Article marketing – Get The Basics Right First

Hi there in a past post I covered the basics of using AIDA, (Attention, Interest, Desire and finally Action) possibly the most recognized method ever for creating great copy writing for content, ads, articles – you name it, it does the trick. After all being successful online is all about being able to successfully ‘market’ yourself and your products or services on the Internet to the right targeted visitor.

Sounds easy but its not, here’s what happened to me early on. When I first started out, I wrote some copy, read alright, put it up and thought naively as it transpired that I’d suddenly have loads of traffic – blimey, didn’t think that one though at all, then a friend said to me ‘you did do your keyword research?’.

Wow that was a light bulb moment – because no I hadn’t, I was pretty Internet ‘green’ back then, so yes I’d written a great article but because there were no keywords in it that people were actively searching for, it got buried on page 365,000 of search results – not my finest hour by any stretch.

Right so you can see why I’ve covered Keyword Research but also a couple of other key areas to help you in your article marketing activity, so read on ….

Researching your Subject Successfully

To be successful in article marketing your research is key, research your chosen niche , read a variety of articles online or in books and other literature, I always find magazines a great source of information and there’s bound to be some in your chosen niche (if not then you should be worried) then make sure you have done your keyword research as well, not like me who then felt a total idiot when the obvious was pointed out to me – stupid or what!

Building Trust Through Your Writing

Writing articles has many people stumbling and believing it’s not easy especially when you do not have a clue about the niche you are writing on. To make your article writing experience easier, it is better to start out in areas that you are comfortable with. These are likely to be topics you are already familiar with and in which you can have a steady flow almost like a conversation.

But here’s the real key ‘like a conversation’ get quickly to the point where you’re writing style and therefore the kind of articles you are writing are in a conversational and matter of fact manner- it will be like talking to your best friend, this is a really important part of creating content – articles, blogposts etc – if you always try & craft it as though you are having a conversation with a friend you’ll find it easier, your writing will be more believable and you’ll build trust faster.

Look at it this way-what do you know about me – you know I write my own copy, you know I’ve made stupid mistakes in the past, you know from my last post my Dad was a journalist, and I use both my wife Sam and my 17 year old daughter to critique my writing – hopefully I’ve connected with you through my writing, and thats what its all about!

Don’t Overlook Keywords Like I Did

Over and above the AIDA approach, article marketing requires the targeting of keywords as I’ve identified. Articles should be written around a certain set of keywords that best define the service, product or niche you are involved in. If you can properly target keywords within the title and body of your article, then you will be successful in your article marketing campaign as search engines would place you in a position where website visitors will have easy access to your site.

Not Familiar with Keyword research?

Sorry if this bit sounds a bit basic but hey we all have to start somewhere and there will be some reading this just starting out so bear with me because keywords are vital, so here goes …Keywords are the words website users are likely to type into search engine boxes when looking for a specific topic. To make the best out of your article marketing efforts you start with a keyword research. Keyword research means you trying to figure out the words with the highest number of searches within a given period say a month.

The reason for this is to estimate the amount of traffic that keyword or phrase generates monthly. A keyword with high traffic can mean more sales potential and vice versa. When the keyword you are interested in has a low search numbers it therefore follows it has lower competition levels (i.e. fewer competing websites), you have an even better chance to easily rank higher on search engines.

Don’t Overlook Other ‘Marketing’ Opportunities

There are other forms of website promotion such as pay-per-click (PPC), forum posts and blog commenting, but article marketing has proven to be highly effective when done properly. This is because an article that is rated “high quality” will be used over and over again in different websites on the Internet. All these link back to your website – how cool is that? Yep now possibly you can see why Sam & I bang on about the power of article marketing, now ‘heads up’ the links, traffic etc is not immediate but its sustainable and that for us is more important, so lets us know your thoughts on writing articles, until then.

Cheers

Tony

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