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For the many of you who already know about the enormous website, Ehow.com, then I am certain that you are familiar with all that this wonderful website has to offer the world.
For those who are unaware here is the down-low: the basic premise of the website is to allow users to share a collective of intelligence on how to do just about anything, as their mission statement clearly reads. Writing effective, engaging articles within this subject matter is quite another story in and of itself.
Being an Ehow Guru—and with more than 500 successfully published articles over a one year span—there is much that can be shared as far as how to write more effective articles for Ehow.com. First and foremost, Ehow.com is a subsidiary of Demand Media, a California based web content authoring firm that owns and operates some of the largest websites on the net.
Ehow.com, for example, receives more than twenty million unique visitors each and every month; and that is a down statement. They have a many very picky editors who work very closely with the writers to assure that their content is as relevant and meaningful as possible, so that they can maintain their coveted search engine optimization rating. You can write better articles for Ehow.com—here are the top ten strategies that will make you a better ‘how to’ writer than you ever thought possible before!
- Active engaging titles are the world. When you suggest assignments for Ehow kept the titles concise and informative but do not drag them on forever. Example: “How to Make Great Cards for the Christmas Holidays” would be a title that gets rejected. Rather, compose the title as: “How to Write Effective X-mas Cards.”
- Good grammar and spelling are must-dos. Most articles are rejected because they use poor grammar and spelling. Always compose your articles in a word processor and proofread them several times before submitting them. Avoid serial comma usages, example: They went to the bar where they saw a sign that had blue, red, and green letters. Rather this sentence should read: They went to the bar where they saw a sign that had blue, green and red letter – avoid overusing commas.
- Always include a relevant picture. Ehow loves it when you have a tagged and relevant picture. Articles without relevant images are far more likely to be rejected.
- Write the proper keywords. Do not try to add too many keywords for your article. Make sure you have at least three, and that you use a keyword in the title and the main body of the article at least once.
- Avoid slang at all costs. NEVER USE SLANG, period; this one is self explanatory.
- Use a passive community tense. Do not refer to yourself in the first person, ever! Use a passive and engaging community sense to portray how to do something properly.
- Make sure you are not stating the obvious. Nobody needs to learn how to brush their hair more effectively. Rather, an article discussing proper flat ironing procedures would be one that gets accepted; avoid obvious content, Ehow has over 300,000 articles already.
- Do not refer to brand names if at all possible. Rather then saying use a Kleenex, say use a facial tissue. Rather than saying use look it up on Yahoo, say use a major search engine.
- Assure that you have at least four relevant steps. You need to have at least four steps in each article, do less and you are sure to get a rejection.
- Always include tips and warnings. If you can, make sure to include a tip in the tips section and a relevant warning in the warning section; be creative.
- And Finally, NEVER PLAGIARIZE! Ehow scans all documents submitted through a checker that will find out if you used other peoples content. If you are caught, you will be banned for life. Avoid this at all costs!
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