Easy, Breezy Tips For Better Articles

I’ve written thousands of articles down through the years, probably averaging more than 2,000 of them annually. That number includes my magazine articles and other published works averaging 750 to 1,200 words, but the vast majority of my “reads” are in the neighborhood of 400 to 500 words and are published online.

Yes, I make my living through full-time writing. The pay varies as do the projects, but I’ve managed to come up with a good balance of customers, people I can count on to pay me on time. Okay, except for the one soon-to-be former client who still owes me money, but is in the process of making amends in the face of escalating payment requests from me. Ahem!

That’s another story.

What I want to share with you today is a formula for good writing that works well for me. I use it consistently on websites I own or manage and provide a similar style for my clients.

Brief, Catchy Headlines – The character limit for headlines is 80, with the optimal being 60. I prefer to write them in 40 characters or less. This headline is 36 characters and gets straight to the point. My keywords here are “better articles” which I stuck in at the end. In this article’s case I’m not concerned about  optimization (SEO), but generally that is a top concern when I am writing.

Photos, Please – I cannot remember the last time I wrote an article for online consumption that did not include a photograph. Pictures serve as eye candy and I like to include one with each article. More, if the article is about a special product such as a new car. Some photos get captions, other do not such as the one I’m using with this article.

One, Three/Four, One — Every article I write includes an introduction, three to four main paragraphs or more and a concluding paragraph. I’ve seen many people post article without a conclusion, but I’m old school — I like to wrap things up nicely.

Resources and References – Even if I’m not writing for an academic or news source, I will include one or more resources and will always reference whomever I cite. That’s just good practice and is appreciated by my readers who trust me to be thorough and offer attribution. On this site I don’t do that as much because I’m conveying personal (expert) opinion.

There are variations in my personal rules with my styles adjusted to suit the customer or align with my mood. In any case, writing is rarely a struggle for me as long as I’m interested in the subject matter and desiring to convey my thoughts for all the world to see.