The Best Ways For Writing A Great How-To Articles

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.

If you are using article marketing to help drive traffic to your website you will need to come up with ideas for articles that people will want to publish and read. 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.

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.

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.

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.

Happy Writing!

The Amazing Power of Articles to Drive Traffic to Websites

Most experienced marketers are in awe of the amazing power of articles.

Distributed in a consistent and structured submission pattern, they provide a force to drive insane amounts of traffic to any website.

And yet some online enthusiasts shy away from article submission in the mistaken belief that the process is tedious and time consuming whereas nothing could be further from the truth.

Certainly there is something of a learning curve to be negotiated in the matter of creative writing but with the amount of assistance available online nowadays, that is not a problem for anyone requiring tuition.

A sound practice for beginners is to examine how knowledgeable writers tackle the procedure.

1. How they craft compelling headlines
2. How they relate the story seamlessly from the start to the finish
3. How they interlace the text with core keywords
4. How they break up forbidding blocks of copy with bullet points and numbers
5. How they use short chunky paragraphs for ease of reading
6. How they couch the all-important resource box

Studying the output of experienced practitioners opens the gateway to the prime source of creative writing in its application to article composition.

Twenty six funny looking little characters that come together to provide 1984 pages of The Chambers Dictionary with 300,000 word definitions and 215,000 references; they are the fodder for countless millions of letters, books, poems, plays, and articles down the ages and in perpetuity.

They are the colors in the virtual paint box that can be mixed and matched to produce hundreds of thousands of words to communicate and illuminate thousands of online articles.

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

No one can steal a march on beginners when they use these characters creatively and wisely; no one can cheat by adding to or subtracting from the list. And no one can staunch their creativity when beginners capitalize on the amazing power of words to compose articles.

There is no gain without some pain but here is what is in store for beginners who take the trouble to master article composition and distribution:

- Articles establish writers as experts in their particular areas of skill

- Articles help increase sales

- Articles generate floods of website traffic

- Articles increase Google Page Rank

- Articles to boost Alexa ratings

Of equal significance to the aspiring article writer is the choice of submission software; choose the right one and success in attracting traffic is all but guaranteed; chose the wrong one and the result could labelling as an amateur – or worse still, a spammer.

Jim Green is an online enthusiast and bestselling author with an ever-growing string of niche non-fiction hard copy titles to his credit. He has thousands of articles circulating in cyberspace. http://articlesubmitter.howtoproducts-xl.com

Happy Writing!

The 3 Mistakes That People Do In Article Marketing

Here are 3 of the most common mistakes made in article marketing.

Mistake #1 is what I call marketing resistance. Some people hear that word ‘marketing’ and they just kind of pucker up. They get all tight inside. 

“I can’t market! Marketers are used car salesmen or people on the internet who say ‘Buy my new product today or your family will starve.’”

I don’t think I’ve seen anything exactly like that, but some of you are laughing out there or smiling because you’ve seen things that are close.


That’s not what I mean by marketing. Again, that definition of marketing that I titled the call with and started the call with is – Article marketing is simply getting your expertise in front of as many eyes as possible in as many consumable forms as possible.  Another way of defining marketing is seeing it as simply letting other people know what you do. That’s all it is!

Marketing is letting other people know what you do.

There are lots of ways to do that with class and integrity that can be congruent with who you are. You know the way I approach things in my programs is that not one size fits all. One of the things that I’ve been told I’m good at, and I think people are right, is that I’m pretty good at meeting people wherever they are in their business journey, in their internet journey – meeting them where they are and helping them move forward. So it’s not one size fits all.

Mistake #2 is believing there’s only one way to let people know about what you do. Some people who make that mistake get very very wed to how they see it, to how they do it, to their way, to ‘the’ way.  That’s understandable. People get territorial and invested in things and that’s ok. I’ve always thought there’s lots of ways to do things, so there’s lots of ways to market your articles to get your expertise in front of people.

Mistake #3 is inconsistency in marketing your articles or getting your expertise out there.

Most people, when it comes to marketing anything, do what I call ‘marketing a la carte.’ Marketing ala carte is waiting until things get bad, you’re feeling desperate, and you just grab something from the marketing menu and do it. You throw some money at it, hoping it will work.

No, no, no, no, no.

I’ve got a pop quiz for you tonight. What’s the most important piece of a jigsaw puzzle?

Now the answers I often get when I ask that question are things like ‘the straight pieces,’ ‘the corners,’ etc etc. ‘The solid colors.’

Now all of those are good answers, but they’re not the best answer because the most important piece of a jigsaw puzzle is the box top, because there is the blueprint. To be consistent you need a blueprint. You need something that you can do over and over again with success.

Inconsistency is part of being human. Back in graduate school and days after when I was playing racquetball two or three times a week, we had a little saying among us. “Consistency is the key.” You could go along and play well for a few minutes, and then play horrible for a minute.

So consistency in marketing, especially in article marketing, is to write regularly. If you’re going to be serious about this and really use article marketing to build your business, you want to write and submit two articles – “Oh my gosh, is he going to say a month? A week? A day? What?” – a week.

Two articles a week. That gets the fresh content out there and keeps you in the flow.

Happy Writing!

Write & Submit Articles To Promote Your Business And Get Targeted WebTraffic.

Many of the newbies that are being exposed to the Internet on a daily basis have dreams of running a website and making it successfully.  For some, this is a grueling task and leaves them short-winded trying to do so.

There are numerous marketing techniques that can be used to generate traffic on a regular basis which is the life blood of your webiste success. Out of all of them I have tried, writing qualuty articles seems to work the best (content is still truly king).

Writing articles for ezines, newsletters, websites and forums in addition to using other marketing strategies keeps your website visible.

The Internet has turned out to be a publisher's paradise. Never before has the chance to publish your ideas and insights been this easy. In some cases all it costs is some of your time. You can write an article this morning and have it published in the evening.

Writing was once a secret weapon for many marketers, but now it has been thrown in the open and is now being used by many successful online marketers.  It has work wonders for me since I started doing it the right way.  My articles have appeared in ezines, newsletters and on websites with varying degrees of success.  Here are some guidelines on how I have gained great results writing articles:

A. Write about what you know:  Make sure it’s related to your business (so you can use the keywords you want to rank with) and helpful (so it gets published).  Once you get thinking about it, you'll probably find there are hundreds of articles you could write that are helpful. You may even have some of them partly written already in your instruction manuals or installation guides, etc. Another good idea is to think of all the questions you get asked by customers and potential customers. These questions show you what people are interested in. If you write an article answering every one of these questions, you'll get published, and you'll also show yourself to be a credible expert.

B. The best articles are only as long as they need to be:  Keep it short and sweet – there’s nothing wrong with a 400 word article. By the same token, if you need 1500 words to say all you need to say, that’s fine as well

C. Simply write in a style that your audience will be comfortable with: If they’re from the old school, don’t write like I am. Don’t use contractions, don’t end sentences with prepositions, and don’t start sentences with “and” or “but”. But if they’re not old school, just use conversational English. In fact, the more of yourself you include in the article, the more engaging it will be. The key is to make it readable.

Once you've written your article, you'll need to develop a list of publishers that may be interested in publishing it. The best way to accomplish this is to display your articles on your website. Place a subscription box on each of your article pages to enable your visitors to subscribe. This list should be used to send your new articles to your list of publishers. "Submit Article" in the Google search will give you many sites where you can submit your articles.

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!

Success Starts With Articles

No one can logically argue against the fact that content is king. Web sites that are nothing more than glorified link farms or ad spiels must work harder and invest more money to gain visitors—almost none of them return. To keep users returning, there must be a reason. Articles can serve two major roles in maintaining a successful website—content and promotion. Just minutes from now you could be on your way to building a more successful business. Article creation and submission is one of the greatest promotional tools ever.

CONTENT

Every web site that wants to succeed at competing for eyeballs must have solid content to offer. Otherwise, the visitor is off in mere seconds—never to return. Make the visitor glad they visited and you have potentially created a loyal user.

Think about some of the more popular web sites on the Internet. Why would you visit them? Why would you return? Let’s look at a popular news site, FoxNews.com. I visit Fox News to read the latest news stories. I go back because I know there will be fresh articles waiting for me. I visit my favorite writing web site because I know there are great articles there and new ones appear often.

Do you see a theme? I am not going to a web site that is about other web sites or is a link farm—I am going to the source of what I desire. These sources not only receive my attention but have a good chance at selling me something. Over time, my trust in these web sites increases and I am more open to what they have to offer. It is important to offer quality content to hook the visitors in and update often to give them reasons to return. Your web site is an extension of you and your company. How visitors perceive your web site is how they will perceive you. This is why it is important that articles be well written. Anything less will compromise your perceived image.

PROMOTION

There is no easier way to establish links and incoming traffic to your web site than writing articles—or having someone write them for you. It could take months or longer for a web site owner to gain a significant amount of relevant links on other web sites. However, it can take days, with no effort, to accomplish the same feat with one well crafted article. The process is extremely simple.

1. Write the article or have it written for you.
2. Submit the article to article distribution services.
3. Start working on the next article or have a writer do it for you.

Once your article is out there it will work itself onto web sites across the Internet, which will end up generating incoming links for your web site. Moreover, this will increase your link popularity, which is very important for great search engine rankings. It would be wise to write articles that pertain in some way to your own web site. The odds of people, who are reading an article on engine rebuilding, being interested in your web site about quilting is rather slim. There are many article submission web sites and groups on the Internet. Some good article submission web sites are: ContentTycoon.com, articlefactory.com, ezinearticles.com, goarticles.com, and ideamarketers.com. Don’t forget to use the article on your own web site.

The promotion world is waking up to this article creation technique and in time the competition will be fierce. The time to get started is right now. One well crafted article can easily be worth thousands of dollars in promotional efforts. Don’t let not being able to write great articles keep you from getting ahead—visit PromotionalArticles.com to have articles written for you. You simply can not put a price on the possible results from article distribution. Just wait until you experience it for yourself.

Simple Tips on Using Private Label Articles For Your Marketing

Article marketing is by far the best free method of promoting your business and increasing opt in subscribers and your sales. Content is truly king. You can say that again! That is why writing articles is one of the most utilized Internet marketing media today.

But how, if you are not comfortable writing your own articles?

Many marketers just do not know how to put their thoughts into words. Many of them need more than just little assistance, whether it is because of lack of writing abilities, time restraints or they need a writer with knowledge of a topic they aren't familiar with. 


That is why there are high demand for private label articles these days. Although you cannot claim copyright to the articles and there are a few other restrictions, they are free for you to use as you wish. 
Depending on how these articles are used, the results can be good, bad, or downright ugly.

Private label articles can increase your website traffic, sales, and subscribers, as long as you use them correctly. By using them, you can gain a big advantage over other marketers.  Unfortunately, many marketers simply copy and paste the article and submit it to article directories, as is, with no personalization.

There are some reasons why you should alter a private label article.

1. Most directories require you to submit your own unique article.  At the very least, you should change the title.   Most directory software will search their database automatically for duplicate titles. If the title of your article matches one in their database, yours will be rejected.

2. If you want to use them as content for your own website, remember that search engines don't really appreciate duplicate contents. Don't forget, unique content is also important to people who visit your website. They look for fresh information.

Here are several tips you may use to make a private label article becomes unique:

1. Change a word or phrase with another one that has similar meaning:  You may consider to use a book with title "Dictionary of Appropriate Adjectives" to find similar adjectives for particular noun. For example, "famous writer" can be changed into "top writer" or "well-known writer".

2. Add more items on a list:  If on a private label article you find a list that shows something like tips, examples, steps or facts, why don't you add more items on the list?

3. Change the structure of a sentence:  This technique is very simple. For instance, if there is a sentence like this:

• "Forums are one of the best places to find writing ideas".

• Change the structure of the sentence above so it becomes:

• "The best places to find writing ideas are forums".

4. Change the position of two sentences or paragraphs: Another similar technique is by presenting a list of items in a different order.

5. Combine two different private label articles:  The easiest way you can do is by putting the opening or the closing paragraph of a private label article to another one.  You may combine the methods above. Don't limit yourself. Use synonyms, thesaurus, add a sentence here, subtract one there, add a quote and so on.

Many marketers load so many links in their article that it becomes one long ad. Not only you will get rejected, but eventually banned if you do it often enough.  Finally, consider being a member of more than one PLC site.

With $150 a month, you can get quality, no-strings-attached content from 3-4 sites. Even if you can use only 50 articles, you're getting them for $3 each. That is a great bargain.