Hi all – I hope your writing is going well? I’ve had a nice start to the day as I have some easy blogs and articles to write today. You know how some days you get really nice jobs to do on topics you love and know a lot about? I’m having one of those days today It’s good because there is minimal research to do, instead of having to research a topic from the ground up. It certainly makes life easier.

I can’t believe we’re on the 24th day of this month already. Next Wednesday will be my last entry for 29 Days of Online Writing. It’s been an eye opening month, with gas leaks, a new roof and lots of visitors to fit in. It’s been a good month in terms of our own websites too, with the first one launched and the second one about to go live as well. This is a bit of an experiment really but I think it will go well.

Some good news now to kick off the afternoon with: I’ve got a new client who wants 15 blogs to start with, and there is the potential for this to become a regular gig as well. I also have another job for 3 blogs to do next week, and if they like what I do they will want blogs every month. Some extra cash to go towards the new roof It will be nice to replace the savings as quickly as possible.

1721 – and it’s time to finish. I’ve had four jobs to do today – doesn’t sound like much but they’ve all been high earning ones so it’s been a good day. The cat is looking at me and wondering why I haven’t fed him yet, so I guess it’s time to quit and relax for the evening. My partner and I will be at the family home brew shop tomorrow – the first day in about seven weeks I think. So I may well be blogging from a different location. Watch out for my next post and you might just learn something about home brew too

If you have visited my blog over the last few days you may have noticed an ad on the right side of the page that says ‘PLR Articles Online – now open’. This is our brand new PLR store, run by my partner and I, and we already have five packs of articles in it for sale.

Why PLR Articles Online?

Basically I have been wanting to branch out into PLR for over a year now. It was planned to happen last year but never did because there was too much else going on. So 2011 was to be the year when we were going to launch this new part of our online business, and now we have in the form of PLR Articles Online.

PLR Articles Online

I have read a lot about PLR articles online in the last year or two, and there is definitely a good market for it. Lots of writers have branched out into providing this service, and since I am often too busy to take on lots of new clients, I wanted to make sure I could offer another service as well. I got a course from someone I respect a lot online, Tiffany Dow (you may have heard of her) and this course has spurred me on to create some article packs to kick the PLR Articles Online site off with.

PLR Articles Online has PLR article packs available at low prices for anyone who needs them.

If you have a need to buy PLR articles online, come and check out our store now at http://www.plrarticlesonline.com. You’ll notice that we have also added a contact form at the top right of the home page where you can ask for specific packs to be created. They might even be in the pipeline as we have plenty more topics to tackle in the near future.

What will the future bring for PLR Articles Online?

Lots of people have the need to buy content for their websites, no matter what subject they are focusing on. PLR can be a good bet for people who want to get the most for their money, because with a simple rewrite of the content (done in just a few minutes) it can be used as a unique piece of content.

I’ve learned a lot about PLR since we decided to put the site together and launch it. It might be early days but things are looking very good indeed, and PLR articles online will undoubtedly be another focus of mine in the coming weeks and months. Take a look at the new PLR Articles Online site now and see what you think.

One recent opportunity that has come to my attention is a competition being run throughout the month of July to write an article for the How To Books website.

Write an article and be in with a chance of winning £200

Write an article for How To Books

According to Nick Lewis of How To Books, the best article submitted to the site in July will win £200.   The winner will be announced in the middle of August.  This should give you a big enough reason to write an article for the site to see how you get on with it.

Write an article for How To Books and keep on earning from it in the future as well

In addition to the prize the site is offering during July, it also pays a portion of Google Adsense earnings that each article receives.  So as well as having the chance to win £200 when you write an article during July, you could start bringing in a reasonable income from any articles you submit to the site that are subsequently published.

This is just one way you could start earning money from writing online.  When you write an article for this site, it could start you off on a whole new career as well.

Need more information before you write an article for How To Books?

If you have any queries about the competition you can direct them to competition@howto.co.uk.  More information is available online at http://www.howto.co.uk/competition.html.  Good luck – and remember, when you write an article for the competition it could be the start of regular earnings with How To Books too.

It’s been a while since I wrote anything for Triond, but I decided to try them with a new article yesterday about online ghostwriting jobs which has since been accepted.  You can add your own Adsense code to your articles now too, which is part of the reason I wanted to add another one to see what happened.

Advice about finding online ghostwriting jobs

Are you good at finding online ghostwriting jobs?

It’s called ‘Online Ghostwriting Jobs – Are You Using All The Ways You Can Find Work? and the title is pretty self explanatory.  I’ve touched on this subject before so hopefully you will find it useful.  It seems a lot of people are out there wanting to know how to find the best online ghostwriting jobs, and given the current state of play with the economy and job losses, it isn’t hard to see why.

How many online ghostwriting jobs are out there?

You know, when you first start looking you might think there aren’t enough to go around.  But when you keep on looking you will start to unearth all kinds of things.

Online ghostwriting jobs are there in their thousands, believe me.  It just takes perseverance to find the best ones for you.  It only took me a few days to find my first one (which was a pretty dire job with hindsight, but it got me started) and from then on it was all pretty good news.

Can you find enough online ghostwriting jobs to make a living at it?

I certainly did, and there is no reason why you shouldn’t either.  It just takes time and perseverance (yes it’s that word again) to get the results you want.  I cannot guarantee you will be successful though – that’s up to you.

In the meantime, if I make any further progress with Triond, I’ll let you know.  Until then, why not read the article and see whether it could lead you to your very first of many online ghostwriting jobs?

Another hub about online writing?

You bet.  I have been writing a few new hubs about online writing and other subjects for Hubpages recently as part of my online writing efforts, and one in particular has got off to a great start.

Not surprisingly it is about online writing.

I am often asked where I find the jobs I get as a writer, and where I make the connections that enable me to be a full time online writer as well.  So I decided to write this hub to reveal some of those answers.

Clearly it has touched on a popular topic and answered something a lot of budding online writers want to know!  You can read the hub by visiting it here at “The methods I use to find online ghostwriting jobs.”

How much could you earn from Google Adsense when delving into online writing with Hubpages?

I hope you enjoy it.  I also hope you may feel inspired to write for Hubpages yourself.  The main reason why I write for them – apart from the fact that I love writing and I like to do something for myself as well as writing for clients – is to earn some money from Google Adsense.

How does Google Adsense figure in the subject of online writing for Hubpages?

It’s easy.  All you need to do is associate your Adsense code with your Hubpages account.  That’s it!  You can then focus on writing some good hubs that ideally bring in traffic and result in people clicking on the ads that appear next to them.

This starts trickling money into your Adsense account – a trickle that will eventually turn into a flood (hopefully!).  Some hubbers are already reaping significant rewards from their online writing efforts on this site.

So why not set aside some time to try online writing for Hubpages now?

If you remember from my blog post earlier in the year, it was my intention to start writing some more hubs for Hubpages this year.  Someone I know very well is making a three figure sum every month from the hubs they have on there, most of which comes via Google Adsense.

Now I finished work early today and I was really in the mood for doing some writing for ME for a change.  So I got my thinking cap on and published three brand new hubs in a fairly short space of time.  Here they are:

• Using Google Reader to help you find online writing jobs – this is about a technique I use to keep abreast of the latest writing jobs available.  You can refine this as much as you like until you get just the right results for you.  I’d definitely recommend it.
• What should you be earning as an online writer? – ah the perennial favourite!  Everyone asks this question sooner or later, but you don’t have to settle for whatever you are earning now.
• How much time do you spend searching for online writing jobs? – as you can see, all these new hubs are focused on writing.  This is my niche and most of the hubs I have published on this topic seem to do well.  Watch out for more coming soon.

So it has been a productive evening.  Let’s see how my Adsense earnings start to add up as I add more hubs over the next few weeks and months.

Interesting question, hmm?  You certainly can’t write any less than 300 words for your articles if you are submitting them to a site like Ezine Articles, for example (and they now advocate a higher word limit than that).

But the question here is whether you should be writing just 300 words, or whether you should aim for much higher than that.  Everyone has their own opinion on this but I think 300 words or just over is perfectly adequate for article marketing.  It does depend on how you approach the task however.

Some people try to squeeze too much into one single article.  If you are doing this and you want to cover lots of points in an article, you’ll need a longer length.  Beware though that some people won’t want long articles for their websites.  They may only want very short ones to fill up spaces on their web pages.  And let’s face it, most people only have a short attention span and don’t have the time or the inclination to read something that is around 1000 words long.

The key to successfully writing short articles of 300 words or so is to focus on one specific idea in each article.  If you know of half a dozen ways to use articles to drive traffic to your own website, why not write a separate article on each one?  That gives you six articles for starters, and you can probably get ideas for more as you are going along too.

So no, I don’t believe 300 words is too short.  Some people may disagree with me, but I know a lot of people will agree.  The golden rule to remember is not to stop until you have said what needs to be said for each particular article.  Once you have, and you have clearly got your point across, you can stop.  Just like this.

Are you a quick writer?

Hmm, interesting question isn’t it?  The answer will obviously depend on how much time you have available.  But if you are writing web content for clients they will have their own ideas of how much you should be able to write and when it should be done by.

This is why it pays to get to know your own limitations.  If you take on too much work it will lead to undue stress and anxiety as you struggle to meet your deadlines.  And if you miss those deadlines you will find that clients will very soon go elsewhere.  Only the most urgent of reasons should prohibit you from meeting a deadline agreed previously.

You’ll notice too that the most important word in that title is the word ‘good’.  No matter how many clients you have and what they are paying you, as a web writer you need to be able to supply good quality articles.  This is particularly true if you want to push your rates up and earn what you are worth.  Clients won’t pay for substandard content that doesn’t hit the mark.

So in reality the answer to this question will be answered as you go along and gain more experience.  You will usually find you get faster as you learn more and develop a rhythm of writing that you are happy with.  If you are writing about familiar topics you are an expert in, you will be able to write more articles in a shorter length of time.  It will be very different if you have an alien subject you know nothing about, because you have to add in research time.

So get to know what you can write and how long it will take you.  The more you can maximise your writing time to get the most out of it, the more money you stand to make from clients who will be looking for the writing services you provide.

I made it through the tape... after 100 articles and around 91 days, the Ezine Articles Challenge is complete - for me at least

Wow.  I did wonder back in early August whether I would actually ever get to write that.  But today I did a quick count up and I now have 101 submitted articles since the challenge began.  At present 98 of those are accepted, with 3 going through the motions of being processed.  But hopefully they will make it and I’ll hit the target.  I’ve only had two bounce backs since I started submitting – one for accidentally copying and pasting a note to myself which shouldn’t have made it onto the finished article, and the other one for breaking an Ezines regulation.

I may still submit a few more just to be sure I’ve done it, but it’s still a relief to hit the target with some 9 days still to go.  I fell behind when we went on holiday but I had a terrific day last week where I managed to write about 14 articles in a single day.  That really broke the back of the task to be honest, and I’m pleased to have been able to complete it.

But was it worth it?  Did I achieve anything notable?

Well, I have to say it WAS worth it.  A lot of the articles are directed back to this blog and I did it to gain valuable backlinks and also attract traffic and attention, and that seems to be working.  I’ve also have potential clients coming to me for information on writing services, so that’s another benefit.

In addition to that some of the articles have also made their way onto this blog.  My aim is to share much of the information I have created with you guys too, so there is plenty more to come.

But perhaps the most telling part of those 100 or so articles I have written is that this is just the beginning.  Yes I may well win an Ezines mug to try and find room for on our mug tree.  Yes I may well get a certificate to stick on the office wall with Blu-tack.  But most of all I have proved that I can meet my own self-set deadlines and not just those agreed with clients.  That is great news as I go forward and develop this blog and my own eBooks that I have plans for in the future.

But I can also use that content elsewhere.  I could submit it to more article directories.  I could rewrite it and use it as a springboard to more articles, thoughts and ideas in the future.

I thought when I finished that would be it (always assuming I made it in the first place).  But in actual fact I feel as if the work has only just begun.  You can go back and see how I did throughout the challenge by going to the writing challenge section of this blog.  I’ll let you know when it becomes officially official that I passed!  And of course, I’ll tell you when that coveted mug turns up.

And yes, I may well tell you when I finally drop it as well .

This article was originally written as part of the 100 Articles in 100 Days Challenge on Ezine Articles.  I have reproduced it with some tweaking here because, while it was written with article marketing in mind, it can also help you when writing articles for clients.  Some of them like articles that are fresh and attractive to look at, because it makes them easier to read.  And this tip will help.

Content is extremely important when it comes to building a worthwhile website.  Great website content can launch a new internet business higher than you may believe is possible.  You just have to know a few tricks to making written copy even easier to create.

Can bullet points work for you and your writing?

One of these tricks involves the use of bullet points.  Think about some of the web copy you have read over the years.  How much of it was easy to read?  And how much of it was so overwhelming when you looked at it you simply clicked away and found another page elsewhere to read instead?

Half the battle with creating good web copy is to make it look good.  It needs to look readable as well as actually being readable.  It’s like cooking and presenting food – if it doesn’t look appetising you aren’t going to feel excited to eat it, even if it tasted wonderful.

So let’s look at why bullet points are worth using in your articles and web copy:

* They help to break up the main body of text
* They draw the eye in and make the writing look more accessible
* They help you to get specific points across to the reader (much as I am doing here)
* They make it much easier for the reader to absorb those points.  That wouldn’t be the case if you strung them all along in a single sentence.

You shouldn’t automatically look for ways to use bullet points in every single article or piece of copywriting you write.  But there are plenty of circumstances where they can greatly enhance the quality and look of the article or website content you are creating.

So remember those bullet points.  Four or five in a single article could just win you more readers than you would otherwise have had.  (And an additional footnote – they could win you more clients too!)