First,

1) We write articles and submit them to Ezines, because we want the publicity that they generate. If the article is well written, others may pick it up and give it a significant Internet life. This will send people to our site. If people come to our site, we may be able to do business with them. 2) Even if we don't do business with them, the traffic may cause the search engines to take a closer look at us. A higher ranking by the search engines will in itself send more people to our site. As a result of this, we will probably see an increase in business. 3) We may write to simply help people with no business interest in the traffic that is generated. This would be virtually a charitable purpose. We are simply trying to help people with useful information. 4) Or our writing may go beyond simple help and be driven by a desire to influence people, to get them to think or act a certain way. Perhaps we have a religious or political cause that we would like to promote.

All this is obvious and most people that write for the Ezines do so for one of these reasons. But I'd like to point out something that may not be obvious at all. I would like to address the unintended results that may result to our favor.

Although many who write for the Ezines do so because they like to write, many do so out of discipline; it is simply something they must do to promote their business or cause. It's not that they are bad at writing, in fact they may be quite good at it, they just normally don't have the time or interest in to do so. But notwithstanding the reason-out of joy or discipline-something happens. Often this "something" is not even noticed, ever, but it is there.

What is it?

Well let me explain this by personal testimony. I write articles for Ezines. In fact I like to write and have written four books over the years. But my writing for Ezines has definitely been of the discipline kind. It is something I do to promote my business. But in the process of doing the research and writing the articles I began to notice something. I began to notice how focused and how organized my mind had become. As much as I thought I "knew" about my work, in fact I began to realize that I was growing in understanding. I was becoming more "authoritative." My mind was increasingly organized; I began to mentally compartmentalize my business.

These were all unintended side effects of my writing. But they were valuable.

So, is there a lesson here? There is. When writing for Ezines, don't have a "if I must, I must" attitude. Instead look upon the project as an effort to expand your own understanding of your business. Look forward to the mental categorization, the authoritative insight that it can engender. As a result of this attitude, you will see your articles take on a new usefulness, a new practicality for your readers and therefore a new value to you and your business interest.

Author: Ralph E. Bass, Jr.

Ralph Bass is an owner, with his wife, of Digital Transcription Inc. They are also part owners with their son in Kessick.com, a company that designs, sells and installs wine cellars. They are both deeply interested in MLM and in the power of the Internet to build a Network Marketing business. He and his wife have been married for 46 years; they have 5 children and 17 grandchildren.