5 Steps to A Kick Butt Article

Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.

Article marketing has been an effective way to drive traffic for years. Most marketers shy away from it, because article marketing can be time-consuming and it takes some time for results to appear. A key element of article marketing is the article itself, and that’s what we’re going to talk about!

If you write an article and nobody reads it, did you really write an article? In a technical sense you did, but to the rest of the world you didn’t! This article is going to focus on giving you steps to create an article that will be found in search engines, which will result in traffic to your site.

Step 1– Keyword Research

It is really easy to want to ditch Keyword Research. I know, because I didn’t do it for a long time! It can be time consuming; however, if you’re ultimately trying to make money… Here’s a straw! Suck it up! If you want your articles to drive traffic, generate leads, and create sales, you MUST do keyword research!

Start with the Google Keyword Tool. Google will tell you how many people are searching for your keyword.

Google will tell you which keywords have low, medium, or high competition.

Go for the low competition keywords with at least 1000 searches per month to start. Once you get good at this, you can compete for higher competition keywords. Once you’ve selected your keyword or keyphrase, you’re ready for step 2 – creating your headline.

Step 2 –Create a compelling headline

Just like a newspaper, your title needs to pique the interest of your reader! Instead of ‘how to write a good article’, you might have ‘5 surefire ways to write an article everybody wants to read’.

Here are two resources you can use for your headline:

25 Compelling Headlines You Can Add To Your Swipe File

Advanced Marketing Institute’s Headline Analyzer

Step 3 – Introduction

Once you create that attention-grabbing headline, you need an introduction that further hooks your reader. Your introduction should be short – approximately a paragraph. It should tell your reader what they can expect to read in the article, and leave them on the edge of their seat wanting more. A great way to start an introduction is with a question or a statistic. For example: Did you know that article marketing is the most effective ways to generate traffic and leads online? According to research, 97% of network marketers fail. Address some sort of pain or problem in the introduction and note that your article will provide the solution!

Step 4 – The Body

Tell ‘em what you have to say. Make sure it’s in alignment with your headline. Don’t worry if you feel like you need to change your title later. It happens. Anyway, be prepared to create an article between 500 and 700 words. You need at least 500 words to be able to employ on-page search engine optimization, and less than 700 so you don’t lose your reader! One basic SEO strategy that you can use right now is to have your keyword/keyphrase one time per 100 words. If your keyword is ‘bluetooth’, the word ‘bluetooth’ should appear in your text once every paragraph. I’ll create another article on basic SEO strategy. Give some major points and then expound on them. Most readers tend to skim the major points and then decide if they are going to read deeper. So, make your bullet points stand out and make them good!

Step 5 – The closing

Wrap it up. Recap your major points. Tell your reader what they just read. In the intro you tell them what they’re going to read. In the closing, you tell them what they just read. Here’s the yummiest part – give your reader a call to action!

You can download 5 Steps To Craft A Compelling Call To Action

Tell your reader what you want them to do. It could be a homework assignment. Your call to action could be to buy something, click something, share your content, or subscribe! Tell your reader what exactly what ACTion you want them to take!

These are 5 basic steps to crafting an article that you will use to drive traffic to your site. When you get started writing articles, it might take you about an hour to do. Once you get some practice in, you can get it done in about half an hour! Your next step is to implement! Write an article on anything that you like. I don’t care if it’s about a TV show! Just write an article. Once you’re done, go back over these steps to see if you got them all!

Keep marching forward,

LuSundra

PS. You can download a PDF of this article below!

How To Write A Kick @$$ Article by lusundraeverett

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