Whether you have already written articles and published them or not, you may want to check out the difference between writing for online ezines and web sites and writing for print media. While some writing concepts work for both, online writing needs a shorter, more focused approach.

Follow these ten steps to write an article top Web sites and ezines will clamor for with a link back to where your book is sold.

1. Choose a topic that relates to your book. Make sure this article has useful, needed, and original information. One site, which markets to professional speakers, published an article "What Makes One Book Outsell Another" that relates to the eBook Write your eBook or Other Short Book Fast.

2. Know your article's thesis. The thesis is your point of view--what your article will prove. It is the major answer for your audience's major challenge your book will solve. In the introduction above, the thesis is stated in the last line, "Follow these ways to write an article top Web sites and ezines will clamor for with a link back to where your book is sold."

Authors Tip: Remember to write on only one topic for each article. Save the other related ideas for another article.

3. Know your preferred audience. Just as your book has a target audience, so should your article. "Sell More Books with a Powerful Back Cover," and "Titles Sell Books articles are aimed at professionals, authors, and small business people who want to write and sell books fast. You may want to include your audience in the title.

4. Write a sparkling title and opening. Like a headline in a press release, on your Web site, or on your book's back cover, your title and your first sentence should grab your readers by the collar, so they will keep reading. Include a benefit in your title and keep it fairly short.

Your first paragraph opening can use a shocking fact, a question or two of where your audience is now, a benefit, or a compelling story right out of your book. Make the opening a short paragraph, even a single line. Readers want concise, digestible information, especially on the Internet.

Authors Tip: Readers want concise, digestible information, especially on the internet.

5. Illustrate a need or benefits. Whatever your articles topic, show your readers why they need your information. If you have written a book on listening for couples, in your short article, discuss how much is at stake for not listening, such as divorce.

6. Give a brief background of the problem or situation you will solve. One book-coaching client wrote a book, The Cure for Multiple Sclerosis. In it she shares that over 2 million people worldwide with Multiple Sclerosis are diagnosed incurable, that doctors are pressured to use pharmaceuticals, and that the health industry is not about getting people well, but about making money. One of her articles openings included this background.

7. Share the problems that result. In The Cure for Multiple Sclerosis, the problem is that most people rely on western medicine, which does not have the answers. Big money is not spent on alternative or complementary ways to prevent and cure chronic diseases, so people with problems get drugs that deplete the immune system.

8. Give the solutions. Your book offers solutions to problems, just as your article must. Show your readers how to get excellent health, how they can write a book, make more money, or have better relationships. You may write a tips article with numbered short tips.

9. Show them where to get the solution and how. The article, "How to Listen at Work to Raise Career Success," needs to suggest where to go or what to do next to learn the skills. You may name a quality book to read (maybe your book!), mention a seminar or training, or recommend a coach. You may even mention a Web site address or 800- number.

10. Place your article on as many high traffic Internet sites and opt-in ezines as you can. People are looking for free information. That's the major reason they visit Web sites and subscribe to online ezines.

So, now that you know major points on how to write a short article, put it to work for you to promote your book.

Judy Cullins 2005 All Rights Reserved.