By Mark Thompson
If you happen to be completely new to running an internet business, then you should already have heard the term article marketing. Article marketing is a way that the regular Joes like you and I can get a foothold in niche markets. You are, through this form of marketing, able to target interested visitors and then turn them into motivated buyers.

Article marketing without any shadow of a doubt is a very powerful tool for using to promote a website. Certainly, if done properly it is an extremely effective method of getting targeted traffic to your site and building backlinks. By using informative articles that are short to promote your site may seem a waste of time, but the actual return on the time you investment can be astounding. But just how does article marketing work?

Initially, it is going to cost you little or nothing, you if you want write your own articles and then submit them to different article directories and other websites. When submitted these sites in turn will then publish them on theirs for you. The benefit is that your site’s search engine rankings will begin to rise because of the backlinks which you have gained because other sites are now using what you have written.

Article marketing is extremely viral since a single article, if well-written and targeting good keywords, can generate dozens and dozens of links back to the author’s site or other designated landing page.

Through your article marketing you as a new website owner or author can develop a reputation in your niche market of being an authority on it. A person who comes across one your articles in an article directory and remains interested so that they click on the link provided and visit your site, provides you now with the opportunity to build a more lasting relationship with that person. The next step then is to cultivate that relationship further by offering them more relevant content which will address certain questions or problems that they may have.

On occasion you may hear that article marketing is not as effective as it use to be. Also by submitting an article to a number of different article directories is only actually helping to create duplicate content, and which is putting your site at risk of the major search engines choosing to de-index it.

Putting aside any arguments for or against duplicate content for the moment, article marketing is every bit as effective as any traffic or promotional tactic touted these days. Various promotional strategies will come and go, but the strength of article marketing lies in the fact that the World Wide Web is built upon and needs fresh, relevant content continuously.

By creating content in the form of articles you will start to attract a steady stream of visitors to your site. Everyday millions of people go online looking for answers. With your articles you can place yourself in a strong position to provide the answers to their questions and convert the traffic into sales.

Article marketing cost you little or nothing as a way for you to promote a product or a website that you have and anyone is able to do it. It is the ideal way of getting targeted traffic to you as long as you are willing to work at it over a period of time and consistently.

Writing informative articles that use well researched keywords no matter what niche you are involved in cannot only get your more exposure, but increase your rankings in search engines. However, submitting the same article to numerous article directories or specialist websites will dilute just how effective your article marketing efforts are.

For your article marketing to succeed you should be aiming to submit unique versions of articles that you write to directories and websites. This may seem somewhat of a daunting task initially but the results you get back will be worth all the effort in the end. Gone are the risks of you producing duplicate content and slipping in search engine rankings. Yet whilst the definition of what actually constitutes duplicate content continues to be a subject for discussion, the majority of experienced webmasters are happy for around 30% difference in each article written.

Yet the greater the difference between each article written, then the better this is for your online business. However, you need to keep in mind that the spiders used by top search engines not only review entire web pages but also will look at other elements on a page and take these into consideration. So even a small 30% change between one article and the next can being more than sufficient to avoid yours being ignored.

Submitting unique versions of your articles is the smartest way to undertake article marketing. Not only are you gaining targeted traffic, but the boost in ranking tends to last longer from backlinks you build through marketing unique articles.

About the Author:

By Shawn Montgomery

Many businesses at the current time are venturing into article marketing, for the internet has lured a large host of customers that are hoping to locate unique and contemporary merchandise. When wanting to attract and keep these customers for a length of time, take care to post descriptions that have creative and unique content.

Authoring an article for this purpose is not simple. A talented writer is needed. Additionally, an author needs to discern the intentions of numerous visitors in order to write an effective piece. The writer needs to approach the topic creatively and engage the viewers to garner an interest in the article and its topic. Writers who achieve these goals will be a marketing success.

Unique articles are the main portion of article marketing. It’s vital to verify that the articles you choose to use are brand new. You should not be able to find any of these articles anywhere else on the internet. Cut and pasting any articles from other sites will make you look bad. It will also not flag the search engines, and your rating will not be changed.

Because a writer has to understand the different perspectives and dialects the readers possess from their different backgrounds, grammar rules are important to establish boundaries. Writing effectively is a way to write within those rules, but to have it be unique enough that it will attract and hold the interest of a wide variety of potential readers.

Because article marketing depends on the software to find the most amounts of matches with the specific query made by the customer, it’s advisable for companies using this type of marketing to do everything they can to keep their page at the top of the list. This typically means making many articles as possible to keep matches high.

While there are other types of marketing available to you and your business, article marketing is taking the net by storm. This new type of marketing is providing lots of businesses with customers who have been looking for them. By gaining search engine rank and engaging readers in the topic, articles are able to boost your sales and profits.

Article marketing is a form of advertising which has become widespread and popular among Internet businesses. Companies have formed with the sole business of providing unique articles and articles with unique content to use as part of their promotion. An important feature of this process is search engine optimization targeting by using specific key words. The process works through increasing rating within the major search engines. When articles are more visible, people will come to your site looking to read them. You will also succeed in giving your firm the appearance of a great deal of expertise.

 

About the Author:

By James Beckett

The demand for writers has always been great, but with the spread of internet marketing, content writers are now in great demand. Here are some ideas for how to make dollars writing articles on the world wide web.

One of the outcomes of this big demand for writers are some great sites that will pay you directly for your writing. One of the best of this genre is www.associatedcontent.com. But be aware that their standard rate of 3-4 dollars an article is that low because they basically take any writer whether they have credentials and skills or not. But it’s a good site to have on your list to keep the grocery and gas money coming in.

Article web sources like this one are always on the look out for great writers to create articles to bring traffic and customers to their web site. In addition, many of these kinds of web sites also double as job brokers for other web sites also needing good writing. So keep these kinds of sites in mind because they can be a good fall back to get work in a pinch while you work to get better paying work in other ways.

Now you will need to write everything you submit yourself as plagiarism will get caught but don’t labor at making each article brilliant. If you can produce relatively readable text at around five hundred words each article, keep the spelling and grammar in good shape and meet deadlines, you will do great. And since a lot of sites pay for any kind of content, you can get inspiration for topics by just browsing what other writers are submitting. It isn’t ok to plagiarize but its ok to let other writers inspire you just as you will inspire others after you.

Another good way to get some solid writing work is to work with groups of freelance writers in a groups. Just interact with other writers to find how this works. The good thing about writing groups is they can get plenty of work and you don’t have to work so hard at finding projects. It’s a good idea to build your resume of writing by working with paid sites and then approach a group once you have established yourself.

Sometimes these writers’ communities are managed by a strong leader who serves to make sure the work is shared with the writers and keeps a little commission per job for his trouble. Still other writer’s communities are just that and writers simply land work and share with others at a lower fee when they have more work in than they can handle. But these writers consortiums also benefit from the huge need for quality content on the internet and these groups are skilled at knowing where to find the good projects online.

There are also several established writer sites that are constantly looking to employ new writers. Keep in mind that when you work for these sites you may receive a lower fee than what is usual in the industry due to the fact that they are usually only passing work down to you. Be sure to read terms of the work arrangement that the site is offering, because while you may be willing to accept a lower payment than usual, you don’t want to be doing more work in the form of revisions and elevated word counts.

Writing can be a solid income using these resources even if it isn’t “big money”. But this is a good way to get a start and build your ability to write. Writing is a skill that has to be built to write every day and you will become both prolific and able to write strong prose. Then once you get your reputation up, you may be able to get $25 each article from the quality agents. By building your career up from the bottom like this, you can eventually look to make a good income doing what you love to do.

 

About the Author:

Published Mar 11, 2008 in Article Writing
Tagged under: ,

By Stephen Beck

Ok, so you want to write a best-selling e-book in 1 month. First, you need to decide - are you an expert or a reporter?

Acting as a reporter can help you tackle your e-book project. Reporters are not experts, but they are expert at finding information. As a reporter, you must first find experts who can help you write an e-book on, for example, Top Ten Money-Saving Wedding Tips.

Next you’re going to interview some experts. We’re going to add some bulk to this book, some expertise to this book. Do you think the local florist has some ideas on saving money on flower arrangements for a wedding? Do you think she would mind being interviewed for an e-book about saving money on weddings? Well, of course not, especially when you put her contact info in the e-book.

Don’t just interview your florist. Look for other contacts, other vendors who could help you. Wedding planners know how to get the right look for less; pastors can offer tips to couples who want to write their own vows. Collect information, and offer something meaty for your clients to read!

I prefer to record interviews so I have a record of what was said. Use decent equipment that makes CD-quality sound. You can always convert the recordings to different file formats once they are in your computer.

If you want to interview someone, you can just get one of those Y jacks at Wal-Mart and two lapel mikes. Set that up in the corner between you and you have really good quality sound. I’ve done this a million times. I interview people a lot. You can even do this over the phone as you want to.

I can hear you now - “Why do I need to record interviews?”

Those recordings can give you valuable information for your e-book. Transcribe the interview, or hire someone to transcribe it for you. These recordings can also be used as a bonus to encourage sales of your e-book.

Using recordings, you can write your e-book in 1 month. These recorded interviews will practically write the book for you!

 

About the Author:

I’m going to ask you to use your imagination for a moment.

Think of a topic that interests you. Maybe it’s your favorite sport or hobby, for example. Now imagine that you’re searching the Internet for information on that topic.

The first article you come across is related to the topic you’re researching, but it doesn’t offer much in the way of value. It’s too general and full of pointless “fluff.” It makes obvious points that a third-grader could grasp. And it fails to offer any related information or resources.

The second article you come across is much more in-depth. It explains several aspects of your topic with refreshing insight. It is helpful and useful, and it links out to many related articles and resources on the subject.

If you could only bookmark one of these pages for future reference, which one would it be? It would be the second page, right?

You, like most people, would probably prefer the second page to the first. It’s an easy choice, and that’s because the author of the second article understood (and delivered) the most important concept of website content development — the value factor.

5 Benefits of High-Value Web Content

This kind of content has value for the reader, obviously. But it also benefits the author / publisher. Here are the top five benefits of creating high-value website content for your small business website:

1. It keeps people on your website longer.
2. It makes people more inclined to trust you.
3. It encourages readers to recommend the site to others.
4. It encourages other webmasters to link to your content.
5. It helps you improve your search engine ranking and visibility.

All of this sounds great, you say. But how do I create that kind of small business website content? Here are the top five guidelines for creating high-value website content.

5 Steps to High-Value Web Content

1. Choose the right author.
2. Choose the right topic.
3. Address all sides of the topic.
4. Add supporting graphics, pictures, etc.
5. Link to related resources, both on your site and elsewhere.

Let’s look at each of these steps in greater detail.

1. Choose the Right Author

I once worked for a company who let their web programmers write the instructions for their online ordering process. Big mistake. If their audience were programmers as well, this might be okay. But most of their customers had limited technical skills. So when these people encountered online instructions such as “Validate parameters before advancing” … the customers would often become dead in the water.

This is a prime example of choosing the wrong author for web writing. Sure, the programmers’ input is important. After all, they built the thing. But they should not be the voice of customer guidance. A skilled web writer (someone with usability experience) would have “translated” these instructions to say something like “Please fill in all required information before moving to the next screen.”

Here’s the key to this. The best author for your small business website content is not always the person who knows the most about the product or service from a technical standpoint. Often, it’s best to have an in-house writer who plays the go-between role of “consumer advocate,” getting the information from one group and translating it for another group.

2. Choose the Right Topic

If your small business only offers one product or service, then that will likely be the topic of your web content. In this case, I would focus on choosing the right angle as well. Don’t tell people what you want them to know — this is an outdated way of thinking about public information, especially when it comes to small business website content. Instead, find out what people want to know about the types of products you offer, and use your web content to address those questions or concerns.

If you are writing web content for a company that has many products or services, you will have to spend more time choosing topics first and choosing your angle second. In this case, it becomes more about topic organization than anything. Large websites with many topics are ideally suited for a category and sub-category system: These are our products >> And this is product ‘A’ >> And this is a web page that explains product ‘A’ in detail.

3. Address All Sides of the Topic

Whether you’re writing about one of your products, or you’re creating a tutorial of some kind, you need to cover all the angles. There’s nothing worse than website content that leaves the job only half-done, telling you why a certain thing is important but not pursuing that lead.

When you are close to a certain topic — as is the case with people who create a product or service — it’s easy to assume everyone else understands it as well as you do. But the opposite is usually true, so you need to explain all sides of a topic when you write content for your small business website.

Want to keep your pages relatively short for easy reading? You can do that while still offering complete information. That’s what hyperlinks are for!

4. Link to Related Resources

Here’s the key to developing great content for your small business website. Try to create authority documents that others in your field would link to and recommend to others. One of the key criteria for a resource document is that it links to plenty of supporting information, both on the same website and elsewhere on the web.

In addition to being good for your readers, this kind of useful content will make other webmasters more inclined to link to your website. This adds to your link “popularity” and can further improve the search engine ranking of your small business website.

When writing a particular web page, try to think of it as “the ultimate guide to [blank].” This is the first step to creating the kind of authority documents that eventually dominate the search engines and drive endless web traffic for the authors. But it’s rarely possible to create an “ultimate guide” to anything in just one page, so be liberal about linking to other sources on your own website and elsewhere (as long as their not direct competitors).

5. Add Supporting Graphics, Pictures, Etc.

Reading online can be hard on the eyeballs. You can make the reader’s job easier in two ways. First, you can format your content appropriately for web reading (short paragraphs, narrow text columns, lots of bullet points, headers, sub-headers, etc.). Secondly, you can add supporting images and helpful graphics.

Well-placed graphics can improve website content in a number of ways. Images are more enticing than text upon first glance, so they can help attract and retain readers. They also help you clarify your message with visual reinforcement.

Conclusion: I have a motto I use regarding website content. “If it’s not worth putting online, don’t put it online.” This is my reminder to myself that I need to use the techniques outlined above to create superior website content. Because that’s the kind of content that leads to online success. Apply these lessons to your small business website and watch your own success increase!

 


About the Author: Brandon Cornett operates an web marketing firm in Austin, Texas and is a web writer at large for dozens of websites and blogs. Learn more by visiting http://www.austinseoguy.com.