Article Writing - 4 Great Ways to Choose Your Article Topics

Choosing the right topic to write on is the most important thing in article writing. You must write on topics that are of interest to your target audience. They should answer their queries otherwise it is a waste of time and effort in writing articles. Since you are not writing for pleasure but to earn revenue, you must first find out what you must write on.

1. Understanding keywords: With the advent of powerful search engines, keywords have become important for article writers and article marketers. Keywords are words or phrases which are used by users to search content on the Internet. They may use variations of the keyword to find what they are really looking for. To give an example, if the user is searching for the recipe for chicken fried rice, he might search on 'fried rice recipe', 'chicken fried rice recipe' or 'recipe fried rice'.

2. Researching keywords: You must find out the exact keywords which are being used by your target audience. This task is simplified with various keyword tools available on the Internet. If you type in 'recipe', the tool will display all the keywords being used containing the word 'recipe'. You will then find out which keywords or phrases are used most often. Then you can use those in your articles.

3. Researching keyword competition: When you write an article using the most popular keyword, the competition is maximum because there will be other authors like you who would already have written articles on those keywords. This reduces the probability of your article getting picked up by the search engine. Therefore, a safer option is to select keywords which are popular but not highly competitive. You can conveniently ignore the top 50 or to 100 keywords and select the ones after that. However, this is only a suggestion. The choice will depend on the subject you are writing on and the absolute value of the keyword popularity.

4. Research customer queries: Do some homework. Go to your customer query database and read through the latest queries, probably over the last couple of months. Look out for common phrases used by your customers across different queries. Chances are high that they are using the same words and phrases in the search engines. These will form your keywords. In fact, extracting data in this manner will ensure that you get high targeted keywords. You can also compare this set with the results of the keyword tool to get more accurate keywords.

The time and effort spent in researching keywords is an investment which will give you rich dividends.

Article Writing For Money - Latest 3 Interesting Ways to Make Money With

This article is for freelance writers who would like to make money by writing and selling articles online. Here's what you can do to boost your earnings:

1. First, show your prospective buyers what you've got. Give them an idea about your writing skills and level of expertise by creating your own online portfolio. Don't worry as doing this is relatively easy. Create several articles on different topics (it's important to show your versatility) and post them (under your name) on publishing sites particularly on EzineArticles dot com. At the end of your article, on your resource box, tell your readers who you are and the services that you offer. If they are impressed with your writing skills, there is no doubt that they'll going to hire you.

2. Explore freelancing sites. These are the websites where you can easily connect with people who need ghostwriters. Before you sign up with any of these sites, read reviews first to make sure that the site you'd sign up with is legit. Then, create a compelling profile that will speak about your expertise and your credibility. This can help you earn the trust and later on, the business of your prospective clients.

3. Pricing. Most established ghostwriters are now charging $5-$12/article. The price will depend on the length of the article and the amount of research required. You can also charge this amount but only if you have already established your name in this industry. However, if you are just starting out, it would be best if you charge a little less ($2-$4/article) to give your potential clients a valid reason to try you out.

Do you want to learn more about how I do it? I have just completed my brand new guide to article writing success, "Your Article Writing and Promotion Guide." Download it free here: Article Writing.

Article Writing - Benefits of Submitting Articles to Directories

Writing articles is my favourite form of traffic generation and list building. However, many people writing articles do not generate the visitors they expect to. Writing articles does not mean just jotting down words relevant to a subject. It means providing quality information that is useful and beneficial to the readers.

First of all, make sure your tone is friendly and natural. This is not a science report. It is an informative letter to get people to click through to your site so that you can provide them with further relevant information and eventually purchase quality products/services from you. Pretend you are talking and giving information to a friend. This certainly helps, trust me.

Here are some pointers that will help to get your articles read and get click thrus to your site.

1) Topic

It most certainly helps to know something about the subject you are writing about. This way the words and content of the article will come naturally and flow easily.

2) Title

The title is possibly one of the most important aspects of your article. When you pick up a newspaper the first thing you look at is the title of an article and then decide whether you wish to read on or turn the page. Your title must arouse interest. To get some ideas of what a great title looks like go to your favourite directories and search for the "most read articles" page. You will clearly notice the attention grabbing titles they use.

3) Introductory Paragraph

Your first two or three sentences must be just as attention grabbing as the title. Your words must invoke curiosity to encourage the reader to read further.

4) Body

This is where you can really impart your knowledge and give useful information to your readers. I cannot stress enough that if your article content is not original and of value to your readers they will not click through to your site. Using bullet points, numbering or short paragraphs makes the article easy to read.

5) Resource Box

This is where you place your link to invite your readers to click through to your site. If the readers find what you have presented in your article useful, they will want more information and click through to your site. Do not write a long biography about yourself and how great you are as that is not what they are after. Your well written article should give you enough credit to make the readers trust you.

Remember that you are starting a relationship with your reader. Do not write an article that sound like a sales letter because you will not get readers clicking on your links. Just be natural and informative and keep on writing powerful content. The more you write the easier it gets and in no time you will become an expert author.