Article marketing

What is Article Marketing?

Article marketing is simply the writing of informational pieces as marketing tools. It can also be described as viral and niche marketing.

The viral portion comes from the distribution and redistribution of your article to article directories, forums and newsgroups. Once posted, they are read and distributed to still other sites by the readers themselves.

The niche portion can be best described as writing articles to a specific group of readers who may share the same interests in your subject. These readers can often times be your best source of customers.

While article marketing is geared towards gaining new visitors and possibly customers to your site, it is NOT the  sending out of blatant sales copy.

One of the really awesome things about this form of advertising is that it can be both online and offline.

That's right! Imagine generating traffic from offline sources! Folks, it is real and marketers do it all the time!

Why use Article Marketing?

This type of marketing is viral and therefore can spread very rapidly across the Internet. Article directories, forums, newsgroups, etc. are fast becoming the venues from which marketers are reaching out to find customers.

This is one of the most low cost, and yet highly effective means, of Internet Marketing available. It works and has been considered an alternative to Search Engine submissions.

Used correctly and wisely this one method of marketing can spread your website links to a potential audience of millions. That's not an inflated number folks! It is very possible!

Niche marketing, or writing to a specific, targeted audience, can bring in an even more interested group that will more likely to buy from you.

One of the truly awesome things about this type of marketing is that you can change formats.

You can add pictures, video, and sound files. Doing this can add to your article's appeal and increase your number of readers.

Benefits of Article Marketing

Article Marketing is, without a doubt, the best way to promote your website. It offers many benefits not found in any other form of marketing touted online.

First, it’s viral. What that means is simply this: After you submit an article to a directory, it has the chance of being picked up by other outlets for publication.

This could be via blogs, ezines, other directories, and the readers themselves who could send it to their friends.

The really incredible thing is that it is not a one shot deal. It happens over and over again. The chances of you getting traffic and customers would only climb in a geometric way.

The more articles you produce and are accepted, the greater your potential can be.

Secondly, related to the first benefit, is that each time your article is distributed or redistributed it carries your website link with it.

This can be a major benefit to your site's search engine rankings. The people that take your articles must promise to leave the information intact, that includes the resource portion which contains your website link and author info.

Third, articles that are rich in keywords are likely to show up in any searches done on the search engines. Ironically, they may even show up more often than the site they are linked to.

Fourth, it is simply the best way to get the word out about your site.

Where to start

Probably the most important question you have to ask is where to start. If creative writing is one of your talents, then you should consider writing the articles yourself.

Developing you own writing style is one way to personalize your articles. Believe it or not, your readers will appreciate it more.

If you don't like to write or are not talented in this area you may take an alternate means and have the articles written by a ghost writer.

You can get a number of well written articles at relatively inexpensive rates.

There are many who take the second option and hire someone else to do it for them simply because they do not have the time to do it themselves or simply wish to focus their energies on promotion or development of new ideas.

Doing It Yourself

The first step is deciding what you wish to write about. It may be a mainline topic for a specific subject, a little known issue related to a subject, or a teaser article.

Approaching these types of articles is done a little differently.

•   Research

The first step in any of these is to research your subject matter. The only rule of thumb I can provide here is simply this: the more research you do the better.

When writing these articles, you should be able to present your material in an authoritive manner. An added side benefit here is that extensive research can provide more material for still more articles.

You want to research the information in order to present yourself as an expert on the subject.

You can use the Internet, magazines, the library, newspapers

(depending on your subject), ezines, forums and more.

I think you can see the limitless possibilities for research. But, be thorough. Believe me, it will only add to your credibility.

•   Outline

The second step is to organize your information into a clear, concise flow of information. You would do this using an outline.

Why would you use an outline?

Consider the outline of your article as the frame on which you will build. Like a house. You can't very well just start nailing boards together without a frame. You wouldn't have a house, just a mess.

So build your outline. Keep the outline simple. Remember most articles will only be up to 500 words tops.

If you are planning a larger article, you may want to consider breaking it up into two or more, smaller articles.

Start with a statement that clearly states what the article will be about. Then, organize your information to support it. ALWAYS remember to keep your information simple and to the point.

Whenever possible, try to include usable information and resources. If you have had some experience in the particular subject you are writing about, try to include that as well.

Your information should be usable to your readers.

•   Writing Your Article

Once you have organized your material, you can start writing. The main point to remember when writing your article is that it is NOT a sales page.

Your perspective audience will recognize a blatant sales page and simply stop reading it and dump it.

In most cases, the blatant sales article will not even be published on the website.

When writing, use the "coffee table" approach. Talk to them. Don't sell to them. Just talk. Organize your information to flow, meaning that your information should be easy to read and follow.

Your article should also be interesting and written to keep their interest.

Articles that are too choppy will often lose the reader's interest because they have trouble following the flow of the conversation.

Remember to include information that can be used by the reader. If possible, try to include resources that the reader can also use. Free resources are the best, so try to use them when ever possible.

Remember to provide the links. It's an extra step you take to help your readers along. Again, they do appreciate it.

When concluding an article, try to avoid the "sudden stop syndrome". By this, I mean try to avoid talking about your subject and then simply stopping, leaving the reader to wonder if they missed something.

Your conclusion should be a recap of the article without it being a repeat of the article. A general summary and nothing more.

Doing this, will keep your readers at ease. After all, you didn't try to sell them anything. But, you did keep their interest.

That was the most important part of this.

When writing your article or articles, remember to stop and take a break often. Give your mind a chance to rest.

You will be pleasantly surprised to find that ideas will come to you when you are at rest much easier than trying to force them.

Hiring Ghost Writers

This can be a real time saver for the savvy Internet Marketer who wishes to promote their product or service without spending the time to actually write the articles themselves.

There are a few pitfalls here that can be avoided.

First sign up at a freelancer website like Scriptlance. The website is free to join and only require a valid e-mail address.

If you are like a lot of people and don't wish to have your e-mail inbox cluttered with e-mails you may wish to sign up using another e-mail than your primary.

There are a number of places to go to get another e-mail address for that purpose. Yahoo.com, Hotmail.com, and MyPCBoxx.com,

Are just a few places you can get a new e-mail.

Once you have your accounts set up, you may post your project.

Here are a few guidelines to follow when posting your project:

1) Be specific on how many articles you want.

2) Be specific on the subject.

3) Be specific on the length of each article. (300 - 600 words is the standard)

4) State a budget (but be prepared to show some flexibility)

5) Using what you learned in writing your articles, let your perspective writers know that you expect real work. That the articles need to follow the guidelines mentioned in that chapter.

6) Ask for samples of their work.

One rule of thumb to follow here is this: If they won't supply you with samples to review, they may not be the writer you are looking for.

7) Don't accept the first person who bids on your project.

Wait a few days to give everyone a chance to see your project. Many writers will not bid on a project when they see it the first time. They may read it and come back to it later after they have shopped around some.

8) State that all work must be original.

Here is one pitfall you may run into, some writers may suddenly turn lazy and simply copy and paste any prior work they have done on your subject.

There's not really any way you can verify it, but if it ever comes back to you that it was a duplicate article, then you can rule out any further business with that writer and warn your fellow marketers about him/her.

9) When posting your project listing, you must clearly state that you will not accept plagiarised material.

Plagiarism can ruin your reputation as an Internet Marketer in ways that will last for a long time. In extreme cases, it can lead to litigation. So save yourself from this and don't allow it.

10) Include that you want related keywords to appear in you article. It is not a bad idea to get a list from the writer so you can check.

They should appear at least twice in the article to get maximum benefits from them.

Plagiarism

What is Plagiarism?

Basically, it is the copying and pasting of someone else's work and claiming it as your own. It is not research, it is stealing. It is a lazy way to write articles.

Remember I mentioned possible litigation? If the material is copyrighted, you can set yourself up for an expensive lawsuit.

Folks, do yourself a favour and simply don't do it.

You are better off in the long run and will avoid potential headaches. To avoid confusion here, hiring and using a ghost writer's work is not plagiarism. Remember, that's what you hired them for.

Before You Hire That Writer

Before deciding on which writer to use, a good idea is to check out their feedback score and comment section.

It's easy enough to do as each bidder will have links to his or her profile. In some cases, other project submitters will warn you of unreliable or unscrupulous writers.

Always take their warnings into account before making your selection. As mentioned before. Take the time to read the feedback left by other project submitters on potential writers. They can help you determine who is right for the job.

Do they get the job done on time? Is it quality work? Have past customers been happy with the work?

These are just a few questions you have to ask yourself when looking at the profiles.

If you will recall, I mentioned you need to be flexible a little when posting your budget. One idea that seems to work for me is to under post your project budget.

By that, I mean, posting a value less than what you can afford. This can and will help your flexibility.

If you hire an experienced writer, be prepared to pay more. Experienced writers will cost more, but they will be worth the added expense.

Should You Hire A Newbie Writer?

If you want to take a more inexpensive route, you can hire lesser experienced writers. This can be a good idea or bad one.

When considering this option, here are a few ideas:

1) Get samples of their work. As I mentioned before, if they won't supply samples, it is probably better not to hire them.

2) Make sure they understand what you want in the article and how long it must be.

3) If the project they are bidding on is too high in stake, you may want to ask the newbie writer if they would be interested in working on another project that you may have.

This way you can get the feel of whether or not the writer is best for this job. Don't be insulting about it. Be straightforward.

The newbie writer should see this as a chance to gain some experience in writing. Many will appreciate it.