Posting Articles On-Line: What? Who? Why? When? Where? How?

For the last year, I have been posting articles on-line. You mean you’ve been selling articles and making tons of money?  That is a good question.   No, not yet, but I have my name and articles all over the internet, over one hundred and sixty times that is. What do I mean by articles? How have I done this?  Why?  How?  Let me answer your questions one by one…

(1)    What am I talking about?  Article writing on-line is a great way to create a web presence, work on your writing skills and let people know what you are about.  I have written articles on Christian living, family, marriage and children, and on the craft of writing itself.  Many of my articles are on several websites, people having picked them up from the free article banks I write for.

(2)    Who am I writing these articles for?  Personally, I have written for six article websites and one online magazine so far.  Five of the article websites are Christian and one focuses on all types of articles.  The on-line magazine is brandlady.com, a women’s magazine. 

(3)    Why again am I writing without being paid?  Free article websites print articles you write and place them where thousands of people browse to look for articles.  These people are in business, website design, and even publishing.  Some are just regular people with websites they want to enhance.  They are still people who can remember your name and writing and one day buy your products, no matter who they are.

(4)    When should you start writing and posting articles?  Now!  Why wait?  If you are a writer then you probably have a stash of materials to glean articles from right in your files.  If you have a product to endorse, sit down and write to people why they need your product.  Give them the information they are looking for and they will hunt you down.

(5)    Where should you post your articles?  The sites are endless.  You can start posting articles on your own website or start a web log at a site like blogger.com or on My Space.  Look up free article websites and see which ones have similar articles to the ones you are writing.  Then sign up as a contributing writer.

(6)    How do you get started?  I began by googling in “free article websites” and since I write Christian articles also, I also googled in “Christian article websites.”  I researched each site to decide if what they offered was relevant with what I was writing.  Then I just had to step out, sign up and send my first article.  It was nerve wracking to say the least but important in setting a foundation for my business, which is writing and women’s ministry. 

When I started, I picked several article websites and wrote articles for a specific period of time.  I then evaluated the results, seeing how many times my articles had been read and whether other websites were picking them up.  I soon dropped one website that was taking a long time to evaluate each article before they would print it.  They took over a month and I felt it was too long to wait.  I am constantly reevaluating each site and deciding whether I need to continue to contribute or not.

By typing my name in a search engine like “Google” I quickly learned which articles were being picked up and by whom.  This let me know what was “selling” and what wasn’t in article writing.  As I wrote and published more and more articles, my name became more prevalent on search engines and my web presence grew.

One of the most productive free article websites that I write for is www.articlesbase.com.  I have had numerous articles picked up by other websites, spreading my name and web presence from California to England.  Brandlady.com, a women’s magazine based in Australia saw an article on this website and asked me to become a contributing writer for their magazine!  I have received comments from people all over the world and made some positive connections that have enhanced my writing career. 

Writing articles has been an important step in my pursuit of a career in writing.  I truly believe it can help anyone in any business to be successful and significant in what they do.  I have laid out the process for you and it is easy to follow…it is up to you now to take that first step and begin writing and posting articles!