| Episode 16 of the "2 Minute Approval Tips" Video Series Article writing by its very nature is geared toward sharing valuable content in short articles around 500 words long If your article is too long, your audience could get bored and click away before you get to deliver your message. If your article is too short, though, you risk under-delivering and not sharing enough information. Sometimes, the only way to convey a BIG idea is to write a longer article and then break it up into a series of articles. Unfortunately, this can cause confusion. If the reader arrives at "Part 1" first, at least they'll get an introduction to the series. But, if a reader starts with one of the other parts, they may miss something shared in an earlier part. Therefore, it's important to make sure that every article series is optimized and that each individual article stands alone, without being propped up by the other articles in the series. Watch this video to discover how to optimize those articles in a series. 
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    A Quick Recap of the 16th "2 Minute Approval Tip" - Accidental Article Set - We hear stories from authors all of the time that they sat down expecting to write a 500-word article, but ended up discovering they had a whole lot more to say than could fit in that many words. Because they had momentum on their side, they just kept writing and eventually they ended up with 1,200 words or more. To make the biggest impact with their writing, they made the decision to chop the long article up into 3 separate 400-word articles.
Unfortunately, EzineArticles, by its very nature, is not conducive to a sequential series of articles. Readers tend to find articles as single links in the chain rather than the entire chain. Plus, there's no guarantee the reader (or ezine publisher) is willing to go searching for the rest of the series, so it's extremely important to make each article you write capable of standing alone.
- Questions to Ask Yourself - Once you have your set of articles in front of you, ask yourself these questions about each article:
- Does this article deliver on the promises made in the title? If you promise a certain number of tips in the title, have that number of tips in the article.
- Does the article stand alone? If the reader has to look at another article in the series to get the full benefit, then it doesn't stand alone.
- Is the article optimized for distribution? Articles in a series with something like "Part 1 of 3" in the title rarely get picked up and distributed on your behalf because it's just too much work to go searching for all the parts.
If you can answer "Yes" to these questions for each article in the series, then your article set should be ready to go. If not, spend some writing time shaping and massaging the rough edges of each article so they deliver on the promise of the title, they stand alone and they are optimized for distribution. Then, and only then, will your article set be ready to generate traffic for you. Have any questions about writing articles in a series or delivering on the promise of your title? Take a minute to watch the video and leave a comment here. |
To Your Article Writing Success & Passion!
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