Global Public Articles

When it comes to article writing, you want to make it easy for Web surfers to find your useful content. From there you can direct them to your affiliate products website. Your article writing efforts must contain the right keywords for people to find your content in the first place. In addition, proper integration of those keywords into your text is vitally important.

Choosing the right keywords for your article marketing efforts requires understanding your target market. You must know what words your potential customers will enter into a search engine. For example, say your affiliate product is quality organic teas. When choosing keywords for your articles think of the most popular words and phrases a tea aficionado would use.

They would typically search using terms like “tea,” “organic teas,” “herbal teas,” “green tea,” “black tea,” “oolong tea,” and “quality teas.” They may further use terms such as “decaf tea,” “chai tea,” “white tea,” and “chamomile tea,” among others. Your job is to place into your articles the ones most closely related to the type of tea you sell.

However, proper keyword usage means strategically placing these chosen keywords in your articles. Over stuffing your content with keywords to attract search engine attention is the wrong strategy. Your article must read easily and flow logically for the reader. Just tossing keywords in wherever in your articles will annoy your readers. This annoys search engines as well and they look out for this.

Your mission when it comes to writing search engine optimization (SEO) articles is a very basic one. Your content has to read smoothly and persuasively, without looking stuffed.

Articles overloaded with keywords, makes your articles seem stilted. The “read” becomes choppy and even incoherent in some cases. The unnatural flow of words just to fit in keywords can break your readers’ concentration. They will not focus on your topic because they are concentrating on making sense of the piece. Trying to fit in too many keywords may mean you are illogically placing these words. That leads to reader frustration.

That’s the worst thing that can happen to your article marketing efforts. Frustrating readers means they will click away from your content. When you lose their interest, you lose them as potential customers. In essence, your article promotion efforts were for naught.

Here are some tips so that proper keyword usage is always a vital part of your article marketing efforts:

Choose the right keywords: Selecting keywords that are obscure and that no one will employ in a search gains you nothing. You waste time and effort because you will drive little or no traffic to your content and hence your website. Choose the most likely keywords that a person looking for your affiliate product would choose.

Use keywords in your article title: Using the above organic tea example, your title may be “Five Ways Organic Teas Promote Good Health.” Be creative with your titles but make sure they make sense. Make sure they immediately let the reader know the gist of the article they will be reading.

Use keywords in your first paragraph and your last paragraph: You want to open and close your articles strongly. Readers will often read the beginning of an article, skim, then read the conclusion. You want your keywords in each area to spur readers on to your website. You want to let them know at the beginning, and at the end of your article, what you are focusing on. Keywords let them know.

Use keywords at planned intervals throughout the body of your article: This is where that strategic placing comes into effect. If you use five or six paragraphs of expository text, use your keywords six to nine times. You get a good representation of keywords in your content without forcing them in too often. Your text will read properly. Your readers will not even notice the strategic way you placed the words.

Proper keyword usage is a vital component of article writing. You ensure that people find your articles when you use keywords in the right way. You increase the chances they will then link to your website. Keywords are the key to an article marketing campaign that produces results.

Tiva Kelly is the Head of Article Coaching and offers advice to authors at
Article Marketer, a highly popular article distribution service. Learn how to market your small business by submitting articles through Article Marketer
.

As an affiliate marketer you know that time is of the essence. Aside from article writing you have a myriad other things you must do. That’s why being an efficient article writer gives you the time you need for other marketing activities.

How do you become an efficient article writer? The following are seven steps to ensure you perform article writing efficiently.

Focus on a Specific Topic

You cannot answer your entire niche market’s questions in one article. Your products mean many things to many different people. That’s why you will never run out of topics related to your affiliate product. When it comes to article writing, you have to think of writing series of articles. Each article in a series will be on one topic as relates to your affiliate product.

Do you sell a premium brand of vitamins and minerals? If so, you will not write one article on every vitamin and mineral and the benefits of each one. You may write one article on how the B vitamins can boost energy. Your goal is to write informative articles on specific topics. Readers looking for detailed information want specifics not generalities.

Focus on a Specific Audience

You cannot be all things to all people with one article. When you engage in topic-specific article writing, speak to the target market for that topic. Take the “B vitamins can boost energy” article topic. After writing that article, you will engage in an article distribution effort. You will choose a good article distribution service to gain you widespread exposure for your article.

However, who are your readers for this article on B vitamins for energy? You need to know who before you write your article. In this way, you can target your article marketing campaign accordingly. You may want to slant your article to competitive runners. They may find your affiliate product can enhance their training regimens.

Make your article speak to them directly. Engage in article distribution to niche publications that serve the competitive athletics market. This is how you will direct your targeted niche to your affiliate product site.

Research

Before you write your article, do the necessary research on your topic so you present useful information. You want to have the necessary data and supporting statements that form the basis of your article. You want to have relevant information ready so you are not searching for content to include in your article.

The biggest single reason why article writing can take so long is lack of information. You start to write and realize you do not have enough bricks to build your structure, your article. You end up mid-construction with no supplies to finish the job. Perform due diligence by engaging in appropriate article research.

Organize/Outline

Once your research efforts are complete, organize your material. Go through any notes you made and discard anything irrelevant, or unimportant. Organize similar data into groups. These will form the content of your sub-headings.

Write

Write your first draft. Just write away. Let the words flow and get your thoughts on paper while referencing your outline. Then step back and look at what you wrote. You will find this step leads directly to the next step in the process.

Rewrite

Inevitably, in the rush to get your words on paper, your sentences may be a tangled mess. Entire thought processes now on paper may have you wondering what you were thinking. It’s time to rewrite what you wrote. Rewriting helps further organize, clarify, and strengthen your message. Do the writing, but also make time for rewriting. Engage in the adding and deleting that makes your message clearer.

Fine-tune

Here, you reread your rewriting and make minor changes. These are not major revisions or wholesale changes. These are adding a comma for ease of reading or adding a figure to support a statement further. It’s the fine-tuning before you send your article out into cyberspace.

Fine-tuning may just be a final read through so that the article flows properly. It may involve breaking one long sentence down into two shorter ones. Fine-tuning can make the difference between a good read and a great read.

Doing article writing efficiently means preparing yourself for the process. All of the above you can do in an hour for a short article. Once you’re done, you can engage in that article promotion campaign you know is important to your affiliate business.

Tiva Kelly is the Head of Article Coaching and offers advice to authors at
Article Marketer, a highly popular article distribution service. Learn how to market your small business by submitting articles through Article Marketer
.

When it comes to promoting an online business the more you understand consumers the better you can market to them. Knowledge is power in many areas of life and certainly in business. You do your Internet business a big favor when you engage in Web analytics.

Your particular host enterprise for your website or blog may have analytic tools available for you. If they do not, you can obtain analytic tools free or for low-cost from Web service providers. They are usually easy to install and are an aid in understanding visitors to your site. With this knowledge, you can fine-tune your operation to meet consumers’ needs.

Data about visitors to your website will enable you to structure your website to produce maximum revenue. Consider how visitors arrived at your portal. With analysis tools, you can see what search terms visitors entered so they landed on your site.

A look at a list of search terms used may help you come up with even more terms. You may develop other keywords and phrases from what you learned by analyzing. You can then keyword-optimize your web pages to these new search phrases. You may never have thought of new keyword phrases without analysis of visitors’ current keyword searches.

This study of keyword searches from Web analytics will also help your article writing. When you engage in article marketing, you want widespread distribution of your content. You want many people to find your useful articles. You want your article readers to link back to your website where you can introduce them to affiliate products.

People will only find your articles if they are keyword optimized. Of course, they have to be the right keywords. Web analytics of keyword searches visitors to your site used will help. You will incorporate these keywords into your article writing efforts and subsequently encourage traffic to them.

With Web analytics, you can also monitor from what websites your visitors originate. Maybe you are receiving many visitors from an online-classified advertising site. This lets you know that your advertising initiative is paying off. Alternatively, not all your work in writing ads for classified sites may be paying off.

Through Web analytics, you may find that you receive few if any traffic from a certain classified ad site. That tells you two things. One, it may not be worth it for you to continue to use that advertising portal. Two, your particular advertising writing distributed to that site may be ineffective. You may have to alter your advertising writing to suit a particular site better. Then through Web analytics, you can monitor whether you increase your traffic levels from the site.

Through Web analytics, you can monitor where most of your “conversions” originate. This is different from traffic. You may get a lot of traffic from a Website but no buyers. It’s important to know which URL’s are sending the buyers to your site.

You can then tailor further your affiliate site to meet the needs and wishes of these customers. If you sell organic teas, you may find most of your buyers come from a health issues publisher. They may come from a health food site with which you have a link exchange.

You now know you will tailor your Website to serve better the health niche. If they are giving you the most business, cater to them. You can then focus your page contents to them, as well as your article promotion campaigns.

Another way Web analytics can help you is by telling you where most visitors land. Many may land on your Homepage. However, many more may not. When you analyze data, you may find your Resources page gets many hits as a port of entry to your site. Is your Resource page attractive and user-friendly? It had better be if that’s where many first-time visitors land.

The above are just a few examples of how Web analytics can help you. Take the time to involve yourself with a provider who offers analytic tools. Search out those who can provide you these tools to install on your website. Analyzing data is a way to understand your visitors and build your online business faster.

Brad McGovern is the Marketing Manager at
Article Marketer, and offers advice and news of note to article marketers. Watch for
more from Brad in the coming days!

In business, whether bricks and mortar or online, there are always the fly-by-nighters. You know the type, out for a quick buck by any means. To these kinds of operators, the customer is the last thing on their mind. Their modus operandi is to get a sale at any cost. What happens is the consumer bears the brunt of the cost without any quality return on investment.

That is why consumers today are wary of doing business online with unknown-to-them enterprises. That’s why it is so important to build trust before you can really build your affiliate business. When you take the time to build a trusting relationship with people you sow the seeds for long-term business activity.

How do you let your niche market know they can trust you? You do it by promising certain things than delivering on them. You never want to appear as the aforementioned fly-by-nighters enterprises. They are those who promise one thing and deliver another, or deliver nothing at all.

Here are a few ways you can build that trusting relationship with consumers:

Tell It like It Is

This is the no-bull, straight shooter approach, albeit it in a respectful dignified way. Don’t engage in article writing or sales pitches that bend the truth or represent things as more than they really are. Speak about your affiliate products and services truthfully and honestly.
If you write a product comparison article tell it like it is. Trumpet the best features of your and your competitors affiliate products. Talk about the disadvantages of each one as well. When your article readers see you clearly and honestly speak of products in your niche they will trust you.

They will see you as a knowledgeable affiliate marketer looking out for their best interests. They will see you as someone who can aid them in making informed purchase decisions. In short, they trust you as an information provider. Whose Website do you think they will check out when it comes time to purchase? The odds are very good they will check yours out.

Perform It Like You Promised

This is simply doing what you said you would do when you said you would do it. Did you promise a visitor to your affiliate site a free product sample? Did you tell them when they could expect it? If so, then make sure you have enough samples on hand. In addition, ensure that you have delivery mechanisms in place so they receive samples on time.

Maybe you promised regular customers an informative e-book title four times a year. Did you deliver four at regularly scheduled intervals? Were they truly informative books or marketing fluff designed to “sell” them not “help” them? You build trust with customers when you deliver the value you promised when you promised it.

Show Them The Person Behind The Product

You build trust quickly with potential customers when you let them see the person behind the business “persona.” As an affiliate marketer have an “About Us” page. Have your e-mail address and telephone number or address displayed as well. Don’t have your customers thinking, “Who was that masked man or woman.” In other words, don’t hide yourself from your purchasing public. People want to know whom they’re dealing with most of the time.

Even the big online marketers let people know who and where they are. They make it easy for their customers to contact them for help. They do not hide, and hope that they can sell online without revealing their identity.

Quality, Quality, Quality

Another key to building trust and long-term relationships is by providing quality always. The affiliate product you are passionate about must deliver as promised all the time. Customers don’t like surprises. They want that software program you’re trumpeting to perform as you promised. They want it to have all the functions you spoke about in your product comparison article. They want it free from bugs that hinder performance.

Consider quality customer service. Do you offer exemplary customer service consistently? Is it a notch above what your competitors offer? Do you strive to continually analyze and upgrade the service you offer affiliate customers? When you do, people will choose you the next time they buy. They trust you will stand behind what you sell to ensure their satisfaction.

Building trust with your clientele is basic business acumen. When people see you as a trustworthy affiliate, they will be open to your marketing message. Why wouldn’t they be, you’re going to give them what you promised, and what they need.

Brad McGovern is the Marketing Manager at
Article Marketer, and offers advice and news of note to article marketers. Watch for
more from Brad in the coming days!

Why is the author resource box so important?
Your author resource box is your best website marketing sales tool in article marketing. This resource box contains the highest return content in your article. Your author resource box holds the key to
* Building your creditability,
* Connecting your reader to your website,
* Converting your reader to a regular visitor of your website, and
* Expanding your sales team without adding salaries or benefits.

Where is the author resource box?
The author resource box is usually located at the bottom of your article, immediately following your content. It’s a concise, quick link to you, your background and your website. It is here, in this powerful little box, that you take credit for your article and establish yourself as a recognized expert in your field. And, within your resource box you will provide valuable links for your reader to access your website. Your resource box is a portal into your website, increasing your search engine results and growing your business.

How does the resource box connect the reader and your website?
Your reader has purposely searched out topics related to your article. Since you’ve already provided great content in your article, your reader will want to continue the quest for more articles, or maybe even buy your products. If you guide your reader into your resource box straight from your article, your reader is already in a mindset to immediately link to your website.

How can my author resource box entice readers to follow my website link?
The most important job of your resource box is to provide a call to action to your reader. Consider your author resource box equal to your closing paragraph on a sales or marketing letter. The resource box wraps up your article and leads your reader to the next step. It is here that you extend a creative, enticing invitation to your reader to link to your site for more information on your article content, as well as additional information, products or services the reader will find within your site.

What should my author resource box include to get the best reader response?
1. Your name, as author and a short description of your background. For example, “John Smith is owner and consultant of ABC Computers. He writes a monthly column for IT Magazine and consults with clients to troubleshoot computer issues.”

2. Your specific website URL address. This is the only place in your article where you can use actual HTML code. For the most effective use of your URL link, connect to a page within your site that gives the reader information similar to what was contained in the article they just read. If a viewer has searched for a particular article topic, it’s almost certain that they will be looking for more of the same type information within your site. Your website URL will be their link to that information and to your expertise.

3. Your sales pitch. Here’s where you get to be creative. You’ll need to provide your reader a reason to take action, entice them to go to your website and lead them to valuable resources within your site. You might offer a free report, a related article, a newsletter subscription or a link to your blog. To get more mileage out of your resource box, develop multiple versions of your sales pitch and use it on different articles. Test the effectiveness of each resource box by the number of responses you receive.

4. Anchor text word links. You can also insert second and third links to your website within your author resource box text. Convert important, related words within your resource box into hyperlinks. Connect the anchor text hyperlinks to different pages within your website. This gives your reader multiple avenues into your site, exposes them to different pages that might be of interest to them and gives you one more exposure to your reader. But be careful of multiple text hyperlinks if you have a specific click through goal. Too many links can cause your reader to be confused.

An effective resource box will increase your website traffic and provide your reader with additional references. Your website becomes a valuable resource for the reader. The reader becomes a regular visitor of your site. We all know good things come in small boxes. Don’t neglect that all important author resource box at the bottom of your article.

Join Bob Sommers at the Recognized Expert article marketing forum and participate in our lively article marketing discussion. Learn how to write articles that compel readers to act from Saint Louis marketing writers and professional writers from around the world.