OK. You have decided to write an article. It should be something you are passionate about or at the very least have some knowledge of the subject.
Let's go into some depth about researching the substance of your article.
RESEARCHING YOUR SUBJECT
If you are passionate and know enough about the article subject you will probably be able to write a 700 - 1000 word article in less than 30 minutes.
Once you have chosen your niche start using the search engines to get a feel for the information that's being returned for your search phrases.
Visit some article directories, (use the term "article directories" in Google to find plenty), and do a search of these article directories to see what information other authors are submitting.
Check out Forums to see what questions people are asking then write an article with the information they are seeking. Give people what they want.
If you wish you can go down the road of researching articles and posts on newsgroups, Google / Yahoo groups, CNN, BBC and so on but to be honest this will probably result in too much information and you will never get an article written.
(It is handy to keep a small notebook and pencil with you to jot down ideas when they occur. Great ideas always occur when we don't have a pencil which is why we are not millionaires just yet!)
Writing your Article
You Can:
1. Write it yourself.
2. Out source your article to a ghost writer
3. Use Private Label Rights (PLR) articles
Here we go.
1. Write it yourself.
The majority of people will immediately say "I can't write". This is utter nonsense. People may be a little apprehensive or just plain afraid to put pen to paper for others to see but just about anyone can write an article about something they know.
It's all about comfort zones and if we are not prepared to expand our comfort zones just because we feel somewhat awkward then nothing will ever get done. So just remember you CAN write articles so get writing.
Make sure you are providing quality content. A mistake some folks make is to write adverts for their affiliate products with a link to buy. If you have given the reader a quality article they will start to trust you and eventually buy from you.
Articles are written to:-
1. Directly inform the reader through quality content and
2. Indirectly sell to the reader.
The sales part is through your resource or bio box. This is worth spending some time on as apart from wanting your readers to visit your website you also want the search engines to index the links back to your site. These links are hugely important as they carry a lot of weight with Google.
So you now have the article written with quality content. Let's look at the resource box and anchor text links.
Try to give your readers some reason to click on the links in your resource box. If they have enjoyed your article and want more information then that is a good reason. Let them know that you do have more for them but they will have to go to your website.
Anchor Text Link
It is not possible to show you the exact html as tags are not generally allowed in article bodies but my resource box is an example of anchor text and you can always use the view source function of your browser.
If possible also use a straight http:// link as sometimes the anchor text html is not allowed or not recognized by some article directories.
2. Out Source Your Article
There are numerous sites dedicated to outsourcing - Scriptlance and Elance are probably the best known. These are not just for article writing but you can hire the services of a Pro for just about anything you want.
Note: When I say Pro be careful because there are sharks around. Always deal with the writer through the site and if asked to make an outside payment through E-gold then back off as you will probably never see your money again.
It can be as cheap as $ 5 per article but you still need to know exactly what to ask for. It's no good saying "giving me an article on ...". You must be very specific on subject, title, keywords, keyword density and you generally have to supply resources for the ghost writer to refer to.
Sometimes by the time you have collected the resources and other article information you may as well have written the article yourself.
Check the feedback of people you intend to hire and consider that cheapest is not always best. You may be able to secure a more cost effective per article price if you want 10 or more articles written around the same theme.
3. Use Private Label Rights (PLR) articles
I am not convinced that this is really of any use at all. The "experts" are making a big deal of this at the moment and flogging off PLR packages left right and center for next to nothing... actually you can actually download PLR articles and products for free just by giving your email address.
In my experience the articles are sub standard and I would be ashamed to post them for review to a human editor. Of course you are meant to alter the articles so they magically become unique to avoid any perceived duplicate content penalties from the search engines but in all honesty the time spent changing these "articles" could be better spent doing your own research.
If you haven't tried PLR take an article and run it through Copyscape.com. Now see how long it will take for you to make a unique article.
You can buy software to transform a rubbish article into thousands of "unique articles" in seconds. Again, I am not convinced. The whole process reeks of cheating or, at best, is morally suspect and it definitely is not giving the reader quality content which is what I thought writing articles was meant to be about. Should I find a good PLR system I'll write an article on it.
You can however get some ideas for niches and the articles can at least give you a starting point for writing.
http://www.taffs-article-directory.com/blog/
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