Most topics in regional parenting publications are straightforward: finance, parenting tips, health, sports, and education. The trick is to twist them in an unusual way.

1. If you’re a parent, what do you wish you knew about a topic? Write down questions that you have as you go through the day. When I was driving the other day, I complained to myself about bad teenage drivers. Then I wondered, “What can parents do to encourage good driving?” If you already know the answer to the question, it won’t make a good article unless you’re an expert on the subject.
2. Take a generic topic and make it seasonal. Choose a season about four months away, because the lead-time for parenting publications is 2 to 6 months. Four months from now is April. What happens in April (or would be published in April) that I can combine with a topic like health? In April, parenting publications start printing their summer guides to camps. What can parents do to make sure their children stay healthy at camp? What are the traits of a safe camp? Change to camping plus another topic like education or finance to create unique articles.
3. Who do you know who has an unusual or remarkable story – something that affected children? What did the parents learn? Write an article using the anecdote as an introduction to the information you want to give. A great anecdote can sell a story.
4. Visit online parenting forums and read the questions people ask. Use some of these as a basis for your article ideas.
5. When you research a piece and talk to experts, look for what you don’t know. “Joe says insurance is important for families,” won’t make an article interesting. Too many people know that insurance is important. But a quote like, “Joe says disability insurance is the most neglected area of insurance, but it protects young families from the biggest threat to their security,” will make parents keep reading.

If you give editors timely articles that readers will want to read, you’ll sell your work over and over again.

You’ll have an easy way to get more sales by showing your visitors that your are an expert on the topic your visitors are interested in.

2. Use lots of white space. Keep your sentences and paragraphs short and to the point.

3. Write for your target audience.

You’ll have a better chance of attracting people to your site that are interested in purchasing your products.

4. Use numbered lists.

Your numbered lists will help you to effectively share your tips with your readers while making your article easy to read.

Use your numbered lists to share points on your article’s topic, list your directions when writing a how to article, or to deliver the content of your article if you wanted to write a list article.

You can also use numbered lists to share resources related to what you talk about in your article along with your descriptions of those resources.

5. Use the active voice.

With the active voice the subject does the action while with the passive voice the subject receives the action expressed by the verb.

For instance:

Active voice: The dog bit the mailman. Passive voice: The mailman was bitten by the dog.

Use the active voice to keep your sentences from being awkward or confusing and to liven up your article.

6. Make your writing more personal by using the word “you” a lot within your article.

A simple way to accomplish this is to write your article to one person.

You’ll naturally use the word “you” a lot within your article, and your readers will feel like you’re talking directly to them.

7. Don’t be afraid to share your personality with your readers.

You could inject a little bit of humor into your article, or share an opinion, story or anecdote that relates to the topic of your article.

8. Offer a subscription to your e-zine or a freebie in your resource box.

Writing articles will help you to get your site promoted on relevant sites and e-zines at no cost to you.

Maximize the profit you get from writing your articles by giving your readers a subscription to your e-zine, or a freebie that they’ll find valuable enough to go back to again and again.

9. Once you’ve written your article, wait a couple of days, and then reread your article.

You might be able to add new points that you might have missed before, add more detail to information you covered in your article, or reword parts of your article that are unclear.

10. Use current topics whether online or in the “real world” to get ideas for your articles.

Your articles will be cutting edge and newsworthy, and will have an excellent chance of being published by e-zine publishers and webmasters.

11. Always check and double-check your articles for errors.

Use your spell checker and go over your articles for words you might have omitted, run-on sentences and for faulty punctuation.

Also look for words used incorrectly; for instance, if you used “effect” when you should have used “affect” or if you used “there” when you should have used “their.”

12. Submit your articles to article directories, article announcement lists, and to e-zine publishers.

Your submissions, although time consuming if done manually, will help you to successfully get your articles published.

Be sure to submit your articles to my article directory at http://www.netpromarketer.com and to visit http://www.netpromarketer.com/directoriesandlists.html where you’ll find a list of article directories and article announcement lists.

For a handy listing of e-zine publishers that want article submissions check out http://www.ezinelocater.com .

Also search other e-zine directories for publishers that want article submissions and submit your articles to e-zines that you are subscribed to that accept article submissions from their subscribers.

It probably depends on what you expect your article to achieve for you – better branding, more sales, or more publicity.

One way to measure article performance is to check how many times your article has been picked up and reproduced on various sites.

To do that, just copy and paste the article title in quotes into a search engine like Google, and you’ll see how many sites it’s been reprinted on.

My article “How To Get To The Top Of The Marketing Food Chain” shows 1061 links in Google.
http://ebizwhiz-publishing.com/articles/priyashah16.htm

That means Google has indexed 1061 sites on which this article appears.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22How+To+Get+To+The+Top+Of+The+Marketing+Food+Chain%22&btnG=Google+Search

This gives me about 1061 quality links to each of the sites I included in my resource box.

As you can see, this makes article marketing a very powerful way of building quality links.

So how do you ensure that your article gets picked up and reprinted by as many publishers as possible?

1. Pick A Topic That’s Hot Or Always Fresh

For instance, my article on Neuromarketing got picked up pretty quickly because it was a hot topic.
http://marketingslave.com/2005/06/01/neuromarketing-smart-marketing-or-jedi-mind-control-trick/

The problem with hot topics is that they also tend to cool off quickly. So while they may get a lot of reprints over a short time, they may get very few reprints once the craze is over.

There are some articles that are slow starters but eternally fresh, like the one I wrote here.

To Be A Champion, Become A Child
http://www.growmymind.com/positive-attitudes/be-a-champion.htm (591 links in Google)

These are the ones that will give you reprints over a longer period of time. I think in the long run, these are more valuable.

2. Target A Large Audience

Another way to get a lot of coverage is write an article for a large target audience or one that is very active online – like bloggers.

This article gave me 164 links back, mostly from other blogs, even some for which I had to use a translation service
http://www.blog-maniac.com/blog-burnout.htm

This shows 248 links back
http://www.blog-maniac.com/questions-business-blog.htm
316 links for this one
http://www.blog-maniac.com/spam-blogging.htm

But again, it’s the quality of links back that matters – not the quantity.

Another large target audience is the health market. I get a lot of links back from my health articles.

3. Craft A Catchy, Relevant Title

A catchy title ensures that your article gets the attention of publishers – the first step to getting your article published.

Follow the basic rules of copywriting to make your article interesting and readable.

Publishers are more likely to pick up an article if its title includes the keywords that they (and you) want to target.

Use your main keywords in your title, preferable in the first half (like I did in the title of this article), to ensure better rankings for those who reprint it.

4. Offer Publishers A Monetary Incentive

Give people an incentive to publish your article. I have an affiliate program and I allow publishers to use their affiliate link for my ezine in the resource box.

Allow publishers to earn by publishing your article and they will gladly reprint it.

5. Write An Article Series

Break up a long article or report into a series of articles like I did with my “Marketing With Blogs” series here.

Marketing With Blogs – Part 1, 2, 3 and 4
http://www.blog-maniac.com/marketing-with-blogs1.htm
http://www.blog-maniac.com/marketing-with-blogs2.htm
http://www.blog-maniac.com/marketing-with-blogs3.htm
http://www.blog-maniac.com/marketing-with-blogs4.htm

These gave me 5270 links back in all. As you can see, a series of articles can be a very powerful link-building technique.

6. Distribute Your Article Widely

Ensure that your article is distributed to the best and most appropriate article directories and announcement lists online.

Feel free to browse through my own collection of article directories and announcement lists
http://ebizwhiz-publishing.com/write-articles/submit-articles.htm

They also tell us that any dim bulb can write. I’ve read a few articles and I think that statement may be somewhat false. Ok, we know we can write because all of the kids in your daughters 3rd class think you write “neat” poems.

Now all we have to do is pick a topic that is intersesting, informative, is less than 1 ba-zillion words, and will make people want to come back and read more of your articles. Hopefully they will become subscribers to your publication.

Oh yeah, they have to be good enough to be able to submit them to other ezines and make the public think you are the second coming of Mark Twain.

We all know that there are 1000’s of articles out there right now that deal with a variety of subjects ranging from trimming your dogs nails to starting your own Zen Budda cult.

When you are choosing a topic to attract more subscribers to your ezine or newsletter, pick one that will keep them awake and alert. You don’t want them getting half way through the article and then hitting the old “delete” key.

Keep it short so you can hold the readers attention, and tell them something they didn’t know about , before they read your Pulitzer Prize winning piece.

People want to be informed when reading anything! They also want to be entertained. So you see what you write about isn’t as important as how you write it, and present it to your readers.

The proof in that statement is in what you just read. I wrote an article about absolutely nothing just now, and I got you to stay with me until the end.

So now this is the end. Please go subscribe to my newsletter.

Jim Schulte is the creator of the Internet Marketing Junkie Mouse Pad and Editor/Publisher of the Internet Marketing Junkie Newsletter

http://www.imjpads.com

Have your readers come to your site to get your report, course or subscription to your ezine so that they’ll be able to see what your site has to offer them.

If you use your resource box to promote your ezine, provide a sample issue or an archive of your past issues on your site to get more of your visitors to subscribe.

2. Participate in article swaps.

You could run another publishers f~ree to reprint article in your ezine in exchange for the same.

You could also write a new article to run exclusively in the other publisher’s ezine in exchange for her writing a new original article to be published in your ezine.

In addition, you could post other article writers’ articles on your site in exchange for them posting your articles on their sites.

This will help you to get more reciprocal links and also help you to increase your repeat traffic by keeping your site updated with new content.

3. Make your articles available for your affiliates to publish with their affiliate URLs in your resource box.

Letting your affiliates publish your articles in their ezines or on their web sites with their affiliate URLs in your resource box will give them an easy way to effectively promote your business.

It will also help you to attract more people to your affiliate program because you’ll be providing your affiliates with a valuable marketing tool.

When using your articles in this way, link only to your site in your resource box to ensure that your affiliates will earn commissions on all their referrals.

4. Create a mailing list that tells people when you’ve written a new article or articles.

Your list can help you to get your articles published on a regular basis by ezine publishers and webmasters who enjoy your writing.

Your list can also help you to keep your affiliates up to date on new articles they can use to earn commissions and help you to successfully get more people to join your affiliate program.

5. Use your articles to create a free ebook.

You could create an ebook compilation of your articles and use it as a bonus for joining your ezine or purchasing your product.

You could also offer your ebook as a freebie to get more people to visit your site.

To increase the profit you get from your ebook you could let people rebrand your ebook with a link to their website, business or affiliate program.

If you run an affiliate program, you could also let your affiliates rebrand your ebook with their affiliate URLs and use your ebook to earn more commissions.

6. Use your articles to create an ebook you can sell.

If you’ve written lots of articles you could put together a best of compilation of your articles and sell it to your visitors.

To increase your sales you could give people the resell rights to your ebook along with their purchases.

This will increase your ebook’s perceived value because you’ll be giving your customers a way to make money with your ebook.

The Headline

There is a school of thought out there that your headline should be designed to captivate readers. In the real world, this is probably true. When I am looking for articles, it is not.

I want keywords front and center in an article headline. This may come as a shock, but I am using your articles as part of a search engine optimization effort on sites. With seo, the keywords always come first. ALWAYS!

Consider the following examples:

1. California Real Estate – The Secret to Making a Bundle

2. The Secret to Making a Bundle in California Real Estate

The first headline is by far the best. The keywords are front and center. I can easily turn this headline into a meta title for site page. More importantly, this tells me that you may be a writer that understands what I want. I am going to click through to your article and read it. If the rest of the article is done in the correct format, I am going to publish this article on my site AND I am going to add you name to my worthy authors list. When I need new articles, I will go out of my way to see if you have published anything new.

The second headline is a disaster. The keywords are at the end of the headline, which is terrible for search engine optimization purposes. This is a waste of my time and tells me to avoid your articles. If I can’t find enough articles with the proper headline, I may come back and read yours. Then again, I may not.

Captivating Headlines

Now you may be thinking you need a captivating headline because you want to capture as many readers as possible. You DO NOT. I’ve already done the job for you. My sites already have traffic. I am delivering the readers to your article. They will read it if it is on the site. Of course, you’ll have to put the keywords first to get my attention.

Writing a headline is a fairly simple process. So do it!

Add your brainstormed ideas to an idea file that you can go back to when you are stuck for a topic.

Also add ideas you get from other sources into this file so that you’ll always have a fresh source of inspiration.

2. Visit forums and message boards.

Look for an interesting topic or thread in the posts that you can turn into a new article.

3. Check out newspapers and news programs.

Depending on what you like to write about, you could find some new hot topics.

4. Subscribe to e-zines that reach your target audience.

You’ll be able to get new, relevant information that could spark an idea for an article.

5. Review your own articles.

Keep your eyes open for things that you touch on in your articles that you could expand into a full article.

Also look for ways to further educate your readers on the topics that you’ve written about in the past.

6. Read other people’s articles.

You could look over the submissions to article announcement lists and article directories, or you could visit a site that has articles you enjoy reading.

You might be able to come up with an original slant that the other author didn’t cover in her article or a topic that you could research for your next article.

7. Use questions you get from your subscribers, visitors, or customers for ideas.

Questions that you get on a regular basis can be an excellent source of new ideas and topics that will appeal to your target audience.

8. Go to a seminar or marketing conference.

In addition, to finding more new article topics, you’ll be able to learn new things and gain more contacts.

9. Conduct an interview.

You’ll be able to get a new article from the interview itself.

The person you interview could also bring up things in their responses that you could do some research on for a new article.

10. Run a survey.

Ask your participants what topics they’re interested in learning more about in your e-zine or on your site, and you’ll be able to get more new ideas and topics.

Do you know the absolute best places to submit all of those wonderful articles you have written?

Here is your list of the top 6 places to submit your articles:

1. Idea Marketers
With an Alexa ranking of 13,015, this site is one that you definitely don’t want to miss submitting to. You have to sign up for a free account. Instantly accepts your article. http://www.ideamarketers.com

2. Go Articles
This one has an Alexa ranking of 17,504. You have to sign up for a free account. This site is part of the Jayde Network. Instantly accepts your article. http://www.goarticles.com

3. Article City
Article City has an Alexa ranking of 20,024. No account is required. http://www.articlecity.com

4. Article Announce
This group has 2,712 subscribers (June 2004). Provides content to hundreds of newsletters, magazines, and websites. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/article_announce/

5. Free Content
This group has 1,557 subscribers (June 2004). Hosted by Website101.com . http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/Free-Content/

6. Publisher Network
This group has 686 subscribers (June 2004). Lets you swap articles with other newsletter publishers. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/publisher_network/

By all means, submit your articles anywhere and everywhere it is appropriate. But there are certain websites that should always be included on your list. These places have a high number of visitors and/or subscribers.

Articles highly target your potential customers. Writing articles is actually something that anyone can easily do even if they have never really considered themselves as a “talented” writer. A little effort to compile some valuable information, can produce great results in targeting your potential customers. If you write articles related to your business industry, the visitors you receive from your articles will usually be highly targeted, eager and ready to see what else you have to offer. With your articles, you have already established yourself as a means of a “professional” in your visitor’s mind. For this reason you can create open-minded potential customers ready to seek what you have to offer them.

Resourceful information should be included