Online articles are a great way to increase exposure of your product, service, or more importantly your organization. Once you've understood your visitors through intense market research; you begin to understand what kind of industry related information they would be seeking. The articles do not have to promote to your product or service but may subtly serve as promoters of your company in general because:
• The articles tell your online visitor that you are the expert and resource for industry information.
• You will become a reference to many users.
• The articles will be targeted with keywords that many potential customers may search. These terms will be indexed which will drive more traffic to your site for the terms you indicate.
Solve a problem
Readers love the idea of reading an article that solves a problem. For example, writing an article that outlines a list of sales tips is great, but writing an article that outlines common sales blunders and tips on how to fix those blunders, and you've got a sale! Always remember, you need to put yourself in the shoes of your online visitor. What would they look for, need, and want to understand from a site or company like yours?
Write catchy headlines and titles
A catchy headline or title hooks the reader into exploring your article in greater depth. If the title holds no appeal, people will move on and click on something new. "How to sell your service by writing articles” is better than “How to write an article.” Additionally, not all of your articles need to be posted on your site. If you would like to create more link-backs and drive more traffic, you need to consider submitting your articles to authentic online magazines and article submission sites. Be smart about your titles in order to ensure that your articles will be picked up; an article is the first thing they will see.
Don't prolong your article paragraphs too much; because although you are offering an article, it is still online. An online reader is very different from someone that is picks a book or brochure. Try to include bullet points especially at the beginning in order to give your readers a sense of what you will be discussing. The length of the entire article can range anywhere from 700 words – whatever you desire. If you do extend the article to a 25 page document; you maybe offering more than a mere article but a whitepaper which are extremely popular and desired in the business world.
A note on style
The style and tone you take rely heavily upon the topic at hand and of course the audience that will receive them. If are hoping to target executives you will use a more professional and technical tone and style throughout the article. You also probably want to end up writing a whitepaper of 25 pages in order to satisfy them. If you are a technology based B2C company and wish to inform your clients about specific technology software etc, you may want to tone down the technical lingo. Otherwise you will be losing your targeted audience fairly quicly.
Know your target audience
Like I've reiterated before, the focus of your article should appeal to your target audience. Not everyone is interested in your message, so include your audience in the title or introduction. When you focus your information, you write more compelling, focused content that your readers identify with. For example: “10 tips for writing web content that works.” The title clearly lets you know whether you want to read on or not. And do not post and create articles blindly! Make sure that the articles you create WILL appeal to your target audience through means of surveying them, getting an in-depth analysis of them, and receiving feedback from customers.
Stay on topic
Great articles contain relevant information. If you find yourself drifting off topic, keep the information on the back burner and use it to start a different article later. If the topics are related, you can link one article to the other and give your reader the opportunity to further explore the additional information later. Nothing is worse than starting a topic and ending up talking about something completely different.
Be Neutral
Let your facts speak for you. If your article is worth reading, the facts will become evident in the body of the text. Avoid words or phrases that try to showboat the article without giving any valid information. For example:
“One of the greatest…”
“One of the best…”
“One of the most influential…”
“A significant…”
Also, avoid words and phrases that offer opinions without any significant back up. For example:
“It is widely considered…”
“Some people say...”
“Critics say that…”
“Some people believe…”
Avoid making blanket statements.
Verify your facts before you write them into your articles. For example, “Users read from computer screens 25% slower than paper.” This is a blanket statement. It may be true, but is it reliable? You need to do research to verify your statements, otherwise avoid making them. Provide your references at the bottom of your articles to increase their authenticity.
Make informed opinions
If you're going to give an opinion, make sure you have the authority to do so or get an opinion by someone who has authority on the subject. Remember, you wouldn't sling around medical advice if you're not a doctor, and the same goes for your online article.
Always include the source
In order to add credibility to the article, include a source.. It's also a good idea because it will link your article to your website if the reader wants additional information. This can help you expand your network. Online authors love to be mentioned and may provide you with a link-back when you site their article or blog.
Online Articles And Journals
If everybody knows that article marketing, (the writing and submitting of articles to article repositories), is a sure fire winner for an online business then how come hardly anybody is doing it? Or is it more likely they are just not doing it right? Article marketing is not just about knocking out a few articles and waiting for the cash to roll in. Like everything else it takes planning and commitment. TIP: We all like spending money on the latest product but let's not continually fool ourselves that the next $97 we spend is definitely going to make us rich. It won't happen. In all honesty if you buy your domain name and make sure you have great hosting that's all you really need to spend at the outset. There is some initial leg work to do such as finding your niche, choosing a domain name, setting up a website to build your list, choosing how you are going to monetize your site to name a few tasks. TIP: Set up your website initially to give people some quality freebies. Let me just repeat the word quality. Don't use just any old junk anybody can get for free from other websites. Choose things that have been of real value to you in setting up your business. You can use these freebies to build your list as well. For instance, I use one particular SEO book by an established expert that covers on-site and off-site optimization in sufficient detail without overwhelming you with too much detail or unnecessary jargon designed to impress rather than educate. TIP: Forget, and I seriously mean forget, trying to monetize your site with Adsense or affiliate programs. Until you have your site set up and are receiving a nice flow of traffic nothing you will not make any money no matter how many E-Books and software packages you buy. Like most people running an online business I am reading all the time to learn and also keep up to date with the latest happenings. As you read delete the junk and file the good. So let's just recap. You have your website all set up, your list building forms/splash pages are in place and your auto responder is set up with a list of trust building information messages for your prospective clients. I would not advise starting a forum. There are few people who can run these effectively. What normally happens is that everything works great starting out because there are few people to deal with and their questions can be answered promptly. Once your list grows you will find that all you are doing is answering questions in the forum and woe betides you if you are a little late in getting back to people. Folk are generally impatient and selfish and it can create bad feeling. If you have like minded, trustworthy friends who can act as moderators this is definitely worth doing. TIP: Use forums as a means of getting prospective clients to your site by participating in the discussions and displaying your bio box. This will also build you up as an authority on your subject. There are free ebooks around with niche forum lists. The latest craze for joint ventures resulting in free PLR and other giveaways is taking over our lives. It is possible to be subscribed to dozens and dozens of differing lists. I subscribe to lists for good information but unfortunately most of these lists are just sending out continual, (sometimes 3 times a day), sales rubbish for products that you don't have a hope in hell of making any money with. TIP: Try to remain focused if at all possible. There are many distractions which will not put jam on your bread. How many of these people will respond to you personally if you have a pre-sales query about their affiliate product? Try it and see what responses you get. TIP: Have no compunction in removing yourself from these lists otherwise the incessant "buy now" emails will either drive you crazy or make you poor. There are very few of these freebies that are even worth a minute of your time and it is not uncommon for the download links to result in 404 error pages. Once your website is set up and ready to receive visitors now is the time to start writing and submitting your articles. You will definitely have been bombarded with emails for PLR software and membership clubs promising you thousands of unique articles which take no effort at all. It's up to you but I have been a member of these clubs, I have tried the software, (in fact I am trying out the latest $150 package at the moment), and what I have found so far is if you are looking for quality content then it is just as quick and the content far superior to do it yourself. The craze with having to have thousands of pages on your site is to do with Adsense. The search engines will get around to weeding out what information they want to present to their customers and I reckon the Adsense "mega sites" will shortly be a thing of the past, at least in their present form. TIP: Don't become obsessed with being listed in Google and making money with Adsense. Google can take months to index your pages and Adsense is just one way of earning your living. So why is article marketing being hailed as THE way to build your online business? Consider this flow of events: * An author submits their article to an article directory. * The article is approved and published by the article directory. * The article is now visible for everyone, (and the search engines), to see. * The article can be used on websites or in publications as long as the author's resource box is left intact. This can result in many thousands of article views and if the article is posted on other web sites it is now producing those all important one way anchor text links back to your site that Google loves so much. Now this is where the commitment comes in. You must produce and submit articles as often as you can. Some people can write one a day others 1 a week, just do as many as you can as often as you can. Once you start you will very quickly see your articles being indexed on the Net. WARNING: Be aware that if you are using software to produce thousands of pages, if you upload them all at once then the major search engines will pick up on this and penalize you. They are very smart and know it is not humanly possible to produce that many articles in that time frame. TIP: Try using an Article Submission service. A good one is almost, but not quite, submits and forgets. Note these article submission services are not all created equal and it can be trial and error to find a reliable and cost effective service unless you know someone who is already using one.
Both Khalid Hajsaleh & Shashi Sharma are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Khalid Hajsaleh has sinced written about articles on various topics from Computers and The Internet. As the creative director at INVESP consulting, Ayat oversees the implementation of online marketing services designed to help clients increase site traffic,. Khalid Hajsaleh's top article generates over 480 views. Bookmark Khalid Hajsaleh to your Favourites.
Shashi Sharma has sinced written about articles on various topics from The Internet, E Books and Modelling. For more free resources visit here:-http://www.Lazyman-article-guide.com. Shashi Sharma's top article generates over 90500 views. Bookmark Shashi Sharma to your Favourites.
