Recently I wrote a post, Three Benefits of Article Marketing, that talked about…well you got it – three benefits of article marketing. Obviously to do any sort of article marketing you have to have articles first. The thought of writing your own article can be overwhelming and scary. Believe me I know!
A lot of people consider themselves a non-writer but with these seven article writing tips even the non-writer will be able to create their own content. Heck, even someone that has been writing their own articles for awhile can go back and revisit these basics.
Seven Article Writing Tips:
1. Stick with what you know best.
I put this as the first tip because it’s always easiest to start with writing what you know. If you pick a topic you aren’t familiar with you’re going to have to spend some time researching the topic. It’s going to take longer to write an article on a topic you aren’t familiar with than if you stick to what you now best. In fact if you know you won’t have enough knowledge on the subject and you’ll have to research the topic you’ll probably talk yourself out of writing the article before you even get started!
2. Don’t 0veruse jargon or words that might confuse your reader.
Just as it’s important to stick to writing what you know best it’s just as important to make sure you don’t confuse your reader by using words and jargon they won’t understand. If you still decide to use jargon or unfamiliar words make sure you take a minute to explain them. The last thing you want to do is write an article that is full of great content but have words and jargon that throw your readers off. In other words – don’t try to use big elaborate words or a bunch of jargon to try and ‘impress’ your reader. Keep it simple!
3. Tell a story.
Depending on what you are writing you can make the article more personal by sharing a story. There is a time and place for this and it won’t always be appropriate to put a story in. If you have a story that relates to what you are writing about then by all means share it. In the same way that you can share a story in an article it’s also a good idea to share an example if you have one that relates to what you are writing about. People like to hear ‘real life’ experiences.
4. Use shorter paragraphs.
Writing for online purposes is different than offline writing. We need to retrain ourselves and toss out the window what our high school English teacher taught us. When it comes to reading content online, paragraphs that are shorter – three to four sentences – break up the text and make it easier to read. As a side note – most people won’t read an entire article they’ll simply skim it so shorter paragraphs will make skimming easier.
5. Use images and bullet points.
Images and bullet points in articles are used for the same reason shorter paragraphs were mentioned above – easier to read. By nature people are visual. Adding images and bullet points makes your article more visually appealing by breaking up the text. Most people skim by nature so not only are bullet points and images visually appealing you are highlighting the most important parts of the content. Bullet points ‘say’ read me.
6. Article length.
There isn’t anything set in stone when it comes to how many words an article should be. You’ll hear many different answers when it comes to the question what’s the appropriate length of an article. Use your own judgment and find what works for the topic you are writing about. One thing to keep in mind is that an article that is too long and your reader has to keep scrolling is an easy way to make them lose interest.
7. Practice makes perfect.
The old saying practice makes perfect rings true when it comes to article writing too. You should practice writing often, everyday if you can. Even if you aren’t going to use this writing as an article or blog post it’s still a great way to get some practice in. Save all your practice writing. Look at in a few months and see how you’ve improved. You might even be able to take the practice content and turn it into an article or blog post at some point.
These are just seven basic tips to help the non-writer get started with article writing. If you need some more information and tips on article marketing check out Nicole Dean and Kelly McCausey’s Easy Article Marketing course. It’s full of easy to understand information that will help you better understand article writing and article marketing. The three article critique videos, where Nicole goes over articles and critiques them showing you how to make the article better, alone make the course worth the $27 investment. So what are you waiting for? Grab your copy of Easy Article Marketing now!