A Dozen Tips for Writing Good Articles


With the explosion of the Internet there is an ever-growing list of websites where you can publish articles. Very few sites will pay you for your content, so why would you want to do go to all this work? For publicity reasons, to drive traffic to your website, and to increase your search-engine rankings, that's why!

Here's how it works:

You write an article about something that is within your area of expertise, e.g., if you are an expert in sales, you would write about sales topics. Then you either publish your article to a portal, distribution site, or an individual website.

Within the copy, you offer a free ebook or special report to readers who visit your website and subscribe to your ezine, and voila! you've just created a link to your website that can generate big traffic for you. Of course, you would create a special landing page on your website for this link. That allows you to track where your traffic comes from. And at the end of your article you also include a one-paragraph (5 lines or so) description of who you are and how to sign up for your free e-newsletter by visiting your website (same URL as previously).

Here are a few tips for writing a good article:

1. Write for your audience.

There's no point attracting soccer moms to your website if you don't sell anything that would interest them, right? Instead, develop the content of your article so that your best client would just love to read it. My audience is women business owners and small business owners who need marketing advice. I write three free e-newsletters that anyone can subscribe to:


  1. "Brainy Tidbits" is a marketing newsletter published each Tuesday by email. To sign up for this electronic newsletter, simply visit my website ( http://www.marketingideashop.com ) and subscribe in the box provided. New subscribers can download my "67 Ways to Promote Your Business" (a $9 value) as a free subscriber gift.

  2. "Brainy Flash" is a very short (one topic) newsletter, published on Fridays, focusing on one marketing resource or topic each week. To subscribe, send a blank email to mailto:carterfay-74692@autocontactor.com. New subscribers receive a free 3-chapter excerpt of the ebook "Sales Success! Strategies for Women." (a $12 value)

  3. Finally, my "Meet Success!" ezine will begin in September and it profiles one woman business owner each Monday, listing her top five tips for creating a successful business. New subscribers receive this special report (