3 Easy Sources Of Content For Article Writing

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Are you stuck on how to find material for articles? Here are three easy ways to create content quickly.

Write an Article Review

man-searching Decide on a topic you want to write about and do a search for articles with similar titles. Let’s suppose you have decided to write an article on How to Teach Your Cat to Swim. A Google search shows about 781,000 articles on this improbable subject, some with videos!

You don’t need to read all of these, of course – just check out those on the first page quickly to find one that looks most interesting to you. Once you have found it, read it and decide on what you like and what you don’t like about the article.

Don’t be tempted at this point to just copy the article and claim it as your own – you could be punished for copyright violation. Write your own article, quoting the source in the opening paragraph. What you write is up to you, but be careful to distinguish between material taken from the original article and your own views.

Use quotation marks, referring again to the original article, whenever you take a direct quote. Be careful not to be too caustic or personal when describing points you don’t like in the source article, and make it clear that the views you express are based on your personal experience. Don’t claim to be better informed than the original author, and don’t pretend to be an expert unless you are really qualified in the field.

Make sure to include a link to the original article somewhere in your article. It’s a good idea to use two such links – one right at the beginning of your article and one at the end.

Write a Topic Summary

Using the same example, you can write an article picking, say, the five or six best articles (in your check-signs opinion) on Teaching Your Cat to Swim. You can summarize each article briefly, say what you like and don’t like about it, and give links to the original articles.

The same rules about attribution, quotation marks, copyright and expressing opinions apply as for an article review. You may find the rules of the site to which you are submitting your article prevent you from using links to all the articles. In that case, use the author name and the article title and leave the reader to do his or her own search.

Spin Your Own

Another easy trick for finding material for your article is to take one or more of the articles you found and select passages from them. Rewrite the selected passages in your own words, being careful to avoid any phrases that look unique. (I have seen some of my own articles rewritten where particular phrases the article thief liked reappeared with my exact wording – I knew immediately that the perpetrator had stolen the material.)

If you do plan on using material directly like this, at least give credit to the author and the source article – don’t be an article thief!

I hope these suggestions will help you find material for your articles. There are many more tricks available to you, but these three will certainly help when you’re stuck for finding content.

Learn now the secrets of making money with articles from the free e-course at Profitable Writing System.
By the time you finish this 7 part e-course you’ll be well on your way to turning your content into cash!
Profitable Writing System

Create Secure Passwords With These 5 Tricks

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Create Secure Passwords

I saw an amusing video from Ellen DeGeneres recently, and it started me thinking about the issue of password security. The video shows an infomercial for a really stupid solution, but there are several real steps we can all take to safeguard our passwords.

Use Different Passwords

questions The infomercial is based on the idea that we use different passwords everywhere. This is an important first step, since if a hacker gets access to one password it limits the damage that can cause. The problem with this, of course, is how to remember all those multiple passwords.

You can save the passwords in a text file or spreadsheet, or you can use a password manager. Be sure to protect your master list with a password that is easy for you to remember but difficult for anyone else to guess. If you accidentally (or deliberately) attach this master list to an email, nobody can read it without the master password.

I use a password manager (Roboform) for most of my passwords, but keep a spreadsheet for my websites, since for those I need to keep a lot more information than just the password.

Use Strong Passwords

It’s amazing how many people choose “password”, “123456″, or their name as their password. A strong password comprises 6 or more characters and includes numbers and upper and lower case letters. If the application allows you to use special characters as well, by all means use them.

For example, if you use “password” (not recommended!), you can write it as “9@$$w0Rd”. It looks close enough to the original word that you can remember it without too much effort, but is much harder for hackers and their programs to crack.

Better still, use a password generator, such as that included with your password manager. to generate really strong passwords.

Change Passwords Frequently

Yes, I know changing passwords is a pain, but it’s a lot more of a pain if you get hacked! I make a check-signs point of changing the critical passwords, such as banks and credit cards, every month or two, but I must admit that I often forget. Some applications – banks, for example – require frequent changes: this is where a good password manager eases the chore.

If you choose to use Roboform, you will find the free version is only useful to see how it works: you will need to pay a small annual fee for real application. (By the way, I am not affiliated with Roboform in any way – it’s just what I use.)

Keep Your Passwords Private

That seems obvious, but sometimes we need to reveal our passwords, for example to a technical support person. If you must email your password, send the user id and password in separate emails, and change your password as soon as you can after the support is over. I know, that’s hard to remember when you’re just relieved at having your problem solved, but remember to treat an email like a postcard – anyone can read it.

Use A Good Ant-Virus Program

You need a firewall and a good anti-virus program that will stop key-logger programs from stealing your user ids and passwords. If you are using Windows, Windows Firewall With Advanced Security and MS Security Essentials are minimum requirements. You can also use a commercial ant-virus program, such as AVG or Avast for additional security – don’t use more than one, as they can conflict with each other.

Watch The Video

Ellen is always fun to watch – if you didn’t see the video, watch it now for a good laugh! http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2013/04/19/ellen-password-security-infomercial/ is where you’ll find it.

Business Resources

If you promote your business on the internet, password security is even more important than it is for an individual, but it is only one of your considerations. My recent article on The 7 Secrets Of Internet Marketing reveals the tools you need for successful internet business promotion, and where you can get them at a surprisingly affordable price.

This article originally appeared in Ezine Articles.

Alan Jenkin

Author

Alan Jenkin has posted to several blogs for a number of years. His subjects include health and fitness, running, personal development and internet marketing. He lives in Texas and has a vacation home in the Caribbean, where his hobbies include boating and scuba diving. He is married to best-selling author Billie Willmon Jenkin.

Goal Setting For Fun And Profit – Part 2

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Goal Setting For Fun And Profit – Part 2

Do you set goals with the best intentions and then find, after a few months, that you are no nearer achieving them than when you set them! If so, you might take a step back from the goal-setting process and ask yourself what is holding you back.

There are two essential steps to setting effective goals – first, understand what you really want to achieve, and then see what can hold you back from achieving it. The previous article (Goal Setting For Fun And Profit) described the first step – how to go about finding what you really want. This article follows up with how to find and avoid the roadblocks that can stop your progress.

If you followed the first step, you now have a set of goals that are in alignment with your purpose.

What Is Your Purpose?

For a long time I found myself stuck at this point. In case you’re in the same boat, let me explain what I found out – there is nothing magical about discovering your purpose. If you went through the first exercise, you will recognize that it’s really just a fancy way of saying what you really want when you strip away all the feelings about what you believe you “should” want.

If you’re still not clear about this, go back and work some more on the first exercise (in the previous article). You are most likely still looking at what others expect from you rather than what you would like for yourself. Be honest with yourself, and dig deep – there is no right or wrong answer here, just what works best for you.

Getting Results

Now, finally, you are ready to tackle the second part – getting results. You have created a set of goals that fit your own true desires, but you still find some (or all) of them are not working well for you. You’re stuck.

This is the point at which you need to uncover the limiting beliefs that are holding you back. Once again, be completely honest with yourself. These are beliefs that have served you well in the past, because they have protected you from harm, but now they are preventing you from moving forward.

I have found this to be the most challenging aspect of goals. It’s the point when I know I have the “right” goal for me, but somehow I’m just not getting anywhere with it. Somewhere in my subconscious there is a limiting belief that is stopping me from moving forward on this goal.

man-running Before I ran my first half marathon I didn’t really believe I could ever do it. The longest run I had done before was 10K – 6.2 miles, and now I was getting ready to run more than twice that distance. I did it by setting a series of small, achievable goals, adding 10% per week to my long run and alternating easy days with speedwork for the other runs.

Did I meet all my intermediate goals? No – sometimes I just didn’t feel up to that 10% increase. But, since I had a deadline to meet (race day), I left a little lagniappe in the schedule to allow for the fact that my progress would be uneven.

Most of all, I stayed focused on the goal and mentally pictured myself finishing the race and anticipated the feeling of achievement at the end. You’ll see it when you believe it!

Limiting Beliefs

The bad news about this is that until you can get past a limiting belief, you will never make consistent progress towards your goal. I had to really believe that it was possible for me to complete that half marathon, especially on those days when my running was really pathetic!

The good news is that once you can get past it, the sky’s the limit! You are NOT procrastinating because you are lazy; there is nothing wrong with you and everybody has this same experience – you’re just stuck because of a program your subconscious mind is running for you. It may help you to know that even the most successful people face this problem at times – none of us knows what we are capable of until we achieve it.

There are several tricks you can use to discover and overcome these limiting beliefs. You see, they were mostly created due to experiences you had in the first five or ten years of your life, when you were setting the patterns that defined you. Recognize that what served a ten-year-old no longer serves you: your needs and wants are totally different.

In this short article, I have only touched on how to overcome limiting beliefs. It’s a big subject, and represents the biggest stumbling block most people hit when working on the goals they really want to achieve. You took the first step when you got the right goals set: now take the second step and nothing can stop you!

What Now?

The previous article. showed how to set your goals. Learn now how to overcome the beliefs that are holding you back from achieving those goals and reaching your dreams.

Finally, you can stop dreaming and start succeeding once you know these 3 surefire goal-achievement secrets! Take the free e-course at Dynamic Productivity Institute.

When you finish that course, you’ll be well on your way to reaching your goals and creating the dream life you’ve always wanted! Do it now, because you deserve it.

This article was originally published in Ezine Articles.

Alan Jenkin

Author

Alan's Networking Blog

Computing, Wealth Creation, and Personal Development

3 Easy Sources Of Content For Article Writing

Write an Article Review

Write a Topic Summary

Spin Your Own

Create Secure Passwords With These 5 Tricks

Create Secure Passwords

Use Different Passwords

Use Strong Passwords

Change Passwords Frequently

Keep Your Passwords Private

Use A Good Ant-Virus Program

Watch The Video

Business Resources

Goal Setting For Fun And Profit – Part 2

Goal Setting For Fun And Profit – Part 2

What Is Your Purpose?

Getting Results

Limiting Beliefs

What Now?