In this article, we would like to go over some of the details of writing your articles and reports on The Omni Intelligencer website.  Our purpose here is to produce articles that fit the site as well as attract higher readership.  A shorter version of this information is also included on the "Submit an Article" page for ready reference.

Good Content- Writing good content is the best way to gain and increase your credibility and to attract repeat audiences who send their friends to visit your pages. You are the expert on your topics and that means that you research what you need in order to create newsworthy or informative content. State facts and provide the information in as clear a manner as possible.

Write Often - The more prolific and fresh your articles are, the larger your readership will be. Build a library of articles and you will see your readership multiply.  Some write a few times a week, and others write a few times a day.  In any event, as you write more and more, you will establish a storehouse of articles that audiences will search, find, and view. Its like a retailer that has more stock in his store will sell more of the stock. Your articles are your stock in this trade.  You are not limited to any specific field or category; go ahead and write on any topic in any section and category.

Inline Links - One of the best ways to increase readership of your articles is to create links back to other articles you have written on this site. As you keep adding content, you will have more articles you can be linking to which draws more audiences to more of your articles.

Sections & Categories - Select a section and a category within it to post your article to. Un-categorised articles will not be included in "Other Articles" or "Related Articles" lists drastically reducing your page views. If you have published an uncategorised article and can't find it, go to your "User Profile" and find it. Then select the appropriate section and category. Also, the uncategorized articles do not get into our publicity pipelines and will not be broadcast through any of our social networking channels.  Note; you are not limited to any specific field or category; go ahead and write on any topic in any section and category.

Copying from Word - You may prefer to write your content in a word processing application like MS Word, or other similar software before you paste it into the website.  This method has the advantage of keeping a copy of your article in your own compute and safe from any mishap in the process of posting. These programs add a certain amount of formatting, fonts, font sizes, etc. which would not be compatible with the site. To avoid this, we have provisions in our online editor to help your content look as good as you have worked to make it. If you adhere to the following few steps, your content would fit the site like a glove.

• copy your content from your word processing application (without images),
• put the cursor where you want to paste it in the site editor,
• click on the "W" or "T" icon in the editor toolbar,
• your material is instantly cleaned up and pasted at the location of the cursor without delay,
• now review and change any formatting or line spaces between paragraphs as needed.

Images - Articles with images attract more readers. Please limit your image uploads to 0.5MB and no more than 500 pixels wide. Use this icon to upload / edit your images. All images must be uploaded as individual files, not by cut/copy & paste. The reason for this is that when you cut/copy and paste, the image file may not be served properly on the site creating those unsightly little red X marks instead of the image (this happens because the image file did not get transferred to the server properly).

Videos- You may want to embed a video within your article.  You get the embed code from YouTube or any other video source.  The way to do this is to click the "Edit HTML source" icon in the editor toolbar and place the embed code in the HTML code in the desired location.  Always check your articles after you publish them to make sure the embeded video is inserted correctly where you want them.

Social Networking - After posting your article, tell everyone you know about it by posting links to it through as many social networking sites as you can. Simply view your article online and use the networking icons that appears on your article on the site. This is one of the most effective methods for driving traffic to your article page to reap the benefits of increased readership.

Access Level - When you are posting your content, you will see an option in the editor to choose the access level. This refers to the level of visitors at the site who will be able to see your content. This should always be left at "Public".  This way every visitor to the site will be able to see your content.

Metadata - Keywords and description data are generated automatically upon saving your article.  You do not need to worry about these items.  If there are any keyword that you wish to include regardless, you may include them within {curly brackets}.  The description and keywords are used by the site to arrange "related articles" and other functions in serving links to the article in the appropriate areas of the site. Some search engines use these for search results.

Author Information & Website Link - You may add a short paragraph at the end of the article text (before your Google Ad) with information about yourself with a link to your own website(s).  Brief and professional gives best results.  What makes people want to visit your website is the quality of the contents of your articles.

How to start writing...

If you have not joined us yet, you can do so by following these steps:

• Go to the "User Menu" (in the blue menu bar above) and click on "Register" and register.  You only need to register once. 
• Now you can always login to the site from the "User Menu" (in the blue menu bar above) and select  "Login-Logout". 
• Once you are logged in, you can go to the same "User Menu" (in the blue menu bar above) and this time select "Submit an Article" option. 
• In the new page that will open, you will have all you need to write or post your article.  You also have aguide on the right side bar to help you through. 

< Prev		Next >