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Here you'll find tips on how to get the most out of your published articles. We provide hints, advice, links and other resources to help you enhance the quality of your eHow content, drive traffic to your articles and, most importantly, Earn you more money!
First things first, in case you didn’t already know, all eHow registered users can write and publish articles on their topic of choice and, through our new Writer’s Compensation Program (WCP), automatically earn extra cash through PayPal.
Before going any further in this tutorial, it’s strongly suggested that you sign into eHow and register for a WCP account. It’s fast, free and easy.
To enroll in WCP, you must register with eHow. Click below to get started.
Register with eHowAlready have an idea of what to write? Click the button below to get started.
Start WritingBefore you write an article, consider the subject matter and audience. Ask yourself a few simple questions. Are you covering something with mass appeal? Or is it targeted to a more focused number of people? Is your topic seasonal or newsworthy? What’s the lifespan of your article? Will your topic be outdated by next spring? Obviously, you can’t expect every article you write to “speak to” millions of people. But by tailoring your approach to reach the most people possible, while keeping your content evergreen, you’ll increase its overall value. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t write on the World Series, but it’s probably not a good idea to write on this year’s World Series.
The ideal article has from 400 to 600 words including the title, introduction, steps and tips and warnings. There may be cases where this word limit does not apply and articles will be shorter or longer, but a majority of well researched articles on the site fall in this range. Length can be lethal online…
eHow’s user-friendly article submission form comes with an automatic spell checker. Use it. Always keep in mind the importance of quality writing. You don’t have to be Hemingway with your prose, but attention to detail is critical to getting your point across and communicating your instructions clearly to the reader. Keep a dictionary by your side, and try to get a friend or colleague to take a look at your work when you’re finished.
While the written instruction you have to offer is valuable, the demands of the average Internet user are becoming more diverse. With eHow’s writer form allowing easy upload of high resolution images, you can help your cause by quickly adding visual aids where possible. Recent site research has revealed that articles with images perform, on average, better than articles without them.
A few facts about search engines (i.e. Google, Yahoo!, Ask.com, etc.): Using the right keywords will help people searching on search engines to find your articles.
How does it work? A user performs a search on the search engine, and the search engine spits back a list of websites. Seems easy, but to decide which sites and web pages to show, a search engine evaluates more than 200 ranking factors; and the words on each web page are among the most important.
Word choice is critical in the article title, but it’s also important to use your keywords in the introduction and article steps. When selecting your title, think about the words you would put into the search engine box if you were looking for this information. Would you search for something like: “How to Take Gorgeous, Colorful Photographs While Snorkeling in the Pacific” or would you simply search for “How to Take Underwater Photos” or even just “underwater photos”?
Leave the clever hooks, flowery prose and double entendres to magazine writers. Online it’s about simplicity and clarity. Use “party” instead of “soiree,” “dog” instead of “man’s best friend,” “baseball” instead of “America’s pastime.” Think about how you would search for an article like yours and the keywords will follow.
Just because you decide to use “homemade pizza dough” or “yoga poses” as your keywords, there is no need to stuff those words into every sentence. Write naturally. Write conversationally. Use the keywords in your title, then a few times in the body, and your article will read well and rank well. Stuffing as many keywords as possible into your article will do neither.
Drive traffic to your articles by linking to them from other websites.
The number of high quality links to a webpage is another factor. And the text of those links is a third: When linking to your articles, instead of using "Click Here" as the link text, use the article title – for example, "How to Tie a Tie". The link text helps search engines (and regular people) to know what the page being linked to is all about.
Keep in mind that traffic is measured by the number of page views you have received on your articles. You can track your page views for each article right on your profile’s “Manage My Articles” page. Keep an eye on them and check back often to record your progress. It’s a great motivator to push for more traffic to your articles. But remember, the eHow page view counter records the IP address of each user, so forget about trying to increase views by hitting refresh over and over. It’s one page view per user, so the best way to increase views is to spread the good word!
Social bookmarking sites provide a new way for Internet surfers to find information tailored to their interests. The concept is simple: when you like a particular web page, you bookmark it, leaving it within the bookmarking site’s category-based network of links and thus more accessible to other surfers. Examples of popular bookmarking sites include Digg.com, Del.icio.us and StumbleUpon.com. In the case of the former two, every eHow article contains buttons to allow for automatic social bookmarking on those pages. Click on them and get your article indexed.
Got a Myspace or Facebook profile? There are better ways to use it than showing off your sweet ride. Cross promote your eHow work, link back to your articles and spread information to your friends. Always remember to email your content to friends, family and other potentially interested parties. Find a forum where people are discussing your subject, and post your article. Spread the good word. Your article won’t distribute itself. Also, consider using sites like Answerbag and Yahoo! Answers to point relevant questions to your articles, where you provide the answers.
If you have a blog, or know people who do, why not ask them to post a link to your eHow profile, or some of your eHow articles? Blog readers are typically a dedicated group and always open to explore the recommendations of their favorite bloggers. Do the same with yours or a friend’s personal website. In addition to potentially more readers, your articles will be more search engine friendly due to those links.
The eHow social network is new and growing rapidly. Take advantage of its many benefits. Meet and discuss your articles in the forums, rate and comment on articles, invite others to be your friend. Get active in the eHow community and watch as your page views grow (you can track them from your profile page). Also, use the “Add Favorite” and “Send to Friend” options to increase the exposure of articles you enjoy, including your own.
by Z Padmore
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