How to Write a Great Article Title
The first step to writing an irresistible article is to create a clear and simple title that includes prime keywords that will be sprinkled throughout the article. Keywords need to be reiterated throughout the body of the article at about a 2-3% density rate. If you have an article of 500 words in length, then a combination of your keywords/keyword phrases should appear 10-15 times.
Why Focus on a Great Article Title?
A great article title may take only seconds to write, but can draw visitors to your site for years to come. It is time well spent to focus on the title to make it short and to the point; including important keywords. Anytime a viewer uses a search engine to locate information on a given topic they use one or more keywords to narrow their search.
Creative Titles
Catchy, creative titles commonly seen in magazines are wasted on the Internet. The key to writing a good article title on the Internet is to use terms that people would actually use in a search engine. You need to cut out the cute and fluffy stuff and focus on the meat of the article. A clear, concise title speaks volumes. You need to tell the reader what the article is really about. Don’t mislead readers with tricky titles. A well focused article with popular keywords and important information can easily be overlooked without a proper title.
Use Search Engine Terms in Titles
Search engine optimization involves using very specific keywords to draw attention to your articles. SEO keywords need to be sprinkled throughout the title and the body of the article itself. The title should define the main ideas presented within the body of the article. It should match search engine phrases. The more specific keywords you use in your title, the more traffic will be driven to your site.
Use popular keywords to attract search engine traffic to your website. Even on the largest of websites, a large majority of the traffic is brought in through keyword searches. It is unlikely that any amount of marketing or networking could outweigh the difference a great article title makes.
The other great thing is that you can combine other tactics for driving traffic to your site with a great article title. Combining several tactics like networking to draw traffic is essential for building a successful website.
Titles That Get Noticed
The key to becoming and remaining successful on the Internet is to find a way to get noticed. No one will read your article unless they are intrigued by your title. A great title is peppered with high-ranking keywords or follows one of the following patterns:
State a question within the title
Post a warning
List (top five, top seven or top 10 list)
Write a how-to article
Expose secrets
Debunk myths
Provide informative guides
Any one of these tactics can be used to generate interest and entice readers to click on your site to find out more information.
Specific and Unique Keywords
A great article title includes very specific keywords. Be as specific as possible to nail down the topic of your article and provide keywords that are searchable. A unique keyword is specific enough yet not so overused that your article would land many pages deep into the search engine results.
Tiva Kelly is the Head of Article Coaching at article marketing. She offers advice to authors at www.articlemarketer.com, a highly popular article distribution service. Learn how to market your small business by submitting articles through Article Marketer.
http://www.articlemarketer.com
Attention Struggling Freelance Writers: To Get Published, Do Your Homework
Writing is a product. A basic marketing truism is that you can’t sell a product if no one wants to buy it. Whether or not your writing is wonderful doesn’t matter if you are writing about a subject no one wants to publish. The moral of the story? Never create your writing in a vacuum.
It’s extremely easy to find out what topics are in demand by doing a little Internet surfing. In fact, the Internet is actually the best place to research hot topics. It’s far better than the library, chain bookstores, print media, or television. Today’s publishing trends will appear online first, long before they hit the bookstores.
Before you write anything, try to think like a publisher. Ask yourself, what do they want to buy?
Above all else, publishers want to print what is going to sell. For example, if you want to submit a book proposal to a publisher, go to the Web and find out what the hot topics are in your chosen field. As a writer, you are, by nature, a researcher. The Internet is a researcher’s dream come true.
For example, if you are a computer nerd and want to write about technology topics, what is the latest “buzz” on the propeller-head discussion boards? What are people complaining about? What new techie toy is your average 14 year old dying to get his hands on?
Or let’s say you want to break into a magazine. Every single magazine editor on the planet, without exception, will tell you to “read the magazine first” before you get in touch. Many, many magazines put their writer’s guidelines online. If they don’t, you can usually read a few issues online to get a feel for the magazine’s tone. You no longer have to waste postage begging for a copy of the magazine before you contact the editor or publisher. All you need to do is get online, go to your favorite search engine, and start digging.
If you’re interested in a particular magazine or trade journal, simply to go your favorite search engine such as Google. Then type:
[the magazine name] +guidelines OR
[the magazine name] +”writer information”
For more general searches, try these phrases:
“editorial calendar”
“writer’s guidelines”
“author’s guidelines”
“contributor’s guidelines”
“write for us”
“freelance writing markets”
“freelance markets”
“writing markets”
Yes, the quotation marks are important. They tell the search engine to find the entire phrase, as opposed to the individual words. You also might try derivatives of these searches, such as “writer guidelines” and “writers guidelines”. Sometimes web sites or search engines aren’t good at handling punctuation, such as apostrophes.
Armed with a little information, you can give publishers what they want. And in turn, they’ll give you what you want: a byline!
Susan Daffron is the President of Logical Expressions, Inc. (http://www.logicalexpressions.com) and the author of books on pets, web business, computing, and vegetarian cooking. Visit http://www.publishize.com to receive a complimentary Publishize podcast or newsletter and bonus report.”
Freelance Writers: To Make More Money, Keep Your Clients Happy
As a freelance writer, your job is to create a product that your customers absolutely love. Once you’re in business, you probably want to stay in business, so you can continue paying the bills, eating, and so forth. So here’s a little secret to freelance writing success: it is easier, less time consuming, and less expensive to sell an existing customer than it is to dredge up a new one.
For a freelance writer that means you need to be more than just a good writer, you need to be a conscientious one. You need to be easy to communicate with and easy to find. Yes, find. You wouldn’t believe how many people complain that their service provider (writer, graphic artist, whatever) has apparently disappeared off the face of the planet. So keep a client list with physical addresses and phone numbers. Don’t just squirrel away a bunch of email addresses — they can and do change all too quickly.
Always treat your writing like a business. It’s amazing how many business-people fail to return phone messages and e-mail. You won’t get work if you don’t return phone calls. Publishing of any type is by its very nature a deadline-oriented world. Editors have no tolerance for those who waste their time.
Although editors always say it, the point can’t be emphasized enough: you get more work when you meet deadlines and make an editor’s life easier. Every editor has experienced the writer who procrastinates and then turns in drek. Don’t be one of them!
Do a good job on every single project, no matter how small. Be sure to spell check everything you write, and get a real live human being to read your writings before you hand them in. The result will be happy editors who will be thrilled to give you more work over the years.
Many writers who are in it for the long haul keep clients for years. Trust is easily lost and much can change in the world over the course of many years. Do what you say you’re going to do when you say you are going to do it. It sounds simple, but meeting deadlines is hard. Don’t commit to any project you can’t really do. Telling people what you think they want to hear can backfire badly in the long run.
Many writers would like to curl up with their keyboards and just write, but the reality is, to eat, you must tell the world you’re in business. A big part of marketing is keeping your clients happy. With just a little effort, you too can be one of those dependable writers that editors turn to again and again.
Susan Daffron is the President of Logical Expressions, Inc. (http://www.logicalexpressions.com) and the author of books on pets, web business, computing, and vegetarian cooking. Visit http://www.publishize.com to receive a complimentary Publishize podcast or newsletter and bonus report.”
Using Keyword Phrases in Content Articles
As a marketing expert and article writer, I know the value of a good keyword article. The right article can make or break your success on the Internet. It is the difference between filling the black page with fluff and writing quality articles to lure viewers to your site.
Find the Best Keywords for Your Articles
After toying with my list of keywords, I plug them into keyword tools to find the best keywords with the highest number of searches. It’s no secret that using the right set of words strategically throughout your articles will help you get higher in the search engine results.
Sometimes it is good to use keywords with high popularity, other times it is best to find keywords that aren’t as heavily covered on the Internet to attract readers. If you have a site that is not highly ranked, it probably won’t matter much if you write articles about Paris Hilton. You won’t get many hits on the topic because she is written about so much on the Internet and you could be listed hundreds of pages into the search results.
I like to use a combination of both types of keywords in my articles to maximize the number of hits I get from search engines.
Keyword Phrases Attract More Visitors to Your Site
What I recently discovered is that using keywords phrases in content articles is the best way to attract more visitors to my website. More viewers equal a higher frequency of clicks and higher revenue. Combine several words to make unique keyword phrases that people would likely type into the search engines to find more information.
Keyword phrases are used to narrow searches. Instead of searching for Claude Monet, for example, you might search for Artworks of Claude Monet or Impressionist painter Claude Monet. Consider this when you form the keyword phrases for the articles you write. What are people likely to type into a search engine to find the information you are writing about.
Work Keyword Phrases into Your Articles
Keyword phrases are easy to work into content articles. Examine your completed articles and tweak sentences throughout them to make them keyword friendly.
Start with a list of keyword phrases on your topic before you even begin writing an article.
Choose a handful of words and work them into usable phrases.
Devise your ideas and content articles are around your list of phrases.
Avoid using too many keywords or keyword phrases. It’s best to focus on a small number of ideas and fully explore them within the body of the article.
Don’t use highly searched keyword phrases to get more hits if it doesn’t pertain to your article or your website in general.
Use Strange Combinations of Keywords
Another thing I’ve noticed about writing content articles is that it is often a strange keyword phrase that attracts more viewers to my websites. Combining several unrelated words or using a combination of misspelled words catches the attention of searches that would otherwise miss their target.
Again, using a combination of these methods works best for me. Use the correct spelling in your article, but also throw in one or two commonly misspelled words to attract a wider audience to your website.
Don’t underestimate the value of a good keyword phrase. Using keyword phrases in content articles is a great way to boost your revenue and sales while providing the consumer with information they need.
Tiva Kelly is the Head of Article Coaching and offers advice to authors at www.articlemarketer.com, a highly popular article distribution service. Learn how to market your small business by submitting articles through Article Marketer.
http://www.articlemarketer.com