How to Write Magical Headlines that Invite Reader Attention

About 80% of the success of a news story or an article depends on the headline it has. Headlines can come with seductive power or as plain boring. The key skill of an article writer or news writer is to come up with a headline that captures the imagination of readers and to pull them to the story.

There are different styles used in headline writing. In modern times, the factual headlines attract more readers than headlines that come with qualifiers. This is true for news stories.
For example:

‘A doctor from Hyderabad injects HIV virus to 617 persons’

Or

‘Hyderabad Doctor Injects HIV Virus to His Patients’

Performs better than

‘Rowdy Doctor plays with life of his patients’

The first two headlines are more factual and specific about the activity of a Hyderabad doctor. Anyone who knows what HIV is likely to read the story. The story sells better to people who have related to Hyderabad in any way.

Article writers have to notch up a bit on factual headlines to attract article readership. News writers have the option to capture the attention by simply telling the facts. It is not the case with article writers. Article writers have to appeal to the emotion of the readers. There are few techniques that article writers use to pull the eyeballs of their readers to their articles.

Article Headline Writing Technique No 1 – Make Your Readers Feel that Something is Too Easy to Achieve

This type of titles appeals to readers because the readers quickly think they can achieve something without any pains. The following titles have been used by Article Writers and Copy Writers on a regular basis to woo customers.

E.g.

How to earn $ 127 a Day Starting Today

How to Lose Four Pounds a Week While Eating All the Chocolates and Ice Creams

Cure Obesity without Dieting or Exercise

Article Headline Writing Technique No 2 – Promise Your Readers to Teach Something New, Use ‘How to’ or ‘Seven Tips to’ Title

Write a title that starts with a phrase ‘How to’ or ‘Seven Tips to’. People always like to learn something new. The ‘How to’ and ‘Seven Tips to’ title ignites the imagination of your readers and will be attracted to your article. See ‘How to’ title at work, read the title of this article.

E.g.
“How to Win Friends and Influence People”

Seven Tips to Take Stunning Photographs with Your Digital Camera

Seven Tips to Enhance Your Digital Photographs with Photoshop

The number seven produces a special effect on human minds. ‘Seven Tips’ formula works better than ‘three tips’, ’11 tips’, ‘9 tips’ or ‘five tips’. I don’t know the exact reason, but it is the way things are.

Article Headline Writing Technique No 3 – Create Curiosity in Reader’s Mind with a Targeted Question

“Do You Make These Simple Mistakes in English Grammar?” was the title question that made Max Sackheim, a Russian immigrant to America richer than his wildest imaginations. That was the title of his advertising campaign to attract customers for his grammar lessons.

A question that creates curiosity or confusion in the minds of readers always attracts the attention of readers of all types.

The question must be specific (mistakes in English grammar), targeted (you) and should create curiosity (simple mistakes).

E.g.
Are You Aware You Are Losing $ 1327 a Year in Mortgage?

Do You Know Why You Can’t Keep Friends to Your Side?

Article Headline Writing Technique No 4 – Promise to Reveal Some Secret, Use ‘Secret Revealed’ Phrase in Your Article Title

People always want to know what is kept a secret. If you can tell your readers that there is some secret that you know, but your readers don’t, make it a point in your article title.

E.g.
The Secrets of Millionaire Brains Revealed

Key to Adsense Riches: Insider Secrets Revealed

These four article headline writing techniques will teach you how to write attention grabbing headlines for your articles.

Are you a newbie article writer? Do you want specific guidance on writing article headlines on any specific issues? Do leave a comment below or send me an email (email ID at ‘VIEW MY COMPLETE PROFILE’ on the sidebar.

Article Writing Basics – How to Write a Telling Intro that Captures the Attention of Readers

A hard hitting intro quickly captures the attention of your readers and attracts them to read your article till the end.

A hard hitting intro captures the essence of the story in one telling sentence. I saw the following intro on April 18.

“Virginia student kills 32 before shooting himself on his face.”

Needless to say, I was shocked and was pulled into the ‘story’ and could not take my eyes off the screen till I reached halfway down the story.

Such shocking intros are not needed in article writing. In 99% of the case, it is not possible either. However, you can capture the essence of your article in a small sentence. That sentence needs to sell the article. That is, the reader must feel like reading the whole article after reading that first sentence.

The first sentence of the letter can cover up a weak headline to a small extent.

It is not really an easy task. But our teacher, John Mary, who is also a long term press reporter once has shown us how simple it is to write ‘leads’ or ‘intros’ to write stories that sell.

It is really simple to write an intro that captures the attention of readers. All you have to do is to imagine yourself in a specific situation.

Imagine you have some news that you want to pass to your friend. Your friend is travelling on a bus and you wait at the bus stop. You see the bus stop is not busy and the bus would wait for only a few seconds. How will you pass the news to your friend? Will you describe all the details or tell him? No way. You will just single out one or two elements of the ‘news’ you have and shout them to your friend, before the bus is gone.

Similar is the case of intro writing. You bring the most important aspects of the story to a single sentence and that sentence is the intro (or lead as most journalists like to call it).

Yet Another Approach to Intro Writing for Article Writing

Open an article in a conversational note. That is, write the sentences as if you are talking to your friend. More than 90% of article writing falls in this category.

There are no special efforts to bring in any effects. Just tell the readers what you have to say in your own style.

Article Writing Basics -the Basic Elements of Article Writing

Quite a few of my friends ask me to teach them to write.’ Hey, how can I teach you to write, you are no primary school child’ or ‘Any one who can talk well and can communicate well with fellow beings can write well’ used to be my response to their requests to teach them the techniques of writing.

My response stems from the fact that I honestly believe there are no special techniques in writing. But, reviewing a few written pieces, I find out I can help them out with some guidelines, tips and techniques. I also put those techniques in my blog, for the benefit of everyone who wants to be an article writer.

In the coming days I will cover topics like

How to write a headline that quickly captures the attention of readers

How to write attention grabbing intros that pull readers to your article

How to develop an article

The importance of adding details to make an article worthy for the readers

The ideal word count of an article

And other topics and issues that I find are outstanding issues with writers who are just starting out. If you have any specific query, leave your comment as a query below as well. I shall answer you as quickly as I can.
Watch out for article writing basics tutorials in the coming days.

Do You Want to be an Article Writer

Who else in interested to make a life as an article writer? Welcome to the world of article writers, where creativity and ideas are rewarded more than anywhere else.

Many technically adept persons find it hard to express themselves in a way they like to. A real article writer can express what is in his/her mind and convey the exact idea to the reader.

Article writers do have some trouble, especially at the beginning stages of their career. They doubt whether their articles really are written well. Would the client like this article, does the article meets the guidelines, and hundred other questions creep into the mind of an article writer who is just starting out.

The real break comes when one of the clients says 'you have done a wonderful job'. That is the real turning point in the life of an article writer. Be persistent till you get there and be growing after you reach there.

With the opening up of www, the average market of an article writer hit an exponential growth. An article writer sitting at his table in the suburbs of Thiruvananthapuram can write for a business running at Palm Springs or Sydney or Yorkshire.

Do you think you can express what it is in your mind in simple English? Do the writing styles of celebrated writers attract you? Do you wish you can pour out your thoughts in words?

If your answers are YES, article writing may be your forte.

Overcome Writer's Block with this Simple Technique

We all experience it at one time or the other - the dreaded 'writer's block'. It is the condition we think words just are not coming out in a way it should. We look at the blank paper (sorry! blank screen it is) for hours and feel we don't have the right words to start it off.

We pray for some magical powers that guide our fingers to create a page full of text that is meaningful to readers, that amuses them and helps our client make profits. My experience says that we all can do it by using a simple technique to overcome writer's block.

The main problem is we really have nothing to say at the point. Or we, the writers don't know we really know what to say on the specific topic at hand. A worse problem is having no topic at all. Let me assume the article writer actually has a topic to write about.

The Technique: Write a 300-400 word silly article that you never show to anyone else.

Sounds strange? Try it for once. Write some things about whatever topic it is and keep it to yourself. It is OK to start with some absurd comment on the real serious topic at your hands. It's also OK to crack some funny comments on the topic - afterall no one is seeing what you write, right?

The assurance and guarantee that you show this work to no one else gives you all the freedom to write anything right or wrong. You have a goal while attempting this, free yourself from the clasp of that dreaded demon called writer's block. That is the only goal and you have to someway kick away the 'imaginary' block.

Writing at least a piece of at least 100 words is beneficial in removing the writer's block that blocks your larynx and tells you "stop writing, you fool".

Writing something silly on the topic acts as a big gulp of a gallon of water that washes 'writer's block' away.

Look at what you have written. Believe me, it has a lot of ideas or starting points from where you can draft a minimum of six or seven articles. Thus a point, the silly article must be on topic. All the words you write must be on the topic you intend to write.

In the Right Mood? Time to Write More Articles

Human article writers (there are article minting software out there) have times of ups and downs. Sometimes the article writer feels it is the right time of the day or the year. The conditions are all favorable to them and articles come out in no time. At the peak of such times three or more articles come out in less than an hour. Such are times an article writer must capitalize on.

Sure, no one gets into that state at will and will not be able to stay there for long. Sooner or later the writer loses the state. The main reason for losing the state of 'in mood of article writing' is a break. It can sometimes be as simple as a coffee break and at times it can be a holiday.

We are humans and we all need occasional breaks. It is better you take breaks when you are off peak. Go for a coffee when you feel you have reached a dead-end. Take a long holiday when you feel you are really worn out.

You have times when you can't produce even a single article in the whole day. This time is different and articles are coming through like locusts. The quality of these articles will also be quite higher than the articles that you produce with many hours of efforts.

Take advantage of the times when words come to your mind like a relentless stream. Harness all the free flowing words and never let it go. You don't feel it even if you miss a mealtime. Just let the words come by and tranform them to sellable articles.

Simple Two-Step Inverted Pyramid Model for Article Writing

Taking a leaf off Journalists' book can help you write articles that accurately convey your ideas.
My teachers at Institute of Journalism told me the formula is an 'inverted pyramid'. I like to call it tell and expand or touch and explain. Journalists use inverted pyramid style to convey the news in shortest possible time.

When writing a news lead, the reporter or editor has to tell the story in as little words as possible. The headline (title) and the first line of the news story (called intro or lead) quickly tell the reader what has happened and where.

The news story then goes on to explain the details. The reader gets details of the news while he or she continues reading the story.

Inverted pyramid style is called so because the reader first see the most important part of the story, followed by parts of lesser importance. The importance, as you guess is based on the judgement of the journalist.

Take that style of writing to article writing and you have a simple, but most effective article writing formula.

An article writer can use many 'inverted pyramids' in an article. Use the first sentence of a paragraph to drop an idea or a fact. Use the following sentences to explain the idea. The first sentence of the paragraph gives some idea. The reader gets a clearer idea of what the writer is saying while he or she reads the second sentence and the third sentence.

You can find the same style of writing in almost any article you read. At first you see a (new or old) topic. You get an idea what the article is about. You then read the article to find the details. In fact this is the default style of writing.

It doesn't take a journalism school training to learn this simple technique of article writing. Anyone who can express himself or herself well can also write high quality articles. Following this touch and explain model of writing never fails them to convey what he or she really means to communicate.

The single most important aspect of article writing is to convey an idea. An article writer first catch the attention of the reader with an eye catchy title and first line (lead). Then he or she explains his or her idea in simple language.

Now you have the simplest method of article writing. Stick to this simple formula till you become comfortable writing informative and amusing articles.

Amplify Productivity Factors to Write More Articles while Working Lesser Hours

Which is the best time to write articles? It depends on individual variations, I think.

For me the best time to write articles is early in the morning, from 4.30 to 7.00 in the morning, before I go to my 30 minutes aerobics program.

Waking up early is difficult thing for many people that I clearly know. I don't ask you to wake up early in the morning, but you can identify the most productive hours of the day by yourself.

Check out the time when you are most able to concentrate on the task of article writing. Modify your daily routine in such a way to take maximum advantage of your PRIME HOURS.
What about working under stress?

I have repeatedly found I produce more articles under stress, but the sad part is there will be problems of spelling mistake, grammar error and bad style. This happens when the deadline is near and I got the assignment not 'in' time. However, a bit of stress is really productive for me.

That is I have enough time to complete the writing assignment, but not enough time to relax. A medium level of compulsion requires me to concentrate on the task and to complete it fast, without the requirement of a 'haste and waste' situation.

My idea to get a bit adrenaline flow is to impose my own deadline to the writing assignment. It will be before the actual deadline, but will act towards a motivational level of stress.
What about de-stressing?

So glued to the computer, my way of relaxing is Yahoo! chatting and blogging, this blog and many other blogs I own are actually my way of busting stress. Unlike client websites, my blogs give me unlimited freedom to write or do whatever I like. I also feel amused that I also have an identity in the vast wide www.

Social Life of Article Writers

With continuous tussle with deadlines, social life is a mess for article writers. I want to occassionally get out of this cycle and go out for a walk in the park or a lull at the beach with family members or friends. The few friends I have are real worthy friends and I don't feel bad I don't have a 'lot of' friends.

A Well Balanced Life

A well balanced life is necessary for highest productivity and better enjoyment of life. After all you are writing articles for someone else. Find the ways to minimize the time you tussle with words and maximize the time you take for yourself.

Four Basic HTML Tips for Article Writers

Article writers must not shy away from basic HTML. Basic HTML for writers helps them easily format their article and most importantly place live link to the website they produce with the correct anchor tag.

Formating Headers with HTML - Though not necessary in most cases, it doesn't hurt to know how headers are formatted. H1 is biggest header font, H2 is smaller and H4 is even smaller.

<H1> Heading H1 </H1> produces

Heading H1

<H4> Heading H4 </H4> produces

Heading H4

Bold, Italics and Underline - Authors need to emphasize a point with Bold, Italicized or Underlined words or phrases. Easily do it with simple HTML tags.

Formatting Bold

<B>Bold</B> produces

Bold

<I>Italicized</I> produces

Italicized

<U>Underlined</U> produces

Underlined

The <STRONG> tag produces results similar to <H4> tag.

Paragraph Breaks and Hard Line Breaks

HTML tag for paragraph break is <P> and for hard line break is <BR>

<P> Put the <P> tag at the beginning and end of a paragraph. It produces a paragraph that runs to different sentences </P> produces a new paragraph.

This is a paragraph. This paragraph is formatted with p tags. A p tag '<P>' at the beginning and the closing tag '</P>' at the end of this paragraph produces a paragraph.

<BR> Put br tags between sentences to produce hard line break without producing a new paragraph. </BR>

These are hard line breaks.

A hard line break is formatted with br tag.

A br tag '<BR>' at the beginning of a sentence or phrase and its closing tag '</BR> at the end of the sentence or phrase produces a new sentence without going to a new paragraph.

Hard line breaks have no vertical spacing.

Formatting Lists with UL and OL tags

For bulleted lists use '<UL>' tags and for numbered lists use '<OL>' tags. Also use <LI> tags to enclose individual items in a list.

Bulletted Lists

<UL>

<LI>Individual Item 1</LI>

<LI>Individual Item 2</LI>

<LI>Individual Item 3</LI>

</UL>

Produces

Individual Item 1

Individual Item 2

Individual Item 3

Numbered Lists

<OL>

<LI>Individual Item 1</LI>

<LI>Individual Item 2</LI>

<LI>Individual Item 3</LI>

</OL>

Produces

Individual Item 1

Individual Item 2

Individual Item 3

Creating live links with HTML

Linking or properly using anchor text is a problem for some newbie authors. Here is a magic shot for you. The HTML tag for link is <A>, which can be used to a web page or an email address.

This is how you link to a web page

<a href="http://mywebsite.com/">http://mywebsite.com/</a> and

<a href="http://mywebsite.com/">Keyword Anchor Text</a>

Produce

http://mywebsite.com/ and

Keyword Anchor Text

You will need to use both of them in your article writing. Using keywords in anchor text looks nice and is beneficial in search engine ranking.

This is how you link to an email address

<a href="mailto:name@domain.com">name@domain.com</a> and

<a href=" mailto:name@domain.com">Send me an email</a>

Produce

name@domain.com and

Send me an email

Work with all the HTML tags in this tutorial for less than thirty minutes. You will change your status from newbie to professional in that much time. Happy formatting with HTML tags in your article writing efforts.

Article Submission: Two Strategies that Work

Article authors and article marketers generally employ two different strategies for getting maximum exposure for their articles.

The first one
Write 50-100 articles and submit them to five to ten article directories from which others can get the article for publication.

The second one
Write 5-10 articles and submit them to 357 article directories thereby targeting immediate exposure and higher search engine ranking for their website.

Which is the strategy you follow? Both produce almost similar results in terms of increased website traffic and acceptance.

The first strategy has one advantage. The actual readers reading articles on your specific topic come across a large number of articles all written by you. This makes the reader assume that you have a lot of experience behind the words.

I saw at EzineArticles.com a body building expert author with more than 70 articles. Add to that he has put a picture of himself that tells loudly he actually is a body builder. No one will doubt he is an expert in his selected field.

The second strategy too has an advantage; readers of different article directories can find you and reach you. You also have the benefit of incoming links from a whole lot of domains and IP locations.

The second strategy however has a problem that the back links you get may be from pages with Google PR 0. It is not very beneficial in your search engine ranking. Avoiding an article directory solely because its home page has page rank zero is not a good strategy either.

I have personally submitted an article to ArticleBin.com in Dec 2006 as part of massive link building plan for a client website. It had PR 0. Checked back in Jan 15, 2007 and find PR increased to 4. That difference was happened in less than 30 days.

Third strategy I personally like
Handpick five article directories that are highly populated with more than 1,000 authors and a minimum of 10,000 articles. It also has Google PR 5. Submit five articles a week on a consistent basis to these five directories. I don't give you a specific list. But there are enough article directories that meet these conditions and you can choose from them.

Third strategy continued
Randomly pick another five article directories a week and submit the same five articles.

Do you have a fourth strategy?
To submit hundreds of articles to all the article directories that you can find? I don't have experience with strategy and not sure about the results. Seems OK, but may not be the case.

Article Titles for Human Eyes and Search Engine Scanners

Addressing this basic human nature can help you write irresistible article titles that gets clicked 97% of the time.

Human mind always seek answers for their problems outside themselves. Whenever they see something that when even remotely promises to solve a real or potential problem. Your articles will be successful if you write article title that doesn't tell, but promises some solution to their problem.

Problem solving headlines are not the only kind of headline that works. Intriguing headlines also attract the fancy of people. It is incredibly simple to tell even a professional that you know a thing or two that experts miss out.

What does this guy knows that I miss? The headline must create this doubt, confusion and intrigue in the mind of your reader. This is the easiest way to sell your article with your title. In this case click on the title to read your article in full.

Here are a few examples of headlines that create some levels of curiosity with your readers.

Exact Reasons Why Your Boyfriend Dumped You and Picked Your Best Friend

Identify this simple Adwords mistake to cut your costs by 50% and increase sales by 147%.

How to Correctly Hide Your Bank Account and Family Details from Hackers

Use this Magical Formula and See Your CTR Instantly Multiply by 347%

There are always certain power words that immediately pull readers to your title and help you sell your article 97% of the time.

Free is the most powerful power word. Free tips, free e-book, or anything free still appeals to human nature, even though everyone knows nothing on earth is really free. Unique, State of the Art, Proven, Magical, Dramatic, Insider Information, etc also are power words.

However, don't get carried away by power words too much. Any word can become a power word when used in the right context at the right point. The biggest example is 'these'.

'Do You Make These Simple Grammar Mistakes in English'?

That is a world renowned title that every copywriter comes across while perfecting the art of word use. The word THESE makes the title irresistible. --- would have never imagined the kind of success that simple question brought to him and his product.

Thus the art of article writing title is incredibly simple. As simple as making your reader believe that you have simple solution for their real or imaginary problem he has.

Paid Blogging: What it is and what not

The cries and hues about paid blogging and pay per post blogging is not without a reason. At one side is advertisers trying to capitalize on the credibility of bloggers as genuine commentators and on the other side is a set of bloggers who want to uphold the integrity and credibility of blogging community.

What paid blogging is acceptable?

I can pay someone to write for my blog. I can also accept payment for writing on someone else's blog. It is the same as ghost writing or column writing for a magazine, which has been around for quite a long time. Freelance writers make their living out of this type of writing.

The blog owner may choose to acknowledge the contributor or not. The present nature of blogging environment is such that such contributions are easily acknowledged. Anyone can pay professional writers to get enough blog posts to make his or her blog content rich. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this model of paid blogging.

What model of paid blogging is not acceptable?

When someone pay me to post something in my blog, it is not acceptable. I can't also pay someone to write what I say in his or her blog. Doing so is in no way similar to ghost writing. It is simple bribery. At first the blogger may be free to write his or her own views about a specific website, product or service. Soon there will be more strings as to avoid excessive negative comments about a product, then it will be avoid negative and final stage will be the blogger asked for blatant promotion of the product.

Such a type of paid blogging is comparable to bribing the editors of a newspaper to write favorable columns for a party, any party. Newspapers have ear marked areas for such expression. It is called advertising space.

With the present type of pay per post blogging or paid blogging, a blogger has to develop a reasonably populated blog and sell the post space as promotion space. Advertisers see several benefits in bribing bloggers. The main one is immediate access to a good reader base. Secondary advantage comes in the form of extra search engine juice. The damage is only for the blogger and for the whole blogosphere.

This can bring in considerable damage to the blogging community as a whole. The reputation of bloggers as reliable information providers will be affected. People generally start disbelieving bloggers as a whole.

The requirement to acknowledge acceptance of payment in the post is not a reliable option to separate paid posts and own posts. The marking can become so blurred that the creativity and genuine opinion too will be viewed as writing on someone's interest.

It Pays to Respect Copyright

Article authors and online marketers submit articles to article directories for very obvious reasons. One among them is the exposure they get. This exposure they expect not only from the article directories. By submitting to an article directory, the article author is giving an option to publishers to freely publish the article. The only condition article authors ask is to keep the resource box in tact.

A few of web publishers like to get the article but are reluctant to leave the live link in the article. They just remove the author resource box and publish the article in their own website. At times they may also change the title of the article.

The publishers of such an article have to address several issues. They know they are violating copyright rules and the publisher policy set by the article directory. Anyway they feel they should take a risk.

The disadvantages of not respecting copyright:

The publisher has to somehow hide the fact that he/she has taken the article from an article directory.

The publisher has to deform the article not to get caught in copyscape tests.

The publisher risks his/her internet hosting provider suspending the service and risking the website going offline.

The publisher has to tell a lot of lies.

Article authors resent such article publishers.

The simplest method for article publishers get quality content in their website - get HTML copy of the article from the article directory and use it as such without ANY modification. You are NOT free to edit grammar errors or typos. The author however gives such right to article directory editors.

If the publisher doesn't like to leave the link live in author resource box - don't publish the article.

Many people claim to be ignorant of copyright rules. Remember ignorance is not an excuse.

Authors - do leave a sentence of copyright protection at the bottom of your resource box so that you can help ignorant people not accidentally violating copyright rules.

The Wrong Way of Using Articles from Article Directories

Everyone wants quality content for their websites. If it is not solely for attracting search engines, it is for addressing the visitors as a credible host. Free content is available from article directories in large quantities. There is a right way to use the articles in your websites and there is a wrong way for doing so.

First the right way of using articles from article directories

Article directories require publishers or website owners to use the article as such, without any modifications. You shall not in any way modify author resource box and should leave the live link in tact. This articles are also publishable in magazines, newspapers etc. Then again the resource box rule exists. You must not delete or edit the resource box in any manner.

There can also be restrictions on the number of articles you can take from a specific article directory. Must comply to this rule to play it safe.

The wrong ways of using articles from article directories

It is so compelling for some publishers that they want to remove the resource box and live link. Removing the resource box before publishing is wrong way.

Another thing is to reword the whole article to make the article appear a new one. Thus the website publishers believe they can remove the resource box without violating copyright rules. This is wrong way of using an article from article directories.

Authors publish their articles in article directories to get as much exposure as they can. The only marketing tool they have is the author resource box. They expect traffic to their web pages through the link in the resource box and they expect a better positioning in the web structure. Dishonoring that requirement of the author is against all copyright rules and ethical values.

Use Negative Article Titles like These Ones and Permanently Turn Your Readers Away

Article authors use different strategies to get maximum readership for their articles. With quest to stand out from the crowd, they employ various strategies to attract readers to their articles. The result sometimes will be fantastic and at times will be horrible.

One such out of the line thinking is use of negative words in the title of the article. The title of this article conveys a negative idea, but no negative words are used (if you don't consider 'negative' a negative word).

These are a few article titles that I came across and planned not to check content.

'Don't Read this Article'
'This is the Worst Article Written Ever'
'A Poorly Written Article'
'I Can't Write a Good Title'

These are real examples of article titles. Do you find a reason to click through to the articles? The writer could do a better job by simple rewording or elaborating a bit.

Does Your Article Titles Say 'Don't Read this Article'? Try This!
'You Think You Can't Write a Good Article Title? Apply This Simple Formula'

You can effectively use negative words for your article title and still get readers click through to your articles. The negative words should address a problem the reader actually or potentially has. Immediately catch the attention of your reader by mentioning you have a workable solution for the situation.

When using titles like 'don't read this article', you are only giving a command to the reader not to turn your way. It also says you are in a desperate position.

When you offer to teach them something else to try, they will turn your way. You should never give implied meaning that you are powerless.

Now think about the following article title.

'The Dirtiest Poker Trick'
'The Dark Secrets of Copywriting'

What do the titles convey? Though the words are dirt and dark, the titles assume you are in position of power and master of the dirty tricks or dark secrets. People will want to immediately find out what you have to offer.

Just think about what kind of message you want to convey and analyze if your article title conveys the message you mean.

The 27 Simple Title Phrases that Increase Article Readership by 317%

These 27 words and phrases form the basis of a magical article title writing formula that catch the attention of your readers and entice them to quickly skim through your article.

We as professional writers always look for ways to sell more of our articles. It is only human nature to look for shortcuts and easy to follow formulas to get what we want. Here is a list of 27 words or phrases, when used appropriately in titles can show a threefold increase in article readership stats. Here we go

Proven Method (to increase sales, decrease fat, stay healthy)
Magical Formula
Effective
New
Free
Easy
Instant/Immediate
Truth About
Secret
First Time
Simple
This/These
Here
Today/Now ('Today' is more powerful than 'Now'.)
Trusted/Reputed
Powerful
How to
Why
Numbers (look at the title of this article for example)
Selected
Handpicked
Carefully Chosen
Life/Your Life
Tips (to make life easier)
Dirty Tricks
Master Technique
Secret Techniques (that crooks use)

Use one or more of the above words or phrases in titles for ALL your articles.

It just goes without saying the usage of no single word can ensure better readership. These are words commonly found in article titles that sell so quickly.

Also keep in mind don't ever play with the readership of an article title in the quest to include a power word in the title. The right word at the wrong place is a very bad thing to see.

Let Paper Bits Help You Create Article Titles that Sell

Learn this simple technique to write an article title that has the right keywords and pulls potential readers to your article.

Headline is the lifeblood of any article. What will you do when you see an article title or just any title that appeals to you so much and the promise you see in the title is so compelling? Click on the title to find what the writer has to say, right? Just how were you pulled into reading this article?
I will answer; you find something strange in my article title. You see a group of words that hardly make sense, unless you arrange it in the correct order.

Try This When Everything Else Fails with article title. That is the correct order of the title. OK here we go what to do when you are pressing hard to find a good article title.

When you find it very hard to come up with an effective title for your article, play a little game of jumbling. That is, print out the keywords that you want to bring in to the title. Cut each word out and rearrange them in different orders until something nice strikes you.

Rearrange the same words for different combinations, but write the title in a sensible manner. That is your reader understands what it is about the article. The guess game of jumbling words works, but only with readers who are also writers. I guess you are an article writer looking for ways to improve your writing style and looking for ways to come up with titles that sell.

The point is you have to actually cut the keywords onto a piece of paper, rearrange them in all possible combinations and use the appropriate connecting words so that the title makes sense.

This is a thing to practice only when you find your creative juices not flowing as easily as it should and you are against a deadline. The point here is the title tells exactly what one can expect from the article body to both search engines and the readers.

Dig Gold from the Article Your Competitor has Just Submitted

Every online marketer today finds time or hires someone to write good quality articles and post them to article directories. This is actually good marketing strategy as article writing is the short cut to establishing oneself as an expert in literally anything. There is also an added advantage of much needed search engine juice in the form of incoming links.

Website publishers are free to take articles from these article directories and publish it in their own site, provided they make no edits in the article. That is to leave the link in the article intact.

If you don't mind giving a link to your competitor from your site, you can literally dig gold from the efforts of your competitor. This is how. Get the article from the article directory where she has published the article and publish it in your own site. The guiding rule of article directories allows you to do so without worrying about any kind of copyright violation. By submitting to the article directory, your competitor gives you the permission to use the article as a whole, provided you don't edit the article or remove the resource box, which is a link to his/her website.

I agree, directly linking to a competitor website is a difficult thing for most website owners. Don't you like to your competitor article working hard to sell your products? Don't you like to see your competitor article putting money into your pocket? If the article is really worth it, you don't really have to worry about a link pointing to your competitor site. The monetary gains you can reap are much greater than the traffic that you may lose through that one link.

Take an article by your competitor only if the article is so persuasive and pulls the reader to immediately take an action. Here you need to divert the direction of call of action quite a bit. The call of action will be to visit his or her website to get a benefit.

You don't want your visitor say goodbye to your site at this point. The easiest way is to show the visitor that s/he can get the benefit right from your website. The page in which the article is displayed has only one prominent element. That element is a link to the product page or service signup page.

No foul play here. It may be too tempting to remove the resource box from the article. If you do remove author resource box from the article, you are at a serious disadvantage of getting caught for copyright violation, paying huge sums as damage and even spending three years in jail.

Instead, leave the resource box there as a thank you gesture to your competitor for presenting you with a great marketing material that you use with a gleeful smile.

There is no point for your customer click over to another website if s/he can get benefited from your website itself. Ethical stealing, isn't it? Give it a try this trimester.

Why Outsourcing Article Writing is Better Choice

When it comes to effective online marketing there are few tools as effective as well written articles. Articles act as a shortcut to establishing yourself as an authority in simply any field. The only point is to bring in your own original ideas and present them in an easy-to-digest form.

The more people articles you give out in the open, the better chances of winning the trust of more people, they coming to your website and putting an order for your product.

Now an important point - do you have the time to write hundreds of articles and submitting them to different article directories? Or in other words, is article writing your main business? Here is a situation you need to take an important decision. In reality, with a little effort from your part, you can write any number of quality articles. Do you choose to do it yourself or outsource article writing to a professional writer?

Outsourcing article writing has its own advantages. This is only true if article writing is not your main business. Outsourcing article writing lets you get quality, educating articles while you are busy taking critical management decisions and devising plans for further growth of your business.

This is common business model of almost all business houses in the city. Writing an article yourself or worse still assigning your technically skilled professionals writing articles actually is a bad idea. What are you best skilled at? Building business. What is your staff skilled with? They have technical skills that your business badly needs. What are article writers skilled at? They are skilled at writing articles.

Outsourcing article writing ensures you get original, well written articles. Because article writers are masters of what they do - article writing.

When you pay $ 20 or $ 40 an article, you get copyright ownership of the pieces they produce. You can publish them by yourself. No need to worry about copyrights, especially if you get the articles written by real professional article writers -- not cut and paste professionals.

The only point in outsourcing article writing is to get a professional who has the skills to get the attention of readers and makes them feel amused about knowing more about your business by clicking over to your website. There are quite a few simple techniques to effectively use the resource box to increase click through ratio and drive interested customers to your site from just any site.

Are $ 1 Articles Really That Cheap?

It is an interesting trend to see people at online freelance job exchanges trying to get writers to write articles for $1. On the first sight it seems a good idea to hire people who can come up with an article of 500 plus words for such a meager sum. Have a reality check once again. Is it really profitable for you?

Leave the willingness of people to take up a job of writing a 500-700 word article for little to nothing. What do you get in return? You will get in return a few articles that are lifted from an article directory or your competitor site. Sure there will be some rewording here and there. Can you say it original work?

Think about the damages of getting caught with charges of copyright violations. Not only will you have to pay hefty sums as copyright damages, your credibility also will reach a nadir.

You know the real worth of quality content. Why on earth do you cheat out on yourself?

The articles in most cases will violate existing rules of English grammar. Think about what kind of message you give your target audience with poor written articles about your company, products and services. Do you think you are making a better impression with poorly written articles? Of course, you will have articles published at hundreds or thousands of locations. Think if it is the only thing you ever want.

The working of search engines has created the need to get as much incoming links as possible. Soon article submission became the shortcut to achieve that target of uncountable inbound links. Website owners first used their in house resources to create the articles, and then they outsourced the work to freelancers. Now the trend is to find someone to fill a page with some pre-selected keywords somehow joined together with groups of words that can hardly be said a sentence.

Article writers really have nothing to worry about this trend. Quality will always be rewarded. There will be genuine business people who want to do business in the long run. They are always willing to pay the writers their share. They know it is not immediate monetary gains, but sustained business is the key to business success.

Abusive Language in Sales Copy Writing

Quite a few marketers seem to honestly believe using abusive language in sales copy gives them a unique identity, establishes them as superior people and helps them close more sales. Quite a few marketing materials by so called successful people have attracted the attention of almost all internet copywriters.

What makes the marketing people think using abusive language gives them an edge in the marketplace?
The marketing technique is as simple as shocking the prospective customers, making them feel insignificant and taking advantage of their insecurities. Think about similar language using in face to face marketing efforts. Will a salesman be confident enough to use same abusive language when talking to a prospective customer?

Getting the attention of almost all the people who make a living writing proves the tactic has power. I agree, the shock and awe technique has power. How long will the power last? People want to be treated with dignity. If people begin see more and more so called sales letters filled with abusive language, it is serious problem for such copy writers.

With the click of a mouse they will be shutting out the abusive person shouting loudly about his achievements while belittling his or her stature with abusive language.

I don't feel the need of directly referring an abusive sales letter, because you copywriters have all seen it. You may be one among the copywriters who like to address prospective customers as significant creatures.
It is your futile attempts to wear a rowdy personality - it's time you begin using your copywriting skills before the sand beneath you thins away too much.

Blog and Website Designing: Why Simple Design Still is the Best

Website designing has come of age and now simplicity is the mantra that drives website designers. A trend started by Google, the concept of simplicity is followed by almost all well known online entities. Compare present ebay.com home page to that of three years ago. Also have a look at Yahoo.com homepage or MSN.com. The best trafficked sites today have a simple design.

Now bloggers, the new breed of publishers want to get bombastic templates for their blogs. Though it may appear nice to the Blogger, readers find it hard to stay longer at the blog. The main problems are web-unfriendly font, almost similar background and font color, the quest for a three column design and thin post column width that gives the blog post the feel that it takes forever to finish reading the post.

The simplicity of design is aimed at selling the product important to the customers. In Google's case it is search. A visitor to the homepage of Google feels like doing only one thing - Google (verb - search).
Get the thing you want as quickly as you can from our site. This is the only thing a website has to tell its visitors. A simple design caters best to this demand. If people don't what they were seeking, they use the power of click - bingo that visitor is lost for ever.

This doesn't mean your website must look like Craigslist.org. In fact you can bring in use great visual elements to your advantage. Take a look at Problogger.net; it is very pleasant without any visual gimmicks. The visual elements should be complementary to the one product you look to sell in the page. What is the point if the images and flash elements actually hide the real product from the eyes of your customers?

Very simple concept, but the tug between SEO professionals and website designers never seems to end. It is better website designers get some web marketing training and SEO professionals getting website designing skills.
Now, website owners and bloggers - go for simple designs. It is best way to ensure visitors like to stay at your page.

Stop Blaming; Empower Your Mind

It is quite easy to the blames on others. Take a resolution today that you don’t blame others.

Blaming others as a way to escape from one’s own responsibility is common practice today. Perpetual blamers always have an option to put the responsibility of some bad happening squarely on others.

In most cases, with a little probing, they will find the blaming boomerang on them.

I have read in my childhood a story of a flour seller and a baker. The baker began to doubt that the merchant is cheating him on with quantity. Surely enough he weighed the flour he get. He found he gets only 900 grams of flour when he pays for a KG of flour.

He took the issue to court. The flour seller was called before the village headman. He was caught guilty of cheating with measurement.

He explains: “I use the bread I buy from this baker to weigh flour. I buy two breads of 500 g from him on a daily basis. I use the breads to weigh flour, believing it is the real measurement”.

Who is to be fined here? Tell me, who is to be fined here? The flour seller or the baker!

It is quite easy to find faults with others. Such people also come off as too timid to face any challenges that come their way.

The point here is to take a look at any given situation in an objective manner. Look at all the aspects involved. If you take a moment to think in different perspectives, you will be able to quickly identify what has actually happened.

New Year Resolution of a Blogger

I am blog writer, or more clearly an aspiring successful blogger. If you like to know about my plans to success in 2007, you can read on.

This year I will draft a post everyday. Whether I post or not is not relevant, but I will write at least one article per day. It translates into a minimum of 365 articles in 2007. I plan to do more is another thing.

My inspiration comes mainly from a few humans. One among them is Lance Winslow, an expert author at EzineArticles.com, who has wrote 10,000 articles in 20 months. I don’t think I will write as much articles in five or six years.

Others that I derive inspiration from include Tenzing Norge, Mahatma Gandhi and Wilma Rudolph in general and Lance Armstrong in special. These are people that redefined ‘possible’ and the ‘impossible’.

My second goal is to increase traffic to my blog. I find links to my blog does me good. Every week I will write at least seven posts for my blog. At the same time I will write another article, which I will submit to five article directories.

I will immediately have five links to my blog. I will do this every week. Thus at the end of 2007, I will have 250 links from article directories.

Declaring my intentions loudly to the wide world and getting some feedback for the declaration will be a great boost to my sure march to the status of successful blogger and article writer in 2007.

I don’t plan to use any affiliate programs as of now. But don’t brush off the idea either. If ever I use an affiliate link, I will let my readers know by clearly marking it so.

There is a major challenge before me to be successful as a blogger. It is not the 40kbps connection or English being my second language. The biggest challenge is to turn these resolutions to solid action. In simpler words, retaining the attitude for a year is the biggest challenge before me.

I will break 2007 into 12 months. Analyze my progress every month. I also will put monthly and weekly targets of minimum blog postings and article submissions. Seven blog postings and an article submission a week is my goal. By the end of 2007 I will have a minimum of 350 useful posts and 50 articles giving me 250 links.

Very moderate minimalist goal, I think it is. I think it still is a big challenge.

Blog Networking by Bloggers

Blogging is akin to networking. Bloggers of similar interests regularly link to one another, opening up possibilities of large scale traffic exchange. It is a good thing because all the bloggers very much like part of a vibrant community. Others regularly updating their own blogs also give them the inspiration to regularly update their blogs.

Another benefit of blogger networking
Search engines quickly find the links and can reach your blog through different channels.

Getting links to latest posts helps a lot. Search engines know what you have written lately.

The primary aim of networking is to establish a quick vibrant relationship between bloggers. The new idea one has will get quick publicity in the blogosphere and that is it. Someone with original ideas always take the lead and gets recognition.

The nature of Blog Networks

It is common to find blogs of similar kinds form a large network. This is quite beneficial for anyone to quickly find a group of blogs that is of interest to him or her.

The bad thing about blog networking

Creating hundreds of thousands of blogs simply for the purpose of link exchange can't be said to be a blog network. There should be a community of blog writers and readers engagement to correctly address a blog network as a real blog network.

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