Writing articles to turbo-charge your traffic flow.

Writing articles is the fastest and easiest way to get a stampede of people to your website who recognize your name by your signature and adhere to what you recommend.

Most people reason that finding information in articles, forums, and discussion groups is a primary method of getting good information, and odds are that they were somewhat of an expert on that subject, and if they were experts then products and services they sold or recommended were likely to be good.

You should always include a signature with your article, a few lines about your business, your website URL and/or email address. You will be amazed at the targeted traffic it will generate for you.

If you are having trouble getting started I understand, and can tell you that writing is hard work. But once you write the first article it seems to get much easier. In fact, you may discover that you have a hard time stopping!

6 Ways to get started writing articles:

1. Get a notepad and pen, or use a word processor or computer, and just brainstorm ideas for articles. The best source for an article is usually from experience, or knowledge you have acquired in the past. If you are at a total loss, go and read some articles in other's e-zines or websites. Once you get started you will come up with many ideas. Write each one down. If you think of a good title that includes a keyword about the article, write that down too, and include the keyword in the first sentence, or paragraph.

2. There are several ways writers work, depending on their personalities. You may like to order and organize your points first by making an outline of the information you plan to include or the points you intend to make. Then all you have to do is go back and "flesh out" the points, adding useful facts or links to more information.
Or, you may be a natural teacher, and write just as though you are explaining the subject to the reader in person. Either method is fine, just do what is comfortable for you. One method may work best for one kind of article and the other for another kind.

3. Add "personality" to your writing. Share some of yourself with your readers, make your writing uniquely your own. It's fine to read e-zines and others' articles to see what people may be interested in and spark your own ideas, but don't pattern yourself after someone else. People want to feel that they know You - Your knowledge and personality. This is what builds loyalty.
If it fits with your subject, don't be afraid to mention your product or service and give the URL or email address, but DON'T write a "glorified ad" and call it an article! That can offend a publisher so that they won't even consider articles from you in the future.

4. After you've finished writing your article, read it through aloud, preferably to someone else who will ask questions if they don't understand some point.

5. Run a spell checker! If you own Microsoft Word or something similar, run the grammar checker also. Have someone else proofread it for you. Even professional proofreaders will tell you that they try to have someone else proofread their own writing, because it is next to impossible to catch your own mistakes.

6. When you have finished your article and make the necessary changes, you will need to submit it to as many article directories as you can. Search the web for article directories to submit your article for free. There are also, paid services and software that will do the submissions for you, but you may want to wait until you have successfully written a few articles before you choose to pay.

Is article marketing for real or just another fad?

Write an article, get the traffic. Well sort of! Since the birth of writing articles, our industry has caught on to the phenomena of increasing your website’s traffic by becoming the professional in your field. The only problem with this is that for every serious professional in one field, there are a thousand other writers who are jumping on the "band wagon".

This article phenomenon is hurting every industry!

From bloggers, column writers, and e-books, the writing industry is yearning for more great writers. The internet marketing community is especially hurting for better content.

With the birth of SEO (search engine optimization), people all over the world are searching, browsing, and reading everything they can on how to promote their business on the internet. Because of this demand for different content, the supply of writers are increasing everyday but the quality of articles is decreasing exponentially.

Everyone is writing about the exact same thing! My company receives on average 10-20 articles per hour submitted to us. I would have to say that only 1 in about 100 articles submitted are ever published within our website. Those numbers are extremely low and for good reason.

It's all about "substance" - or lack of it!

Many articles we review are nothing more than simple "babble" and most of them are pointless. You can seriously tell right away whether the article is just a promotional piece or something with actual substance within the content.

Great content is very important. There is a misconception out there that most people won't read your content and you can pretty much post anything you want within your website as long as your website is clean, professional looking, and can be found online.

YOU ARE SOOOOO WRONG!

If there is one constant online, it's the fact that the general public is getting smarter and more knowledgeable on how to research for honest, reputable companies on the internet.

Unfortunately, authors these days are simply stealing from other great authors!

I am not talking about posting someone else's article on your website! Copying content from other leaders in your industry will only hurt your company. This is why the writing industry is getting worse; many writers out there simply select a topic they want to write about, then they go online and find 5 articles on that topic. Once they have some other great articles, they simply proceed to combine each article for themselves, by personalizing the content a little.

Do you ever wonder why for specific topics within your industry, you can find hundreds of authors that wrote almost the exact same thing? I call these people "Content Copiers".

Even worse are people who buy articles to post online ! ! !

This gets me every time. Did you know that you can now hire a company to write something for you and insert your company information as the source and author of the article? This strategy is seriously sad considering I can almost guarantee you that the article you just bought was also sold to a handful of other companies. All they do is tweak the article a little bit and insert a different title.

No one knows your business more than you do. If you are seriously good at what you do, 9 times out of 10, you probably have enough knowledge to write an article that makes sense, that is unique in content, and that has your personal touch.

We've all come across different situations while operating our businesses. These small but important situations are what gives us confidence in what we do. When you learn from your mistakes, you should also consider educating people on what you've learned in order to help your potential clients or even help better educate your industry.

Think beyond yourself and write down something helpful.

Does Google really filter out duplicate content?

If you don't believe Google's Duplicate Content Filter exists, I have Dramatic Proof their Internet content filter exists and it's very effective.

On July 5, 2005 I published an article entitled "7 Top Ways to Avoid Link Theft" which was picked up and included as content on other websites.

Before the article was released I checked on Google whether any results already existed for the exact phrase "7 Top Ways to Avoid Link Theft" and there were no listings for that term.

Over the next few weeks I monitored through a search query on Google how many results appeared in Google for the title of my article. One week after publication there were 6,760 results listed in Google, a week later it was 14,100 and it reached a peak of 17,000 results by July 26, 2005.

4 weeks after publication the results in Google had fallen slightly to 16,600.

Almost 6 weeks after publication the results listed in Google had fallen to 44.

In a matter of less than two weeks the number of search results on Google.com for the title of my article had gone from 16,600 to just 44.

In case you're thinking this is because all these other websites dropped by article and replaced it with other content I should add that a search on Yahoo.com on the same day still showed 14,300 results for my article.

What's more of these 44 results on Google, more than half consist of listings from the same websites. In other words some sites have the same article duplicated on different pages on their website.

So Google's Internet Content Filter is not used to remove duplicate listings from the preferred websites it chooses to keep in the search results.

On August 28th, 2005 8 weeks after first publication I distributed the article again to a new list of article sites to repeat the process. After 6 weeks the same article had reached a peak of 5,620 results on Google. Less than 2 weeks later the results had fallen to 217.

For me this was dramatic proof that Google's Duplicate Internet Content Filter is active and very effective. If you're wondering if other major search engines have a duplicate content filter I can confirm that Yahoo certainly does. The same article which was once listed on 14,300 sites on Yahoo, has fallen to 344 over the same time period.

From these results it would seem Google takes about 6 to 8 weeks to remove duplicate content using its Duplicate Internet Content Filter.

But the question remaining is just how does Google decide which out of over 16,000 results does it keep and which does it reject ?

I have witnessed situations where my own articles appear in results on other websites, but are not listed in the results for my own website.

So clearly Google does not take into account who the originator and author of the original article was when deciding which sites will remain in its search results.

It also seems to have nothing to do with where Google first finds the article.

Some articles I have published to my website for several weeks before releasing them for distribution to other websites.

In that time the Google spiders have visited my site several times and Google has had enough time to work out that the article was first found on my site.

It would be interesting to see if it's possible to work out what factors Google is using in its Internet Content Filter to decide which results to keep in its listing and which ones to remove. But that's for another article.

Before you submit your articles, make sure you got these covered

Submitting well planned articles on-line will increase traffic and can even launch your career when handled right. They'll drive traffic from all over the net and show an excellent return on your time invested.

Write Your Article Like You're Writing to a Friend

Even though it may be seen by thousands, each copy gets read by one person at a time. Your readers are more open if you're speaking directly to them instead of down at them. Replace big words with simple words. I've heard that writing at an eighth grade level will increase comprehension.

Write a Killer Headline

An amazing article can end up going nowhere because the headline sucked a lemon and nobody read it. Any marketer who knows their stuff will tell you the headline is 80% - 90% of the reason you're even considered. Write a great article of course, but spend lots of time on your headline.

Pick a Topic You Know Well

Assuming you've done your research and found a niche you like that's profitable, you can become an expert in that field because you'll stay with it. If the research is a chore it's easy to lose interest.

Educate But Don't Sell

Articles are thought of as nuggets of information that educate. If your article breaks that unwritten rule and is actually an advertisement in disguise, it'll never see the light of another monitor. A well written article is a subtle but powerful way to motivate someone. Advertising builds barriers, where news is accepted with an open mind.

Write Quality not Quantity

There's no room for fluff in a good article. When reading the posting guidelines, check the restrictions for article length. Stay within the word count or you'll get trashed. It's usually 500 - 600 words. Save your full length version for sites that'll accept it.

Include a Resource Box With Your "Call to Action" Link

Either at the bottom or the top of your article you'll want to include your name, describe what you do, a sign-up email if you're building a newsletter, your website link, a short call to action, whatever's appropriate.

Submit Articles Consistently

Writing and submitting articles consistently will assure growing returns. Some sites will accept your work others won't, so don't get discouraged. Make a schedule, stick to your deadlines and "Just do it"

Read The Posting Guidelines at Each Site

When posting your article follow the guidelines. Don't forget, behind every website and ezine a real person decides the fate of your article. You're asking for exposure to their data base, so take your time and be nice.

Don't Forget The Spell Check

There's nothing worse for a busy web master than wading through spelling errors. Do a spell check, print it off and read it out loud to catch grammatical errors.

Use a Tracking System

With proper tracking you'll see what worked and what didn't. It'll show where to spend more time and drop what's not working. Monitored tracking will increase your return on investment, both for time and money.

Writing extremely bad articles can destroy your credibility

I've noticed a disturbing trend recently of articles suggesting that people write articles to send traffic to their websites, and enhance their credibility. In theory, the more articles you write, the more traffic you'll receive, the more credibility you'll have, the more sales you'll make.

It's an interesting theory. However, what those articles fail to mention is that your writing needs to be of a certain quality. And quite frankly, I'm seeing a proliferation of poorly written--or just plain bad articles appearing across the Internet!

Unfortunately, there are some publishers out there who will publish just about anything. That's the good news. The bad news is, those publishers don't have the quality websites or the huge traffic numbers, so your article probably won't be seen by too many people anyway.

So, in essence, you're really wasting your time writing garbage, because you're not going to reap the benefits that go along with writing quality content. Remember this saying, "garbage in, garbage out!"

To get published in the top ezines and on the top websites--the one's with mega traffic, you need to have your act together. Publishers of top ezines and websites aren't stupid, and so desperate for content that they'll just publish anything that's submitted to them. Their credibility is at stake everytime they publish. They have standards and their readers have come to expect a certain degree of excellence from them.

After all, how do you think they became top websites and ezines in the first place?

Now, I'll be the first to admit, I'm no Woodward or Bernstein. However, I take great care to make sure that my articles are well written, lucid and of high quality.

I've been fortunate enough to have my articles published by some of the top websites and ezines on the Internet. These publishers aren't publishing my articles because they like me or think I'm a nice guy. They publish my articles because they feel my content will enhance their website or ezine.

And contrary to what you may have read, everyone can't write articles--at least not good ones. You have to be honest enough with yourself to know what your strengths and weaknesses are. If you know writing articles isn't one of your strengths, don't continue to write anyway.

When you submit poorly written articles to publishers, you not only waste their valuable time, you also make yourself look bad in the process.

Writing articles is hard work, and if you want to write articles and you're not good at it, then you need to work hard to improve and develop your writing skills.

If you're not willing to put in the work that's required yourself, then at the very least, hire a competent ghost writer to write your articles for you.

Writing articles as a low-cost method for internet marketing

From Overture, a keyword suggestion tool, you will see the millions of searches done to a certain keyword. When these keywords are typed on search boxes of search engines, indexed websites containing articles with those keywords will be displayed. And this is what leads traffic to websites with keyword-rich articles. Yes, the magic word is articles.

Content is king. You can say that again. That is why writing articles is one of the most utilized Internet marketing media today. Internet surfers just can't get enough of information on various fields. Providing information through these articles is a surefire way to drive hot traffic to your web site.

Why is this so? Here are the benefits that writing articles can give your Internet business.

1. It's absolutely free.

Too good to be true? Not. Okay, you have to pay for your Internet Service Provider. That's it. All you need is your thoughts, your computer, and your hands. If you have those, nothing will stop you from typing words that will make you complete that article for your website. On which aspect of that process did you really shell out any cent? Maybe later when your electric bills come.

2. Your website will be noticed in a short period of time.

Submit that article of yours to article directories that get the most web traffic and in no time your web site will be crawled. That is if you don't forget including your resource box or byline.

3. Obtain back links automatically.

When you submit your articles to directories, surely, other websites will make use of your article too. With the copyright terms of your articles, the URL of your website will still be intact and will subsequently direct more traffic to your website.

4. Improve your reputation.

As an Internet marketer, if you plainly display your products on your website, you will not gain much conversion rate. Conversion is when your traffic converts to sales. You have to show that you are knowledgeable on your field. And what better way to show that than by writing articles that will allow you some bragging rights, right?

Just make your creative juices flow and jot down or key in those ideas quickly to jumpstart your article writing momentum. With those benefits listed above, a writer's block is the last problem you will ever be able to surmount. But that's another story...

Some facts on promoting your site with article marketing

Business owners have the greatest potential for writing successful articles. Most people usually start a business because they have a particular interest in certain products or services. Business owners usually have already gained much knowledge in their particular market. They can optimize their potential by setting aside time to research and study their area of interest to become even more knowledgeable in their market. One good resourceful book can help ignite the enthusiasm to gain more and more knowledge. Business owners can use this knowledge to write informational articles and will easily obtain their title as "expertise" once they do so.

Articles highly target your potential customers. Writing articles is actually something that anyone can easily do even if they have never really considered themselves as a "talented" writer. A little effort to compile some valuable information, can produce great results in targeting your potential customers. If you write articles related to your business industry, the visitors you receive from your articles will usually be highly targeted, eager and ready to see what else you have to offer. With your articles, you have already established yourself as a means of a "professional" in your visitor's mind. For this reason you can create open-minded potential customers ready to seek what you have to offer them.

Resourceful information should be included about the author. Marketing with your articles work best when you give them away to be redistributed and used for webmasters seeking content for their sites, blogs, ezines, etc. When your articles are submitted to free article directories and groups for distribution, a resource box or area below your article is always included. You may give your name, a small piece of information about you and your business (make it short and state directly what you do), and your URL to your website. Having your article hosted on numerous other sites and blogs is a great way to gain many "incoming" links to your site. The URL that you provided is also a great tool to generate traffic to your site.

You only have one small chance to catch the eye and interest of the reader. Time should be well spent on creating a interesting title and introduction paragraph for new articles. The world is full of information...newspapers, magazines, commercials, flyers, mail, bill boards, emails, banners and text ads on websites. All competing to catch our eye. We have learned to quickly tune out what does not interest us and proceed on. Do not try to use a title that you believe will catch "everybody's" interest. It just cannot be done anyway. Target only your potential customers and what information they are looking for. If you are targeting people who are fascinated with their hair, they want great hair...forget the clothes...forget the makeup....it's the hair! You've got the answer! You provide hair care products. Don't write in general about "beauty tips" trying to catch every woman's eye. Write to those hair fanatics. Provide specific articles targeting those hair fans. "100 Ways to Poof your Hair". (And...um...of course you've got the product they're looking for to make this happen. Include the exact link in your author's resource area.)

The length of your article does not have to be long. Some people feel they must practically write a book to complete an article. Four to six paragraphs can complete a well-written article. Instead of trying to cover a whole topic about "Work-at-Home Moms" try narrowing your articles into more specific pieces, for example, "How Work-at-home Moms Manage their Time", and perhaps next, "Three Simple Ways Work-at-Home Moms Relieve Stress". Creating one huge article that covers a broad subject can take a lot of time and effort and may end up losing the interest of your reader. Distributing smaller articles targeted on a specific subject will allow you to write and distribute more articles and will target the interest of your reader much easier.

Articles can bring you large amounts of traffic when distributed frequently. "Frequently" is stressed when speaking of generating large amounts of traffic through article marketing. Generally, one article will not do this wondrous deed. For this reason, writing numerous, narrow-targeted articles and distributing them with frequency will create the results you want. On the other side, don't overdo it. Creating articles like you are some vending machine and popping out one article after another, may cause you to lose focus on quality. Quality takes more time and effort, but produces much better results and greater chances of having your articles sought after and read.

Articles are successful when they are not advertisements. Use your articles to give your reader valuable content and information that will have them coming back to you for more. Don't try to be sly and sneak in a couple of ads here and there. People sense right away what is intended to be an ad. Some may continue to read on, but others won't. Save your ads for appropriate places on your site and not in your articles. Take time to check your spelling and grammar. If this is an area that you lack in, then find a family member or friend who can help you proofread and determine what sentences may need improvement.

Use small fragments of time to write your articles Most business owners are extremely busy. They do not have much extended time just for writing articles. Today you can have time to start writing your first article. You can use very small fragments of time to write successful articles. Keep a notepad with you at all times and you will be surprised at the numerous opportunities you get to jot down some ideas for your articles. Whether you're waiting at the doctor's office, stuck in traffic on the way home, or simply lying in bed at night trying to calm down and relax before turning out the lights...you've got the potential of creating success with your tidbits of time. Write one paragraph at a time if that is all the time you have. You will soon see that this will actually energize your thoughts more into the process of writing articles. You will find yourself coming up with new ideas at odd moments...and glad that you have your notepad to jot it down. Right now take a small fragment of your time and start your way to successful article writing.

What you need to know about promoting your business with article writing

Most all ezine publishers need fresh content. Article writing is something that gets tedious to the publisher who sends out an ezine every week. Fresh, unique ideas are always attractive, and ezine authors don't mind publishing others work, (along with a complete research box, (THIS IS YOUR AD) as well.

If you can learn and excel with this kind of content writing, you can win in two areas. Promoting your own site, or writing content for others site owners and earning dollars as a ghostwriter.

I have been writing and promoting on the web for over 3 years. Here are the tips I find most important to a beginning --article for promoting-- writer.

Articles should be short enough to read in less than 5 minutes.

Ideally they should be between 300 and 600 words (an average page in a printed novel is about 300 words).

Top 10, or 7, (the number isn't that important) Tips on (your subject) are great attention grabbers for articles to promote your website.

Write in short paragraphs, forget what you learned about in English class, if a paragraph is long, find a good point where you can cut it and put an extra line break. Browsing for content, readers are more likely to stick with reading something the eye can easily skim from top to end. (Notice with this article, I have added spaces between each bullet in this list :o)

If your article is long, break it into 2 or 3 parts. For a real web traffic puller, and list building technique, request them to sign up for an autoresponder version to receive 2nd or 3rd part. (be sure to give them opt-out options when you do it this way)

Here is a mistake I see many online authors' making. Don't use huge big vocabulary. You are not writing a thesis, or essay for school. Write so that someone with a 8th grade education could easily read it. Don't try to impress with large vocabulary words, you will lose readers, who feel your writing is condesending to them. (See, how many do you think I may have lost using condescending?

Try to write with passion. Put feeling into your words. Pull in as many of the five senses, experience stories, as you can. For an example of this, read this article. Articles should educate, entertain or inform. Imagine how popular your article will be if it does all three.

Make sure your article is well formatted. You can post it at a site like ezinearticles.com and use their ("get this article page" to get your article in different formats, both text and html.) This sites also allow you to input your own personalized summary, and keywords, which allows webmasters to find them and use them as well.

Set a goal to publish a certain number of articles per week to a certain number of database sites.

It is easy to find sites to submit your articles too. Just go to google, type in articles, then, scroll to the bottom of the page. You will find a button which says, search within results.

With this search button type in "free articles" or "free content" or "free to republish" and you will find several submission sites. You can also type "article submission directories"

I have set a goal to do five things each day toward promotion. Each persons goals will be different, but remember, to be effective you must write new content and promote on a consistent basis.

However, if you have a good article, it will also duplicate itself quickly and spread across the web like a forest fire out of control!

You can optimize your article to get the exact keyword density for search engines, but that could fill another whole article. For your main keyword, try to use it about 7-10 times throughout the whole page. This article's goal is to find article writer-promoter, webmasters to list their articles at my new article database.

Generating ideas for new article topics

1. Brainstorm for new ideas.

Add your brainstormed ideas to an idea file that you can go back to when you are stuck for a topic.

Also add ideas you get from other sources into this file so that you'll always have a fresh source of inspiration.

2. Visit forums and message boards.

Look for an interesting topic or thread in the posts that you can turn into a new article.

3. Check out newspapers and news programs.

Depending on what you like to write about, you could find some new hot topics.

4. Subscribe to e-zines that reach your target audience.

You'll be able to get new, relevant information that could spark an idea for an article.

5. Review your own articles.

Keep your eyes open for things that you touch on in your articles that you could expand into a full article.

Also look for ways to further educate your readers on the topics that you've written about in the past.

6. Read other people's articles.

You could look over the submissions to article announcement lists and article directories, or you could visit a site that has articles you enjoy reading.

You might be able to come up with an original slant that the other author didn't cover in her article or a topic that you could research for your next article.

7. Use questions you get from your subscribers, visitors, or customers for ideas.

Questions that you get on a regular basis can be an excellent source of new ideas and topics that will appeal to your target audience.

8. Go to a seminar or marketing conference.

In addition, to finding more new article topics, you'll be able to learn new things and gain more contacts.

9. Conduct an interview.

You'll be able to get a new article from the interview itself.

The person you interview could also bring up things in their responses that you could do some research on for a new article.

10. Run a survey.

Ask your participants what topics they're interested in learning more about in your e-zine or on your site, and you'll be able to get more new ideas and topics.

Four tips for writing free reprint articles that interests publishers

Have you been writing and submitting your free reprint articles for quite sometime now?

If so, how is your reprint rate doing? Is it doing well or is it a bit below 50%? Are webmasters approving your articles?

Here are some tips on how to write effective free reprint articles that would guarantee great interest from ezine publishers and webmasters.

1. Choose a good keyword

A good keyword is your "key" to getting high reprint rates for even just a single article. Try using the keywords found in this page http://random9.com/Googlest-site/index.htm

2. Keyword density

Keyword density is the number of "keywords" found in an article or content which is then divided by the total number of words. Try to keep your keyword density at 5% to 7% maximum especially if you choose common keywords for your article. Keyword density is important because this is one of the things search engines look into when they rank the search results.

Do not try to make your article an article for search engines, make them full of quality, informative but still search engine optimized.

3. Shorter word count

Publishers or webmasters often love articles that are less than 1000 words, but it totally depends on the topic and how informative is your article. Try not to go around the bush and result to making your article at 1800 words. In other words, do not make it like a short story. A good article may only have at least 250 words, but could still capture the reader's attention and have the attributes mentioned in numbers 1 and 2 above.

4. Good content

You wrote a 700-word article with good keywords and keyword density, but does it contain good content? Well, only you can answer that truthfully and if your answer is yes, then great! But for some few inviduals this isn't the fact, many are still writing articles that editors label as an "indirect" advert. If you really want a good reprint rate then make your article body 100% of quality information, tips, how-tos and tricks. Keep the 100% advert in your bylines and keep them short.

Good luck and enjoy writing!

The simple way to writing free reprint articles

As you may already know, writing free reprint articles and then distributing them to publishers and web sites is one of the best ways to promote your web site - a single article can result in hundreds of new links to your web site and a rapid increase in traffic levels. But there's nothing worse than staring at a blank screen, and wondering how you're going to fill it with hundreds of words. That's why I'm going to give you an easy way that anyone can use to write an article - even if it's your very first one!

1. Get a main idea, or focus for your article.

This is what your whole article is going to be about.

The main idea for your article needs to have some relevance to the web site that you link to in the resource box, because this is how you are going to get the benefit when your article is published.

This is why articles are so effective at directing targeted traffic to your site - the reader will be searching for information on a topic, find your helpful and informative article, and follow the link to your site for even more relevant information. Writing free reprint articles fits right into how Internet users surf the web, and benefits you with targeted traffic.

2. Jot down five or more key points that provide information on your article topic.

For example, if your article's a how-to type of article, you can have say five steps towards accomplishing a specific goal. If your article explains different ways to do something, think of five or more different ways. Each of these points will form a paragraph in your article. Often as you write your article proper, you will find that you can expand each point into two or three paragraphs, which will give you an ideal length for your article.

3. Write an introduction.

Just introduce your topic. Give a little bit of background to the article's topic, and then summarize what you will cover in your article.

Again, you want to keep the reader interested, keep them reading, and push them along to the link in your resource box that you want them to click. So try to spike their curiosity a little, and they won't be able to help but read on to find out more.

4. Write a conclusion.

Your conclusion really just quickly summarizes the main points in your article, similar to how your introduction works, except now you are drawing your article to a natural close.

It's good practice to take a look at some articles in an article directory, and see how authors have concluded their article. Don't copy word for word, but you can base the format of your own conclusion on one that you like the look of.

5. Add a tantalizing title.

You may want to write this at the very beginning, but it's often helpful to write at the end once you are really clear what your article is about.

Your title is also one of the most important elements. It has to draw the reader in, encourage him to read further, make your article stand out from the crowd, and if at all possible contain an element that plays to the reader's curiosity (i.e. literally force them to read just to satisfy their curiosity).

6. Check the length

The ideal article length is 600-800 words, this is what most publishers are looking for, and will ensure that your article gets published in the maximum number of places. If you're short, see if you can expand on certain points, or add a couple of new points in.

7. Write your resource box

The last and arguably most important bit is to write your resource box. Again, it's a good idea to have a look around some article directories and note how other authors have structured theirs.

In my experience, the most effective way to structure a resource box is to first write a sentence about yourself that also gives you some authority on your topic. Then write a sentence about your web site, with a link to it. And that's all it needs. Keep it simple, keep clear of promotional language, and just include a single link.

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Once you've practised these techniques a couple of times, you'll find it as easy as pie and will be churning out quality articles in half the time.

Earning money writing articles

Article writing has suddenly become very popular among online marketers lately. A lot of people are taking advantage of this fact to make extra money.

So just how can writing articles make YOU extra money?

Firstly the obvious answer is to write keyword dense articles on specific subjects and offer them for sale. These will be quickly snapped up by people trying to create niche market sites to sell a product within that niche. They will also be in demand with people setting up content sites to make money from Googles Adsense (you could also do this yourself as you write the articles).

Research the most popular keywords at http://www.wordtracker.com to find a niche which will give you a good idea of what to target your articles at.

Secondly, a series of articles about one niche can be placed in one volume and turned into an ebook, or course which can be sold with very little overheads. Using one or two of the articles to submit to article directories like http://www.ArticleCity.com or http://www.DEBSArticleSite.com and adding your bio with a link to your ebook salespage will quickly add some traffic and lead to sales.

You can also use articles to promote affiliate products. Search at http://www.clickbank.com and find a product you can market from it's marketplace. Make your new link and use a service like TrackThatAd to mask the link. Then write articles using keywords related to the product and submit those to article directories.

There are a lot of ways to make money from writing articles, so get out there and start writing and submitting them today.

Get publishers to notice you with these eight tips

If your articles aren't getting published very often, or you just want to increase the chances of them being published, then you will benefit from the tips in this article.

1. Article Length

You should always keep you article 500 to 800 words long. If you can't fit what you want to say into that amount of space, then break your article up into more than one part.

2. Resource Box Length

When writing your resource box, keep it 5 to 6 lines long. In a resource box you are simply trying to get people to request more information, not sell them something. If you want a longer ad, buy one!

3. Line Length

The lines in both your article and your resource box should be formatted to 60 to 65 characters per line. One of the consequences of not doing so is that, in some email programs, your article may appear with every line at a different length.

You can get your article formatted, as well as learning its character, line, and word count, at the following website for free. http://www.fwointl.com/FWOFormatter.html

4. Is Your Article Actually An Article?

Publishers want to provide their readers with actually useful information and you should want the same. If you write an article that is just a sales letter or press release it will be rejected 99 percent of the time.

5. Inactive Links

Before you even think about publishing or submitting your article check that all links within it are active and working. Nothing is more irritating than to click on a link for a site you're interested in only to find out that it no longer exists.

6. Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar

If you submit your article and it's full of errors it will be thrown into the trash folder so fast that your head will spin. Submitting articles with these types of errors not only makes you look extremely unprofessional, but it shows disrespect for both the publisher and their readers.

7. S*AM Triggers

As a courtesy, you should run your article through a program that will check it for triggers that could possibly get it rejected by filters. This isn't a necessary step but it will definitely impress publishers and increase the chances of your article being published.

You can check your article for free at http://www.lyris.com/contentchecker.

8. Publisher Guidelines

This should be understood without having to say it, but it is still important enough to mention. Always, always, always follow the publisher's guidelines when submitting an article to them. Not doing so will get your article rejected quicker than anything else.

Read this list, print it out, and keep it by you when you are writing an article. Read each tip and make sure that you are following it.

Making the above mistakes will insult the intelligence of both the publishers and their readers, as well as wasting your time and theirs.

Mastering article marketing in seven days or less

Let me clarify my definition of an "article marketer". An article marketer provides helpful information in the form of articles written about the industry they work within. Article marketers focus on writing quality content and publishing techniques to complement their existing marketing channels.

It is a win/win situation. The author gains many benefits for being published, and the reader satisfies a thirst for knowledge of the topic being discussed.

Have you considered article marketing?

Anyone can enjoy the benefits of writing content articles for the Web. I am living proof.

2 years ago I was introduced to the idea of using articles as a marketing strategy. Like so many other ideas we are subjected to, it didn't sink in right away. Excuse after excuse, I let procrastination stand in the way.

I had never written an article before …

As I began to see more and more SEO consultants and successful marketers discussing article marekting, I decided to dig in deeper and see what all the fuss was about. It sounded good, and I wanted in too.

Ironically, I begin to read articles about writing articles. Article after article the concepts begin making sense. I understood why article marketing worked, I understood how article marketing worked … but I still had no clue how to start my first article.

I discovered my first article topic quite by accident one evening. Here's how. (Be on the lookout for conversations like this that may take place between you and your colleagues every day.)

While in a general discussion with another site administrator I realized the KEY to successful articles or any ad copy.

Find a problem and solve it. That is what we all want - we want solutions to our problems!

The scenario went like this. My colleague offered live event webinars and needed a easy way to update specifics of these classes to members. Further more, I wanted a way to tell people about the live training without the burden of updating these live events through HTML on my web site.

Having some background experiences with blogs, and actively testing different blog creation scripts and services, he welcomed my advise on adopting RSS as an option to easily feed us the training class schedules.

It solved his problem of updating the live class schedules to us, and my problem of updating the content for my visitors. Realizing the solution to a problem - the research for the article began.

I started in the search engines, read some forums, and gathered facts.

The facts were then picked apart to determine the benefit of each fact. I used those benefits as the central focal point of my article.

My first article "Got Blog" was written and published soon after. Taking that first step and writing that first article, opened the door for me to be able to write a second article, then press releases, and Ebooks now too.

That article was submitted to only 15 free directories, and then I left it alone and went on to other projects.

By digging through all those articles about articles, I inadvertently learned "top notch" techniques from successful article writers themselves.

I felt that learning by this method was so helpful to me, that I created a free guide called "All About Articles the Marketing Advantage ". This guide incorporates all the great articles and techniques that gave me the confidence to build my first article campaign.

The guide was not created until a year after I had published several of my own articles and seen the successful results for myself.

One year later … there are over 140 sites - many of which I have never heard of, some of which are high traffic and successful sites, proudly telling people some interesting tips on using RSS - each one with a healthy link back to my website for more information.

I found the above information by doing a keyword search on Google using the exact phrase of the byline used on that article.

Article writing and circulation has been the single most rewarding "free" promotion effort I have accomplished in my years of trial and error! Be inspired, if I can do it, you can too!

The easy way to write articles and promote your business

If you're not a born writer, a simple way to begin writing articles to promote your business is to write list articles.

Your list articles could be a top ten list or top seven list that deals with a specific subject.

You could also write up a list of tips that deals with a broad subject such as marketing or promotion, and then add a catchy headline or title to your list.

Your list article could be without an introduction or you could write up a few short sentences or paragraphs to lead into your new list article.

With your introduction, write just enough to get your readers interested in your article before going into your list.

Some tips that will help you to maximize the success of your list articles are:

1. Make each tip informative.

You could tell your reader the benefit of using your tip, go into detail about how to use your tip, or define how your tip works if you're writing about something that is new to your reader.

One tip could simply state the benefit of using your tip, or you could tell your reader the benefit of using your tip and also how to use your tip.

The key is to provide genuinely useful information to your reader. If you're able to do this, you'll be able to get your articles published and achieve long term promotion of your business.

2. Write for your target audience.

For example, if you wrote a manual on e-zine publishing you could write up a list of ten e-zine promotion tips.

3. Use lots of white space.

Your articles will look cleaner and more professional, and you'll be able to keep your readers, including your skim readers, interested in your article.

4. Vary the length of your sentences.

Use short and long sentences to get your points across.

For example, if you have two or three short sentences in a row, you could transform these short sentences into one compound sentence.

You could also make these short sentences into one compound sentence and one short sentence.

5. Write your articles as if you are writing to one person or even talking to that person.

Writing your articles in this way will help you to add your personality to your writing, and make it feel like you're speaking directly to your reader.

6. Use the active voice.

Using the active voice will make your writing more straightforward.

It will also help you to keep your list article from becoming uninteresting or confusing to your reader.

7. Go over your article for mistakes.

Many article writers, even though they write very informative articles, have a problem with spelling and grammar mistakes.

Because they're easily avoidable, making mistakes like this can make your writing seem amateurish and decrease your chances of getting your article published.

8. Leave your list article for a couple of days and then go over it again adding detail where it's needed and eliminating parts of your article that are unneeded.

Afterwards recheck your article for mistakes.

9. Read your article out loud.

By doing this, you'll be able to make your article read just like you speak.

You'll also be able to make changes to parts of your article that don't flow very well or that are unclear to your reader.

10. Have someone else read over your article after you're done.

You'll be able to get honest feedback for your article that will either tell you that you're article is really good or that your article needs some work.

If you're article needs some work, getting this feedback will help you to avoid making the mistake of promoting your article before it's ready to be published.

11. Promote your e-zine in your resource box.

Promoting your e-zine in your resource box will help you to successfully keep in contact with your readers and keep your marketing message on their minds.

In your resource box, have your readers visit your site to subscribe to your e-zine or have an email address (i.e., subscribe@yourdomain.com) that forwards emails to your subscription email.

Doing this will enable you to continue to get more subscribers from your list articles even if you decide to change list hosts or autoresponder services.

12. Promote your finished article.

Submit your article to article directories, article announcement lists, and also to e-zine publishers.

Also post your article on your site, and keep your site updated with your new articles.

Write your way to sales and profits!

Writing articles, and promoting them for publication, is one of the most productive long-term promotional tactics available. Well researched and written articles... which provide valuable, useable information, are highly sought after by newsletter publishers, magazines, ezines, etc.

It is a marketing truth that "Content Is King". Good, keyword rich, content is what drives online traffic through search engines and gives the visitor a reason to keep coming back to a website. This is often referred to as "sticky content". As a traffic-generation tool it is unsurpassed.

Webmasters and publication editors have an insatiable appetite for tightly written "niched" articles that are relevant to their web sites or publications themes.

This need is your opportunity...

An editor of an ezine, newsletter or magazine has a never-ending need for good content. Each issue they publish must be filled with useful, relevant content that will appeal to their readers or subscribers self-interest. A publication that cannot provide great content will not long survive.

"An editor of an ezine, newsletter or magazine has a never-ending need for good content.

By regularly supplying the media with well written articles, you build a never-ending supply of links and traffic to your own websites.

How?... Well, the secret is in the bio. Each article you submit for publication has your own "authors bio" that gives full attribution and links to your site. This is the payment you receive for having supplied the articles... it is a payment which gives you long-term dividends!

Not only will your article be presented to many thousands of subscribers initially... but those same articles (with your bio and links) will be archived on the publications websites. Those archived articles become fodder for search engines which not only provide on-going traffic to the publishing site... but to YOU as well. It is truly a Win/Win proposition.

NOT A WRITER?... NO PROBLEM...

There are countless freelance writers who will "ghost write" articles for you and... giving you the copyrights. I know of many well-known names in the industry who have articles plastered all over the internet...and they have never written a word themselves. I know this because I have written some of their articles. :-)

If you need such services try elance or do a Google search for "ghost writing" or "freelance writers". There are many highly educated, english speaking, foreign-based professionals who will write articles for very nominal fees.

OK... YOU HAVE AN ARTICLE... NOW WHAT?

Having a good article is only the first part of the equatiion... now you need to get the articles distributed to those editors and publications who will welcome your contribution... and publish your work.

There are three primary means of promoting your articles:

* Article Directories
* Article Announcment Lists
* Your Internal List
* Paid Distributiion Services & Software

Here is a breakdown of each... and a list of resources to get you started...

ARTICLE DIRECTORIES...

Article directories are websites which categorize and archive your articles... and promote them to editors and publishers. Most are free... but some are fee based. They all provide a submission system for you to provide your articles to them. In addition, most have their own internal list of editors and publishers that they announce your new article to.

TIP: The simple act of listing your articles in the directory archives will provide you instant incoming links to your website which could increase your site traffic and page ranks.

Here is a partial list of article directories. (Please note that companies go out of business occasionally and you may run into a link which no longer works.)

* http://www.allmerchants.com/
* http://www.allnetarticles.com/
* http://amazines.com/
* http://www.articlecity.com/article_submission.shtml
* http://articleresponder.com/index.php
* http://www.articlesubmissions.com/index.php
* http://www.boconline.com/
* http://www.businesstoolchest.com/
* http://www.certificate.net/wwio/index.shtml
* http://www.connectionteam.com
* http://www.dime-co.com/
* http://www.ebooksnbytes.com
* http://www.echievements.com/
* http://ezineadhelper.com/cgi-bin/articles/articles.cgi
* http://www.ezinearticles.com
* http://www.goarticles.com
* http://www.internetbasedmoms.com/bb/index.php
* http://linksnoop.com/
* http://www.mailbiz.com/mailbiz/magcat/
* http://www.SimpleSteps2success.biz
* http://thewhir.com/find/articlecentral/
* http://webmarketingspecialists.com/articlesubmit.htm
* http://www.webmomz.com/users/login.shtml
* http://www.zongoo.com/index.php

ARTICLE ANNOUNCEMENT LISTS...

Announcement Lists are email newsletters, lists, or ezines, which allow you to "announce" your new articles to thousands of editors and publishers instantly. Most of these announcement lists are sent out daily to their subscribers. This means that you can have your article circulating to key editors and publishers within hours of completion.

Here are a number of important Article Announcement Lists that will give you a simple and fast mechanism for distribution of your articles...

* http://topica.com/lists/articlereview/
* http://topica.com/lists/freeezinecontent/
* http://groups.yahoo.com/group/article_announce/
* http://groups.yahoo.com/group/article_announce_list/
* http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Free-Reprint-Articles/
* http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Free-Content/
* http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Free_eContent/
* http://groups.yahoo.com/group/freezinecontent/
* http://groups.yahoo.com/group/internet_marketing_articleblaster/
* http://groups.yahoo.com/group/netwrite-publish-announce/
* http://groups.yahoo.com/group/publisher_network/
* http://groups.yahoo.com/group/QC_Reprint_Articles
* http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ReprintArticles-Paradise/
* http://groups.yahoo.com/group/reprintedarticles/
* http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheWriteArticles/

YOUR INTERNAL, IN-HOUSE, DISTRIBUTION LIST...

Over time you will begin to build a list of editors and publishers, who have used your articles in the past, and find them to be relevant. This list is "your private goldmine". Each time you finish an article the first step you want to take is to send it, in a private mailing, to your in-house user list.

You might want to consider doing a "mail merge" to this list and personalize your submission to the specific editor by name.

Remember, this list could be worth thousand of dollars to you over the coming months and years. Do not treat it lightly. This list is truly a center-of-influence list that you will want to spend time and effort nuturing. Remembering them at holidays and on special occasions, goes a long way to building a profitable relationship.

Pick up a phone and call them. Let them know that you appreciate your relationship... and let them know you are available for special writing assignments. (Here is an example of how strong and beneficial this simple act can be... About two years ago I sent a small holiday gift [a screen-saver of tropical Hawaiian images] to a magazine editor who had used a number of my articles in the past. I waited until the package had time to arrive and then I picked up a phone and called her. She was delighted with the thoughtfulness of the gift and then stunned me with the news that one of her regular columnists had been forced to resign... and "would I be interested in replacing him?". So... that simple telephone call resulted in a regular column in a print magazine that serves one of my niche marketplaces. A marvelous result that may not have happened if I had not "nurtured the relationship".

Ask them "What Articles Do You Need?"... and listen closely to their answers.

By doing so... you will develop a sense of what materials are needed and wanted in your marketplace. Write specifically to those needs and you will develop a strong editorial following that will pay off in huge traffic flow, increased sales and profits, and an enhanced image and reputation. These are pretty hefty benefits for some time spent researching and writing articles!

PAID DISTRIBUTION SERVICES...

Two recent innovations that have burst on the article marketing scene are: (1)custom distribution software (Article Announcer) and (2) web-based article distribution services (Article Marketer). My experience with these systems are that the web-based service is much more cost efficient, easier to use, and has the built-in advantage of having the most current and up-to-date database of publishers seeking your content.

Keeping track of your articles orderly

Writing articles related to your business is a great way to build your link popularity and also to provide more content for your site and other sites. Not too mention it's always nice when someone finds your site and uses it within their newsletter.

The only problem is, what if people dont tell you that they were using your articles??? How would you know who to reward?

I say reward because of another article I wrote, "reward those who publish your articles". It briefly outlines how to boost your articles popularity by boosting the other sites it's listed on.

Let's say for now, you just want to track your articles properly.

#1 Creating appropriate forlders within your "favorites". Every browser allows you to create a folder in order to hold your favorite web sites. Organizing your favorites folder is key when you plan to market your business 24/7. In this case, we'll create a new folder called "Articles Listed".

Within that folder, you'll want to start creating other "sub" categories for EACH INDIVIDUAL ARTILCE that you market.

For instance, let's say you have about 10 articles that you always promote, you'll want to add 10 folders within your new "Articles Listed folder". Make sure to give them a short but recognizable name that you would be able to distinguish which article it is for.

Ex. (I will use 3 of my title's)

1. Tracking your articles properly (Folder: Tracking Articles)
2. Writing Articles To Boost Your Traffic (Folder: Writing Articles)
3. Reward Those Who Publish Your Articles (Folder: Reward Publishers)

#2 Always keep the same headline for your article: I've visited many sites who consistently change the headline of the article simply to make it seem like a different article. Don't be shy, I'm sure we've all thought about it, infact, I am also guilty.

Starting now, let's all keep the same headline...

The reason for keeping the same headline is for 1 keeping a strong consistency with your marketing and 2 making it easyer to find your articles online.

#3 - Finding All Of Your Articles: Now let's find them for you... (Hoping that you already created your folders within your favories menu?)

I preffer using Google's Toolbar for this but it is not required. Let's all go to: www.google.com and start looking.

Why google? Simply the best...

Take your 1st article and cut and paste the EXACT title within the google search. Now add "" at the beginning and the end of your title

Adding "" at the beginning and the end will narrow your search to exactly what's in between.

For ex. "Tracking Your Articles Properly" would give me better results than if I were to search: tracking your articles properly. Actually I do recommend you try both methods just in case.

Now once you have found a site that has listed your article, add the exact page your article is listed within the proper folder you created within your "favorites menu".

Once you have completed this task for all of your articles, it will be very easy to keep up with your new articles. Another thing is, if you plan to reward those sites, you now have them all seperated into proper categories.

I hope this helps you out even a little like it did for me...

Five useful tools for the busy article writer

You can save time and make your article writing and promotion easier by putting some very great tools to use. Below I've included 5 tools that can help you.

1. Article Formatter

If your articles aren't properly formatted before being submitted they have a very high chance of getting rejected. Formatting your articles also shows respect for the publishers you are submitting to. The following tool will not only format your articles to any line length you desire, but give you a total count of characters, words, and lines. To format your articles very quickly, just visit http://www.fwointl.com/FWOFormatter.html.

2. Tracking Software

As you start writing articles, and especially when you have been writing them for awhile, you will need a way to keep track of everything you've written. You can do this using a free program called Writer's Database. Writer's Database is a program that will keep track of everything you've written, potential publishers, submissions to those publishers, writing that hasn't been submitted yet, and more. You can find it at http://www.ultima-thule.co.uk/

3. Text Converter

To make it simple to add your articles to your website you need a simple tool for converting them to HTML. Using such a tool will greatly reduce the time you spend getting your articles up on your site. You can find a free one at http://www.cyber-matrix.com/txt2html.html.

4. SP*M Checker

Whether you submit your articles directly to publishers or to article directories, you can increase the chances of them being picked. Every time you write an article, run it through the checker at http://www.lyris.com/contentchecker. This will check your articles for things that have a probability of triggering SP*M filters. Once the check is finished, you get a detailed report that will show you what you need to change.

5. Spell Checker

I know that this seems pretty obvious, but checking the spelling in your articles is a must. When you submit articles that are full of spelling errors you project a very unprofessional image and turn people away from what you have to offer. Tiny Spell is a free program that will allow you to check the spelling of words in any Windows application. http://www.megspace.com/computers/tinyspell/

Using these tools will not write your articles. That is completely up to you. But using them will dramatically decrease the time you have to spend writing your articles and getting them ready to submit.

Six more places to submit your articles to generate more traffic

You know that writing articles is the best free way to promote your business and gain credibility. You understand the importance of articles containing actual information and not being just long sales letters.

Do you know the absolute best places to submit all of those wonderful articles you have written?

Here is your list of the top 6 places to submit your articles:

1. Idea Marketers
With an Alexa ranking of 13,015, this site is one that you definitely don't want to miss submitting to. You have to sign up for a free account. Instantly accepts your article. http://www.ideamarketers.com

2. Go Articles
This one has an Alexa ranking of 17,504. You have to sign up for a free account. This site is part of the Jayde Network. Instantly accepts your article. http://www.goarticles.com

3. Article City
Article City has an Alexa ranking of 20,024. No account is required. http://www.articlecity.com

4. Article Announce
This group has 2,712 subscribers (June 2004). Provides content to hundreds of newsletters, magazines, and websites. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/article_announce/

5. Free Content
This group has 1,557 subscribers (June 2004). Hosted by Website101.com. http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/Free-Content/

6. Publisher Network
This group has 686 subscribers (June 2004). Lets you swap articles with other newsletter publishers. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/publisher_network/

By all means, submit your articles anywhere and everywhere it is appropriate. But there are certain websites that should always be included on your list. These places have a high number of visitors and/or subscribers.

When people publish your articles, reward them.

It is pretty obvious that content is king online. It is also obvious that writing more content and submitting them to other sites will help boost your popularity and bring more visitors to your site.

So why wouldn't you help boost those pages that have your articles on them?

I want to share a small tip that will help boost your articles popularity all over the world.

See, most of us who do write articles are mainly concerned about getting their articles published. Well why wouldn't you reward those who publish your articles?

I am consistently finding ways to boost pr ratings for ALL of my pages within my site, you should be too. If we are all trying to do this, then why don't we help boost our articles on other sites!

Here's an example of this...

I have an article titled: "Getting A Better Rank For All Your Pages"

Now simply listing this article on my site isn't enough. I also promote and submit this article wherever I can. If by chance a web site publishes my article, I will reward that site by adding a link on my site were that article is listed.

Infact, if you've seen my marketing tip articles, there is a small resource box at the bottom of each article that links to all the sites that have listed that specific article. Being more specific, I don't link to their main page, I link to my article.

Here's what that accomplishes...

Let's say your article is listed on "Artices R Us" and you want your article to be found by anyone who searches for that company, boosting your pr rating for your article on "Articles R Us" will help you get more visitors from that site.

See, it's not only about listing your articles because we would all like to have our articles found right away and 1st. Don't miss the chance to gain more visitors by letting your article die out on the site that you listed it in.

What if all your articles listed on other sites, had a pr rating in google of (pr4) or more? That would be great!

That would be great because we all know that Google rewards your link popularity when listed in a page that is pr4 or more!

So don't be shy to reward those who list your articles, doing so will only boost your search engine ranking and also give you a lot more visitors than before!