5 Steps to Write Fast and Make Money Faster

by Angela Booth

Want to make great money writing articles? You can. In this article we'll discuss five steps to increasing your income by writing fast.

Firstly, let's discuss why articles are such money spinners online. Everyone wants articles. Why? That's simple. Article are content and content brings traffic to a Web site. The more traffic, the more sales. So in a nutshell, articles spell money.

You can write articles for others, and you can write them to promote your own services and products too. While successful Web writers love articles and consider them money for jam, many writers flag. They get stuck, because they get lost. They don't have a process.

The following process will help you to write fast.

1. Pick Your Audience

Everything starts with an audience and with what that audience needs. It's easy to discover audiences online: just check any of the keyword tools, and assess the number of searches for a particular keyword.

For example, when I checked the "dog grooming" keyword, I discovered that in August 2008 there were around 250,000 searches. That's a large audience, and one it's well worth writing for.

So I know that writing "dog grooming" articles will be profitable.

2. Plan Your Articles - Who's Looking for What?

Once you've found your starter keyword, your keyword tool will show you what people search for in that topic. In dog grooming, for example, people search for:

* Dog grooming equipment

* Mobile dog grooming

* Dog grooming tips

Each of the above keywords has a good number of searches, and I could write several articles on each keyword.

Just by checking a keyword, not only have I discovered an article topic which will sell, I've also discovered what I need to write about.

3. Outline Your Articles in a Batch

Once I've discovered what to write about, I write five to 10 article titles. Under each title, I make a list of what I want to cover in that article. That's my outline - a simple list.

4. Focus - Close Your Office Door and Use a Timer

I usually outline my articles on one day, and write them on another day. Once I'm ready to write, I close my office door.

Now it's just a matter of writing fast. I'm not concerned about word choice or grammar, I just want to get those articles done in rough draft form. Once they're on the computer screen, I can tinker with them.

5. Revise Your Articles and Check Your Spelling

The next and final step is to revise the articles.

Firstly I revise for information and logic. Are the articles useful? Do they contain good information? If they don't I add information.

Finally, I revise for word choice, spelling and grammar.

The result? Great articles which are profitable, and which were fast and easy to write.

Discover how to make money online today with Angela Booth's Sell Your Writing Online NOW at http://sellwritingnow.com/Home/training.html You'll learn how to write and sell articles, blogs, ebooks and Web sites for profit, and you'll get complete training in how the Web works, so you can take advantage of the unlimited opportunities.

For free weekly writing information sent to your Inbox, subscribe to Angela's Fab Freelance Writing Ezine at http://fabfreelancewriting.com/ezine/fab-freelance-writing-ezine.html and receive "Write And Sell Your Writing: The Power-Write Report" immediately.

7 Tips For Finding Time To Write Every Day

by Connie Ragen Green

Many people would like to write articles but they believe they just do not have enough time. If you work at a full time job, commute to and from this job five days a week, and have a family to care for you may be finding it almost impossible to make any time for writing. I was experiencing this until I figured out these 7 tips for finding time to write every day.

1. Carry a letter size spiral notebook with you at all times. I have two of them – one that I keep in my car and the other that I keep with me at all times. I use the ones that have a straight edge when I tear the paper out instead of having little pieces of paper all over. I also use the college rule lines instead of narrow rule so that I have lots of space to add words or sentences.
2. When you have an idea, write it down immediately. If I am driving I pull the car over as soon as it is safe to do so. That way you won’t ever forget something that could turn into a good article later. I write down as much as I can so that I can go back later and write more details.
3. Make a schedule for when you are going to write. For a time I was leaving my house at 5:30 every morning to drive almost an hour to work. I started leaving at 5:15 instead and was able to beat most of the traffic. That way I would arrive early to my job. Instead of going inside early I would park my car down the street and take out my notebook. I wrote for thirty minutes each morning. When I went inside to my job I felt like I had already accomplished something that was important to me. You may be able to write for a period of time early in the morning at your house. Maybe writing later in the evening works best for you. Whenever the time is, make it part of your schedule and set goals for yourself. I like to write one article every day, five days a week. In the beginning you may set a goal of writing one article each week. Break it down into parts. Perhaps you will make notes about what you will write on the first day, write two paragraphs the next day, and so on, until your article is finished.
4. Wait until your article is finished before you give it a title. When you are first writing your articles will tend to get off track. By waiting until the end to give it a title you won’t be constantly working to get back to your original article idea. If your article ends up a little different from what you originally envisioned it is alright. Finishing the article is the most important thing to focus on in the beginning.
5. Remember that writing becomes faster and easier as time goes on. If you set goals for yourself, stick to them, write every day, and let the writing just flow you will be able to write an article more easily than you ever imagined. The quality of your writing will also improve over time.
6. Read other articles in the niche area that you have chosen for yourself. By reading other, related writings you will spark ideas that you will want to write about. There may be areas within your niche that you had not even thought about writing about in your articles.
7. Celebrate your accomplishments! Tell your friends and family what you are writing about, when you finish an article, when you submit an article and when you have an article accepted. They will come to think of you as an author and feel like you have included them in the process.

About 85% of those who write articles never write more than 10 of them. Be part of the 15% who have disciplined themselves to take the time to write each day. After you get going for a few weeks and see what can be accomplished you will be happy that you made the time.

Connie Ragen Green is a writer and speaker living in southern California. Visit her athttp://www.SmallBusinessUnMarketing.com

3 Greats Tips to Put Personality Into Your Writing

By Steven Wagenheim

Why does every article I read have to be so darn bland and boring? If I want plain regurgitated facts, I'll go turn on the evening news and be bored to death. Look, just because you're writing an article on some terrible disease doesn't mean it has to be as dry as a 10 day old turkey sandwich. Well, if you're struggling with putting some personality into your article writing, these tips should help you greatly. Please make a note of them so I don't have to read anymore bland and boring articles.

Tip number 1. Tell a story. Hey look, I don't care what you're writing about. If it's something that you're familiar with, you MUST have some kind of story to relate to it. For example, maybe you're writing about breast cancer. Well, certainly you must have known somebody in your life who has had breast cancer. Maybe you went to a breast cancer rally or walk. We don't live in bubbles. Everything we write about, if we're writing about something close to us, has a story connected to it in some way. All you have to do is find it and relay it.

Tip number 2. Associate a related fact or opinion. Look. everything you write about has some opinion tied to it. Some of the opinions are pretty close to fact, though some might argue that. Fine, but everybody has opinions. Certainly you have yours. Okay, let's take that same topic of breast cancer. Maybe you've just written about how often they say to have an examination. Certainly you must have an opinion on that, either for or against. Express it. People want to know what YOU think. They can read facts anywhere. Give them something more.

Tip number 3. Think of a more interesting way to say something. We get lazy when we write. We use the same words over and over again. We sometimes even bore ourselves. Well, why not get out a thesaurus and look up some substitutions? It's never too late to expand your vocabulary. The more words you learn, the more colorful your writing becomes. That's why a first grader is never going to write like Hemingway. He just doesn't have the vocabulary yet.

Put these three tips into practice and you'll be putting more personality into YOUR writing.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Want to write articles that get people's attention and can earn you up to $200 per article written? Then check out my Complete Article Writing And Marketing Guide that you can find at http://www.honestincomeprogram.com/tcawamg.html - This is my own book that I wrote from over 30 years of writing experience.

Effective Editing: It Spells the Difference!

by Lizzie R. Santos

If you think proofreading equals editing, then you're wrong! Editing is a lot more than just scrutinizing your manuscript for misspelled words or missing punctuation marks.

As a whole:

• Edit only *after* you've written the *whole* piece. If you stop to edit after every paragraph or sentence, you will disrupt the flow of your thoughts.
• It is better to take a break before starting to edit a long manuscript so you'll have a fresh perspective.
• Revise only *hard copy* especially if your manuscript is quite long. Revising from a monitor is confusing.
• Verify the spelling of names, figures, dates, and addresses. These are the most murdered items in manuscripts!
• Be sure of what you put between those quotation marks! Otherwise, rephrase the line and omit the quotation marks.
• Did you follow the writer guidelines? e.g., number of words required, font/font size specified, spacing, margins...

Edit your content:

• Be sure that you did not stray from your topic. Are your paragraphs coherent?
• Did you fulfill your purpose for writing that piece? Is your entertainment feature article entertaining enough? Did your personality sketch bring out your subject's unique and distinct qualities?
• If necessary, did you provide enough supporting data (graphs, charts, figures) for your piece?
• If applicable, did your article answer the 5 Ws and H? Who, what, why, were, when and how.

Edit for tightness:

• Remove redundant and useless words.
• What about diction? Did you use the right word to express what you mean? For example, 'He stared at her' is more intense than 'He looked at her.' 'Devour' is not the same as 'eat.'
• Did you vary the length of your sentences? Combining long with short sentences makes your article easier and more natural to read.
• Did you check that the body of your article is longer than the introduction (lead)? Some writers get carried way. They focus on an effective lead to hook the readers but neglect the body of the article!

What about tone and style?

• Does your work reflect your writing style or does it sound like a copied work?
• Did you use the active voice? Are you consistent with the point of view you used?
• Do your title and the words you used match the tone of your piece?

Copyright © 2005 Lizzie R. Santos

About Lizzie: Lizzie writes features, literary pieces, radio and comics scripts, and school supplemental reading materials. She is the author of two print books. Her e-book, Appetizers for Creative Writers: A Workbook for Writers, is published by iMusePub.com and it's at http://imusepub.com/lrsantos-1.php

The Writing Life: Tips for Dealing with Procrastination

by JJ Murphy

I know something's up when I'd rather do laundry than write.

Another more subtle sign of procrastination is when I conduct endless research, but never write a rough draft. I'm in trouble when I'm hunting in the refrigerator after every sentence.

But what can I do about it? Here are a few ideas that have helped me negotiate this rough terrain in my writing life:

1. Define your most productive times. I write best first thing in the morning. Nothing has happened to distract me from my thoughts. This is the best time for me to free write, review materials I wrote several days ago, or proofread. Another good time for me is when I'm hiking or when I take a break after a 45 minute hike to a pleasant sit spot.

2. Assess your writing environment. I write best when there is natural light. At night I need correctly placed light. Shadows or glare are distracting obstacles that contribute to procrastination.

3. Remove distractions. I have a place where I can sit and write regardless of the weather. I like being outside better, but when I need research and support materials, my library and the Internet are important. If music is playing, it has to be something that is not intrusive. TV or videos are deadly. Turn off the TV - even the Weather Channel. The difference is amazing. If you do not have a room, office or a space all your own, dedicate a corner of a room or a quiet place in the library where you do nothing but write.

4. Write everything down. Freewriting, brainstorming, lists, outlines, organic notes (those diagrams with spokes) - whatever floats into your head - write it down. Worry about organizing later. The idea is to fill up the page with words. If you have to start with "I hate this, it's dumb, I can't think of where to begin..." - do that. The more words that turn up on the page, the greater the chance that some of them get to the heart of what you want to say. If your hand cramps, talk into your voicemail or consider purchasing voice recognition software.

5. Take baby steps. I recently set a goal to publish a writing-related article once a week. That would be scary, but I have broken the task down into baby steps. I established a list of topics that I can add to whenever I think of something. If an idea grabs me, then I'll write down what I'm feeling, thinking, learning or any other comment. I may have written about this topic before. Eventually I will have enough notes to begin a freewrite, which often turns into a rough draft. That is often enough to keep my momentum going through the rest of the writing process.

6. Write the easiest parts first. If I am stuck for a beginning, I write a middle. If I have a conclusion or strong opinion, I write that first. Sometimes a little push is enough to set the process back in motion.

7. Reward your small victories. If I have been writing for 15 minutes to an hour, I take a well-deserved break. It soothes my eyes to shift from staring at a screen or notebook to looking out at the horizon. I may just stretch or get a cup of tea or I may use that time to break for a hike or some other treat. Taking breaks helps avoid burn-out, which kills productivity.

8. Be prepared for setbacks. Even with the support provided by these guidelines, setbacks happen. If I focus on being stuck, I stay stuck. Instead I look for ways to move on. I might write about the topic from an opposing point of view, I might write a dialogue between me and the procrastination monster, or I might switch from writing nonfiction to fiction. The important thing is not to substitute washing the kitchen floor for writing.

9. Have a plan. When caught in the grip of procrastination, recognize the symptoms and make a commitment to change the pattern. For me, procrastination typically sets in when my hiking is curtailed by a stretch of bad weather. Walking or any kind of rhythmic movement is part of what I need to do to write. In my part of the world bad weather is a fact of life. I will get stuck indoors. At that point, I have my tips list, an idea file, magnetic poetry and a whole range of ways to get words on a page. I don't need a final product. I just need to get my hands or my voice moving.

10. Accountability. Whether you write or not is entirely in your power. I cannot blame the weather, a sprained finger or anything else for my decision to write or not to write. If I want to provide my clients with work on or before a deadline, I have to write. If I want meaningful content for my readers, I have to write. I enjoy writing, but if it ever becomes a chore or a daily burden, I'll look for something else to do.

JJ Murphy is a freelance writer who helps a variety of companies, small businesses and individuals to express their awareness and dedication to developing sustainable technology and to preserve our natural resources. She provides articles for natural magazines, hiking publications, simple living publications in print and online. She also writes curricula to help public schools home schooling groups, private schools, wilderness camps, adult learning groups, continuing education programs and others stretch and expand their students’ knowledge.

She holds a Master of Arts degree from the William Allen White School of Journalism at the University of Kansas and a B.A. degree in English and Anthropology from the University of Connecticut. Her client list includes writers, business consultants, motivational speakers, psychologists, financial planners, educators, and politicians.

Visit her website http://www.WriterByNature.com