Article Marketing

Introduction

What an article is (and isn’t)

You have a website. You want traffic. Therefore, you need articles.

If someone says the word “article” to you, you might think of stories in magazines and newspapers. Unless, of course, you’re a serial grammarian, in which case you may picture a series of short words: a, an, the, and so on. In the interests of avoiding confusion (and assuaging the serial grammarians), all references to “articles” in this book should be assumed to mean this:

Article: A relatively short, informative piece of writing that conveys an idea or concept in a useful, interesting and/or entertaining manner.

Now, take a good look at that definition. There are several key words to help you determine what an article is. The word “informative” is perhaps the most important. Good articles let the reader walk away (or click away, as the case may be) knowing something they didn’t know before. People read articles expecting to either learn something or be entertained—preferably both.

What about the term “relatively short”? Articles can vary in length, from a few paragraphs to several pages. The length of an article should depend on the information you’re trying to convey. For example, “How to Make a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich” would be relatively shorter than “The Basic Operating Principles of Fission Reactors.”

The last part of the definition is to help you understand what an article isn’t. This is a crucial concept for anyone using articles to increase website traffic and sales, and it’s one many webmasters fail to grasp:

articles are not advertisements.

No one wants to read a three-page ego-stroke about how great your product or book is, or why dozens of people in your hometown are raving about you. These types of “articles” will not be circulated or read, and can actually decrease your website traffic when word starts spreading that your site is nothing but a bunch of advertising hype.

Though your ultimate goal in generating articles for your website is to increase sales, using articles to spell out your goal in plain English (buy my stuff!) is a good way to make sure you never reach it. Believe it or not, subtlety still has a place in Internet marketing. By providing people with quality articles at no cost to them, you will reach a far greater audience—and convert more visitors to buyers.

Articles, Content, Visibility…Sales!

Now that you know what articles are, let’s talk about why you need them.

Ask any successful ‘netpreneur the secret to drumming up website traffic and earning repeat visitors, and you’re practically guaranteed to receive a one-word answer: content. That’s CON-tent (the “meat” that gives substance to whatever is being referenced, whether it’s words on a website or cotton in a stuffed bear), not con-TENT (sublime happiness, often realized through sufficient quantities of money—though that’s not necessarily a bad thing, either).

Articles are content. They are the meat of your website; providing substance and value to both visitors and search engines. A website without articles is like a headline about alien babies on the cover of a tabloid magazine: easy to ignore. There is nothing to interest visitors in staying or coming back, and nothing to appease the search engine spiders into indexing your pages somewhere above the millions rank.

Once your website has content, you’re on the road to visibility. By offering your visitors something of value, you not only increase the chance that they’ll come back, but also that they will tell friends about your site. Also, search engines give more weight to websites with content as well as those that are frequently updated.

Face it: there are millions of websites out there in cyberspace. You need visibility to get visitors. And the more visitors you have, the more sales you’ll make.

Before you start loading up your website with articles and sit back to watch the money roll in, you should understand that there are right ways and wrong ways to generate and use website content. This book will explain the do’s and don’ts of article marketing and help you make the most of this powerful internet tool.

PART I: Generating Articles

The Components of a Killer Article

Now that you’ve decided to use articles to promote your website and earn more money online, you should learn what a great article looks like. Internet articles generally have three parts:

Title and/or subtitle
Body text
Author’s byline, credentials, and links

Each part of an article has a different purpose, and all three are equally important. In this chapter we’ll explore what makes a killer article that is enjoyable, informative, and attracts a reader’s interest.

Articles aren’t ads: Being informative and entertaining

As previously mentioned, the goal of an article is not to sell a product, but to give away useful information. The body text of an article should not be a commercial for what you’re trying to sell.

An article’s true purpose is not to sell product; rather, it is to sell your website and position you as either an expert or a person to be trusted (preferably both). No matter what your internet business is, you are in a crowded field. There are dozens, even hundreds, of other websites offering products or services similar to yours. Providing knowledge in the form of articles helps people realize that you know what you’re talking about, and gives them good reasons to buy from you rather than your competitors. Remember: an article is not an advertisement.

With this in mind, you may now be wondering exactly what it is you should be writing articles about.

Here’s the good news: articles are flexible. You can write an article on just about any topic you have knowledge of, as long as you can relate it in some way to your website and your products or services.

Following are just a few examples of the many forms an article can take.

How-to: Perhaps the most popular type of article is one that explains how to do something, get something, use something or find something. For example, if you’re running an Internet business you could probably write an article giving people advice on how to start a small business from home. Think about your area of specialty and list some things you can do that most people might not know, but would like to learn.
Opinion: Whatever industry or type of business you work in, there are always breaking developments, new products, or business advances. You can write an article focusing on an emerging aspect of your business, and offer your opinion on how it will affect the industry.
Personal story/inspirational essay: Nearly every business owner and Internet marketer has a compelling reason they went into business for themselves. Consider writing an article or series of articles about why you chose the path you did. You can make it humorous, or inspirational, or both. Human interest stories are a popular article format.
Book excerpt or condensation: If you’re selling a book, e-book or e-course, you’re in luck: you have articles built in to your product. You can offer your website visitors a free sample chapter, or write a condensed article based on one of the ideas in your book. Book excerpts and condensations also make great articles to post elsewhere around the Internet, and if you use HTML or PDF format to post an excerpt it can easily be passed around via e-mail.
Top ten lists. Many engaging articles are centered around a list concept. You don’t have to use the number ten; any number will do. Think “The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People” or “The Five People You Meet in Heaven.” These are books, but the concept for articles is the same. Example: if your website is geared for businesspeople, you might write an article about the six features you need in a good PDA or SmartPhone.

You can generate articles in one or more of these formats that will get people interested in finding out what else you have to say. Remember to stay away from making your articles sound like advertisements. People read articles to be entertained, get ideas, or learn something they didn’t know before.

Stimulating your Muse: How to generate article ideas that get read

Coming up with interesting ideas for articles is a challenge in itself. The more ideas you formulate, the better your chances at having a continual stream of fresh content for your website and general distribution on the Internet. Where can you find these elusive ideas?

There are several methods you can use to brainstorm article ideas that will be of interest to your customers, potential customers and website visitors. Following are a few to get you started.

Chat rooms and message boards. With billions of Internet users online, you are bound to be able to find chat rooms and message boards that relate to your topic. These people are your potential customers. Spend some time visiting chat rooms and reading through message board posts to find out what they’re talking about, what concerns they have, and what kind of information they are most interested in. Checking out chat rooms and message boards serves a double purpose: it can help you generate article ideas, and give you some leads on where to post your articles after you’ve written them.

Television, print media and online news. Stay current with the most recent topics and trends in your industry by watching news broadcasts, skimming newspapers or browsing the latest online news feeds. If you notice anything relating to your topic or business that seems to be drawing a lot of attention, write a few articles about it. Timely articles are more likely to be spread fast across the Internet, and by taking advantage of current events in your articles, you can increase your visibility.

More timely ideas. Use the time of the year to your advantage when brainstorming article ideas. Can you relate your topic to a season, a holiday, or an upcoming celebration? Invest in the latest issue of Chase’s Calendar of Events, which lists hundreds of typical and unusual holidays throughout the year, and look for several you can tie into. For example, if you run a website design business, you could write an article about looking your best online for Build a Better Image Week in September. You can also discover more about current hot topics in public discussion by browsing online non-fiction bestseller lists to see what books people are buying.

Your website and current customers. You can generate article ideas according to what your customers are already asking about! Check your guestbook comments regularly and keep a file of any questions customers ask you via e-mail or phone. You can also ask customers and visitors to participate in a survey and let you know what types of articles or information they would like to see on your website.

If you don’t know…find out!

You may come up with quite a few ideas for articles on subjects you are not familiar with. If a topic would make a great article, but you don’t know much about the subject area, relax: everything you need to find out more is right at your fingertips.

Internet research is a great way to educate yourself and gather enough information for a compelling and factual article. The most obvious way to do this is using a search engine like Google or Yahoo. However, it can be hard to sort out the good, the bad and the ugly in search engine results.

Fortunately, there are plenty of free sources for good information online. Try plugging in your topic or subject at one of these websites:

Wikipedia – www.en.wikipedia.org: This free online encyclopedia contains over one million searchable articles on various topics.

HowStuffWorks – www.howstuffworks.com: A comprehensive searchable website that explains “how everything works. Categories include people, science, health, entertainment, computers, auto, home, money and more.

Fact Monster – www.factmonster.com: Another searchable database that features an online almanac, dictionary, encyclopedia and atlas.

RefDesk.com – www.refdesk.com: This site indexes and reviews web-based resources and archives quality informational websites. RefDesk.com features a facts subject index, a “fast facts” section, links to essential online reference resources like dictionaries, almanacs, calculators, encyclopedias and genealogy databases, and more.

Writing the article text

Once you have your topics and you’ve done your research, it’s time to start actually writing the article. You don’t need the title first (we’ll talk about titles in the next section); and in fact, sometimes you can come up with a better title for your articles after you’ve written the text.

Your article needs a beginning (introduction), middle (body), and end (conclusion). Without an introduction, readers can get confused and may stop reading if they’re not sure what you’re talking about. Conclusions are important because they sum up and reinforce the main points of your article.

Feel like you’re back in a high school English class yet?

The basic structure of an article is where similarities to essays and school reports end. Writing for the Internet is different than writing for anything else. Online markets are highly competitive, and it’s easy for visitors to click away from your website if you don’t hold their attention.

Here’s how to do it:

Use short sentences and short paragraphs. Big blocks of text on a screen are difficult to read, and the typical Internet surfer’s eyes will glaze over when confronted with a page of solid text. Don’t indent, and skip a line between each paragraph. Include the occasional one-sentence paragraph to attract more attention.
Keep the language level conversational. Internet users aren’t impressed with ten-cent words; if they have to stop and look for a dictionary, they’ll probably just try another website. You aren’t insulting anyone’s intelligence by lowering the vocabulary level. You are making it easier for people to digest the information you’re offering them.
Create a sense of interaction by using the word “you” in your articles, as though you’re talking directly to the reader. For example, instead of “A termite infestation can weaken the structure of a house and cause serious damage,” you would say: “If your house becomes infested with termites, you could be looking at serious and costly structural damage.”
Use bulleted lists (like this one) to further break up the text on the page and provide fact-filled summaries that draw the eye.
Images can spice up an article as well, but go easy on them. Slow-loading pages (which most often happens on graphics-heavy sites) are still one of the biggest reasons Internet users look for cleaner pastures.

Finally, keep in mind that grammar and spelling does count when writing articles for the web. Do not: use “chat speak,” refuse to capitalize anything (or, conversely, capitalize everything), skip the punctuation, or otherwise generate sloppy prose. You are trying to position yourself as an expert, after all!

Running a spell check on your article before you post it is a great idea, but spell checks don’t catch every mistake. Reading the article aloud can help you spot inconsistencies or flaws. You could also ask a friend or associate to read it over for you—a fresh pair of eyes can find mistakes yours can’t.

A note on article length

How long should your articles be? The answer is: “As long as they need to be—and no longer.”

Internet articles generally range from about 200 words (three or four short paragraphs) to about 1,500 words (about six pages). Much longer than that, and you’re entering e-book territory. The length of the article usually depends on the topic being discussed.

400 to 800 words is a good general target for most articles. For those you want to post in places other than your personal website, you’ll want to keep them on the shorter end of the scale. It is much easier for another webmaster to post a 400-word article that can be put on one page than one that must be broken up and given two or three pages of its own.

Whatever length you choose, it will be sufficient as long as you include all the information you want to convey, and no more.

Titles, Keywords and Links

When you’re writing article text, your primary concern is what readers will think. When it comes to titles, keywords, and links, your main objective is search engines.

The majority of Internet users still find most of the websites they visit through search engines. Keywords and links help to boost your search engine rank, and the titles of your articles will be the first thing people see in the results.

Titles that shout “Read Me Now!”

Which of these articles would you want to read?

Using Vinegar in the Garden
Or…

The Cheap, Safe Way to Rid Your Garden of Weeds (Without Digging!)

Both of these articles would discuss the same thing—how to use vinegar as a natural weed killer. However, the second one sounds more compelling, exciting and useful. Chances are, you would choose to read the second article over the first if they both popped up in a search engine.

The titles of your articles should invite further attention, if not outright demand it. Coming up with an interesting, compelling title takes time, but it is well worth the effort. Think of your title as a newspaper headline. If your title appeared on the front page, would you buy a copy?

There are several ways to generate article titles that stand out from the crowd and get read. Here are a few examples:

Use numbers, such as “Five Steps to True Happiness” or “Three Good Reasons to Choose Fixed Insurance Over Variable.” You don’t have to limit number titles to list-style articles. Nearly any article can be broken up into a number of steps or reasons.
Create a play on words using a popular phrase. For example, an article about how to wash the outside of your second-floor windows might be titled “Don’t Let Window Washing be a Pane in Your Neck.”
Make your title a question: “Can You Really Make Money Online?”
Compare something to something else: “Why Apples are Just Like Oranges.”
Fill in the blank: “How To (Blank),” “From (Blank) to (Blank),” or “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About (Blank).”

Another good way to get ideas for titles is to pay attention to newspapers, magazines, and popular websites. You can keep a file of headlines that catch your attention and use them as a basis for your article titles. The more you practice coming up with attention-grabbing titles, the easier it will be.

Keywords—Use them, but don’t abuse them

Ah, keywords…the bane of an Internet marketer’s existence. Use too few and the search engines will ignore you; use too many, and your website could be banned from search engines altogether. Then there is the matter of choosing the right keywords for your website.

The use of keywords is a puzzling science with no exact answers. It can be difficult to understand why some keywords generate massive results, while others yield next to nothing. Let us start by defining the term “keyword.”

Keyword: A significant word or phrase found in the title, text, abstract, or subject headings of a web page, which can be used as a search term in an electronic catalogue or database, particularly search engines.

Got that? Keywords are single or multi-word phrases relating to your topic that help Internet users find your website when they enter them in a search engine. The strategic placement of keywords throughout your articles can help to raise your page rankings and online visibility.

Your first step should be to generate a list of relevant keywords for the article you’re working on. Choose several words or phrases relating to your topic that Internet users would be likely to use in a search for the information you’re offering. For instance, if you’re writing an article about small business startups, your keyword list might look like this:

business, small business, startup, entrepreneur, work from home, start a business, business startup

After you’ve written your article, go through the text and count the number of times each of your keywords or phrases appear. Three to five times each is a good range to aim for, and you may want to repeat your main keyword (in this case, “small business”) even more—eight to ten times.

The trick is to make the keywords sound natural within the text. You’ve probably seen websites stuffed with keywords to the point of generating nonsensical (or downright irritating) sentences: “When your small business is ready for a small business startup, your small business should get the best small business resources for small business startups.” This makes for clunky, uninteresting reading; something you want to avoid.

It’s also a good idea to incorporate your main keyword or key phrase into the title of your article. Search engines give more weight to page titles than text, and when you post your articles on your website, you will name the page with the title of the article.

Links within articles

Including links to other articles or resources relating to your topic is a good way to provide your visitors with more valuable information. However, you should be sure to link to other websites that complement, rather than compete with, yours. It’s counterproductive to direct visitors to websites offering the same information as you.

Links also carry some weight with search engines. There are four basic types of links: inbound, outbound, reciprocal, and on-site. Inbound links are links on other websites that point to yours. Outbound links are the opposite: links from your website leading to another website. When you exchange websites with another webmaster (offer to place their link on your site if they will do the same for you), this creates a reciprocal link. Finally, links that lead to other pages of your website are called on-site links.

Of these four, inbound links have the greatest influence with search engines. If there are many websites linking to yours with no return links appearing on your site, search engines assume your website contains information people are interested in. This is part of what makes article marketing so effective: when you allow other websites to use your articles, you create lots of inbound links to your website and boost your online visibility.

Outbound and reciprocal links influence search engines to some degree, but not much. You should limit the number of outbound and reciprocal links used in your articles and concentrate on outbound links instead.

Once you have built up a good number of archived articles on your website, you can start including on-site links within the text of your articles to refer visitors to similar information. On-site links help keep visitors on your website longer and increase your chances of converting them to customers.

Bio, Disclaimer and Signature File

At the end of every article, you should include a short biography, a disclaimer, and a signature file. These components establish you as an expert on your topic and direct readers who find your articles on other websites to yours.

Your author bio: making you the expert

An author bio is a short one- or two-paragraph description of you and your experience concerning the subject of the article. Bios are written in the third person (Shelly Smith is a word processing expert who owns and operates WordWare, Incorporated…). Your bio establishes your credentials and convinces Internet users that your information can be trusted.

What if you don’t have any professional experience? No problem. You can include anything in your bio that relates to your topic: life experiences, hobbies, high school or college credits, even personal interest. If you’re just starting out in your field, use the reasons you decided to enter this particular business to formulate your bio.

Here’s a sample bio for someone with limited experience:

sample

Once you have some practice in generating bios, you can start tailoring your bio to match the contents of each of your articles. Customized bios can be humorous and fun, or helpful and to-the-point. You’ll also find it easier to refer to yourself in the third person with more practice.

The crucial signature file

Your signature file can be part of your bio, or it can appear separately following the bio. It contains a link or links to your website and a brief one or two sentence description of what is available there.

The active link contained in your signature file is what allows search engines to catalogue your website and track the inbound links. This is an important part of article marketing that some people overlook. You should make it a habit to include a signature file with every piece of information you post on the web.

Warning: Thou shalt not steal my article

Every article you write should include a disclaimer giving readers permission to repost and redistribute the article on their own websites. However, you must state that your bio and signature file have to be included, or you won’t be able to take advantage of inbound links and additional traffic.

Your disclaimer should read something like this:

This article may be freely reprinted or distributed in its entirety in any e-zine, newsletter, blog, or website. The author’s name, bio and website links must remain intact and be included with every reproduction.

This ensures you will be given credit for the article, while allowing others to use your content without contacting you first. Webmasters often don’t want to take the time to contact authors for permission, and are more likely to reprint articles that don’t require contacting.

Write or Buy? Paying for Professional Content

Do you break out in cold sweat at the thought of writing an e-mail, much less a 500-word informative and entertaining article? Do you simply not have time to generate pages and pages of content? Fortunately, there is another alternative to writing articles yourself: you can pay a professional writer to do it for you.

There are thousands of writing services and individual freelance writers who are more than willing to provide you with professional, customized content for your website. Web-based and SEO (search engine optimized) writing has become a profession unto itself, as more and more webmasters discover that original content is the key to Internet marketing success.

Paying for professional content can be the perfect solution for those who don’t have the time (or the interest) to develop writing skills. Hiring a professional writer to generate your articles leaves you free to concentrate on your business and ensures that you will have quality content.

As with any other business proposition, there are advantages and drawbacks to hiring a professional writer. In this chapter, we’ll take a look at the pros and cons of paying for content and help you make an informed decision.

The Pros

Buying professionally written custom articles can help you in more ways than one. Here are some of the benefits to paying for content:

Professional writers have experience

Those who write web-based articles for a living know their stuff. They understand what Internet users want to read and how they want the information presented to them. They are experienced at not only writing articles, but also at researching topics to find the best, most relevant information available.

Professional content writers also know keywords. Give them a list, and they’ll plug your pertinent phrases into the article text seamlessly. They can generate those all-important must-read titles that will catch the attention of readers and search engines alike.

When you hire an article writer, you get clean, error-free articles that boost your credibility and make you the expert. Custom articles with your byline set you apart from the competition.

Time: more precious than money

When you outsource your article writing to a professional, you save time. Often, the time you save is worth far more than the fee you’ll pay the writer.

It’s a good idea to weigh the cost of custom articles against the time it would take you to write them yourself. You can get a high quality 500-word custom article written for $10 to $25, and turnaround time for a single article for most professional writers is usually a few days. Compare that to the time it may take you to generate a good article: hours, or even weeks of research and writing, depending on your own experience. Would your time be better spent developing your business? If the answer is yes, you should seriously consider outsourcing.

Another time benefit to hiring a professional is the ability to order articles in bulk. Writing services will generally offer a discount if you order a number of articles, and you’ll usually get them within a few weeks. Ordering bulk custom articles is a great way to jumpstart your visibility and get the marketing ball rolling.

The Credit Goes to You

When you purchase professional custom-written content, you are buying all rights to that particular piece (or pieces). This means you own the content. You don’t have to list someone else’s name in the author bio—you get to add your own bio and signature file, and help to position yourself as an expert.

Giving yourself credit for work you’ve paid for (but not done yourself) is not deceitful or unethical. In fact, it is common practice in both business and publishing. However, some people are uncomfortable with this custom. If this is you, consider listing the writer as a co-author: “By John C. Business, with Ima Writer.” This way the writer is credited, and you can still list your own bio at the end of the article.

The Cons

Of course, there are a few downsides to paying for professional content. Fortunately, most of them can be avoided with due diligence on your part. Keep yourself informed about buying articles and you can ensure your investment will pay off.

Additional Charges Apply

This is the one unavoidable drawback: you must pay for professional writing services. If you’re not paying for the content, you’re not getting the rights to the work. This means you don’t get credit, and all those visitors who read that brilliant article will be impressed enough to click the link to the author’s website—and may not come back to yours.

Stiffing the writer you hired is a bad idea. Though some people do manage to get free writing by asserting the final project is “unacceptable” or “not what I envisioned,” this practice will put you on writers’ bad books. Word gets around in the writing community, and you may find that no one is willing to work with you. Plus, it’s just plain mean—writers need to earn a living, too.

Remember to weigh the money you’ll spend against the time you’ll save. Most of the time, you’ll end up at an advantage in the end.

Knowing Your Business

No one knows your business, your website and your products better than you—and this includes professional writers. Ultimately, you are the most qualified person to write about your topic. However, there are ways to ensure the articles you outsource are written to reflect your knowledge.

Writers are adaptable. The more information they have about a subject, the better the finished pieces they will be able to produce. When you pay for professional content, consider providing the writer with a copy of your book, e-book, special reports, or product. This will help them write the best possible articles for you.

Also, consider providing the writer or writing service with a rough template you would like them to follow. This way, you can be sure the ideas you want to promote are included in the final piece.

Scam Alert: Not all “writers” are professionals

Every industry has its scam artists, and writing is no different. There are a number of “writing services” out there promising fast, cheap content for your website. Unfortunately, the content these scammers offer is not original—it’s often a series of template articles with keywords plugged in.

You can avoid hiring scam writers by knowing what to look for in a writing service. Often, the price itself is a giveaway: “Articles for just $1 apiece!” With a price that low, it’s most likely a scam. Few writers will work for so little; if they are, it usually means they’re not working…just filling in a template.

Another tip-off is turnaround time. If the writing service promises dozens of articles in twenty-four hours, it’s unlikely that they could generate that much original content in such a short time frame.

To avoid scam artists, follow the advice you’ll find in the next section of this book…

How to Evaluate Writers and Writing Services

If you’re going to pay for professional content, you want the best possible value for your money. It’s important to evaluate a writing service or individual freelance writer before you decide to enter a business relationship with them.

In this section, you’ll learn what to look for and what to avoid in a professional writer or writing service.

Evaluate the website

These days, it’s nearly impossible to conduct any type of business without a decent website. For writing services and freelancers, this is more the rule than the exception. This holds particularly true for writers and services that specialize in web content—it would almost be hypocritical for them not to have a website.

Look for professionalism and good presentation when you’re checking out a writing website. Do they seem reasonable, coherent and well-informed? A professional writing services website should contain:

At least one valid contact method (physical address or phone number) outside of an e-mail address
A general pricing range or schedule or an invitation to contact the writer or service for a free quote
Easy-to-read, error-free copy and clean page design
Information about the writer or writers’ experience, past or current clients, and/or writing samples
A list of services provided and/or areas of expertise

If the writer or writing service has taken the time to put together a website that demonstrates professionalism and knowledge, they are likely to put the same effort into the work you commission through them. Sloppy websites can indicate sloppy writing quality—something you want to avoid.

Ask for samples

Always view samples of work from a writer or writing service before hiring them. Most will have samples posted on their websites. If they don’t, and you still want to consider working with them, e-mail and ask for a sample. If the sample is riddled with spelling and grammar errors and poorly constructed sentences, you should look for another writer.

In most cases, writers who don’t have posted samples are new to freelancing. However, they should still be able to demonstrate their abilities. Working with new writers is not necessarily something you should avoid, but it’s important to make sure they can actually provide a finished, coherent piece.

When cheaper is not better

A good deal on pricing often masquerades a bad deal on quality. As with many other products or services, when it comes to commissioned writing, you get what you pay for.

You should expect to pay the going rate for quality writing. This varies according to the type of writing provided, but for SEO articles and web content it is fairly consistent. Usually the writer’s fee is per word or a flat rate per article according to a word count range (250 to 400 words, 500 to 700 words, and so on).

If the writer is charging far less than what others are asking, there is likely one of two reasons: either the writer is new or inexperienced, or there is a scam afoot. In either case, investigate the writer or company, check out their samples, and use caution when paying dirt-cheap fees for content.

Detecting plagiarism

If you suspect a writer or writing service is using a template or recycling material they claim is “original,” there are a few ways to find out whether your suspicions are correct:

Copy and paste two or three sentences from the sample text into a search engine such as Google or Yahoo. Chances are, if it’s a scam you will come up with several links leading to the exact same article on different websites with different bylines.
Look up websites that deal with the subject of the article and question and check out their article archives to see if they have the same title.
Go to www.findarticles.com and search for the title or unusual phrases within the text of the sample article.
Enter the URL of the page containing the suspicious writing sample at www.copyscape.com to view other pages that contain the exact same content.

Free is not always good

You may be thinking, “Why pay for content when I can find plenty of free articles on my subject to use on my website?”

The answer, of course, is credibility.

There are plenty of resources out there for free articles. However, they still have a price: you have to list someone else as the author, and include a link to their website. This tells Internet users that you aren’t knowledgeable in regards to your business, and have to rely on other people to explain things for you.

When you post articles written by other people in your business area, many of your website visitors will conclude the writers of the articles are more informed and more trustworthy than you. They will visit these other websites, and likely won’t return to yours. When it comes to Internet marketing, first impressions count. Posting free articles on your website will often make you lose business.

Directory of Writing Services

Need help finding a reputable writing service? Here is a list of professional, reasonably priced services to get you started:

DocRocket – www.docrocket.net: This is a full-featured writing service offering a variety of custom writing projects, including web content and SEO articles. DocRocket employs a stable of professional writers with a wide range of experience, so your content needs can be matched with a writer who knows your subject.

Elance – www.elance.com: This site functions as a job board for freelancers. When you’re looking to have articles written, you can post your project details on ELance and receive bids from several writers.

Killer Content – www.killer-content.com: Provides article, web content and SEO writing for a variety of topics and subjects.

Web Content Writers – www.writingassist.com: A database of freelance web content writers with various skill sets and areas of expertise, matched on a project-to-project basis.

PART II: Placing Articles

Personal Websites

Once you have generated articles, either by writing them yourself or buying them from a professional article service or freelancer, you’re ready to start placing them on the Internet and getting visibility.

You can start by placing the articles on your own website. There are several ways you can use articles on your website to attract and keep visitors. In this chapter, we’ll discuss the benefits of using your articles on your website, what they’ll do for your website traffic, and how to place them for the best results.

Magic Word #1: Content

In the world of Internet marketing, content is king. Providing a number of articles that are free for your visitors to view, read, and distribute is a great way to increase visibility, improve your website rank, earn more return visitors, and convert more visitors to paying customers.

Content versus pages: Guess which one is more important?

Articles provide quality content for your website. You can have dozens, or even hundreds, of website pages and still not increase your search engine rank if the pages lack content.

You may have heard about the importance of confusing techno-terms like metatags and metadescriptions. These are functions of your website’s HTML coding; hidden text that doesn’t appear on the screen when your site is being viewed. However, these cryptic tags don’t matter as much now as they used to.

Search engine spiders—those little programs that crawl the web indexing every page they find—no longer pay much attention to metatags. More importance is given to a website’s content than anything else. This is where your hard work or your investment in professionally written articles pays off. The more quality content you have catalogued on your website, the higher your search engine ranking will climb.

Don’t expect your website to shoot to Google’s top ten the minute you put up your fresh new articles. Search engines take time to update the vast amount of information available on the web. However, the sooner you get started, the sooner you will start to see improved results on search engines for your website. Once your information is catalogued, you can remain high in the results ranking as long as you keep updating your website with fresh content.

When content is not enough: building trust with your customers

Some webmasters post a flurry of content to their websites, and then sit back and wonder why the business isn’t pouring in. The reason, in a word, is trust.

In order to be a successful Internet marketer, you must build trust. Providing free, high quality information for customers is a step in the right direction, but it is not the be-all and end-all of marketing. The average consumer must be exposed to your business three to seven times before they’ll consider making a purchase.

Posting articles on your website is just the beginning. Section III will discuss the many ways to get your name out there and build consumer trust using your custom articles.

Magic Word #2: Relevancy

Your articles must be relevant to the general theme of your website. If they aren’t, you will lose both the trust of your visitors and the esteem of search engines.

What’s relevant?

“Relevant” means “related to.” Basically, any subject you can tie in some way to your main business can seem relevant in an article. If you are selling a startup kit for small businesses, you can generate a list of relevant topics that will interest visitors and keep search engines happy:

The pitfalls of starting a small business
How to get a startup loan
Basic equipment business startups need
Creating an advertising budget on a shoestring
Internet versus brick-and-mortar startup business
Good reasons to start a small business
Tax tips for business owners

Of course, this is a partial list. A website on small businesses can generate a huge number of articles with relevant content.

But what if you sell homemade dog treats?

Niche markets can be a bit more difficult when it comes to determining relevant content. If your topic or area of expertise is narrow, consider branching out the subjects of your articles to include other areas that may be of interest to those visiting your website.

In the example above, you can assume that most of your visitors and potential customers own dogs. With that taken into consideration, there are plenty of topics you can write or purchase informative articles on that will interest visitors and help solidify your expert status. For instance:

Pet grooming tips
How to come up with a creative name for your new puppy
The best dog breeds for households with children
Housebreaking tips for puppies
Whether dogs should wear sweaters
How to vacation with your dog
Shelters versus pet stores

All of these topics are a natural extension of a core business: dogs and the owners who love them. They’re all relevant to the website, and a mention of homemade dog treats could be included in each article without sounding blatant or awkward.

Finding relevant topics

If you’re stuck for relevant subject areas, a keyword tool can help you generate more ideas. There are a number of free online keyword generators that can jumpstart your brainstorming process and reveal topics you might not have considered:

NicheBot www.nichebot.com

Wordtracker http://www.wordtracker.com

Yahoo! Overture www.overture.con

Good Keywords www.goodkeywords.com

Keyword Tumbler www.keywordtumbler.com

Magic Word #3: Placement

The placement of articles on your website can have a great impact on your visitors’ impressions, whether they stay on your site, if you will earn repeat visitors, and how many you ultimately end up converting to buyers.

Accessibility and ease of navigation are important elements for any successful website. You should consider these vital factors when placing your articles.

Headline news: Placing articles on your front page

As previously mentioned, first impressions count. When visitors arrive at your website, you’ll have from three to ten seconds to capture their interest enough to keep them there. Placing your strongest article right on your front page is a good way to grab an Internet user’s attention.

Of course, there are a number of other things you should include on your website’s front page as well. A good website has links to different areas, often in a side or top navigation bar; a note about the company, product, service or type of information visitors should expect to find on the site; relevant graphics; and more. Throw in an entire article, and your front page can look crowded.

To avoid cramming your index page, try this trick: post only the title and the first few compelling paragraphs of your article in a prominent position on the front page, and include a link to the permanent article page that says “Read more…” or “Click here to continue…” Also, make the article title itself an active link to the full article. This way, you have enough space to include all of your important information and you’re still able to generate interest in your articles.

Your front page article should change frequently. If possible, you should have a timely or seasonal article linked from your front page at all times. This not only helps you with your search engine rank, it also gives visitors a reason to check back often to see what you’ve updated with.

Creating a resource section

You can showcase your articles by creating a resources section you can link to from your home page. Having a resource section comprised of original articles reinforces your expert status and helps generate trust.

Your resource section can be a simple list of clickable titles that lead to the articles’ permanent pages. You can also structure your article listing similarly to the shortcut previously mentioned for your front page: include a paragraph or two of actual text beneath each article title and end with a “Read more…” link.

If you have several articles on your website, divide your resource section into categories for easier navigation. For example, if you have a website for small business owners, your categories might include:

Starting a business
Business financing
Working from home
Advertising for small business
Business opportunities

Don’t forget to link back to both your home page and your resource section page at the end of each individual article. If your visitors don’t have an easy way to return to your list or index page, they might move on to another website rather than using their browser’s Back button. Make it as convenient as possible for visitors to stay on your website.

Holding back: why you shouldn’t post all your articles at once

Whether you write your own articles or purchase professional content, you may end up owning the rights to hundreds of articles. This may sound like an excellent opportunity to create a content-rich website—but there are several good reasons not to have all of your articles posted at once.

Fresh content. One of the most important things a webmaster must do to maintain high search engine rankings is to continually post fresh content on a website. If you refrain from putting up all your articles at once, it will be far easier to keep your content fresh and interesting to both visitors and search engines.

Too much information. Is it possible to have too much information on your website? Unless you have an advanced, site-specific search engine, presenting visitors with hundreds of links can create confusion. Many won’t know where to start, and will look elsewhere for the specific information they’re trying to find.

Additional opportunities for revenue. Once you have established your reputation as a quality source for information on your topic, you will likely have replaced dozens of articles on your website with new content. After you have built a backlog of past articles, you can bundle them together and offer them as a downloadable e-book in addition to whatever products or services you’re promoting through your website.

Blogs

Blogs are the latest development in the world of Internet marketing. Used properly, they can be a great tool for helping to market your articles and get more visibility for your website.

What in the World is a Blog?

“Blog” is short for “web log.” A blog is a particular type of website that is structured to resemble a journal in online format. Blogs are frequently updates, sometimes daily, and are used for an enormous variety of reasons by millions of people. Here are just a few examples:

Personal thoughts
Business updates
Political opinions
Breaking news
Public interaction (many celebrities use blogs to keep in touch with their fans)
Insider advice from anonymous industry sources
Buzz generation for new books or products
Information showcases (especially multi-author blogs)

In general, blogs are casual and conversational. Blog entries are written in the first person and create a far more personal atmosphere than a typical website. The use of blogs has become so popular and commonplace that a whole new subsection of the Internet has been created. Dubbed the “blogosphere,” it is a massive interwoven community of bloggers who support and visit each others’ blogs and spread news throughout the blog network by linking and cross-posting.

If you decide to start a blog to help promote your website, you should be prepared to put quite a bit of effort into maintaining your blog. Frequent posts are not only good for search engines, they are also necessary to maintain your readership. If your blog lies dormant for weeks or months, people will stop visiting and probably won’t come back even if you start posting again. Blog readership is based largely on trust, and if you break that trust by deserting your blog, it is difficult—or even impossible—to win that trust back.

Using articles in blogs

Articles are an effective marketing tool to use in conjunction with blogs. However, there are a few things you should keep in mind before you start pasting articles into your blog entries.

The most important thing to remember when dealing with blogs is the intimacy of this form of communication. Blogs connect directly with readers. Used properly, they can form a strong bond with the Internet community. However, if you use your blog to start posting articles after you’ve built trust with your readership, many of them will see this as an advertising ploy and stop reading.

You can avoid this loss of trust by mentioning what your website is about when you start your blog, but not making an issue of it. Once you have built a readership, make occasional posts regarding one of your articles as long as it is pertinent to the latest discussion on your blog. Don’t post the whole article to your blog. Instead, put up a link to the article’s permanent page on your website. Invite readers to check it out and offer feedback on your blog: did they find the article helpful? Would they recommend it to others? If not, what would they rather read about instead?

With this method, you not only avoid losing your readers’ trust, you also gain useful information that will help you shape your article marketing campaign. Direct feedback from readers and potential customers is an excellent way to target your marketing efforts.

Speaking of readership: how can you tell when people are reading your blog? One way is through your comments section, which will be discussed further in this chapter. Another way is to install a simple, free web tracker and statistics counter on your blog.

You might try StatCounter at www.statcounter.com -- when you sign up for a free account and paste a snippet of HTML code into your blog’s template, you can find out not only how much traffic you’re getting through your blog, but also where your visitors are coming from and how long they stay.

Other free web trackers can be found at:

ShinyStat – www.shinystat.com

RiteCounter – www.ritecounter.com

Active Meter – www.activemeter.com

Most blogs contain sidebars with permanent links that appear on every blog page. Don’t forget to take advantage of these sidebars and add a link to your main website, a few of your most powerful articles, and any affiliate programs you may be using.

How to get your own blog

Because blogs are so popular, there are a number of web service providers that furnish blogs. The best news is you can get one free. Blogging software is different from each provider, so you should choose the one that best suits your purposes in starting a blog.

Here’s a brief overview of the major blog providers:

Blogger – www.blogger.com: Owned by search engine giant Google, this is one of the most popular free blogging programs, with millions of users. Blogger provides customizable templates, unlimited posts, archives, a search box for searching within blogs, image posting, and more. URLs for free Blogger sites are www.username.blogspot.com

LiveJournal – www.livejournal.com: Another popular free blog provider with millions of users. LiveJournal provides customizable templates, archives, and image posting options, and features the cyber-famous “Mood” and “Music” tags at the close of posts. LiveJournal URLs are structured: www.livejournal.com/user/username

WordPress – http://wordpress.com: This free blog provider also has millions of users and features templates, archives, a search box, and image posting. WordPress allows you to categorize your blog entries and list links to subjects in a sidebar. URLs for WordPress blogs read: http://username.wordpress.com

With any blog provider, it will generally take you under an hour to set up and customize your blog. You don’t have to know HTML programming to set up and maintain a blog; it’s one of the easiest and fastest website formats available.

Promotion, BlogRolling and RSS Feeds

If you’re going to start a blog, you’ll want people to read it. Like website promotion, drawing attention to your blog takes time, effort and commitment. There are millions of blogs out there, and it’s rare for an Internet user to stumble across yours accidentally.

Getting “in” with the blogosphere

Bloggers are a community unto themselves. The best way to promote your blog, initially and over the long run, is to network with other bloggers. Look up blogs with topics similar to yours, read through them, and comment on some of the posts. It’s also helpful to link to other blogs from yours. Most bloggers keep track of who links to them, and will often post a reciprocal link to your blog from theirs without being asked.

The comments section on your own blog is also a good promotional tool. It’s a good idea to leave your comments section open and respond to some of the comments you receive. However, blogs fall prey to spammers who will throw up links to unrelated websites in any unprotected comment section. You can avoid blog spam by enabling word verification for comments. This requires people who leave comments to type in a series of characters in order to post, and keeps automatic software away from your blog. Word verification is a common blog safeguard, and will not deter readers from leaving comments.

It takes time and patience to build a blog readership. As long as you keep making interesting, frequent posts to your blog and continue to visit and comment on other blogs, you will see a steady increase in your number of readers.

Other ways to promote your blog

In addition to networking, BlogRolling and RSS feeds, there are a number of other ways to draw attention to your blog:

List your blog with search engines, in the same way you would a regular website
List your blog on directories, portals and search engines specifically devoted to blogs (see the Resources section of this book for a list of online blog directories)
Link to your blog from your main website and relevant article pages
Include a link to your blog in your e-mail signature and the resource block of your articles

Blogging can be an effective tool for promoting your website and boosting your article marketing campaign. Just remember that your blog needs proper care and feeding; neglect it, and it will wither and die.

Guest Blogging

Guest blogging is another common practice in the blogosphere. It’s just what the name suggests: you are a guest posting something to another person’s blog that would be of interest to their readers.

Even if you don’t have your own blog, you may still be able to participate in guest blogging. However, you should familiarize yourself with the blogs you intend to communicate with first and become active in their comments section. Few bloggers will agree to let a complete stranger write a guest blog entry.

Find your friends

Look for blogs that are similar to yours (or your website, if you don’t have a blog). When you read through the posts, find out whether they’ve had guest bloggers in the past. You may even find some blogs that are looking for guest bloggers.

Be sure the first time you contact a blog owner is not to request a guest blogging spot. Take the time to introduce yourself, compliment some of the posts, and let the blog owner get to know you and your website or blog. As mentioned before, blogs are one of the most personal forms of Internet communication around. Asking permission to guest blog without knowing the owner first is like showing up at a stranger’s door and asking to give a toast at their dinner table. Don’t get doors slammed in your virtual face!

Consider chatting

Many blogs host live chat sessions with guests on a regular basis. If you find one relating to your business that does so, follow the same procedure as you would for guest blogs: get to know the blog owner, exchange comments and links, and then volunteer for a chat session.

Live chats can be great opportunities to connect with potential visitors and customers. They are conducted informally, and attendance varies—some live chats have only a handful of participants, while others have hundreds. There are actually some benefits to smaller live chats. You will have a better chance to connect strongly with participants, and more time to answer questions with thought and detail.

Ezines, Newsletters and Directories

Other than posting articles to your website and blog, you must also make them available for free reprinting and distribution across the Internet. The more inbound links you have out there, the higher your search engine rank will be.

Ezines, newsletters and article directories offer you the best avenues for exposure. There are thousands of ezines and newsletters that need quality content for their subscribers, and thousands of webmasters who use article directories to get fresh, free content for their websites. You can also create and publish your own newsletter to keep your business fresh in the minds of your customers.

Yes, You Need a Newsletter

You can submit your articles to various newsletters, either directly or through an article directory service. However, you should also take the time to publish your own newsletter. Newsletters and ezines (two terms that are virtually interchangeable) are excellent promotional tools that keep your website on your customers’ radar.

It’s easy to forget websites with bookmarks or those listed in Favorites folders. With a newsletter or ezine, your visitors and customers receive updates and valuable information delivered to their inbox. Remember, visitors must see your business information three to seven times before they become paying customers. A regular newsletter is an effective method for achieving the visibility you need.

How to build a valuable newsletter that gets read

Like your articles, your newsletter should not seem like an advertisement for your business. A successful newsletter adds value to your website and offers subscribers something others can’t get—preferably several somethings. The more benefits you can offer subscribers, the more likely you will be to build and maintain a strong subscriber base.

The main purpose of your newsletter will be to showcase your articles. Remember all those articles you held back from posting on your website (you did hold some back, of course)? This is where you can put them to use. Allow your subscribers access to information that is not available on your website.

Here are some other benefits you can offer as incentives to join—and continue receiving—your newsletter:

A free e-book or special report comprised of old or unpublished articles
Product discounts or “buy one, get one free” offers
“Plug space”: Offer subscribers with related websites a brief mention and a link in an upcoming issue, in exchange for something else (subscriber referral or link space on their website, for example)
Special “sneak previews” of new products or developments on your website
Coupons or returning customer incentives

Your newsletter should also have a creative and memorable title. Keep it short and easy to remember, so your subscribers will be able to easily mention and recommend your newsletter to friends.

Formatting and delivering your newsletter

Successful newsletters can take a variety of formats. A good general format to use for a newsletter is:

Title and issue/volume number
General greeting and welcome to new subscribers
Table of contents (“In This Issue”)
Personal message and/or editorial from you, the newsletter publisher
Feature article
Special offers section
Links to other articles and resources
Conclusion and/or what’s coming in the next issue
Invitation and permission to forward the newsletter to friends
*Unsubscribe instructions

* All permission-based list e-mail, including newsletters, must include instructions on how to unsubscribe. Otherwise, it is considered spam.

There are many ways to physically put a newsletter together. You can type the text yourself in a word processing program and then copy and paste your newsletter into e-mails. You should also post back issues of your newsletter on your website and invite visitors to view them—which will encourage subscription requests.

If you type your newsletter manually and plan to deliver the issues via e-mail, you should be aware that different e-mail servers use different default view settings. Have you ever received an e-mail that appears choppy, with uneven line lengths, dangling words, and carat (>) symbols everywhere? This is a result of varying e-mail defaults.

To avoid having your newsletter electronically massacred, you have to keep your lines of text at even lengths that fall slightly below the maximum number of character spaces per line most e-mail programs allow. Generally, line defaults are 70 to 75 characters. To keep your newsletter properly formatted, use a fixed-width 10-point font such as Courier New (Arial and Times New Roman are variable width fonts and will result in uneven lines) and insert a hard return following every 60 to 65 characters.

You can insert a character guide at the top of your document to help you determine when to hit Enter. Here is an example of a 65-character guide:

---------1---------2---------3---------4---------5---------6-----

If you’re averse to formatting your newsletter by hand, you can get a desktop publishing program that will format your newsletter for you, and also allow simplified use of HTML text, images, borders and special fonts. Microsoft Publisher is an example of desktop publishing software that may have come bundled with your computer. There are also several free desktop publishing programs out there on the ‘net:

RagTime Solo: www.ragtime-online.com

Serif PagePlus: www.freeserifsoftware.com

OpenOffice.org: www.openoffice.org

Once you have the formatting figured out (or before), you should determine how often you want to publish your newsletter and what delivery method you’re going to use.

The frequency of your newsletter will likely depend on how much material is available on your subject and how often you anticipate being able to generate fresh content. Most newsletters are published either weekly or bi-weekly, and some run on a monthly or quarterly basis. A word of caution here: never plan to publish a newsletter more frequently than you can realistically handle. If you build a loyal subscriber base, and then fail to deliver on your promises, you will lose subscribers.

You generally have two choices for your newsletter’s delivery method. You can either send the entire newsletter directly in the body of an e-mail, or you can e-mail a link to a private page on your website. If possible, it is best to send the entire newsletter, as more people will be likely to read the whole thing. However, if you have a particularly long or complex newsletter, you can e-mail an abridged version with newsletter highlights and include a link to the complete publication.

For e-mailed newsletters, offer subscribers the choice between plain text and HTML-formatted mailings. Most mailing list programs will allow you to categorize subscribers for receiving different messages.

Getting newsletter subscribers

After your first issue is ready to run, it’s time to start soliciting subscribers.

The most obvious—and surprisingly overlooked—method for gaining newsletter subscribers is to place a subscription box on the front page of your website. Be sure to indicate that signing up for your newsletter is free, and that the e-mail addresses you collect will be used only to deliver your newsletter.

You should also create a “landing page” dedicated to your newsletter, with a subscription box, an extended description of what the newsletter is all about, a list of subscriber benefits, and links to your sample issue and/or archives. Treat your landing page as a separate website: submit the URL to search engines, and include a link to it in the resource box of selected articles.

Since your landing page is not an article, you can treat it more like an advertisement. Internet users expect to be “sold” when visiting a newsletter page, so feel free to tout the benefits of signing up for your newsletter here. Successful landing pages create a sense of urgency, and convey the idea that non-subscribers are missing out on great deals and information. Include opportunities to subscribe on this page several times—and don’t forget your disclaimer. There must be a way to unsubscribe visibly posted on your landing page, and a statement to the effect that collected e-mail addresses will not be sold, shared or exchanged with third parties.

In addition to traditional website promotion, there are two methods of spreading the word about your publication exclusively available to newsletters and ezines: announcement lists and newsletter directories.

Announcement lists are subscription-based e-mail lists sent out to subscribers who are interested in newsletters and ezines. In order to appear on an announcement list, you must first subscribe to the publication. It’s a good idea to set up a separate e-mail account with a free web provider, and subscribe to announcement lists using that separate address. Once you’re subscribed, you can submit a request for a one-time listing that will be included in the next issue of the announcement list’s mailing.

Newsletter directories are permanent web catalogues that list available e-publications, usually grouped into categories. When you submit a listing for inclusion in a newsletter directory, you will often be assigned a user name and password so you can make changes to your listing in the future. Again, it is advisable to use a separate e-mail account to sign up with newsletter directories (it can be the same as the one you use for the announcement lists).

Before you begin submitting to announcement lists and newsletter directories, you should have the following information prepared:

Your newsletter title
Your website URL
Your landing page URL
Subscription instructions (autoresponder e-mail address or URL containing your subscription box)
A brief, two- to three-sentence description of your newsletter
A longer, two- to three-paragraph description (not all lists and directories will require this information)
A list of targeted keywords and phrases pertaining to your newsletter
Unsubscribe instructions

You’ll find an extensive section of links to announcement lists and newsletter directories in the Resources section of this book.

Other People’s Newsletters: Getting Your Articles in Circulation

Reprinting your articles in other newsletters that pertain to your topic is another excellent facet of article marketing. Many newsletter publishers will find your articles themselves when you list them in article directories (a topic discussed further in this chapter). However, you should also get the ball rolling yourself by contacting newsletter publishers and offering your articles for reprinting.

Finding a match

The first step in this process is to locate newsletters that are related to your business. Newsletter directories are a great place to start. Since directories are usually arranged by category, you’ll find a slew of related newsletters with just a few clicks.

You can also use search engines to find relevant publications. Simply run a search for “newsletter” + “topic” or “ezine” + “topic” and you will likely generate thousands of results. Not all newsletters are listed in directories, and you may find some gems using this method.

Another way to find targeted newsletters is simply to ask other people. If you have business contacts in your field, e-mail them requesting recommendations for good, industry-related newsletters. If you have a blog, put out a request to your readers. Most people love to share information and opinions.

Introducing: You

Once you have a list of newsletters you’d like to target, you should subscribe to each of them—using the alternate address you’ve set up for your own newsletter submissions. You may want to hold off contacting the publishers until you’ve been subscribed for a few issues. This way, you can honestly tell them you enjoy their newsletter after you familiarize yourself with the formats and the type of information they offer.

The next step is to compose an e-mail introducing yourself as a newsletter subscriber. Try to mention something specific to the newsletter that you enjoy. Then, let the publisher know that you have several articles that may be of interest to subscribers and ask whether they would like to reprint one in a future issue. It’s a good idea to offer a choice of several articles.

When you contact newsletter publishers, you should never send a single e-mail to several addresses at once. No one enjoys receiving e-mails addressed to dozens of different people—and even if you use your e-mails blind-copy feature, you won’t be able to personalize a mass mailing. Also, unsolicited e-mails sent to multiple addresses tend to get lodged in spam filters, never to be read.

Remember that Internet marketing is based on trust and developed relationships. Sending blatant bulk e-mails is a fast way to break trust.

Article Directories

Article directories are vast repositories of free information. These sites allow busy webmasters to grab free content for their websites and newsletters. The catch is that they must include a resource block listing the article author’s bio and website links in order to post permission-free.

Here’s where all your hard work pays off.

It’s good to give things away

Why should you give your articles away for free? You’ve put hours of work into them, or paid for the rights with your hard-earned cash. Shouldn’t you make some money from your work or investment?

Actually, you will earn money—just not directly. When you allow other people to reprint your articles (including your resource box), you’ll have inbound links to your website spread across the Internet. This will boost your search engine rank and bring more traffic to your website.

The articles themselves will help you convert more visitors to sales. By establishing yourself as an expert through your informative (and free!) articles, you will earn that all-important trust Internet businesses need to flourish. The exposure you will gain by giving your articles away will more than justify the effort and the investment you put into them.

Articles submitted to article directories should be high quality, extremely informative material. The reasoning behind this requirement is simple: you’re competing with hundreds, or even thousands, of articles on similar topics. The higher the article quality, and the more information it contains, the more likely other webmasters and newsletter publishers will be to choose your articles over the competition.

A directory of article directories

Following are some of the many article directories you can submit your articles to for reprinting and distribution:

Article Beach – www.ArticleBeach.com

Go Articles – www.goarticles.com

Ezine Articles – www.ezinearticles.com

Marketing Seek – www.marketing-seek.com

Idea Marketers – www.ideamarketers.com

Article City – www.articlecity.com

Internet Home Business Articles – www.internethomebusinessarticles.com

Article Central – www.articlecentral.com

Certificate.net – www.certificate.net

Article Dashboard – http://articledashboard.com

Ebooks ‘n’ Bytes – www.ebooksnbytes.com

Article Emporium – www.article-emporium.com

Site Reference – www.site-reference.com

Article Directory – www.article-directory.net

Sticky Sauce – www.stickysauce.com

NOTE: Article directory sites often require specific formatting when submitting articles for inclusion. Be sure to visit each site’s submission guidelines and follow the formatting instructions, or your articles will not be listed.

Automate this submission process and save yourself hours of time every day with an Article Submitter software. You can find a great one at

www.jeremyburns.com/a/article-submitter

Where the Money Comes In

AdSense and Affiliate Programs

You can put your articles to work for you in more ways than one by using affiliate programs and Google AdSense advertising in conjunction with your article marketing efforts. These programs create additional streams of income for you while offering your website’s visitors more targeted resources and valuable information.