Snowballs Rolling Down a Mountain Updated

FIRST IMPRESSIONS CAN LAST A LIFETIME

The very first step in the promotion process is making contact with your potential customer. Once contact is made, it is suggested that you have 30 seconds to get their attention.

I personally feel that you have three chances to get their attention. In your first shot, you have less than 2 seconds! That is how long it takes someone to read your Headline. This is usually how much time you are allotted to snag someone's attention even in a radio spot or television ad. Also, in a direct sales call, your prospect may only give you two seconds to get his attention before he/she tunes you out!

YOUR SECOND CHANCE TO MAKE A GOOD FIRST IMPRESSION

Many volumes have been written on how to write a good headline. These tutorials on writing good headlines can usually apply equally to your radio and tv ads, as well as on your direct sales call. To understand the power of writing a good headline is not the point of this article, so I will move on.

Most television ads and radio ads last 30 seconds, so you might have an additional 28 seconds to turn around the contact with your potential client. Even in a direct sales call, you will be given 30 seconds as a rule to dig yourself out, since it will usually take that long for a person to figure out how to get rid of you. In a written ad or article, that same 30 seconds usually amounts to maybe one or two paragraphs of text, at which time your prospect will be drawn into your ad or article, or they will move on to more important matters.

YOUR LAST CHANCE TO MAKE THE CONNECTION

Your third chance to get your prospects attention materializes only when you have successfully navigated yourself through the first 30 seconds! At this point, you have captured your potential clients attention and they are giving you the opportunity to take them where you would like them to go.

EXTENDING THE LIFE OF YOUR MESSAGE

There is one technique that you can use which is a proverbial snow ball rolling down a mountain! That technique is to place your business behind your name, and to sell your name through the art of writing Free Reprint Articles. Save your business information for the Resource Box that accompanies every Free Reprint Article.

If you would spend the same amount of time that you could potentially spend with a single client in a direct sales situation, and apply that time to writing an article on a subject that people would like to read about, you could realistically be launching your own snowball of Mt. Everest proportions.

THE PUBLISHING CYCLE

There are thousands upon thousands of publishers out there in the world today. In the old world of publishing, it could take you years to become established enough so that publishers would begin to publish your work. Not only that, it could take months just to get one article to the finished stages that would catch the fancy of the good ol' boy system of publishing.

In today's Internet world, there are so many more publishers out there looking for even more content than was needed by the industry as little as five years ago. With the advent of the Internet system of doing things, anyone could become a publisher. With the flood of new publishers, the need for great content exploded as well.

Therein lies our greatest opportunity to market ourselves.

IN THE PAST

In the month of March 2000, I took articles that I had written for my own publications and repackaged them for general distribution. I also took some time to create a couple new articles just to meet this task. In March, I started promoting my articles to other publishers. I spent three solid weeks promoting my articles in the same way that I had been promoting my big newsletter.

I asked each publisher who published one of my articles to forward me a copy of their published ezine with my article inside. The publishers who allowed me that consideration gave me the opportunity to track my results. In the month of March, my articles gave me and my newsletter exposure to more than 500,000 readers! In that three week period, I effectively doubled my subscriber base!

YEARS INTO THE FUTURE

This article, up until this point, was originally written in July of 2000. I called the process *a snowball rolling down a mountain,* because in the months following the release of my first articles my site traffic began to grow exponentially, and my cash register began to ring.

Through September of 2000, I had managed to have my message seen in publications reaching over 2 million people!

In September of 2001, I took my own advice and shifted the focus of my own business. After much observation and contemplation, I built my new business around the writing and distribution of Free Reprint Articles. I eventually phased out my old business to focus more time on the program that had given me much to celebrate.

REAPING THE REWARDS

Now, years later, I am still reaping rewards from the first articles that I had written way back in March of 2000 because they continue to be published even today. I believe the reason they continue to be published is because the content of those articles is still as relevent today as it was at the beginning of the new Millenium.

There are more than 50 articles in circulation right now promoting my own business. There are hundreds more in my archives that are promoting the businesses of my clients.

For the good of my business, my clients are also reaping the rewards of both my writing and distribution activities.

One of my ghosted clients had to take a hiatus from the publishing cycle, just so that he could catch up with his new workload.

I also have clients that I have helped by distributing the articles that they have written on their own. Cajun Clark was excited when he told me:

"Let me share something with you: Your submission services and guidance have done more for my infamy :), to build my website traffic than any thing else I've tried. FYI, there are now, according to Google, 262 pages on the Internet that contain http://www.cajunclarks.com, many of which came from your submissions."

WHY A SNOWBALL?

I think of every article as an individual *snowball rolling down a mountain.* The reason why I think of it like this is because the article will be published when I release it, then again every few months as other publishers discover its existence. Imagine in your mind the snowball rolling downhill in the cartoons --- it just gets bigger and bigger as it travels downward.

With each roll of a snowball --- with each published article, I am generating more and more recognition as being an expert in my field. By marketing myself effectively, I am lending credibility to any business venture I may undertake.

DOING IT FOR YOURSELF

Once you have created your own articles with Free Reprint Rights, it will be time to start promoting them to editors and publishers everywhere. Here are five announcement lists for publicizing your new articles:

Free Ezine Content - mailto:FreeEzineContent-subscribe@topica.com
Free Reprint Articles - mailto:Free-Reprint-Articles-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Quality Checked Reprint Articles - mailto:QC_Reprint_Articles-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Political Thoughts - mailto:Political-Thoughts-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Article Depot - mailto:Article_Depot-subscribe@topica.com

Once you have run the course of the Article Announce Lists, then it will be time to turn to the Article Directories. Here is a list of Article Directories that you can use:

Ezine Articles - http://www.EzineArticles.com/
Opportunity Update - http://www.OpportunityUpdate.com/
EZ Ad Success - http://www.EZAdSuccess.com
Idea Marketers - http://www.IdeaMarketers.com/
Ebooks N Bytes - http://www.EbooksnBytes.com/

CONCLUSION

Whether you are looking to promote your articles, or whether you are simply a publisher or webmaster looking for content, then these are mailing lists and websites that you will want to pay close attention to.

If you place yourself on the content provider side of the equation, get prepared for what lies ahead...

Great Big, Huge Snowballs Rolling Down a Mountain!

Honest officer! I haven't been drinking!