Article writing means you have a subject, you understand the subject, and your knowledge demonstrates some understanding of your subject. Too often, articles lack content or something I can bite. Make me think when you write.

Tom Schaffer wrote the article, “Some Must-Have Items When Writing for the Internet. Tom lists 4 major facets of an article; number three is “Good Article Content”. Authors must “entertain” and “provide good information”. Readers want solutions, a better life. “What will you tell me that gives me more than I have?” This is what a writer must do.

When you stake a claim in your article, you better give readers evidence that there’s gold in those words. Tom Shaw elaborates, “People respond well to figures, facts and statistics. Try to get great information and as many facts as you can.”

Whether you write or look for what’s right, you need data, “figures, facts and statistics”. This means searching, scouring, digging for information that supports your view.

To do that, you need a tool, and I think Zotero provides the best shovel to dig-up and pile those facts. Zotero is an open source allowing you to “collect, manage, and cite your research sources”. You can save pages to read offline, create notes, tag, and file. You’ll find the Zotero Firefox add on.

When using Zotero, I also discovered the WorldCat Registry, you can register your user account at WorldCat.org. Use your local library! Be sure to register with your local library and library consortium. Libraries provide vast resources, and librarians understand the Internet.

At WorldCat.org you can create a list of “books, videos, articles, and more”.

Perhaps the affiliate success rate has the equivalent return of successful marriages. This season brings sun-tanned faces with star-gazed (or crossed) eyes to the altar. Pronouncements are made, and everyone heads to the bar for celebration. Sounds a bit cynical, and those sitting in the drab-gray hallways of probate court understand.

Seventeen years ago, my wife and I affiliated. Seems like a business deal; it is not. Our synergy encourages five children toward productively meaningful lives. We have not made any affiliate income from them. Just the opposite; they have cost us a lot of money. Each check written and dollar emptied from our wallets seems to work toward a productive affiliate network. Who could ask for anything more? As our son says to his Mom, “Be nice to me; I will be selecting your nursing home.”

At one time, my ideas of affiliate income from a vast directory of affiliate links would benefit me. Chagrined, I recognize this will not happen. Echievements provides affiliate links, but it differs vastly with a focus on content. Affiliate links are secondary.

Twenty years ago, the kings and queens of affiliate marketing positioned themselves. They took a risk that the rest of us shunned, or did not understand. Those were the days when you could make a ham and cheese sandwich on toast while a program downloaded. Kevin Dahl provides encouragement and warning (Affiliate Marketing, Do You Have What It Takes?). Kevin thinks that “Successful Affiliate Marketers are intelligent, computer and Internet savvy….” folks who blend tecnology and persistence to create the marks of success (that is affiliate income).

Kevin explains that there is a “…’magic difference’ between those who succeed and those who don’t….” It all “…can be found in their personalities, their brainpower and their willingness to work very hard.” Perhaps. For the past twenty years Kevin developed Windows software. This is quite telling. Twenty years tells us that Kevin persisted at what he does best: develop Windows software. Along with that, he may have affiliated with others.

His articles suggests (to me) that the key to affiliate results is a niche; something that you do uniquely. Others may do it too. No one does it like you. This is the focal point for all affilate marketing. Successful affilate marketers have a niche, and they affiliate with others to promote and expand that niche.