If you are doing online article submissions, then you should be putting together a steady stream of articles. The question is, where do you get ideas for all this original, helpful, and educational content?
Detailed in this article are some sources where I have found inspiration, and perhaps once you have read through the list you’ll discover a number of untapped resources for content that you had never considered before:
1 – E-books that you have produced.
I have written several, and a couple of weeks back I came across one that I hadn’t read in ages. Because I had not read through it in such a long time the content was really fresh , and I found it really inspring.
Once I had read through the table of contents I was able to pick out a number of ideas that I was excited about and that I was convinced my readers should be interested in.
The beauty of getting article topics from your e-books or even your own hard copy books (on your topic, of course) is there is no need for an article re-write.
You see, if you have content on your website that you would like to re-purpose as a free reprint article, you must protect the unique content on your website by rewriting the article. However, if this content is part of an e-book a rewrite is not required, as this content will not be published on the web.
It’s perfectly acceptable to pull out specific sections from your e-book and change them for use within a free reprint article. It is also ok for the wording to be repeated verbatim. You may need to add an introductory paragraph and a concluding one to ensure it does not read like an excerpt from a book, but this is a small amount of work when compared to creating an article from scratch.
Got some e-books you’ve created on your topic? Outstanding—Because your job of writing articles has just got far, far easier.
2 – Questions from existing customers.
I get tons of questions from existing clients, potential clients, and other people who are simply interested in learning more about article marketing.
Some customers enquiries reveal a basic misunderstanding of one particular aspect of my niche. When I re-read the explanation in my reply I often discover that the response to those enquiries would make the basis for a great article. Especially when there are a number of people asking the same thing, an article that sets things straight will be really useful for a huge number of people. You know what they say–if one person asks, there are likely several more wondering the exact same thing!
3 – People’s problems.
Occassionally people might contact you to ask for help with on a problem that they have encountered in your niche. An example that springs to mind is that of a woman who contacted me to say that she was just burnt out on writing. She had been doing article marketing for a while, and she was having writer’s block.
I could really sense her frustration and despair, and I thought to myself, “I know how that feels. I am certain other people are experiencing this right now and could probably use some help.”
So, I created an article to address her very real problem and offered tips and encouragement that would help her overcome a writing slump.
People write to me sharing other types of problems—generally there is an emotional element where they are exhausted, afraid, or worried. In the extremely technical field of web marketing, it is so easy to feel overwhelmed by all of the information you need to take onboard. When starting any new skill, it is easy to become fearful of how you will catch on.
In a case like this, what I really want to do is to encourage and reassure them. Most of the time, an encouraging reply email will inspire an article that looks at that identical problem.
As article marketers, we are writing content that must be assisting people in some way. We are aiming to educate, enlighten, and encourage.
You probably do that all the time when you are interacting with people, and you’re not even thinking about articles. Your challenge is to look for these kinds of situations in your own life and consider how you might use them to put together helpful articles.
Article marketing remains a viable way to increase website traffic and make more money online. There are a few things that you can do however to make sure you get the most out of your article marketing efforts. Here are a few article marketing techniques to start following immediately.
