How to Write an Article for Article Directories

The article presents your thought process. It can be a hobby of providing information to people. A person can teach a lot through various informative articles. We are living in an information age where all the information is at one click of our finger. Either you are using a laptop or Smartphone; you can easily gain much information about any subject. Today I like to share some information about the method of writing an article for Article Directories. There are many free article directories, which allow you to submit your article.

Topic: First, write on your topic instead of searching a hot topic on the internet. Find the topic in which you can think and write from your heart. If you write on any topic, it will not give you much pleasure. There are many categories available in Article Directories; you can choose one of them and start to think over it.

Title: After selecting a topic, you have to keep a title for an article. The title should have a brief message about the content. A catchy title always attracts people.The title of your article must not contain too much character. Keep in mind that you are not writing a precise sentence but a line that describes your intention and thought. You can search for a keyword that has a high-ranking in search engines.

Body: Now concentrate on the body part of your article, which is the most important part of your article. Here, you have to write about your feelings and thoughts. What you have understood about the topic, and you are going to describe at this point. Generally, Your article should contain 400 words. Therefore, divide your thoughts into three or four paragraphs; it will be easy for a reader to understand the article.

Consistency: Keep control of your emotions, your content should have a continue flowing. Do not break a link while writing an article. Never start a new discussion or point without completing a previous point. When you do not maintain consistency in your writing, it will confuse your reader. Always stick to your topic and do not criticize anyone for any fault. It will give a negative impact on your article.

Language: There is no use to write your articles in a jargon language. Use simple language with short sentences so that readers can easily understand them. You can easily write your thoughts with small but effective sentences.

Guidelines: Before writing any article, understand the guidelines of article directories. We see many articles were rejected due to not following a proper editorial guideline. It will give you a perfect image about keywords, grammar, spelling, format, content, and author bio.

Summary: After completing the body part, write three or four lines about the summary of an article. Precise lines about the article will add a touch to your article.

Author-Bio: Here, you can write about yourself. You can also give your website link for your publicity or promotion. It should be not more than two or three lines. It will give you recognition as a writer. After all, we all love recognition.

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Take Advantage of These Essay Writing Tips

In case you have an assignment to hand in, then you will be very well advised to rely on essay writing tips. Using these tips, you will be able to perfect your essays and ensure that you get top marks once your assignment is returned to you after grading. This way, your chances of getting that 1st Class Honors or graduating Summa Cum Laude are greatly enhanced.

Most students are of the view that essay writing is one of the hardest tasks in college. Others view it as being trifling and boring. Therefore, as a result they end up getting the lowest grades since they are intimidated by writing. However, using the tips you will learn, chances are high that you will give better essays to your lecturers and get better marks as a result.

1. Essay Types

The first thing you need to note is that there are different kinds of essays. This means that you should consult your writing tips to differentiate between these essays. Each essay kind comes with its own detailed description and peculiarities. The structural parts are also different as are the expectations of the lecturers.

2. Writing Stages

You should also keep in mind that there are a number of stages through which any written work- colleges included- have to pass through before they can be considered to be complete. It is highly recommended that you ensure that you do not miss any stage. All stages must also be accorded the necessary attention. This way, you reduce your chances of making errors and your writing will turn out to be efficient and faultless.

3. Common Subjects for Essays

There are various kinds of subjects into which all essays fall. All of these subjects are different and unique in their own way. They also require different approaches and logical organization skills which can be scrapped up from the writing essay tips.

4. Formatting Style

On the other hand, every essay that you will be required to research on, write and submit has its own formatting style. For you to hand in perfect essays, you will be wise to ensure that you use writing an essay tips to discover the kind of format that any given essay should follow. This way, your will avoid making errors.

Finally, once you submit your essay, it will be perfection personified. Lecturers often review the essay even before they mark it to check the formatting. Therefore, ensure you order your work well to raise your chances of wining over the marker.

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SEO Best Practices for Ghost Writers

The content of every article found on the internet is very important in acquiring search engine optimization for the site that houses it. It enables the various search engines to determine how informative and significant the article is to the readers and researchers. As such, there are several SEO best practices, which creates significance to the search engine as well as the readers who visit the sites.

The most important element in writing articles for search engine optimization is the keywords. When following SEO best practices while formulating the article, the keywords should be strategically located in various paragraphs for search engines to see the main relevance of its content.

These keywords should be very closely related and should not go beyond four percent keyword density. Keyword Density or KWD should be around one percent to four percent of the body of an article. Including far too many keywords will simply confuse the search engine.

The SEO content of each article should be highly relevant to the keywords that are utilized. When a search engine lead the readers to the article written, it should be relevant to the topic they wish to gain information on. Creating false keywords in order to lure readers into the site will only increase Search Engine Optimization temporarily. Eventually readers will take on to the scheme and will avoid following the link.

Another important element that follows SEO best practices is to cross link the pages of the site being written on. This is initially done by having an overall singular main theme amongst the pages. The keywords should be found in the other articles of the site for readers to be able to find the other pages available.

Once the cross link process has been established, it is essential to keep the articles informative and interesting. Most readers tend to leave the site within minutes of searching for what they are looking for. To keep their attention within the site, it is important to break up the articles into simple and readable text such as headlines, sub-headlines, and highlighted words.

Readers should never be left hanging after each article. Articles that follow SEO best practices should have a sense of urgency or plan of action. There is no point to reading an article that does not give any sense of action or fulfillment.

Lastly, but equally important, is to make certain that the grammar and word spelling are correct. Having grammatically wrong statements or misspelled words can utterly change the meaning and context of the article. All in all, writers should uphold responsible copywriting for optimum and lasting Search Engine Optimization.

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How to Become a Successful Ghostwriter

Ghostwriting can be defined as writing by a person who does not get the credit for writing. This writer is called a ghostwriter. The ghostwriter may write books, articles, stories, reports, speeches, blogs, and media content on behalf of the other person who takes the credit for the writings.

Ghostwriters are hired by executives, politicians, and celebrities to draft or edit their autobiographies, articles and speeches. Ghostwriters are also used in the film industry for writing lyrics and musical pieces. Ghostwriting can be a career for those who have a knack for writing. Even in the fine arts stream or commercial art such as comics, a number of assistants do the piece of work and the credit goes to the single artist.

Ghostwriting is an enjoyable and lucrative career as long as one works hard researching and has an extensive vocabulary. The ghostwriter should be mentally prepared that in spite of all the time and hard work that is put into their writing, the credit will go to somebody else. The ghostwriter will get the agreed money for the work done but no recognition of their name.

Ghostwriting or 'ghosting', as it is called now, requires a lot of hard work and patience. The ghostwriter has to do some research and gather the relevant information for the article. The ghostwriter is in a position of trust. This trust should never be broken and the person you are writing for should never be let down. Do not share or discuss any ideas or information with anyone who is not involved in the project. Remember this job is being done for an agreed amount of money. Occasionally there may be a copyright or royalty arrangement.

Ghostwriting offers one the freedom to work from home. One is not tied to the nine to five office schedules where the boss can be unhappy with the performance and one feels claustrophobic in such a work environment. With the hard financial times that all are facing right now and with the recession worsening the situation, ghostwriting is an option one can turn to.

There are various sites where one can find the job of ghostwriting. Bid for the job and begin. Initially the pay will be very low and that is more frustrating than anything else. Slowly one must build their reputation by giving high quality work and take it from there.

Soon a person will be a success with hard work and patience.

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Examples of Creative Writing Prompts

Doing creative writing exercises is a great way to get over writer's block and get those "writing muscles" back into shape, so to speak. Writer's block is after all just the result of getting lazy and not writing daily, which is, by the way, something that every serious writer should make a habit of.

And doing writing exercises is a great way of achieving this goal. So even if your writing has gotten a bit rusty, rest assured that the talent is still there, it is just a little atrophied and nothing that some writing exercises can't cure.

Many books exist, which offer quality creative writing prompts and other exercises aimed at helping writers perfect the craft of writing. However these are usually focused on a specific area of fiction writing such as plot, character development, setting, descriptions and more intangible aspects of writing such as style, tone, alliteration and others.

If you are primarily looking to simply get started on the writing I would personally suggest you take advantage of some great creative writing prompts. These represent great exercises and normally involve a set of random words or phrases, which you must in some way incorporate into a story, or they can be in the form of a story starter sentence. Pictures also make great creative writing prompts.

The great thing about prompts as creative writing exercises is that they allow for a lot more creativity and offer much more free reign in the direction and form of your writing. This is because they are not as targeted at a certain aspect of creative writing as the more classic writing exercises, leaving you a lot more freedom in the direction and form your stories can take. They also allow for free writing, which is like the number one writing exercise, since it silences your critic and lets the artist come out and play.

Some examples of creative writing prompts:

Here are examples of random word creative writing prompts, random phrase writing prompts and story starter sentence writing prompts. Feel free to try you hand at writing a story from any one set of these, just make sure you use all the words or the phrases and try not to stop writing until the first draft is complete.

#1 Random words as creative writing prompts:

Yesterday, Done, Orchard, Merry-go-round, Thesis, Problem, Ecstasy, Church, Boy

#2 Random phrases as prompts:

The Oxford Encyclopaedia of Poo

Fear of Walking Slowly

A Very Good Friend Called V

Green-Top, Occasionally Red, Trying to Remember Jersey

Global Whoring

Black Suits You, It Matches Your Teeth

The Mysteries of the Pomegranate

Victoria, Cross

My Maidservant's Anne

Chocolate and the Science of Seduction

#3 Story starter sentence:

Last night the rain fell like it was never going to stop, but I was happy.

Anyway, those are just some examples of creative writing prompts as writing exercises, but if they helped you to get that first drat of a story, poem of flash fiction piece written I am glad. Now just keep at it and remember that just as physical muscles diminish if you don't exercise so does the "writing muscle."

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Is It OK to Post Bad Article Content?

I struggle with bad article content quite a bit. I consider myself a Power Blogger, which means I like to crank out a lot of content and crank it out quickly. I put my heart and soul into the writing that I do but sometimes I am not on top of my game and the stuff I produce is not as good as I would like.

I am writing this article right after I put something out that I did not love. The question is what do I do with it at this point...

1. Do I trash it completely? - Some pieces of content are far from being reparable. They are so bad that they should never see the light of day. If I produce one of these articles, I just strip out the best ideas and record a video. Depending on the level of passion, I have for the topic, I may rewrite the article from a new point of view.

2. Edit the work - This is the easy solution. Edit the work and make it better. This can work sometimes but I have found that many times when I edit the article, I make it worse than if I never touched it in the first place.

3. Put it down and come back the next day - The truth is we have no idea what we do well and how we perform. I find that my evaluation of my work is a better indication of my mental state, than it is of the quality of the work. Many times when I come back the next day, I do not have to make any changes or very minor changes. Things look a lot more different the next day, so go back to your work when you have the chance to review it again.

It does not matter what approach you take and the choice you make may be impacted by your end goal.

I have two goals -

1. Get better as a writer. I have two approaches - I write a lot. I study great writers.

2. Continually get compensated more for my writing - Based on this goal, I put stuff out there. I do run the risk of some of my work being criticized but I find that I am the worst judge of whether or not my work is good, especially since I lean more to the critical part

Either way, keep writing and keep working and you will see yourself getting better at an exponential pace.

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All About Having a 'Lens' on Squidoo

Squidoo is a platform for those publishers who like to offer web content services and for those whom would like to share their interests publicly. Squidoo is not like any other website where people dump their work; it is a very different website that appreciates good content. A person who writes article on Squidoo has to develop a page first which is called 'Lens'. An article can also be called a 'Lens' on Squidoo. The website is named strategically, and every article writer has a nickname of 'Squid', but they are officially called 'LensMasters'.

Squidoo allows writers to publish and to add website contents by writing on various topics, but guidelines need to be followed. When a user intends to join Squidoo, the most important thing he should have is the passion to write. Your areas of interest do not matter as long as you like to write. The articles can be about anything, ranging from food to fashion. All that matters is that the article is interesting and it must offer quality website contents. Some guidelines need to be followed strictly, and spamming is not allowed. This makes the website spam free and allows readers and publishers to have a decent environment at their disposal to make money and to create valuable content.

Squidoo is useful for people whom use internet marketing. Squidoo is also recognized by many reputable search engines, such as Google, which gives a lot of help to the internet marketers. If someone posts relevant articles on Squidoo, there is a high chance that Google would rank it highly, making it available to a larger audience. Therefore, if you are trying to promote your website with Squidoo, you will probably end up at a higher rank in search engines if you write articles and you promote those appropriately. Squidoo also allows backlinks, which can help a lot if you target relevant and high quality content. Squidoo does have a marketing advantage, but that does not mean it is of use only to the internet marketers. It can also be used by people who love to write, read, and to share high quality content. Squidoo allows this all without charges and also gives an opportunity of earning some money out of it.

With Squidoo, you can also build your own page and you can give it your own customized look. You can either choose the theme of lenses to be professional, or casual as per your choices. By having your own page on Squidoo, you can easily post high quality content, and you can see your page rank higher in the search engines. The type of page you create, and the quality of content that you publish is all that will determine how much potential you have to earn from it.

Squidoo has forums that are highly active, and that contribute a lot towards the knowledge and information of the individuals. Squidoo is also active with many charity programs and contributes to them generously. You also have an option to contribute part of your earnings to charity but that is totally up to you. With a user-friendly interface, and with an easy-to-use platform, Squidoo is a great platform for writers, and it is definitely better than its competitors are.

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The Great Essay Writing Process

Many students find essay writing a cumbersome and painful assignment. That is because they are still not sure how to approach essay writing. If you get the approach right, you find that essay writing is not painful at all. In fact, it can be a very fun and fulfilling process.

Essay writing is often referred to as an art and with good reason. It can take years of practice to perfect the craft. Most often students really become good at writing essays when they reach the end of their school careers. Here is a basic guide to essay writing.

1. Read and comprehend the essay topic/question

This is the most important part of the essay writing process. Once you have properly understood what the essay question is asking you can analyze what kinds of supporting research you will need. There is no need to formulate your entire argument yet save that for later in your essay writing sample. For now you need to understand exactly what the question is asking you. Highlight key terms and brainstorm some possible angles.

2. Research the topic

Go to the library, internet, read some books, look over your notes. Hone in on the specific question at hand and read information pertaining to it.

3. Write an outline

As elementary as it seems sometimes, outlines are the scaffolding for all successful writing. It does not have to be a formal outline, but just sketch out the order of your essay in some method that you understand.

4. Write a thesis statement

The thesis statement is the foundation of your essay. Write that one sentence that argues the point, the debate, and the crux of your essay. It will be the final sentence of your introduction and the starting point for the rest of the writing.

5. Write the paper

Just write. It does not have to be a masterpiece as you write that first draft. Just get something on paper that you can eventually mold into a final product.

6. Edit the paper for content

Edit the paper to make sure you are staying on target, following your thesis, and have enough supporting evidence to prove your thesis.

7. Edit the paper for grammar

Give your essay a quick look solely for grammatical problems (spelling, punctuation, transitions, and so on).

The easiest part and definitely the most enjoyable. Going through your essay with your own red pen and editing it ruthlessly will ensure that you have a perfect essay to turn in when the deadline comes.

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Finding Inspiration for Freelance Articles

It's easy to get inspiration for articles when you work for a newspaper and your editor is telling you what to do, your inbox is stuffed with press releases and your voicemail is full.

But how does a freelance writer working from home stay on the ball? One of the challenging aspects about being a freelance writer is that you want to shy away from the obvious stories that might come to you through a press release or advertised event. Why? Because likely these story ideas are already being covered by staff writers in your community.

So, where can you go for inspiration?

Friends and relatives: Just about everyone we know has some unique quirk, whether it's an interesting hobby or an unusual career. Sometimes you can mine people's pasts for great stories. I once read an article about one of the first female bus drivers in a major city. Male passengers would refuse to get on the bus when she opened the door. If I was to pass this person on the street, I wouldn't give her a second glance, but I found her story fascinating.

Your own hobbies: Your hobbies may seem pretty mundane, but what attracted you to them in the first place? Do you like hobbies that emphasize risk, such as extreme sports, or creativity, such as music and art? In either case, there are a wealth of different angles you can explore, new trends, interesting personalities, insider articles relating to technique or performance, etc.

Overheard conversations: Coffee shops and buses are great places where inspiration can strike. What are the issues of the day according to the average person? Listen to what people are talking about. It may actually be different from what is on the front page of the newspaper. Often you'll hear people complaining about things that affect them in a day-to-day way - an unfair policy at the nursing home where their grandmother resides, an excessively bureaucratic insurance requirement or the high cost of outfitting kids with everything their school claims they need.

Mine your growing expertise: Freelance writers have one benefit that staff writers don't always have, and that's the ability to specialize in a certain topic or beat. If you have covered a lot of stories in one area, you may find your knowledge of the topic, the issues and the major players provides you with an endless list of ideas that you can explore and tailor to different types of publications.

Wherever you get your ideas, it's important to take notes so that brilliant idea that occurred to you while you were making breakfast doesn't get lost in the day-to-day flurry of activity. Keep a notebook handy and inspiration will always be at your fingertips.

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Your Photos Could Help You Break Into Journalism

Photo sharing is one of the ways social media has changed our world. Flickr, Instagram, Facebook or even personal blogs give people an opportunity to share their lives and experiences with their friends and with complete strangers.

However, this has had both positive and negative effects on professional journalists. In the past, everyone wasn't walking around with a camera in their pockets. We took our cameras to special events like trips, weddings and graduations or we took photos of our families at home.

Today when breaking news happens there's more likely to be a citizen journalist with a camera phone on the scene rather than a professional photographer. The photos may be grainy and poorly lit, but they tell the story and that's what's important.

When the Stanley Cup riots happened there was one photo that caught the attention of people world-wide. It seemed to be a photo of a couple "making out" in the road while the riot police both surrounded and ignored them (though, of course, they weren't really making out). It was taken by a professional photographer, Rich Lam.

But, there was also a video posted online of the couple being knocked down and a policeman looking as though he was about to hit them with a baton before he turned and ran away. This video was taken on a phone by someone standing on top of a car park. If it weren't for "citizen journalists," it never would have become part of the story.

Professional journalists can offer quality, but they can't be everywhere at once. However, one thing journalists can do is take the time to document the information in the photos. One could spend hours looking at great photos online, but often the information given is minimal. This can be a little frustrating. Journalists are trained to explain everything. A photo of kids playing in a backyard pool might have been taken because there was a heat wave that day. The fact that there was a heat wave will always be attached to that photo and when people see it, they'll remember that heat wave, if they were in the same region. This takes the photo out of the realm of a random image and puts it into the context of our lives.

If you want to be a professional reporter, learn to describe what it is you're photographing. Attach the names, dates, places and reasons why you took the image. You may be able to sell your image or include it in a portfolio.

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Essay Writing Tips - 6 Steps to Writing a Great Essay

If writing an essay seems like a daunting experience, then learning how to break the process down into a number of easy steps will give you the confidence you need to produce an interesting, high quality piece of work. This article provides 6 essay writing tips that will take you from an initial idea through to the finished product.

1. Select your topic carefully

If your topic has many different aspects, then a very useful essay writing tip is to narrow it down to one specific area, and make sure you explain this in your introduction. This will make for better reading than if you try to cover everything, and will definitely improve the quality of your work. If you get to choose your own topic, make it something you are interested in. This way the research will become much easier and your enthusiasm will 'rub off' on your readers.

2. Do Your Research

Another useful essay writing tip is to make sure you spend sufficient time looking into all the aspects of your chosen topic. Read as much relevant material as possible, and make notes along the way so you don't forget anything. Also note down where you have got your ideas from; i.e. author name, book or article title and page number.

3. Write Down the Main Arguments

Once you've researched your subject, summarise the main arguments and ideas you have read. Do not copy other people's words, just choose the important points and summarise these in your own words. This is a highly important essay writing tip - whatever you do, make sure you don't plagiarise another author's work.

Prepare the basic structure of the essay in dot point headings, using only a few words to describe each main point. Play around with the structure until you feel that the sequence is right. Put the most important point first, followed by the next most important point, and so on.

Then paste your research summaries under each heading (you can delete these later).

4. Fill Out the Body of the Essay

This is where you discuss in detail your thoughts and ideas on the chosen topic, and 'fill out' the summaries you wrote earlier. Under each main point, introduce the evidence supporting your theories, together with arguments and any other points you wish to make. A good essay writing tip is to make sure these are thought provoking and interesting, as well as informative.

End each paragraph or section with some type of conclusion, or 'lead in' sentence to the next paragraph.

Now that you have written the main body of the essay, you can go back to writing the 'Introduction', followed by the essay 'Conclusion'.

5. Write Your Introduction

In some ways this is the most important part of your essay. One of the best essay writing tips is to use the introduction to grab the reader's attention and give them a 'taste' of the information to come that will make them want to keep on reading.

Describe briefly what the essay is about, and your research sources, and explain what the reader will get out of reading the essay. Finish the introduction with a clear explanation of your point of view, or of the main essay idea.

6. Write Your Conclusions

Start this section by briefly summarising the results and conclusions of your research. Tell the reader what your main conclusion is, and why. Make sure you have also checked and formatted your references that will go at the end of the essay.

A great essay writing tip is to end the essay with a memorable, thought provoking statement that in some way 'sums up' your findings.

These essay writing tips will help you to produce a well structured essay, but don't forget to edit and proof read your work thoroughly to ensure there are no spelling, grammatical or punctuation errors.

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