps can also help you to gain more reciprocal links and add more useful content to your site if you swap articles where you publish another writer's article on your site in exchange for the same.

10. Create a list that people can subscribe to that announces when you've written a new article or articles.

Your list will keep people up to date on new articles they can publish in their ezines or post on their web sites.

If you let your affiliates use your articles to earn commissions, you can also use your list to attract more new affiliates and to keep your existing affiliates up to date on new articles they can use to promote your business.

Want to start writing articles? Here are 12 tips to help you along...

1. Make your articles available on your site.

You'll have an easy way to get more sales by showing your visitors that your are an expert on the topic your visitors are interested in.

2. Use lots of white space. Keep your sentences and paragraphs short and to the point.

3. Write for your target audience.

You'll have a better chance of attracting people to your site that are interested in purchasing your products.

4. Use numbered lists.

Your numbered lists will help you to effectively share your tips with your readers while making your article easy to read.

Use your numbered lists to share points on your article's topic, list your directions when writing a how to article, or to deliver the content of your article if you wanted to write a list article.

You can also use numbered lists to share resources related to what you talk about in your article along with your descriptions of those resources.

5. Use the active voice.

With the active voice the subject does the action while with the passive voice the subject receives the action expressed by the verb.

For instance:

Active voice: The dog bit the mailman. Passive voice: The mailman was bitten by the dog.

Use the active voice to keep your sentences from being awkward or confusing and to liven up your article.

6. Make your writing more personal by using the word "you" a lot within your article.

A simple way to accomplish this is to write your article to one person.

You'll naturally use the word "you" a lot within your article, and your readers will feel like you're talking directly to them.

7. Don't be afraid to share your personality with your readers.

You could inject a little bit of humor into your article, or share an opinion, story or anecdote that relates to the topic of your article.

8. Offer a subscription to your e-zine or a freebie in your resource box.

Writing articles will help you to get your site promoted on relevant sites and e-zines at no cost to you.

Maximize the profit you get from writing your articles by giving your readers a subscription to your e-zine, or a freebie that they'll find valuable enough to go back to again and again.

9. Once you've written your article, wait a couple of days, and then reread your article.

You might be able to add new points that you might have missed before, add more detail to information you covered in your article, or reword parts of your article that are unclear.

10. Use current topics whether online or in the "real world" to get ideas for your articles.

Your articles will be cutting edge and newsworthy, and will have an excellent chance of being published by e-zine publishers and webmasters.

11. Always check and double-check your articles for errors.

Use your spell checker and go over your articles for words you might have omitted, run-on sentences and for faulty punctuation.

Also look for words used incorrectly; for instance, if you used "effect" when you should have used "affect" or if you used "there" when you should have used "their."

12. Submit your articles to article directories, article announcement lists, and to e-zine publishers.

Your submissions, although time consuming if done manually, will help you to successfully get your articles published.

Be sure to submit your articles to my article directory at http://www.netpromarketer.com and to visit http://www.netpromarketer.com/directoriesandlists.html where you'll find a list of article directories and article announcement lists.

For a handy listing of e-zine publishers that want article submissions check out http://www.ezinelocater.com.

Also search other e-zine directories for publishers that want article submissions and submit your articles to e-zines that you are subscribed to that accept article submissions from their subscribers.