Article World

Do These Issues Prevent You From Writing Articles?

As an aspiring article writer there are several roadblocks you need to get past. Most article writers have banged their heads into these exact same obstacles. The truth is that most of them are really easy to get past.

1. My Writing Is really Bad
“I don’t write very well.” Is a very commonly used excuse. Frankly everybody feels like that now and then, but it’s just not true. You’re supposed to write an article not Hamlet or Romeo and Juliet.

Another common excuse is bad spelling. Well, that’s a really bad excuse. Pretty much any word processing tool on the planet has a build in spellchecker. Running your article through that should take care of most spelling errors. Even if you think your spelling is great you should still run your article through a spellchecker. Typos are more common than you think.

Right after spelling people will often mention grammar. Would you believe, in this day and age there are even tools that can help with that. If you don’t want to spend money on that have one or two friends or relatives look through your article. They will most likely be able to notice things that seem off.

2. I Don’t Have Anything New To Offer
Well, even if you’re absolutely certain that people know everything you have to say about a subject; tell it again. Tell them in your words. First of all I can assure you that there will be things they didn’t know. Second of all it never hurts to be told the same thing twice, but in different ways.

So even if you think you have nothing new to add to a subject you should still give it a go. More often than not there will be details here and there that someone else did not know.

3. I Don’t Know Enough About The Subject
Well, that might actually be a good thing. Writing about something you don’t know anything about means that you have to do some research. That will usually bring a sense of exploration to your article. In fact by simply looking at a topic with a fresh set of eyes you may notice things that nobody else thought about. Lack of knowledge should definitely not hold you back.

So you’re writing about a brand new subject, which means that you now have to do a bit of research. If you’re thinking that you have to spend hours at the library you’re wrong. Going to the library can’t hurt, but most of the knowledge you need is right at your fingertips. Make use of search engines and other tools to research your topic.

4. I Don’t Know What To Write About
Well, writing articles about a hobby or your business is an excellent to get started. That may span several potential subjects which can ironically make it even harder to determine the subject of a specific article. It’s a common error to think about something and then decide that it doesn’t warrant an article. More often than not it does.

If you’re looking for more inspiration than that you just take a look at the magazine rack at your store. In fact bookstores can also be excellent sources of inspiration. If something sells really well there’s a good chance that it’s a good topic to wrtie articles about.

5. Nobody Wants To Read What I Write
Yes they do. Really I don’t have to say more than that, but I’m going to anyway. In the world we live in today website owners are hungry for fresh material and will happily put your article on their website. Most article directories allow site owners to use the content as long as they credit the author. That’s an excellent way to plug your website and yourself.

Really, there are no excuses so get on with it and get writing.

Mike Nielsen is a web developer from Denmark dedicated to providing tools for other aspiring web developers and others looking to make a living online. At Web Construction he provides numerous resources to that end.

Traffic Generation Tactic - Writing Article Resources Boxes That Get Clicks

Whether for gaming, business, fun or anything else the internet has provided us with information that has proved to be very beneficial.

Through the recent years many people have learned the secrets of Search Engine Optimization. More and more sites have seen the effects articles have done for the traffic of their sites. Some have even created sites devoted entirely to providing articles that could be read by their website visitors and have links that could lead to many sites that are related to the topics and subjects of the articles.

For example, the sites may feature many articles about a whole lot of topics. As a website visitor reads the articles they have searched for, they can find at the end of the article a resource box that can be clicked on to link them to the site that has submitted the article. Of course the article would be in relation to the site. Lets say if the article is about rotating the tires, the resource box may lead to a link to a site that sells tires or car parts.

A resource box is what you usually find at the end of an article. They will contain the name of the author, a brief description of the author, a brief description of the sponsoring site and a link. If a reader likes what they read, they would have the tendency to find out where the article came from to read more. The resource bow will be their link to the source of the article and this will entice them to go to the site and do some more reading or research for the subject or topic they are interested in.

But like the article itself, the resource box must also be eye-catching to demand the attention and interest of the reader. While the resource bow encompasses only a small space, providing the right keywords and content for your resource box will provide more prodding for the reader to go to your site.

Now we know what resource boxes are, what are the benefits of having a good resource box?

Mainly its driving traffic to your site.

Many sites would allow articles to be placed in their sites because they can make use of the articles to fill their pages. They also get affiliation with other sites that can be beneficial for them as well. For the sponsoring site, when you get people to click on your resource box, you generate traffic that can be counted upon as potential customers.

So what would be a good content for your resource box?

Basically it is keywords, learning about the proper keywords that people are mainly searching for. There are many tools you can find in the Internet that can help you in determining what keywords to use.

Resource boxes can also make use of all the creativity it can get. You only get a small space for your resource box so you better make the most of it. Try to catch the attention of your reader with resource box content that can make them give a second look. Unlike TV ads, you don’t have visual aids to drive your point in. But you do have the power of imagination of a reader. With the right content, you can make them think and intrigued.

Another tip is to use keywords that should be related to your site. Do not mislead your potential website visitors. Build your credibility so that more people would get enticed to visit your site and browse what you have to offer. Make the people click your resource box by providing resource box content that makes a lasting impression. You only get one chance to wow them and hundreds of chances to repulse them.

Never underestimate the power of the resource box. It may be small in size but they will provide a significant aid in driving traffic to your site. A boring resource box will never get a job done. Be fun and creative but at the same time show that you have a great deal to offer, too much to ask for something that couldn’t fit a paragraph? Yes and no, there are many tips and guides that can help you in doing this, the first step is realizing how important a resource box could be in making people click your link and be directed to your site.

Jo Han Mok is a #1 bestselling author and frequent featured speaker at Internet Marketing bootcamps and conferences. Visit his website for a simple step-by-step traffic generation plan to profit online and become the next big internet success story! http://www.InternetMillionaireCode.com

How To Be Different When Writing Articles

If you read these lines you already know that article writing is one of the best ways to increase your traffic and get more visitors. It is now a major weapon in search engine optimization. Everybody knows that and each day hundreds of new articles are being submitted to the popular article directories.

So how can you make sure to grab attention among all those thousands of articles that are around? The answer is simple: Be different.

Nowadays, I always wonder why so many times articles out there deal with a topic in such an abstract way that you get the impression the author is barely interested in the topic.

Let’s put some groove into your articles and make it different:

Your Opinion Counts

People need guidance and they love to read opinions. But too often articles don’t offer a clear view on a topic but just a digest of what everybody already knows and agrees upon.

Don’t repeat what everybody knows anyway. Often in forums or blog comments your find high-quality content from people who really know about a subject. Even if you don’t know more facts about a topic you will at least have an opinion.

You may use an article to publish your personal view of a certain topic or aspect. If you agree or disagree with a common view on a popular topic - write it down. Just be sure you explain why your view is the way it is in words people can understand.

Use Humor

Don’t be boring. Spice up your article using a nice and humorous style. Sound like a normal person having a conversation instead of professor giving a lecture. Just make sure you use common sense when judging your humor.

Consider that your articles may be read by people from different cultures and religions all over the world. What you may think to be funny could be an insult to another person. Don’t provoke intentionally or be sarcastic. Write as if you always have a little smile on your face.

In fact I have found that if you smile while you are writing. Your language will automatically get more friendly and humorous. It works.

Tell A Story

An article does not have to be an essay. Sometimes you can explain something much better by telling a story. People have been telling each other stories for centuries.

The Internet hasn’t changed that. People want to know about things that happened to you or to certain people. This way your message is much more personal than if you just write about some abstract concept or product.

Get Some Inspiration

Do a search on your topic or subtopic. Read existing articles on your topic in the major article directories. Get familiar with what other people have said about this topic. Read three or four articles then write down some more ideas and concepts that come to your mind.

Often you will find an article representing a certain view. You may use this point of view to write an anti-thesis, basically stating that you don’t agree with the author or with a certain aspect that many people agree on. This will make you different and it will make people curious about what you have to say.

Search forums on your topics and pick up some different views there. Often you will find the mainstream views in the article directories but the real insider info you get when you visit forums and read peoples posts and opinions.

To sum it up, article writing is one of the best ways to increase your traffic and get targeted visitors to our site. You just have to make sure you set yourself apart from the gray mass of boring content all around you. Show your readers that you are a human being - not a content robot and people will read your article, click on your link and republish your article on their websites.

If you want to know more about writing profitable articles easily, get all the secrets that I have put together for you in this free report here:
freereport.contentinsane.com

Get Ready, Get Set, Get Writing!

While article marketing is truly an inexpensive and effective way to market your business, you know that time is money. An article marketing campaign quickly loses its tremendous value if you spend too much time toiling over every single word you write. Learning how to write effective articles quickly will help you expand your marketing efforts. These quick tips will help.

Identifying Your Target Market
The first step is to identify your target customers. Research your audience. In general, try to identify their ages, occupations, financial statuses, and educational backgrounds. This will help you establish a specific tone and set of language in which to speak to your customers.

How does this help? Once you have a voice and style for your articles, you’ll be able to just let the ideas flow and speak to your customers in a friendly, natural style.

An article about a new kind of retirement fund could be pertinent to old and young readers alike. The language used in the article signals which group the company is attempting to reach. Consumers want to be spoken to directly, to help them understand that certain products and services are meant for them. Since the same article may be perceived differently by two different groups you’ll want to know who will be reading it.

Doing this has a second advantage. Take that article about retirement planning, for example. Write it first for one target market, your older readers who will be retiring in the next few years. Then, you can quickly write another version of this article targeted at a younger crowd who are just starting to plan for their golden years. Much of the facts will stay the same; how you communicate those ideas will vary based on what they need to hear.

Coming Up With A Plan
Once you’ve identified your audience, map out a general plan for your articles. What do you want to write about? How many articles do you want to write? When do you want to submit them? By determining a plan, you will be able to more easily focus on the individual articles as you write them.

You will probably come up with new article ideas as you begin writing your articles. Jot these down as you go along and put them in your schedule wherever you think they fit best.

Whether you plan on writing ten articles or ten thousand, organization is the key to article marketing success. An organized article marketing plan will help your ideas remain clear and focused, and let you concentrate on giving good, clear information as you write. Mapping out future articles can also make the task seem less stressful, which means you will be in a better frame of mind to write.

Once you’ve established a plan, along with a tone of voice and type of language to use in your writing, just start writing! You will be surprised by how quickly the information will flow onto the page. Remember, you are the expert. You have an endless source of information when it comes to your business and the industry that surrounds it.

Frustrated by those first few articles? Like anything, the writing will get easier the more you do it. As you gain a rhythm, you’ll find yourself creating articles in a fraction of the time. You will also find motivation in results.

And with the increase in traffic from your first few articles, your incentive for creative compelling articles will continue to grow. Write with confidence and purpose and you will hit the mark every time.

Nancy Amada helps small businesses find success. Read more at Chapter Two.

Find more great tips for improving your writing at Article Marketer, a highly popular article distribution service.
Article Marketer…be heard.

Hear My Call! Speaking So Your Customers Will Hear

Figuring out how to communicate with consumers is one of the most difficult tasks of any business owner. This is of particular concern to those who use the written word to advertise through article marketing. Writing just any old article won’t do you any good. You must learn how to speak to the specific audience that will encounter your articles on the web. By using several simple communication techniques, your likelihood of reaching these potential customers will increase tenfold.

Most importantly, make sure to use language your audience will understand when writing articles. This is especially important in cyber space since you don’t have the advantage of leveraging your stunningly good looks or overwhelming charisma. Be sure to speak at the level of your customer. Determining that level can be difficult, especially early in your company’s development. That is why it is important to do a significant amount of market research.

Know your customers. Know their level of education, where they live, what they do with their free time, how much money they make, what they value, which cultural backgrounds they come from, and where they work. Once you have a profile of your customer base, you’ll be able to assemble a toolbox of appropriate information and language to reach them.

Understanding your customer will help you speak to them in a more effective manner. This will help your messages to be positively received in the context of their lives. Everyone functions with a particular set of personal paradigms; when you know the lenses through which your customers view the world, you know how to communicate with them.

In the same vein, you must be careful to avoid sounding condescending through your writing. It is, however, important to consider that something that comes off as condescending to one person may appear completely natural to another. This is why it is necessary for you to study your customer base and know who you are talking to. Once you establish an acceptable voice and vocabulary, you’ll hit the mark with your customers every single article.

Sometimes it can help to come up with a specific author persona for yourself. Decide who you want to be when creating these articles. Before you begin writing, create a list of qualities you think would most resonate with your target market. Maybe you want to appear scholarly and somewhat elite for a well-educated, economically prosperous audience. Conversely, you may want to create a more casual, hip tone for a younger audience. Either way, listing the characteristics of the author can help keep you on track during the writing process.

First and foremost, giving readers honest and well-researched information is perhaps most important. Presenting false or misleading information is one of the fastest ways to lose readers and customers. Always check your sources and make sure that they, themselves, are trustworthy. You don’t want the falsehoods of one author to lead to the demise of your own credibility.

Similarly, be up front and specific in your article marketing campaign. This means that the main issue of the article be mentioned in the first paragraph of each article. This point should then be backed up by subsequent evidence throughout the piece. Readers don’t want any surprises. They want interesting and informative information delivered in a coherent manner.

Finally, give readers something they can take away with them, whether that’s three great tips, a couple of resources they might not have thought of, or an invitation to download a free e-book.

By researching your customers and following the general rules of communication, you are sure to reach virtually every interested consumer that comes across one of your articles. Establish a voice in your writing from the get-go and you will be heard be many interested ears.

Nancy Amada helps small businesses find success. Read more at Chapter Two. Find more great tips for improving your writing at Article Marketer, a highly popular article distribution service.
Article Marketer…be heard.

You Know It, You Love It — Write About It!

One of the hardest things new marketers face is figuring out what to write about. You stare at the blank screen watching the cursor tick away while you start to doubt yourself. Maybe a bead of sweat rolls down your forehead. You start thinking, “Man, is it really worth this much pressure?”

It doesn’t have to be like that. You really can write, even if you don’t think you’re a writer. All you have to do is write about something you know and love. Maybe you’re a dog trainer: Write about the best method of house-training a puppy! Do you love to ski? Write about your beginning experiences with tips about how to stay in the game.

Personally, I love performing and music, so I often write about those experiences. When you write about something you know well and love to do, it automatically becomes interesting to others because you write it with ease and it just seems to flow.

I do have a really good tip for those of you who are still sitting there watching that cursor. Have you ever written a FAQ? It’s actually surprisingly easy. Small business owners (and even people who work for larger corporations) tend to answer the same 10 to 12 questions all the time. Different people ask them, and they don’t answer all 12 every day, but if you think about it, you probably have some pretty stock answers that you give over and over again.

What does that mean exactly? Well, for one thing, it means that people generally want to know the same things about what you’re doing. If people in real life want answers to these questions, you can bet that people are asking them out in cyberspace as well.

So here’s the idea: Write down as many of those questions as you can. I did mine in a numbered list format. Then it’s easy to just go back and simply answer them one-by-one. I almost felt like I was back in high school taking an essay test — only this time I KNEW all the answers!

Once you’ve written and answered your list of Frequently Asked Questions, write an introductory paragraph or two. Ideally, you’ll explain your business and let the reader know exactly what you’re doing. You could say, “I run a website selling surveying equipment. These are questions I get asked all the time in my line of work, and I thought it would be helpful to write an article answering them once and for all.”

You can go into as much or as little detail as you want in these intro paragraphs — remember, no one is actually grading this paper! You just need to give your reader something that shows you’re a person and an idea about what you’re trying to accomplish in your article.

Last, give it a read-through and spell-check and you’re done! Then you can submit said article via your favorite article submission service and you’ll be well on your way to fame and fortune. See how easy that was? Stop fretting and write your FAQ today. You never know how many hits your website might get as a result of that little bit of effort.

For more ideas on writing great articles, visit Article Marketer. Johnny Albertson is a musician, blogger and writer. You can visit his blog, Beatin’ the Blues for more insights and pearls of wisdom.

Article Writing: Keeping Your Article On Track

Whilst article writing is a recognised means of promoting a product or service, your article must remain on target or you are just wasting your time. This article gives a few pointers to make sure this staying on target happens!

As an article directory editor (amongst other things!) I find it interesting to watch the ‘ebb and flow’ of article content, usually dependent on what the likes of Clickbank have on their books as a ‘hot property’. Not too long ago it was acne, then online dating became the rage. I await developments on the next Big Thing! This ‘following the hot leads’ type of reaction isn’t a problem in itself but can lead to big problems indeed.

There are four main failings that I have observed when viewing the hundreds of submissions I have received. The first is trying to cover too wide a subject; the second is writing an article that has little or no relevance to the contents of the ‘resource box’, where the author can put their links for readers; the third is physical article length and the fourth is relevance to the resource box. Let’s look at these issues one at a time:

I regularly get articles that try to cover far, far too much ground than is possible in a 4,000 word magazine article, let alone a 700-word web article. Examples (fictitious) are things like ‘A History Of The USA’ or ‘Everything You Need To Know About AdSense’. Promising titles, if they delivered! However, the reality is that any article could only scratch the surface of such huge subjects. The effect is that the reader is left disappointed and exasperated - ‘another shallow bit of writing!’ is the usual response.

An article written for the web should be informative and hold the reader’s attention. To do this it should be relevant to the title, well written and contain at least some information not readily available to the reader, or some personal insights into the subject being written about. To suggest that you can give a complete history of the USA in 700 words is ludicrous - you couldn’t give a complete history of anything in that space!

The result is the thinnest type of writing possible, a ’skimming’ of a subject that should either be examined in more depth, possibly over a number of articles, or abandoned entirely in favour of something more easily encompassed.

Another trend is towards shorter and shorter articles, the object of which is painfully obvious: churning out as many ‘resource boxes’ with ‘articles’ attached as possible. Less wordage equals more speed equals more articles but content suffers to the point where it is of little or no interest to anyone, with articles re-hashing the same (thin) subject matter time after time. No-one wants to read them because they have little to say so their purpose is nullified - that of promoting the product or website the ‘resource box’ contains.

This seems to go hand-in-hand with a peculiar phenomenon - that of article content having no connection to the links in the ‘resource box’. If anything is a waste of time, this is surely it! Given that the whole point of writing the article is to pique the readers’ curiosity to the extent that they will investigate the matter further (vis the resource box), this approach fails utterly. There is faint hope of anyone reading an article about gardening clicking-through to links about AdSense passive income (and yes I have seen this!). I don’t know if this is being done by authors new to article writing or simply by people who couldn’t care less what they write about as long as it means another resource box in a directory somewhere.

The result of all this has led me to a decision. If any article submitted to my directories in the future contains any of the above faults it will simply be deleted. I’m upping my minimum wordage from 400 (always far too low anyway) to 600. This may sound harsh but I honestly feel it is the only way to put a stop to the downward spiral in terms of general quality of web articles in general.

And if I don’t get any articles submitted? That would be a blow but somehow I don’t think it will happen. What I do think will happen is that submitters will polish up their writing skills and come to realise that quality is preferable to quantity anytime. I truly believe that this is the only way forward for article writing if it is to remain a significant tool in the internet marketer’s armoury.

Steve Dempster would love to see your quality articles in his article directory.

Freelance Writing: The Most Practical and Profitable Markets

What you don’t want to be doing as a freelance writer is spending your time flogging your wares in all the wrong places. You don’t want to be fussing around putting your resume on monster.com or other types of job boards. There are very few places that post ads for freelancers on actual job boards. Actually I’ve found that post for jobs on these writing sites usually come to less than five a month.

Because we are looking at a self sustaining system for online writing income we need to get stuck straight into the proven profitable markets, which are:

1. Bidding on the auction sites
2. Selling yourself on the live advice lines and;
3. Self publishing

Consider these 3 areas to be the most recommended and reliable sources of income: by myself and other professional writers.

Auction Sites
As mentioned previously Guru.com and Elance.com are the main players here. They are both outsourcing forums that allow writers to post their profiles and bid on projects that are posted by buyers looking for projects that they want completed. These sites don’t specialise in just writing but all kinds of services that can be outsourced such as graphic design, website design and administrative services.

Both sites have different membership levels which will affect your bidding privileges.
Guru is the bigger of the two and has the cheaper membership rates but they also tend to pay less for jobs and their customer service isn’t as good as that at Elance.

DON’T bother with the free membership option at either site. You will only get access to the lowest paying jobs and will be competing with hundreds of others for work.

Charging For Phone Consulting
Keen.com is one of the largest and oldest live advice sites on the web with the money you make being directly deposited into your bank account every fortnight (or paid by cheque every month for citizens outside of the US).

They will allow you to post four free profiles per three allowed phone numbers which acts as a great business card for your online business. You can get work directly from individuals who call you on keen; they will just assign your over the phone.

Kasamba.com is a site of aggregated service providers that allows you to charge per minute for your own online chat. You can sell advice or consulting services in nay of several categories that relate to writing, of which there are a number.

Self Publishing
Constant-Content.com allows you to upload content for sale on their site. It must be content that you have rights to and you can set whatever price and conditions you want on the sale.

Lulu.com will let you upload ebooks for free and will even convert them into PDF format for you. Your customer has the option of having your book sent to them as hardcover or emailed to them in the PDF format.

Scott is a successful freelance writer who makes the bulk of his income by writing online. To learn how you can create a secondary income through pursuing freelance writing opportunities go to http://www.writingforincome.com

Freelance Online Writing: The 3 Absolute Must Do’s You Need To Succeed

The fact that the Internet is a medium that relies on fresh and relevant content to keep people coming back has seen the creation of a secondary market which is solely about the creation of new content. The explosive growth of the Internet and the attendant growth of Internet related commerce have created an unprecedented demand for written content. It is rare for webmasters to go about each day creating this content themselves; they simply don’t have the time. What you will find is that they source the content from elsewhere and are happy to pay for it.

Like the stock exchange which facilitates transaction between buyers and sellers of shares, similar types of exchanges are now coming into vogue for the online content market. Webmasters know that they can go to a central resource, create a job description, and then have freelance writers bid to do that work. It works like a dutch auction with the lowest bidder usually, though not always, winning the bid and securing the job.

The two major outsourcing online auction sites are:

elance.com and
guru.com

The buyers at these auction sites aren’t really after top quality writing (except in the case of copy for web sales pages). They want fast content and they want to procure it as cheaply as possible. This can sometimes make for a low priced and unpredictable market.

There are therefore a few rules that you need to observe to ensure that you can consistently profit from your writing:

1. Keep it simple
To be self sufficient as an online freelance writer you need to develop a system of getting buyers in your virtual door and out as fast as possible. This means belonging to one auction bidding site (either Elance or Guru) to keep life streamlined and simple. The great thing about doing this is all your accounts, job records, customers emails and work history are stored in a central location. This removes a lot of administrative overhead from your operation and allows you to concentrate on bidding and creating content.

2. Be consistent and relatively fast
You need to process books and articles as fast as you can and keep your practices to a single standard that your customers can recognise and come back for again and again.

3. Always raise your prices a little bit over time
NEVER give return customers discounts. You also need to be able to ask them for more money than they are willing to pay you if they ask for a second draft.
The writing market is slanted in favour of the buyer so you need to give yourself every edge at your disposal.

Scott is a successful freelance writer who makes the bulk of his income by writing online. To learn how you can create a secondary income through pursuing freelance writing opportunities go to http://www.writingforincome.com

Why Your Freelance Writing Talents Are Desperately Needed

You may or may not have heard this before - On the Internet: Content is King. Or to put it another way: the websites that deliver the most up-to-date and relevant content also tend to be the most popular. And if the website(s) in question have a commercial aspect to them, which is most of them; then popularity goes onto equate with increased income for the website owner.

The explosive growth of the Internet and the attendant growth of Internet related commerce has created an unprecedented demand for written content. Now the fact of the matter is that is very rare for webmasters to go about each day creating this content themselves. They simply don’t have the time. What you will find is that they source the content from elsewhere and are happy to pay for it.

You can see where this is going, can’t you? If Webmasters are happy to pay for outsourced content then there is an obvious opportunity for freelance writes to create that content and get paid for it.

It gets better: Not only is there a demand for freelance writing skills but some specific online markets have sprung up that allow freelance writers to present their wares as it were. Webmasters know to go to these markets to secure outsourced content so it really streamlines the process of selling your writing skills.

It gets better still: The constantly evolving nature of the Internet means that new avenues are continually springing up - all of which are in need of new content. If it’s not website owners that need sales copy, then it’ll be bloggers who need fresh content for their blog readers. And if it’s not blog owners that need content, then it’ll be article directories looking for more content so that webmasters keep coming back to them. And so on and so on. If there’s one thing the Internet is not: it is static. Opportunities abound wherever you look and content creation is one of the biggest of them.

Two of the biggest and most popular online auction sites are Elance.com and Guru.com. Webmasters know that they can go to these central resources, create a job description, and then have freelance writers bid to do that work. It works like a dutch auction with the lowest bidder usually, though not always, winning the bid and securing the job. Of course once you’ve done good work for someone once, they may opt to bypass the bidding process the next time around and work with you directly.

The beauty about selling your freelance writing skills these agencies is that not only do they provide an efficient marketplace for you to sell your skills but they also act as a governing body to ensure that your invoice is paid within 30 days or sooner. People that do pay you late on these sites tend to get kicked off. In that respect it is very similar to the eBay auction system except that you are dealing with writing services instead of “shipped goods”.

If you’re a writer looking to make an income by writing online then it behoves you to make yourself visible where the buyers of content all go to shop. Elance.com and Guru.com are the best places to start.

Scott is a successful freelance writer who makes the bulk of his income by writing online. To learn how you can create a secondary income through pursuing freelance writing opportunities go to http://www.writingforincome.com

Freelance Writing Online: Some Hard and Fast Facts

If there is one maxim that has continued to remain true about the Internet it is that “Content is King”. The fact that website owners need fresh and relevant content to keep browsers coming back to their website means that there is a secondary market for content creation.

This of course has created a wonderful opportunity for freelance writers who can spend their time creating content for others and be paid for it. But before you throw in your day jobs, register your profile with Elance or Guru and start banging away on your laptop, let’s look at some of the truisms of the market so that you can enter the opportunity with open eyes.

Firstly, let’s deal with the question of how much money you can make. Will you make a million dollars? No. Only very high profile offline authors make this sort of money. Is it possible to make $80- $100k per year. The answer is yes but like anything it will require some hard work and a dash of entrepreneurial spirit. In fact, to be truly successful you will need to spend nearly as much time marketing yourself as you will creating content. To command this type of income you will also most likely need to augment your writing efforts with some affiliate marketing. This isn’t difficult: you still create content but you will also make sure that you embed some of your own affiliate links in the content that you create.

It also depends on your agenda. If you’re looking to make a full time income then those figures are within your reach. If however, you’re a student for instance and therefore do not have as much time at your disposal, then a $20k per annum secondary income at the upper end would be the more likely scenario.

Do you have to be a good writer to succeed online? No. In fact being a good writer may actually be a hindrance: simply for the fact that your work may not be appreciated and command the price that you feel it’s worth. The nature of the market that you will be dealing with is one that is after fast and relatively cheap content. They’re not after high quality writing so don’t try and be Shakespeare. All you really need is a decent grasp of spelling and punctuation and be able to write in a conversational tone. Easy? You bet.

Do you need to have a subject specialty? Once again the answer is no and if you do specialise then you may be severely denting your income prospects. The secret here is to not put all your eggs in one basket. You want to have multiple sources of income: this means not only a multiplicity of subjects but also a multiplicity off avenues to get your writing out there. Bidding at auction sites such as Guru.com and Elance.com is certainly one way of getting the dollars in but it does not preclude creating monetised blogs or writing and submitting articles with embedded links.

It helps when writing online for a living to think outside the box. You can certainly make a steady income from just writing alone but by tweaking and monetising your approach with affiliate marketing you can put yourself in a position to really explode your income.

Scott is a successful freelance writer who makes the bulk of his income by writing online. To learn how you can create a secondary income through pursuing freelance writing opportunities go to http://www.writingforincome.com

To Write Or Not To Write

She was sitting inside a public transportation; then, all of the sudden, thoughts suddenly seem to swirl inside her head and she ached to be with a notepad and pen so she could write them all down. She finds a notepad and a pen, she is lucky and the thoughts became words. She does not find them, she gets upset as the thoughts she was nursing so tenderly like a baby dissipated like dust into the winds.

That is how writers go about in their daily lives. There are moments when they could think of nothing to write at all and times when they are bombarded with so many ideas that their hands could not keep up or the inks of their pens would run out, whatever comes first.

But there is always a question that bugs every writer, and that is, To write or not to write? When they are faced with the opportunity of writing about something that is not their forte, would they or would they rather not write about it?

Writers who desperately need to earn a living will have no other choice but to go on and write anything that will get in the bucks. But, comes the mental block, how will they go about writing about something that they are not even passionate about? How could a poet write about the technical aspects of a car? How could a literary writer do a news article on something as horrid as a vehicular accident?

Here are tips on how to be a flexible writer:

Research, research, research.
If a writer, especially one who is just starting out and still trying to learn the ropes of being flexible, gets assigned to write a topic that he or she knows nothing about, he or she will not go amiss with lots and lots of research. There are a lot of sites on the net that offers sample articles on just about any topic under the sun. Through research, the writer will be able to get an idea on where she or he has to do and what she or he still needs to look up to be able to come up with the facts needed in her or his article.

Read.
Aside from getting facts from the net for a story or an article, a writer will also do well by reading a lot of materials like newspapers, magazines, manuals or books that will help in constructing the pieces that she or he needs to come up with.

Use the radio and TV as your eyes and ears.
A writer’s ears and eyes are also very important in coming up with a piece that she or he does not know much about. If she or he is told to write about current events, then she could use radio and television as sources of information as to what is happening around. From news reports or documentaries, she or he could get a lot of information for the piece she or he is working on.

Be always ready.
So as not to miss out on any tidbit of information, a writer must have a pen and notepad with her or him wherever she or he goes. A writer never knows when an occasion or happening presents itself that she or he could produce into an article that is worth a reader’s while.

Nothing is a waste for a writer.
When an idea presents itself to a writer, whether it be for money or for no reason at all, she or he jots it down. Writers never waste something that could get her or him writing. An idea, no matter how bad or juvenile, is an idea that could be worked on when the tough gets going.

So to write or not to write? If one is a real writer, one writes no matter what. Because when we get down to it, a writer is not just born but also made. With a lot of hard work and perseverance, a writer becomes outstanding when she or he could take on any topic and write something about it that will not only be just readable but a success.

Chris Kennelly is a writer for our article directory and directory submission services at Free Articles and Ezines Find out more about our top articles on To Write or Not to Write Free Article Directory Blog

Becoming An Article Writer

Of all the many ways that you can be a freelance writer, article writing is a great way to go. In this job, you are going to be able to write articles for many different companies and they will pay you for your knowledge and for your work. If you want to work form home as an article writer, there are several things that you should know first.

First of all, this job might require you to write many different articles about the same topic. You might have to write lots of articles on one particular topic but each of the articles has to be something different. If you can handle this kind of work, keep reading. Also, you are going to be working mainly on a project by project basis.

If you are very good you might get several projects at once and if you are even better you might get projects that pay more and more. It is a job that you have to work very hard at for a long time before you can begin to make real money, so you should try your best to make sure that you are doing your best work at all times.

Also, it is going to be a hard market to break into as a first time writer. The best thing that you can do for yourself is to get a good portfolio with lots of different articles in it so that you have something to give to potential employers. You are going to find that you might need a lot of help getting started, so its a good idea to check with some people who do this as a job to see what advice they have to offer you.

Remember that this is something that you can do for a while or for a long time, depending on how good you are. The internet is something that is quite large and that handles a lot of different things at once. If you are able to do the kind of work that this work form home job entitles, you might find that you can be very successful in the end.

Of course, there are always going to be things that go wrong and there are always going to be times that you try your best but you just were not chosen for a job. When these things happen, try to keep your head up and remember that there are lots of different jobs out there for freelance article writers, you just have to keep working at them to get them done.

Obinna Heche. Los Angeles - California

Delivering the best home based business ideas and
opportunities so you can work at home successfully..
http://www.homeincomeportal.com/obhmy365

Knowledge Is Power — Get More of Both!

If your parents were like mine, constantly stressing the importance of education, then you know full well that “knowledge is power.” Isn’t it also true that a whole lot of power lies in the hands of the wealthy? And from watching certain reality TV shows about certain real housewives of a certain citrus-y county, you don’t always have to have (ahem) one to have the other. I don’t know about you, but I’d sure like to have a lot of both.

On the knowledge front, I’ve found several ways to learn your craft. Some helpful sites are:

PhantomWriters — They offer free access to all their articles about writing. If you want to learn about any aspect of writing marketing articles, news articles, or sports, you can find it here. Plus, you get the added bonus of as many different perspectives as you want to read: that way you can weed out the nuts if there are any, and pick up on the tips you start hearing over and over again.

Article Marketer University — There is a wealth of free information on the Article Marketer site. Click the AMU link, and you will have free access to live classes with industry experts. You can learn about how to make an effective website, article writing tips, affiliate practices and more. The best part about AMU in my opinion is that I can download them to my iPod and listen anywhere. Pretty cool.

Easy Article Marketing — For a fee of $40, these lovely ladies (and they’re all ladies!) will teach you how to find topics, make writing painless, and optimum length. They’ll also tell you the traps you might be falling into that prevent you from writing! If you’re willing to pay for their audio classes, these girls have got the goods.

Article Writing Tips — Yep, that’s the name of their site. They have lots of free tips on writing articles, plus a whole page full of articles written by experts on this topic. All this is offered free, and they also have a book called “Turn Words Into Traffic,” which you can buy through their site for $39.

The point is: It PAYS to educate yourself. You can also do a Google search for “writing articles” or “writing marketing materials” and come up with a wealth of information that I didn’t list here. When you become confident in your ability to write, you will find writing articles becomes much easier, and even fun!

One of the ways to build that confidence is by reading about other people’s experiences. Have you ever read something and thought, “Boy, I could have written that better myself”? Sure you have, and you can! And it’s okay to look for a little help before you dive right in.

Dana Davalos, graphic designer and online biz whiz, shares her thoughts on internet marketing, design and life in general at her blog, Groovy Graphix. Find great resources for writers at Article Marketer University.
http://www.articlemarketer.com

Writing for Wikipedia

The idea of information sharing is powerful and this power is growing with increasing collaborations between people of all ages and ethnicities all around the globe. And no one has heralded the spirit of sharing information like Wikipedia.

Writing for Wikipedia is a great way to give back to a community that gives you so much-the internet and the people who create educational, informative material that you can use free of charge. Whether you’ve used Wikipedia in the past or not at all, you should think about contributing to this amazing entity.

Writing for Wikipedia is actually quite easy; here are some easy steps to follow. Keep in mind that while you can edit a page anonymously, you will be more effective if you do so as a user.

1)Create a user account. You’ll fill out a profile and write a paragraph or two on who you are and what you do.

2)Visit Wikipedia’s Community Portal and scope out the help and resources section. You’ll find guidelines, policies, a style manual, tutorials, editing tools, and much more.

3)After you’ve thoroughly read the guidelines and have a feel for Wikipedia’s writing style, create your article or browse around until you find something you want to edit.

Note 1: always check to ensure the article isn’t already written. If it is, make it better. If it isn’t, write away.

Note 2: visit the “Talk Page” before you edit an article to see if there are any debates, discussions, or notes from other editors. This is especially important as there may be article issues you need to know about. After you’re done editing the article, be sure to leave a note on the talk page telling other editors why you made the changes you did.

Note 3: Often, especially if you’re a “newbie,” you’ll have to fight for the edit you make; be sure to have reputable sources that you can cite when you’re in a discussion with another editor.

Note 4: Three of Wikipedia’s main content-governing policies are:

–Include only verifiable information
In Wikipedia’s words: “information on Wikipedia must be reliable and verifiable. Facts, viewpoints, theories, and arguments may only be included in articles if they have already been published by reliable and reputable sources. Articles should cite these sources whenever possible. Any unsourced material may be challenged and removed.”

–Always strive for a neutral point of view (NPOV)
In Wikipedia’s words: “all Wikipedia articles must be written from a neutral point of view, representing views fairly and without bias. This includes maps, reader-facing templates, categories, and portals.”

–No original research
In Wikipedia’s words, “articles may not contain any previously unpublished arguments, concepts, data, ideas, statements, or theories. Moreover, articles may not contain any new analysis or synthesis of published arguments, concepts, data, ideas, or statements that serves to advance a position.”

A.M. Brown authors an effective writing blog and writes everything from press releases and technical documents to website content for AM Professional Writing Services.

Writing Quotes for Website Content, SEO Articles, Ezine Articles, Advertorials, and Press Releases

A professional writing quote should be clear, concise, and informative. The goal is to tell the client exactly what you’re going to do for them and how you’re going to do it. The more detailed and professional the quote, the better chance you have of nailing the job.

Tip: for maximum effectiveness, make good use of bulleted lists, sub-headers, and a professional logo or header. Here is an example format you might use:

HEADER/LOGO

Introduction

Included Services:
–Service 1
–Service 2
–Service 3

Price and Terms:
–Price
–Terms

Below you will find specific guidelines a writer should follow when creating a quote for a client. These are guidelines that are unique to each project; others are sometimes interchangeable.

Website Content/Copy:

When preparing a writing quote for a website, bulleted lists are essential. In the quote, include a bulleted list of every page you’re going to work on:

–List the names of the pages (home, about, contact, widget makers, how to make a widget, resources for widgets-you get the idea);
–The exact number of pages;
–If you’ll make the content SEO friendly;
–How many rounds of edits are included;
–Deadlines;
–Any other services you’ll provide.

SEO Articles:

In quotes for SEO articles, it’s essential to determine:

–Approximate word count;
–The number of articles;
–The keywords they’re using;
–If you’ll be doing the research;
–Who’ll provide the topics;
–What topics the client wants;
–Whether you relinquish all republishing rights;
–Deadlines;
–If you’ll be in charge of the article submissions.

When you’ve determined this information, include it in the quote with all the details. Let your client know if you charge additional fees for article submission and if you have different rates for specific word counts.

Ezine/ Magazine/Website Articles:

These articles, while they include many of the same elements of SEO articles, tend to be longer, more involved, and higher quality than SEO articles. When you’re creating a quote an ezine or website article, determine:

–Approximate word count;
–Topic (s);
–Whether you’ll retain republishing rights;
–Whether it will be ghostwritten or you’ll be credited;
–What deadlines you’ll have to meet.

Keep in mind that you’ll rarely be commissioned to write a magazine article unless you’re a known author or an expert in another field. Usually you’ll write a query letter, but that’s a whole other article.

Advertorials:

Advertorials are essentially informative marketing articles about a specific company or product. They require that you really explore a company and understand what exactly they do. Writing a quote for an advertorial involves the same requirements as a regular article (see directly above), but there are some additional elements to determine:

–Whether you’ll research the company on your own or if the information will be provided for you in the form of PDF’s, Word documents, or any other medium;
–How the company wants to portray themselves and what angle they’d like you to pursue.

Press Releases:

When providing a quote for a press release, you need to determine:

–If it will require technical writing;
–If it will require research or if the materials are provided by the company;
–If it is a press release from scratch or a rewrite;
–If the company has particular formatting requirements;
–Whether it will be released online, in print, or both;
–If they want you to submit the press release.

A.M. Brown authors an effective writing blog and writes everything from press releases and technical documents to website content for AM Professional Writing Services.

How to Create a Writing Quote

An effective writing quote is essential when you’re replying to an inquiry from a potential client. There’s no set formula for creating a quote because each project is different. There are, however, certain elements you can include in your quote to increase its effectiveness.

Here are some tips that will make it easier for you to create a professional, effective writing quote.

One, include a header with your company name/logo and information. This is important as it shows you care about the image you present and that you are professional and know what you’re doing.

Two, use sub-headers, such as “Included Services” and “Price & Terms.” They are essential to creating a well-organized quote that is easy to follow and direct.

Three, outline everything you’ll do for your client. For example, if you’re only being hired to write several link pages on a website and you know that, by virtue of being a perfectionist, you’ll end up spending extra time proofreading their homepage, let them know. They’ll feel good knowing this extra service is provided, and you’ll get the proper acknowledgement.

Four, ask the right questions before you send a quote. Call or email the potential client to determine exactly what they want, their preferred time frame, and the scope of the project.

This information allows you to create a clearer, more effective quote by ensuring you know what the client wants. Additionally, it helps you determine what you can accomplish, the deadlines you’ll have to meet, and the amount of work you’ll be doing so you can reasonably price the quote.

Five, be succinct and straightforward. Avoid long paragraphs and overly complicated language. They don’t make you look more professional for these reasons:

–Your client wants to know how much you’ll charge for your services and which ones you’ll include in your quote-no more and no less.

–Your clients are busy people, and wasting their time with long-winded letters expounding on everything you’ll do for them isn’t necessary.

–Bulleted lists are your friends, so make good use of them. Easy to scan and nice to read, they are ideal when preparing quotes.

Six, state your terms and conditions clearly. For example, if you charge half up front and half upon completion of a project, include that information with the price.

Seven, always send a quote, even if you make a verbal agreement. Put everything in writing for purposes of clarity and to avoid any misunderstandings-this ensures you and your client will know EXACTLY what services and terms are included in the quote.

Eight, clarify how many rounds of edits, if any, you’ll provide. This refers to client changes or edits to the work after it’s been completed. This is usually essential as most people will like certain elements and dislike others, so don’t be offended.

If you disagree, talk it over with the client and tell them what you think. You can explain why you wrote or edited certain paragraphs the way you did, and many times they’ll understand.

A.M. Brown authors an effective writing blog and writes everything from press releases and technical documents to website content for AM Professional Writing Services.

How Can I Write Like An Expert When I Don’t Think That I Am?

Is there a subject or hobby that you enjoy or know a lot about? If so, you can become an expert. Is there a subject that you would like to know more about? If so, you can become an expert.

First, make a list of ten or more subjects that you know a lot about or are interested in. Can’t think of that many? Ask your relatives or friends to help. They may have more ideas about the things you are knowledgeable about than you do. Do they ask you questions and you give them advice? If so, you have knowledge about that subject.

Once you have your subject selected, do a little research to see if there is any interest in the subject. It is of little use to write an ebook on a subject when there is no demand or interest. Do a search on eBay, Google or any of the other search engines, or check Overture to see how many people are actually looking for information on the subject you selected. If there is an interest, proceed with your ebook. If not, pick another subject from your list.

Once you have concluded that there is an interest in your topic, that you are sincerely interested in the topic, and that you can provide honest and informative information that people want, you are almost ready to begin writing your ebook.

If you think you still do not have enough knowledge or want to learn more, you can do some research from books or by going online and using one of the search engines. Information is all around us. We just have to seek it out. You don’t have to know every detail of a subject but should be knowledgeable enough to write a very informative ebook. As long as you are providing information that your readers want and need, you can become an expert.

Now, before you actually start writing your ebook, you need to determine who will be most interested in your topic. Is your targeted group going to be male or female? What approximate age group are they in? Is your topic geared toward a particular ethnic group?

Once you have determined who you are writing to and that they do indeed have an interest, you are then ready to start writing. Remember to keep it informative. Tell them something that they don’t already know. Make it interesting. You don’t want to lose their attention at this point, you want them to keep reading.

Don’t stop just because you wrote one ebook. Continue with your research and write another ebook on the same subject. Since this information is going to be unique from the first ebook, you have now a second expert volume on your subject that you can earn additional money from.

If you don’t like to write or feel that you just can’t, you can always hire someone to write the ebook for you. There are several place online where you can hire a write. You could try elance.com, guru.com or rentacoder.com. There are more, just do a search on one of the search engines. You provide them with an outline and they will write the ebook for you. You then add your name as author.

Perhaps you have a friend or relative who is an expert on a subject. You can team up with them and do a “joint venture.” They provide the information and write the ebook, or you can jointly write the ebook. You can then market the ebook and split the profits.

The hardest part of all of this is getting motivated to start writing. Once you start, you will be challenged to get it finished and start earning money from your ebook.

Don’t give up. You can do this!

Loretta Miller has a site where the goal is to help people increase the traffic to their website. http://increasesalesinfo.com/

How To Write An Article To Promote Your Site

Most webmasters, whether they are experienced or not, know the importance of promoting your website with articles. Unfortunately, many beginners do not realize the importance of a well-written article. Of course you can throw some words together and name your slop something but most article directories will reject it and who would read it anyway? As a professional ghostwriter, Webmaster and owner of three article directories, I see the type of articles that people submit and I will tell you, it is discouraging.

Before you even start your article, keep in mind that optimization wins the search engine rankings whether in an article or in your actual website. Quality key word optimized articles are very important. With this in mind, follow these steps to write your first quality key word optimized article to promote your website.

Come up with one main keyword or keyword phrase and one secondary. You will integrate these keywords into your article for optimization. These keywords do not have to be exactly the same every time. Your keyword could be ,white Nike shoes, if you use the phrase ,my white shoes are Nikes, or something similar it will be just as advantageous. For a 400-word article, I recommend using your main keyword or variation of it about 6 times. If possible try to put your main keyword into your title.

Write a description. This can be anywhere from one sentence to one large paragraph. The description will be the first thing people read so try to make it catchy. Many webmasters just write the full article and use the first paragraph as their description. Most directories will deny an article that has the same description as the first paragraph of the article. If you decide not to write a description and you just use the first paragraph, be sure not to include the first paragraph in the actual article body. That brings up to the next step.

Writing the body. There are a few things you absolutely must know you are to be successful promoting your website with articles. One of the main reasons I reject articles in my directories is for no spaces between paragraphs. If cannot stress this enough. You must have a space between each paragraph. Next, you never indent your paragraphs. We are not writing letters in school. When writing an article to promote your site, do not indent anything. Next, grammar, you do not have to have a degree in English to write an article that looks good. Most people misspell words on occasion. If you can write an article that portrays a knowledgeable person then you are on your way to success.

Writing the resource box, A.K.A. authors area. Writing a quality, key word optimized article that people will love to read will not do you any good without a link to your site. The resource box gives you the opportunity to tell your readers about you and your website. You can just put a standard link to your site in this area but search engines put your link text into consideration so it is always better to use html if the directory accepts it and use the main keyword for your site as the link text. The last thing you need to know about the resource box is that overdoing it could cause negative results. When a publisher browses through articles to post on his or her website, blog, newsletter or e-zine among many other things they are looking at the number of outgoing links in the resources box. Keep the number of outgoing links in your resource box to a minimum of two or less for best results.

The quicker you understand the information in this article and put it to use, the quicker your website will achieve top search engine ratings. Be creative, be informational and you will enjoy a lifetime of success.

Joshua Spaulding is an Author providing Free Training on how to Make Money Online Joshua also moderates an Articles Directory with Free Website Content.

How To Get People To Read Your Article

To some people, reading articles seems like work to, especially if the article is boring and very bland. Well, articles are supposed to be read, thats their purpose to impart your message and information. If it is not read then it is a waste of time and effort.

But all the same, articles have to be written to be read. Its just a matter of making them good. Making a good article does not have to be strenuous and straining. There are just some points needed to be reminded of, and some guides to follow. Once you get the hang of it, writing articles could be fun as well as profitable for you and your site.

Of course, writing articles must be about something you know about, this is why if you own a site, you are probably knowledgeable about that certain topic and theme. When you write about it, you wont have a hard time because you already know what it is and what its about. Its just a matter of making your articles creative and interesting.

To make sure that your articles get read and enjoyed, here are six red hot tips to get your articles read. These tips will make your articles readable and interesting.

1)Use short paragraphs. When the paragraph are very long, the words get jumbled in the mind of the reader just looking at it It can get quite confusing and too much of a hard work to read. The reader will just quickly disregard the paragraph and move on to much easier reading articles that are good to look at as well as read. Paragraphs can be a single sentence, sometimes even a single word!

2)Make use of numbers or bullets. As each point is stressed out, numbers and bullets can quickly make the point easy to remember and digest. As each point, tip, guide or method is started with a bullet or point, readers will know that this is where the tips start and getting stressed. Format you bullets and numbers with indentations so that your article wont look like a single block of square paragraphs. Add a little bit of flair and pizzazz to your articles shape.

3)Use Sub headings to sub divide your paragraphs in the page. Doing this will break each point into sections but still would be incorporated into one whole article. It would also be easy for the reader to move on from one point to another, the transition would be smooth and easy. You will never lose your readers attention as well as the point and direction to where the article is pointing.

4)Provide a good attention-grabbing title or header. If your title can entice a persons curiosity youre already halfway there to getting a person to read your article. Use statements and questions that utilize keywords that people are looking for. Provide titles or headers that describe your articles content but should also be short and concise.

Use titles like, Tips on making her want you more, or How to make her swoon and blush .You could also use titles that can command people, for example, Make her yours in six easy Ways. These types of titles reach out to a persons emotions and makes them interested.

5)Keep them interested from the start to the finish. From your opening paragraph, use real life situations that can be adopted by the reader. Use good descriptions and metaphors to drive in your point, just dont over do it. Driving your examples with graphic metaphors and similes would make it easy for them to imagine what you are talking about. Making the experience pleasurable and enjoyable for them.

6)Utilize figures when necessary and not just ordinary and insipid statements. Using specific facts and figures can heighten your article because it makes it authoritative. Do not make it too formal, it should be light and easy so it flows. Like a friendly teacher having a little chat with an eager student.

Joshua Spaulding is an Author providing Free Training on how to Make Money Online Joshua also provides Free Website Content through his Quality Article Directory.

Getting Your Article Writing Juices Flowing

The main ingredient in baking up an article is a large dose of creativity. While creativity may come natural to many people, some just get into a block or something to that effect that can drive someone crazy. Many writers have literally torn their hair out when they get writers block and just can not seem to get their creative juices flowing.

Putting words into images in the readers mind is an art. A clear and crisp depiction requires a certain flair that only creativity can provide. Similes and metaphors help a lot, but the way an article gets entwined word for word, sentence by sentence then
paragraph by paragraph into a whole article develops the essence of the article.

So just what do you have to do when nothing comes to mind? There is no surefire ways to get the perfect ideas but there are easy ways to get your creative juices flowing. No one can guarantee you of having the perfect mindset but many methods may aid you in achieving that state of mind. Here are five easy ways for that.

1, Keep a diary or a journal with you always. Ideas can be triggered by anything you may hear, see, or smell. Your senses are your radar in finding great ideas. Write all of them into a journal and keep it with you for future reference. You may also write down anything that you have read or heard, someones ideas could be used to develope your own ideas and this is not stealing. Remember that ideas and creativity can come from anywhere; it is the development of the idea that makes it unique.

2, Relax and take time to sort things out. A jumbled mind cannot create any space for new ideas. Everyone must have a clear mind if one wishes to have their creativity in full speed. Get rid of all obstacles that can be a hindrance to your creativity. If you are bothered by something, you cannot force your mind to stay focused.

Try to relax every time that you can and think about your experiences and interactions with others. Your experiences are what shape your mindset and your opinions which could be reflected on your writings. Try to discover yourself, find out what triggers your emotions. Discover what inspires you and what ticks you off. You can use these emotions to help you in expressing yourself and your ideas, with this you can grow creatively.

3, Create a working place that can inspire your creativeness. Your working place can be quite a hindrance if it does not make you feel happy or relaxed. Creativity comes from being in a good state of mind and a messed up workplace that causes distraction will not be conducive in firing up your creative flow.

Surround your working place with objects that make you happy and relaxed. You may put up pictures, scents or objects that inspire you or anything that can get your creativeness cranking. A clean and well organized workplace also rids of distractions and unwanted hindrances. With a good working place you can work in peace and never notice the time pass by.

4, Set the mood. Setting the mood requires you to just go with the moment or to induce yourself to feeling what makes your mind work best. Finding out what makes you tick could help you find ways to get your creative juices flowing. Set the pace and tempo for your mood and everything else will follow.

There are many ways to set the mood. Some writers have been known to use alcohol, a little sip of wine to stir up the imagination. Some would like some mood music while others let the lighting of the environment create the mood.

5, Go on a getaway and just do something unlike crazy. Letting yourself go and have fun produces adrenaline that can make your imagination go wild. Take an adventure or a hike. Whatever it is that is unusual from your daily routine can take the rut out of your schedule. In no time at all, your creativeness will make use of that experience and get your imagination to go into overdrive.

Joshua Spaulding is an Author providing Free Training on how to Make Money Online Joshua also provides Free Website Content through his Quality Article Directory.

Writing The Perfect Article

Now at a time when writing articles could help your job or work, facing the job at hand can still prove to be a headache.

While there are a great number of people who do not have the same attitude in article writing as others, there are still those who would rather walk in piping hot coals than do some article writing. What sets people apart from others when it comes to article writing is when they are prepared and they have a set procedure in writing them.

One of the methods you can use to prepare yourself when tasked to write an article is creating an outline first. Creating an outline for all of your articles makes you prepared. You have an idea of what to do first and a plan for your succeeding steps. Being prepared makes the job easier and faster. Being organized will allow for disorientation to be shunned away.

An outline can act as the design or blueprint for your article. This will guide you in creating the introduction, body and conclusion of your article. Here in this point, you can write down some of the ideas and sentences that you feel will look good in your article. This could be the focal point that could help make your article creative, interesting and appealing to a reader.

A carefully planned and fully prepared project can guarantee and ensure a problem and worry free procedure that can virtually go without any hassle. Creating an outline for all your articles will get you ready and breeze through writing an article in no time at all. Here I will provide you with some tips and guidelines on how to create an outline for all of your articles.

Do a little brainstorming and jot down your brilliant ideas first. Think of some ways to attract the interest of your reader. Designate a time frame where you can write down all the ideas that you can use for your articles. By this time you should have done all of your research and information searching. Review and reread your ideas and notes, gain mastery and sufficient familiarity with your topic so that writing them down later on will be easy for you.

The next step is to discover your sub topic and sub titles. As you would provide a first sentence for your article, one that would immediately grab the attention of your reader, you would need some as well for your sub topics. To be concise, you will need to get all the facts that will support and go with your point.

These are the frames or skeleton of your article, now its time to add the flesh and the meat of your article. You will need to connect all your paragraphs and sub topics. This will form the body of your Article. While the introduction will usher in the ideas of your paragraph, you will need a conclusion. The conclusion will wrap up your points and drive in what you are saying in your article.

The outline of your article would also require you to write a draft first. This may take more than one attempt but remember that it is called a draft for a reason. Your outline shall be perfected as each draft is written and this draft is meant for your eyes only, so there is no reason to feel ashamed. As you go on, you will clearly see the bigger picture and write an article that will perfectly suit what is demanded of it.

Reread and reread what you have written down. Always refer to your outline so that you will not drift away from what you had first written down. It is not hard to be caught in the moment and get lost in your writing frenzy. Your outline will help you keep on track. All those hours spent in outlining your article will not go to waste. This will serve as your guide in writing articles. Trust and rely on your outline because this will prove to be a very helpful tool in writing all of your articles.

Joshua Spaulding is an Author providing Free Training on how to Make Money Online Joshua also provides Free Website Content through his Quality Article Directory.

5 Easy Money Making Article Writing Creative Boosters

Writing an article doesn’t just mean putting down thoughts into words then typing and writing it. You have to capture the interest of your readers and get them to keep on reading. To send your message across you have to get the attention of the reader and have a firm grasp of their interest and pique their curiosity.

The main ingredient in making up an article is a large dose of creativity. While creativity may come natural to many people, some just gets into a block or something to that effect that can drive someone crazy. Many writers have literally torn their hair out when they get writers block and just can’t seem to get their creative juices flowing.

Putting words into images in the readers mind is an art. A clear and crisp depiction requires a certain flair that only creativity can provide. Similes and metaphors help a lot, but the way an article gets entwined word for word, sentence by sentence then paragraph by paragraph into a whole article develops the essence of the article.

So just what do you have to do when nothing comes to mind when you are trying to get an article written? There is no surefire ways to get the perfect ideas but there are easy ways to get your creative juices flowing. No one can guarantee you of having the perfect mindset but many methods may aid you in achieving that state of mind. Here are five easy ways for that.

1) Keep a diary or a journal with you always. Ideas can be triggered by anything you may hear, see, or smell. Your senses are your radar in finding great ideas. Write all of them into a journal and keep it with you for future reference when it’s time for you to write your article. You may also write down anything that you have read or heard, someone’s ideas could be used to develop your own ideas and this is not stealing. Remember that ideas and creativity can come from anywhere; it’s the development of the idea that makes it unique.

2) Relax and take time to sort things out. A jumbled mind cannot create any space for new ideas. Everyone must have a clear mind if one wishes to have their creativity in full speed. Get rid of all obstacles that can be a hindrance to your creativity when trying to write articles. If you are bothered by something, you cannot force your mind to stay focused.

Try to relax every time that you can and think about your experiences and interactions with others. Your experiences are what shape your mindset and your opinions which could be reflected on your writings. Try to discover yourself, find out what triggers your emotions. Discover what inspires you and what ticks you off. You can use these emotions to help you in expressing yourself and your ideas, with this you can grow creatively.

3) Create a working place that can inspire your creativeness. Your working place can be quite a hindrance if it doesn’t make you feel happy or relaxed when writing an article. Creativity comes from being in a good state of mind and a messed up workplace that causes distraction won’t be conducive in firing up your creative flow.

Surround your working place with objects that makes you happy and relaxed. You may put up pictures, or scents, objects that inspire, or anything that can get your creativeness cranking. A clean and well organized workplace also rids of distractions and unwanted hindrances. With a good working place, you can work in peace and never notice the time pass by.

4) Set the mood. Setting that article writing mood requires you to just go with the moment or to induce your self to feeling what makes your mind works best. Finding out what makes you tick could help you find ways to get your creative juices flowing. Set the pace and tempo for your mood and everything else will follow.

There are many ways to set the mood. Some writers have been known to use alcohol, a little sip of wine to stir up the imagination. Some would like some mood music while others let the lighting of the environment create the mood.

5) Go on a getaway and just do something unlike crazy. Letting yourself go and have fun produces adrenaline that can make your imagination go wild. Take an adventure or a solemn hike. Whatever it is that is unusual from your daily routine can take the rut out of your schedule. In no time at all, your creativeness will make use of that experience and get your imagination to go on overdrive when starting to write an article.

Listen…

It will be of no use to you if you follow these methods to write a great article when there is no one to read it. Your main aim in writing is to get people to read it and build your credibility as an expert. So in order to get your article out there in circulating around in the Internet, you will have to do something about it. You need to put it in front of everyone’s face and to do that you will need to submit it to many article directories.

However, it is too time consuming (even for me) to submit to dozens or even hundreds of article directories. I am too lazy to do that so I have a tool to do that and it saves me hours and even days of effort.

Therefore, you would want to quickly & easily drive insane targeted cash-in-hand prospects and visitors to your web site using the magic of article submission!

Get your article submitter tool here now. Discover how Brian Lam is going to show you how you can boost your opt-in list by up to 1133% immediately with his proven techniques. Now at Email Marketing Solutions.

The Five C’s of Quality Writing

There are two components of any copy, whether it’s an article, a Web site, or a book: content and appearance.

Content means the words that actually appear on the page - your message. It can be serious, humorous, elegant, bold, technical, or conversational in tone. But the message is the words themselves. What you’re saying and how you’re saying it. Content includes grammar, spelling, jargon, acronyms, and the like.
Appearance relates to the way the words (content) look on the page.

These are things that affect the way the words look on the printed page (or monitor, for Web copy) - all of which goes in to making your copy easy to read.
Are your paragraphs all piled up, one on top of the other, with no graphics, subheadings, or other means of breaking them up? Are they manageable in size and easy to digest? A paragraph is supposed to contain one chunk of related information. Sometimes they can get fairly lengthy and still be in correct literary form . . . but keep your reader in mind. If there’s a way to break up one big, gigantic, one-and-a-half-page paragraph, DO IT!

THE 5 C’S OF CONTENT
Make you content CLEAR. Avoid the overuse of jargon and acronyms in your copy. Unless you are writing for a specialty Web site where only people intimately familiar with your industry and/or business will visit it, make sure your language is understandable to the broadest possible audience. Get someone objective (i.e., not in your industry) to read it for you. If they don’t get it, chances are some of your other readers won’t get it either.

Make it CONCISE - even for books and long-copy sales letters. Most people have a tendency to overwrite. Be precise with your language. Avoid run-on sentences. Avoid long, meandering phrases when one or two words will do.

Rule of thumb: Polish your written piece until it gleams. Get it to where you think it’s perfect. Then go back and cut it by 25 percent.

“Not possible!” you say.

Oh, but it is. Get rid of phrases like “of the” and all the extra instances of “that”. Delete redundancies like “simple, effortless, and easy-to-use.” Sometimes more is better. Other times, more is just more - and might actually work against ease of reading and understanding - which means it works against you.

Make your content COMPELLING. Use motivating language. In sales copy, for example, detail your features and benefits. Give people a reason to want to buy from you or use your service. An isolated product list probably is not going to compel anyone all by itself. However, whatever you do, do not ever lie or misrepresent yourself! This will only come back to harm you in the long (or not-so-long) run.

If you claim to have contacts who are producers at Warner Bros., you’d better be sure the person you know at Warner Bros. is not the sister of the assistant to the catering manager. Or if you offer 2-day delivery at no extra charge, you’d better be ready to fulfill that promise, even if you receive 1,000 orders in a day!

Also, tell stories. Don’t forget you’re the expert. If you’re writing a book about job hunting for baby boomers, and you’ve helped a lot of baby boomers get jobs, use those stories in your writing to illustrate your points. Stories are compelling because they help your readers relate to your material. They can be entertaining, offer lessons, or dramatize particular elements - but use stories in all of your writing to create and maintain interest.

Make sure your content is CONSISTENT. This is another place where you can tell a sloppy writer from one who takes time to double- and triple-check their work before they submit and/or publish it.

There is not necessarily a correct answer to these ones. Simply determine what your personal and/or company standard is, and stick with it. One of the worst offenses of inconsistency appears when there are several different spellings or phone number styles within a single document. Mistakes like these make your work - and by extension, you and your company - appear sloppy.

Is it on line, online, or on-line?

Is your style ABC Deli or A.B.C. Deli?

formatting phone numbers: Do you use 602.253.8463 or 602/253.8463 or (602) 253-8463?

Make your content CORRECT. Proper grammar and spelling are essential!!! There’s no way to state this strongly enough, particularly with respect to Web copy. There is so much competition for business on the Web - if you have sloppy copy that is badly spelled and riddled with grammatical mistakes, the next site is just one click away - and you won’t get a second chance to bring those lost visitors back.

Although everyone makes a mistake now and again, please do not underestimate the importance of correct grammar. If you don’t know whether it’s correct or not, ASK someone who knows, LOOK IT UP in a book or online resource, or PAY a professional editor/proofreader.

The most glaring grammatical errors:

Stupid spelling mistakes. Write your copy in Word and SPELLCHECK before you dump it into html (or Publisher, PowerPoint, or whatever other format you might use for delivery).

Missing and incorrectly used apostrophes. Again, there’s no excuse for this mistake - and it is one that will set you apart from the others in your industry. Apostrophes are NEVER used to create plurals - but you see this all the time. A ridiculous sign of sloppy writing and a complete lack of editing.

EXTREME EXAMPLE OF COMMON ERRORS:
In this writers opinion, dumb grammer mistake’s cost people more business than they reelize.

TIP: If you use ALL CAPS, change your text to lower case or initial caps to run SpellCheck. SpellCheck will not catch errors in text in ALL CAPS unless you set it to do so.

TIP: Use ALL CAPS sparingly. Text written in ALL CAPS is exceptionally difficult to read. The fact is that the shape of a word, as much as its spelling, facilitates quick reading. Words written exclusively in capital letters lose the shape differentiation caused by the ascenders (b, d, f, h, k, l, t) and descenders (g, j, p, q, y). As a result, words written in ALL CAPS take a great deal more effort to read.

Remember, it is virtually impossible to edit your own work. You’re too close to the material and have seen it too many times to even notice errors any longer. If you find yourself in a position where you must edit your own writing, take a significant break from it - two hours, at minimum, but two days is suggested. This will allow you to return to your work with “new eyes,” able to spot errors you would likely have missed had you not taken the break.

Scott White designed a top SEO Program to Gain More web site Traffic Learn how to rank your website at the top with: SEO DVD, SEO BOOK, And SEO CDs on SEO Tutorial Program. His company provides awesome Freelance Editing.

Get Your Creative Juices Going - 5 Easy Ways

Writing an article doesn’t just mean putting down thoughts into words then typing and writing it. A successful article will be interesting, well organized and well written. To make sure your message gets across, you have to get the attention of the reader, pique their curiosity, and keep a firm grasp on their interest.

The main element in crafting an original article is always creativity. While this may come naturally and effortlessly to some people, who have a massive fund of ideas, when faced with a blank sheet of paper or screeen, a great many feel their mind going instantly blank too! This seeming inability to get ideas down can drive someone crazy. Many writers have literally torn their hair out when they get writers block and just can’t seem to get their creative juices flowing.

Putting words into images in the reader’s mind is an art. A clear and crisp depiction requires a certain flair that only creativity can provide. The use of similes and metaphors can help a lot, but the way an article gets built up word by word, sentence by sentence then paragraph by paragraph into a whole article can influence its flow and meaning.

So just what can you do when nothing comes to mind? There is no surefire way to get that perfect idea, but there are easy ways to get your creative juices flowing. No one can guarantee having the perfect mindset to fill that piece of paper as even professional writers know only too well, but there are lots of things you can do to help you get into that fertile state of mind. Here are just five suggestions to get you going:

1) Keep a diary or a journal with you always - some writers even keep a notebook, pencil and small torch or light by the side of the bed in case they have an idea in the middle of the night! Ideas can be triggered by anything you may hear, see, or smell. In fact, all your senses can suddenly bring you a great idea - so you need to be able to capture them immediately before you forget!

Write all of them into a journal and keep it with you for future reference. You may also write down anything that you have read or heard, someone’s ideas could be used to develop your own ideas and this is not cheating or stealing. Remember that ideas and creativity can come from anywhere; it’s your development and improvement of the ideas you write down that makes it unique.

2) Relax and take time to sort things out. A jumbled mind cannot create any space for new ideas - it’s just too crowded trying to remember everything that needs to be done. Everyone must have a clear mind if one wishes to have their creativity in full speed. Get rid of all obstacles that can be a hindrance to your creativity. If you are bothered by something, you cannot force your mind to stay focused. If you’ve not got time to do every chore in your head, write them down and promise yourself that you’ll give them your full attention later. If you feel this means that you’re not coping, bear in mind that Einstein didn’t even bother to remember his phone number - he wanted all his thinking capacity freed up to focus on his theories!

Try to relax and just spend time thinking about your experiences and interactions with others. Your life experience is unique, and that is what shapes your mindset and your opinions - all of which could be reflected on your writings. Try to get to know yourself, find out what triggers your emotions. Discover what inspires you and what annoys you. You can use these emotions to help you in expressing yourself and your ideas, and to create the right environment in which you can grow creatively.

3) Create a working place that can inspire your creativeness. Your working place can be quite a hindrance if it doesn’t make you feel happy or relaxed - you’ll be sat there for hours at a time, and if you spend all your time there annoyed and distracted by tasks you can see that need doing, you won’t be able to write anything except about the things that are filling your mind. Creativity comes from being in a good state of mind and an untidy and cluttered workplace that causes distraction won’t be conducive in firing up your creative flow.

Surround your working place with objects that makes you happy and relaxed - the principle is that everything you see around you should be beautiful or useful, or both! You may put up pictures, or spray scents, display objects that inspire, or anything that can get your creativeness cranking. A clean and well organized workplace also rids of distractions and unwanted hindrances. With a good working place, you can work in peace and never notice the time pass by.

4) Set your mood into creative mode. Setting the mood requires you to just go with the moment or to induce your self to feeling what makes your mind works best. Finding out what makes you tick could help you find ways to get your creative juices flowing. Set the pace and tempo for your mood and everything else will follow.

There are many ways to set the mood. Some writers have been known to use music, lighting or even the odd sip of wine to stir up the imagination - others are known to have tried all sorts of reality changing drugs but I won’t recommend them here! Just remember that unhappiness can be creative as well as happiness - it depends on the effect you seek - so do not be discouraged if you feel down as your muse may be there as well. Others find their creativity outside in the natural world or inspired in galleries and museums by the creativity of others. You need to know whether evidence of other peoples creativity inspires or depresses you though.

5) Go on a getaway and just do something totally different or crazy - leave your comfort zone! Letting yourself go and having fun produces adrenaline that can make your imagination go wild. Go on an adventure holiday or a long hike in the woods or mountains (obviously, be safe!) - just make it different from your usual daily routine can get your schadule and your mind out of a rut. In no time at all, your imagination will make use of that experience and boost your flagging creativity.

Nick Summers runs Content Country Article Directory, a directory dedicated to offering the best of the web’s articles formatted the way you want them. Visit www.contentcountry.com today for all your content requirements.

Article Writing Tips and Techniques

There are a few things that you can do in order to ensure that the article directories will approve your article.

Proofread - Even the most talented writers make mistakes. I find typos in just about every article I write but I proofread every one before submitting. Many article directories will deny your article if it contains misspelled words or improperly composed phrases. It is a good idea to write your article in a word processor such as Word and utilize the spell check feature.

Minimal Links - Some directories allow you to insert links into main keywords of the article body. This is ok as long as you do not insert too many. When publishers are searching for articles to post on their site or e-zine the number of outgoing links is one of the things they look for. They may find an article they really like but they will not publish it if there are a lot of links in the body. It is best to just utilize the signature block, authors area of the article to insert the link to your site.

Advertising - Most article directories will not approve your article if you blatantly advertise your site or service. If you think it could be perceived as personal advertising then do not do it. This includes placing your web site link in the body of the article.

Hard line breaks - These were acceptable in the past but not anymore. You may find a directory that accepts this but it is unlikely. A hard line break occurs when you have one or two line sentences. Authors want to do this because it is supposed to be more readable and the reader is more opt to read the entire article. The reason this is not acceptable anymore is because it just looks bad and unprofessional. To play it safe, write your paragraphs with at least three lines per paragraph.

Indenting - We are not in school anymore so do not indent. Although indenting paragraphs is known to be the standard for most magazine articles etcetera, it is not the standard for article directories. Just start your articles at the far left just like this article.

Above are just a few tips you can use in order to get your articles approved so publishers can post your article and links on their site. If you follow these guidelines you cannot go wrong with most article directories. You may run into some directories that allow some things I frown on but for the most part article directories go by these guidelines.

Joshua Spaulding is an Author and Webmaster providing Proven ways to Make Money Online including How to Write an Article. Joshua also runs a Quality Article Directory.

The Secret To Good Article Writing

But is the article writing job really for you? Just because you are a good writer does not mean that it is. Read on to see if you should pursue it, or find another niche.

Of course, you can always use article writing to create e-books, which can be given away or sold.

You can also spin short stories into worthy articles. You can use your creative impulse to weave some magic and entertainment into your articles. You will find that you can also appeal to a wider audience by using a story telling technique, children especially love a good story. As a writer, you can imagine that I love the fact that my children are interested in the arts and literature.

Here are a few tips for good article writing:

Keep your paragraphs short and to the point. Your article needs to have a beginning, a middle and an end. Most articles will be between four hundred and six hundred words long.

NO errors. Spelling mistakes are simply not accepted.

If you’re a freelance writer looking for work, many times you’ll see job ads that ask for writing samples. Well what better way to get in some practice and good exposure than write a few articles on writing?

To Start Writing is also a great tip. It is so easy to come up with an excuse to NOT write. But once you are seated, you will find it is easier than you thought. Don’t worry too much about the quality initially, t