The first purpose of your articles is to get the reader interested in what you have to say, to the extent that they will click on the link you have at the bottom of your article and come to your website for more information.

To do that, you have two hurdles to get over:
* To get them to read the article
* To get them to click on the link to your site at the bottom

There is, of course a third aim: to be attractive enough for a webmaster to put it on their web site. Fortunately, if you get the above two features right, this latter requirement should work automatically.

But, to get your readers to the happy stage of having them click on the link at the bottom of your article – or want to put it on their website, you have to get them to read it in the first place. And, bearing in mind, it will be vying for attention among a forest of other articles, you better make sure yours stands out from the crowd.

Headlines are 80% of the whole

Just as in copywriting, the headline is reckoned to be 80% of the whole sales letter, the same vital importance applies to your article headlines. Think of your headline and the "teaser" paragraph, that goes with it, as a classified advertisement.

And a classified advertisement's job is to be "the ad for the ad". In short, it must arouse the reader sufficiently to make them write for fuller details – or, in this internet age - log on to your website.

In exactly the same way, your headline and teaser must be the advertisement for your article.
So, just like a copywriter's headline, there are certain ways to frame article headlines for maximum impact.

There's also one more factor to consider that's even more important with an article headline, than a headline on a sales page, and it's this: you want your article to be picked up and listed by the search engines.

So it's important that your main keywords are in the first few words of the title. So, if you are aiming to be listed in the search engines under "Widget Sales", your headline should have "Widget Sales" as the first two words, like this:
* Widget Sales – Ten Ways To Increase Your Market Share
Or . .
* Widget Sales – Are You Making These Fatal Mistakes?

There are several important points in the above two examples.

First, both these types of headline: "The X Ways" and the "Question" are great for invoking curiosity – and it's curiosity which is your main weapon in getting your article read and that link at the bottom clicked.

There's no better way to see how to do this than by looking at practical examples. So here's a selection of headlines and teasers I've actually used in my own recent articles.

Some examples of articles headlines :

Google - Internet Bully Or Striver For Excellence?
Recently, many users of Google AdWords have been shocked to find their price per click increase dramatically or find their ads dropping back into third or fourth page in the results. Yet this is not necessarily all bad news for them.

Websites - Six Simple Steps To A Web Site That Works
If I asked you the purpose of your web site, chances are you'd say it is to make money. Yet the brutal truth is this: 93% of web sites hardly make a cent. So here's how to make sure yours isn't one of them.

Success - How To Create Success In Your Life
There's a single vital question all successful people ask themselves, and then act on. How do I know? Because, they wouldn't be successful otherwise! So, if you too really want to be successful, you need to ask it, too.

Success - Attracting Success The Right Way
The human brain has a remarkable problem solving ability. Yet many people struggle along with problems they could easily solve and endure lives they could easily change -- if only they instruct the brain properly and then let it do all the hard work.

Information Storage – Create Instant Access With Your Own Search Engine
We're living in the Information Age. But, unless you can quickly locate your store of information, it's worthless. So, if you have Microsoft Word, here's a simple way to electronically file all your information, so you can retrieve it with a click of your mouse.

As you can see, there are some common treads running through these five article headlines and teaser paragraphs.
* The keyword or words are at the front, followed by a dash.
* The initial letter of each word is capitalized.
* Every headline and every teaser paragraph invokes curiosity and makes the reader want to find out more.

Take the article: "Google-Internet Bully Or Striver For Excellence?" Here the question mark invokes curiosity on its own. Then this is further peaked by the statement at the end of the paragraph that boldly states this isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Making negativity work in your favor

People always respond more readily to fear and thought of loss, than they do to thoughts of gain. That's why most effective ads have a built in "loss factor". In other words, what the prospect will lose, if they don't respond right away.

So, if you have an article along the lines of :
Ten Tips To make Your Winter Holiday In The Sun Run Smoothly
Won't be anywhere near as effective as:
Ten Biggest Mistakes People Make That Can Ruin Their Winter Holiday

Apart from being up to three times more likely to get the article read with this negative headline, it sets up the main thrust of the article for you to:

Tell the reader what they are doing wrong and . . . At the end of the article, you can then naturally lead into how a visit to your website will help them make sure they have the best holiday of their lives!

On the other hand, had you given them the top ten tips right there in the article, there's far less need for them to visit your website.

The second objective of your article

As we saw in the last chapter the way you skew your article has a large bearing on how many readers are likely to come visit your website by clicking the link at the bottom of your article.

For that reason, you want to make the information in your article, informative – but incomplete.
You must give good quality information, or the reader won't bother to finish the article, let alone visit your site.

But, your objective is that, having read your article and been impressed with your knowledge of the subject, the reader will be happy to click your link and visit your site in order to pursue the information you gave in greater depth – or find the solution to the problem you've outlined.

The structure of your article

Many attendees of my masterclasses and workshops tell me they don''t think they can write articles.

So, although they can easily have all the articles they want written for a few dollars, I must say that surprises me, because a recent study revealed that about 70% of people want to get off the job treadmill and either travel or write – or both.

So, in that regard, having a business on the internet, which you can run from pretty much anywhere on the planet – even whilst travelling – and which is fuelled by articles, is an ideal lifestyle for the majority of the population, combining, as it does, both desires.

And then they think they can't write! So what's wrong? Well, I think it's simply a fear of the unknown.

If I ask them if they can send an e-mail to a work colleague or scribble a Post It note, they are quite happy.

If I then ask if they can write a letter, most nod agreement.

Then I've got them! Because an article is little more than a letter.

So let's look at the structure of a letter.

Dear Sir,
This morning, your driver delivered a load of coal to this address.
Not only would the coal not burn, it also put the coal that was burning –out!
Please arrange for your driver to return, collect the offending product and replace it with coal that will burn.
Yours faithfully,
Yourself.

And that, my friend is the very same template you use for an article. Not difficult, was it?
So, let's take that letter, paragraph by paragraph and see where it takes us.

First paragraph – set the scene:
"This morning, your driver delivered a load of coal to this address."

What this first paragraph does is set the scene. This should tally with your teaser paragraph, the contents of which should be more or less repeated in the opening paragraph of the article. Essentially this says: "This is what this letter/article is all about".

Second paragraph – outline the problem:
"Not only would the coal not burn, it also put the coal that was burning –out!"

Just like in copywriting, you have to create an itch. Then you can show the reader how to scratch it! So this is where you describe, in graphic detail, the problem, warts and all.

Third paragraph – offer the solution:

"Please arrange for your driver to return, collect the offending product and replace it with coal that will burn."

This is where you segway smoothly into what the product or service on your website can do for the reader to scratch the itch you've created. At this stage, you should use a softly, softly approach, as blatant advertising within the body of the article, is frowned upon and can even get your article rejected, if it's too obvious.

The right place to blow your own trumpet is in the final paragraph, also known as the Resource Box, the About The Author Box, the Signature Box ("Sig Box" for short) or Author's Biography ("Bio" for short).

As this is the culmination of all your traffic generation efforts, I've devoted the next chapter to this. But, just before that: a word of caution . . .

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