By writing articles, you're establishing yourself as an authority in your field and creating a positive feedback loop which, in turn, will drive more traffic to your website.
Follow this three step process to start your article marketing strategy.
Step 1: Research and Write Your Article
The obvious first step is to write your article. Before you turn on your computer and open your favorite work processor, you should spend time planning your article. If you begin typing without any planning, you probably won't get very far.
You need to brainstorm at least 10 different topics, all relating to your website. You will develop these 10 topics into 10 separate articles.
Once you have your 10 topics, you'll write one article, 400 to 500 words in length, about each one. Each topic should differ enough to allow you to reach the minimum word count. The topics should be related and easily tied together, but they need to be sufficiently different.
Since you're writing articles that will be posted to other websites, make sure that you use shorter sentences and shorter paragraphs. Most people on the web will skim the article looking for main points.
Your title should speak directly to the main content. They don't have to be cute, fancy, or obsessively creative. In fact, you can actually mislead readers if your title is too creative.
Use your main keywords with a quick synopsis of what the article is about (e.g. High Top Shoes ? Choosing the Right Pair for Your Sport). Simple, direct, and to the point, that's all you need.
Once you have your article written, it's time to add your resource box
Step 2: Add a Resource Box for Impact
You need to develop a persuasive resource box that makes its point clearly with a strong call to action. In order to do that, you need to ask yourself these questions:
1. Why should or would the reader of this article click on my link?
2. Would I click on this link?
3. Does the article compel me to seek further information or take action?
4. If I wouldn't click on the link, why would anyone else?
A five to six line resource box is not unheard of, but a resource box of three to four lines is most generally well received and very successful.
You must give the reader a reason to click your link without sounding like a sales pitch. So, forget the "buy one get one free" offers and the "limited time only" jargon. Just compel the reader with facts and tried not to sound like a salesman.
One critical and often overlooked point is your hyperlink. Make sure that your link's anchor text includes the keywords that you want to be ranked for in the search engines. Don't use your personal name or website URL unless those are the terms you want to get ranked for.
Also, make sure the link is functioning correctly and is pointing to the correct page you're promoting. I see this mistake all the time; you click on a link and get a 404 page not found error. That's not a good way to make a first impression.
Last but not least, proofread the article. My own technique is to write the article, do a cursory check, then a second check. I do one last proof a day later. I'm amazed at how many mistakes I catch by waiting another day before I start the promotion process.
Step 3: Promote Your Articles
I prefer to write all my articles at once and then promote. You may want to write one article and jump to the promotion right away. You'll have to determine for yourself which way you like best. Either way works fine.
Now that you've written your articles, applied your formatting, finished your proofreading and added your resource box, it's time to start promoting.
There are several places you can start promoting your articles:
1. Article submission sites and directories
2. E-mail announcement lists
3. Ezine publishers and webmasters that share your target audience
4. Submitting your article to high page rank and high ranking websites
Another great way to promote your articles is to package and distribute them by bundling them according to popularity and creating a free e-book, report, or course. You can set up an autoresponder on your website where visitors can sign up and receive your e-book as a free download. Encourage them to distribute the ebook freely.
Get out there and promote your ebook on other sites. Push it around. Get it into the hands of as many people as possible.
Article Marketing - An Effective Strategy
Writing and promoting articles is an effective way to get high quality back links to your website. When you write an article and include a link back to your site, you're getting a link from a sight without the requirement to link back to that same website. Hence, you're getting a one way link. The article also serves as a PR or marketing vehicle for your site. The article is serving "double duty". You're not only getting one way back links, you're also getting visitors who click through your article's links.
If you take your time, do your research, and write good, quality informational articles, you will be on your way to higher search engine rankings and more sales. I can guarantee it!
Then he joined a much 'smaller' organization - only $400 million a year in sales but growing steadily. And his expense account was ... let's call it "reined in." He was told to put his time into building relationships by phone and in meetings, with an occasional meal in a 'normal' restaurant.
Have you ever had the experience of being absolutely positively completely certain about something? Your idea, your opinion, your experience - all telling you that you 'know'?
I mean so certain that no matter what other information was offered to you, you couldn't conceive of any other perspective or position on the matter?
Well Gary went ballistic. He knew, for a fact, that "You can't do business development that way!"
He spent then next three years constantly at odds with the rest of management, complaining about how 'impossible' the company was making for him to develop business. He didn't grow the business at all in four years. And he finally left the organization.
His replacement, Dan, came in with less experience in the industry, a milder manner and a curiosity for what might work. And guess what? Dan brought in double the record in new business in half the time. The difference? Dan wondered how the company could accomplish its marketing more productively, and came up with new answers. And new results.
Sometimes we get stuck seeing a situation or event from a very narrow point of view. I know I got so intensely focused on how much had to be accomplished to bring all of you a valuable experience in the 2007 Success TeleConference that I spent hours trying to solve something that felt complex. Suggestions? I didn't want them! I was already absorbed viewing it one-way inside my own "Certainty Bubble."
You could probably name some situation where you're so immersed in a process that even when a friend or colleague tries to propose another approach to take they barely got the description out before you shut them down with "That won't work!"
Your breath is short, your body is tense, your impatience and annoyance have you taut as a bowstring as you arm yourself against anyone arguing about or contradicting what you're absolutely certain of.
How do I know that? I've been there too! Just reading all of that has my muscles tensing up.
Over the years I've found that EVERYONE is susceptible to being absolutely certain. That attitude blocks us from seeing the wealth of possible alternatives. We keep a solid wall in place that stops even the slightest of 'different' points of view from creeping in. We move our bodies around all day, but our attitudes are nailed down and unmoving.
The point is to not let your current point of view stop you. Many of the alternatives we refuse to see have a greater potential for creating our desired success than the one we're holding onto for dear life. Sure enough, when I step back and get distance I discover that there's a quick and simple solution or alternative I couldn't see. And my clients discover the same thing for themselves. So here's
High Payoff Technique for Bursting the Certainty Bubble and Shifting Perspectives - "Widen Your View"
There are several techniques that I use with clients (and myself) when that self-created 'stall out' becomes apparent. One of my favorites is "Widen Your View."
Imagine yourself in a movie theater, standing with your nose on the screen, thinking that the story you see in front of you is absolutely all there is to see. In fact you're only 'seeing' perhaps ten square inches immediately before you, if your eyes can even focus at that point. By being so close to what you're viewing you're missing every other piece of information, in every direction.
The Widen Your View approach is used to shift your perspective about the situation much like taking steps back from the screen and getting a broader view of the movie you're living. One step at a time, step 'back' from your view of the situation and deliberately use the phrase "I wonder..." For Dan the questions were:
"I wonder what it could be like to do business development without taking people out for meals?"
"I wonder what I could send to a client to interest them in a solution for their business?
"I wonder what 10 ideas I could come up with that no one else is doing for them?"
Step by step. One step back and one question. Then another and another. All the way back until you become an observer with a wide field of view and the 'screen' shrinks and 'reality' becomes a picture of a situation outside of yourself. The further you step, the less personal the 'movie' will feel. And a greater number of alternative ways you can consider it become available to you.
Now imagine what might be offered if you brought a team together and posed those questions to the entire group.
From this new attitude of wondering, interesting things begin to show up. When I use it, people around me 'suddenly' have all kinds of great ideas. Magazine articles have idea after idea that I can adapt to use in my own business. And for my clients? Well the results speak for themselves - new possibilities, new approaches, new accelerated results.
If you'll Widen Your View, you'll notice new ways of approaching each of your current situations and of solving issues that seem like obstacles as well.
Both Jerret Turner & Linda Feinholz 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.
Jerret Turner has sinced written about articles on various topics from Writing, Computers and The Internet and Advertising Guide. of our Simple Internet Business Plan. Net $200+ per day in 1 year or less. Solid. Jerret Turner's top article generates over 40500 views. to your Favourites.
Linda Feinholz has sinced written about articles on various topics from Education Toys, Small Business and Your Online Business. ? 2008 Linda Feinholz Management expert, consultant, and coach Linda Feinholz is "Your High Payoff Catalyst" and publishes the free weekly newsletter. Linda Feinholz's top article generates over 14800 views. to your Favourites.