Article Title: Writing for Traffic - Getting Published Author Name: Mark Daoust Contact Email Address: mark@site-reference.com Article URL: http://www.site-reference.com/Marketing/5315/index.html Word Count: 1815 Category: Internet Marketing Copyright: 2005 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Publishing Guidelines: You are welcome to publish this article in its entirety electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as
resource box at
bottom is included. When possible, please send a courtesy copy of your publication to mark@site-reference.com. Thank you! ---------------------------------------------------------------------
Writing for Traffic – Getting Published By Mark Daoust
Internet marketing journals are filled with articles proclaiming
immense benefits of article writing. From page rank boosting and traffic generation, to establishing trust and credibility,
benefits of becoming a published author should be well known to you now. If you are not writing articles, then you are simply missing out on one of
easiest and most effective ways of making your website a success.
Because article writing has been written about so much, many new writers have opened up their word processors and began typing away to harness this powerful tool. However, many of these new authors are seeing little to no success. Their articles are not getting published, and
articles that do get published do not see any traffic.
The problem is that most website owners do not know how to write to get published. They write to advertise their business, or to simply get their presence known. This simply does not work.
Article writing can be one of two things: it can be an immensely beneficial activity for your business, or it can be an immensely time consuming task that bears few results. Obviously, you want your article writing to be
immensely beneficial activity. This article will explore
basic do’s and don’ts of getting your article published, and in turn, getting those coveted benefits.
Never, Never Include Your Business
When writing your article, keep in mind that
less you try and push your website,
more people will be likely to visit your site. More importantly, those who do visit your website will be highly targeted prospects for your site. People do not like to be sold or to listen to sales pitches. If a person knows they are in a sales pitch, their first reaction will be to get out of that situation as quickly as possible.
Articles have
great ability to make your website known without
reader experiencing a sales pitch. They establish trust by focusing on details that does not require
reader to give up any of their own information or money. Once that trust is established, entering into a sales pitch is not such a bad of an experience.
The number one mistake that website owners make when writing articles is to use
article to advertise their website. This is a guaranteed way of being published in only
journals that do not screen their articles (and in turn probably do not have a lot of traffic). You may not think you are advertising your site, but there are several things publishers look for in articles that they may constitute as advertising.
The Blatant Advertisement
This is when you write an article and include a section that reads something like this: “For more information on this subject, visit my website http://www.yoursite.com”. Asking visitors to visit your website is perfectly fine, just not within
body of
article itself.
The Link to a Free Tool
Many articles offer links to free tools to enforce a point that
article was trying to make. Some articles only intention is to report a collection of tools that webmasters can use for a specific purpose. These articles are generally very good and very useful.
However, you should never provide a link to a tool on your website. Readers have grown tired of articles that do nothing to help them and everything to help
person who wrote
article. They have grown savvy to author’s attempts to advertise their website through
use of articles. As a result, if an article contains a link to
author’s website as a resource for
topic they are writing about, it immediately raises suspicions.
Advertising a Website that You Don’t Admit to Owning
This is a classic technique by some authors to advertise their website for free. They write an article that recommends a website that they own, however, they never mention that they actually own
website being recommended. They may recommend
website as a good resource, a great tool, or a quality service, but never mention that they have an interest in that website.
Although some publishers will not pick up on this, it is dishonest in its attempt. An author who does this appears to be offering an unbiased opinion on a resource when in fact there are anything but unbiased. If a reader finds out that they were recommended a website on
assumption that
recommendation came from an unbiased source, not only will they not trust your service, they will not trust
publishing source.
Using Your Website as an Example
This is probably
most common source of advertising through articles. An author who is writing about an issue may decide that using an active website is important as an example. Naturally they choose to use their own URL. This is generally not accepted as proper article writing etiquette.
If you need to use a URL as an example, use
common http://www.domain.com, or use another resource that you do not have a personal interest in. By refusing to promote your own website within
article, you will actually be doing more good for yourself than bad.