?I want to advertise my website.?

?How are you going to do that??

?I'm going to get it published?

?How??

?I will send it to some ezine publishers and offer it for free provided they publish my by-line with my website link in it as well.?

?Just like that??

?Yes. Just like that????

If only it were that easy. Before you write your first ezine article THINK.

What experience do you have? Is this your first attempt? If so, May I suggest that you sign up to one of the ezine article distribution sites, such as ?SubmitYourArticle.com?. or any of the other article directories available on line. And read and study as many articles concerning your subject as you can.

Look at the way they are formatted. Checkout the average word count. How do they communicate, is it in a friendly manner, or is the whole article written in a more formal way?

How many times do they use the word ?You? compared with the word ?I?? Are they talking to you and asking questions. Rather than telling you all about themselves and making statements? This can make a real difference as to weather a publisher decides to use it or not.

Checkout their by-lines. What do they say about themselves? Some of them are very brief. Just a line giving their name and website address, expecting you to click on it out of curiosity.

The best ones are those that give you a real incentive to check-out their website. How do they do that? They offer something for free. ?FREE? is just about the most emotive word on the internet. Everyone likes to get something for free. You may notice that most of the junk mail that is delivered through your letterbox is offering a ?Freebie? if only you will reply within X number of days.

It has worked for them for years and will do so for years to come. It will work for you as well provided that the freebie you are offering is of some real worth. Not a load of out dated trash that is way passed its sell by date.

Now, assuming that you have read and studied lots of other people's articles, it is time to write one of your own. The most important part is the headline. If the headline does not grab your potential reader's attention, they won't read the article. You have wasted your time and effort.

Look down the list of articles that you have not yet read and note a headline that catches your eye for some reason. Copy it to the top of a fresh page in your favourite word-processor. Study this written phrase. Does it give you an idea for an article of your own?

Start writing. The headline will stay at the back of your mind to give you inspiration. Your first few sentences will probably be a load if trash. Don't worry. Your mind will sort it out and soon you will realise that your words are starting to make sense.

Write without interruption until you have filled at least a page in twelve point script. Save it and put it away for at least three days before reading what you have written. You will be surprised how much of your composition is worth keeping. Delete the trash. Re-arrange some of the prose to make it easier for someone else to read. And with one or two minor additions you have your first article.

Remember we borrowed someone else's headline. We must give it back. Unless we make some substantial alterations to it we are infringing their copyright. Once a phrase is written the writer owns the copyright. No one else can use it. (So be careful.) Keep the ?tone? of the headline but change or alter the position of the words. You wouldn't want someone else to nick your headline, so be sure not to nick someone else's.

WARNING. Writing articles can become addictive. The time will come when you have so many ideas for headlines and articles that your spouse will have to drag you screaming, in the early hours of the morning, away from your computer and off to bed.

Welcome. Join the writing nutters club.

Copyright 2006 Homer Farey