Article Writing - How You Can Master This Important Writing Skill
Author: Steve Dempster
As writers, we are constantly being told that writing articles to selll
products is the key to internet success, with affiliate riches just around the
next corner. If this is indeed the case, why not spend a little time learning
how to write an article properly?
Article writing had become an internet
phenomenon - a favourite way of marketing for many internet marketers and
affiliates. With every popular art form comes problems, however - and make no
mistake, writing articles is an art form in itself. The problems for this
particular internet marketing formula arose when people started jumping on the
bandwagon and churning out the kind of rubbish I see pouring into my article
directories in a dismally regular fashion.
You may have seen them: short
'articles' of 300 words that don't have the smallest crumb of information within
them. Articles that are so obviously churned out by a piece of (generally
substandard) software that they are laughable. Articles that are blatantly not
written by the 'author' - and so on and so forth.
So what makes a good
article? Well, for one thing, an article should contain a beginning, a middle
and an end - just like any other story. Because that's what an article is - a
story in miniature, just like a short story, a novelette or a blockbuster epic.
The same basic rules of writing apply - and if you don't have that skill (or
worse still can't be bothered to acquire it) - then chances are that you will
NEVER, EVER write good quality articles.
That's a sobering thought. Yet
the skills needed are easily learned and, with practice, writing articles will
become second nature to you. You may never be another Stephen King or Clive
Cussler - but by knowing how to write interesting, informative articles you will
suddenly find that you stand head and shoulders above the vast, rolling sea of
'article writers' who can't be bothered to learn how to write
professionally.
Professionally? Why, yes - writing is a profession. Many
people tend to think of only the big best-seller names as being professional
writers but of course this isn't true. Anyone who writes anything with a view to
profit could be called a professional writer but to be a real pro you must
invest some time and effort into your chosen profession - or join the ranks of
the couldn't-care-less.
So - an article must do several things but here
are the most important:
It must capture a publisher's eye. This may be an
ezine publisher or webmaster or - if you're really good as well as lucky! - a
paper-based publisher. If it fails to do this, you have wasted your
time.
It must capture and hold a reader. If a reader does not read your
article right the way through to the resource box - where you get the chance to
promote your goods or service - you have wasted your time.
It must be
long enough - but not too long. In practice, a minimum of 600 and a maximum of
1,000 words is ideal. Many article directories (the main target of article
writers) have minimum word count requirements. Send one to my directory that's
under 600 words and it gets deleted automatically - no matter how good the
writer thinks it is! Why? Because - frankly - an article under 600 words shows,
to many editors, very little effort being put into the article and not a lot of
commitment.
It must NOT be an advertisment. The place to promote is in
the resource box at the end. That's not to say your article shouldn't relate to
your promotional item - it would be a foolish thing to write about hot air
ballooning whilst trying to promote skindiving equipment (and yes I have seen
instances very nearly as bad as that!).
It must be original. Start
copying other people's work at your peril - you will soon find that there is
suddenly no-one accepting your 'work' any more. The fact is that copied work is
also poor work - unless copied word for word (and only a fool would do that!)
the 'rewriting' degrades the original piece, leaving you with a poor shadow of a
thing that no-one will enjoy reading anyway. Write your own material!
The
one real way to learn how to write articles is to learn to write, period. Accept
this, put in the time necessary and you will find - sooner than you think! -
that your articles start to flow more easily, your work-rate steps a gear and -
best of all - you can look at your finished piece with pride and say 'I wrote
that!'
About the Author:
If you would like to know more about
how to write professionally, try clicking here. Or, if you'think that
longer work is the thing for you just click here