People have been writing articles to make money for years. In fact article writing was the first form of marketing I did when I started working online some 4+ years ago. I didn’t know how to market, or even where to market. I stumbled upon article marketing via a form.

So how can you start writing articles for money?

Simple, all you have to do is find what your target market is, then do a little bit of keyword research. Now by keyword research I mean you need to research which keywords people are searching or would search to find whatever it is you do, or sell. This way when you write your articles you can key in on these keywords, and increase your Google page rank for your article.

Once you’ve completed your keyword research now begins the fun part of actually writing the article. It’s important to know that you don’t have to be some writing expert, and you don’t even need to know how to spell (thanks to spell checker). All you have to know is that the best articles are 500 – 700 words long. Keep your articles short and simple. If you go into to much detail you’ll lose peoples interest.

After you written your article now its time to submit that article to the top article directories, and I’ll save you time by telling you the top 3 article directories are in order 1) ezinearticles.com 2) buzzle.com 3) articlebase.com. Create an account at each directory and submit your articles to them.

Now each of these article directories will allow you to create an about the author resource box. This resource box will be displayed at the end of each of your articles, and this is where you will make your money. Inside it you will leave a short one or two lines explaining to people who you are, what you do, and how you can help them. Make sure you leave a link back to your website or else your article will go to waste.

Finally if you really want to get your articles ranked in Google I highly recommend submitting them to social book marketing sites. Here are a few I recommend.

1. Digg.com
2. Propeller.com
3. Reddit.com
4. Socialogs.com
5. Indianpad.com
6. Slashdot.org
7. Getigadget.com
8. Furl.net
9. Wirefan.com
10. Bibsonomy.org
11. faves.com
12. Folkd.com
13. Linkagogo.com
14. Mister-wong.com
15. Connotea.org
16. Mixx.com
17. Upchuckr.com
18. Jumptags.com
19. Connectedy.com
20. Postonfire.com
21. humsurfer.com

All you do is create an account for each of the sites you wish to use. Then you’ll see a button that says something along the lines like submit story or add link. Click on it and fill out the required info and hit submit and your done.

Articles are a great way to make extra money online. This type of marketing method alone can easily generate you 1 – 2k per month over time. Of course this will depend on what products you are promoting, and how well your articles get ranked in Google.