One article goes a long way
All internet marketers know the value of article marketing, and there are a lot of services that help get your articles great exposure. They are so important for link generation, and for attracting targeted traffic to your site.
By ensuring that you write, or have written for you, really good articles (with correct grammar, spelling and keyword placement), you have what it takes to be able to make them go a long way.
You can use each and every one as the ‘bones’ for:
• Forum posts
• Blog posts (your blogs as well as comments on other people’s)
• Squidoo lenses
• Hub Pages
• eHow pages, and so on
By having a good article to start with, you won’t have to start from scratch for each piece of SEO Content.
Here are some tips:
1. Note down the key points in the article. If there are several, each can be the subject of a blog post.
2. When converting articles to shorter blog posts, for use with link generating services or blog networks, use each of key points as separate posts, ensuring that your keyword stays in each title and is hyperlinked in the body.
3. If problems are solved in the article, for example “Best way to…..?”, use these as threads to start in forum posts “How to…”. Make it interesting and valuable enough so that you can add a response where warranted. This is really useful when the forum allows you to have links in your sig file. As well……. you might get some feedback by others in the forum (for future articles on the topic!) in this way.
(And I don’t mean THIS forum! Forums whose members are really focused on your niche e.g. fitness, finance, wrinkles – they really crave solutions.)
4. After you have isolated the key points in the article – repeat the process with your next article on the same topic. THEN you probably have the material needed to create a whole new article that might be “Top 5 Reasons Why…”, “Top 10 ways to…..”, or “7 Things You Should Know About….”
Avoid
1. Trying to rework material that is barely readable to begin with – its hard, and a waste of time. Its easier to write a new article than rewrite a poorly written one.
2. Changing a few sentences here and there and hoping for the best – you can expect the worst.
3. Blatantly ‘pitching’ in forum posts.
4. Devaluing your own ‘authority’ blog by adding reworked material that you’ve already used.
If you have previously written articles or blog posts, why not give them a makeover, and get some more mileage out them.
Article marketing can be a lot more that simply getting an article published!
KISS – Men and Article Writing
Keep It Simple Stupid!
Writing a good SEO article isn’t difficult if you follow basic steps – and that is perhaps why so many male internet marketers would rather outsource this task. This is not intended as a negatively sexist comment, but more an observation. Consider the following to see if you agree with me:
- When some men are give a new mechanical device, often their first urge is to take it apart to see how it works. The fact that their investigation leads to the items failure to perform in its intended way is irrelevant.
- When you bring ‘assemble yourself’ furniture home, the first thing a man reaches for is the screwdriver or allen key – the last resort is the instructions leaflet (which is invariable in dubiously translated English, granted).
- They will spend hours cleaning a barbeque and then get distracted during the 10 minute cooking process and burn the steak………..
Back to article writing
So, when I tell you that over 70% of my clients are male internet marketers, it is worthwhile to acknowledge that there are differences in the way men and women think. Obviously for me, that’s a very GOOD thing. It means that one of my major income streams, providing writing services for internet marketers, is doing nicely. I am constantly looking for new writers to join my team, and it doesn’t take long for me to see who ‘gets it’. And mostly it is women – although I have had one male writer for well over a year now (and you know who you are JC!) who is sensational!
KISS
Keeping it simple is one of the main things I look for in writers. That they can understand a sometimes complex topic and produce articles that, while interesting and informative, are able to be understood by the common man, is a gift. Convoluted sentence structure, overly technical terms, and flowery language are NOT required.
Outsourcing
So for all of those internet marketers out there, particular those who cannot or do not want to, write articles – outsource! There are people like me out there who would be glad to help you out – and in the process you allow us to set up own own businesses as service providers. There is plenty of work to go around, and some work can be done quite cheaply.
However, if it is quality, original, SEO content you need – you know where to find me!
Postscript:
In order to continue to deliver premium content to my current clients, I have closed my list to new clients for 2009. Please do contact me though if you would like to be contacted 2010.
Article Writing – Getting The Basics Right
Whether you are a beginner or have been writing internet marketing SEO content for some time, it is important to know that you are getting the basics right. Are you?
Keyword Placement
Are you placing your well-researched keyword properly? It should be in your article title, in the first and last paragraphs, and once or twice in the body of the article, depending on its length. Don’t use them gratuitously – if your article is well written they should appear organically anyway. Overuse of keywords will cause readers to click away – probably not what you had planned.
Interesting Headline
Make your headline as interesting as possible – but not at the expense of losing your keyword. “5 Ways to..”, “Top Seven Reasons Why…”, “The Truth Behind…” – all invoke curiosity.
Deliver Value
Don’t waste your readers’ time. Have something of value in the article, teach them something they might not already know. But don’t fall into the trap of telling them everything about the topic – they need to have a reason to visit your site to learn more.
Make Your Resource Box Work For You
If you are posting your article to a publishing site that provides a Resource Box, use it to its full potential. Don’t waste time telling the reader your life story (they don’t care, they just want to know what you can do for THEM). You can BRIEFLY position yourself as an expert, but more importantly you need to deliver a call to action – tell the reader what he or she needs to do next, i.e. find out more at http://www.yourwebsite.com. BIG HINT: Don’t use hypertext in your research box – the link may be lost when the article is reproduced elsewhere.
There are many other ways to tweak your articles for SEO and the associated traffic and links, but get these basics right, and you know you are on the right path.
And if article writing is not your forte, don’t agonize over it – outsourcing article writing is easy, and gives you the freedom to do the things you do enjoy and are good at!
Ezinearticles.com – On The Warpath!
For many years ezinearticles.com has given article marketers the best exposure for their work. As with all good vehicles for internet marketers though, the site has felt the impact of those who would abuse it, to submit second rate articles that have been changed minimally from ones already on the site. But no more.
In the last few weeks there has been much whining and bitching in the internet marketing community about the tough stance ezinearticles is making on this. It is going to hurt a lot of them, especially those who are outsourcing the ‘spinning’ of articles, or who are using PLR. The more astute ones already know the value of quality articles, and now maybe, perhaps, the also-rans will stop the moaning long enough to realise that this is a GOOD thing! That maybe if they invest in what ezinearticles wants – ‘original, exclusive’ articles, their articles will find their way out of ‘problem status’ and be published..
Now by ‘exclusive’, EZA CEO Chris Knight, is at pains to point out that he is not saying that you can’t put your articles on your own website AND EZA. Of course you can. But what you cannot do is take that article, change the headline and the first few lines, and then submit it everywhere else. This is called ‘derivative content’ and it devalues not only the article on EZA, but the article on your website as well – and THAT is bad!
By using a human (with a good command of English!), and not spinning software, to rewrite your article will provide you with yet another original article for submission to EZA or one of the other article publishing or distribution sites. Treat EZA with respect and you will be rewarded with nice traffic.
Chris Knight explains more here: http://blog.ezinearticles.com/2009/10/derivative-content-be-gone.html
Before you write an affiliate testimonial…..
The US Federal Trade Commission has this week announced new guides relating to Testimonial Advertisements, Bloggers and Celebrity Endorsements. Internet Marketing Event Organizers take note! While there are many gray areas that need testing, e.g. Does is an affiliate relationship an “important connection between advertisers and endorsers”?
My reading is that affiliates who are not employees of the advertiser may not be caught in the net, if you are an employee-affiliate, there could be a problem. Read the rest of this entry »
Copywriter or Content Writer?
I am a content writer. I write SEO website pages, articles and blog posts. I know how to do this, and I’ve been told I’m pretty good at it.
I also know what I am not – yet. And that is a copywriter. Copywriters are the people who put together those (usually) very long sales letters that are constructed in such a way as to create many buying opportunities throughout their reading. I understand the concepts – I know I need to identify problems, solve them, empathize with people with that problem, make them an offer they can’t refuse, include bonuses and guarantees. I know this.
A little while ago I had the pleasure of meeting the world’s greatest living copywriter, John Carlton. In fact, I had a few beers and dinner with him, and his business partner Stan Dahl in both Melbourne and Brisbane, Australia – and I had in the two weeks leading up to that night, heard John speak in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
John is a gifted speaker, a raconteur, and a really smart man to boot – and demonstrates to his audience that he really knows his stuff.
John says that all copywriters are salespeople, and that those of us who aspire to be good copywriters need to understand what we are selling: “It’s not the thing, it’s the result” he says.
Learning copywriting from John Carlton would be an opportunity not to be missed, so when I heard that John was going to open up a Simple Writing System home mentoring program, I had to get more information – and I will be sharing this with you as information is released.
I think it’s time I stepped out of my comfort zone, and enlisted the support of John Carlton’s Simple Writing System – what about you?
Forum Signature Links
Are you a member of a Forum that allows you to post links to your website in your signature file?
This is a really powerful tool that all internet marketers should utilize to the max. If you are in a forum, it is hugely likely that it will be populated by people with you have some sort of affinity, who will be interested in your product or service, right?
While it is OK to have the url for your website, e.g. http://www.internetbusinessevents.com – under your name, it is much more powerful, and a lot less ugly to have the words “Internet Business Events” there instead, hyperlinked to your site.
So here is how you do it in most forums:
To get the words: Stay Up To Date With Internet Business Events
You need to type in the following:
Stay up to date with [url=http://www.internetbusinessevents.com]Internet Marketing Events[/url]
Insert your own website url after the http://… and the words you want to link from in place of the “internet marketing events” in my example.
Easy!
Good luck.
Affiliate Marketing Articles – Know The Rules!
Affiliate Marketing is a a type of internet marketing where a business (or ‘merchant’) rewards others (‘registered affiliates’) by way of an ‘affiliate commission’ for each customer or sale resulting from the affiliates’ marketing efforts.
If you are writing for affiliate marketers, or are an affiliate marketer yourself, here are some tips on how to place and format links to ensure they are accepted by most article distribution sites:
- Write quality articles that provide real information about the topic
- Don’t include the ‘whole story’. You need to provide just enough information on the topic to encourage readers to click on your link to find out more!
- Where Resource Boxes are used, make the information you include relevant to the article. Don’t use the same Resource Box over and again, unless it relates to the article.
- Don’t put your life story in the Resource Box. Rather demonstrate that you have particular knowledge on the topic of the article.
- Place affiliate links in the Resource Box if one is provided.
- Ideally the author should own the linked redirected URL
- Some directories require that links be to the primary domain (e.g. http://website-name.com), and disallow links like:
- http://subdomain.your-company-name.com/
- http://your-company-name.com/page.html
- http://your-company-name.com/subdirectory/page.html
- http://your-company-name.com/subdirectory/
- There is no substitute for quality! If you cannot write a good article, get someone who can to do it for you!
Internet Glossary of Terms: What the @%!* does THAT mean?
Are you just beginning to get up close and personal with the internet? Is your interest a little more than using Google to search for what you need?
If your relationship with the internet now involves business, creating websites, earning money and internet marketing, then chances are you have come across internet-specific terms that leave you confused or frustrated. I know I did, and still do!
Well, it’s taken me a while to compile it, but I’ve created a glossary of terms called “What the @%!* does THAT mean” (named after a particularly time consuming search for the meaning of one of those (everyone knows what that means) words.
Simply add your details in the panel on the right, and you will be able to download this glossary of terms – no charge, my gift to my readers.
If you have any terms to add, I’d love to hear from you!
Writing Project Management Tool
From July 1 I am phasing out managing my projects via email – too cumbersome with my growing client base. I’ve looked at the various project managemet tools around, and decidedon one that is middle-of-the-road techie. I don’t want this to be a difficult system to use, for me, my valued clients or talented writers.
I’ve decided on ClientSpot, and am busy populating it with client and writer details now. It is going to provide a central point for me to post my projects, notify writers of the requirements, and for them to upload the files to this one spot. I can then let my clients know when the material is ready, and they can download direct from the site.
It’s great because both the writers and clients will only have access to the projects that I nominate, yet I can see them all and track their progress from one overview.
I’m hoping this will streamline my business and enable me to continue to delivery quality writing services to my clients.
Do you need my help with SEO Content?
News & Events
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Valued Clients
"Kerry Finch has been helping me with content and articles for a long time. I can highly recommend her services, and if you’re looking to learn how to become an article writer just like Kerry, then I recommend her information products. She has great information, she knows exactly what she’s doing, she’s researched it – she does this for a living, and she’s damn good at it. So make sure you take Kerry up on her writing and coaching offers - she’s really good, and I highly recommend her services."
"My partner and I own and operate a small gym in the centre of Sydney - a very competitive market to say the least! We had spoken to so-called SEO and Google experts for months and they told it would take months to get the first page of Google for our keywords.
Well now they have not met Kerry Finch. Using Kerry's article writing and distribution service we hit page one within 3 weeks and we had not use any other SEO strategy at all.
To top that, she is a wonderful lady and so, so, so helpful.
My advice stick to what you know or what you do best, and let others do what they do best.
I very highly recommend Kerry to anyone looking to kick butt in any market on the net.
"
"I’m thrilled to tell you that your advice has made a huge increase in my income! You know that I had already fumbled around and found some useful information on my own, and had some money dribbling in.
But with just a few nuggets of your wisdom and advice, I’ve landed two long-term writing projects just this week! (I equate everything to bills- so these two projects
will pay our mortgage payment)
My next goal is to re-read Overnight Writing Income and find more golden nuggets to put to use padding my bank account!""
"I am new to internet marketing and needed some good articles and blog posts to get me started. Kerry was incredibly helpful, and her service was exceptional. Her articles and posts were not only well written but covered different aspects of the topic incredibly well. Publishing the articles according to Kerry’s suggestions has resulted in driving extra traffic to my site, resulting in increased sales of my eBooks. I couldn’t have asked for more! If you are looking for high quality articles, great service and speedy response, then Kerry is your gal!"
