The effort that goes into article creation is what persuades many online business people to oursource much of their article marketing efforts by hiring a professional article writing and spinning service. I recognize that other marketers prefer to do their the writing themselves, so I offer these suggestions to better maximize the return on your considerable investment of time.

* Dedicate a regular time at least once a week to write articles. This is usually a several hours during the weekend and possibly a couple of hours each working week depending upon my schedule. With other writing commitments including my website, this sometimes is quite a stretch for me.

* Create an easy format that you can easily copy and paste your efforts into those sites where you regularly contribute. Record the following: (1) A title that meets the site’s policies such as www.ezinearticles.com of 100 characters (2) Word Count (3) Copyright Statement (4) Bio or Signature statement that meets the character guidelines (1101 for Ezine Articles) (5) key words (100 characters for Ezine Articles) (6) A table for key words to be used within the article and as search words.

The table is probably the most beneficial element within this format. As I write the article, I plug in phrases that I believe have high key word value. The table can be easily copied and pasted into a new article with similar key words. These key words then can be prioritized from highest to lowest and used as the keywords within the article submission site. By using the highlight tool, I can quickly determine what words are used within the article’s content.

* Write from your own personal experience and avoid the “Royal ‘We.’” People look to the Internet to find answers to their questions from people who have actual experiences. Share your failures and successes while you are demonstrating your expertise. In your articles, don’t be too concerned with selling; just begin to build a relationship with your readers in order to gradually convert them into customers. Be real and respectful to each and every reader. Also include some humor if possible. Leave them wanting more, as the old show business cliche goes. After all, you want them to click your link to end up on your website.

* When selecting the topic, determine the focus through researching the keyword popularity. If you have an exceptionally long article, break it into 2 or more shorter articles. I try to keep my articles between 400 and 800 words depending upon the topic or subject.

* I always write using wordpad or some text editor so that I can avoid embedding those invisible codes that are part of any document that comes from a word processing program. However, I then paste the article into MSWord in order to get a quick word count and look for simple spelling errors. I don’t save the copy in the word processing program, though. I want to paste my article into submission forms in pure text format.

I hope that these tips will proved useful to you and that your article syndication efforts become a bit easier. Never lose sight, though, of the central purposes: traffic, traffic and traffic.