Useful tips on writing articles for money

Found this interesting tips by Jason who actually made money by writing just one article for the net.

Article Writing 101

I Made $1683.04 From Writing ONE Article

Yeah, $1683.04. One article. Here’s how:

You can’t just sit down and write an article that makes money. Most articles don’t ever make it past the directories they’re submitted to. Why? They don’t get reprinted because they are horribly written, or they’re advertorials, or flat-out spam. But there are a few - a select few - that make it to the big leagues. And those make money. Lets start by talking about how to write a good article.

How You SHOULD Start

Don’t just start writing. Start by thinking about your audience. Think about their wants, not their needs - people are much more likely to make a decision based on their wants, and put off their needs. Focus on their feelings, and accelerate them. Take advantage of them. How? Be your audience, take some time to step into their shoes, and feel what they feel. Now, what would you respond to? Take that, and run with it.

Put Your Plan Together And Write Your Outline

Still don’t start writing your article. Start by writing down those wants and feelings you thought about, in outline form. Go ahead and write them on paper, in Notepad, in Word, wherever you want to. Feel free to add to your list if you think of other good ideas.

Now Start Writing

Take your outline and turn it into paragraphs. Make sure you write in a conversational style - your readers hate to be lectured as much as you do - but make sure that you use proper grammar as much as possible. When you’re done writing, save your article and get away from it for a while.

Proofread, Proofread, And Proofread Again

I can’t stress this part enough. You MUST proofread your articles at least 2-3 times. And while you’re reading, try to think like the reader again. This will help you use the language that will be the most effective, and it will help ensure that your writing style isn’t confusing. If you’re not good at proofreading, or grammar in general, find someone who is, and have them do it for you. A poorly written article probably won’t make you a cent.

Now, Where Do You Submit It?

Easy - everywhere. You want to submit your article to as many places/people as possible. Find every article directory available and submit your article to them. Yes, this takes time, but it’s worth it. Why? Because you never know where a publisher will find your article. Submitting by hand can get very tedious and time consuming, though, so make sure you allot time to do it. Or, if you’re willing to trade a little bit of money for your time, consider using a submission service. I personally use http://www.article-marketer.com/, because they submit to over 30,000 publishers, sites and directories. I’m not even going to try to figure out how much time that would take me to do by hand, but I know the small price tag I pay to have my articles submitted is well worth it.

And How Will This Make You Money?

I’m getting to that… Hold your pants on. Now that you know how to write and submit a great article, you can move on to how to profit from them. There are a few things to consider here -

Topic - You can’t write an article about how to make great spit wads and expect to make any money from it. Why? Well, not many people really care enough about how to make great spit wads to spend money on them.
Reason - You have to have a reason for the article. You can’t just write an overview of a program and expect it to be published,
let alone sell anything for you. Your readers have to see a value in reading further, or they’ll leave. This means you have to give them great content, preferably something they haven’t heard before.
Trust - If your readers are going to do ANYTHING for you, you have to give them something first. You can’t write an article and
only include stuff that’s common knowledge. Give them value, and they’ll repay you for it.
Means - Once you’ve picked a great topic, given your readers a reason to read it, and established trust by telling them things they didn’t know before, they’ll be primed to make you a profit, so give them a way to do it.
Now It’s Time For The Juicy Stuff

The article that made me $1600 had all of those things, and my means of profit was through a very subtle affiliate link in the middle of the article. I didn’t hype it up, I didn’t point it out, I simply mentioned it once and went on with the article. Looking back, I probably could have mentioned it subtly again at the end of the article and made more sales, but hindsight is always 20/20. I do need to say that most article directories and publishers won’t reprint an article with an obvious affiliate link in it, so you have to disguise it. I purchased a domain name and had it forwarded to my affiliate hoplink (it is a Clickbank product), and when you type in my domain, it redirects so quickly, you can’t even tell there is a redirect. Check it out; it’s http://www.getseoelite.com/ - sly, eh? It just looks like I’m referring the reader to a great product, as opposed to including the link because I’m trying to make money.

Don’t Forget The Good Ol’ Resource Box

Affiliate links aren’t the only way to profit, you can also include a link in your resource box (aka About the Author area) back to your site, and direct people to where they can get more information about the article topic. You can direct them to another affiliate site, a name squeeze page, or just about anywhere you want. This is a great way to get a number of backlinks for your site, as well.

Jackpot!

SiteProNews.com picked up my article about 15 days after I had it submitted, and they sent it to their subscriber list of 500,000 people. I’m not sure how many people read it or how many followed the affiliate link, but do I know that in 2 days I racked up about 20 sales of SEO Elite and the link in my resource box almost tripled my traffic, as well.

Want To Write Your Own Article Now?

I feel like I should say something about how my results are probably not typical, and not everyone will be able to make $1700 off of one article. But I’ll also add that if you find that right topic, and produce a great article, you may be able to blow my $1700 out of the water, and I hope you do! Just remember these things:

Don’t just start writing, think about your reader first
Proofread
Use an article submission site like http://www.article-marketer.com/, it will prove invaluable in the time and effort it saves
In case you wanted to see it, the article that made me $1683.04 can be found here:
http://www.content-articles.com/article.aspx?i=24
(You thought I was going to leave you hanging, didn’t you?)

Article source: Jason DeVelvis