8 Sources to Research Awesome Article Topics
by Priya Shah
Published on this site: September 2nd, 2005 - See
more articles from this month
Writing articles is by far the most effective online promotion
strategy I've come across. If you can write good, readable,
original content, you can easily put
yourself far ahead of the pack in your field of interest.
But article marketers and new article writers are often stumped
for topics to write about. Finding topics that appeal to your
readers can be time-consuming but well worth the effort.
Here are no less than eight awesome ways to research your
market and find newsy topics that attract loads of traffic
and the interest of your target audience.
- Keyword Research Tools
To write an article that will get you a significant
amount of traffic, you need to write about topics that people
are searching for.
You also want to know which terms your target audience uses
while searching, so you can use them in your article title
and copy and increase the chance of being found by search
engines.
Two excellent keyword research tools you should always use
to research article topics are Wordtracker and Overtures
Keyword Inventory Tool.
http://www.wordtracker.com
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
- Newsletters and Trade Journals
Subscribe to email newsletters, ezines and offline publications
related to your topic of interest. Reading what others in
your field are writing about will give you lots of ideas
for your own article topics.
It's easy to find newsletters that cover your topic online.
If you want to write about internet marketing, for instance,
you could search for internet marketing newsletters and
find the most well-read and respected publications in that
field.
- Google News Alerts
Google News Alerts is like a news aggregator that allows
you to receive news based on your keyword of choice. http://www.google.com/alerts
When you subscribe, you'll receive the latest stories that
carry your keyword. Go through them and you may find some
gems of information that you can write up into a topical
article based on that story.
- Press Release Alerts
Press releases are an excellent way to find out more
about new discoveries or advances in your field. These can
make an excellent topic for an opinion piece about that
discovery or development.
Search press release sites for the latest releases in the
field of your choice. You'll find a bunch of them listed
here.
http://www.onlineprindia.com/press-release-distribution.htm
- Online Forums
You can get some of your best article topics from other
professionals in your field. Online forums provide an abundance
of opinions, queries and ideas that might just make that
flashbulb go off in your brain.
Visit forums, lurk and read others posts or participate
in discussions and benefit from the minds of some of the
most interactive people in your field.
- Blogs
Blogs are a hotbed of discussion and opinion. They often
carry some very interesting and topical pieces that can
help you ideate.
Blog directories, a long list of which can be found at the
link below, are a good place to start looking for blogs
written on your topic of interest.
http://www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55/
- Seminars and Conferences
One of the best ways to keep up with new ideas and developments
in your field is to attend seminars or conferences and network
with other people.
You can often come away with a bunch of ideas, at these
gatherings, and use them to write up articles.
- Spy On The Competition
Check out your competitor's business and websites. They
may be using ideas or even making mistakes that could give
you ideas for articles on what does or doesn't work.
And finally, always remember to give credit (and a link back)
to the news sources that you cite in your article.
Priya Shah is a partner in the search
engine optimization firm, SEO & More. Visit Article
Writing Tips for more article marketing tips
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