Writing articles is an art. It is true that almost anybody can learn to write articles – but creating effective articles really takes some degree of skill, and it is more than just using proper grammar and spelling! You have to learn how to really speak to your readers – to get their attention, to hold that attention, and to get them to take the action that you wanted them to take.
Writing an article is much like taking someone by the hand and showing them how to do something, and them leading them where you want them to go. The difference is that if you are holding their hand, you are there – but if they are just reading your words, you probably aren’t there. The trick is to make that person feel like you are there, leading them through it.
This is done by using more than facts and figures in your writing. Facts and figures are important – you need those – but you need more than that. For instance, if you were teaching someone how to bake a cake, at their home, you would tell them how much to use of each ingredient (facts and figures), but you would also get personal with them while you worked.
You might tell them that you baked the same cake for someone who loved it. You might tell them that even though it isn’t in the recipe, you like to add nuts, or you like to use chopped nuts instead of crushed nuts because it looks and tastes better to you in that way.
If you’ve ever taken a copywriting course, you know that the focus should always be on the reader. You should use words like ‘you’ and ‘your’ and not use words like ‘I’ or ‘me.’ Well, this isn’t necessarily so – especially if you are trying to build a relationship with your readers. There should definitely be more ‘You’s’ than there are ‘me’s’ in your article, but it’s fine, and even recommended, that you make yourself human in your writing.
