SUB-Ingredient:

Article Marketing

Training Videos - Requires Adobe Flash Player How to get links and traffic with free press releases Get links by writing and distributing online articles	Products to Download My Article Submitter
	Training Documents (PDF) - Requires Adobe Reader Using Content in 2006 Article Marketing Content Guide

Article Marketing, a simple method of getting inbound links by distributing your content across the web for free, is arguably the best method ever for getting your in-bound links found in the Search Engines. It takes a little time and skill, but it has huge results, and they can usually be seen within a few short days.

So how effective is Article Marketing?

I have personally submitted around a hundred different articles for various client websites and VRE sites either by hand or through the Article Announcer software application. In both cases, I can honestly report hundreds, if not thousands of instances in Google, Yahoo!, and MSN where the articles were found. On the more reputable article directories the link at the bottom of my articles would be spidered and those all counted as on-topic, bona-fide incoming links which skyrocketed the site’s search engine rankings.

I do not want to lead you to believe that it’s a fool proof method, there are ways to mess up, and of course it’s only one of many good ways to get incoming links to your site. Even still, however, it is one of the easiest ways to get so many quality links to your site in a hurry.

But don’t you have to be a skilled writer to get your articles accepted?

This is the biggest misconception about article marketing. Sure, the better your writing skills, the more professional you’ll sound and possibly even be ranked on individual article directory websites. However, you should go see for yourself the kind of refuse that they let past their ‘quality filters’ these days… People who can’t even speak the language properly are getting tons of incoming links by writing 600 words (quite poorly) about their topic in an article. 

In fact, it’s quite common to see an article composed of nothing other than someone’s personal “favorites” (bookmarks) files… People seem to like reading other people’s favorite links.

What counts is that their content has something to offer.

Alright, how do I get started Marketing Articles?

First, you take some original, or at least very-well-revised PLR, content and make it into an article somewhere between 600 and 1000 words in length. This article must not be sales copy, it strictly has to offer some sort of value to your readers. The most common forms of these articles are “The top ten tips for doing so and so,” “101 of my favorite…” or “Five ways to do this or that.” They can be on any niche topic you’d like, but these formats have proven consistent winners.

Next you slap a contact information box at the end, called a “resource box.” It should be no more than two standard sentences in length that basically say:

“The author, Mrs. Jane Doe, is an expert in this field with twelve centuries of experience and is currently giving away more free information or tools on this subject at your website.”

It may look like an “About the Author” snippet, but its true purpose is to give the reader a way to take an action and get to your website.

Then the article must be submitted to as many reputable Article Directories as possible. There are hundreds out there, so this is a long and arduous task that almost makes it not worth your time. Luckily for you, there’s some free software above that will help you knock off a lot of that time by automating the repetitious tasks.

Once the Article Directories receive your submission they’ll manually review it for quality and post it within a couple of days to a couple of weeks. If they feel it’s not some sort of spam and it passes their own personal guidelines for matching content, they’ll post it straight away, and you’ll have an instant link out there on a ranking site pointing back towards your site!

Finally, there are other avenues of getting these articles (and their links) picked up and reprinted across the online world, such as submitting them to Ezine owners looking for quality content to print for their subscribers. This, in most professional’s opinions, is how you really get your worth out of article marketing… Of course knowing who all the on-topic Ezine owners are and how to submit to them can be daunting.

For that last step, only Jason Potash’s Article Announcer will do. His very robust system is the most powerful of all submission softwares out there today. It not only helps you submit to all the reputable directories, but it automatically finds and ranks both directories and Ezine for your niche topic… The feature that allows the majority of success with Article Marketing, but one that none of the other programs includes at all.

I should also mention the fact that Jason Potash is the grand master of Article Marketing, so anything you find with his name on it is required reading for those interested in using this powerful method of gaining incoming links.

Advanced tip #1: Since Google puts a lot of emphasis on linking text, your link should never, ever be formatted like: Http://www.yourdomain.com. The problem is, sometimes directories either don’t allow or they’ll screw up your HTML code and if you just use link text that says “your domain” while linking to the above domain, then the reader could be left with no way at all to link to you.

For the best of both worlds, end your resource box like this:

“for a free report visit the example site about your niche at: http://www.yourdomain.com.”

Advanced Tip #2: I learned this one the hard way: Always put your keyword(s) in the first 5 words of your title! Search Engines don’t spider so many words into a title when your article has slipped deep down into an article directory listing.

Good title: The Best KEYWORD places to go for a bargain.

Bad title: The Best places to go for a bargain on KEYOWRDs.

-There really is a HUGE difference between these two in Google’s eyes.

Advanced Tip #3: When writing your article, your most wanted response is always to get them to click on the link in your resource box. Therefore, it is the primary job of the author to give them enough information to wet their appetite for more, but not so much that they know everything already. (And therefore have to reason to click on the link to learn more.)

Jimmy D. Brown calls this “Useful but Incomplete.” –You must truly give enough in the article for it to offer something they wouldn’t have known before, but at the same time leave them wanting more, so they’ll be on your website looking for it. –That’s where the skill comes in, but thankfully you don’t need to be a master at this to get started.

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