Article Writing: Breaking Writers Block

It is amazing to see how much we all still dread writing; even a simple letter or memo! When we start talking about an Essay or an Article for publication, it gets much worse. As human beings, we are prone to self doubt, the good news however is; that there is a cure for that. The cure lies in the old adage: "Practice makes Perfect" Once, you can get past the writing of your first article, it gets easier onwards.

This article as the title suggest is about breaking writer's block. 'Writer's block' is used to describe the situation in which anyone can not seem to get themselves to write an essay of any nature. More importantly, it considers the average Internet marketer with limited funds for any kind of campaign. We all know that if you have the funds, you can hire someone to write your articles for publication by other ezines or article directories. However, if you do have the funds why bother to promote your website with article writing at all? Especially, when availability of funds allows you to run many other campaigns like Pay Per Clicks (PPCs) or Traffic Exchange (TE) campaigns to name a few. Note that the turn around time for the alternative campaigns are much less than that of an article publication particularly when there is a third party involved.

Going back to the average Joe Internet marketer with limited funds, there is a need to publish articles for syndication across other websites or on your own website to draw in traffic, increase search engine ranking, and subsequently increase sales. It is my hope that this article inspires you enough to break the barriers and get those creative juices and neurons flowing.

The truth of the matter is; it is hard for an Internet newbie (enewbie) to write Internet home business or marketing articles simply because he/she is new at it (Internet marketing). Even if the individual is a prolific writer it is hard to start churning out Internet marketing articles on the fly. That then, brings us to the ice-breaker which is: Find your comfort zone, start by writing an article on something that you are passionate about.

You can write about an hobby, family matters, health, sports, or vacation spots. If you try to do this and you still find yourself intimidated by the attempt. Then I suggest you consider writing it as a letter to a friend or family member. Go all the way at this letter-writing idea. In other words, use the form of a letter with Dear friend, I am writing to share my blah blah blah with you... And so on. This should produce a page or two on the subject that you chose to write on.

Once you are able to generate a page or two you are almost done with your first article and congratulations are in order. The next step is to now reformat your letter into an article format for eventual publication. For tips on effective Internet article writing you can view an article on that subject by Donald Nelson at http://www.a1-optimization.com/article-writing-tips.htm or visit http://www.ideamarketers.com where you can read and learn from a large resource of published articles.

The whole idea of writing within your comfort zone is to get you to start the process of article writing. You need to follow through and publish the articles you write on your interests and hobby. There are millions of sites that would publish your materials, all you need to do is a search online with your favorite search engine. Keyword search suggestions are article submission, article publications to start you off. You can always expand the list of keywords.

Once you get your first article published, you only need to repeat the process for you next article. As you do this, it becomes second nature and you would also have gathered some Internet home business marketing experience along the way. Enough experience that you can now position yourself to start churning out Internet marketing articles on the fly. I wish you the best in your journey.

Robert Kempster is a fairly recent entrant into the Internet Home Business Industry. Background spans Executive Management, Computer Operations, Programming, Real Estate (former COO), and an incomplete EMBA. An ordinary person doing extraordinary things. <a target="_new" href="http://www.profitcentral.biz">http://www.profitcentral.biz</a> <a target="_new" href="http://www.kemptechdomains.com">http://www.kemptechdomains.com</a> <a target="_new" href="http://www.kemptech.biz">http://www.kemptech.biz</a>

How to Write an Effective Article

Writing a great deal of articles myself, I see a lot of the other articles that are submitted. Although the majority are spot on, many are not nearly as effective as they could be. Hopefully I can impart some insight on the Do's and Don'ts of writing an effective article.

Choosing a Subject
This is where most people go wrong. When choosing an article they tend to go with a popular subject in order to get the largest audience. The most important thing you can do is to write on what you know and are passionate about. I have read countless articles that although they are technically good, they lack the punch that gets them a wide distribution. Passion is something you can't fake and there is nothing more enticing than an article brimming over with it. One of the ways you can judge the level of passion you have for a subject is the amount you can write. If you find you have to stop yourself or you could go on forever that may be a passion.

Use Proper Spelling and Grammar
This seems obvious but there are countless examples of articles being submitted where the author did not even run a simple spell-check. It is unfortunate when what would be an excellent article is ruined by countless spelling mistakes. Remember that the goal is to have webmasters pick up your content to use on your own site. They will shy away from poorly written articles as they know they will be judged on their content, whether they wrote it or not.

Don't Oversell
It may be your intention to sell your product but overdoing it may result in the opposite effect. Webmasters are wary to use your article if it reads as an advertisement, so leave out the blatant sales pitch. Instead give general advice and use the About the Author box to showcase your site or company. For example, a Web Hosting company will do better to write an article helping readers choose a Host rather than constantly talking about what they offer. Let the reader decide!

Get It Distributed
This may not have to do with the actual writing of the article but is a crucial piece. After all, your main goal is to get as many people to read it as possible. Your best option is to use free article distribution sites like:

<a target="_new" href="http://www.articledepot.co.uk">Article Depot</a> ? www.articledepot.co.uk
<a target="_new" href="http://www.goarticles.com">GoArticles</a> ? www.goarticles.com
<a target="_new" href="http://www.ezinearticles.com">Ezine Articles</a> ? www.ezinearticles.com

By submitted to the Top 3, you can save hours of work submitting to individual sites.

Jason Rickard is the owner of <a target="_new" href="http://www.yourfavouriteshop.com">http://www.yourfavouriteshop.com</a> - Europes largest reseller of White Noise CDs

10 Article Writing Quirks

Much has been touted about the effectiveness of article writing in the promotion of their business. While everyone raves about its benefits I'll look into a few quirks.

1) Too much junk- You can't even imagine the amount of rehash material that is being passed off as something in which the reader can find valuable. Some writers rush to put out their work putting quantity over quality. It pays to be original when you are into article writing. Well, I have slack up sometimes on this one.

2) Takes Time- Due to the multitude of writers entering this field, it will probably take six months to a year for others to become familiar with you and your writing style. Once this is accomplished you can expect some fans.

3) High Readership, Low Conversion- There has been times when I have published an article that got good readership but fail to convert into respectable sales or subscribers. The resource box is key I found out if you want to improve your conversions.

If you don't have a quality article the chances of someone reading your resource box is low and their cursor won't make it to your website link. When you do get them to view your resource box, your message has to highlight its benefits to get that valued click thru.

4) Loss of Valuable Links- While article writing has been important in boosting my page rank, this has not always been the case as I thought. Doing some research on some of my articles through the search engines, I realized that not every webmaster provides a live link in my resource box. Failing to do so is sure to cost some valuable back links.

5) You could be a victim- Of what? Copyism. I have seen articles where the writer &quot;lifted&quot; a few paragraphs here and there, did a little editing and presto a new article is born. I guess there is no escaping this as it also happens offline.

6) Lack of Editing- It might take you just a few minutes to whip up that latest article but those few minutes might affect the quality of your work. Proof reading and editing can sometimes be painstaking not to mention the submission process especially if done by hand.

7) Woeful Spelings- Got that one? Proper spelling is important as too many mistakes can affect your credibility. You might get away with one but definitely not four.

8) Grammar- This is in the same vein as spelling. If your grammar sounds like that of a toddler, then don't expect readers to be impressed. You don't need to have the writing skills of a poet, but with a little practice and research you can vastly improve.

9) Sales copy ? You know these well. Some authors write articles that belongs in the classifieds. In their articles they blatantly advertise their services with the hope of readers visiting their website. A benefit laden article will always produce the best results.

10) Too much links- Nothing peeves me than to get an article to run in my newsletter but when I read it through it is littered. These links can confuse the reader and also reduces the potential of your resource box.

These are a few quirks I found to be associated with the writing and promotion of articles. And I did say ten items but I will just throw in an extra. What is it? Go ahead and proceed with your article writing. While there are some negatives it does work. Why would I be writing this one if it didn't?

? Oceanroc Web Publishing

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Nicholas Dixon is a Jamaican webmaster, writer and affiliate marketer. Find out
how you too can create an online income with our list of highly recommended
programs by visiting <a target="_new" href="http://WWW.Oceanroc.com/affiliate-directory">http://WWW.Oceanroc.com/affiliate-directory</a>
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Website Promotion: Alternatives to Article Banks

Writing and submitting articles to article banks is a well-known method for promoting one's website. Usually there is an author's box at the bottom of the article and a link back to the website. This link is valuable in two ways. First, it provides direct traffic from those reading the article to the website. Second, the link counts as a vote to the website when a search engine robot crawls the article. This will help your website rank higher in the search engine results pages.

Article banks (such as EzineArticles.com, ArticleCity.com or GoArticles.com) help Webmasters who need content for their websites as well. Webmasters will come to these resources and pick up articles for placement on their sites, providing valuable content for their own visitors. The only requirement is that the Webmasters keep the author's box, including the active link, intact when copying the articles.

From a Webmaster's point of view, they need search no further than the article banks for relative content for their websites. But, for the writers promoting their own websites, there is no need to stop submitting articles at the article banks as other resources are available. First, online magazines may be researched and articles submitted to them directly. Second, articles may be submitted to different online groups such as Yahoo! Groups where all you need to do is sign up as a member and then you can email the article to all members in the group.

The third and perhaps newest method for submitting articles and promoting one's website can be found at some of the newer sites that are part article bank and part online magazine. Like an article bank, these new sites let writers submit articles for placement on the site and even let the writer create an online portfolio showcasing their work. Like a magazine, some of these sites will pay for content and encourage readers to come to their site to read all the great articles that they offer.

As an example of one of these newer websites, <a target="_new" href="http://www.AssociatedContent.com/"target="_blank">AssociatedContent.com</a> encourages both readers and writers to come to its website. Revenue is generated by the ads that appear along side the articles. Unlike an article bank, the articles are not to be picked up by Webmasters for their own sites. The benefit to writers though is that this serves as another avenue to showcase their work. Writers get to create an online portfolio including an author's bio page, which will be indexed by the search engines along with their articles for added exposure. Writers at some of these newer classes of websites get to establish themselves as resident experts in their fields, very much like the guides in the About.com model.

So, for those who are looking to write articles and gain exposure for their own websites, the first stop is at the article banks. But, don't stop there. There are other avenues that can be explored for maximum exposure for your website.

Copyright ? 2005 SEO Expert
<a href="http://www.seoexpert.ws" target="_blank">SEO Expert</a> - Kevin Kantola head's up SEO Expert, a search engine optimization firm devoted to achieving high rankings.

Consultants - Writing Articles for the Internet Blankets the World with Your Expertise and Style

A Consultant could be an expert about absolutely anything.

Calling yourself a &quot;consultant&quot; demands further clarification. A consultant who? What specific problems do you handle? And who needs what you know? Everyone? (Never true) Businesses selling to seniors? (A precisely defined niche) Success depends on how clearly you can define yourself and what you offer. How easily can potential clients understand it?

You provide clients more than your expert knowledge and problem-solving skills. Your delivery style (tricks) are every bit as valuable as your knowledge base. We all relate to some businesses (personally and professionally) more effectively than to others. Great match-ups require something akin to a mating call to help a consultant find and connect with ideal clients.

Every consultant is unique in important ways. Your challenge is to express those significant intangibles - so they set you apart from others using the same job title. Do clients understand what you can do for them? How you're different from the competition? Why they'd prefer you?

Article Marketing is Your Ideal Stage

Whether you're selling a service, speaking or training, nothing persuades like offering a sample. Writing articles that highlight your style and expertise does that for you. A meaty, 600 to 800 word article is long enough to deliver a tangible taste.

Once it's widely posted, the message can be read by thousands. Some readers will search for what else you've said, or click over to your website. Writing repeated in-depth articles further establishes your niche, point of view, and expertise. They're building your name recognition and readership in short order.

Your stock-in-trade is information, so packaging it into articles makes you a content creator. The Internet voraciously demands a steady diet of new material. Websites, ezines (and now blogs) efficiently deliver ideas to targeted readers. But sad to say, too many articles consist of rehashed, low-grade material. Stand out with fresh, professional-quality information. Being a cut above builds respect and trust - a must for doing business down the road.

Local Search can Further Define Your Market

Unlike a plumber or day care center, most consultants needn't be confined to the local arena. Your Internet exposure connects you to a national or global audience, if that's your goal. But if your target market is closer to home, articles still help to position you.

Recent research by The Kelsey Group show that 70% use the Internet to make local buying decisions. And nowadays, 36% of search engine queries request local search results. That means the person includes a geographic term in their search engine query. For example, a query with: &quot;employee benefit consultant&quot; + Denver only lists the small pool of appropriate Denver providers.

Every consultant needs to make sure their information appears in local search queries, http://www.yellowpagesage.com/localsearch.html. The trend toward local search is growing quickly. Businesses can easily be left out-which makes them unfindable by online searchers. Who can afford to miss 70% of their client base? Having your own website isn't necessary - but still helpful for a variety of reasons.

Potential Clients will Check You Out Online

Surveys reveal that over half of respondents consider search engines a better source of buying information than Yellow Pages, newspapers or magazines. When someone enters your name or company into Google (in quotes), what comes up?

It helps if your name is unusual. If not, follow up with &quot;search within results&quot; for a qualifier term (like your specialty, &quot;employee benefits&quot;) to find your cites.

In just a few moments, searchers get a picture of your professional standing and scope of recognition. They're likely to be swayed by what they see. Who mentions you, and what are they saying? What kinds of links come to your website? If you've been publishing articles, they'll also show up - enhancing your credibility and incoming links.

In my own case, a Google search for my name showed about 100 cites before I started article promotions. Now that's well over 3,000. So many cites boosted my website traffic and Page Rank as well.

If you haven't gone &quot;ego surfing&quot; on Google for mentions of your name, you should. Because the public will. Make sure there's plenty of stuff for them to find that does you proud.

Copyright 2005 Off the Page

Dr. Lynella Grant Consultant and Author - Promote yourself, business, website, or book with online articles <a target="_new" href="http://www.promotewitharticles.com">http://www.promotewitharticles.com</a> Free how-to. Or let me write and submit your articles online for you. No learning curves (719) 395-9450

Why You Need an Article-Marketing Strategy before Posting a Single Article Online I

Part 1 of a 2-part series
To read Part 2
http://www.promotewitharticles.com/strategy102.html

First, Define your Bulls Eye

If you're going to write and post articles on the Internet, be unambiguous about what you expect them to accomplish. Don't start writing just yet. Think beyond the mechanics of writing an article or deciding where to post it.

It's one thing to spin out an article or two. It's quite another to incorporate them into a strategy that builds your website traffic, reputation, and business. All your marketing methods should work together - online and off.

Your Strategy Clarifies:

- Who you're trying to reach

- How to find them

- What you want them to do next (does your website support that aim?)

- Your primary goal and message

- How articles (with particular titles and keywords) mesh with your other marketing

Article marketing is nothing more than a way to get information (not advertising) broadly distributed on the Internet. It can't compensate for a muddled or dull message. And it won't build your site traffic unless it connects to readers in an interesting way.

Write Articles that Trumpet a Unique Business Message

A frequent business error is treating each customer- attracting activity as though it stands alone. Yet each method works better when echoing a common message that links to the others.

To quote Roy Williams, the Wizard of Ads, http://www.wizardofads.com "It's hard to tell a powerful story badly. But it's easy to tell a weak story well. I've never seen a business fail because they were "reaching the wrong people." But I've seen thousands fail because they were saying the wrong thing... It's amazing how many people become the "right people" when you're saying the right thing. Believe it or not, it's advertising third, customer delight second, strategy always first."

Maximize your Customer-Attracting Methods

Last year I wrote an ebook showing how to make the business website and Yellow Page ad work together to bring new customers. It made the point that each promotional method has its own strengths, and reaches different groups http://www.yellowpagesage.com/smarts.html By them working together, each approach does a more persuasive job.

As an example, the directory ad should display a website address. A recent study found that over 60% of people surveyed only call Yellow Page ads that show a website (even if they don't intend to visit it). Besides, the website lets the business provide information that won't fit within the dimensions of an ad.

A single approach can't cover all your bases. The same applies to article marketing.

Article Marketing Strengths

- Ability to deliver an interesting "sample" of your expertise

- Long enough to be informative (600-800 words)

- Reaches and speaks to tightly focused interest groups

- Quickly delivers the message throughout the Internet

- Long shelf life - some websites keep articles posted for years

- Builds on the keywords that your website uses

- Incoming-links from websites that post your articles

Plan More than One Article at a Time

You can't develop much momentum with one article. That's like shooting a gun with a single bullet, or a PPC (pay-per- click) campaign for just one term. The odds of hitting your mark aren't too good. Several articles written to reinforce each other generate more mileage. As you get more articles out there, people start paying attention, and you can target more keywords. Repeated publications develop a personality that readers recognize.

Plan a number of titles in advance, with a theme building from one to the next. Keep each one tightly focused, but related to the others. In that way, you develop the in-depth "voice" of an expert. And your information won't lapse into ho-hum generalities. Write first-rate articles when you rely on the extensive free resources http://www.promotewitharticles.com at Article Marketing Academy.

Try writing some in a series (like, Part 1 of 3 parts) to build anticipation for future segments. Also, your message won't be confined to the 600 to 800 word article limit. Since each article in the series resides on your website, readers needn't wait to read them all (giving them an incentive to visit your site). Later, the whole series can be offered as a special report or ebook (once related material is added).

Write with your keywords in mind. Maintain your primary message, with a different twist for parallel niches. Go to the extra effort to say something new. That's easy when you provide stories, examples, case studies from your own experience. As you dish out practical assistance in your articles, readers will be eagerly watching for your next ones.

? Lynella Grant, 2005

Part 2 includes posting articles, writing to please the search engines, and ways to re-use articles. Part 2 of 2, http://www.promotewitharticles.com/strategy102.html

--Dr. Lynella Grant <a target="_new" href="http://www.promotewitharticles.com">http://www.promotewitharticles.com</a> - Article Marketing Academy - Promote yourself, business, website, or book with articles posted online. Author, Yellow Page Smarts, <a target="_new" href="http://www.yellowpagesage.com/smarts.html">http://www.yellowpagesage.com/smarts.html</a> (719) 395-9450

9 Top Ways To Get Ideas For Your Next High Quality Article

Thanks to recent information that leaked by Google within their US Patent Application 20050071741, we now know that quality content and incoming links are essential to the survival of your website within the search engines.

Bottom line, you need to start to develop quality content. But, not to only display it on your website, rather than have other webmasters display it on their websites with your URL included in a resource box attached to the article. That will bring you the incoming links for free.

You can always display other people's articles (content) on your website. That will add to the quality content on your site. But, that will not bring you the incoming links needed for high search engine positioning ? and free traffic.

Therefore, you need to start creating and submitting quality articles that will be widely accepted by other webmasters around the globe.

In fact, Google is practically telling you to do so! That means there's no way out if you want to stay atop of the Internet marketing game.

Search Engines are constantly on the "look out" for freshly written content that has been submitted online.

So, how do you come up with ideas for your next highly read article that will get the attention of many, many webmasters who will want to publish it in their ezines, newsletters, blogs, websites, and so on?

Here are 9 ways to get ideas for your next high quality article.

1. Follow the trend. Subscribe to other newsletters that are related to your niche and see what they're writing about at this very moment. If several newsletters are writing on a same topic, it means that it's a topic in demand at this time. Your best bet would be to do your research on that same topic, and write an article about it.

2. Participate in online forums related to your niche. Take a look at what people are talking about. Look at the questions they are asking. Then look at the number of participants on a specific question or topic. The topics that are bringing the greatest number of visitors would make for an excellent article.

3. Visit blogs related to your niche. Read what the blog owners are posting. Are there several posts form several blog owners on a similar or even the same topic? Then look at what kind of comments the readers are leaving. Are there any questions? Blogs are the hot Internet marketing medium right now and you can literally find them everywhere on any topic. This is an excellent source for your next article idea.

4. Every now and then a webmaster would send an e-mail to his or her list (which I subscribe to), and announce that quite a few of his or her subscribers e-mailed them with the same or similar question. The webmaster will then answer that question to the entire list in case more subscribers were wondering about the same thing. There's your idea of what people are looking for at that very moment.

5. Keep your eyes and ears open at all times. Take a look at what information is being broadcasted on TV, radio, newspapers, and online. That information is usually a hot topic at that time.

6. Go to amazon.com or any other bookstore, whether online or offline and check what are the top sellers. Also, look at the magazines related to your niche. See what's being published. This can be a good way to come up with an article that catches the attention of what people are reading.

7. Be seasonal and be responsive to the most current hot events. Write about what is going on that time of the year. Holidays, festivals, sports, graduations, etc. Also, write about the most current hot event happening right now. All this makes for an article that people will want to read during that season and while the current hot event is taking place.

8. The absolute best idea. Survey your current customers, subscribers or even your website visitors. Ask them what kind of article they would like to see in your next newsletter or published on your website. Also keep track of what your customers and prospects are asking you. They're literally giving you the ideas for a good article.

9. Start a swipe file on what others are writing about. (Swipe file is a collection of other people's work). Collect other people's articles that catch your attention and refer to them when you're out of ideas. If the article is of interest to you it will probably be of interest to others. Never plagiarize the work of others though, but you can certainly get good ideas this way. The biggest benefit of a swipe file is having it handy to refer back to over and over whenever you are ready to write your article and you're not sure what you want to write about.

The internet marketer who can write high quality and interesting articles has a huge leg up on their competition. If you can master this strategy there is no limit to how much money you can make online.

Steve Dimeck. Author and Publisher. For more quality articles such as the one you've just read, visit <a target="_new" href="http://www.ogdteam.com">http://www.ogdteam.com</a> - <a target="_new" href="http://www.ogdteam.com">Internet Marketing</a> information and resources.