Article Writing…

By Nicole Dean

Wisdom can be found in the most unexpected places. Today, wisdom bubbled up from a pineapple under the sea. I suddenly realized that everything you’d want to know about writing articles for your website can be taught by SpongeBob SquarePants and his friends.

When you write for your newsletter, blog, or website, which character are you most like?

Mr. Krabs: This crustacean is focused on one thing and one thing only, making more and more and more money. Only a cartoon could actually have dollar signs drawn in his eyes. He thinks of no one, only how he can benefit. Are your articles focused on you or on the reader? Are you providing information or do you have blinders on, thinking only about how you can make money from the article you are writing? If your article reads like an ad or is self-serving or full of affiliate links, you might write like Mr. Krabs.

Plankton: The smallest creature in the sea is also the sneakiest. He’ll do anything and hurt anyone to steal someoneelse’s work (the Krabby Pattie secret formula). Write your own material. Don’t be Plankton. Don’t copy and paste someone else’s work, edit it, and try to pass it off as your own. You will be caught, and it just isn’t worth it. Take the same amount of effort and work on your own thoughts and ideas. Plankton never gets away with his schemes, either. He’s on Plan “Z” and is still pathetically failing at his attempts to steal the secret formula.

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I thought I should just insert some more fun into this article writing tips article.  So check out the Spongebob videos below. Enjoy!

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Patrick: SpongeBob’s best friend, the starfish, has a good heart, but isn’t the brightest creature in the sea. Do your articles make you sound like an expert? Are you providing valuable content or just pushing out sloppy articles as fast as you can? Always double check for typos and grammatical errors. If you’re challenged by spelling and grammar, hire a Virtual Assistant or Copywriter to proofread and submit your article for you. Or slow down, set your article aside for a day and then reread it before you click the “submit” button.

Squidward: Squidward is B-O-R-I-N-G. When writing articles, are you a Squidward? Do you just get the words down on paper or are you finding a fun twist to entertain your audience and keep them coming back for more? Take time to make your articles stand out from the thousands of other dull articles out there by including personal stories or just having fun while writing. For instance, this article could be entitled “How to Write a Good Article”, but would it stand out from the hundreds of other articles about article writing? Probably not.

SpongeBob: This little guy always tries to do the right thing, and is a hard worker. He may not always end up getting the results he hoped for, but he bounces back and tackles his work with a renewed vigor. SpongeBob works very hard, he’s a good friend, he always thinks of others, and tries to have fun no matter what he is faced with. Hardworking, friendly SpongeBob is the guy to be when writing articles.

Although this is a silly lesson in article writing, I hope you’ll remember the important messages our underwater friends have taught us.

1. Write articles to help others, not with dollar signs in your eyes.

2. Write your own material. Don’t copy others.

3. Proofread your articles carefully, and provide valuable information.

4. Be entertaining. Not boring.

5. Be a SpongeBob! Hard work and persistence pay off.

Before you know it, you’ll develop a following for having informative and entertaining articles and you’ll be King or Queen of the sea.

Author Resource – Nicole Dean is published all over the web, under numerous pen names. She welcomes you to visit
Easy Article Marketing to get started using article marketing to boost your business today.

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Article Writing

Article Writing

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REF Videos:

By Tiffany Dow

Today we have a guest post from Ghostwriting Guru and Content Marketing extraordinaire Tiffany Dow. She provides a concrete example of how you can write more content for your sites and for your article marketing faster and easier.

Many affiliates start out on a shoestring budget. You want to keep costs down using free traffic tactics, but in order to get a decent traffic stream going, you need a massive amount of articles at your disposal.

That’s where most affiliates cringe. Writing doesn’t come naturally for some people, so they not only struggle with a lack of talent, but they look at the clock and realize it took them an hour to write 50 words.

With this snail’s pace, you’ll never get anywhere, so you consider giving up.

Not so fast! I have a simple formula that can help you create 5 paragraphs – about 1 full page worth of content, so give it a try and see if it makes your article marketing efforts a bit easier.

There are three main concepts your affiliate article should convey to the reader for the best conversions: personalization, authority or expertise, and honesty in your recommendation.

You’re going to break it up into those 3 paragraphs – and lengthen this basic formula with an introduction and a conclusion for a total of 5 paragraphs, which should work out to about 400+ words – perfect for an Ezine Articles submission.

So let’s break it down so I can show you what goes into each paragraph and I’m going to show you an example, too. I’ve been doing a case study in the Bearded Dragon pet niche for a few weeks and I don’t own one, so that’ll be perfect to explain this from the viewpoint of an affiliate who wants to promote something he or she isn’t familiar with:

Introduction: 2-5 sentences (depending on length) introducing the topic. Remember the five Ws – Who, What, When, Where, Why (and/or How). Answer those questions. Here’s an example:

Parents of children (WHO) who have been begging for a pet lizard and are considering a Bearded Dragon will want to waste no time (WHEN) investing in a guide to proper Bearded Dragon care (WHAT) so that they don’t waste money on a pet that will die prematurely and cause lots of heartache for their child (WHY). You can download an affordable guide straight to your computer from a reputable resource online (WHERE)but you need to know who you can trust for the right kind of pet care information.

Paragraph for Personalization: 2-5 sentences letting them know your story. With free traffic sources, it’s often a web 2.0 socialization situation. That means peer to peer trust has to be built. Moms recommending products to other moms, for example. So let’s see an example – remember I don’t have a Bearded Dragon myself, but I don’t like lying in my affiliate reviews, either, so I’m going to be honest and establish a connection to my readers:

I’m the mother of a 10-year-old boy who has always wanted to pet. We already have cats, but as you know their mindset is pretty independent. A dog requires so much work – and I knew that would land on my shoulders if we got one. So we’ve been contemplating whether or not a pet lizard would be perfect for my son – and we’ve narrowed it down to Bearded Dragons and Geckos. I didn’t know anything about Bearded Dragons, so I went online to gather information and see how easy they are to care for.

Paragraph for Authority or Expertise – this doesn’t have to be your own expertise. You can talk about the product creator’s authority, too – like this:

After reading many websites, I discovered there are many things that go wrong for an inexperienced Bearded Dragon owner. I found a site by Bearded Dragon expert Chris Johnson, which explained some of the things that could result in a fatality of our new family pet. Chris wrote a guide called the Bearded Dragon Secret Manual, which covers issues like feeding, bathing, habitat set up and more. I was happy to find out that this expert guide is written for people like me – who have never owned a Beardie and don’t want to have a misstep. I love the fact that it’s a downloadable PDF file because then I can access it on my computer anytime we have a question – and there’s no fear of misplacing a physical book (which often happens in our hectic household).

Paragraph for Honesty – your honest feelings, even bad points about the product, are appreciated and come across as more realistic to your reader, so don’t make it always a glowing review. In fact, I’ve often sold more products as an affiliate when I have a slightly negative review than when my review takes a feel-good “Kumbaya” approach. Here’s how I convey the honesty of my review:

To be honest, I wasn’t too crazy about spending $27 on a book about a pet I don’t have yet. But Chris convinced me in his website that it’s important to know these things before you buy a Bearded Dragon, so I chalked it up to preventative medicine for our future family member. And I’m a frugal mom – I don’t like shelling out money on information I feel I could probably find for free online. The problem is, it’s all scattered across the web – and I don’t want to take advice from “just anyone” – I wanted an expert to teach us. Plus, once I found out about the bonus items, I couldn’t say no – it had a handy feeding guide and a guide for the most common health woes and the checklists included were invaluable. I printed them out and stuck them on the fridge so my son could refer to them when he gets his new Beardie, which we’re considering getting for his birthday.

Conclusion – Wrap it up here. Reiterate why it’s important for them to get this guide sooner rather than later. Here’s how I do it:

If you already own a Bearded Dragon, or plan to get one soon, I highly suggest you educate yourself about this pet thoroughly. There are so many seemingly small details that could cause severe problems for your lizard if you don’t know them. If you’re looking for an expert to trust, I can give the Bearded Dragon Secret Manual my seal of approval. It’s made my family feel confident that our new pet will live a long, healthy (and happy) life in our home.

That article example if 565 words and I would hyperlink the guide’s name twice in the article. You can shorten it by quite a bit. The best affiliate reviews are created when you put your personal slant on it.

Give this formula a try on at least 5 different articles and see if it becomes easier for you to write a good affiliate review. For added speed, try a tool like Dragon Naturally Speaking. I use it, and it sped up my article content creation by four times the speed I was previously writing at. You simply put your headset on, speak out loud, and it types it onto the computer for you. It’s an invaluable tool for affiliates relying on heavy content creation.

Tiffany Dow

http://www.tiffanydow.com

Tiffany is the former “Ghostwriter to the Gurus” who morphed into a full time marketer of info products, teaching others to use free web 2.0 traffic portals and showing them how to become info product creators and recruit an army of affiliates who sell for them.