Think about the last time you went to a restaurant. Was the exterior of the building warm and inviting? Was the hostess prompt in seating you at a table in a good location? Was the server prompt in taking your order and in making sure you had plenty of refills on your drinks? Did the chefs/cooks prepare a meal to your liking? Was the bill correct? Was the overall experience rewarding and worth repeating? Would you recommend the restaurant to your friends?

If you answer yes to all the questions in the last paragraph, you've been to a restaurant that is truly service-oriented with you--the customer--in mind.

So it is with the articles we write.

Our title gets people to notice your article. You can be serving steak and lobster, but no one is going to know it if the exterior looks like a condemned crackhouse or if the exterior looked like every other restaurant in the biz.

Once your reader is in the door, your opening paragraph should seat them and let them know what your are offering by laying out the menu of your article.

Throughout the body of your article, you should be fulfilling their order by satiating their hunger and thirst for the knowledge contained within your article. Your job is to inform and make sure the content matches the expectations set in the title.

If you did your job by focusing your writing effort on what the reader wanted, made sure his/her needs were met, and made sure that the expenditure of their time was not wasted, you will see repeat business from not only them, but also from their friends as word-of-mouth builds up your value as a writer.

Just as you wouldn't set foot in a restaurant that you knew had a reputation for bad food and rude wait staff, you wouldn't read an article you knew was going to be of poor quality and which was written by someone who would pompously blame their lack of hospitality on you.

Remember to be a service-oriented writer and you will find your readership growing by leaps and bounds.