Six Tips For Writing Great Articles and Getting People To Read Them

“Just write every day of your life. Read intensely. Then see what happens. Most of my friends who are put on that diet have very pleasant careers.”

— Ray Bradbury

Are you concerned about investing a lot of time and effort, only to find that no one wants to read your article? Does it feel like too much work for a minimal reward? Not to worry, though. Read on and learn how to overcome these concerns.

You write an article so that people will read it, of course. But if your writing is bland, boring, and uninteresting, it’s unlikely anyone will want to read your work. But you can do some things as an author to increase significantly the chances that people will read your articles.

Your primary goal should be to write great articles, ones that are must-reads. You may think that writing something excellent is beyond your capability, but you would be wrong.

To create outstanding, highly-readable work, you need to follow some success guidelines. Doing so not only allows you to produce high-quality writing but to have fun doing it. And if your work gets read by many people, it may earn you some money, which is a nice bonus, of course.

Writing something great is easier if your topic is something about which you are already knowledgeable. It’s much easier for you to write on a particular topic or theme when you already know about it.

After that, you only need to make sure your article is interesting enough to grab the readers’ attention and keep it.

So how do you make sure your writing gets read and enjoyed? Just follow these six tips to make your articles interesting and readable.

1) Be sure to use short paragraphs.

Long paragraphs can confuse the reader and often involve too much hard work to read. In that case, your reader will get frustrated and abandon your article in favor of another one that’s easier to read and comprehend.

Short paragraphs usually are two or three sentences but can be as brief as a single sentence.

2) Make sure you take advantage of bullets or numbers.

Using numbers and bullets lets you make each point you want to stress and makes it easier for readers to follow along and remember what you have to say. Start each method, guide, or tip with a bullet or number as an indentation.

This way, your article won’t look like one long block of square paragraphs, and you’ve added some pizzazz and flair to the way your writing looks.

3) Use sub-headings so that your paragraphs are sub-divided on the page.

Doing this will break each of your points into sections while still keeping them as part of one whole article. This layout makes it easy for the reader to transition from one point to another smoothly.

You can thus hold onto the readers’ attention and keep them on track with the article’s direction.

4) Make sure you provide a title or header that’s attention-grabbing.

The objective is to pique someone’s curiosity, thus enticing that person to go ahead and read your article. Your title should use questions or statements with keywords people are seeking. The task is to describe your article’s content but do it in a short, concise manner.

5) Keep your readers interested from the beginning until the end.

As much as possible, use situations from real life with which a reader can identify. And use descriptions and metaphors in ways that drive home your message, but be careful not to overdo it.

Also, use examples that contain similes and graphic metaphors that make it easy for them to visualize your overall message. The bottom line is you want to make their reading experience as enjoyable and pleasurable as possible

6) Finally, use specific figures and facts when necessary to make your article authoritative.

But present your information in a light, easy, conversational manner, so it’s instructive but doesn’t sound too formal and intimidating to the reader.

So, there you have it: six practical and effective tips on writing great articles and getting people to read them.

“Keep a small can of WD-40 on your desk — away from any open flames — to remind yourself that if you don’t write daily, you will get rusty.”

— George Singleton

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Thanks for reading. Copyright © Terry Mansfield. All Rights Reserved.