Good ways to make your blog article more readable

Whether you are writing articles for article directories or posts for your blog, your goal should be to make them useful to readers. But, most of the articles and blog posts are full of vague generalities and they contain a pile of words and sentences meant for search engine rankings only.

If you make your contents useful to readers and strategically use a few key words to make it search engine friendly, you will not only attract search engine traffic but also develop readers' loyalty who will promote your brand virally.

How do you make your article useful to readers? Use the 7 techniques discussed in this article to make an impact on your readers.

1. Use examples to elaborate your point. Without example the writing becomes an exercise in abstraction and many readers will not have a clue as to what you are trying to convey. You can either start with examples and than generalize message to an abstract concept or you can start with a general statement and elaborate it with examples.

If you are discussing several concepts, start with a simple example and build on the same example to illustrate all of your concepts. Switching to different examples for each of your concept, will leave the readers wondering how all the concepts you have discussed in your article relate to each other.

2. Use analogy, metaphor, and story. Analogies are very instructive and they provide insights to an unknown concept using a known concept. For example, you can explain back links by saying, 'a back link to your website is like a vote for your site. If you have more votes than your competitors, you win. More back links to your site means higher ranking in search engine results.'

Metaphors are also used to compare two different concepts but the words 'like' or 'as' are not used in metaphors. Our every day speech is full of metaphors, e.g. 'raining cats and dogs', 'old flame', etc. Use them to liven up your prose but be cautious. Improper use may sow confusion in the reader's mind.

If you have a personal story, use them to illustrate your point. Stories are very powerful in conveying a message. A Story resonances more in the minds of the readers than an abstract concept.
3. Enhance value by incorporating opinions. Bloggers often link to other articles and write a sentence or two to introduce a topic. While this is a good practice in letting your readers know what others are thinking in the related topics, you can enhance the value of the post by including your opinions and inviting others to post their own thoughts in the comment section.

4. Use Quotes from Authoritative Writings. You may already know about the value of using quotes from your college essay writing class. Quotes from authoritative figures help increase the value of your opinion and thoughts. You can proclaim that you are not the lonely person who has this crazy thought, but lots of respected people do agree with your insights.

5. Use illustrations and charts. You can use this technique in Squidoo lenses, Hubpages and in your own blog posts. This technique may not be possible for general article marketing sites because of the popular article directories don't allow images and videos in the article.

Some concepts are difficult to explain using words only. However, a simple illustration helps readers grasp the concept easily. Readers can also easily remember a chart than a few paragraphs of a blog post.

You don't have to be a graphic artist to create useful illustrations. Use MS PowerPoint or other free chart software to create your charts. Use screen captures when writing a 'how to article' about the use of software.

6. Write Pros and Cons. Most articles discuss only one side of a topic; either the writer is for or against it. Why no use both sides of the coin? Share your opinions about why it is good for your readers and what your readers should be cautious about while using or implementing the concept in your article.

7. Let your article sit for a day or two. Don't rush to submit your articles to all the article directories as soon as you finish writing it. Wait for a day or two and read the articles again to see if you can add or modify some thing to make it more useful to your readers.

Does your article provide any useful information to readers to make their life better? It does not always have to be materialistic gains for your readers. Even if you can share humor or inspiration with your readers using your prose, you have achieved your goal of providing value by your writing.

In the web information is cheap but valuable information is few and far between. If you do your part in making your readers happy, you will be recognized as an expert in your field and money will flow.

Online earning experiences

I'm always interested in deals online where you can earn cash. When I saw on discussions boards a place to earn free phone call minutes and cash just for signing up for free offers, I figured I'd try it out. Another suggested website was where you can submit tips to earn money. The first offer I signed up for was for free calls.

Phonehog.com is a website that claims you can earn free minutes by simply joining for a newsletter, giving a zip code or answering s survey. Sounds pretty easy. You simply register with your name, e-mail and password. Then you are given an e-mail by phone hog explaining your membership details. The next e-mail is a newsletter with deals to entice. For example if you only enter your zip code, they offer you 7 free minutes.

I signed up for the Coca Cola rewards deal. You sign up for their newsletter and phone hog will credit your account with 24 free minutes. With the Coke rewards program you can enter the code from the cap of special marked bottles and possible win free stuff. Phone hog says on it's website to wait one business day for your account to be credited. It's been over seven now and I still have no minutes added to my account. But I have the Coca Cola membership from the website sitting in my inbox.

I also signed up for a free couple for heartburn medication. The website claims you can get a free trial of their product if you answer a few questions regarding your heartburn needs. The website itself was easy enough to negative through. I waited and checked my phone hog account daily to see if they had credited me with 25 free phone minutes.

As each day went by I ended up getting the usually e-mail newsletter telling about offers to earn free minutes but never once an e-mail that I had minutes. But I did receive one thing from phone hog, a lot of spam! More then one time a day I would receive newsletters claiming on more minutes from partners. I decided to unsubscribe from their website. They have three options on their subscribing page. One is to stay with the newsletters, have less e-mail sent or three have all newsletters stopped. I voted for the unsubscribing completely. This is one website that I won't be continuing with.
Another website I checked out was Itpaystolearn.com. Here you sign up for offers and they pay you in cash via paypal. I signed up for two newsletters and was suppose to earn $4.00. I was excited because I had heard from another person they pay promptly the next day. I waited and checked on my account with the e-mail they send you. Every day now it always says the same thing, they need to make sure you have signed up with their advertisers. Daily I receive from the two offers I signed up for, spam. Several e-mails about signing up for more items. I'm still wondering where are my earnings.

What I've learned from both of these websites is to be more careful when signing up. It's a good idea to check reviews and hear if others have had spamming experiences. You can check out both websites for yourself and see if you have a different experience. Luckily under the newsletters is a unsubscribing link.

Daytripper was a more pleasant experience. When you register you give your name, account name, password, address and how you would prefer to be paid if your work is published. They offer payment by check, paypal or a donation to charity. After signing up you can start submitting a tip for possible publication. It can be about anything. Keep in mind that submitting a tip doesn't mean it will be published. In a few days you'll receive an e-mail regarding if your tip will be published. Publishing/payment times vary from weeks to even months so prepare to be patient.