Stop surfers short with well written web pages/articles. Because most surfers have short attention spans, you must grab their attention with flashy graphics and well-written text. But even the flashiest images on the web won't hold many surfers long if your page is full of typos, misspellings, and other writing errors. Think about it would you want to read a page if every other word was misspelled, or didn’t make any sense to you?

These tips address the most common shortcomings that many new and experienced writers encounter when writing content for articles or websites. While these hints will guide you through your very own writing adventure, remember that there are no hard-and-fast rules, no secret tricks; what works for one writer may not work for another. Try them out, and find what works for you. If you find any other methods please feel free to email them to me (link on bottom of article), or leave as a reply in this thread.

Now lets get started:

PLOT YOUR COURSE
Before you write anything, follow these steps:
1. Define the purpose you want your writing to accomplish.
2. Know who your readers are. Don't assume they know too much; don't assume they know too little.
3. Do your homework - be sure you really do know what you are talking about.

BEGIN THE JOURNEY
Now that you have a starting point its time to start writing:
1. Write what you know. Even if your subject of choice is a new passion for you, your interest and enthusiasm will intrigue the reader.
2. Write from the inside. Don't be afraid to get emotionally involved with your work.
3. Find your own style. There is no right way or wrong way. There are a hundred different ways to tell the same story.
4. Use correct grammar and punctuation. Poor grammar will detract from your writing.
5. Stick to your point. Remind your readers of the purpose of different pages.
6. Be precise in your word choice. Say what you mean and mean what you say.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN
All finished? Think again, go back to the beginning, but use these tips:
1. Read your work aloud. Hearing your words can help pinpoint grammar and style problems.
2. Rewrite. It is the rare writer who says it exactly right in the first draft.
3. Ask for and accept constructive criticism.
4. Rewrite some more.

THE FINAL FRONTIER
Before you publish your work, make sure it is perfect, these tips should help:
1. PROOFREAD. Contributes for eighty percent of the problems with pages/articles. They can be fixed instantly with simple proofreading.
2. Cut out words that just take up space.
3. Print out a hard copy and read it.
4. Ask someone else to read your work.
5. View your page as your readers will.

Is there a tip you think should be included here? Would you like to see more information about a particular area? If so, write to me about what you'd like to see.

Ecellent, top quality post buddy, a great job well done

Was very interesting

Regards
Impulse

Excellent article Kaashifv on a very good topic, typos are certainly a turn off on any website even it had the best design. Well done.

Great insight Kaashifv ... one point I'd add more for websites rather than articles is utilizing white space.

I've seen too many sites try to cram everything on the front page. It's been proven that more white space works well. It's more easier on the eye which means visitors won't get frustrated (and a headache) and simply give up on your site.

Thanks for all the comments, its these little things that keep me writing articles, as I know people will read them, and find them helpful (meaning many more are on the way!)

I have a question for you. I had a sports website, and I am planning on starting it back up. And I will most likely write some of the articles on them. And I could give some of my partners the great ideas. But what is something you would suggest to get the readers interested in the topic quick? I usually just try to keep my articles as short as they can be, just so the reader can sense that the article will be short. I also think that small text helps on this too.

A few things, from my experiences:

- keep the article to around 300-500 words
- focus on one topic only in the article
- Short paragraphs, more white whitepace
- a good title w/ your keyword(s) included
- don't know about the small text - I'd go for normal size (the reader can +/- the size)

just my 2 cents worth.

Cheers,
Martin

I just want to offer an alternate view to what has been said here.

Firstly, people do read long articles - anything up to 900 to a 1000 words - as long as they are interested in the topic.

But the article needs to be set out in a way that is comfortable for people to read on their monitor. Short paragraphs of no more than 3 to 4 sentences and short sentences of no more than 14 to 16 words are ideal for the Net.

You can read more about the reasons behind that here.

To further encourage your readers to read your articles give them a headline that grabs their attention. When you're thinking headlines think of newspaper headlines and how they are written to grab your attention.

The first sentence of every paragraph can also be important if you want to hold your readers attention. But if the article is generally informative and written in an easy to read style it's not so important in an article as it is in a flyer or a press release.

There are just a couple of things to consider that work for us.

hmm...seems like I got to this thread a bit late...lol...anyways,

I would say that the average article, should have between 200-600 words. Any shorter and it is a blog, and longer and you will run into problems, which can be overcome by using the techniques that Stuart suggested. But to keep it simple, 200-600 words. To make articles a bit more catchy, to get the readers attention that is, you could use a cleverly worded title.

Well the smaller text makes the article seem shorter. That's my 2 cents . ANd yes the short paragraphs always help. That's one of the major tricks.