There are a handful of marketing tactics that are being used in today’s “Web 2.0” environment that are doing a great job of creating herds of targeted web traffic. One of these “tried and true” tactics involves writing content articles which are submitted to content directories to be presented to a huge audience that is searching for exactly what you’re writing about.
For more information about the benefits of an article marketing campaign, take a look at Use Articles to Get Your Site Noticed Now!
4 Things All Content Articles MUST Have!
The main focus of your article shouldn’t be to generate traffic. Of course that’s what you want, but prioritizing this will only cause you to write ineffective articles that will ultimately fail at this purpose anyway. You need to focus on your readers: always keep in mind that the purpose of writing an article is to provide your audience with some genuinely useful content that will give them a reason to re-visit your site and recommend it to others!
If you put your audience before your profits, article marketing will pay out much higher in the long run. Keeping this in mind, here are some very basic guidelines to help you create great articles:
Focus on Creating Useful Content First and Foremost
This cannot be stressed enough. Your article needs to entertain your reader while providing them with useful information that is relevant to their needs. Most internet users don’t give a damn about your company … all they want is to find useful information that will benefit them! However, if your article is well-written and establishes you as a credible source of information, users will be glad to visit your web site to find more information on the topic. This is your chance to make the sale.
Need some tips for great content? People respond especially well to articles that provide statistics, facts, figures, and trends. Articles should also be clearly written and triple-checked for spelling and grammar errors. If you won’t take the time to do this, people won’t trust your articles … and once people trust the article, they begin to trust you. Once they trust you, they’ll trust your products and services.
Incorporate Quality Keywords and Keyword Phrases
If order for people to be able to find your article, you have to build it upon a solid foundation of keywords and keyword phrases. This means that throughout your article, make sure to sprinkle some terms that users will most-likely be searching for. This task is relatively simple and is easy as making sure you mention the term “best fishing lure” a couple of times in your article dedicated to top-performing fishing lures. Readers will search for this term, find your article, and then, voila, find your web site which conveniently sells all of the lures you mentioned in the article.
Aim for Appropriate Keyword Density
It isn’t enough to simply put some keywords in your articles — you must make sure that these articles appear in the appropriate densities in order for search engines to fully understand what your article is about. Generally speaking, the main keywords and keyword phrases in your article should have densities of about 10 to 15 percent. Densities that are too low will mean that the search engines won’t associate your article with the search term … too high and the engines will penalize you for aggressive optimization tactics.
Include a Link to Your Web Site in the “Author Biography” Section
Once your article is done, most directories will allow you to provide a small blurb about yourself where you can talk about your qualifications and promote your web site with a link. The copy that you put into this section is extremely important, as it must be compelling enough to convert the reader into a legitimate prospect!
To increase conversions, make sure to offer more value to the reader in this section by promising more relevant and high-quality information at your web site. If the reader enjoyed your article and felt they got some good tips out of it, they’ll be glad to visit your site for more of the same. Once they get there, hopefully you’ve got some great sales copy to covert them from “legitimate prospect” to “loyal and paying customer!”
Articles Will Be Effective for the Foreseeable Future!
Everyone knows that people mainly use the internet to find useful information that will benefit them. Articles are a great way to provide this information while simultaneously recruiting targeted web traffic to your site!
If you feel that you aren’t able to write a valuable article, or simply don’t have the time, many freelance copywriters offer content development services that include research, writing, and submission to a wide range of popular article directories.
If you’re ready to start your article marketing campaign, start by pricing out the rates from a bunch of different copywriters. Head over to the Custom Quote page and I’ll get you an estimate on your campaign within 24 hours.
Good luck!
Review: Timeline of an Effective Article Marketing Campaign
Price out different copywriters. Click here for a custom freelance copywriting quote from Brainstorm Copywriting.
The copywriter will research top-performing keywords to build the article around.
The copywriter will craft a series of high-quality, content/keyword-rich articles.
The writer submits the finished article to an extensive list of popular article directories.
Readers searching for your keywords will find your article.
Readers read your article, enjoy your useful information, and would like to find out more.
The reader clicks on the hyperlink provided in the article and is brought to your web site.
The sales copy on your web page quickly transforms this “window-shopper” into a paying customer!
