In response to my birthday request for article marketing questions, one Idea Generator reader asked, "How will splashing free content all over the Web generate money for me?"

Posting articles online can have a huge ripple effect on the growth of your business. It starts with traffic back to your website, when members of your target market stumble upon your wise words as they search online for solutions to their problems.

Back at your website, they hopefully find a pink spoon (yes, more free content), that goes into greater depth and provides more insight into their problem (and how YOU can solve it).

Now that person is on your newsletter list, having signed up when they downloaded your pink spoon. Your newsletter includes articles (yes, more free content) about the specific topic they are interested in. Only now you're sending the articles directly to them by email, they don't have to go out and find them.

Your newsletter also includes personal notes and questions, both of which help to express your concern and understanding about the challenges your readers face. And this helps you grow your relationship and deepen the sense of trust between you.

Occasionally, you'll send out a notice about a product or service, designed specifically to address the very problem you've been writing articles about. And because your reader has grown to know, like and trust you, they will be far more likely to consider your offer than if it was from a stranger.

From the small ripple of a free article, to a solid relationship with your ideal client. That's the power of article marketing!

In a previous post about finding time for article writing, I mentioned that there are several different tasks that you need to make time for. I started with brainstorming, and here are three more of them.

Drafting time

I like to write a minimum of two blog posts per week (and some of those will be full-length articles, but certainly not all of them), and I usually start the process with a drafting session. When I’m drafting, I develop my ideas into outlines or rough drafts of my articles, without too much concern for flow, grammar or readability. I really just want to get everything down – like a “brain dump.”

For more clues about the best way to start drafting your articles, check out this post about writing structures.

Writing time

My writing sessions are more about refinement and detail – clarifying my main topic, checking the overall structure of my article, finding the links to previous blog posts, etc. I prefer to have a day or two between drafting and writing, so that I can get some space and perspective on the topic before I come back to the article. 

Proofreading time

Sometimes I proofread at that point as well, though ideally I will do that a few hours later or the next day – again, a little space does wonders to help me be objective and put myself in my reader’s shoes. In my proofreading session, I look for common writing, grammatical and typing errors.

When I choose to borrow (or hire) another set of eyes to help with proofreading, I have to plan extra time for that in order to meet my delivery date.

Article writing may seem like magic, but it just requires a series of specific and deliberate actions. Be sure to block out time in your schedule for all of these important article writing tasks.