Writing articles for
Internet is one of
most effective marketing tools available. Writing and submitting articles to article banks accomplishes many important things for you:1.It drives qualified leads to your website.
People who arrive at your website via a link in
byline (or signature line, or resource box) of your article are what is called “pre-qualified.” It isn’t random. They are already interested in you and what you have to offer. This is advertising “gold”.
2.It establishes you as an expert.
The written word still has clout. When people read articles by you repeatedly on
Internet, they come to know you as
expert you are in your field.
3.It defines a niche for you.
Articles associate you with a certain subject matter. You can’t be everything to everybody. You need a niche. (Important point: You may in actuality do many things, as I do, but to market, you need a niche.)
4.It’s repeat and endless advertising.
My articles show up in
most amazing places. Recently I walked into a real estate office and there was one of my articles in their regional magazine. Articles in article banks and on websites stay around indefinitely. Someone has just written me they’ll be using three articles I wrote about spring activities for families over 3 years ago. You write
article once and
reach – in space and time – are unbelievable. They have a shelf life longer than Strontium 90, if that means anything to you. Lazy advertising, yes?
5.It increases your link popularity.
Each of those bylines contains a link to your website, and each time your article is used on another website, you’ve appeared there. Among
complicated methods search engines use for placement, link popularity is
most comprehensible.
Furthermore, people will start writing you asking to exchange links.
IMPORTANT TIP: Be sure and demand that if they use your article, links be “activated on
Internet.” Otherwise, you don’t register with
search engines.
6.Increases search engine placement.
I have made it to #3 under “personal coach” on google, an extremely difficult feat, eclipsing people who’ve been there much longer. It’s hard to bump long-standing people. I’ve done this without spending a dime. Let me show you how to do it with Internet articles and a few tricks of
trade.
7.It increases your knowledge and your ability to communicate about your specialty.
Especially if you offer a service, and are professional and serious about it, as I am, writing articles makes you grow professionally. It is entirely true that you don’t really know something until you teach it, and that’s what you’re doing.
If you’re serious about your work, writing about it keeps you on
leading edge. You have to keep researching new topics and learning more, and then developing new ways to communicate about it. This is good for you! OK?
WHAT TO WRITE ABOUT
So, within your given field, or consistent with your products, what do you write about?
I recently reviewed
hundreds of articles I have on one article-bank site which tells you how many “visits” each article has gotten.
And BTW, you MUST do this kind of “market research.” Don’t just write, click and send; analyze! www.ideamarketers.com tells you how many people have visited each article. Take
time to go over this data every several months. Then
formula is simple: win-stay, lose-shift.
If many people have visited
article, write more like it, and vice versa.
Now here’s
tricky part. The single most popular article I’ve written is – are you ready for this? – “Emotional Intelligence and
Gentle Art of Conversation.” (http://www.ideamarketers.com/library/article.cfm?articleid=18584&wherefrom=LOGIN )
What do you make of this? That question – “What do you make of this?” must always be your TOOL in marketing. Is it
title that’s appealing? Of course, Emotional Intelligence is a very hot topic, but I’ve written hundreds with that in
title. It must be
other part –
gentle art of conversation. Who knew?
In fact I was asked to be on a radio show, and was also interviewed for a national newspaper as a result of this article.
I’m sorry to say I’m not
genius who knew ahead of time that “conversation” would be a hot topic. I hadn’t a clue. I was just anticipating
holidays and wondering what people might be thinking about. I know family get-togethers can be trying … and a bit of formal conversation can make
occasion more pleasant and less likely to degenerate into turf wars and old-wound licking.
When
newspaper reporter called me to interview me about “dinner table conversation,” I was truly amazed at
questions she asked. I grew up being schooled in
gentle art of conversation. Evidently it’s one of those things that got lost along
way. Through her questions, I formed ideas for many more articles.