Sunday, February 10, 2013

Polish Your Writing - Avoid Redundancy

Once you have the basics down, its time to focus on polishing your writing. Neglecting the smaller details, can make one's writing seem amateurish. One important thing to watch out for is redundancy. You'll see it all the time in newspapers and student essays, especially when using quotes.

Example:

The chair of the fundraising committee says she's excited about next week's event.

"I'm super excited about next week's event," said Stacey Stoked.

The sentence introducing the quote should have something to say about what's in the quote, but shouldn't just be a paraphrase.

Example:

The chair of the fundraising committee says she's excited about next week's event.

"Everything is going to be fantastic - the music, the dancing the comedy act. I can't wait," said Stacey Stoked.

Redundancy often shows up when similar words with the same meaning show up in the same sentence.

Example:

This cleaning feature allows the mechanic to reuse the filter again.

Sometimes, as in a list, a writer will deliberately reuse words with similar meaning for emphasis.

Example:

The criminal was callous, cold-hearted and unfeeling.

However, you have to a pretty good writer to avoid the pitfalls of this technique. The reader might assume you don't have much else to say on the subject, that you're being hyperbolic or that you just haven't figured out that the words you are using all mean the same thing.

One final problem, which is surprisingly common despite how easily it can be spotted, is using the exact same word over and over in a paragraph.

Example:

The burglar quietly entered the house through the back door. He quietly crept up the stairs. He quietly opened the door to the room where the man was sleeping.

You get the picture. Most instances aren't that obvious, but you can clear up repetition by giving your writing a quick read over.

Although many people would suggest reading your work aloud, this is rarely practical. Pronounce each word in your head as you read your final draft. You'll catch the errors you miss by scanning.

Pay particular attention to the quotes and paraphrases of your interview subjects. Avoid using repetition simply to pad a weak story. If your story doesn't quite reach the minimum word count, check your notes. Perhaps there was another angle you could have explored. Maybe there's another issue you avoided raising due to the complexity, but could be worth a second look. Or, it's possible that there just isn't enough meat in this story for the reader.

While most writers have competent editors to help them revise their work, in this era of internet self-publishing, it pays to develop the skills to become your own editor.

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Time Management for Article Writing - 5 Tips That Work

I've been writing a lot this year, mostly for my full time day job. Time management is essential to produce high quality content in a timely manner. Therefore a time management process is equally essential. I just finished a training manual with 17 chapters and some 39 thousand words. This project took two weeks to finish besides other projects and responsibilities. It dawned on me that the method I use to write manuals may be just what some of you need to write your articles more quickly. You can use any word processing, or slide deck program to organize your process.

I call this process my outline to output work flow. This is a 5 step process that can be used as a template to use over and over again. If you are publishing online and want to rank your article with search engines, make sure to target specific key words that readers are looking for.

The process goes like this:

  1. Plan Ahead - Keep a topic journal just for your article writing. Any time you think of a topic write it down. some people like paper journals or notebooks. Others prefer electronic tools like Evernote or Springpad. The really important thing is that you have access to your ideas at any time. The other tips will be helpful on their own but this is really the most important step to me. There are so many times when I am working on a project and an idea for and article comes to mind. Or, I may realize that just a portion of a manual or piece of training content would make a great article. I use Evernote on my iPad or smart phone to capture ideas and subject matter for my writing. However you decide to capture your ideas it needs to be immediate so that your ideas don't disappear before you have a chance to develop them. I think you will find that this method will generate more topics than you will be able to keep up with.

  2. Turn Your Ideas Into Outlines - It is so much easier to organize your thoughts into an outline format. I actually got this idea from Pat Flynn from The Smart Passive Income Blog. He explains on his blog how he writes his e-books by first creating an outline from a topic he wants to write about. I didn't realize that's what I've been doing for along time when I write training material. I like to use PowerPoint to create my outline because it makes it easy to use bullet points and numbering for my outlines.

  3. Expand the Points From Your Outline - Once you have your main points arranged into the bullet points of an outline, it becomes simple to turn those points into sentences and paragraphs. Research your topic and take unique notes from your source material. Rearrange your notes to create interesting content. Remember to use key words that those looking for your topic will naturally use in their searches. If you find a source that inspires you, use quotes to add credibility to your own opinions. If your publisher allows it, link to these sources for great outgoing links.

  4. Turn Your Outline Into An Article - This point is a great time management tip. All you need to do is turn your your outline bullet points into article headings or numbers tips that your readers can easily follow. How to articles that teach an object lesson are very valuable and will build your audience quickly.

  5. Proof it and Read it Aloud - Most article submission sites have good quality standards in place to assure original content that readers will enjoy. Make sure to save time by proofing your work thoroughly. One of the most important time management principles is to remove actions that waste time. I have found that reading my work aloud helps me catch mistakes that I would otherwise miss. Another great way to proof your articles is to have someone act as editor.

I hope you have found this article helpful. I'm sure if you follow these simple tips your writing productivity will improve. Always partner with a quality article publisher like EzineArticles.

After you try these tips let our readers know how they worked. Come back and leave a comment with your suggestions for improvements.

Sunday, February 3, 2013

How to Market Your Articles With Ease

Content drives the Internet, and consumers are constantly looking for information that solves a problem. The trust, credibility, and authority that content marketing creates knocks down sales resistance to the benefits of a particular product or service.

High quality content must fundamentally change a customer's direction, it does that by teaching and motivating the customer in specific ways.

So what kind of content does it take to change the customer's direction? Anything that is written and distributed for the purpose of attracting, acquiring, and/or engaging customers are considered part of content marketing.

Not every business is in the publishing business, but businesses that don't create content for marketing purposes are missing out on major opportunities.

Building Trust
Marketing is about building trust, and engaging with your customers. Anything that is written and distributed for the purpose of attracting, acquiring, and/or engaging customers are considered part of content marketing.

Storytelling is something we all do in our personal lives. It's a short leap to helping your company tell its story as part of your content marketing. The skill in writing comes from being able to tell a story well and writing in a tone and voice that resonates with the reader.

We create content to educate our customers or prospects about ways they can solve their problems and address challenges they face.

Quality comes from understanding that creating content isn't the same as PR, and it certainly isn't advertising. Seems like an obvious point, but wade through the deepening thicket of content programs and you get mixed results.

Content Marketing is Not Selling
Basically, content marketing is the art of communicating with your customers and prospects without selling.

I am a terrible salesman but I am a fairly good writer. I can describe a product and its benefits very accurately and if there is someone out there looking for that particular product I am confident they will find my content beneficial.

I don't go looking for customers exactly but I do present products in areas where those who are or maybe looking for a certain product hangs out. This maybe a social media site or a blog. So how do you know if your products is desired, if you are on a dog site you will not likely be promoting Kitty litter.

Many people think they need to be good writers or salesman to market content. If you can tell a story and relate benefits of a certain product or service that is basically all that is required.

There is money to be made with content marketing through article marketing. You don't have to be a prize winning author to receive a share of that income.