Here are 5 article writing tips to help get you started:

1. Ask yourself a question.

I’ve found it very helpful to start writing my article with a question.  Once I have a question related to the topic of my article, I find it easier to expand on the topic and provide an in depth answer to that particular question.  For example, we could be writing an article about Wordpress blogs.  I would then begin my article with the question “What is a Wordpress blog?”.  This will help focus all my thoughts on the topic.

2. Brainstorm, create bullet points.

Once I have created a question for the topic, I will then brainstorm ideas and answers.  Instead of writing answers in a paragraph form, I list answers as bullet points.  This gives me an opportunity to expand on each bullet point and add more relevant information step by step.  I have always found this helpful for creating more content in the article.

3. Write down your thoughts as they come.

You can reduce the amount of time it takes to create an article by simply writing down every thought that comes through your mind while thinking about the topic.  Most people are faced with writers block and will simply stare at a blank page.  Why not write it all down?  Just translate your thoughts as simple as you can.  Once you have everything down, go through it all.  Piece together all relevant information.  You’ll probably be surprised when you discover how much content you have just created within a short period of time.

4. Set a timer.

I will almost always time myself when writing articles.  If you can determine the amount of time it’s taking you to write articles, you can then set a goal and set out to accomplish your tasks a bit better.  Allow yourself enough time to write thorough and high quality articles.  The reader of your article will easily be able to tell if you rushed through your writing.  So simply remember to set a timer to set a goal.

5. Brainstorming

The process of organizing your thoughts is one of the most helpful aspects of article writing.  Before writing your articles, brainstorm thoughts on your topic.  Simply write down a list of bullet points which you can eventually incorporate into your article.  You’ll find it much easier to expand on each bullet point as you set out to write each paragraph.

If you are not quite sure what HubPages is, let me help you become a little bit familiar with the site. HubPages allows users of the website to create their own unique page, a Hub as they call it. You can pretty much customize the page any which way you choose, selecting various types of content such as pictures, text, videos, links, etc.

The nice part is that it’s extremely fast and easy for users to begin creating their own Hub. All you have to do is create a free account, pick an appropriate title for your Hub, add a few tags, and you’re well on your way. Pages are created using capsules, and it’s the capsules that contain various types of content. If you have created a Squidoo page, you’ll be able to relate to this type of page creation.

Once you have added the capsules you choose, all you have to do is publish the page. Within minutes you’ll have your own unique Hub being displayed for others to see. This is where all the good stuff comes into play, because you’ll have an audience to market to, and the potential of making some money is quite good.

Your page will not automatically make money for you however, you’ll have to put some thought into it’s creation. You will have to put forth a good amount of effort and spend quality time on your page to take full advantage of the money making opportunities HubPages offers. HubPages has a rating system in place, called a HubScore. The HubScore is a score ranging from 0 to 100, with 100 being the highest quality score. The more original and unique content you have on your Hub the better your score will be. There are a variety of factors which ultimately determine your HubScore, but you’ll receive a higher score if you focus on original and high quality content for your page.

So now that you have somewhat of an idea of what HubPages is, let me share with you a few ways you can make money with HubPages.

• Create A Unique Hub

Like I mentioned a few moments ago, a high quality hub will boost your status on HubPages. You want to reach out and grab the attention of your readers. There is no better way other than creating high quality and original content. You’ll be off to a great start if you have had experience writing good articles. Visitors to your page who enjoy what you have created will often leave comments.

There is excellent potential of building a steady stream of traffic to your page. This is where you want to be sure and link to your own personal website for the products and services you offer. Just remember to link to relevant information. If you have created a Hub about digital camera products, don’t link to your website that’s selling cookbooks. If you are providing useful and informative content, chances are you’ll be able to build traffic to your own site if you add links in the appropriate places. Building traffic is a key to making money on HubPages, and with that said I’ll move on to the next bit of advice…

• Add Tags

Don’t forget to add tags for your Hub. Tags are important because they help catogorize the information that your Hub is offering. Remember that you want to add relevant and high quality tags, because these tags are important keywords for your site.

• Build Traffic

You want to get your Hub noticed by people, so you’ll have to become active and participate in various activities. Comment on other people’s pages, join groups, join fan clubs, and participate in forums. All these types of activities will allow others to discover who you are and the Hubs you have created. Remember, your goal is to be seen. You can create a funnel of traffic from your Hub page to your personal site by simply becoming active and gaining trust from your readers.

• Google AdSense, Amazon Affiliates, and eBay

If you create a good Hub page and build a good amount of traffic, you can make some money through Google AdSense, Amazon, and eBay. Now I have a slightly different opinion that many when it comes to earning money using these methods. If I’m trying to market a specific product or service and am trying to ultimately direct people to my own site, I don’t want people to click away on Google AdSense or Amazon/eBay affiliate links.

Yes, you can make money when people click on these links if you are setup with Adsense, Amazon, and eBay, but use caution and know when and when not to use these methods. If you’re simply creating an informative Hub about a certain niche, by all means use these methods of making money. If you’re marketing your own website, think about it a bit more before sending your readers off in another direction.

Following these tips will most certainly help you create a decent Hub at HubPages. As always, I suggest experimenting different methods and techniques to see what works and what doesn’t. Testing can make a huge difference when it comes to your profits. Oh, and as always, Have Fun!!

Having other writers write your articles can actually save you a lot of time.  If you are working on multiple projects, it can help to have someone else write your articles for you.  Professional writers will usually know what keywords to focus on, and will be knowledgeable when it comes to specific search engine optimization techniques.

If you decide to outsource, there are several good resources you can utilize to get your projects done.  Be sure and do some resource before selecting a freelancer to write your articles.  There are a whole lot of people willing to take on the job, but you have to look for the good ones who will write your articles for a reasonable price.  Excellent places to start are GetAFreelancer.com, Elance, and ScriptLance.  Keep in mind that it sometimes takes a little bit of time to sort the good writers from the bad.  Unfortunately you can’t always rely on the feedback a writer receives.  So if you choose to take this route, think wisely.

There simply are times when you need to focus on a certain part of your project more than another.  The only way you’ll know weather outsourcing your articles is right for you is by experimenting.  See what works better.  You may ultimately decide that having someone write for you is not the way to go.  On the flip side, you may find out that having others write for you provides a boost in both traffic and sales.

Just about everyone wants to implement the most cost effective techniques when promoting their product. Thankfully there are plenty of low cost and even FREE methods of promotion that you can implement. FREE is always good, right? Well, it’s good to some extent. I find that some of the free techniques are easily abused, and this can do more harm to your marketing campaign than good in the long run. Many who see a free advertising opportunity will get carried away and instantly begin to turn their advertisement into SPAM. Two words for you, not good.

I know not everyone has the time and unlimited financial resources available to create the most perfect campaign, but if you want to get the most out of your promotion, you’re going to be required to put a significant amount of effort in to it. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t receive the results you want. There’s times when marketing campaigns go good, and time when campaigns go bad. My advice is to roll with punches and keep trying.

If you are working with a limited budget, the possibility of obtaining good quality targeted traffic to your site through low cost marketing is achievable. You don’t have to spend a huge amount of money to get your promotion in motion. All you need is a little bit of confidence and clever thinking to get the ball rolling. As I have mentioned many times in the past, writing articles is a highly effective method of free advertising. If you aren’t able to write articles, you can outsource this for a very low cost. Article marketing will bring a decent amount of targeted traffic to your site and should not be overlooked.

Once you have some original articles written, you can distribute them to a few article directories. It won’t be long until you see a nice steady stream of traffic flowing to your site. The key to this free method of advertising is high quality and original articles, distributed to high quality article directories. EzineArticles is a good place to start.

Another free method of promotion is through the use of blogs. I know many internet marketing professionals who despise blogs. But the fact of the matter is they are pretty much here to stay, and they work! If you have limited funds and are seeking ways to promote your products or services for free, blogs are the way to go. You can setup a free blog through sites like Wordpress, or Blogger. Keep in mind that if you use a blog, stay professional. Stay on topic with the product or service you are marketing. Always remember to include the link of your own web site on your blog. And also remember to keep your blog posts a bit interesting. The whole idea is to provide high quality content, just like when you are writing your articles.

If you still are convinced that blogs just aren’t for you, try setting up a free Squidoo page, or a page at HubPages. Both these sites are free for you to use, and they offer you a huge audience to market to, right up front. Another advantage of utilizing these sites is that you don’t have to be a web guru to get your page started. They make it extremely simple to get started, and you’ll be able to promote your product within minutes.

And of course you can expand your ideas through the use of social media marketing. This option is completely free, and extremely effective. Use tools and resources such as Twitter, Stumbleupon, Digg, Delicious, etc. Chances are you’ll have positive marketing results if you utilize these tools. Just remember, don’t spam.

There are many more free and low cost methods of promotion, but these are just a few to get your creative thinking process in motion. Remember that you don’t always have to spend your life savings on advertising. Think smart, be creative, utilize resources, and put it all into action!

I think if you want to stand out from the rest you have to take a whole different approach to the topic you are writing about. For example, one of the hot searches this very moment on Google Trends is “what does the secretary of state do”. That means a whole lot of people are searching this phrase right now, primarily focused on finding out what the Secretary of State does.

People with web sites that follow the trends will be quick to post this keyword phrase on their own site, eager to get in with the web surfing crowd. The whole goal for the web site owner is to get their site out in front of the rest. The owner of the site wants to build traffic, and if their site ranks well they will be able to get indexed pretty quick.

But what if they would just take a whole different approach and make it a bit more interesting? Stand out from the rest! Instead of simply throwing the search topic around carelessly, like “what does the secretary of state do”, incorporate this into something of more interest. Expand a bit on the topic. Yes, you’ll want to answer the question that is being asked, but throw in some additional helpful and useful information for the reader.

If you can be unique and offer up something more related to the topic other than a carbon copy article of your competitors, you’ll have an edge. It seems like quality news has been placed on the back burner. This is where I see a significant opportunity. If you maintain a website that is up to date with the current hot topics and trends, why not try and take a whole different approach. Be creative and try and do something different with your articles. Give some thought and write an attention grabbing headline. I believe if you can offer content that is of better quality than the next guy, and “think outside the box”, you’ll be able to grab a bit more attention right from the very beginning.

Quality articles are the key, and they always will be. Before you start distributing what you have written, you’ll want to be sure that you have researched your topic thoroughly. The benefits from delivering quality content to your readers will pretty much outweigh just about everything else. Remember that once you have written and distributed your articles, you’ll be adding more and more incoming links to your site. People will eventually take notice, and be thirsty for more.

Before you begin the actual process of writing your article, take some time and browse through popular article sites, like EzineArticles.com for example. Search through the articles using keywords that pertain to your own website and niche. Take note of which articles are getting the most views. You can do this by simply taking a look at how many page views the article has received. You’ll see this number located towards the bottom of the article. It’ll look like the image that is shown below.

Once you’ve gathered some relevant keywords from some articles with decent page views, you can begin to put those keywords and phrases to use in your own articles. Always remember though, use your own writing style and approach. Never, and I’m serious, NEVER directly copy information. It’s a poor method that many use, and it’s plagiarism. You’re looking to create quality articles in your own words, not someone else’s.

If you take the time to research and think things out a bit, you will produce a pretty good article in the end. Let your ideas flow out naturally, and edit things out later on. Remember not to write your article in a way that it sounds like a blatant sales letter. Yes, you’re selling something, but take one step at a time. The whole reason you are writing your article is to share knowledge and eventually direct the reader to what you yourself are offering.

It’s a good idea to keep your articles around 400 and 600 words. This isn’t something that is really set in stone, but good quality articles will generally contain this amount of words. Some will argue that shorter articles are more effective, but it really depends on what you are trying to convey. A high quality article will be organized and contain a significant amount of information to grab the reader’s attention.

Don’t Forget Your Quality Resource Box

Another highly important step is your resource box at the end of each article. Before you submit your articles to the big directories, be sure your resource box contains a link to your website. Your site should be relevant to your article, as this will help you obtain more leads and build more traffic. Each article directory website will usually have their own rules in place for author resource boxes. So when it comes time to submitting your article, you’ll have to review the rules that are in place.

Once you have your article written you’ll want to thoroughly review it. Have someone else proofread it if necessary. Sometimes someone else will catch something that isn’t quite right, even after you have done your own review. So gather opinions of others if you can.

If you take some of this advice and put it to action, you’ll more than likely have less trouble next time you begin writing your articles.