Article marketing is today more competitive than ever so the last thing you want to do is write and submit articles with errors. You want people to not only open your article but to read it, like what they read and click through to your website, sales letter or blog. This is how article marketing works and why it is so successful driving traffic to your site.

However you need to have a good understanding of the basics of article marketing so you can avoid the common mistakes of article marketing. Here are some of the errors that marketers should avoid in article marketing.

Bad or Inappropriate Headlines.

Writing attention grabbing headlines are great provided the headline matches the article content. It stands to reason that if you spend time writing a good article then you want to get it read as many times as you can. If you have a bad headline or one that is meaningless then your chance of getting your article read is very low. What you need is an attention grabbing headline that reflects the content of your article as this will help give you credibility so that if people like your article they will want to read more.

Not Targeting Your Audience.

Before you write your article you need to work out who you are targeting to read your article. To do this you need to research your niche and find out what the people in this niche are interested in as your article should be written to focus on their needs, concerns or desires. Therefore you need to write your article to target your audience and not merely write about something that you think may be of interest to them.

Excessive Article Publishing.

Some marketers think that you need to publish your article in lots of categories in article directories, newsletters and sites. However this is considered spamming and most reputable directories will either only accept original articles or delete all your articles. What you should aim to do is have well written articles and publish them just enough so that other people will pick them up and republish them on their websites, newsletters and blogs. Read the rest of this entry

Bum marketing or affiliate marketing is one of the easiest ways to make money online from home. It is basically promoting other people’s products for a commission. You can start for free or with very little capital and it is really not that difficult to learn. All you need to learn is how to promote products and/or services and the more skilled you become the greater your income.

Some affiliate marketing “how to” products recommend you begin by picking a hot market or niche and then find a product to promote to that market. Others suggest you begin with something that interests you because if you are interested then other people will be as well. The last method is good in that as you already know a lot about your market and thus you will be more interested doing the necessary research and more comfortable writing about it.

Which ever method you choose to find your market you need to do some keyword research. This is necessary to optimize your marketing to promote your chosen product. For keyword research you need a good keyword tool. Some are expensive and only available by subscription where as one of the best, the Google keyword tool, is free. You need to find keywords that people use to search for in your market but which also have only enough competition so that you are able to rank for them in the search engine results.

Always choose a product of high quality that is in demand in your target market. Before you promote your chosen product check that it has a reliable affiliate system in place and this system has reliable statistics available. Be very careful of merchants who collect email details on their sales pages as some will promote directly to these potential customers and cut the affiliate out of the loop. A good idea is to sign up yourself and check them out. Also make sure that the commission you will get paid is enough to pay you for the time you take to promote the product. Read the rest of this entry

Article marketing is a free and relatively easy method of online promotion so it is no wonder lots of online businesses use it. However many offline and some online business are yet to get started marketing using articles.

If you are considering article marketing to promote your online or offline business then this article is for you.

Here are a few things to consider before you give article writing a go.

1. Are you going to write the articles yourself? Do you have the time in your busy schedule?

Article writing is a skill you need to master and it can take time to learn how to write good articles. Bear in mind that there are plenty of freelance article writers available that can write you some decent articles very cheaply.

2. Are you going to use article marketing to get more traffic to your website or for some other reason? Maybe you just want your main website to rank higher and to use articles for search engine optimization or to get more back links.

3. To get people to read your articles you must be able to write about interesting stuff and not the same old boring stuff. You need to take ideas and write about them in a different refreshing manner. Remember the more interesting you can make your articles the more people are likely to read them.

4. Finding good titles for articles is not always easy and I seem to think of them at odd moments. Keep a pencil and paper beside your bed at night to write them down before you forget them. Create a file on your desktop called “headlines” and add any titles as you think of them to it so that you can use them for future articles. Read the rest of this entry

Just before the start of this challenge I had the privilege of being updated to platinum author status by EzineArticles. Before this writing articles was real challenge to me as I never really got it as far as writing goes. So with my new platinum status I thought why not give the challenge a go.

Here we are nearing the halfway point of the current challenge and I actually have my nose a wee bit in front much to my surprize. At times it has been struggle to catch up when I have got a few articles behind due to family and other commitments but I somehow have found the time and drive to catch up.

Thinking back so far I think the best thing that I have gained from it so far has been the belief that I can actually do it. I still have to pinch myself sometimes to believe that I can actually write articles that people want to read and republish as I never before thought of myself as any sort of writer.

Another thing that I did not think about before I started the challenge was that I now have content for my own websites and blogs whereas before I was for ever searching for good content to publish on them. I would read up to sometimes a dozen articles before I found one that I thought suited my blog and I was prepared to post it. Now topics just seem to come to mind and by doing a little research for ideas I can now write an article myself in about the time it used to take to find content to republish. Read the rest of this entry

For any given keyword a search will usually produce tens of thousands, if not millions, of page results. Many of these results will be articles which have been written around this keyword, and this is why articles are such a powerful technique for driving traffic to a specific website.

You may have heard of the phrase ‘content is king’; this is not some kind of throwaway line, and is key to why so many online marketers use articles to drive traffic to their sites. Quite simply, internet users just can’t get enough information on a vast range of subjects, and providing information on these subjects through articles is a surefire way to drive traffic to your website.

Here are four specific benefits of writing articles:

1. Zero Cost

There is no direct cost in submitting your articles to reputable directories – of course, this assumes you are already online and have signed up for a hosting service. Note that it is very important that you comply with the authorship requirements that each directory stipulates, to avoid rejection of your articles.

2. Automatic Back Links

The directories allow the author to include a link in the article resource box and it is your aim that readers click this link in order that they be taken to your site. Take care when wording your resource box; you need to provide a compelling reason for readers to explore what you have to say further. The terms of service under which you publish allows your article to be placed on other sites should other webmasters so wish. This is a good thing of course – your written work gets seen by more readers and, importantly, you have an SEO friendly one-way link back to your site.

3. Rapid Results

The article directories receive many visitors – people searching for information. As such, once your article is approved, it is likely to be read in a short space of time and you may well see a rapid increase in traffic to your site immediately. It is worth repeating though – take care when writing the content of the author resource box as this is critical in getting people to click on your link. Read the rest of this entry

If you are one the people who like writing articles welcome to the world of bum marketing. A lot of people actually dread writing articles even though they may be experts in their chosen marketing field, yet they can talk about their business to the cows come home.

Some people also find that reading articles is boring, so as bum marketers we need to write articles that are anything but boring as articles are meant to be read. Articles should be informative and full of useful information so people keep reading and click on that all important link in the resource box.

Therefore articles need to be written so that they are read which means bum marketers have to make them good and well written. Most people find it becomes easier the more they write and it can even be fun once you master it. It is best that you write about something you know a lot about and have an interest in.

If you write articles for your own business you have a head start as you are already quite knowledgeable about your products and/or services. Just write like you are talking to one of your customers about things like the benefits of your products or how your products will help your customer solve their problem.

Here are six tips to make sure your articles get read and enjoyed. These tips will make your articles more readable and interesting.

1. Avoid long paragraphs.

Keep your paragraphs short and to the point. With long paragraphs the first bit gets forgotten before the last bit is read. Basically they are hard work for the reader and can become confusing. Readers will get frustrated and move on to read easier articles. Paragraphs can be just a single sentence. Read the rest of this entry

Article directories are a type of membership website that you join, usually for free, to submit your own unique articles. Most articles are submitted to directories are done so gladly by the copyright owner for promotional purposes.

Article directories are a win-win situation whereby the submitter gets traffic sent to his promotion and the directory owner benefits from the traffic generated by people looking for new content for their websites. Article directory owners also get revenue for ads on their directory and submitters get extra traffic to their promotions when their articles are published on other peoples websites and blogs.

Submitters basically give information freely with the main section of their article but are allowed to take or benefit from the resource or bio box at the foot of their article. Publishers, that is people republishing the article on their websites, get new unique content but they are required to pay a small price for it by including the resource or bio box.

So by submitting your article to just one directory it can be picked up and republished many times by people needing new content for their websites and blogs. You therefore not only benefit from the traffic to the article directory but also the people reading your articles on these websites and blogs. That is the main reason why article writers write good unique content and freely submit them to directories. The more articles one writes on a subject the more likely they are to be considered an expert in their chosen marketing niche.

If you can not write or do not have any knowledge on your chosen promotional subject you can always hire a writer to write for you. At first glance it may seen expensive but when you consider the number of times your article is republished and the fact they can work for weeks and sometimes many months, it may be a worthwhile investment.

Let’s say you are promoting a product that people are looking to buy and you would like them to buy your product instead of the competing ones. You write an article on something of interest in your niche and submit it various directories. People find your article by searching using your keywords. If it is good informative content and helps them then they will see you as knowledgeable on the subject and will be more inclined to buy your product. As other publishers pick up your content and publish it on their sites then this process will be repeated many times resulting in even more sales for you.

Not only are you getting exposure to the traffic on the article directory sites but also the traffic on the sites where your content has been republished. More traffic can convert into more sales. Also the more your article is republished the more back links you will get and the higher your article will rank in the search engines.

Next time you submit an article to your favorite directory consider also submitting it to more directories especially those with a high ranking. If one directory will get your article republished a few times then more directories will get you article republished many more times. For more information http://www.squidoo.com/simplecashblogsecrets

Article Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Bum-Marketing—How-Article-Directories-Work-For-You&id=4371662

What is Article Advertising?

Everyone has heard of advertising as we are bombarded with it in what seems every way of life these days. But have you heard of article advertising or marketing your business by writing articles? Think of it as basically as similar to a story in a magazine where good content is followed by details on where to find more information about the products and services mentioned. Article advertising is an online version of writing a story and using a hyperlink or website link in the last paragraph for the reader to click on for more information.

Article advertising if done well can be a cost effective way to market your product and/or service online. You basically write short articles of approximately 400-600 words about something that is related to your business. For example you might write about how to do something such as how to lose weight or how to improve your golf swing.

Well written articles are picked up by other marketers looking for fresh content and republished on their websites or blogs. However an article needs to be more than just well written content to work. You need to use keywords and keyword phrases effectively so that people will find your article in their online searches for information.

Benefits of article advertising or article marketing.

* A well written informative article will help you gain trust and respect in your niche as people see you as an authority in your area. Lots of these articles will compound this for you so that more people will be exposed to your content. Read the rest of this entry