Abhinav Srivastava asked:


There are many different reasons why you should submit your articles to an article directory. For example, if you are promoting a website, are a new writer that is looking to their name out there or simply you are advertising your blog. Using an article directory as a means of advertising is honestly one of the smartest things in the world, not only will an article directory get your website or blog\’s name out there faster, but you can pretty much guarantee that you will see the traffic of your website or blog rise. In this article we will go through the many reasons why submitting your articles to an article directory is beneficial and absolutely needed!

So let\’s say that you are a new writer. While you may have been used to writing term papers and poems in college, writing website content and also promotion is completely different and you will have to be in a different frame of mind. After you have a few articles written, it is a great idea to submit those articles to an article directory to now only get your name out there but also to see yourself as a published writer.

Submitting articles to an article directory is honestly one of the very best forms of advertising. Not only are a lot of article directories free, but the traffic that your website will receive even if you submit just one article to an article directory is simply incredible! Article directories now-a-day are honestly one of the most popular forms of advertising and if you are looking for a way to up the traffic to your website, an article directory is definitely going to be your very best option.

Now that we have gone through some of the reasons for choosing an article directory, you may be wondering how you can find some of the best article directories to submit too! Well, the answer to that is very simple: do your research. As you would with any other form of advertising, you always want to make sure that you are researching before committing yourself to something.

There you have it! All of the ways that article directories can help you! They are honestly an up-and-coming form of advertising and if you are a new writer, they are a fantastic way to let people get a feel for your writing style! So if you are looking for a way to gain traffic to your website or you simply want to put down that you are a published writer, an article directory can definitely help you!

Abhinav Srivastava is running Article Directory.

Alan Lim asked:




 

As a writer, your attempts at writing can be hampered by writers block. This would mean that your speed won’t be at par with others in the field and this would also affect your end product. Therefore, while writing articles, it’s important that you find new ideas all the time and don’t stop writing for want of material. In this article we offer you a few ways through which you can eliminate your writer’s block, if any, and thus write articles fast.

 

Research is the Key

 

The world of Internet has thrown open the door of an infinite amount of information to users who surf the World Wide Web. You can think about drumming up ideas for articles, while going through sites offering related content. Ideas for writing articles won’t come to you out of thin air and you will have to work hard at them. So, trudge the internet, and use the search engine to undertake research on the topic given to you. You will find that there is a generation of an idea and you can work on it. More importantly, you won’t be clueless as to the topic in question.

 

Use Blogs

 

Blogs are one of the latest discoveries when it comes to coming up with ideas for writing articles. Blogs are a little more interesting than website as they offer personalized views of particular topics. Therefore you can know; what is it that is keeping readers on the net interested. If, it is left up to you to decide the topic of your write-up then you can go through various blogs to decide the popular thought process of people reading and commenting on blogs. However, there is one word of caution here. Be sure that you really want to write on that particular topic or not.

 

Exploration of Article Directories

 

There are various article directories on the net that are like a storehouse of information for writers. Most of these directories offer free listing and hence a hot of writers and article marketing experts submit their articles on these directories. It is important to note that while writing articles, you can only search for ideas, but plagiarism is forbidden. So what you are actually doing, while exploring article directories is searching for ideas and not content.

 

Have Fun with Them

 

The best thing to do while writing articles is to allow your mind to relax and enjoy the whole prospect of writing an article. Don’t put too much pressure on it. If you think you are short of ideas then its best that you take a break. Writing content should not become repetitive in nature and if it becomes so, you will be faced with writers block. At the end of the day, you are writing to establish your credibility, for sales generation, and for increasing traffic.

 

All this requires an open mind. Until and unless you let your mind relax, you won’t have an open mind, and what more you won’t be able to accept new ideas and thus your articles won’t be creative.

Patricia A. Jones asked:


You want to run an article directory and can’t decide which script to use. In this article I compare 2 of the more popular article directory scripts and try to decide which I prefer and will tell you why.

Setting A Directory Up

Article Dashboard: I launched my first directory using the free Article Dashboard script on July 3rd 2007. It took about 3 weeks and many visits to the Article Dashboard forum asking for advice to get it up and running.

Article Friendly: I set my paid for Article Friendly script directory up on November 3rd 2008. It took 1 hour to get it up and running with no help.

Why the difference? First time round I was new to php and absolutely hopeless with understanding scripts and learned more over time. Even so I believe that the AF script is easier to install.

Although the really useful AD forum has been down for a while there are still several forums run by directory owners where you can get help. AF has it’s own forum where you can get help with your article directory and also advice about other scripts including AD.

Design

My fear of messing with php scripts has stopped me from doing major redesigns but there are a couple of sites offering very good free tutorials for AD directories and the AF forum offers lots of advice. There are also some great designers out there who own directories and offer design services especially for article directories. Good because they understand the functionality better than a general designer.

I personally have found it a little easier to redesign around the AD script, but as I’ve been using it longer I have more basic understanding of it.

Running Your Directory

Authors submit articles, you check them and either approve or decline them it’s simple - or is it? With both scripts you can set articles to auto approve. The function is inbuilt in the AF script alongside mass keyword approval - or disapproval but with the AD script you need to mess with the coding or get an add on. Personally I would never auto approve articles, there are too many people out there who want to submit adverts, plagiarised articles and basic crap rather than the quality articles that any website owner would want on their site.

There are quite a lot of add ons available for the Article Dashboard script, some free and some paid for and some of which I use. A duplicate title checker is a must and that I got free. Whenever somebody submits an article with the same title it is flagged. Sometimes it’s the same article, sometimes it’s just an author being unlucky and I can let them know that they need to change their title. Article friendly has a duplicate checker built in.

Article Friendly also has an automatic decline function if an article’s word count is lower than the amount that you choose to set up in the dashboard. I got a short article deleter free for AD and with that I can set the minimum wordage of articles that I want on the site, but as I could never get it to work it’s a mute point. I’m sure that there are more such scripts available if I really wanted one.

Blocking Undesirables!

Another feature that AF has that I like is being able to block unwanted authors with one click. It’s not something I like doing but if somebody constantly submits plagiarised articles, adverts etc. banning them saves my time and theirs.

You can also block email addresses with the AF script. I chose to block free email addresses as most of the problem submitters come from free email addresses. I have no problem with free email addresses personally, blimey I use them myself, but as that particular directory is in the travel niche and most genuine travel writers use their website email addresses the block saves me time.

Another good feature on AF is being able to delete authors with no articles with one click. Some of those authors may genuinely set accounts up intending to submit articles but never get around to it, but I suspect otherwise with some new authors who join up and fill in their profile with a link to anything but a travel site.

Those features are only available on AF, but as I said earlier in this article there are all sorts of add on scripts available for AD and more turn up occasionally.

Keeping Things Clean

With AF there is a bad word block area in the dashboard where you can input words that you don’t want appearing on your site. If an author uses any of those words the article is automatically declined.

I did buy an AD add on that scans resource boxes for words that you input into the script and you can delete offending articles in one go. That has proved invaluable as a time saver against masses of plagiarised articles.

More Article Friendly Goodies

AFs dashboard also lets you clean up, repair or optimise your database with one click, very handy for those of us who haven’t got a clue how to do it themselves. You can also keyword optimise all of the categories very easily, add extra admin access, find articles or authors and mass move articles from one category to another. You can also link up to 4 different mass submission companies from your dashboard if you want to.

Article Dashboard Goodies

I seem to be favouring AF over AD scripts, but the main reason that I haven’t converted my AD directory over to the AF script is that when I am checking articles I can also click on and check the authors links before approval. You would be surprised just how many authors submit articles with broken links, or links pointing to unacceptable sites. With Article Friendly I have to paste links in my browser to check them, or scrutinise the html and that takes time.

Another thing that I like better about the Article Dashboard script is that authors can use html within the article body whereas the Article Friendly script automatically rejects articles using html. Personally I prefer to use html where I can as long as it follows the directories guidelines. Html helps to make an article stand out and become more readable. However you can add html to articles in the admin area of Article Friendly.

In Conclusion

There are more features that I haven’t mentioned but I’m sure that you get the picture. Although the Article Friendly script is easier to install and use I still slightly favour the Article Dashboard script because of the last 2 features mentioned, but as there are regular updates to the AF script that could change.

Abhinav Srivastava asked:


When it comes to picking out an article directory, there are many things that you should consider. Firstly, why do you need to take the time out to pick an articles directory instead of just choosing one randomly? What does an article directory do? These are all fantastic questions and if you are new to article directories, it can definitely be confusing. In this article, we will explore why an article directory is extremely important in any business you are in and why you should start submitting articles to an article directory as soon as possible.

Article directories are being one of the hottest ways to advertise. Whether you are trying to promote your own website and drive all sorts of traffic to it or if you are attempting to amp up the number of people viewing your blog, an article directory is a great place to get people to notice your website or blog and get your name out there! Honestly, article directories are the single greatest advertising tool that anyone could ever come up with.

Now that you know the purpose behind submitting articles to an article directory, you now need to know how to pick one. There are many different article directories available and for you to just find one that you want to submit too can be an over-whelming task. For this purpose, we will explore some of the things you should look for in an article directory and what you need to watch out for!

Firstly, you always want to make sure that you do your research on any article directory that you may be looking to submit too. For example, you want to make sure that the article directory has been around for over a year. The longer the article directory has been around the better, if you can find one that is over five years old that is going to be your best bid. The reason for this is because if you are submitting your articles to promote your website to a website that is brand new, you are probably not going to see much feedback, but if you are submitting your articles to an article directory that is already established, you will have a better chance of seeing some production and traffic.

Next, you want to check and make sure that the site contains the owners contact information. This will allow you to contact the owner directly if you ever have any problems, you should definitely beware of article directory sites that hide the owners contact information. That is all! Just take these steps into consideration and you should have no problems!

Submit your Articles to Article Directory.

Ian Middleton asked:


has never been anything like the internet in terms of what it offers and the opportunities you can gain from it. Welcome to the expanding age of e-commerce. The market continues to expand and shows no signs of slowing down either. It is estimated that in excess of five billion dollars changes hands each year via the net. There are so many ways that you too can have a slice of the cake, but nothing is guaranteed so beware.You need a good promotion strategy and one way of doing this for next to no money is article marketing.

What is article marketing? As the name implies, it is a form of informational marketing that uses short articles to promote a product or service. While simple in concept, article marketing can be enormously helpful in promoting a commercial venture. Here are seven of the most common advantages of article marketing:

1. Article marketing is relatively inexpensive. The costs of hiring a writer are far less than it would cost to place a banner advertisement on a website. A professional writer can easily produce a short (500 word) article for under $20. Additionally, the writer can be far more compelling than a stoic banner ad could ever be.

2. Article marketing can help provide credibility towards a product or service. If you read an article on the subject of weight loss that was unique, informative, and thought provoking, would you be more or less inclined to purchase a product promoted in the body of the article. Of course, you would be more likely to purchase. This is because the expertise presented in the article lent a great deal of credibility to the product.

3. You have no control over the number of people who will see your article marketing efforts. It can simply mushroom and go viral. To get your new article to the internet and be seen is quite simple and again free in most cases. You simply register with an article directory and submit your article for distribution. Actually, there are hundreds of article directories on the internet and submitting multiple articles to these various directories opens the doors to untold scores of readers.

4. The articles are forever. Some article directories will inevitably close from time to time, but your articles will still live on. You see, the directory simply “gives birth” to the article and gets it out into the public domain. That means your published articles will remain indexed in the search engines. So, the article you wrote years ago can still draw in potential customers today.

5. Articles can also be used in email marketing campaigns as well. Yes, it is true that most articles are submitted to article directories, but the flexibility of article marketing is quite vast. Often, articles can be used quite effectively in email campaigns. Most people despise spam emails due to their curt nature. Emails that utilize article marketing are more welcome because of their information and entertainment value.

6. Article marketing can also aid in search engine optimization. Adding links to the body of an article that is published on the web will yield “votes” for the website the links point towards. This will increase the site’s ranking in the search engines.

7. Article marketing can easily cross over with website content. If a website lacks relevant content then the search engines will ignore it. Also, a “barren” website does very little for stimulating visitor interest in a product. Adding quality, promotional articles to a website can perform the “double duty” of marketing the site and adding keyword rich content. Consider this two-for-one approach another way article marketing is cost effective.

Naturally, there are more than seven benefits to article marketing but these are a good selection. Anyone who is operating a commercial venture on the internet should make article marketing a prime component of their advertising strategy. The reason for this is that it is among the most effective promotional strategies ever devised.

India-directory asked:


The latest and much anticipated addition in the Internet services is Article Directory. Article Directories enables the authors to hand out their content so that the publishers can take hold of them for their web sites without creating much problem to both of them. This special privilege has eased out much fuss in distributing the written text document. Nevertheless, not all the article directories are up to the mark or standard.

Rather some of them are so poorly created that instead of giving out good services to the clients, these are aggravating the problem largely. The web masters have to think of some way out to solve this problem.

Again the India directory have told over and over again, that the colors, dimension, images should be consistent to make the website more effective. Selecting as little variety of color as possible for the color scheme should be done.

Through out the whole directory, the same scheme should prevail. It will make a viewer feel that he is going through some thing, and the content has harmony among them. Spontaneously, the viewing experience will be much more satisfying. Whoever has a article directory of their own, should always be vigilant so that their directory is always well organized, and going through it is always a pleasurable experience.

It should appeal to the sensitive viewers, and invite them for re visiting the directory. Many article directories can be seen to posses a variety of assorted aligning, diverse color combination, and disproportionately daring fonts. In some of the article directories, there is the provision of adding up of variety of stylish items to make the text look stunning.

These may visually have a dazzling effect at first, but at the same time has negative aspects also. Straightforwardness and transparency are expected of an article directory or a website by a visitor.

A cluttered, untidy, disorganized appearance will make the viewers leave the site at once. Even if they browse the directory for a while, at end they will get frustrated and eventually leave the site. Both the things are equally avoidable by the web site owner.Whatever is incorporated in the website, the main intension is to invite the visitors or customers.

The styling properties like colors, images, and letterings should portray the similar ideology. These styling elements should complement the substance and massage of the website. Of course the graphics and images are beneficial to the website. But these images should not overpower the article directory. put your blog at -http://india-directory.org/



There are many articles where too much of graphics and images have resulted in a difficult navigation. None of the visitors will tolerate endless scrolling to go to the other part of the site, rather they expect that they can easily navigate the required information. Enabling the visitors, an easy contact with the content is the most important task of the website

Advertisements and affiliate programs cause income from the site. Therefore, it is profitable for the site to put up more ads etc. in the website. Again, here also the ads and affiliate programs must not interfere the reception of the content by the viewers.

The potential clients would obviously prefer helpful information rather than going through the ads and affiliate programs. That is why they are browsing the directory. The content of the website is the central item, not the so-called ‘funky’ and ‘stylish’ ads, colors, and font. The ads or something similar to them should not make unnecessary intrusion in the content of the website. - -Submit your site today

David Fishman asked:


Write about things you are knowledgeable in, and have passion for. Feel passion when you are writing, and your writing will improve. Article writing is one of those exercises that for a few people produce truly phenomenal results online. Some online article authors are total amateurs, but their writing is also quite good. Quality is so essential to article marketing. You don’t want your web site to look like it’s cheap and aimless.

There is no better way to increase traffic than having content and submitting this content to article sites. Many webmasters are using RSS Syndication and it is becoming the way content is delivered to websites on the internet. Creating unique good quality will help with the search engines and visitors. Without good, relevant content the Internet would be nothing. Many webmaster agree that relevant good quality content is king. The pages will be indexed in the search engines because the keywords are relevant and match the content of the article.

One of the benefits of submitting articles to article directories is that once the article is there in the directory it is not archived as time goes on. There are niche directories that only accept articles within their niche. One of the best article directories are very easy to use and provide members with a lot of help in the form of online tutorials and help screens. Article Directories is the one place where webmaster and authors can submit articles and get published. Article directories exemplify the best kind of website that Search Engines love the most. The first benefit of writing articles and submitting them to article directories is that it establishes you as an expert in your particular field.

Many publishers come to article directories looking for articles to publish, they take the article and post it on their site. When writing your articles, you need to focus on providing specific information the publisher will find beneficial.

Using a niche article directory is a great way to publish specific articles and sell products in that niche. This enables them to publish your article faster and with fewer errors. The giant article directories need approve hundreds of articles a day. Submitting your articles to directories is free. Article directories are websites that house free articles. Anyone can write an article and use it to promote their website. The distribution of articles through free article directories is one of the best ways to promote your website.

Want to know if this process has actually done anything for you. You are writing for people. If you are writing to get traffic and you are not receiving it, you might get discouraged but don’t be, the link benefit in the long run will bring the traffic. One can use this method to try and draw in user traffic as well as use other procedures to bring visitors to their particular site. Writing and submitting articles is the most effective way to publicize your website, build one way links and promote your website.

Your link that you include in your article should point back to your site, but should also reflect the theme of the site. It can take several months to get into some directories so it can be frustrating but don’t give up keep submitting articles.

Chris Le Roy asked:


My staff keep reminding me that I am one of the most prolific writers they have ever seen. I have a tendency to write 10 to 15 articles a day and a 300 page training manual in just 2 weeks fully edited ready for publishing which is a little freakish but I enjoy writing and I enjoy sharing my knowledge with people. One of the top ways of doing that on the Internet is to write your articles and submit them to an Article Directory but I have recently seen some very dark issues creeping in with articles submitted to some of the article directories.

This has really happened to me…

As a technology geek and yes I will call myself a geek cause that is what I am, I often write articles on technology subjects like how to use excel, how to build webpages, etc. However, when I submitted my articles to five article directories recently I found some really disturbing aspects to the way they do business and present my articles. One of the most disturbing issues was that if you had any domain names or links in either your webpage or in your Author Bio they stripped them out. If you had used keywords in your Hypertext, they removed your links and substituted their own to your competitions website. See, it seems some article directories are now using your work to advertise other people services within your articles.

When I saw this for the first time, I was flabbergasted. Not just because somebody else was using my work and saying that it was their, but more so, they were using my keywords to hijack my back links back to my website to my competitors. I had also found from these five article directories that they had licensed my work to others, so that they could put their names on my articles.

This one issue alone opens up a plethora of issues with Google, MSN, AOL and Yahoo?

The entire search engines above frown on duplicate material on websites and by somebody using your material without permission you could find that anyone of these Search Engines could ban your site. The really scary aspect to this is that you are not responsible for this and it really is a form of identity theft and more copyright infringement.

For all except one of the directories, I was able to overcome this problem by simply going in and deleting the articles to reclaim my work and stop my competitors from stealing my work but one of the directories did not have the capabilities to do this.

So from my experience I have written five mandatory questions you should be asking your directories so that this does not happen to you!

Q1. Do I Own The Rights To My Articles?

This seems pretty straight forward but I have found in the fine print of some article directory sites, it will say that by submitting your article to this directory that you agree that the directory now owns the intellectual property of this article. If you find that, then my recommendation is to run. Most quality directories do require you to give them a non-exclusive license to reprint or reuse or redistribute your article and this is quite acceptable as this is what you want, but you do not at any stage want to lose your rights to your articles, especially if you are not getting paid for it.

Q2. Can I Pre-format My Article with HTML

Some directory articles have rules that prevent you from including HTML in your article. What this means in many cases is that you cannot format the article the way you want. This can be a major problem for you if you have bulleted lists or numbered lists as you can sometimes find these lists are all on one line or not properly formatted.

I have even seen situations where, I have submitted articles to this type of article directory only to find that all my paragraphs are lumped together and the articles look terrible. The bottom line is this, select your article submission directories carefully and make sure you can pre-format the article in HTML. I should note that there are now many Article Submission directories that allow you to enter articles with full html including pictures.

Q3. Are You Going To Sell or Provide My Email Address To A Third Party?

Everyone that I know hates spam. Me in particular, especially since I get around 1,000 spam emails everyday! Be very careful though, some article directories have written into their operating agreements that they can pass your email address onto third-parties. This means, they could sell or supply your email address to anyone. Most article directories that I deal with, have very strict policies on protecting your privacy and your emails but some article directories automatically put your email address up on the article with your name.

This is as big a problem as someone actually selling your email address, as some spammers use tools called mail bots or email bots that look for the html tag mailto and then pickup the email address after that html tag. This is a big problem for all of us, as this means the spammers know they have a valid email address, so ensure when you are choosing an article directory that they do not sell or provide your email address to any third party plus that they do not put your email address on the page your article is on.

If you are not sure, have a look at some of the articles in the article directory as that will give you a pretty good indication as to the way the articles and email addresses will be handled.

Q4. Do You Allow Hyperlinks or Domain Names in your Article Or Author/Bio Line?

The whole reason for you or I writing articles is so that we can get our work published onto the internet and promote our business whether it be through back links or from people reading your article and then deciding to visit your website. If you are not writing articles for this reason, then I hope you are getting paid a lot of money cause if you are not getting links back to your website, then you will not get any traffic.

There are some article directories that do not allow hyperlinks in the main body of the webpage, where as others do allow it on special occasions. Some article directories do not even allow hyperlinks in the Author/Bio Line which as far as I am concerned means you may as well go elsewhere because if you are not getting at least a domain name shown in the Author/Bio Line then how are people going to know where your site is. If you are selecting an Article directory, make sure in their writing rules area that it specifies that even if you can have an active domain link, that you can at least have an inactive domain link or web address link.

A sample of an inactive domain link is shown to the right - http://www.1-on-1.biz

What this means is that the reader of your article at the very least can see your domain and can copy and paste your domain into the address section of the browser. You certainly will not get as many people visiting your website if you are using inactive domain links in the Author Bio area but at least if people really want to see what you have to offer they can get there relatively easily.

Remember one thing, the human race inherently lazy so if you do not make things as easy as possible your sales will never soar.

Q5. Do You Allow Hypertext Links in your Author/Bio Line?

A Hypertext link is one of the most important links on an article page. Essentially what this type of link is, is where a person will see normal text but when they click on the text it will take them to a particular webpage. For example I have included a Hypertext Link below -

How to Profit from a Direct Sales Website

I have written the code for the link below. Note that I have substituted the for [ ] brackets simply for this article.

[a href="http://www.1-on-1.biz/dms.asp"] How to Profit from a Direct Sales Website[/a]

The link is shown in the a href section and the text “How To Profit from a Direct Sales Website” is the Hypertext. The reason it is important for us to structure our links in this way as it tells the search engines that that page is related to those keywords. The more times a search engine finds those keywords and links on different websites, the more points you will accumulate for that page, and the higher the likelihood that search engine will rank you high when people use those key terms. I will say though, that SEO technology is more involved than just that one issue, but it is certainly an important issue that can make the difference to your webpage being at the top of the search engine results or at the bottom.

What I mentioned at the start of the article was that 5 article directories I was submitting articles to were keyword hijacking my articles. Essentially when they were presenting my articles in the directory, all my links in the author bio line that contain the “a href” section were dropped and changed to my competitors simply because my competitors had paid for that service. Ultimately, when a user was to click on my keywords and my Author BIO line they were going to my competitors which I consider a dirty tactic. Keyword hijacking degrades an article directory because eventually the article writers wake up to this issue and simply cease putting articles into the directory and the quality of the directory will die off so all I can say to those article directories that are doing this, I hope that you are making lots of money, because this technique is not going to last.

The bottom line is this, if you are trying to build your sites traffic, then you are better off spending your time submitting articles to those article directories that allow you to use HYPERTEXT in the Author Bio lines. Very few that I know will let your get away with that in the main article and to be honest, it can actually get you banned from the article directory.

To finish off …

Let us be frank here, it takes a lot of work to build successful websites and it takes even a lot more to write high quality articles, so why would you want to short change yourself by submitting your articles to article directories that do not want to work as equal partners, because remember that whilst you are writing quality articles for the article directories, you are helping them build traffic to their website and build their PR ranking with Google. Both you and the article directory are in fact benefiting from your work.

Look the bottom line is this … make sure you check out and tick off each of these questions -

Q1. Do I Own The Rights To My Articles?

Q2. Can I Pre-format My Article with HTML

Q3. Are You Going To Sell or Provide My Email Address To A Third Party?

Q4. Do You Allow Hyperlinks or Domain Names in your Article Or Author/Bio Line?

Q5. Do You Allow Hypertext Links in your Author/Bio Line?

Peter Nisbet asked:


If you know how to write articles effectively, so that they do the job you want them to do, then any time you have the need you will be able to write an article to achieve your objective. Article writing skills are learned, and how quickly you learn depends upon your teacher.

People write articles for a large number of reasons and those that do it well will generally achieve what they set out to achieve. In the world of internet marketing this will normally be to market or advertise a website or product. However, it is the ‘doing it well’ that is the problem for most people, and no matter how hard you try or how good a writer you believe yourself to be, internet article writing is more than simply putting a few words together in a sensible way.

However, before you think of using articles to promote or try to sell your products, or even attract visitors to your websites, you will have to stand back a bit and consider what it is you are doing, and what the purpose of the article is. Before you start writing you need a clear idea in your head of your objective. If you are writing an article for submission to article directories and ezines, you will not generally be permitted to promote any specific product, or provide a link to your website in the body of the article.

Your success, therefore, depends upon your ability to persuade readers to visit the website for which you provide a link in the ‘author’s resource’ that generally appears at the end of your article. Nobody will click on that link unless they believe that:

a) You really know what you are talking about and can help them with their problems or answer their questions, or

b) They believe that your website is going to give them the extra information they are seeking.

Like any other skill, knowing how to write articles effectively has to be learned - it doesn’t ‘come naturally’, and even the best novelists have no idea what is needed. Writing articles in the world of internet marketing is a totally different skill to writing professionally for public consumption. The use of language is different, and the semantic approach to content is totally divorced from the type of writing of which Tom Clancy or Agatha Christie were masters.

That is what you have to learn: article writing skills, and how to write articles effectively for submission to article directories and for content on your own website. In fact, your article could end up as content on somebody else’s website, and how cool is that! If you don’t understand what I mean by that, then you still have a lot to learn about writing articles to ensure your online success.

It is well beyond the scope of this article to teach how to write articles to meet Google’s needs, and to enable them to act as adverts for your websites, products and services. I mention Google specifically since it is by far the largest search engine on the internet, and most of the others use Google’s standards and methods of assessing web pages for publication in its listings.

In fact, Google have taken a very positive attitude to articles that are well written and used both as website content and published on article directories. Even duplicate content between a number of article directories appears to take a long time to be noticed by Google.

Once you have learned how to write articles effectively, and have the article writing skills needed for effective internet and article marketing, then you will have a tool in your hands that you will be able to use again and again to force your websites up the listings, attract masses of traffic and provide you with results that no other form of advertising could approach with the results you will achieve.

Yolanda asked:


Article marketing is one of several internet marketing strategies you can use to promote yourself and your business. You can also use articles offline, but this article is focusing on article marketing as an online strategy.

The Benefits

There are several benefits of article marketing. Here are just a few:

Effective and low cost (usually free). You build credibility and trust. Articles are a subtle way to engage readers. When they believe you are credible and trustworthy, they are more likely to visit your website. You don’t have to be a “writer.” Write from your experiences as a business owner and share your lessons learned. Simple to do; in-depth technical expertise isn’t necessary.



Do’s & Don’ts

Do provide valuable content for your readers. Teach them something, explain how something works, or challenge their thought process on an issue. Use your imagination when writing your articles. Think of creative ways to convey your message.

Don’t write you article as a blatant sales pitch. This is a sure fire way to turn off potential readers who are looking for valuable information to help them with a problem. Remember, the reason people are searching is because they’re looking for answers, which makes your readers high quality. Don’t abuse their time by selling to them.

Do use your own content. When you write from your own knowledge and experience, your writing will come across a sincere and credible because it’s genuine. You have unique experiences that others will relate to. This will also establish you as an industry expert. After all, you’re the one who has done the research, studied, and experienced what you’re writing. You can also hire someone to write articles for you.

Don’t use pre-written articles that someone has sold or given to who knows how many people. Take what you learn from these articles and incorporate the information you’re your own knowledge base and experience—write your own article.

Do follow the writing guidelines of the article directories you submit you articles to. Some are stricter than others.

Don’t get discouraged if an article directory says there’s a problem with your article. Find out what the problem is, fix it, and resubmit. I have personal experience with this one. I wrote an article in parts, i.e., Part 1, Part 2, etc. One of the article directories didn’t like “parts,” but others were fine with it. I ended up having to combine all the parts into one article to get my article approved for the directory that didn’t like parts.

 8 Steps to Writing Articles

 1. Determine Your Audience. Think about who you are trying to reach. This group of people is your target market. Ask yourself what your audience is looking for. Consider their demographics. What makes them tick? What are their values? Try to get as specific as possible. The better you understand your audience, the better you can reach them with your articles.

2. Pick Your Keyword(s). Selecting a keyword will help you focus your article. Learn the difference between short-tailed keywords and long-tail keywords. Short-tailed keywords tend to be one to three word phrases. Long-tail keywords are longer phrases and target readers who are close to closing on a decision, whether is be to buy something or to opt-in for more information.

3. Select a Topic. Your topic should relate to your chosen keyword. Your article could be a how-to, a review, a problem & solution, a comparison, a personal experience (maybe a problem you’ve overcome), or something you’ve learned that you think your readers will benefit from.

4. Write Your Article. Sit down and start writing. Don’t worry about the article being perfect. Just get your thoughts on paper. As a starting point, jot down your main points (3 is a good number) and write down supporting sentences for your points. Each point with its supporting sentences will be a paragraph. Then write an introduction; try summarizing what your three points are. Then write your conclusion; sum up your points, provide a solution, or give them the bottom line.

Basically, tell your readers what you’re going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you told them. Don’t reveal the “answer” until the end of your article. If you give the answer away to soon, the reader won’t stick around for the rest of the article.

5. Title Your Article. Try to use your keyword in the title. At a minimum, use the keyword in the introduction of your article (or as close to the beginning of the article as possible). This will let the reader know that your article is relevant to what they are searching for. Consider a question as the title of your article. People don’t like to leave questions unanswered. There’s actually a chemical reaction that happens in the brain when there’s not an answer.

6. Fill Out Your Resource Box. The resource box is where you tell your readers who you are. This is the only place in your article where you can make a “sales pitch.” Write in the third person, for example, “Jane Doe is an entrepreneur specializing in internet marketing.” Then make an offer and tell your readers where to click (your URL) to get the offer (tell them what to do). The offer could be getting more information about your business, or access to an information product (a free product is always attractive).

7. Clean Up Your Article. After your article is written, edit and clean it up. Use simple language. Trying to impress your readers with big, lofty words is a big turn-off. Read the article to make sure it flows. Try reading your article out loud to hear how the article sounds. Check spelling and grammar. Remember, you don’t have to be an expert writer, just be the expert at what you’re writing about—it’s about the valuable content you’re sharing.

8. Submit Your Article. Submit your article to article directories. There are many directories available. Search article directories on Google. You can also use Alexa.com to get a feel for how popular an article directory is. Most directories will require you to create an account before you submit your article. Most accounts and submissions are free. Keep in mind that many directories will review your article to ensure it meets their guideline before the articles go “live.” Some directories are fast and some are slow.

Conclusion

Hopefully, these do’s and don’ts and steps will help you incorporate article marketing into your overall business marketing strategy.

Happy Business Building,

Yoli