by Marie Bywater

Created on: May 26, 2009   Last Updated: May 29, 2009

Writing articles online can be a vastly profitable business and one where time is indeed money. The more articles you can publish the more money you are likely to make. Time is important, but, it is just as crucial you do not sacrifice quality or accuracy in order to write more quickly. Professional freelance writers have the ability to churn out more articles per hour than those that are not as well practiced. However, there are many other factors which affect the length of time it takes to write an article.

1) The number of words that are required

If you require 10,000 words it will take you much longer to plan your article and write it than an article of only 400 words. If you find it difficult to concentrate and write longer pieces then perhaps you should avoid them and stick to shorter pieces.

2) Your interest in the topic

A topic you are knowledgeable and have an interest in will be much easier to write about, and the words will flow. Unfortunately, in the career of freelance writing you do not always get to write on topics you are interested in. If you are writing on a topic you dislike try and see it from someone else's point of view. Failing this give some topics a miss.

3) The amount of research you need to do

Opinion based articles of which you are knowledgeable tend not to need much in the way of research whereas other factual articles may need you to spend several hours on Google. For factual articles make sure the amount of research required reflects on your payment. Factual articles are sometimes a good way to broaden your writing niche and find new areas to explore.

4) Your level of concentration and mood

Writer's block is common and can affect our ability to put words, and ideas together. Writer's block tends to be more common when you are feeling stressed or are worried about something. If you are experiencing writer's block, or finding it difficult to concentrate make sure you take frequent breaks, do some light exercise and get some fresh air.

5) The payment involved

You really should write your best all the time, but let us be honest if you were offered $1 for one 500 word article, and $10 for another 500 word article, which one would you spend the longest on? The answer most people would give is the higher paid article. Both articles should be well written, but as a freelance writer it is important to impress those clients that pay more as this could mean more work in the future. As for writing sites which pay on page views, it is important here to make sure your articles contain popular keywords which will let the search engines find them.

6) Spelling and grammar checks

Before publishing an article it is important that you spend an extra hour checking for spelling and grammatical errors. There is no point in having superb content if words are spelled wrong and if it does not read right. Sometimes it is a good idea to get someone else to proof read your work.

When writing an article online it is important to have a fine balance between time, quality and earnings. You do not want to spend days writing an article which will only earn you a few dollars, however, you still need to make sure that your article is free of spelling and grammatical errors, as well as being accurate and of respectable quality. Some people will be more productive than others, but it is the end result which matters.

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