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Writing a good article is not as difficult as a lot of people think it will be. So many people just freeze up when I suggest article marketing as a way to drive traffic to their website. I really don’t get it…here are 9 simple ideas that if you follow them, will have you writing good articles right away.

What makes an article good?

1. Content. First, foremost and above all else! If you are providing good content the rest of it doesn’t really matter too much.
   Everything else can be improved upon with practice, experience or by paying someone else to do the writing for you if you have to! But the content…that is YOU…that is where your experience, your knowledge comes in. If you give good content the reader really won’t care if you have a run-on sentence.
2. Provide value. OK, this is part of content…but it is so important it bears repeating! Be factual and solve a problem for someone so they can learn from you! Just don’t try to solve all their problems in one article!
3. Keep it short and simple. Don’t write a 1000 page book. A good length for most articles is 400-600 words…that’s about 1 page. Each paragraph should be a couple of lines. Provide lots of “white space”…it makes it easier on the eyes and people are psychologically more likely to read it because it looks “easier” and short.
4. Headlines. Build curiosity about the subject. Using a number in the title can be great, like 5 ways to…3 critical steps…top 10 methods…success at ___ in 7 easy steps. Numbered reasons are not the only types of headlines, but they make it easy for you to build your article!
5. Opening paragraph. This is just a short explanation of what you are going to cover…it should reinforce, or support, the headline. Basically you are saying-really quickly-what you are going to tell the reader.
6. The body style. I’m focusing on the numbered reason style for this article because it is an easy way to help you organize your content. Just be sure that your numbers match the number in your headline. And, for whatever reason, odd numbers seem to work best…with one major exception-the top 10 list is awesome. So if you don’t have 10, then make it an odd number.
7. Closing paragraph. In a sentence or two, what did you just tell your reader about? Keep this a positive statement.
8. Your resource box. This is where you put your “by-line”, how people can reach you for additional information. Make sure you have your website here or you won’t get much traffic!
9. Keywords. Use keywords for your topic in your headline, opening and closing paragraphs. If you can sprinkle them throughout the article that is great, but it is better to write naturally then spending a ton of time trying to force in keywords!

Look, I am not a great book author…I’m no Hemingway or Shakespeare…but I don’t pretend to be-and better yet, I don’t have to be! That’s not what article marketing is about. Follow these 9 easy guidelines and use article marketing to drive traffic to your website and increase your business.