Advice On Writing Great Advice Articles
posted on 02/04/2009
If you're reading this, you're probably also asking yourself the following: "Just what are the folks at Advice.com looking for in an advice article?" Well friends, here are the steps to follow to make your article a winner. You may even hit the "featured" section or, if you really work hard and dedicate yourself to your craft, the Advice of the Day! Let's get started:
Write in paragraphs
Articles that string together 10 or more sentences into one huge block of text are hard on the eyes and intimidating to the reader. Break your thoughts up into paragraphs and your readers (not to mention your editors) will thank you. This leads to the next point...
Use section headings
Studies show that most people reading online start any article by skimming the page to see if it is relevant to their interests. The best way to communicate to a reader that your writing is worth their time is by catching their attention with section headings. Give each heading its own line of text and make it bold by placing the characters bold tags around it.
Proofread your article
A typo here and there won't ruin you but multiple spelling errors and confused grammar is a sure way to communicate to your reader that you don't know how to write. Like it or not, they'll probably call in to question your expertise in your subject matter as a result of this. Most errors can be easily fixed by quickly reading over your article before you click "Post Advice."
Give Specific Advice
It's human nature to want easy answers to your problems. As such, your article will be much more well-received by your audience if you provide them with specific advice on your chosen topic. Obviously you should use your judgment, but a good general guideline is that if any part of your advice would take the reader longer than an hour to complete, it's probably not specific enough. Consider writing a separate article that explains how to perform this step.
Have fun
I know it sounds trite, but advice is generally much better received when the advisor is entertaining. Making jokes in advice articles is fine and even encouraged. Just be careful if you're using sarcasm as it's easily misinterpreted online.
Do you have any advice for aspiring advisers that we've missed here? Please add it in the comments below. All (constructive) suggestions are welcome.
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Previous Comments
emme1 says:
(245d 18h 5min ago)
Be sure that in writing your article that your main focus is on what the reader needs to hear, and not just what you want to say. This is especially if you are responding to someone's specific request for information.
justmesuzanne says:
(226d 3h 7min ago)
Thank you for this information. How do you place the bold tags? Every time I try to bold any one line, everything beneath it is bolded, too. Do you put the at the start and finish of the line, just at the start, or just at the finish, or something else entirely? Nothing I have tried has worked.
:)Thanks!
Advicedotcom says:
(222d 14h 5min ago)
Justmesuzanne, to use the bold tags, put the one without the slash before the text that you want to be bold and the tag with the slash after the text you want to be bold. I hope this helps.
justmesuzanne says:
(219d 4h 24min ago)
What slash? Please type it the way that it is supposed to be. Thanks! :)
justmesuzanne says:
(216d 11h 32min ago)
Well, I guess you can't actually type it the way it is supposed to be because it would just BOLD your text! LOL! Could you type it with spaces between the characters to show me what characters you are talking about and in what order? Thanks! :)
Advicedotcom says:
(215d 18h 58min ago)
< B > before the text and < / B > after the text.
justmesuzanne says:
(214d 11h 30min ago)
Thanks! :)