Anyone can write an article. The trick is to write an article that’s engaging enough to attract attention and get read from top to bottom… all the way down to your byline that links to your site. That’s your goal – and that’s what we’re discussing in this issue in these three steps:

1) SIZZLING titles.

2) SENSATIONAL articles.

3) SEARCH ENGINE bait.

Let’s start with your title…

1) SIZZLING Titles

OK, so an article isn’t the same thing as an advertisement. But nonetheless, using the copywriting rules you’ve learned will help you write better articles. In particular, this applies to creating headlines for your articles.

Just like your ad and landing page headlines, your article headlines will benefit from promising a benefit and/or arousing curiosity. Your headlines will also benefit from using trigger words like “how to,” “easy” and “discover.”

Remember this:

People want solutions to their problems.
But they also want these solutions to be quick and easy.

As such, make sure your headline (title) doesn’t make the solution sound like it’s a lot of work.

Example: A headline like “The Quick and Easy Way to Lose Weight” will go over much better than “Losing Weight Requires Sacrifice and a Growling Stomach.”

People also like to read articles that organized into quick and easy STEPS or TIPS.

That means creating a headline that says something like: “Three Quick and Easy Steps to Losing Weight” or “How to Housetrain Your Puppy in Seven Steps” make for good titles.

When creating titles, remember the purpose of your title.

Simply, the title’s purpose is to get attention
and draw people into the article.

Go ahead and play with a few different titles. Take some time to create them – after all, it IS the most important part of your article! Without a good title, the article simply won’t get read!

2) SENSATIONAL Articles

If your article title did a good job, then you’ve grabbed the eager reader’s attention and pulled him into your article. Now your article needs to hold his attention so he reads all the way through to your byline.

Here are a few tips to accomplish exactly that:

Write with a conversational tone.

This isn’t a college thesis – and it shouldn’t read like one either. Instead of writing as if you’re writing a paper for your high school English teacher, write as if you were explaining something to an acquaintance.

Make it easy to read…

If you heeded the first tip, then chances are your article is easy to read. That means you’re not using “one hundred dollar” words or bloated sentences. Doing so slows the reader down and may even make him reconsider reading your article at all.

…And make it LOOK easy to read!

In addition to making it easy to read, you also need to format so it LOOKS easy to read. If the reader scans down the article to see long, unbroken blocks of text, he’ll likely move on because the article looks difficult to read.

Your first paragraph in particular should be short – indeed, one short sentence to “hook” the reader. Thereafter, every paragraph should only be a few lines long.

Whenever possible, break your text up into interesting segment. For example, create bold sub-headlines that break up the text. Set tips apart from the regular flow of the text. Use numbered or bullets to create lists (as opposed to creating lists within paragraphs).

Once you’ve completed your article, scan down the article without reading the text. Does the format make the article look easy to read? If not, rewrite and reformat until you have an article that can be quickly consumed.

Don’t Solve Your Readers’ Problems Completely!

Your article should help your readers solve a problem – but you don’t want to solve it completely! After all, if you give the reader all the information she needs, then she has no reason to click through to your site.

So create an article that’s entertaining, useful, and partially solves a problem – but purposely leave the best information off so you can direct your readers to your site for the full solution.

Example: Your weight loss article may give several weight-loss tips. However, you can hold back one of your BEST tips and offer it only to those who click through to your site and subscribe to your newsletter.

3) SEARCH ENGINE Bait

Sometimes you’ll create articles for your newsletter subscribers as a means of building a relationship and turning them into buyers. However, what we’re specifically talking about in this section is using articles to pull in traffic – and in some cases, that means pulling in search engine traffic.

You’ve already learned how to research long-tail keywords and create articles around these keywords.

As always…

Success is NOT an Accident!