An Article Summary Is Easier Than Parenthood
So I was studying up on writing good a good article summary when I received a call from my lovely wife Kimbery. All I could do was picture her staring up at the ceiling and screaming out of frustration. Now I don’t know if you remember your days as an 18 year old kid, I know I do, but some people tend to forget the whole experience.
My oldest son now lives with his grandparents and is currently on break in between high school and college. The other night he went out to a party, which he doesn’t do often, and of course there was alcohol there. Now I know when I was his age I was drinking, I am not saying its right or wrong, just saying I did it too. So I really can’t get that upset with him considering he is 18, he was responsible and safe, while he was out. A parent can only hope our kids make the best decision and my son has always had a good head on his shoulders.
But the problem comes with his grandparents. You see he lives with them in California because he likes the ladies there and because he wants to attend school there. And when he came home from the party late and smelling of alcohol they told him to get out. I was a bit uncompromising in my opinion, and a missed opportunity to help a young man with a life choice decision, but its their house.
Now being a smart kid my son used his outstanding communication skills to work out the problem with his grandparents and settled them down. So he gets to stay, go to school, and start his adult life with the learned lesson that he needs to keep his mind straight and focused on school. Besides there will be plenty of time to party in college!!
I bet your asking, what does this have to do with writing an article summary?
Well its simple really, remember my first paragraph, the one that got you interested in reading the story (hopefully)? That is the article summary or excerpt for this very post. So if your on my homepage, you will see it, and it should stir a bit of curiosity with my visitors and get them to check out my article.
That is the true point of content marketing, keeping your readers engaged, and if your writing your article summaries right you will do just that.
3 Keys to Writing A Great Article Summary
1. Don’t Play Cat and Mouse with Your Readers. Your main point(s) and benefit(s) of the article should be clear to the reader in the summary. Of course you don’t want to give too much away, but don’t rely on the reader’s curiosity. Think taste, not hint, to compel the reader forward. This means the reader has had a taste of the article and wants more, rather than what they imagine the article will be like. With the article summary of this article I depended solely on curiosity (and I had to correct it) rather than focusing on the key tips I wanted to present. I wasn’t showing the value of the article.
2. Less I and We, More You and Yours. Target your reader’s needs and wants with strong benefit-oriented language. Avoid using self-serving information in your summaries, including your name, website, and other blatant self-promotion. Compel the reader in one direction: your article. A lot of newbie’s get this wrong because they are taught that article marketing is a great way to generate traffic and customers. So with that, they think that they need to promote the heck out of their site in the summaries. I know I did it myself all the time and had to break that habit quickly because it doesn’t work at all. Sell your article, not your stuff.
3. There’s No Time like the Present. Use present-tense language for a sense of immediacy, use active language to excite the reader, and use stronger, more descriptive language. Getting your reader to visualize themselves applying the concepts of your article is key here. I suggest dusting off the old yellow thesaurus that’s been hiding out on your bookshelf for years. I know that my vocabulary is a bit limited and I use one a lot to help me say the right things in the right way.
Considering the 3 keys above, here’s a me-oriented summary that lacks informative value and uses round-about language:
Internet Marketer, Clint describes how to write engaging article summaries. Discover this and more writing tips at our website http://www.workwithclintbutler.com
You are less concerned with who I am and more concerned about what I can provide you, i.e. “What’s different about THIS article that will go above and beyond what I need?” Also, this summary pulls you in two directions: should you read the article or follow the URL?
Here’s a more compelling summary:
Want to take your article writing efforts to the next level? Discover the strategies, like reader-targeting and language tweaks, to write an engaging article summary that delivers results.
Here are some additional quick article summary tips:
- 2-5 sentences in length and a maximum of 200 words
- Grammatically sound (including proper sentence structure, capitalization, and punctuation)
- Free of special characters to make it ready for RSS feeds
- Concise and precise, i.e. straight to the point
- Keep it fresh and don’t repeat the article’s title
Use these tips to write compelling an article summary to give your article writing efforts a boost. And remember: the best summaries give a taste, not a hint.
P.S. If your new into the world of content marketing check out this free training: CLICK HERE
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The Title: Many People Believe That (Objections Go Here)
To make a wise decision about article marketing I would like to point out the advantages and disadvantages of massive article marketing submissions vs individual publications.
