Low Cost Business

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Article Marketing - Are You Making These Mistakes?

Article Marketing is a great way to get the word out about yourself and your business. Even people that have never written before are finding success writing short informative articles and marketing them through Article Directories. The great thing is you don't have to be a professional writer to benefit from this Internet based form of marketing. It's simply a matter of writing about something you know or are interested in, and writing your article as if you were talking to a friend sitting next to you. While I believe just about anyone is capable of writing an article that is worthy of being published, there are a few things to avoid when writing your article to keep it from winding up on the publishing scrap pile.

Of all the mistakes that writers make, gross spelling errors is one of the most blatant. When I speak of spelling errors, I'm not talking about the occasional misspelling of a word, or using the word in the wrong context like using 'there' instead of 'their' but we are talking about articles that are written as if the writer has never opened a dictionary before. The thing is, there really is no reason to submit an article full of misspelled words. All one needs to do, is use a 'spell checker' to proofread their article. Some article directories like 'Ezine Articles' even provide a free spell checker that will let you check your spelling before submitting the article. No matter how good you think your spelling is, my advice is to use a spell checker before submitting your article. I always use one before I submit an article, and I'm amazed at the spelling errors I find in my writings.

Another mistake that writers make is writing an article that is either too long or too short. You want to try and get in the habit of saying what you have to say as concisely as possible. I usually try to compose my articles with a structure of 5-7 paragraphs and word count of between 400-700 words. Any less than 400 words, and most newsletter publishers and owners of websites won't bother to use it for publication. It's the same with articles that run on forever. Remember, you are not writing a book, you just want to compose a short, entertaining or informative article that others will read and hopefully post on their website. Your goal is to have your article distributed around the Internet as much as possible. Keeping your articles short but concise will help you to accomplish this goal.

One of the most egregious errors that I see some authors make is the misuse of the 'Resource Box'. It's a shame to see a well written article about some topic only to see the Resource Box not being used properly. For instance, if you're writing an article about Tropical Fish, you wouldn't want to include a link in your Resource Box that takes the visitor to a site that tells them how they can save money on their taxes with a piece of software. You want to link the information in the Resource Box to the article as much as possible. If you are writing a somewhat general article about making money, you're probably safe in linking to most other sites about making money in one form or another. On the other hand, if your article is written about a particular niche, then use the Resource Box to send your visitors to a website that relates to what your article is about.

Another vital ingredient to Article Marketing success is submitting your articles to the right Article Directories. There are literally thousands of directories to submit your articles to on the Internet. While some people will suggest that you submit your articles to as many directories as possible, I try and submit my articles to the highest ranked directories on the Internet. The reasons for this are not only because you receive more visitors from these directory sites, but your articles will oftentimes receive a higher page ranking by the search engines which leads to long term traffic for you. One technique I use to check on the effectiveness of an article directory is after submitting an article, going back a week or two later to check on the article stats. If I find that the article is waiting to be reviewed or hasn't been downloaded much, then I'll most likely avoid submitting any more articles to that directory in the future.

Article Marketing can be a great way to bring traffic to your website. If done properly, your article can bring you traffic for years to come. While your article writing probably won't lead to a new career as a novelist, it can lead to greater exposure for you and increased profit.

William J. Thomas is actively engaged in Internet Business pursuits. He also contributes articles on life, business and other topics. His current website is..Create Income from Home With Your Own Cash Generating... Internet Business

Visit Bill's Blog for tips and discussion about Earning Income on the Internet

Profitable Article Marketing - Discover 5 Great Ways to Make Money Through Article Marketing

It is no secret that article marketing is currently the best product and website promotional tool in the internet today. Webmasters simply love it as it continues to bring favorable results not only in terms of augmenting traffic, profits and sales leads, but also in securing better ranking on search engines.

1. Increase the chances of your articles being picked up and republished by other webmasters by making them all content-rich, informative, useful, attention-grabbing, and keyword-rich. This can potentially increase the number of inbound links for your website that can lead to increased traffic and more sales leads.

2. Create compelling titles. Your headlines are your only tools in getting people to take interest on your articles when they are shown on search page results together with other articles written by different authors. If your titles are attention-grabbing and enticing, your articles will stand better chances of being opened and read.

3. Keep your articles short. People online generally prefer articles that run 300-500 words. Why? Because they are easy on the eyes and more interesting to read compare to lengthy articles. Besides, online users usually do not have much time to spare when they are looking for information over the internet.

4. Keep your sales pitches off your content. Avoid making your articles sound like sales letters. Remember, in order to convince your readers to visit your website is to give them information that they will find useful and relevant to their needs. Reserve your sales pitches for your resource box.

5. Pick the best publishing sites. Submitting your articles online can be a tedious and time-consuming task. It would help if you can identify the article submission sites that can give your articles the exposure they need and just ignore those which do not have steady traffic or not indexed by Google.

To learn more, download my free guide, "How to Generate $15,000 Per Month Online" here: "How to Generate $15,000 Per Month Online"

Sean Mize is an internet marketing mentor who teaches people to generate over $15,000 per month online via automated systems and product funnels.

Lethal Traps of Poor Article Marketing

As you write articles to use for marketing purposes, you will be able to write quicker and with greater efficiency over time. With that speed and efficiency comes toxic traps that you must be aware of.

These are the pitfalls of poor article marketing:

  • Not being consistent. Article writing and marketing is fun in the beginning. But when the new wears off and writing articles on a regular basis becomes hum-drum, you may start to slack off on writing and submitting. Don't fall into this trap!
TIP: Set a doable goal to write and submit a specific amount of articles each week.

  • Poorly written content. It's easy to get in such a rush to write articles that you stop concentrating on the quality of your articles. Don't fall into this trap!
TIP: Remember that real people with real questions and concerns will be reading your articles.

  • Ignoring basic writing "rules." We all hate rules, but they're simply a fact of life. It behooves every writer to remember the basic rules of writing (proper grammar, perfect spelling, etc.) and apply them to each article.
TIP: When your eyes get tired, hire a professional proofreader/editor to go through your articles with a fine-toothed comb.

  • Writing in inconsistent tones. Every writer has a unique voice. If you are writing with different markets in mind, you might find yourself trying to write in different tones. Be careful that you don't dilute the message of the article by writing in these different voices.
TIP: Stay true to your writing voice and write like you talk.

  • Giving little or no valuable information inside the article. Every time you sit down to write an article, ask yourself, "What is the meat of this article?" Then write your article based on that answer.
TIP: Every article should have at least one complete, or main, idea.

  • No call to action in the resource box. If you are writing articles for the purpose of marketing, then you are wasting your time if you don't compel your readers to do something at the end of the article. Give them a reason to click on your link.
TIP: Take the reader by the hand and lead them; tell them exactly what to do.

By the way, you can make money by writing articles just like this. I'm doing it right now by following these methods: http://www.cashfromarticles.hopewrites.com/

Powerful Article Marketing - Latest 5 Hidden Steps to Impact Your Article Marketing

Article marketing is an inexpensive advertising method for small ebusinesses to potentially establish their website on the World Wide Web. This technique is considered as one of the most profitable business generation methods that offer quick, gratifying results.

1. Some article writers, especially those who are just starting out, do not have much confidence in their writing and they tend to be very self-critical. If you are one of them, I strongly recommend that you ask professional editors to review your content. These people can give your constructive feedback that you can use so you can write better articles the next time you tap on your keyboard.

2. If you are using your content on your article marketing campaign, do not forget to conduct numerous tests to identify which of your articles are receiving impressive click through rates. Sometimes, articles are not performing well online because they have lousy titles or they do not offer much information.

3. If your articles are not performing at all, try to identify the weak points of your article marketing campaign. There might be something wrong with your writing style or you might be missing essential elements to make your articles perform online.

4. Manually submit your articles. While there are a lot of marketers who are using automatic article submission software, nothing beats the effort of personally submitting your articles. Aside from personal touch, you can be assured that your content will not be messed up.

5. If you seriously want to obtain valuable links to your site that will help your SEO efforts, you must make your article marketing more determined. By this, I mean you must have discipline and you must be willing to persevere until you get the results you are hoping for. In line with this, you must be willing to consistently write and submit articles on a regular basis.

To learn more, download my free guide, "How to Generate $15,000 Per Month Online" here: "How to Generate $15,000 Per Month Online"

Sean Mize is an internet marketing mentor who teaches people to generate over $15,000 per month online via automated systems and product funnels.

Article Marketing - How to Sculpt a Beautiful Body with Your Articles

Is a great way to market yourself on the Internet, drive traffic to your website's, and build your lives.

One of the challenges especially new article writer's face is how to make sure their articles and get picked up. One of the things I teach my students, members, and mentees, are the dozens of small nuances that help you get your articles picked up more often.

Sculpting a great body and your articles

one of the ways to get your articles picked up more often it is to sculpt a really great article body. Here are three tips for sculpting a great article body.

Tip 1 - Make sure you create lots of white space. So many times I see writers just sort of squash their article body all together. When you create white space you give the impression that the article is easily read. This is very important on the Internet because it can be difficult to read online for some people.

Tip 2 - Use bullet points, numbers, lists, laws and rules. Anything that allows you to break up your article body in two separate areas. Bullet points, lists, etc. create bite sized chunks of information that are easily consumed by the reader.

Tip 3 - Use sub headings. A subheading is simply a mini headline used to begin another thought or section of your article. An example would be a subheading I used above when I wrote sculpting a great body and your articles. This lets the reader know a new section is on the way and light tips wine into break the article up, create lots of white space, and gives the impression that this is an easily read article.

Would you like free access to two of my Article Writing Templates? You can download them by going to http://www.TheArticleGuy.com/bonustemplates.htm

Would you like to get in on our free weekly Article Guy TeleSeminars? Visit http://www.TheArticleGuyTeleSeminars.com to get started today!

From Jeff Herring - The Article Guy

Article Marketing Is Extremely Low Cost Method

Article marketing is an extremely valuable method of getting traffic to your website. If you are not familiar with it, article marketing is basically the process of writing articles and submitting them, along with links back to your website, to article reprint directories on the internet.

Almost everyone who owns their own websites will visit article reprint directories on a semi-regular basis in order to find new content to place upon their sites. When you have the opportunity to submit articles to such directories, you are granting explicit permission for others to employ your writing on their site, for free. The only concession is that the website owners must typically include an "about the author" blurb following every article that they use. This can include your biographical information and perhaps a link back to your website.

When your article gets used on another website, everyone who reads the article sees your author biodata and the links back to your website. A good article may wind up on hundreds of websites, where many people can read it. You can submit your article to different directories.

Article marketing is a great way to send visitors to your website without putting out any money to do it. This can help your company and your website grow. You will become well known and respected by a great number of people in your target range and attract many hits to your site.

The goal of article marketing is to make readers go to an article of yours which is posted on your site. When they arrive there, you have a much greater opportunity to communicate the remainder of your sales pitch. If you really comprehend the working of search engine optimization, you can word your copy so as to achieve a significantly superior level in the listings of search results.

Article marketing is extremely low cost, and in many cases, totally free. When people find what they want and are impressed with what you've written, you become an expert in their minds, which translates to a high level of credibility. Unique articles with unique content also help to increase the traffic to your site.

Copy that is meant to generate more internet traffic to a specific site should have lots and lots of buzzwords. They make the copy more effective, and they affect the article's rating on the most popular search engines. The trick is to choose the proper buzzwords. However, if a site has a lower rating, it really doesn't need as many of those terms.

There are several ways to increase traffic to your website through your articles. One way is by creating articles that include easy links back to your site. Submitting articles to directories and newsletter publishers is also a good idea. Articles that contain unique content are always wanted for online use. Selling your articles for use as E-books can also send a lot of traffic your way.

A new and increasingly popular way to increase traffic to your site is the use of article marketing. This new marketing method involves writing unique articles with content that draws readers using search engines. The content should contain many key words that the web search engine will pick up. This will increase the frequency of your articles coming to the attention of the online readers. The article should also have unique content to draw the readers. It can be filed with one of the article directory services so people can see it easily. Once they click on it, they are one their way to your site.