For the Love of Words: Introducing Articles

Good gracious, the day has come for a deep spooky eyed, surgical strike at the depth of writing an article. Is it easy as some people make it or difficult like learning Italian over a week. It is time for me to take a little mystery out of article development and break it down into sections. Article writing is a learned skill and it must be polished over the course of the river that we know as time. Article writers will vary on their ability and style to developing the core elements to their topics. Is there a wrong way?

Article writing is an art that expands into other writing arenas. Most article writers may cover up the truth of the matter, that constantly developing unique articles is not a strain to the old muse. They would be further from the truth or less experienced in denying the fact that article writing is a ghost that plagues the creative soul sphere in all of us. Article writers that say it is an easy task to do are either using spinning software or outsourcing to a foreign team.

Can article writing be easier if you are prepared? Yes, like most skills in life that you have or are acquiring, your particular knowledge will help develop and nourish the infant. We can find mentors that can harbor the passions within us to overcome the difficulties of developing the content that we so desire for our websites and business use. Once we overcome the initial fear or destructive elements in our path to developing a successful article, we can embrace the warm cup of coffee and tea and congratulate ourselves on a job well done.

Wait! Sit back and contemplate on the last time you had to write an article describing a particular endeavor in business marketing, product overview or creative lay into the unknown with a high-profile blog post of cross-corporate culture vs. social media downgrades of the small business growth on the mainstream scene. If you are a writer or writing firm like me, then it is almost a constant stress of developing the perfect balance of information and tone.

Is article writing a state of mind? To some degree, it is and to some degree, it is not. If you are constantly developing dozens of articles than yes it is, but the creative aspect is keeping you sane. If you only develop a few articles a month, then the answer is no. The mind is not always ready to find, search and trash information as you write the article for yourself or the client that is overseas. The cold truth of article writing lies within the writer itself and rather if they can push the envelope to challenge themselves in keeping in step with truth and de facto information.

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How to Make Money Writing Articles

Make Money Writing Articles - In this article, we are going to talk about a strategy that you can employ and that I am already beginning to employ on making money writing articles. In this article, we will share specific places where you can go and make money writing articles and, more importantly, a strategy for being successful.

Writing has been one of the most fulfilling things that I have ever done online. I have always wanted to create passive income. I loved the idea of not doing a lot of work and getting paid. I started out investing in rental properties. The concept is great. I put up some money, borrow some money and somebody else pays off the mortgage.

If I do well, I would put some money back into the pocket each month. The problem with this strategy is that one bad investment can be an emotional and financial wipeout. I am speaking from experience on this one. Then, I decided to move online and do lead generation for people looking to make money online.

I used paid traffic because it was fast. The challenge that I had with this strategy was that it became very expensive to invest in the traffic while I was learning and getting good. Although I could be profitable one day, the next day I may lose my shirt.

Then I moved into outsourcing content creation. I figured that content would be there forever and I could pay for something once and get paid on it forever. This worked and was profitable but was not very fulfilling.

Although I was learning the passive income models, it was not a passive experience. That is when I read the book, Accidental Genius and I learned about free writing. You see, I have a mind, probably like a lot of you that goes 10,000 miles an hour.

I have a lot of good ideas but my mind would not slow down long enough for me to implement any of those ideas. I found that writing would allow me to get those ideas out on paper. Even better, I could share those ideas with other people and could make money doing so.

Now, I write and I write and I write and I get compensated pretty well for it.

Below are some lessons that you may want to consider if you are attempting to make money writing articles -

Do not be stingy with your ideas - I used to have the feeling that I should not put my best work into each article and should save my best ideas for future work. This became stressful and difficult to manage. Now, I share the best ideas that are on my mind and give 100% to each article. what I find happens in this case is that as soon as I get done sharing about one idea, a new idea pops into my head immediately. There are no shortage of ideas so don't be stingy in sharing your ideas and putting your best work forward.

Learn how to re-purpose content - Write something once and you can reuse it for other purposes later. Here are a couple of ways to re-purpose content -

- Make a video based on an article that you wrote.

- Take one idea from the article and expand on that and make a completely new complementary article.

Post your content in multiple places - If you want to get a lot of eyeballs on your work, post it in many places so there is a greater chance that more people will find it. (Note: If you sell your articles to other, then do not do this. That person paid you a fair price to do work and that content is theirs and should only be theirs.)

Don't take yourself too seriously - People like to read work that is done by human beings. They would much rather be entertained and surprised and deal with a few simple errors, then to read a perfect peace of content. Have one with your work, regardless of the topic and you will find that you get better responses from those who are reading your work.

Follow the three tips above and you will be in the right state of mind to make money writing articles.

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Creative Writing Prompts - How To Dive In To The Ocean Of Creative Writing Talent Within You

Each of us are more creative than we realise, the amount of talent we have is not what holds us back form creating to our full potential. What hold us back from writing as deeply and as rewardingly as we're capable of is fear.

Your creative writing potential is a vast ocean.

The only problem is, most of the time you don't get much further than dipping a couple of toes in the edge then finding the water too cold and intimidating!

So how can you discover and put to use more of your creative writing talents?

How can you dive bravely into the ocean and discover the depth and breadth of what you're capable of writing?

Creative writing prompts are a fantastic tool for this. A creative writing prompt is simply a phrase or an idea or a technique that you can use as a starting point to write from, a way to begin to let your natural creativity unfold.

Creative writing prompts are the equivalent of being given a little boat to set sail in out on the vast ocean, and a friendly push off from the edge of the shore.

If you had to swim out on your own, that would be far more dangerous and intimidating. By using the boat, you have a safer way to get out into that vast ocean, a way that will mean you don't run back to the security of the beach at the slightest suggestion of getting your hair wet.

Some of us are put off by using creative writing prompts because we feel it's cheating, like we're using someone else's writing and claiming it as our own. But it's simply not true.

The writing prompts are not the ocean itself. They are not giving you more talent and ability. Also they are not writing all of your stories, poems or songs for you, perfectly packaged with absolutely no input from you.

The ocean is already there, and it's always been there.

You know from some of your past writing the kind of creativity you're capable of, even if you've only seen tiny glimmers here and there. And so you know once you're brave enough to venture out, you can see that kind of creative writing again, and much more of it.

Start experimenting with creative writing prompts today, take that brave step, hop into your boat and set sail!

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Writing Articles: Putting It All Together

You've gathered your research, interviewed a knowledgeable person if appropriate, and scribbled lots of other notes. You want to now merge all this material into an article - but how do you do it?

You can have three approaches:

· Just start writing, in whatever order appeals, and fix it all up later

· Use the outline you've already written, and follow it closely. (If you haven't already written an outline, you can create one at this stage).

· A combination of the two.

The third option I have here may seem strange. After all - if you've written an outline, why would you want to write as if you don't?

I personally find the third option can work well. I like outlines, but I don't usually have an outline that is so thorough it leaves no room for a freer approach within each section. Outlines also may get changed from when they are first written, because you find new information, or an interviewee tells you unexpected but relevant news or opinions.

Here are some guidelines for getting all your notes ready to put into a suitable piece of writing:

· Assemble the information, (including quotes, comments, opinions, and facts) into sections. If you've got your information on your computer, (as most people do these days), then create a new document, and copy and paste - rather than move - information into each section. You'll probably only want 3 - 5 sections. Be sure to keep your original notes for reference.

· Within each section, further break down the information into as many sections as are needed to fit it all; though again, 3 -5 is probably a good guideline. The desired length of your article, editorial requirements and the amount of information for each section will determine how much you do here.

· Rearrange the information into sensible order; realising that you'll also need to re-check this order in the editing stage.

Start writing. Here's where you can and should do some freer writing, because you really don't want your article to sound like a list of facts. In order to get good, conversational and easily read text, you want to step back from the facts a bit, and write them in your own words.

Quotes should be left alone where they are concise and appropriate. However, if they are long - and especially if they are filled with incomplete sentences, repeated phrases, or the inevitable 'ums' and 'ahs' - they're going to need some editing.

I usually find I need to do several drafts of the article at this stage, depending on how long it is and how familiar I am with the information.

Each time I look at the draft, and especially for the final check, I also consider how well it flows. Does the information lead logically and seamlessly from one section to the next? If you find it difficult to 'see the wood for the trees', try using Print Preview (or similar) on your computer word program, as it enables you to see several pages at once. Although the writing is much smaller as a result, it will better enable you to take a wider view of the overall article.

When you've done your final edits for writing quality, and checked your facts are right, you're good to go.

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Make Money Online Article Writing

If you would like to make money online article writing, you will find yourself creating articles quickly on an almost daily schedule. Writing quickly doesn't mean comprising on quality. As a rule I try not to spend more than 20 minutes a day on an article. Although I do believe that "content is king" I have a business to run and a schedule to keep.

Short and Sweet
Keeping your article short, 500 words or less, will keep you in that 20 minute time frame. You don't have to scrimp on quality if you make every word count. Writing articles for the web is almost a form of shorthand and can be a little tricky in the beginning, but soon becomes very easy, and if you can write them quickly it can be extremely profitable.

Everyone needs web articles, I know you've heard the internet is a big "information highway". Maybe you have thought about making money by providing web articles, well there is money to be made once you learn the system.

Brainstorm Ideas
Do you have an idea list, well if your like me you have more than you need to start with. Start combining some of those ideas to round out your article. If they fit use them as bullet points, readers love bullet points and lists, their easier on the eyes. Make sure your article answers five "w" and one "h" questions: who, why, where, when, what and how.

Sometimes I use who, why, where, when, what and how as my outline. That keeps me focused, I may need to do research. Just writing one small article a day and submitting to EzineArticles and providing a link back to your site is a great way to get noticed. The web consists of millions of articles so it should come as no surprise that there's money to be made from writing and marketing articles.

Keep Readers Interested
We need to arouse interest and keep our readers with us from the very beginning. Each sentence needs to be snappy and offer the reader a small benefit. This could be simply a smile, which by the way is a great ice breaker. We don't have to supply the entire benefit right away. If we just make the promise to deliver it later, making sure each taste will be tempting enough to keep them reading.

Reader Benefit and Call to Action
Every article has a call to action which is usually in the resource box at the end, if we keep our article short and on track our reader will likely stay to the end and read our call to action. If they like what you have written and can see some benefit to their lives they will likely answer your call.

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The Strategic Use of Essay Writing Examples

If you're ever stuck trying to write an essay, one of the best tricks you can use is to find essay writing examples. The old chestnut "the best way to learn how to write is to read" didn't gain its cliche status for nothing; reading reorients you to the perspective of reader, making you a more mindful writer.

Your essay writing samples can be friends' essays, essays published in books, or just essays you find online. It is important to make sure that any essay writing examples you use are from quality sources, otherwise they might serve as poor examples on which to base your own work.

Once you have your hands on one or many samples, you can use them to give yourself a crash-course in essay writing. Look at your essay writing samples. How are they formatted? Notice the structure of the writing sample. Does it have an identifiable beginning, middle, and end?

Also try and pay attention to the way the author has organized his or her ideas into a cohesive argument. If the essay involves an emotional appeal, identify what strategies the author used to get a reaction out of you. Think about what kind of language is being used and the effect it has on you, as a reader, and how you might manipulate language to your benefit when you are writing your own essay.

Finally, decide whether or not you think the essay is any good. Is the essay's point well made? Are there things you would change? If so, what? It's important to remember that you're using essay writing examples as just that-examples. Copying someone else's work without their permission and passing it off as your own is never a good idea, but if used responsibly essay writing samples can help a great deal if you are having a rough time with your essay.

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Article Marketing Master Plan Unveiled

Effective headline strategies:

Your title must always contain your main keyword phrase, otherwise people will not be able to find it via EzineArticles' internal search or through the search engines. Ideally, you'll want to have more than one keyword appear in your title.

Example of a good title:

"Weight Loss Secrets - 3 Easy Steps to Lose That Weight"

I literally just made that up. In my opinion, it's good because it is keyword rich and contains the magic words "easy" and "secret".

People don't like to do things the hard way.

People don't like learning things.

People DO like taking shortcuts.

People DO like discovering things.

Magic words to spice up your titles:

Easy - Secret/Secrets - Discover - How to - Deadly

A note on "how-to's"... you're going to want to convey a benefit with your how-to's. Your reader should find out exactly what they're getting by reading your title. "How to lose weight" isn't a benefit because it is too general. "How to write a killer article in 10 minutes" is a benefit. Other words you should consider using in your titles: Dos and don'ts - Strategies - The truth about - Revealed - Mistakes - Essential. Again, those lists aren't exhaustive, but I just wanted to give you a general idea of what you should strive for in your titles.

The Body:

A common mistake when doing article marketing is to write a very informative article. There's nothing wrong with providing information and value in an article, but remember, the goal of your article should be to make your reader want to learn more, not to get the whole picture from your article. I'm not saying you should write articles full of fluff, I'm just saying that you don't need to pack your articles with information. If your reader satisfies their curiosity or thirst for knowledge after reading your article, there will not be any motivation to click through to your site.

Article Length:

Your article should be between 300 and 600 words long. Between 300 and 400 would be perfect because readers tend to lose interest or focus rather quickly unless an article is superbly written. 300 word articles are extremely easy to write because they are so short. Think about it: your intro for the article should already take up a good 50 to 100 words. Then you have a conclusion which should be another 50 to 100 words. Easy peasy.

Article Layout:

If your article is on the short side (~300 words), then you have a bit of freedom with how you present your article. You can either have a few paragraphs, or you could have bullet points sandwiched by an intro and a conclusion. Conclusions aren't always necessary, but intros are, for obvious reasons.

If your article is around 500 words, then it wouldn't hurt to make your article easier to read by having bullets or sections which are separated by bolded sub-headlines (like I'm doing in this ebook). If you choose not to use bolded sub-heads or bullets, then make sure you have short paragraphs. Let's say your article is 600 words long. You should have an intro which is about 100 words long and a conclusion (which leads into your bio box) which is also about 100 words long. You have 400 words to play with, so you should have 3-4 paragraphs to ensure easy reading.

Keyword Density:

Keyword density is how often a keyword shows up per 100 words. In your articles, you'll want a 2-4% keyword density so that Google gives your articles a lot of love. Any more than that and you will get penalized.

Article Tone:

It can be tough to write with personality about a subject which you have no interest in, but doing so will make your articles more pleasant to read. Present your info, but do so in a way that doesn't remind your reader of lectures in their college days. Would you rather listen to a prof that drones on and on and on for two hours, or a prof that engages the audience and provokes intelligent thought and discussion?

Cardinal Rules of Article Writing:

1. Thou shalt have perfect spelling.

2. Thou shalt have perfect grammar.

I cannot stress these two rules enough. If your article has "spelling" errors or grammatical errors, it will not only look unprofessional, but It'll also make it tough to read.

If you intend to write all your articles, then make sure you proofread your article before submitting it. EzineArticles (I'm singling out EZA because it is the biggest article directory) has a strict policy about the quality of the articles that authors submit to them. If you do not adhere to their editorial guidelines, then your articles will not be accepted.

The Bio Box (aka The Resource Box):

The bio box, also known as the resource box, is where authors stick a little information about themselves and links to external sites. Even though it is short, what you put in your bio box is almost as important as the article that precedes it. If you do not have an appropriate call to action in your bio box, then your conversion rates will not be as good as they can be.

Example of a boring bio box:

"Joe Shmoe is a full-time Internet marketer from the US who has been online since 1996. He has an MBA from XYZ University. For more information on Internet marketing, click here."

Let's be very clear. When I'm looking for info online, I couldn't care less about who the author is or how many pet cats he/she has. I don't want to know where you're from, I don't want to know your level of education, and I don't want to know what your hobbies or passions are.

It's not that I don't care about you (I really do!), it's just that I don't want to

be hearing about you at the end of your articles.

What I do want to hear about at the end of your articles is what I'll get if I click on your link.

Example of a decent bio box:

"Would you like to get instant access to over 9000+ tools and resources right now? Then check out ABC Product located at mysite.com and start downloading them all immediately!"

The above example communicates a clear benefit: you are letting the reader know that if they click on your link, they will get instant access to over 9000+ tools and resources today. Remember, readers don't want to "find out more about" anything; they want to "get" stuff.

So their you have it! - You can stay a hope article marketer and hope that your articles bring you traffic and sales.

OR...

You can follow these few simple rules above in the Article Marketing Master Plan Unvailed and finally eliminate all the guesswork and stop hoping for sales.

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