Article marketing can be a great way to attract targeted traffic to your website, increase your sales and grow your online business. Although article marketing can be hard work, it can have a big effect on your traffic if you do it well.
In this tutorial you’ll discover how to get started with article marketing. You’ll find out exactly what article marketing is and why it works, and you’ll learn some useful tips for writing effective articles and getting them published.
What is article marketing?
The basic idea of article marketing is that you write several articles on topics related to your products, service or industry, and give these articles away free for other people to publish in their websites, RSS feeds, or email newsletters.
Each article that you write ends with a resource box (also called a bio box) that contains a small amount of information about your product or service, and a link back to your website. That way, readers of your article can click through to your site to find out more about you and, hopefully, purchase your product or service.
How article marketing can help build traffic to your site
Article marketing can work in several ways to send targeted visitors to your site:
- Visitors clicking your resource box link on a website. Many website owners are looking for high-quality free articles to put on their site. If your article gets published on some popular websites or blogs then you could see a lot of traffic coming from these pages to your site.
- Readers clicking your resource box link in an RSS feed. Many blogs and websites also make their content available via RSS feeds. If your article is used on a website, chances are it will appear in a feed too. This delivers your article — and link — straight to people’s feed readers.
- People clicking your resource box link in an email newsletter. A very popular use of articles is in email newsletters. Often, newsletter creators will use a free article to add useful content to their newsletter, which might then be sent out to thousands of subscribers. If your article becomes popular it could appear in several newsletters, greatly increasing its exposure, and putting your link in front of potentially tens of thousands of readers.
- Increased search engine ranking. Many search engines rank pages more highly if there are many links to the page from other high-quality sites. Since your article includes a link back to your site, you may see a jump in search engine rankings if your article gets published on a few popular sites.
- Increasing awareness of your brand. Even if a reader doesn’t click on the link in your article, they have still benefited from reading the article. They’ll probably notice your name and website, which means that they’ve become more aware of your brand. This can indirectly lead to more traffic and sales.
Tips for writing effective articles
Article marketing can be a hit-and-miss affair. Many articles disappear into obscurity, while a few get published many times and are read by millions of people. Here are some tips to help you write successful articles and increase their chances of publication:
- Stick to your niche. You want to write articles that are narrowly targeted to the audience you’re trying to attract to your site. Niche articles are also more likely to get published by websites in the same niche. Also, since you’re writing about your area of expertise, you’ll find it easier to write articles and think of new article ideas, and your articles will be better as a result.
- Keep articles short. Articles usually do best if they are between 300 and 700 words in length.
- Answer a need. Think about the core needs of your potential customers. Write articles that identify these needs and show how to satisfy them.
- Research and use keywords. Use tools such as Google Analytics to find out what search keywords visitors are using to reach your site. Which keywords result in the most sales? Make sure you work those keywords into your marketing articles to attract targeted, high-paying customers to your site.
- Proof-read your articles. It’s easy to overlook this step, especially if you’re turning out several articles a day. However, quality is just as important as quantity. If your article is written well and has no spelling errors or typos then it will likely become more popular than a badly-written article.
- Write regularly and consistently. To make your article marketing efforts a success, you’ll need to write lots of articles on a regular basis. Typically, most people find they need to write at least 20-30 articles before they see any benefit, and some people have written thousands of articles.
Article topic ideas
Often, half the battle with writing an article is thinking of a good, original topic that will grab the reader’s attention. Here are some article title ideas to fire your imagination:
- Top 5 Ways To …
- The 10 Biggest Mistakes People Make When…
- How To Get Started With…
- How To Succeed At…
- Common Questions People Ask When…
- How To Choose The Best … For Your Needs
- Make Your Life Easier By …
- The Pros and Cons Of …
- Everything You Always Wanted To Know About …
Also, look back at any old articles or blog posts you’ve written. Could you rework some of these into new articles for marketing purposes?
Where to submit your articles
Once you’ve written some high-quality, targeted articles to market your business, how do you get those articles published in other websites, blogs and newsletters? There are several ways that you can syndicate your articles:
- Submit them to article marketing directories. Popular directories include EzineArticles and GoArticles. These directories are a great way to get your articles in front of thousands of potential article publishers with very little effort. What’s more, since your articles are published in the directories themselves, you get extra free exposure for your articles. The main downside with the directories is that you’re competing against thousands of other article writers, many of whom have already published tens, if not hundreds, of articles. However, if you can find your niche and write high-quality content then these article directories can be an excellent approach.
- Submit them to individual websites. Find websites, blogs or newsletters targeted to your industry that regularly publish useful articles. Contact the site owner with a sample article and ask if they’d be interested in publishing one or more of your articles. This approach is time-consuming but it does let you choose exactly where your articles are published. It can also have a high success rate if you choose your target sites wisely. Also, many content-driven sites actively solicit high-quality articles from writers in return for a link back to the writer’s site.
- Place the articles on your own site for republication. With this approach, you include a message at the end of the article along the lines of: “Please feel free to republish this article on your site, provided you include a link back to my site.” If your site gets a lot of traffic then this approach can work well, and it saves you having to go out and find places to publish your articles.
Once you start writing and submitting articles on a regular basis, you’ll hopefully start seeing a slow increase in traffic over time. Sometimes, if you’re lucky, you’ll see a big spike in traffic — this usually means that one of your articles has been published in a popular email newsletter.
You might find it helpful to use a unique URL in the resource box of each article, so you can track which of your articles are generating the most traffic.
Summary
In this article you’ve learned the basics of online article marketing. You’ve looked at:
- What article marketing is
- How article marketing works to build traffic
- Some tips for writing successful articles
- Ideas for article topics
- How to get your articles noticed and published in websites, blogs and newsletters
Article marketing is hard work, and you’ll need to commit a regular amount of time each day or week to write new articles. However, if done well, article marketing can be a great way to attract targeted visitors to your site and build your online business.
Good luck!
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