Write better articles with these 4 tips

Your clients will be thrilled! [The Writer’ s Life]( June 30, 2022 "Good writing will bring you to places you don't even expect sometimes." – James Gandolfini Got an article to write, {NAME}? If you don't, you likely will soon! Whether it's for a magazine … a client's blog … or your own money-making website … Articles (otherwise known as "content") are informative … can be fun to read (and write!) … don't usually do any selling … and they're an excellent way to engage your readers. But … like all persuasive writing … there are a number of guidelines you can follow to make sure they're effective at drawing in the reader. So, today, let's go "back to basics" with four article writing tips from AWAI Senior Copy Chief, Sandy Franks. Sandy wrote these as guidelines for our June writing contest (which has ended — look for the winners this Saturday in your Week in Review) … And in them, she spelled out exactly how to write an article in such clear, easy-to-follow terms that I had to share them with you here. In fact, if you write a lot of articles (or you want to), you might even print the guidelines and hang them on your wall as a quick reference. Here they are … Article Writing tip #1: Focus on the Power of One. Every good article focuses in on one compelling idea. Too often what happens during the writing process is that writers get excited about several ideas, which is normal. But then they put all those ideas together in one article. That ends up making it difficult for the reader to stay interested in what you've written. In their minds they're thinking something like, I'm not sure which of these ideas matters the most. When this happens, they stop reading altogether. That's why it's important to stick with one idea throughout your content. Article Writing tip #2: Craft a headline that draws the reader into your article. Once you've got your one idea in place, it's time to write a headline that gets the reader interested. Headlines don't have to be lengthy, they just have to pull the reader in. Luckily, you can use the four U's AWAI developed over the years to help you do this. The 4 U's are: Useful: how does headline help the reader? Urgent: how does the headline move the reader to act? Unique: how does the headline surprise the reader? Ultra-Specific: how does the headline give details to the reader? Article Writing tip #3: Make it about the reader. Whenever you are writing about something you love, your natural instinct is to make the article about yourself. But that's really the last thing your reader wants to hear about. They are interested in what the thing you love has to do with them. So as the writer, you have to make it all about the reader. One of the easiest ways to make the reader feel as if you are writing to them is to include the word "you" several times throughout the article. This isn't to say you can't use the word "I," but at some point (and preferably sooner rather than later) you'll have to transition to the word "you." How do you do that? A simple transition technique is to craft a line such as "You probably know what I mean," or "You might feel this way too," or even something like "In just a few minutes, you'll understand why this subject is important to me." Article Writing tip #4: End on a good note. For everything you write, there's always the starting point, the middle, and the end. And when you get to the end of your article, you'll want to make it meaningful or memorable for your reader. You'll want to write your ending so that it feels natural instead of forced or obvious. By that I mean avoiding endings such as "In summary," or "In ending this article, I'd like to add," or "That's all, folks." Instead, give the reader some kind of takeaway … an important point you want them to ponder, remember, relate to, or recall. This will make them feel that the time they spent reading your article was worth it. And the next time they see your name in a byline, they'll be eager to read what you wrote. If you want to build your writing skills, try writing an article a day — whether you have an assignment lined up or not. Simply choose any topic, follow Sandy's tips, and start writing. You could post them on your blog … on LinkedIn … or save them as samples to show future clients. Even better — if you take those articles and put them up on a money-making website, you can earn a passive income from them while you build your skills … All while writing about a topic that you love. One of the best parts about having a money-making website is that you don't have any clients or deadlines to worry about. Once it's set up, all you do is write — whenever you feel like it. And you can use your daily writing practice to fill it out. If all of that sounds great, but you have no idea how to start up your own website … Our Money-Making Website Summer Challenge starts next week. Join the Challenge and we'll set up your site together in just 6 weeks, so you can start earning a passive income from it this summer! Enrollment closes tonight — [sign up here](! Katie Yeakle Executive Director, AWAI LAST CHANCE: You Get It All for Just $249 $49!!! Until midnight, you can get our popular Writer's Starter Kit … [Writer's Starter Kit Spread] Including all the tools, templates, resource lists, guides, and fee schedules you'll need to launch and run a successful writing business … And save $200! You'll even get a FULL YEAR to put it to use, completely risk-free. [Grab The Writer's Starter Kit now!]( What's Hot at AWAI … 🙋 ♀️ Want to build a Money-Making Website? [Here's a 5-part checklist for getting it done.]( 👀 What Makes a Money-Making Website Successful? [Get Nick Usborne's take here.]( 🙌 Proof You Can Write about Anything? [This writer earned an income writing about dog treats!]( 👉 Get EVERYTHING You Need to Launch a Successful Writing Business in One Package [right here](. Time for Family, Hiking, and Volunteering From an interview with member Jim Abbey in this month's Barefoot Writer Magazine: [Quote about favorite parts of living the writers life including family, hiking, and volunteering, from an interview with member Jim Abbey in this month’ s Barefoot Writer Magazine] Have your own story to share? Email us at mysuccess@awai.com, or [post it over in the Facebook group](, so we can celebrate your win too! Calling All Writers and Aspiring Writers … There has never been a better time to become a writer for the booming $1.2 trillion Christian market … It doesn't matter what your background experience is … How much or how little writing you've done before … Find out how — including how you can get started in as little as four weeks — all in this NEW video presentation from Katie Yeakle, CEO of AWAI. [Learn More]( Your ALL-ACCESS Key — Just $1! Get instant access to the exclusive B2B writing community and ALL their private resources, including … - All the success roadmaps … - All the writing templates … - All the articles … - All the how-to videos … - All 150+ training webinars … - The Forum, the Job Board, the tutorials, the tools … - And much more! 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