How To Make Money With Articles - What You Must Do

Whether you think of yourself as a writer or not, if you are working online then you should know how to make money with articles. The basics are pretty simple: write an article related to your subject, include a link to your website, submit the article to directories.

But there are a few basic things that you must do if you want to actually bring in the dollars with your article. If you do not think about these points before you start, you could be wasting all of your precious time. And time is money, right?

The first thing to consider is why you are writing your article - from two very different points of view. Firstly, what is the article’s main point for the reader? And secondly, how is it going to make you money?

Many article writers only think about the second point - they are writing this article to make money, and that’s it. But if that is your only motivation, the reader is likely to be turned off. Your make-money reason for writing needs to be very well hidden.

Instead, remember that you are writing the article to inform the reader. Yes, let’s say it again - to give useful information to the reader.

If you are selling information, you probably don’t want to give away too much. But it’s easy to pick out one point, perhaps something that you didn’t cover in your ebook, or something that is quite well known. It needs to give real value to the reader, so it should be both interesting and helpful in solving their problem or whatever need or wish they have that led them to read your article.

Keep in mind that there are some article writers submitting to directories who have no money-making motive at all. They simply want to put across their point of view. This applies particularly to people writing about subjects they strongly believe in, such as religion or politics. So imagine how you would write your article if you had nothing to sell. Then simply add a link to your site at the end.

However, do not try to stuff your article with all the information you can think of. This only confuses the reader. One point is enough if you can develop it well; three points is certainly all that you would need. Remember that the aim is to leave the reader wanting more.

Meanwhile, your hidden reason for writing the article will be in the back of your mind. This may be branding (building awareness of you as an authority on the subject, e.g. through a blog), lead generation (sending readers to a squeeze page), or, if the article is very closely related to your product, direct selling where your resource box links to a sales page.

So before submitting your article to directories, consider its purpose from both the reader’s point of view and from the marketing perspective. Will the reader get what he or she wanted, but still be left wanting more? And where are you sending them - would a squeeze page be more effective than a sales letter this time?

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