Article Marketing Reviewed

Are you trying to promote a web site or online store?
* Are you a consultant
or small business owner looking for new customers?
* Do you have an e-zine
and want new subscribers?

Writing articles and sharing them online can be
a great way to meet all of these goals!

What to write
about:
——————

Before you actually begin writing, get out a
piece of paper and write down your goals for the articles. Are you trying to
bring business to your online store? Do you want to locate new customers for an
offline business? Write down specifically what you hope to
accomplish.

Next, write down the type of people who you are seeking. What
type of people are most likely to buy from your store, for example? Are they
male or female, young or old, parents or single? Write down as many
characteristics of your ideal customer as possible.

Then, look at the
combination of your objective and your desired customer, and figure out some
article topics that would be of interest to a person in your target
group.

Heres an example to give you a feel for what Im talking
about:

* Goal: bring customers to my online store, which sells birthday
items
* Ideal Customer: a mother with children between 1 and 10 who is
planning a birthday party for her children in the next few months.
*
Topics:


- How to plan a first birthday party
- How to plan a
childs birthday party
- Kids parties on a budget
- Unique party ideas for
children
- How to have a _ birthday party (dressup, zoo animal, etc
etc)

Write it:
——————

Now, start writing your
articles!

Pick one of your topics to start. Develop an outline of the
topics you want to cover. Dont pick too many; ideally your article will be only
about a page in length.

Write it! Keep it to the point, share as much
information as you can, and keep the paragraphs fairly short. When youre
finished, have someone else proofread it if possible.

Finally, develop a
short resource box to place at the bottom of all of your articles. This is only
4 - 5 lines, and tells a little about you plus has a link to your web site, an
email address, or whatever else you want. If you include some sort of free gift
or report for people who click through that will increase your click-through
rate.

For example, here is the one I use:

Carol Woods is the
editor of Work at Home Income, a weekly publication of Income Building Blocks.
IBB offers free ideas, information and inspiration for moms who work at home -
or want to! For lots of free ideas to help you find a work at home job or start
a home based business, visit us at and sign up for Work at Home
Income!

Market it:
——————

There are 2 components to
marketing your article.

First, post it to online directories that
publishers use to locate articles they can print in their publications. The
usual arrangement is that you post your article to a database, and the publisher
can then reprint your article as long as they include your resource box at the
bottom.

These are the directories I
use:

http://www.ezinearticles.com/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aabusiness
(if your article is
business-related)
http://www.goarticles.com/
http://www.authorconnection.com/
http://www.ideamarketers.com
http://makingprofit.com/mp/articles/submit.shtml

Second,
if you have time - do a search for ezines which you think your target customers
might read at cumuli, http://www.cumuli.com/ezines/

Once youve found some
appropriate publications, send a copy of your article to the publishers of those
ezines to see if they would be interested in including it in their ezine or on
their web site.

Here’s where to learn
more:
——————

Netwriting Masters Course: A free 5-day email
course. No matter what you sell on the Net… If you want to sell more, write
better! Just click and send a blank email to mailto:twmsibb@sitesell.net to
receive the course.

Information Masters Course: A free 5-day email course
on writing and selling your own e-book! Just click and send a blank email to
mailto:timsibb@sitesell.net to receive the course.

Ezine Announcer has
lots of good information on article marketing; visit them at
http://www.income-building-blocks.com/MoreSubs.html
By Carol Woods
Carol Woods is the editor of Work at Home Income, a weekly publication of
Income
Building Blocks. IBB offers free ideas, information and inspiration
for moms who work
at home or want to! For lots of free ideas to help you find
a work at home job or start
a home based business, visit us at title=http://www.income-building-blocks.com
href="http://www.income-building-blocks.com/"
target=_top>www.income-building-blocks.com and sign up
for Work at Home
Income!

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