How to Write an Effective Ezine
2006-12-09 04:48 AM | Posted by Tejvan Pettinger | Permanent Link | writing
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Ezine articles are a very useful way for writing about your topic of expertise and exposing your website to a greater audience. The main reason people write ezine articles is that it enables you to add a link of your choice at the end of your article. Getting links is an important aspect of improving your ranking. However you shouldn’t just view ezines as a way to get links. The quality of your writing is important as to whether people are interested in using your article and visiting your website. Here are some tips for writing effective ezines.
I consider links from ezines to be not particularly helpful. Anybody who can write could get an article published in an ezine. However what is helpful is if other sites read your ezine and like to duplicate the article (and therefore links) on your site. Here it is important to say you will not be penalised for duplication of content, because the links will be pointing to your site. Articles on wikipedia get copied numerous times, but it doesn’t stop them being high in the rankings, this is because sites who copy have to link to Wikipedia. To get the most from an ezine you should try to make the article as attractive to other sites so they will copy it and you get the highest diversity of links.
- Write an informative article rather than opinion or personal experiences. Ezines should not be viewed like writing a blog. You may enjoy writing about what you had for breakfast and your current state of mind. But unless you do something pretty extraordinary at breakfast time, most people will not actually be interested. Ezines that work well are articles that explain how to do something or explain an area of your expertise.
- Choose your title carefully. To get a high number of views for your articles it is good to try and get the article in a high position in Google. To do this the most important thing to consider is to choose a title of 3-5 words rather than just 1 or 2. For example if you write an article and call it “Writing Ezines” it will get lost in Google and you will not get any traffic. However if you choose a title like “Guide to writing successful ezine articles.” This specific title has much less competition so you have a chance of getting a high google position. The more people who read your article the more likely it is to be copied and therefore the more inbound links you will get.
- When writing the article it is best to aim for simplicity and clarity rather than longwinded sentences. If sentences are too complex it becomes difficult to read.
- Split up your article into different bite sized sections. At the least use paragraphs. A good technique is to offer ideas as bullet points or numbers. This makes it easy for a viewer to glance through the article and find the most interesting /relevant things to read.
- Ezine article usually have a minimum word count of say 250 words. Personally I usually prefer to write more. Usually I aim for 500 words. People usually don’t have time to read 1000s of words. If you have a lot to say you could split the article up into 2. 2*500 words is better than 1*1000. Similarly there is no point in increasing the word count just for the sake of it. People will not appreciate having to read through waffle.
- Write on the Topic of your Website. It may seem obvious but if you want to get links to your mortgage website, you should write articles on Mortgages. I doubt there is little to be gained from getting links to a mortgage site from an article on “the latest ipod craze”. Google look very closely at the theme of a website. The links that count are from those sites with a similar theme. You want good mortgage sites to take your article and links.
- If you find writing slow and difficult try image your are speaking to a friend or colleague. Try to imagine your are explaining something as clearly as you can. This should help you to write it down.
- Write on subjects you are knowledgeable about and are interested in. This will make the writing easier but also your interest will be conveyed to the reader. If you know little about Loan refinancing this will show as you flounder through complex interest rates.
- Avoid rehashing old material and ideas. The most important rule for ezines is that it should be your own material and never heavily reliant on other articles. Read other things for ideas. But when writing I never look at anything else.
- Try to enjoy writing. Often the more you write the easier you will find it becomes.
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