Five Ways to Wake up the Creative Writer in you

Writing an article doesn’t just mean putting down thoughts into words then typing and writing it. You have to capture the interest of your readers and give them a reason to keep reading. You have to get the attention of the reader and have a firm grasp of their interest and pique their curiosity. Here are five ways you can get creative.

The main ingredient in writing an article is creativity. While creativity may come natural to many people, some of us get writers block. It can be a hair pulling ordeal just to get your creative juices flowing.

Putting words into images in the readers mind is an art. A clear and crisp depiction requires a certain flair that only creativity can provide. Similes and metaphors help a lot, but the way an article gets entwined word for word, sentence by sentence then paragraph by paragraph into a whole article develops the essence of the article.

So just what do you have to do when nothing comes to mind? That’s a fair question but unfortunately, there’s no surefire ways to get those perfect ideas to pop into your head. But, there are easy ways to get your creative juices flowing and put you into a perfect mindset and state of mind. Here are five of them.

1) Keep a diary or a journal in your pocket or with you at all times. You just never know when an idea is triggered by something you may hear, see, or smell. Your senses are your radar in finding great ideas. Write all of them into a journal and keep it with you for future reference. You may also write down anything that you have read or heard, someone’s ideas could be used to develop your own ideas and this is not stealing. Remember that ideas and creativity can come from anywhere; it’s the development of the idea that makes it unique.

2) Relax and take time to sort things out. You need a clear head. A jumbled mind cannot create any space for new ideas. If you are bothered by something, give yourself permission to get rid of it for awhile. Put it in the closet for a few minutes. Try closing your eyes and allowing yourself some quiet time. Block out all the sights sounds and smells around you. Turn your focus inward and breathe.

Try to relax every time that you can and think about your experiences and interactions with others. Your experiences are what shape your mindset and your opinions which could be reflected on your writings. Try to discover yourself, find out what triggers your emotions. Discover what inspires you and what ticks you off. You can use these emotions to help you in expressing yourself and your ideas, with this you can grow creatively.

3) Create a working place that can inspire your creativeness.

Creativity comes from being in a good state of mind and a messed up workplace that causes distraction won’t be conducive in firing up your creative flow.

Surround your working place with objects that makes you happy and relaxed. You may put up pictures, or scents, plants or anything that can to inspire you, relax you and get your creativeness cranking.

4) Set the mood. Setting the mood requires you to just go with the moment or to induce yourself to feeling what makes your mind works best. Finding out what makes you tick could help you find ways to get your creative juices flowing. Set the pace and tempo for your mood and everything else will follow.

There are many ways to set the mood. Some writers have been known to have a little sip of wine to stir up the imagination. Some use mood music while others let the lighting of the environment create the mood. You decide what sets your mood.

5) Go on a vacation and just do something crazy and out of the norm for you. Letting yourself go and have fun produces adrenaline which can make your imagination run wild. If your day is usually a busy one, take an quiet adventure or a solemn hike. Whatever it is that is unusual from your daily routine can take the rut out of your schedule.

In no time at all, your imagination will make use of that experience and get your creativeness to start working in overdrive.

How To Guarantee Your Article Gets Published

There are literally thousands of article submission sites on the net today. Merely submitting your article to article directories does not guarantee that it will be accepted. Many article sites have publishing guidelines that are fairly general in nature. Most of the larger, more popular sites, are strict about what gets published and what gets rejected.

If you want ensure that more of your articles are accepted by online directories you need to make sure your article meets the publisher’s guidelines. As a owner and publisher of online article sites for many years, I am amazed at how many authors don’t take the time to read through submission guidelines.

Many sites will accept any article submitted, especially if it is a new article directory, as a means to build up their article count. However, sites that are more established with high Alexa and Google rankings, tend to be more selective in what is posted in their directory.

The most common mistakes authors make in submitting their articles include:

1. Not following the formatting requirements.

Word wrap and HTML formatting preserve the page layout of the web site. Articles submitted with word wrapping on is one of my biggest reasons for rejecting articles. Forced breaks at 60 characters may be acceptable for sites that primarily feed ezines, but it is not very appealing on a web page. Posting HTML articles on sites that accept only text articles is also quite frustrating for an editor to remove.

2. Microsoft formatting.

Copying and pasting from a Microsoft Word document does horrible things to a page design and layout. Quite often this type of formatting can appear within the text of the article and can also reek havoc on online forms.

3. Affiliate links and ads.

Many article sites do not accept articles with affiliate links in them. This is normally allowed in the author’s resource box but many authors insist on adding their affiliate links in the body of the article or the article sounds more like a sales pitch. This type of article is often rejected. Be sure to make your article informative to the reader.

4. Improper category selection.

While most editors will simply take a second or two to place an article in the proper category, editors are finding this too time consuming and will often just delete the article. Sites that receive 50 or more articles each day normally do not have the time to edit each article and select an appropriate category. Be sure to select the most relevant category for your article at the time of submission.

5. Email links in articles or resource boxes.

Although many editors are not concerned with email addresses in articles or in a resource box, authors should be aware of the problems that can arise from using them. Article directories are constantly being scanned by not only search engines but by mail harvester bots as well. Listing your email address in any online web page opens the author up to receive an enormous amount of spam and is generally not a good idea. Email addresses also change from time to time, leaving you with possibly thousands of articles on the web with an email address that no longer works.

6. Author names not capitalized.

While many authors are rushing to submit articles to hundreds of sites as quickly as possible, many don’t take the time to capitalize their first and last name in the author profile area. It seems to me that if Susan Smith enters her name as susan smith, it somehow makes her seem like she is minimizing herself as a person. Be proud of who you are and tell the world you are Susan Smith!

7. Punctuation and spelling errors.

Editors don’t have the time to check each article for spelling errors or punctuation. If you want to ensure that your article is picked up from these article directories and used on web sites, you will want to make sure that you have thoroughly checked your article for errors. Ezine and newsletter editors often acquire material for their publications from these article directories. If your article is not well written or contains a lot of errors, your article is most likely not going to be used for any purpose other than to provide you with a free link to your web site from the article directory.

8. Word count is low.

Not all directories put word count restrictions on articles. Personally, any article that is less than 400 word is merely written in order to get a link back to the author’s web site. Articles that range between 600-800 words are usually better written and actually contain some value for the reader. Make sure your article meets the article count guidelines to help increase acceptance rates.

Each article directory has different requirements for article submissions. If you want to increase the exposure you receive for your articles, make sure that you familiarize yourself with the requirements for each site that you submit articles to. By following the author guidelines, you not only increase your chances of having your article accepted, you also establish yourself as a credible writer and increase your web site traffic as well.

So Many Article Directories, So Little Time

Twice today I received invitations from article directory owners to join their new sites. In many ways I am flattered, but in other ways I almost want to mention that they have their work cut out for them. As an author of several hundred articles online [I expect to add between one and two hundred per month for the foreseeable future] I have some recommendations for article directory managers. If you are interested in learning what they are, please read on.

Benchmark Ezine Articles &ndash My primary site for submitting articles is with EzineArticles.com. Why? Volume, service, article penetration, search engine optimization, blog, forum, email updates, site navigation, cutting edge technology, to name some features. This site is one that is highly active where authors know the manager, Christopher Knight, and hear from him regularly. You get the feeling that Ezine Articles is going places…and fast!

Ask Permission First &ndash Some of my articles have appeared elsewhere, without my permission. I guess having over 400 articles online gives me extra special attention, perhaps more than someone who has 40 articles. Still, I must say that one web director who took my articles has apparently given up the practice and without notification to his authors. Let’s just say I won’t waste my time with someone who doesn’t at least care enough to respond to my emails!

Distinguish Yourself From The Pack &ndash Thanks to a new article software program that hit the market over the summer, lots of folks are snapping up this easy to use program and starting their own directories. Competition is a good thing, but a shake out will occur. If you want someone like me to take interest in your site, to direct my clients to you [I have plenty], and keep me interested, your site shouldn’t even look like any of the rest of them. I am not saying you shouldn’t use the new software, but please take it to the next level and make it work to the max.

Build Up Page Rank &ndash Heck, my own site pulls down a page rank of 6. I want you to match my site’s strength or at least come close. Some of the newer sites are not yet ranked and little or nothing has been indexed by Google. BTW, Google is it for me. MSN and Yahoo are alright, but Google rocks. After these three…nada!

Details, Details - The big picture of getting articles out there is great, but I like to see some attention paid to the fine details too. Ezine Articles has not one, but three resource boxes for authors to select from each of which contains information already keyed in by the authors. I know not of one other directory that has even one. Hmmm…

Where Are You Going? - Where is your article directory going? Do you have RSS feeds, submission agreements with other sites, unique features that are regularly being rolled out, etc. A blog where we hear from YOU, the manager, is highly useful.

There are other areas I am sure that I haven’t covered. I am not singling any directory out and I do wish you the best in your endeavor. Perhaps as your site grows I’ll sign up, but for now I am very busy writing articles and submitting to just a few select sites, like Ezine Articles. Thank you for allowing me to vent!

Submitting Articles To Article Directories: How Much Traffic Can I Really Bring In?!

I like to surf around different internet forums that deal with internet marketing, link building, traffic building, and search engine optimization. Lately, I have seen a lot of questions about using articles as a marketing tool. The question has been this:

“How much traffic can I get from submitting articles to article directories?”

I would honesty love to tell you that you get loads of traffic. On the other hand, I would love to be able to tell you that you wouldn’t get a lot of traffic. However, I cannot tell you either way because it really just depends.

It depends on these things:

• How many articles you submit




• How many directories you submit your articles to
• Where you submitted your article





• Quality of your article





• Usefulness of your article





• Value of your article

So if article writing appears so iffy, why do it? One thing I will say is that article marketing is not something you will usually see results from overnight. Article marketing is a great long term investment for promoting your website, building links, and generating more traffic. Article marketing is only iffy if you are looking for a short term or fast, quick way to generate traffic.

My best advice is to avoid writing garbage content. Provide useful information in your article. Keep a constant mindset that you are writing for people and not to see the traffic stats go up through the roof. You are not writing for numbers! You are writing for people. If you are writing for numbers, you may begin to feel discouraged because your traffic will not usually jump overnight. Quite simply, it takes time to realize the positive effects from article writing.

I know that I am guilty of taking short cuts and forgetting about the reader in my articles. Sometimes I am feeling lazy and think, “Well I’m writing this article. My link will be on my article, so therefore, people will click my link and all will be well.” That is wishful thinking on my part! The truth and reality about that statement is that nobody will care to click to my website if my article is not worth reading. They won’t even make it through the article to see my link! That’s a shame.

If your article fails to meet the reader, you also miss out on another important aspect. You miss out on the chance that the reader will take the article and distribute it to other people with your link attached to the article. That’s even more possible traffic you are missing out on!

Quality is so essential to article marketing. The other factors of article marketing have no match for a quality article. You could submit to few article directories and many would read your quality article because it is an article worth reading.

To summarize, write quality articles that meet the reader. Give the reader exactly what they want. Do not take shortcuts because there are no shortcuts in article marketing. Article marketing can be a time consuming process, but if done right, it will really, and I mean really, pay off in the long run.

Three Common Mistakes Many Authors Make Before Submitting Their Contents to Article Directories

Article writing, submissions, publications and blogs are getting popular because with modern communication technology comes the popularity of information-based marketing, which is one of the oldest and most effective techniques in getting targeted prospects to sites and converting them into buyers.

Submission tools abound that authors and marketers can use to make the process of submitting their articles more easily. Though this is invaluable in getting the contents more exposure, it’s only half of the process.

Here are three common mistakes many authors make before submitting their contents to article directories:

1. Confusing the reason to promote the articles with the reason to write them.

In article writing, there are three key benefits in using them for promotion; branding, lead generation and promotion, which are all part of your optimization strategy.

But there is only one reason why you write an article, and that is to inform your audience. Your article must be focused on a topic to achieve the three promotion benefits because no one will be interested in reading them if they aren’t.

The first goal is to get people to read your article, the next is to get them to click on your resource box. Providing focused content will help you achieve these goals.

2. Overlooking all the promotional opportunities of article marketing for maximum results.

First of all your articles can help you generate additional links back to your site. Most marketers already know this. But do you know that you can get more visitors and better search engine results from those same articles?

How do you get more visitors and better search engine results?

Mention keywords at strategic places. Just be sure not to overdo them. A keyword density of 3-5% is an optimum percentage. Some directories support anchor texts which is effective. It’s important to note as of this writing that majority of the directories are not able to support anchor text links. If you plan on using anchor texts you’ll have to determine which directories will accept your submissions. Otherwise use a plain text url such as this. /.yourdomain.com

Remember that is not only about the links back to your site. Part of doing well in your article marketing is getting picked up by publishers with a large number of audiences and gaining the ability of leveraging other brands because of the quality of your work.

Better search engine results also are great benefits. But these things do not put much money in your pocket. There are other factors that can turn your article marketing efforts into an opportunity that can boost your earnings. Not just increase the number of visitors to your site.

Start out with a plan. Make a list of all the different ways you can put that article to work for you and all the purposes it serves. One guru I know makes his articles work in 20 different ways or he doesn’t use it. How many ways can you come up with?

3. Publishing content that is not useful for your readers.

Maybe in the process of writing articles, you are thinking that all that is you wanted is links back to your site. And any visitors it can generate is just a bonus.

THAT couldn’t be farther from the truth. Not all article banks and directories are going to accept your content automatically. Each of them have guidelines and specifications on the articles that they are accepting. You can double the number of sites you can submit to by writing articles that the directories want to share with other people. All it takes is one publisher with a hundred thousand readers to increase your potential audience overnight.

Write the articles that publishers want in their publications if you want your article marketing to work the most effective way for you. This also means you have to obey the standard guidelines, spell checks, researching on a good topic and even hiring a writer to produce good content on your behalf.

In the end, it is all really a matter of choice on your part. You can start getting a little exposure from increased links back but on a very basic level. Or enjoy massive exposure from a little extra time writing quality useful content.

Writing Ain’t for Everyone, But Article Writing Is!

Ready…Set…Go! If you are not submitting articles to article directory web sites, which pertain to your site’s content and theme, you are missing the proverbial boat on gaining additional popularity for your web site and valuable, one-way links back to your site which are critical for good placement within the search engines. Many formerly well-ranked, front-page sites have found themselves re indexed and tucked away on page 15 of google. Sound familiar? Who’s going to find you on page 15? Answer: No one. You may want to check some of your top 5 keywords on Google, Yahoo, and MSN to see where you are located. Different that what you expected? Is your site traffic down? Then, you’d better do something and do it quickly. Sites which refuse to write and publish content are “on their way out,” as one web designer and SEO expert has said. Let’s take a look at this issue a bit further.

In recent months, it has become absolutely critical for web site owners to submit content-rich articles for publication on major article directory sites, ezines and newsgroups. Gone are the days where it was relatively easy to get front page placement for your site for a few, or even several, key search words (”keywords”). Why the difference? Because the search engines are continually changing their search algorithms to provide more relevant search data to their consumers/customers. The “Big 2,” Google and Yahoo, compete fiercely to supply relevant and cutting-edge results for these searches in order to get people to come back for future searches. In review, the game goes a little like this: Let’s say Sally is taking her lunch break at work and wants to look up some information on shopping in Madrid. Sally fires up her browser, surfs to google and enters “shopping in Madrid” in the search box. On the date of this article, there were 19,600,000 results for this search phrase and only the top 10 are listed on page one. Even though less than thirty percent of people will click to page two, Sally decides she would like to copy-n-paste the first 20 results into an email to her home computer, so she can check the search results in detail when she gets off work. She creates the email and sends it off and does, in fact, research the top 20 results when she gets home.

Sounds like “shopping in Madrid” had 0.0001% of all available results indexed actually looked at by a google customer in this instance. Question: What if your web site has a major section devoted to downtown shopping in Madrid? Do you think, with your current level of web presence, that you have a chance of being on the first two pages of google? Would someone like Sally even know you existed? Chances are, she wouldn’t know your web site from a bale of hay! How would you like to *know* that the major portion of your site, which you have spent thousands of dollars developing, pertaining to “shopping in Madrid,” has a very good chance of getting high placement, maybe even front page, on google? While there is no way to “guarantee” this, it is important that you begin writing articles about “shopping in Madrid” and submitting them to the major article directories. Not a writer? Not a problem! Read On!

You’d be surprised that once you simply open up your notepad.exe file and begin typing, the ideas just seem to come forth. Type each of these ideas about what you would like to say on a separate line, pressing the enter key twice after each thought. Think of as many things as you can, regardless of how good or sorrowful they might be, and type them out, each on a single line. Tip: Think of what is already on your site and try to dovetail some of this content. Then (we’re almost there…), after you have more than a handful of ideas, go back and put an asterisk by the ideas you think would have the making of some decent content. Save this file as “Topics.txt” on your computer’s desktop and place the icon right smack-dab in the middle of your screen. Now, go get a diet coke or a cup of coffee and think about what you just did. Come back to you computer, open up the file that you just saved, choose one of the topics that you placed an asterisk beside, go to the next line and begin typing whatever comes to mind about that idea. Congratulations! You have just gotten over the hump of writing your first article! I have found that 90% of the “battle” is just selecting the topic. Obviously, you already know at least something about the topic you selected or you would not have written it down in the first place. Now, do a google or yahoo search on your selected topic and see what comes up in the search engines. I bet you see where I’m going with this…

Webmasters and site developers, you don’t have to be Truman Capote to write a 600 word article. Most people speak 600 words before they get out the door to go to work in the morning with a cup of coffee in-hand. Do you think you can put together 15 or 20 organized sentences on a topic that you are “supposed” to know a little bit about? I bet you can. Simply begin writing additional ideas below the topic you have selected and form them into a few paragraphs of organized thought that you think someone would be interested in reading. In the above example, “shopping in Madrid” I might see what the new happening place is to get good deals on Spanish antiques. Look up a few sites, select a shop, do a little research and then start writing.

The process of writing articles is really not that difficult once you get the hang of it. The above method is a very basic one that should work for many people. Also, please be sure to list the article on your own web site for additional new content which the search engines seem to really like. Once you have this information on your site, you may be surprised what could happen. Let’s say, the Spanish antique dealer which you wrote your article about might just contact you requesting a link or a banner ad be placed on your article page. How did they find your page? They did a search on google for “shopping in Madrid” and found your article listed and contacted you! Ah…success! While this probably won’t happen, you have the assurance that you are going through the right process to promote your web site and gain exposure in the search engines. There are many article directories to submit articles to. If set up properly, with one click of your mouse, you have the ability to create over 400 one-way back links to your web site. How long would this take you if you were doing the old reciprocal link campaign?

Go! You have invested countless hours and extraordinary effort to have a successful online business. It’s now up to you to keep it! By the way, the above article took less than one hour to write, revise, proof-read, and submit to over 400 article directories…and this writer ain’t no Truman Capote. Good luck!

Article Writing - the 5 benefits of writing a your article

Writing articles is a great way to promote your business, no matter what kind of business you are in, writing articles work for you.

Many people don’t realize the power of writing article, or the influence that an article could bring. It is common for people to hear about writing articles and submitting them to article directories, but it is not so common for people to do it.

Since even writing one article takes time, the lazy internet marketer won’t do it. But those that are willing to take time to write and submit them will truly generate a good amount of traffic to their website.

Article Authors recognize and understand that this technique is powerful, that’s why they will take their time and write a decent article and submit it to Article Directories.

Here are some benefits that you will get will you start now and submit your articles.

Submitting your article to article Directories won’t cost you a dime

It won’t cost you anything to submit your articles to article directory. It takes time, but it won’t cost you anything other than that. But this method of driving traffic to your website will have a long term affect.

You will be recognize as expert in your field

When you write decent articles that filled with valuable information, people respect you, they will think you as a teacher because you know something that they don’t know.

You could generate more sales

Do you realize that writing an article is similar to writing a sales copy? Although both have different purposes, but it is the same principle “One drives traffic, another generate sales”. If an article would help you generate more sales, are you willing to do it?

You could build a good opt-in list

I really like this one, writing an article could help you build your opt-in list. You simple add your link to your article and grab their email address. Of course, you’ll need to be more natural way. A great example is .articleunlimited.com; you’ll find an article e-course when you sign up for it.

An opening opportunity to do joint ventures or find a business partner

I know a friend of mine have used this method to find his partner. Since he wrote many articles, people who found his articles are interested in what he is writing, and they offer an opportunity to him to be joint ventures or business partner.

You could do much more with you article if you take the time to write one. It doesn’t have to be 1000 words long, it depends on the information that you gave out, that’s what all matter the most.

Writing articles is great way to drive traffic to your website. Don’t underestimate the power of article writings. The more you write, the more you enjoy writing it, and the better your article will be.

Article Writing - the 5 benefits that you might miss

Writing articles is a great way to promote your business, no matter what kind of business you are in, writing articles work for you.

Many people don’t realize the power of writing article, or the influence that an article could bring. It is common for people to hear about writing articles and submitting them to article directories, but it is not so common for people to do it.

Since even writing one article takes time, the lazy internet marketer won’t do it. But those that are willing to take time to write and submit them will truly generate a good amount of traffic to their website.

Article Authors recognize and understand that this technique is powerful, that’s why they will take their time and write a decent article and submit it to Article Directories.

Here are some benefits that you will get will you start now and submit your articles.

Submitting your article to article Directories won’t cost you a dime

It won’t cost you anything to submit your articles to article directory. It takes time, but it won’t cost you anything other than that. But this method of driving traffic to your website will have a long term affect.

You will be recognize as expert in your field

When you write decent articles that filled with valuable information, people respect you, they will think you as a teacher because you know something that they don’t know.

You could generate more sales

Do you realize that writing an article is similar to writing a sales copy? Although both have different purposes, but it is the same principle “One drives traffic, another generate sales”. If an article would help you generate more sales, are you willing to do it?

You could build a good opt-in list

I really like this one, writing an article could help you build your opt-in list. You simple add your link to your article and grab their email address. Of course, you’ll need to be more natural way. A great example is .articleunlimited.com; you’ll find an article e-course when you sign up for it.

An opening opportunity to do joint ventures or find a business partner

I know a friend of mine have used this method to find his partner. Since he wrote many articles, people who found his articles are interested in what he is writing, and they offer an opportunity to him to be joint ventures or business partner.

You could do much more with you article if you take the time to write one. It doesn’t have to be 1000 words long, it depends on the information that you gave out, that’s what all matter the most.

Writing articles is great way to drive traffic to your website. Don’t underestimate the power of article writings. The more you write, the more you enjoy writing it, and the better your article will be.

Article Writing - the 5 benefits that you dont’ want to miss

Writing articles is a great way to promote your business, no matter what kind of business you are in, writing articles work for you.

Many people don’t realize the power of writing article, or the influence that an article could bring. It is common for people to hear about writing articles and submitting them to article directories, but it is not so common for people to do it.

Since even writing one article takes time, the lazy internet marketer won’t do it. But those that are willing to take time to write and submit them will truly generate a good amount of traffic to their website.

Article Authors recognize and understand that this technique is powerful, that’s why they will take their time and write a decent article and submit it to Article Directories.

Here are some benefits that you will get will you start now and submit your articles.

Submitting your article to article Directories won’t cost you a dime

It won’t cost you anything to submit your articles to article directory. It takes time, but it won’t cost you anything other than that. But this method of driving traffic to your website will have a long term affect.

You will be recognize as expert in your field

When you write decent articles that filled with valuable information, people respect you, they will think you as a teacher because you know something that they don’t know.

You could generate more sales

Do you realize that writing an article is similar to writing a sales copy? Although both have different purposes, but it is the same principle “One drives traffic, another generate sales”. If an article would help you generate more sales, are you willing to do it?

You could build a good opt-in list

I really like this one, writing an article could help you build your opt-in list. You simple add your link to your article and grab their email address. Of course, you’ll need to be more natural way. A great example is .articleunlimited.com; you’ll find an article e-course when you sign up for it.

An opening opportunity to do joint ventures or find a business partner

I know a friend of mine have used this method to find his partner. Since he wrote many articles, people who found his articles are interested in what he is writing, and they offer an opportunity to him to be joint ventures or business partner.

You could do much more with you article if you take the time to write one. It doesn’t have to be 1000 words long, it depends on the information that you gave out, that’s what all matter the most.

Writing articles is great way to drive traffic to your website. Don’t underestimate the power of article writings. The more you write, the more you enjoy writing it, and the better your article will be.