Article Writing-7 steps to get you started

Introduction
I have written this article because good quality content has become increasingly important on the Internet and I am passing on my own experiences. This article will not turn you into an author overnight, but it is meant to demonstrate how you can start to write an article.

Why is content so important?
If you have been on the Internet in the last few months/years you will have seen the phrase “content is king”. This refers to the fact that the major search engines frequently change their algorithms which means new factors become more important in getting high rankings in these search engines.
Over the years there have been all sorts of factors such as exact match domains, page rank, back linking, social bookmarking,etc.
Throughout all of this one of the most important factors remains good quality content and this will become more important. This was re-iterated by Matt Cutts of google in a recent video in which he was asked about back linking and content. He was very careful to say that back linking will remain very important for the next few years BUT good quality content will be even more important.

Here are the steps that I use to write an article:

1 Select a subject that you like or know something about
This may sound obvious, but if you are looking to build a site that will last for years, as you will be writing content it will be easier to continue the momentum if you have the passion.

2 Select a topic that changes frequently
It is easier to continue to write fresh content if there are lots of changes. One good example is Internet Marketing, where it can be difficult to keep up with the changes.
For me another good example is sport, which I follow daily. One particular sport I really like is association football, where there is so much happening on a daily basis. Recently there was an incident in English football where I read a very good article in the press. In fact, I was so impressed with the article that I did some research and wrote to the correspondent who kindly wrote back and complimented me on my article.
That gave me an idea, where I could build a soccer web site, write a monthly newsletter and invite readers to comment. If you listen to the radio you will always find people who are passionate about their clubs and players and want to air their views.
Bingo-I build a soccer web site, write topical articles, invite readers to comment and monetize the site. What better way to make money than from doing something that I enjoy.

3 Write about what you have learnt
Most of what I have learnt about Internet marketing is self-taught.
For example, a year ago I knew nothing about video marketing although I knew it was very important.
I set about learning by researching and watching FREE training on the Internet, as a result of which I now make videos in different formats.
That set me thinking that I should write an article on the subject and make a video. Initially, I was reluctant, as you may be, as I thought, “Other people know a lot more than I do”.
That is true but the experts will not necessarily walk you through the basics.

4 Research
Fortunately, there is so much information available on the Internet. Be careful, as you cannot copy other people’s work but you can look for ideas.
For example, if you are interested in dog training, type that into one of the search engines and you will be inundated with ideas. Look in forums, article directories,wikipedia, google news, etc.
I am a big fan of the amazon kindle and you can find lots of free ebooks, which will give you ideas.

5 Break the subject down into chapters
This will make the task easier, remember the quotation:
“The journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step”
For example if you are writing an article on Search Engine Optimization, you might have the following chapters:

1 Introduction
2 What is SEO?
3 What are the benefits of SEO?
4 How you can use SEO
5 Conclusion

6 Style
This is very important. You are not writing an article for the national press, so it is a less formal style. Don’t worry too much at this stage about perfect grammar-just get the ideas down on paper.

Although people are prepared to read a long book, their attention span reduces on the Internet. Break the article down into short sentences and short paragraphs.
Tell the reader about your own experiences-you may not think this is important but it is. You are showing that you are human and they feel that “you are one of them”.
Use quotations. I have just gone to the search engines and found this quotation by Robert Benchley:

“It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn’t give it up because by that time I was too famous”.

7 Leave the article overnight
Once you have written the article leave it overnight as it will look different tomorrow and you may wish to change it.
Also you may have some more ideas. I confess that I have woken in the middle of the night and wrote some ideas on a pad. How sad is that?

Conclusion
I hope you found this useful in helping you to write articles.
Normally the article only needs to be 400-500 words, but this one is over 800 words and I wrote it in just under the hour.

Here is a video I have made :