Writing articles effectively {Section 2}

1. Create an outline for your article

Your article should include a headline, introduction, body,conclusion and resource box.

Headline - make this as catchy as possible because yourreader will read this first then decide if he or she willcontinue reading the rest of the article. i.e.

"7 Highly Effective Ways to Gain Instant Trafficto Your Web Site".

Introduction - introduce the problem you will be discussingin your article or write a short story of your experiencewith the problem.

Body - discuss all the solutions to the problem yououtlined in the introduction. Break up each point intoseparate paragraphs and keep them to about 5 lines. You maywant to create a sub-heading for each point. This makes iteasier to read as most people will scan your article whenreading it online.

Conclusion - this should include a brief summary of yourarticle and a call for the reader to take action. i.e. "Besure to include article marketing as one of the topstrategies for promoting your web site. It's a selfgenerating marketing machine that produces a constant flowof visitors".

Resources - I sometimes include this section if I haven'tincluded it already within the body of the article. I wantthe reader to quickly access the resources without havingto re-read the article.

Resource box - this is the place you can safely include alittle about yourself and your business plus provide a linkto your web site or newsletter (see my resource box below).This provides an opportunity for readers to visit your website, learn more about your product or services and/orsubscribe to your newsletter. The box should be a maximumof 6 lines.


Write with style - write in an informal style, like youwould explain your topic to a friend. Don't worry too muchabout correcting mistakes or how it sounds. This mayinterrupt the flow of thoughts you want to write about. Youcan always correct them later.

3. Take a break

After you have written the article, come back to it afterseveral hours, a day or several days. This will enable youto take a fresh look at it, find new mistakes or even wantto rewrite a paragraph or two to make it flow better.

4. Check your article

After writing your article, run it through a spell checkerfirst, then read it through a few times to check forspelling mistakes the spell checker may have missed and tocorrect the grammar and punctuation. Make sure it flowswell by clearly identifying the problem, providing asolution and concluding with an action step or steps. Getsomeone else to read it over. Often they will find themistakes that you missed.

5. Format your article

You will need to format your sentence length at 60-65 wordsper line before submitting it for publication. This willenable people to read it in their email software. If thesentence length is longer than this the article may breakup making it impossible to read.

I use Ezy Ezine Ad Formatter(http://www.netpreneurnow.com/easy/ ) to effortlesslyformat my articles before submitting it to onlinepublishers. If it's not the correct length it will berejected.

Conclusion

If you consistently write an article every week or 2 weeksand submit it for publication you will soon generate asteady stream of traffic to your web site for years to come.