Article Marketing: Your First Source Of Free Traffic And Leads
If I could recommend starting out with anything, it would have to be article marketing. This is one of my favorite techniques that I use every week and it works real well. For those of you that are not writers it should not be a concern. First of all, I really sucked at writing when I first started I didn’t know how I would pull it off. I am now banging out 600-700 word articles in fifteen minutes. It gets a lot easier when you do it all the time, and if you are totally not confident in doing it you also have the option of outsourcing the work cheaply.
What Is Article Marketing?
Article marketing is simply writing articles on something you have knowledge on and submitting it to article directories online. At the end of your articles, you are allowed to place a author bio or resource box which can include a link back to your website. What happens is people search for keywords and these articles get picked up by search engines. The person reads your article and if they find it interesting or want more information, they are presented by a call to action in your author bio box which will hopefully have the answer to their problem. They then find themselves on your website and either sign up for your mailing list or leave. It’s that simple.
What Can We Write Articles On?
Our main focus is to attract the attention of people that would be interested in joining GDI. To do this we are going to write and submit articles on subjects based around these areas:
1. Internet Marketing: Their are hundreds of sub-topics in Internet marketing.
2. Multi Level Marketing or MLM also known as network marketing: Lead generation, prospecting, downline building
3. Web Hosting: Shared hosting, free hosting, hosting companies
4. Domain Names: Articles about the domain industry, buying and selling domains
5. Review Articles: These are the best articles to write. Try coming up with a article reviewing GDI or Residual Wealth Factor. You can also write articles comparing two companies or products.
Tip: Try and come up with articles like: How to….., Tips on….., Frequently Asked Questions, Secrets of…., etc.
The goal is to provide the reader with useful information. What will begin to happen is as you do this more and more, your name will be associated with being an authority in your field. People will then begin to trust you and everything you say. They will be more open to checking out your business opportunity and buying what you recommend.
How To Write Articles
All articles follow a basic style format and are usually between 450-500 words.
Title: The title of your article that will grab the readers attention. Be sure to include a keyword.
Introduction: Your first words which will tell the readers what you are writing about and what they will learn.
Paragraph 1: Each paragraph will be devoted to one point.
Paragraph 2: Second point
Paragraph 3: Third point
Conclusion: Sum up everything you have talked about and tell the reader your final thoughts and advice.
About The Author: Include a “call to action” telling the reader to visit your website for more information. Always try to offer something of value like a free report or newsletter. In our case we would be telling people to sign up for the free 7 day Residual Wealth Factor e-course or trying out GDI risk free for one week.
Article Marketing Research
Finding topics to write articles on is easy. First we are going to do keyword research. We will use the free keyword tool from SEO Book. Go here: http://tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/seobook/index.php
Type in a search term like MLM or Internet marketing and look at the results. This is how many times people are searching for various keywords. We are going to use these keywords in the title of our articles and also in the body of the articles. This is what will get picked up in the search engines.
Next go to Google and type in the keyword you want to write about. Look at the results and search through them to find content that you can put into your own words. Try and find 3-4 points and these will be your paragraphs. All you have to do is add a title, introduction, and conclusion and you have your article.
You can also look at other people’s articles and use them as inspiration to rewrite your own. Another option which we will get into later is private label right articles, public domain works and hiring a freelance writer.
Writing Your Author Resource Box
This is the most important part of your article. It is what will get readers to click through to your website and sign up for the mailing list. Always include a call to action and offer more information or freebies. Here is an example of a good resource box:
Sign up for the “Residual Wealth Factor” 7 day e-course and get net marketing secrets delivered to your inbox absolutely free at ==> http://www.MoneyFlowForLife.com
or
Get your own .ws domain name with web hosting and website builder software. Sign up with GDI for a 7 day free trail at: Global Domains International
If you want to make a word clickable or a text link, you have to insert a simple HTML code between words:
Get your own .ws domain name with web hosting and website builder software. Sign up with GDI for a 7 day free trail at: <a href=”http://www.yourwebsitenamehere.com”>Your Keyword Here</a>
You would replace where it says www.yourwebsitenamehere.com with your website and whatever you put into the middle where it says “Your Keyword Here” will make that word a text link.
Look at other people’s resource boxes and get an idea of how to come up with your own.
Where Do I Submit Articles?
Here is a list of the top article directories you can sign up free with and submit to
1. Ezine Articles: <== This one rules! A must!
2. Search Warp
3. Go Articles
4. ClickZ
5. Buzzle
6. Article Dashboard
7. Isnare
8. Amazines
9. Article Alley
10. Article City
11. Idea Marketers
12. Site Reference
13. Article Sphere
14. Articles Factory
15. Content Desk
16. Article 99
17. A1 Articles
18. Articles Depot
19. Marketing Seek
There are thousands of article directories, but these ones get the most traffic and are the most popular.
If you want mass distribution, you can try a service like Article Marketer
You can sign up free and get limited distribution of your articles or pay for mass distribution.
That’s about it for the introduction to article marketing. We will get into more advanced methods as we go on.
Stay tuned for my own article directory which I am in the process of putting together. I am going to be placing our team rotator link on it for even more traffic!
