Article marketing is fast becoming the most popular form of online promotion in modern times. Gone are the methods when PPC ads and banner ads were all the rage; now websites are trying harder and harder to attract people with article marketing. Article marketing is also the most intelligent way of garnering traffic. The articles are generally written expertly, and that creates a very favorable impression in the mind of the reader about the author.
This increases the chances of the visitor coming on to the author's website and most likely doing some business. When the owner of a website attempts to use article marketing as the tool for promotion of his or her website, naturally the onus of the success of the scheme depends mostly on the article. Needless to say, the article must be so attractive that the person reading it must feel tempted to click on the backlink in the author's box below the article and visit the website. But with people of so many varied tastes, it is very difficult to work out a formula that would work for all.
Same is the case with a marketing article. You would think you have written the best article possible and it is sure to drive people in hordes to your website. But then, that may not happen at all. What goes wrong? The likely reason could be, your article does not find high appeal among the readers, though you may feel it is the best ever possible.
This is where the method of split testing can help in a very huge way to improve the quality of your marketing article. Split testing is a method of trial and error, where you find out what works best for your marketing article. What is Split Testing? Split testing is a method in which you test two options against each other, and find out which works the best. When you split test your marketing article, you are actually trying out two different options and trying to see which one of them will work in a better way for your website.
With marketing articles, you can split test the following things:- (i) The keyword used in the article (ii) The heading of the article (iii) The formatting of the article like bulleted lists versus running paragraphs etc. (iv) The lead and the closing paragraphs (v) The info provided in the bio box (vi) The call for action line, if any. How to use Split Testing to Improve Your Article Using split testing methods for an article does not require much skill. This is what you have to actually do. Let us suppose you have to test two keywords against each other and see which works better for your article. For example, your keywords could be 'dental works in Oklahoma' versus 'Oklahoma dental works'. So, you will make two articles, which are identical in all respects, except the keywords.
Now put up the first version of your article (let's call it A) on half your article directories and the other article (B) on the other half of your article directories. Then you track which of the articles brings more click through traffic to your website. There are tracker softwares available for this tracking process. The end result is, you come to know which keyword has actually brought in more traffic.
You will then discard the poor keyword and retain the strong one. If you now wish, you can split test the strong keyword with another option, and again see which works better. This process can be kept endless and you can always keep searching for better options. Once you have checked for the best keyword, you can start checking out for other aspects of your article, and make it more and more appealing to get in better traffic.
1 - First and foremost increase your opt-in list by giving away a product at no cost. Just require your visitors to subscribe to your e-zine or news-letter in exchange. There are many e-zines offering freebies for opt-ins. Make sure your gift has some value and of interest to your subscribers.
2 - Include great, relevant content and free items on your website that promote the product or services you are selling. For example if you are offering free articles, include your add in the middle or the end of the articles.
3 - You want multiple streams of income from your site. You could sell your own products. Join affiliate programs and sell those, sell advertising space etc. For example offer a free e-zine and sell advertising in it. Sell your own product and follow up with back end products of your own or again affiliate product that are in your niche.
4 - Create urgency for a product or offer, you want buyers to buy now. Tell buyers your offer will not be available again. You can always sell that product again with bonuses or a special priced package. Plus you can put a limit on the actual number of products for sale.
5 - After your customers order take to a thank you page and sell your backend products there. For example if you sell make-up you could sell perfume as a backend product. Or another example sell track-suits on the front end and track suits from your thank you page.
6 - Sign up to win some website awards. After you win some awards, most of these sites will publish a link to your site. The tell visitors to your site about the awards you have won. For example here are the awards we have won in the past(number) of years.
7 - You can improve your business by using visitor or customers feed back, good or bad. Ask for their comments good on bad, or ask questions like How can we improve our products or website.
8 - Use great packing for your products, use colors and lettering that makes your offering more attractive to customers and visitors. For example make sure everything is easy to read.
9 - Allie your business with other businesses, trade links, do joint ventures to cross promote your products etc. For example if you sell coffee, create a package deal with a site that sells coffee mugs of coffee makers.
10 - Design your site to be a targeted portal and resource. Choose one niche and build it from there you will gain repeat visitors and customers who are interested in that niche. You can create a more targeted, loyal and repeat visitors by keeping your topic unique and specific.
11 - Give something free to visitors to entice them to link to your site. This will increase your ranking in some of the Search Engines. Give them a relevant e-book or allow them to use your articles on their site or e-zine as long as you get that back link.
12 - End your ad copy with a powerful guarantee. Give them a lifetime or double-your-money-back guarantee. Try to make your guarantee sound personal and has specific information. For example you could say I personallu guarantee you will solve this problem 99.9% of the time or your money back.
13 - Always try to invest a portion of your income back into your business. For example 10% for advertising, or a percentage for product development, improve your customer support etc. Keep improving all aspects of your business.
14 - When advertising use a call to action with banners, text ads etc. Examples of this are animated banners or text with the likes of Visit Now, Click Here Now, Don't Miss this Once in a life deal and so on.
15 - If your banner ads are not pulling visitors, use text ads. People do not ignore text like they do banners. Make your text links work like Headlines from a sales letter. For example FREE., How To do it, Warning.. etc.
16 - Add a chat room or a message board to your site. Your visitors that enjoy these things will return often and become more active. They can then ask questions or help other visitors to the site.
17 - Ask your visitors to invite their own members or visitors to use your message board if they do not have one of their own. Allow people to sign up for a free website using your server as long as your banner is present.
18 - Turn your ads into a story or How to articles, people are more likely to continue reading your copy if you do this. People love stories, tall tales and humor, use these in your marketing and copy.
19 - Design your site just for your visitors, put yourself in their shoes. Create your products around your visitors not just because you would buy the product or service. Think about how people are thinking or feeling when they find your site and help them with your copy to realise the benefits of your product or service and how it will solve their problem.
20 - Use problems to attract visitors and traffic to your site. Find a common problem on the internet and use your site to solve it for your visitors. Example; How to use an autoresponder to automate your business and marketing.
Both Sachin King & Jack Phillips are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Sachin King has sinced written about articles on various topics from Finances, Recreation and Sports and Internet Marketing. Did you find this article useful? For more useful tips & hints, Points to ponder and keep in mind, techniques & insights pertaining to article marketing, Do please browse for more information at our website :-. Sachin King's top article generates over 8100 views. to your Favourites.
Jack Phillips has sinced written about articles on various topics from Fishing, Internet Marketing and Fishing. Jack Phillips is the owner and webmaster for the site Lively Net Solutions a site for solutions and how to it help for everything from A to Z.. Jack Phillips's top article generates over 2900 views. to your Favourites.