Writing articles is a great marketing strategy that improves traffic to websites. If you’re going to use articles to help your internet business succeed, or if you are a freelance writer writing articles for someone else to use, keep these tips in mind.
Write quality content. Slapping something together without paying attention to the quality of the content is a reader rip-off. If you are going to write, provide something of value for individuals who will read your work. Sloppy articles and poor writing skills or a boring text is just going to turn readers away.
Write for people, not search engines. While sprinkling keywords to attract search engine attention to your articles is good, remember that you are writing for people. Dousing your article with keywords and overdoing optimization may attract search engines, but readers won’t have an impression of professionalism and credibility, and they will shop elsewhere. Heavy keywording is considered a bad strategy and isn’t ethical.
Write about something hot. You may be an expert on doorknobs, but if the craze these days is about exterior design, rethink your focus. Write articles that jump on the trend bandwagon and use a twist to incorporate your product or service to attract clients.
Write something fresh. You have competitors in the virtual world and most likely, they have already put out plenty of content or articles on the same things you would normally think of. Be different and original. Find a great twist on something old and write an article that stands out from the pack.
Write professionally. Always make sure your articles are edited. Clean up typos and spelling mistakes, check your grammar and sentence structure, and remove awkward or confusing phrasing. The more writing skills you use, the more your articles will have a professional image that gives an impression of expertise. If people think you’re the expert, they will go to you for their business.
Write something fresh, yes that is truly the main key to marketing with articles.
If I had the choice between an article that’s simply been reworded or rehashed, and one that is unique, original, and fresh, which do you think I, as the publisher, would pick?
If you’ve answered “fresh” then you are so right! I own a paying publication. I sometimes use “free content”. I even have a “link swap page” for free content submissions. But I rarely use what I receive because it’s always rehashed information–information a really quick search on the Internet can find.
If you want your articles to appear on top quality websites with lots of traffic, write something fresh, and full of great advice. Find a new angle. Find a new expert to quote. Find a new statistic. Be original.
And if you want more info on writing for marketing, read my article: http://www.thedabblingmum.com/books/marketing_acampaign.htm
There is some good advice there. Also, I would say always have a ‘call to action’. An article should always lead the reader to click on the authors link. This is a way of converting readers into potential buyers. Like anything, it’s a process. First grab their attention with the title, then relay the problem, then offer a partial solutions, and lead them onto the real content on your website via he resource box.
Article marketing can definately work but it just takes consistancy.