Last week , in Article Writing Research and Idea Tips – Going Beyond Wikipedia – Part 1, I talked about the importance of doing more than cobbling an article together for pay when you want to build a writing career. Today I’m going to share some of my own sources of inspiration and research.

I often preach that writers should carve out a writing niche for themselves so that they can make more money and research less but there are times when you might take a writing assignment on a subject you know nothing about. And even if you do have an established niche, there are times when you’re going to run out of steam on a topic.

In either case, here are some (hopefully) helpful ideas that work for me for researching:

• Read Wikipedia, yes, but don’t just read the info in the first few paragraphs to help you cobble an article together. Read the whole page and click through to the resource links on that page, which can often give you further detail.
• Go beyond Google.  I do love Google (dearly. I really do) but take a look at other search engines to help you delve deeper into a topic, too. You’ll notice that Google, MSN, Bing, and others often have different page one results.
• Delve deeper into Google. Go beyond page one. I also like to go through Google Blog Search or Google News. I search with words related to a topic matter and the News search tells me what’s being said in news circles about the topic. When you write an article for syndication purposes, it’s much more likely to get picked up when you write it as a news item and relate the topic to current information.
• Search for videos. There’s a vast world of how-to and informational videos out there on just about any topic. I’ve often watched a few videos to help me grasp a new topic by jotting down notes while the video played.
• Search social media. Check out Technorati or mine Twitter for information and links related to the topic at hand. You’ll often find a goldmine of information on other people’s blogs that can provide details, subject inspiration, and further links that you can use.
• Article directories. Directories can sometimes be no better than Wikipedia but they are often worth a look. They  can provide info, facts, and inspiration.  And if you’re writing an article for a client who plans to use it in a directory, it makes sense to see what your article will be up against on the site. Searching sites like Ezinearticles for a topic can be a great idea. Because there aren’t internet cops that delete bad articles, you can’t absolutely trust that information you find will be 100% accurate but there may be useful facts and ideas for you to draw from. Chances are that if you’re getting paid to write on a topic, others may have also written on that topic and you can search Ezinearticles. Don’t forget to skim the resource box and check those links out for further info, too.
• If I write on a topic regularly, I subscribe to Google Alerts for keywords so that I get information delivered to my inbox. This is a great timesaver.
• The library.  Oooh, researching the old-fashioned way!  I love the smell of books and there’s just something about libraries that wakes up sleeping parts of my brain and make me feel inspired.
• Ask your client for help. The client might have ideas for topics that they’d like you to cover and they may have previously published articles on your subject that they can share to help you trim down your research time.

What about you? Where do you get your article research information and idea inspiration?

(photo courtesy of: http://www.sxc.hu/profile/nkzs)