Articles are either responses or provocations, meant to inform or entertain. On occasion one may see prose but largely an article is written either in response to something or to provoke a response. Both have an opinion while either may reflect deep thought, stupidity, or neither.
An article should be conceived to make a point. Aesop told fables to make his points about philosophy. They were well conceived and made valuable points. Playwrights prior to 1964 understood this and crafted poetical and symbolic characters, verbiage, and actions that made clear their points.
The last novel I read, that made a clear and provocative point, was"Rosemary's Baby." The point of the story was, if G-d could impregnate a mortal, why couldn't Satan? What wonderfully juicy opinions, debates, and responses were provoked by the idea of a Satanic nativity! I have read other novels since but their points were either diluted or delusional.
Articles written for the internet are literary embarrassments. "Five Ways To Tell If Your Boyfriend is Gay!" "How to Tell Your Girlfriend You're Gay!" "10 Reasons to Stop Using The Word 'Gay' in Online Articles." No, this author is not gay but by using the word "gay" six times in a paragraph this article will rank high for "gay content" on Google.
Now, we get to the real point of online article writing; to monetize.
I'm very good at Search Engine Optimization (SEO). This skill comes from decades of writing commercial advertisements for print, radio and television. Getting the sponsor's name into 60 seconds as many times as possible, without sounding contrived, takes craftsmanship. My personal best was 40 times in 60 seconds (funny, I can't remember the name of the sponsor).
There are many facets to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for internet articles but for the purposes of this article I'll only address keyword count and relevant content in online article writing.
In the previous paragraphs I used the keyword, "article" about eight times and "online article" about half that many. This may seem like a spare use of the keywords for an article of this length but there is always a threat of the perception of spamming by search engine spiders. In the preceding sentence for example I used "article" three times in the same sentence. That brings the saturation of the keyword to a level that is dangerously high. When your keyword count gets too high the search engines may perceive your article as spam and either penalize your ranking or ban your article altogether.
Content is King in online article marketing. Writing in a way that is easily read and readily quoted takes some time to cultivate. The information you provide has to be compelling enough that others will link back to you. Writing in an authoritative voice is necessary but not necessarily required. Many popular online articles are written in the vernacular of the au courant yet still manage to rank well above those on the same topic that are conventionally well written.
Here's an example of keyword count in content being King of the internet. Run a search on "Spielberg's List." There are numerous articles written on the list of films for which Steven Spielberg is responsible. On page two of Google's responses you will find an actual list of Steven Spielberg's favorite movies! It's posted on the website for an acting school in Los Angeles and nowhere else. In the articles you will find a great many references to the director, his films, his name, and the term "Spielberg's List." The search result with an exhaustive list of film titles is ranked relatively low because the keyword count is practically zero by comparison.
As far as online articles go this one is neither provoking nor responsive but it does have a modicum of relevant content. Let's post it and in a couple of months (this is October 5th of 2010) we'll see where it ranks on organic searches. It should show up well for "Gay," perhaps for "Spielberg's List," and certainly for "online articles."
Thank you for your time and interest.
TLSO
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