You don’t need to be a writer to write a decent article. Let’s look at how to write an article for a website, as it is not as difficult as it looks, and I promise you, the more you do it, the better you get at it.
If you have a website, it is very important to keep adding content to your website as often as you can to keep it fresh and to keep your readers coming back for more.
Click here if you need to still start a website.
Here are some steps to take that I am sure will help you on your way to writing great articles.
How To Write An Article For A Website
Brainstorm To Get Your Ideas Flowing
Remember you are not trying to write a novel or be perfect, you just need to get some useful information out there that will help your audience with one or another issue they may have.
To get started try reducing your subject to a single core word and then brainstorm around it. For example, if you’re trying to write about “dog training”, expand your thinking to “School”. Now jot down everything that comes to mind when you think about dogs and their training, and when you run out of ideas start asking yourself open questions around the subject and noting your answers.
Examples:
What should you not do when training your pet?
How to train a dog quickly?
How to keep him focused?
What did I wish I’d known from Day 1?
This will help you get back into the mindset of someone struggling with issues around the training of their dog and you’ll start to get a feel for their concerns and worries.
Restore Your Focus
Once you’ve started to understand the general feelings of your readers, allow your mind to focus back on your original topic of dog training. From your new perspective, what questions would you ask? What would you want to know? Is this really a “training” issue or is it more about time management or being able to work with your pet or being paralyzed by the fear of not doing well in front of others?
Be Your Audience
Write each question that you think your audience would like to know on a separate sheet of paper and don’t stop until you have at least ten or more. Stay in the mindset of your readers until you feel you’ve asked every major question that concerns them.
Take A Step Back
Put your pile of questions aside for a few hours, or even overnight. Don’t consciously think about them; just go about your day as usual. Give your subconscious time to process them without any further inner prompting from yourself. If new questions come to mind jot them down somewhere safe and then forget about them.
Get Writing
When you’re ready, sit down with your pages of questions and simply start to answer them. Writing your answers by hand can give you access to ideas that might be missed if you type them. Don’t edit yourself at this stage. Using Speech to Text software or a digital recorder can also be helpful in bypassing the internal editor.
Imagine someone sitting in front of you asking for advice and just talk to them. Keep your tone natural and conversational and stay with the question-and-answer format.
Edit Lightly
Trust your first instincts. Proof-read and correct any obvious errors, but don’t do any major editing until your piece has had time to “sit” for a while. Again, leaving it overnight will give you a fresh perspective the next time you look at it, but even if your deadline doesn’t allow for that it’s important to give yourself a break from it.
When you’re pushed for time, writing several articles at one sitting can create enough change of focus to make you “forget” the one you’ve just written.
Polish
Short articles are unlikely to need major editing if you’ve written them as described here. They will flow easily and naturally already and having each Q & A on a separate sheet makes it easier to select only the ones you want.
Your job now is to put them in a reasonably logical sequence and make sure they’re understandable and that the reader is led smoothly from one question and answer to the next. You can link one question to the next on your website so that your visitor can navigate easily from one post to the next.
Add Your Intro And Ending
Write a brief introductory paragraph as a “teaser” for your main article. Many search engines put the first paragraph or sentence of each piece into the organic searches which are picked up by potential readers, so you’ll want to make sure that your two or three major keywords appear at least once in that first paragraph.
Write another short paragraph to summarize the major points of the article and provide some ideas for the reader to explore the subject further. This can go at the end of the article with a call to action. Maybe you want some comments or you would like your reader to click on link. Whatever it is, instruct your reader what you want them to do.
Write A Relevant And Exciting Title
The heading of your article is going to be what your readers see first, and this will tell them if they want to take the time to read it or move on somewhere else.
Here are some more tips to help you to make your articles pop.
Click here for a great way to do multiple articles at once to save you time.
Please comment below if you have any more great ideas on how to write an article for a website.
