Question about article writing

[MunkMurray]

Hi,
I started writing articles last week and I'm finding it really hard to write an article per day.
some of the posts i read in the warrior forum said that getting good traffic requires 3-5 articles a day.

am i missing something?
how can i even get ideas for a new article every day?

any help will be appreciated

thanks a lot,
MunkMurray

[IM Headlines]

Search around for articles that fall in your niche. You can search for them on article directories and get new ideas from them

[BigRedNotebook]

If you're informed and passionate about your product/niche, it should be relatively easy to generate at least one article topic per day.

If it's not, you might want to reconsider your direction or working with someone who specializes in content creation.

[MarkWrites]

If you're suffering through writer's block (not knowing what to write about), there are a number of ways you can find inspiration.

-Buy an affordable (or even find a free one) PLR article batch and use the titles or subjects as ideas for your own content.

-Look at things that are happening in the world (current events) and find a way to reference them or adapt them to the niche that you are writing about.

-Look at your best or most successful articles from the past, can you tackle the same subject again from a different angle or perspective?

-Have you written a top ten or top five list about anything? If you can expand each of those items into a full or even short article of their own by exploring the subject deeper, then you've got another five or ten article possibilities right there.

-Do you know someone personally with ties to the niche you're writing about? Try stepping out of your comfort zone and conducting an interview with them.

-Try a humorous article or approach a subject you've written about before from a sarcastic point of view.

Writer's block happens to everyone regardless of their writing skill, but their are a number of tricks and tips that can stir up new ideas. Sometimes people just need to step back and take a break from writing too.

Good luck!

[milan]

"Article Ideas"? The exact title of my WSO software which does that

It's easy actually. The ideas don't fall from the sky, you go to a keyword tool like Wordtracker to see what people want to hear about. Next, you do the research for those keywords, when you see what information is available for those keywords you get ideas for your own article. Some types of articles which do well and work for every niche:

How To......
Top 10 Things You Should Do To ........ (Well/Safely....etc)

[MunkMurray]

Wow
thank you all for the fast responses, I'm sure your answers will keep me writing for at least a month and I hope that after that time, writing articles and finding title ideas will become second nature to me

thank you

[steve39]

When I started writing articles last year, I struggled to put out 2 per day. I was bogged down with painstakingly researching each one to make sure my facts were straight and then proofreading several times to polish it before submitting.

I am now writing between 10-15 per day in 4 niches. The big difference is that, after a while, I became so knowledgeable about each niche that I didn't have to do any research. Also, after you've gone through the motions a few times, everything gets faster (submitting, typing, proofreading) Hang in there and you'll see your speed increase.

[Guitarjoe]

If you plan to make money using article marketing for a traffic source you'd better plan on writing at least 5-10 per day, 5-6 days per week in the beginning. You have to get your mind focused, turn off any distractions, roll up your sleeves and get to work.

I went through a phase over a three month period a couple years ago where I just set my mind to doing it and wrote 10 articles 4 days per week, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday like clockwork. Of course, I already had a few hundred at the time and have written or outsourced several since, but I wanted that massive BOOST that would start bringing in steady, reliable traffic and sales.

Yeah, it was tough. NO, I won't win any awards for every one of them either. There were some that were great successes and others that were duds. The point is that it had to be done, so I did it.

You've got to treat this like a business. If you were mounting tires and told your boss "I'm finding it really hard to get more than one done per day", you wouldn't have a job anymore.

YOU are the boss now! This is YOUR business! Either fire yourself and outsource the work, step up and do what you've got to do or get used to working for someone else for the rest of your life.

By the way, I'm not trying to be mean. It takes a certain kind of mindset to be able to work alone and motivate yourself. You can either do what you need to do or you can't.

Enough said.


Joe

[MajWorks99]

Originally Posted by MarkWrites

-Have you written a top ten or top five list about anything? If you can expand each of those items into a full or even short article of their own by exploring the subject deeper, then you've got another five or ten article possibilities right there.

Although I'm just getting back into the writing game professionally, I used to use this approach a lot, and it would often turn into some really nice "detail articles" gleaned from a broader one.

Plus, it helps you to turn out content because some of your research is already done.

Good luck!
**Maj**
(Who should be writing right now!)

[Wade Watson]

You're just starting out. Did you ever have a job where you were totally up to speed in 1 week? I didn't. Writing is a skilled occupation. It will get easier and faster with experience. What I find speeded me along at the start was to do a series of article with basically the same format-- like a review of the same category of items. I'd just look back at my previous work as a rough template. In time, you just have it in your head and you can organize and produce an article pretty quickly.

[Zeus66]

To quote an old saying that is extremely relevant to this topic: "Work smarter, not harder."

In article marketing, that means doing keyword research before you write one word. Let me back up a second. First, decide what your goal is. Is it to accumulate articles so you can impress your family and friends? Probably not. It's probably to draw visitors to your site(s) so you can make money. Everything else I have to say about this rests on the assumption that you're in this to make money.

OK, so learn how to do good keyword research first. There are tools aplenty. I like and use Micro Niche Finder, but it's about $100 and is really just a time saver, not a necessity. If you figure out how to use the free Google External Keyword Tool, you can get the same results. It just takes longer. And there are many others you can learn to use to build solid keyword lists.

The whole point is to write articles around keywords that people are actually searching for with some regularity. You can spew out 20 articles/day until your fingers bleed and your heart attacks you without doing a lick of keyword research. And if you're lucky a few of them will just happen to be optimized for popular keywords and you'll get some visitors. That's called working harder.

Working smarter = first building a good keyword list, then drilling down it and writing informative articles about each one. At least one article about each one, that is.

Another aspect of working smarter in article marketing is keyword placement. You want the phrase to appear at the beginning of the title of the article. Then use it again a few times in the body (just don't overdo it... be natural). Then use the author box at the end to link to your site using that keyword or a close variation.

LSI matters, I believe, so you should sprinkle in related words. For example, if your keyword is "dog training" use the words "dogs", "puppies", "canine", "train", "trainer", etc. throughout your article. This helps the search engines get a handle on the theme of the article, and that helps it rank higher.

Then try to get some links pointing to your articles once they're published on the directory you've submitted them to. HINT: The less competition a keyword has (in terms of total number of pages indexed in Google when you search for the phrase in quotes), the less you need links to get a top 10 ranking for that keyword.

Does this quick guide always work? Nope. Does it often work? Yep. And you won't have to buy a new keyboard and band-aids for your fingers every couple weeks.

John

[MunkMurray]

Guys,
I have to say, I'm thrilled to see your comments.
Joe, I must say I really loved your post because that's what I needed to hear,
I knew coming in to this business will take time an effort and you did good to remind me of that.
John, thanks for the quick guide, I'll be sure to follow your suggestions next time I sit down to write.

thank you all,
MunkMurray

[elle56]

You have to treat it like a real business. Whether you feel like writing or not, sorry but you have to write. Same thing applies when you're working a full-time job. You force yourself to work even though you don't feel like working on certain days.

I had a tough time when I was relatively new to article writing. There are days I have to drag myself in front of the computer and write.

Commitment and discipline are important. Plus reading a lot helps.