How to make your articles more attractive
Many times, we see articles on APSense with question marks instead of quotes.
"Here?s an example" should be written "Here's an example"
Also, most articles are either too short, or they are written with long paragraphs.
I'm too lazy to read articles that have long paragraphs.
I'm not telling to change your style. It wouldn't be you then.
Here are suggestions to improve your article, and any other that you write, IMHO :
- Separate your article into sections, by writing headlines here and there. You know what I mean, I guess. A headline can be bigger fonts, different colors, underline, bold. I don't know about other people, but I'm pretty sure they won't mind. As for me, I probably won't read the whole article, but if a headline catches my attention, I might read the paragragh(s) under it. I might then have something to say about it, and it won't be "great article" or some comment without substance.
- I guess you wrote your article in Word, or wordpad, or on your blog, then did a copy and paste. Nothing wrong with that, but for one thing. Where we should see the quote, we see a question mark instead. It happens all the time.
- You first copy your article in notepad, then here. If you do that, and you had put nice headlines like I recommended in point 1, you will lose the formatting and have to redo it
- You copy directly here, submit, then immediately edit the article to replace the ? with ' everywhere.
To avoid that, you could write your article directly here. Unfortunately, as I write this, we can't save the article as draft. Not that it's much of a problem. You click "submit", then you edit the article.
About the ? instead of ', many people make that seem mistake. I suggest to them what I just suggested to you.
They say "ok, thanks" but don't edit their article.
Here's your chance to stand out from the crowd.
Don't boast about that change you will do. Just do it.
Sooner or later, serious marketers will notice you because of little things like that.
Next thing you know, they'll be the ones sending PMs to you, asking for advice.
You'll see, when it happens, it's a tremendous feeling of pride.
And you will know you deserve it. :)
One last thing : this article is a perfect example of "do as I say, not as I do". I haven't put nay headline in it.
Which reminds me, I will give you examples of the ways I put headlines when I do.
Bold
Bigger font
Same bigger font with bold
Big font and color
About colors, you know what ? Most of the time, I don't even bother to choose the exact same color for all the headlines.
If I choose red for the first headline, I will choose kind of the same red for the others. Or, I'm not too lazy, I will copy and paste my first headline and write the 2nd one, that way, they will be the same color.
This time, it's true, I have one last thing to say.
To see good examples of well presented articles, see what Cheryl ( pplcheryl ) does, or Genesis.
Here's a link to an article written this morning by Cheryl, titled
Professionalism-learn it and live it
http://www.apsense.com/article/158869.html
The title of that article is very appropriate, BTW, isn't it ? :)
15 people like it
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Comments (29)
Philippe Moisan16
Tutorial videos, sci-fi writer
@Patsy, you're too kind :)
Patsy j Payne8
konnektions konsultant
IMHO, you read the comments and answer them This member likes your content and is learning from you. That is an awesome goal for an active member. AND, you are very good at educating and encouraging.
Philippe Moisan16
Tutorial videos, sci-fi writer
@jnodin, I will shamelessly give you the occasion to hear my voice, on French and English, all you have to do is go to YouTube and look for my channel, my username is phmoisan
My channel is a mix of biz and personal videos, look for the one titled "my first video ever on YouTube", you'll see having fun with my twin boys
Before anyone complains that my comment here is unrelated to my article, and wants to click on the "report abuse" link, remember, you came to read or take a look at this ar
Jeannette Noding7
Now if I could just hear it. I'm sure it sounds beautiful. I love the French language and enjoy hearing it. I however will never be able to speak it or any other language as I am unable to speak. Another reason writing is so important to me. I'm getting much better at sign language and the Lord has put me in a position at work to help a child learn sign as well.
I truly appreciate your friendship and hope to hear from you often.
Philippe Moisan16
Tutorial videos, sci-fi writer
@jnoding, I'm happy to hear it.
In French,we say "Je te souhaite de joyeuses F?tes !", i.e. I wish you a happy Holiday Season ! :)
Jeannette Noding7
Hey Philippe,
Thank you for the kind words as well. Just letting you know that I have already seen an increase of traffic and responses to some of my postings. Have a very Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year.
Patsy j Payne8
konnektions konsultant
I'm surfing sites at APSense and one of Wincers comes up. It has several links on it and one of them is this article. I have written some and usually "didn't" follow these guidelines. I'm fixing to write an article, now I have guidelines right in front of me. The language will be spontaneous, the format from this article.
Nnamdi A.17
There is Something for Everyone
@Philippe What can one do in this life that is only one and every minute spent is never recovered? Do your best [or, at the least try] and enjoy what God brings your way, snow and all.
Hope Dawie is getting better. Haven't seen him today.
Philippe Moisan16
Tutorial videos, sci-fi writer
LOL
Nnamdi, I love you, man.
First, you take a serious tone, you explain a couple of things, very nicely.
Then, you show us you're human. Thumbs up, my friend ! :)
Nnamdi A.17
There is Something for Everyone
Nice article, Philippe.
I simply write my articles on APSense. All the features you mentioned in your article are available here. Simply use them if you want.
However, if you had pre written your article somewhere else, when you copy and paste at APSense, read the article again and ensure that the way it appears is the way you want it to be.
Otherwise, go and edit it.
One other thing I also do is, once I have posted an article or blog, I make sure I am the first person to read it so
Toshiba Burton7
Social Media Consultant
Hi Philippe thanks for sharing the valuable article I am fairly new to apsense & I love writing articles just trying to figure out how to do them here. Anyway again I really app. you sharing bec. its very helpful esp. for the newbie lol
Vijaya Lakshmi8
Writer, Health Consultant
Now I understand. It also stands for our way of presentation.
Philippe Moisan16
Tutorial videos, sci-fi writer
@learner it's not a question of replacing ' with ?
It's the other way around.
As Dawie said, sometimes, the obvious we can't see, until we click the "submit" button and look at the final result, i.e. what the other members will see.
@LindaP you are making me blush :)
Thanapoom L. Li9
Tintin in Thailand
maybe sometimes they can't find the ' mark
making something look good is not hard , but writing something is something hard for me.
Dawie Bezuidenhout11
Systems Engineer I.T.
All very well put Philippe, that question marks also points out plagiarism in a lot the cases. Sad but true.
As for the paragraphs, that is a point i still miss sometimes. When i am on the roll and having to much fun typing a comment, answer or new post, i sometimes forget to hit that enter key. LOL
I do however always re-read my posts after submission, and do the necessary corrections.
Vijaya Lakshmi8
Writer, Health Consultant
Wow Phil, I will learn from it. I accept the point of having paragraphs to attract the readers.
But I could not find what would be the mistake if we replace ' symbol with ?
LindaP6
They are right You are GOOD Philippe ;O)
Philippe Moisan16
Tutorial videos, sci-fi writer
@jnoding @apper feedback like that makes my day :)
Michelle Whitaker4
Small business owner
That's great advice for anyone in business on-line or off. Great job, keep up the good work.
Jeannette Noding7
Fantastic information. I now understand what I have been doing wrong. I had kind of given up on posting a lot of articles because of this. Thanks again.