Saturday, May 10, 2008

Article Marketing - A Simple Way to Write Fast Articles

Article marketing is attractive because it doesn't cost any money, it's easy to do, and it brings in traffic to your website immediately. The only downside is that it takes some work to consistently crank out high quality articles. The minute you stop submitting articles to the directories, your traffic begins to dry up.

That's why one of the most important things to learn in article marketing is how to write high quality articles fast. I have developed several different techniques for doing this, depending on the topic at hand. One of the best techniques I use is the "why, what, how, what if", because it works for every article.

First, let's consider why it works. It's a system. Just like you wouldn't build a house without a blueprint, you shouldn't write articles without having a guide to follow. This guide is simple:

1. Why - tell they why they need to know the information you're going to share in your article
2. What - tell them what they need to know and what is the most relevant aspects of the topic
3. How - tell them how to use your information. Give them exercises or a step-by-step action plan they can execute immediately after reading the article
4. What if - give them some hypothetical results they can expect to achieve by following your information

There are two killer reasons which makes the above outline so effective. The first reason is that I stole this outline from a book on learning styles. A Harvard professor found that we have one of four basic learning styles. 31% of people have a "why" learning style.

So if you don't tell someone why they need to know the information you're going to share with them, they can't comprehend it! In other words, they'll never act on it because they won't know why they should.

So not only is it a great way to knock out articles at high speeds, but it also makes sure you hit every learning style along the way.

One last secret - not only is this a great formula for articles, but it's a perfect formula for creating your own information products. And that's where the money is really at.

If you do article marketing, then you should download my report, "How to Write an Article in 7 Minutes". It shows you how to write a high quality 400 word article in 7 minutes or less, including proof reading and research.

It even works on topics you know nothing about! Click here to get it!

Amplify Your Article Marketing Efforts By Helping The Reader

Article marketing is a really great way to build an online business. If you have tried other methods like ppc or ezine advertising and still have not experienced any success I seriously suggest that you consider article marketing.

Let us first take a look at why this is such a great method of advertising your business. I think that the primary reason is that today with the increase in spam and advertising messages people are not as receptive to blatant advertising as before. Many years ago to be a top marketer all you needed to do was advertise your website using ppc. Today the ppc search engines are so competitive and it really is a lot more difficult to make a profit.

As the famous sales trainer Jeoffrey Gitomer once said people buy from people that they like, know and trust. With article marketing people are most likely to have read several of your articles before they click through to your website. This means that by the time that they click through to your site they already like, know and trust you. Consequently they are ready to buy from you. With other forms of marketing you need to do the hard work first.

Now the best way to maximize these results is to write articles where you help the reader. Share a slice of your expertise without giving the farm away. The more useful information that you give your reader the more likely that they will subscribe to your newsletter and become a paid customer. I find that 250 to 350 word articles work the best. This is so that they are short enough and do not get lost before they have an opportunity to click on my resource box.

Finally, make sure that you have your unique selling proposition in your resource box. This will be your 30 second elevator pitch that will make the reader want to click through to your website.

Are you really interested in driving massive traffic to your website?

Here's the answer:

Secrets Of Article Marketing - Download your free ebook now.

Mark Abrahams is a full time internet marketer who has helped others to earn a living online.

Article Marketing - How to Create a Resource Box That Makes Visitors Take Action

Your resource box is the only place in your article you can actively promote yourself and what you want to offer. Therefore give some thought to what action you want your reader to take and you will be handsomely rewarded.

Purpose of the article resource box

After providing valuable information in your article, your reader's mind will be well prepared for your offer at the end of the article. Your article is where you give free information that serves the needs of your customer. Your resource box is the only place where you are allowed to take something from them. This is a natural give and take scenario. If you have provided an excellent, value oriented article your visitor will be happy to respond to your offer.

Steps to create an effective article resource box

The resource box should only be a maximum length of 6 lines. If it is longer than that visitors may not make the effort to read it and move on.

1. Include your full name

Readers want to know who wrote the article so this is an opportunity to say who you are and why you are an authority on the subject (see resource box below). If you don't include your name you lose the chance of branding your name to your business and missing out on the chance of building your business reputation.

2. Include your web site address

Readers will check out your web site address to see what you are offering and what business you have. Make sure you write the whole address ie http://www.domain.com This not only helps your visitors to just copy and paste the address into their browser but most article directories will automatically make this a live link. If you don't write the complete address the link will not be live.

Tip

Use anchor text in your resource box. Most article directories allow you to include 2 web site addresses in the resource box. Display your full web site address

and also insert it in your anchor text to boost the link popularity to your web site.

3. Include your offer

The offer in your resource box should take them to your web site where you expand its promotion. Use 2-3 lines to promote your offer. Examples of different items you can include for the offer in the resource box are: free ebook, short report, e-course, or newsletter subscription.

Tip

The advantage of a newsletter subscription is that you can send multiple offers to the same person over a long period of time. People don't often respond the first time, so offering it several times allows them to make an informed decision. The downside of a one time offer is that you only get one chance to make your pitch.

4. Include a call to action

After pitching your offer, ask your reader to take action ie visit your web site and subscribe to your newsletter. Offering several calls to action will only confuse them and cause inaction through indecision. Keep your resource box simple so it's clear what you want them to do.

Tip

Apart from your main web site address, you may want to include the address to your subscription page or blog. This has the advantage of getting two inbound links to your web site instead of one.

Conclusion

Create several different resource boxes if you have different items you wish to promote. This will save time recreating your resource box for different article topics. Try to vary the anchor text for each resource box. Search engines frown upon people that use the same anchor text all the time.

Herman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW)
owner and author of Affordable Web Site Design

Receive fresh, in-depth articles articles on how
to design, optimize and promote your web site by subscribing
to his "Marketing Tips" newsletter at: http://www.isitebuild.com/

Article Marketing - The Hidden Key To Exploding Your Profits With A Zero Budget

Let me ask you a very important question. Are you maximizing your marketing efforts? The reason that I ask this is that this is the number 1 reason that most internet marketers fail online.

I remember when I first started online life was very rough. I really felt overwhelmed as there were so many different skills that I needed to learn. I learnt the hard way that I needed to track and test everything to see where I was getting the best return.

Let us look at how I use a proven system of marketing to build my business. I send all my traffic to a squeeze page where the main purpose is to capture the name and email address of my subscribers. After this has taken place I send my traffic to a high converting sales page where I make sales immediately. Then I follow up with my subscribers by building a relationship and backend promotions where I make most of my money.

So let us look at in forensic detail how I use article marketing to do this. I write keyword optimized articles and submit them to all the major article directories. I include a link to my squeeze page in my resource box. All the traffic that I get from the article directories will build my subscriber lists as they are sent to a squeeze page to download a free report.

This is a really simple system that works. Now the key to make this very profitable is to track and test everything. When I first started I was not making that much money. However, I tracked and tested everything I did. I found some offers that converted very well. I also consistently tweaked my sales pages to ensure that I get the maximum results from them.

Once you start implementing this in your business you will realize how simple internet marketing is.

Are you really interested in driving massive traffic to your website?

Here's the answer:

Secrets Of Article Marketing - Download your free ebook now.

Mark Abrahams is a full time internet marketer who has helped others to earn a living online.

Article Writing Methods that Grab Their Attention

One of the best ways to promote your business online is to write articles and distribute them to thousands of publishers across the internet. Publishers and website owners are constantly looking for good, original content for their websites, and chances are pretty good that if you've submitted your article to various article directories, that your article will be read and used in someone's newsletter or on their blog. This is a fantastic way to get the links to your website in front of the public's eye, which leads to clicks, which may lead to sales. This is why article writing is so important to your online business.

A good article should have a title that captivates those who see it. There are millions of articles circulating around the internet and posted in article directories, so you want to make sure that your title stands out from the rest and makes a reader want to click on it. The title should cover the main topic of the article, but it's also a good idea to include relevant keywords in the title that you use to promote your website. For example, if you have an article-based website, and one of the keyword phrases you use in your site's meta tags is "writing articles", then you should have the term "writing articles" in your title which will help it get picked up and indexed by the search engines.

I cannot over-state the importance of keywords when writing articles. It's great to sit down and write an article about anything and everything, but if you want your article to be easily found, you want to include good keywords throughout your article. What do I mean by "good keywords"? Good keywords are keywords that people use when they do a Google, or other search engine search to find what they are looking for. For example, "make money online" is a popular keyword phrase that people might type into the Google search box. If this is one of the keywords you are targeting, then it's a good idea to include this in your title and throughout your article.

However, if you want to avoid competition for over-popular terms such as this one, you may want to use a keyword research tool to choose keywords that get 5000-10000+ searches per month. "Money making ideas", for example, is popular, but not so competitive that you can't achieve a higher rank in the search engine listings if you use it in your title and throughout your articles. You can go even more specific than that and find lesser searched terms that you will have little competition for.

The introductory paragraph should include your chosen keywords at least once. Remember that you don't want to clutter up your article with your keywords just to get noticed by the search engines because those search engines will know what you're up to and it may backfire on you with the opposite results of what you expected. You don't want to get penalized for trying to get noticed! The main body of your articles should also have your keywords scattered throughout, and your concluding paragraph should again state your keywords once.

Article writing is not only about keywords. It's a great idea to write in a style that comes naturally to you, as if you were almost talking or telling your own story, in your own way. This is what really separates original articles from the rest. An easily flowing, conversational style of writing is best, which shows your own unique character. The articles written by ghostwriters may sound like they are generated by a machine rather than by a live person with personality. This may turn out looking more like duplicate content, which you definitely want to avoid.

Remember that the main elements of a good article are a captivating title, an introductory paragraph with good keywords and a bit of a teaser to make readers interested in reading more, a main body scattered with good keywords written in a conversational tone, and a concluding paragraph that includes your keywords once. If you can do all that in about 600 words, and write as many original articles as possible, you've found the key to promoting your business online!

About the Author: Liane Bate owns a Plugin Profit Site web business, and is a member of the International Association of Home Business Entrepreneurs (IAHBE). Visit: http://www.HonestMoneyMaking.com and HonestMoneyMaking.com's Home Business Blog