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.

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.

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.