What Is Article Marketing And What Can It Do For Me

What Is Article Marketing And What Can It Do For Me?

I've had so many people approach me about how to boost traffic, increase sales, and get more leads into their businesses. I always tell them that there is a really low-cost way to make it happen for them. Frankly, articles that I wrote three years ago are still bringing me strong and consistent traffic today.

That's why article marketing – the process of “giving away” your articles – is one of the best ways to get traffic today, and will be tomorrow, and several years from now.

Here's how the process works:

1. Write an amazing article on a subject your audience is very interested in.

2. Edit the article or hire someone else to edit it for you.

3. Distribute the article in article directories – a top directory is www.EzineArticles.com

4. Sit back and watch the flood of traffic, leads, and sales overwhelm your merchant account.

What I've just outlined may seem simple, but there is a rather involved process behind the whole thing. For one, you have to write a clear, well-thought-out article. Some people hire others to do this for them.

Big mistake!

What I'm about to write may make a lot of people angry or even cringe at the thought of having to do this, but I wouldn't be leading you on the right path if I didn't share this one very important piece of advice with you.

** Always write your own articles.**

Hire someone to edit, but if you're just starting out in this article marketing thing, always write your own articles.

Put Your Personality On Display to Rake in Higher Sales

Bottom line: You have a unique voice and that's what your readers will fall in love with. If they don't feel your personality, they won't feel as if they know you. In my experience, if my readers don't feel like they know me, they'll won't buy from me.

No writer can capture your personality – no matter how good they are. I should know, I've been a professional writer for 16 years now and unless I have good previous writing samples to go by, quickly capturing a person's personality in print is nearly impossible. Now, I could always extensively interview someone to find out just what their personality is, but time is money and I charge handsomely for that kind of time – and so will any other copywriter worth his or her salt. When you're just starting out as an article marketer, paying such a hefty price may not be in your budget.

Good news: There's an alternative. You can follow a set formula to create your very own quality, content-rich articles.

It's good to write clear, easy-to-follow, content-rich articles.

Why? If you write an article that has great content and that's infused with your unique voice, many ezine publishers, web designers, and others with web sites will publish your article on their web site.

That's good for you because the bottom of your article will contain a resource box. This resource box lists why you're an expert and then gives a link back to your web site. The more your article – with the resource box – gets published, the more traffic you'll get. And traffic leads to more subscribers on your lists and more subscribers on your list leads to more sales when you launch new products and services – or when you re-launch existing products and services.

BONUS : What Is Bum Marketing: How To Make Money With A $5 Budget

Bum marketing is so called because even a bum can make money using this method. You need no outlay and can start with nothing. Absolutely zilch!

I had absolutely zilch because I had maxed out 7 credit cards. I used to laugh when I read about others doing that with just two, but I did it myself – in spades! My only word to you would be very careful how you use PPC programs like Adwords because I wasn’t. But that’s another story.

I discovered bum marketing because if there is one thing I am good at, it is writing. Bum marketing involves finding a profitable niche, or one that could be profitable. It has to be something with a reasonable large following, and a reasonable number of topics attached to it. Like fly fishing or quilting, or something similar. Something that is followed by people you would expect to have money. You don’t want people flinching at paying $97 for a product related to their hobby or interest.

You then have to find some decent keywords. For bum marketing it doesn’t matter too much if there is competition for them, but not too general. Not ‘quilting’ but perhaps ‘hand quilting machines’ or ‘deep throat quilters’. Then get a website set up. You can get a cheap functional site for under $5 a month and then set up a website. A sales page for a product and a few pages with some content. If you can get it, register a domain name that is the same as, or relates to, one of the keywords you have chosen.

Write a few articles on the topic of your website, and use one for each of the web pages. Bum marketing is all about article writing. You should have one web page for each keyword you are using relating to your website. Find a few products to sell. If you have your own then great, but if not sell affiliate products.

Then write a few more articles and submit them to article directories. Each directory will allow you what is known as an ‘Author’s Resource Box’ in which you can say a little about yourself and provide a URL for people to click on for more information. The URL should lead to a page that relates to the topic of the article, and should ideally be a text link with the keyword or phrase that is the title of your web page. The text link should be hyperlinked to the page; what is termed an ‘active’ link’.

If the directory does not specifically provide a Resource Box, you can add that information after your article. It has to be included and will go with your article whenever it is copied and used. The article will not only bring you traffic, but also valuable links back to your web pages.

It is important that you continue to write and keep pumping out new articles. I like to write two every week and send them off to the top 25 directories. That’s all I have to do because most of the top 25 provide material to other directories, and before you know it your articles are all over the internet. That’s bum marketing.

As I said, even a bum with no money can do it. I know, because I was that bum at one time. I am no longer!