By
allen on July 23rd, 2008
Posted in Article Writing | No Comments »
Here’s a good article on how you can generate ideas for articles. I’ll add more after the article, but read this first:
7 Tips For Producing Ideas For Articles
By Janet Simpson
I am a firm believer in writing and submitting articles. Articles work. They bring in traffic and they entice readers to visit your website in search of more information. Sometimes, however, it can be a challenge to continuously generate new ideas.
Here are some tips that will help you in the process of creating ideas for your articles.
#1 - Join discussion groups and chat rooms that focus on your particular niche. You can find discussion groups at Yahoo! and Google. Once there, look for the common threads. What questions are being asked consistently? Answering these questions is an excellent idea for the topic of your next article. You know beforehand that there are readers searching the internet for the answers you provide in your articles.
#2 - Search engines are a very good place to find out what people are talking about. Look through Google, Google Trends, Yahoo! Buzz, Dogpile, SearchSpy and MSN. You will find the hot topics of the day listed in these search engines, and hot topics are good themes to focus your article.
#3 - Dig out your old articles. Articles that you have produced in the past are excellent fodder for new articles. It is easy to edit your old copy, add a fresh slant and give up-to-date information.
#4 - Article directories. If you visit the most popular article directories, you will find a gold mine of information. What are other authors writing about? What are the common threads? Read other authors’ articles and come up with your own new and fresh ideas.
#5 - Calendars. Journalists use calendars to remind them of special occasions, annual events and holidays. You could do the same. For instance, there’s a host of ideas you can come up with around Thanksgiving. Conjure up new titles that fit in with your niche.
#6 - Surveys. What conclusions have been deduced from other people’s surveys? Use these conclusions for titles of your articles or create your own survey. Ask your subscribers exactly what information they need and answer their needs with your articles.
#7 - Generate a list. Make a list of the most popular or the easiest ways to… or the top 10… or the seven steps to whatever. Generating a list is one of the easiest ways to creating an article.
To download my new free ebook click here: Up & Running In 14 Days
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Janet_Simpson
More ways to generate article topics:
- Blogs - Read blogs. Lots of them. In fact, you should subscribe to as many RSS feeds as you can related to your niche. You can get article ideas from these blogs. You don’t have to read every single blog post. I like to scan headlines. When I find one that I like I’ll read the blog. You can usually get ideas for articles from reading other people’s blogs within your niche.
- Join some forums - Forums are a lot like discussion groups. Talk to other people in those forums and you’ll quickly figure out what is important to them. Write articles on those topics.
- Talk to people off line - You’ll be surprised at the information you can get off line. Any time you are face to face with someone interested in your niche, ask them a few formal questions about their perceptions and struggles. Just like in a forum, you’ll quickly get an idea as to what is important to them. Then you can write about it.
- Read magazines - Off line magazines are still a good source of information. A good article in a magazine can spark some imagination.
- Industry trade conferences - Talk to people in your industry. What are they doing? Follow them and write articles. You can even interview a prominent person in your industry for an article.
There is no limit to the number of places from which you can get ideas. Make a list, brainstorm, and start writing.
By
allen on July 22nd, 2008
Posted in Article Writing | 1 Comment »
The most important paragraph of your article is the first paragraph. In newspaper lingo, it’s called the lead paragraph. Why is it so important?
The lead paragraph is important because this is where you capture your reader’s interest. Your article will rise or fall on that lead paragraph, and particularly on that lead sentence. Let’s examine what you need to do to establish credibility in that lead paragraph and get your readers to keep on reading:
- The first sentence - You need a killer first sentence that does two things: Snags the reader into reading the next sentence and that uses your keyword effectively. SEO is an important aspect of article marketing. You want the search engines to discover your most important keywords and phrases and to rank your article for them. That first sentence goes a long way to helping you do that. Put your keyword in there one time. You do not need your keyword in the rest of the paragraph, but it does need to be in that first sentence. And make sure that you engage the reader from the very first word.
- The rest of the paragraph - You need to get people to read every sentence. If you lose your reader’s interest at any point in the article then they will leave and you will lose the sale. Every sentence must lead the reader to the next sentence - all the way through your article. That means, to get them through that first paragraph there must be a logical flow to the sentences and they’ve got to be interesting enough to keep them reading.
- Prepare the reader - I learned early in public speaking that when you have an audience you need to follow the three-point plan: Tell them what you’re going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you told them. This works in article marketing too. Use that first paragraph to set the stage for your article. Give a good summary of what the article will detail then subsequent paragraphs will give the “rubber meets the road” gritty details. You should not use phrases like “I’m going to tell you” or “This article is about.” Those are filler phrases that will lose your audience. Instead, simply give an overview of your subject before getting into the details.
- Paragraph structure - Another element I borrow from newspaper writing is the 5 W paragraph structure. In newspaper writing, it is customary to tell your readers what the article they are about to read is about by including the 5 basic pieces of information all readers look for: Who, What, When, Where, Why. And sometimes newspaper people include How. With informational writing in particular, which article marketing is, this information is essential to establishing what your article is about. Answer these questions in your lead paragraph and you’ve established in your readers’ minds just why they should read your article. You’ll also establish yourself as a credible authority on the subject.
Article writing is not newspaper writing, but there are some similarities. Establish yourself as a credible authority and attract your readers’ attentions by writing a dynamic lead paragraph. If you do that, they’ll keep reading.
By
allen on July 15th, 2008
Posted in Article Marketing, Article Writing | No Comments »
Ideally, you would know everything there is to know about your niche and not have to do any research when writing your articles. But that isn’t realistic. No one can know everything.
At some point you will have to do some research. How much time should you spend on it? Well, you should obviously spend as much time as is necessary to gather the information you need for your articles, but you also have to keep in mind the gold axiom: Time is money.
Over the years I’ve discovered that it’s best to do all the research I need for a particular topic in one sitting so that I don’t have to jump back and forth between projects as that alone can be a time killer. By managing your projects in time blocks you can get more done. Do all of your research at once and take good notes then write all of your articles at the same time. This way you can do all of your research for all of your articles on a particular topic and save yourself some time. With the proper approach you can research 20 or 30 articles in an hour or two of time and then be able to write 10 articles per hour if you are fast at collecting and organizing your thoughts. Your article marketing time will be spent doing the important things and not wasting time.
Need an article marketing consultant?
By
allen on July 14th, 2008
Posted in Article Marketing, Article Writing | No Comments »
I’ve browsed the article directories and have seen articles titles, Part 1 and Part 2. Is this a good practice?
I think, on the whole, no. Article marketing is not a good match for articles broken into parts because they typically need each other to be successful, but e-zine publishers and webmasters will rarely use both articles. They may only find one of them and not realize that it needs the other to work. If they do notice a two- or three-part article series they will likely pass it by and not publish it.
To be most effective in article marketing, write each article as a standalone article. You can write articles that are related to each other without requiring that they be used as a series. The longer your series the less likely your articles will be used by other publishers. I would stay away from the practice altogether.
Need an article writer?
By
Bill Platt on July 14th, 2008
Posted in Article Directories, Article Marketing, Article Submissions, Article Writing | No Comments »
In this age of article spam, including links within the body of an article is difficult to accomplish, depending on how you are distributing your articles.
If you are relying on a bunch of article directories to get your articles to publishers, links in the body of an article is nearly always a guaranteed article killer. 80% of article directories prohibit links in the body of the article and for good reason.
Most article directories prohibit this practice, because so many people abuse article marketing, in an effort to spam the article directories and search engines. They simply miss the point of article marketing, by missing the idea that article marketing is an excellent tool for getting human readers to their website to buy what is being sold.
The new breed of article marketers who entered the marketplace in circa 2005 had been told by the so-called guru’s that the only point of article marketing was to generate links to one’s website, for SEO and link popularity purposes. So new article marketers started coming out of the woodwork, trying to shove as many links as they could into the articles they were distributing. The biggest mistake these folks made was to shove numerous links into the body of the article, with little or no regard for whether readers would enjoy reading that article.
What was missed by the so-called gurus and their students, was that those people who were finding great success with article marketing in 2005 and before, were focused on telling good stories to attract human visitors to their websites. They knew that getting the link was important, but they also knew that in order to get more links, the writer needed to tell a good story.
Article directory managers were annoyed at the junk that was pouring into their directories every week, so they started seeking out methods to quickly identify the trash. The one identifying mark that really stood out was that 90% of the article marketers who were putting links into the body of the article, were those people guilty of submitting those most trash articles to their directories.
Article directory managers did realize that 10% of the articles with links in the body of the article were great articles, but they also knew that the other 90% were pure trash. Granted, they knew that they would be losing a few good articles each week by prohibiting articles with links in the body of the article, but they also knew that they would be ridding themselves of a huge portion of the garbage that was being sent to them.
Strictly as an effort to manage their own time, article directory managers put an end to articles with links in the body of the article.
The only reason one should ever consider putting links in the body of their articles is when they recognize that those links might prevent an article from being published in some sites, but at the same time, it might make the article more attractive to others.
The first trick to getting an article out there with links in the body of the article is to distribute your article only through article distribution sources that allow such a thing. The second trick is to only provide links that support the story you are telling, and to avoid using self-promotional links in your article.
There are some article distribution channels that permit links in the body of the article, although the strongest recommendation is to only include links that support the story being told.
If you only provide links that add to the value of the article, then the chances of certain publishers printing your articles is greatly enhanced.
For those of you who pay attention to the articles that I write and distribute, you will note that half of my articles have NO LINKS in the body of the article and half DO HAVE LINKS in the body of the article.
I do this because I want to be able to reach publishers who appreciate links in the body of the article, and I want to reach publishers who prohibit links in the body of the article.
I only include links when those links add real value to my story. And I switch formats, so that I can reach a much larger audience through diversity in writing strategies.
When all is said and done, whatever formats you utilize in your articles, the most important consideration is to always give your readers real value. When you have learned to do that, you will also find success in your own article marketing endeavors, like those before you have done.
Bill Platt - owner of The Phantom Writers.com Article Ghost Writing and Article Distribution Service
By
allen on July 12th, 2008
Posted in Article Marketing, Article Writing, author resource box | No Comments »
You’ve got some great articles, but you find yourself writing your resource box every time you want to submit one to an article directory. It’s really getting old. So why do it?
You really only need to write your resource box once. In fact, why not write three author resource boxes, with slightly different information in each one and with different links? Then each time you write an article that you want to submit to an article directory, you simply choose with author resource box to use. Save your resources boxes in a text file on your hard drive and whenever you’re ready to submit your articles to an article directory you just copy/paste the one you want to use onto the bottom of your article. Simple.
Here’s what you should include in your resource boxes:
- Your name
- Name of your company
- One sentence that sums up the service you want to promote
- A link to your landing page
- (Optional) A second link
- A closing sentence that serves as a call to action (this should have a link in it; preferably your one link or the alternate, and this sentence can be the same sentence as the summary mentioned above)
You really want to use that author resource box to drive traffic to your landing pages. But don’t promote more than one landing page per article. Focus on one landing page per article and use your articles to drive traffic to that landing page.
By
allen on July 9th, 2008
Posted in Article Directories, Article Marketing, Article Writing | No Comments »
I don’t know why some of these companies even bother. We got a request to review a new product, ArticleChanger. The product purports to rewrite your articles for you. Cool, a ghostwriter you won’t have to pay.
Well, not so fast. My final analysis: You’re better off writing your own articles even if you can’t write. Check it out for yourself:
I entered the following article into the box at ArticleChanger’s website:
Can a small business really benefit from a blog? You bet your sweet can-can it can.
OK, so that’s too many cans for one article. Bottom line. You CAN run a small business blog and make it profitable. Here are a few tips on how:
* First, don’t try to swallow the whole apple in one bite. Take it slow. You may not need a daily blog. Start with a weekly blog and move up from there as you need to.
* Secondly, make a list of keywords before you do anything. Then, focus each blog entry on a single keyword. Write 150-200 words on that keyword and link back to your main web site.
* Thirdly, don’t promote your competitors. Promote yourself. No-brainer? You would think, but I see small businesses promoting their competition all the time.
* Fourthly, speak to your audience, not at them. Invite them to participate. Sponsor contests or encourage comments and interaction. That’s really what blogs are for.
Blogging is nothing new. It’s been around awhile. But it is relatively new for business. Some corporate blogs have been quite successful, but not too many small businesses are taking advantage of this free promotional tool. They should.
A blog on your small business web site gives you fresh new content every time you post a blog. That’s very important for search engine saturation. Also, every link from your blog to your web site is counted as a link by Yahoo and MSN. Google is a little more strict, but that may not be important.
For one thing, Google is largely the search engine for corporate players and techies. The statistics that show Google’s market share are a bit skewed; that’s the big secret.
People who live on the web use Google. They make dozens of searches every day. Most people only make one or two searches a day. AOL users use AOL. Most new users of the Internet are using Yahoo, MSN or AOL. If you run a retail business, those search engines are more important to you than Google, so it’s important that you understand how your blog is being read by them.
Your local business can benefit from a company blog if you understand your customer and address each blog to meet their needs. Key things to remember:
* Blogging takes time. If you don’t have it, don’t start one. At least, don’t do it every day. Once a week or twice a week is OK. But keep a consistent schedule.
* Use a software that allows you to timestamp entries. You can write several at one time and set them to post at an appointed time.
* If you can’t do it yourself, hire someone to do it. You can get a blog ghostwriter for as little as $5 per post.
* Make it keyword focused, for the search engines.
Above all, have fun.
After hitting the rewrite button, this is what I got back:
OK, so that’s lots of cans for four article. Bottom line. You CAN run a small business blog & make it profitable. Here are a few tips on how:
Can a small business benefit from a blog? You bet your sweet can-can it can.
* First, don’t try to swallow the whole apple in four bite. Take it slow. You may not need a daily blog. Start with a weekly blog & move up from there as you need to.
* Secondly, make a list of keywords before you do anything. Then, focus each blog entry on a single keyword. Write 150-200 words on that keyword & link back to your main web-site.
* Thirdly, don’t promote your competitors. Promote yourself. No-brainer? You would think, but I see small businesses promoting their competition all the time.
* Fourthly, speak to your audience, not at them. Invite them to participate. Sponsor contests or encourage comments & interaction. That’s what blogs are for.
Blogging is nothing new. It’s been around awhile. But it is relatively new for business. Some corporate blogs have been successful, but not lots of small businesses are taking advantage of this free promotional instrument. They should.
For four thing, Google is largely the search engine for corporate players & techies. The statistics that show Google’s market share are a bit skewed; that’s the big secret.
A blog on your small business web-site gives you fresh new content every time you post a blog. That’s very important for search engine saturation. Also, every link from your blog to your web-site is counted as a link by Yahoo & MSN. Google is a little more strict, but that may not be important.
People who live on the web use Google. They make dozens of searches every day. Most people only make four or four searches a day. AOL users use AOL. Most new users of the web are using Yahoo, MSN or AOL. If you run a retail business, those search engines are more important to you than Google, so it’s important that you understand how your blog is being read by them.
Your local business can benefit from a company blog if you understand your customer & address each blog to meet their needs. Key things to remember:
* Blogging takes time. If you don’t have it, don’t start one. At least, don’t do it every day. four time a week or once a week is OK. But keep a consistent schedule.
* Use a application that allows you to timestamp entries. You can write several at four times & set them to post at an appointed time.
* If you can’t do it yourself, hire someone to do it. You can get a blog ghostwriter for as little as $5 per post.
* Make it keyword focused, for the search engines.
Above all, have fun.
Judge for yourself, is that a usable article?
I love how the article changer turned all of my ones into fours, rendering the article complete nonsense. Then there is the whole paragraph rearrangement thing that caused the article changer to take a sentence in paragraph 2 completely out of context and making it my lead sentence. Totally worthless!
The mass effect is one humorous little article that I end up having to rewrite again just to turn it into something that makes sense. Why bother?
When it comes to re-purposing your content, you’re better off in most cases just writing from scratch. Some article directories are now rejecting articles that even look like they’ve been rewritten.
I would not recommend rewriting your articles. Just write fresh articles that don’t threaten to have problems like the ones noted above. Really, it doesn’t take long to write a 500 word article that can be used for article marketing or other online marketing purposes. If you’re going to do something, why not do it right?
By
allen on July 7th, 2008
Posted in Article Directories, Article Submissions, Article Writing | No Comments »
All of it, says Chris Knight.
This is the same thing we’ve been saying for a long time now. PLR articles are useless. Word for word, idea for idea, I could not have said it better myself:
Non-content spammers but well-meaning newbies will ask this question: How much must I change or rewrite my article so that your content filters won’t reject it or suspend my account? The answer is all of it. Seriously, don’t rewrite your own articles. Just create new ones. It’s not that hard. 
You can do it.
Today it’s just one article directory, but that’s how it usually starts. By this time next year there will be a half dozen more article directories instituting the same policy. Why? Because e-zine publishers and webmasters don’t want the same rehashed content that all of their competitors have. It does them no good. They can’t monetize it, they can’t rank with it, and it doesn’t benefit their readers. Therefore, it doesn’t benefit the article directory. And what doesn’t benefit the article directory doesn’t benefit you. So you might as well write your articles from scratch.
“But what if I can’t write?”
No problem. Call a ghostwriter. Not only will you get fresh, unique content, but you own it and you can use it, re-use, and distribute it as many times as you wish - all for the same price. That’s the nature of work for hire. We work for you and you own the content. If you’re going to do it, you might as well do it right. In other words, learn to say the alphabet with the letters P, L and R.
“So, how much does a ghostwriter cost?”
By
Bill Platt on July 7th, 2008
Posted in Article Marketing, Article Writing | No Comments »
As the Fourth of July weekend is wrapping up, I thought it very appropriate to write about the Freedom that article marketing has given to me and my family.
Before I wrote articles for the Internet, I worked in several jobs over the years. Although I had managed some offline credits as a writer, I always considered my writing to be a hobby, in that any job that does not pay you well can only be considered a hobby.
My mom still writes for offline publications, but after spending 30, 40, sometimes even 50 hours developing an article, she still gets paid about $225 for her troubles. I consider her writing to be a hobby too.
Sure, she gets paid and she gets to see her name in print in a magazine, but she can’t earn a living writing for a monthly magazine that prints her “history stories” twice a year. Even my uncle has made it into the pages of several military magazines, with his historical pieces from WWII. And like my mother, his writing can be considered nothing more than a hobby.
I started writing for the Internet audience in 1999, when I was 33 years old. In 2005, I was earning enough from my writing, that I was able to leave my last job in March of that year.
Until 2005, I had to work every Fourth of July. My wife had to take the kids to the Fireworks show, and I would show up late every year, and struggle to find my family in the crowds of people at the fireworks show.
But, starting in the Summer of 2005, continuing through this past weekend, I have had the Freedom to make a day of festivities on the Fourth of July. I have had that kind of freedom, because of my writing, which has given me the income level that is high enough that I don’t have to let someone else write my paycheck nor tell me how I will spend the day on the Fourth of July.
As the Fourth of July weekend approached, one of my articles on article marketing was featured on the front page of SiteProNews.com for the entire holiday weekend. Here is where it will be in the archives later. At the same time, I had an article ride through the weekend on the front page of SEO-News.com, located in the archives here. Two weeks before the holiday weekend, an article I had written made the SiteProNews newsletter, reaching half a million readers in a single day.
Some people argue that the whole point of article marketing is to get your article published on websites, for that link popularity juice. I consider that a nice plus, but for me, the whole point of article marketing is to get your article into the various newsletters available online. Especially those newsletters that can reach half a million readers in a day.
I don’t get to spend my Fourth of July weekends with my kids, because some website picked up and published my articles. Nope. I get to spend the Freedom holiday with my kids, because I get published in the newsletters that can deliver a lot of targeted traffic to my website in just a few days.
Getting published in newsletters that matter is the reason I get to spend holidays with my family. Link popularity from article marketing is a nice plus, but if I relied solely on link popularity to make money online, I could be waiting forever.
Those Internet Marketing Guru’s, who tell you that Link Pop is the only reason to create reprint articles, are selling you short. If you have been wondering why your article marketing does not work the way my article marketing works, it could be because you are mistakenly focusing on link pop instead of attracting hoards of readers to your website.
If some guru told you that you just need to write enough to get your link on a webiste, with your article, then I am willing to suggest that you are listening to the wrong gurus.
If you recall, in a previous paragraph, I suggested that Link Pop is a nice bonus. I meant it. It is a nice bonus, because it should not be your only goal. If you are solely focused on Link Popularity, then you will never see the true potential of article marketing.
Those gurus who preach the link pop equation, without regard for the human reader, are leading you astray. After all, when was the last time Google purchased your products or services. Let me guess, “Never.” Your articles’ readers are the people who are going to buy your products and services. But, if you are only writing to please the search engines, with little to no regard for the human reader, then you will not see wide publication, and you definitely will not see huge traffic and lots of happy buyers from your article marketing endeavors.
So, while you continue to follow the advice of all of the wrong gurus, I declared freedom from my job in March of 2005, and I have the freedom to keep spending my Fourth of July weekends with my children, despite what anyone else might think I should be doing with my holidays.
Bill Platt - owner of The Phantom Writers Article Marketing Services
By
allen on July 1st, 2008
Posted in Article Writing | No Comments »
They’re coming out of the woodwork left and right. People claiming to be article marketing experts because they read an e-book and know how to write. It’s not as simple as it sounds.
Would you rather have an overpaid newbie writing your articles or a professional writer with experience in writing published content as well as time-proven SEO tactics and who charges according to what the market can bear?
Most writers in the U.S. are raising their rates and you’ll end up paying $50, $60, $75, or more for each article they write. Many of them can’t even spell correctly. Why pay more for less? Article Content Provider is run is by professional writers and SEO experts with years of experience. And you’ll pay 50% less for your articles. Go ahead. Ask us to prove it.
