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How To Write How-To Articles in 9 Easy Steps

How-To articles are the best. If you read them, they make you better at things, like doing things better, saying things better, feelings things better, being better at work things, and being better at life things. This post will teach you how to write an effective how-to article in 9 easy steps.

1. Include “How To” in the headline of your article. This is half the battle, maybe more. If you do nothing else, it’s still a success. When people read this, they’ll exclaim internally, “Oh! This is a how-to article! This will make me better at something!” It sets the reader’s expectations. Otherwise, they may think they’re reading some clever listicle. (Well, sure, how-to articles are often organized like a listicle — in fact, one might even argue that a how-to article is a subset of a listicle — but it’s totally different. How-to articles are super, super awesome.)
2. Include a thing to be improved. Quick! Think of something. It can be anything, anything at all. You don’t have to know a thing about it. Llama-shearing? Sure. Culinary embroidery? Absolutely. Supersonic hiking. Yes, please. This part isn’t important.
3. Include a number after the thing you’re improving. The number itself is irrelevant but having a number is crucial. How To Shear a Llama in 23 Easy Steps? Beautiful. How to Shear a Llama in 22 Easy Steps? Even better…