If you’re on a tight budget but need to get leads for your business, there is no better way to do it than to write articles. Most people shy away from this powerful tool because they are afraid that they don’t have anything interesting to say, or they just don’t like the idea of writing.

This is understandable, but the benefits of writing articles are too numerous to ignore.  First, you become a published author the moment you post your first piece of content; this alone adds instant credibility to your bio.

It is also a fact that when people see things in print, they automatically accept them as fact, which gives you a prime opportunity to position yourself as a source for knowledge.

Finally, when you produce enough consistent content, you become the expert advisor to your target audience and they look to you for guidance.  Do you want to be the first person they think of when it comes to your particular field of expertise?  Article writing is the way to get the job done.

So, if you’re still fearful of going this road, but would like to benefit from this powerful tool, let me clue you in on a three “secrets” to becoming a powerful article writer.

1. Become proficient at reviewing content – remember Siskel and Ebert who did movie reviews?  Those gentlemen made quite a name for themselves, and a lot of money by simply reviewing movies.  They neither starred in nor wrote movies, yet their opinion was what made them rich and famous.  You can do the same with content reviews of books or information in your particular field.

2. REMIX! – We’ve all heard this term when it comes to music when a composer of music takes some existing content and adds their own flair.  Believe it or not, there are a lot of people who read other people’s content and do their own version and put it out in the marketplace and get paid top dollar.  Use the other content as a template to showcase your own creativity without starting from scratch.  This is why you’ll find similar content in several books with the same basic category.  Don’t re-invent the wheel; just paint it a different color and add a few more spokes and there you have it.

3. Interview interesting people from your field of expertise – Oprah Winfrey comes to mind here.  Now, last time I checked, she was a Billionaire, right?  That all started from her talk show that aired for the first time over 20 years ago.  What do talk show hosts do?  They interview other interesting people, and in Oprah’s case she became famous doing that.  Everyone likes to hear interesting stories and expert commentary on their favorite subject, so go out and find people to interview and transcribe it.  If you get an hour long interview, you can dissect that into several interesting articles compelling your viewers to “tune in” for the next segments in the coming days or weeks.

Take the pressure off yourself when it comes to writing articles.  Be creative and innovative in branding yourself.  At the end of the day, you’re the expert so do what you have to do to own that space.