You may be wondering what persuasive writing has to do with articles. After all, you're not exactly selling something with an informative article, are you? Yes, you are. You at least want persuade the reader to keep reading until he gets to your link at the bottom. Use the following tips to get more traffic by writing persuasively.

Persuasive Writing

1. Headlines. Questions are great attention-grabbers. "How Much Can You Make This Year?" will get more readers than "Make More Money." Paint a picture in seven words or less, if you can. "A Thousand Dollars Fell Off My Table," might lure them in. Titles like,"10 Ways To..." or "Avoid These Six Mistakes When..." or "How To..." are popular too.

2. Description. Most article banks require a description, which lets the reader know what the article is about, so you get readers who are actually interested in the topic. The second purpose is to make them want to read your article. Try hinting at things and leaving the reader wanting more: "If you're making these errors, you're losing money every day. Learn to avoid the most common optimization mistakes."

3. Article body. Write in your natural style, but keep paragraphs short, or readers will lose interest. Also, if you can hint at incompleteness, you're more likely to get visits your site. Don't say, "Here's how to write articles." Say, "Here are just some of the techniques I use to easily write new articles." You want them to go looking for the other techniques - on your site.

4. Subtitles. Subtitles and headings break up an article, and make it easier to read. They also help to optimize the article if they contain good keywords. You'll notice I often use subtitles, like the one coming up...

The All Important Resource Box

The point of online articles is to get traffic, which you get from the link in the author's resource box - if the reader clicks on it. You have to invite them to your site. Don't ever just put your name and a link. At least put "To learn more, visit..." or something similar.

One of my most-clicked links reads, "To learn more, and to see a photo of the house Steve and his wife bought for $17,500, visit their web site: http://www.HousesUnderFiftyThousand.com." You'll find an example of another one that has worked well for me below.