Four Tips On Article Writing & Blogging & One New Blogger

There are a number of basic skills in article writing and blogging, and rather than merely write another feature on each of them, it occurs to me that it may be helpful to readers to follow the process that I recently worked through in correspondence with an online friend. Let me explain.

BLOG BRAND

Having learned, through social networking (one of my LinkedIn groups) that Lucy Cripps was once a teacher who had participated in a drugs education project, I asked her if she would be willing to write a guest blog on the topic. My reason for doing so was, unashamedly, to promote my last book, A Painful Post Mortem. The aim of the book, like my blog brand, is to provide resources to inform, inspire, encourage – in this case parents whose offspring are caught in a web of drug abuse. It is, also, to support two related charities benefiting children, by donating to them the proceeds of all book sales.

Tip No. 1: use your blog to promote your brand.

Although an expert in her field (editing and proofreading) Lucy is relatively new to blogging. What follows is the first e-mail I wrote to her following submission of her article to me.

Dear Lucy,

I have read through your article which was fascinating. You really brought it to life and let me see your experience. A good piece of 'show' writing and I can't wait to put it up on my blog.

I do have one or three suggestions - some of which may help to answer your questions about marketing (apologies in advance if I'm teaching my rather younger than me grandmother how to suck the proverbial egg!).

PLAN YOUR ARTICLE WITH A PURPOSE IN MIND:

Your article about peer education training, with respect to teenage drug abuse, was extremely interesting. I've never heard of this approach before and felt I'd really learned something. However, arousing my curiosity and not satisfying it left me feeling a little let down. Are there any links to show readers where they might learn more; where, in fact, they might be able to instigate or participate in projects like this?

Tip No. 2: write your article with a goal in mind; know what it is that you are offering your readers, and provide links to further their reading.

OPTIMISATION: USING KEYWORDS:

Lucy, could you please identify your keywords (long tail keywords as well as top ones) so that I can meta-tag them on my blog. I use Google adwords because it's free. If you don't know how to use it, see my article Blogging For Beginners: The Use Of Keywords.. Similar articles may be found at Article Writing & Blogging - a link from my Home page (which also includes links to Creative Writing and other topics).

Tip No. 3: Learn how to use a keywords programme (there are many) and, crucially, the importance of mixing long tail (keyphrases) and top keywords.

HOOK YOUR READERS WITH APPROPRIATE ARTICLE TITLES & SUBTITLES:

Article titles and subtitles, like keywords, help Google bots and other Search Engines to find your article - which is what brings the visitors in. They also help to focus the fleeting attention span of most web browsers onto the content of the article because, let’s face it, most of us scan search results and content rather than read in depth these days.

Tip No. 4: Use keyphrases at the beginning of your article titles and subtitles to capture the interest of your readers.

Speak to you soon, Mel

The finished result of Lucy’s article may be seen here: Teen Drug Abuse: Peer Education Training Challenges Misconceptions

Copyright: Mel Menzies. All Rights Reserved

NEXT TIME:

I shall be looking at these aspects of article writing and blogging in greater detail. In particular, I’ll show you the actual process of how we worked through Lucy’s blog, highlighting keywords and keyphrases and optimising them in article titles. Using Long Tail Keywords When Optimising Your Title In Article Writing & Blogging