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How to Write an Article

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edit How to Write an Article

Contents

Welcome to AboutUs.org! Now that you're here and you have seen some of the fabulous featured wiki pages on the site, you might be wondering how to build out your own domain or sub-domain page. If so, you are in the right place because we are about to break the process down step by step. The first step is to find or create your domain wiki page.

edit Search for Your Domain

In order to edit your page, you must find it first. Try typing the URL of your domain, leaving out the "http://www.", into the search bar at the top of page and then click "Find!". For example, if the website you wish to edit is http://www.apple.com, simple type "apple.com" into the search bar. If your domain's wiki page does not already exist, the AboutUsBot will create it for you.

edit Elements of a Great Domain Page

The AboutUs bot scrapes basic information simply to provide a starting point for visitors to create a great page.

  • Description

The AboutUs bot will scrape some descriptive information from the website and give it the following attribution: "Excerpted from the website description."

This should be considered a starting point. Please feel warmly welcomed to add to the description. Please be aware of copyright. Do not simply copy text from the website or other source. Use your own words from your experience with the website to give it a good description.

  • Additional Information

This area can be used for any number of different topics, such as:

    • History, including date founded, key employees, major acquisitions, and location(s).
    • Role in the Industry
    • Products and Services Offered
    • Competitors
    • Information about the website: features, offers, format.

Please see the Research section below for more ideas.

  • Languages

Here is where you can indicate the Languages that the website is available in.

  • Contact

This information is gained from the publicly available whois data.

If the information is out of date, go ahead & click the edit button. This is often one of the easiest first steps to improving the article.

  • Community Reviews

Add a review about this website or its products.

  • Related WikiPages

This is where you can take advantage of the magic of wikilinking or hyperlinking. One of the powerful features of AboutUs is that is is "one big wiki". That means that you can take advantage of the "commons" by creating links to related pages. There are over 8 million pages on AboutUs, so chances are that there are pages you can link to that will make your page better.

  • External Links

If a great page already exists for your topic, rather than simply copying text & violating copyright rules, often the best choice is simply to link to that page. See the Internal Linking Guide for help.

edit Research

Now that you have found your domain page, you can begin to improve it. Think of the first step as writing an essay on the company or domain page. Your first step is research. Ask what a reader would want to know and then try to answer those questions. This information typically includes:

  • History, including date founded, key employees, major acquisitions, and location(s).
  • Role in the Industry
  • Products and Services Offered
  • Competitors
  • Information about the website: features, offers, format.

Go into detail! When writing about the company's history, how has the company's focus and product line changed? Where has the company been successful? Where has it encountered problems? What is its market-share? Does the company have a slogan or a motto? Any recent news on the company? Include that too. Also look to see if the company is owned by a larger company -- this is a great opportunity for wiki interlinking.

Question on where to find this information? Read our Research Guide. Also remember to keep a list of your sources for the external links section.

edit Time to Type

Now that you have all your research, organize it into an outline or a mindmap. (If you're not familiar with mindmapping, check out the Wikipedia Mindmapping article.) Then, with your outline or map in front of you, write your essay about the company.

edit Revise, Revise, Revise

After you have all the information down, it's time to revise. If you have not studied a writing style-guide before, consider looking over the surprisingly-readable Economist Style Guide. Also remember to spell-check.

edit Make it Wiki

Next think of ways to transform your essay into a wiki-article. You can organize the essay using wiki-formatting to make it accessible and easy to read. Add headers of various sizes to divide the information; use bulleted and numbered lists to create a clear visual marker for information. You may also alter the font, but try to do so sparingly as it often takes attention away from what you are trying to say.

Now that you have the bulk of the article done, it is time to finish the basic page. Write up:

  • A list of all other sources of information on this company in the External Links section. This should be the list of sites used in your research.
  • Read the Internal Linking Guide and then cull and add Related Domains and Categories.
  • Make sure any other company or website mentioned in the article is interlinked. Doing so greatly improves site navigation.
  • Time for redirects! Go to the articles that web-users will expect to find the company's page and create a redirect link that will automatically direct the web-user to the appropriate page. For example, if your page is Microsoft.com, you want a search result for "Microsoft," to go right to the Microsoft.com page. You do this by typing www.aboutus.org/microsoft into the browser to navigate to the "microsoft" wikipage, and then hit the edit button. Next type #REDIRECT [[Microsoft.com]] into the edit window and save it. This immediately directs anyone who visits Microsoft to Microsoft.com. Redirects allow users to find your wiki-page quickly and painlessly. A word of caution, however, do not create redirects from sites that users would not immediately associate with your site -- Software should not redirect to Frys.com. Instead, if you really feel up to it, Software should be a Disambiguation Page like Tak's with links to all relevant wikipages, portals, and categories.

edit Flesh it Out

Congratulations! You have built a functional wikipage. Creativity nows plays a large part in the look and feel of your wikipage. You can make the page more interesting by including: