That’s right, I said Article Business. You can make significant money writing articles, six figures plus. But make no mistake; if you want to be truly successful writing articles, you have to treat it like a business. That means you have to write and submit, over and over again. You see more about exactly what is required to be successful later. For right now, know that you have to write and submit lots of articles.

Can you start your article business on a shoestring? Absolutely. Most successful writers started out this way. The steps outlined below, are designed to give you basic information regarding what is involved for that aspect of the business. In the sections that follow, you’ll get information on how to start, profit, and operate your article business.

1) Do you have a website? Few people are aware of it, but many Internet Service Providers (ISPs) provide free websites to their customers. Those that provide the service may also offer free tools to build the site. If your ISP does not give you free web space, do a search for free websites and you will see plenty to choose from. Having a website will make doing business much easier. Your website will need at least 2 pages.

A) A Sign-in (or squeeze) Page is an absolute necessity on your website. This is the page that all of your articles will link to. It is the place where people come and enter their name and email address to subscribe to your list. A list is very important to make money over the longer term writing articles. A good list cans double the amount of money that you make from your articles.

B) You should also have a download page. On this page you can offer your visitors the opportunity to download some of your articles for free. You should also have a number of ads and items that you are promoting on that page.

2) Unless you have your own product, you will have to start by promoting affiliate products. An affiliate product is merchandise that was created by someone else, that pays you a commission for each item you sell. You can make very nice profits selling affiliate products, but you can make much, much more by selling your own products. You would be well served by trying to create your own product as soon as possible.

3) You must have an autoresponder. The two biggest in the field are Aweber and Getresponse. They offer every just about every feature you can get in an autoresponder. I use Getresponse and have VERY happy with the features and the service. On a shoestring, you can start out with one of the free trial versions. Test them thoroughly before you choose, make sure that your emails don’t all go to the bulk or junk folder.

4) Start writing articles, lots of them. The more you write, the more products you will sell and the more your list will grow. Don’t get discouraged, like any other business, it takes time to ramp things up. You may not make your first sale until your twentieth or even your thirtieth article. Continue to submit articles and you will succeed.

By following these steps, you can start your article business with little, or even NO money. When you begin to bring in some money, reinvest the proceeds into your business. This is very important to your long-term success. Buy a Domain name, upgrade your autoresponder and your web hosting. Purchase information to gain knowledge on how to make money on the Internet. All of these important factors will influence how much money you make down the road. Good luck in your article marketing efforts.