By
allen on August 15th, 2008
Posted in Article Marketing, Article Writing | 2 Comments »
I like finding article marketers who know what they’re talking about. This article from Hendry Lee is a good example of an article that does just what it’s supposed to do:
Article Marketing Secrets - The 4 Components of a Good Article That You Must Not Miss
By Hendry Lee
Not all articles are written the same. Just because you have 1,000 articles submitted around the Internet doesn’t mean that you will get better results than others who only have 500 articles. Lots of factors matter, but here are 4 components that you can’t afford to miss.
I don’t recommend that you sit down in front of the computer trying to make the article perfect so it works better for you. No, far from that, you also need to write lots of articles. Find a balance between quality and quantity. Good article is enough.
My take is you give away good information, one at a time. Here are the 4 criteria for good articles:
1. Good quality
The content must be of good quality. Remember, the key is to have the readers read through the end of the article and see what you have to offer in the resource box. Poor quality content will turn them off before they reach that point.
2. Having personality
Writing conversationally matters. Readers only buy from people they know, like and trust. There are no way you can build that directly online, especially through indirect communication medium such as articles. For that reason, you need to write as if you are having a conversation with the a reader at a time.
This method allows you to build credibility and convey personality instantly via the article.
3. Be able to represent yourself
Articles are your salespersons. They need to be able to represent yourself or your business well. They are communicating with your prospects and customers, so lousy articles are simply not an option.
4. Offer them something to take away
The body content is the place you give away useful information. In the resource box, you offer the readers something to take away when they visit your site. My favorite method is to give them access to special report in exchange for name and email address.
Just because you can sell something in the resource box doesn’t mean you have to do it. Focus on providing value at this point. You want to build the relationship first because that is going to pay multiple times later.
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Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Hendry_Lee
Notice how the title of the article tells you exactly what the article is about. It’s not cute. It’s straightforward, pulls no punches, and you know exactly what you are about to read.
Notice also the writer uses his keyword right off the bat. Right in the first sentence. Then he uses it several times throughout the article. But he always uses his keywords fluently. They aren’t stuffed. They appear in the article naturally. That’s exactly what you want.
Thirdly, the article covers just what the title tells you it will cover. Nothing more. No extraneous excursions into what his pet cat likes or information not related to the article. It’s short enough to hold your attention and not too long. All good qualities of a well-written article.
I also like what the author says about quality versus quantity. You aren’t Ernest Hemingway. Don’t try to write your magnum opus. You are just giving away good information that your reader can use. Giving, then getting. Give before you expect to get and you won’t be disappointed.
Finally, the author doesn’t go for the jugular in the author resource box. He tells you about a free offer. He’s giving you something else before asking you for something. Good marketing. Plain and simple. Article marketing works if you do it the right way.
By
allen on August 14th, 2008
Posted in Article Directories, Article Submissions | No Comments »
For every article you distribute I recommend having a list of your favorite article directories on hand and target those directories first. For instance, if your niche is gardening then try to find an article directory that focusing on gardening articles. You can also add a general and popular directory like EzineArticles to your list. Choose 5 or 10 good directories that are perfect for your kind of article and distribute your article to those directories first.
After that, send your article through iSnare for a wider distribution. iSnare will send your article out to thousands of websites and directories at once. Of course, many of those sites will reject your article because it won’t fit into their niche. That’s OK. There will be some that will take your article and that just gives you more coverage online and distribute your article in places you might not have thought of.
The reason you want to send your article to your favorite directories first is because if iSnare sends your article first and your favorite directories accept it then the directories will place your article in a file categorized for all iSnare articles. It won’t go into your own profile. While it will have your name and author resource box attached, you won’t be able to track any results from the article whereas if you submit the article yourself to the directories then you can log into your account and view how many people have clicked the links in your resource box, how many publishers have published the article, etc. You have greater visibility on your article that way.
By distributing your article in two waves this way you can take advantage of tracking capabilities and see your article get a wider distribution. You have the best of both worlds.
By
allen on August 13th, 2008
Posted in Article Directories, Article Marketing, Article Writing | No Comments »
When it comes to article marketing, you have to have publishers. Your target market for any article you write should be at least one of these five types of publishers. If you make them happy then they will publish your articles and you’ll see more traffic to your website:
- E-zine / Newsletter Publishers - E-zine and newsletter publishers are constantly on the prowl for new content. By publishing your articles online in article directories you may your articles available to these publishers on a full-time basis. The more e-zines and newsletters that publish your articles, the more traffic you can expect to your website.
- Webmasters - Even website owners with static websites look for articles to publish on their sites and the more of your articles they publish the more links you’ll get back to your website and the more traffic you’ll get.
- Bloggers - Bloggers use articles too. I’ve had more of my articles picked up by bloggers than by any other type of web publisher. Again, this translates into links and traffic.
- Forum Moderators - Some forum moderators will prowl the article directories for articles that will benefit their forum members. You’ll get more links and traffic when your articles are published in forums.
- Off Line Publishers - Yes, even offline publishers will use your articles and give you credit. While you don’t get the link juice you get from online publishers, you will get your URL published and print readers do visit websites. That’s more traffic for you.
Learn more about article marketing from a pro who has been there.
By
allen on August 12th, 2008
Posted in Article Marketing, Article Writing | No Comments »
When you conduct article marketing for your business, should you quote third parties or stick to your business philosophy. I personally think most articles can be improved with third party quotes, but it takes a bit of research to get the right quotes.
Remember, the purpose for marketing through articles in the first place is to drive traffic to your website and establish yourself as a recognized authority in your field. Would an authority quote others? Yes. Quoting reputable sources has long been a best practice of any authority in any field. That’s why quoting third party sources in your article marketing articles can be a good way to establish your credibility, get more articles published, and drive more traffic to your own website.
Learn more about Article Marketing Best Practices.
By
allen on August 11th, 2008
Posted in Article Marketing | No Comments »
You don’t have to be a six-figure earner to succeed at article marketing. Read this article for some great tips:
Amazing Article Marketing - Uncover 6 Persuasive Methods to Excel With Article Marketing
By Sean R Mize
As someone who has succeeded in article marketing, I am offering 6 persuasive methods that can help other marketers out there in order to succeed in this field so you can also experience the benefits that I am enjoying right now which include more traffic, huge sales potential, and instant recognition online.
1. Write for your readers. Give these people all the things that they are looking for in your articles so you can easily impress them. Offer them the information they need, help them out in resolving their pressing issues, and use their preferred writing style. By doing these, your resource box will stand great chances of being clicked.
2. Be an expert. You need to be very knowledgeable on your chosen topics so you can give your readers quality information. Keep yourself abreast with all the issues that affect your chosen niche and those issues that have direct impact on the lives of your readers so you can always offer these people with fresh and relevant information.
3. Keep your readers interested. You would want your readers to read your articles until they reach your resource box so you can increase your chances of driving them to your website. Keep them interested by loading your articles with relevant information and by writing your content using conversational tone. Make them sound engaging and truly interesting.
4. Deliver original content. Plagiarism or content duplication is a big no-no in article marketing. It can ruin your online credibility and it can result to penalties from both search engines and publishing sites. Don’t put everything at risk by making sure that you write your articles using your own words.
5. Stick with facts. Do not exaggerate the truth and don’t put information on your articles unless you are sure that they are based on facts. You do not want to mislead your readers or ruin your online credibility as this will not do your ebusiness any good.
6. Love what you do. Be genuinely interested on what you are doing and don’t treat this as a boring job. By doing so, you’ll surely be able to create effective articles that can attract more attention online. This is the most important tip that I can give you in order to excel in article marketing so make sure that you write from the heart and submit your articles with enthusiasm.
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—————————————————————————————————————————-
Sean Mize is an internet marketing strategist and reveals his business model at: http://www.secrets-of-internet-success.com Sean teaches marketers how to create and market their own products, and how to create stable long term online income.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sean_R_Mize
I would add two things to this.
First, persistence. You have to keep going. Don’t do like most article marketers and submit a few articles then conclude it doesn’t work. Keep going and keep going and keep going. If something isn’t working, tweak it, don’t stop it. But keep it going or you’ll never see the results.
Secondly, consistency. You have to be consistent. Don’t submit 10 articles today then go five months before submitting another. Article marketing works best when you do a little bit each day over time. Start slow, go slow, and stay steady.
That’s about it. Article marketing is a great way to get the word out. It works.
By
allen on August 9th, 2008
Posted in Article Writing | No Comments »
Do you get writer’s block? I don’t.
Quite frankly, I don’t know what writer’s block is. I think it has something to do with some writers not having anything to say. But if you know me, I’m never at a loss. I always have something to say.
When it comes to article marketing, you can’t afford to have writer’s block. You have to say something. You have to say something about something. So why not just get going with it? The best thing to do if you are drawing a blank is to simply start writing.
I said I don’t have writer’s block. I never have. In over 30 years, I’ve always had something to write about. That doesn’t mean that I just sat down and the words started flowing. I have had moments where I had to “kick start” the creative juices, and I’ve learned to do that over the years pretty quickly. If I have a hard time figuring out what to write about, I just start writing.
Yep, that’s it. I just start writing. About anything. Then, when I get to the end, I look back and see what I’ve written that might be interesting. If I can’t find anything then I keep writing until something strikes me. Eventually, and usually pretty quickly, I find a topic just spill right out. I toss all the fluff and pick up on that topic that suddenly attracted my interest. I never have writer’s block.
Hire a writer without writer’s block.
By
allen on August 8th, 2008
Posted in Article Directories | No Comments »
Article directories are great marketing tools. With the addition of an article directory on your website, you’ll invite the search engines to crawl your website more often and increase your search engine saturation. If you have a unique niche then you can add an article directory to your website and have other people add content to your website for free.
Learn how you can get an article directory on your niche website.
By
allen on August 7th, 2008
Posted in Article Marketing | No Comments »
If you visit some forums and popular blogs you’ll see real soon that many article marketers are ticked off about a certain practice by some marketers to snag their articles and place them on AdSense sites. Here are two examples of sites that I’m talking about.
Sorry, but this doesn’t make me angry at all. In fact, it makes me very happy because both of these sites are doing precisely what they should be doing with my articles - publishing them and giving me credit.
If you examine these sites carefully you’ll see that the first site is an AdSense site and the second one is promoting another Internet marketing company. The first guy wants you to click on AdSense and he’s strategically placed his ads in locations on the page that are highly visible and that historically get a high number of clicks, and he’s using the ads that, according to AdSense guru Joel Comm, achieve the highest click through rates. I really hope this guy makes a lot of money on my article because if he does then he’ll probably publish more of them. I’m OK with that because he’s using my author resource box with links intact, a practice that too many such publishers don’t do (and that actually pisses me off).
The one problem I do see with this web page is that the website owner is promoting a credit card site at the bottom of the page. That site isn’t in any way related to the topic that my article is about. Other than that, I hope he gets AdSense clicks, and based on the placement of the ads on the page, he is more likely to get clicks on the AdSense ads than on the credit card link.
The second guy might make a little bit of money on AdSense, but I think what he really wants is for his visitors to click on one of the two links at the bottom of the page that point to his website, a competitor of ours. So I’m basically promoting my competition. That’s cool. But he might also be happy if visitors clicked on the Rich Jerk ad at the top of the page because it’s an affiliate link and he’ll likely get a commission on sales made by people who visit the Rich Jerk’s site through his site. I’m OK with that too.
In Web economics, a link is payment. It’s money in the bank. It may not be a lot of money, but it’s money. And I see both of these transactions as being a trade in value. I’m getting a valuable link to my web properties while the owners of these two sites get content that they don’t have to write. And, if that content is successful in doing what it’s suppose to do, they might actually make a few dollars on my content. More power to them.
The purpose for article marketing is to provide content that other publishers find valuable and will use for their own purposes. If they place ads on the same pages with your content or use your content to promote sites that compete with you, don’t get angry. As long as they link back to you then you’re getting paid. Those links are relevant, valuable, and serve to push your own web properties up in the rankings for the key terms that you use. As long as web publishers follow the rules and “pay” for their articles with ethical links to me, they can make all the money they want from my articles. That’s a fair trade.
By
allen on August 6th, 2008
Posted in Article Marketing | 1 Comment »
I’m not talking about writing articles and submitting them to article directories. While that is powerful and productive use of your article marketing efforts, there is an even better way to go about article marketing. It’s more time consuming and costly, but it’s also well worth it in the long run.
We’ll call it premium article marketing. It’s done primarily through relationship building, not through marketing. What I mean by that is you find someone within your niche who publishes great content on your topic. You contact them and offer them an article you’ve written, but not just any article. You’ve got to offer them something special. It has to be a premium article that hasn’t appeared anywhere else online. Give them exclusive rights to publish that article even if only for a short while. Believe me, it works like a charm.
This kind of article marketing relies upon three principles:
- Every article must be unique and consist of premium content that can’t be found anywhere else. I’m not talking about rehashed ideas or rewritten articles, even if they are your own. It is best if you take a timely issue and write about that from a unique perspective.
- You’ve got offer the utmost honesty and integrity to your publishing partners. If you agree to something then stick to it - even if you find out later that it was a mistake. This is critical. Once you lose your credibility, even with one person, it is very difficult to get it back. Make sure that you follow through on every promise and don’t flake out.
- Don’t merely promote yourself through articles. Yes, you’ll get a bio and a link. Reputable publishers wouldn’t think of stiffing you on that, especially since you aren’t likely to get paid for your contributions (the link is your pay). But don’t use your articles to promote yourself. Instead, promote others and really, really write premium content on your topic that is valuable, insightful, and that can’t be seen anywhere else.
These three principles are very important. Critical. Premium content is becoming more and more important online. I think the future of article marketing will be to rely more and more on premium article content and less on the shorter articles that are simply rehashed ideas. Those articles are great “doorway” articles and valuable for driving traffic and building links. But if you really want to step up your article marketing a notch, write premium articles that are published exclusively by publishing partners within your niche.
By
allen on August 5th, 2008
Posted in Article Writing | No Comments »
We had a query this past week from a client who wanted to resell our article content to an Indian company. The Indian client of our potential client wanted an American company to write his articles because he wanted to ensure he got the highest quality article. He wanted the English to be above par and he wanted it to be American English.
This is not discriminatory. It is just smart business. Many American writers cannot even write English well. English is, after all, a very challenging language to learn. The problem with Indian writers is not that they do not know how to speak English. Many of them speak it very well, but there are compositional differences between the English language and Sanskrit, or Indian languages. And to add to the mix that most Indians are more familiar with British English than American English, the Indian businessman’s request for an American writer made a lot of sense.
At Article Content Provider, we use only the best American writers. We do not use foreign writers unless they specialize in a particular type of article where they could add a benefit. We do use UK or British writers as many of our clients are from Europe and those writers can write from a unique perspective. We even have an Australian writer on our team. But we tend to use people whose first language is not English for other tasks such as social bookmarking where writing skills are not a primary concern.
Another thing we do that is different than many content providers is we make sure every article is seen by an editor and tested against Copyscape for content theft. Writers that borrow content from other websites and sources are cut loose. We don’t need them. Our quality control is unique and benefits our clients greatly. That’s why they keep coming back to us. They know they are getting their money’s worth.
