Writer's block...need I say more? Every writer experiences writer's block at one time or another. For a writer using marketing with articles technique block often starts with trying to generate a new article idea. There are many creative ways to discover article ideas no matter what your topic and we'll cover several of them below.Your first step in finding article ideas should be to create a "swipe file." Copywriters initially used swipe files for collecting examples of outstanding copywriting techniques. Swipe files included clippings from magazines, direct mail pieces, copies of e-mails, web site copy, etc. For marketing with article techniques our swipe file consists of a file in your favorite word processing program. In this swipe file you will collect article ideas for future articles. Begin by typing in any article ideas that you may have already. Then build your swipe file using following suggestions:
Chat Rooms - Participate in these online forums where you can chat with others by typing messages, which are instantly displayed. Choose a chat room in your topic area that is frequented by your target audience and discover hot topics everyone is discussing. You can find chat rooms by visiting http://chat.yahoo.com/, http://web.icq.com/icqchat/ and http://chat.msn.com/.
Forums/Message Boards - Users communicate with each other in these web based message centers by posting text messages that can be viewed using a web browser. Some forums and message boards allow you to follow a topic by asking for e-mail notification when a new posting is made. Find threaded conversations on hot topics in your niche by visiting http://messages.yahoo.com/index.html, http://www.ivillage.com/boards/ and http://www.delphiforums.com/.
Newsgroups/Discussion Lists - Classified by subject matter these communication driven groups are categorized by topic and can be read on-line or via an e-mail newsreader (often included in your e-mail software). Hot newsgroups and discussion lists can be found at http://groups.google.com/, http://groups.yahoo.com/ and www.topica.com.
Article Directories - Sites that archive article submissions by topic are gold mines of ideas for article writers. Read articles written for your target audience to obtain ideas but never plagiarize actual articles. Ideas can be gleaned from list of most popular or newest articles (if offered). My favorite article directories are at http://www.opportunityupdate.com, http://www.goarticles.com and http://www.articlecity.com.