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• Titus Hoskins

Has Article Marketing Gone the Way of the DoDo Bird?

By Titus Hoskins in Featured

After the Google Panda Update, has article marketing become less effective? That’s a major question which many webmasters and online marketers seem to be asking these days. It has also brought up the whole notion that article marketing is, in fact, dead. Well, here’s my two cents on this whole issue.

Article marketing has always been one of my most basic and solid online marketing techniques. One which has brought in sales, traffic and those all important one-way quality backlinks to my content. Then came the Google Panda Update and changed everything.

We have had countless major Google Algorithm updates before, but Panda was different, mainly because instead of examining just one page on your site, it looked at the quality of your WHOLE site and ranked it accordingly. Supposedly, those sites with perceived “poor quality” or not enough “original” content got lowered in the Google Index and rankings – not a good thing to happen to any site. Unfortunately, like all these updates, some innocent high quality sites were hit and their rankings and search traffic dropped significantly.

And then as they say, all hell broke loose.

Panic quickly followed and many webmasters with lucrative high ranking keywords in Google, not only took notice, but started making changes on their own sites. This panic or alarm was so great, we had thousands if not millions, of webmasters dropping content which was not original or/and changing many of their outgoing links to “no follow” on their sites.

It seemed like everyone had collectively closed shop and drawn a protective barrier around their sites; making doubly sure they would not get penalized by Google for having too much non-original content or a poor quality site.

I believe article marketing was the greatest victim of the Panda Update and fallout. Not only were the article directories like Ezinearticles hit hard, but more significantly, the perceived effectiveness of article marketing itself, took a direct hit by this update. Sometimes perception is everything, especially on the web. If webmasters believed having a non-unique article on their site, no matter if the article is well written and of top-notch quality, would lower their site’s rankings in the eyes of Google, then the article must go or be deleted.

While it is sometimes foolhardy to draw general conclusions from your own limited experiences, I have seen my traffic and sales, from the different article directories fall dramatically. My traffic from Ezinearticles, which was my biggest source, has fallen to a trickle. More alarmingly, my articles don’t get picked up and displayed on other sites like they did in the past. Again, it should be emphasized, these are only my findings… other authors may have different outcomes and I do know of a few marketers who have seen their traffic increase from Ezinearticles, mostly with unique articles displayed on that site.

After Panda, it seems Google is trying to list or rank the author’s site first in their rankings for any articles. After a slight drop in traffic immediately after the Panda Update, I have seen my traffic bounce back and this may be one of the reasons. In the past, I had placed many of my articles on my own sites as well as on the other sites and in the article directories. Going forward, I will write more unique articles for other sites and the directories, just to keep the “original content” factor/signal from popping up.

Google’s Use of the Author Tag

I was also very curious to see that Google has started supporting “authorship markup” or the “author” attribute tag in their search engine. According to a post by Othar Hansson, a software engineer at Google, “The markup uses existing standards such as HTML5 (rel=”author”) and XFN (rel=”me”) to enable search engines and other web services to identify works by the same author across the web.” If the content is on the same domain you use the rel=”author” tag and link it to your author’s page on that same domain. If your content is listed on a site where you don’t have an author’s page or profile, you can always link the content back to your own site’s author page by using the (rel=”me”) attribute tag. To learn exactly how the “author” tag works visit Google’s help page here: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=1229920

I am even more interested to see if, over time, Google starts placing the same kind of importance on web writers, as they do with authority sites. Google’s goal is to present the highest quality content available on the web. One way of judging/ranking this quality is by the author. King is King is King… no matter where it is displayed on the web.

However, getting back to our initial question concerning the apparent extinction of article marketing? There is no denying that article marketing has become less effective after the Panda Update and the follow-up changes made by Google.

Some webmasters/marketers are solving this problem by using software programs to “spin” articles in order to produce countless unique versions of an article. Quite frankly, I have never been satisfied with any “spun” version of an article – it simply sounds awkward or doesn’t have the right flow to it. However, it may fool the search engines, and many unscrupulous marketers are seeing good results from this type of article marketing because all the articles appear unique. Obviously, this is another headache for Google, because these inferior “spun” articles may become much more prevalent on the web after Panda, lowering the overall quality of content on the web and in their index, rather than increasing it.

Personally, while I am losing X amount of dollars, I just can’t bring myself to use this sort of “software” to produce countless inferior versions of my articles. Instead, I have started to write unique articles and submit them to only one site. And for what it’s worth, I will still continue to write other viral articles which will hopefully get placed on numerous sites. And while they still bring targeted traffic back to my sites, my returns on these viral articles seems to be less and less, as many major sites have stopped taking these “non-unique” types of articles after the Panda Update. In my honest opinion, while article marketing is not quite dead, its glory days have long since passed.

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Titus Hoskins is a full-time online marketer who has numerous websites. For the latest web marketing tools try: http://www.bizwaremagic.com . If you liked the article above, why not try this Free 7 Day Marketing Course here: http://www.marketingtoolguide.com . This article may be
freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.

Article Marketing: 7 Keys To A Profit-Pulling Title

By Jim Edwards in Featured

People crave bite-sized pieces of information online in the form of articles so they can quickly research and decide which topics to investigate further. Truth is, anyone can use article marketing to promote just about anything because article marketing rates as one of the most effective ways to generate traffic online. However, the pivotal key to effective article marketing, the article title, usually receives the least attention. This lack of thought and attention seriously undermines the otherwise great results people could have gotten through article marketing with just a little more effort. The following 7 keys should help every level of article marketer improve their titles, and therefore, massively improve their results.

Key # 1: The Article Title Is The Single Most Important Part
The fact is, a great title combined with an average article will outperform a bad title and great article! In the end, your title serves as the headline for the article, just like the headline for a sales page or advertisement. Your title grabs attention and lets people know the article is relevant to their needs and they should stop and read it right now.

Key # 2: Titles Should Contain The Main Keyword Phrase
You should know the #1 keyword phrases your audience searches for online and every article you write should center around one of those main keyword phrases. Also, every article title should contain one of those main keyword phrases. Why? Because it helps automated software that trolls for articles to find you and add you to content sites. It also helps you show up in the search engines when people search for that particular phrase. Most importantly, it lets people know instantly that your article is relevant and they should read it right now.

Key # 3: Titles Should Create Curiosity
A great headline gets people to say “Hmmm. That’s interesting. I wonder what that’s all about. Is there something good in there for me?” Remember: the #1 purpose of a headline is to get people to stop and read the first sentence of the article. Curiosity rates as the #1, proven way to get people to stop, drop what they’re doing, and start reading your article.

Key # 4: Titles Should Evoke Emotion
Emotion in the headline creates the urgency to push people into actually reading the article itself. Make people mad. Make them sad. Make them laugh. Make them afraid. But whatever you do, don’t bore them! Emotional involvement is the key to getting the most people to feel the need to read your article once you arouse their curiosity. Creating an emotional reaction starts with your article title.

Key # 5: Titles Make An Immediate Promise
“5 Specific Ways To Get Your House Sold Without an Agent” vs. “General House Selling Tips.” Which is more compelling?

The one that makes a specific, immediate promise for the results or information the reader wants. Make a promise of immediate results and specific information your target audience can use. Offer an inside “scoop” they wont’ find anywhere else in the form of secret tips or tricks. If you followed the first 5 keys in this article, this should actually be one of the easiest parts (making a promise). Just tell them you have what they want and all they need to do is read the article.

Key # 6: Titles Continue A Conversation
Everyone, especially online, has a conversation going on in their head at any given moment. It may be organized or disjointed, but everyone’s headed in a certain direction.

When they look for information, they want the information they want – not what you think they should want. That means using the words, phrases, and questions they use so they stop and say “Yeah! That’s what I’m looking for!”

Example: Someone wonders “How can I get my house sold without an agent and save the commission?” When they see article titles like “Thinking of Selling Without and Agent?” or “How To Sell Without An Agent” or “5 Specific Tips For Selling Without an Agent” – they pay attention.

Article titles like “FSBO Tips” or “Home Selling Advice” will not continue that conversation nearly as well in the minds of potential readers.

Key # 7: Titles Should Lead To A Next Step
People aren’t stupid. They know you can’t solve all their problems in one article. They also realize (consciously or subconsciously) that your article is probably just one stepping stone along a path they must follow to reach their final goal. So ask yourself, “What’s the next logical step they should take after this article?”

Knowing that next step before you even write the article will help you lead them from the article title, through the body of the article, all the way to the resource box.

Knowing the “big picture” turns your article into one giant slippery slope that shoots the readers straight into your list and sales funnel with a win-win proposition!

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For more complete information and a FREE video on WHY article marketing is the single best and most useful method for driving FREE Website traffic and how EASY it is for anyone to get started, no matter what you sell, visit: http://easyhowtovideos.com/article-marketing/

Jim Edwards is a 10 year veteran syndicated newspaper columnist who specializes in helping info-marketers and info-publishers maximize their results.

The Benefts of Professional Article Services

By Eric Gruber in Featured

Professional article services can provide you with effective article marketing campaigns that can turn a failing online business into an unexpected success by giving you the time to focus on the more important aspects of your business.

This is not to suggest that you cannot write articles yourself – of course you can – but it can be time-consuming to write in a manner that attracts readers, keeps them reading and then compels them to click the links in your resource to reach your website.

Sure, you can do that yourself, but do you have the time? Probably not, since the majority that are developing their online businesses want to spend their time doing that and expanding their range of products or services. What time is left to write compelling articles and submit them? Next to none!

Article services can do that for you – not only write your articles but also submit them. However, there is always an associated cost, and you have to determine what the cost of your article services are in respect of the benefits you receive. There are two basic ways of looking at this, and while it is not possible to quantify them for individual cases, you can at least consider them with respect to yourself, individually.

1. Saving Time

It takes time to write a good article. Those that claim to teach you how to write a great winning article in 15 minutes are taking nonsense. You might write 300 words about your product, but that won’t impress anybody, and won’t be accepted by many of the important directories that require a minimum 500 word count or even more.

Also, can you write compellingly? Can you persuade a reader that your product is better than the next guys without being allowed to mention your product or even your website? That doesn’t seem very easy, does it. You won’t learn that skill quickly! How long will it take? I know people that work for an hour or more on a 500 word article just to get the spelling and grammar right!

Spelling is extremely important, and any errors in these days of spell checkers will be regarded as unacceptable and careless, but no spell check will tell you that ‘there’ should be ‘there’ or ‘to’ should be ‘too’. In spite of what you have heard, grammar also counts with a number of people. An article with no errors in its grammar will attract more visitors to the link on the resource than the same article full of schoolboy errors. That’s a fact, not an opinion!

So, how long will it take you? Figure that out against the cost of the article from a site offering professional article services. If the money spent is worth the time saved, then it makes sense. If not, then it doesn’t. Your choice, but it is a logical and economic one as all business choices should be – not based upon opinion but on facts.

2. Now for the benefits.

Until you are aware of the its benefits, you will be unable to determine the real benefit of the time you will save by using professional article services to help with your article marketing strategy. There are four main benefits:

• You can have your articles published on ezines and article directories. For each of these that accept your article you will receive a share of the PageRank of the web page on which your article is published. The Page Rank cited for the Home Page of the article directory is irrelevant – that is immaterial because the ranking points you receive are related only to the page on which your article is published, and also the other links leaving that page. However, it improves your Google PageRank score.
• Contrary to what many believe, visitors to article directories read the articles. You can get several hundred people reading your article each month if the title attracts them.
• Many people use published articles as content for their websites. This is particularly popular with those that use Adsense and other contextual advertising systems to monetize pages on their sites. To do so, they must also include your resource that publishes your website links, so you get Google PageRank points from the links back to your website from the page on which your article has been used.
• Naturally, anybody visiting that other website can click on your links and visit a page on your website. That page must lead readers to a page that relates to the topic of the article you have written, and also contain a link at least to your home page.

All things considered, when you take into account every benefit that a successful article marketing campaign can provide for you, then using professional article services might make sense rather than trying to do it yourself.

A professional article will be more likely to attract readers and keep them on the page till they click on your link. After that it is up to you, but the same service can also be used to provide the content that will them keep the visitor on that page and perhaps even purchase your products or services.

Is it worth it to you? That is for you to decide, but just as you would consider professional SEO services, advertising services and emailing services as possibilities to help you market your business, so article marketing is an aspect of advertising that good, professional article services can look after for you, leaving you to do what you do best. Make money!

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Find out how article services can promote your success on Article Services and visit Article Czar for a free gift and details of how to do it yourself.

How To Use Ezine Publishing To Triple Your Traffic Without Google

By Paul McCarthy in Featured

There are two different types of webmaster out there – those who really understand how to generate traffic online and those that bend over backwards to obey the master that is Google.

Generally speaking, the former are more successful than the latter, or at least have a much greater percentage chance of being successful.  There are only ever 10 pages on the front page of Google yet thousands of competitors.  Even more distressing is that a high listing is only ever a temporary thing – there’s no guarantee it’ll remain tomorrow.

SEO is something you should pay attention to and be diligent about because in the long run there’s no doubt it can pay off.  However, there seems to be a definite skew in online marketing towards getting on the front page of the search engine in comparison to other powerful methods of traffic generation.

In 2010 alone a site of mine has so far received 25,313 visitors yet only a shade over 28% of that traffic has come from Google.  I know that if Google suddenly drops my rankings like a bad habit then my business will survive and remain profitable; a fact that helps me sleep at night.

How Much for Free Advertising to Get Free Traffic?

By Peter Nisbet in Featured

How much are you willing to pay for advertising? What would it be worth to you to get advertising open to billions of people worldwide? Let’s cut out the sales pitch because you know all about that. Do you know how to get free advertising online? In fact, do you know how to get the right kind of advertising offline – and free of charge?

Probably not, but I do. So the question now is how much are you prepared to pay me to find out? When I look at the keyword analysis of people seeking free advertising, there are from 10,000 – 50,000 searches on Google looking for information on how to get free advertising every month. That’s right – up to 50,000 every month. In fact 250,000 every month are looking for ‘free advertising’ without any qualification.

Guess what! The answer is right at your fingertips. No matter what you want to advertise, and no matter how difficult you have found to advertise your product or service in the past, it is easy to advertise online what you have to offer without paying a single cent for the advert.

So what’s the secret? There is no secret. I have been advertising it for free for many years, yet even I have been making the mistake that 99.99% (a guestimate!) of those that advertise their products make. That mistake is to assume that the people that matter will see your advert. Note the ‘that matter’ part.

Do you like cats? There’s no point in you trying to sell cat baskets to internet marketing gurus or young girls looking for how to choose the best cat for them. The latter example is easier to sell your cat baskets to than the former, but it’s only a matter of degree. You still have to persuade them they need a cat basket. You can sell bait to an angler, but you still have to persuade them they need YOUR bait, or the kind of bait you are selling.

The best way of using free advertising is to use it sell something that has already been sold. At least, the idea has been sold, and all the prospective buyer needs is a nudge. To do that you have to be like that prospective buyer – I don’t like the word ‘prospect’ – it sounds too commercial! My future customers know what they need; they just don’t realize it yet. So what’s the secret?

Don’t click away when I tell you, because many might just do that. Like many online secrets, it is no secret all. It is by using a technique that you all have likely heard about (although that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work), just that you have been taught badly.

I don’t work full time at internet marketing. I am an industrial chemist and part of my job is to train people how to manufacture our product (hot stamping foil – look it up!).

I do that pretty well because I can put myself in their place. I had to learn sometime, and they don’t teach my product in college. I learned from my first manager, and like to think that I can pass my knowledge on to others fairly easily. Learning how to make money online is a bit like that, and so is learning how to advertise for free. Free advertising is a skill, and it is easy to get.

Here are some ways:

1. Use posters. If you market health products, whether your product is a health food , supplement, equipment or an eBook or video, then ask your local health center of you can put up a poster. Offer to pay if you get a sale (so it still free until then) if necessary. Ask if you can leave leaflets in the rest rooms, or even make reduced price offers for anybody that joins the club through your affiliate site. There’s an idea: Offer to promote the health club for a percentage, and offer your product free if they take it up.
2. Ask your local authority if they have any sites where you can put up a poster advertising your product, and you will also include the local authority services in the same ad.
3. Ask local radio for a free slot: perhaps you can advertise their services on your website in return
4. Write articles.

So there you are: four great ways that you can use to get free advertising.

What’s that last one? Write articles?

Sure – that will likely bring you the best return because you can write and publish articles all over the internet advertising your product or service. Look back to the start of this article. How much are you willing to pay for advertising?

It doesn’t matter what your answer is. Articles are free for you to write if you know how. The problem is the ‘knowing how’. Then learning how to do it. If you learn how to write articles properly, and not just go through the motions, as the vast majority appears to do, then you are on to a winner.

CONCLUSION

Get to know how to do article writing and you cant fail. Do it right and you will make money and everybody will read them. they will believe what you have wrote and you will make money.

WHAT? Let’s start again:

Learn how to write articles articulately and comprehensibly and your erudite readers will gain the knowledge that you are so knowledgeable and cognizant of their needs that. . .

WHAT? Let’s start again – as an article should be written this time:

Learn how to write articles so as to provide information your reader wants and needs, and that reader will return to you repeatedly. Not only that, but if you show that you understand your niche, then they will also buy from you when you feel the time is right to offer your product.

Write to the reader personally, as if they were the only person you were addressing.

Article marketing is a term that is frequently misused, but the good thing is that it is not difficult to learn, and once you have mastered the principles with a bit of help, you will be able to generate as much free advertising as you want for the rest of your life – irrespective of how your business and products change.

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If you are interested in learning how to get free advertising by writing your own articles in a way that they will be read by others, then visit Article Czar for a free writing course, and information how you can learn to write in a way that generates masses of free traffic to your websites.

Article Marketing Tips: Writing Articles for Free Advertising Online

By Peter Nisbet in Featured

Of all the article marketing tips I could give you, writing articles for free advertising online is likely the most beneficial to you if you currently spend money on advertising your website. There are several reasons for this, but the major reasons why article writing can bring you better results than expensive pay per click (PPC) adverts or taking a chance with reciprocal links are detailed below.

Keep in mind that Google is not keen on reciprocal links unless the page you are reciprocating with relates to the page on your website that the link points to, and the link is no good to you in any case if it is one of many others on a ‘links’ or ‘partners’ page created predominantly for such links. You only get a share of the PR of the page your link is on, not that of the ‘site’, and even that is shared between all the other links on the page.

Being one of 5 links on a page with a PR of 1 is better than one of 50 on a page with a PR of 8. If you take these article marketing tips, writing articles can offer you a form of free advertising online that Google itself provides willingly, and that can work for you for many years to come. Here is how to go about writing articles to get you the benefits that free online advertising has to offer:

1. 1. Write an article about your niche, using a conversational style as if you were explaining what you are writing if talking to somebody face to face – just as I am doing now in fact. Offer interesting information that anybody involved or interested in your niche would find useful. It doesn’t have to be earth-shattering news, but what you write must be factual and show that you have a firm grasp of your subject. You want people to continue reading once they have started.
2. 2. At the end of your article, provide a link to your website. You can say something about yourself if relevant, such as a brief word about your qualifications and experience if the topic warrants it, or do as I do and simply offer a link to your site for more information. You can use more than one link if relevant. When writing articles for free advertising online you should keep in mind:
   1. You should never include a live link within the body of the article. Directories do not like these (more on article directories shortly).
   2. Only use multiple links in your resource if relevant. Thus, I include a link to my product and also one to my Article Services website that is focused on writing articles and my own ghostwriting services. c) Most article directories offer a special box for your link and other details (known as the ‘author’s resource’), but if not then you should add it to the end of your article. Never write an article without a link back to your website. That’s what gets you the free advertising.
3. Having finished writing your article, the power of writing articles and article marketing now comes into play to get you a ton of free advertising. You get that by submitting your articles to article directories. This can be done in a number of ways, the most common being:
   1. Manual Submissions You should choose a number of the top article directories, register with them and then submit your articles manually. This will take you about 5 minutes per directory. Your articles should be submitted in plain text format, so if you have written them in Microsoft Word, copy the Word text and paste it into a text editor such as Notepad. A Google search for ‘article directories’ will give you lists of the top directories.
   2. Software Submissions You can use software to make the submissions for you. Most of these work whereby you enter each part of your into a box provided for it: Title, Summary, Article body, Keyword list, Resource – parts of these will be in plain text and HTML, particularly the resource. You then scroll down a list of directories loaded into the software, click on those to which you want to submit, and the article submission is made automatically. You have to provide the software with your login details for each directory, where relevant (no all directories need a login), or log in to each individually.
   3. Article Submission Services You can use a paid article submission service that will submit your articles to a number of directories for a fee – either paid individually or monthly. I use all three of these methods for my submissions for maximum exposure and best results.
   4. Don’t worry about duplicate content when you submit the same article to loads of directories and ezines. That will take a few months to come into play and you can make up for it by writing an article each week.

Using these article marketing tips on writing articles will get you free advertising online in the following ways:

• Your article will be published on a number of article directories. If you use the right directories, these will further syndicate your articles to other directories and ezines and so on. It is viral, your articles being distributed around the internet. You get a back link to the pages stated in your author’s resource from every directory and ezine that publishes your article. That link is valuable in attaining you a high search engine listing position.
• People read your articles on the directories. This is fact, irrespective what others say. If you have done the job properly, these readers will possibly click on your link to visit your website for more information. Make sure that your link leads them to a web page related to the title of your article.
• An article published on a directory page is a single web page, just like any other. It can therefore be listed on Google or any other search engine. I have literally tens of dozens of articles scattered around search engines on various topics, optimized for specific keywords. That’s what free advertising is, and writing articles can achieve that for you if you take these article marketing tips.
• Many people will copy your article as content for their own website: to do that they must retain your resource containing your link. Writing articles just got you even more free advertising!

These are just some of the ways in which writing articles can get you free advertising online, and if you take these article marketing tips seriously then you could save yourself a lot of money on advertising costs, and get better results by doing so!

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Pete is an article ghost writer operating from his website Article Services For details on how you can become expert in using article marketing to get free advertising and a lot more, check out Article Czar and get a free writing course plus other gifts.

How Writing Articles Can Generate Traffic and Improve Sales

By Peter Nisbet in Featured

Writing articles is a very simple and free way to generate traffic to your website and improve sales of your product. However, to be effective it has to be done properly, and there are some aspects of article marketing of which many people are unaware.

Or perhaps you are aware of them, but don’t know how to put them into practice. It is not the purpose of this article to tell you how to write: there are rules that should be followed for best results, but these have been more than adequately covered by the myriad other articles that have written on the subject.

In fact, that would be one of the lessons: the use of the noun ‘myriad’. A word for a large number, it is Greek in origin, and correctly should be neither preceded by ‘a’ or followed by ‘of’, so ‘a myriad of articles’ is not grammatical, while ‘myriad articles’ is. However, like many of these rules of grammar, common usage is gradually superseding the correct form, and I’m not going to lose sleep over it.

No, here we are going to discuss how articles can be used as opposed to how to write them. We shall assume that already have a great article, with a good keyword-rich title and your body keywords used as they should be. So this is not so much about writing articles, but how to use them to generate traffic and improve sales of your products.

There are two main ways in which articles can be used: by publication as content on your own website and by submission to article directories. Let’s discuss each of these in turn.

Using Articles as Website Content

Articles can be used as web content for any type of website. People generally prefer to come across a web page containing a useful article that tells or teaches them something about the topic of the page than simply a page of graphics or links. In fact a proper silo site demands them.

Silo Sites: When writing articles for a silo site it is first important to draw up your site structure and make a list of the topics you will have to write about. There are various types of silo site, but that which offers excellent search engine results involves a home page linked to each of a number of silo header pages. Each of these introduce the theme of the silo, and link both to the home page and to the first silo page for each silo.

It is not the purpose here to discuss silo sites in detail, only that they can help to generate traffic and improve sales by the simplicity of their structure. Search engines can easily find every page on the site, and every page contains good content. That is assuming that they are well written and provide useful information.

Articles should just be ‘page fillers’ but should teach something about the topic, or provide information that is genuinely useful to readers or visitors to your website. Each page of a silo site is intended to provide that type of information, and can also be backed up with products or services that relate to the theme of the article and the silo page.

Sales Sites: Writing articles for sales sites does not infer writing sales pages, but writing in such a way as to promote a product or provide a problem and its solution, the product or service being promoted then being presented as a means of applying or achieving that solution. While I see a silo site as providing information first and the product second, with a sales site that is reversed, and certainly changes the way the articles is written and used.

Affiliate products can be sold both ways: they can be presented as a means of backing up the information provided in an info-silo site, offered as solutions to problems or form the main object of a web page and the articles offered in a promotional or review format.

Distribution to Article Directories

When you distribute an article to an article directory you benefit in a number ways, the main two being through the Google PageRank and search engine results listing gained from the backlinks proved to your selected web page from the link in the resource section of the article, and from the search engine listing of the article itself.

Articles are also read by users of the article directories, and they are also copied by webmasters as content for their own Adsense site: here, the resource section must be left intact, again offering you links back to your site. However, it is from their listings on search engines that you will get most tangible benefit, because each article is published on its own page in the directory website, and can be listed on Google in the same way as any other web page. Hence the need for good SEO on in your article.

If you don’t understand how to optimize an article it is certainly worth hiring an article ghostwriter or learning how to do it yourself, because it can make a massive difference to your sales, and generate traffic such as you have never previously experienced.

It is not necessary to submit your article to hundreds of individual directories and ezines. Submission to the top 10 or 15 directories is all that is needed. Because many of these syndicate their articles to other directories, and a number of ezines also pick them. If you want to increase your submissions above that, there submission services available online and also software that can be used to help you do it yourself.

So, writing articles can generate traffic and improve sales very dramatically if you know, not only how to write them properly with good search engine optimization, but also how to use them to your greatest advantage.

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Writing articles properly can convert an average website into a hugely successful one if you know how to use them to generate traffic. Pete is a professional article ghostwriter, and for information on how to write and use articles properly visit his site Article Czar where he offers you a free writing course and tips on how make your site a success.

Article Marketing Advice: Increasing the Readability of Your Articles

By Hunter Waterhouse in Featured

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/

Balancing SEO Against The Needs of Your Article’s Audience

By Hunter Waterhouse in Featured

Article marketing continues to be a proven method for generating traffic to our websites and developing good search placement, even after all of these years. I have been reading articles online since 1995, and I continue to read a few dozen articles per week on subjects that are dear to my heart.

Some Claim That Article Marketing Does Not Work

Now and again, I will read a thread in a forum somewhere where somebody claims that article marketing does not work.

How To Write An Article With A Powerful Title So You Get A Flood Of Traffic To Your Website

By B Hopkins in Featured

If you want an effective method of getting targeted traffic to your website, then writing articles and publishing them is the way to do it. This method is also very cost effective way to driving traffic to your web site. Article marketing is a great way of letting people know more about you as well as a powerful branding method as well. However, publishing your articles to all corners of the Internet isn’t enough; you have to write an article enticing enough to get people to actually read your article and go to your web site.

The main purpose of the title is to draw people into reading your article. What draws people into reading your article are titles that are catchy, stand out, and indicate what the reader will get out of reading the article. Take this article for instance. The title tells you exactly what you will get by reading this article. If that is of interest to anyone (and if you are reading this sentence, it is of interest to you as well), then they will read this article. A powerful title that draws the reader in answers some very specific questions right in the title. These answers will create a headline that “hooks” the reader into reading your article.

The first thing your article title must answer for the reader is the benefit they receive by reading your article?” This alone is worth reading the article. I have seen many article titles that really detract from the power of the article because the title did not draw me in. For example, let us take an article that talks about some of the things that real estate investors overlook when they are considering investing in a property. You can have 2 different titles to that article. One could say:

“Real estate investors overlook some things when investing in property” or “The 5 things that real estate investors overlook in property investment that can cost them thousands of dollars per deal”

Both titles can be on top of the same article but which one draws you in more? If you are interested in not losing thousands of dollars when you are investing in property, then you will be more likely to read the article with the 2nd title. The 2nd title lists a clear benefit of reading the article and that is how to save thousands of dollars. The first title tells you what the article is about, but it doesn’t tell you what you will walk away with other than knowing some things that you need to remember. Some practice may be required and writing powerful titles that draw the reader in and are also within a specific number of characters because some article directory sites limit the number of characters of your article title.

When writing an article, it is important to create a title that “draws” the reader into reading your article. It is very important that your article actually be about what is in the title or you will quickly lose credibility with your reader. The whole goal is to get them to click on your links at the end of your article. This is just one tip that will increase the number of visitors to your website, and there are three other tips that will help you create powerful article titles as well.

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If you want to know the other tips that will help you create an article that drives traffic to your web site, join this how to write articles membership site that teaches you how to write articles that bring traffic to your web site.

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