One great source of ideas is articles that are out of date. Many people, for example have written on subject of how to submit your web site to search engines to get a high ranking. Conditions change so rapidly in this regard, an article could be written several times a year on this subject alone. What was true just a few short months ago may not be today.

The web is a dynamic place that is constantly changing. Not a day goes by that there is something in newspaper that could spark an idea. Just this week I read an article about discount web sites for airline tickets. Another article talked about disparity between urban and rural areas for web access. Still another compared number of minority households that had computers - and yet another talked about "Spanish Market".

The ideas are there, and if you keep a log of them, next time you sit down to write one, you should have a never ending supply. If you get an idea, simply write down title of prospective article.

Many times, as article develops, original title may not be appropriate. But, even if you do change title for your current article, keep old one. Who knows - a year from now it may light another spark.

A search of web on quotes is a fertile place to look. "Power Quotes" by Kevin Eikenberry - http://powerquotes.net - has a wealth of information. Dr. Kevin Nunley - http://drnunley.com is an idea factory. There are others like them that should be on your required reading list.

When doing research for current article you are writing, web is a fertile place to look. Always keep a paper and pencil handy, and if you get an idea write it down. Keep that same pad and pencil next to your bed. If you get an idea, don't trust your memory to write it down in morning.

Surprisingly, when I started this article it was going to be about advertising, but after first paragraph, I found myself writing something far afield from this. Guess that will have to wait for another time.

Let's discuss articles for online publication. Never send an article by email that requires someone to open an attachment, go to a web page to retrieve it, or request it through an auto- responder. A publisher, faced with a deadline to meet, just won't jump through these hoops to see if your article is appropriate.

Realize that presentation of your article is paramount. If it is a "jumbled mess" with long and short lines because an improper line length was used in your email, it will not be read. This is simply sloppy, and reflects negatively on author. Any submission should be compatible with line length used in publication, and should be between 60 and 65 characters in length. Articles with these line lengths don't require substantial editing, are appreciated by publishers, and have a much greater chance of being accepted.

A common error many authors make, is to make article too long. In any publication, space is at a premium. If your article is over 900 words, chances of it being published, are greatly decreased. While you might have a great article, unless it has appeal to a very specialized audience, very few people, if any, will ever see it - it's just too long. The ideal length is between 700 and 900 words. Articles of 250 to 350 words are also a good bet, as publishers are always looking for "fillers".

Most publishers will immediately reject an attachment in .doc format because of danger of viruses. If you do include an attachment, do it in .txt format as that is safe to open.

A great way of sending articles, is to format them in a fixed line length in body of email, and include an unformatted copy with no fixed line length in text format as an attachment. This allows publisher to be able to read article, and if they publish in an HTML format to directly import it into their publication. If they archive articles, they can put them on their web site with no editing required.

If you provide a short synopsis of article, a word count, and a properly formatted article, odds of it being published are good. Publishers are busy people, and anything you can do to reduce their workload, will pay dividends.