Six Questions to Ask About Your Articles

When submitting an article to “EzineArticles” or other ezine sites or forums, there are certain questions to ask yourself about the likely effectiveness of the article. You should ask these questions before you start writing. There is little point in sitting at your computer spending time and effort on any project unless you know what you are doing and why.

Here, therefore, are some key questions:

“Why am I submitting the article in the first place?” This may seem like a pretty obvious question, but you need to consider the answer very carefully. Publishing an article is a great way to make yourself and your products known. It presents you in the eyes of your reader as an expert within your niche. This means that the article must be of high quality. Publishing a poor article is worse than publishing no article.

“Is my article aimed at the clients I am looking for?” Your use of language should be targeted to your specific market. If you are writing to interact with retired people, your choice of words and your presentation will need to be different from a speech to a youth audience. If your readers are from a group of motor enthusiasts, for example, your use of technical terms related to cars will be well received and will impress your readers. If you’re writing for boating enthusiasts, writing about the sharp end and the blunt end obviously won’t impress.

“Will my article encourage my readers to click the Resource Box link?” This is a really key question. This is one of the main reasons we ship items. With every published article there is a resource box that will tell the reader something about you and your niche. Go will include a link that will typically be to a subscription page or a product sales letter. This, after all, is the purpose of writing and publishing an article. Once again, we see the importance of producing a quality copy: Poor quality == No click!

“How useful is my article for other sites?” A great advantage of submitting quality articles is that others can use them in their own newsletters and blogs. They are allowed to do this with the understanding that they also include their resource box. The best articles can go viral as they spread over the Internet through this use. Every time someone re-publishes one of your articles, it and, more importantly, your resource box finds its way into the eyes of many new people.

“Does my article awaken in my reader the desire to know more?” The old AIDA business adage (attention-interest-desire-action) rears its head here. It may seem like you are working at this point, but quality is the key. Your article should provide really useful information on a topic related to your niche. Never use the article to make a sales pitch, that’s not the point. The link in your resource box will take people to a sales page if that’s what you want. The purpose of the article is to arouse the desire of your reader. Then they will most likely click the link in the resource box. You can then let your subscription page or sales letter do the rest.

“Is my article going to make money for my business?” If your article really connects with your readers, they will follow the link in your resource box to your website, subscription page, and / or sales letter. The more traffic your articles send to your websites, the more sales you will make, the more money you will make.