Article Writing - Most often suggested service, but least understood...

Writing for the web is an easy skill to learn and can either promote your business or earn you immediate cash through selling your written work.

Here's some tips I recently gave as part of a teleseminar on this very topic:

1. Go look at quality articles on eHow and Associated Content. You’ll know the good, the fair, and the ugly once you see them. Pick a topic you like or at least know something about, then publish it on your website or a site like Associated Content. Repeat this step. Then take your resume, credentials and writing samples and apply for paid work on content websites like Demand Media Studios or Bright Hub. It really is that simple.


2. Publish an article: any article, whether it is a short piece for eZineArticles, Associated Content, or a local newsletter. Four hundred words is generally an acceptable length, though some articles can be as short as 250 words or in excess of 500 words. Interview a local business owner; write a tip guide for someone looking to get a job in your industry. Really, the possibilities are endless. Online content providers and other potential clients want to see that you can write articles that a general audience can easily read and digest. It’s really far simpler than it used to be in the days during which major print newspapers like “The Washington Post” dominated the world and their readers demanded a very high level of expertise that only people with advanced journalism experience and education could meet.

Publishing articles can also help promote your other business endeavors, whether you’re giving teleseminars or selling information products especially if you put those first articles up on EzineArticles.

3. Once you publish 1, 2, or 3 articles, start marketing yourself as a writer to your existing client base. You can also find tons of content sites and clients online by using sites such as Demand Media Studios and oDesk. Private clients as well as content sites are yearning for quality writing from native English speakers. Also, if you’re active on major message boards such as Warrior Forum or Digital Point and even mention you’re a writer you will get lots of offers from potential clients. I don’t even market myself as a writer on these types of forums, but it is a known fact and I get e-mails and messages almost daily asking if I or someone I know can write content for blogs, websites, and online newsletters.

4. Write your introductions last. This is a big point that is crucial to success that took me 12 years of trial and error to fully learn. Your introduction for an online article should not be a summary of the article. It should give some important facts not otherwise mentioned in the article. If you try to write the introductions first it is far easier to get stuck and falsely assume online writing just is not for you.

Special note: And yes, if you really just don't want to write and still want to promote your business, then go to oDesk or Guru or right here and hire someone to write them for you.

Good luck!

Stephanie

Thanks for your contribution, Stephanie

That's the kind of thing new writers need to know.

I also think selecting the right niche is HUGE.

I've tried so many times breaking into the IM or weight loss niches- but even with a good, long article it can be VERY tough to rank for decent keywords.

On the other hand, you can go into a smaller niche, write 10 articles, and have 5 of them as #1 in Google pretty easily.

Just my 2c

I've taught writing for many years, and the advice I always give comes down to this:

1. Writing well takes practice. Your 10th article will be 10x better than your first.

2. Writing is - first and foremost - communication. Get your point across as simply as possible, and don't worry about big words and fancy phrases.

3. Start with a modest goal. If you want to write fiction, don't start by planning a 1500 page trilogy! Start with a short story. If you want to succeed in article writing, don't plan to write 25 articles a day for the next month. Start with one.

4. Finish what you start. Lot's of people have ideas for what to write. Few get past the first few sentences. In the publishing world, there is a special name for the people that can finish what they start. They're called . . . author.

There's my advice - worth every penny you paid. Now I have to get back to making those changes my agent want to see in my new manuscript.

I think writing is the best way to start online and it isn't because you can make money rather quickly.

I used to loiter around online, not making much money at all. I had a ton of ideas I just couldn't get the ball rolling on any of them. I turned to writing because I needed money fast, but I also knew production was my weakness.

The fact that I was obligated to produce for other people, at a fixed pay rate, made the phrase "time is money" hit home pretty hard. The more I did, the more money I made. I've turned around and applied that lesson to my own business. I think that was far more valuable than any money I made, and it is why I would recommend people start there.

I think part of the problem, too, is that it seems many people want content that's "unique," but they don't really care if it sounds like it was written by a squirrel on acid typing in the dark. In this case, the articles are nothing more than search engine fodder and not meant for human consumption. It seems like this is the market toward which the "desperate for cash" crowd gets pointed.

In this market, writing is regarded as being on the level of cleaning hotel rooms, handing out hamburgers, or mowing lawns. They assume--and may be right--that that type of writing takes no more skill than McDonald's work.

From what I've seen, usually when people suggest article writing to someone in desperate need of money, they also suggest rates like $5/article. That doesn't come close to pro (or even "quite good") rates, but it might help someone collect enough cash to pay the light bill.