Article Content

[geminisden]

A very good morning to all,
I am doing link building of a site and as articles are a good source to gain some link popularity, i decided to gear up for article writing. but wht i m confused is abt wht type of content shud articles contain, i mean do articles need to contain company products and services defined or it can be anything related to their business area???

Regards

[JuniorOnline]

when you visit a site.. why do you read an article?
i would say because it is something relevant to something you need, or do and would like to learn more about. sometimes you can use links in the article to promote a service.

[Dactyl]

Subscribe to webproworld's newsletter and you'll get a very good idea of what an article should contain, and it shouldnt be about your companies products.

[geminisden]

Thnx a ton for ur advice...i'll keep these things in mind...:)

[chrisJumbo]

Check out article sites and see how other people are writing. The article should be relevant to your industry but not specific to your company.

Here are a few sites:
www.buzzle.com
www.ezinearticles.com
www.goarticles.com/

Good luck.

[ADAM Web Design]

www.advicelibrary.com is a newcomer to the article game, but a very good example of how articles should be written.

I don't own the site, but I do know who does and the guy's pretty picky about what he includes. So if you want some well-written articles to give you an idea, start there.

Basically, remember 4 things:

1) Don't blatantly self-promote.
2) Provide something useful (a how-to, a piece of information, a tidbit, whatever).
3) If you can, make the perspective or content of the article unique. That's a very difficult thing to do, however; I've managed it exactly 3 times in 2 years.
4) For God's sake, spell-check the thing. I hat wen I vist ann articul sight ann thingz r mispeld.

[toolameforyou]

One thing I've always tried to do is tie the article in to something newsworthy and relevant.

For example, if I'm writing an article for a website that sells water filters then I might start with a global view (an overview of the importance clean water holds for a healthy society) then work down to practical applications (i.e. water filters). I would also work with relevant current events... like the desperate need for filtration in areas hit by natural disasters.

Or, if I'm writing an article for a website that promotes safe driving then I would probably begin with examples of recent accidents backed up by statistics.

Current events are invaluable. They communicate in a very *real* way the relevance of your subject matter and articles that touch on them get picked up much faster because they are viewed as timely and newsworthy.

I am not saying you should just pick a popular news item at random and ride piggy-back... but I am saying that if the article doesn't connect with what's going on right now then it is missing out- it is leaving clicks on the table!

If I'm writing an article about tourist attractions in France, why wouldn't I also confront the current rioting (to diffuse it of course - the spin is in your hands)? If I don't then I'm potentially missing out on some fickle readers who will only find their way there through that dark route. My job would then be to win them over.

Anyway, there are my 2 pennies in the article well. I guess I sort of judge articles by their newsworthiness? In one way or another they should be timely, relevant to a large number of people, have as much shock value as possible without turning into tabloid monsters, and they should be presented in an interesting way. Mmmm, I hate boring articles!

Nathan