One of the biggest things in the world of affiliate marketing is the use of articles to promote your website. Actually, this isn't new.
It's always been said that 'content is king' when it comes to getting people to visit, stay, and continue visiting your site. That's what the Internet is for. The term "Google It" is all about finding out information.
So when it comes to promoting your website articles play a tremendous role. But, promoting your site with articles is still not being held a high priority in most people's advertising arsenal.
I believe that there are three major sticking points that cause this. First, writing articles can be a scary thing. The worries of whether or not you have writing ability, knowing what to write about, or if anyone will even like it.
I'd like to dispell that fear right now. Anyone can write an article. If you have a passion for something, have a hobby, know a little bit about anything... you can write an article to help promote your website.
The second sticking point then is knowing how to write an article for effective promotion. There is a difference between writing an article for general reading and one that will effectively promote your website or affiliate marketing products. But, it can still be done.
The biggest difference between just writing a plain article and one that will deliver traffic to your site is simply flow. The structure of the article is the major difference.
The third deterrant to using articles is once you get the article written, how do you promote it? Since there are countless articles written about the actual how-to in writing articles, I want to spend some time talking about this point.
How do I use articles to promote my website?
Recently, a client asked me what good was my article writing service if they didn't know what to do with them after they received them. I could have gone ahead and given the typical reponse like you submit them to article directories, list them on your site, ask other webmasters to put them on their site, submit to ezine publishers, or even buy some expensive article submitter to do the work. But, I had to ask myself, "Would that help this person?" Not really.
The problem with promoting your website with articles isn't the actual work of it, it's the assumption that everyone already knows how.
Write as many articles as you can
The worst thing you could do if you're using articles to promote your site, is to only have a handful and think that's good enough. Articles are both a blessing and a curse. Sure, people want to read more and more information, but not old stuff. A constant supply of original, relevant, and timely articles that deal with topics that people want to know about now is the first rule of promoting with articles.
Volume is what sets apart a successful website and one that struggles. For example, I have a two websites that I am using mostly for experimenting and testing. While they both are in niches that are very hot right now, only one of them is reaching high traffic and monetary status. It's not coincidence that site has hundreds of pages of content and the other only has about forty.
Invest the time to write everyday. If you can shoot for a goal of at least 20 new articles a week, then you can effectively promote your site in several different areas. At this present time, search engines will discredit your site if there are a lot of articles put on it each week. They think something funny is going on. That's why it's important to spread them around a little bit. Here's how you can effectively market your site with articles.
Articles promote your site by being on your site
Search engines like MSN, Google, and Yahoo! all love web content. The more focused and narrowed on a particular niche, the more they love them. Without going into all the very boring, technical stuff about search engine rankings and how they rank a site, if you remember these important points your article will be listed high.
Use keyword prominently in article. This doesn't mean every other word, but every so often mention your keyword or keyword phrase in the body. Your keyword or phrase must be in the title and subheadings. This is what search engine spiders feed on. Don't use automated software to create your pages. Search engines are getting smarter all the time and they are all competing with each other. They want real information not fodder. If it sounds phony they will ban a site. The only way to be sure of effective articles is to write them yourself.Remember real people are reading your article. Effective promotion focuses on people. After all, they are the ones that have the money. Spiders and robots don't. Promoting is about building relationships with the people who visit your site. If your site is geting traffic from your articles, search engines take notice.I would recommend at least one article per day, or at the very least, one every other day.
Articles promote your site from other websites
This one is key. It's also another way to get the search engines to react to your site. Submit some of your articles a week to different websites. I'm not talking about article directories here. I'm talking real, live websites that people actually go to. Not just other website owners.
Why would you do this? Twofold answer.
You are making sure that your articles, and expertise, is being put in the places where targeted people will see them. You are building relationships, and back links, to your site with other website owners.I suggest putting out two to three articles a week this way. If you just use one article and submit it everywhere, then the search engines won't see it as original material anymore. You need a continuing stream of fresh articles, that link back to your site, in several different areas.
Articles promote your site from article directories
I'm sure you've heard about this step. Sadly, it's the only one that people take advantage of. Yes, they are a great way to get links to your site and have people find your article, but it's not the only way.
That said, don't forget about them. I routinely add new articles to every article directory I can find on a weekly basis. Again, it's not always the same article. I write between 10 - 12 articles a week and spread them around to roughly 100 or so directories. This way I am getting extreme exposure with a lot of different original material.
Articles promote your site from ezines
The common misconception here is that ezine publishers go to article directories and use the articles that are there. And if they do that, that's good enough. Ok, it is pretty good, but doesn't comlete what you are trying to do. It's only a little bit of what you can accomplish with articles.
For example, I wrote a fishing article for a site of mine a few weeks ago. I submitted this article to a few directories. After that I wrote another one and started contacting ezine publishers if they would be interested in using my article in their next issue. One of the publishers saw the article in the directory. He asked if he could use them both in the same issue. One as a full article, the other as a few paragraphs with the rest at his site. No problem.
I had a tremendous amount of traffic from that ezine for the next three weeks.
I suggest setting aside at least two articles for ezines, other than the ones you've already written.
If you want to promote your site with articles it does take a lot of work and a huge investment of time. But, if you're serious about success, it's worth it.
Tim Bossie is the creative mind behind http://www.guaranteed-ads.com and specializes in writing bulk batches of articles on any topic you need. Check out the information at http://www.guaranteed-ads.com/articles.html and he can get started immediately.
