Everyone that has tried making a living on the Internet knows that the "the money is in the list" and if you want to be successful with any online venture, you must build that targeted email list. We're told to submit ads to other ezines, do joint ventures, ad swaps with other ezine publishers and last but certainly not least we need to be able to write articles to distribute.

We are also told that any dimwit can write an article. I've read quite a few articles listed on countless websites during my six plus years on the web and I think that statement may be stretching reality a bit.

Ok, maybe once in the sixth grade we got an "A" on a writing project and Mom always liked our poems, but let's face it, that's a far cry from being able to say that we know how to write an interesting and well written article.

But hey! All we have to do is pick a topic that is somewhat interesting and informative. Any topic we can write about in less than a thousand words. Something that will make people want to click there way back time and again to read more of our articles. Hopefully, in the process they will become subscribers to our publication, so they can keep getting their weekly or monthly dose of our humble wisdom.

Oh yeah, let's not forget the main reason we're spending all that time stashed away in our little writers niche. Sharing our unique and powerful thoughts with the online world isn't the reason. Neither is trying to convince people that Hemingway is alive and well and residing on our little plot of Internet real estate. Our real purpose is submitting our work to every possible article directory, ezine publisher and webmaster we can scrounge up. The reason? Getting traffic to our sites of course.

Every article we send on its way to the myriad article databases, gets thrown in the mix with the 1000's of other articles waiting for a home. We of course think that our little tome will be chosen over all the other works by lesser skilled writers than ourselves. Well, let's try to at least make that decision a little easier for those folks searching for business advice or the perfect yoga technique.

When choosing a topic to attract more subscribers to your ezine or website, pick one that will keep them awake and alert and one directly associated with whatever niche your business falls into. You don't want them getting half way through your article and then hitting the old "delete" key, wondering what the heck this article about making the perfect quilt has to do with a website that teaches you how to house train your new puppy.

Keep your article between 300 and 700 words so you can hold the readers attention, and tell them something they didn't already know. People want to be informed when reading something! They also want to be entertained. What you write about (within your niche) isn't as important as how you write it and present it to your readers. Either you capture and hold their attention and interest or they will do what people in our click happy society have been programmed to do. You guessed it. They will click on to the next thing that looks like it might hold their interest for more than a millisecondd.

So, by all means, go and start writing your article. Submit it to all the directories. Submit it to the ezines of the world. Get it out there. Then you can wait for all that wonderful traffic to start inundating your website.

Just think of all the sales you'll make. Just think of how large your ezine list is going to get. Last but not least, before you start -- just think.