Writing Effective Articles - Pick A Problem And Solve It

Why do people visit your blog post or article? Generally, there are two motivating reasons:

Your reader wants to be entertained; or

Your reader has a problem they want to know more about.

Entertainers

First we have the entertainment crowd. These are the visitors who come to your site for a light read . They might have a real interest in your niche or they might have seen the link on a social site such as Stumbleupon. Regardless, they are there to be for their own enjoyment and perhaps learn something new while there. These are readers who will not convert to paying customers today, but may do so in the longer term future.

Problems Solvers

The next class of visitor we are interested in is the problem solver. Their motivation for visiting your site is to solve a problem or research an issue about a topic or product. These are your cash cow visitors, i.e. the visitors that have potential to become buyers in the short to medium term.

Selling To Your Problem Solvers

Problem solvers who visit your website do not come to buy, they are there to learn. If you use this opportunity to directly sell to your reader, they will continue their search on another site. There is an old marketing saying - people love to buy but hate being sold to. The purpose of your content is to create interest and desire in the reader by pre-selling them. The purpose of your article is to pick a problem that a typical user experiences and solve it. If the solution speaks to them about the outcome they want, then the reader will take action.

Pick A Problem And Solve It

How do you pick a problem? If you have done your market research properly when you first set up your site, you would have your main topic that you are targeting and a number of smaller niches that make up the categories. Pick a category and drill it down further. This is a micro-niche and is the subject of your problem.

As for the solution, what are the top 5 problems readers have with this micro-niche? Do some basic detective work and you have 5 article ideas. You don't have to reinvent the wheel here, nor do you have to be an expert. Google the micro-niche phrase and see what are other authority sites are saying about the topic. Next, look up the item on Wikipedia and five of the top article directories.

You can also do some old style journalism for your solutions. Interview an authority on the issues. Sure, you will get turned down occasionally when you ask for an interview, but most people (and their ego) will jump at the chance to be seen as an authority in their profession. They get the chance to plug their business; you get an interview you can turn into articles or sell separately.

The Call To Action

A great pre-selling article needs a great call to action to close with. Otherwise, what's the point of writing the article in the first place? To start with, ask yourself what is the purpose of the article? Generally, there are two reasons to create article content:

To create authority for a page and generate backlinks; or

To get visitors to click through to a money page.

The call to action for the first article type is easy to spot as it is very generalized. This article is a good example. I am not trying to sell you a course or ebook. This article exists to build awareness of the website linked in the resources box.

Next, you have the call to action that links through to a money page. You want the reader to part with money or at the very least, opt in to your list. This call to action is far more aggressive. You might see phrases such as "Can you really get your partner back? Take our free 2 minute test to see if you can get your ex back.". You need to create the mind set of "this is the outcome I want, I can do what I just read and it seems so easy, but I need to know more". Just remember though, don't step over the line with fake blogs and testimonials. The FTC is starting to crack down on dodgy web advertising.

Article Source: http://www.articlecontentprovider.com/articlesubmit

Picking a problem and providing a solution is the fastest way to create desire in your readers. Learn to presell your readers and know which visitors will make you money.

Do you need help getting back to basics with your writing? I might not be able to turn you into an award winning writer, but I can show you how to write persuasive articles. Click through to the Persuasive Essay Guide and polish up your core writing skills.

Please Rate this Article

5 out of 5 4 out of 5 3 out of 5 2 out of 5 1 out of 5