Writing articles is a great way to market your product, service, blog or website as good Original content is what makes the Internet world go around. Without new and interesting information, the Web would be pretty dull. The Web is growing exponentially and it’s because of new ideas and new content, that it will continue to grow.

That’s great, but because both the creation and drive for new fresh content, there is a lot of the same info on the same topic flying around on the web. How do we ensure that what we create is the kind of information that people will find, read and come back to? Give your readers quality information, that they are actually looking for – that’s how!

There’s lots of ways to get your articles seen and read by the readers in your target market, but I’m going to give you four specific points to work with that will greatly improve the odds of your article being read. Along with your article being more valuable, you’ll create a better relationship with your readers for the long term.

Understand What You’re Writing About

Research. Most people will try to find a way NOT to do it, or if they do, do the bare minimum. Now I’m not saying you have to know a subject inside out, but most of those who shy away from doing research have yet to see its true value. If they did, I know they’d change their minds on the subject. To come up with quality information for your reader, you need to do research that gives you insight into some of the depths of the subject. This will allow you to see and work with new ideas and connect with your readers that 90% of others will not.

Many people assume skimming a few articles and looking at a couple of headlines is enough to write a good article. If you look around, you can see in an instant just how many writers do exactly this – and if you can see it’s not quality then so will everyone else. To give your readers what they want to know, you’ve got to dig a bit deeper. Find out who the experts in your specific niche are. See what they’re saying and take a look at what they’re focusing on. Do what you can to get background information and facts, so that what your looking to present is both credible, and has the relevant depth of understanding.

Good research improves both your credibility and expertise. You’ll present quality content that people will want to read and come back for. If you don’t have time to research a topic in enough depth, find someone who does.

Knowledge is power.

Stay Focused

Hopefully you’ll know what you want your article to convey and what action you want your reader to take after reading it. Sometimes though, getting down on paper what you have in your head can be a lot harder than it sounds!

The most important and productive step you can do when writing any article (or report, or ebook or novel!) is to create an outline to work from. This keeps you organised, on subject and sharply focused on what you’ve got to do.

It doesn’t have to be complex, difficult or comprehensive, it just has to give you the structure – the skeleton to put the flesh on – of what is is you’re writing about. The classic approach is quite straightforward and just needs a little practice to have you writing articles in no time.

In simple terms it’s this -

1. Tell them what you’re going tell them about. (Introduction)
2. Tell them about it. (Body)
3. Tell them what you’ve told them. (Conclusion)

If you think an outline will only create more work, think again. The more you do it, the more you will find it will save you time in the long run. You’ll be better organized and able to focus on each piece of writing, that when finished flow well and be seen as professional.

Put a sparkle in the eye of your copy

The key function of any of your articles is to inform your readers. However, to do this your must first get the readers’ attention and second, keep it right? – of course!

Lots of people people forget to focus on the premise that articles need to be both interesting and compelling; if you can’t grab the readers attention it’s not going to be a successful article. The art of copywriting has many elements you can put in to make your articles compelling to increse your chances of leading people to take a certain action. You can increase interest with things like:

1. A hook line – an eye catching or provocative title
2. Sharply focused headlines and subheadings
3. Leave the reader wanting to know more

Everyone is busy these days, so to get your article read from beginning to end you will have far more success if you add a bit of creative copywriting.

Lead The Way

The golden rule for dealing with people buying online –

TELL YOUR READERS WHAT TO DO NEXT!

Always remember to tell your readers what to do or where to go after they’ve finished reading your article. Surprisingly, even when they know what they want or what they should doing next, we can get distracted and be indecisive. To make it easier for your readers, just simply show them the next step they need to take.

For example, if you want your reader to go to your website; send them there. If you would like your reader to complete a survey, again, tell them where to go to do so.

At the end of your article is is where your author or resource box comes into play and can quickly become your best friend. If you’re posting the article on a ezine site, use this are to make a strong call to action. Many will say use the resource to say a bit about yourself – I disagree!! that’s what your profile page is for – use your resource box to maximum effect to get your reader to take action.

Writing articles is not hard, as long as you put some practice in, and use the right approach. Understand what is relevant to your target audience. Be as well researched as necessary in what you’re writing about, so as to provide the best information possible. Always create an outline to ensure you are organized and focused. Throw in a dash of sparkle to create interest and keep them interested, and finally, tell them what you want them to do achieve maximum results from your article marketing efforts. (Now, for more useful tips, sign up for the newsletter above )

Firstly, my apologies for not being around for a few weeks – family illness really had put the kibosh on pretty much everything, but things have settled down a bit now.

Anyway, on to the article in question.

We hear all the time that we, as humans, move quicker away from pain than we move towards pleasure. Apart from seeing this all around us, I wondered if there was any actual proof.

Well, I found a very interesting article (took me a while as it was published in 2003…!) that adds some scientific weight to this widely held assumption-

“Our Brain’s Negative Bias
Why our brains are more highly attuned to negative news.
By Hara Estroff Marano, published on June 20, 2003

Why do insults once hurled at us stick inside our skull, sometimes for decades? Why do some people have to work extra hard to ward off depression?

The answer is, for the same reason political smear campaigns outpull positive ones. Nastiness just makes a bigger impact on our brains.

And that is due to the brain’s “negativity bias”: Your brain is simply built with a greater sensitivity to unpleasant news. The bias is so automatic that it can be detected at the earliest stage of the brain’s information processing.

Take, for example, the studies done by John Cacioppo, Ph.D., then at Ohio State University, now at the University of Chicago. He showed people pictures known to arouse positive feelings (say, a Ferrari, or a pizza), those certain to stir up negative feelings (a mutilated face or dead cat) and those known to produce neutral feelings (a plate, a hair dryer). Meanwhile, he recorded electrical activity in the brain’s cerebral cortex that reflects the magnitude of information processing taking place.

The brain, Cacioppo demonstrated, reacts more strongly to stimuli it deems negative. There is a greater surge in electrical activity. Thus, our attitudes are more heavily influenced by downbeat news than good news.

Our capacity to weigh negative input so heavily most likely evolved for a good reason—to keep us out of harm’s way. From the dawn of human history, our very survival depended on our skill at dodging danger. The brain developed systems that would make it unavoidable for us not to notice danger and thus, hopefully, respond to it.

All well and good. Having the built-in brain apparatus supersensitive to negativity means that the same bad-news bias also is at work in every sphere of our lives at all times.

So it should come as no surprise to learn that it plays an especially powerful role in our most intimate relationships. Numerous researchers have found that there is an ideal balance between negativity and positivity in the atmosphere between partners. There seems to be some kind of thermostat operating in healthy marriages that almost automatically regulates the balance between positive and negative.

What really separates contented couples from those in deep marital misery is a healthy balance between their positive and negative feelings and actions toward each other. Even couples who are volatile and argue a lot stick together by balancing their frequent arguments with a lot of demonstrations of love and passion. And they seem to know exactly when positive actions are needed.

Here’s the tricky part. Because of the disproportionate weight of the negative, balance does not mean a 50-50 equilibrium. Researchers have carefully charted the amount of time couples spend fighting vs. interacting positively. And they have found that a very specific ratio exists between the amount of positivity and negativity required to make married life satisfying to both partners.

That magic ratio is five to one. As long as there was five times as much positive feeling and interaction between husband and wife as there was negative, researchers found, the marriage was likely to be stable over time. In contrast, those couples who were heading for divorce were doing far too little on the positive side to compensate for the growing negativity between them.

Other researchers have found the same results in other spheres of our life. It is the frequency of small positive acts that matters most, in a ratio of about five to one.

Occasional big positive experiences—say, a birthday bash—are nice. But they don’t make the necessary impact on our brain to override the tilt to negativity. It takes frequent small positive experiences to tip the scales toward happiness.”

Very Interesting and useful, wouldn’t you say ?