Writing Articles

Lesson One

Writing articles to make money online is simpler than you might think. I won't call it easy, because you do need to put in some work. If you are technologically-challenged like myself, you will also need to do some serious learning about the internet and page-building.

There is a way to make money writing articles even without a website, and I'll cover that in an upcoming lesson. However, for the purposes of this course, I am assuming you have a website. If not, be sure to save the emails, so you can find your way back to these lessons when you're ready. If you have a site, but are just learning the basics, there are some free resources (like HTML help) listed on the page, Internet Marketing Tools, which is linked to on the navigation bar above.

Making Money Writing Articles

Here is a very basic formula that works. You can start with as little as $20 and run a business like this for $10 per month. If you already have a website up and running and ready to make money, and you just need the traffic, you can skip to step five.

1. List things that you are passionate about, or at least knowledgeable about.

2. Choose a subject from your list that enough other people are interested in (more on how to figure out that "demand" in a coming lesson).

3. Build a website based on that subject, and optimized for the keywords that your potential visitors are typing into the search engines.

4. Make a plan for how you will "monetize" the traffic to the site. Making money from affiliate programs, paid advertising or your own products are the most common ways. These will be discussed in upcoming lessons.

5. Write articles that are interesting and make readers want to visit your site.

6. Distribute your articles to directories and newsletters, creating streams of free traffic to your website - some of them virtually permanent.

What Are Article Directories?

Article directories are like online libraries of articles. Some specialize in a specific area, like internet marketing, while others carry articles on just about any topic. The biggest directories have more than 100,000 articles in them. These come from thousands of authors who submit their articles and have them posted on the site.

Most directories carry "free-distribution" articles. Anyone can take them and use them for their website, newsletter or blog, as long as they don't change them, and they leave the links active. The links are primarily in the "author's resource box," where the writer says a few words about herself and invites the reader to visit her web site. Hopefully, the reader clicks on the link and comes to the site.

What Was That?!

Not sure what some of the language here means? Much of it will be explained as we go along, but you can also find most of the terms in the Internet Glossary.

This is why writers submit to these directories, and why you should. You post an article once, and not only do visitors to the directory read it and visit your site, but other site owners put it on their sites. Their visitors now have a chance to read it and click-through to your site. In other words, it can spread and create many streams of permanent traffic.

Why permanent? Why will they keep your article on their website? Because your article adds value to their site and helps build traffic too. For example, I get traffic for "mexico real estate" on my site Houses Under Fifty Thousand .com because of an article written by someone else - one that I took for free from a directory. The author gets clicks through to her site from mine now, but I get search traffic and some revenue too, so why would I ever remove that article?

Some article banks charge, by the way, but there are plenty that are free. Many have several options ranging from free to better placement or active distribution for a small charge. I use only the free ones for now, and I'll explain why in a future lesson.

To summarize with an example: Suppose you love fishing. You have a website on fishing tips. You spend an hour to write an article on how to find the best bass-fishing spots. You submit it to a dozen directories (I'll show you how you can do this in twenty minutes). Other website owners put the article on their sites. People read the article, want more, and so click on the link to your site. While there, they click on advertisements that make money for you even while you are sleeping.

Of course you start writing more articles. I won't lie to you. Most articles will create just a trickle of traffic, but many trickles add up to a steady stream, and writing articles can be easier than you think. I'll be breaking the whole process down into simple steps in coming lessons.

Coming Lessons: The easiest way to write articles and the best article directories.

Note: Not yet subscribed? To get a free lesson each week by e-mail, go here: Article Marketing Course. To buy the course as an e-book at a reduced rate, (and with a bonus), visit: Writing Articles E-Book/Course.

Lesson 1 - Writing Articles