How to Make Your Own Newspaper Article Online

Instead of putting a newspaper article in the paper, publish online.

Writing your own newspaper articles for the Internet is a way to gain experience writing. It also publicizes what's going on in your community, provides you practice and recognition as a journalist, expands your writing portfolio, and possibly will earn you a little extra cash from advertising revenue.



If you know how to write a traditional newspaper article, you only need to add a few different principles to make your article successful with a Web audience. The best part is, you can do it all on your own in your spare time. You don't need to work at a newspaper or go through a lengthy editorial process just to get your news article published.

Instructions

1. Write the article following the classic rules of print journalism used in print newspapers across the world. Open the piece with a hook that gets the reader's attention and provides the who, what, when, where and why information surrounding the news story.

   In the paragraphs that follow, use the inverted pyramid style of journalistic writing, putting the most relevant and important information at the top of the story, followed by details that flesh it out and then explains the how and why of the news story more in depth. Chances are, the reader will not read the entire article, so you want to get as much essential information as you can possibly fit at the beginning.

   Write in a concise and active voice throughout the entire article, and don't include unnecessary or unrelated information. Keep all paragraphs between one and three sentences.

2. Format the article for online publishing. When looking into a bright computer screen, readers need visual breaks in the text of the article to give their eyes a break. Place a line of space between each paragraph, including bold subheadlines in longer articles, and place a photo at the top of the article as a way to attract attention to the beginning of the text so they will start reading it.

3. Write the headline for search engine optimization (SEO) so more people will find and read your article. This means you have to write the headline according to what people would type into a search engine when looking for the content of your article. In a traditional print newspaper, you would write headlines based on page space and creativity.

4. Decide on three to five tags to associate with your article when publishing it. Most online publishing platforms will ask for these tags, and the more well thought out the tags are, the higher chances you have of increasing traffic to your article.

   Think about things people would type into a search engine to find your article, and use these as tags. Scan over your article to look for keywords that pop up a lot in your article and use those in your tags as well.

5. Find an online publishing platform that accepts user-submitted content and encourages writers to submit news articles (see Resources). Creating an account on these websites is free and you are usually given the opportunity to earn revenue from page views and ad clicks in exchange for allowing the site to publish your news article.

   If you want your article to have a more newsworthy appearance, you can create your own news blog through a free blogging platform and design the layout yourself. When you create an account, make sure you use your real name or your pen name, as your name will show up in the article's byline.

6. Submit the news article through the publishing platform's content submission system or publish it directly on your blog.

Tips & Warnings

• Write for a specified audience instead of a general public one, especially if your news article appeals to individuals in a certain niche or industry. Keeping the content of your news articles for a specific audience will gain you credibility as a writer and reporter in your field. It will also help you gain the trust of your readers.

• Articles with photos to spark interest do a lot better at gaining web traffic, even if the photo is generic.

References

• The Online Journalism Review: How to Write for the Web
• Cyber Journalist: A Dozen Online Writing Tips

Resources

• Yahoo! Contributor Network
• WordPress
• Blogger