Write about something you know about. You don't need to be an "expert". All you need is to know more about the subject than about half the general population. If you know more about something than most people you know then you probably work in that field or are genuinely interested in it, and that's a great place to start.
Keep sentences short and break your piece up into paragraphs. Make it easy for your readers to get the information they need at a glance: People tend to scan articles and really don't care much for great literature when they just want information.
The key things to remember about structuring an article are:
- Tell them what you are about to tell them
- Tell them
- Tell them what you just told them.
Bullet points work very well, to summarize what you're saying.
Most articles are 350-700 words. The present blog is about 730 words. It shouldn't take you half an hour to write an article. If it's taking you over an hour to write, then you are working on it for too long. Just relax, think about what you want to say, and let the words flow. Write the way you talk. A well-known writer once said about writing that to begin with he just wrote. The editing could come later, but first he had to have something down on paper. With articles, as long as your spelling and basic grammar are alright, you'll be fine.
It's best to write "from your own mind" as readers will see through blatant attempts to plagiarise someone else's work. You'll get better results from Google, too.
Don't oversell yourself or what you might be trying to promote. The resource box will do all that. Remember to keep the number of links there to one or no more than two. Don't abuse it!
If your aim is to make money from article writing, remember to put the relevant link in the resource box at the end. Make sure your article is related to what you're trying to promote, but don't make it a blatant advert. Ensure it has useful information in its own right.
Put a short, interesting and honest bio about yourself with a picture. This can be a photograph or a graphic but on ezinearticles.com it must be a representation of yourself. The photograph could be of a group of people, or taken from a distance, as long as you are in it. Though not the only article directory, ezinearticles is probably the most important when it comes to monetizing an article on Google because of its consistently high Google Page rank. This is important for Search Engine Optimization, which is important for getting your article seen without having to use Pay Per Click.
With ezinearticles you must write quality content, as a real person goes through all submissions, and you cannot have just an affiliate link in the resource box: you have to send people to a genuine website. However, a blog site, like this one at blogger.com, is fine. With ezinearticles too, it may take a week or so for your first article to be approved, but once it is you have the all-clear to submit more articles. Why not go there and have a quick read up of their rules and see some articles and how they're put together?
If you're willing to learn and to follow the rules, article writing can be a great free means of making cash on the internet.
For something that might be useful for you, click here.
