Internet Marketing News

Marketing via articles is one of the best forms of free advertising
on or offline that is available for bringing new visitors to our websites.

Why is that you ask?

Writing articles can lead to increased visitors to your website. The
main reasons you’re writing an article is for people to read and learn
about your topic and you. After writing an article you want it published
of course. Getting it publshed is how you’re going to drive traffic to your
site.

If you know your target market then the hardest part of the work has
been done for you - that of assembling a list several thousand individuals
to read your article.

You’ll want to submit it to ezine publishers, article directories and create
a webpage on your site to display it and to submit to the search engines.

There are several things to consider if you decide to write and submit
articles to ezines. The format for writing the article itself, finding ezines
to submit it to and figuring out the right way to submit it to publishers so
that it gets an above average chance of being used by the publisher.

Writing is hard work. At least for me that is. I tend to generally keep up
with how the internet is evolving and develop an article from changes that I see going on.

Writing articles for ezines takes on a basic format that you should become familiar with.

If you haven’t already subscribed to several good, quality ezines do so
immediately. You want to review the articles in them so you can get a
basic idea of the layout of an article that publishers expect when you
submit an article to them.

You’ll notice it has:

- A Title
- The Authors Name
- The Body or Content of the Article
- An Authors Resource Box
- Sentences are under 65 characters per line

Those are the five main components of articles that are typically submitted to ezine publishers. Your best bet is not to vary from it in your initial writing efforts.

Let’s take a look at each one of those components.

** The Title **

Often times you may not even come up with a good attention grabbing title until after you have finished your article. If you have a general idea of what your article is going to cover it may be helpful later on if you jot down some ideas right away.

**The Authors Name **

Hey you should be able to come up with this on your own. Include yours just under the title of your article.

** The Body or Content **

By far the most important aspect of your article. The best articles address some kind of problem or concern that readers may be experiencing and are looking for help, guidance or a solution for. If you have identified a bonafide problem take the time to do the research to find a solution for it.

The solution could be in the form of a unique solution you yourself have found, an existing one that few people know about or you could provide several solutions from which the reader can choose the one best suited to their needs.

Some good articles also address concerns of people in certain areas of their life or business for which there is no clear cut solution. If you can present the
facts, known or obscure data that will keep a reader informed on the subject or help them come to a conclusion on their own, it will work just as well.

Within the article it is always a nice affect if you can provide some online
resources or links that a reader can use to help solve their own problem or gather information from which they can draw their own conclusions.

Keep in mind that you are not writing your article(s) for the fun of it. At least I hope you’ve given some thought to what you want to accomplish using this method. Your main purpose is to get a few if not several hundred of those readers to visit your website so that you can present them with your own offers for subscribing to your ezine, joining your affiliate program, membership site or buying one of your products.

Your efforts should be in presenting a good quality article to the publisher. Take your time writing about the subject you’ve chosen. Clearly the best method of writing on the internet is a personal, one-to-one approach to writing, write as though you’re talking to a friend or relative you know very well.

** Authors Resource Box **

This is your byline. This allows everyone who reads your article to learn more about you and your business. You’ll include it at the end of your article and it should contain a short description of your site, product or service you offer, along with your url.

It’s the second most important section of your article. Here you can put between 4 to 6 lines of text. This is the only acceptable format for advertising yourself, your website, ezine, product, etc. Describe it in as great a detail as you can get into these few lines.

Publishers will exercise their own judgment and may shorten it to meet the standard criteria they have set for all submitted articles.

Here are some more Quick Tips to remember about writing your article:

- Keep your sentences and paragraphs short
- Use action words throughout your article
- Use examples from your own experience
- Write as though you’re talking to one person
- Personalize your message
- Use plenty of white space
- Use small understandable words
- Use subheadings
- Don’t hyphenate words at the end of sentences

Just one good article on a subject that is relevant to your target market and the target market of the ezine that you’re trying to get it published in, will produce some great publicity for you. Invite publishers of ezines with similar interests as yours to publish the article.

You really don’t want to slant it towards one of your products, an affiliate program or have your own links plastered throughout your article. Just about all publishers I know will recognize that kind of writing as a cheap effort to advertise a product at their expense.

Think about it - if a publisher wanted to see a product, etc promoted in his ezine he would put one of his own in it - not some stranger he has never met. Don’t try to disguise an advertisement for one of your products as an article. Most publishers will see right through this scheme.

The length of your article should probably be between 400 to 1000 words. Any less than 400 doesn’t give enough depth to a subject. Any more than 1000 can be too long for some ezine publishers who try to keep the content of there ezine to a maximum size for purposes of distribution and reader attention.

OK, so you’ve got your article written and it’s a gem and you know everyone will want to read it. Two things you now need to focus on - finding publishers and getting publishers to look at it.

The easiest place to start looking for publishers is in your own email program. Have you subscribed to any ezines? If so how many? If not - why not? If you haven’t subscribed to a lot of them then you need to “go forth and subscribe” to as many as you can. The reason you want to do this is to build a database of ezines that are similar to your target market and at the same time become familiar with the ezines format.

You can also do a search on google or any of the other major search engines to look for ezines and article directories that your article would be appropriate for.

Here are a few article directories to get you started:

goarticles.com
ezinearticles.com
articlecity.com
article-emporium.com

Well how do you get your article accepted in ezines?

Guess what? As long as you’re in the writing mood, you’re going to have to write a short email to each publisher and ask them to publish it. Or you can invest in member only sites or software that will automate this process for you.

I’m including a sample email template for you to look at. My experience is
that you modify the text and personalize any template to your own style and writing. Using a template as is from a resource like this soon becomes recognizeable and automatically deleted by most publishers who receive it.

Use your imagination when you draft your own letter.

——————————————————-
Sample E-Mail Letter To A Publisher
——————————————————-

Dear Publisher,

My name is (your name) and I subscribe to your ( ezine). I’ve found it to be informative and helpful in my endeavors on the net.

I have written an article that may be of interest and helpful to your subscribers. If you find it suitable to your readers I would appreciate your considering publishing it in the (ezine).

Thank you very much for your consideration,

Sincerely,

(Your Name)
(Your Email Address)

——————————–
End Of Sample Letter
——————————–

This information should get you well on the road to writing articles for publishing in ezines that meet the criteria for your target market.

I highly recommend it as a way to get more visitors to your website without spending any money on advertising.

================

Learn more about article marketing and website
promotion to help you with your online business.
Reprint as long as resource box remains intact.
Copyright 2009 cashway.com

No matter how well versed you are in the brick and mortar business world, its a good idea to understand both the similarities and differences between that and the world of ecommerce. Remember that as the economy takes a downturn, more and more people are looking toward alternatives to the traditional model of doing business. However, while the Internet supplies some great ideas and is a great vehicle to make money, there are at least four mistakes that you want to avoid before you take the plunge into starting your own business.

Dont Rush

First and foremost, all the experts agree that you dont want to rush. Although compared to other enterprises an Internet business is cheaper, there are quite a few bad turns that you can take and some of these spiral. While its true that we all like to hear great success stories and how people have made great money online, you need to be careful and find out exactly how much work was involved. Take the time to look into exactly how this success was achieved before you envision yourself doing the same thing.

Think Like A Boss

Remember too that while the Internet affords great possibilities, theres also a tendency for people to slide into the employee frame of mind. That means that some people make the incorrect assumption having your own business means that they have more freedom and while thats true, you also need to in mind that although you can set your own hours you still need to work at them. Dont think like an employee when youre the boss.

Get The Right Tools

Many people starting a home based web business try to cut corners and get a quick template off the Internet rather than taking the time and investing the money to go to a professional web design company in Los Angeles or where ever they happen to be. That is always a mistake. Even if you wind up with a decent website, you need to market that site and compete for page rankings and you dont get those tools by cutting financial corners before you even start.

Theres a good living on the Internet, but you need to get the best tools and have the right aptitude to make the whole thing work for you. While the medium for business might change, the need for hard work stays the same.

Planning for a successful outcome is the basic requirement of any endeavour. Today’s football superstars didn’t get to become multi-millionaires without years of dedication to practice, planning and targets. For any life-changing event to happen, planning and goal-setting are paramount.

Before you embark on your studies, you’ll find it valuable to set yourself a series of goals or targets to help you complete the course. Spending a little time planning these goals will pay dividends down the road. To have a chance of reaching your goals, they should always be S.M.A.R.T. - Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Targeted.

Use the following five D’s to help you get emotionally involved with the result of your efforts. Write your five D’s down in a contract to yourself.

DEFINE exactly what you expect to get from your efforts, in terms of possessions, income, lifestyle etc. Make a collage of pictures that reflects these things, and look at them regularly (e.g. before your study sessions). The more specifically you define what you want, the better.

DESIRE. Explore your emotions for this one, and dig deep to discover why your studies are important. Is it to prove to yourself or others that you are an achiever, and that you deserve better things? Perhaps you want more control in your life, or maybe it’s a personal challenge.

Commitment or DEDICATION. Announce to yourself and those close to you that you’re dedicated to your studies by writing up a timetable and sticking with it. However much time you choose to study each week, have it written on a calendar planner that you can cross off once you’ve completed it. Put it in a prominent place so it’s at the forefront of your mind (at least until it becomes a habit). All things that are important get prioritised, so let your friends and family know that this is a priority to you for perhaps ten hours a week for a set number of months. Once your timetable has become established, you’ll take pride in your dedication, and study all the better for it.

A contract illustrates your DETERMINATION to see this thing through. Having a written document about the positive direction of your life makes it harder to bottle out of it.

Having a plan and targets to work towards gives you a DISCIPLINE that helps you to power through the tough times that will occasionally strike you.

Once you’ve done this, sign it and do NOT put it away in a drawer. This is a working document and should be read every day for at least one month so you buy into it and it becomes your new way of life. If and when things get tough, read it again for another month. Always have it close to hand while you study and show it to your partner, kids (if you have them), friends and parents. This will help you to see your goal through.