The Importance of Articles in Web Promotion

No doubt you have come across this time and time again; to improve your websites popularity, search engine ranking etc., you need to write articles. You will also probably think, as I did, that I can't do this.

There are ways around this. You can purchase the rights to articles that will allow you to add your own resource box to the bottom. The content may not be the freshest and the newest, and many others may be using the same content or variations on it, but it is still content with your resource box tagged on at the bottom. There are numerous article submission directories and sites on the net, such as the biggies like ZapContent.com, to small ones like http://articles.directorygold.com. You will be able to submit your article, even if it isn't original, to some of these without duplicating existing content on the article directory. This is what I did first.

The next possibility is to go somewhere like http://www.elance.com, and pay someone to write articles for you. This is more expensive than the first option, but has the benefit that the article is original, so it is more likely to be copied and published elsewhere. Also, make sure you have the complete rights to the material you commission, so that you may modify, relabel, or amalgamate into an ebook if you desire. Usually, you should get several decent articles for the amount of money you spend.

Finally, are you sure you can't write your own article? That you haven't found out something in your life that will be of interest to others? There is a huge list of possible article subjects at ZapContent and other sites, and you will be amazed at what you do know if you sit and think about it. After all, as I said earlier, I didn't think I was capable of writing an article, yet this is one I wrote myself, and it isn't my first. If you've made mistakes, an article describing how NOT to do something can be just as useful as one describing how to do something. If you still have problems coming up with a coherent article, jot down your notes and pay someone to ghostwrite it for you. Again, check sites like Elance for ghostwriters.

Why write and distribute articles in the first place? Free advertising and promotion. I submitted several articles to a handful (under five) of article directories. Several days later, after Google had done a recent crawl, I did a number of phrase searches on the web. If you enclose your search phrase in quotes, Google will search for that specific phrase. I searched for some of the article titles I had posted, and my own name (admittedly, this is only useful if you have a rare name that doesn't bring up pages of search results for other people of the same name). I found the articles I had published showing up on several websites. What made this even better was that a number of the places where I found the articles weren't places I had submitted them to. Other people had taken my articles and published them on their own websites. So the benefit is, lots of non-reciprocal links pointing to your website, that frequently you didn't have to do anything beyond initially publishing the article to get. Free traffic, advertising and promotion for a few minutes work.

A final note. Make sure the articles are useful, and not just promotional sales letters. They don't have to be long, 1-2,000 words is usually adequate as a maximum length for an article, but don't just publish sales blurb. Your article won't get syndicated elsewhere, and your reputation will suffer. Get known as a source of decent quality articles, and you will become known as an expert.

Happy Writing!

The Benefits Of Article Marketing As A Form Of Website Promotion

I have been reading recently about the benefits of article marketing. A recent post to the ezinearticles blog asked if writing articles was worth wasting time over. I have been writing articles for quite a long time and in my opinion it certainly is. I will explain why I think it is in this article.

Around a year ago I wrote my first article and posted it to ezinearticles, which many people regard as the best article directory/website. Looking back I have to admit that I did not really know what I was doing, and in truth the article was not that impressive. I continued to write more articles and continued to make mistakes.

Unlike other directories who seem to accept any old article, ezinearticles check what you are submitting. In these early days a guy called Wally would regularly e-mail me with advice on how I could improve my articles. At that stage my articles were too short, not thought out, and basically rushed. I did not realise the value of writing articles and did not make the required time available for this form of web promotion.

I found it difficult to keep thinking of new material and fell into another trap of re-submitting articles I had already written. I would change a few words or would re-word paragraphs. I was not aware that this was against their guidelines, however Wally soon informed me that it was. Tip, always read the guidelines.

I am now spending a lot more time when I write the articles and feel that they have gradually improved, this has been confirmed by Wally himself I am pleased to report.

As for the benefits of writing articles and is it worth your time and effort? I have had e-mails from all around the world from people who have enjoyed reading my articles, maybe I am a bit sad but this gives me a little buzz. Some of these people have included the article in their blog or on their website, thus creating an additional backward link to my website(s).

The people who read the article are potential visitors to your site, a visitor you would not have had, had you not written the article. That visitor could of course turn into a client or purchaser of your product(s).

For me search engines are going down the path of seeing one-way backward links as by far the most powerful form of link. Many people are offering link exchanges with other websites to boost their page rank or search engine position. There are many automated link building programs which make link exchanges even easier to obtain. Search engines have realised that this is taking place and place a much lower value on these type of links. One way links are not as easy to obtain, however writing articles has the potential of creating many one way backward links to your site and therefore is a must for any serious webmaster.

I have not written nearly two hundred articles and have seen huge increases in traffic to my websites as well as increases in their page rank.

People may disagree with my belief that article marketing is worth the time and effort, I do not really care as it works for me.

Happy Writing!

Successful Article Marketing Strategies

Are you thinking about starting to write articles as a way of promoting your website? Are you looking for some advice about how to write a successful article? Have you a lack of belief in your ability to write an interesting article? Around a year ago I would have answered yes to all of these three questions but have now learnt quite a lot about article marketing. In this article, I give tips and advice to help other people to become successful article marketers.

I have now had around three hundred articles accepted at what I consider to be one of the main article directories, ezinearticles. At times, I have to admit that it can be quite a choir to think of a subject to write about, to then write the article and also to then submit the article to all of the major article directories. At other times, the words seem to just flow and it can be quite easy and even enjoyable.

The benefits of article marketing can be huge and I am happy to report that a lot of my articles have been included on many different websites, this of course creates a lot of important one-way backward links to my websites.

I have seen a large increase of traffic to my sites, which is partly no doubt down to this writing of articles. As a rule I try to write around seven to ten articles per week. If on one particular week I am not able to for whatever reason, I do not stress about it, I just see it as a break.

I try to make each article interesting and they are written from the heart, in my own style. Some of them can be quite funny, for example, I have written an article about dieting which has the title of, Have You Ever Seen A Fat Postman?

I try not to make each article too long as people may become bored half way through. At the same time I believe each article should not be too short as there is likely to be little value to the reader. My articles are normally anywhere between four and seven hundred words in length.

Most of my articles will give the reader some form of advice about the subject I am writing about. This advice of course, is my own personal opinion and comes from my own personal experiences.

I have received many e-mails from people who have enjoyed reading my articles and I have also had requests from other people who have asked if I would be willing to write articles for them.

I am sure if I can write a number of articles that everyone else can. Give it a go, you might surprise yourself.

Once you have written the article, you then need to submit it to some of the article directories. In my opinion these are the best, ezinearticles, articledashboard, goarticles, articlealley and searchwarp.