How to write articles!

[MissGYD]

Anyone here can help me to get started writing articles?  I hear that writing articles is where the money is, the thing with me is that I am a newbie at it, so I could use some pointers as to where to start, how to start, where to submit my first article and so forth.
Has anyone tried this or is now doing it? Does it really work?  Please tell me how you started and how you are doing now.

[lucky382001]

There are many sites online that will pay you for writing blogs which still is in the article arena. When I say "pay" you, it isn't quite the same as being paid offline by the ones I've seen. You get paid by the view on those sites.  Potentially you could earn more if you had a huge audience built up but I doubt if many people do.

To get started writing articles is not hard. Find magazines with content you are knowledgeble and read their guidelines. Consulting a book on the format to submit it in would be helpful also.

[thetotalfool]

If you want to write for blog-ish things like eHow, InfoBarrel, HubPages, Squidoo, etc., use the Google Keyword Tool to determine if the topics you want to write about are topics people actually search for, and which phrases they use.

My experience has been that visitors don't click ads.

[missijl]

Usually people will only pay you .50 or $1 per article of 500 words (sometimes more). A lot of times you will have to do internet research to find info on the topic they want you to write about. To me, the money wasn't enough to cover all the time and effort I put in. If you decide to do it online, be careful of people who want you to write sample articles for them. They'll use your samples on their web pages and not pay you for them. If someone asks for a sample, let them know you can provide a sample on a topic that YOU choose.

[MissGYD]

    Thanks everyone who responded to my dilemma!  I will consider all of your suggestions and heed all warnings.