When writing your articles (or commissioning them from outsourced writers), keep just two broad things in mind: style and substance.
Substance is what it’s all about. But having interesting content written in an incomprehensible or un-engaging way is not the idea either. So the style of your writing must be clear and engaging. It must also be appropriate for your target audience.
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If you’re a songwriter, chances are you’re probably a good article writer as well. Write about things that matter to you and things that will engage your visitors, prompt them to post comments, disagree or agree with you. Write as long or as short articles as you like, but remember that the longer ones will be more helpful in SEO terms.
If you decide to outsource your writing, you need to know how to instruct them. Be SURE to tell them who the article is aimed at and what narrative STYLE to use. But don’t over-do it either. If you’re in a youth niche, don’t go overboard with slang or current metaphors. Just keep it simple and fun, but don’t pretend to be what you’re not or be too cool for your own good. Similarly, if you’re writing for high-brow audiences, don’t assume you must use long, pseudo-educated words to impress them. And don’t avoid colloquialisms entirely.
If what I wrote here doesn’t make sense – you really do need to outsource your writing.
So, let’s look at some of the most important considerations when writing for your site. A well-constructed article needs to have the following:
A great, engaging TITLE- A summary line or a “bylineâ€, briefly describing the article (whetting the reader’s appetite for reading)
- Avoid long, run-on sentences
- Avoid heavy, never-ending paragraphs
- Use attention-getting “hooks†when possible (i.e. pose questions or introduce “cliff-hangers†between sections, etc)
- Section and sub-section titles
- Correct usage of your target keywords (see our SEO section for more on this)
- Useful and correctly anchored internal as well as external resource links
- Be informative, funny, entertaining, controversial – anything but neutral.
When you understand what really matters to others within your niche, writing an article will be that much easier. But also keep in mind that your readers have access to an unlimited number of other articles, so if you fail to engage them – they simply won’t read your articles and you will have lost potential customers.
Remember also that your site will need two broad types of articles: “pillar†articles and “current†articles.
- Pillar articles are those which are timeless and should have a separate menu link to them. Stuff that people will find interesting and useful today or a year from now.
- Current articles, if really well-written, can also become “pillarsâ€, but their primary purpose is to keep readers informed about what is going on “now†in your niche – or in your band’s life.
You should have a nice number of pillar articles on your site and you should make it a point to add at least one each X days or weeks.
As for current articles, the “ideal†formula is to post one per day, but the absolute minimum is one per week. The frequency of your posting is DIRECTLY related to how well you’ll rank in the search engines.
Organize your articles into categories (this is super easy within WordPress) and make sure to have a menu link to your categories within your top or sidebar menu.
If you’re like many people – great at speaking but not great at writing – here’s a cool little tool you might find useful: DragonDictation allows you to convert your voice recording into written text! Just don’t forget to edit it afterwards.
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| Book 3 – Chapter 19Copywriting |
Course Overview | Book 3 – Chapter 21Creating Videos |
Book 3: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, , 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, Overview
Bonuses: templ, lib, tips, kwds, models Link Res: aff, class, cpa, cpv, cpc, write, mob, outs, rss, soc, traff, var, exch, srcs, vid Sub-courses: sens adw, aff, ar, bkm, cpy, cp, fb, fun, goo, lst, loc, mem, opt paid, ppal, sbox, prod, seo, opt, socn, vidm, host, wp, lnch
