Article marketing is a simple and effective way to generate short and long-term traffic to your website. No matter what kind of site (or blog) you have, big or small, new or old, using articles can bring you a a very nice stream of visitors for years to come.
What exactly is article marketing?
In a nutshell, article marketing is writing content for other websites. You write a useful article on a topic related to your own website or blog, and offer it for others to publish on their sites or in their newsletters. At the end of your article you place your bio box/resource box (a short two to three sentence blurb about your products/services/website)which contains one or two links to your own website. It is required for the person publishing your article to leave the article "as is" including your bio box.
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Creating a compelling bio box is a whole subject in itself and can dramatically increase traffic when done properly. We'll be covering that topic more in-depth in future posts. For now, just keep in the back of your mind that bio boxes ARE important
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Not only do you receive links to your website each time your article is published, but other website owners begin to seriously consider you as an expert in your field and may contact you for interviews or joint ventures.
And, of course, it's free. (If you're a time mongor, keep in mind this is something that is pretty cheap to outsource if you want).
What's the easiest way to start article marketing?
First, we need to choose where the articles are going to be published. If you've been around awhile and have a network of friends/associates, consider contacting them and discussing writing some articles for their sites. Of course, the size of their readership will be a factor in how much traffic you can receive from your article, so keep this in the back of your mind also.
If you haven't been around that long or don't have a network, a great alternative is submitting your articles to article directories.
Article directories such as Ezine Articles and Article Dashboard allow anyone to publish articles on any subject they choose. The articles are checked to make sure they meet submission guidelines, and then they are published for anyone to read.
One of the many benefits of publishing your articles with an article directory is that they are indexed with the major search engines. For instance, Google loves Ezine Articles, so publishing to Ezine Articles gives you the potential have your article rank well on the Google site. Pretty Cool, right!?!
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Much like the bio box, getting your article ranked well in Google is a whole seperate art. One worth mastering though. We'll be covering this more in depth in later posts, but if you would like a better idea of how it works right now, I suggest you read Travis Sago's bum marketing course at bummarketingmethod.com).
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Okay, now that we've decided where we're going to publish our articles, let's look at how the article should be written:
Your article should be between 300-700 words long. Be sure to hoose a topic related to the theme of your own website or blog. (Writing articles that appeal to your target market will ensure that you’ll receive visitors who are interested in your website before they click.)
When writing your article keep these tips in mind:
- Make sure your article is well-written and informative (NOT an advertisement).
- Proof read your article for typos and grammatical errors.
- Be sure to include your bio box at the end with your URL included.
For your bio box:
- Be sure to include the full http:// portion of your website URL to make the link active.
- Limit the resource box to only one or two links. If you get greedy, many publishers will pass on your article.
Submit your Article, then rinse and repeat.
The number one mistake made by many website owners is to write one article and obsess over it. Get your first article written, then move onto your next one and then the next. Write, submit, rinse and reapeat.
That last tip (rinse and repeat) is HUGE. This is where most article marketers fail. If you commit yourself to it, you will crush the competition.
Stay tuned for more indepth information on article marketing later today.
Bigger, faster, stronger traffic
always!
