Write How-To Articles and Share Your Expertise

Whether you’re an author stuck for an idea on your next submission or a business owner trying to come up with a topic about your product, service, or niche, how-to articles might be just the thing for you to take a look at.

Generating ideas can be the most difficult part of writing articles. Once the idea is there, you can usually get past the blank page and move on. Problem solving, or how-to articles, are powerful because they can get you moving and offer other people help.

Here’s a step-by-step way to writing your own “How-To” articles.

Use Your Resources

If you’re writing about something that you’re involved in, or care about, then you already have a wealth of knowledge that other people could benefit from. Think back on the problems that you had when you first began in your topic.

For instance, if I wanted to write an article about Photoshop I might start with thinking back to the first time I opened the program and was overwhelmed by all the options. All that I wanted was to learn what was what – so I might decide to write an article on finding the basic tools that most Photoshop users need most often.

If you’re still stuck on what problem to begin with, use your resources. Talk to your customers or fellow topic lovers to find out problems that they face. Pay attention to the ones that they couldn’t easily find solutions to.

You can also get a lot of ideas by becoming a member of forums related to the things you write about. People will post their questions to forums hoping that someone has an answer – if you see the same sort of questions posted several times, you have a great problem to focus an article on.

How-To Articles Step-By-Step

Working with a “formula” will often propel your writing forward much more quickly than trying to just hack something out. Give yourself a certain series of steps that flesh out the solution to your problem, and you’ll have a full article written before you know it.

First, decide what kind of problem-solving article you’re going to write. This will usually depend on what types of information you have on the problem.

� How-To Articles offer instructions, guidelines, a specific series of steps that solve the problem in one specific way.
âÂ?¢ Tips & Tricks Articles offer several ideas on how to begin solving a problem, but don’t usually go in-depth on solving it in a specific way.

Now, come up with a title. I know – usually you’re told not to write a title until you’re done with your writing. I say different in a how-to article because it’s easy to go off-topic if you aren’t reminding yourself what the topic is. Make the title clear, a description of what your article is about in just a few words like “How to Find Brush Tools in Photoshop CS2” or “10 Tips to Understanding Photoshop CS2”.

You’ve come a long way already – now it’s time to write that all-important first sentence. If you find yourself staring at a blank page wondering why you’re even doing this, take a breath and try one of these “openers” to get your fingers moving:

âÂ?¢ “Did you know that…”
âÂ?¢ “How many times have you…”
âÂ?¢ “Here’s an easy way to…”
âÂ?¢ “How do you get around…”
âÂ?¢ “When was the last time you…”

After your opening sentence, state the problem clearly so that your reader can immediately see that, yes, your article will address the problem they’re having. Your first point should be followed by a more detailed description.

By now, you probably have the first couple of paragraphs written. You’ll want to continue fleshing the article out by stating your other points and going into detail for each. One way to make sure you’re stating everything clearly and in a logical order is to use bold headings for each of the points you want to discuss.

After you have made the points and offered tips or a full solution, you’ll need to wrap your how-to article up. Most how-to articles will “wrap up” with a summary of the points discussed and a conclusion.

All that’s left is to read what you’ve written and make sure that everything still makes sense. Your title should still clearly describe the article and you should leave no spelling or grammatical errors behind.

How-to articles written in this formula will always be easier to write than when you try to just throw something together. It’s hard to write when you don’t have a clear plan of what you want to write about – and this method helps you identify everything along the way.

Now get writing!