Easy Article Marketing

When you choose to use article marketing to promote your business, it is important first and foremost to write articles that are both informative, as well as SEO optimised. This can be a difficult combination for some writers, even though it really doesn't have to be.

All too often, I see marketers who believe that their content doesn't need to be of the highest quality, just as long as it is properly optimised so as to bring in the highest amount of traffic.

This is a HUGE mistake!

Quite frankly, those who aren't willing to put a little more effort (and a little more money, if they are outsourcing their articles) into making certain that they have original and informative content, are only setting themselves up for disappointment.

Optimised-only content is fine as long as all you are trying to do is drive traffic to Adsense-loaded sites; but is a terrible option if you are actually trying to keep people reading long enough to want to learn more about the product you are promoting. If you actually want to make sales, then you will need to provide enough informative content to allow your readers to become interested in the product you are trying to sell.

There should be five parts to any article written for article marketing. These are:

*Headline
*Introduction
*Body
*Conclusion
*Resource Box

Headlines -

The headline, of course, is the most important part of the entire article. It must be enticing enough to get your visitors interested in reading, but needs also to contain the keyword you are targeting for your article marketing efforts.

This is easy enough to accomplish. If you will look at the headline of this particular article as an example, you will see just how easy it really is to get both your keyword, and a word about the content of your article into the headline.

Many people overlook the importance of fitting their targeted keyword into their headline. The reason why this is so important, is because the first thing the search engines look at when deciding what relevant content to display on search engine results pages, or SERPs, is the headline of the content.

So, if the articles you are using for article marketing are geared toward the poker niche, for example, and your targeted keyword is something along the lines of "Texas Hold 'Em Poker" - you certainly don't want some sort of artsy headline that reads "The Art Of Poker, Why Winning Isn't Just About The Cards," or some such nonsense.

Article marketing is as much about creating an interested readership as it is about selling. If you provide your readers with a reason to finish your article, you're almost guaranteed they'll come back for more!

Introduction -

The introduction to the articles you use for article marketing should be a paragraph or two relating to the subject of your article. It's important to not actually give any quality information away here, but rather to create a sense of excitement in your readers about the article they are about to read.

Use a paragraph to describe the subject of your article, the problems faced by people suffering from the subject of your article, the history of the subject of your article, etc. The main thing is to give a brief introduction that will basically tell your readers what your article is about.

Articles used for article marketing should have their targeted keyword at least twice in the introduction of the article. Once as close to the beginning of the first sentence as possible, and once toward the end of the last sentence. If your introduction has two paragraphs, be sure to place your targeted keyword within each paragraph twice.

Body -

If you're using your articles for article marketing, then the body of your copy will need to be both optimised and interesting to read. Unfortunately, the two aren't often found together.
Writing an informative article isn't hard to do. Find two or three points about the subject you are writing your articles about that really interest people. Use a keyword search tool to find out what the most searched for "how to" is for your particular niche. The specific problems associated with that "how to" should be the main points of your articles.

The body of your articles should be roughly four or five paragraphs, with at least one subheading or bulleted list to break up the line of the copy. For most article marketing articles, a short paragraph of information, followed by a short bulleted list, and then two more paragraphs solving the points in the bullets should be more than enough.

Optimising your article body works in much the same was as does the introduction. You should try to have your targeted keyword twice per paragraph, once within the first sentence, and once within the last. But you should also try to sprinkle the body with a few variations on the original keyword.

For example, if your article marketing keyword was "dog care", you'd also want to use "caring for dogs", "dog's care", and "care of dogs" somewhere throughout the body of your article. If you have a good grasp on the topic your articles are about, then it should be relatively simple for you to toss these variations in once in a while.

Conclusion -

The conclusion of your article marketing articles needs to be roughly a paragraph long, with your keyword placement the same as before - once at the beginning of the paragraph, and once at the end. Briefly summarize the content of your article, and soft-sell your reader on the value of owning whatever it is you are using the articles to promote.

I say "soft-sell" because it is important that the article seem more informative than like a marketing ploy. If your readers get to the end, only to get hit with a hard sales message, they'll most likely turn and click away. But by soft-selling them on the value of owning whatever product you are promoting your chances of getting them to click on the link in your resource box increase exponentially.

An example of a soft sell conclusion would be along the lines of, for the "dog care" example: If you're interested in learning more about the importance of proper dog care, there is a wealth of information available in various e-books on the market, as well as in your local library. Learning all you can from these sources should be one of the top priorities of any dog owner, as proper dog care is essential to giving your dog a long and happy life."

The Resource Box -

The resource box is the bread and butter of your article marketing efforts. It needs to a very short bio, that includes the reason why you are an expert on the subject. Your article keyword needs to show up at least once in the resource box. Using our example of "dog care", a good resource box would look something like this:

"John Doe has been a dog owner and advocate of proper dog care for more than twenty years. His two Himalayan Sheppards are admittedly the most pampered large-breed dogs on the planet. For more information on how you can give your dog the care she deserves, visit John on the web at www.yourstitehere.com.

In Conclusion...

There you have it. The simple method for creating your own informative articles to use for article marketing. It really is much simpler than many would have you believe to write an informative article. Once you get the hang of it, you'll be able to write three or four an hour, provided you keep them fairly short (500 words, or less); and will be able to easily write ten articles a day to submit to the various directories used in article marketing.

Copyright 2007 Jessalynn Coolbaugh All Rights Reserved

Article marketing is by far the easiest and cheapest way to advertise an online business, or any business for that matter. As long as you have a web presence where you can send readers, you can make enormous amounts of profit by putting this simple free advertising method to work for you.

In part one, we discussed the methodology used in actually creating an effective article; here in part two, we're going to cover just how you need to use those articles to leverage your marketing efforts. Remember, the most important aspect of this advertising method is to have several articles all dedicated to your niche, all floating around the internet at the same time.

Prepping Your Articles For Submission -

The first thing you need to do is make certain that your articles are readable; this is especially true if you have outsourced your article writing, as many article writers in the freelance market today are not English speakers. Make certain that the language and grammar used are easy to read, as well as informative.

Since the article directories you will be submitting these articles to will require you to choose a category for your articles, you need to make sure that each of your articles can be defined as having a specific topic. Don't use any articles that ramble on, or that veer off from the original keyword.

The next thing that you need to do, is make certain that your articles are properly optimised for your keyword. Again, this is a relatively simple process. Using your word processing program, find the word count of each of your articles. Next, divide that number by 30. This is the number of times your chosen keyword should appear in your article.

For example: if your article is 300 words long, then your keyword, or keyword phrase needs to appear within the body of the article at least ten times. More is fine, but don't go overboard, or you'll be penalised.

Submitting Your Articles -

Next comes the hardest part, the actual submission process. Now to start off with, there are a number of services available that will submit your articles for you to the various article directories available. While these services take the hassle out of having to submit each article you write to a hundred different article directories by hand, they can also be quite expensive. Many charge as high as fifty dollars a piece to submit just a single article!

Imagine the cost if you wanted to submit dozens of articles each week!

Or, you can submit your articles manually to each of the top article directories. EzineArticles.com is the number one directory on the 'net to use for article marketing, but there are literally hundreds of article directories you can choose from.

If you want to submit your articles manually, simply search for the term "article directories" in your favourite search engine. You'll get thousands of results.

Start at the beginning and start setting up your accounts. Remember the key is to submit your articles to as many directories as possible, in order to receive the highest number of readers in the shortest possible time.

Each time you submit an article to a directory, you will first need to enter in your account information, then choose a category for your article. This is one of the most crucial parts of article marketing, simply because the narrower you make the category you choose, the more highly targeted your traffic will be.

For example: if your article topic is on poodle care, you wouldn't want to simply submit it in a category for pets. You'd want to try to narrow it down as much as possible. For instance - pets and animals-dogs-dog care-small breed care - will get you ten times as many possible buyers as just placing your article in a generic category would.

You can also use a software program, such as the one found here, that will allow you to submit your article to several directories at the same time. There are some free article submitter programs available, but most only post on lesser known directories, FFA pages, and on free-for-all forums that offer no targeted traffic at all.

If you do use an article submitter software, you don't run the risk of your articles being spammed all over the internet; and can actually guarantee that you'll be getting some very highly targeted visitors.

Why It Works -

The reason why article marketing is so effective, is because once you have posted your articles to the various article directories, bloggers and ezine publishers can then use the content for free in their publications - provided they leave the resource box at the end of your article (you know, the one that has a link back to whatever you are selling?) intact.

This gives you the opportunity to have your articles literally plastered all over the internet at a total cost of $0 to you!

Each time your articles are published on another site, you receive an extra one-way backlink to your site, thus increasing your ranking in the SERPs (search engine result pages). The more articles, the more backlinks. That's why it is so important to use a software like this one to submit as many articles as you possibly can.

Not to mention the fact that every person that reads your articles is a potential customer. That's why it is so important to make your articles as interesting as possible. The longer people read your article, the more likely they are to click on your link to see what you are offering.

Getting The Word Out -

Don't think that your article marketing efforts should stop with the submission of your articles to the different article directories, though. It is still important to get the word out about the various articles you have written.

You can (and should) join forums that are relevant to your niche, and try to get involved in each community. Once you have been around a while, you will be able to easily answer people's questions by giving a brief answer then saying, "I just wrote an article about this the other day, you can find the link in my signature...".

In Conclusion...

So remember, article marketing is by far the easiest and more cost effective manner of advertising available today. Each article needs to be clear, informative, and give readers a reason to click on your links for more information. By putting article marketing to work for you, you could be seeing a huge increase in your profits in record time!

Copyright 2007 Jessalynn Coolbaugh All Rights Reserved