The Benefits of Writing Articles

Writing Articles | You have a business; you are new and want to build a client list. However, the public doesn't know much about you. One of the best ways to build relations, credibility and to help get people to know more about you and your area of expertise is to write articles. People are always looking for good articles for their websites, blogs, and newsletters. 

The important words here are good and content. Good articles are content-rich. They help the reader understand what which you are writing about. It gives them insight, whether it is about Business, Communication, Health or any number of subjects. When you provide an article for your reader, whether you wrote it or published it, you are doing your clients a service by educating them in the areas that they wish to learn. 

Moreover, your credibility can be built or diminished by the article. Articles also help to keep your website updated and helped to increase your search engine ratings. Stagnate websites that never change, get a much lower rating with Google. As well, do not encourage your audience to come back. They are thinking, ok, I saw it. A summary of the benefits are:

For the author, they:

• Increased Exposure
• Give Credibility (You show your expertise)
• Develop Relations (People get to know you better)
• Create links to your site
• Give you free Publicity

For the Publisher or Website Owner, it provides:

• Content
• Related Articles that you don’t have to write
• Reference and information that you don’t have to write
• A vast resource of free information

However, it is important to remember that there can be a downside. Of which you can avoid, once you understand what it is. There is nothing worse than reading an article that is nothing more than a sales letter, a news release, or an inflated glorified piece on how wonderful you are. You need to give the public something that they can use. Then they are much more likely to follow your link in your resource box, back to your site to find out more about you. Remember, that in each article, you are communicating something about yourself. 

You want the message that is one that encourages people to want to get to know you better, to learn more about you know, and to become one of your clients or subscribers. In your resource box, make sure you are clear, stating who you are and where they can find out more about you. Most article directories and magazines have set limits on the size and amount of information you can place so it is important to ensure it is accurate and inviting. 

You are not writing articles just for praise and admiration. You do have a business to run and bills to pay. Even if you are a millionaire and want to write just for the sheer joy of it and love to teach for free, your resource box is still important, as you would want the readers to know that the information came from a credible source. 

So go ahead and get started. Don't stop at one article, it can easily become buried. Make it a habit and write them regularly whether it is once a week or once a month. And remember, have fun doing them.

"To Master Communication is to Master Wealth"

The Benefits of A Custom Essay Writing Service

Essay Writing | A large number of web-based custom essay writing services on the internet cater to writing all kinds of customized essays, ranging from academic essays and term papers to theses and dissertations. These essay writing services are a great help to students throughout the world who do not have the time to research for and complete an academic assignment. These websites are especially helpful for people who are pursuing a degree while working full time and have a major time crunch throughout their days and nights what with having a regular job and attending university at the same time. There are many benefits of using a good custom essay writing service for writing your papers and essays.

# Custom essay writing services do just what they say---they write customized essays for you. Every essay is created from scratch after receiving your instructions. Therefore, there are hardly any chances of someone else submitting anything similar to your essay. It is, however, important to convey all your requirements, ranging from a topic, subject, word limit, sources, research material, kind of citation, and style of writing in order to get your essay written just the way you want it.

# Almost all good custom essay writing services employ people who are at least graduates in their respective fields. This means that your paper will not be written by just anybody, but by someone who has already passed the course that you are currently pursuing. 

# Since custom essay writing firms employ people with all kinds of qualifications, you can get academic papers and essays written on a vast number of subjects ranging from Anatomy and Anthropology to Technology and Zoology with everything another subject from A-Z being catered for.

# All custom essay writing services provide you with material that is 100% original. These papers go through at least one anti-plagiarism test in order to ensure that you do not have to worry about submitting an assignment that has even a single line copied from some other place without being mentioned in the bibliography. 

# Almost all essay writing firms will format your essay as per your needs and also provide a free title page and bibliography with your paper. So once you receive your paper all that is required is for you to submit it, without undergoing any kind of hassle. Life definitely gets easier because of these essay writing firms. 

# Custom essay writing services can create well-written research papers within 24 hours. So in case you forgot all about your paper and remembered it when you are already too busy with other projects, then you can just pass on your assignment to an essay writing firm and receive a well-researched, written, and formatted paper that can be submitted on time.

Submitting Articles To Article Directories

Article Writing | I like to surf around different internet forums that deal with internet marketing, link building, traffic building, and search engine optimization. Lately, I have seen a lot of questions about using articles as a marketing tool. The question has been this: “How much traffic can I get from submitting articles to article directories?” I would honestly love to tell you that you get loads of traffic. On the other hand, I would love to be able to tell you that you wouldn’t get a lot of traffic. However, I cannot tell you either way because it really just depends. It depends on these things:

• How many articles you submit
• How many directories you submit your articles to
• Where you submitted your article
• Quality of your article
• Usefulness of your article
• Value of your article

So if article writing appears so iffy, why do it? One thing I will say is that article marketing is not something you will usually see results from overnight. Article marketing is a great long-term investment for promoting your website, building links, and generating more traffic. Article marketing is only iffy if you are looking for a short-term or fast, quick way to generate traffic. My best advice is to avoid writing garbage content. Provide useful information in your article. Keep a constant mindset that you are writing for people and not to see the traffic stats go up through the roof.

You are not writing for numbers! You are writing for people. If you are writing for numbers, you may begin to feel discouraged because your traffic will not usually jump overnight. Quite simply, it takes time to realize the positive effects from article writing. I know that I am guilty of taking shortcuts and forgetting about the reader in my articles. Sometimes I am feeling lazy and think, “Well I’m writing this article. My link will be on my article, so, therefore, people will click my link and all will be well.” That is wishful thinking on my part! The truth and reality of that statement are that nobody will care to click to my website if my article is not worth reading. 

They won’t even make it through the article to see my link! That’s a shame. If your article fails to meet the reader, you also miss out on another important aspect. You miss out on the chance that the reader will take the article and distribute it to other people with your link attached to the article. That’s even more possible traffic you are missing out on! Quality is so essential to article marketing. The other factors of article marketing have no match for a quality article. 

You could submit to few article directories and many would read your quality article because it is an article worth reading. To summarize, write quality articles that meet the reader. Give the reader exactly what they want. Do not take shortcuts because there are no shortcuts in article marketing. Article marketing can be a time-consuming process, but if done right, it will really, and I mean really, pay off in the long run.

Structure Your Article for Maximum Impact

Writing articles is one of the best ways to promote your service or product since it establishes you as an expert in the field and you can get hundreds, if not thousands of links back to your website. But not all articles are created equal. In order to get the maximum benefit from your article writing they should have a consistent layout and structure. Follow these tips to give structure to your content and your articles will have a much bigger impact and stand a better chance of getting published.

For people whose literate capabilities extend to that last school essay that they handed in with a sigh of relief, writing an article is a daunting task and the end result often looks like a wasteland of grey text. A good article is written in such a way that it pulls the reader in and guides him through the content.  Conforming to a standard format also makes it easier for article directories and sites that publish content to pick up your article and publish it. It also contributes to a professional image of you, the writer. 

Here are the components of an article and how you should use each one for maximum benefit.

~ Title ~

The title of your article, like the title of your website, is probably the most important part of your article. And, much like the title of your website, you are writing for both the search engines as well as human beings. For the sake of the search engines, include your main keyword or keyword phrase in the title. For the sake of your reader, you have to create a title that will “pull the reader in”. In other words, your title must persuade the reader to read the rest of your article. 

But here is a tip from Chris Knight of EzineArticles – do not start your title with: 

“7 tips for …”

or 

“5 ways to …”

The first 3 or 4 words are the most important, and by doing this you are wasting important space! Rather use your keyword or keyword phrase at the beginning, followed by the number or ways, or tips that you are going to discuss.

For example: Organize your office: 7 tips for never losing that $1000 check again

Another tip for coming up with a killer title is to use some of the headline making software that helps you come up with compelling headlines for your sales letters, like Headline Creator Pro. While you might not actually use the headlines it suggests, you will quickly have a list of 100 headlines to play around with and modify. Just be careful though of not loading your title with too much hype – you are, after all, writing an article and not a sales letter!

~ Summary or Introduction ~

The summary, or description, of your article is often overlooked. This might be the only piece of text that will be displayed when your article shows up in an article directory. Sometimes you have the option of submitting the summary separately, other times the article directory software simply takes the first paragraph or so of your article. I suggest that you focus on the first paragraph of your article to provide you with your summary and introduction at the same time. 

Like the title, it should create curiosity in the mind of your reader to entice them to read further. Please remember that a good article tries to solve some problem for the reader – try and describe what problem THIS article will solve. Describing the problem by means of a story or example help to make it real in your reader’s mind. A personal example also helps to establish you, the writer, as a real person and creates a rapport with your reader.

~ Body ~

The body of your article will bring across your main solution to the problem that you have sketched in the mind of your reader in your summary and introduction. Please remember to stick to ONE topic! It is very tempting to branch off into different directions, especially if you are enthusiastic about your area of expertise. If you find that you are wandering off into other areas, even if they are related to your main topic, consider saving that information in a scratch pad and make another article out of the material.

DO use bullet points or subheadings to break up your article. Bullets and headings catch the eye and once more pull the reader into the text. But some article directories do not allow HTML code or other formatting inside your body. My suggestion is that you write for ‘text only’ as a standard. Simulate bullets and headings by making use of numbers, capitals, or a special character, like the tilde (~), or star (*).

Ending

The ending should summarise the reasons why the article solves the problem stated in the title and the introduction. Try and end with an interesting point or final quote, to invite readers to further investigate the topic. 

Resource box

The resource box is the place to write a mini-ad for your site, service or product. You can send people directly to an affiliate link here, or direct them to your site. Try to make the link contain your major keyword or keyword phrase, for maximum ‘backlink’ benefit - if you can.

If you follow this simple layout structure (obviously combined with great content!) for your articles you will find that 

-         more article directories will accept your articles for submission

-         you present a professional image that instils confidence in your reader

-         your articles will get published on more websites, leading to more traffic 

          

in short, your articles will get the exposure they deserve!

So Many Article Directories, So Little Time

Twice today I received invitations from article directory owners to join their new sites. In many ways I am flattered, but in other ways I almost want to mention that they have their work cut out for them. As an author of several hundred articles online [I expect to add between one and two hundred per month for the foreseeable future] I have some recommendations for article directory managers. If you are interested in learning what they are, please read on.

Benchmark Ezine Articles – My primary site for submitting articles is with EzineArticles.com. Why? Volume, service, article penetration, search engine optimization, blog, forum, email updates, site navigation, cutting edge technology, to name some features. This site is one that is highly active where authors know the manager, Christopher Knight, and hear from him regularly. You get the feeling that Ezine Articles is going places...and fast!

Ask Permission First – Some of my articles have appeared elsewhere, without my permission. I guess having over 400 articles online gives me extra special attention, perhaps more than someone who has 40 articles. Still, I must say that one web director who took my articles has apparently given up the practice and without notification to his authors. Let’s just say I won’t waste my time with someone who doesn’t at least care enough to respond to my emails!

Distinguish Yourself From The Pack – Thanks to a new article software program that hit the market over the summer, lots of folks are snapping up this easy to use program and starting their own directories. Competition is a good thing, but a shake out will occur. If you want someone like me to take interest in your site, to direct my clients to you [I have plenty], and keep me interested, your site shouldn’t even look like any of the rest of them. I am not saying you shouldn’t use the new software, but please take it to the next level and make it work to the max.

Build Up Page Rank – Heck, my own site pulls down a page rank of 6. I want you to match my site’s strength or at least come close. Some of the newer sites are not yet ranked and little or nothing has been indexed by Google. BTW, Google is it for me. MSN and Yahoo are alright, but Google rocks. After these three...nada!

Details, Details - The big picture of getting articles out there is great, but I like to see some attention paid to the fine details too. Ezine Articles has not one, but <u>three</u> resource boxes for authors to select from each of which contains information already keyed in by the authors. I know not of one other directory that has even one. Hmmm...

Where Are You Going? - Where is your article directory going? Do you have RSS feeds, submission agreements with other sites, unique features that are regularly being rolled out, etc. A blog where we hear from YOU, the manager, is highly useful.

There are other areas I am sure that I haven’t covered. I am not singling any directory out and I do wish you the best in your endeavor. Perhaps as your site grows I’ll sign up, but for now I am very busy writing articles and submitting to just a few select sites, like Ezine Articles. Thank you for allowing me to vent!

Shifting Deadlines

As a writer who works on multiple projects at any given time, I attempt to pin down a deadline from my clients even if one is not stated. Why? Because, the "I am in no hurry for these" statements invariably becomes, "are you done with the articles?" How embarrassing is that if I make the assumption that a project could be put off, especially if my client wants it now?

I have learned to do the following: as soon as I get a project I ask for a specific timeline for when the job should be completed. If the client wants to receive proofs by a certain time, they will. I will also ask them to return to me the reworked article by a certain time too, especially if the "final copy" deadline is fast approaching. No one likes to respond to a panicked, "where is my finished copy?!" statement especially if the hang up is on their end. Regardless of the reason, the burden falls on you, the writer, if there are any snags.

Fortunately, most jobs I do are "in progress" almost as soon as I accept the assignment. Generally, I start my research right away and then I start working on an outline of the article. Once satisfied with the outline, I craft a rough draft and, finally, I write my final copy. Sometimes I take a break between the various steps in order to get more information, give my mind a rest, or simply to attend to other matters. 

So, if I receive an urgent request [or demand!] for the completed project I can usually respond very quickly with at least some of the work immediately. Human nature, being what it is, I can expect that even agreed upon deadlines will shift around from time to time. How I respond to these types of demands is indicative to how well I work with my clients.

The importance of writing articles

Writing Article | If you want inbound links to your site one way to do this without paying are writing articles and post them on different sites that allow you to submit articles. 

Writing articles is one of the best ways to promote your website. It is one of the best ways to build the relations, credibility and to help get people to know more about you and your area of expertise is to write articles. One advantage that you can get with writing articles is that if your article gets submitted it is an automatic inbound link to your site without having to add a link on your site to them.

People are always looking for good articles for their websites, blogs, and newsletters. By submitting your articles and allowing others to publish them free of charge you begin to develop credentials in your field and essentially "brand" yourself through your name. Make sure you submit your article to the right category and also make sure you write the articles according to their terms. If you don't follow the terms then you won't have your article publish.

It is through well-written articles and keeping your visitor wanting to learn more than you will see more traffic on your Web site. More traffic means more profit for you.

By having lots of articles on lots of websites around the world, you automatically rank above average on search engines because of your link popularity. All those links in the resource box back to your site can make a big difference in search engine ranking.

Need traffic? Write an article.

Need sales? Write an article.

Need Your Name branded? Write an article.

Writing newsletter articles can do all of these and more. So start writing articles Now!

The Different Methods of Article Writing

Article Writing | If we were to try to list all the different article writing styles that exist or will exist, we'd probably end up with an encyclopedia, because writing styles are like fingerprints. No two are completely alike. But there are some basic development structures that are, more often than not, used by the vast majority of article composers. 

After all, there are very few reasons why you'd want to write an article in the first place, and so every article written will most likely have a similar purpose based on these few motives.  For example, you have the desire to either sell a product, build content for your website, establish yourself as an expert in your field, any combination of these, or all of the above. 

That's about it unless it's merely your job.

So there's usually some fundamental similarities among articles that can be drawn upon when you're setting out to write one yourself. 

Take a look . . . 

1. Product Introduction and Advertisement 

When writing an article, it's not customarily wise to blatantly advertise your product directly. Readers are looking for information that will help them understand how to do something, or for recommendations about what to use. If they wanted to be advertised to, they're simply going to the Classifieds and pick out the best product for the money. 

So when you're setting out to write an article about a product, it's best to build your article loosely around the product without actually naming it or describing it. 

That's what your sales page is for, right? 

Thus when you want to write an article introducing a product, set out to create a scenario describing a situation where a product like you're marketing could be used. Start with the problem that needs solving and conclude with some possible solutions. What you're doing is building an argument and leading the reader to an obvious conclusion. Finish it off with your bio box that leads them to your sales page. 

2. Building Content 

The key to building good, solid content for your website is somewhat different than writing an article to introduce your product. With your product introduction, your article is, obviously, product driven. But when you want to build content, your motivation would be more niche driven, or keyword specific. 

The objective is to fill your website with keyword rich article content to entice the Search Engines to spider your site with as much enthusiasm as possible. The more information you can supply on a specific topic, the more your site will be viewed as important and useful to the general web surfer. 

The Search Engines want people to use them, so when they find such a website, they're more than happy to list it. So to accomplish this, your article would start out with a single keyword or key phrase that's specific to your website to establish the purpose behind it. 

By sticking to this specific topic, you'll be assuring yourself of a well-written article that fits right in with your website's theme. 

3. Establishing Yourself as an Expert 

Of all the reasons for writing articles, this one should be viewed as a long-range approach. The concept behind it is to gradually produce articles based on one particular field in order for your readers to learn to associate your name with that one field. The intended outcome is to establish yourself as a teacher, and one who has good recommendations to give. This, in turn, will help you develop a following of people who would actually go out of their way to find articles you've written. 

This is a great way to build a mailing list too. 

Once you've written several articles about a topic, you can then add a link in your bio box to a free report or ebook. When the readers click on the link, they're taken to a page that requires them to sign up to get the free publication. 

So the more expertise you show in your articles, the more sign ups you'll get. 

4. Combinations 

Of course, you can combine any of these methods and still come off with some great articles. However, you'd want to want to build on one method and incorporate the others in with less enthusiasm. For example, you'd be hard-pressed to prove yourself an expert and build a following if your articles were always obvious product endorsements. And your content building efforts would suffer if every article was more about your expertise than the niche topic its supposed to be about. 

So though it's possible, your best bet would be to choose one method, or one purpose and stick with it for each article. 

Whichever method you choose, it's vital that you provide good quality work. Articles are a lot like Classifieds in one important way. A good one can entice almost assured positive response and a bad one . . . 

Well, you know the answer to that.

Seven Tips to Successfully Write Web Articles

Online readers love free information. They scour the internet daily looking for specific information to solve their problems, help them be successful, live longer or get healthy. You should join the information revolution too! Publish your free helpful solution-oriented articles to the web.

But wait! There are a few things to keep in mind when writing for the web. Long paragraphs are usually acceptable for print media; they are not for the web. If you want to write articles that web users will love to read and put to use follow these 7 simple tips:

1. Make your article scan ready. A study by Jakob Nielson publicized as the guru of web page usability by the New York Times published that only 16 percent of his test users actually read the copy they found online; 79 percent of them simply scanned it. Your impatient web readers will want important information to jump out at them.  Some practical ways to make your text scannable are: headings, sub-headings, bulleted list, numbered lists, easy steps and/or typeface variation. For example, compelling headlines are considered an art. Are you drawn to the author’s article as “How to Write Web Articles” or “5 Tips to Write Winning Web Articles?”
2. Keep it short. Get and keep the attention of web readers by delivering short messages. You put effort into gaining your web reader’s attention; now make their click worthwhile with a brief compelling copy in bite sizes.  Start with the conclusion. Your readers may not make it to the end of your piece to get it. Web readers don’t want to get bogged down in long blocks of text. So get to the point early and use the rest of your article to support that main point.
3. Make Your Title Sizzle. Dull titles will not capture your reader's interest. It will make your article fade into the sea of other boring articles listed in article banks these days. You have to create a title that will reach out and grab your reader by the collar. To get your article read, start with a sizzling title. Make it short. Create interest. Include the main benefit or solution in your title.
4. Talk to Your Targeted Audience. Your information is not for everyone. Avoid generalities. Choose a friend or family member that’s interested in your topic. Write your article to them. Writing to a friend will make your copy personable and friendly.  You won’t come across as a fussy hen, do this, do this, don’t do that. You will connect with your readers as a friend giving advice. Your article will do a better job of building creditability for you. Creditability inspires trust and readers only trust their friends.
5. Add substance. Resist fluffing your articles. Include practical valuable information in your copy. Everyone loses when you don’t take the time to impart substance. It increases the reputation of the web being an unreliable source of knowledge. Additionally, lack of substance will block your road to profitable referrals. Do the research and/or draw from your knowledge and experience to illustrate. Your stories and real-life examples will meet your reader’s need for practical information and connect with their emotions. It’s a known fact emotion will move people to action. Whether you desire them to act by signing up or making a purchase, add substance and improve your reader responses.
6. Make it web professional. Create a more web professional look by using short sentences then format your page to approximately 65 characters per line. Long stringed sentences that stream from side to side of the web page look visually unprofessional. Select a layout for your article from several short article formats that include the how-to, tips list, question-answer, problem-solutions, and interview.  Make your introduction and summary short but do add one. Your web readers don’t want just a list of boring facts and information. They want to connect with you by reading your personable introduction and practical tips with a definite ending or summary. Remember excited readers become enthusiastic buyers and enthusiastic buyers will refer your product or service to all their friends.
7. Use your keywords. Thread your keywords throughout your short article as naturally as possible. Otherwise, your copy will sound stiff and dull. To gain visibility on the search engines, your site must be “indexed” by their robotic software. 

In its most basic form, they must be able to compare the code, keywords and other Meta tags with the actual content of the site. From this, they reach a conclusion regarding the context of the site. This and other factors will affect how well your copy or website places in the search engines.

You may use these guidelines for all kinds of web copy. The same elements of using keywords, making your article professional, adding substance, keeping it short and making your copy scannable will improve the quality of your articles. Practice the above simple principles and write winning articles to distribute on the web everywhere.