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By Steve Shaw in Writing

The number one key to success when you’re undertaking an Article Marketing campaign is CONSISTENCY. So many times people start off with the best intentions and have high aspirations for their website’s success, but after a brief effort they lose focus and give up.

Article marketing is a great way to build links and increase traffic to a website, but in order to see the dramatic results you’re looking for you need to consistently submit articles for an extended period of time, ideally for the lifetime of your website.

If you submit a handful of articles for just a few months, you will not see much in the way of lasting results. But, if you submit a handful of articles every month for a year, you will see what a link building momentum can do for your site!

Just submit articles consistently–sounds easy enough, doesn’t it?

It is incredibly easy if you’ve taken the time to plan and organize ahead of time. A little planning goes a long way–just complete the following steps and you’ll keep yourself on track for the rest of the year.

1) Determine how many articles you will submit each month.

I recommend submitting somewhere between 1 and 8 articles a month–choose a quantity that you can realistically write month in and month out. If you set your sights too high and fall short, that can be discouraging, so you may wish to start out towards the lower end of the spectrum and work your way up to 8 over a few months.

I think that submitting more than 8 articles a month is overkill. When you start submitting more articles than this the benefits go down compared to the effort you’re exerting, so I advise people to submit articles each month for an extended period of time, and submit up to 8 each month–there is no need to go overboard and submit dozens and dozens of articles a month.

2) Create a writing schedule.

After you’ve decided how many articles you’ll submit each month, take out your calendar and decide when you’ll write the articles. Write in your calendar exactly which days you will be writing and what times. Being specific like this will help you to not procrastinate (something we’re all prone to do!). If you schedule your writing on your calendar you’re more likely to actually do the work.

Some people like to write one article at a time, while others prefer to work in batches of several in a day. It’s just whatever works for you. I have done both, and I think I prefer writing in batches–that way I can take just a few days out of the month and meet all of my article writing goals in a short span of time.

I also have a special “Editorial Calendar”–basically this is a dry erase calendar board where I can mark down the days I will be writing. As I write each article, I erase it from the board. It’s motivating to see the progress on the board–I keep this calendar right beside my desk, so there’s no way I’ll be forgetful of the days I’m supposed to write.

3) Brainstorm next month’s article topics.

Have you ever known you needed to write an article, but you just weren’t sure what to write about? When this happens, you end up procrastinating and before you know it you’re behind in your writing.

I’ve found a cure for this by creating an article idea list ahead of time, before the month even starts. Just think of article topics that would be helpful to your target market. Remember, all of your articles will be on some aspect of your niche. Start writing down ideas and you’ll find that more ideas start to flow. It is much easier to think of 8 article ideas at one time than to think of one article idea on 8 separate occasions.

Develop your brainstorming list and pull it out when it’s time for you to write. No procrastinating, no agonizing, “Oh no, now what should I write about?”

All three of these steps are crucial when it comes to keeping an article marketing campaign on track. Remember–consistency is key. If you can submit articles consistently month in and month out, you can produce dramatic results for your website over the long term.

It’s wise to invest in time saving systems that allow you to get more bang for your marketing buck, such as a trusted article distribution service. Steve Shaw created the web’s first ever 100% automated article distribution service, SubmitYOURArticle.com, which distributes your articles to hundreds of targeted publishers with the click of a button. For more information go to=> http://www.SubmitYOURArticle.com

By Enzo F. Cesario in Writing

Promotion is an important part of any business; you need to let potential customers know about you and your product. Article marketing is a strategy that will increase your exposure to the people who will want to buy your product or service. Articles written about your industry will help to establish you, the author, as an expert in your field, and can be published in print media and online.

Customers have a preference for doing business with someone they are familiar with, and article marketing is an ideal way of getting your name out there. The content of your articles needs to be useful and relevant to your target market. Articles that are informative, interesting and provide solutions to your readers are tremendously helpful.

If writing is your thing, then do your own articles. If not, there are several sites online where you can connect with writers, eager for work. Choose someone who uses good grammar and spelling skills, and who can write in an informal and conversational style that is easy to read. Your name will appear as the author on these outsourced articles, promoting you as the expert.

These articles are meant to inform and add value to you and your product; they are not blatant sales letters. Online publishing sites wouldn’t publish sales letters anyway, and print media would avoid them as well. To establish your credibility, you need to give something to your readers, not blast them with sales talk. Don’t ever forget, the reason they are reading your articles is for the information.

Web and ezine writing is very different than writing for other off-line publications. Brief is better. Be concise and write in short paragraphs. Your main purpose is to capture their attention and to get them to visit your website. If your article is long with every piece of information, they won’t see the value in clicking the link to your site.

You should always check for spelling and grammatical errors before submitting your articles to directories. These kinds of errors will reflect badly on your reputation and credibility as a quality information provider. Try to avoid technical language, but provide an explanation of terms if they need to be included.

Put the major benefit to the reader in your title. The title will determine whether or not the reader will click to read the article and possibly click to visit your site. If they aren’t compelled to read the article, they will never get to see your link, or see your website.

Article directories are the sites where you submit articles for online publication. They check your articles to make sure they comply with their guidelines before they publish them. And though we won’t go into it here, print media, like newspapers and magazines, are also always looking for fresh copy, so you can also submit your interesting articles to them for publication.

Make good use of the resource box under the article; this is where you can promote your product and supply contact information. What you include here should encourage readers to click to your website. The best resource box describes your website or yourself in a short sentence and includes at least one link that points back to your website or blog. When the reader clicks on the link to your site, your website visibility will increase.

Remember, a brilliant article with a bad resource box is a waste of time and money. Carefully review the rules for resource box information for each directory you submit to and try to get in as much information about yourself as you can.

If you can, place links to other articles you’ve written in a new article you’re writing. Sometimes, if the advice is helpful, the ezines will let you do this. This cross-referencing will get you more bang for your buck. Before publishing them elsewhere, you should always add your articles to your website or your newsletter. This helps to identify you as the source of the information and is another good way to get your name out there to build relationships with potential customers.

Articles for online publication need to be written with search engines in mind. You need to use the most popular keywords that online users type into their search engine when looking for information about your topic. Use the keywords in your article, but do not saturate it with them. This ruins the readability of the article and will not add to your credibility at all.

Set up a blog to keep in contact with customers and interested contacts. You can upload your articles to your blog to give your readers a continual supply of interesting, informative articles about your area of expertise. Add new content frequently to keep the search engines interested in your articles. Use your blog as another means of promoting your product and yourself as trustworthy and interested in your customers.

Article marketing is probably one of the easiest and most effective ways of driving targeted traffic to your website and boosting your exposure on the Internet. These guidelines will help you get started in article marketing. Use them to promote your product or service and to establish yourself as an expert in your field, then watch your sales increase.

Enzo F. Cesario is a Copywriter and co-founder of Brandsplat, the only online marketing and advertising company employing Brandcasting, the most effective way to brand your company on the web. Brandcasting uses informative content and state-of-the-art internet distribution and optimization to build links and drive the right kind of traffic to your website. The approach is simple, highly effective and affordable. Learn more at: http://www.Brandsplat.com

Read more articles written by: Enzo F. Cesario

By Steve Shaw in Writing

If you’ve just started marketing your website and you’re trying to figure out what’s the deal with all this keyword stuff, I’ve got good news for you:

Using keywords in your articles submissions is not nearly as complicated as you may think.

Actually, it’s quite easy once your realize that the main purpose of your article is to provide valuable information for your target market and that your articles should be on the topic of your website. When you are writing on the topic of your niche, many times your keywords will naturally pop up in your articles.

That is the RIGHT way to use keywords–An article that is using keywords correctly will sound entirely natural to the reader and will be easy to understand.

If you use keywords the WRONG way, the article quality will be compromised and the reader will come away thinking, “That article sounded like it was written by a robot, for a robot. There was something weird about that article.”

WRITE FOR YOUR HUMAN READERS

First and foremost, you should write for humans first, and search engines second. Think about it–if you write for search engines and your article ends up with a high ranking and the title or article is not appealing to humans, readers simply won’t click through to read your article. A high search engine ranking alone will not drive more traffic to your articles or your website–you need to provide quality content that will be of value to your readers.

Focus on writing a quality article that will be useful to your readers, and then after you’ve completed the article go through it and see if there are any spots where your keywords or variations of your keywords can be inserted. Most likely though, you will find that your keywords are automatically popping up in your article if the article is written on the topic of your website.

VARY YOUR KEYWORDS

The HTLM resource box is a great way to bring exposure to your keywords. In the HTML resource box you can hyperlink your keywords, and that can draw more attention from Google. In order for this to be effective though, you need to be careful and vary your keywords–don’t use the same keyword for each article submission.

If you use the same keywords every time in your HTML resource box, it can appear that you’re trying to manipulate Google’s rankings, which Google does not appreciate.

Use semantically related keywords in your article and resource box.

Do not simply use one keyword phrase over and over again. This means that if your keywords are “sail boats”, you can use “sailing boats”, “sail boat gear”, “how to sail a boat”–you get the idea. Mix things up and write in a natural sounding way.

DON’T OVERDO IT

Have you ever read an article that had one phrase repeated over and over again throughout the article when other words would have worked much better?

You can go overboard when using your keywords, so be sure to keep your keyword density between under 3%.

Here’s a formula for calculating keyword density:

[Number of times the specific keyword or keyphrase appears in the article] divided by [Number of words in the article] multiplied by [the number of words in the keyword or keyphrase] multiplied by 100

KEYWORDS AND TITLES

Use your keywords in your title when appropriate–your title should always reflect the subject matter of your article.

If it is appropriate to use your keywords in your title, try placing them at the beginning of your title. That will help readers who are scanning long lists of titles–if possible, the first 3 words of your title should clearly tell the reader the subject matter of your article.

If you’re not sure what your keywords are, there are many excellent tools available on the internet, some free and some paid. Some of the top keyword research tools are WordTracker, Keyword Discover, Overture, and Google Keywords Tool.

Your article submissions are a great place to make use of your keywords, and your best bet is to write naturally, write on the topic of your website, and focus on creating a quality article that will be helpful to your target market and a joy to read.

Submitting articles consistently to a vast network of publishers is the key to increasing your search engine ranking. Steve Shaw created the web’s first ever 100% automated article submitter, SubmitYOURArticle.com, which distributes your articles to hundreds of targeted publishers with the click of a button. More publishers means more backlinks and more traffic to your site! For more information go to=> http://www.SubmitYOURArticle.com

By Allen Taylor in Writing

Content has always been important. But we’re at a critical stage in Internet history right now where content is more important than ever. In fact, if you are not producing high quality, original content on a regular basis right this very moment then you could see yourself lose a gradual decline of market share in your niche in the next couple of years.

Factors That Influence Content Value

When it comes to content value, there are a number of factors that influence where you stand in the competitive line up. There’s more to it than merely adding keywords to a page of content targeted toward a specific audience. That worked in the early days of the Internet, and for some marketers it worked like a charm. It works much less today.

Today’s readers are more sophisticated than they were ten years ago, or even five years ago. Online content readers today want an experience, not just information. And it’s up to you to bring that to them. Here are five factors that drive content value in the eyes of your readers:

  • Originality - Original content will always win out over rehashed mash. Make it original and you’ll win readers every time.
  • Relevance - Readers want content that is relevant to them, not generic fluff.
  • Timing - Your content has to hit at the right time.
  • Economics - The economy matters. This past year has proven that. The real estate industry took a big hit. Other industries aren’t doing too bad. The economy influences buying decisions and it influences who reads your content as well.
  • Approach - How you approach your readership matters. If you’re too aggressive you can drive them away. Not aggressive enough and you won’t make any sales. Do it just right and you’ll be a happy camper.

Content Isn’t Just In Kansas Any More

In 1995 content factors were much simpler. Today, it’s a lot more complex. You have more options. And how you mix and match your options could mean the life or death of your business. Unlike ten years ago, content isn’t just a reference to the words on your web page. It can also mean other things:

  • Video Content
  • Podcasts or other audio files
  • RSS feeds
  • Widgets and gadgets
  • Interactive games
  • Forums and group chat
  • Social profiles
  • Even advertising content

Building a content-rich site is often an exercise in multimedia entertainment, even if you are selling a service or providing information. No longer are webmasters concerned only with writing keyword-rich content that rises to the top of the search engines. Today, you’ve got to provide a total user experience that keeps visitors coming back to your site over and over and over again until they finally decide to buy from you.

There’s More Content, More Readers, And More Competition

There is a lot more content today than there was fifteen, or ten, or even five years ago. And a lot more competition too. Most of your competition is better versed in the nuances of SEO and search engine marketing. The teachers have done a good job of keeping everyone informed. And because the search engines only have ten spots available on page one for any given search result at any given time, your window of success is quite small. Relatively smaller, in fact, than it was ten years ago. But the demands of readers haven’t changed. If anything, they’ve gotten stricter. Readers, and website visitors in general, have higher expectations.

It is these expectations that are driving the train of search, not algorithms. You can rank No. 1 for every important keyword to your business and that won’t keep visitors coming back again. You may pick up unique visitors, but few people make a purchase on the first visit to a website. That’s why your content has to be top-notch. If your content doesn’t strike a chord with your site visitors in at least three of the five important content factors above then they won’t stick around and they likely won’t return either.

The more reasons you can give your site visitors to come to your site and stay on it the more likely they will buy from you. But the fight for readers, and buyers, is more than just a fight for keywords and rankings. It’s a fight for respect and authority, which begins - and ends - with content.

Allen Taylor is CEO/Operations Manager of Blog Content Provider and writes Taylor’s Internet Marketing Blog. He has managed more than 100 commercial blogs with his team of ghostwriters since 2006.

By Dan Lok in Writing

“I’ve tried it all Dan. But after sending traffic to it (his sales copy), my response rates are still poor!” one of my mentoring clients told me on the phone.

“You’ve tried it ALL?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“And what do you mean by that?”

“From using proven swipe files for my headlines, using powerful benefit bullets to telling a compelling story - everything Dan!”

When he finished saying this, I understood where exactly he had gone wrong.

“You see, here’s exactly where you’ve gone wrong,” I told him. “What you’re focusing here is how you can SELL better with your copy.”

“You mean… we’re not supposed to sell with our sales copy?” he retorted in a confused tone.

“It’s the mindset! If you only focus on SELLING, that’s where a lot of things can go wrong.

The fact is, people don’t like to be sold to. But they always love to BUY.

When you focus too much on how to sell, you may come off boring, uninteresting, confusing. Maybe your end copy might sound compelling to you as the salesman, but it might sound irrelevant to your consumers.

So no matter how hard you sell, your response rates and profits will always have a low ceiling.”

“Wow, I never thought of it in this way… I thought all we need to write profitable sales copy is just be a skilled wordsmith,” he said.

“Far from it. The mindset where you’re writing from is much more important. Put in your prospects’ perspective - what you need to do is give them OFFERS they can’t refuse.

Earn their trust, their respect, their sale. Don’t try to make it, earn it.

If you do this well, you’ll never have problems getting rich.”

How to Write Friendly Rich Copy

“All things being equal, people want to do business with their friends.”

“All things being not so equal, people STILL want to do business with their friends.”

But how do we implement this into writing sales copy? Here’s our following conversation:

“But Dan, do you have any specific tips on how I can implement this with my sales copy?” he asked.

“Sure. Here’s an easy way to do it:

First, ask yourself how you’d perceive an ideal friend to be. Is he friendly? Does he has credibility in your eyes? When he says something, can you trust him? Now when he recommends something to you, what is his tone? How does he talk?

Those are a few of the questions you can ask yourself.

Whatever trait you think can compel you to BUY from him - without him having to ask for it, write it down. Because write your sales copy with them in mind and you’ll have what I call, a friendly copy.”

“That’s powerful Dan! But will writing sales copy in this manner make much profits at all?” he continued.

“Good gracious YES. It still comes back to the art of salesmanship-in-print. Sure you’d want to create rapport and sound friendly on your sales copy. But in the end, you still have to write from your prospects’ perspective.

Remember the THREE major response rate killers.

Boredom. Confusion. Disbelief.

Find out how you can craft friendly copy with these response rate killers in mind. You’ll have a FORTUNE maker before you know it.”

A former college dropout, Dan Lok transformed himself from a grocery bagger in a local supermarket to a multi-millionaire. Dan came to North America with little knowledge of the English language and few contacts. Today, Dan is one of the most sought-after business mentors on the Web, as well as a best-selling author. If you enjoy this article, you’ll love Dan’s info-packed website: http://www.websiteconversionexpert.com

By Charles Jacobs in Writing

Taming the recessionary tiger is not as difficult as you think. Forget the old patterns of spending big bucks to buy advertising or blast postal mailings to thousands of possible buyers. The dollars aren’t there to spend in a broken economy. Today every penny has to count, and that happens only when you define your market exactingly and tailor a message that is meaningful to it.

We are in a world of specialization. People in every niche seek information both on and off line. You can be the person to whom they turn to find that information. There is a way to brand yourself as an expert and to make your business or professional office the place customers or clients think of first. When reporters need a quote or perhaps some background material for a story they’re working on, make sure they turn to you, not to one of your competitors.

Raising Your Reputation

It is almost axiomatic that your reputation rises to new heights when you write and publish a book. And in today’s world, for the first time it is easy, fast and inexpensive to turn your words into print.

New printing technology has give birth to a new generation of publishers. Publishing on Demand (POD) has swept through the industry, churning out thousands of books and boosting the reputations of their authors. With this process, books can be printed in any quantity you need to use as promotional tools. They can be rapid-reading booklets of 30 or 40 pages or they can be full blown books of anywhere from 75 to 200 or more pages.

Journalism today has moved strongly into specialization. You can send the book to members of the press and to broadcast journalists who write about topics related to your product. They may review your book or simply write a blurb about it, sending hundreds of readers to your web site, office or store.

Once recognized as a leader in your field, you may well be asked to speak at various functions, adding further to your reputation. All of these possibilities are part of the program of branding yourself…identifying yourself as an expert.

Getting Assistance

Perhaps you have a talented staff member who can write the book with you. Or even for you. You certainly have the option of turning to a professional writer to ghost write the book. It is done frequently. If you don’t require that degree of assistance, contact a Book Coach to help you over the occasional bumps.

It is highly likely that your business is already represented by a web site on the Internet. Add a page to the site about yourself and about your book. What a wonderful opportunity to sell your book from the site and not have to pay commissions.

You may want to piggy back on the book and write articles for distribution throughout the Web. Hundreds of thousands of people will see your piece and hopefully a percentage will respond. You can distribute these articles at no cost by using online article distributors.

Once your book has been written, you can take portions of it and either rewrite them or run them as excerpts. In either case, your workload is minimal because you are drawing on something you have already written.

Writing for Trade Journals

You undoubtedly read some of the trade journals published in your field. Editors of these publications are hungry for informative, meaningful articles. They care far less about your writing style or ability than they do about the content you can provide. Their staffs can polish what you write and turn it into quality pieces, but they must first rely on you to supply the content.

Every article you write offers a perfect opportunity to attract business. The article itself must be informative. It can’t be a press release or a selling tool for you or your product. But at the end, as you have seen so many times when you read, the bio box about the author becomes a free advertisement for you.

Fill the box with information that invites your reader to visit your web site or buy your product. Provide enough information to allow the reader to trust you because of your credentials. Never forget that trust is a major factor in attracting a potential and closing a sale.

By following this approach you quickly build confidence in your expertise and as a result in your product. Print and broadcast journalists today search the Web for likely stories and for experts who can be used in those stories. A few references to you or your business in print or on the air will raise your rate of sale to unexpected heights.

If you are running a practice or a business, you are a knowledgeable professional or an informed businessperson. Harness that unique background and turn it into one of the most inexpensive, but most effective methods of branding yourself as an expert and promoting your company as one of the leaders in its field. It is an ideal way to offset the depression blues.

If you need help writing your book, contact award winning author and book coach Charles Jacobs at coaching(at)wisewriter.net for a free consultation. His latest book, The Writer Within You, has been named one of the Best Books of the Year by seven organizations. Axiom awarded it a gold medal in the business category. It is available at all bookstores or on the Web at http://www.retireandwrite.com/

By Hunter Waterhouse in Writing

When it comes to writing articles to promote your online business, it’s important to consider more than just your marketing goals: it’s essential that you also focus on writing articles that people will want to read. In other words, you don’t just want to use words; and you don’t want to market and sell your business directly. Instead, you want to make an effort to be engaging and influential.

The first tip that will help you to increase the readability of your articles is to write with the reader’s concerns in mind. If you are unsure of exactly how to do that, you may want to look into article ghostwriters who understand article marketing and who only focus on writing articles for Internet audiences. When you work with article ghostwriters, you can focus more on your business and know that someone else is working hard on your behalf to write articles that will be read.

Getting The Best Results From Your Article Marketing Campaigns

Still, if you want to keep article writing within your company, rather than outsourcing it, here are some tips for getting more out of your article marketing campaigns:

1. Hook your readers from the start. Article writing is a lot more effective for marketing your business when people will actually read the articles. The best thing that you can do is to catch their interest right away. Your article title will determine if people will open your article, and the first paragraph will ensure that people keep reading the article.

2. Avoid the temptation to overwhelm your readers with a lot of information. Article writing is not about telling the reader everything that there is to know; it’s about sticking with a central focus and giving your reader an introduction or overview of the information they want and need to solve their problems. In an article that probably won’t be much more than one thousand words, you will never be able to tell the reader everything they need to know to solve a problem, but you can help put your reader on solid footing for moving forward towards a workable solution.

3. Break up information into digestible chunks. Writing articles is about expressing some key points. When it comes to writing articles for the internet, what you are going to find is that many readers skim rather than read your articles. Using numbered lists (like this one) will help you to present your information clearly, and let readers find what they are looking for quickly. Similarly, if you use bullet lists or break up your text with subheadings that are in a larger font and bolded, you can be sure that after reading your article, the article’s key points will be easily recalled.

4. When it comes to article writing, particularly when you are working to establish yourself as an expert, it’s important to show that you know what you’re talking about. A great way of doing that - and to break up the text of your article - is to include quotes from more established experts. If you are writing articles and are more established, you too should quote other sources, possible letting the readers know why you disagree with another writer.

5. Focus on spelling and grammar. Just as someone who is hiring article ghostwriters should take the time to find ghost writing services that are well versed in your point of view, it’s also important to be sure that you’re writing in the native language of your target audience. American English is different from that spoken and written in England and India. Paying attention to your spelling and grammar shows that you care about what you are saying and that you are a professional.

A good example of the difference between the usage rules in British English and American English is the story of Paul Marshall from Dallas, Texas. When Paul was running his mortgage business, he had hired some Indian writers to develop content for his website. When he received the copy from his ghostwriters, the copy used the word “mortgage scheme” in the text eleven times. Paul was pissed, as you might well imagine. In British English, “scheme” does not carry any negative connotation. Yet, as you may well realize, “scheme” in American English is one of the most negative words that can be applied to any business model. It denotes “dishonesty” and “fraud” in American English. His Indian writers could not understand his anger with their choice of words, but you can understand his anger.

Professionalism In The Article Writing Process

Professionalism, unfortunately, is frequently overlooked when it comes to article writing. Great writing flows, not just for the writer whose aim is to get the words and message out, but also for the readers who are consuming the information.

Because of this, one key element of an effective article is not the writing itself: it is the readability of that article. Take the time to look at the articles that grab your attention and jot a few notes about each of them. Specifically, focus on the following:

  • How did the writer grab your attention (or, if you weren’t interested in the first paragraph, what turned you off?
  • What sort of spacing did the writer use in the article?
  • What did you come away with after reading the article? In other words, what were the key points of the article?

Writing articles is neither purely science nor purely art at its best; it is a good combination of the two. A great article focuses on a key issue, isn’t stuffed with keywords (you do want search engines to find the article, but too many keywords in an article takes away from readability), and is as easy to skim, as it is to read.

When all is said and done, an article that gets read in its entirety will carry the reader to the Author’s Bio at the end of the article. Ideally, the reader will read the entire article and feel a desire to visit the author’s website to learn more about the writer of the article. It is article marketing at its best, when the reader likes the article enough to click on the link in the Author’s Bio and visit the author’s website to learn more about what the author is offering.

About The Author:

Hunter Waterhouse has been involved in article ghostwriting and building websites for a number of years. Over the last several years, Hunter has been employed by http://www.thephantomwriters.com/ To learn about the new WordPress plugin, which will enable you to receive targeted articles directly from The Phantom Writers Article Distribution Service, as they become available, please visit: http://www.backlinksmagnet.com/blog/

By Steve Shaw in Writing

Article submissions and online press releases are two great ways to drive traffic to your website. You can use them both if you like, and you can even do double duty with your marketing content by morphing your press release into a free reprint article.

Why can’t you just submit a press release as an article?

Press releases and free reprint articles are two very different types of writing.

How are they different?

Articles used in article marketing are ideally timeless and the information conveyed should be valid for years and years to come.

Press releases on the other hand tend to me more news oriented–about a certain event that is coming up, or a business that is being launched, or a study that has taken place.

Press releases tend to rank higher more quickly because of their news oriented nature, but they also quickly lose ranking as “fresh” news is published.

Article submissions, on the other hand, are a long term marketing technique, and as time passes, the likelihood that an article will be picked up by more and more sites increases.

Ideally, when you are submitting an article, your topic should be timeless, because the longer the article is published the more it can gain steam and benefit your website.

A great way to determine if your topic is timeless is to focus on educational content. The articles used in article marketing are educational in nature, so any time you can teach a reader how to do something the content is likely to stand the test of time.

If you have a press release that you think might also make a great article, here are some things to keep in mind:

1) Word count

While press releases can be very short (some with as few as 200 words), articles usually need to be more substantial. Most publishers will accept articles that are at least 400 words, but if you can, try to shoot for a word count of 700-800 words, as that length of article will appeal to a wider spectrum of publishers.

2) With an article, there is no need to put ‘For Immediate Release’ anywhere on the article. Your article body should just start with the first paragraph of your article.

3) Do not date your article, as you would a press release.

Because your article will hopefully be picked up by publishers for years and years to come, you don’t want to do anything that would make a reader or publisher think that your information is outdated.

Even if the information is timeless, if you alert the reader that the article was written years ago, it can give the impression that the content is no longer fresh. Your best bet is just to not mention any dates at all.

4) Limit your links.

With a free reprint article, it’s a good idea to place any relevant links after the 3rd paragraph, as having a link right off the bat can be distracting to a reader and there are some publishers who require that links appear further down in the article.

5) Do not link to your own website from your article body.

That’s a good rule of thumb when doing an article submission, because it’s very important that your article come off as educational rather than sales oriented or self-serving. The best place to link to your own site is the author resource box, which will be republished along with your article.

6) Be certain that your topic is not promotional.

While it’s perfectly acceptable to write a press release about your own business, products and website (if it’s presented in a news oriented way), writing to promote your own business, products or website is not usually allowed with a free reprint article.

Remember, the power of article submissions comes from the article being republished, so you want to make your article acceptable to as many people as possible. Not many people want to republish an article on their website that is about your business, products or website (something that benefits solely you), so be sure that your article topic is something that is of value to your readers and to publishers.

The article should not be sales oriented, but rather educational. Your website and business will get more than enough exposure through your resource box which will accompany your article.

If you have been writing press releases you can achieve a different type of traffic and a more long term effect on your search engine ranking by doing article submissions as well. There may be times when you can bounce one piece of content off of the other, saving yourself time and getting more bang for your marketing buck.

Submit your article to more publishers, and your article will be seen by more people. You’ll also build more backlinks and drive more traffic to your website. Steve Shaw created the web’s first ever 100% automated article distribution service, SubmitYOURArticle.com, which distributes your articles to hundreds of targeted publishers with the click of a button. For more information go to=> http://www.SubmitYOURArticle.com

By Donald Nelson in Writing

One of the best ways to get free advertising and links back to your site is to write good articles and publish them on blogs and websites around the Internet with a link back to your site.  Doing this in a systematic way is usually called “article marketing.” I have done it for years and believe me it works!  However, my enthusiasm for article marketing is started to wane due to an avalanche of poorly written articles which do not provide end users with useful information.

In the same way that reciprocal linking was destroyed by misguided users trying to “game” the search engines, article marketing stands in a precarious position today. I publish three article directories and I can assure you that most of the articles submitted should be consigned to the recycle bin because they go against the basic idea of providing good useful information in an easy-to-read fashion. In case you are writing articles, or about to have some articles written for you, here are three important tips for doing it properly.

1. Provide Information and Not a Sales Pitch

It is futile to write directly about your product and explain how great it is. If this is what you want to do, it is better to write a press release and explain the newsworthy features of your work.  An article for publication on another website should be related to your area of expertise, but should not be bragging about you or your product.

For example, if you operate a garden supply business, then write “how-to” articles helping people to solve some of the gardening and landscaping problems that they might be facing. You don’t have to say how great your garden supply business is. If you write well and provide useful tips, then the readers will be impressed and they will want to click through on your link and find out more about you and your business

People who visit your website after reading a good article are high quality visitors, because they have been “pre-sold” on you. They already regard you as an “expert” and will be more inclined to buy your products or subscribe to your newsletters than someone who clicks through on just any old link.

2. Write the article properly or get the article written by someone who can write!

If you were to submit an article to your English teacher in high school or college, would you want to hand in something with obvious grammatical mistakes even in the title itself?  Of course you wouldn’t but that doesn’t stop people from hiring unqualified ghostwriters to write tons of sub-standard articles for them at $5 per article.

Try writing an intelligent 500 word article. Can you do it in ten minutes or even twenty minutes? Probably not. Take the time to write your article well and if you are hiring someone then you should opt for a native English speaker who will give it a reasonable amount of time. You may have to pay more for it, but you will gain in the end.

How will you gain? Well written and informative articles get reprinted at a much greater frequency than the junk or filler articles.  You will gain with more links and most importantly you will get more credibility as an expert in your field.

3. Format Your Articles Properly

One of the keys to effectiveness is the readability of your article.  Do you like looking at a long block of printed words without any paragraph breaks? Take the time to divide your articles into short paragraphs punctuated by sub-heads.  It will give your readers a chance to assimilate your message more easily.

The reason why I am particular on this point is that many people use automated article submission systems which push all the paragraphs together. Editors have no time to make these corrections for you and may delete the articles.  Alternatively, your article may be published, but in a way that turns off the reader, rather than inspiring her to read the whole article. Submit your articles in a proper format and make sure that your submission system sends a well formatted version to the publishers.

If you follow these three tips then you will be “adding value” to the Internet rather than clogging it with useless filler. You will be doing a service to the public, and in the end it will work to your benefit too.

Donald Nelson is a search engine optimization and article marketing specialist. You can read more of his articles at his website http://www.a1-optimization.com

By Steve Shaw in Writing

When you’re doing article submissions, you’ll notice a field on the submission page that asks for an article summary (aka, short description).

As an author, you may not realize all the places where your article summary is used, but the article summary is a prime opportunity for luring readers to your article.

How is the article summary used?

The short description of your article will appear on the summary page of an article directory and also in Google and the other search engines in search results pages.

There are a few different types of summary pages on an article directory–there’s a summary page for a particular category, for each individual author (usually a list of your articles with their summaries), and if your article appears on the main page of an article directory a reader will see your article title and your article summary.

Is the article summary important?

Yes!

Think of your short description as a billboard along the interstate miles away from your business. You can’t see the billboard from your business, but depending on what you write on the billboard, you can effectively lure someone from the interstate to your business.

Google is the interstate and your article summary is the content on your billboard. Don’t you want to take advantage of all that traffic and direct readers to your article?

A potential reader is doing a Google search and is scanning a list trying to decide what page to click through to, and your short description can be the deciding factor as to whether they click through to your article.

What makes a good short description?

Whether you know it or not, you probably already know the answer to this. Go to your favorite article directory and look at the list of titles and article summaries.

Some are better than others, right? Some of the short descriptions make you want to read more, while others make you say, “No thank you–next!”

When you’re doing your next article submission, here are a few tips for capturing a reader’s attention with your article summary:

1) Your short description should tell what your article is about. Give specific info–what is your article topic and what info will you be providing in your article?

2) Try to lead the reader into your article from your article summary. Here’s an example:

“With some creativity you can transform your articles into multiple pieces of marketing content which can save you time, extend your marketing reach, and create more doorways for potential customers to find you. If you’re in the mood to stretch your marketing content mileage, try one of these 3 creative uses for your articles.”

This summary tells the reader what the article is about, how the information can benefit them, and what awaits them when they click through to read the entire article.

3) Write in complete sentences.

Sometimes you will see an article summary that just says something like: “Article about windshield wipers”

That’s it–end of story. Not a very compelling enticement for a reader to click through and learn more, is it?

No matter what the topic of your article, you can phrase your article summary in such a way that readers interested in that topic will say, “Hmmm, I want to know more!”

4) A short cut may be to use your intro or closing paragraph or some other part of your article as your short description. You don’t necessarily have to write your short description from scratch. Lots of times I will look over my finished article and pick out phrases and sentences that I think represent the article and would be good at luring a reader in.

Bonus tips:

  • Mind your word count–Usually a publisher will require a short description to be 450 words or less, including spaces.
  • Do not mention your own business or website address in the article summary, as many publishers do not appreciate that. The article summary is not your resource box–the article summary is a description of your article, while your resource box is the place where you can talk about yourself, your business, and your website.

Writing an article summary is not hard, but you do need to put some thought into how your summary will appear to your readers.

Think of your article summary as being a little advertisement for your article. Put yourself in the shoes of a person who is looking at a long list of results in Google–what sort of summary would make you want to click through and read the entire article?

If you want to get a greater readership for your articles and build more links, it’s a great idea to enlist the services of a trusted article submission service, such as SubmitYOURArticle.com. Steve Shaw created the web’s first ever 100% online-based article submitter, SubmitYOURArticle.com, which distributes your articles to hundreds of targeted publishers with the click of a button. For more information go to=> http://www.SubmitYOURArticle.com

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