Tips for writers

Helpful tips for those who make money online writing articles.

1. After writing an article, read it out loud to yourself to make sure it sounds right. If it does, you're on the right path. Lots of times you'll use words that sound alike or look alike, though, and saying it and reading it out loud helps spot those mistakes.

2. When editing work, edit first for flow (beginning to end to make sure the piece as a whole works right and makes sense).

3. After editing for flow, edit for grammar. My best advice for this is to edit in reverse, starting with the last sentence first. It makes you pay more attention that way, and without being wrapped up in your article, you're more likely to notice little mistakes.

4. Do NOT always trust spellchecker. It's a good thing to use to make sure words are spelled right, but it doesn't check for the right WORDS. The grammar suggestions it usually makes are pretty off sometimes, too.

5. Know your audience, and edit accordingly. If you're writing a scholarly piece, you want to edit every minute detail, quote correctly, and cite VERY correctly. However, if your article is aimed towards teenagers or website owners, chances are they don't want to read something that scholarly sounding all the time, so edit it to be fun.

6. Realize that no matter what you write, it can always improve. This is VERY important for writers to realize. I can't tell you how many people I've had working for me (or students I've taught) have edited something, and then pulled the, "Well, it's done so I'll leave it alone!" routine. A lot of the time you will just leave it as-is once it's posted. If you're writing a very important piece, something you charged a lot for, or something you really want to bring home the visits/cash, save it for a day, then read it again to make sure you didn't miss anything. Shakespeare spent years refining some of his plays after he wrote them, so spending an extra day refining your article about Adsense won't hurt your credibility.