9th December 2008
Peter Nisbet

Article writing can be very lucrative, and if you know how to write articles for money, you should be able to get through the current economic squeeze unscathed. This article will explain how you can learn to write articles in a form needed both for website content and for directory submission.

The economy at the moment is in such a state right now that all round the world many people are getting worried how to make ends meet. An equal number are starting new internet ventures and are seeking online content and articles for submission to article directories that can be used to advertise their websites, products and services.

This type of advertising is free, and one good article can attract a large number of people to a specific page on somebody's website. Not only do people read articles that are published on directories from the directory itself, but these articles are also listed on Google if they are sufficiently optimized to persuade Google to give them a high listing.

People are currently paying from $5 to $50 for good articles, and although you can't expect much for $5, the average is around $15-$20. This is cheap when compared to the cost of other forms of online advertising. For example an article can get at least 2,000 reads on a directory, which equates to 0.75 cents a click for an equivalent PPC ad. Even if you paid $20 for an article, you be paying only 1c a click for equivalent exposure on Google Adwords - the title of an article can attract prospects just as much as that of an advert.

Now consider you being the writer and not the user of the article. Even a slow writer can write three articles of 700 words in an hour, and if you charge $15 for each article, you could make $45 an hour, or $180 a day for just 4 hours work. That's $3,600 a month for only 20 days work, and you don't even have to give up the day job. Even at only 2 articles an hour that's $2,400 extra a month. Alternatively, if you are a bit short of ready cash for something specific, just write a few articles until you have what you need.

You could use that income to join one of the many lucrative money-making programs available online, or just spend it on whatever you like. However, there is more to writing articles than you think, and even if you are good at English you still have to learn how to write articles for money. Even English teachers have to be taught how to write articles that they would have otherwise been unable to write, because articles written for directories have to be written in a specific way while those for web content are written in a different way.

Not only that, but there is the effective use of keywords to consider, without overusing them. The vocabulary used in the article has be contextually related to the topic so that it supports the keyword, and makes the topic and the targeted keyword clear to search engine spiders without endless repetition. Writing articles for money also involves a specific approach to style, that for one topic might appropriately be friendly and directed personally to the reader, while for another topic might be of a more formal nature.

There are no article writing schools available as such, so you have to learn all of this in other ways. You also have to learn how to carry out keyword research because your customers will likely be relying upon you to choose the best keywords for their topic. Learning how to write articles for money is more than just learning how to use English grammar properly, and that, incidentally, is another important aspect of article writing. Your grammar must be as good as possible.

Some of the more common grammatical errors are excusable, such as improper use of semi colons and the difference between the way the Americans and British use punctuation and quotation marks: "like this," in the USA and "like this", in the UK. However some are not excusable, such as "the person what wrote this" should be punished for not being "the person who wrote this".

All of this apart, learning how to write articles for money is well worth the time and effort, and even the expense, if you are going to be earning upwards of $2,400 extra a month doing it. Some people will pay more than $20 for top class articles, and it is not unknown for over $100 to be paid for top-class work by the major players in the internet marketing game.

So, take your time and check out what is available online to help you to write articles properly, but make sure that your teacher is a practicing freelance writer of articles for online use because it is a specific skill of its own. A good newspaper or magazine writer will not necessarily make a good writer of internet marketing articles in which use of keywords, vocabulary and content are of the utmost importance.

If you want to make money online with article writing, you should learn how to write articles for money from somebody who is skilled and successful at doing so. It is a source of income not dependent on luck or how much traffic you drive to a website, but on your own skills, how well you have learned them and how well you apply them. Keep in mind that extra $2,400 - $3,600 a month you will have to spend, and you are sure to succeed.

Pete is a successful professional internet article ghost writer, and you can learn how to write articles for money from his book Article Czar. Visit http://www.articleczar.com/gift.html  for a free gift and to find out what he can offer you.