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ABCs of Article Marketing for Newbies
by Paul Marshall
More Advertising Articles
Published on this site: January 6th, 2010 - See
more articles from this month
So, you're new to article marketing and you're not sure where
to start?
You need to understand why you're writing and submitting
articles for distribution. If you don't get the WHY, your plan
won't work.
Why Writing And Distributing Articles Works?
Articles work for 3 main reasons:
- They can generate qualified traffic directly from the blogs
and article directories your articles reside on, right to your
website. With persuasive copywriting and website conversion
optimization, you can convert these site visitors and get them to
buy what you're selling.
- If you use your resource box correctly, writing and
distributing articles will help your SEO results (particularly
with Google) and help you rank better in the search engines for
your chosen keyword search phrases.
- Writing articles can position you as an "expert" on your
subject matter. For some businesses, that can be very
important... and profitable.
About that second point above: I had a prospective client call me
this week, who had been submitting articles. The trouble is she
wasn't using her resource box correctly and so she wasn't
having any SEO effect to her articles.
Get the training you need, so your efforts will pay off. You
probably won't get this from visiting forums.
One option is to hire a good online marketing consultant or
marketing coach, to insure you'll receive the results you want.
Another option is to pay for a quality Internet marketing | SEO
course(s), offered by a reputable company with proven results.
Done correctly, writing articles is a win-win proposal.
You win because you have more exposure for your business at
minimal cost of time and money. You can get direct traffic. You
can improve your SEO results. You can be seen as an expert on
your subject.
The blog or article directly posting your articles wins, too.
They get free content for their site. And they have more pages to
host contextual advertising on, usually Google AdSense.
Evaluate Your Competition
Remember, the main point of article marketing is to increase your
rankings in Google. This requires a quantity of quality links.
So, how many links do you need? Can the number needed help you
choose your keyword search phrases you wish to optimize for?
Yes, it can!
To know the number of links you will need for your SEO results to
succeed, you must reverse engineer what your competition has
done. How many links do competing sites have? What anchor text
keyword phrases do their links contain?
Without evaluating your competition, you're shooting blind.
With proper SEO coaching and training, you should be able to
determine a rough number of links you will need to rank well on
Google for your keyword search phrases.
Write About A Topic Related To Your Business
What do you write about?
One idea is to take a topic already on your website and use that
as a basis for your article. Don't use it word-for-word, but use
it as an article idea, as a beginning.
Since your goal is about 600 to 900 words, you may want to
provide a brief overview of a particular subject.
On the other hand, if you choose to go into more detail, you may
need to limit the number of points you make in an article to 2 to
4, depending on the length and detail you go into.
Write in short sentences and short paragraphs. The white space
this will create makes following change of subject, as you change
paragraphs much easier for readers.
The number of articles you will need is determined by the number
of keyword search phrases you are optimizing for, combined with
the competition level for each of the phrases.
This is where working with an online marketing consultant,
someone who has experience with link building and SEO, can really
pay off for you.
What If You're Not A Good Writer?
If writing just isn't your thing, consider hiring a ghost writer
to write (or at least edit) your articles. You could start with
an idea, a few points and maybe a conclusion.
Make sure when hiring someone they have good English and grammar
skills and they are trustworthy. You don't want to begin
submitting articles only to find out that someone you've hired
has "borrowed" the work from another author and that you're
violating copyright laws!
Articles selling for $10 or so...well, you might want to be
careful. If the offer sounds too good to be true, then it
probably is.
Article directories and blogs want original content. Articles
that you have reprint rights for usually won't be accepted.
(Again, if it sounds really easy or too good to be true, it
usually won't work.)
Online marketing consulting professionals who specialize in start
up businesses and helping solo professionals often can write your
articles for you or edit them. Then, those are your articles and
are distributed under your name, so you're the author, you're
the expert!
Wrapping It Up
First, please... you MUST be realistic. You need a budget to
market. You need training or coaching. Consider hiring online
marketing consultants.
Article marketing really isn't difficult. But it isn't as easy
as some want you to believe (those who want to prey on newbies
and separate them from their money).
Learn to detect language that falls into the "too good to be
true" area and that will help protect you...your time and your
money.
Follow the tips in this article and you can have a number of top
positions in Google for your chosen keyword search phrases (and
the income that comes with them)!
Paul Marshall Marketing online since 2004, Paul Marshall can help you market
on a budget. You can learn about his affordable Internet
Marketing Consulting Services (and d-i-y Coaching) on his home
page: http://strategicwebmarketing.net/. You can learn more
about Paul on his LinkedIn profile page: http://www.linkedin.com/in/paulmarshallwebmarketing and at
Strategic Web Marketing.net.
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