7 Ways to Market Online Using How To Articles
As the President of the Association of Web Entrepreneurs I help entrepreneurs create systems and automate their online businesses so that they can make more money and enjoy more freedom in their lives. To do this, I teach them only the most effective online marketing techniques, and article marketing is one of them.
Here are my 7 favorite ways (and a checklist for you) to market online using how to articles. Don’t worry about writing completely new articles for each of these; just reuse your articles. To be more productive, create a system and schedule a day for writing and a day for posting your articles once a month or even once a week!
- Websites: Post all of your articles on your website as resource tools for your target market. Make sure you put a note to visiting editors that they can use your articles for free as long as they use the resource box at the end. And make it easy for them to copy and paste the articles. Don’t have them in PDF files for instance. Make sure to use keywords that your target market would type in a search engine within your articles. This will drive traffic straight to your website when someone goes searching for that type of content.
- E-zines: Use all of your articles in your own e-zine to establish yourself as an expert with your target market. Make sure the articles address your target market’s problems and that they tie into the various products and services you offer (the solution to their problems!). Build relationships with other newsletter editors by signing up for their e-zines and using their products and services and attending their events. Also attend large events and be on the lookout for editors as you network. Create a database file just for editors so you can easily send one e-mail when you have a new article ready.
- E-zine Directories: Also post all of your articles or have your assistant post all your articles on a steady basis (like every week or every month) to at least two or three of the top directories. Here are five of the best ones: www.ezinearticles.com, www.goarticles.com, www.articlecity.com, www.a1article.com, and www.ideamarketers.com.
- Blogs: Make sure to post your articles on your blog(s) on an ongoing basis too when the content is appropriate. Search engines love blog content and blogs will often show up higher in a keyword search than a website will.
- Printed Flyers: There is something about printed information–it just feels more valuable. Market your services and products offline by taking some of your favorite articles and formatting them in Word to include your photo and contact information in your footer. Make sure to use the front and back if you need to. Print them on quality paper and give them to existing and potential clients. Have your fulfillment person put a different article in your outgoing mail each month. Also make sure the article gives a call to action for a service or product that can be found on your website.
- Products: As you develop information products (reports, books, manuals and so on) to generate passive income, you will reuse your articles when appropriate. It is a great way to repackage content that you already created as it saves you time and makes you more money.
- Autoresponder Series: An autoresponder series is a great way to share a number of articles in the same category. My shopping cart system (www.practicepaysolutions.com) lets me set up unlimited autoresponders. The best thing about doing an autoresponder series is that you can build a relationship over a period of time with your customers. This is important as they are in different moods and phases of their life each day. For instance, one day they may be too busy to read it and the next day they may be focused and ready to buy your product or service.
Finally, watch out for article overwhelm. Don’t let implementing this checklist overwhelm you to the point where you don’t take action on any of the techniques. Make an annual plan and be specific about what you want to accomplish each month. This will help you stay focused. You can even try to delegate one of them while you work on another and then you can be twice as productive.
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Want To Use This Article In Your Ezine or Website? You have my permission, as long as you include this complete blurb with it: Sheri McConnell (www.SheriMcConnell.com) is the President and Founder of the Association of Web Entrepreneurs (www.aweconnect.org). She helps entrepreneurs discover, create, and profit from their intellectual knowledge! Sheri lives in San Antonio, Texas with her husband Seth and their four children. Contact her at awe@onebox.com or her toll free number at 866-361-9938.Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sheri_McConnell |
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October 22nd, 2007 at 11:27 am
I am working on my second self-published book. I,Youll Never Believe it (my bio). I am getting ready to self-publish,”Fitness For Seniors With Humor”
I have been reading your articles and feel It may be of help to me. I have sold a little over 1000 books of You’l never Believe It and it’s seems to have come to a standstill. Any help would be appreciated.
Anthony Naturale
October 23rd, 2007 at 1:02 am
Thanks for the article on marketing with articles. I have noticed that the articles that I have written seem to have more staying power than my blog articles but the blog articles seem to have a higher ranking in the beginning. What do you think of the article marketing sites? Also there are sites that promote making your own article submission site–what do you think of these?
Thanks for your feedback.
October 25th, 2007 at 4:31 pm
Articles are a great online marketing tool, but authors need to be careful in how they go about distributing them. The current algorithms used by the bigger search engines to rank sites will work against those authors who have identical content posted to multiple sites–and in most cases, the author’s own site will be penalized. For example, if one of your articles is posted verbatim on your site, as another- more highly ranked site, Google will interpret this as duplicate information, and downgrade the ranking of the site considered less popular. It’s a good idea to keep the “best,” most informative articles for your own site, and distribute highly-edited versions or altogether unique articles in your article marketing efforts.
October 25th, 2007 at 6:04 pm
I released my first book Grateful Gifts beyond Descriptions Volume 1 Inspirational Spiritual and Historical event poems, I can’t believe I just completed a womens Volume and am working on my autobiography, and am on page 52 already Wow! Does anyone have any idea on how to market my books better, it’s great information here! Thanks.
Virgie Lindsey
October 26th, 2007 at 9:44 am
Kathleen, that is very handy advice — I did not know that! Will definitely keep the juiciest-of-the-juicy articles for my own site in future
October 27th, 2007 at 3:45 pm
Kathleen Meyer mentioned using the best articles on one’s site and the unique ones in marketing. Wouldn’t the unique ones be the best ones?
October 29th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
By “unique,” I mean original content. The main point is to avoid distributing duplicate articles.Vary the content in articles used to drive traffic to your site, and keep the best content for your own site, to encourage visitors to inward linking to your site.
December 9th, 2007 at 7:41 pm
I am nearing the completion of my 2nd book, Fitness for Seniors With Humor. I am looking for a good self- publisher. I wasn’t completely satisfied with the one for my first book (You’ll Never Believe it) Any suggestions?
February 10th, 2008 at 8:33 am
Sherri’, thanks for some helpful advice. I live in South Africa, and am currently collecting marketing ideas that will work using the Internet. I cannot do a book tour of America, but some of your suggestions will help “get the word out”.