Now that you’ve begun writing articles and submitting them to the article directories, it’s time for you to start promoting them. Even though it’s a good thing that you’ve got your marketing articles scattered around the web for others to read, to get the most of out of your marketing efforts, you must also promote. There are five simple steps you can take to ensure you get more exposure for your articles:

1. Tweet!  - It’s easier than ever to let people know when you’ve posted a new article, simply by tweeting the link to your followers on Twitter. If the post really rocks, then there’s a good chance it will get retweeted by your followers. Keep your tweet short and sweet, the topic and the link will work just fine. Also, keep the characters below 120 so people have room to retweet your message without it getting cut off.

2. Post Articles To Your Blog – When posting to your blog, post a snippet of the article you wish to promote and not the full article. For example, “If you liked this blog post on driving more traffic to your site, be sure to check out: “How to Increase Blog Traffic in 3 Easy Steps!”, and then link to the page.

3. Article Reprint Page – Create a separate page on your blog or website, and include articles there with permission to reprint. Then, link to the reprint page from the main page with a sentence saying: “Want more information on increasing traffic to your site, or would you like to reprint my articles on your site? Click here for more information.” Then include links to all your articles, as well as information of how people who are interested in using your material can contact you for more information.

4. Article Linking – Tell your readers about additional information you have available as often as possible. This is another good reason to have multiple marketing articles out on the web – you can mention one in your newsletter, another on your Facebook page, another in your signature line with your emails, another in forums, and so on. When you create targeted, relevant content, people will take notice and seek you out!

5. Republish Content – Once you’ve published 10 or more articles on a similar topic, edit them to flow from one to the next, then combine them into an e-book or a special report. Again, add additional information so it transitions well, or “bridge the gap” so to speak, and use and site your resources well.  Once you’ve finished, you’ve got an instant info product you can either give away or sell!

Writing articles and submitting them to the directories is just the beginning of increasing your online exposure. Think from your potential readers point of view, and about how they would like the information you’ve written, and of how you can get it to them. Done correctly, and you’re well on your way to creating a steady stream of traffic to your web site…FREE!

Hope you’ve enjoyed this post, until next time…

Blessings to you and yours!

James

To all writers and non-writers alike, now is the time to dig up those previously buried creative writing skills! Along with the communication technology explosion, not to mention what’s happening in the web 2.0 world, came the ever increasing demand for information-based marketing content. Which, by the way, is one of the oldest and most effective techniques in getting targeted prospects to sites and converting them into buyers.

This is why we’ve seen an exponential, almost overwhelming, increase in demand for article writers, article submissions and publications.  Currently, there is a smorgasbord of tools and services from which to choose to make the process of distributing articles more easily. Though this is invaluable in getting the contents more exposure, it is only one half of the story.
Let us take a look first at the common mistakes that some people make before submitting their contents to article directories.  I have included 3 here for the purpose of this post:

1. Confusing the reason to promote the articles with the reason to write them.

In article writing, there are three key benefits why you are promoting them; branding, lead generation and promotion, which are all part of your optimization efforts.

But there is only one reason why you write an article, and that is to inform your audience. If the article is not focused on this primary and most important purpose, it will fail to achieve the three promotion benefits because no one will be interested in reading them. You must determine first how to get people to read what is in your article, then make them click on your resource box. You can achieve this by producing better contents.

2. Failing to maximize the promotional opportunities of article marketing.

You may know already that your articles can help you generate additional links back to your site. But do you know that you can get more visitors and better search engine results from those same articles?

This may appear obvious to some, but often times people fail to mention keywords at strategic places within their articles. Just be sure not to overdo them, or you’ll do more harm than good! Likewise, many writers use anchor texts which is also an effective method. But it is important to know, that even today many of the directories are not able to support this.

Remember that is not only about the links back to your site. Part of doing well in your article marketing is getting picked up by publishers with a large number of audiences and gaining the ability of leveraging other brands because of the quality of your work. Better search engine results also are great benefits.

But these things do not put much money in your pocket. There are other factors that can turn your article marketing efforts into an opportunity that can boost your earnings. Not just increase the number of visitors to your site. Start out with a plan and see to it that your article will serve the function that you intended it to have.  You’d be surprised how may writers get “caught up” in the process, and forget why they are writing the article to begin with.   Which reason is?

3. Publishing content that does not help your readers.

This may seem like a “no-brainer’ to some, but not to those who write articles simply for creating traffic.

Maybe in the process of writing articles, you are thinking that all you wanted is links back to your site. And any visitors it can generate are fine.  Guess what? Not all article banks and directories are going to accept your content automatically. More often than not, they have some guidelines and specifications on the articles that they are accepting.  If not, then they are more than likely not worth your time and effort to submit to!

Listen, you can double the number of sites you can submit to by writing articles that the directories want to share with other people. All it takes is one publisher with a hundred thousand readers to increase your potential audience overnight. Write the articles that publishers want in their publications if you want your article marketing to work the most effective way for you.  Look at your article writing from the directories perspective, and not just your own.

This also means you have to obey the standard guidelines, spell checks, researching on a good topic and even hiring a writer to produce a good content on your behalf.  In the end, it is all really a matter of choice on your part. You can start getting a little exposure from increased links back, but on a very basic level. Or enjoy massive exposure from a little extra time making quality contents. It will be your choice.

You may not be aware of the fact that, an article submitted on directories is not meant to have the same level of exposure as highly-targeted content ones geared on a narrow group of people.  Learn the difference between these two and it will surely help you know what kinds of articles to write and to submit.

And remember,

“Do What Works!”

James

When it comes to writing articles, there is unlimited subjects that you can choose to write about. However, in order for your articles to achieve the best results, your articles must address the needs of your audience. For instance, if your online business targets stay-at-home moms, who want to start a work-at-home business, then you’ll want to write articles that illustrate your expertise in this area.

By targeting your readers interests and solving their problems, your readers are more likely to click on the link in your resource box once they’re finished reading your article.  For example, writing articles for parrot lovers when your target market is work-at-home moms who want to make money working from home makes no sense. If you want to get the best results from your article writing efforts, then stay on topic and add something of.

Perhaps one of the best explanations I’ve heard on writing articles was by Jimmy D. Brown, who coined the term “Useful But Incomplete”.  What Jimmy meant by this, was that your articles must be “useful” to your readers - but at the same time - “incomplete” in that they should leave your reader hungry for more information from you. This is why your resource box is so important, it is your readers link to you and… more great information!

Another key ingredient to writing successful articles is Quality. Listen, anyone can throw together a couple of sentences, combine a few paragraphs, and then paste on a resource box and call it an article. However, this “slop & drop” writing method is not very likely to produce the results you seek. Quality content is the key to your success as an article writer.

Online article directories can be some of the best examples of poorly written articles. Inferior article directories are crammed full of junk articles, many of which have been written by writers who are not native to the country they are writing for. If writers aren’t familiar with the language and customs, and who may not understand proper grammar or sentence structure, are doing more harm than good for themselves and to the article directories to which they post. Using such shoddy marketing methods will not help your article marketing efforts, and will likely brand you as unprofessional and harm your reputation as a online business owner.

Most editors in search of quality content would rather look to an expert on EzineArticles.com or LadyPens.com with only 10 high-quality articles, than one with 500 garbage articles. When editors and readers see garbage articles, they automatically assume that everything else that person does is garbage. This is NOT a great way to build a business!

When you provide well-written, relevant and quality content that provides your reader an answer to their question, or gain new insight and understanding of a subject they’re interested in, you’ll establish yourself as an expert and advance your article marketing efforts, and your online business. Like Grandma always said: “Son, if you’re gonna do something, you may just as well do it right the first time.”

Until next time,

Blessings to you and yours!

James

If you’re writing articles to increase traffic, but not finding any success in doing so, you might not be doing it correctly. Almost anyone can write articles, but writing ones that drive targeted traffic to your website is the challenge. How do you interest potential customers in what you have to say? And, once they are interested in your article, how do you drive them to your site and possibly convert them into customers? The following are some tips that will help you to master the art of article marketing.

(1) Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. What information about your product or service would be helpful to your customers? If you were your customer, what types of things would you want to learn? Write about those things. Answering frequently asked questions, or solving problems that your target market is likely to have, will make you look like an expert in the eyes of your reader, and people are more likely to buy from someone they view as an expert in their field.

(2) Find the keywords that your clients will likely search for when looking for information on your product or service. Even if your website doesn’t rank well with the search engines, an article that makes good use of keywords might. Be sure that your keywords appear frequently in your article without reducing the quality of the writing.

(3) Don’t misspell or misuse words. Use a spellchecker and a dictionary. In particular, watch for frequently misused words that might not get picked up by a checker, such as “there” versus “their”, and “then” versus “than”. An article that is littered with misspelled or misplaced words will not look professional and this will reflect on you. If there are multiple mistakes within an article, readers will view it as poor quality and will not value its content, even if it contains high caliber information. Also, a well written article is much more likely to be picked up by individuals looking for quality content for their ezines and newsletters that could potentially be sent out to hundreds or even thousands of readers.

(4) Have someone proofread your articles. Proofreading your own articles simply is not enough. Often you miss typos and errors because your mind knows what is supposed to be written, and thus overlooks mistakes. Have a trusted friend or colleague proofread your article and ask them for feedback. They may be able to point out things that you haven’t made clear, or things that you hadn’t thought of mentioning. If you don’t know anyone willing to take on this task, consider outsourcing. Many Virtual Assistants offer proofreading and editing as a service.

(5) Use a thesaurus. Frequently repeating the same words throughout your article will make it seem as though little thought or effort went into its creation. You don’t have to litter an article with big words in order to sound intelligent, in fact the easier the article is to read, the better, but at the same time, it shouldn’t be dull. Repeating the same words again and again simply makes for a monotonous read.

(6) Practice makes perfect. The more you write, the easier it becomes and before you know it, the words will flow.

Using some or all of the above advice, almost anyone can find success through article marketing. A well written and informative article will drive highly targeted traffic to your website. Combine these simple steps with your expertise and you will be capable of creating articles that get noticed.

When it comes to writing articles, there are many bloggers who simply dread the thought of it. Some blog owners believe they simply have nothing to say that someone else would actually take time to read; while still others think it’s just wasted time and effort. To be truthful, the purpose of your article is to be read by someone who will benefit from its contents, if it doesn’t get read, then it is a big waste of time and effort.

But like it or not, articles do have to be written to be read. It’s simply a matter of making them better so people will read them. Writing good articles doesn’t have to be difficult if you don’t want it to be, once you’ve mastered a few article writing fundamentals, you’ll just keep getting better and better. To help you get started, let me share the following article writing tips with you.

First off, it’s so much easier to write articles if it’s a subject or topic that you know something about.  As a blog owner, you’re obviously interested in something or you wouldn’t have taken the time and effort to setup a blog.  Unless of course you set it up simply because you heard that was all you had to do to get rich online (If this is the case, then someone lied to you big time!)

When you write about something you know, or actively learning and have a great deal of interest in like - make money online using blogs – you won’t have such a hard time writing articles.  Also, don’t make the mistake of thinking that just because you may not know everything their is to know about a particular subject or topic, that somehow others know more about it then you do…

This is not true!

More often than not, we usually know more than we think we do; and you would be surprised who’s willing and ready to pay for that knowledge. So quit thinking about what you may not know, and focus instead on what you do know.  Now, to make sure that your articles are information packed, interesting and get read, here’s a few more article writing tips:

Use short paragraphs – If your paragraphs are very long, the words get jumbled in the mind of the reader just looking at it. It gets confusing and requires too much work to continue reading. Your reader will quickly disregard the paragraph, and move on to something easier to read. Paragraphs can be a single sentence, or phrase. Such as: This is not true! - see above.

Make use of numbers or bullets – As each point is stressed out, numbers and bullets can quickly make the point easy to remember and digest. As each point, tip, guide or method is started with a bullet or point, readers will know that this is where the tips start and getting stressed. Format you bullets and numbers with indentations so that your4 article won’t look like a single block of square paragraphs. Add a little bit of flair and ‘pizazz’ to your articles shape.

Use Sub-headings to sub-divide your paragraphs in the page – Doing this will break each point into sections but still would be incorporated into one whole article. It would also be easy for the reader to move on from one point to another; the transition would be smooth and easy. You will never lose your readers attention as well as the point and direction to where the article is pointing.

Provide a good attention-grabbing title or header – If your title can entice a person’s curiosity you’re already halfway in getting a person to read your article. Use statements and questions that utilize keywords that people are looking for. Provide titles or headers that describe your articles content but should also be short and concise.

Use titles like:

“Secrets To Getting That Special Someone To Notice You!”, or

“The One Word That Stops Buyers In Their Tracks!”

You could also use titles that can command people, for example:

“Make Your Readers Sit Up And Take Notice Of Your Blog In 3 Easy Steps!”

These types of titles reach out to a persons’ emotions and makes them interested…

• Keep them interested from the start to the finish – From your opening paragraph, use real life situations that can be adopted by the reader. Use good descriptions and metaphors to drive in your point, just don’t over do it. Driving your examples with graphic metaphors and similes would make it easy for them to imagine what you are talking about. Making the experience pleasurable and enjoyable for them.
• Utilize figures when necessary and not just ordinary and insipid statements – Using specific facts and figures can heighten your article because it makes it authoritative. But do not make it too formal, it should be light and easy in them and flow. Like a friendly teacher having a little chat with an eager student.

Put these article writing tips to use in your blog posts and article submissions today. Don’t wait until tomorrow, take out a clean sheet of paper (YES, pencil and paper, not Word or Notepad) and start writing about something you know something about. Don’t think about the “processes” for now, just pick something you know about and start writing as if you were sitting across the table from me and telling me about it.

Also, if you wish, get a tape recorder – did I just give away my age? – and start talking to someone about a subject you know; and after you’ve finished, transcribe the notes and look at it. Here’s what you will notice. What you’ve transcribed is not much different that what you would write in an article or blog post. Unless of course you’re “country” like me, and then you would have to clean it up a little bit more

Listen, quit over-thinking this whole article writing thingy and just get with it…

Now go and write something great!

Until next time,

Blessings to you and yours!

James

By now, most everyone has heard of article marketing. Unfortunately, so many people define it in so many ways, that it has become difficult for people new to article marketing to understand. First of all, most of the SEO Gurus caught on to article marketing late in the game. Therefore, many of them scrambled to create their own definitions of it at the last-minute, so that it didn’t appear they were unaware of the power of article marketing to start.

Now, let’s go on to the myths and facts about article marketing.

In general, article marketing is where you write an article on a topic that is related to your website topic. Not a promotional article for your website, but an article about something that is informative to the reader. In the article you use keywords and phrases that relate to your topic as well, much like you would optimize a webpage. Your article when reprinted will be the text of a webpage or webpages.

In the author bio section at the bottom is some info about you and links to your website. It’s suggested that you put in one link to your main page and one to an interior page that fits the article you are writing.

If your article is submitted to websites that take article submissions and offers free content to webmasters, then webmasters choose to re-post your article on their websites, the links in the author bio section become links from their websites to your website.

MYTH: Article marketing doesn’t really help you all that much.

FACT: Article Marketing can help you increase your link popularity and be a source of some of the most targeted traffic you can get.

MYTH: Reprinted Articles only get indexed as supplemental pages, therefore it doesn’t help enough to make it worthwhile.

FACT: Depending on where the article gets submitted to, the article itself can get a top 10 listing in major search engines and not as a supplemental page.

MYTH: Submitting your article everywhere creates duplicate content and the search engines will punish or discount those pages as a result.

FACT: If search engines punished duplicate content in the way that myth suggests then all rss feeds that cause a post in a blog to be reproduced to be discounted or published and they are not. The New York Times articles and CNN stuff is blasted all over the web and are not punished or discounted.

Duplicate content is two webpages that are around 70% similar, not two webpages that have similar text on them.

MYTH: The only way article marketing works is you write an article then submit it to thousands of article submission websites.

FACT: There is more than one way to make article marketing work for you. The way mentioned above works okay if you are looking to get a lot of links back to your website whether they are related or not and can be effective if you currently have very little or no link popularity at all.

Another way is to hand submit your article to article submission websites that only accept articles related to your topic. This is more difficult but the links help you more just through the submissions and it’s more likely that the websites that pick up and re-post your article will be also related to your topic which can help you with better links and targeted traffic.

Yet another way is to write a very high quality article that you really take your time on and research. You then choose a very high traffic website related to your topic. One that has great PR and a lot of visitors.

Email them your article and offer them an exclusive if they will print your article with your links included in the bio. If your article is of good quality and they get an exclusive you have a good chance they will post your article there.

This one posting of your article can be more powerful than the mass submitted article method if you choose the website you submit it to carefully.

Last but not least, posting your article exclusively on your own website is a great way to add fresh content and if the article is good, people will link directly to the article increasing both traffic and PR for your webpage where you posted the article. But for this to work you need to already have some traffic to work with.

MYTH: You should always post your article in your website first, then wait to get crawled by the search engines before submitting the article elsewhere.

FACT: Adding articles to your own website is called adding content. Submitting those articles to other websites is called article marketing. With article marketing you don’t want the article indexed on your website first.

Yes you read that right. You do not want the article indexed on your website first. You are, or should already be doing, SEO on your website and adding fresh content to your website for the search engines to get traffic from them.
Submitting articles to other websites and having the search engines find it there first gives another gateway that people can find your website through.

If the websites that you submitted your articles to get crawled often, then having your article appear there with the links intact will get your website crawled as well. If the websites you submitted your article to are getting indexed well by the search engines, then your article being found on their website first might get it in the top 10 results. Placing it into your own website with no or low PR might not have gotten the article indexed at all.

I hope this article will clear up some of the myths about article marketing and that it has helped you understand how and why it works. Check back often for updates, and for more of what you need to succeed online.

Over the past several years, more and more people have learned the power of Search Engine Optimization.  Therefore, more sites are seeing the positive effects articles have done for traffic coming to their sites. Some online marketers have gone as far as to create sites devoted entirely to providing articles that could be read by their website visitors. These articles have links that could lead to many sites that are related to the topics and subjects of the articles, helping to increase web site traffic and sales.

For example, the sites may feature many articles about a whole lot of topics. As a website visitor reads the articles they have searched for, they can find at the end of the article a resource box that can be clicked on to link them to the site that has submitted the article. Of course the article would be in relation to the site. Lets say if the article is about rotating the tires, the resource box may lead to a link to a site that sells tires or car parts.

A resource box is what you usually find at the end of an article. They will contain the name of the author, a brief description of the author, a brief description of the sponsoring site and a link. If a reader likes what they read, they would have the tendency to find out where the article came from to read more. The resource bow will be their link to the source of the article and this will entice them to go to the site and do some more reading or research for the subject or topic they are interested in.

But like the article itself, the resource box must also be eye-catching to demand the attention and interest of the reader. While the resource bow encompasses only a small space, providing the right keywords and content for your resource box will provide more prodding for the reader to go to your site.

Now we know what resource boxes are, what are the benefits of having a good resource box? Mainly its driving traffic to your site. Many sites would allow articles to be placed in their sites because they can make use of the articles to fill their pages. They also get affiliation with other sites that can be beneficial for them as well. For the sponsoring site, when you get people to click on your resource box, you generate traffic that can be counted upon as potential customers.

So what would be a good content for your resource box? Basically it is keywords, learning about the proper keywords that people are mainly searching for. There are many tools you can find in the Internet that can help you in determining what keywords to use.

Resource boxes can also make use of all the creativity it can get. You only get a small space for your resource box so you better make the most of it. Try to catch the attention of your reader with resource box content that can make them give a second look. Unlike TV ads, you don’t have visual aids to drive your point in. But you do have the power of imagination of a reader. With the right content, you can make them think and intrigued.

Another tip is to use keywords that should be related to your site. Do not mislead your potential website visitors. Build your credibility so that more people would get enticed to visit your site and browse what you have to offer. Make the people click your resource box by providing resource box content that makes a lasting impression. You only get one chance to wow them and hundreds of chances to repulse them.

Never underestimate the power of the resource box. It may be small in size but they will provide a significant aid in driving traffic to your site. A boring resource box will never get a job done. Be fun and creative but at the same time show that you have a great deal to offer, too much to ask for something that couldn’t fit a paragraph? Yes and no, there are many tips and guides that can help you in doing this, the first step is realizing how important a resource box could be in making people click your link and be directed to your site.

Until next time,

Godspeed,

James

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