Introduction

We often read how important good articles are on the Internet. However, most of us don’t know how to write an article or even how to get started.

Faced with this myself, I decided to construct a methodology that would help me to write not just one article, but as many as I wanted.

I have written this article to help you to write your own articles.

This article will not turn you into an author overnight, but it is meant to demonstrate how you can start to write an article.

Once you have written your first article, you will find it becomes easier to write more articles.

Why is content so important?

If you have been on the Internet in the last few months/years you will have seen the phrase “content is king”. This refers to the fact that the major search engines frequently change their algorithms which means new factors become more important in getting high rankings in these search engines.

Over the years there have been all sorts of factors such as exact match domains, page rank, back linking, social bookmarking etc.

Throughout all of this one of the most important factors remains good quality content and this will become more important. This was re-iterated by Matt Cutts of google in a recent video in which he was asked about back linking and content. He was very careful to say that back linking will remain very important for the next few years BUT good quality content will be even more important.

Here are the steps that I use to write an article:

1 Select a subject that you like or know something about

This may sound obvious, but if you are looking to build a site that will last for years, as you will be writing content it will be easier to continue the momentum if you have the passion.

Don’t make the mistake of writing about something purely to make money. You should write the article to help other people just like you and me.

2 Select a topic that changes frequently

It is easier to continue to write fresh content if there are lots of changes. One good example is Internet Marketing, where it can be difficult to keep up with the changes.

For me another good example is sport, which I follow daily. One particular sport I really like is association football, where there is so much happening on a daily basis. Recently there was an incident in English football where I read a very good article in the press. In fact, I was so impressed with the article that I did some research and wrote to the correspondent who kindly wrote back and complimented me on my article.

That gave me an idea, where I could build a soccer web site, write a monthly newsletter and invite readers to comment. If you listen to the radio you will always find people who are passionate about their clubs and players and want to air their views.

Bingo-I build a soccer web site, write topical articles, invite readers to comment and monetize the site. What better way to make money than from doing something that I enjoy.

3 Write about what you have learnt

Most of what I have learnt about Internet marketing is self-taught.

For example, a year ago I knew nothing about video marketing although I knew it was very important.

I set about learning by researching and watching FREE training on the Internet, as a result of which I now make videos in different formats.

That set me thinking that I should write an article on the subject and make a video. Initially, I was reluctant, as you may be, as I thought, “Other people know a lot more than I do”.

That is true but the experts will not necessarily walk you through the basics.

Do not make the mistake of thinking that everybody knows what you know. As there are people joining the Internet all the time, there will always be a need for the knowledge you have.

4 Research

Fortunately, there is so much information available on the Internet. Be careful, as you cannot copy other people’s work but you can look for ideas.

For example, if you are interested in dog training, type that into one of the search engines and you will be inundated with ideas. Look in forums, article directories,wikipedia, google news, etc.

I am a big fan of the amazon kindle and you can find lots of free ebooks, which will give you ideas.

5 Break the subject down into chapters

This really is an important step and will make it so much easier to write an article.

Remember the quotation:

“The journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step”

For example, if you are writing an article on Video Marketing, you might decide on the following chapters:

1 Introduction

2 What is video marketing?

3 How to make a video?

4 The tools you need to make a video

5 What are the benefits of video marketing?

6 How to optimize your video

7 Conclusion

If originally you had decided to write a 1,000-word article on video marketing, you may have found this rather daunting.

However, by breaking the article down into these chapters, you can see you only need to write 150 words on each subject, which is much easier.

6 Style

This is very important. You are not writing an article for the national press, so it is a less formal style. Don’t worry too much at this stage about perfect grammar-just get the ideas down on paper.

Although people are prepared to read a long book, their attention span reduces on the Internet. Break the article down into short sentences and short paragraphs.

Tell the reader about your own experiences-you may not think this is important but it is. You are showing that you are human and they feel that “you are one of them”.

Use quotations. I have just gone to the search engines and found this quotation by Robert Benchley:

“It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn’t give it up because by that time I was too famous”.

7 Leave the article overnight

Once you have written the article leave it overnight as it will look different tomorrow and you may wish to change it.

Also, you may have some more ideas. I confess that I have woken in the middle of the night and wrote some ideas on a pad. How sad is that?

Conclusion

I hope you found this useful in helping you to write articles.

The consensus on the Internet is that your article should be at least 1,000 words. However, if you are struggling to write that many words, DO NOT pad out the article for the sake of it.

Leave the article overnight, do some more research and you should find you will complete the task successfully.