Writing articles for Ezines can be an extremely effective way of establishing credibility for yourself, your product or your business. It's also one of the most effective ways of exposure, IF you know how to write an EFFECTIVE one!

Here's how to do it.

Following a "Formula" has helped me to achieve great success, not only with having my articles published by Ezine publishers ... but having them enthusiastically received by subscribers, which consequently increased traffic to my website!

This is the "Formula" that I follow ...

Have a great "Title".

As with everything else that's "written", and that you want to get read, you have to have a great Title or Headline. The same principals that apply to writing any powerful and effective headline, apply here as well.

Your article headline should be "Catchy" and/or curiosity invoking. Use hot phrases or words like "You", "Quickly", "How to" and "Easily". (If they apply to your article of course.)

Never use ALL UPPER CAPS. However do use upper caps to emphasize. You can also write your headline in the form of a question. For instance the headline of one of my articles entitled "Curiosity SOLD the cat"!, could well have had this headline:

"Would you like to TRAP your prospects' attention"?

If your product or service applies to a niche' market or a select group of people, you can attract those readers by having a headline that they identify with. People like to belong or

associate themselves with "like minded" people.

Therefore if you attract that "group" of people with a powerful headline, you'll effectively attract those individuals' attention.

For example: "BODYBUILDERS, have you ever ... etc, etc"?

Your "OPENING".

Make your opening paragraph summarize the article. Some publishers may not be able to publish your entire article in their publication, due to space restrictions. What they might

do is print the first few sentences, or a paragraph (which summarizes the article) with a link to read the full article somewhere else.

Therefore the first paragraph should be an extension of your title and as such should be written with benefits in mind. Check out this very article's opening paragraph as an example.

The "BODY" of your article.

Make sure that your article is not what is called an "advertorial". This is basically just an advertisement disguised as an article and is usually an author's more blatant attempt to

sell his or her program.

Remember your article is supposed to provide "beneficial content" FOR THE READER. It should be informative, fresh and written in

an interesting style. Make your article unique by adding your personality to it.

As with any writing, write in paragraphs of four sentences or less, since people like to read information in little chunks. This makes for easier reading! Out here on the Internet, there

is so much competition for your readers' attention, so anything that will help to maintain your readers focus is crucial.

Outline the benefits of the article ... you can use bullets or even numbers to do this. Don't waffle or be long winded. Get to the point and stay there. Remember if it's UNNECESSARY to

say, then it's necessary NOT to say!

Target your article. Don't try to be all things to all people. Keep to one topic per article. Keep the focus of your readers on one thing at a time, since this again will go a far way

towards keeping your readers interest.

Keep it simple! Don't assume your readers will know what "superfluous" means. You not trying to win a literary contest here, you're trying to communicate with your readers! So use simple words and terms to get your point across.

Write or "talk" to your readers as if you're having a "one on one" conversation with a friend. Don't talk down to your readers.

EDITING

Check you article for spelling and grammar. In my experience, grammar isn't as important since I write in a conversational tone as opposed to "stilted" English. This adds "color" to

your writing by adding your personality.

Write and format your articles in a TEXT editor, (Like Notepad) to within at most 65 characters per line. (do "hard breaks" by hitting "enter" to start new lines) This will ensure that your articles are formatted correctly.

Nothing ticks an editor off more, than to have to format your article before they can run it in their newsletter or ezine.

RESOURCE BOX

Make sure you add a resource box. This is just a paragraph or two of at most, up to 6 to 10 lines in total. (Assuming that your lines are about 65 characters long) It's used to say something about you and/or your business or product.

This is where you can plug your product or business! In other words you should use your resource box as the place to put your "AD"!

Your resource box is what connects you to your article. For instance, you want people to use your article freely, but only if they use it with your resource box attached. This ensures that you benefit from this additional exposure.

WORD LIMITS

Make sure that your article is within the "total word limit"! Every article publisher has a certain limit that they like their articles to be within.

Generally speaking it's between 500 to 1000 words. Keep in mind that your resource box counts towards that total. There you have it! Now you're ready to write effective articles.

Happy writing!