The Four Elements Of A Nifty Marketing Article Like The Gurus Do It

You may think that the key to article marketing success is writing a good article. While this is true, there is much more to it than this. You will also need to consider your headline, your article description and your resource box. In many ways, these can be more important than the article itself.

The Headline

By far the most important part of your article is the headline. It is the first thing your reader or potential publisher will see. If you can grab their attention and get them to read your article you are on the road to success. Your headlines should only be between five and ten words, but these few words can be the difference between success and failure.

Write a few headlines, not just one. Also, once you have written a few headlines put them aside and come back to them later. You will then be able to better judge which is the best one.

There are a few tricks you can use to grab the reader's attention. One is to play to people's desires and offer a solution. Examples of this could be:

How to get rich in one month
How to retire before your 50

Headlines that offer to show a reader how to achieve something in easy steps also lead to a good click through rate. So, these could be something like:

10 top tips for getting rich quick
5 easy steps to early retirement

As you submit more and more articles, you will get a better idea of what is working for you both in terms of headlines and content.

The Description

Almost as important as the headline is the description. The description of your article will appear under your headline in the article directories. There is a temptation here to take your first paragraph and cut it into the description box when submitting to directories. This is a grave mistake.

While it is not as powerful as a headline, the description gives you another opportunity to sell your article so word it carefully. Describe what the article sets out to do, how it does it and hint at the great solution it is going to provide. A powerful introductory paragraph in the article may achieve all of this, but it is not always possible so generally you should write your description separately.

The Article

If you have grabbed the reader's attention with your headline and they are reading your article you are almost there. However, your work isn't done yet. The article has to be good, if not excellent. At least good enough to hold the reader's attention for its entirety.

In general, your article should either entertain or inform. Writing entertaining or funny articles is a skill most professional writers struggle at and is very hard to achieve, so you should aim to inform. Either tell the reader about something they want to know about, or tell them how to do something. Also, write about something you know about. "How to" articles are particularly popular. If you can show a reader how to complete a task in 500 or so words you are on to a winner.

When you are writing the article, keep it simple. There can be a temptation to use flowery language but this is a definite no-no. Keep your sentences short, your words simple, and avoid complex grammatical structures. One trick is to read the article aloud to yourself when you have finished. It it sounds good to the ear and flows smoothly it should also read well.

The Resource Box

Ah, the resource box. The forgotten child of article marketing. If you get someone to read your article it is a fair achievement. So do not scupper your efforts by writing a poor resource box, as so many people do. The whole point of the exercise is to get people to click through to your website, so your resource box content is key.

If you wrote a good article related to your website or product your reader will already be interested so you have a lot of the work done. The text in the resource box should include your name but for the most part should be about the reader, not about you.

You need to tell them why they want to buy your product and how it can help them. Remember, you are offering the solution to their problem. Also, be sure you can deliver on your promises. Do not offer something you can not provide. Finally, it can be a good idea to include a plain address for your website as well as a live link.

So, when you are next preparing a marketing article be sure to give each of the four steps the attention they deserve.


Happy Writing!

Questions And Answers About Article Marketing

The following article is one of a series of articles which focus on Article Marketing, Affiliate Marketing and Internet Marketing. All of the articles are based on real experiences and research done over twenty years as a personal and business coach. They are also written in response to questions which I have been asked as well as address common challenges that people have with affiliate marketing, article marketing, internet marketing or running an online business in general. I sincerely hope that you find the following information of value. One idea, one tip, one clue can make all the difference.

Article Marketing - Your Answers To Questions On Article Marketing

Article marketing is probably the most effective list building and link building strategy in existence. Article directories allow you to include a resource box for every article you will submit. Inside this resource box, you could include a link to your website and specifically to your newsletter subscription form. If you submit just one article to 100 article directories, you'd immediately receive 100 back links to your website. There are thousands of article directories on the 'net today!

Now, let us say you submit, for example, 5 articles to a hundred directories, you'll get 500 back links easily! The best part about this strategy is that quite a number of article directories have high page ranks. We're talking about PR4, PR5, and on occasion, PR7 websites! Having a link to your own website in a website which has a high page rank would give a significant boost to your own pages' search engine standing!

All seems terrific with article marketing, but as with everything else, there are growing concerns as to its real value.

Let's take a look at five of the most common questions which are asked about article marketing...If I submit the same article to many article directories, won't it violate a search engine's policy against duplicate content?

No, it won't. Since we're dealing with high ranking websites, the search engines would assume that the submitted content is their original work. This is the reason why a lot of article directories are pretty confident about the articles they display. The problem that they encounter, really, is with regards to the credibility of their services.

They don't want to be known as a repository of junk content, that's why they have outlawed the posting of PLR articles as well as articles full of affiliate links.

If you always submit quality, informative content that readers are looking for, you will never have a cause for concern.

Does this mean that I could submit articles which I have already posted in my own web pages?

You need to take care here. The search engines will assume that the higher ranking websites are the originators of the content, your web pages would be distinguished as duplicates, and this could possibly lead to the de-indexing of your website or, at least, that particular article page. You wouldn't want this to happen.

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Affiliate, Article and Internet Marketing in general isn't as easy as many would have us believe. I fully understand (through my own experiences) that it is a lot easier said than done. However, you are here, right now, because you have a desire to improve your business, grow your business, and be more successful. These articles are here with the sole intention of helping you to make the whole process a lot easier.
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Can I submit as many articles as possible to as many article directories as possible?

Yes, you could! In fact, this is very much advised, to build up your link popularity and secure for your website a great page rank.

However, please bear in mind that search engines, and Google in particular, become quite wary about a website that suddenly experiences a great increase in the number of its back links. It is advised that from the outset, you decide how many articles you can submit and at what intervals, then stick to it. Consistency is the key here.

Does article marketing really work?

Yes, definitely, article marketing does work! If your article's page views remain in low levels, ask yourself 

• Is your article title compelling or intriguing enough to want to read the whole article?
• Is the actual content of your article interesting enough? Does it cater to a wide audience?
• Is your article informative enough to consider recommendation?
• Is your article readable enough to give your audience an easy time in digesting the information you want to share?

These are the factors that contribute to low page views. Doing some necessary editing to correct these problems will dramatically increase the number of times your article will be viewed.

Additionally, some article directories really attract a few visitors only. But the popular ones like www.ezinearticles.com , www.goarticles.com, www.articledashboard and www.isnare.com should give you hundreds of readers in a month's time.

How sure can I be that my article and resource box will be kept intact by people who will use it in their own websites or Ezines?

Unfortunately, you can never be sure. This is why you have to run your own check from time to time. Search for unique phrases in your article, and click on the results. Determine if the webmaster honored your resource box. If he or she did not, you could ask them to include the resource box, or you could file a complaint with the article directory so that they themselves could act on the matter. As always, Persistence and Vigilance are the k