Topic Ideas for Articles

I don’t have any prompts at the moment, but I can provide you with some hot topics right now that websites and publishers are looking for.

Non-Fiction – Articles and Books

• Recession
• Barack Obama
• Baseball
• Finance (saving money, getting out of debt, reviews of credit card companies and deals)
• Spring cleaning
• Going Green (anything from product reviews to green related events)
• Making Money online
• Job hunting tips

Fiction – Articles, Books & Stories

• Vampires (Thanks to Twilight)
• Children’s books
• Crime mystery
• Supernatural romance
• Humorous takes on politics, government, or the recession

Hope this helps.  I’ve been using some of the non-fiction ideas with great success.

Annoyed with A New Site

If you’ve ever looked at the My Works page on this blog, you’ll notice a section entitled Informative Post. I haven’t been pleased with this site since day 1, to tell the truth. In the past two weeks, I’ve become absolutely disgusted. Shall we explore the reasons not to write at Informative Post? To be fair, I’ll even add in reasons one might consider the site.  Let’s start with the positives.

• The creator provides a list of hot topics that will more than likely get reviewed quickly. 
• There are sometimes jobs from publishers listed
• When submitting, you see the amount that will be paid for acceptable articles in any given category.
• You can re-publish elsewhere as long as you provide a link back to Informative Post.
• You earn on page views.

Now on to why I’ve gotten so annoyed with the site.

• Extremely unprofessional.  When I first signed up, the site took at least 5 minutes to load on broadband.  After that, the site went down for almost a month for the second upgrade in less than a year.  At least the site was faster after the upgrade.
• Review time is based upon your AP.  You receive AP points for comments, page views, and articles.  AP grows slowly.  For instance, after 100 comments, I only earned 12 points.  At the moment, you need 122 points to have an article reviewed.  Even writing on the hot list of topics doesn’t guarantee you’ll be reviewed.
• Most articles on the site are poorly written.  How these people have an AP high enough to be published is beyond me.  Over half the articles on the site should have been rejected.  There are glaring grammatical errors, lack of any facts on the topic, and some are well, I’m not entirely sure how to classify them other than good luck trying to translate. (And yes, they are supposedly in English)
• You can pay the owner to have your article published immediately and earn more on page views.  It will also stay at the top of the list in the category for a specified length of time.  You should NEVER EVER have to pay to print your work.
• There is a section to actually buy the owner gifts from his Amazon Wish List.  This is on the main page.
• There are no author profiles or lists of works.  Old articles are almost impossible to find.  They will not be found through the regular search feature.  You can not search by author either.  Needless to say, promotion is a bit hard.
• The owner is young, which isn’t a bad thing, but his only focus is his own interests.  He’s always looking for articles related to computer programming, which is his specialty, or so he claims.  You should not give priority to an article simply because it fits your interests.  Then again, this could be why some people do so well on there.  Gifts and “special” articles would probably gain you a spot on the favorites list.
• Articles are outdated by the time they get reviewed.  I have some in queue that have been waiting for almost 3 months.  I did a few holiday articles that got approved; however, one didn’t and is still sitting in wait.  Although, I could have made more on the upfront at Informative Post at the time, I could have earned more overall somewhere else by having it published immediately.
• Members are now being greeted with a full page ad after logging in.  I understand the concept of ad-supported, but this is ridiculous.  There are Google links on the main page, on every article, and other ads are on the right of the screen.  I think there is plenty of ad revenue potential without shoving a full page down members throats.

Okay, so I’m not happy with this site at all.  If you’re going to create an e-commerce site, then it should be professional.  If you’re too busy to run the site, then don’t create it to start with.  The logon ad was the final straw for me.  I will comment every now and again until I reach the payout and then I’m gone.  Yeah, that’s another problem.  You have to earn at least $25 before you can request a payout.  This can take forever if you’re AP isn’t increasing.  So my advice is to stay far away from Informative Post unless you want to buy gifts, pay to be paid, and basically learn that hard work means nothing.

Happy Holidays – Article Ideas Abound

For anyone struggling to find ideas for your articles or blog posts, welcome to one of the best times of the year to find ideas!  The holidays provide you with infinite possibilites.  Everyone is looking for shopping guides, recipes, cooking tips, decorating ideas and tips, travel information, gift ideas, and much more.

This doesn’t even start to cover what you can come up with if you simply sit in a mall and observe people.  Write about shopping with kids or teens, how shopping styles differ between age groups, how people act during the holidays, and anything else you might observe.  You’d be surprised at how many ideas pop into your head by simply watching the holiday throng.

In addition to watching strangers, observe your own habits, traditions, and family members.  Note what questions they have and write articles to answer them.  Check sites like Yahoo! Answers or MyLot to see what types of holiday questions people have.  Not only will this give you ideas, but you can place links to your articles to answer the questions.

So as you go about your holiday routine, carry a small notebook with you to jot down ideas.