Article marketing is all in the technique. There are a number of things that you can do to reduce the amount of success that you experience with your article marketing. So this post is about some of the results I experienced with one site and why I experienced them.

I started using article marketing to get more traffic to a site that had been sitting there for a while and I hadn't done anything with. So to build up traffic, I wrote and marketed 10 articles. I did the keyword research of keyword phrases that weren't too competitive, and I wrote articles based on those phrases. The results were quite interesting. I easily tripled the traffic to the website (granted, it wasn't huge to begin with), and now more traffic comes from articles than the search engines at this point.

The interesting thing is that when you use the right tools, you don't have to worry about the "duplicate content" issue. I have regular traffic coming from different article directories that have the same article.
ezinearticles.com and articlesbase.com regularly send me traffic with the same article.

How does this happen?

Using the right tools...

I used an article submission service that allowed me to create different versions of the article (not some computer generated stuff that sounds like the author was on crack when they wrote it. These versions are valid because you create them yourself. The power is in the submission. The software randomly creates a new version of the article as it is being submitted. This stuff is good because only 1 of my articles has been rejected using this method and that was because of a keyword phrase density issue that EzineArticles lowered recently. Other than that, it would have been accepted.

After a month, the traffic is still steady, although not quite as high as when the article is first released.

Anyway, just keeping you informed of my experiences.

Here is a list of the resources I used.

• Keyword Research
• Article Submission Service

In today’s world of Internet marketing, it is necessary to have multiple means of getting traffic to your website. Not just any traffic, but targeted traffic, which will more likely result in the desired action you wish your readers to make. Article Internet marketing is a great way to get this targeted traffic to your website. There are many ways to market your articles however the most effective way is to maximize the use of your time when marketing these articles. If you market your articles efficiently, you can write more and get even more traffic to your website. Article submission services are one of the most efficient ways to get traffic to your website from your articles.
Article submission services are services that automatically submit your articles to article directories and publishers for you. Some of them may have their own submission requirements to be able to submit to the maximum number of directories, so it is important to follow their submission guidelines. If you don’t follow the guidelines, you are only hurting yourself.

1) Instead of spending time submitting articles to directories, you are writing articles.
Let’s say there are over 500 article directories and publishers out there that you could be submitting your articles to. If you are submitting your articles to all these directories by hand and it takes you about 10 minutes to submit an article to a directory, then that is 5000 minutes, or about 3 ½ days. You can write a lot of articles in 3 /12 days! The amount of time you may spend submitting an article to an article submission service may be 30 minutes at most. 1 submission vs. over 500; how much is your time worth?

2) Additional exposure for your article.
Many times, article submission services have their own directories and lists that only members of their submission service have their articles on. These services also spend time getting traffic to their websites as well as provide ways that you can use to market your articles easily, such as RSS feeds, article directories and other tools. You get the benefit of the traffic that is on their article directory already because that traffic can stumble across your article.

3) Data you can use to more powerfully market your products/services through your articles.
Most of the good article submission services will keep statistics about who looks at your article, who downloads your article and who uses your article feed. This is valuable information that gives you insight into what kinds of articles your target market finds interesting and what kinds of titles draw them in. You can look over time which kinds of articles are out-performing the other articles and from there you can tailor the kind of articles you would write to produce even better results in terms of getting more traffic to your website. This is free marketing information that is very powerful feedback in being able to enhance your marketing message through your articles.

These are the top 3 methods of why article submission services will help you to drive more traffic to your website. However, there are other benefits as well of article submission services that will really enhance your results of driving hungry visitors to your website. When authors take all of these into account, then they will put themselves out in front of their competition on the Internet. A well developed strategy is the key to success.

---

Tags: article marketing - article submission services

This article is for Internet Marketers who want to experience the maximum benefits of using an article directory submission service. They have already gone through the exercise of realizing that in the long run (and short run) these services save them money by allowing them to make the best use of their time and not leave money on the table because they aren’t reaching their audience. So now that you are one of those Internet Marketers who want to use an article submission service, how do you make the most out of it?

First you want to understand what an article submission service can’t do for you, and that is creating quality content. So if you are making the investment in publishing your articles on the Internet, you want to make the investment to put out quality content. I can’t tell you how often I have come across crappy articles and not have any interest in doing anything further with the author of that article. It feels as if they don’t care about their target audience, and are just putting something out there that gets them traffic and link juice. What these authors are missing out on is that whatever they put out, brands their reputation. The question is; what kind of brand do you want to build for yourself? The article submission service speeds up the branding process, so that leaves less room for error. If you want to have interested visitors coming to your website, then you will need to distribute quality articles. Quality articles also build trust in who you are and what kind of integrity you have. If you don’t feel you can write a high quality article about the subject you are interested in, then hire someone. Mass produced crap never wins out on thoughtfully produced quality in the long run.

The next thing is that you should know where your articles are going. Most article submission services allow you to categorize your article so that your article is submitted to any niche related directories on the web. You don’t want a large number of your articles submitted to unrelated directories, because you’ll build up bad will with the directory owner. Your article submission service should be able to send your articles to different directories depending on the subject matter of the article.

Take advantage of all of the fields that your article submission service gives you when you submit your article to their service. Fill everything out because it is another way that you can get found. If they offer tags, or keywords, fill those in with as much information as they will let you put in without spamming them. Also, if they allow you to put in a summary, fill that in as well. You also want to fill in your URL, resource box… everything. Take the care to submit your article to the submission service because you will save time on the back end, so you might as well not cheat yourself out of visitors.

These are just some of the things that you can do to make the most out of your article submission service. Doing these things will increase your chances of driving quality traffic to your website, and build up your brand on the Internet. Adding these rules with knowing how to write a powerful article will give you one of the required building blocks for long-term success on the Internet.

The power of writing an article is to create an interest in your product or service. This form of article marketing is best when your article is in as many places on the web as possible, and that usually includes article directories or published in other people’s newsletters. In order for your article to appear in these places, your article must pass certain requirements these directories and e-zines set.

Most, if not all, article directories and newsletter publishers will not accept glorified sales letters as submissions and they may or may not tell you if your article has been rejected. Many article directories will have submission requirements that don’t allow links in the article body, don’t allow you to promote your product or service directly in the article, don’t accept press releases, or don’t allow affiliate links in the resource box.

With all of these very common restriction, how does one bring attention to their product, service or website? A multi-step marketing process needs to be used. The first step is to create a title that gets people interested in reading the rest of the article. If possible, your title should include a point that showcases your product or service.

The next step is to write a first paragraph that excites the reader while the rest of the article carries them through to the resource box. The rest of the article should get them very interested in, and wanting more of what your article was about.

The last step is guiding the reader to quench their interest. This is done through a call to action in your resource box. Usually this call to action is to have them go to your website to get more information, or to find the complete answer to the question that was answered in the article.

The author needs to write an enticing article that promotes your product or service and still stays within the submission terms of most article directories. The best, and easiest way to do that is to answer a question or solve a problem that is common in your area of expertise. You would need to pick a question or solve a problem that really showcases your knowledge, or product in an indirect way. If you focus on a question or problem that specifically relates to your product or service, you can write the article based on what your product or service can do in an indirect way. This is done by providing the solution to a common problem, or answering a popular question, and then leaving them hanging in your concluding paragraph. You would then use your resource box as the follow-up to the last paragraph. It is in your resource box that you would provide them the place they can receive the solution. It is important that you send them to a website that is related to the article, and not use the links in your resource box for some random link popularity scheme.

It is relatively easy to write articles that promote your product and service and still keep within the submission terms of the article directories and newsletter publishers that you would submit your articles to. When you learn how to write powerful titles, enticing articles, and powerful call to action resource boxes, you will have a persistent traffic machine. If you don’t feel you do that now, you should, your next step should be to beef up your article title writing skills and your resource box call to action.

There are currently many ways to get more traffic to your website and article writing is a powerful way to drive targeted traffic to your website. There are several ways in which article writing can drive highly focused traffic to your website that are well known, but there are also article marketing strategies that are just as powerful but less known. These overlooked strategies require quality articles to be written because they usually involve 3rd parties.

Most people write articles and submit them to article directories or other content-based websites. The authors of these articles then get traffic from these websites to their own website when people click on the links in their article resource box. This is the most common way people use article writing in their marketing efforts. However what about the other ways to use your article writing skills to get traffic to your website that doesn't involve article directories?

One way of getting traffic to your website is to write articles for other people's websites. Not blogs or websites where there are already a number of other writers, but a website where you are the only other person to provide content. This technique may not be as difficult as you might think because most website owners are struggling to keep their site current and if you provide the solution to their problem of having fresh quality content, many website owners will jump at the offer. This strategy sets you apart because you can now get links back to your website without competing with other web site owners. You also stand out more in the eyes of the visitors to the website you are writing for so when they come to your website, they are more interested in what you may have to offer. This technique does require articles that are written by you and are of good quality because no one wants to put crappy spam on their website.

Another uncommon article marketing strategy is to make a collection of your articles and place them in an eBook. You can then offer your eBook for free from your website, make it a part of a package, or a bonus for another person's product or service. Having your articles in an eBook is a really great way to present your knowledge and showcase your talent. This strategy also requires articles that are well written and useful because no one will take your eBook seriously or share it with others if your articles are spam.

You can also use your articles as part of an auto-responder series to continue to drive traffic back to your website. If you write a series of articles on the same topic or in the same niche, you can put one article per message in the auto-responder series. Your message would include a compelling call to action after the article to send the reader back to your website. This method is a very powerful method to build up trust with your readers, who will be more willing to buy from you after they feel like they can relate to you.

There are many other ways to use article writing as a means of sending targeted traffic back to your website. The methods listed here are just some of the ones that can be implemented with minimal effort and time. Using these additional techniques will build your brand as expert in your field more quickly and will get more long-term traffic to your website.

Article Internet marketing is an effective and profitable way to promote your product or service when it is done properly. There are many different driving purposes to writing articles, and they produce different results, so it is important to understand what the purpose and end result is for you and develop your article writing strategy accordingly. To write articles whose purpose is to promote your product or service, you need to make sure you have some specific things in your marketing strategy.

1) Write articles on topics that are of interest to your target market so you can position yourself as an expert

The whole purpose of writing articles is to get people to read them so they will be interested in your product or service. If you write on subjects your target market has no interest in, your articles won’t be read. If they don’t read them, they can’t see you as someone that is competent in the niche you are writing about. If they don’t see you as an expert in your niche, they won’t be as likely to do business with you. So your articles need to be read by the visitors who come across your articles, wherever they are.

The best way to write articles that will position you as an expert is to answer questions that are common to people who are in that niche, or solve a common problem. If you want to make the most bang for the buck, write an article that answers a common question to get more eyes on your article and also write an article that answers an advanced question in that niche to get some expertise points under your belt. You can even refer people that are reading the article that answers the common question to read the article that answers the advanced question to maximize your results on this strategy.

2) Write a compelling resource box

Article marketing only makes sense because you are getting readers who are reading your article to go to your website when they are done. If people are not going to your web site after they read your article, then it doesn’t really matter how many people are reading your article, you are not going to be able to monetize your article writing efforts. So the importance of writing a powerful resource box is becomes very apparent. Your resource box is your ticket to getting the people to your website. It should be a powerful call to action that tells people more solutions to their problems, or more answers to their questions can be found on your website. The website you are sending them to should be a supplementary source that supports your article, so if it makes sense to send them to a specific page on your web site, than the home page, then send them to an inner page. Don’t make the mistake of adding totally unrelated sites to your resource box just because you may be able to get some link juice because that will certainly detract from the quality of the article as well as not give you as much link juice as you may thing you are getting.

3) Write enough articles to provide the traffic and exposure

You should plan to write at least 50 articles in your target niche. Any less than that and you are short-changing yourself. Article marketing is a process that builds upon itself and you really need to create a watershed articles before you begin to see steady traffic to your website from your article writing efforts. Many people make the mistake of only writing and submitting a few articles, but then end up realizing that they aren’t getting great results. By writing a minimum of 50 articles, you build up your status as an author to the different article directories and your articles begin to build on each other as more and more people will see them and begin to use them on their web sites and in their newsletters. Also this number of articles will allow you to showcase your talents and knowledge on the subtle topics of your niche, as well as allow you to promote multiple products and services.
Article marketing is a powerful way to drive traffic to your website when it is done right. There are many eBooks out there and services that lead you step by step on how to fully maximize the profits you can make on your article marketing efforts. The next step should be to know how to fully monetize your articles so you can plan a powerful and long term strategy of benefiting from your article marketing efforts.

This is a list of some places you can submit your blog to.

This list will grow as time goes on...

boingboing.net
dir.blogflux.com

portal.eatonweb.com
wutzle.com
5starblogs.com

Blogdust
Blog Directory

While blogging originally had the purpose of easily allowing people to post their personal thoughts online, blogs today are used for a number of different reasons. Now some of the most interesting and useful blogs are used for educational purposes, where the focus is to educate an audience about a specific topic. When using a blog for this purpose however, there are a few additional steps that you must consider before you create your blog and customize it to your website. Most of these steps are rather straightforward, but should still be taken into consideration.

Determine the Target Market for Your Blog

Choosing your target market is a standard step for any online or offline business endeavor you choose to go into. This is especially true for an educational blog, because when creating an educational blog, in addition to determining your target market down to the specific niche, you also have to decide what knowledge level your desired target audience has of your subject material. The knowlege level will also have an impact on the content contained in your educational blog.



Are you educating people who have almost no knowledge of your topic, or are you educating people who have a basic knowledge of the subject and are enhancing what they know. Both audiences will require very different kinds of information, even if it is the same subject or niche.

Determine How You Want to Educate Your Users

In order to know how you want to educate your users, you will need to decide what it is your blog is going to accomplish. Will it be to provide a place to post comprehensive details about specific products you offer, a place to post class homework and lessons, or perhaps a way to share answers to the most frequently asked questions you get in your business? Once you have determined the specific type of educational purpose your blog will serve, you will need to set up the blog to allow it to support your specified goals.

Determine the Format for Your Blog

Once you have determined how you want to educate your users, or target market, you will need to determine the format for your blog, or how you will present the information.



If your purpose is to answer frequently asked questions, you should set up your blog to have many categories, which are listed on the side. This will allow visitors easy access to your questions. You would also want to have links to the latest FAQ entries in your sidebar. The title of your FAQ entry, should be the question, and body of the blog post should contain your answer. If you have the ability to put a link in your blog entry, you should link to another part of your site that gives even more detailed information about the related question if available.



If your purpose is to provide instruction sheets about specific products and services, you should set up your blog to have enough categories to define the largest grouping of products. The title of your blog should be the product name and the phrase 'feature set', or 'instructions'. The post body should be the instructions or feature set, or it could be a brief description with a link to a downloadable pdf file of the feature set or instructions.



If your blog's purpose is to post lessons for students who are taking an online course, then you would typically only need categories if you are teaching more than one course through your blog, and in this case, each category would be named after the course. Each specific blog posting would have the title of the lesson being taught, plus the lesson number (I.E. the category would be Computer Science 101, the title would be Lesson 10: Functions and Procedures). The actual post body could be the entire lesson, or a brief description of the lesson and a link to a downloadable pdf file that the student can print out and use, or both (posting lesson in the blog with a link to a downloadable version of the lesson.

Allow Users to Comment on Your Postings

Allowing users to leave comments on your blog will enable them to ask questions about lessons, or other educational content. Using comments is a great way to get feedback that you can use to fill in any missing pieces that you may have overlooked. Comments from your users will also provide additional perspectives to the subject matter at hand and will allow other blog readers to answer questions if appropriate.

Allow Users to Download Files From Your Blog

If you use your blog for educational purposes, you will probably have additional resources that you will want to make available to your users such as white papers, lessons, product information sheets, or a syllabus. Depending upon the nature of your educational based blog, some of the information you may want to convey is best done as a pdf file instead of a blog entry. Most of the good blogging software today will allow you to upload files to your site that you can make available to your readers/students. This will give you more flexibility in the way you can educate and communicate with your readers.

An educational blog can be a powerful means of communicating and teaching your audience the specific information you wish to share and it can be done in a number of different ways. Once you have the content in your blog, it can be a great resource and tool for your visitors for years to come, and is very easy to maintain and update as new material becomes available. Your next step should be to learn how to incorporate other features into your educational blog that will allow you to earn revenue so your blog can pay for itself.

Don't just stop at creating an educational blog. Create a blog that will pay for itself, so you can put your resources into building it up more or putting it into other things entirely.
Find out more about blogging at thisArticle Dirctory
. Learn how to make money with Educational Blogs.


Tags: blogs - education - blog marketing - business blogging

Your blog is your means of expressing yourself to the world. It is a very powerful way of branding yourself and a very effective means of building a relationship with your readers. In order to take advantage of the power of blogging, you should make sure you follow some simple rules that will keep you on the right side of blogging and make both your visitor's and your experinece much more enjoyable.

Be Timely With Your Postings

If you publish a blog called "The Wednesday Afternoon Report", and you start out posting to it every Wednesday afternoon, then your audience will begin to expect a new posting every Wednesday afternoon. You can think of your blog like a newsletter. Consistancy is key. This consistance is what will increase the number of visitors that come back to your blog. Returning visitors gives you the opportunity to build a relationship with your readers.

Give Credit to Where Credit is Due

Sometimes the perfect and most timely posting is commenting on a news item, another blog posting, an article, or a web site. This is appropriate to do, but you should give credit and a link to the source document. You can link to the source document from within your post, or link to it as a footnote at the end of your post. If the source document is another blog, you can refer to it through what is known as a trackback link.

Be a Good Networker

Your blog is a good place to spotlight other bloggers. Most blogging software out there allows you to do this through a feature referred to as a blogroll. It is basically a list of links to other bloggers who you like, or other bloggers that are blogging about the same subject as you. This will add value to your visitors experience and give them additional resources to explore.

Structure Your Blog Site Well

Structure your blog so that it is easy to read, and find past postings. Don't put so many graphics that it detracts from what you are trying to say. Highlight relevant postings that you may have made in the past that relate to your current posting. A good way to highlight them is to link to them directly from the blog post, or if they are more general, and relate to many postings, you can list your latest postings to the side, next to your blogroll.



Another good technique to use with your blog is to separate your postings into categories when it makes sense. That way, visitors can access a more specific group of postings they may be interested in. For an even more robust blog, a search function will allow easy access to your postings, especially when you have quite a few posts.

Keep Content Fresh

You will want to set up your blog so the most recent postings are placed at the top, or on the first page. It is set up in the reverse format of a diary. Instead of the most recent entries being on the last page, the most recent entries are on the first page. Most blogging software today is setup to work this way so that your newest postings are seen first by your visitors.

Be Consistant and Reliable

The best way to be reliable is to provide content that is true and accurate. Double check your facts and be prepared to back them up. Remember, your blog is a powerful means of branding yourself, and if you keep to the truth, you will build the strength of the words you say in your blog, and magnify the influence you have with your readers. Once you build your word, your recommendations will then truly mean something to your readers.

Respect Privacy

There are many privacy issues that come into play with a blog. If you have a newsletter that your blog readers can subscribe to, you should make sure to respect the privacy of your subscribers and never rent or sell their emails to a third party. You may promote a third party's goods or services to your list, but those emails should never be given to a third party.



Another area where privacy may come into play is within the actual postings themselves. If you refer to someone by name, from your personal life in your postings, you should get permission from that person first. Other potentially sensitive issues, such as partnerships, business dealings and internal company policies should also be considered as being appropriate, before posting these things to your blog.

Give Readers a Reason to Come Back

Blogs that have a personal and human component are more interesting to read than blogs that have no personality. Putting unique and personal experiences in your blog, like how your computer meltdown experience relates to today's posting, add a wonderful new dimension to your blog. Visitors actually want to connect with you and sharing your personal experiences is a great way to connect with them.



Increase the deliverability of your message by being passionate and conveying emotions in your postings. People are emotional beings and connect on an emotional level rather than an intellectual one. Adding emotion to your blog will add an additional way for your readers to connect with you.



Blogging can be a very rewarding experience, a powerful way to connect with your visitors, is very flexible and can be done to fit anyone's style. However, no matter what the style of blogging you choose, certain rules should still be followed to make the reader's experience more enjoyable. You can also learn other techniques to increase reader participation and reader response rate that can make your blog a powerful tool to earn and additional stream of income. Research the many good ebooks available, that cover these techniques in detail.


Tags: blog - blogging - publishing - marketing - internet

The term blogging has recently found its way into the standard Internet terminology. While most people don't have a blog, or don't even know the first thing about blogging, they have heard of the term and have at least a vague idea of what it means. If you decide to venture into the world of blogging, there are some things you must do to increase your chances of making your blog more successful. Most of these things are common sense, but some of them may be new to a first-time blogger.

1. Identify the Target Market for Your Blog

You should focus on one topic area, or related topic areas for your blog. If your blog wanders too much in many different direction, it becomes a general discussion blog, and you risk losing the more motivated readers to your blog. For example, if your target market of interest is travel, then you would want to focus your blog on topics related to travel. You could broaden your topics to include adventure travel, cruises, all-inclusives, hotels, etc., however the more focused you are in your topics (if you just stick with cruises), the more effective your blog will be in terms of branding you as an expert about cruises, and the more responsive your readers will be to your cruise related posts.

2. Give the Readers to Your Blog What They Want

Unless your blog is set up to just display your random streams of consciousness, the readers to your blog are going to want valuable and timely information that is accurate. If you are making statements about policies or current events, you should back them up with links to the sources you used to make those statements. It is also important to keep the reader interested by giving your own personal insights, or giving a new way to look at current events. Putting your own personality into your blog is essential and will keep your readers interested in what you have to say.

3. The More Creative Your Blog, The Better

Creativity is within reason of course. However with so many blogs out there today, it's now more difficult to have your blog stand out from the rest. Your blog must have personality and depth to keep people's interest. Also realize that your blog will not appeal to everyone, and that is OK. Your blog is not meant to appeal to everyone, that is why you first went throug the step of determining your target market and targeting your blog to those readers.

4. Your Blog Should Be Clear

While your grammar doesn't have to be exactly perfect, or at a college level, it should be easily readable. If your blog is written in such a way that people have to re-read it 3 or 4 times in order to understand it, then you will quickly lose their interest. Remember, your readers don't want to have to work to read your blog, and they shouldn't have to if they know how to read. Make sure your spelling and punctuation are correct. The points you wish to make in your blog posts should also be to the point and clear, and not wander to far from the main point, as this will confuse the reader, or cause the reader to lose interest before they finish your blog posting.

5. Keep Your Blog Content Up To Date

Think of your blog as your way of communicating with the world. Communication is an ongoing activity and your blog should respond in the same way. Make regular updates and postings to your blog to keep the content fresh. One of the easiest ways to do add fresh content is to make the blog posting where you comment about what is going on in the news, and relate that news item to your topic. It may require some creativity, but it should be quite doable.

6. Make Your Blog Interactive.

One of the best ways to develop your blog into a powerhouse is to allow other readers to comment on your blog. If your blog is really interesting and inciteful to your readers, chances are they will want to comment on what you have to say. This provides more points of view and is also a very easy way to keep your blog up to date without you having to write everything! Also comments on your blog posts by other readers, will make your blog more interesting to your target audience.



Be sure to keep a close eye on your comments however as there are spammers who will post irrelevant comments on your blog just to get a link back to their own site. Many blog programs now come with verification features that will force a live user to enter a comment. This doesn't stop spammers completely, but it does stop the automated programs from filling your blog with comment spam.

The world of blogging is a great way to allow individuals to express their opinions, businesses to strengthen their customer relationships, and website owners to bring more exposure to their websites. The more successfully you follow the above tips, the better you are able to brand yourself as an expert in that area, and the more exposure you will get to your blog and/or business. Your next steps should be updating your blogging style to include the above steps, and learning more about blogs, discovering what software is available, and finding out where you can read more about blogs.

Tags: blog - blogging - target market