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

1. Individual Item 1


2. Individual Item 2


3. 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.