Thank you to everyone who wished me a Happy Birthday on my blog, Twitter, e-mails, regular mail and phone calls - oh, and lunches! WOW! I am truly blessed. Thanks to all of you.

Now here is a birthday present from my mentor, Jeff Herring. He gave me a gift - permission to reprint one of his articles so that my readers could learn more about this internet “stuff” - technical term. Thanks to my wonderful mentor, Jeff.

By Jeff Herring

How do you get started with writing articles?

Well, it’s been said that writing is not hard, it’s getting started that’s hard. Just like anything else, we put it off, we procrastinate, and we make it this big giant thing that’s going to take forever. Yet once we get going and get into the flow, it works.

Here are several tips for how to get started

1. First of all, all that inner English teacher stuff, all that critical stuff you put on yourself, leave it in last year. Your English teacher is not here, and if you’re as old as I am, hitting 50 this year, your English teacher may be dead, so don’t worry about it. Writing for the internet is different.

2. Keep a working list of ideas to pull from. When you get an article idea, write it down. Keep something with you where you can capture it and put it on your list later so you can always have with you a working list of article ideas.

3. One of the ways to keep doing it, even around one sliced topic in your niche, is to divide your niche into categories - a heading for each category, and then sections underneath the categories.

4. Ask your members, your list, your students, your clients - whatever you call them. You ask them what their challenges are, what they need help with, and you write about that.

5. Set article writing goals. One a __________. At least one a week. One a day I’d like you to work up to and we’re going to work towards that with everybody this year. If you’re thinking one a month, I’d say that I don’t think you’re serious about article marketing if all you’re going to do is write one a month. That won’t cut it.

6. Here’s one way to never get writer’s block again. Personally I don’t believe in writer’s block anyway. I think it’s something we talk ourselves into. Have you ever had eating block, walking block, bicycle riding block? Come on! I think we like to talk about writer’s block because it means if we have writer’s block, we must be a writer.

So here’s one way to never have it again - have several articles that you’re working on at the same time. It might just be a working title and a working idea, but if you’re working on one and it doesn’t go anywhere, you can’t get anywhere with it, go on to the next one and work on that and keep moving on until you find one that flows. You can always write an article that way.

7. Another way to motivate yourself to get started is focus on the result. Focus on the visitors to your website, the subscribers you’ll get, and the profits you’ll get.

And now I would like to invite you to join my Article Marketing Teleseminar Club. There is an amazing list of classes and bonuses and a supportive community available for you to join. Read all about it at http://www.ArticleMarketingClubLive.com