There are quite a few places you can look to see what others are writing about, and what’s selling in the online world.

Blog sites are an excellent way to get new ideas. Search http://www.Technorati.com or http://www.blogsearch.google.com for some interesting blogs. You are bound to find an endless stream of ideas for things that you can elaborate on.

Once you have decided on a niche, do a little more research to make sure there’s at least some competition in that market. If no one else is marketing or writing about the same thing, chances are it’s already a proven loser.

Then search Google and MSN directly to find websites that could be your competition. Also search through the article directories, most importantly AffSphere and Ezine Articles.

What you’re doing here is getting a feel for what others are writing about, what keywords they are focusing on, and what is possibly selling in the marketplace today.

The easiest way to write an article is to use the merchant’s website. All the information is there for the taking. You can then put it in your own language, using the merchant’s product specifications as your selling points.

Just don’t copy the merchant’s information word for word. Your job is to presell the visitor. Make them click on your affiliate link, and let the merchant’s site close the sale. When they get to the merchant’s site, they should be presented with new information. If all they see is what you copied from the original site, it lessens your chances at becoming the “expert” on that subject.

In order to get some good action from your articles, you should try to write at least four articles for every affiliate program you are enrolled in. Then, when you submit your articles to the article directories, you will get lots of links back to your site, which will give your search engine ranking a boost.