Welcome to Day 31 of the Lieurance-King Summer Article Challenge.

Today’s tip comes from article writing expert, Jeff Herring, The Article Guy.

Here it is:

Hi Kids!

I’ve noticed a few people talking about still needing to write their very first article. Believe it or not, I remember being there, way back in 1992 when I was asked to write an article on stress management for the newsletter for a local psych center.

Who knew what I was getting into, huh?

I’ve created a new web site just for the folks that want to write their first (or next) article - you can visit www.YourFirstArticle.com and just follow the four page tutorial and have your first (or next) article created before your head hits the pillow tonite!

Catch you soon!

Jeff Herring
The Article Guy
www.YourFirstArticle.com

Welcome to Day 30 of the Lieurance-King Summer Article Challenge!

Today’s tip is an article about creating the perfect resource box from Christopher Knight of www.ezinearticles.com.

Article Marketing 101: The Perfect Author Resource Box

By Christopher Knight

If you want to really make your article “SELL” then you’ve got to craft the perfect RESOURCE BOX. This is the “author bio” that is below your article body and it’s also known as your “SIG” (short for SIGnature).

Here are the essential items that should be in your RESOURCE BOX:

• Your Name: You’d be amazed at how many folks forget to include their name in the RESOURCE BOX. Your name and optional title should be the first thing in your resource box.
• Your Website Address: in valid URL form. Example: http://Your-Company-Name.com/
• Your Elevator Pitch: This is 1 to 3 sentences that encapsulates the essence of what makes you and your offering unique. Also known as your USP (Unique Selling Proposition).
• Your Call To Action: You’ve got them warmed up and now it’s time to lead them to BUY from you or visit your website. This is where you “Ask For The Sale.” Best to only give (1) specific call to action.

Here are some optional items you could include in your RESOURCE BOX:

• Your Ezine Subscription Address: While getting your interested visitor to surf your website is nice, capturing their email address can help you begin the confidence/trust process. If you’re going to do this strategy, include a URL for your ezine subscription address and do not use an email address for the “join” address.
• Your Contact Information: Such as your business phone number or how to reach you for interviews or your press/media kit. Keep in mind that article marketing is a timeless strategy and you may not have an easy ability to retract what you put in your article once it hits major distribution.
• A Free Report: This could also be part of your call to action or your free bonus report that further enhances your credibility as the expert on the topic of your article.
• Your email autoresponder: I’m not a big fan of this strategy due to the fact that spammers will text-extract your autoresponder address and add it to their spam list. Perhaps this strategy was best for the 1990’s and has now run its course.
• An anchor URL that is related to one keyword or keyword phrase that you want to build SEO strength for. Example: if I wanted to build search engine relevance/strength for the term “Article Marketing,” I’d link up that term in my resource box to my website. This is an intermediate to advanced level strategy and should not be abused by over-doing it. Keep it simple.

What NOT to include in your RESOURCE BOX:

• A listing of every website you own. There is no faster way to dilute your credibility than by posting a half dozen irrelevant URLs that have nothing to do with each other. Best to only post ONE URL that is related to the topic of your article.
• A listing of every accomplishment you’ve achieved to date. No one cares. Keep your resource box brief and to the point. Yes, your resource box should be benefit oriented so that the reader finds value in reading it rather than your ego being justified.
• Advertisements or pitches for products that are not relevant to the topic of your article.
• Keep the size of your resource box so that it’s no larger than 20% of your total article size. Too often I see resource boxes that are 50% of the size of the total article and this is abusive.

Your Perfect Resource Box Conclusion:

The BODY of your article is where you “GIVE” and the RESOURCE BOX is where you get to “TAKE” for your article marketing gift of information. The resource box is the “currency of payment” you receive for giving away your article. Be sure to include your name, website address, your unique selling proposition as briefly as possible and a simple call to action.

About The Author:

Christopher M. Knight invites you to submit your best quality original articles for massive exposure to the high-traffic http://EzineArticles.com/ expert author community. When you submit your articles to EzineArticles.com, your articles will be picked up by ezine publishers who will reprint your articles with your content and links intact giving you traffic surges to help you increase your sales. To submit your article, setup a membership account today: http://EzineArticles.com/submit/

(c) Copyright - Christopher M. Knight. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Christopher_Knig

Welcome to Day 29 of the Lieurance-King Summer Article Challenge.

Here’s today’s tip:

Don’t Compare Yourself with Others or Judge Yourself.

When we start these article challenges, there are always a few people who seem to meet the challenge in a matter of days, and that’s wonderful.

But there are other writers who aren’t so prolific.

They notice the writers who do crank out 30 to 40 articles in a matter of days, and they start to compare themselves to these writers.

In fact, they don’t just compare themselves to these other writers, they judge themselves against these other writers.

And that is definitely NOT “a good thing.”

While we ARE encouraging everyone who accepts this article challenge to TRY to write 30 new articles within a two month period, our main intention is to encourage everyone to learn how to effectively use article writing as a marketing tool.

That means you should push yourself to write articles on a regular basis.

You’ll get better and better at writing articles if you do.

Plus, you’ll find your articles (and your name and links back to your sites) all over the Internet.

But don’t judge yourself and feel you’re lacking if you can’t meet the challenge.

Just do the best you can.

Enjoy the process as you learn new information, practice your writing skills, and network with other writers.

Suzanne & Kristen

Welcome to Day 28 of the Lieurance-King Summer Article Challenge!

Here’s today’s tip:

What questions do people generally have that relate to your area of expertise? Turn these questions into an article with answers.

For example, my areas of expertise are writing for children and freelance writing.

I can think of dozens of questions people ask me about writing for children or about freelance writing in general.

When I run out of ideas for articles, I make a list of some of the most common questions people ask me, such as:

1) How do I get started as a children’s writer?

2) How do I know which online writing courses are worth the money?

3) Can I really make a living as a freelance writer?

Gee. When you think about it, each of these three questions can become an article itself.

Today, make a list of frequently asked questions people have concerning your area(s) of expertise.

Your list of questions will help you come up with at least one new article.

But, chances are, each question will become the basis for an entire article itself.

Try it!

Suzanne Lieurance
The Working Writer’s Coach

Welcome to Day 27 of the Lieurance-King Summer Article Challenge!

Here’s today’s tip:

Don’t Take Rejection Personally - Just Move On and Remain Professional at All Times.

As a writer, the worse feeling in the world is rejection.

When we write articles for article directories, having our articles rejected can make us feel worse than being rejected by a paying market because, after all, we’re offering our articles to these directories for FREE!

Plus, we’re trying to HELP our readers, for goodness sakes.

How can any directory NOT want our work?

But the thing is, each article directory has specific submission requirements, and often these directories are so swamped with submissions, it’s impossible for them to offer more than a standard response as to why they’ve rejected our work, or worse yet, decided our articles are not a good “fit” for their directory, overall.

If you’re rejected by a specific article directory, don’t spend your precious article writing energy emailing back and forth, trying to get back in with that directory.

Instead, use your energy to move on to another directory.

You’ll probably find that your articles are a better “fit” for another directory, and they’ll be accepted quickly as long as you follow their submission requirements to the letter.

So, don’t take the rejection personally.

With thousands of people submitting to article directories daily, they really don’t have time to reject your work for personal reasons.

Heck, most article directories have dozens of people reviewing articles, so each time you submit an article to a directory a different person will be reviewing it.

In fact, the people in charge of the directories probably don’t even know WHO you are - which is why directories’ reasons for rejection can be so unspecific and baffling sometimes.

But, you KNOW you’re a good writer, with much to offer readers.

So don’t take rejection personally, and remain professional at all times.

Keep writing and submitting your articles until you find those article directories that ARE a perfect “fit” for the types of information you have to offer!

Welcome to Day 26 of the Lieurance-King Summer Article Challenge!

Over 140 writers have accepted this article writing challenge, and many of them have already written 30 new articles, so they have some terrific tips for the rest of us!

Today’s tip comes from Dan Goodwin.

Here’s Dan’s Tip:

I’ve recently come across Keyword Discovery which has given me lots of new material in terms of raw keywords in my niches and ideas for article titles.

There are two great tools within Keyword Discovery I use (so far - there’s loads more to it as well) -

1. Keyword Search - http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/search.html

Here you type in your keyword or keyword phrase. For example, “creative writing” is one of mine, which then gives a list of 100’s of keywords. In the free version you get the first 100 keywords, sign up if you want more than 100…

Bonus tip - Remember if for example one of your keyword phrases is “creative writing”, then if you write articles with the phrase “creative writing tips” say, people searching for BOTH of these two phrases will find your articles.

If someone types “creative writing tips” in a search engine, your article should show up.

If someone types “creative writing” in a search engine, your article will also show up, as it contains this phrase.

Of course WHERE your article shows up in both searches obviously depends on how many articles you have written with those keywords, how much competition there is and so on.

2. Top keywords - http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/index.html

This is a very useful feature to dig down into categories and find the top keywords. On the left column, click on Top Keywords and you’ll see the top keywords searched for in all categories. Then click on one of the categories on the left to see the top keywords in that category.

For example, I clicked on “Arts”. Then click on on of the new categories on the left to go deeper and more specialised. I clicked on “Writers Resources”.

Going down another level, I clicked on “Writing Exercises”. You can see here that “creative writing prompts” the top keyword.

The route down through the categories is shown at the top each time so you can go back up a level if you want without going right back to the start.

I’ve only recently come across this keyword tool and think it’s fabulous and very easy to use. Well worth spending an hour or two on doing a little digging and coming up with a list of keywords and then from that a list of possible titles.

Get over there and start researching!

Dan Goodwin
Creativity Coach

web: http://www.CoachCreative.com
blog: http://www.CoachCreative.com/blog
space: http://www.CoachCreativeSpace.com

Gee, Dan. Looks like you’ve written another great article right here! Thanks for the tip!

Welcome to Day 25 of the Lieurance-King Summer Article Challenge.

Here’s your tip for the day:

Once you’ve started your article marketing campaign, increase your campaign’s effectiveness by joining or creating an online networking co-op.

A networking co-op allows you to connect with other successful business professionals.

You can create an online website or blog for your co-op so members can post their articles on the co-op site with links back to their own websites or blogs.

Co-op members can also use the site to advertise their products and services directly and to find other business owners they might like to partner with in various ways to promote each other’s products and/or services.

Read an article called Need More Business? Create a Co-Op.

Then, if you’d rather JOIN a co-op than have to create one yourself, visit The Lieurance Group and find out more about this networking co-op for writers, graphic designers, Internet marketers, and other business professionals.

Think you can’t  complete the L-K Summer Article Challenge? Here are 5 somewhat tongue-in-cheek, guaranteed ways to make sure that prophecy comes true. ;]

1. Tell yourself you can’t do it. If you tell yourself again and again that you’ll never write 30 articles, I guarantee you’ll be right.
2. Put off writing your first article. What better way to ruin your chances of succeeding than to avoid starting in the first place?
3. Repeat after me: “I can’t think of anything to write about.” Now, just keep saying that over and over to make sure no ideas come into your head.
4. Complain endlessly to your friends about not being able to write anything, preferably over e-mail. But don’t dare channel any of that into an article about writer’s block or anything else productive.
5. Use every Article Challenge success story to convince yourself that you could never succeed in the challenge. Whatever you do, don’t take any inspiration from anyone.

What fail-safe failure techniques do you recommend?

- Kristen

Welcome to Day 23 of the Lieurance-King Summer Article Challenge!

Here’s today’s tip:

Use article templates and your articles will almost write themselves!

As a writing teacher and a writing coach, when I’m helping new writers learn how to write articles for magazines, one of the first tips I give them is to figure out a structure for their article first with subtopic headings, etc.

Then, all they have to do to write the article is develop a short introductory paragraph (the “hook” that makes readers want to read the article), fill in the information under each of the subtopic headings, then write a short concluding paragraph.

Well, guess what?

Article templates create this structure or format FOR YOU.

All you have to do is fill in the information in the particular template you choose to use.

You’ll find a variety of easy template ideas in our free 21 day ecourse, Tips for Effective Article Marketing (sign up for it in the box in the top right sidebar).

Jeff Herring, The Article Guy, also has a group of templates for sale HERE that will make article writing so easy, you’ll wonder why you EVER thought article writing would take hours and hours and you’d never be able to try article marketing.

You’ll use these templates over and over again, so you’ll definitely get your money’s worth out of this package.

Jeff also has some special offers for writers who accept this article writing challenge. Just click here to find out about them.

So - if you’re having a hard time figuring out what to write, it’s probably because you don’t know how to structure your articles.

Use article templates and the structure is already there - just waiting for you to simply fill in the information to create a great article!

With article templates, you’ll be cranking out the articles in no time.

Suzanne Lieurance

The Working Writer’s Coach

(Photo credit: Kaan Tanriover)

Welcome to Day 22 of the Lieurance-King Summer Article Challenge.

Today’s tip is a super offer from Jeff Herring, The Article Guy:

Hi Kids!

Next Monday, August 27, 5:30 pm PT/8:30 pm ET I’ll be hosting the first preview call for the upcoming Article Writing & Marketing Secrets TeleCourse.

What’s a preview call? A preview call is just that - a preview of something that is coming up, a glimpe into what you will learn in the upcoming telecourse. Now those of you who have been on my preview calls before know that I will do all I can to encourage you to join me on the telecourse AND AT THE SAME TIME provide with tips, tools and strategies that you can use right away!

We are calling it “The Great Article Marketing Revolution - 4 Pillars of Wildly Successful Article Marketing” and you will discover the secrets of

• Article Writing
• Article Submission
• Article Marketing
• Article Income
• And just a little bit more!

Click here to register for this free call (scroll down to the sign up box) and join me Monday nite!

Jeff Herring
www.GreatArticleMarketingNetwork.com