Article Marketing Works

One of the most effective ways to disperse content on the web is through article marketing. You’re an expert in your field and you want to share your knowledge with the world. But the idea of writing loads of content each week totally stresses you out.

Hiring a freelance writer is an option. However, with writers you get what you pay for. So if you want top-notch content, you are going to pay a pretty penny for it.

Another option is PLR, or private label rights. This is content that you buy and reproduce as your own. This can be a good return on your investment, but you never know what you are going to get until you actually pay for it.

As a web content developer, I know all too well the importance publishing quality content that drives traffic to your site. So, I’ve come up with a foolproof plan to get your name on the web and visitors flocking to your site in no time.

Soon you will go from publishing a handful of articles each month to pumping out hundreds of incredible articles a year on the web.

Keyword phrases

Before you set off to write great content, you need to know what you are writing about. It’s important to research keyword phrases to find out what people look for when searching for your products or services.

Check out your competitors and see what they use. Think about the content you already have and comb through to find the most relevant terms. Once you have a good list (close to 100 or more), then start to narrow it down to your top 20.

After you find your top 20 keyword phrases, check them out on Google keywords tool to see how they rank. Once you find the best of the bunch, it’s time to build content around those keyword phrases.

Your anchor site

The main site that you plan to drive traffic to should have the most up-to-date and well-written content. That’s not to say that the rest of your writing can be garbage. You want quality over quantity all the time.

But if you are driving traffic to these pages, you want the most juicy and irresistible writing possible. So, the first step is to write articles for your main site. Develop your initial content for your main site and have a place where you host articles.

You can have a static page as the home page, but always have a content-rich site that is constantly updated. Try to publish at least 2 articles a week on your main site. Generate ideas from social media sites, emails, conversations you have with colleagues and clients, and anything else interesting that comes up in your industry.

It’s a good idea to keep a journal of great topics for articles in your niche. Once you get a good list going, you will be amazed at easy it is to produce amazing content in no time flat.

Publish on Ezine

The next step after you build rich content for your site is to start expanding. The first place you want to publish articles on the web is Ezine Articles. Take the articles that you publish on your main site and rewrite them for Ezine.

It’s important that the rewrites are 100% unique. Do not spin these articles. Ezine Articles is very strict when it comes to original content. Get flagged once for plagiarism and you can kiss Ezine Articles good-bye for good.

When you first start publishing on Ezine Articles it takes up to a week to get your articles approved. This will happen for your initial 10 articles. Once those are approved for the web, the process takes a lot less time.

Rewrite the article again

This may feel redundant, but it’s worth the effort. After you publish on Ezine Articles, it’s time to rewrite the article again. Add a little different flavor to it, change up the tone a bit, and you are good to go.

Once you get your 2nd rewrite, it’s time to submit it to other article directories. Most article directories aren’t as strict as Ezine Articles, so you can submit the same article to several different ones all at once.

Here is a list of my favorite ones:

Article Directories:

No Follow (cannot back link)
Buzzle.com
Articlebase.com
Articlefactory.com

Do Follow (can back link)
GoArticles.com
Articledashboard.com

Helium.com
Articlecity.com

Social Media

Once you start publishing content online, it’s time to spread the word through social media and bookmarking sites. Open accounts for your business with Twitter, Facebook, Digg, StumbleUpon, and other bookmarking sites.

Spread the message, but do in an engaging manner. In other words, don’t just post links to your content and expect a mass following. Ask questions, post polls, and build a community that invites participation.

Deciding to republish your first article You never want to republish the original content on your site, but once your Ezine article is approved, you can republish it on the other sites listed above. This is totally to your discretion.

Some Internet marketers feel it’s in the grey area, while others think it’s completely okay. It all depends on how much duplicate content you want on the web. Regardless what you choose, you’ve just turned a single original idea into a ton of online content.

Final thoughts

It’s easy to get caught up in the fear of becoming a slave to your content. But if you want to become an expert in your field, one of the best things you can do is turn your ideas into dozens of useful articles to publish on the web. Follow these steps and you will have hundreds of articles on the web within 12 months.

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Kellie Davis holds a B.A. in English and owns Mindful Media, a freelance web content development business. She also assists with project development at Inquire Within Media, and is the head writer and marketing coordinator for Ignite Naturals. In her free time, Davis heads MotherFitness.com, a fitness blog for women, and contributes to other online sites devoted to health and fitness.

*Photo By hawkexpress

Small business marketing online can be very powerful when you blend traditional advertising, direct response and public relations.

Most people talk about social media and social networking in terms of community, conversation and relationships. But there is a place for social media in direct marketing.

Let’s first look at the three big communication “channels” used to market.

Traditional broadcast style marketing

These includes radio, TV, newspapers, billboards and magazines. As a small business you should probably shy away from these, unless you have a large amount of money to invest. They are much better suited to big brands like Coke, Nike, Burger King and Geico.

Direct response marketing

Advertising legend David Ogilvy considered direct response marketing his secret weapon. People like Dan Kennedy, Eben Pagan and Tony Robbins have used it to make millions.

The tools of direct response include post cards, sales letters, emails and infomercials. The biggest hurdle business owners have is the perception of cheesiness when using these methods.

The more direct and specific you make your call to action, the more potential you have of making the sale. But many people object to “stooping low” to produce an infomercial or write a simple sales letter.

Public Relations

Instead of paying for ads on TV or mailing postcards to potential buyers, smart marketing professionals use newsworthy stories to attract the attention of the news media. This type of coverage can have a huge impact on getting the word out.

Tools include TV interviews, news coverage and articles written about your business in the newspaper.

Inbound Marketing – best of three worlds

What if you were able to combine the storytelling aspects of public relations with the direct call to action of direct response? And what if  you could package it all with the same look and pizazz of a TV commercial or radio spot?

Then you would be using what I consider the most powerful new form of marketing…. inbound marketing. And thanks to the internet, inbound marketing has made a fortune for it’s practitioners.

By combining the best of the three marketing methods above you are able to:

• Catch people when they are at the end of the buying cycle
• Dominate a niche topic for maximum profits
• Become branded as an expert
• Have the time to educate people (online has no 30 second or one newspaper page limit)
• Build a tribe around your products and services

How to make your plan

Think like a journalist/marketer. Combine your editorial styled public relations with a direct response call to action. You can write “how to” blog posts for example.

This post is a an example of this. I’m writing a “how to” article, but I also invite you to learn more by downloading a free report.

I’ve blended editorial with call to action.

To take this one step further, you can sprinkle in video and audio to simulate traditional broadcast television and radio.

But unlike traditional broadcast mediums, here you have unlimited time to talk about your product. So you don’t have to be salesy and try to pack your message into 30 or 60 seconds. You can spend time teaching instead of selling.

Today’s Action Step

Leave a note in the comments below and let me know three ways you feel that you can blend editorial with call to action online.

For example, you could take a press release (already created) and turn it into a blog post. But rewrite just enough that there is a clear call to action in the post.

Now go take action.

This article is part of the Internet Marketing Basics series where we cover the fundamentals of internet marketing and social media.

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Joel Mark Witt is the Publisher of Folk Media. He is a producer, author, speaker and social media marketing coach who consults with businesses and nonprofits on how to use social media in marketing and communications. Get more from Joel on Twitter or Google Buzz.

*Photo by chrismar

Inbound marketing can make a big difference in your business and sales. It’s the difference between having to pick up the phone and make sales calls and having your prospects and customers CALL YOU.

The goal when marketing your business is not to get your business name “out there,” it’s to get your customer’s name “in here.” This is called inbound marketing.

Inbound marketing vs. outbound marketing

Traditional marketing is sometimes referred to as “interruption marketing.” You literally interrupt people with your message.

Imagine this scenario…

You’re at a cookout talking with some friends, flipping burgers and chatting away. A new neighbor comes up to you and starts pitching you on a spatula his business sells. He demonstrates how superior his product when grilling burgers. And it’s true.

But he just jumps right into the middle of the conversation and begins to INTERRUPT you with his message.

You’re peeved right? How dare he start in like that.

Now consider this scenario…

You’re tasked with grilling for your cookout. You head to the local grocery store looking for charcoal, matches and hamburgers. On your way down the charcoal isle you strike up a conversation with the exact same neighbor. He finds out that you are grilling today and recommends his spatula. You get excited at all the benefits and order one from his website later that night.

The first scenario is an example of interruption marketing. You already know this style very well. Every TV show, radio channel and freeway billboard uses this method of advertising. They literally interrupt to force feed you advertisements.

Inbound marketing turns traditional interruption advertising on it’s head

In the new economy, smart marketers and small business owners need to find better ways to reach people. Inbound marketing offers an excellent solution. Interruption marketing is like hunting, while inbound marketing is more like fishing.

“Fishing” with a wide content net

If we continue with the fishing metaphor, you need to find a “hook” to get your audience to bite. We saw the hook approach in the second scenario above. You were already buying related products for grilling and along came your neighbor with some INFORMATION that showed you a better way to cook burgers. You got excited and ordered the product that night.

But to push the metaphor even further, he was only using a hook. It was a on-to-one marketing process and would not scale well for your business. Instead we should really be fishing with a large net. We will snag more prospects this way.

What is the marketing equivalent of a large net?

Online content.

Inbound marketing relies on an Internet content net to draw in prospects and customers. Content is what makes the Internet tick. The major online sites like Facebook, Twitter and Google use content to fuel their sites.

We also see the need for content on portable devices. With the recent uptick in sales of the iPhone and iPad – there is a vacuum for mass amounts of quality video, audio, text and photos to share on these devices.

As a small business owner, you already have the tools to reach people who are already actively searching for content online. For the cost of a laptop you can begin creating a publishing operation for your small business that rivals your local newspaper.

How to use inbound marketing to get customers to call you

First, start publishing now. Become a consistent publishing source of value and information. There are thousands of opportunities for you to add value to your prospects via video, audio or text. Start using the tools available and start now.

Second, give away massive value. Look for ways to improve the lives of your prospects and customers. Use your publishing platform to INVEST in them. This is critical to attracting prospects to your business.

Finally, speak to people’s emotions. Don’t think, write or act logically. Instead focus on the emotions of your prospects. It’s important to stir up their emotional brain and get them excited about doing business with you.

Think about how powerful inbound marketing can be

What if you could turn your marketing on it’s head and get customers and prospects to call you? How would that impact your bottom line? Would you sleep better at night?

That’s exactly what you can do when you start using inbound marketing. You cast a wide content net and begin attracting customers without picking up the phone to make a sales call.

Today’s Action Step

Set up a blog for your business. You need a place to publish … a home base. Your blog is the first step to turning your business into a publishing force. I recommend you use Wordpress as a platform. Stay tuned for more…

Now go take action.

This article is part of the Internet Marketing Basics series where we cover the fundamentals of internet marketing and social media.

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Joel Mark Witt is the Publisher of Folk Media and author of 21 Days To Twitter Leadership. He is a producer, author, speaker and social media marketing coach who consults with businesses and nonprofits on how to use social media in marketing and communications. Get more from Joel on Twitter or Google Buzz.

I’ve written before about the idea of creating massively valuable content for your website. It goes without saying that you need some specific tips on developing content. Here are five basics to content creation.

1) Keep it simple

Simplicity is bliss. Make your content simple to produce and simple to consume. We use Keynote and Screenflow on a Macbook Pro to produce simple training videos. Blogs are a great way to create and release simple content. We’ve used WooTheme blog designs and Thesis Themed blogs to make great looking websites on Wordpress.

2) Make it actionable

Unless you are writing fiction or creating TV shows – your goal is to be more than just entertaining. You need to educate.  Beyond education is action. Get your audience to take ACTION. Without action from your readers/listeners/viewers you won’t have any impact on their lives.

Make your content actionable. Create “how-to” and helpful resources that can make a difference in the lives of your prospects.

3) Make it fun

Don’t forget to make your content fun. We love to learn and watch things that are fun. Think about unique ways to present your content. Is there a persona you can adopt that will entertain? For a great example of making content fun watch an episode of Mad Money with Jim Cramer on CNBC and you’ll get an idea of what I mean.

4) Keep it short

Online, two minutes of video is a long time. Five minutes is an eternity. Keep your content bite sized.

5) Make it valuable

Your content should be valued by your audience. Create valuable content and your readers and viewers will keep coming back for more. Plus they will share it with their friends.

Remember, content is the currency of the internet. Keep it simple, actionable, short, fun and valuable.

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Joel Mark Witt is the Publisher of Folk Media and author of 21 Days To Twitter Leadership. He is a producer, author, and speaker who consults with businesses and nonprofits on how to use social media in marketing and communications. Get more from Joel on Twitter or Google Buzz.