03 Nov 09 Building A Rock Solid Query Letter

Recently I reviewed a client’s query letter. It was a hard working query letter, detailing the marketing prospects for the book, her own glowing credentials and the contacts she possessed that would help her publicize the book. But she left out one teeny weeny thing: she didn’t say what her book was about! I used to think query letters were relatively easy, but now I realize that a query has to do so many things that it’s easy to forget essential elements. Since the letter is your first step in putting your book’s best foot forward, you don’t want that to happen. So here’s a simple rundown on what goes into a solid query letter.

Who Are You?
It’s tempting to start the letter by leaping into a breathless description of what you’re sure is going to be the best book in the world, but resist a little longer. You want to use your first paragraph to introduce yourself and let the agent know why he or she should pay attention to you. Tell the agent who you are. Describe your qualifications, including a bit about your current activities which will in turn describe your platform. Have you been doing speaking engagements? Do you appear on television? Are you noted in your profession? Have you won any awards? Do people look to you as an expert in your subject? Do you teach? For instance, if you are a workshop or seminar leader in real estate finance, frequently travel across the country, and have 5,000 people attending your workshops every month, you can tell the agent:”Now I’ve decided to give away all of my secrets in a book about real estate financing with no money down.” Anything that puts you in front of people is a potential place to sell your book so don’t forget to mention such activities.

What’s Your Book About?
In the next two or three paragraphs of the letter you get to talk about your wonderful book idea and/or story. As a guideline, it may help you to read the backs of book covers. You’ll want to do something similar–a brief synopsis of your book with enough spark it will intrigue the agent or any other potential reader, to pick up your book. Use bullet points to highlight what amazing tidbits the reader will get out of the book. Will they get five strategies on how to eat without gaining weight? Or 4 low cost resources for financing a large home improvement project? Or the 6 surefire signs you’ve found your life purpose? Make this description tight, concise and, of course, hugely interesting. Then you can move on to…

Your Great Marketing Plan–With You As the Star
The query letter should include a brief paragraph or two about how you’re going to market the book. Of course, if you go with a traditional publisher you’ll get major help in this area from the publishing house. But remember this: no one will be a better advocate for your book than you. And when editors are considering manuscripts they’re also considering what kind of a marketing presence they’ll be getting with the author. You’ll make their job easier–and your book much more successful–if you can bring your own marketing plan to the table to work hand in hand with the publisher’s. Do you have contacts in the media willing to help? Are you good at getting quoted in newspapers and magazines? Do you publish freelance articles that can mention your upcoming book? Put a lot of thought into this. Too many writers go into the publishing process expecting everything to be done for them and then are disappointed. Having a good marketing plan would show a potential agent that you’re serious and you understand the business.

The Next Step
You’ve mentioned your credentials, described your book and your stellar marketing plan. Ideally, at this point, you have the agent intrigued. You want him or her to say, “Great! What does this person have to offer?” This is where your letter would say something like, “I would love for you to see more and I have a proposal” or “I have 50 pages of a manuscript.” Whatever you want the agent to see next, offer it up and ask, “May I send this to you?” Asking permission is always a classy thing to do, it shows you’re not being presumptuous. Then you move into a closing that let’s the agent know you’ll follow up in a certain amount of time either via phone or email (they might prefer email).

When you’re done, read your query letter over many times. Have another trusted set of eyes read it for you. It’s easy to overlook important points, or to think you’ve covered something when you really haven’t. When you can polish no longer, send it out–many times! And congratulations. You’ve just made the first step in getting yourself and your book out there. I wish you a successful journey.

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03 Nov 09 Article Writing – How To Make Fast Quality Articles

Writing down your thoughts is an easy task but making them appealing to the readers is difficult. When you write an article, you sit on chair of an expert. People read your thoughts as if you have a thorough knowledge of the topic you are dealing within your article. So writing an article puts whole lot of responsibility on your shoulders, the responsibility of being true and genuine. If you want to have panache in your writing, there are certain points that you should keep in mind. These are certain basics of article writing.

In this day and age, competition is fierce when it comes to article writing on the Net. One of the most important elements of successful article writing today is to be able to produce high quality articles fast. There is a method that you can use in order to write an article fast.

The ultimate key to writing an article fast is to understand your topic. There is an old mantra in writing that you should only write of those things of which you have actual knowledge. Start writing about something you are familiar with. After that before you begin writing any article, you need to make sure that you educate yourself on the subject.

In addition, when it comes to the easiest way to write an article fast you need to understand that fast article writing takes practice. Therefore, you need to “workout,” you need to write regularly. Many professional writers recommend that you write each and every day. You need to schedule a regular time to write … even if you do not have an active project in production. By following this course, you will become a better and faster writer in no time.

The basic of article writing is that the articles you write should be well organized. This means that the article should have an introduction to the topic, which introduces the readers to the topic followed by paragraphs that deal with the topic, and a conclusion to the topic. Using the above format gives the readers a chance to understand your article better and you will be able to convey your message properly to the readers.

Finally, when it comes to the easiest way to write an article fast, remember the principle of keeping it simple. You do not have to write a complicated article. People like to read articles that are easy to understand. Therefore, you do not need to litter your writing with unnecessary fancy words. Keep it simple and you will keep it easy.

Tags: Article Marketing, article writing, ecommerce, Internet Marketing, Marketing
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03 Nov 09 Can’t Write Articles For Links? Write Code!

If you’ve subscribed to an seo newsletter for longer than a week, you’re well aware that writing articles with tips and advice pertaining to your website’s subject is a great way to generate links and traffic. But what if you can’t write or are afraid to write? Well, if you can write software, you’re still in luck! In this article I’ll show you a trick that can still garner you hundreds of links and won’t require you know the difference between adjectives and adverbs.

I’ll use my own little website as an example (I freely admit that I am neither a web designer nor a programmer). My wife and I own By Request DJ & Karaoke Company. Obviously, we specialize in weddings dances, school dances, company parties, and karaoke. We recently went through the process of converting all our CDs to compressed digital audio files which are played from a computer rather than hauling around thousands of CDs. In the process of ripping and encoding our music, I found many tasks were very repetitive and time consuming. Since I know a smattering of Visual Basic, it was simple to write a utility to automate these tasks. I figured that if it was helpful to me, some other DJ might find it helpful to, so I called my utility MP3G to ZIP and made it available for download from my website. I also decided to submit it to a few freeware sites just so it was easier to find.

What happened amazed me. Many of the links to my website from these freeware directories began showing up in Google. Given the name of my company and the descriptions of my freeware apps, this helped boost my site for some very competitive keywords. I decided to submit my software to a few more directories, and that’s when I found two very handy tools: PAD files and RoboSoft.

A PAD file is a “Portable Application Description, and it helps authors provide product descriptions and specifications to online sources in a standard way, using a standard data format that will allow webmasters and program librarians to automate program listings.” It takes the tedium out of submitting your software to hundreds of sites by enabling you to enter the URL to your software information rather than retyping all the information for every submission. It was created by the Association of Shareware Professionals (http://www.asp-shareware.org/pad) and is a free utility.

RoboSoft (http://rudenko.com/robosoft) is a semi-automated software submission utility that contains a list of known freeware and shareware directories that accept submissions. It is only semi-autonomous because it won’t push the buttons for you, but it will fill in the blanks. This still allows you to quickly enter your software’s information to hundreds of websites. Websites who will all link back to your website and most often don’t require a reciprocal link. The RoboSoft database currently lists 420 freeware and shareware directories.

In the two months I have been using these tools I have seen my traffic jump from 800 unique visits per month to over 5000, and the link popularity of the page that has my two freeware apps has gone from 7 to 639 according to widexl.com. While these are small numbers for someone like cnn.com, sprint.com, or even napster.com, they are huge for a small site like mine. Plus, they are beginning to get me links from my fellow DJs who have used and appreciated my tools. I’m certain that they will eventually lead to good things.

So, while it isn’t a tactic that will make you number for “best website”, it will get you a few more links. And it won’t require you to submit any articles with tips about marketing your website.

Tags: Article Marketing, ecommerce, Internet Marketing, make money, Marketing
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02 Nov 09 Effective Article Writing And Marketing

Article Writing is becoming increasingly valued by Search Engine Optimisers who recognise the benefits that it brings- it is one of the best ways to increase traffic, search engine attention and returning visitors. When your article is published on a website, a link back to your website can be included. This link is valued highly by search engines- it is a one-way link, it is one of the few links on a page and the page has unique content on it. Because of this, many people have found that by regularly publishing articles (once a week, once a fortnight) their page rank has jumped up. This increases your search engine rank, which naturally increases your visit. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that more visitors equals more revenue!

This greatly benefits the author, but many people don’t realise that it also is very beneficial to publishers too. Search engines like sites that are constantly updated, as it shows that the website is active and widely used, and also like sites with content as it shows they are a valuable website, and not a link farm. Similarly to the benefits authors experience, publishers find their website increases in search engine rank, and so traffic and profits. It also has the added bonus to providing something new to users, who will regularly return to your site.

However, they are a few vital rules that authors should follow to make their article widely used. A badly written, unpunctuated article is not going to be looked twice at by any good webmaster.

Perhaps the most important rule in article writing is to properly punctuate your article, and to check it for spelling and grammatical mistakes. This will make it more enjoyable for readers to read, (and so it will be used more), and will make you, and your website, more professional.

Content is obviously the most important thing in any article. So, quite obviously, you have to know what you are talking about, otherwise no one will take you or your article seriously. Remember, your article will top up what people know, not introduce them to the subject. It is therefore helpful to specialise in a couple of subjects, or in a broad area. However, remember not to assume your audience are stupid, or be bigheaded.

Your article should be helpful to webmasters. To be this, give examples of what you are explaining. It makes complicated things easier to understand, splits up an article to make it readable, and can give the reader ideas on how to achieve what you have just explained. Similarly, give links to sites which may help your readers achieve what you have just explained. It makes it easier for them.

The last thing you should think about is the tone your article is written in. It is much easier and pleasanter for the reader if your tone is a friendly one. Also, remember to use words that are easy to read- for example, instead of ‘Furthermore, it has been discovered that by authoring articles writer’s have been advantaged due to their website being recipient to escalated search engine attention’ simply say what you mean- ‘By writing articles you will receive more search engine traffic’ (OK, so maybe it won’t be that extreme!).

The most important thing in your article from your point of view is what you put in the ‘About the Author’ box. This is your chance to shine, and is what you have written the article for. Whatever you write you will still receive the search engine benefits, however you will not receive the extra traffic from readers if you do not write it correctly. It should be formal but friendly, short, and sweet- it will only be glanced at so it has to grab the readers’ attention in a short amount of time. It should follow the structure of ‘A bit about the author, then tell the audience what you want them to do’. You should promote your website, but not advertise it too much.

For example, a bad information box would be ‘Visit the great website of the king of search engine optimisers, who will regularly update you with fantastic tips and priceless advice three times a week. He is a leader in his field and has had many years of experience with thousands of satisfied customers who describe him as the Internet equivalent to Jesus!’. Instead, write ‘Joe Bloggs has had many years experience in SEO, and is well known for his useful advice. Visit his website today to get great SEO tips three times a week’ (Again, this is exaggerated but you get the idea!).

The final part to writing an article is marketing it. This is relatively easy to do- submit to some article directories, and include it in your newsletter (or ask another website to include it in theirs). Some websites to help you submit it are:

www.articlewow.com, www.articledepot.co.uk, www.article99.com.

Follow these tips and you will get a great traffic boost. Write some articles, and then write one on your tips that you have discovered from your own experience!

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02 Nov 09 How To Guarantee Your Article Gets Published

There are literally thousands of article submission sites on the net today. Merely submitting your article to article directories does not guarantee that it will be accepted. Many article sites have publishing guidelines that are fairly general in nature. Most of the larger, more popular sites, are strict about what gets published and what gets rejected.

If you want ensure that more of your articles are accepted by online directories you need to make sure your article meets the publisher’s guidelines. As a owner and publisher of online article sites for many years, I am amazed at how many authors don’t take the time to read through submission guidelines.

Many sites will accept any article submitted, especially if it is a new article directory, as a means to build up their article count. However, sites that are more established with high Alexa and Google rankings, tend to be more selective in what is posted in their directory.

The most common mistakes authors make in submitting their articles include:

1. Not following the formatting requirements.
Word wrap and HTML formatting preserve the page layout of the web site. Articles submitted with word wrapping on is one of my biggest reasons for rejecting articles. Forced breaks at 60 characters may be acceptable for sites that primarily feed ezines, but it is not very appealing on a web page. Posting HTML articles on sites that accept only text articles is also quite frustrating for an editor to remove.

2. Microsoft formatting.
Copying and pasting from a Microsoft Word document does horrible things to a page design and layout. Quite often this type of formatting can appear within the text of the article and can also reek havoc on online forms.

3. Affiliate links and ads.
Many article sites do not accept articles with affiliate links in them. This is normally allowed in the author’s resource box but many authors insist on adding their affiliate links in the body of the article or the article sounds more like a sales pitch. This type of article is often rejected. Be sure to make your article informative to the reader.

4. Improper category selection.
While most editors will simply take a second or two to place an article in the proper category, editors are finding this too time consuming and will often just delete the article. Sites that receive 50 or more articles each day normally do not have the time to edit each article and select an appropriate category. Be sure to select the most relevant category for your article at the time of submission.

5. Email links in articles or resource boxes.
Although many editors are not concerned with email addresses in articles or in a resource box, authors should be aware of the problems that can arise from using them. Article directories are constantly being scanned by not only search engines but by mail harvester bots as well. Listing your email address in any online web page opens the author up to receive an enormous amount of spam and is generally not a good idea. Email addresses also change from time to time, leaving you with possibly thousands of articles on the web with an email address that no longer works.

6. Author names not capitalized.
While many authors are rushing to submit articles to hundreds of sites as quickly as possible, many don’t take the time to capitalize their first and last name in the author profile area. It seems to me that if Susan Smith enters her name as susan smith, it somehow makes her seem like she is minimizing herself as a person. Be proud of who you are and tell the world you are Susan Smith!

7. Punctuation and spelling errors.
Editors don’t have the time to check each article for spelling errors or punctuation. If you want to ensure that your article is picked up from these article directories and used on web sites, you will want to make sure that you have thoroughly checked your article for errors. Ezine and newsletter editors often acquire material for their publications from these article directories. If your article is not well written or contains a lot of errors, your article is most likely not going to be used for any purpose other than to provide you with a free link to your web site from the article directory.

8. Word count is low.
Not all directories put word count restrictions on articles. Personally, any article that is less than 400 word is merely written in order to get a link back to the author’s web site. Articles that range between 600-800 words are usually better written and actually contain some value for the reader. Make sure your article meets the article count guidelines to help increase acceptance rates.

Each article directory has different requirements for article submissions. If you want to increase the exposure you receive for your articles, make sure that you familiarize yourself with the requirements for each site that you submit articles to. By following the author guidelines, you not only increase your chances of having your article accepted, you also establish yourself as a credible writer and increase your web site traffic as well.

Tags: Article Marketing, ecommerce, Internet Marketing, make money, Marketing
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02 Nov 09 How To Find Ideas For Articles & Speeches

Do you have problems finding ideas for articles and speeches?

I know have had at times, and others tell me the same thing. At my Toastmasters club, for example, I’ve often heard members say they have difficulty finding topics for speeches.

But, I’ve learned, like others who write and speak a lot, to start with what I know. To use my own experiences or perspectives to make even a simple subject uniquely my own. And you can do the same. Indeed, what seems mundane to you may fascinate someone else. Suppose, for example, you work in a fast food restaurant — tell me about the best and worst customers, or tell me about the processes and training that make it possible to go from order to delivery in just a couple of minutes.

Here’s a real-life example from my own experiences. I have a part-time job as a directory assistance operator for a telephone company, and that produces some interesting stories, like the time a woman called because the door knob to exit her borrowed apartment was broken, and she couldn’t figure out how to get out. She didn’t know who to call except Directory Assistance, and we had an interesting time figuring out a solution. Now there’s a story to get an article or speech started, and perhaps even a theme such as “Strange but true stories from a directory assistance operator.”

Then, there’s the idea of providing insights for others. If you drive a truck, for instance, you might create a Top Ten list of common mistakes you see on the streets and highways. As a professional driver, you have special insight into the patterns of amateur drivers.

Beyond your personal experiences, think about issues that intrigue you. If you’re interested, doing research and thinking about a subject will be enjoyable and easy. Perhaps you can even satisfy your own curiosity as you prepare an article or speech that enlightens someone else.

These approaches should lead you to any number of story ideas. Make a list, of say five or ten possible topics. Now, ask yourself which of them will be the most enjoyable or easiest to develop. You also might ask yourself if you have enough examples to illustrate the points that fall under a specific topic.
Now, write an outline, to set out the main themes in your speech or article. By the time you finish outlining these themes, you’ll probably have a number of new topics that could be developed into topics that stand on their own.

For example, looking back at the contents of this article so far, I see that discussing something others don’t know much about is one of the points. That would open the door to what I call the “Everybody knows” syndrome, the unfounded assumption that others know what we know. Perhaps you think that your parenting experiences are just like everyone else’s. Yet, your feelings may very well be unique and of great interest to other parents.

If all else fails, get ideas from others. For example, I subscribe to many online newsletters because I write a lot of articles myself. As potential story ideas come in I store them away in a folder, ready to be searched when I don’t have anything available in the top of my mind. I can use the original article as the starting point, creating something new and unique by using my own experiences and ways of doing things. Or I can abstract someone else’s article in my own words, again creating something new in the process. In both cases, I’m creating something new based on my unique experiences or perspectives.

So, never be stuck for an idea for an article or speech! You already have enough experience and knowledge; it’s simply a matter of developing one of those ideas within that framework. And here’s a bonus: If you’re writing or speaking about something that’s happened in your life, you won’t have to work hard to create the article or speech. Just follow the path through your memory.

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02 Nov 09 Best Tips For Writing A Great How-To Article

If you are using articles to help drive traffic to your website you will need to come up with ideas for articles that people will want to read and publish. The quality of articles found on article directories can vary significantly so it is important that yours are among the best available for your article marketing campaign to be successful.

There is no end to the subjects you can write about and you can use any style you wish. However, it has to be something that people will want to read. “How to” articles are very popular with both website owners and readers and can be a great way to get your article marketing campaign underway. Basically, the purpose of a ‘how to’ article is to explain to a reader how to do something.

Of course, you will have to have a good knowledge of how to do the task yourself before you can think about instructing anyone else how to do it, so stick to what you know. There are many possibilities. If you have experience in networking you could write a ‘how to’ article on how to set up a router at home, or if you love cars you could write an article on ‘how to service your car’. There are endless possibilities for ‘how to’ articles, in fact you are reading one right now.

So let’s get started. When you are writing a “how to” article remember that you are the teacher so write in an authoritative tone. You are sharing your expertise with someone who may have little knowledge of the subject at hand. So keep your writing style simple and your instructions clear.

At the beginning of your article tell your reader what their goal is and summarize how it is going to be achieved. This will prepare them for the task ahead. You should also inform them of what, if anything, they will need to have to hand to complete the task. Going back to the setting up a router example, you would need to tell them that they will need their computer, router, instruction booklet and perhaps and ethernet cable to complete the task.

Also, you must start at the beginning and work through the task step by step. Sometimes it may be beneficial to use bullet points to help give the impression that it is a step by step process. Alternatively you can link the steps with words like ‘next’, ‘and then’ or ‘now’. If you are new to writing the bullet points option might be best for you as it keeps things simple, and helps you avoid complex grammatical structures.

As you write, re-read your text every few paragraphs, and try to read it from the reader’s point of view, assuming they know nothing about the task at hand. As an expert on the subject it can be too easy to make things over-complex because the task is second nature to you. Try to imagine you are doing it for the first time and instruct the reader accordingly. Going back to our previous example, will the reader actually know what an ethernet cable is, or what a router is for that matter?

If a particular stage in the task is complex you may want to repeat the instruction, or ask the reader to check their progress so they are sure they have followed your instructions successfully.

With longer articles it is important to do this regularly so the reader does not lose track. Summarize what they have done so far, tell them what should have already been achieved and ask them to check that everything is as it should be. If a reader finds that the project does not look like what you have described, they can then retrace the last few steps and see where they went wrong.

If you work through your article in this manner you should be left with a clear, concise ‘how to’ article that takes the reader through each step of the project to completion. Read it again, at least twice, to make sure that it is well written and that instructions are clear. Wrap up with a concluding paragraph congratulating the reader for a job well done.

And finally, the icing on the cake, the headline. This does not necessarily have to be done at the end. It can be done before you write the article but you may find that headline ideas will come to you as you write your content. Be sure to spend some time perfecting your headline as this can be the difference between the success and failure of your article.

Tags: Article Marketing, ecommerce, Internet Marketing, make money, Marketing
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02 Nov 09 3 Steps To Quickly Writing Ezine Articles

Come on, admit it: Whether you’re a professional writer or not we all draw a blank when we want to write an ezine article.

I’ve found an answer to that dilemma that will get you writing in no time so that you can publish your ezine article and begin to receive that new wave of subscribers you’ve been hoping for. Here’s how to get the lead out if you draw a blank:

1. Write your action steps first.
Forget about the catchy headline and attractive lead paragraph for now. There’s no use in cleverly leading a reader into an article that has no real value to them. So start where you build your credibility, right in the action steps. Of course you want to identify your subject and then tell them how to make their lives easier. For instance, plumbers are always going to have to fix pipes, it’s the nature of their business. If you have an ezine to others in the plumbing industry, write about a new technique in the industry on sealing pipes or preparing them for the winter, etc.

2. Save the best for last.
There’s something called takeaway or take-home that should be in every one of your articles. It’s your last chance to tell your audience, “I know my stuff.” Try to put that key piece of information in the last paragraph of your article and you’ll want it to be something your reader can do as soon as he or she finishes reading your article. If you’re writing to accounts payable clerks, you’d tell them ways to get each department to get approvals on all purchase orders before submitting them. A/P clerks would just eat that up. It’s their number one gripe. Bottom line: Give your audience something they can do immediately at the very end of your article. They’ll remember your name and become devotees for life- hanging from your every word.

3. Get excited about the benefits.
After you’ve taken care of the credibility building portion of your article, you have to draw the reader in and whet their appetite for all this great information. By the way, if you write the action steps and take-home first, this part will be easier because you’ll be so excited about the information you’ll see the benefits of it. And that’s what writing lead paragraphs and headlines is all about: benefits to your readers.

Your final take-home advice
No matter what you do, when you’re writing to an ezine audience, always include an “About the Author” blurb (some call this a sig file, short for signature file) and a plug for anything new you’re into. To do this, determine what you want the reader to do after he or she is finished reading. Do you want the to subscribe to your ezine? Buy your new ebook? Or just visit or site? Whatever the benefit to you is, identify it before you write your “About the Author” section. And you can write this at any time because it’s separate from the article and you can use the same “About the Author” blurb for multiple articles. As a matter of fact, you could write one right now. Check out the one I’m using at the bottom of this article.

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29 Oct 09 How One Simple Article Got Floods Of Visitors & Tonnes Of Sales – And How You Can Do The Same

When I broke into the internet marketing & niche site business I made a boatload of mistakes. I spent money on software that was just plain rubbish. I tried buying traffic. I joined safelists that no-one was reading and got hoodwinked by people selling useless, repackaged leads.

I suffered.

But for every ten things that I tried that would blow up spectacularly in my face, there was one gem that I would use time and time again, over the years to generate tonnes of traffic, suck in genuine subscribers to my newsletter and make more than a few sales. It more than made up for all the duffers.

Article marketing was that one gem – and I want you to understand the importance of writing & submitting articles as a long term internet marketing strategy. I also want to warn you of the common mistakes that budding article marketers make (and it costs them dear).

Want an example of the pure POWER of article marketing? How’s this – just one of my articles, posted a few years back has generated over $2,500 in sales, gets tonnes of visitors to my website and is building my opt-in list automatically even as we speak. And do you know what? It’ll keep doing it for years down the line.

It was an article about property auctions in the UK and it pointed to a simple $19 eBook on how to buy real estate at auctions (one of my first ever projects online). It was a good article and it got picked up by a couple of publishers. Before I knew it…

- I had a long term traffic stream coming in from the websites of these highly ranked real estate websites. They were sending me some major targeted traffic – people who found my article subject interesting and wanted to know more about article marketing.

- A lot of the people who were coming in via my free article were better qualified prospects than just about ANY other source of traffic. Because of that, it meant more people signing up to my newsletter and a bunch of sales.

And it wasn’t just that – my own website benefited from the backlinks it enjoyed to high ranking article directories and the real estate sites that published my stuff.

Now don’t get me wrong – the traffic doesn’t come in GUSHES but it comes REGULARLY and continues over the period of weeks, months and years. This constant, desirable traffic converts into the very things that we all desperately want and need – more people signing on to our newsletters and more people buying our products.

The best part? It’s 100% FREE. Now, do you understand why the most successful internet marketing experts such as Willie Crawford have a solid system in place for marketing their products through submitting articles?

The question is, how do you get your articles to the hundreds and even thousands of potential directories, newsgroups, publishers and portals? How do you keep track of the many new portals that are appearing daily (some high traffic)? How do you KNOW which sites are worth spending your time submitting to?

If you read the sales page of some of the plethora of article marketing courses & software products available you would be forgiven for thinking that it’s a breeze. Not so. Let’s now look at some of the REAL PROBLEMS that you’ll experience when marketing with articles:

Software? Useful but not the “Click & Forget” solutions the developers would love to have you believe. In the past, I’ve used article submission software myself (in fact I’ve spent hundreds of dollars on this type of software over the years). It can cut some of the workload compared to manual submission but don’t let the energetic sales pages of these software types fool you. It’s not about clicking a big blue button and then popping off for a round of golf while the software gets your article into hundreds of directories. Software programs have some serious limitations – a lot of the directories they list get out of date and you’ll miss out on a lot of additional places to submit to if you use this technique of submission.

- Whether you’re submitting manually or via software, you’ll need to compile a list of high traffic sources to submit your articles. The best way is to use the Alexa traffic toolbar to rank the best-ranked traffic sites and ignore the ones that are not drawing in much traffic. The problem is that there are almost a countless number of potential places to submit your articles. This type of research can take many days in itself.

- TIME is the biggest problem. You’re not going to like this but to get even one article out to a fairly high number of directories/newsgroups/portals can take several hours (you could work full time for a day and only submit to a couple of hundred places). If you want the best results, you really need to submit your article to a HUGE amount of places. The fact is most people just do not have that kind of time available and so miss out on one of the best sources of free long term traffic in the world. What a terrible shame.

I’m sorry if this has disheartened you but it really shouldn’t. You’ve discovered a surefire way of generating a lot of long term traffic, subscribers and profits and all of this for free.

Remember, just ONE article submitted to all the right places can give you results that not even a thousand bucks worth of leads, gimmicky software and programs can ever provide. Article marketing is a real strategy for real businesses. Isn’t it time you got involved?

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Tags: Article Marketing, ecommerce, Internet Marketing, make money, traffic
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29 Oct 09 Using Articles To Promote Your Website

Most article directories will allow you to use up to three different links. Remember that the more well written and useful your articles are the more likely it will be that potential publishers will choose to use your content. Even if you are not an experienced writer, writing is a skill so you get better the more you write. If you submit the same article to multiple directories try to vary the title and your anchors. Webmasters and bloggers are always looking for new content for their sites. Be unique and show your personality. If you are a novice writer and would like to pursue this unique method of promoting your website, you don’t have to worry about where to start. There are numerous inherent benefits in this fairly simple and innovative way of promoting your website and your products.

When you provide quality content it builds trust and helping people builds relationships. Take a look at some of the articles written by authors at http://www.thearticleshare.com. And if your articles are interesting, people will click through to see what else you’ve got to say. It is great to be able to write an article one time and have literally hundreds of people read it and sign up. As a writer, you can take advantage of this system to promote your own website by increasing your backlinks and generating more web traffic. When you submit one of your articles to another website, you’ll be allowed to add a small resource box that includes a link to your site. If readers like your articles, they will visit your site to check out what else you have to offer. There are various ways of exploiting this effective and low-cost method of web marketing. Augment your own knowledge Helpful quality content will cause people to trust you and they will refer your website to others and it continues to spread. You can easily recruit hundreds of referrals in any associate or affiliate programs you wish to build. If you have a site about debt, and you write hundreds of articles about the subject, over time people will begin to see you as an expert on the subject. It is only natural that providing information should be a key to your online marketing strategy.

You can make advertising income and sell your own products. One way incoming links are a vital part of website promotion because search engines take them as a positive vote about the quality of your site. All of the information needed for you to explore your ideas and illustrate your points you can get from the Internet. Webmasters who are looking for content will not publish an article that is written only to make a sale. Article writing can be an ultimate marketing tool to promote your website. People trust and tend to buy products from somebody they consider to be an expert.

If you are able to write an article that is both informative and useful you are already well on your way to gaining backlinks and gaining more visitors. So if you need more traffic, more subscribers and more sales, I highly recommend an article writing campaign as part of your internet marketing strategy. Have fun writing articles about your favorite topics and promote your website in the process! You can establish yourself as an expert in your field If someone clicks through from one of your articles or finds you through a search engine, we can assume that they’re interested in the subject of your site. The subject should be directly targeted to your product or service. Article Directories satisfy this need by providing articles that may be freely published. Add your own knowledge and experience to that research, wrap it up in an attractive writing style and a virtually endless supply of new articles is possible. Writing is a very flexible marketing tool. There are literally thousands (make that hundreds of thousands) of ezines out there. However, before even you start writing your first article, no matter how good you are in your chosen subject matter, you still have to do some extra research to seek out an interesting topic, gather relevant materials on the topic, evaluate gathered information, organize your thoughts and plan your article.