It's always good to expand our horizons as online marketers to find new methods for product promotion. While this is good and almost necessary, you shouldn't ignore the reliable methods that actually promise results if you're willing to work hard. As you know by the title, we are talking about article marketing, and it's a method that can work very well if you dedicate your self to it. There are so many incredible and interesting internet marketing methods, but article marketing is an old standby that retains one-of-kind qualities.
You don't need much to get started with it, very few resources, plus there is no charge to do it. What makes this method so powerful, and attractive, is the returns can become quite impressive if you dedicate yourself to it. Expect to need to be patient, it's just that if you're starting out the results will not be overnight. Here are just 3 benefits of article marketing that you can make happen in your business.
There are numerous benefits of article marketing, and search engine marketing (rankings) is just one of those benefits. Besides helping you build targeted backlinks, it also assists with boosting your page rank which is important when you have to impress Google. People use articles in very creative ways, but mostly just think about them as being published on sites around the net, and of course they point to your website - backlink!
Another important article marketing benefit are the quality backlinks you get by submitting your articles to various sites. By getting these backlinks from sites related to your niche, you will find your ranking in the search engines goes up. The articles you publish will tend to get republished on sites in your own niche, so if you've written articles about gardening, sites on that topic will publish them. If you write quality articles, it's likely that people will spread them to many sites, giving you lots of backlinks for no extra work. This way, you will not only get traffic from the article marketing directories, but from the search engines as well.
Another way article marketing helps you is by building your reputation as you write more articles. If you want to establish a business online, it's important to get credible in the eyes of your target audience, which is possible with article marketing. Building up trust with your readers is something that will happen over time, as you continue to publish articles that they get value from. As long as you work at it consistently, you can achieve a great deal for your business with article marketing.
If there is any mainstay in online marketing, then article marketing has to be one of them right up there with SEO. There is a lot more you can learn about article marketing, and we heartily encourage you to explore it. No matter what, though, keep diversifying your marketing and always keep testing different methods.
Easy Article Marketing | Article Marketing Tips | Article Marketing Strategy | Article Marketing Services & Software
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Article Writing and Marketing Tips: Using Pen-Names To Avoid Author Brand Erosion
Do You Write About More Than one Topic?
You may have a main area of expertise, and then multiple sub-topic or different topics that you write articles about (some to pay the bills and others to feed their creative spirit). To avoid personal author brand erosion and solidify your expertise in front of the target niche that you write about, you must come up with a strategy to separate your various article topics.
A solution is to create multiple versions of your name or pen-names that you write under so that each one is locked in on a particular area of expertise.
Here's a fictitious name I picked out of the air to illustrate an example as to how many separate author names could be created out of a single persons name:
* Suzanne Jo Parker
* Suzanne J. Parker
* Suzanne J.P.
* Suzanne Jo P.
* Suzanne P.
* Suzi P.
* SJ Parker
* S. Parker
You get the idea. Each of these author names is STILL the same person, yet you can choose to lock each variation of the name to a separate topic to write your articles about. When using this strategy, a person reading your article may attempt to read others that you've written, but they will only see your other articles about the same topic. There will be no author brand erosion.
Example: "Suzanne J. Parker" would write articles
about Financial investing, and "Suzi Jo Parker"
would write articles about basketball.
In the offline world, this multiple author brands issue is also a factor, but it is even more important for the online world where a reader can quickly identify other articles you've written when they are hungry for more. Give them more of the same quality original articles that they are already reading, but isolate their attention by only writing about one topic of expertise under one single author name or variation of your author name. This will strengthen your message and your author brand at the same time.
As a bonus to this "authors with multiple brands" strategy, it will be easier to track your articles by each unique variation of your author name that you used, instead of finding all of your articles of every topic under one author name.
You may have a main area of expertise, and then multiple sub-topic or different topics that you write articles about (some to pay the bills and others to feed their creative spirit). To avoid personal author brand erosion and solidify your expertise in front of the target niche that you write about, you must come up with a strategy to separate your various article topics.
A solution is to create multiple versions of your name or pen-names that you write under so that each one is locked in on a particular area of expertise.
Here's a fictitious name I picked out of the air to illustrate an example as to how many separate author names could be created out of a single persons name:
* Suzanne Jo Parker
* Suzanne J. Parker
* Suzanne J.P.
* Suzanne Jo P.
* Suzanne P.
* Suzi P.
* SJ Parker
* S. Parker
You get the idea. Each of these author names is STILL the same person, yet you can choose to lock each variation of the name to a separate topic to write your articles about. When using this strategy, a person reading your article may attempt to read others that you've written, but they will only see your other articles about the same topic. There will be no author brand erosion.
Example: "Suzanne J. Parker" would write articles
about Financial investing, and "Suzi Jo Parker"
would write articles about basketball.
In the offline world, this multiple author brands issue is also a factor, but it is even more important for the online world where a reader can quickly identify other articles you've written when they are hungry for more. Give them more of the same quality original articles that they are already reading, but isolate their attention by only writing about one topic of expertise under one single author name or variation of your author name. This will strengthen your message and your author brand at the same time.
As a bonus to this "authors with multiple brands" strategy, it will be easier to track your articles by each unique variation of your author name that you used, instead of finding all of your articles of every topic under one author name.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Top 5 Factors eZine Publishers Look For When Deciding Which Articles To Publish
One of the major reasons why article marketing continues to be an effective way to drive laser targeted traffic to your website is because your articles can get published by ezine publishers. If published, not only will your articles get distributed to all the readers of the ezine, but your resource box with the link(s) to your website will also get in front of potentially thousands of readers who are interested in the very subject of your articles.
This not only can get you more visitors to your website, but will also provide you with the valuable backlinks that are essential for SEO (search engine optimization).
When it comes to deciding which articles to publish, ezine publishers look for certain factors in the articles before giving the "go" sign. Here are the top 5 factors ezine publishers look for when deciding which articles to publish:
1. Does the article have zero self-serving links in the article body?
Loading up the body of your article with affiliate
links or other obvious self-serving links is a
liability and will keep your article from ever
seeing top results.
2. Does the article have no more than 2 self-serving links in the resource box?
Your resource box at the bottom of your article
should be short and to the point. It should
also be less than 10% of the total word count of
your article. Ezine publishers don't mind
giving you name credit and a link for sharing
your article with them, but they don't want to
look like a fool by being required to reprint
a short novel about all of your websites and
accomplishments.
3. Is the article within 250-700 words?
Readers want instant gratification from your
quality, original content. No one has the time
to really go deep when it comes to reading email
newsletters. It's proven that shorter articles
achieve a much higher distribution rate than
longer ones.
4. Does the article deliver quality, original content with numbered lists, bullet points or easy to glean information their audience would deem valuable?
Key Point: Make sure your articles are 100%
original content. Anything less is considered
an insult.
5. Is the article's author well recognized or respected within their market niche?
Ezine publishers have an ego just like you. They
want to use articles in their email newsletters
that make them look good. The more you use your
articles to help yourself gain credibility for
your unique expertise within your niche, the
greater the chances you'll find your articles
getting picked up by your ezine publishing
peers.
This not only can get you more visitors to your website, but will also provide you with the valuable backlinks that are essential for SEO (search engine optimization).
When it comes to deciding which articles to publish, ezine publishers look for certain factors in the articles before giving the "go" sign. Here are the top 5 factors ezine publishers look for when deciding which articles to publish:
1. Does the article have zero self-serving links in the article body?
Loading up the body of your article with affiliate
links or other obvious self-serving links is a
liability and will keep your article from ever
seeing top results.
2. Does the article have no more than 2 self-serving links in the resource box?
Your resource box at the bottom of your article
should be short and to the point. It should
also be less than 10% of the total word count of
your article. Ezine publishers don't mind
giving you name credit and a link for sharing
your article with them, but they don't want to
look like a fool by being required to reprint
a short novel about all of your websites and
accomplishments.
3. Is the article within 250-700 words?
Readers want instant gratification from your
quality, original content. No one has the time
to really go deep when it comes to reading email
newsletters. It's proven that shorter articles
achieve a much higher distribution rate than
longer ones.
4. Does the article deliver quality, original content with numbered lists, bullet points or easy to glean information their audience would deem valuable?
Key Point: Make sure your articles are 100%
original content. Anything less is considered
an insult.
5. Is the article's author well recognized or respected within their market niche?
Ezine publishers have an ego just like you. They
want to use articles in their email newsletters
that make them look good. The more you use your
articles to help yourself gain credibility for
your unique expertise within your niche, the
greater the chances you'll find your articles
getting picked up by your ezine publishing
peers.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
How To Write Effective Article Titles
Your article title is more than just an accurate description about what the reader will find in your article body; it’s a promise you make to build a trust relationship with your readership.
Ask yourself: “What does my article title promise to give to my reader?”
1. Your article title should promise to deliver your expert
information on a specific topic. It should build interest
or motivation.
2. Within 2-5 seconds of anyone reading your article,
they should be able to clearly see the answer to the
promise you made in your article title.
3. Do not bait or trick your reader into being forced to
visit your website to see the answer to the promise
you made in your article title. This is a credibility
and trust violation.
4. If you have a very short article title, be certain that
your article body includes the most socially acceptable
or expected solution or information that any
reasonable person would expect from a short title.
Better yet, don’t use very short article titles. Instead,
make them longer and more descriptive.
Ask yourself: “Does my article body deliver on the promise made in my article title?”
When you can answer that question with an absolute “YES!”, you know you have the makings of an excellent article.
Ask yourself: “What does my article title promise to give to my reader?”
1. Your article title should promise to deliver your expert
information on a specific topic. It should build interest
or motivation.
2. Within 2-5 seconds of anyone reading your article,
they should be able to clearly see the answer to the
promise you made in your article title.
3. Do not bait or trick your reader into being forced to
visit your website to see the answer to the promise
you made in your article title. This is a credibility
and trust violation.
4. If you have a very short article title, be certain that
your article body includes the most socially acceptable
or expected solution or information that any
reasonable person would expect from a short title.
Better yet, don’t use very short article titles. Instead,
make them longer and more descriptive.
Ask yourself: “Does my article body deliver on the promise made in my article title?”
When you can answer that question with an absolute “YES!”, you know you have the makings of an excellent article.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
How To Write More Articles In Less Time
Writing articles is fun, but it can be even more rewarding when you learn how to produce more in less time. To accomplish this, a good method to incorporate in your article writing routine is to produce 2 or more articles at a time. This is often referred to as Article Sets. A "set of articles" is anytime you produce 2 or more articles at a time.
Let's take a look at the types of Article Sets you can work on:
1. Article sets by topic or sub-topic.
Example: If you were writing about racquetball
as your topic, you could make a plan to write
2 articles on racquetball nutrition, 4 articles
that goes into detail about each of the
different color of racquet balls on the market
and what they mean, and a 10-pack of articles on
forehand or backhand drills.
2. Article sets by style of writing.
Example: One style might be all bullet points,
another lists of things, another is a Q&A
approach, another might be conversational
or discussion of issues.
Note: Each type of writing is best when done in
sets of the same style.
3. Accidental article sets.
Example: Your target is to produce (2) articles
that are 400 words each. While getting started,
you get on a roll and accidentally produce a
fantastic 800 word article. Break the article in
half, give the other half a new title and you
have an instant article set...even if it was
created by accident.
4. Article sets based on customer or prospect frequently asked questions.
Example: Customers or prospects are always
asking questions. Tune into them, group them by
topic, and then hammer out some article sets
that answer each question. Using the racquetball
topic, you might have 7 questions from your
audience on how to prepare for a tournament.
Each of them makes excellent article topics.
By producing Article Sets every time you write articles, you'll surely be producing more articles in less time. Good luck!
Let's take a look at the types of Article Sets you can work on:
1. Article sets by topic or sub-topic.
Example: If you were writing about racquetball
as your topic, you could make a plan to write
2 articles on racquetball nutrition, 4 articles
that goes into detail about each of the
different color of racquet balls on the market
and what they mean, and a 10-pack of articles on
forehand or backhand drills.
2. Article sets by style of writing.
Example: One style might be all bullet points,
another lists of things, another is a Q&A
approach, another might be conversational
or discussion of issues.
Note: Each type of writing is best when done in
sets of the same style.
3. Accidental article sets.
Example: Your target is to produce (2) articles
that are 400 words each. While getting started,
you get on a roll and accidentally produce a
fantastic 800 word article. Break the article in
half, give the other half a new title and you
have an instant article set...even if it was
created by accident.
4. Article sets based on customer or prospect frequently asked questions.
Example: Customers or prospects are always
asking questions. Tune into them, group them by
topic, and then hammer out some article sets
that answer each question. Using the racquetball
topic, you might have 7 questions from your
audience on how to prepare for a tournament.
Each of them makes excellent article topics.
By producing Article Sets every time you write articles, you'll surely be producing more articles in less time. Good luck!
Friday, January 14, 2011
EzineArticles.com Article Title Guidelines In Plain English
EzineArticles.com is the largest article directories on the internet today, and hence is the most popular (and powerful) article distribution source for article writers. To maintain the qualities of the articles they allow to be submitted to their directory, they have strict guidelines that needs to be met.
One of the many guidelines they've set deal with Article Titles. To help you get your article approved, here are the current EzineArticles Article Title Guidelines:
1. Your Title MUST Be In Upper and Lower Case Letters
With The First Letter of Each Major Word Capitalized.
2. The article title must not be in all CAPS.
3. It is not required that you capitalize common words
such as “a” - “the” - “to” - “for” etc, we accept these
either way.
4. They do not accept QUOTES around your entire TITLE.
5. Do NOT end your TITLE with a period.
6. Do not submit Microsoft Word smart quotes in
your TITLE. This includes quotes, apostrophes, double
dashes, and 3 dots in a row. Replace smart quotes with
standard quotes (“x”), apostrophes, double--dashes/or
three periods (...) in a row.
7. Refrain from excessive repetitive punctuation in your
TITLE. One exclamation (!) or question mark (?) is enough
to make a point.
8. They do not allow HTML tags of any kind in your TITLE.
9. Your TITLE must begin with the first word flush to the
LEFT of the TITLE submission box.
10. They do not allow your AUTHOR NAME or any WEBSITE
URL to be in your TITLE.
11. Your TITLE must not be keyword stuffed (too many
redundant keywords used over and over again), but
rather should read as a natural language TITLE that
any human could easily appreciate. Do not over-
optimize your TITLE please.
12. They do not allow Prescription Drug names in the title
of your article.
13. They do not accept one (1) word as the article TITLE,
a MINIMUM of two unique words is required.
14. They do not accept articles that use slang terms or
profanity in the TITLE. Think child-safe or “G” rated
article titles.
If you are planning to submit your articles to EzineArticles.com (which you should), follow the above article title guidelines and you'll be one step closer to reaping the benefits of their huge article distribution capabilities. Good luck!
One of the many guidelines they've set deal with Article Titles. To help you get your article approved, here are the current EzineArticles Article Title Guidelines:
1. Your Title MUST Be In Upper and Lower Case Letters
With The First Letter of Each Major Word Capitalized.
2. The article title must not be in all CAPS.
3. It is not required that you capitalize common words
such as “a” - “the” - “to” - “for” etc, we accept these
either way.
4. They do not accept QUOTES around your entire TITLE.
5. Do NOT end your TITLE with a period.
6. Do not submit Microsoft Word smart quotes in
your TITLE. This includes quotes, apostrophes, double
dashes, and 3 dots in a row. Replace smart quotes with
standard quotes (“x”), apostrophes, double--dashes/or
three periods (...) in a row.
7. Refrain from excessive repetitive punctuation in your
TITLE. One exclamation (!) or question mark (?) is enough
to make a point.
8. They do not allow HTML tags of any kind in your TITLE.
9. Your TITLE must begin with the first word flush to the
LEFT of the TITLE submission box.
10. They do not allow your AUTHOR NAME or any WEBSITE
URL to be in your TITLE.
11. Your TITLE must not be keyword stuffed (too many
redundant keywords used over and over again), but
rather should read as a natural language TITLE that
any human could easily appreciate. Do not over-
optimize your TITLE please.
12. They do not allow Prescription Drug names in the title
of your article.
13. They do not accept one (1) word as the article TITLE,
a MINIMUM of two unique words is required.
14. They do not accept articles that use slang terms or
profanity in the TITLE. Think child-safe or “G” rated
article titles.
If you are planning to submit your articles to EzineArticles.com (which you should), follow the above article title guidelines and you'll be one step closer to reaping the benefits of their huge article distribution capabilities. Good luck!
Thursday, January 13, 2011
How To Use Spin Articles to Increase Website Traffic
Without traffic coming to your website there would be no revenue, traffic is what drives profit. And in order to get targeted visitors to your site, you need to get your offer in front of them. A great way to acquire this type of traffic is to find websites related to yours, and then publish articles on them.
This works in two ways, firstly it will bring your product to the attention of the right people, and secondly it will help create backlinks, which help you to rank better in search engines such as Google. The only problem is, the articles you write need to be of good quality, you can not just spam poorly written articles, this will not help you with backlinks at all.
It is important that the articles you write are also high quality, these articles will be posted all over the web and you want your customers to trust your credibility, this is just as important as acquiring backlinks. This is the hard part, how can one person produce the correct amount of good quality articles, it would take forever. By writing hundreds of unique articles by hand? Well that is one option you have, but by far the better option is to 'spin' your articles.
Spin-articles are unique articles that are based on a single original, or seed article, in which the sentence structure and wording have been rearranged in multiple variations--usually individuals words each have three or four variations, and then they are rearranged within the sentence structures. Therefore, from one seed article, you are able to create thousands of new and unique articles with ease.
Software tools for generating spin articles are widely available. Unfortunately, the results are not reliable, because computer-generated spin articles simply provide synonyms certain words. The spin article may be unique, but it also may not make sense.
In order to obtain readable, high-quality spin articles, you need articles that are written by human writers. These human produced spin articles are well written and are highly interesting to read, because a human worked on them, not a computer program.
Once you have the seed article in your hands, you can begin publishing it everywhere throughout the Internet, in return getting a zillion backlinks to your site which will send your search engine rankings through the ceiling. These one-of-a-kind articles can also be used on your own site so it is up to date and to pacify the search engine spiders.
However, these results cost time and energy, as well as help from talented writers. This problem is not a daunting one, because now there is a brand-new article-spinning company to help you with your content and article needs: TheLeadingArticles.com.
TheLeadingArticles.com is an article spinning service that delivers ultra spinnable articles each and every day throughout the week, including weekends. Their team promises to give you a 500+ words article, that's original, interesting, of high quality, and passes copyscape. Clickbank product reviews and articles about general Internet marketing are available.
They then take the original ultra spinnable article and rewrite each paragraph 5 times and then each sentence 5 times, manually. The number of articles you can get from one article is an amazing 116,415,321,826,934,814,453,125. And no, every article is unique, no matter how many variations are produced, simply because each slot stops at 300 members.
This works in two ways, firstly it will bring your product to the attention of the right people, and secondly it will help create backlinks, which help you to rank better in search engines such as Google. The only problem is, the articles you write need to be of good quality, you can not just spam poorly written articles, this will not help you with backlinks at all.
It is important that the articles you write are also high quality, these articles will be posted all over the web and you want your customers to trust your credibility, this is just as important as acquiring backlinks. This is the hard part, how can one person produce the correct amount of good quality articles, it would take forever. By writing hundreds of unique articles by hand? Well that is one option you have, but by far the better option is to 'spin' your articles.
Spin-articles are unique articles that are based on a single original, or seed article, in which the sentence structure and wording have been rearranged in multiple variations--usually individuals words each have three or four variations, and then they are rearranged within the sentence structures. Therefore, from one seed article, you are able to create thousands of new and unique articles with ease.
Software tools for generating spin articles are widely available. Unfortunately, the results are not reliable, because computer-generated spin articles simply provide synonyms certain words. The spin article may be unique, but it also may not make sense.
In order to obtain readable, high-quality spin articles, you need articles that are written by human writers. These human produced spin articles are well written and are highly interesting to read, because a human worked on them, not a computer program.
Once you have the seed article in your hands, you can begin publishing it everywhere throughout the Internet, in return getting a zillion backlinks to your site which will send your search engine rankings through the ceiling. These one-of-a-kind articles can also be used on your own site so it is up to date and to pacify the search engine spiders.
However, these results cost time and energy, as well as help from talented writers. This problem is not a daunting one, because now there is a brand-new article-spinning company to help you with your content and article needs: TheLeadingArticles.com.
TheLeadingArticles.com is an article spinning service that delivers ultra spinnable articles each and every day throughout the week, including weekends. Their team promises to give you a 500+ words article, that's original, interesting, of high quality, and passes copyscape. Clickbank product reviews and articles about general Internet marketing are available.
They then take the original ultra spinnable article and rewrite each paragraph 5 times and then each sentence 5 times, manually. The number of articles you can get from one article is an amazing 116,415,321,826,934,814,453,125. And no, every article is unique, no matter how many variations are produced, simply because each slot stops at 300 members.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Writing Articles For Promotion
"Content is King." This has become the maxim for website marketing in the new millennium. So far as we can tell, the best way to a search engine's heart is through writing articles that have been optimized with keywords.
There are many facets to pulling off a successful article advertising campaign, of course. You need to find a writer, keywords, article publishing sites and affiliates to partner up with. It's no surprise, then, that many business professionals choose an established web marketing company to help them connect the dots.
First, we'll talk about how the writing of articles can help your business. Ultimately, you want published articles to bring potential buyers to your site. The only way visitors can find your site (unless they're specifically searching your name) is by typing a term into the search engine and checking the links on the first page of results.
Statistics show if you're not in the top results, you can forget about people ever finding you. A group of people called Search Engine Optimization experts spend their days analyzing what sort of terms people are typing into the search engines. They can even run diagnostic tests on your page that tell them where people are coming from to reach your site, what search terms delivered traffic, what search terms delivered sales, how long people stayed on your site, what pages sent people fleeing and where people went next. This research can greatly help your overall internet marketing campaigns.
Before you hire a professional copywriter who specializes in writing articles, you'll need to meet with an SEO expert and determine what keywords are most valuable for your industry. In the past, just one or two general words related to your business or service would suffice. Today, longer phrases are preferable, as are location-sensitive terms.
In the olden days, you might have run a search and landed on a page that was fraught with spelling errors, full of nonsensical keyword repetitions or a page that just contained link after link. Today, the search algorithms are much more complex and an article marketing expert will tell you that it takes well-written copy with a certain keyword density to really attract search engine attention.
Another benefit of writing articles consistently is that each one creates another impression for web users. If a person sees your name once, he might soon forget it. If he sees it twice, he might remember it for a day or so, and then lose it from his mind. If he sees your name three, four, five times -- his curiosity and attention may be piqued.
Perhaps he'll check out your site, read through some of your blogs and begin to form an opinion on you. He may have the immediate impression that you must be popular to come up so many times. Over time, article marketing not only attracts visitors to your site, but buyers too. You may even find newspaper reporters contacting you because they figure you are an "expert" in your field, since your articles come up so often.
There are many facets to pulling off a successful article advertising campaign, of course. You need to find a writer, keywords, article publishing sites and affiliates to partner up with. It's no surprise, then, that many business professionals choose an established web marketing company to help them connect the dots.
First, we'll talk about how the writing of articles can help your business. Ultimately, you want published articles to bring potential buyers to your site. The only way visitors can find your site (unless they're specifically searching your name) is by typing a term into the search engine and checking the links on the first page of results.
Statistics show if you're not in the top results, you can forget about people ever finding you. A group of people called Search Engine Optimization experts spend their days analyzing what sort of terms people are typing into the search engines. They can even run diagnostic tests on your page that tell them where people are coming from to reach your site, what search terms delivered traffic, what search terms delivered sales, how long people stayed on your site, what pages sent people fleeing and where people went next. This research can greatly help your overall internet marketing campaigns.
Before you hire a professional copywriter who specializes in writing articles, you'll need to meet with an SEO expert and determine what keywords are most valuable for your industry. In the past, just one or two general words related to your business or service would suffice. Today, longer phrases are preferable, as are location-sensitive terms.
In the olden days, you might have run a search and landed on a page that was fraught with spelling errors, full of nonsensical keyword repetitions or a page that just contained link after link. Today, the search algorithms are much more complex and an article marketing expert will tell you that it takes well-written copy with a certain keyword density to really attract search engine attention.
Another benefit of writing articles consistently is that each one creates another impression for web users. If a person sees your name once, he might soon forget it. If he sees it twice, he might remember it for a day or so, and then lose it from his mind. If he sees your name three, four, five times -- his curiosity and attention may be piqued.
Perhaps he'll check out your site, read through some of your blogs and begin to form an opinion on you. He may have the immediate impression that you must be popular to come up so many times. Over time, article marketing not only attracts visitors to your site, but buyers too. You may even find newspaper reporters contacting you because they figure you are an "expert" in your field, since your articles come up so often.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Business To Business Article Marketing
Business buyers are different than traditional consumers. The business buyer from a government organization, corporation, resale facility or institution doesn't want to hear your cute slogans or watch babies and puppy dogs paraded across the TV screen in a cheap attempt to win your loyalty. He doesn't want oversimplified hype or blatant calls to action without concrete reasons why he should act. The business buyer expects more research, more relevant news, more examples of product application and more descriptions of the features.
If your prices are higher than the competition, he wants to know why you offer more value than the next guy. He anticipates a series of copy designed at winning him over, such as brochures, newsletters, pamphlets, emails, ads, presentations, mailers and article submissions. Mark Toner, advertising manager for Amano, a manufacturer of computerized time-clocks, explains: "In high-tech direct mail, the key is to educate the prospect." This can be done through business to business article marketing.
Social networking has emerged as a valuable tool for brand building. Many of the most successful brands use business to business article marketing published on sites like Facebook and Myspace to enhance their image and separate themselves from the competition. According to a 2009 survey conducted by Razorfish, an internet marketing firm, "brands with an online presence were overwhelmingly likely to have had a measurable influence on whether consumers or businesses purchased products from them."
Most people decided to "follow" or "friend" the business and make a purchase to gain access to exclusive discounts or other promotional offers. Moreover, "Nearly two-thirds of respondents told Razorfish that their first purchase from a brand had been as a direct result of their experience with the brand in an online environment," the survey stated. Therefore, article promotion should center on announcing these special offers.
Another important reason to add business to business article marketing to your overall strategy is the undeniable truth that search marketing is still generating the bulk of business-to-business leads. The 6th Annual B2B Marketing Benchmark Report 2009-2010 (conducted by Marketing Sherpa) sums it up by saying, "During the most difficult economic times that the search marketing industries has seen in its decade-long life, search marketers are more relevant than ever. The Web itself is getting 'smarter.' Web 1.0 was mostly static with publishers communicating to consumers. Web 2.0 is two-way, with consumers talking back to publishers. Web 3.0 uses information from the consumer to tailor the experience to individuals."
A true article marketing expert understands current trends and knows just how to use programs that analyze online article submissions to see what keywords bring traffic to a website, as well as what keywords bring business owners who are most ready to buy, what messages are bringing in the most targeted traffic, what messages are scaring people off and where are they going and what are they looking for once they leave the site without buying.
A great business-to-business campaign begins with a well-designed website. Within moments, a business owner should be able to find the "About Us" page, the "Contact" page, the pricing/package page and links to additional information if need be. (This is where content article marketing comes in!)
In addition to having business to business article marketing appear right on your homepage, you can also submit articles to third party publishing sites and affiliate networks to reach a broader audience. These articles will be optimized for search engine friendliness, so anyone looking for something via Google has the opportunity to be redirected to your homepage.
The best part about article promotion is that you can test the waters with several different messages, keywords or angles and then track the results using analytic software to see which campaigns are producing the most sales. A SEO/article marketing professional should be able to do all of this for you.
If your prices are higher than the competition, he wants to know why you offer more value than the next guy. He anticipates a series of copy designed at winning him over, such as brochures, newsletters, pamphlets, emails, ads, presentations, mailers and article submissions. Mark Toner, advertising manager for Amano, a manufacturer of computerized time-clocks, explains: "In high-tech direct mail, the key is to educate the prospect." This can be done through business to business article marketing.
Social networking has emerged as a valuable tool for brand building. Many of the most successful brands use business to business article marketing published on sites like Facebook and Myspace to enhance their image and separate themselves from the competition. According to a 2009 survey conducted by Razorfish, an internet marketing firm, "brands with an online presence were overwhelmingly likely to have had a measurable influence on whether consumers or businesses purchased products from them."
Most people decided to "follow" or "friend" the business and make a purchase to gain access to exclusive discounts or other promotional offers. Moreover, "Nearly two-thirds of respondents told Razorfish that their first purchase from a brand had been as a direct result of their experience with the brand in an online environment," the survey stated. Therefore, article promotion should center on announcing these special offers.
Another important reason to add business to business article marketing to your overall strategy is the undeniable truth that search marketing is still generating the bulk of business-to-business leads. The 6th Annual B2B Marketing Benchmark Report 2009-2010 (conducted by Marketing Sherpa) sums it up by saying, "During the most difficult economic times that the search marketing industries has seen in its decade-long life, search marketers are more relevant than ever. The Web itself is getting 'smarter.' Web 1.0 was mostly static with publishers communicating to consumers. Web 2.0 is two-way, with consumers talking back to publishers. Web 3.0 uses information from the consumer to tailor the experience to individuals."
A true article marketing expert understands current trends and knows just how to use programs that analyze online article submissions to see what keywords bring traffic to a website, as well as what keywords bring business owners who are most ready to buy, what messages are bringing in the most targeted traffic, what messages are scaring people off and where are they going and what are they looking for once they leave the site without buying.
A great business-to-business campaign begins with a well-designed website. Within moments, a business owner should be able to find the "About Us" page, the "Contact" page, the pricing/package page and links to additional information if need be. (This is where content article marketing comes in!)
In addition to having business to business article marketing appear right on your homepage, you can also submit articles to third party publishing sites and affiliate networks to reach a broader audience. These articles will be optimized for search engine friendliness, so anyone looking for something via Google has the opportunity to be redirected to your homepage.
The best part about article promotion is that you can test the waters with several different messages, keywords or angles and then track the results using analytic software to see which campaigns are producing the most sales. A SEO/article marketing professional should be able to do all of this for you.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Best Article Marketing Sites
If you've hired a professional copywriter/SEO team, then you won't need to worry about finding article marketing sites because they've researched the best directories already. On the other hand, if you're looking to submit marketing articles on your own for the first time, then you may be surprised at how many article submission sites are out there -- literally hundreds! This booming business picked up in the late nineties and hasn't slowed since. Here are some websites to get you started.
By far, the oldest and most popular article marketing site is www.ezinearticles.com. For the past decade, more than one million original articles have been published by over 139,000 authors. Ezine Articles is an ideal place for beginners who have little familiarity with writing and who wish to use a more informal tone. The site has a Google PageRank of 6/10, which makes it a worthwhile endeavor for SEO experts.
Many authors report their best results through the Ezine Articles site, in fact. Compared to the competition, Ezine has an Alexa Rating of 130, compared to similar submission sites which have ratings ranging from 487 to 38,239. For a detailed list of guidelines on article submissions to this site, visit www.ezinearticles.com/editorial-guidelines.html.
Another one of the more popular article marketing sites is www.goarticles.com. Like Ezine Articles, Go Articles is one of the old veterans, having been on the scene for nearly ten years. Many people like Go Articles because of its clean design, its Google PageRank of 6 and its over one million archived articles from over 135,000 authors.
Unlike other article directories, you can publish links right within the text, rather than just in the "About the Writer" box. Interactive reader features have recently been added, allowing them to rate articles, request articles and email articles -- all of which ensures maximum exposure. To submit, visit www.goarticles.com/ulogin.html.
One of the newer, more innovative article marketing sites is www.ideamarketers.com, which seeks out entrepreneurs and thinkers to share their philosophies and real world experiences. Here authors are invited to share messages, promote products and sell services.
Authors can also accept or decline requests from professional publishers who wish to use their content on a third party site, which is different than other website marketing pages and offers greater control over your own content. About 11,000 pages are added each month, attracting more than 4 million visitors. To get started, visit www.ideamarketers.com/articlepr.cfm.
By far, the oldest and most popular article marketing site is www.ezinearticles.com. For the past decade, more than one million original articles have been published by over 139,000 authors. Ezine Articles is an ideal place for beginners who have little familiarity with writing and who wish to use a more informal tone. The site has a Google PageRank of 6/10, which makes it a worthwhile endeavor for SEO experts.
Many authors report their best results through the Ezine Articles site, in fact. Compared to the competition, Ezine has an Alexa Rating of 130, compared to similar submission sites which have ratings ranging from 487 to 38,239. For a detailed list of guidelines on article submissions to this site, visit www.ezinearticles.com/editorial-guidelines.html.
Another one of the more popular article marketing sites is www.goarticles.com. Like Ezine Articles, Go Articles is one of the old veterans, having been on the scene for nearly ten years. Many people like Go Articles because of its clean design, its Google PageRank of 6 and its over one million archived articles from over 135,000 authors.
Unlike other article directories, you can publish links right within the text, rather than just in the "About the Writer" box. Interactive reader features have recently been added, allowing them to rate articles, request articles and email articles -- all of which ensures maximum exposure. To submit, visit www.goarticles.com/ulogin.html.
One of the newer, more innovative article marketing sites is www.ideamarketers.com, which seeks out entrepreneurs and thinkers to share their philosophies and real world experiences. Here authors are invited to share messages, promote products and sell services.
Authors can also accept or decline requests from professional publishers who wish to use their content on a third party site, which is different than other website marketing pages and offers greater control over your own content. About 11,000 pages are added each month, attracting more than 4 million visitors. To get started, visit www.ideamarketers.com/articlepr.cfm.
7 Tips On How To Create Content And Beating Writers Block
Article Marketing continues to be one of the most easiest, reliable and consistent ways to drive targeted traffic to your website. However, creating content and beating writers block seems to be one of the biggest obstacles for many.
Here are 7 helpful tips to help you source content for new articles:
1. Old Ezine Articles: This includes your archives for articles that you have sent your ezine from the past 10+ years. If you've created multiple articles for each email newsletter issue, we recommend that you break your old ezine articles into single article chunks rather than multi-topic articles. If you have large ezine articles from your email newsletter archive, consider breaking them down into 250-300 word chunks rather than 1,000-3,000 word articles.
2. Old Original Forum Posts: If you've been on the internet for some time, there is a good chance you belong to a few forums that you might call yourself a "resident expert" on. All of your old forum posts that are greater than 250 words in length will make great new articles that you can put into distribution to create more traffic and sales for your business, and enhance your credibility.
3. Old Blog Posts: The whole point of blogging, besides posting frequently, is that you can easily syndicate your blog for others to read via the RSS reader of their choice. Because of the syndication orientation of blogging, your blog posts that read greater than 250 words make great articles that you can slap on a longer title, add a resource box that pitches your blog website and put a fast 250+ articles into immediate distribution.
4. Out of Date Books: Are you the author of a book no longer in print? If you own the copyrights to it, this is an excellent place to create hundreds of quality articles with just a short period of editing.
5. Current e-Books: Take 10%-20% of your hottest selling ebooks and flip into articles designed to entice your reader into wanting the complete ebook. You still need to deliver real content value here and not get skimpy or tease them with "what they could learn if they bought your ebook." Keep the articles short, with bulleted or small numbered lists.
6. Top 10 or Top 7 Articles: Everyone likes content they can read very fast. Why not create top 10 lists (or any number of "Top" things) related to your niche area of expertise. To begin, just create a headline such as "Top 7 Leaders Strategies For Newbie Managers" and then number the list from 1-7. Come up with a sub-headline for each tip and then do (1) paragraph describing the tip. You'll find these are easy to produce and crank out 5-10 of them per day.
7. Keyword Research: Google Suggest (http://www.google.com/webhp?
Example: "Yoga" when entered into Google Suggest tells me that I should write articles about "Yoga Journals or Journaling" and about proper form or different types of "Yoga Poses."
Take the above article marketing tips on how to create content and beat writersblock. Good luck!
Here are 7 helpful tips to help you source content for new articles:
1. Old Ezine Articles: This includes your archives for articles that you have sent your ezine from the past 10+ years. If you've created multiple articles for each email newsletter issue, we recommend that you break your old ezine articles into single article chunks rather than multi-topic articles. If you have large ezine articles from your email newsletter archive, consider breaking them down into 250-300 word chunks rather than 1,000-3,000 word articles.
2. Old Original Forum Posts: If you've been on the internet for some time, there is a good chance you belong to a few forums that you might call yourself a "resident expert" on. All of your old forum posts that are greater than 250 words in length will make great new articles that you can put into distribution to create more traffic and sales for your business, and enhance your credibility.
3. Old Blog Posts: The whole point of blogging, besides posting frequently, is that you can easily syndicate your blog for others to read via the RSS reader of their choice. Because of the syndication orientation of blogging, your blog posts that read greater than 250 words make great articles that you can slap on a longer title, add a resource box that pitches your blog website and put a fast 250+ articles into immediate distribution.
4. Out of Date Books: Are you the author of a book no longer in print? If you own the copyrights to it, this is an excellent place to create hundreds of quality articles with just a short period of editing.
5. Current e-Books: Take 10%-20% of your hottest selling ebooks and flip into articles designed to entice your reader into wanting the complete ebook. You still need to deliver real content value here and not get skimpy or tease them with "what they could learn if they bought your ebook." Keep the articles short, with bulleted or small numbered lists.
6. Top 10 or Top 7 Articles: Everyone likes content they can read very fast. Why not create top 10 lists (or any number of "Top" things) related to your niche area of expertise. To begin, just create a headline such as "Top 7 Leaders Strategies For Newbie Managers" and then number the list from 1-7. Come up with a sub-headline for each tip and then do (1) paragraph describing the tip. You'll find these are easy to produce and crank out 5-10 of them per day.
7. Keyword Research: Google Suggest (http://www.google.com/webhp?
Example: "Yoga" when entered into Google Suggest tells me that I should write articles about "Yoga Journals or Journaling" and about proper form or different types of "Yoga Poses."
Take the above article marketing tips on how to create content and beat writersblock. Good luck!
Sunday, January 9, 2011
How To Use Article Marketing
It's common for new business owners to wonder how to use article marketing to their advantage. For a startup, articles are a great way to demonstrate company expertise and announce some of the great products or services the company has to offer. There is a certain credibility and familiarity about reading several articles from a published author.
For established businesses, a press release promotional article can attract a journalist's eye who is nosing for a story and can add even more credibility. Best of all, web users who read these articles can check out the info box at the bottom of the text, which directs them to the business owner's homepage, where they can comfortably act after having learned all this new data.
The first step in knowing how to use article marketing is avoiding common rookie mistakes. One thing Google hates is repeat articles that have been cut and pasted in multiple locations. Google doesn't know that you were the author and doesn't have the patience to inquire. In fact, this heinous crime is often punishable by decreased ranking.
If you plan to write articles that can be used on your website and on a third party article directory, then you will need two slightly different pieces to pass the test. Another method that has lost favor is the "quantity over quality" strategy, where you submit an article to more than 50 websites. Unless you have thousands of high-quality links already, these cheap links won't help your page ranking or traffic.
If you're wondering how to use article marketing in a better way, then think "quality over quantity." Choose the top five trusted article directories and submit five unique articles. This is a great method for new sites looking to build gradual, believable, quality links.
After all, Google doesn't look for sites that suddenly spring up into quick fame, but rather, sites that have a long history of credibility and high rapport with readers. Google bots learned that article business marketing representatives were using automated programs to blast their articles onto dozens of websites in a short period of time, so they've come up with ways to prevent this tactic from helping sites gain the advantage.
Now that you've learned how to use article marketing in article directories, you may also be interested in using these articles for subscribers. Research shows that repeat customers bring the most business and spend the most money online. They also usually spread the word to family and friends, acting as unofficial spokespeople.
One of the best ways to continually drive repeat traffic is to offer them some sort of newsletter, RSS feed or ezine subscription, which provides them with a steady stream of valuable content. You can re-use many professional articles in your newsletter marketing, without fear of being penalized by Google.
For established businesses, a press release promotional article can attract a journalist's eye who is nosing for a story and can add even more credibility. Best of all, web users who read these articles can check out the info box at the bottom of the text, which directs them to the business owner's homepage, where they can comfortably act after having learned all this new data.
The first step in knowing how to use article marketing is avoiding common rookie mistakes. One thing Google hates is repeat articles that have been cut and pasted in multiple locations. Google doesn't know that you were the author and doesn't have the patience to inquire. In fact, this heinous crime is often punishable by decreased ranking.
If you plan to write articles that can be used on your website and on a third party article directory, then you will need two slightly different pieces to pass the test. Another method that has lost favor is the "quantity over quality" strategy, where you submit an article to more than 50 websites. Unless you have thousands of high-quality links already, these cheap links won't help your page ranking or traffic.
If you're wondering how to use article marketing in a better way, then think "quality over quantity." Choose the top five trusted article directories and submit five unique articles. This is a great method for new sites looking to build gradual, believable, quality links.
After all, Google doesn't look for sites that suddenly spring up into quick fame, but rather, sites that have a long history of credibility and high rapport with readers. Google bots learned that article business marketing representatives were using automated programs to blast their articles onto dozens of websites in a short period of time, so they've come up with ways to prevent this tactic from helping sites gain the advantage.
Now that you've learned how to use article marketing in article directories, you may also be interested in using these articles for subscribers. Research shows that repeat customers bring the most business and spend the most money online. They also usually spread the word to family and friends, acting as unofficial spokespeople.
One of the best ways to continually drive repeat traffic is to offer them some sort of newsletter, RSS feed or ezine subscription, which provides them with a steady stream of valuable content. You can re-use many professional articles in your newsletter marketing, without fear of being penalized by Google.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Article Marketer Changes Name And Services
Article Marketer (www.articlemarketer.com) was a popular site specializing in article distribution since 2005. However, this past year the company split into two new article submission services offering unlimited distribution to "the industry's largest publisher list." Now members can choose between Distribute Your Articles (www.distributeyourarticles.com) and Content Crooner (www.contentcrooner.com).
While some members were irked by the way AM handled the abrupt separation without much fanfare or warning, most people found a happy home with one of the other two similar service providers, which honored their AM memberships in full.
Article Marketer founder Chris Ellington explains, "I have now launched Distribute Your Articles because there are so many features and tools I have been aching to bring to the community that simply couldn't happen at AM. Some of those customer service issues you mentioned were among the first improvements. Distribute Your Articles is getting rave reviews for quick turnaround on article review and customer service tickets. We also have an active forum for peer-to-peer assistance."
Ellington adds that the price is $29.95 for unlimited articles, unlimited pen names and a ton of extra features being added all the time. He says that Distribute Your Articles is similar to AM in "spirit and intent" but is now found by article marketing professionals to be "the juggernaut tool for article distribution."
Kenneth Vogt, former Chief Technical Officer of Article Marketer, says much of the ingenuity of the original site is accredited to him. He adds that, "Article marketing continues to evolve in the face of a changing Internet and Content Crooner is part of that evolutionary process." He promises better customer support, with complimentary personalized article coaching, ample support staff and even distribution reports/statistics to help authors write marketing articles that sell. He said the monthly subscription rate is $39.99, which includes unlimited submissions.
The Article Marketer split occurred rather quickly and people on both sides say that there have been some technical glitches when trying to submit an article or when waiting for an article to be reviewed. "I have one article that has been approved and waiting for distribution for 4 days now. And I have 2 other articles pending human approval for 3 days (they are supposed to be reviewed within 1 business day)," writes one Content Crooner user at The Warrior Forum.
Users also seem to be confused about the new pricing models. One person reported they were offered unlimited pen names with Distribute Your Articles, only to find they were offered 4 additional pen names for $40. Apparently, only lifetime members receive the unlimited pen names bonus feature.
Another person complained that they were offered 4 months for the price of 1 to switch to Distribute Your Articles, but never received the discount due to fine print no one bothered to mention. Perhaps it's best to wait a few months while these glitches iron themselves out.
While some members were irked by the way AM handled the abrupt separation without much fanfare or warning, most people found a happy home with one of the other two similar service providers, which honored their AM memberships in full.
Article Marketer founder Chris Ellington explains, "I have now launched Distribute Your Articles because there are so many features and tools I have been aching to bring to the community that simply couldn't happen at AM. Some of those customer service issues you mentioned were among the first improvements. Distribute Your Articles is getting rave reviews for quick turnaround on article review and customer service tickets. We also have an active forum for peer-to-peer assistance."
Ellington adds that the price is $29.95 for unlimited articles, unlimited pen names and a ton of extra features being added all the time. He says that Distribute Your Articles is similar to AM in "spirit and intent" but is now found by article marketing professionals to be "the juggernaut tool for article distribution."
Kenneth Vogt, former Chief Technical Officer of Article Marketer, says much of the ingenuity of the original site is accredited to him. He adds that, "Article marketing continues to evolve in the face of a changing Internet and Content Crooner is part of that evolutionary process." He promises better customer support, with complimentary personalized article coaching, ample support staff and even distribution reports/statistics to help authors write marketing articles that sell. He said the monthly subscription rate is $39.99, which includes unlimited submissions.
The Article Marketer split occurred rather quickly and people on both sides say that there have been some technical glitches when trying to submit an article or when waiting for an article to be reviewed. "I have one article that has been approved and waiting for distribution for 4 days now. And I have 2 other articles pending human approval for 3 days (they are supposed to be reviewed within 1 business day)," writes one Content Crooner user at The Warrior Forum.
Users also seem to be confused about the new pricing models. One person reported they were offered unlimited pen names with Distribute Your Articles, only to find they were offered 4 additional pen names for $40. Apparently, only lifetime members receive the unlimited pen names bonus feature.
Another person complained that they were offered 4 months for the price of 1 to switch to Distribute Your Articles, but never received the discount due to fine print no one bothered to mention. Perhaps it's best to wait a few months while these glitches iron themselves out.
Friday, January 7, 2011
Quick Guide To Article Writing
Article writing is a valuable tool that businesses use to grow. You can publish these articles on your own website, which shows search engine bots that you have unique, compelling, freshly updated content that uses all the right keywords. You can also publish these articles on third party article submission sites, which provide you with inbound links and shows that there is distinctive value on your page. The content of your articles should show readers that you're knowledgeable within your field and should get readers excited about the products or services you specialize in. Then, when it's time to buy, readers will click on a link to your page and find instant gratification!
Most article publishing sites offer their own writing and submitting guidelines. Generally speaking, the best article submissions are 400-500 words and contain one or two well-researched keyword phrases. The best keyword phrases are location-specific for small business contractors, realtors, retail stores and other companies. For instance, "Atlanta carpet cleaners" is a better term than just "carpet cleaners." Additionally, the density of your keywords is relevant too. In the past, web users would occasionally find sites with a hodgepodge of nonsensical words strung together. Today's search engines are much smarter and demand that relevant content be published, not just strings of useless keywords. Your tone should be engaging, written in second or third person, and informative. Try to tie industry news, recent studies and current events to your articles.
In this business, knowing what NOT to do is just as important as knowing what to do. Article writing rookies often make the following errors. First, some authors feel that using big words will make them sound smart, when in reality this tactic alienates readers and sends them elsewhere. Second, many authors write as they would for a school essay or magazine, but readers want short, concise paragraphs. Third, many writers keep repeating the same bullet points to drive their message home, but repetition is not needed in a short 500-word composition. Fourth of all, you don't want to write marketing articles in third person, when second person is so much more engaging. Fifth, you cannot steal other people's writing just because you found it online, nor can you simply re-publish the same exact article on every article directory site; search engines penalize websites that duplicate content.
Often people begin doing their own article writing and submitting to sites like www.ezinearticles.com or www.goarticles.com. You can read over the author guidelines and try to mold your work to these standards if you're up for the challenge. You can also do a little bit of your own web research. Try tools like Google AdWords (www.adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal) or the Google Search-based Keyword Tool (www.google.com/sktool/#). Choose the top four keywords and write four different articles based on one of the keywords. Aim for including the keyword about once per short paragraph for the appropriate density. Over time, you may decide to switch to more aggressive website marketing and partner up with a search engine optimization expert/copywriter team to take your business up a notch.
Most article publishing sites offer their own writing and submitting guidelines. Generally speaking, the best article submissions are 400-500 words and contain one or two well-researched keyword phrases. The best keyword phrases are location-specific for small business contractors, realtors, retail stores and other companies. For instance, "Atlanta carpet cleaners" is a better term than just "carpet cleaners." Additionally, the density of your keywords is relevant too. In the past, web users would occasionally find sites with a hodgepodge of nonsensical words strung together. Today's search engines are much smarter and demand that relevant content be published, not just strings of useless keywords. Your tone should be engaging, written in second or third person, and informative. Try to tie industry news, recent studies and current events to your articles.
In this business, knowing what NOT to do is just as important as knowing what to do. Article writing rookies often make the following errors. First, some authors feel that using big words will make them sound smart, when in reality this tactic alienates readers and sends them elsewhere. Second, many authors write as they would for a school essay or magazine, but readers want short, concise paragraphs. Third, many writers keep repeating the same bullet points to drive their message home, but repetition is not needed in a short 500-word composition. Fourth of all, you don't want to write marketing articles in third person, when second person is so much more engaging. Fifth, you cannot steal other people's writing just because you found it online, nor can you simply re-publish the same exact article on every article directory site; search engines penalize websites that duplicate content.
Often people begin doing their own article writing and submitting to sites like www.ezinearticles.com or www.goarticles.com. You can read over the author guidelines and try to mold your work to these standards if you're up for the challenge. You can also do a little bit of your own web research. Try tools like Google AdWords (www.adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal) or the Google Search-based Keyword Tool (www.google.com/sktool/#). Choose the top four keywords and write four different articles based on one of the keywords. Aim for including the keyword about once per short paragraph for the appropriate density. Over time, you may decide to switch to more aggressive website marketing and partner up with a search engine optimization expert/copywriter team to take your business up a notch.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
What Makes A Good Marketing Article?
Anyone who spends a fair amount of time reading online knows there is a wealth of horrible articles out there! Some are nothing more than blatant sales copy, over-hyping a poor product. Other articles seem to tell readers nothing at all really but are mere vehicles for a link to another page. Countless articles use poor grammar, and are riddled with spelling mistakes and inconsistencies of speech. It's enough to make anyone crazy!
Since the article submission phenomenon appeared in the late nineties, just about every small business owner thought, "Write? Submit articles? I can do that." Unfortunately, not everyone is blessed with a writing talent. That leaves a lot of room for the real stars to shine online. If you have what it takes, then read on to see what makes a good marketing article. If you are unsure about your abilities, then you should hire a professional copywriter and look for the following criterion in their work.
To understand what makes a good marketing article, you must first consider the similarities and differences between writing for print publications and writing for online mediums. Magazines and newspapers have hundreds or thousands of subscribers who will flip through the pages each week or each month, regardless of what's there. Headlines can be witty and coy.
On the other hand, internet marketing articles need to seek out an audience by using more direct headlines to attract search engine attention. Magazine and newspaper articles often have to write to certain editorial standards, with advertisers in mind.
Online writing instead appeals directly to the readers, aiming to inform them, which will ultimately make them feel more comfortable with upcoming purchasing decisions. The attention span also varies greatly with print versus online writing. While someone may read 5,000 words in a magazine, 500 words is a more appropriate length for internet copy -- and paragraphs should be shorter, rather than longer.
Every good marketing article uses keywords that target business-related terms typed into the search engines. According to a 2008 ComScore Study, there are six basic ways people will find a business; search engines (31%), the phone book (30%), internet directories (19%), Google or Yahoo Local search sites (11%), newspapers/magazines (3%) and social media sites (1%).
As you can see, article marketing strategies must focus on finding what keywords people are searching for and filling out pages at the online phone book sites like www.whitepages.com, www.yellowbook.com and www.superpages.com. To find the best keywords, you can check out the free article marketing tool at www.adwords.google.com.
Lastly, your marketing article should provide new information in an entertaining way. To do this, you should be scanning Google news headlines or other blogs to see what people are talking about.
For example, if you are selling digital cameras and you hear a report that people are cutting back their spending on consumer electronics due to the recession, then you might want to write an article about "cheap digital cameras" or "inexpensive cameras" to draw in that target market.
If people seem to be interested in "product safety" or the "green revolution," try to relate your products or services to those topics. The best free articles have an engaging tone and use second-person narrative to actively engage the reader. You may also choose a more detached, professional-sounding third person perspective, but rarely should first person "I/my" be used.
Since the article submission phenomenon appeared in the late nineties, just about every small business owner thought, "Write? Submit articles? I can do that." Unfortunately, not everyone is blessed with a writing talent. That leaves a lot of room for the real stars to shine online. If you have what it takes, then read on to see what makes a good marketing article. If you are unsure about your abilities, then you should hire a professional copywriter and look for the following criterion in their work.
To understand what makes a good marketing article, you must first consider the similarities and differences between writing for print publications and writing for online mediums. Magazines and newspapers have hundreds or thousands of subscribers who will flip through the pages each week or each month, regardless of what's there. Headlines can be witty and coy.
On the other hand, internet marketing articles need to seek out an audience by using more direct headlines to attract search engine attention. Magazine and newspaper articles often have to write to certain editorial standards, with advertisers in mind.
Online writing instead appeals directly to the readers, aiming to inform them, which will ultimately make them feel more comfortable with upcoming purchasing decisions. The attention span also varies greatly with print versus online writing. While someone may read 5,000 words in a magazine, 500 words is a more appropriate length for internet copy -- and paragraphs should be shorter, rather than longer.
Every good marketing article uses keywords that target business-related terms typed into the search engines. According to a 2008 ComScore Study, there are six basic ways people will find a business; search engines (31%), the phone book (30%), internet directories (19%), Google or Yahoo Local search sites (11%), newspapers/magazines (3%) and social media sites (1%).
As you can see, article marketing strategies must focus on finding what keywords people are searching for and filling out pages at the online phone book sites like www.whitepages.com, www.yellowbook.com and www.superpages.com. To find the best keywords, you can check out the free article marketing tool at www.adwords.google.com.
Lastly, your marketing article should provide new information in an entertaining way. To do this, you should be scanning Google news headlines or other blogs to see what people are talking about.
For example, if you are selling digital cameras and you hear a report that people are cutting back their spending on consumer electronics due to the recession, then you might want to write an article about "cheap digital cameras" or "inexpensive cameras" to draw in that target market.
If people seem to be interested in "product safety" or the "green revolution," try to relate your products or services to those topics. The best free articles have an engaging tone and use second-person narrative to actively engage the reader. You may also choose a more detached, professional-sounding third person perspective, but rarely should first person "I/my" be used.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Does Marketing With Articles Work?
Some entrepreneurs feel they can whip up a 500-word article, submit it to multiple free article publishing sites and just sit back, while the traffic streams in. However, professionals who've made it to the first page of Google's search results know that marketing with articles entails so much more. You need to know what keywords will bring -- not just traffic -- but targeted traffic to your page.
You'll also need to know how to use links to your advantage. You will have to realize that submitting the exact same article to many sites can negatively impact your Google rating. You'll also need to understand how affiliate marketing, linking, press release submission and other tools work along with your article business marketing to create a strategic plan for success.
In one case study, a business owner created a 25-page niche website, with each inner page created around one target keyword phrase, for which a promotional article was created. Each article (including back-links in the "About the Author" resource box) was also submitted to directories like www.ezinearticles.com and www.goarticles.com.
He also got linked up with an affiliate network of 10,000 sites that trade one-way back-links as well. After eight months, there were 2,600 unique visitors and 650 returning visitors each month. This number continued to grow steadily to 5,315 in August and earned the owner $180/month in revenue through AdSense. As you can see, article business marketing really works!
There are many other case studies that support the benefits of marketing with articles. One search engine optimization/copywriting company from Los Angeles, California helped Delta Hotels increase their traffic by 175%. Luxury Home Magazine went from the 1,000+ page of Google search results to #1, 2 and 3 for targeted phrases like "Sacramento luxury homes" and "Hawaii luxury homes" within six months.
A small independent contractor, Kimberly Painting, reported lasting success, moving from 1,000+ to #1 for competitive phrases like "Atlanta painting," "Atlanta painters" and "Atlanta house painting!" A professional online article marketing company can work wonders for any industry it seems.
Marketing with articles can begin with anywhere from four to twelve well-thought, researched pieces. Every three to six months, it's a good idea to review your online article marketing strategy and order fresh content to maintain your Google position and develop new articles for submission.
Always use a professional copywriter to do the grunt work for you because quality content is far more important than quantity of content. Today's advanced search engine bots see through all the gimmicks and award only the best sites with its prestigious ranking.
You'll also need to know how to use links to your advantage. You will have to realize that submitting the exact same article to many sites can negatively impact your Google rating. You'll also need to understand how affiliate marketing, linking, press release submission and other tools work along with your article business marketing to create a strategic plan for success.
In one case study, a business owner created a 25-page niche website, with each inner page created around one target keyword phrase, for which a promotional article was created. Each article (including back-links in the "About the Author" resource box) was also submitted to directories like www.ezinearticles.com and www.goarticles.com.
He also got linked up with an affiliate network of 10,000 sites that trade one-way back-links as well. After eight months, there were 2,600 unique visitors and 650 returning visitors each month. This number continued to grow steadily to 5,315 in August and earned the owner $180/month in revenue through AdSense. As you can see, article business marketing really works!
There are many other case studies that support the benefits of marketing with articles. One search engine optimization/copywriting company from Los Angeles, California helped Delta Hotels increase their traffic by 175%. Luxury Home Magazine went from the 1,000+ page of Google search results to #1, 2 and 3 for targeted phrases like "Sacramento luxury homes" and "Hawaii luxury homes" within six months.
A small independent contractor, Kimberly Painting, reported lasting success, moving from 1,000+ to #1 for competitive phrases like "Atlanta painting," "Atlanta painters" and "Atlanta house painting!" A professional online article marketing company can work wonders for any industry it seems.
Marketing with articles can begin with anywhere from four to twelve well-thought, researched pieces. Every three to six months, it's a good idea to review your online article marketing strategy and order fresh content to maintain your Google position and develop new articles for submission.
Always use a professional copywriter to do the grunt work for you because quality content is far more important than quantity of content. Today's advanced search engine bots see through all the gimmicks and award only the best sites with its prestigious ranking.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Writing Articles For Promotion
The article marketing business has emerged as the best way for website owners to promote their companies. In the past, business owners paid large sums for banner ads and pay-per-click campaigns that were all the rage.
Today, however, people are finding their money is best spent developing quality content to contribute to the wealth of information on the internet. Article marketing services have been going strong for the past decade and trends indicate there's no sign of slowing. If anything, developing unique content will become even more important as the social networking and viral video sites become even more prominent.
There are many different article marketing strategies commonly employed by experts in this field. One school of thought believes that quantity in articles is most important, so they make a pitch to clients that they make bulk orders that can bombard the internet to draw in many leads.
Another school of thought believes that a better quality article submitted to a few carefully chosen sites can act as a powerhouse, reeling in tremendous targeted traffic that is ready to purchase. A third school of thought aims to write content that gets picked up by publishers, so that they will re-use the content (with permission of the author, of course) and provide back-links to the author's website in return.
Targeted article marketing is one strategy used in the article marketing business. These articles are created with the intention of finding readers who are almost ready to buy. According to a March 2009 report from www.pricegrabber.com, 91% of online shoppers strongly agree with the statements: "Researching products online makes me feel more comfortable" and "Comparing prices online reassures me that I am getting the best deal."
In addition to price checking and reading up on products, consumers also browse for current news, look for coupons and visit social networks. Target marketing publishes articles that are steeped in information and use keywords that target a person's geographic location or unique needs.
There are many places that offer articles for free, as well as article marketing videos and tips. You can receive help getting started on your article marketing business or you can learn more about the business before signing up for services. Good places to read include www.marketingsherpa.com, www.seomoz.org, www.marketingprofs.com and www.onlinemarketingseo.com/website-sitemap.html. The more knowledge you gain, the more comfortable you'll be with your online marketing strategy, whether you're doing it yourself or outsourcing.
Today, however, people are finding their money is best spent developing quality content to contribute to the wealth of information on the internet. Article marketing services have been going strong for the past decade and trends indicate there's no sign of slowing. If anything, developing unique content will become even more important as the social networking and viral video sites become even more prominent.
There are many different article marketing strategies commonly employed by experts in this field. One school of thought believes that quantity in articles is most important, so they make a pitch to clients that they make bulk orders that can bombard the internet to draw in many leads.
Another school of thought believes that a better quality article submitted to a few carefully chosen sites can act as a powerhouse, reeling in tremendous targeted traffic that is ready to purchase. A third school of thought aims to write content that gets picked up by publishers, so that they will re-use the content (with permission of the author, of course) and provide back-links to the author's website in return.
Targeted article marketing is one strategy used in the article marketing business. These articles are created with the intention of finding readers who are almost ready to buy. According to a March 2009 report from www.pricegrabber.com, 91% of online shoppers strongly agree with the statements: "Researching products online makes me feel more comfortable" and "Comparing prices online reassures me that I am getting the best deal."
In addition to price checking and reading up on products, consumers also browse for current news, look for coupons and visit social networks. Target marketing publishes articles that are steeped in information and use keywords that target a person's geographic location or unique needs.
There are many places that offer articles for free, as well as article marketing videos and tips. You can receive help getting started on your article marketing business or you can learn more about the business before signing up for services. Good places to read include www.marketingsherpa.com, www.seomoz.org, www.marketingprofs.com and www.onlinemarketingseo.com/website-sitemap.html. The more knowledge you gain, the more comfortable you'll be with your online marketing strategy, whether you're doing it yourself or outsourcing.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Create and Manage An Article Directory To Funnel Traffic To Other Businesses
There are tons of great reasons why an online business or entrepreneur may want to create and manage an article directory. If you think about it, creating a directory that supports another business for the same market can bring you a lot of traffic. There is such a variety of resources and business building tools available that makes the entire process easy to do. If you feel intimidate at the thought of such an undertaking, then you should reconsider it because it is not. Here are several things to bear in mind for creating and managing an article directory.
SEO is critically important when you are building your article directory; therefore make your article categories appropriate for the right keywords. As you know, a good theme will help a lot; the site cannot be annoying to people in any way.
Your future results with ranking and organic traffic will be a result of how well you do your keyword research. Blogs have a silo structure, and that is one thing that helps them to rank well; you want your directory to have the same kind of structure. Do not neglect any aspect of your site in terms of on page seo. If you are smart you will not overlook or ignore doing this because it will help your articles to rank better.
Syndication is a good thing, and you can use that to your benefit for content in your directory. You want to avoid problems with using published content, so be sure to read the terms of service for publishing. No matter what, use your own articles to the fullest extent within your directory for obvious reasons. However, if you do want to use syndicated content, then that is super simple to locate with searching. This is definitely an alternative you can use if you wanted to go that route. But it could be part of your initial strategy to jump start your own directory.
Managing duties, for a small or one person business, calls for you to do all the marketing activities. Promoting your site using only free advertising is probably the best way to go, but there are very many ways you can do that. You can use article marketing (of course), video marketing, blog commenting, guest blogging, press releases, search engine optimization, pay per click ads, social marketing, and others.
But also think about what you will be doing with most of those approaches. What you will also be doing is creating backlinks to your new article directory. Obviously that is what you want to do because you know the value of backlinking and SEO. The state of affairs in late 2010 is that there are no excuses for not creating and managing an article directory of your very own.
If this sounds like a great idea, all you have to do is search for the tools and make a start. This can be a viable, sustainable business if you're willing to focus on it and make it one of your goals.
SEO is critically important when you are building your article directory; therefore make your article categories appropriate for the right keywords. As you know, a good theme will help a lot; the site cannot be annoying to people in any way.
Your future results with ranking and organic traffic will be a result of how well you do your keyword research. Blogs have a silo structure, and that is one thing that helps them to rank well; you want your directory to have the same kind of structure. Do not neglect any aspect of your site in terms of on page seo. If you are smart you will not overlook or ignore doing this because it will help your articles to rank better.
Syndication is a good thing, and you can use that to your benefit for content in your directory. You want to avoid problems with using published content, so be sure to read the terms of service for publishing. No matter what, use your own articles to the fullest extent within your directory for obvious reasons. However, if you do want to use syndicated content, then that is super simple to locate with searching. This is definitely an alternative you can use if you wanted to go that route. But it could be part of your initial strategy to jump start your own directory.
Managing duties, for a small or one person business, calls for you to do all the marketing activities. Promoting your site using only free advertising is probably the best way to go, but there are very many ways you can do that. You can use article marketing (of course), video marketing, blog commenting, guest blogging, press releases, search engine optimization, pay per click ads, social marketing, and others.
But also think about what you will be doing with most of those approaches. What you will also be doing is creating backlinks to your new article directory. Obviously that is what you want to do because you know the value of backlinking and SEO. The state of affairs in late 2010 is that there are no excuses for not creating and managing an article directory of your very own.
If this sounds like a great idea, all you have to do is search for the tools and make a start. This can be a viable, sustainable business if you're willing to focus on it and make it one of your goals.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Benefits of Article Marketing
Article marketing is a traditional marketing procedure that has been successfully taken an advantage of by countless Internet marketers. In this article we will share some of the good things about article marketing and how it can be beneficial to you.
If you are a seasoned internet marketer you may know that articles can generate specific traffic to your site free of charge. But did you know you can also use this method to create income consistently driven to yourself? Using this method of marketing can indeed increase your cash flow if used in a proper manner.
There are many marketers involved with article marketing directly who make hundreds of thousands of dollars every year using articles to promote products and services. Some find it somewhat difficult to achieve while others find it easy it really depends on your level of committment. Using articles to promote a product/service and making money is not a new concept. It is however a different subject all together to get search engines to rank you high enough to send you the traffic you'll need to generate this kind of income.
This method is often called Bum Marketing as far as the net marketing world is concerned. It basically involves you to create articles that are targeted towards long keyword phrases that get low traffic but also have low competition. When you use targeted keywords it is much easier to direct traffic to one or more of your articles.
Articles can promote many different things. If your aren't sure what you are doing when you first start out it's a good idea to begin with an affiliate product that pays a good commission. Driving traffic via search engines can help get your own product off the ground and earning cash too. There are many opportunities for leveraging article marketing to bring in cash flow and this is one of them.
You must identify your niche's and use them to create targeted lists of potential customers. You can collect the email addresses of site visitors using squeeze pages or opt-in marketing techniques. In exchange of their email address, you can give away a bribe such as a free ebook, report, video, audio, etc.
If you want to succeed you are going to have to see the big picture and be unique. You might have to "give away the farm" to attract your audience and get them to stay. There is absolutely no better thing to do than build your own email list because it gives you the freedom to create a long term business.
Another advantage to writing many articles is that you gradually create your own library of content that is available to you. The article content belongs to you and you can use it anytime you want for any purpose. Your articles can, for example, be put together as ebooks or courses you can sell or give away at some point.
You can simply repackage the articles into a simple report that can be downloaded and read by your visitors or subscriber. Also give anyone who has access to your free report the right to give it away themselves, to have it spread around the net. This is a form of viral marketing that has the potential to get you free traffic well into the future.
By using article marketing, you'll be able to generate long term traffic without spending any money at all. It can help you grow your online business in a short amount of time if you use it the right way.
If you are a seasoned internet marketer you may know that articles can generate specific traffic to your site free of charge. But did you know you can also use this method to create income consistently driven to yourself? Using this method of marketing can indeed increase your cash flow if used in a proper manner.
There are many marketers involved with article marketing directly who make hundreds of thousands of dollars every year using articles to promote products and services. Some find it somewhat difficult to achieve while others find it easy it really depends on your level of committment. Using articles to promote a product/service and making money is not a new concept. It is however a different subject all together to get search engines to rank you high enough to send you the traffic you'll need to generate this kind of income.
This method is often called Bum Marketing as far as the net marketing world is concerned. It basically involves you to create articles that are targeted towards long keyword phrases that get low traffic but also have low competition. When you use targeted keywords it is much easier to direct traffic to one or more of your articles.
Articles can promote many different things. If your aren't sure what you are doing when you first start out it's a good idea to begin with an affiliate product that pays a good commission. Driving traffic via search engines can help get your own product off the ground and earning cash too. There are many opportunities for leveraging article marketing to bring in cash flow and this is one of them.
You must identify your niche's and use them to create targeted lists of potential customers. You can collect the email addresses of site visitors using squeeze pages or opt-in marketing techniques. In exchange of their email address, you can give away a bribe such as a free ebook, report, video, audio, etc.
If you want to succeed you are going to have to see the big picture and be unique. You might have to "give away the farm" to attract your audience and get them to stay. There is absolutely no better thing to do than build your own email list because it gives you the freedom to create a long term business.
Another advantage to writing many articles is that you gradually create your own library of content that is available to you. The article content belongs to you and you can use it anytime you want for any purpose. Your articles can, for example, be put together as ebooks or courses you can sell or give away at some point.
You can simply repackage the articles into a simple report that can be downloaded and read by your visitors or subscriber. Also give anyone who has access to your free report the right to give it away themselves, to have it spread around the net. This is a form of viral marketing that has the potential to get you free traffic well into the future.
By using article marketing, you'll be able to generate long term traffic without spending any money at all. It can help you grow your online business in a short amount of time if you use it the right way.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
3 Article Marketing Tips For Immediate Impact
Article marketing is definitely the most cost effective way to market your product/service online. In this article we will be discussing a few article marketing tips that will help you get the most out of your efforts.
A simple article marketing tip would be to compile all your written articles into an e-book or PDF report that you can give away for free. Along with other promotional strategies, this can be a great way to increase the amount of website traffic you get. This can be done without spending any money, it only takes a little ingenuity.
For example, if you have 50 articles written on "learning piano", you can easily create a 50 page report on "how to learn piano in 30 days" and divide it into sections. Giving away reports is a form of viral marketing that can bring you lots of free and targeted traffic for a long time. Make sure you give your readers "give away" or "distribution" rights, so that they can give away the report to their visitors or subscribers.
The more the report spreads around, the higher will be your chance of getting free traffic. Make sure you take the time to put together a high quality product so that people are motivated to re-send it. That's a lot better than letting your articles remain on your desktop. This is a marketing tactic that is easy to do and can bring you great results.
Always, always, proof read your articles before they go live. After you publish your content, or articles, then there'll be no more chances to fix it. It's not hard to do at all, just give the final draft a good going over a few times. Nothing is more unprofessional than having mistakes in your articles that will simply spoil the look and feel.
You can also get your articles professional proof-read for a small cost. If your friends are nice, then you can get them to proof read for you, as well. This is an important step, so make sure you don't forget it.
The use of bullet points can enhance the quality and effectiveness of your articles. Good bullet points actually help readers to get through your articles much faster which is desireable. When interested readers go through your articles, you want them to see a lot of white space and have the article divided into small paragraphs and bullet points.
Articles that make more sense due to increased organization will always get better results with the readers. Creating a professional impression on your reader is important, and when you have bullet points in your articles, your readers will feel satisfied.
As stated, article marketing is very cost effective and perfect for creating targeted traffic. You'll have to put the effort into it to see good results, but the results are there to be gotten if you want them.
A simple article marketing tip would be to compile all your written articles into an e-book or PDF report that you can give away for free. Along with other promotional strategies, this can be a great way to increase the amount of website traffic you get. This can be done without spending any money, it only takes a little ingenuity.
For example, if you have 50 articles written on "learning piano", you can easily create a 50 page report on "how to learn piano in 30 days" and divide it into sections. Giving away reports is a form of viral marketing that can bring you lots of free and targeted traffic for a long time. Make sure you give your readers "give away" or "distribution" rights, so that they can give away the report to their visitors or subscribers.
The more the report spreads around, the higher will be your chance of getting free traffic. Make sure you take the time to put together a high quality product so that people are motivated to re-send it. That's a lot better than letting your articles remain on your desktop. This is a marketing tactic that is easy to do and can bring you great results.
Always, always, proof read your articles before they go live. After you publish your content, or articles, then there'll be no more chances to fix it. It's not hard to do at all, just give the final draft a good going over a few times. Nothing is more unprofessional than having mistakes in your articles that will simply spoil the look and feel.
You can also get your articles professional proof-read for a small cost. If your friends are nice, then you can get them to proof read for you, as well. This is an important step, so make sure you don't forget it.
The use of bullet points can enhance the quality and effectiveness of your articles. Good bullet points actually help readers to get through your articles much faster which is desireable. When interested readers go through your articles, you want them to see a lot of white space and have the article divided into small paragraphs and bullet points.
Articles that make more sense due to increased organization will always get better results with the readers. Creating a professional impression on your reader is important, and when you have bullet points in your articles, your readers will feel satisfied.
As stated, article marketing is very cost effective and perfect for creating targeted traffic. You'll have to put the effort into it to see good results, but the results are there to be gotten if you want them.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)