Tweak or Create a Winning HubPage with Proper Research & Resources
The best way to research is to follow these steps: (1) Write material that is in high demand with your target audience in mind. (2) Write what is popular. Write what your audience wants to know about. (3) Be sure the information that you provide to your audience is useful to them. (4) Find pertinent facts that will increase your credibility and update your audience on facts. (5) Finally, shine about your competition!
How to Write An Article – Researching
AUDIENCE
The most important part of your writing is appealing to your audience. If they aren’t intrigued, they will not keep reading. You want them to yearn to continue reading and learning as they read your article. You need to know what they want so that you can accomplish this task.
How do you learn what people want? There are many ways. It may take some leg work, Internet research, or just plain brainstorming. You want to research what is in demand with the population, so you will gain traffic to your website.
Doing the Hard Work:
(1) Ask your friends and family what they would want to read about.
(2) Question your boss or co-workers to find out what they are interested in.
(3) Overhear gossip, and find out what is being gossiped about.
(4) Be outgoing. Strike up a conversation with a stranger. Find out what they have going on in their life, and deduce what they would find interesting. What would help them in their lives?
(5) Think about your friends and family members. What are their hobbies? What are their interests? If you were to buy them a picture, what would it be of? A deer? A baby? A teacher? Once you know what their passion is or what you believe it is, then you can use those subjects to go wild.
For example, if you have a friend that you would cross-stitch a baby picture for, because that is what is important to her in her life right now, then you will know that she would be interested in baby information. This is a very broad subject that you can narrow down by categories or by simply asking her what subject would help the most right now.
If you have a broad subject, you can narrow it down by going into categories. Each sub-category can give you an array of points or areas of emphasis. The following sub-topics may help you narrow down your large topics, such as a baby.
- Health
- Safety
- Driving
- Legal Matters
- Cleaning
- Decorating
- Needlework
- Crafts
- Books
- Concerts
- Movies
- Music
- Motorcycles
- Cars
- Road Trips
- Sports
- Typing
- Insects
- Poetry
- Beauty Care
- Telephone
- Computer
- Eye Sight
- Furniture
- The Bible
- History
Other Writing Topics
- Top 10 Topics to Write About
Sometimes writers can have so many ideas, they can barely type fast enough. Sometimes we might only have one good one to work with, but we make it work. And sometimes we have no ideas and are left just staring at the computer screen. - 10 Hot Topics to Write About
Stuck for ideas? Here are 10 topics that are always popular. Use this site as inspiration and fuel for your brain to write, write, write.... - Write Source - Writing Topics
A great website to show you other topics that you can write about. We all need help brainstorming at times. Don't forget to use your family and friends as sources as well. They are often very helpful.
PURPOSE
This means asking them questions, researching on the Internet what is popular on the subject (Check out Yahoo! Answers), and asking them more detailed questions when you are inquiring about the broad categories.
OPTIMIZATION OF A SEARCH ENGINE
- How to Optimize your Hubpages – The Essential Guide
It can be the best guide for the new hubber to improve their hubpages. This post included the Search Engine optimization (SEO), traffics generating and Link Builidng ideas.
Here is an example of how to be specific about a broad category (baby) that you have already narrowed down to a sub-category (health). Practice this strategy with things that interest you, and that come up as popular topics among your key audience.
BABY'S HEALTH
HubPages that you can write about using this sub-topic – Baby’s Health. The list is endless. Many mothers spend most of their day researching specific illnesses they fear their child may have. If you look online to find out what mothers are researching the most, you will find an ace topic to write about.
- Sudden Infant Death Syndrome
- Baby Medications
- The Safety of Car Seats and Cribs
- Measles and Chicken Pox
- Baby Immunizations
USEFULNESS
Getting a good grasp on your audience and what they want to read about is an excellent start. However, if you know this information, but do not provide them useful or valuable information in your article, they aren’t going to want to read or recommend it to anyone else.
Know Your Audience
- Know Your Audience
Understanding your audience is critical to effective verbal and written communication. Read key questions to ask yourself about your audience before crafting your message.
Every Writer's Resource
- Every Writer's Resource: Resources for Writers
Every Writer's Resource: Resources for Writers on book publishing, writing, literary magazines, poetry, fiction, literary magazines, book publishers, and writing resources.
Writing Resources
- Online Resources for Writers
This site contains a guide to grammar and writing. Online dictionaries, encyclopedias, and thesauruses are also available on this website. There is a guide to writing as well.
Ensure that you provide information that can help them. Teach them something new. Show them how to do something they do not know how to do. Explain a new process or way of doing something.
FACTS
While providing your thoughts and theories on the subject is useful if this information is something that is relevant for the audience to know, offering hard evidence seals the deal. You want to show credibility. Show that you have researched the subject and know enough about it to write an article.
Online Research Library
- Introduction to Research | Cornell University Library
Very helpful link that gives you a ton of online research tools. - Questia, Your Online Research Library
Online research library with access to books, journals, articles, and encyclopedias plus helpful citation tools. Faster, better research with Questia!
BEING THE BEST
It’s very important to outdo your competition. This takes research. On Google, Yahoo, AOL, or Bing search for your subject to find out what others are writing. Make sure you aren’t just repeating the competition. Most of all make sure your article is the best!
Merriam Webster Dictionary Online
- Competition - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Definition of competition from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary with audio pronunciations, thesaurus, Word of the Day, and word games.
Read all about the subject with the competition to gain new ideas and to ensure you are not copying ideas. Also, as you are brainstorming, reading the competition’s information may spark new ideas in your head that can lead to a better and more informative article compared to your competition.
Improve Your Writing
Article Writing Techniques
How to Write a Killer 500 Word Article FAST
RESEARCHING
There are dozens of ways to research. Research the different ways or practice them to find out what works best for you. Here are some options on how to brainstorm:
- Mapping
- Clustering
- Listing
- Outlining
- Associating Words
- Analyzing Terms
- Applications
- Arguments
- Dialoguing
- Dramatizing
- Journaling
- Questioning
- Drafting
The Best Writing Source Online
- Purdue OWL
The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University houses writing resources and instructional material, and we provide these as a free service of the Writing Lab at Purdue. Students, members of the community, and users worldwide will find information
New York Times Research Article
This website provides general writing information to help people write properly. It assists with research and can help you find the best subject for paper. The website has exercises and guides for MLA and APA styles of writing. If you are writing for school it is important to know how to do citations for MLA and APA styles of writing.
Doing proper research can increase your credibility as an online writer. Also, writing for the correct audience, giving them what they want, making the information useful and helpful, and making your audience want to read your article before theirs.