Article Marketing
Article marketing is the practice of writing articles in your area of expertise and using them for your marketing efforts. It's a mutually beneficial relationship between the recipient, who gets usable content for free, and the writer, who gets a free outlet for promoting his/herself through the short bio that appears at the end of these types of articles. There are many benefits of article marketing for you, including:
- Boosting site traffic and PageRank
- Establishing yourself as an expert
- Increasing your reach
- Generating sales and leads
To write your article, use the content suggestions and formatting as outlined in Step 1. Remember: Your goal is to provide original, interesting content that will make your readers want to find out more. With this goal in mind, consider these suggestions while you're writing:
- Stay on topic
Try to not let your subject drift or you'll find your readers drifting as well.
- Establish yourself as an expert
Write from the position of being an authority on the topic.
- Use links sparingly
A few links, placed near the bottom, will help your reader gain more knowledge—but too many links will distract your readers and make your article hard to finish!
- Save the hype
Articles are for facts and information, not to promote your company or products in one page-long commercial.
- Keep your "about" section short
At the bottom of an article, there's a small space for an "About the Author" paragraph, which is also called a "Resource Box". You don't want your life story here—just write your contact information, a very short pitch or unique selling proposition, and a small call to action. An example of this might be:
John Smith, a former writer for the New York Times, is the owner of SmartWidgets. SmartWidgets bring your website to life! Find out more by contacting him at (000) 867-5309, or by visiting the website www.smartwidgets.com. Remember to register at the website for your free guide: 10 Ways to Bring your Website to Life!
- Spellcheck and review
Don't write your article directly on the submission site. Write it in a word processing program so that you can review, edit, and spellcheck your article thoroughly before submitting it.
Once you have your article written, you should submit it to an article submission directory. They each have their own list of entry and account requirements, so you'll need to apply for an account at each one. Here are some article sites to start with:
There are special services that will distribute your article over many sites, but we've found that to be a waste of money and a potential problem if Google thinks you're spamming with duplicate content. A good technique is to pick a few - no more than 5 - larger article submission sites and upload your article there. Most of the smaller sites will pick up and distribute the content from the larger sites without a direct submission anyway.