Article Keywords and More
Continuation of Lesson 8 from You Can Make Money
Writing
We wrap up this lesson on writing articles with yet more reminders
to have the right article keywords in the right places, and a
look at the other elements necessary. For more on choosing those
keywords refer to Lesson 5: Keywords.
Some article directories won't accept articles with HTML.
If they do, keep the use of HTML to a minimum in any case, because
when other website owners take and use your articles, they may
copy-and-paste the article and lose your formatting. So with
subheadings it is best to not center them and just use bold tags
rather than headline tags.
Don't know HTML? If you put a sub-heading in bold tags like
this: <b>Six Ways to Dress Up Your Article</b>, it
will display like this: Six Ways to Dress Up Your Article.
That may be almost all the HTML you need for article writing.
You'll need to know how to make a link, of course, and that will
be covered in the next lesson. For other formatting features,
you can skip the HTML and just use the numbers, stars or dashes
on your keyboard for listing things, as I do below.
Writing an Article - A Summary
- Have the keyword in the first sentence (or at least the
first paragraph).
- The first two sentences should work as an introduction /
article description.
- The first paragraph should make the reader want to read
the rest of the article.
- Make the article five to ten paragraphs, with 400 to 800
words total.
- Write in short paragraphs.
- Use sub-headings if appropriate, with the primary keyword
in at least one of them.
- Try to keep the writing concise.
- Always deliver real value to the reader, whether that means
information or entertainment.
- Have the primary keyword in the article at least three times,
but no more than nine times.
- Don't put links in the article (more on this later).
- The last paragraph should contain the primary keyword and
ideally should leave the reader wanting more information.
That last guideline is tough, but important, because you want
the reader to continue past the article, to the author's resource
box. This is where they will learn about your website, and why
they should visit it. There will be more on that in the next
lesson.
Help! There Are Too Many Words!
Do you find yourself over-writing?
There is a simple way to write much more concisely. This way
you can keep that article short enough for internet attention
spans. Here is my simple method.
1. First, write the article. Just
write it without worrying about the length or conciseness.
2. Then edit it. Carefully look over
the article and start working on it. Eliminate any words that
are not necessary, don't repeat things too much, and look for
ways to say things in fewer words.
For example:
Over-writing? Internet attention
spans require short, concise articles. Try this:
1. Write the article.
2. Edit it. Take out unnecessary
words and duplicate ideas, and find a shorter way to say everything.
(The first version above has 83 words, and the second just
31 words)
Continues here... About
the Author Examples
Note: This is part of the book, You Can Make Money
Writing. There are links to all the all the lessons/chapters
on the home page.
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