I had always been told that my writing was not very good and that no one would be interested in reading about my ideas and interests. The people who told me this, more than twenty years ago, led to me believe that writing articles or anything else was better left to the professionals. I can tell you right now that just is not true. If you want to write, get started right away. There are people waiting to hear what you have to say.

In the beginning, I wrote articles on anything that was of interest to me. I refer to this as my process of finding myself. Even though I made very little money during this time, the experience was invaluable. It helped me to improve my writing skills, get into the habit of writing on a daily basis, and also how to write about a topic and give valuable information within a specific number of words.

I then began writing articles every day, and within a few months I had narrowed down my niche to that of teaching people how to write eBooks, blogging, social networking, and teaching the technology necessary to build a profitable online business. After just a short time I began to feel so comfortable writing about my topic that I could complete an article in about thirty to forty-five minutes. These articles were about three to four hundred words in length, the optimal length for readers on the internet.

Submitting your articles to various directories and distribution services is the key to putting the articles to work for you and truly leveraging the power of the internet to connect with more prospects. Be sure to include a link in your resource or author bio box, located at the end of the article, going back to your website, blog, or sales page. This will be the way that many thousands of people from around the world will find you and what you have to offer.

My articles now represent a body of work that I have created over an almost two year period. These articles are picked up by blogs, ezines, and several other types of sites that are constantly searching for fresh new content. Article marketing has built my online business and can do the same for you.