Article Marketing
Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.
Article Marketing
Writing Articles is a joy for some but a demon for others. Article Marketing is another ballgame altogether.
Following are a few handy hints on how to write better and increase your article marketing success.
Being an Internet Marketer requires working on one single skill above all others – writing. Even if you outsource your content creation to a professional freelancer, it helps to know what good writing for the ‘net equates to, or you won’t be able to distinguish good articles from bad ones.
You’ll need to write different types of content:-
** Sales copy
** Blog posts
** Email autoresponders
** Articles for directories
** Viral reports
** eBooks
All of these require a certain kind of writing that’s casual in nature and easy to digest for the prospect, but you also want to include your personal style and voice so that whenever anyone reads something online by you, they can associate it with your brand.
Article Marketing – Roadblocks to Your Writing Success
Whether you’re a Newbie or a seasoned, advanced marketer, you’ll have some sort of writing skill that you can improve upon to increase your number of sales.
There are three main problems that continue to crop up in the world of online writing. Maybe some of these apply to you.
# Speed
Your efforts to make money quickly online can be hampered by slow progress. Maybe you could consider outsourcing, if you are finding that it takes you hours to produce each article. This will save time and let you work on your article marketing skills.
Idea – Look at the speed with which you write and break it down into an hourly wage. How much do you want to make per hour?article
If you don’t have a budget for Outsourcing or prefer to do all the writing yourself, there are solutions to the ‘speed’ issue. I’ll look at this shortly.
# Readability
Are your articles readable? This could be another snag that prevents you from having the ultimate article marketing success. Often this is because someone is trying to write in a language that isn’t their first language, but often, it’s due to someone just trying too hard.
If you’ve had a college or university education, you may still be using big words to impress your audience, padding out your paragraphs to half a page each or be hung up on correct spelling and grammar. Your readers want to read something quickly and easily. You need to relax and enjoy your writing. This will come out in your writing and your audience will enjoy your articles too.
# Conversions
For many marketers, converting an article into a sale ( article marketing ) is a big struggle. You thought you wrote an informative article. You felt the writing was good – so why didn’t the reader click on your link and buy the product?
Maybe it’s not your fault. There are many marketers who don’t do their research on a product before they go promoting it with an article. Did you evaluate the sales copy to see if it’s any good?
Sometimes your article isn’t the problem. Article marketing needs conversions. If your article isn’t sending you any sales, then you’ll need to adjust your content creation so that it pulls in the right kind of reader and then pushes them into the sales funnel. You need to get them to click on your resource link and ultimately convert into a sale.
Article Marketing Obstacles.
For every problem you have with writing, there are several solutions.
As long as you have the time to write, you know where to submit your content, and you have a desire to improve your skills, you can become a better article marketer today!
Solutions for Speed Issues
Speed is by far the biggest issue writers face because both good writers and bad writers struggle with this one. Getting your thoughts down on paper (or in this case, screen) can be like pulling teeth.
What kind of article do you want to write? There are many types, such as:
* Question and Answer – this is where you use a question in your niche market as the title and your article is the answer to that question.
* Tips or Steps – this type of article starts with a short introduction paragraph and then works in bullet points where you’re making a list. Tip 1, Tip 2, Step 1, Step 2, etc.
* Story – A personalized story format works well as a review article or to help brand you as an expert in your niche market.
Once you know what kind of article you’d like to write, create an outline for it. This outline format helps you quickly fill in the blanks.
You should create outlines for every type of writing that you do online. At the very least, have an introduction, three main point paragraphs, and a conclusion that you work with to help pad out an article.
Dragon Naturally Speaking (DNS) is a tool that you can use to help speed up your writing. Experienced article marketers have found that the speed of their writing improves up to four times when they’re able to speak into a microphone rather than type it using a keyboard.
Here is a link to investigate this product further.
With DNS, you simply put on a headset or speak into a microphone and the words you say appear on the screen in a document that you can then edit and save. Even the fastest typist benefits from this voice recognition software.
Another tip is to grab an egg timer and set a time limit. See how much you can get done in a short amount of time.
Create a work area and close yourself off to distractions such as TV, radio, door bells, general household noise. It is important that your family respects your workspace and come to realise that when Mum and Dad are in there, it’s worktime for them – just the same as if they went out of the house to a regular workplace.
If you really find it hard to make a start with your writing, you can purchase private Label Rights Articles which are written for you. You download them, alter them to suit your taste and publish them as your own.
Here is a great place to purchase Private label Rights Articles.
Article Marketing Solutions for Readability
The best way to see how your readability is working for you is to ask someone else in the industry for their opinion. Even though you may think your articles are terrific, to someone else, they may be horrible.
That may mean going to a marketing forum and asking for someone to help disect your article. Be willing to get real (and sometimes painful) feedback on your article. It’s the only way you’ll learn to become a better writer.
If you already know that your readability is lacking, then try to let go of the old English rules you learned in school. You may be trying too hard to be proper and perfect. That’s not what online writing is all about.
Short sentences work well in article marketing. Be a rebel. Let go of the fear of making a grammatical or spelling error. when it comes to your writing, use incomplete sentences and fragments.
It’s okay in article marketing – no one is going to reject your article because of it.
Use contractions in your writing. It makes the reading flow much better. Instead of saying, “We will not go into that topic because it does not matter,” say, “We won’t go into that because it doesn’t matter.” It’s so much easier to read – and faster for your reader, too! They’ll appreciate that.
Do you see how I’ve written this report – with short, easy-to-read paragraphs? Do your audience a favor and skip the half page paragraphs. As longer paragraphs appear daunting, they may turn some readers away. These days, people are extremely busy. They haven’t got time to read lengthy tomes.
Short, interesting and ‘to-the-point’ articles are the way to go.
Use subheadings to help break up main ideas and points you want to get across to your readers. Just take the main ideas from article outline and use those as subheadings.
For example: Let’s say you wanted to write an article called, “How to train Your Labrador” In your outline, and in your sub-headings, you could use “Stop your labrador from Barking“, “Leash Training“, “Car Travel for Labradors“, etc.
This makes it very easy to write “mini articles” – by just fleshing out each subheading for your reader. Bullet points can also come in handy for readability.
Instead of using a paragraph to explain each item on your list, just use an introduction, followed by a bullet point list, and then maybe a deeper explanation following the list as a conclusion.
Readers like bullet points – it allows them to skim past things they don’t need to know about and it can help guide them to your resource box at the end of the article, so that you improve your chance of getting a click through.
Article Marketing Solutions for Conversions
Once you have mastered the Writing, it’s time to get the ‘Click’. It’s no use just leading the horse to the water. You need to make him drink.
To ensure a greater click-through rate, follow the tips below.
#1: Write a shorter article.
Don’t give everything away. If you give everything away in the article, then there’s no reason for them to click through to find more answers. Also,if you draw out the article into a long mess, they’ll get bored and click away to find their information elsewhere.
Short articles have been said to work better in most cases (although that’s not always the case).
Look at the article directory’s requirements. If they want a minimum of 400 words for maximum exposure, then give it to them.
If they’re not choosey, then stick to the size of a blog post – 250-300 words, not including your resource box. This is where you provide a sort of summary with a hyperlink back to a website of your choosing.
#2: Build up the anticipation.
Write an article like a teaser.You want there to be more than what your article discloses.You might explain that there are many ways you can potty train a puppy, but then give them only one method and reference the fact that there are comprehensive tutorials and products they can buy to figure out what will work best for their puppy.
http://www.howtotrainyourlabrador.com/potty-training-your-labrador/
If you give away all of the tactics or tips, there will be no reason for them to click through –they’ll be completely satisfied. You have to walk the fine line between providing value and satisfying them and leaving them wanting more.
#3: Be explicit about CTA.
Your CTA is your Click Through Action. Are you telling your reader what to do next? If not, you may not get the kind of conversions you’re hoping for. Tell them to “download their free report here” or “read your full review here” before you post your link. It may be obvious to you, but it won’t necessarily be to everyone else.
Improving your writing Skills is something that can happen for everyone. However, you need to be willing to put in the extra work. Nothing comes easy. If you want better results with your article marketing, then you have to work hard.
Be sure to test the different tactics and track your article marketing results. This will lead you to duplicating what works and eliminating what doesn’t.
Hopefully, this Article Marketing piece has helped you in at least one way. If so, please share and feel free to leave a comment.
photo credit: Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com via photopin cc