* Are you trying to promote a web site or online store?
* Are you a consultant or small business owner looking for new customers?
* Do you have an e-zine and want new subscribers?

Writing articles and sharing them online can be a great way to meet all of these goals!

What to write about:
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Before you actually begin writing, get out a piece of paper and write down your goals for the articles. Are you trying to bring business to your online store? Do you want to locate new customers for an offline business? Write down specifically what you hope to accomplish.

Next, write down the type of people who you are seeking. What type of people are most likely to buy from your store, for example? Are they male or female, young or old, parents or single? Write down as many characteristics of your ideal customer as possible.

Then, look at the combination of your objective and your desired customer, and figure out some article topics that would be of interest to a person in your target group.

Heres an example to give you a feel for what Im talking about:

* Goal: bring customers to my online store, which sells birthday items
* Ideal Customer: a mother with children between 1 and 10 who is planning a birthday party for her children in the next few months.
* Topics:

- How to plan a first birthday party
- How to plan a childs birthday party
- Kids parties on a budget
- Unique party ideas for children
- How to have a _ birthday party (dressup, zoo animal, etc etc)

Write it:
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Now, start writing your articles!

Pick one of your topics to start. Develop an outline of the topics you want to cover. Dont pick too many; ideally your article will be only about a page in length.

Write it! Keep it to the point, share as much information as you can, and keep the paragraphs fairly short. When youre finished, have someone else proofread it if possible.

Finally, develop a short resource box to place at the bottom of all of your articles. This is only 4 - 5 lines, and tells a little about you plus has a link to your web site, an email address, or whatever else you want. If you include some sort of free gift or report for people who click through that will increase your click-through rate.

For example, here is the one I use:

Carol Woods is the editor of Work at Home Income, a weekly publication of Income Building Blocks. IBB offers free ideas, information and inspiration for moms who work at home - or want to! For lots of free ideas to help you find a work at home job or start a home based business, visit us at and sign up for Work at Home Income!

Market it:
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There are 2 components to marketing your article.

First, post it to online directories that publishers use to locate articles they can print in their publications. The usual arrangement is that you post your article to a database, and the publisher can then reprint your article as long as they include your resource box at the bottom.

These are the directories I use:

http://www.ezinearticles.com/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aabusiness (if your article is business-related)
http://www.goarticles.com/
http://www.authorconnection.com/
http://www.ideamarketers.com
http://makingprofit.com/mp/articles/submit.shtml

Second, if you have time - do a search for ezines which you think your target customers might read at cumuli, http://www.cumuli.com/ezines/

Once youve found some appropriate publications, send a copy of your article to the publishers of those ezines to see if they would be interested in including it in their ezine or on their web site.

Here's where to learn more:
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Netwriting Masters Course: A free 5-day email course. No matter what you sell on the Net... If you want to sell more, write better! Just click and send a blank email to mailto:twmsibb@sitesell.net to receive the course.

Information Masters Course: A free 5-day email course on writing and selling your own e-book! Just click and send a blank email to mailto:timsibb@sitesell.net to receive the course.

Ezine Announcer has lots of good information on article marketing; visit them at http://www.income-building-blocks.com/MoreSubs.html


About the Author

Carol Woods is the editor of Work at Home Income, a weekly publication of Income
Building Blocks. IBB offers free ideas, information and inspiration for moms who work
at home or want to! For lots of free ideas to help you find a work at home job or start
a home based business, visit us at http://www.income-building-blocks.com and sign up
for Work at Home Income!