Article Marketing Tips

If you've ever wanted to make money online, then no doubt you've found the goldmine that is article marketing. Even if you haven't actually made money with articles yet, certainly you realize the potential. And if you don't, you're missing out otherwise.

The work of actually submitting your articles to the article directories is already easy. This is because of the article submission software already available online. (There's good free software available as well as retail versions.) And while it's handy to be able to submit to more than one article directory at a time, it's only a start. Because the big picture is that you need to give the readers what they want, first and foremost. Anything less and you're just wasting your time and effort. (You won't waste your readers' time, because they'll just scan your article for about 5-10 seconds before they realize the article is boring and/or not filled with valuable content before they click away.)

What follows are 3 common mistakes made by many people when it comes to writing articles, and ways to avoid them:

1. Publishing content that does not help the readers and/or is not interesting to read.

Either way, the article won't get read (at least beyond a few sentences or so). And remember that if your article doesn't get read all the way through, then your author's resource box will not get read, either. And if your author's resource box doesn't get read, the backlink (link back to your website) will not get clicked. Since this is the primary reason you'll submit articles to the directories, it pays to take the time to make your articles as informative and as interesting as possible.

But most authors (including me) that submit articles to article directories are not talented authors. Maybe you are, maybe you're not. No problem. In any case, don't fret over each article; don't worry that it's not a powerhouse of entertainment and wit. Instead, make sure it does a good job explaining the subject of the article. If you're also able to make your article interesting and witty at the same time, great. But focus on the the content; make the reader feel he or she is getting valuable new information or perhaps old information presented from your interesting point of view.

2. Submitting an article for the wrong reason.

There are three big benefits you get for submitting articles to the article directories. These benefits are: Branding, Lead Generation, and Promotion. There is, however, only one reason why an article is written...and that is to inform your readers. If your article fails to do that (or do that well), then it won't achieve these 3 benefits, because nobody will be interested in reading the article. So never, ever forget that the primary purpose of writing an article is to inform your readers. The reason you submit an article to the directories is for your own gain; but think only of your readers when you write the article.

3. Not making the most of the promotional opportunity of submitting an article.

You probably already know that submitting articles is ideal to get more backlinks back to your website. This is great, but you can get many more visitors and better search engine placement from the same article with a few easy changes:

Make sure you mention keywords at various places throughout your article. And not just any keywords, but 3-5 word keyword phrases. (These are called "long-tail" keywords.) These long-tail, 3-5 word phrases may not get as much search traffic as shorter, 'main-stream' keywords, but you will convert many more visitors into buyers with them! Think quality traffic and not quantity traffic.

But don't put too many keyword phrases in, such as in this example: "SCUBA diving in Bermuda is a wholesome activity because SCUBA diving in Bermuda is clean and doesn't disturb the environment. SCUBA diving in Bermuda is fun because SCUBA diving in Bermuda"...etc. (You get the picture. Obviously, "SCUBA diving in Bermuda" is the long-tail keyword phrase that is overused.)

As a matter of fact, if you just write naturally you will likely end up using your keywords the optimum amount of times at various places. But this means that you must write well; you must write a good informative article. This ensures your keywords will show up naturally because it "forces" you to use them.

Also don't forget about anchor text. Use anchor text where you can--especially in your author's resource box. (Article directories will not allow you to use anchor text in the main body of the article.)