7 Mistakes one MUST AVOID when writing an article

Making your articles available for reprints by other ezine publishers and webmasters is the cornerstone strategy in building an avalanche of pre-qualified visitors to your website.
If you want your articles to be picked up and massively distributed by others, here are 7 common mistakes to avoid:
Article Mistake #1 Too many grammatical, spelling, and punctuation errors.
In addition to having your article proofed by others, you may also want to be sure that you have clearly defined paragraphs. Nothing is worse than a big blob of text with 20 run-on sentences.
Readers no longer read articles in depth and often only 'scan' your article. They want small bites of information that can be easily digested… also known as "info-snacking."
Keep your "voice" in the same person throughout the entire article. If you are using the first person voice (I, me) or the second person (you, we, us) or the third person (they, them, he, she)…be consistent by staying in one voice for the entire article.
Article Mistake #2 Too much hype, bragging and self-promotion.
If you are as good as you know you are, there is no reason to fill the body of the article with hype, gratuitous links to your site or blatant self-promotion. Readers are smart and will see right through your "hype-veil."
Better to only sell or pitch your company in the RESOURCE BOX below the body of the article. Research I've done indicates that the resource box often gets a 3% CTR (Click Through Rate). Be sure you take advantage of that by not selling hard in the body of the article.
Article Mistake #3 Content based on what you need to learn, not what your reader needs.
Put yourself in your reader's shoes and ask yourself, "What does this article offer me?" Research what your reader wants to read by doing survey's with your own audience or do keyword search engine research to find what people are looking for.
Article Mistake #4 Making your article broad or superficial in content.
It's better to go in-depth on a narrow topic. Define it. Explain it. Relate to it. Use bullet points or numbered lists. Offer a secret or expertise that you have around the topic. Be original in covering your topic as narrowly as possible in a way that has not been done by others. Brevity is golden.
Article Mistake #5 Headline and article summary does not grab readers' attention.
The headline is often ~95% of the initial reason why someone might read your article or pass it over for another article. Don't bore your audience out of the gate with a dull headline or worse, a boring introduction to the article.
If you have to use two sentences to make your headline, you're thinking too hard. Keep it simple and make it brief. Use keyword research tools to optimize your article title.
Article Mistake #6 Plagiarizing or 'buying articles'...
It's ok to research the Internet for article ideas, but it's not ok to copy word-for-word of any article. Paraphrasing can also be classified as plagiarism. Be original. Let the words flow from your mind into your article. You will sleep better at night and your articles will have a higher value in the marketplace.
Buying articles is not a great idea…especially if you do not get an exclusive license to use them. What good is the same article if thousands of people call it their own? If you do outsource your article writing to ghost writers, make sure you have an exclusive right or license to the works.
Article Mistake #7 Don't burn out the RESOURCE BOX by overloading it.
The RESOURCE BOX is your pay-off for giving your article up for free reprints, but don't abuse the welcome mat by including a dozen website addresses. Stick with one website URL or two at the most and you'll find your article may find a higher distribution rate.
If you want to be really tacky, include an affiliate link in the RESOURCE BOX. A better strategy is to have a domain name registered for every affiliate program that you pitch and include the domain name that rewrites or refreshes to your affiliate link. This is much less tacky and looks more professional.

About The Author:
Christopher M. Knight invites you to submit your best quality original articles for massive exposure to the high-traffic http://EzineArticles.com/ expert author community. When you submit your articles to EzineArticles.com, your articles will be picked up by ezine publishers who will reprint your articles with your content and links intact giving you traffic surges to help you increase your sales.

How to Create an Outline for Your Article?

We’ve done it through junior high, it expanded longer through high school, then on college it became chapters. No matter how many times a person have done it, writing articles has proven to be a task many has continuously avoided. Now at a time when writing articles could help your job or work, facing the job at hand can be still faced with unfriendly behavior. While there are a great number of people who do not have the same attitude in article writing as others, there are still those who would rather walk in piping hot coals than do some article writing. What set other people apart from other towards article writing is that they are prepared and has some methods and procedures in writing articles.
One of the methods you can use to prepare yourself when tasked to write in article is creating an outline first. Creating an outline for all your articles makes you prepared. You have an idea of what to do first and make a plan for your succeeding steps. Being prepared makes the job easier and faster. Being organized will allow for disorientation to be shunned away.

An outline can act as the design or blueprint for your article. This will guide you in creating the introduction, body and conclusion of your article. Here in this point, you can write down some of the ideas and sentences that you feel will look good in your article. This could be some of the focal point that could help make your article creative,
interesting and appealing to a reader. A carefully planned and fully prepared project would guarantee and ensure a problem and worry free procedure that can virtually go
without any hassles. Creating an outline for all your articles will get you ready and breeze through writing an article in no time at all. Here I will provide you with some tips and guidelines in how to create an outline for all of your articles.

Do a couple of brainstorming and jot down your brilliant ideas first. Think of some ways to attract the interest of your reader. Designate a time frame where you can write down all the ideas that you can use for your articles. By this time you should have done all your research and information searching. Review and reread your ideas and notes, gain mastery and sufficient familiarity with your topic so that writing them down later own would be easy for you. The next step is to discover your sub topic and sub titles. As you
would provide a first sentence for your article, one that would immediately grab the attention of your reader, you would need some as well for your sub topics. To be concise, you would need to get all the facts that will support and go against your point.

These are the frames or skeleton of your article, now its time to add the flesh and the meat of your article. You will need to connect all your paragraphs and sub topics. This will form the body of your Article. While the introduction will usher in the ideas of your paragraph, you will need a conclusion. The conclusion will wrap up your points and
drive in what you are saying in your article. The outline for your article would also require you to write a draft first. This may take more than one attempt but remember that it is called a draft for a reason. Your outline shall be perfected as each draft is written and this draft is meant for your eyes only so there’s no reason to feel ashamed. As you go on, you will clearly see the bigger picture and write an article that will perfectly suit what is demanded of it. Reread and reread what you have written down. Always refer to your outline so that you wont drift away from what you had first written down. Its not hard to be caught in the moment and get lost in your writing frenzy. Your outline will help you keep in track. All those hours spent in outlining your article will not go to waste. This will serve as your guide in writing articles. Trust and rely on your outline because
this will prove to be a very helpful tool in writing all of your articles.

With the information given, you can easily be used to make thousands of dollars a month of income. But your first money making article will be the hardest one to make simply because you have very little experience. But once you make your first money making article, your next one will be much easier and before you know it you’ll be pumping them out as
if you have some sort of article factory! So just because making your first article is not the easiest thing in the world, don’t get discouraged...it gets much easier! Good Luck!