Anyone who starts a home business will quickly discover that one of the best ways of marketing a website is by writing online articles and submitting them to article directories. If you are a confident writer this is good news, but not so good if your writing ability leaves something to be desired. The article writing tips below will help you get started.

1. Start by reading other people's articles and analysing them. Which articles do you enjoy? Why are some articles easier to read than others? What makes an article interesting? Visit several ezines or blogs in your niche market and make notes on several articles.

2. During this process you will begin to get some ideas for subjects for your own articles. Make a list of subjects you could write about, and try and add to this regularly so you will never be short of ideas. Never copy and paste someone else's article and publish it as your own. You can, however, re-write an article as long as it is at least 30% different from the original.

3. Read the rules and recommendations for writers that are listed on ezine directories so you are well prepared in article submission and do not waste time by getting your article rejected. All writers have to keep within certain criteria when submitting articles, so it is important that you understand these rules. Some ezines offer article writing training courses, so make use of these if you can.

4. Learn how to write articles that are search engine friendly. This means doing keyword research and entering your keywords in the title and body of your article. Do not underestimate this step; it is important to get it right. When you use the right keywords in your article you will be far more likely to be found in the search engines. You do not want to overload your article with keywords as this looks phony, and your article will probably be rejected anyway. There are many e-books and articles about how to do good SEO and keyword research.

5. When you have a subject in mind that you would like to write about, start a rough draft. Write down the main subject and then make a list of all the points you would like to include within your subject. Eventually these points will become your paragraphs.

6. Create a title that contains your chosen keywords is appealing to a browsing reader. If you need help with this, look at what titles other people use. Some of the most popular titles are those starting with "How to…." or "Ten top tips for…" or those that ask the reader a question, such as "Are you struggling to get visitors to your website?"

7. Write a short introductory paragraph that will explain to your readers what the article is about and how they will benefit from it. This is the most important part of the article because very few people will read further than the first paragraph if it does not grab them.

8. Now start to expand your main points and create the main body of the article. Take each point you have noted and write a few sentences on each one. Write as you would speak to start with. You can always clear up spelling and grammar later. Write in clear, short sentences and do not make your paragraphs too long. Readers will very often be put off by long sections of text without breaks.

9. Write a conclusion. This should be a quick summary of what you have said and round off the article neatly, perhaps even referring back to something you said at the beginning.

10. Read through your article, preferably out loud, and see how it flows. If you are not confident about your spelling or grammar, find someone else to check it for you. You can use your computer's grammar and spell check, but be aware that this will not pick up every mistake, so you do need to read through it properly. Make sure that the points you make flow logically from one to the other. Have you explained yourself well?

Writing online articles for the first time can be quite daunting at first, but if you follow these article writing tips you will find that it gets easier each time you do it. When you see your articles published on ezines your confidence will start to grow and you will soon be publishing articles regularly without any worries!