Last post I talked about giving Google what it wants.  And if you remember, what Google wants is great content and backlinks. 

This article is content.  And if the article is good and I do the things I will be talking about here, it will also create backlinks. 

I simply took a question my readers had and I answered it.  Since part of my business is helping people show up in the search engines, questions I’m asked are often about that.  I seldom get asked what color shoes should be worn to a dinner party.

And because the questions I’m asked are about my business, when I answer them, they’re usually chock full of keywords that pertain to my business.  Such as “Google”, “Small Business”, “Search engines”, “Internet Marketing”.

Of course, I just blatantly stuffed those keywords in there.  But they are relevant to me teaching how to get found online in this article. 

If you have a hard time or don’t like writing, here’s a few tips to get you writing like a champ.

1: If you’ve ever tried talking someone into watching a TV show, going to a movie, listening to a song, trying a restaurant you like, then you know exactly how to write a great article.  Pretend you’re writing your article to that one person who you need to make your case to.

2: 300 words are just fine as a minimum.  As far as max length… My rule of thumb is to make it as long as it needs to be.  But don’t ramble.

3: Have a beginning, middle and end.  Sounds simple, but there’s a science to it. 

The beginning is your hook.  The reason why someone should read on, the main concept, what you’ll be teaching or talking about is what you cover in the beginning. 

My beginning here was the first 3 paragraphs.  Then the middle is where you start diving into the meat.  Explaining things, using examples, telling stories.  People love to hear stories.  If you can weave a story into your article, you will suck your reader in.

That reminds me of a story…

I was at a networking meeting this morning and one of the people owns a landscaping business gave a great example about how crazy people have gone in these harder economic times.  How they lose focus on what’s important for their business.

He got a call from a client he planted a tree for five years.  The guy asks if he remembers the tree which the landscaper does.

So the client goes on to ask if he can find someone who might want to buy it.  Then he ask the landscaper to dig it up, transplant it and give him a few bucks for it.

So this person, instead of focusing on how to make more money for his business, how to get more sales, how to market better to drive dollars into his bank account, is asking how he can trade in a 5 year old tree for a few dollars.  It goes to show that sometimes people just focus on the wrong things.

Why do I tell you this story?  To show you how to weave a story into an article of course.  But it’s also relevant to this article.

People really do sit up and pay more attention when you use stories.  If you can find an interesting, juicy story to fold into your article that moves the article forward, you’ve got gold.  We all have stories.

So back to the structure of your article.  The last part is the end.  And in the end you simply have to close the loop.  Bring the story together in some way that naturally finishes it.  Never leave em’ hangin’.

4: Don’t try to write a Pulitzer Prize winning piece.  Your job is to get as much great stuff out there as you can as quickly as you can.  Just write.  The more you do it, the better you’ll get at it.

People get so hung up on the mechanics that they never get it done.  Write great content and your audience will forgive the verbs you didn’t conjugate and your run on sentences.

5: Syndicate your article.  That means get the article onto the internet in as many different ways as you can. 

The first is to post to a blog.  That’s free and is easy. 

Then there are article sites.  The most popular is ezinearticles.com.  But there are many different article services on the web and most are free. 

Read your article into an audio and submit it to podcast sites.  You could even have your very own podcast channel on I-Tunes.  Many of my clients will have their I-Tunes podcasts show up in the search engines. (Notice how I just eluded to the fact that I can do all this stuff for you in this sentence?)

Post it to your Facebook account.  Post it on any social media account that allows you to place articles, notes, blog posts or whatever they call it.

Turn your article into a video.  Make a Power Point presentation out of your article.  Summarize it on your slides.  Then, if you have Camtasia which is a paid screen video capture tool or Camstudio which is similar but free, record yourself reading your slides.  Then syndicate it to Youtube.  There are many other video sites you can upload it too as well.

There is no reason you can’t post your story to all of the above.  Think of the AP.  They write a story and it is picked up in every paper, on radio and TV.  That’s called syndicating.

6: Read it out loud to yourself at least twice.  If it reads logically and has no speed bumps where the reader has to stop and think about what you meant, you should be good to go.

Remember before I told you to have a beginning, middle and an end?  Well, this is the end.  This is where I wrap things up, summarize what you learned and close the loop.  (This is me closing the loop.)

So don’t be like that client of my landscaper’s and look for ways to save a buck by pulling up part of your business.  Look for ways to build your business up.  (Notice how I am referencing the middle of the story to make a point?)

And creating great content will do just that.  It will demonstrate your expertise, position you as an authority in your field and create all sorts of backlinks back to your site.

Now go out and start writing.  The end