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.