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5 Tips for Writing Articles That Sell

I want to share my secret for attracting tons of traffic, leads and customers to my site.

Ready? It’s writing and submitting articles online.

Now there is some truth to that — I have been writing articles for some time now, so writing articles does come easy for me. However, I also make my living as a occupational therapist  working for the NHS, as well as my private work, which means, I have to do quite a lot of writing.  I do an quite lot of writing each and every day. Trust me — I know all about procrastination and reflection when it comes time to writing articles for myself.

But since writing articles is such a powerful method of self-promotion, I’ve taken the time to figure out a few shortcuts. This makes the process less time consuming. So I do get them written on a regular basis. I’m sharing five  tips to help get you started.

1. Short is better.

 This tip is one of those “do as I say, not as I do” tips. Christopher Knight of EzineArticles.com fame, says 300-500 word articles are perfectly acceptable and may even be more desirable than their wordier counterparts. Unfortunately for me, this is where  writing really does get in the way. Once I start writing, I tend to keep writing, thus my articles and newsletters continue to remain on the long side.

2. Keep an article topic list.

Buy yourself a little notebook. I suggest a cute colorful notebook, something that makes you smile or feel good to look at. Take a black sharpie and write on the cover “Article Ideas Notebook.” (This way, you’re inviting your thoughts to fill up the notebook with ideas). Now, every time you think of a good idea for your newsletter, take a second and write it down in the notebook. Then when it comes time to write your newsletter or article, page through the book and look at what ideas you have. This is a great way to keep track of your thoughts and ideas, especially when your thoughts says “I have no idea what I’m going to write about this month.”

3. Think about your topics before you sit down to write.

 Do you really think professional writers sit down before a blank computer screen, put their hands on the keyboard, start typing and hey presto! an article magically appears.

No, all the writers I’ve ever met spend some time thinking about what they’re going to write before they actually sit down to write.

A few days before or maybe even the night before, start thinking about your topic and what you’re going to write about it. Then, when it comes time to actually start typing, you’ll already have some notion of where you’re going with the article.

4. Develop a style.

Or at the very least, write the way you speak. People want to “hear” the author behind the article. Don’t be afraid to let your personality show.

(Don’t worry if this is tough for you at first. It is for everyone. The more you do it, the easier it will be, and eventually it will make the actual writing process go much smoother.

I want you all to repeat after me — I will not be afraid of “giving away the farm.” I run into people all the time who don’t want to write an article that gives away any “secrets” because they think they’ll lose work because of it. (By the way, I have yet to hear a potential customer say ..I was going to hire so-and-so, but this article he wrote was so great I don’t need to anymore.”) 

The information you provide in an article is not going to change them either way. They either won’t contact you because they’d rather figure out how to do it alone or they will contact you because they don’t want to bother doing it themselves. This is a core value folks, it has nothing to do with your articles.

And if you DON’T write a good, meaty article, your customers who would normally contact you may very well decide you really don’t know what you’re talking about and take their business elsewhere.

Go on..what you waiting for…

Start writing and if you need some advice..you know where I am..

To your success

Yvonne.