Article Writing and Marketing

Article Marketing has two phases, and, both are important. They are: the writing and promotion of your article. Sounds simple, doesn't it? But many people get a little sloppy with this, because they either don't think it is important, or they don't know how to write online text. With that being said, let's go with the first phase, article writing.

Article Writing

Why write articles. One of the most important reasons is that offer a great way to create one way links (backlinks) if done correctly.

For those new to article writing, you must first realize that the online article does have some differences from your school essay or creative piece of work. Here are some of the elements to consider when writing your article:

Keywords-Make sure keywords are in your Title and in the Content
Content must be of quality-that's a given. If the quality of the content is lacking, you're not going to have many people pick up your article
Use subheadings. Why? People on the internet scan first, then read only what interest them
Resource box. Use this piece of real estate with care. The link(s) you provide in the resource box is where you will create your back link.
Make sure your link is anchored
Keyword density - There are different theories to the keyword density of a page. Some say 2-3 specific keywords or keywords phases per 500 words of content. And others use a formula for the keyword density.

D=Word count/Keyword count
For major keywords 3-7%
For minor keywords 1-2%
As to the length of your article, it varies. Some articles directories say that your article should be at least 500 words and no greater than 1000 words. Others think it is ideal to have an article between the range of 700 and 1000 words. Translated, look at what the article directories request for submission purposes. If your article covers more than one topic and is rather long, consider splitting it into two articles.

Let's be clear, if you are planning on writing only one article, forget article marketing. At a minimum you should have 20 articles. That's a pretty good beginning.

As you write, you'll learn what type of articles work, and what types don't. That can give you direction in writing for your site. Personally, I've found trendy articles have a short lifespan. If you can create relevant content, it can pull in a lot of traffic over a period of years.

Your Signature, Your Resource Box

I thought I would elaborate on the the "Resource Box" a little more. Though this little box of information may seem irrelevant to you now, trust me, it's an important piece to your article marketing strategy.

Your resource box is where you can direct the reader to your web page or web pages. If they like your article, they are going to want to see what additional information you can offer them. And, if you anchor your link, you've just created a backlink on the article directory site. So, what should that small box of opportunity, include?

Your signature. Your signature will include: Your name, then include your website link to your main page. The link should be hot.
The second hot link should be directed to the page in which the article is talking about, be it a product, service, a squeeze page, etc.

Article Writing- Do's, Don'ts, and Maybes

Before I go any further, I would like to state that these are my personal "do's" and "don'ts" and "maybes" of article writing.

DON'TS OF ARTICLE WRITING

1. Don't just write a lot of junk articles and put your link in your resource box to get the streams of traffic flowing. If you're only going after quantity and ignore the quality-forget it. Quality has to be at the top of your list when writing an article or no one will pick it up to put it in their ezine or on their website. Which translates into a lot of work for nothing.

2. Take care utilizing article writing software programs that will instantly "create an article" for you. Let me explain.

Inadvertently, some article software programs scrape the web for pieces of articles, based on the criteria that you put into the program. If the webmaster sees the scrapping, you're gone.

My advice is not to mass submit your article to 1000 directories in one day. Why? Google may consider it spam. Translated, Use the software responsibly-your business depends on it.

3. Private Label Articles- Nothing is wrong with PLA, it's just that you need to know where not to use them. PLAs are best used for your website alone, and should not be used in an Article Marketing Campaign. (If you're planning on using them in Article Directories). If you do try to slide a PLA in front of an article directory-you might be rejected if caught.

Do's' OF ARTICLE WRITING

1. Write your own articles, it can brand you and your site as an expert if the quality of the article(s) is good.
2. Quality is important if you want a webmaster or ezine master to pick it up for use. How important. You can see ezine masters or webmasters picking up your article years down the road if the content is still relevant.
3. Be aware of duplicate content

Keywords and Writing your Article

Your keywords is definitely important to your article. It is these words that can draw the search engines to your topic, and in turn, get people to your site. If they see it, read it, they may click on your link. But, the big problem for many is, "where do I place my keywords?"

Your keywords should be place in the following areas:

Your Title
Your first sentence
In the last paragraph

And remember, don't over do the "keywords". Why? You can get stuck by Google for overstuffing, and you probably will not get many readers. To much of a good thing (keywords) spoils the article.

Duplicate Content

Duplicate content is another issue. Is there any penalties to your site for duplicate content? Google states that "there is really no duplicate content" penalties -per se. However, they do not want you to:

1. Scrape other sites and put it on your own site as "yours".
2. Or develop domain farms-multiple pages, domains or subdomains of duplicate content

Thus, duplicate content will not be penalized, but if they find that it appears that your intent to having the duplicate content is to deceive or to manipulate the search engines then Google will choose a version of the content that they feel is appropriate. And your site may suffer in the following manner:

1)Site might be removed from Google index, or
2) Ranking of site may suffer.

How does Google choose which to index. In most cases, Google and the other search engines consider the following:

1) Age of that particular piece of content at that URL
2) Page Rank of the URL
3) Age and trust of the site

For more information about Duplicate Content, check out "Demystifying duplicate content penalty by Google".

Multiple URLS On Same Domain

How about multiple URLS on the same domain that point to the same content? This type of duplicate content can affect your site's performance but not cause penalties. But it makes it more tedious for the search engines.

Google's solution will be to gather all the duplicate URLS into one collected group, and select the best URL to represent the group. then they will consolidate the properties of the URLS in the group to determine link popularity, etc.

The best way to tell Google which URL you prefer listed is to put it in your sitemap.

Submitting To The Article Directories

Now that you have your articles written, you're ready to submit to the different article directories.

As you will soon see, this can be a time consuming element of your daily work, if you do it manually. If you are starting out, and low on cash, I'd do it manually, and then as your income improves, you can look at other methods of submitting your articles.

Submitting Your Article

The first time your submit an article to a directory, you will have to do the following:

Set up an account with each of the article directories that you want to place you article in.
Read their rules and follow them-or you may find your article is rejected.
Once you have been accepted, you can place your article in their directory.
You'll see spaces in which you will have to cut and paste your Title, byline, summary (which is usually two or three lines of your article), body of your article, and your resource box.
Preview your article-to make sure that your content does not have any widows, and is properly formatted for viewing
Spellcheck
Submit and wait for acceptance of your article

Pros and Cons of Article Marketing

There are always pros and cons to anything, and it's no different for article marketing.

Pros to Article Marketing

Article Marketing can help your site gain the following:
1. Backlinks-One Way Links
2. Constant streams of traffic from different websites
3. Creditability-if you write quality articles
4. Branding

Cons to Article Marketing

1. When submitting to some article directories you may on occasion find your article has been picked up by a "spam site" or sites that are looking for only an "Adsense" payoff. But the upside, it still gives you a backlink.

2. Or, you may find on occasion that an individual will decide that they don't need your resource box. Which by the way is copyright infringement.

3. Sometimes, you may find a webmaster that has changed your copy, but feeling a little guilty about what he/she has done, keeps your resource box in place. But the article may be, well terrible. Option here is to say, take my resource box off, change the title and put your own name on it, because this article is not even close to what I have written.

To conclude, article writing, is a great way to market your website for targeted traffic. If you take the time and do it right, you will see dividends that don't just last a day, but maybe years.