So you’ve decided to give online writing a try; what now? How do you write an effective article for the web that will get your point across and not just be an unreadable wall of text?
Thanks to the internet, the answer to that question is easily available. All you need are a few tools and a little bit of determination. The key is to find the right platform and then to use the right tools on it. Let’s take a look at how to write an effective article for the web that will get your point across.
Find The Right Platform
The first step to writing any article is to find the right platform for it. It should be somewhere where your target audience will be and where you feel comfortable writing online. If you’re new to writing online, this might be a good place to start. When choosing a platform, make sure the audience matches your intended readership. If you’re writing for an English-speaking audience, try and choose a hosted solution in England as well. Don’t worry, you don’t have to limit yourself to English-speaking countries—you can use a tool such as Google Translate to allow your content to be accessed by a global audience.
If money is no object to you and you want to ensure the quality of your content, you can opt for a premium account. These types of accounts usually come with additional perks as well—such as no ads or automated content scraping. There’s also a dedicated support team available via chat or email should you need them. If you’re looking for a reliable, quality platform then try and opt for one of the many well-known names in the industry. This way, you can be sure that you’re getting the best of what’s available and that your content will remain fresh.
Create A Headline That Gets Your Point Across
You can use headlines in two ways—to attract readers to your content or to summarize it. When creating headlines, keep in mind that shorter is usually better. Shorter headlines tend to generate more clicks, likes, and shares.
The point of a headline is to get someone’s attention in the first couple of sentences—and hopefully, keep it. Short and to the point are always the best ways to go. If you want to write an interesting headline, look for inspiration in the news or try and come up with something totally new. But be careful not to go too crazy and make it incomprehensible to readers—they’ll simply tune out or skip over your content altogether. Also, don’t forget to check for errors before publishing.
Introduce Your Main Idea
Your main idea is the point you’re making in your content. To help you make the right choice, you need to lay out all the main points you want to make. Do this in a way that makes sense to the reader and stays organized while also being engaging.
For instance, if you’re writing about the dangers of addiction, you might want to write something like this:
“Addiction is a dangerous disease. If you or someone you know is suffering from addiction, don’t hesitate to get help. There are many effective treatments available that can help lead sufferers to a healthier lifestyle. It’s important to be aware of the risks as well as the benefits of addiction so that you can best serve those you care about.”
As you can see, this particular headline uses several tools available in the headline toolbox. First, we have the boldfacing and italics—which together, make this piece of content stand out. Next, we have the subhead—which is a short line or two that appears below the headline. In this case, we have “Addiction is a dangerous disease,” which is the main idea in the content. Finally, we have the lede, which is the first sentence or two of the content. In this case, the lede is “If you or someone you know is suffering from addiction, don’t hesitate to get help.” This is a great example of how all of these tools work together to make a great piece of content. Once you’re done, give it a quick once-over for clarity.
Create An Outline
An outline is similar to a to-do list—it helps you plan your content and ensures you don’t forget anything important. When creating an outline for your content, make sure you cover the following items:
- the main points you want to make
- the different perspectives you’ll be supporting
- the evidence you’ll be using to support your claims
- the conclusions you’ll be drawing
- other important points you might want to include
- the order you’ll be presenting these points in
- the specific style you’ll be using
- a short outline of what you already have written
- ~
- ~
- ~
- ~
- ~
This is obviously a large amount of content to cover in one article. If you find that you consistently forget something important, creating an outline can be a good way to ensure you don’t forget to do any of it.
Research Your Topic Thoroughly
If you’re writing online, there will be dozens, if not hundreds, of articles already published on your topic—including ones you might disagree with. Before you start writing, it’s essential to do some research on your topic. This will not only give you material to write about, but it will also add credibility to your argument. Just keep in mind—not all research is created equal. Never assume that just because something is written online, it’s correct. Never, ever write something just to be controversial. The internet is a treasure trove of information, but it can also be a trap. You should only use reliable sources when doing your research.
Double Check Everything
We’ve all been there. We’ve all had that moment of blind faith when we thought an article would create an effective piece of content and would quickly become popular. So we published it without looking at any of the metrics that could have told us otherwise. It wasn’t until later that we found out our content wasn’t as good as we’d hoped and that it actually hurt our chances of getting more traffic.
When you’re writing online, there are several tools that can help you make sure your content is of the highest quality. One of the most useful tools for this is the readability checker, which will analyze the overall readability of your content. If you have a piece of content that you think is too wordy or difficult to understand, the readability checker can help find the problems. For instance, if you think your text is jumping around from topic to topic without any meaningful transitions, the checker can point these out to you. By fixing these issues, you’ll dramatically improve the flow and understanding of your content. When you’ve finished making all the necessary fixes, readability will provide you with a new score. If this score is higher than 70, you’re good to go. Otherwise, you need to take another look at your content and try to improve it.
The Final Step
When you’ve completed all the steps above, you’re ready to publish your content. Before you do, however, there are several things you should check for. First, is the spelling and grammar correct? There are numerous tools online that can help you find mistakes quickly and easily. Simply enter your content in the appropriate box, and the correct spelling and grammar will be highlighted. If you want to be sure your content is perfect, you can also hire a professional proofreader to help. They will go through your content and point out any errors they find—including ones you might not have seen.
After you’ve checked the spelling and grammar, you should also look at the content for any clashing ideas, images, or videos. Additionally, do your best to make sure the content is unique—you don’t want to copy and paste anything from elsewhere. Finally, it’s important to read other articles written on your topic. This will give you a better understanding of the overall theme and terms used by the community. It might also point out areas of the content that you could improve upon.
When it comes to writing online—whether you’re doing it for SEO, to spark interest in your content, or simply as an opportunity to share your thoughts—there are multiple ways to make sure your content is effective. From coming up with a great headline to doing your research and double checking for any errors, there are several steps you can take to ensure your content is of the highest quality.