18 Feb 2008 04:33:49 | Marsha Maung
This is precisely what I am doing here today (and every other
day in my life)! I am writing to share my experience and
hopefully, my knowledge and information can help some others who
are in need of such information and advice. Writing is a very
powerful way to connect with people and we can use it to not
only share information but promote ourselves.
When you’re writing an article or some form of web content, you
have to bear the following things in mind:-
a.The purpose of writing What I do is this….before I start an
article, I leave the title of the article empty and start typing
out the purpose of the article. What kind of feeling do I want
to leave with the reader? Then I move on to the keywords that I
want to use consistently throughout the article (for search
engine optimization purposes). Right after that, I write down
(in point form) the content of the article.
Then and only then, I start beefing up the article.
The reason why the purpose, keywords and the skeleton of the
article is written before anything else is to keep you focused
and reminded of the reason why you’re writing the article. As
any professional and experienced writer can tell you, it’s way
too easy to get derailed half way. I have a bunch of articles
that are completely wwwaaayyyyy off mark because I lost
direction halfway through the article!!
b.Title and keywords of your article The title should contain
one of the keywords that you’re trying to use in your article.
For instance, you want to optimize the article for business
card, so, you should include the word ‘business card’ in your
article title and also in the first paragraph of your article!
If you can’t think of anything mind-blowing….force it in! I am
being really honest with you here if you want to make sure your
article is ranked highly in search engines for the keyword
‘business card’.
c.Don’t make them hit the back button If you’re writing content
for the Internet, yes, keywords are important because the search
engines use keywords to rank their web pages. But you don’t have
to compromise readers with search engines when you’re writing!
No, not at all! You can write in an engaging way and yet use
your preferred keywords in the article itself, you just have to
practice a lot!
d.Don’t sell Sales letters sell, not articles! You’ll be
surprised at the number of people who actually think that
selling through articles work….well, here’s news for you….THEY
DON’T! Your articles are not supposed to do the selling for you,
they are supposed to your ‘customer relations manager’ of sorts.
Maybe they’re like ‘GROs’ too, if you want to put it that way.
The moment the reader think that you’re trying to sell them
something, they’ll hit the back button or click that
‘godforsaken’ x on the top right corner of the browser. e.Too
long, too short Some people think that the longer your article
is, the more fact it contains. Well, yes and no. If you want to
write long articles, make sure the article is ACTUALLY packed
with facts. If not, cut to the chase and just get to the point.
Short articles have its benefits too. Write articles that are
about 400 – 500 words.
But even industry experts cannot agree what the best length of
articles on the web but generally speaking, if you are into
search engine optimization, don’t write more than 800 and no
less than 400.
About Author :
Marsha Maung is a freelance graphic designer and copy writer who
works from home. She designs apparel and premium items at
http://www.creativejooz.com and is the author of "Raising little
magicians", and the popular "The Lance in freelancing". More
information can be found at http://www.marshamaung.com