10 Ingredients Of A Successful Article

Every blogger knows the good article when he sees it (it’s simple – a good article is interesting to read ;-)), but how to make it from a scratch? There are plenty and plenty of articles about that.

As the matter of fact, nearly every blogger who writes about making money online or blogging has some day made an article about that. We have carefully tasted their creations and designed a combined list of main ingredients of a good blog post.

#1: Difference

Almost anything that can be written is already out there and original idea is a real scarcity, so to appeal to readers be different. Do not make another hamburger! If it is impossible to come up with an original idea, try to put bread between two pieces of beef. It may not be delicious, but it will create a commotion and attract attention to your blog. But be careful not to scare-off your readers.

#2: Knowledge of Your Audience

That is one of the the most important rules of marketing (and that is what a good article is all about: you are exchanging your material for readers’ attention). All people are different and it is critical to understand who your readers are and what there problems are. What are they looking for? Why did they come to your website and what can make them stay? These are the questions that you should ask yourself every time you start a new article.

#3: Whatever Your Readers Order

The article is not for you, it is for them! After you start to understand your readers you should get an idea of what they are looking for. Just give it to them, or explain why they don’t need it. Imagine that you are in a restaurant, you ordered a chicken and they bring you soup. Unless you get convinced that you really want the soup you will simply leave (it would be better if they served you chicken in the first place, but nobody’s perfect).

#4: Interactivity

Make your readers think and interact with you through questions, stating arguable points or in any other way. Unless they are involved in your blog in any form, they will not feel themselves as part of it and will not become your subscribers. You know why Chinese restaurants are so popular? It’s not because of the food (you can order it home), its the process when everything is flying around just in front of you and occasionally ends up in your mouth as if by magic.

#5: Aftertaste

When the reader has found what he was looking for (the best outcome is when the search ends on your blog), do not let them leave you once and for all. Make your readers understand that there is much more interesting and important stuff coming later on your blog. The dainty can be delicious, but it must leave a pleasant aftertaste as well, or else what do we have left, when its all finished?

#6: Deep-water Bait:

Yet again do not let the reader just get off your hook, lure them deeper and deeper in your blog. Just like a pro chef gives you the appetizer and only after that the main course, you should tempt the appetite of your reader. These tricks can help you:

• related articles widgets;
• in-post links to related articles;
• anything else that works 😉

#7: Unforgettable Taste

That is not an ingredient actually, but the result and an extremely important one. It is often called brand development. You want your blog to be famous, don’t you? Internet marketing is not purely about links and bookmarks. Do not forget that you are marketing your brand and it should be not only recognizable, but also memorable.

#8: Knowledge of the Topic

You should know well any topic you are writing about. People try to find something new and original in your article, give them only the valid information and not some general stuff. There is more than one way to skin a cat, and if you’re at it, learn as much of them as possible (I actually love cats very much, but could not resist this game of words :-)).

#9: Fresh Info

There is no way a person can know everything. Besides there is always new stuff emerging. So, unless you are 100% certain that your knowledge is complete and up-to-date, you should make a bit of additional research just in case there is something new.

#10: Collaboration

After you did your research, you should not be shy to show it and to link to the sources of your information. Besides being simply polite and honest it will also help to attract attention of the people you are linking to. They can get interested in your work and this may help you to make more connections for the future.

This, of course, is not the ultimate list of the things you should put into your article to make it tasty, there are other extremely important ingredients like passionate writing as well as self obvious things such as correct spelling and things of lesser importance like image for every post. All of them will be covered in further articles, so stay in touch.

Now that was an example of how to provide incentive to sign-up for an RSS feed 😉 Hope you will find these ingredients worthy using for your projects. Also feel free to post your opinion or questions in the comments.

This is a guest post written by Edward ‘The Chef’ over at Flavor of Success, “Be the Chef in the Kitchen of your Life”. Flavor of Success is devoted to gathering and sharing all kinds of success stories. We are interested in the stories of celebrities, businessmen and simply everyone else.

Image by Lexitaru