I woke up early this morning to do some research on article marketing. Like all my projects, I plan my research using a set of aims and objectives. This saves time and stops me wandering off at a tangent as I surf the net for information.
My research starting point this morning was the various article directories I use to submit my own articles. Article directories house a wealth of information on every subject imaginable so it was only natural to start my research here.
Although the articles posted on free directories are fairly limited in scope and sometimes quality, they do, nonetheless, contain references to other sources of information. It is these references that prove the most valuable when it comes to building knowledge around a chosen subject. However, that is not what I want to write about today.
Most of the articles I read on article marketing this morning were absolutely appalling. Yes, they contained reference material, but the articles themselves were so poorly written I had to ask the question: why were they ever published in the first place?
One article in particular, promoting the services of ‘a web content writer’, was so poorly written that I had to stop reading it before I threw up over my laptop. (Barfing at four in the morning is something that family would not have appreciated.)
I am certainly no purest when it comes to writing and I do make mistakes, as we all do. However, proof reading and a good spell checker eliminates a majority of errors in my work. If only the author of the article in question had used the same tools, they might have received more work from content hungry webmasters. And this is the point I want to make.
A majority of info product writers spend an inordinate amount of time and energy producing a first class product only to throw all their hard work down the drain with a poorly planned, written and executed article marketing campaign. Why?
As info product creators, we owe it to ourselves and our product to produce an article marketing campaign that builds credibility around the material or services we want others to buy. You don’t have to be a writing expert to produce a good article marketing campaign. You just need to apply a little thought and effort to the process of planning and producing articles that people will want to read. Here are some useful tips for producing a good article marketing campaign.
1. Plan your campaign. The five ‘P’s apply here. PRIOR PLANNING PREVENTS POOR PERFORMANCE.
2. Research your subject before you begin writing. Your articles should be written from a foundation of knowledge. Don’t write garbage. Always remember that you are trying to build credibility for yourself and your info product.
3. Produce articles that are fresh and unique. Don’t rewrite PLR articles or use article generating software. It’s your voice the audience wants to hear, not the nonsensical sound of a word mincing machine.
4. Quality is better than quantity. Some article marketers suggest writing 50 to 100 articles at the beginning of each campaign. This is nonsense. Think about it for a moment. If you write 50 articles at 500 words each, then you will need to write 25,000 words for each campaign. That’s the equivalent of a novella, and probably more than the total number of words it took you to produce your info product. It is better to write 10 to 15 really good quality articles in the initial stages of your campaign. Then simply add to that number as your campaign gathers momentum.
5. Don’t submit the same article to multiple directories. Most search engines employ filters to sift out duplicate content. You will simply be wasting your time submitting the same article to multiple directories.
6. Don’t use article submission software to submit your articles. Submit them manually, selecting only the top ten directories in your chosen niche.
7. Proof read your articles before submitting them to an article directory. A poorly written article will destroy the image of your info product and call into question your credibility as an authority in your chosen niche.
8. Monitor the progress of each article. Check to see how many people have viewed your article. Readers sometimes leave comments. Read them. Reader comments will provide you with valuable insight into how your article marketing campaign is going.
Article marketing takes time, patience and effort. Planned, written and implemented correctly, your article marketing campaign will generate genuine interest in your info product and build your credibility as an authority in your chosen niche.
