Coil How-To's: Compose an Eye-Catching Article Even If You're a Brand-New Creator
Coil is a relatively new platform, and many new users have questions. I know I did when I first started. Those who begin creating articles in the early stages of Coil will grow along with the developments of the platform as it evolves.
This article is going to walk you through some key aspects of article creation that are important to pay attention to. If you are brand new, this is going to help you immensely. If you are a Coil veteran, these tips will serve as strong reminders of ways you can optimize your posts for maximum audience attraction and retention.
Let's dive right in and talk about topic selection.
If you already compose articles on a regular basis, then you more than likely have discovered your favored topics. As a brand new writer, you will want to pay close attention to what your interests and passions are. What is it that you enjoy doing on a daily basis that you wouldn't mind sharing with the rest of the world?
For instance, if you enjoy cooking, then perhaps you want to specialize in cooking articles. If you enjoy sports, perhaps you can focus on a specific sport or activity to write about. Choosing 1 or 2 BIG niches and then breaking those down into smaller topics will keep your audience interested without too much guess work on their part.
For example, say you do choose cooking as your BIG niche, you can then break that down into 2-3 sub-topics such as grilling or crock-pot recipes. The criteria for niche / topic selection is somewhat subjective, so take action on what fits your personality and what you want to be known for on Coil. Experiment with this as it may take a good amount of publishing before discover a solid routine.
After you have decided on your topic for your article, it's time to focus on your header image.
The header image is the very first thing your reader will see which makes it an extremely important piece of your article. Does the header image catch your reader's eye? Does it pop? Is it properly aligned to fit Coil's header image dimensions? Does the image convey the article's message clearly and accurately?
A favored resource of mine for header image creation is called Canva.com. Upgrading to the premium version is well worth it because it enables the added features such as resizing and image compression. Pay attention to your header image because it is just as important as the content addressed within the body of the article.
When creating your header image, keep in mind the feeling that you want to instill in your reader. Is it appropriate to add wording to your image or does it look better without words? That decision is up to you and how you want to convey that particular article to your audience. It also depends on the type of article you are composing.
You may need to try a few different image formats to see what works best for your articles. After your audience glances at your header image, they will look at the headline next.
Your article's headline will help your reader determine if it's worth their time to view its contents. In today's instant gratification society, readers need to understand the value up-front before clicking or tapping in. They accomplish this by reading the headline. The job of a good headline is to grab your audience's attention, causing them to want to discover more.
The headline is the hook that will pull them in to consume your material. For example, the headline in this article was tailored specifically to cause you, the reader, to want to learn more while also dispelling a common myth:
Coil How-To's: Compose an Eye-Catching Article Even If You're a Brand-New Creator
“How-to” headlines work well because they promise the reader that they will learn something important. “List style” headlines are also effective because they give the reader clear expectation of what they will get if they spend time consuming that article.
Crafting a quality headline takes a series of trial and error, but you don't have to be left in the dark on this aspect of composition. Here is one of many resources that will help you craft the perfect headlines for your articles.
After your headline is completed, move on to the body of your article.
The body of your article is really where your creative genius will shine through. Be expressive in your articles and don't be afraid to include media such as photos and video to drive your point home. Coil enables creators to use photos, videos, and links in their posts to help give articles an additional dimension.
In general, a good word length for your readers is 500-1500 words. This amount will differ depending on many factors such as the amount of time you have as well as the frequency at which you publish. Publishing once or twice a week will allow you to fit more into each article as opposed to if you are creating on a daily basis.
In order to compose quality, eye-catching articles, compose them when you have plenty of free time and don't feel rushed. Sometimes that may mean waking up early or staying up late. Creativity doesn't flow as well on a time-crunch. Perhaps that may mean adding article creation to your schedule so you don't try to “squeeze it in” during your day.
After you have carefully composed the body of the article, begin considering the formatting.
Formatting is best done after the article is written as to not disturb the creative juices that are flowing. Formatting is a crucial step to article composition because it helps to guide the reader's eye as they are consuming your material. Nothing is worse than entering an article and seeing a huge block of text that is 30 sentences long with no line breaks.
Coil allows creators to add bold, italics, and underline to their text. Not only that, but you can make the text larger, even larger, or do whatever this is called.
All of this can be accomplished by writing the text, then going back and highlighting a word or phrase to reveal the formatting bar. Breaking up the plain text by adding formatting helps guide the reader through your article giving them direction. It also prevents them from getting bored while reading.
Once you have completed formatting, you are almost done. Lets move on to the bonus content.
Bonus content is a feature creators get to utilize on Coil to reward their subscribers. The bonus content gives viewers that added reward, usually at the end of a full article. Adding in bonus content at the end of a full article is known as the 100+20 rule which Coil recommends using.
Basically, you compose an entire article for free, then you add in about 20% more content at the very end that is locked and only subscribers can unlock it. Subscribers are those who pay $5/month via credit card to Coil Inc., unlocking all Web Monetized content without limits.
For example, going back to the cooking niche, if you are teaching someone how to properly grill salmon (my favorite), perhaps your bonus content would mention specific seasoning to use to make it spicy. The bonus content is not set in stone so use your imagination and experiment with different types of content.
You now have the ingredients you need to compose an eye-catching Coil article even if you are a brand new creator. Stay tuned for more Coil How-To's in the near future.
