During the spring of 2007 I made the conscious decision to become a writer. I had been blogging and writing articles during the previous year or so, but needed to make a commitment that would change the way I conducted my online business. I strongly believed the way to do this was with article marketing. Tips on how to write and market articles were very common at this point, but I needed to do more than simply write articles that contained 10 tips on how to do something. That’s when I challenged myself to write 100 articles over the course of 100 days.

It was not easy for me to do this because I was not a writer at that time. However, I was determined to turn myself into a writer and made the commitment to write an article each day over the course of my challenge. Even though the article directories only required your articles to be 250 words at that time, I was still struggling to get my thoughts and ideas out of my head and on to the screen. Then something interesting happened right around the end of the third week; the writing began to flow more easily and it felt funny if I did not write each day. I was turning into a writer!

I completed my challenge in just 78 days, and immediately began repurposing what I had written into short reports, eBooks, online courses and training  programs, paperback books, and books for Kindle (Take a look here to see what I’ve published so far). This gave my business the boost it needed to take what I was doing to the next level. By the summer of 2007 my business had grown to the point where other online marketers were beginning to take notice and reach out to me with new opportunities. Within a few months I was asked to speak at an Internet marketing conference.

The idea of an article writing challenge took off and many people began their own challenges. Even Ezine Articles went on to offer six HAHD (hundred articles in a hundred days) article writing challenges, and I completed most of them. By then my business had taken off in a big way and writing each day was a part of who I was and what I did each day.

To mark the five year anniversary of writing my first hundred articles in one hundred days I again challenged myself to do this. I was behind almost from the very beginning and I had to take a look at where my life is now compared to five years ago to see why this was occurring:

• My business has grown considerably during this time and requires a different level of involvement than it did previously
• I’m currently writing my 10th book and that writing is a priority each day
• During this most recent challenge I took several trips, including ones to Thailand and China
• Article directories now require a minimum of 400 words for each article you submit

Even with all of this I was able to write my 100 articles in 96 days. Meeting a challenge is important to me, as are all of my goals and deadlines for my business. To date I have written more than seventeen hundred articles with more than 700K views and you may take a look at them here. You can do the same thing if you are willing to work hard and focus on what you wish to achieve.

Are you writing and marketing with articles? What questions may I answer for you on this topic?