Article Formats and Layouts

Article Formats

1. Standard Articles

“Standard Articles” will be the most commonly used format for articles posted to the site.

Types of Articles applicable:

News/Education
Trending Topics
Reviews
Informative/Factual
Entertainment/Humorous

Quick Tips (using above graphic):

This is the title of the article. This is also known as the headline. Headlines, or post titles, are the most important part of your article. Why? Because the majority of people use headlines to decide whether or not to read your article. Doesn’t matter how good or bad your actual article is. If it has a weak headline, it won’t get read. Read these three posts from our writer’s guide for more inspiration and knowledge on how to craft a good quality headline for your article. (post 1, post 2, post 3)
The “featured” image is the image that will show throughout our site for your article. It’s also the image that will be shared on our social media channels as well. The width of this image uploaded has to be at a minimum, at least 675 pixels wide and 300 pixels tall. You can set the “featured image” for your article by clicking the “Set featured image”. See above in “Article Requirements” section on how to go about adding a Featured Image.
This is the image attribution. You would add this to the image caption when selecting the “featured image”.
This is an excerpt and should be used as an introductory area or to reference the content in your article. It could also reference a source from where your article got its info from. Think of this as a lead-in to the article. And excerpt should be one or two sentences preferably, but no more than three. You need to turn this option on when adding your post. See above in “Article Requirements” section on how to go about adding an excerpt.
This is where your article goes. Structure your content using paragraphs, headers, quotes, and bullet points when necessary. Structure and visual appeal of your article will contribute massively to its popularity. Insert relevant media such as videos, GIFs, and images to liven up your article if required. Only insert images if more than one image is needed for article as the “featured” article as described in bullet point #2 would be only image needed in most cases.

Formatting guidelines:

Make sure to use Headers where necessary to give your article structure.
Links to external sources are encouraged if they add value to the article.
Embed relevant images and media to liven up your article where necessary.
Insert suitable ALT tags, Captions, and Image Sources to correctly label images.
Use the “Quotes”, Bolding, Underline, and Italics tools effectively to make your articles more appealing.
Bullet points and numbering should be used to bring attention to key points.
Use the Blockquote tool to reference content coming from another source.

Great examples to look at:

2. Video Articles

Videos used in video articles must be relatively new, of interest to our readers and relevant to the theme of TheUrbanTwist.com.

Types of Video Articles accepted:

Movie/Video Game Trailers
Music Videos
Trending or Viral Topics
Informative/Factual
Entertainment/Humorous
New Technology
Celebrity

Video articles are pretty much the same as the Standard article template. The only difference is that you’ll be featuring a video instead of an image so that your post will look a little something like this with the video at the top of the article where normally it’s where an image goes.

Currently, you can copy/paste Youtube, Vimeo, and DailyMotion urls.

Once you copy/paste url onto the line, you’ll see that it automatically generates a “Featured Image” for you, which is still required for these type of posts.

Even though the “Featured Image” won’t appear in the article directly itself, it’ll still show elsewhere throughout the site such as for when the thumbnail is displayed, and also when it is shared on Facebook. You can override the “Featured Image” but still keep the “Featured Video” intact. Sometimes this may be necessary if you want a more impactful image to go along with the video.

With video articles, the article body may not have to be as lengthy as say a news report because the video itself will do most of the work getting the info out to our readers or entertaining them. There should be at least one paragraph explaining the video or offering insight as to what the video is about. You can also use this space to offer commentary or additional insight.

3. List Articles

List articles are very popular and should be used to highlight a number of key points, pictures, facts, videos etc…

Types of List Articles accepted:

Trending Topics
Informative/Factual
Entertainment/Humorous

Quick Tips (using above graphic):

This is where the introduction of your list goes, at the beginning of your article. It should be brief, perhaps a couple of paragraph or less depending on what’s to come in your list.
The heading of your next bullet point. Use “Heading 3” to like the example above if you plan to use a picture with each point. Use “Heading 2” to make a list without pics.
The image that corresponds with your point. If you need help on how to insert images into your post, please see this helpful post from our Writer’s Guide on inserting images. You can also embed videos, music, and anything else in lieu of having an image present. Just try to keep the rest of your list uniform.
The content for your bullet point which is self explanatory.

Formatting guidelines:

Your List Article should consist of an introduction, your list items, and then an engaging and brief closing area at the end of your article.
Use the “Header” formatting tool to title every point. Use “Heading 2” for every point unless, there’s a picture being inserted with each breaking point, you’ll use “Heading 3”. To see examples of these two different types of list headings, see these two examples.

Heading 2

Heading 3
Add numbers to your subheaders to rank points or just for visual preference.
Ideally we prefer each list item to have a Header, Image and Text although it is not required. Use “Heading 3” if you’re going with this format. You can also embed Videos and insert GIF images.
Try to keep images to a similar width and height so that it is aesthetically pleasing to readers.
Insert suitable ALT tags, captions, and image sources to correctly label images.
Link to any external sources which you have used in the article.

Please note that you will still need a featured image and excerpt and those things will still appear at the top of the article, right before your list introduction.

Great examples to look at: