How to Improve Your Article Reviews

For some people writing comes easy.  They seem to have the gift of everything they write turning to gold, while others have a more difficult time.  If you find yourself trying to find ways to improve your writing style or content, there are a couple of things you may have overlooked.  This article will help you examine your own writing style to see if there are a few easy adjustments you could make which will make all the difference in how your article is viewed and accepted by your target audience.

1. Readers care about themselves!  They aren’t interested in hearing about your personal life or how things affected you.  This is true in the majority of article writing, with the acception of specifically personal story writing such as blogs, memuars, or testimonials. 

Say you’re writing an article about apple pie.  The reader may want to know how to make it, the ingredients needed, the best kind of apple to use, or how to make the crust look extra special.  The reader is not interested in the time your pie was the hit of the party, or the time you burned it to a crisp because you were distracted over something else.  Keep yourself out of what you are writing whenever possible. 

2. Break it up!  There need to be breaks in your writing, spaces where the eye can take a rest.  This allows the reader to follow along more easily.  It looks better and it helps your reader remain interested.  Articles are not novels.  The reader wants fast, easy to process, useful information; not a bedtime story.  Bullet points, spaced paragraphs, numbering, or a combination of these help your reader gather the information they are looking for quickly, efficiently, and gratefully.  When you write appealing articles the reader is more likely to seek out other articles from you.  When you write unappealing articles you are likely to repel repeat or shared visits.

3. Know your stuff!  Your audience doesn’t want your opinion, theories, or feelings on the subject.  They want real information.  When you can back it up, do so.  Use words that cause the reader to feel confident that you are an expert in what you are writing about.  “I think”, “I feel”, or “I believe” aren’t good selling phrases. 

Think of this: how would you feel if you went to the doctor with a serious problem and he said “I think I can figure out what’s wrong with you”?  You would want to go to another doctor who knew what he was talking about!  The same goes for writing a successful article about any topic.  You need to know what you are talking about and relay that confidence to your readers through your choice of words.

4. Find out what people are looking for and give it to them!   You want your articles to be seen by the masses not by the couple of people you’ve convinced to go check out what you just wrote.  You want your articles to be recognized by others as really good, solid stuff.  In order to have that; you need to go where the interests are.  How many readers are you going to get when you write an article on the breading habits of aquatic flowers verses the number of readers you are likely to attract with an article about good nutrition? 

You are going to want to focus on topics that are timeless; things people will be interested in no matter what season or year it is.  Craze writing over the latest trends might get you some good views for the day, but in a month from now who’s going to care?  So some celebrity got her heal stuck in gum on the red carpet, is that article really going to be looked at for years to come? No!  Pick topics that are interesting, practical, useful, and popular.  Recycling, health, vehicle maintenance, pet care, or healthy relationships; these are just a few examples of what people are searching for and will continue to search for.

Bottom line:  Even though you love to write and it is your passion; people aren’t interested in hearing about your personal life when they read your articles.  They will appreciate your awesome talent more when you focus on them.  Keep your material easy to read by breaking up the text.  You’ll lose your audience if they keep getting lost in a big block of print.  Be confident in your writing style, know your subject.  Know what your readers want from you.  Write about timeless subjects that will continue to be viewed and shared for years to come.  This is even better when you write for places that have residual income for past material.

Now get out there and put what you’ve learned to good use.  You are going to write amazing articles and get fantastic reviews!