If you want to understand how to be successful online, study those who are already successful, and gain an understanding of “what they do” and “why they do what they do…” Then mirror their actions…
I have been very successful using Article Marketing to promote my online businesses, since early 2000…
I have written and distributed many articles that went on to generate sales in the five figures… But for the sake of the FTC, “Very few people will make this kind of money with Article Marketing…”
If you understand the “how and why” of writing great articles, perhaps you can generate more sales from your articles than I have from mine… But if you miss the point of this article, you are likely to never make any money at all with article marketing…
There Are Five Essential Elements of Successful Article Marketing:
1. Title – Many people suggest that you should put your top keywords at the front of your article title, but I don’t subscribe to that methodology. I do include my target keywords in the title, when I can, but an article that is well-optimized for the search engines is worthless if it does not get published… The #1 goal of your articles’ title is to get the article opened!! You must present a title that is going to get the attention of publishers and readers; you must present a title that is going to compel a person to at least open your article to see if they will want to read it…
2. Opening Paragraph – The title got your article opened, but now you need your reader to read the article… Tell your reader why they should keep reading your article and read it to its conclusion… Any reader who does not reach your website from your article is a “missed opportunity” to sell your stuff… Show people why it will be in their best interest to finish reading your article…
3. The Article Body – The article body must meet the promise of the Article Title and the opening paragraph… The article body must retain the interest of the reader to the last word… The article body must tell a story people want to read, and leave them wanting more… The article body must successfully carry the reader to your Author’s Resource Box… When finished reading, the reader must be happy to have read the article…
4. The Authors’ Resource Box – The Authors’ Resource Box needs to transition the reader from your article to your website, by offering a compelling call-to-action to get the reader to go to your website… Tell who you are, but don’t go overboard… People do not care who you are – they only care about what else you can do for them… Jeff Herring wrote a great article that elaborates a bit further on how to construct an effective Resource Box here (http://ezinearticles.com/?id=3624961)…
5. Your Landing Page – You should never try to sell your products or services in your Authors’ Resource Box. Instead, you should try to get the reader to your website, where you have an unlimited number of words, videos, pictures and testimonials to tell the real story of your products or services. Few vendors have the ability to sell a product or service in 500 characters, so you should use your Authors’ Resource Box to get the reader to your website, where you will do the real selling…
Tell A Story People Want To Read
Often, the difference between someone who will try to write an article for $5 and the professional writer who understands the value of his or her work can be defined simply…
The person writing an article for $5 will “beat around the bush” for five hundred words, without ever actually saying anything of any real value to anyone… The person who works for $5 an article is just putting words on a page so that he or she can be paid…
The person who demands $40 to $500 to write an article is a master of story-telling… He or she will tell a story that people will want to read, and therefore a story that publishers will want to publish…
The authors who tell a story that “people are happy to have read” will find their articles on more high-quality websites, and they will find more people visiting their websites, as a result of having read the article…
Words on a page only please search engines, but a story on a page will ALSO attract readers, visitors and paying customers to your website…
Interestingly, most online marketing gurus who advise hiring people to write $5 articles also fail to tell a truth — they fail to point out that articles that pass real link popularity to a website must have link popularity to pass on to your website…
People don’t link to articles that are nothing more than “words on a page”, but people will link to a story that needs telling… Just like with Jeff Herring’s article linked above; his story is worth sharing with you, and as a result, it has gained its own links from people who do not know Jeff personally… (I have never met Jeff Herring or talked to him by phone or email. It was an honest recommendation for a great article written by him.)
Jeff’s article has gained its own link popularity, by merit of it being a good story… As a result, Jeff’s article will pass real link popularity back to his website, because it has real value for readers and real link popularity to share…
Article Marketing Will Not Work For Everyone…
There are a great number of us who have made a lot of money with article marketing… Then there are thousands of others who have never made any money at all with article marketing…
When you want to find success with an online business, you should mirror those people who have been successful…
Article Marketing is no different… If you have ever visited a website or purchased a product, as a result of having read an article that mentioned the website or product, take another look at the article that drove you to action… Try to understand the “how” and “why” that article worked, and then try to figure out how you can duplicate the formula for yourself…
Chances are good that you will see my “Five Essential Elements of Successful Article Marketing” in those articles that you are reviewing…
Fortunately, you don’t have to take my word for what I am telling you in this article… Whenever you find an article that moves you to visit the website shown in the Authors’ Resource Box, take another look at the article to see how closely it matches with the “Five Essential Elements” I shared with you in this article… You may be surprised by what you learn…
If you enjoyed this information, you will find that it just scratches the surface of what I have included in my article marketing ebook, “How To Use Article Marketing To Positively Impact Your SEO Efforts”, available for sale on my website, http://thephantomwriters.com/ My name is Bill Platt, and I have been involved in Article Marketing since early 2000. This article was excerpted in part, from the one shown here.
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5 Essential Elements of Successful Article Marketing
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5 Essential Elements of Successful Article Marketing
One of the interesting options you have when you start submitting articles is the author name under which your articles will appear. You have two options when choosing an author name:
1) You can use your real name. Using your real name is has several advantages:
*It allows you to become known as an expert in your field. Why is it beneficial to become known as an expert in your field? The more confidence a person has in your knowledge and ability, the more likely they will be to:
=> use your services
=> buy the products that you recommend
=> recommend you to their friends
If you would like to build a reputation as an expert, then use your real name. Being regarded as an expert can carry the benefit of increasing sales and referrals.
*Using your real name conveys authenticity, which promotes feelings of trust. On the internet, it is very easy to hide behind a mask, to say you are one thing when you are really another. Sometimes people will come to your article with a wall already up, wondering, “Why should I trust this person?”
If you can show that you are real, that you are not hiding anything, that you are a legitimate person who truly has great information to offer, that goes a long way toward building trust with a potential customer.
Obviously your decision whether or not to use an alias depends on your purpose in submitting articles. I would advise that you should use your real name if you have no good reason for changing it.
2) What would be some reasons for using pen names?
- You have a very common name and you want to be more memorable.
- Because of your subject matter, you think your articles would have more authority if they sounded like they were written by someone of the opposite sex.
- Perhaps you are marketing different websites on different topics and want to differentiate your writings on each topic by using a different name.
- Maybe your real name is the same as a well known person in your field. In that case, you might want to make your name appear different (or use an alias) to avoid confusion.
- Or perhaps you have a very good reason for wanting to keep your real identity a secret.
In any case, when you’re submitting articles for article marketing it is acceptable to use a pen name if you like. If you do use an alias, here are 5 guidelines to help you come up with a good one:
- Even if the name you’re using is not your own, it is beneficial to make your name sound like a real name.
- Your pen name should have a first and last name, just like a real person’s name would.
- Steer clear of obviously fake names that play off of your topic. For example, if you’re submitting articles about car racing, don’t call yourself “Mr. Hotrod”. Using a silly made up name makes it hard for readers to take you seriously.
- Keep your business name out of your pen name. For example, if your business name is Ocean Breeze Realty, don’t make your alias “Ocean Breeze”. Not only is that not very subtle, but it may get your article rejected for being promotional. (Yes, even an author name can be considered sales oriented).
- Don’t try to use your URL as your author name. Sounds obvious, but some people try that!
If you’re using a pen name, your best bet is to keep it real (or real sounding). Use a first and last name that sounds like something a real person would have. If you don’t have a good reason to use an alias, just use your real name.
For more info on how you can use article marketing to reach thousands of potential prospects for your website, go now to http://www.submityourarticle.com/report. Steve Shaw is an article marketing expert and founder of the popular article submission service http://www.submityourarticle.com used by thousands of business owners.
Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources
Article Marketing Tip: When should you use a pen name?
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Article Marketing Tip: When should you use a pen name?
Don’t exactly know what it is about starting a new year of marketing online, but I always stop and take a hard look at all my marketing tactics and methods. Article marketing is always at the top of my list, mainly because it is and has always been the cornerstone of everything I do on the web.
By cornerstone I mean it is the key to basically all of my online earnings. Without article marketing I wouldn’t be a full-time online marketer – it’s as simple as that. No articles,
no income.
Articles bring in the targeted traffic. Articles build those all important one-way backlinks. Articles build those even more important top rankings in Google for your chosen keywords. Articles build your online reputation and credibility in the eyes of your visitors.
I was struggling on the web for around three years before I wrote my first article. “10 Reasons To Put RSS On Your Site” which is still on around 8,000 sites around the web.
Writing was always a passion of mine, but it was more on the creative side, although I did work briefly as a reporter for a very small community newspaper. Looking back on it, I believe (perhaps falsely) that I had to gain all those years of experience before I could start writing articles about it.
Which was the totally wrong attitude to take since anyone can research a favorite subject or topic and write a short informative article on it. Most of us have been doing that since grade school – it is the same as writing a report or an essay.
Only with article writing you actually see monetary returns almost immediately. Surfers search for an answer in the search engines, your article pops up, they read it and then click the link to your webpage where you have conveniently placed your affiliate links or your own products.
A Small Percentage of Those Article Readers Will Buy Your Products and You’re in Business.
Over time, all those backlinks in your resource box at the end of your article will make your keywords rise in the search engines, especially Google. Then as someone searches in Google – your site pops up, they click thru to your webpage and a small percentage of these visitors will buy your product or affiliate product displayed on your page.
Smart marketers will also start building a large list of prospective customers by offering a free guide, ecourse, ebook or software program to get those visitors to sign-up to your opt-in list. These marketers can then do follow-up with all these potential customers.
That in a nutshell is an article marketing model or funnel which thousands of online marketers and webmasters are using. And have been using for years.
But Will Article Marketing Remain Effective in 2010 and the Coming Years?
More than likely the answer would be yes but the web is constantly changing and there are other games worth playing. The same kind of marketing system could be done with Videos, Blogs, Social Networks and even with Twitter. Your options are more varied…
However, I find article marketing can be integrated into all these elements. For example, EzineArticles lets you Tweet your articles to all your followers. I turn my best articles into Videos and place them on YouTube which opens up a whole different flow of traffic to my webpages and affiliate links.
Likewise, you can place your articles or links to them on FaceBook, MySpace and the other social networks. I find getting your articles on Digg, Reddit, Stumbleupon… can bring in a lot of traffic and increase your rankings.
But the Question Remains – is Article Marketing as Effective as It Once Was?
My own answer and personal opinion is no since it’s effectiveness has been watered down somewhat because every “tom dick and harry plus sally” is doing it. Everyone has discovered how writing short informative articles on the topic of your site can be very lucrative.
When I wrote that first article five years ago, I was ‘writer #1561′ with Ezinearticles. Now they have over 242,000 writers!
Back then, I found your article was placed on a lot more sites mostly because there wasn’t that many articles out there and competition was much, much less than it is now. More people writing more articles simply means your article falls into a bigger pool of other articles.
I believe video marketing is at the stage article marketing was at around five years ago. So turning your articles into short “how to” videos would probably be a wiser move and you would have a lot less competition. You can also place your marketing into the whole Video/Youtube craze that is still bringing in tons of traffic and interested customers.
However, the popularity of free article directories have grown and some of these sites have very high traffic numbers. Here are some of the main ones I use:
- EzineArticles
- GoArticles
- iSnare
- IdeaMarketers
And I also like to place my articles on important but perhaps lesser known sites such as:
- PromotionWorld
- SelfGrowth
- American Chronicle
- Buzzle
However, article marketing is still a very good way to get your site and name on the web. It can still bring in traffic and help build those all important backlinks and search engine rankings. This is one marketer who will not be giving up article marketing any time soon.
Some of my most effective techniques for article marketing are:
- Place your targeted keyword phrase in the title, usually at the beginning.
- Make sure your article is informative and supplies the information a reader is searching for – but always try to motivate the reader to click your links in the resource box for further information since your main objective is to get the reader to click thru to your site.
- Most experts say to keep your article short, around 400 – 700 words, but I have found longer articles of 800-1500 words do really well.
- Place your targeted keywords in the anchor text of your resource box links, that’s the underlined clickable part. Vary these keywords to avoid keyword spamming.
- For very important sites, try writing an exclusive unique article for that site alone.
- Always spell-check and proof-read your articles. Grammar has never been my strong point so what I do for finding the correct usage of some tricky phrases or words – I do a search in Google with “quotation marks” to find out which one has the most links/usage… I go with one that has the most links, even if it’s wrong. Thousands of people are making the same mistake. Many marketers do the same thing with misspelled keywords.
While they can be expensive, I also like using paid article submission sites such as SubmitYourArticle, ThePhantomwriters and Isnare… mainly because article marketing has been so profitable for me, I don’t mind pouring some of those earnings back into those sites. It saves me time and extends the reach of my articles.
Article marketing will continue to be one of your best ways to build backlinks, raise your rankings and bring in potential customers to your site. It still works for me and hundreds of thousands of other webmasters – it should also work for you.
The author is a full time online affiliate marketer who operates numerous niche sites, as well as two sites on Internet Marketing, where you can get valuable marketing tips for free: internet marketing tools (http://www.marketingtoolguide.com) or try here: free marketing courses (http://www.bizwaremagic.com/ Free_Marketing_Courses.htm) Titus Hoskins Copyright 2010. This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.
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Is Article Marketing Still Effective In 2010?
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Is Article Marketing Still Effective In 2010?
Thought leaders are experts who are recognized among their peers as an authority on innovative ideas within a particular industry. Thought leaders confidently promote their ideas. Most importantly, thought leaders have earned respect from the outside world for their deep understanding of their business, the needs of their clients and the broader marketplace in which they operate.
You can become a thought leader just by writing articles – just like I have. Because I’m found on top websites like About.com Home Business, SiteProNews.com, IMNewswatch and in ezines like John Kremer’s BookMarket.com ezine, I…
- Have gained recognition from around the world. For example, I have customers and clients from Australia, Israel, France, Thailand, Taiwan, UK and Greece – and I’m based in the United States.
- Get booked for speaking engagements.
- Have people coming to me asking if I can do article writing and article marketing training programs.
- Have my articles published in hard cover books like “Calling All Authors.”
I’m getting all this attention because I’m publishing free content that makes me the authority on article marketing. And, I’m getting these articles published on top, credible websites and not just article directories where anyone can get published as long as you follow the guidelines.
With that being said, are you ready to start writing articles that make you the “authority” in your industry?
Here Are 5 Article Templates to Help You Become a Thought Leader Fast
1. Case Study Article Template – With this template, you prove to your prospects that you are a true expert who has already gotten results using the formula you share within your article. By writing an article that a) explains a problem that your prospects are experiencing b) gives a step-by-step solution and c) reveals an outcome that your prospects desperately want — you will become the expert in their eyes. You will give prospects no choice but to want to go to your website and get on your list so they can get even more information. For an example of my of a case study article, check out my article: ” How to Promote Your Book to the Top of the New York Times Best Sellers List” .
Go to: http://tinyurl.com/yc7caq6
2. Top Mistakes Article Template – With this article template, you take a stand against what others in your industry are doing. For example, one of my new article marketing clients, James Sinclair who runs a restaurant consulting firm recently wrote an article titled: ” Restaurant Marketing: How $5 Promotions Are Killing Casual Dining Restaurants’ Profits.” Using TGI Friday’s and some other big name restaurants as examples, he proves to restaurant owners that you should not compete with Quick Serve restaurants by offering the same kinds of promotions that they use! Find out what mistakes are being made in your industry and let your prospects know what is going on, why it’s a mistake and what they should be doing instead.
3. Controversy Article Template – One of the best ways to achieve market “thought leadership” status is to stir up the market by taking some gray issues and make them black and white. This is a good opportunity to take current events and provide your expert analysis and supporting reasons why certain issues are good or bad for the market, economy and world.
4. Differentiation Article Template – If you want to be a thought leader then you must show you are different. When we first started ArticleMarketingExperts.com we set our prices at premium levels unseen in the article marketing industry. If we wanted people to invest in our services, we had to show prospects that we are thought leaders in the industry and that we have a different approach when it comes to article submission. That’s why we wrote the article: ” Choosing an Article Submission Service: 10 Questions You Must Ask Before You Spend Your Hard Earned Dollars.”
View the article here: http://tinyurl.com/ydgynb9
5. Your Questions Answered Article Template – If you want to be a thought leader than you have to be willing to provide top, unique information. And, you have to be willing to answer questions that everyone else is afraid to answer. If you can provide the information that your targeted prospects want that is found nowhere else, guess who will be the expert in their eyes. Guess whose sites they will want to visit so they can get even more information. And, guess whose products and services they will buy. So seek out the questions that your audience is asking that no one is answering. Then answer the questions in a Q & A article template.
If you write thought leadership articles using these article templates, you will become the “expert” in the eyes of your prospects, clients and the media (both online and offline.)
To see how you should organize your articles using these templates, check out my Instant Article Writing Templates Kit at http://www.StartWritingArticlesFaster.com
Article Marketing Expert Eric Gruber uses the power of articles to create online opportunities for Internet marketers, small business owners and entrepreneurs who want to experience the benefits of becoming a thought leader in their prospects’ eyes. Now, you can get his instant article writing templates that will help you write thought leader type articles in 30 minutes or less. Just for going to http://www.StartWritingArticlesFaster.com, he’s going to give you 3 of his favorite article templates for free!
Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources
Article Marketing Expert Reveals 5 Article Templates for Thought Leaders
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Article Marketing Expert Reveals 5 Article Templates for Thought Leaders
Do you ever dread sitting down to write because you’re just not sure what to write about?
When you’re doing article marketing, you need to create a steady flow of articles. You may be just getting started and haven’t gotten into a writing groove yet. Or maybe you’ve written tons of articles and are feeling like you’ve written about your topic in every way you possibly can.
I assure you–you have more creative writing ideas in you. You just need a little help in looking at your topic in a new way to come up with new writing ideas.
Use these 15 article ideas to start your next brainstorming session:
- Use a keyword suggestion tool such as WordTracker to look up searches that people are doing related to your topic. When you find a search term that is popular for your topic, then write an article to satisfy that term.
- Take a look at your website stats and see what people have been typing into search engines to reach your site. Write articles to satisfy those searches.
- Forums: Look at popular forums in our niche and see what topics are hot. Pick out some questions that people are asking that you think your target market might also be wondering, and then write an article that answers that question.
- Blogs: Start following some popular blogs in your niche, and see what topics strike a nerve with the readers. You can usually tell what topics are hot by how many comments the post has. Sometimes just looking at the comments on a topic is enough to spark ideas for new articles.
- Newsletters: Subscribe to newsletters in your niche and see what catches your eye. Use a compelling newsletter topic as a jump start for your next article.
- Google Alerts: Create Google Alerts for each of your keywords and see what other folks are writing about your topic. The idea is to just catch an idea–you can cover the same or similar topic in a new way, with a new perspective, and with different information.
- Solicit questions. If you have a blog or a newsletter list, ask your readers if they have any questions for you. Take the best questions and write articles that provide answers.
- How To articles. What can you teach your readers? Think of a specific lesson, technique, or skill that your target market needs to know in order to succeed in your niche, and then walk them step-by-step through how to do it. Numbering each step helps readers follow your instructions more easily.
- Top Tips articles, or any list article. All articles do not have to be in essay form–some articles can be lists. Be sure to include an intro and concluding paragraph and to choose an overarching theme that your readers would be interested in. For example, this article is a list article. My overarching theme is “article topic ideas”. All of the elements of my list contribute to that theme.
- Got an e-book that you’ve written? You can break your e-book(s) up into articles. You can also use your table of contents as an article idea list.
- Look at your newsletter messages–turn them into articles.
- If you’ve done any audio interviews, you can turn them into articles. Just re-listen to the interview, take notes, and then create articles based on the information you covered in the interview.
- Customer support replies–have you ever written a customer support reply that was so thorough, instructional, and useful that you thought you should share it with all of your readers? Some customer support replies are worthy of being turned into articles.
- Forum replies and blog comments. If you leave really insightful, helpful, and knowledgeable blog comments, consider turning them into articles. Now, these comments have to have some depth and meat to them. You might have to develop the idea further to make it into an article.
- Write a “Top 7″ article and then bounce an article off of each of the 7 items. That way you get 8 articles out of one Top 7 list!
Use this article idea list to brainstorm your next 15 (or more!) articles. How many article ideas were you able to come up with from this list?
Steve Shaw is an article marketing expert, and founder of the popular article submission service, SubmitYOURArticle.com, used by thousands of business owners. Discover how to use the power of article marketing to reach thousands of potential prospects for your website – download a powerful free report on successful article marketing from http://www.submityourarticle.com/report
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