Getting Started:

Do you have a passion? Are you particularly well-versed in a certain topic? Are you willing to invest time in doing research? Either one of these are all you really need, but if you`ve got all 3, then you`re definitely on right track.

Grab a cuppa, a smoke, whatever you need to relax with, open up notepad/wordpad or even grab a pen and paper. Write down a 5-6 line bio about yourself and/or product/program you`re promoting, this is commonly known as your "Resource Box", and should be at bottom of each and every article you write. The "Resource Box" is THE only place you should promote ANYTHING at all in article.

Next you need to focus on a topic. Start jotting down thoughts, and don`t worry about how mixed up they may seem to be at first, just keep going. If you can`t think of many things at first, save your work, and look it over another day, more ideas will pop into your head.

Once you feel you have enough, start moving things around until they really begin to make sense to you. Keep going until you`re happy with what you`ve got. Remember, articles don`t need to be mega-long, so long as they are helpful and informative. Write as you would speak, and make it personal, as if you are talking to a good friend. Let your personality shine through.

What to write about:

As I mentioned above, anything you are passionate about, or are well-versed on is a great start. You`re not passionate about anything? Not an "expert" in any subject at all? Well do some research. Start by thinking about what YOU would like to read about, what kind of information would YOU find helpful? Thought about it? Go to www.google.com and type it in, see what comes up, start looking into various things you find. You could even ask friends and colleagues what THEY would be interested in reading articles about.

What, still can`t come up with anything? It gets like that sometimes, so relax, take a deep breath, and start visiting forums/message boards. What questions are being asked? What do people need help with? Hang out in chat rooms, ask same questions there, get as much feedback as you can, then start working from there. Eventually, you`ll find you`ve managed to write a GREAT article, in plain English, offering helpful/useful information.

Let a couple of your closest, most honest friends read through your articles for you. Don`t get offended if they make suggestions, some of them might even be good ones...hehehe, but make sure you stick with how it feels best for you.

So now what:

This is where REAL hard work comes into play, cos now you`re ready to start submitting your articles to world :~) Ok, if you want to go easy way about it, stop reading now, go buy yourself some automatic submission software and get stuck into submitting your articles with it.

It is always very important to read terms and conditions of each particular forum for a basic guideline as to what is acceptable. It`s also a good idea to read archived posts in order to see guidelines in action. If you don`t, you could end up doing something wrong, like spamming forum, and that could seriously hurt both your name and your business.

Taking an active part in forums can help you gain recognition in topics you show some knowledge of, and may even result in some great business leads and contacts. Read through posts, and answer any questions you are able to in a polite, friendly and helpful manner. It`s a brilliant way to get your name and services known, but you have to be aware that different forums have different rules in regards to self-promotion.

Some won`t allow any hint of self-promotion, some are specifically aimed at self-promotion, and a lot of them fall somewhere in between, allowing either signature files or URL's to an off-the-page member profile. The in-between ones are best ones to use for marketing yourself, especially as ones aimed at promoting usually end up more like "spam boards" than anything else.