If you are just getting started, you might be wondering what’s different about writing online compared to the offline world. First of all, the most important thing to realize is that the main goal for writing an article online is usually not the same as when you write one for print in newspapers or magazines. The most basic difference is that the article in the magazine or newspaper is used to entertain and inform the reader so that they stick with the magazine, where the advertising is. With online writing, you’re goal is typically to get your readers to leave the article and link to another area or website in order to see your advertising (affiliate promotion).

In this case, the resource box at the end of your article is just as crucial as the article body itself. Often, you will see a poorly written article with a great call to action in the resource box get way more traffic than a perfectly written article with a bad resource box.

An important point to remember is that the attention span of an online reader is much shorter than those offline. You need to hook your reader in fewer words to get them to stay.

For the same reason, online articles are also usually much shorter than the average print article. Online articles range somewhere between 350-700 words on average.

Online writing is usually based on keywords. What this means is that the article is based on keyword phrases that are searched often in the search engines. So, unlike print articles, there are techniques and guidelines to follow in order to have your article picked up and ranked highly in Google and other search engines. For instance, a keyword phrase is to be used in the title, as well as approximately 2-5% of the time throughout the article to maximize your search engine ranking results.

Another important difference in online writing, and one you’ll love, is that it your articles can produce residual income. Writing one article on the right topic and keywords can often pick up enough traffic to generate a small amount monthly income. If  you write articles daily, you can quickly build up a passive income that keeps coming in for a long time to come.

One big part of make money online as an online writer is article marketing where you will be submitting your articles to several of the top free article directories. Now, although these directories have their own editors, you still have to do your own editing beforehand to increase the chances of your article being accepted.

Typically, even short articles will have a first draft. The idea is to simply get all the information out of your head and onto the screen. Typing out your best ideas while they’re fresh in your mind is more important than grammar and spelling in your first draft.

Once you’re at the point that you think you have churned out enough to call it a finished draft, then it is time to read it over and clean it up as you go.

The great thing about technology and being an online writer is that you have spelling and grammar tools built into whatever program you are using to write your articles.

Here are the basic editing stages that you will typically go through after letting your inspiration and thoughts flow freely for the first draft:

1. Check spelling and grammar.
This is the easiest part,especially since you’ll have a built in tool that will highlight all the common mistakes. However, don’t rely only on what your tool highlights as mistakes. Its quite common that you’ll find an error or two that either isn’t an error or maybe simply appropriate slang that you purposely added for effect that suits the article.

2. Read it out loud
Sometimes you can catch errors that you wouldn’t have otherwise noticed if you read the article out loud.

3. Word limit
There will be times when you have a word limitations (a minimum and/or maximum).  Now’s the time to find areas of the article that can either be cut down or expanded on as needed. Just make sure the article still flows and makes sense after your edits.

Have you heard of bum marketing or the bum marketing method? Basically, it’s a type of article marketing that allows you to make money online by leading readers to a source that has an affiliate product that you are promoting, your ow product, or a site with with advertising, etc. In other words, you write the article with the intention of making money from the reader.

There are some key specifics that are required when you write an article using the bum marketing method though. The idea behind it is to write artcicles based on highly searched kewyords in niches that are untapped and under-exposed. Because there is very low competition, it is easy to get the search engines to pick up your article and rank high for the terms you chose.

Bum marketing is one of the few ways that you can actually make money online without having to spend any.

Here’s the basic 4 steps that you’d be doing:

1. As mention above, you’d research and choose a highly searched niche with keywords that are also searched a lot, but have very low competition.

2. Once you’ve chosen a niche that has a hungry crowd of people who need a problem solved, then you choose the best keywords from the ones you found and traget those users and keywords with informative articles

3. You submit articles to several free web 2.0 properties (like Squidoo.com, Hubpages.com, etc.) and also to free article directories (like eZineArticles.com, GoArticles.com, etc.) so that the articles can get picked up and rank in the search engines.

4. The resource box of these articles has a link back to a page, or site that promotes your product that you’re promoting as an affiliate.

The only thing you need is dedication and time, and if you follow the bum marketing method, you have a very high chance of making money.

How many times have you been interested in a product or service and before you decided to pull your wallet out of your pocket, you jumped onto Google and searched for <product name> review? Well, you can be sure that’s it’s not just you that’s going though that same process.

As an article writer wanting to make money online, this is great for you because you can be the one who provides the reviews for the people researching their products of interest. A well written review that targets the right customers can make you money over and over again after it has been written which can create passive income for you for a long time afterward.

It’s important to point out that a few snippets her and there that have been taken from the product’s information page will not cut it as a good review. Here are a few pointers that will help you write a stellar review and make money promoting products online:

1. Put the product name in the title
People are very often typing in the actual product name when they are looking for a review. Not only will this help you get the user to click on your article, but it will also help you rank in the search engines for that particular product name.

2. Grab the reader’s attention quick!
With  product review, you want to start hitting the reader with the major benefits as soon as possible. Online readers have an extremely short attention span as it is, so don’t make them click away and find another review that they can scan faster. A good tip is to use examples of what it has done for you to boost your credibility n the eyes of the reader.

3. Bullets and numbers, pros and cons
As mentioned above, readers want their information as fast as possible, so a god tip is to use bullet points and numbered lists when listing the pros and cons of the product. yes, list the cons! Obviously you believe in the product, but you’re review is going to seem a lot more real and credible if you also list a few points that could be improved upon.

Becoming and online writer and making money using article marketing techniques can be overwhelming for the beginner who is trying to find a niche before the writing and marketing even begins. It’s very common for new marketers to give up before they even find a niche because they either over-think it, or get confused by the plethora of conflicting information that exists online.

Luckily, there are basic guidelines that you can use to choose a niche market that will work every time if you choose to follow them.

1. What are your interests?
It’s best to begin with researching topics of interest and seeing if there is anything you can actively write about and promote as an affiliate that you are passionate about. It’s extremely common for people to burn out quickly when they try to write about and promote a topic, product or service that they have absolutely no interest in whatsoever. There is a lot of work involved in the initial stages of creating successful affiliate campaigns and you don’t want to make it extra hard on yourself from the beginning by choosing a topic that you find boring and puts you to sleep every time you try to write about it.

2. Big problems and obsessions
How often do the people in this niche think about their problem, obsession, hobby, or interest? Obviously, the more it affects their life, the better. For instance, someone with extreme financial problems will think of their situation on a daily basis, whereas someone who might want to improve their typing skills may only think of it occasionally.

3. Emotion
How emotional are the people in this niche? As with number 2 above, the more emotional they are about their niche, the better. You can tap into those emotions with your online writing.

4. Forums
Are there many forums online that have tons of active users talking about the niche? This is often a good indicator that it is a good one, especially if there are a lot of how-to and problem solving questions.

5. Popularity and cost
What does it cost to get started in this niche and is it one that demands more cost on a regular basis? For instance, a guitar player will have to continually buy new strings, picks, and will often want other gear, accessories, lessons, etc.

Writing an article is simple, but writing an effective article that is successful and makes you money is not quite as easy. However, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to knock one out of the park the majority of the time. All you need is a good guideline to follow and remember to fine tune every article to connect with your target audience. Doing so will drastically increase your article’s potential every time.

First, you need to know the basics of writing and article online:

Obviously you will find your own voice and have your own style of writing, but regardless of what type of writer you are, there are still a few general rules to follow in order to create a successful article.

First of all if the title. The title is very important because with gazillion of articles to choose from, you want to have a title that hooks the reader in to wanting more. Curiosity is your best friend when it comes to article titles. If you can create a line that peaks the reader’s interest enough that he HAS to know the rest, then you’ve done a great job.

The rules of online writing are a bit different in some aspects, depending on the purpose of the article. Unlike the rules you learned in high school English class, the body is preferably broken  into short paragraphs, regardless of whether or not you are breaking a “rule”. This is because with the short attention span of online readers, you want to make it easy for them to scan the article quickly and also make it easy on their eyes when they’re reading the whole thing from top to bottom.

It’s often a really good idea (wherever appropriate) to use bullet points and numbered lists.

Step by step, how-to articles and product reviews are extremely popular and a great choice when starting out. It’s also easy to promote products with these types of articles.