Lead image by Patrick Fore on Unsplash

read.cash is pretty special. I can't think of another place where you can write, publish, and get paid all in the same day. The community is vibrant and growing, too, which means it's rife with opportunities for you to earn and be successful.

But with the good comes the bad.

There are many poorly written articles, and I often find myself thinking, What's the author even trying to say?

If your goal is to make money, the way you do that is by leading the reader all the way to the end and compelling them to upvote or donate. So if they're halfway through and can't figure out what you're talking about, there's a not-so-good chance they're going to make it.

Here's the good news, though: there are some really easy steps you can take to write better articles that people actually want to read--the kind of articles that will help you gain followers and make money. This is advice that you can apply immediately with no experience to be a better writer today. Follow it, and with some time and persistence, I can all but guarantee you'll experience success.

Start with an outline

The most frequent problem I see on read.cash, as I alluded to above, is articles that don't have a purpose. So, before you start writing, ask yourself: What message do I want to communicate?

In my opinion, the best way to do this is by creating an outline. This doesn't need to be a formal process. I usually do it in the article itself, and my writing process is basically filling it out.

Here's my outline for this article (spoiler alert!):

Intro: Write better articles to be more successful
- Make an outline
- Keep it interesting
- Grammarly
Conclusion: Write articles you want to read

That's not so bad, right? And it's words I'm writing anyway, so there's no lost time. It's an important and valuable exercise because it ensures that I have a path and prevents me from just puking words on the page.

Avoid monotony

Do you ever open an email, and it's a huge wall of text? How does that make you feel?

It's the same for articles. Not only is it demotivating to even start reading something that's super text-heavy--it's exhausting!

There are several easy ways to give the reader a break. First, take time to format your article. This is another place where that outline comes in handy. You've got some division and structure ready to go. Change those sub-bullets into sub-headers and, boom, done!

I read somewhere that a good rule of thumb is to break up the text every three to five paragraphs. It can be anything: a picture, a chart or graph, or a blockquote.

You can even quote yourself!

Another great monotony-busting tip is to alternate your sentence length and structure. Our brains love variety. It loves reading short sentences, but it also loves reading long complex sentences. Too much of either quickly becomes irritating, though. The important thing is to mix it up.

Get an editor

Most of us don't have access to a human editor, but free tools can fill the role. I use Grammarly.

The cool thing about Grammarly is that it does the boring work of double-checking my writing. It ensures I don't make silly spelling mistakes and that I'm using correct grammar.

This is important because it makes your writing feel more polished. Mistakes are distracting to the reader, and you don't want to lose your reader because they're focusing so much on mistakes that they've lost track of your message. Remember, the goal is to make your message clear, so they make it through to the end.

There are free and paid versions of Grammarly, and there's really no reason not to use it. I used to look down on it--pff, I know how to use commas, thank you very much--but once I tried it, I found that it was actually quite good.

So now I always have my robo-editor buddy with me when I write.

Write the kinds of articles you want to read

This is perhaps the most important piece of advice. Reflect on articles that you read. What made you click or not click a headline? What did you like about an article? What do you NOT like about articles? What makes you stop reading and start quickly scrolling before bailing?

Write for the reader. When you can answer these questions, you can start to write headlines that lure the reader in. Give the reader breaks, so they don't give up out of sheer exhaustion, and make sure they make it to the end.

I've got one final bonus tip: keep writing. Writing, like everything else, takes practice. Some people say write every day. Others say publish every week. The truth is, it's different for everybody. Find what works for you, but keep doing it.

Think about your message and create an outline. Give the reader mental breaks throughout your article. Let tools like Grammarly sweat the small stuff to remove distractions and present a more polished final product. And keep doing it, again and again. I promise you'll get better and better, which will translate into more followers and more rewards.

I'm looking for feedback! Did you like this article? Would you like to see more articles like this? Let me know what you liked or didn't like by leaving a comment. Thanks for reading!