Article Weblog

You’re ready to start writing articles to use in an article directory, ezine, blog or website to promote your online business. You position your fingers over the keyboard, ready to type. But then, it happens. Your mind goes blank. Suddenly you can’t think of a word to say.

Don’t panic; this does not have to be the dreaded writers’ block. It’s probably just a case of lack of planning for your article writing session.

Writing articles can be fun, enjoyable and a way to effectively promote your online presence. Just because you sit before your keyboard confused about what to write it does not mean you’ll never be able to write an effective article. No excuses okay? Instead, use these five tips to get that article out of your head and onto the paper to increase your online marketing success.

1. Plan your article before sitting down.
Plan your article before sitting down at the keyboard to type. Take the time to put your initial thoughts about what you want to write about on paper. In fact, some people write best with a pen and paper while others can sit and type out the words. Learn your best way of getting your thoughts down and stick with that when planning your article.

2. Write about what you already know.
This is not the time to come up with brand new ideas. Instead, push out an article based on the information you already have in your professional knowledge. What can you write about the topic of your information product? What is the theme of your website? What exciting insight do you have to share about the business you are in? This is what you want the theme of your article to be. Talk about what you know. That will give strength to the writing. The reader will be able to sense that you really understand what you are talking about.

3. Go to quality, not quantity
When I taught undergraduate college students, one of their regular questions about a writing assignment was “How many words does this writing have to be?” I always told them, don’t worry about the quantity, worry about the quality. When you start to think about writing a long piece, you can freeze up. Who can write well while being worried about reaching a long word count limit? Once you have the topic that you want to write about, you will be surprised how much you know. You can learn to write a good article of at least 200 to 300 words very quickly with practice. A secret to doing this is to think about the reader when you write. For instance, when you read an article, do you care if it’s up to a few hundred words or do you care more it if has the information you need? You care about the information, right? Sometimes, you can deliver the content needed in a very few words. So write with a focus on the quality of information provided, not the word count.

4. Develop a list format
One of the easiest ways to get an article out is to write in a list format. That is, make a list of what you know instead of writing in paragraph formats. This works particularly well if you are not accustomed to article writing. You might be more technically oriented, working with facts and figures. Find a way to maintain what is comfortable for you in putting words on paper when producing your articles. For example, write a list of five things you know about the topic you want to write. Now, under each listing, put a few sentences of explanation. Write an introduction and conclusion and you have a basic article.

5. Develop the title, introduction, and conclusion
Write the title for your article first. Now look at it. Does it make sense to you? Does it inspire you to write? If not, change the title. The article belongs to you. No one sees it until you present it to the world. When you think that you can’t change the direction for the article, it will make you hesitant to put anything on paper. The more you hesitate, the more stuck you’ll be. Just get the words on the paper, and don’t reject those quirky, off the wall titles that come to you when you’re doing some self-brainstorming. These might be the triggers you need to get started. Work with the title until you know it says what you need to write on and start in with the rest of the article.

With these five points, you can now go back to getting ready to write that article for your online marketing. Get your fingers ready again and start writing. Once you begin writing articles, you will find that it comes easier the second time, then the third, and so on.

Are you ready to build your email list with articles? Learn how to write articles, fast and easy at www.eproductmentor.com and get an article completed by tonight. Consuelo S. Meux, Ph.D is the Baby Boomer Creativity Coach helping you create your legacy through words.

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Article writing does not require perfection. Article writing does require an ever increasing excellence, but it does not require perfection.

One of my dreams is to get to attend one of Mark Victor Hansen’s (co-author of “Chicken Soup for the Soul”) MEGA Events, such as MEGA Speaking or MEGA Writing. I was on a preview call the other night for the upcoming MEGA Speaking event and I heard Mark Victor Hansen say the following:

“Perfectionists do not seem to make a lot of money in this field. They are always tweaking and not doing.”

Excellence is better than perfection

If you are struggling with perfectionism, you may find it hard to let go of the relentless pursuit. You know it is a hopeless pursuit, yet perfectionism can be difficult to let go.

What you may want to consider instead of the hopeless pursuit of perfectionism is the relentless pursuit of excellence.

Excellence is achievable, perfection is not.

Consider these quotes about perfectionism:

“Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing.” - Harriet Braiker

“No one is perfect… that’s why pencils have erasers.” - Author Unknown

“A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault.”
- John Henry Newman

“Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything,
That’s how the light gets in.”
- Leonard Cohen

So do you want to write and market articles, or you just want to write things that no one will ever see?

Do you want to get in the game, or do you want to be continually “fixin’ to” as we say in the South?

Get started. Write those articles. Get finished. Do it again.

Visit http://www.TheArticleGuy.com/26.htm so you can “write away, right away” with my 26 Articles Writing Templates with Examples, from Jeff Herring, The Article Guy.

P.S. You can also visit http://www.TheArticleGuy.com/october.htm to get in on our October Articleversary Celebration.

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Many affiliates think that they shouldn’t need to write articles as they get all the good content they require for their site from their affiliate programs.

Usually that is true, but now more than ever visitors to sites are looking for those that have unique content. So by writing your own articles, you can have the most powerful marketing tool available.
Many affiliates will not believe this, but visitors to their sites will want to read what you have to say at your site and not what other people have to say that you have used from other sites. Many visitors will be looking to your site for independent advice and content which will hopefully support of refute information that they have found at another site.

Another reason for affiliates to produce their own articles rather than using others is that visitors to your site may already have read the articles produced by others on your site elsewhere on the internet.
However, it is perfectly reasonable and certainly beneficial to yourself and the other author to use their articles on your site, but you should also remember to feature your own articles as well.
Below are provided four good reasons as to why an affiliate should start writing their own articles.
Firstly, by writing an article containing unique content they are distinguishing themselves from about 90% of other affiliates. Approximately 90% of other affiliates are not actually writing their own articles, so this will result in you becoming a leading force in your field and not just another affiliate.

Secondly, many people are looking for content for their website or newsletters and these people are always in need of new and fresh content. So if you write your own articles you could end up being featured on other people’s websites or in their newsletters. The benefit is that when this happens you will see that they will get additional visitors to your own site, plus these visitors may also feature one of the affiliate’s articles on their website or in their newsletter also. Even before you know it your articles could be appearing in about 50 newsletters or more or on 100 or more websites.

Thirdly, the visitors to your site will stay longer because they have yet more articles to read and this will give you the chance of getting more click throughs to your affiliate program than they would normally be received. You could even if you wish include links to your affiliate programs on each page of your article. By doing this you will not only being gaining more click through ratios to your site, but you are also more likely to see an increase in the commissions that you receive.

Finally, any visitors to your site which contains unique content will automatically feel that they can trust the owner of this site and your will just not be a face in the crowd if you used articles written by others. Plus by using your own content you will begin to “stand out” from other affiliates and as stated above visitors to your site are more likely to trust what you have to say. This could result in people being more willing to buy what ever product your site is selling.

Remember if you want to be a good affiliate then ensuring that you have good content on your site is one way of doing this. It is better not to just use other people’s articles, but ensure that you include your own unique content also which will bring people coming back to your site again and again on a regular basis.

Allison Thompson webmaster of this and several other sites after becoming a work at home mum who now lives in Spain. If you should require any further information please go to http://www.give-me-articles.com

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