One common error I encounter from writers — especially from techies who are subject-matter experts and who want to write about that expertise — is a tendency to suggest articles that are entirely too vague. The worst case is someone who wants to write “Something about security.” I see this too in newbie authors’ frequent suggestions that they write an introduction to a topic, when the topic has been written about hundreds of times already, such as “an introduction to SQL Injections” or “Why Linux is so cool.” The key problem is that the would-be author has something she wants to communicate, without regard to whether it’s of any use to a reader.

Even if I said Yes to those suggestions, a vague pitch means you don’t know where you’re headed. When you try to write that article you’ll realize you actually proposed a book chapter, and there isn’t enough room to cover every point that should be included in such a chapter. At best the result is that you write 5,000 words for a 1,000-word assignment (and the skill of cutting text is not easily learned). More likely, it means your article tries to cover the topic with 10 bullet points, none of which has data to back them up, so the article isn’t helpful to any reader.

In other words: Beware an overall topic that is too general. Learn to identify the difference between a topic and a feature. (If you’re serious about writing professionally, I heartily recommend The Art and Craft of Feature Writing, which goes into this topic at some length.)

So, what do you pitch instead?

For articles that aim to convey pragmatic information, start here: People want to solve a problem, such as “Make Windows 7 run faster” or “How do I wrap text around graphics in Google Docs. These are easily identifiable as SEO articles because the reader actively searches for an answer and probably types in the problem as part of the search.

Sometimes you write articles about a problem readers didn’t know they had: an “Oh, what a good idea!” article. Those might include “Several ways to make your mobile app run faster” or “things that broke with the Opera 15 release due to the switch to Blink/Chromium.” This category also includes articles that both entertain and educate, such as project management lessons you can learn from Mission Impossible.

But mainly, I ask people to write about something they care about passionately. If we met in the bar during a tech conference, what subject could I ask you about that would cause you to pound on the table, carefully explaining why it’s important to understand this? It’s the this that you should write about. And you may be surprised at how easy it is to do so.