Guest Articles: Good for Some, Bad for OthersWritten by Bobette Kyle
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Poor Fit With Marketing Strategies For some business models, including guest articles in a list of Web site marketing strategies does not make sense. For example, it can be counterproductive to include guest articles on Web sites where primary goal is to sell. Service Web Sites If goal is to generate direct sales and leads for your own services, it doesn’t make sense to dilute message and call to action with diversions. Karon Thackston explains: "The purpose of my site is to get those in need of copywriting services and SEO copywriting services to contact me in order to do business. People who come to my Marketing Words site, http://www.marketingwords.com , are looking for information about copywriting. They are also looking to hire a copywriter." Therefore, you will find only material written by Karon on her site. Product Sales Sites Some sites have a single goal: to sell product. Every page on site is devoted to product descriptions or copy designed to move a visitor toward a purchase. In these cases, where predominant call to action is "buy product," articles could hurt sales by diverting visitor attention away from products. Visit your favorite online retail sites, and you are likely to find product descriptions, reviews, photos and other product-driven content - but little or no guest articles. Their absence on many e-commerce sites is an illustration of poor fit of such articles as a marketing strategy for those sites. Understanding how different techniques support, or sabotage, Web site marketing strategies can be critical to a site’s success. Align your strategies with overall goals, and your business is more likely to flourish.
Bobette Kyle draws upon 10+ years of Marketing/Executive experience, Marketing MBA, and online marketing research in her writing. Bobette is proprietor of the Web Site Marketing Plan Network, http://www.WebSiteMarketingPlan.com , and Moderator for the Web Marketing topic at highrankings.com forums.
| | 10 Steps to Getting Paid for Your Marketing MaterialsWritten by Paulette Ensign
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7.Think about who can benefit from using your booklet to promote their own product, service, or cause. Send them a sample of your booklet and a cover letter describing some of ways they can increase their sales or further their cause by using your booklet as a promotional tool. 8.Consider corporations, associations, publications, and any other group that seems appropriate for topic of your booklet. Reach out to as many of them as you can, on whatever budget of time and money you have available to you. 9.Realize that every time one of large-quantity buyers sends out your booklet to promote their own product, service, or cause, they are also marketing your business. Your contact information in booklet allows reader to reach you directly. 10.Enjoy expansion of your customer base and your checking account. You are now reaching a larger audience than you are likely to do single-handedly, thanks to large-quantity buyers of your booklet. And you have been paid by your buyers to reach those new people.Those sound bites you have been saying for years are now reaching far beyond your current clients, helping your buyers, their clients, and your own business. It doesn’t get a lot better than getting paid for your marketing materials. © 2004, Paulette Ensign
Paulette Ensign has sold almost a million copies of her own tips booklet without spending a penny on advertising. For information on creating your own tips booklet and leveraging a booklet manuscript into other products, contact Paulette Ensign, Tips Products International 858-481-0890, San Diego, CA http://www.tipsbooklets.com mailto:Paulette@tipsbooklets.com
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