Writing Articles is a Pain: There’s got to be a better way!

By: Stacy Moore

As a website owner or blogger, you've likely heard about the importance of filling your site with articles and submitting articles to article directories. Not only do articles keep your visitors coming back for more, when strategically used, articles can provide many other benefits. But, writing articles is a pain for many of us. Is there a better way?



The Benefits of Writing Articles

Articles can boost your site's ranking in the search engine result pages for relevant keyword phrases, helping draw traffic to your site. Your well written, informative articles can lend credibility to you, your site, its products, and your recommendations.



If you incorporate "share this" and social media buttons, readers may feel inclined to share links back to your site or tell friends to check out your article. Again, this could lead to an increase in traffic to your site. Since your articles are credible and informative, they build trust and can lead to increased sales. Not only that, they act as a soft sell.



Free Articles – The Easy Way to Populate Your Site

Now that you understand the importance of articles to your site, you may be thinking "But I hate writing articles!" or "That's great, but I can't write and I can't afford to hire a writer." Even if you are a decent writer, you may not be interested or your time may be better spent doing something else.



Whether you hate writing articles, you lack the skills to do it yourself, or you simply can’t afford to hire your own writers, here's an option to consider: Using free articles from free article resources such as the public domain or article directories. Remember, you never want to copy and paste articles without permission or you'll be guilty of copyright infringement or plagiarism. However, public domain articles have either had their copyright expire or have been placed in the public domain by the authors for public use. These articles can be used however you'd like. Public domain articles have a downside, though: Anybody can do the same. If you go crazy with public domain articles, your site won't be unique.



Using articles from free article directories is another option. You will not be able to edit these articles in any way and you must retain the author's resource box and links. Again, originality and uniqueness are issues to be aware of, so don't rely solely on free articles for your site or blog.



Rewriting PLR Articles

Another option is to buy PLR articles and use them as a launching point. Private Label Rights (PLR) articles give you full control. While you could use them as-is, it's smart to rewrite them so that they are completely original. Use the article as a base and reword it to make it your own. For example, this article originated from a PLR article, yet it is completely unique. The original article provided structure and inspiration, making it much faster to write.



Commissioning a Writer

Original articles definitely deliver the most bang for the buck. If you hate writing, consider commissioning an original article or buying articles from a site such as Constant-Content.com. You'd be surprised at how affordable this option really is. Plus, you can get well written, original articles containing the keyword phrases your site needs.



Original articles, whether you write them yourself or hire someone to do it for you, are worthwhile because you have full rights to them and can use them any way you please to generate traffic to your site or blog.



If you're interested in article marketing, check out the article marketing video course which also comes with thousands of PLR articles on which to build, making article writing much less of a pain.

Article Courtesy of Free Articles To Go

Free Articles to Go

The Pros and Cons of Using Articles from Free Article Directories

By: Stacy Moore

When it comes to populating a website, blog, or newsletter with content, you have several choices including writing the content yourself, hiring a writer to write it for you, and using free articles offered on free article directories. In a perfect world, you'd have the time, skill, and resources to either write the content yourself or hire a talented writer to do it for you. In fact, you may have these options most of the time. However, you may find yourself in a bind and in need of some free articles to fill in the gaps. If you do, be aware of the pros and cons of using free articles from free article directories so that you can make the best choices possible.



The Pros of Using Free Articles



The first major advantage of using free articles is the price. After all, it's hard to beat free! While it may cost you over $100 to commission a writer to write a custom article for you, you may be able to find decent general articles for free on an article directory.



Before you get overly excited, realize that you do pay a small price in exchange for free articles: you cannot change the article. This includes the author's resource box containing a link to the author's website, blog, or other online presence. If you don't mind an article with a small plug at the end, then selecting free article directory articles may be an excellent choice for supplementing your existing Web content.



In addition to the cost advantage, using free articles also frees up your time. For example, if you normally spend about ten hours writing articles for your monthly newsletter, you could cut the time commitment dramatically by using free articles instead of writing them all from scratch. Consider writing a feature article yourself and then adding free articles that fit that month's theme.



The Cons of Using Free Articles



If using free articles sounds too good to be true, you're smart to be cautious. The downsides to using free articles include: finding well written content, finding relevant content, and finding content that's not overly promotional. Remember, just about anyone can call himself a writer and submit an article to an article directory. Editorial standards vary amongst the thousands of article directories. As a reader, you most likely know good and bad writing when you see it, so use your discretion when selecting free articles.



Finding relevant content that's not overly promotional is your next challenge. Focus on specific categories and use the article directory's search function to filter the list of available articles down to relevant choices. For example, if you need an article for your fashion blog, browse through the beauty and fashion categories or enter a keyword term such as "fashion trends" into the directory's search box.



Most article directories limit promotional content to the author's resource box, but some overly promotional articles do slip through. Carefully read the articles you're considering and pass on those that do not server your readers or your publication well.



If you need occasional help filling your site, blog, or newsletter with content, free articles from article directories can help fill in the gaps.

Article Courtesy of Free Articles To Go

Celeste Stewart Announces Affiliate Program

Celeste Stewart, a freelance writer and author of Celeste Stewart’s Secrets to Success on Constant-Content.com, has created an affiliate program allowing her affiliates to earn a commission of 50 percent of affiliate-generated sales of her eBook and other digital products.

“I originally wrote the eBook to help new writers to the Constant-Content.com Web site learn how to succeed,” Stewart says. “I have received nothing but positive feedback from readers. By offering an affiliate program, not only can the people who have bought the eBook benefit from the tips in the book, they can also make a few dollars simply by recommending the book to others. Most are doing this currently, without the incentive. Now that the affiliate program is in place, all they need to do is sign up and use the affiliate link.”

Currently, Stewart’s Constant-Content.com Tips eBook is priced at $9.95 which means that affiliates can earn about $5 each time a referral purchases the book. Stewart also offers an article tracking spreadsheet and has plans to create additional digital products, all of which will be part of the affiliate program. The affiliate program is offered through eJunkie.com, an easy-to-use online shopping cart and affiliate management system. “Affiliates don’t need to learn a complicated system simply to recommend my products. All they need to do is sign up and use the link,” Stewart says.

“This is a modest affiliate program,” Stewart says. “It’s not going to make anyone rich. However, for writers who want to learn the Constant-Content.com system from one of its top-selling writers, the eBook is a tremendous value. Those that want to recommend the book will do so with or without the affiliate program, but those involved in the program can help other writers while also earning a small fee for each sale that they generate.”

With its 50 percent commission, it takes people who have purchased the eBook just two affiliate sales to break even. Stewart says that the affiliate program is not limited to writers and there’s no purchase required. “Anyone can sign up to become an eBook affiliate,” she says.

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Web Content Writing - The Summary

By Celeste Stewart

Summaries and Web Content

Writing content for the Web has become a writing style in its own right with short articles, bullet points and headings, brief paragraphs, and a friendly "voice" - all while conveying useful information to the reader. While many articles destined for the Web end up as standalone pieces on landing pages, others are buried within a site and introduced on other pages which link to the complete article. When this happens, a short summary is used to introduce the article and entice the reader to "read more."

Summaries are also used when an article is shared by others, such as when bloggers link to articles found on other blogs. In addition, depending on how you have your Web site set up, you can also use a summary in the page's meta description field. When the article appears in a search engine's results page, the summary will appear in the description area, enticing searchers to click the link.

Summaries on the Web are also known as "abstracts," "excerpts," "teaser copy," and similar terms. Regardless of the term used, summaries must prepare the reader for what's to come and whet the reader's appetite for more.

Web Summary Length

Web summaries, by design, are short and to the point. While different Web sites may have individual requirements, two or three sentences should be sufficient. The idea is to introduce the article and generate interest, not detail everything that the article covers.

Writing Web Summaries

As tempting as it may be to write "This article is about..." or "This Web site is about...," doing so is boring to the reader. If the reader is bored reading the summary, it's doubtful that he'll click the "read more" link. You may also be tempted to copy and paste the first paragraph into the summary field. This too will bore you reader. While your first paragraph may be interesting, relevant, and fresh, by the time your reader gets to your article, it will be old, redundant, and boring because he just finished reading the same text before clicking the "read more" link.

A better approach is to write a completely original summary for your article or blog post. You just wrote an entire article, so coming up with a few sentences describing it shouldn't be difficult. Try to mimic the tone of the article so that the voice of the summary matches the voice of the article. For example, if your article is humorous and light, so should the summary. On the other hand, if your article discusses a serious topic, you'd want the summary to have a more serious tone.

Twitter Summaries

In addition to writing a summary that introduces the article, consider writing a summary with Twitter in mind. Twitter's limit of 140 characters must be kept in mind as you write the summary as well as the length of the article's link. If you use a URL shortener such as Bitly which uses 20 characters, the longest your Twitter summary can be is 120 characters.

Writing compelling summaries for your Web content is a crucial skill that can lead to improved page views. Don't just copy and paste, write fresh, original content and make an excellent first impression.

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Celeste Stewart is a successful freelance writer and top-selling author at Constant-Content.com. These short summary tips can also be applied when writing short summaries for Constant-Content article submissions. For more Web content and specific Constant-Content writing tips, check out her Freelance Writing Tips eBook titled, Celeste Stewart's Secrets to Success on Constant-Content.com or visit Celeste Stewart's Web site.

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