An online business constantly requires new content for it to be profitable. The phrase "content is king" is very true because the essence of the internet is content. If you can write an article or articles you will quickly establish the core of your online business.

Benefits of writing articles

1. Create content for web pages

If you get into the habit of writing articles you can easily write content for sales pages, product pages, and other types of web pages.

2. Increase search engine rankings

Writing optimized content (content containing keywords) will boost your search engine presence because search engines index web pages containing keywords that people search on. By continuously adding content to your web site you multiply the paths where visitors can find your business online.

3. Boost link popularity

Article directories allow links to be placed in the resource box of your articles. The more articles you write and submit to article directories the more links you build. Top rankings are achieved by building a large amount of links pointing to your web site.

4. Well written content attracts visitors

If you create original content that captivates your visitors' attention, they'll want to come back and visit your web site. Don't get into the habit of scraping content from elsewhere. It will repel your visitors.

Steps to start an online business with articles

1. Choose a topic you're passionate about

Spend time thinking and researching a topic you can invest in for the long term. It needs be something you either know or want to know alot about by doing the necessary research. This is a necessity if you want to write lots of compelling content.

2. Do keyword research

How do you know if the topic you chose is marketable?

Use the keyword research tools Wordtracker, Google keyword selector tool and SearchIt to see if people are actually searching for your main keywords. For example if you enter "worm farming" in the search box and no search numbers appear for that phrase, select another topic.

3. Check out your competition

If there are too many competitors in your field it will be very difficult to create a profitable online business because they probably get millions of visitors to their web site and have 1000s of backlinks. You'll spend too much time competing with them. It's better to choose a less competitive niche or topic.

To find out how many backlinks competing web sites have enter the top 10 web sites from Google in your niche then enter each web site address separately in the search box of Yahoo Site Explorer. It will show the number of backlinks that site has. If it has 4000 backlinks you will need over 4000 backlinks to effectively compete with it.

4. Market research

So you've found a niche you're passionate about and found many people are seaching for the main keywords related to your topic. You've also discovered that you could attain first page rankings in the search engines because your competitors have only a few hundred backlinks.

Why is market research necessary?

1. Protects your online business from costly errors

If you don't know much about your target market you'll spend time on off-target strategies. This will cause you to lose money and time on wasted efforts.

2. Increases potential to be profitable

Conducting market research before creating and marketing your product will give you an idea if it's going to fly.

3. Get to know your customers

If you can get into the mind of your customers, what they're thinking and feeling it will be easier to craft your messages for them.

4. Get to know your competitors

By studying your competitors you don't have to reinvent the wheel. Your competitor may have already been in business for decades so there's no need redo what he's been doing but find a way you can set yourself apart from hime and offer something unique.