 |
The first twenty-five words of your article are the most important. If they're not powerful and "sticky", readers will not stop and invest the time to find out what your article is about. Some writers write and rewrite their leads numerous times, changing a word here, adding a word there.I've heard of writers reworking the lead up to twenty times, until it is the best possible. Are leads that important? Absolutely! Most people flick through a magazine first and then decide what to read. Your lead is the advertisement, a signpost telling readers what to expect.If readers like the lead, they will invest the time to keep reading. Your lead, known as "the hook", worked. Editors and Leads Editors have a built in detector for excellent leads. Anything that doesn't hook the editor won't be accepted.
Your article may have a great topic, be well written, contain terrific research, include usable tips and ideas... but, sadly the lead let you down and your article was rejected. Writing a Sticky Lead
What makes a lead "sticky"? An Invitation -- Come in and read my article, there's lots of information, inspiration and entertainment.Being Direct -- A sticky lead is concise, direct and appealing. It doesn't ramble, or promise the impossible.It Fits -- Your sticky lead is an introduction to your article and should be appropriate for the following material. Some people have written great leads but they didn't have much to do with the rest of the article. Readers really hate that, so please don't do it.It's Natural -- Readers can tell if your sticky lead is forced, the flow is not good and you are not writing in a style that suits you. Readers are perceptive and much more knowledgeable than we sometimes give them credit for.
Example of What Works and What Doesn't
This is an article about moving house. "One day we were driving along a nice country lane, enjoying the countryside. The weather was ideal, warm with blue skies and not much cloud. We had chosen this day to look at a new suburb because we had considered moving. The suburb was two hours drive from where we were living and we wondered what attractions it had to make us want to relocate." (65 words) This is a pretty sleepy lead. It rambles and doesn't have a hook. Take a look at this lead for the same article. "Two hours drive south of Big City is New Town. Jobs are plentiful. Homes range from bungalows to multi-level spacious accommodation. New Town is on the banks of Lake Special. The air is clean -- All the ingredients for a great lifestyle.Here's what to look for when you're thinking of moving." (52 words) The second version sets the scene and tells readers what to look for when considering a move. You are giving information, inspiration and entertainment. - Information -- Where the place is and what are the immediate impressions.
- Inspiration -- All the ingredients for a great lifestyle.
- Entertainment -- Even if you're not thinking of moving this might be a great place to visit.
Think carefully about the lead when you start your next article.Barb Clews is an award winning journalist with nearly 1,000 published articles to her credit. She has been a writer and editor for 15 years and is the author of "Article Writing for Freelancers" and "20 Tips to Increase Writing Skills" Visit http://www.bcabooks.com/ to subscribe to "Words that Work", Barb's monthly ezine packed with tips for writers.
MORE RESOURCES:
Orato |
Rena LeBlancOrato - Nov 17, 2008Rena Dictor LeBlanc is an award-winning journalist whose articles have been published in major magazines and newspapers worldwide. ... |
A story to rememberAtlanticville, NJ - 2 hours agoOne of the most difficult tasks this job presents is writing articles about children who are battling serious diseases, or about young people who lose their ... |
A lesson in rights for this 'stupid president'Asia Pacific Media Network, CA - 5 hours agoSubsequently, the Financial Supervisory Commission ordered Chu to stop writing articles, giving lectures or participating in TV talk shows for one month on ... |
UNlisted going strong at 15!The Republican - MassLive.com, MA - Nov 10, 2008One day, in the eighth grade, I realized that writing articles could be the perfect way to inform the community about what was going on around them, ... |
Business Development Manager, LondonICM Commercial & Business News, UK - 16 hours agoManage the company’s interface with the media (editing/writing articles as appropriate); setting/implementing the media strategy. ... |
Writing-Articles - Google News
|
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Direct Sales Reps CAN Write Articles - Heres How!
We all know that article writing is a great way to promote our businesses AND helps establish us as an expert in our fields. But, just because we know how important it is to our business doesn't necessarily make us able to do it.
Finding Experts, Sources and Contacts
I was asked to write an article on a short deadline. No problem, I thought.
Promote Your Home Business with Keyword Rich Articles
Do you wonder what easy, cheap, and fast way you can attract your targeted audience to your Web site? You probably have heard about Web optimization with pay-per-click key words. But, there's a much better, more natural, much cheaper, more lasting kind of Web optimization for search engines--Writing and submitting key word rich articles to the opt-in ezines or the top 20 or so Web sites.
Article Syndication for Better Search Engine Position
If you're sick of being #987 for your best Google keyword phrase, here are simple-to-implement changes that can skyrocket your listing (and they don't have anything to do with what is ON your page!)
First, write some articles. Write at least one article of150 to 250 words each week.
Reward Those Who Publish Your Articles!
It is pretty obvious that content is king online. It is also obvious that writing more content and submitting them to other sites will help boost your popularity and bring more visitors to your site.
The RIGHT Way To WRITE Articles
As a follow up to my previous article on the WRONG way to write articles (see link at the end), this article shows you the RIGHT way to write articles.As you no doubt already know, writing articles is probably the most effective way to promote your web site - by writing your article in the RIGHT way, you maximize the results you can achieve from your article submissions.
Understanding That Online Writing is Business Writing Will Make You a Fortune
Never before in the history of the business of writing have opportunities opened up and presented themselves on such a large scale and in such huge quantities for writers to easily win so much regular business and revenue.If you know anything about writers of old you will know that they mostly starved, some to death.
Writing Articles - Two Aspects Of The Surge
Writing articles for publication on the Internet is, at the time I write this, every Internet marketer's favorite way to get free publicity for his website. If you are an Internet marketer and haven't heard the buzz that's going around about writing articles, where have you been? No, forget I asked, there can't be a single Internet marketer hasn't heard that writing articles is an essential part of website promotion.
Adsense Authors: Who Are These People?
Adsense is a program designed by Google to help publishers monetize their websites using high contextually-accurate ads. Adwords is the other side of the coin which allows any person to create an account with Google and bid on keywords or key phrases to have their ads appear in either the search results ad placements, or in content sites that display Adsense ads.
Writing for Dollars - How To Get Started
"When you provide good information from which readers can learn and profit, people are more likely to buy your products and services."- Heidi Richards -So just how do you get started? The first step, of course is to write the article.
Reprint Article Headlines - the Reader is Secondary
A great headline can be the difference between having your free reprint article published once (on your own website..
Top Ten Checklist to Edit Your Articles
Submitting articles once or twice a week can yield 15 or more subscribers to your own ezine each time. Read by thousands, even hundreds of thousands, your articles also bring people to your Web site to buy your products or services.
How to Write Money-Making How-To Reports
This is the "real" Money Maker in the Mail Order business the basic "How To" Report. It's something anyone can produce, and with all the proper ingredients at the right time, you can become independently wealthy! The hard part, of course, is getting all the proper ingredients at the right time.
You Can Also Write
I am sure that there would have been a moment in your life when you would thought of writing a poem, an article or a book. You may have not written so far BUT YOU CAN.
Review of Ezine Article Creator V2.0
By now most entrepreneurs realize that the most cost effective method of promoting their business and services is writing and distributing articles to e-zines, newsletters, magazines and web sites.Many people have no idea how to get started with writing an article for an e-zine, newsletter or web site.
Thought Leaders - Using Article Marketing To Entrench Yourself and Your Personal Brand
A "Thought Leader" is someone recognized as an authority in their field of expertise..
How Webmasters Can Become Experts and Write Expert Articles!
Write articles, be recognized as an expert, drive a surge of traffic to your website, increase your link popularity, create awareness - yes that is what all Internet Marketers are talking about.Article writing certainly does bring such great results to webmasters but do all articles yield such dividends? Only well written, thought provoking educative articles attain great heights.
The Difference Between Article Marketing and Traditional Article Writing
Lately, there seems to be some confusion between Article Marketing and regular article writing. People wonder why I would write articles when I'm not getting paid for them.
Creating Your Perfect Article Summary - 7 Tips
What should be in your article summary? It's otherwise known as an abstract or article teaser. The purpose of your article summary is to entice a potential reader to read the rest of your article.
Boost Your Expert Status, Write Articles
Writing an article is not an easy task. You have to have an attention grabbing headline, new content and most importantly, a vision to be seen as an expert.
|
