How to Create an Article

By Zahid Hossain

While writing is always challenging, learning to present your ideas in a logical, orderly fashion is even more challenging. An organized article will make it easier for your reader to comprehend. After all, the main purpose of your article is to convey a clear message to your reader or audience. Below are some very simple basic steps on how to convey your message to your target audience through an article.

Finding A Topic

To find a topic, do some research online. Try to look for problems related to the topic. Once you find a particular problem, try to come up with and provide a solution. The most effective article content provides a solution to a problem that your target audience often encounters.

Using Tools

For pre-formatting, there is a very useful software tool called "Note Tab Light", which is available on different web sites for free downloading. This software makes formatting easier, especially when you want to submit an article to an article announcement site, because most announcement sites will require you to submit an article in a standardized format.

Formatting

Article formatting includes 4 elements.

1. Article Stats

At the top of the article provide stats: number of words, as well as the width of the article in characters. This is customarily 60-character in width, plain text, and hard carriage return at the end of each line. The following is an example of stats for an article:

2. Title Section

In this section you need to include the title at the top along with your name, copyright information, and your website address. This will make your article look more professional, which will help you build name recognition.

3. Body

In the body first introduce your topic and list your main points, describing each point. If you really understand your topic, you should be able to describe it well to others.

No matter how good you are, pay attention to your grammatical mistakes and spelling errors. They have a significant impact on your credibility. The best way to discover the mistakes in your writing, is to have a second person review your article. Use a spell checker to screen for spelling errors.

4. Resource / Bio Box

In the Author's bio box, write a brief summary about your profession along with your contact information. Here, you are trying to convince your reader to take an action you want as a result of reading your article. Most typically that action means either having them click over to your website, or download a free ebook or mini-course. (Turn Words into Traffic).

Finish your article by summarizing what you have just shared. Using a structured approach like this will help you organize your thoughts, enabling you to present them in a logical, orderly fashion.

Reference Turn Words into Traffic” – By Jim and Dallas Edwards http://www.turnwordsintotraffic.com

(Zahid Hossain is an SEO and international student at the Florida Atlantic University, pursuing degrees in Marketing and MIS. Zahid has been in the U.S. since January 2000, and intends to build his career as an SEO. )