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How To Write Articles for the Internet
I know what you're thinking. Maybe you have an absolutely amazing idea for
an article that will seriously improve someone's life, either by helping
them fix a specific problem, or maybe by teaching them how to do something
they've always wanted to do. But how do you start? How can you write
something that someone will actually find? I mean, the Internet contains a
bazillion pages of information, so how are they going to find your article
in all of that sea?
The answer to this dilemma is surprisingly simple. The first thing you
need to do is write your article. It's an amazing concept, because
Internet "experts" will tell you otherwise. They will tell you that you
need to spend most of your time figuring out how to market your article,
and then write it. Well, how's that supposed to work? How can you do
something that you have no talent in, while waiting to do something that
you do have talent in? It doesn't even make sense.
Well, I'm here to tell you that your article is key, not the marketing
behind it. Write a good article, and believe it or not, there are some
simple steps you can take to let people know it's out there. Whether you
are writing it to make money (maybe by placing some advertising on the
page) or you are writing it to simply share your vast knowledge on a
particular subject, it makes no difference. I'm here to tell you that you
should indeed write your article first. Maybe you've even written it
already. There are plenty of models out there of how to write an article,
but if you need help with this, one of the simplest methods is the one I
shunned in high school: make an outline. Perhaps you shunned this idea
yourself. Perhaps you even did what I did and created the required outline
after you wrote your paper. Shame on you. And shame on me.
OK. How do you write an outline? Let's do it right here and now. Here's
mine for this article:
As you can see, the outline is pretty basic. You could apply it to a half
million things, which is why it's useful. All you need to do now is flesh
out your article. So, let's pretend that you are going to write an article
about how to write an article. What a novel idea!
OK, ask yourself, who is my audience? Who are you speaking to? Well, in
this case, you are speaking to people who want to write an article. If you
were writing an article about how to draw a portrait using one curvy line
with a pencil without picking up the point of the pencil from the sheet of
paper until you were done, then your audience would be people who like to
learn silly parlor tricks in order to entertain other people who like
silly parlor tricks. If you are writing about how to give a dog a bath,
your audience is people who own dogs. You get the idea. It's pretty easy
to figure out who your audience is.
Now you need to ask the question, what do I want to tell my audience? You
have a vast storehouse of information on the topic in your brain, so you
most likely already know the answer to this question. In my case, I want
to tell people how to write an article for the Internet. In your case, if
your audience is dog owners and you want to tell them the easiest way to
give a dog a bath, then that's the answer to your question. Get it? It's
real easy. So far so good.
Your audience is going to start wondering why they are reading your
article. What makes you such an expert in giving a dog a bath or writing
articles on the Internet? Well, if you're a dog owner, tell them it's
because you're a dog owner. You've owned a dog for x number of years, and
through those years, you've refined your approach to bathing your dog.
It's become a sort of rocket science for you, and whenever friends come
over and witness it, they are in utter awe. They are seeing something that
is genuinely amazing. For me, I've been working with the Internet just
about since it started to become popular, somewhere in the 1990s. I've
also worked for numerous technology companies, helped write technical
books, have my name listed in the Amazon catalog of books, and have
several blogs I maintain and am webmaster for several other websites. I
don't know much about html or coding, but I do know a bit about writing,
so that's where my focus is.
OK, your audience is interested. Now is the time to tell them the basic
steps to achieve the goal you've set out in your article, whether it be
bathe a dog or write an article. For bathing a dog, you probably have
steps involving the bathroom, water, soap, extra hands, maybe even a
restraint system. For my article writing article, it's all about figuring
out what your good at and coming up with a simple step-by-step approach to
dealing with it. If you are preparing food, you follow a recipe. Even if
you know how to prepare something by rote, you're still following a recipe
in your head. There are always certain steps you are going to follow, and
with your information, the same will be true. Just try to simplify the
approach to solving the problem at hand, whether it be washing a dog or
preparing a cake from scratch. Whatever you prepare here is going to be
the bulk of the information you are going to deliver. Make it as long as
necessary, but as to-the-point as you can. If you want to throw in an
anectdote, do it, but have some restraint.
Most projects can be started just about anytime. However, what you write
about might need to be done at a specific time. Maybe you need to start
washing the dog when you've had a good night's rest and lots of energy,
not when you've just come home from work, and you're as hungry as heck.
You start making a cake when you have all the ingredients in one place.
Your start creating that perfect skirt from that well-known pattern once
you've picked out the material and have purchased enough of it. You plant
the tree once you've weeded the area and tilled the soil. Or whatever it
is you do when you plant a tree.
Once you've given them all you know about a subject, tell them where to
get more. This is usually called a bibliography, but you can call it
anything you like. Give them links to other similar articles. Give them a
few ideas about how they can use this information in other ways. Maybe
they can wash a horse or car or baby in the same way as a dog. Maybe not.
Maybe you've had better luck with certain shampoos. Maybe a special brand
of flour works better than others when you bake a cake. Maybe a shot of
strong whiskey before preparing to bake the cake helps calm the nerves.
Whatever it is, give them whatever information you think might be
important or might help with the project at hand.
Now, it's time to let everyone know about your article. The easiest way is
to let Google know about it by visiting Add your URL to Google. If you do
this, Google will know to index your web site the next time it crawls the
web. No one really knows how often they do this, but it's probably about
every three weeks or so. But before you do the Google thing, read the 15 Minute SEO List,
which will give you some quick and easy ways to optimize your web page and
make sure it has the best chance of being found.
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Last updated 20241201
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