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Write Articles - Increase Traffic...Who Me?
Write Articles - Increase Traffic...Who Me?
by Ed Duvall
Writing articles is one of the best forms of free advertising
on or offline that is available for bringing new visitors to
your websites.
Why is that you ask?
From a website owners perspective your main consideration
should be to create interest in you, your subject matter and
your website in order to drive traffic to your site.
I have approximately, as I write this article today, 7,032
back links pointing to my website. A lot of them are due
to writing and publishing articles that are picked up by
other webmaster and published on their sites.
What good are back links? Simply put they are real back
doors that bring Free targeted trafic to my site.
So you see writing articles can lead to increased visitors
to your website. The main reasons you're writing an article
is for people to read and learn about your topic and you. After
writing an article you want it published of course. Getting it
publshed is how you're going to drive traffic to your site.
If you know your target market then the hardest part of the
work has been done for you - that of assembling a list
several thousand individuals to read your article. You can
easily find your target market by looking for ezines that share
the same interest as you.
You'll then want to submit your article(s) to those ezine
publishers and ask if they would be willing to publish it in
their ezine. You should also consider article directories
and create a webpage on your site to display articles and
submit the page to the search engines.
Here are a few of the better known article directories that
you can submit articles to:
http://www.goarticles.com
http://www.ezinearticles.com
http://www.articlecity.com
http://www.article-emporium.com
Here's A Look At The Writing Process....
There are several things to consider if you decide to write
and submit articles to ezines. The format for writing the
article itself, finding ezines to submit it to and figuring out the
right way to submit it to publishers so that it gets an above
average chance of being used by the publisher.
Writing is hard work. At least for me that is. I tend to generally
keep up with how the internet is evolving and develop an
article from changes that I see going on.
Writing articles for ezines takes on a basic format that you
should become familiar with.
If you haven't already subscribed to several good, quality
ezines do so immediately. You want to review the articles in
them so you can get a basic idea of the layout of an article
that publishers expect when you submit an article to them.
You'll notice it has:
- A Title
- The Authors Name
- The Body or Content of the Article
- An Authors Resource Box
- Sentences are under 65 characters per line
Those are the five main components of articles that are
typically submitted to ezine publishers. Your best bet is
not to vary from it in your initial writing efforts.
Let's take a look at each one of those components.
** The Title **
Often times you may not even come up with a good
attention grabbing title until after you have finished your
article. If you have a general idea of what your article is
going to cover it may be helpful later on if you jot down
some ideas right away.
**The Authors Name **
Hey you should be able to come up with this on your own.
Include yours just under the title of your article.
** The Body or Content **
By far the most important aspect of your article. The best
articles address some kind of problem or concern that readers
may be experiencing and are looking for help, guidance or
a solution for. If you have identified a bonafide problem take
the time to do the research to find a solution for it.
The solution could be in the form of a unique solution you
yourself have found, an existing one that few people know
about or you could provide several solutions from which the
reader can choose the one best suited to their needs.
Some good articles also address concerns of people in
certain areas of their life or business for which there is no
clear cut solution. If you can present the facts, known or
obscure data that will keep a reader informed on the subject
or help them come to a conclusion on their own, it will work
just as well.
Within the article it is always a nice affect if you can provide
some online resources or links that a reader can use to help
solve their own problem or gather information from which
they can draw their own conclusions.
Keep in mind that you are not writing your article(s) for the
fun of it. At least I hope you've given some thought to what
you want to accomplish using this method. Your main
purpose is to get a few if not several hundred of those
readers to visit your website so that you can present them
with your own offers for subscribing to your ezine, joining
your affiliate program, membership site or buying one of
your products.
Your efforts should be in presenting a good quality article
to the publisher. Take your time writing about the subject
you've chosen. Clearly the best method of writing on the
internet is a personal, one-to-one approach to writing,
/>
write as though you're talking to a friend or relative you
know very well.
** Authors Resource Box **
This is your byline. This allows everyone who reads
your article to learn more about you and your business.
You'll include it at the end of your article and it should
contain a short description of your site, product or service
you offer, along with your url.
It's the second most important section of your article. Here
you can put between 4 to 6 lines of text. This is the only
acceptable format for advertising yourself, your website,
ezine, product, etc. Describe it in as great a detail as you
can get into these few lines. Publishers will exercise their
own judgment and may shorten it to meet the standard
criteria they have set for all submitted articles.
Here are some more Quick Tips to remember about
writing your article:
- Keep your sentences and paragraphs short
- Use action words throughout your article
- Use examples from your own experience
- Write as though you're talking to one person
- Personalize your message
- Use plenty of white space
- Use small understandable words
- Use subheadings
- Don't hyphenate words at the end of sentences
Just one good article on a subject that is relevant
to your target market and the target market of the ezine
that you're trying to get it published in, will produce some
great publicity for you. Invite publishers of ezines with
similar interests as yours to publish the article.
You really don't want to slant it towards one of your
products, an affiliate program or have your own links
plastered throughout your article. Just about all
publishers I know will recognize that kind of writing
as a cheap effort to advertise a product at their
expense.
Think about it - if a publisher wanted to see a product,
etc promoted in his ezine he would put one of his own
in it - not some stranger he has never met. Don't try
to disguise an advertisement for one of your products
as an article. Most publishers will see right through this
scheme.
The length of your article should probably be between
400 to 1000 words. Any less than 400 doesn't give enough
depth to a subject. Any more than 1000 can be too long
for some ezine publishers who try to keep the content
of there ezine to a maximum size for purposes of
distribution and reader attention.
OK, so you've got your article written and it's a gem and
you know everyone will want to read it. Two things you
now need to focus on - finding publishers and getting
publishers to look at it.
The easiest place to start looking for publishers is in
your own email program. Have you subscribed to any
ezines? If so how many? If not - why not? If you haven't
subscribed to a lot of them then you need to "go forth
and subscribe" to as many as you can. The reason
you want to do this is to build a database of ezines
that are similar to your target market and at the same
time become familiar with the ezines format.
You can also do a search on google or any of the other
major search engines to look for ezines and article
directories that your article would be appropriate for.
Here are a few article directories to get you started:
http://www.goarticles.com
http://www.ezinearticles.com
http://www.articlecity.com
http://www.article-emporium.com
Well how do you get your article accepted in ezines?
Guess what? As long as you're in the writing mood,
you're going to have to write a short email to each
publisher and ask them to publish it. Or you can
invest in member only sites or software that will
automate this process for you.
I'm including a sample email template for you to look
at. My experience is that you modify the text and
personalize any template to your own style and writing.
Using a template as is from a resource like this soon
becomes recognizeable and automatically deleted
by most publishers who receive it. Use your imagination
when you draft your own letter.
-------------------------------------------------------
Sample E-Mail Letter To A Publisher
-------------------------------------------------------
Dear Publisher,
My name is (your name) and I subscribe to your ( ezine).
I've found it to be informative and helpful in my endeavors
on the net.
I have written an article that may be of interest and helpful
to your subscribers. If you find it suitable to your readers
I would appreciate your considering publishing it in the
(ezine).
Thank you very much for your consideration,
Sincerely,
(Your Name)
(Your Email Address)
--------------------------------
End Of Sample Letter
--------------------------------
This information should get you well on the road to writing
articles for publishing in ezines that meet the criteria for your
target market.
I highly recommend it as a way to get more visitors to your
website without spending any money on advertising.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ed Duvall is webmaster for http://www.cashway.com and
http://www.instantnettraffic.com providing internet marketing articles and resources to help you with your online business. Reprint this article as long as resource box is not changed.
Copyright 2005 cashway.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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| United States Small Business Administration |
| An electronic gateway of procurement information for and about small businesses. Search engine for contracting officers, marketing tool for small firms, ... |
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| SBA |
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| Online and print small business publication. Information to help start, grow or manage a small business. |
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| www.score.org |
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| IR-2006-2, January 3, 2006 - Temporary and proposed regulations will significantly reduce tax filing burden for nearly 950000 small business owners. ... |
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| BC Business Services offers assistance and resources for those running or starting a business in British Columbia and Vancouver. |
| www.smallbusinessbc.ca |
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| Small Business Service | Home |
| Provides information and advice to help small businesses realise their potential. |
| www.sbs.gov.uk |
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| A site developed by the NSW Department of State and Regional Development for small businesses. Topics include management, resources, current issues and ... |
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| sbd.bcentral.com |
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