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Article Writing Tips
Writing articles isn’t as hard as you may think. If you understand the
rules of proper grammar, and you have a word processor or word
processing software that includes a spell checker, writing articles
becomes quite easy in fact. Here are some tips to help you out.
1. Don’t make it harder than it really is. This is the first mistake
that most new article writers make. Think about what you want to say,
then just start writing. Don’t worry about spelling or grammar, just
write until you have said all that you wanted to say. Editing comes
after the information is down on paper – or on your computer screen in a
document.
2. Don’t get stressed over your topic. You already know what it is that
you want to sell. Look at your product or service from a customers point
of view. Visit forums where your customers participate and find out what
their questions are. Base your articles on those questions, answering
the questions.
3. Don’t make your articles too long or too short. Articles should be
between 300 and 750 words, with the optimal length between 300 and 500
words. Use the word counter on your word processor, and don’t go over or
under these words.
4. Do not submit your article the minute you finish it. Put it away and
come back to it later. Read it over and make sure that you have said
what you wanted to say, and then have someone else read it. Ask for
constructive criticism, and really pay attention to what your test
reader has to say.
5. You are writing an article, not a sales letter. The article should
inform and lead readers to your website. The selling is done at the
website. Articles that are obvious sales letters lose the readers
respect and damage your credibility.
6. Stay Focused. Make sure your article stays on track. If you find
yourself writing away from what you originally intended your article to
be about, make a note about the new article idea you have accidentally
found, and get back on track with your original plan.
7. Finally, write like you talk. Write like you are talking to a close
friend. Don’t try to use words that you have to look up in the
dictionary. Use your everyday language, and your personality will shine
through. Allowing your true personality to shine through in your
articles is the first step to building a relationship with your readers.
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Effective Article Distribution Strategies
There are many ways to get your articles into circulation, and
you would be wise to use them all. These methods include
distributing articles to the article directories or
repositories, sending your articles to your list of ezine
publishers, using a blog to publish your articles, using other
people’s blogs to promote your articles, submitting your
articles to private members sites, and submitting articles to
forums that allow articles.
However, there are a few more ways that you can distribute your
articles. Keep in mind that the purpose of the article is to get
traffic to your website. With that in mind, most people forget
to put their own articles on their own websites. Websites need
content, you’ve written content – make sure that content makes
it to your site.
Another way to distribute your articles is in the form of an
ebook, which is essentially a PDF file, where you have compiled
all the articles that you have written on a specific topic. The
ebook should be free, and you can list it at various ebook
directories around the Internet, and allow others to give your
ebook away as well.
Use your articles as part of an email series or email course.
Again, the series or course should be free. Simply set up an
autoresponder for the series or course and put a sign up box on
your website. This will not only help your article distribution,
it will also help you build an email list.
Put all of your articles, in text format, in a folder, compress
the folder, and upload it to your website. Now, on every single
email you send out, include a signature file that lets people
know that they can download this file, for free, and use the
content as they see fit, as long as the content is not changed,
and the authors information remains intact.
Articles can be used in many creative ways, if you think about
it. Always be on the outlook for ways to distribute your
articles to others, and don’t let any opportunities pass you by.
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The Expert Use of Article
Marketing in E-Commerce Today
In the history of Internet Marketing, which is indeed
still a short history, Article Marketing has always been
one of the most effective ways to market a business or
website at little or no cost. This still holds true
today, and will most likely be true for many years to
come.
Article Marketing is viral in nature. One article is
written, and it travels from your computer to multiple
article banks, providing back links to your website.
From there other website owners copy the article, with
the authors information in tact, and publish it in their
newsletters or on their websites. They may even use your
article as part of a compilation for an informative
ebook.
The important thing is that the article becomes viral –
spreading far and wide. This accomplishes many things.
As already mentioned, this provides you with back links
to your site that help with search engine optimization.
Since your author’s information, or resource box as it
is called, is at the bottom of the article, this gives
your website a great deal of exposure, and increased
traffic.
Article Marketing accomplishes a couple more things that
are vital in ecommerce today. First, writing and
distributing articles helps to establish you as an
expert on the topic in question. Second, it helps to
build a ‘relationship’ with people who read your
articles, which in turn builds trust.
Successful Internet business owners typically write and
distribute at least one article per week to the various
article banks. They may use articles that they wrote for
their newsletters as well for distribution, after the
newsletter has gone out to subscribers. If the business
owner does not write well, or doesn’t have the time to
write their own articles, they typically hire a ghost
writer to create the articles for them.
The articles that are distributed by successful people
are informative and well written. They are not sales
letters disguised as articles. They are informative
vehicles that are used to get readers to visit their
websites, providing helpful information, with the
author’s information at the bottom, including a link to
the website.
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| How to Write an Ebook The
hardest part of writing is the first sentence. When
you look at the whole project, it seems like an
impossible task. That's why you have to break it
down
into manageable tasks. Think of climbing a mountain.
You are standing at the foot of it and looking up at
its summit vanishing into the clouds. How can you
possibly scale such an immense and dangerous
mountain?
There is only one way to climb a mountain ? step by
step.
Now think of writing your ebook in the same light.
You must create it step by step, and one day, you
will take that last step and find yourself standing
on the
summit with your head in the clouds.
The first thing you have to do, as if you actually
were a mountain climber, is to get organized.
Instead of climbing gear, however, you must organize
your
thoughts. There are some steps you should take
before you begin. Once you've gone through the
following list, you will be ready to actually begin
writing your
ebook.
Beginning Steps to Writing an ebook
First, figure out your ebook's working title. Jot
down a few different titles, and eventually, you'll
find that one that will grow on you. Titles help you
to
focus your writing on your topic; they guide you in
anticipating and answering your reader's queries.
Many non-fiction books also have subtitles. Aim for
clarity
in your titles, but cleverness always helps to sell
books ? as long as it's not too cute. For example,
Remedies for Insomnia: twenty different ways to
count
sheep. Or: Get off that couch: fifteen exercise
plans to whip you into shape.
Next, write out a thesis statement. Your thesis is a
sentence or two stating exactly what problem you are
addressing and how your book will solve that
problem. All chapters spring forth from your thesis
statement. Once you've got your thesis statement
fine-tuned, you've built your foundation. From that
foundation, your book will grow, chapter by chapter.
Your thesis will keep you focused while you write
your ebook. Remember: all chapters must support your
thesis statement. If they don't, they don't belong
in your book. For example, your thesis statement
could read: We've all experienced insomnia at
times in our lives, but there are twenty proven
techniques and methods to give you back a good
night's sleep.
Once you have your thesis, before you start to
write, make sure there is a good reason to write
your book.
Ask yourself some questions:
* Does your book present useful information and is
that information currently relevant?
* Will you book positively affect the lives of your
readers?
* Is your book dynamic and will it keep the reader's
attention?
* Does you book answer questions that are meaningful
and significant?
If you can answer yes to these questions, you can
feel confident about the potential of your ebook.
Another important step is to figure out who your
target audience is. It is this group of people you
will be writing to, and this group will dictate many
elements of your book, such as style, tone, diction,
and even length. Figure out the age range of your
readers, their general gender, what they are most
interested in, and even the socio-economic group
they primarily come from. Are they people who read
fashion magazines or book reviews? Do they write
letters in longhand or spend hours every day online.
The more you can pin down your target audience, the
easier it will be to write your book for them.
Next, make a list of the reasons you are writing
your ebook. Do you want to promote your business? Do
you want to bring quality traffic to your website?
Do you want to enhance your reputation?
Then write down your goals in terms of publishing.
Do you want to sell it as a product on your website,
or do you want to offer it as a free gift for
filling out
a survey or for ordering a product? Do you want to
use the chapters to create an e-course, or use your
ebook to attract affiliates around the world? The
more you know upfront, the easier the actual writing
will be.
Decide on the format of your chapters. In
non-fiction, keep the format from chapter to chapter
fairly consistent. Perhaps you plan to use an
introduction to
your chapter topic, and then divide it into four
subhead topics. Or you may plan to divide it into
five parts, each one beginning with a relevant
anecdote.
How to make your ebook "user friendly"
You must figure out how to keep your writing
engaging. Often anecdotes, testimonials, little
stories, photos, graphs, advice, and tips will keep
the reader turning the pages. Sidebars are useful
for quick, accessible information, and they break up
the density of the page.
Write with a casual, conversational tone rather than
a formal tone such as textbook diction. Reader's
respond to the feeling that you are having a
conversation with them. Break up the length and
structure of your
sentences so you don?t hypnotize your readers into
sleep. Sentences that are all the same length and
structure tend to be a good aid for insomnia!
Good writing takes practice. It takes lots and lots
of practice. Make a schedule to write at least a
page a day. Read books and magazines about the
process of
writing, and jot down tips that jump out at you. The
art of writing is a lifetime process; the more you
write (and read), the better your writing will
become.
The better your writing becomes, the bigger your
sales figures.
In an ebook that is read on the screen, be aware
that you must give your reader's eye a break. You
can do this by utilizing white space. In art
classes, white space is usually referred to as
"negative space." Reader's eyes need to rest in the
cool white oasises you create on your page. If your
page is too dense,
your reader will quit out of it as soon as their
eyes begin to tear.
Make use of lists, both bulleted and numbered. This
makes your information easy to absorb, and gives the
reader a mental break from dissecting your
paragraphs one after the other.
Finally, decide on an easy-to-read design. Find a
font that's easy on the eyes, and stick to that font
family. Using dozens of fonts will only tire your
readers out before they've gotten past your
introduction. Use at least one and a half line
spacing, and text large enough to be read easily on
the screen, but small enough so that the whole page
can be seen on a computer screen. You will have to
experiment with this to find the right combination.
Of course, don't forget to run a spell and grammar
check. You are judged by something as minor as
correct punctuation, so don?t mess up a great book
by tossing out semicolons randomly, or stringing
sentences together with commas. (By the way, that's
called a "comma splice.")
Last of all, create an index and a bibliography.
That's it! You've written a book! Now all you have
to do is publish your ebook online, and wait for
download
request from your website visitors.
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| Why Write an eBook? It's
not true that everything that has been said has
already been written. Since that unfortunate
axiom
came into use, the whole universe has changed.
Technology has changed, ideas have changed, and
the
mindsets of entire nations have changed.
The fact is that this is the perfect time to
write an
ebook. What the publishing industry needs are
people
who can tap into the world as it is today -
innovative
thinkers who can make the leap into the new
millennium
and figure out how to solve old problems in a
new way.
Ebooks are a new and powerful tool for original
thinkers with fresh ideas to disseminate
information
to the millions of people who are struggling to
figure
out how to do a plethora of different things.
Let's say you already have a brilliant idea, and
the
knowledge to back it up that will enable you to
write
an exceptional ebook. You may be sitting at your
computer staring at a blank screen wondering,
"Why?
Why should I go through all the trouble of
writing my
ebook when it's so impossible to get anything
published these days?
Well, let me assure you that publishing an ebook
is
entirely different than publishing a book in
print.
Let's look at the specifics of how the print and
cyber
publishing industry differ, and the many reasons
why
you should take the plunge and get your fingers
tapping across those keyboards!
Submitting a print book to conventional
publishing
houses or to agents is similar to wearing a hair
shirt
24/7. No matter how good your book actually is,
or how
many critique services and mentor writers have
told
you that "you've got what it takes," your
submitted
manuscript keeps coming back to you as if it is
a
boomerang instead of a valuable mine of
information.
Perhaps, in desperation, you've checked out
self-publishing and found out just how expensive
a
venture it can be. Most "vanity presses" require
minimal print runs of at least 500 copies, and
even
that amount will cost you thousands of dollars.
Some
presses' minimal run starts at 1,000 to 2,000
copies.
And that's just for the printing and binding.
Add in
distribution, shipping, and promotional costs
and -
well, you do the math. Even if you wanted to go
this
route, you may not have that kind of money to
risk.
Let's say you already have an Internet business
with a
quality website and a quality product. An ebook
is one
of the most powerful ways to promote your
business
while educating people with the knowledge you
already
possess as a business owner of a specific
product or
service.
For example, let's say that you've spent the
last
twenty-five years growing and training bonsai
trees,
and now you're ready to share your knowledge and
experience. An ebook is the perfect way to reach
the
largest audience of bonsai enthusiasts.
Ebooks will not only promote your business -
they will
help you make a name for yourself and your
company,
and establish you as an expert in your field.
You may
even find that you have enough to say to warrant
a
series of ebooks. Specific businesses are
complicated
and often require the different aspects to be
divided
in order for the reader to get the full story.
Perhaps your goals are more finely tuned in
terms of
the ebook scene. You may want to build a whole
business around writing and publishing ebooks.
Essentially, you want to start an e-business.
You are
thinking of setting up a website to promote and
market
your ebooks. Maybe you're even thinking of
producing
an ezine.
One of the most prevalent reasons people read
ebooks
is to find information about how to turn their
Internet businesses into a profit-making
machine. And
these people are looking to the writers of
ebooks to
provide them with new ideas and strategies
because
writers of ebooks are usually people who
understand
the new cyberspace world we now live in. Ebook
writers
are experts in Internet marketing campaigns and
the
strategies of promoting and distributing ebooks.
The
cyberspace community needs its ebooks to be
successful
so that more and more ebooks will be written.
You may want to create affiliate programs that
will
also market your ebook. Affiliates can be people
or
businesses worldwide that will all be working to
sell
your ebooks. Think about this? Do you see a
formula
for success here?
Figure out what your subject matter is, and then
narrow it down. Your goal is to aim for
specificity.
Research what's out there already, and try to
find a
void that your ebook might fill.
What about an ebook about a wedding cake
business? Or
an ebook about caring for elderly pets? How
about the
fine points of collecting ancient pottery?
You don't have to have three masters degrees to
write
about your subject. People need advice that is
easy to
read and easily understood. Parents need advice
for
dealing with their teenagers. College students
need to
learn good study skills - quickly. The
possibilities
are endless.
After you've writtten your ebook
Getting your ebook out is going to be your focus
once
you've finished writing it, just as it is with
print
books. People will hesitate to buy any book from
an
author they've never heard of. Wouldn't you?
The answer is simple: give it away! You will see
profits in the form of promoting your own
business and
getting your name out. You will find affiliates
who
will ask you to place their links within your
ebook,
and these affiliates will in turn go out and
make your
name known. Almost every single famous ebook
author
has started out this way.
Another powerful tool to attract people to your
ebook
is to make it interactive. Invent something for
them
to do within the book rather than just producing
pages
that contain static text. Let your readers fill
out
questionnaires, forms, even crossword puzzles
geared
to testing their knowledge on a particular
subject.
Have your readers hit a link that will allow
them to
recommend your book to their friends and
associates.
Or include an actual order form so at the end of
their
reading journey, they can eagerly buy your
product.
When people interact with books, they become a
part of
the world of that book. The fact is just as true
for
books in print as it is for ebooks.
That's why ebooks are so essential. Not only do
they
provide a forum for people to learn and make
sense of
their own thoughts, but they can also serve to
promote
your business at the same time.
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