The Art of Writing Articles

Articles are a great way of showing off your writing style and I wholeheartedly recommend that you decide which areas you would like to cover when doing so. Remember, you will always write better with topics you know and enjoy.

What makes a good article? Well, this depends on who you write for. Traditional media requires you to write long articles that are carefully researched and could be anything up to 3000 words. You need a solid background and understanding of what the requirements are - so always thoroughly and stringently go through the writers submission guidelines for each magazine or publication.

One thing to note - there is little point of spending hours writing an article and then trying to see who will publish it. A better way (and the only way you should consider doing it) is to firstly write an article proposal for your chosen subject and then submit your proposal to as many magazines in the same area as possible.

For example, you want to write an article on cellulite for a woman's glossy. You would submit your proposal to say 5 or 6 magazines and then see who responds. You may never get a response. What you should do is to state in your proposal that 'If I do not hear from you within 4 weeks, I will assume you are not interested. Please let me know if you would like more time to consider it.'

Now you wait 4 weeks before resubmitting proposals to another handful of places. You could even re-submit to the same magazine again - perhaps they never read your email or maybe it went into their junk folder.

Make a point of doing this every month with a new proposal to the same magazine. You will get yourself noticed and eventually someone will take you on.

Articles for the web are a different kettle of fish altogether. People use the web for information and they do not want to wade through piles of writing to find what they want. Generally speaking, web articles are around 500 words or so, with short paragraphs consisting of no more than 2-3 sentences. Keep your writing style relaxed and do not throw too much jargon in there unless you are writing for a very specific area that requires it.

If people lose interest, they will click away and go elsewhere. To get used to writing for the web, I suggest you write for the following:

• www.suite101.com - you are paid commission on every click to your work
• www.associatedcontent.com - you can get paid up to $30 for your work
• www.constant-content.com - you can charge up to $100 for your work here

The sites above are certainly worth checking out and not only will you have samples to show clients, but you will be earning from them too.

It makes no difference whether you write for the web or for magazines - the best articles always have a beginning, a middle and an end. You begin with an introduction to the topic area. Your middle bit is explaining your topic, and then finally your ending is a summary of what you have spoken about. Make every word count and do not add words for the sake of doing so. It infuriates readers who will just go elsewhere.