Article Marketing is seen by many as the 'next big thing' in the business world. This great way of promoting your business or website for no cost to yourself, is the new kid on the block when it comes to viral marketing, and it's taking the Internet by storm! There are many people who say that this isn't a profitable marketing method, but this is an overly naive and uneducated assumption to make. For starters, the benefits that submitting articles to these sites include;
1. Totally free, targeted traffic to your site
2. Improved search engine ranking
3. Potentially thousands of incoming links to your website
4. High traffic conversion rate
5. Increase your trustworthiness and credibility
But with so many people out there submitting thousands upon thousands of articles every day, you need to know how to not just make your articles stand out, but also how to get them accepted by the article sites!
Things you should take into account are;
1. The Headline
This should contain at least one highly relevant keyword to ensure your article appears when the subject matter is searched for, but also to improve your search engine ranking. The headline should be attention grabbing and intriguing. You need people to click on that headline!
2. The First Paragraph
The article 'opener' needs to grab the readers attention. It has to make them sit up and take notice of what you're talking about. It needs to make the readers feel as if they HAVE to keep reading!
3. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Write your article with the search engines in mind. By this I mean that your keyword should be mentioned at least once in each paragraph. Aim for around a 2-6% keyword density for optimum search engine placement.
4. Article length
Articles that are too short basically won't have enough information in them to make them worthwhile. Then again, articles that are too long won't be able to keep the readers attention! Go for around 500-1000 words primarily aimed at keeping the reader interested, but also taking into account SEO.
5. Quality
Don't just post articles on any old tot. Anything you submit must be of the highest quality, otherwise you're just wasting your time. After all, you want people to pick up this article and stick it in their blog or on their site. This is only going to happen if your article stands out from the rest of the competition!
6. Format
You have to tread carefully when it comes to formatting your article. If it's not spot on, your article will have a good chance of being rejected by all of the major article sites. Generally, your lines should be formatted to hold between 60 and 65 characters each.
7. Authors Bio/Resource Box
You are usually allocated a few lines at the end of your article to 'plug' yourself or your business. Keep this section of your article between 4 and 6 lines long, and use this space wisely! This is where you place your call to action. Your 'more info' link. An email address. A link to your site or to your products. But make sure you're offering something worthwhile for the reader. Maybe there's further relevant information on your site that they would be interested in? Maybe you could offer the reader something for free? Just make sure you give them a reason to contact you or your site! When they get to your site, think about asking them to enter their email address to receive their free gift or information. Make the most of these visitors while you can. If you manage to obtain their email address you've got yourself a lead!
8. Links
Ensure all of your links are relevant, and working perfectly. Don't go overboard with links-especially to your own site! That's what the Resource Box is for! Typically 3 self-serving links and 3 non-self-serving links are allowed, but check the conditions of each article site before posting.
9. Guidelines
ALWAYS check the article sites' publishing guidelines. If you don't, you're setting yourself up for rejection. Make sure your article meets all of their demands, and is up to their standards (with no spelling or grammar mistakes whatsoever).
10. Frequency
Writing articles can be somewhat tedious and time consuming, but it's a great way to create incoming links to your site as well as contributing to the other benefits of this marketing method, mentioned above. But one article isn't going to inundate your site with traffic. You need to keep at it. Try to get as many quality articles out into these article sites as possible. Some people have been known to submit 25 articles per day! If each of these articles eventually receives just 10 one way links, that's over 91,000 incoming links to your site within a year! You'll be hard pressed to find a more effective way of generating links than through article writing!
By following these guidelines while writing your article, you'll stand a very good chance of having your article accepted by all of the major article submission/directory sites, and you'll be set up for generating potentially thousands of relevant incoming links to your site meaning only one thing- more targeted traffic; more leads!
About the Author
Incepto is a UK based copywriting company providing unique, high quality, discount article writing, SEO articles, ebooks, web copy, product descriptions, reviews, editing and proofreading on any subject.
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