Writing Hubs and Articles That Sell

Writing articles is fun, it provides an outlet for your creativity, ideas and energy but it is important to remember what you want to get from the experience and more importantly what you want your reader to get from the experience.

Your writing should leave an impression on the reader and, as we all know, first impressions count and it may be your first and only chance to engage with the reader. Bring your reader back time and again and you have a fan, a customer and in many cases a friend.

Almost every time we write we do it to sell something. Now, before you get all uppity on me and say ‘How dare you! I never write just to sell something’ let me explain.

When we write anything down with the intention of others reading it we are always trying to get one or more ideas across. The idea may be something intellectual, technical, emotional or pictorial in nature. It may be a venting of your thoughts and feelings or those of someone else or it may be a factual description of events. Whatever it is it is selling. Selling is the process of convincing another that what you are telling them is true and that they should take some action on this new information.

The action in the case of reading an article might be to do something about their lives, thoughts and feelings or it may be to seek out more information or click on a link or buy something. Whatever the desired action of the article is you must think carefully about what you want the reader to do, think and experience from your writing and make this the objective of your article or book.

The goal of any good writer must be to have the reader react in some, hopefully, positive way to your writing. Some writers are masters at upsetting people and being controversial; they have gone down the dark road and look for the reaction in a negative way. The dark side is just another way to achieve the author's re-action.

Here is an approach that I try to use and I hope it provides an additional tool for your writing toolbox. It is a well known method called the AIDA method and is commonly used in marketing and sales circles. AIDA stands for Attention, Interest, Desire and Action and it goes like this:

A - Attention - Your introduction to the article must draw the reader in and get their attention so that they read on. I try to make the intro a bit challenging or unusual to do that but there are many other ways, such as being bold, controversial, etc.

You must then generate a deep and unshakable interest in the reader so that they want to move on through the rest of the article. Flow the idea into real life situations and make it relevant to their life if possible. Think of situations that have happened in real life, comment on them in an interesting way and use ideas and concepts that your reader can identify with.

You should aim to develop a burning desire in your reader to know more and therefore to keep on reading to the end of your article. Like a good book they must find it hard to pull themselves away. Tease them, squeeze them, tickle them, please them; awake their senses and feelings and make them want, no .... not want ...., need to go on until they have in their grasp or at least in their mind what you promise in your writing.

The reader, now filled with feelings of desire and with the momentum of new knowledge must now be energised enough to react and do something about this new information and knowledge that they have. Whether it is to click on a link, view your profile, make a comment, become a fan or link to your article.

Your reader should have the impetus required to do what you want, your objective. They are but clay in your hands, ready to be moulded to what you want them to be or do. What a power trip? Bulwer-Lytton in his play 1839 play called 'Richelieu' said 'the pen is mightier than the sword' and he was bang on! Get the reader to do or feel what you want and you have achieved the goal of your article.