Learning to Write First Thing In the Morning

  Studius 
  Originally uploaded by Peter Gene

I remember when I was in college about to graduate with a degree in English, I dreamed of being a writer for a living.

The funny thing is, although being able to write helped me in all sorts of ways in traditional work situations, it wasn't until I started working online that I actually started to write on a regular daily basis, day in and day out and developed a need to maximize my writing productivity. 

We talked a few weeks ago about what we can schedule our writing time like professional writers, but there is one secret trick that I see so many professional writers talking about that I think deserves elaboration–early morning writing.

I have tried writing in the afternoon, after I've finished most of my other work, or in the evening, or in the mid-morning, but I must say that when I started writing in the very early morning I saw my writing output, focus, and quality of work take off like a gazelle through an open field! It was just amazing the difference writing at a particular time of day has made.

Why does writing early in the morning work?

• Our minds are not tangled up in the details of the day yet.
• It's quiet (most other people are sleeping )
• There is some evidence that sleep stimulates creativity. To write soon after waking up allows us to capitalize on this.

Sounds good–Sign me up, you say! But how?

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HowTo Create a Storehouse of Articles for the Winter

  Standing Squirrel 
  Originally uploaded by Darragh Sherwin

I was talking to a friend the other day, and she totally impressed me by telling me that she had set the goal for herself to write 5 articles a week for 5 weeks.

Now, let me clarify: she wasn't submitting 5 articles a week–she was writing 5 articles a week for 5 weeks to compile a storehouse of articles that she would trickle out over the course of the next several months.

She was very specific on all the elements of her goal:

• All her articles were to be on a targeted topic in her niche (personal  branding).
• All of her articles were to be a certain length–remember, our articles must be more than 400 words long, up to a maximum of 1500 words. The ideal length for an article is 700-800 words.
• She had designated what days she would write the articles, and determined that writing an article is just a built in requirement for that day.
• She gave herself a time limit each day for writing her article.

When she told me this I thought, 'Wow–that's really smart! I should be doing that!'

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3 Secret Tricks For Luring Readers Back To Your Website

  lure 
  Originally uploaded by shari c

Have you ever spent hours on your article, been eager to get it submitted and off to the distribution network, and then at the last minute threw together a resource box that didn't have much thought behind it? 

I think we've all been there, especially in the early days of our article marketing campaigns before we realized the power of that little box. Yes, that's the place where you get to include a link to your website, and some folks put little more than a link back to their site in that precious area underneath the post.  

But the resource box has the potential to do much more than just build links to your site–your resource box is the one place where you can talk about your own business/website and entice the reader to click through to your site.  

But how do you entice and lure in 450 characters or less? Great question! Don't worry, it's not difficult, but it does take some strategy. If you want to get the maximum benefit from your resource box, just follow these 3 tips:

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How Do You Conquer The Dreaded Writer’s Block?

  Writer's Block 
  Originally uploaded by thorinside

There are times in our lives when the ideas are just flowing, and we can't write the articles fast enough. I call this being "in the zone", and it's an amazing place to be.

When you're "in the zone" you know exactly what you're supposed to be writing about at that given moment, you write with confidence, and the writing process is almost effortless. 

And then there is the flip side of being in the zone–the dreaded writer's block. 

Most of us have been there at some time or another, and it's the strangest feeling. You can have one day when you're writing up a storm, and then when you sit down the next day your mind has trouble piecing 3 words together!

And we're just thinking "What is the deal? And what can I do to kick start my brain again?"

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ArticleLeverage - how does it work?

We get many questions on ArticleLeverage™ and how it works, so here's a brief overview of the system (this is actually snatched from the old blog, but we need the details on this new blog too!) - a full PDF document explaining it in more depth is available to our members in the members area.

For each article you wish to distribute, using our proprietary ArticleLeverage™ system, you can set up multiple variations of your article.

(This does NOT mean sending out poor quality 'spins' on your article where words are randomly replaced with synonyms from some huge thesaurus, which makes most such articles virtually unreadable, and certainly unpublishable. This system is designed for the professional online marketer, and each variation of your article will maintain the same quality as the original article. Why? Because you set up the variations that are used.)

It means instead you spend a few extra minutes providing variations to certain elements in your article, namely variations of your title, your introductory paragraph, your resource box(es), and any number of sentences in your article.

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How to Give Your Article Curb Appeal

  Little chocolate house 
  Originally uploaded by zyber

Have you ever been house hunting and the minute you laid eyes on the exterior of a particular house you knew that it was "the one"? 

I've known people who have actually put down offers on houses before even seeing the interior–the curb appeal was that good!

And when you're selling your house, there are certain things you do to make it so that when potential buyers pull into the driveway they fall in love before they even get out of the car. 

Maybe you didn't know this, but writing articles has a romantic, 'love at first' site element too.

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Creative Article Marketing is born …

The all-new Creative Article Marketing blog from SubmitYOURArticle.com is born …

We'll be regularly blogging on all manner of things to do with writing and submitting free reprint articles - how you can use article marketing creatively to benefit your online business long- and short-term. As well as teaching you techniques not revealed elsewhere, we'll also keep you updated on the latest developments at SubmitYOURArticle.com.

Here are two ways to ensure you don't miss out on the latest posts:

1. Subscribe via RSS - use your feed reader to get the latest posts automatically.

2. Subscribe via email - we'll automatically send details of the latest post to your email box. Just enter your email into the subscription box top right and hit Enter/Return on your keyboard.

I know you're busy, so pick the best option for you from the above and do it now before you get sidetracked onto something else. Don't forget to bookmark this page too so you can quickly come back to visit.

And of course, as any half-decent blog should be, it's not just one-way information flow - we look forward to your input too. 

So check out the first few valuable posts below - we wanted you to see the type of value we'll be delivering here right from the beginning so you can start to benefit straight away.

Welcome to the creative article marketing community!

Keywords Are Like An Old Fashioned Library Card Catalog

Finally someone explains keywords in a way that strikes home with me–by using a Dewey Decimal metaphor!

According to Lorelle:

"When the writers and publishers of books in libraries wanted to get into those index card catalogs, they would provide the libraries with key words to help classify the books. The Dewey Decimal System allowed numbers to be assigned to books which represented their “categories”. The numbers and key words were carefully typed up on the index cards and filed alphabetically with cross references by title and author, allowing the public three ways to find a book.

You, as a website author or blogger [or article marketer], are responsible for providing the “key words” to help categorize your web page in the database of search engines."

 Aha, that makes total sense to me, and it's fun to remember back to the olden days when the library card catalog was in a huge cabinet with a bunch of tiny drawers. This makes the whole "what is a keyword" question much easier to understand.

How To Schedule Your Writing Time Like A Professional Writer

You may not think of yourself as a professional writer, but if you're using article marketing as part of your website's marketing plan you can definitely benefit from approaching your writing time like a pro. 

Think about it–in order to get the most out of our article marketing campaigns we need to be submitting well-written articles regularly, consistently, at least one per month (and maybe even more!). That means writing, writing, and more writing!

Professional writers are literary ninjas–they write almost every day of their lives, on a wide scope of topics, on deadline, and for a living. If anyone has mastered how to get the most quality writing done in the least amount of time it's professional writers.

With this premise in mind, Study Hacks has a great post in which they've analyzed the writing habits of several successful non-fiction writers. The results are pretty interesting and remarkably similar, which leads me to think that perhaps professional writers know something that the rest of us amateurs don't.

Here's what Study Hacks discovered:

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Create an Advanced HTML Resource Box in 5 Super Easy Steps

If you're a SubmitYOURArticle.com member entering articles into our article submission system, we provide a facility for you to enter an Advanced HTML version of your resource box. 

Don't be too intimidated by the "Advanced" part– if you know what your keywords are, and if you're in the mood to follow these ridiculously simple step-by-step instructions, you can created an HTML resource box without breaking a sweat!

Our example comes from an imaginary author named Petunia Yardley whose business is organic gardening. This is her text resource box :

Petunia Yardley is a professional gardener with 10 years experience in organic vegetable garden cultivation and lawn care. For more organic gardening tips please visit her website at =>  http://www.petuniasorganicgarden.com

Now, that is her text resource box, but she's decided that she also wants to include an HTML one.  Here's how she (and you!) can do that:

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