This is a topic which a lot of people who are members of my 
service want to know about. I encourage my customers to write 
articles to advertise their online business because I believe 
it is one of the best ways to advertise your business. Here's 
my step by step on how to write articles:


1. Choosing a Topic

Choose a topic to write about your online business which 
you think your readers will have an interest in. If you are 
stuck for ideas, go to any free article directories such as 
http://www.goarticles.com and get some ideas on what to write. 
For example, I chose this article you are reading now as it is 
considered a hot topic for people wanting to make money online.


2. Think of a Title

Your title is very important. It is what will attract the 
visitors to read your article. The title should explain clearly 
what it is about --- no guesswork. It is best to have a title 
explaining what it will teach the readers. For example, "How 
to...", "10 ways to...", "The secrets of...", "Step by step 
to..."


3. The Tone of the Article

Always write the article as if you are speaking to the reader. 
Avoid phrases such as "I hope all of you...", "the majority of 
you..." Use phrases such as "I think you will...", "You had 
better believe this..." It brings the relationship of the reader 
and writer closer and the article more interesting. Additionally 
adding apostrophes to words also gives a feeling that you're 
writing to the reader. For example, "That's what I think...", 
"You're feeling good today..."


4. Format of the Article

The first paragraph is very important. It should tell the reader 
what you're writing about and why. 

Your article should have sub headings and bullet points. People 
will generally scan your article at first and it's the sub 
headings which will make them take notice and know what areas 
interest them.

Never have a lot of URLs on your article and never make it as 
though you are trying to sell something. It's a big turn-off 
for readers.


5. Keywords and Links

Your article should have keywords in it so that when it's 
placed on the web, the search engines will pick up the keywords 
and people can search for it. However don't take this to the 
extreme. You can think about keywords but make the article 
interesting. That's still your priority. Articles stuffed with 
keywords are a joke to read.


6. Length of the Article

Your article should be 65 or less characters per sentence. 
This will enable easier reading. Long sentences are difficult 
to read. The word count for your article should be around 700 
words. I find this to be the optimum length of an article. 
Not too long and not too short.


7. Resource Box

This should be around 5 lines of advertisement for your 
business. Try mention something which is related to the 
article. Explain who you are and what your business is about. 
Take time to work on this. It is what this is all about --- 
clicks to your website. Check out the resource box under this 
article to see how I do it. 


8. Proof Read Your Article

Once your article's out on the internet you cannot change it. 
Spelling mistakes and grammar mistakes makes you seem foolish 
and not as professional as you would like others to think of 
you.


9. Distribute Your Articles

This is the part where a lot of people find it frustrating. 
There are article distribution services that can help you and 
also software which can make your job a lot easier. Try and 
distribute your article to as many places as possible. To get 
a list of tools, services and manual websites to distribute 
your articles, send an email to my autoresponder: 
mailto:howarticles@onlinemoneymachine.com


10. Frequency of Articles

It is best to write articles weekly or fortnightly. For 
beginners I would recommend monthly so that you're used to the 
process. The object of writing articles is to build targeted 
traffic over time so that you will get consistent visitors to 
your website without you doing any additional marketing such 
as search engine optimization.


I write articles every one or two weeks. It does work and I'm 
getting targeted visitors to my website. However you need to 
stick to it. You're building a healthy business and this 
technique is not a one-off or quick solution to traffic but 
it does work.

Read my article again and notice how I have used all the 
techniques I have described above to write this particular 
article. Take it as a guide for "How To Write Articles". 

Alan Cheng, is the owner of http://www.onlinemoneymachine.com/?5
the membership site with everything to help beginners setup
a profitable online business website. You can contact Alan at:
mailto:alan@onlinemoneymachine.com