Writing articles to increase your reputation: 3 reasons to invest the time

What can articles do to help you stand out?

In disciplines where there are many practitioners, people often struggle to gain space enough to tell people what they can do. You can shout louder than others which might work in the short term, but if you’re looking for a solid long-term career, you need to look at all the avenues open to you that get the word out to prospective clients.

Here are three reasons for writing to help you decide on the type of articles you can write.

Record your successes

Depending on your trade, profession or area of expertise, you can base an article on a successful piece of work.  Consider laying out a recent project in the form of a case study then extract the important general principles that you can pass on to others.

Where possible avoid bragging or trying to sell your services directly. Positioning yourself as the expert able to find solutions to challenging problems is a much better advertisement than any paid ad.

In your personal details at the end of the article, you can then point the reader towards your website, other resources and testimonials. All these can confirm the picture of your skills you’ve built up in the article.

Point the way to your book

The best business card you can have is a book. It conveys immediate authority on you. After all you have to be an expert to write a book don’t you?

Many people believe that writing books is time consuming and difficult. It can be like anything else if you don’t choose to prepare to do it.  If you feel sick at the thought of writing a whole book, then consider this.

Ten reasonable length articles say 1,500 words each can provide you with the bones of a substantial book.

For your work I expect you can find 10 questions that people ask about all the time. Answer those questions and that creates 10 basic chapters. Add on an introduction chapter, a conclusion and you’ve turned articles into the beginnings of a book.

Show them you're a person of influence

Everyone knows someone who knows so much about a topic they’ve considered influential. How about being that person in your field?

Writing articles is a great start to creating your sphere of influence. And if you’re happy to share your expertise, you can have articles turned into pdf documents which you can hand out at networking events, places where you speak and meetings with prospective clients.

It only takes a few of these articles to be passed around among other influential people and you have a ready made reputation.

Being prepared to invest time to write some articles is future money in the bank because of the return on investment it can bring you.