Internet marketing professionals all over the world are using article marketing strategies to provide them with both traffic and links to their websites, but many of them don’t realize the value of a well written article over a poorly written one.

They have seen first-hand the benefits of article marketing and know that articles have a variety of uses, including:

* content for websites
* blog posts
* publication in ezines and newsletters
* syndication and
* mass distribution

Make Your Article Easy to Read

1. Spelling and Grammar Matter!
Ensuring that an article is free of spelling and grammatical errors is important – to the reader if not for the writer!

When you are positioning yourself as an ‘expert’ you have to wrap yourself in credibility. If your article contains spelling or grammatical errors, the reader’s eye is drawn to them, breaking their concentration.

These errors show a lack of attention to detail, which will reflect poorly on the author. Your goal is to have an article that easy to read, all the way to the end, without any obstacles.

2. Simple Language

People who are looking for information online are used to it being delivered to them quickly – they seek instant gratification.

If an article appears difficult to read, they will move on to one that is easier for them to digest. Using big, fancy words won’t do you any favors because your readers may not be as knowledgeable as you.

It is important to know your target audience and they way they speak – then pitch to that level. This article marketing strategy is vital if you want to really connect with your buyers.

3. Scary Text

Big paragraphs can be very daunting as well – they spell ‘hard work’ to people who are used to quickly extracting key points.

You should make it easy for your readers – short, sharp sentences in small paragraphs. Sub-headings and bullet points are great tools to help you to do this.

4. Accuracy Is A Good Thing!

Most importantly though, know your stuff. When writing for a specific niche, your articles should be based on facts using language to which those readers will relate. Research well and provide interesting, relevant information.

5. Articles Are NOT Sales Letters

Don’t try to ‘sell’ in an article.

If appropriate you can offer an ‘opinion’ or ‘review’ or speak in general terms about products or services, but get your readers to your website before delivering a sales pitch. Even then, many marketers choose to first gather contact details (‘squeeze’) before attempting a sale.

Know that your objective is to create enough interest for the reader to want to follow your “Call To Action” in the Resource Box or final paragraph.

By following using these article marketing strategies, your article is more likely to be published by an ezine or newsletter (with links to your site intact), dramatically expanding its reach.

Today the head honcho at ezinearticles.com, Chris Knight, announced that the free publishing site had really picked up its game and promised faster article approval turnaround times:

“Recent improvements make NOW the perfect time to submit your articles!

There’s an old adage around this part of the world that says, “Ya gotta make hay while the sun shines.” Essentially, it means that you need to take advantage of an opportunity before that opportunity slips away.

Boy, do we have an opportunity for you!

For many months, EzineArticles has been working hard to increase our editorial capacity and streamline our processes in an effort to reduce our article review times to less than 24 business hours. We’re happy to report that our efforts have finally paid off and we are enjoying the luxury of unusually fast review times.

If you’ve been hesitant to submit a large number of articles because of longer-than-usual review times, now is the time to act. With shorter review times come increased article submissions, so in the next few days we expect submissions to increase to fill our new-found capacity and this window of opportunity may begin to close.

Bottom Line: Make hay while the sun shines.

We look forward to seeing your next set of high-quality original articles!”

Source: http://blog.ezinearticles.com/2010/01/call-for-articles.html

This is great news for those internet marketers who want to pounce on product launches as they happen. Let’s hope EZA will be able to live up to the promise….

There is a wealth of free information in the public domain, mostly from government agencies, that can be used as the source of website content. Having authoritative material like this that can be modified to your purpose is really valuable when positioning yourself as an ‘expert’ in your niche.

Public domain refers to works that are not protected by copyright and are publicly available. They may be used by anyone, anywhere, anytime without permission, license or royalty payment.

A work may enter the public domain because the term of copyright protection has expired, because copyright has been abandoned, or in the U.S. because it is a U.S. Government work and there is no other statutory basis for the Government to restrict its access.

A work is not in the public domain simply because it does not have a copyright notice. Additionally, the fact that a privately created work is, with permission, included in a U.S. Government work does not place the private work into the public domain. The user is responsible for determining whether a work is in the public domain.

It is important to read the permissions and copyright notices on U.S. Government publications and Web sites. Many Government agencies follow the practice of providing notice for material that is copyrighted and not for those that are in the public domain. Examples of government agency copyright policies and statements are: National Library of Medicine, NASA Center for AeroSpace Information (CASI), and Library of Congress.

Note however that the terms public release, disclosure or dissemination mean the same as public domain are not synonymous and should not be used interchangeably. Public release, disclosure and dissemination describe the availability of a work. Publicly released, disclosed or disseminated information may be owned and protected by copyright, and therefore, not be in the public domain.

Food for thought?

For many people, internet marketers especially, finding what to put in an article can waste an inordinate amount of time.  They might agonize over what to write about that will be relevant and interesting, but as with most things, its best to not over-analyse it.  Once you start writing, your thoughts should grow from there.

Staring at a blank screen won’t get you anywhere so take the first step: open up a notepad on your desktop, and get ready to start copy/pasting – and you will soon see that I am NOT encouraging plagiarism here.  First two steps:

1. Look at your website, your keywords and your product/service
2. Research what competitors’ (if any) are saying on their sites

Pull out the key elements:  problems, solutions, features and benefits,  and make a list. Each of these key points can be the subject of an article. This is the simplest way to get some direction, other are:

• Find a forum with members interested in your niche. Look at the questions they are asking or problems they have. (A good marketer will identify a potential product/service here!) Some simple research should be able to deliver the solution and provide fodder for several articles.
• Seek out a manufacturer’s site or government agency website – both often provide in depth, too technical information. Take the key points and dumb them down – you will end up with an article with substance but which is easy to understand.
• Visit a newsagent or drug store and browse the magazine racks for publications in your niche.  Note the topics – and use them!

Articles don’t need to be works of art, but they do need to make sense, deliver value and have good grammar and spelling if you are to get maximum benefit from them.

Let me know if this helps.

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 posting.

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!

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.

Whether you are a beginner or have been writing internet marketing SEO articles 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!

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

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.

The most worthwhile aspect to the Guide, for consumers, is that it brings a new transparency to Reviews and Testimonials – if it is enforced. But as the FTC has jurisdiction only in the US, it is unclear what the implications are for international internet marketers.

Here is a snapshot of the FTC Announcement, with a link to the FTC page:

“The Federal Trade Commission today announced that it has approved final revisions to the guidance it gives to advertisers on how to keep their endorsement and testimonial ads in line with the FTC Act.

The notice incorporates several changes to the FTC’s Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising, which address endorsements by consumers, experts, organizations, and celebrities, as well as the disclosure of important connections between advertisers and endorsers. The Guides were last updated in 1980.

Under the revised Guides, advertisements that feature a consumer and convey his or her experience with a product or service as typical when that is not the case will be required to clearly disclose the results that consumers can generally expect. In contrast to the 1980 version of the Guides – which allowed advertisers to describe unusual results in a testimonial as long as they included a disclaimer such as “results not typical” – the revised Guides no longer contain this safe harbor.

>>> Go to the FTC Announcement

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?