by Michael Raymond

Created on: December 16, 2010   Last Updated: December 20, 2010

Professionally presented articles have a greater chance of being read, and thus a greater chance of making you more money.

Fonts and Formatting

Some online writer's sites and virtually every blog and every piece of content manager software allow the author to format their own works. Don't go overboard on formatting. Use bold and italics as highlights to call attention to short, specific words or phrases in your piece. A long string of text in bold or italics can be difficult to read because web browsers for the most part are not designed to faithfully reproduce those features of a font face.

The list of fonts common to all computers and operating systems is very short. This limited list of fonts can often make for difficulties for your readers that you may never be aware of if you use large amounts of bold or italic text.

In addition, individuals can usually choose the specific font they want for certain situations on their computer. Their settings may make it even more difficult for them to read your work with an overuse of these techniques.

Printed material operates on different standards than does online material. First, the resolution for print is much higher, making for greater clarity of details. Second, most traditional book publishers will do their own formatting of your text to suit their layout, page size and other requirements. Third, overuse reduces the effectiveness of the techniques. As an author, it can be difficult to determine that fine line between overuse and effective presentation when formatting our own work.

Links

Some links in your text are good, especially for supporting information or to enhance a point. Generally speaking, in a piece between 400 and 800 words, more than four or 5 links in that amount of text is going to be tedious to your readers. There are exceptions, and you and your readers will have to be the judges of when and where it is appropriate to include more.

Another technique for links is to supply them as reference points following your article. Cite as many as necessary, but again, do not go overboard. The first two or three links in a list are most likely all that will ever get followed. Exceptions to this would be articles requiring large amounts of supporting documentation, or scholarly works that need to reference a greater number of sources.

If you have other articles related to the topic you're currently writing about, be sure to include links to some of those others. Pick one or two of your own relevant or related works

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