I’m a publisher for numerous sites. I HATE many of your articles. Here’s why I hate your first paragraph and what you can do about it.
A Biggie
First paragraphs are a huge issue with me. Better to have died a small child than get this one wrong. If you can get just this one thing right, your publication rates will go through the roof. Unfortunately, almost nobody does it correctly.
The entire issue comes down to meta tagging. When I create a page on a site for an article, I have to enter the meta title and meta description. Your headline is the meta title and your first paragraph should be the meta description. If your first paragraph doesn’t fit my meta description needs, I will blow by your articles like a debutante on Rodeo Drive with a new credit card. I don’t have time to re-write your masterpiece. Don’t make me.
Here is what I want:
1. No more than 38 words.
2. Preferably two sentences.
3. Your keywords in the first sentence.
Now, that seems easy enough, but none of you do it. Instead, you charge right into the body of your article and write these truly horrific 10 line first paragraphs. I HATE these. I will not publish you. I may decide to never look at your articles again.
Writing articles can be a challenge. Often, the best way is to just start writing. I have no problem with this approach. All I ask is that you write a two-sentence introduction after you have finished the article.
Scroll back up to the first paragraph of this article. What do you see? Three short sentences totaling 26 words. The keywords, “publisher” and “first paragraph” are contained within the three sentences. When I publish this article, I will copy the first paragraph and slam it into my meta description.
Wham! Bamn! I’m off to the next article.
This approach has a huge benefit for you as well. When I publish articles in this format on sites, the articles will appear high in the search rankings for Google, Yahoo and MSN. Put another way, you will be able to piggyback my high ranking sites and get your article in front of your target audience. This means traffic for both you and me, which should make us both happy.
The first paragraph is extremely important. I will look past crappy headlines and ungodly spelling errors if you write a good first paragraph. I am a lazy person. Make my job easy and you will benefit.
Tuesday, 10 January 2012
Sunday, 1 January 2012
9 Steps to Unique Articles
1 Remove your limits
Reduce your subject to a single core word and then brainstorm around it. For example, if you're trying to write about "Study Skills", expand your thinking to "School". Now jot down everything that comes to mind when you think about School, and when you run out of ideas start asking yourself open questions around the subject and noting your answers.
Examples:
What did I enjoy about school?
What scared me?
What did I wish I'd known from Day 1?
This will help you get back into the mindset of someone struggling with school issues of all kinds and you'll start to get a feel for their concerns and worries.
2 Restore your focus
Once you've started to understand the general feelings of your readers, allow your mind to focus back on your original topic of Study Skills. From your new perspective, what questions would you ask? What would you want to know? Is this really a "Studying" issue or is it more about Time Management or being able to work without distractions or being paralyzed by the fear of not doing well?
3 Be your audience
Write each question on a separate sheet of paper; don't stop until you have at least ten and preferably more. Stay in the mindset of your readers until you feel you've asked every major question that concerns them.
4 Take a step back
Put your pile of question aside for a few hours, overnight if possible. Don't consciously think about them; just go about your day as usual. Give your subconscious time to process them without any further prompting from you. If new questions come to mind jot them down somewhere safe and then forget about them.
5 Get out your pen and write
When you're ready, sit down with your pages of questions and simply start to answer them. Writing your answers by hand can give you access to ideas that might be missed if you type them. Don't edit yourself at this stage. Using Speech to Text software or a digital recorder can also be helpful in bypassing the internal editor.
Imagine someone sitting in front of you asking for advice and just talk to them. Keep your tone natural and conversational and stay with the question-and-answer format.
6 Edit lightly
Trust your first instincts. Proof-read and correct any obvious errors, but don't do any major editing until your piece has had time to "sit" for a while. Again, leaving it overnight will give you a fresh perspective the next time you look at it, but even if your deadline doesn't allow for that it's important to give yourself a break from it.
When you're pushed for time, writing several articles at one sitting can create enough change of focus to make you "forget" the one you've just written.
7 Polish it up
Short articles are unlikely to need major editing if you've written them as described here. They will flow easily and naturally already and having each Q & A on a separate sheet makes it easier to select only the ones you want. Your job now is to put them in a reasonably logical sequence and make sure they're understandable and that the reader is led smoothly from one question and answer to the next.
8 Top and tail it
Write a brief introductory paragraph as a "teaser" for the main article. Many article directories now put the first paragraph of each piece into RSS feeds which are picked up by other websites, so you'll want to make sure that your two or three major keywords appear at least once in that first paragraph.
Write another short paragraph to summarize the major points of the article and provide some ideas for the reader to explore the subject further. Don't of course forget your own resource box: use the format <a href="http://www.SubmitYourNewArticle.com">SubmitYourNewArticle.com</a> for your link, so when your article is converted to html your link will automatically be live.
9 Submit it!
Reduce your subject to a single core word and then brainstorm around it. For example, if you're trying to write about "Study Skills", expand your thinking to "School". Now jot down everything that comes to mind when you think about School, and when you run out of ideas start asking yourself open questions around the subject and noting your answers.
Examples:
What did I enjoy about school?
What scared me?
What did I wish I'd known from Day 1?
This will help you get back into the mindset of someone struggling with school issues of all kinds and you'll start to get a feel for their concerns and worries.
2 Restore your focus
Once you've started to understand the general feelings of your readers, allow your mind to focus back on your original topic of Study Skills. From your new perspective, what questions would you ask? What would you want to know? Is this really a "Studying" issue or is it more about Time Management or being able to work without distractions or being paralyzed by the fear of not doing well?
3 Be your audience
Write each question on a separate sheet of paper; don't stop until you have at least ten and preferably more. Stay in the mindset of your readers until you feel you've asked every major question that concerns them.
4 Take a step back
Put your pile of question aside for a few hours, overnight if possible. Don't consciously think about them; just go about your day as usual. Give your subconscious time to process them without any further prompting from you. If new questions come to mind jot them down somewhere safe and then forget about them.
5 Get out your pen and write
When you're ready, sit down with your pages of questions and simply start to answer them. Writing your answers by hand can give you access to ideas that might be missed if you type them. Don't edit yourself at this stage. Using Speech to Text software or a digital recorder can also be helpful in bypassing the internal editor.
Imagine someone sitting in front of you asking for advice and just talk to them. Keep your tone natural and conversational and stay with the question-and-answer format.
6 Edit lightly
Trust your first instincts. Proof-read and correct any obvious errors, but don't do any major editing until your piece has had time to "sit" for a while. Again, leaving it overnight will give you a fresh perspective the next time you look at it, but even if your deadline doesn't allow for that it's important to give yourself a break from it.
When you're pushed for time, writing several articles at one sitting can create enough change of focus to make you "forget" the one you've just written.
7 Polish it up
Short articles are unlikely to need major editing if you've written them as described here. They will flow easily and naturally already and having each Q & A on a separate sheet makes it easier to select only the ones you want. Your job now is to put them in a reasonably logical sequence and make sure they're understandable and that the reader is led smoothly from one question and answer to the next.
8 Top and tail it
Write a brief introductory paragraph as a "teaser" for the main article. Many article directories now put the first paragraph of each piece into RSS feeds which are picked up by other websites, so you'll want to make sure that your two or three major keywords appear at least once in that first paragraph.
Write another short paragraph to summarize the major points of the article and provide some ideas for the reader to explore the subject further. Don't of course forget your own resource box: use the format <a href="http://www.SubmitYourNewArticle.com">SubmitYourNewArticle.com</a> for your link, so when your article is converted to html your link will automatically be live.
9 Submit it!
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