How To Write A Good Article Online
Before writing your blog/article
Before you start writing your blog, before you even do your research, you need to decide what you are going to write your blog about. If you don't know what you're going to write your blog about, it can be difficult to get started.
If you have an interest in politics, then you can write about a political story that has caught your interest. This can apply to any subject and if you have a keen interest in the subject of your blog, you will be able to write it better and will feel more satisfied when you have finished.
Research
Before you start writing your blog or article, you will need to do your research. Doing research on your topic is essential when dealing with areas that are meant to be factual and to the point. If you're doing a film review for example, it's best to write quick bullet points whilst watching the film to ensure you cover everything you want to say about the film, as there are likely to be things that you will forget when writing the blog or article. If you are writing a blog on something like the current political trends or the job market etc.
It will be important to ensure that the information you're using in your blog is correct because it is important to ensure that you can quantify your findings with as much correct information as possible.
Before You Write Your Blog/Article
Before you even do your research, you will want to make bullet points about the different areas that you will want to put into your article or blog. To do this you can use bullet points to ensure that you cover all the necessary parts of the blog. You can also do this whilst you are doing research if you only have a brief idea about what you want to write but want to find out further information about the subject to ensure you can write the best article or blog that you can.
You will also need to ensure that there aren't too many blogs on the area you wish to write about so you aren't vying for people's attention from too many other bloggers and writers all over the world.
Using software like Google Analytics is a great way to see how many blogs or articles you will be competing against when you're writing your blogs and how much advertisers are willing to pay to be next to articles in the given area you have chosen to write about, so you are able to refine your writing and have got a rough idea of your competition.
When writing your blog
When you are writing your blog, try to make sure that you use a variety of sentence structures and use punctuation to ensure that you can make the blog as readable as possible, while still getting all the relevant information into the blog.
If you are using a website like the Huffington Post, Hubpages or other online blogging communities, then at least from my personal experience on Hubpages (I've never used the Huffington Post), you are able to add poll and quiz parts to your blog, which can increase audience participation and potentially improve their experience when reading your blogs.
Alternatively, you could use sites like Tumblr or Blogger to write your blogs if you want more control on how the blog looks and feels, but it can be harder to get your blogs noticed on websites of those sizes.
If you are writing a review about a film or video game, you can also add videos to your blogs to make them stand out from the rest of the blogs out there. If you are going to use videos however, ensure you have permission to use them from the copyright holders.
After you have written your blog
After you have written your blog, it is important to proof-read it to ensure that you haven't made any spelling mistakes or grammatical errors before you post it for the world to see. If you don't feel comfortable reading your own work over, then you could get someone else to read it and point out anything you may have missed.
After you have finished your blog, you could also take the time to possibly change some bits of it around if you feel they would be better somewhere else in the blog. This could be good if you want to improve the flow of some of the sentences and make it easier for the reader to understand.
When it comes to making any necessary changes, you may want to leave it a few days, just so you aren't making changes that could be detrimental to the article. It's best to leave the editing a couple of days so you don't get too much tunnel vision or over thinking.
Overview of writing a good blog
Do Research
| Be precise and to the point
|
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Make notes
| Proofread your work
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Ensure information is accurate
| Don't overfill the blog with unnecessary information
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Try to entertain the readers
| Use media to keep audience attentive
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Feedback
What do you think of the blog?
Monetising your blog
If you are looking at making a living from your blogs, then you will need to monetise them. The best way of doing that is to sign up to Google Analytics.
Google Analytics generates detailed statistics about a website's traffic and traffic sources and conversions and sales. This works in conjunction with Google Adwords, where advertisers will pay a certain amount of money to get the best advertising spaces on websites that use Google Adwords.
If you have both of these working effectively with each other, as well as advertising your own blogs and possibly having other people posting your blogs on their Facebook and/or Twitter pages, then you can potentially gain a lot of interest from people who have read your blogs and will click on your links.
Advertising your blog
If you are finding it difficult to get people reading your blogs, try posting them on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. This will help you get more people's attention and let them become more aware of your work.
Using social networking sites is a key way of promoting your work now as so many people are using them on a daily basis. Even though it may be difficult at the start to get people reading your work, over time people will start to read your blogs and possibly give you feedback on your work.
If you use sites like Facebook and Twitter, it's a good idea posting your blogs on there, as well as having your blog in your bio or as a pinned Tweet (applies to Twitter only). By posting your blogs on sites like these two, you have the opportunity to have your blog become viral and potentially start earning money from it.
After you've finished writing you blog
After you have finished writing your blog, it's time to publish it.Depending on what site you use, whether it's Tumblr or Hubpages, you will be able to share it with people who follow you and be able to get them to share it either on the website or through their own social media pages, if they have any.