Writing articles often requires a session of note taking and research. Whether it’s for a magazine, newspaper, your teacher, or even for wikiHow, writing an amazing article whittles down to one widely-adaptable technique. Here’s how to use that technique to your advantage.

A) Steps

1. Determine your topic. Exactly what are you going to write about? Brainstorm for ideas, if you have to. When writing for wikiHow, you may even wish to refer to requested topics, for ideas.

2. Figure out who your audience is. Are you writing for a beginner, an intermediate, or an advanced audience? For example, if you are writing an article about “Creating PowerPoint Slides,” are your readers new to PowerPoint, or business people looking for advanced tips?

3. Do your research. How well do you know the topic? Is it something you can write easily about, with little, or no preparation, or do you need more information, from experts in the field?

4. Decide on the length of the article. Teachers, magazines and newspapers will often give you a limit. WikiHow articles, on the other hand, are often “as long as they need to be and no longer.”

5. Compile a list of possible sources, for you to consult. This can include documents, internet research and people to talk to.

6. Write either an outline, or a summary, of your article. This will help bring the concept of the article into sharper focus.

7. Write the rough draft of the article, as follows:

a. Tell your readers what you are going to tell them. This is your introduction. For example: 

* This article explains how to create a PowerPoint slide presentation. It covers the following information: choosing a theme, creating a title slide, and creating topic slides.

*The information in this article is written for a beginner. The author assumes that you have never used PowerPoint.

8. Tell your readers what you promised to tell them. In this section, you tell them how to choose a theme, create a title slide and how to create topic slides.

9. Tell your readers what you just told them. For example:
a. This article taught you how to create a PowerPoint slide presentation. You learned how to choose a template, how to create a title slide, and how to create topic slides.

10. Check over your piece for presentation.

11. Check for faulty information. Have you double-checked your facts?

12. Delete any unnecessary, or contradictory information. The only time you should have information that doesn’t support your topic, is if you’re doing a “point-counterpoint” piece.

13. Eliminate anything that is just taking up space. Don’t fill your work with fluff. If you need to do more research, go ahead and do it.

14. Check for grammar and spelling errors.

15. Read it aloud to yourself to make sure the text flows smoothly.

16. Rewrite the article as often as it takes.

17. Turn in your completed article.

B) Tips

• Neither the outline, nor the summary for your article, has to be in traditional I, II, III format. The point of formatting is to help you. If you feel you can find your focus, by writing a list of incomplete sentences, then go for it. Later, if your teacher wants a formal outline, you can create one, from the article itself.

• By checking grammar and spelling errors last, in the editing process, you won’t waste any time, by correcting those on something you may end up deleting.

• If you’re writing for a newspaper, or magazine and are new to professional writing, it’s customary to introduce yourself and your story, in a query, or pitch letter. Find the name of the editor, who will be handling your piece (i.e.; if you’re writing an article about cars, for a newspaper, find the name of the car-section editor). This information can be found in the masthead, a box containing the names of the editors, usually found near the front, or comment pages of a publication. Write a catchy, but brief outline of what your story is about and why that publication’s readership would be interested in it. Also include a few lines, about your experience as a writer. The tone of this letter should be professional, but affable and friendly. It is not the place to make demands, or admit your shortcomings, as a professional writer. Discussing wages and freelance fees, should come after the editor has accepted your pitch.

• If you have no experience as a professional writer, do not start off pitching columns (opinion pieces). Columns are generally reserved for people who have either been working at a publication for a very long time, or for people who have a particular expertise in a field. If you’re new to writing, start small. Think obituaries, human-interest stories and simple news articles. It’s generally easier to start with newspapers, than with magazines. Try writing for life, fashion, arts, cars, or travel sections, before pitching stories to news. These sections tend to be understaffed and therefore have a greater budget for freelance writers.

• If you’re interested in pursuing a career as a writer, be realistic. People who make their living as writers, generally start to build their portfolio of published work, as early as high school. It generally takes, even the most dedicated writer, several years, before he can make a living off of the trade. In other words, don’t quit your day job. Ease into writing gradually, perhaps doing freelance pieces, while maintaining a more stable job part-time.

• Take some courses, in both non-fiction and fiction writing. Not only will they help with your work, but you can also make contacts in the business, by getting to know your professors and fellow writers. This will help you to be taken seriously, when you start pitching articles for publication. Being a good freelance writer, means knowing how to write and how to network.

• Make sure your article answers five questions: why, where, when, what and how.

C) Warnings

• When writing for a newspaper, or magazine, do not do so for free. Ask what their freelance fee is, beforehand. Your pay will usually be calculated on a per-word basis. Your work is valuable. Writing for free demeans the profession and makes making a living more difficult, for those of us who depend on freelance fees, to pay the bills. (But if you’re just starting out, volunteering to do some articles for smaller community papers, student publications and trade magazines is a great way to build your portfolio. Be warned, that these publications rarely have the money to pay freelancers anyway.)

• Make sure to give yourself plenty of time, to write the article. If you don’t, then you’ll be rushing at the last minute, to create something that isn’t representative of what you can truly do.

• Do not be a diva. Your work will go through several editors, copy-editors and fact checkers, before being published. It will be changed. Pulling a temper tantrum is a surefire way to not be invited to work for that publication again.

• Your reputation as a writer is almost as important as the work you submit, do not make errors, or plagiarize. Copying something, without attribution, is the quickest way to get blacklisted as a writer. Keep your notes and source lists handy, so that your editors can verify your work. If you do make a mistake, come clean immediately and apologize profusely.

• Don’t miss deadlines. Generally speaking, a late article is worse than a mediocre one.

• Literary circles are small and gossipy. Don’t say anything bad about a fellow writer, or editor, ever. You never know who’s married to whom.

D) Things You’ll Need

• Something to write with: computer, pen and paper, etc.

• An e-mail account, to pitch and submit stories. (Something vaguely professional, no one will take butterflywings23@hotmail.com seriously.)

• Research materials. Either go to your bookshelf, the library, or find an expert on the topic.

• Access to a database, like Lexus Nexus, or factiva. Be sure to see what others have already written on the topic.

E) Related wikiHows

• How to Brainstorm

• How to Write a Comparative Essay

• How to Write a Term Paper

• How to Write an Outline

• How to Write a Speech

• How to Freewrite

• How to Contribute to wikiHow

• How to Become Famous, Via wikiHow

If you use the above format and pointers, there is no reason why you can’t produce a professional article of your own. You can submit it for use online, or in print and command the respect of your readers.

You’ve probably seen a lot of SEO programs lately that make all sorts of claims. Some will get you the #1 spot on Google, or others will “magically” drive laser-targeted traffic to your site. Try this: http://www.dersalsites.com/articlesys/

Let me be the first (OK maybe not the first) to tell you that there is no “magic button” and there never will be. If you’ve bought into the claims of the SEO magicians, you’ve probably learned that many of the so-called systems are short-lived, and worse–some of them will get your site outright banned from the search engines!

Don’t get me wrong, there are helpful tools, which can be an important part of your SEO strategy. The tricky part is not wasting your time and money on the ones that don’t work or will get your site dropped. 

One of the most helpful types of programs are content generators. If you’ve been around the net awhile, you know that “content is king”. Why is content the king? Because its what gets visitors to your site through the search engines, and its what keeps them coming back.

With a healthy flow of content-driven traffic, you can build up a network of sites pulling in streams of AdSense revenue, product sales, or affiliate commissions.

The problem is where do you get good content? And how do you find the time to add it all to your site. There’s a new tool I’ve found called The Article System, and it works better than any other article program I’ve tried. It’s also search-engine friendly, so you don’t need to worry about your site being dropped!

It takes the task of finding and adding content to your site and automates the whole process. This system works, but here’s a piece of personal advice:

- Don’t go crazy and add 1000’s of new pages to your site all at once. That’s a good way to tell the search engines you’re using an automated system. Instead, add the pages in small chunks, like 25-50 each week so it looks like you’re regularly adding fresh content to your site. Or better yet, use the built-in Gradual Site Builder tool to automatically add a few pages to your site each day. The beauty of this system is you are actually adding real content for your visitors to read (not a bunch of garbled keyword “search engine food”).

Take a little time with it and build up a portfolio of sites each bringing in some Adsense revenue each day. Those little sites can add up to a full time income, and if you hit a hot niche at the right time you could have one or more sites bringing in thousands of dollars of profit each month!

Obviously, the more content-driven sites you add to your collection, the better chances you have of one of them hitting the Adsense goldmine! And the best part about it is you can put those types of sites on Autopilot and continue to build your business without having to worry about them.

Here are a few more benefits of this new system and why its better than a lot of other ones out there:

1) It’s a web based application. There’s no software to install! When you run the system, the pages will automatically be created on your website(s), so you don’t have to take the time to upload hundreds or potentially thousands of pages.

2) It’s customizable, so the output is not just a bunch of ugly pages. This is critical in not getting banned from search engines. You can plug the system into your *existing website* design, use a template, or create a new one.

3) 10 different templates that are designed to be used with the system are included. You can use the templates and alter them any way you wish.

4) The price. How much would it cost you to have a 100 page topical website built? $1000? Maybe $500? Considering that The Article System allows you to build unlimited websites with it, how much should it be worth? I have to tell you that I think they’re selling it way too cheap. See for yourself at…

In spite of what you may have heard, this business is not yet saturated with too many marketers, and there are plenty of opportunities to grab some of the millions of niche keywords that will make people rich in the next few years. Think about it…how many of your friends and family members are internet marketers? I’d have to say none of mine. When you’re always on the internet it feels like everyone in the world is trying to make money on the net, but really we’re a smaller community than you may think. A handful of you will be the next internet marketing superstars.

The ones who become wealthy at the end of the day will be those who take this game seriously and relentlessly pursue targeted traffic. Well that’s all for now, and I hope you find this small piece of advice helpful.
Get it here:  http://www.dersalsites.com/articlesys/

Derek Robson is an up and coming, South African, internet marketer, with a vision of empowering all fellow South Africans and non U.S folk, to have equal opportunity and success, on the internet. He is a syndicated article writer. He and his wife Sally, have started a string of sites, resources, courses and articles, as part of Dersalsites. For daily postings and articles, on Internet marketing, South African business, list building, affiliate marketing, the law of attraction, rugby and general topics, check his blogsite, at: http://dersalsites.com/southafricanbusiness  

To remain informed of our progress, in trying to find satisfactory alternatives, by newsletter and mail and to get recommended tools and lessons and to start your journey to wealth, sign up here. It’s free. Click this link: http://www.dersalsites.com/newsletter/  We will even throw in some free software for you, when you join.

Make sure you get our course on Internet Marketing. This is a comprehensive course, comprising of over 243 pages, with pictures and videos, to help explain exactly what to do. This is a fantastic e-course and is broken into 13 lessons. To get your free course, click here :  http://dersalsites.com/course/  

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