Net Gambling House

Rules for Responsible Article Creation

July 10th, 2008

These rules apply to any advertiser creating media, whether it’s articles, blog posts, or video blog entries. But I’ll write it to apply to responsible article creation for Adam Schultz, my WebSourced colleague.

For the advertiser seeking to create articles the rules are fairly simple: know your strengths and know your audience. It may help if you think of your current clients, and potential clients, as your audience. I will refer to clients as audience for the rest of this article.

Know Your Audience
In particular, know what issues plague your clients from day to day. If you sell pizza ovens then consider who’s buying your ovens. These are people who run kitchens.

Knowing this you know that they also manage employees and money. They also face market pressures such as low carb. They also have to clean their ovens, which is tough in itself.

All of these issues that the pizza joint manager faces would make great articles. Here’s a list of titles that this little brainstorm suggested to me:

Understanding your audience’s buying cycle can also help you in creating content.

Know Your Strengths
As a pizza oven seller online you might not know much about upselling from a medium pizza to a large. But you do – I promise – have some lodes of information that can apply to the pizza business. Hunting out where your experience and expertise converges with the pizza oven business is a matter of:

Conversations with your customers will reveal many many ideas for more articles/blog posts/tools (yes tools – especially web based – are some of the strongest link builders out there… so watch for tools your audience might need.)

Develop a series of questions that will uncover the vacancies in your audience’s current media. WHAT?? I mean uncover what questions your audience/potential audience has and create media (write articles/blog posts/video blog entries) that answer these questions.

So What’s A Responsible Article?
A responsible article is one that focuses soley, completely and entirely on solving a particular problem your audience faces. This article, while intended to influence the audience by suggesting behaviors or strategies that might help them, does not seek to influence the audience in a way that will benefit your company.

An irresponsible article is one that is intended to sway the audience into an action that primarily benefits the advertiser.

So How Does this Benefit My Bottom Line?
If you’re writing responsible articles (creating responsible media… remember this applies to all advertiser created media) that aren’t intended to sway the audience into buying your products then what the hell are you doing writing articles?

You’re proving, through your free sharing of valuable information, that:

So how does being found a trustworthy thought leader affect your bottom line? It lays the foundation for a long and successful career, no matter what the industry.

About the Author: Want to build links to your site and enhance your brand? Send custom media questions to GFrench@gmail.com for free media creation brainstorm, including article topic suggestions and key publisher identification for your industry. Visit the Article Marketing blog for article marketing ideas.

Comments Off | Publishing Resources | Permalink

Article Writing & Promotion – Your Fast Track To Sales & Profits

June 2nd, 2008

Writing articles, and promoting them for publication, is one of the most productive long-term promotional tactics available. Well researched and written articles… which provide valuable, useable information, are highly sought after by newsletter publishers, magazines, ezines, etc.

It is a marketing truth that “Content Is King”. Good, keyword rich, content is what drives online traffic through search engines and gives the visitor a reason to keep coming back to a website. This is often referred to as “sticky content”. As a traffic-generation tool it is unsurpassed.

Webmasters and publication editors have an insatiable appetite for tightly written “niched” articles that are relevant to their web sites or publications themes.

This need is your opportunity…

An editor of an ezine, newsletter or magazine has a never-ending need for good content. Each issue they publish must be filled with useful, relevant content that will appeal to their readers or subscribers self-interest. A publication that cannot provide great content will not long survive.

————————————————————

“An editor of an ezine, newsletter, or magazine has a never-ending
need for good content.”

————————————————————

By regularly supplying the media with well written articles, you build a never-ending supply of links and traffic to your own websites.

How?… Well, the secret is in the bio. Each article you submit for publication has your own “authors bio” that gives full attribution and links to your site. This is the payment you receive for having supplied the articles… it is a payment which gives you long-term dividends!

Not only will your article be presented to many thousands of subscribers initially… but those same articles (with your bio and links) will be archived on the publications websites. Those archived articles become fodder for search engines which not only provide on-going traffic to the publishing site… but to YOU as well. It is truly a Win/Win proposition.

NOT A WRITER?… NO PROBLEM…

There are countless freelance writers who will “ghost write” articles for you and… giving you the copyrights. I know of many well-known names in the industry who have articles plastered all over the internet…and they have never written a word themselves. I know this because I have written some of their articles.

If you need such services try elance or do a Google search for “ghost writing” or “freelance writers”. There are many highly educated, english speaking, foreign-based professionals who will write articles for very nominal fees.

OK… YOU HAVE AN ARTICLE… NOW WHAT?

Having a good article is only the first part of the equatiion… now you need to get the articles distributed to those editors and publications who will welcome your contribution… and publish your work.

There are three primary means of promoting your articles:

==> Article Directories

==> Article Announcment Lists

==> Your Internal List

==> Paid Distributiion Services & Software

Here is a breakdown of each… and a list of resources to
get you started…

ARTICLE DIRECTORIES…

Article directories are websites which categorize and archive your articles… and promote them to editors and publishers. Most are free… but some are fee based. They all provide a submission system for you to provide your articles to them. In addition, most have their own internal list of editors and publishers that they announce your new article to.

TIP: The simple act of listing your articles in the directory archives will provide you instant incoming links to your website which could increase your site traffic and page ranks.

Here is a partial list of article directories. (Please note
that companies go out of business occasionally and you may
run into a link which no longer works.)

http://www.marketingarticlelibrary.com
http://www.allmerchants.com/
http://www.allnetarticles.com/
http://amazines.com/
http://www.articlecity.com/article_submission.shtml
http://articleresponder.com/index.php
http://www.articlesubmissions.com/index.php
http://www.boconline.com/
http://www.businesstoolchest.com/
http://www.certificate.net/wwio/index.shtml
http://www.connectionteam.com
http://www.dime-co.com/
http://www.ebooksnbytes.com
http://www.echievements.com/
http://ezineadhelper.com/cgi-bin/articles/articles.cgi
http://www.ezinearticles.com
http://www.goarticles.com
http://www.internetbasedmoms.com/bb/index.php
http://linksnoop.com/
http://www.mailbiz.com/mailbiz/magcat/
http://www.SimpleSteps2success.biz
http://thewhir.com/find/articlecentral/
http://webmarketingspecialists.com/articlesubmit.htm
http://www.webmomz.com/users/login.shtml
http://www.zongoo.com/index.php

ARTICLE ANNOUNCEMENT LISTS…

Announcement Lists are email newsletters, lists, or
ezines, which allow you to “announce” your new articles
to thousands of editors and publishers instantly. Most
of these announcement lists are sent out daily to their
subscribers. This means that you can have your article
circulating to key editors and publishers within hours
of completion.

Here are a number of important Article Announcement Lists
that will give you a simple and fast mechanism for distribution of your articles…

YOUR INTERNAL, IN-HOUSE, DISTRIBUTION LIST…

Over time you will begin to build a list of editors and
publishers, who have used your articles in the past, and
find them to be relevant. This list is “your private goldmine”. Each time you finish an article the first step you want to take is to send it, in a private mailing, to your in-house user list.

You might want to consider doing a “mail merge” to this list and personalize your submission to the specific editor by name.

Remember, this list could be worth thousand of dollars to you over the coming months and years. Do not treat it lightly. This list is truly a center-of-influence list that you will want to spend time and effort nuturing. Remembering them at holidays and on special occasions, goes a long way to building a profitable relationship.

Pick up a phone and call them. Let them know that you appreciate your relationship… and let them know you are available for special writing assignments. (Here is an example of how strong and beneficial this simple act can be… About two years ago I sent a small holiday gift [a screen-saver of tropical Hawaiian images] to a magazine editor who had used a number of my articles in the past.

I waited until the package had time to arrive and then I picked up a phone and called her. She was delighted with the thoughtfulness of the gift and then stunned me with the news that one of her regular columnists had been forced to resign… and “would I be interested in replacing him?”. So… that simple telephone call resulted in a regular column in a print magazine that serves one of my niche marketplaces. A marvelous result that may not have happened if I had not “nurtured the relationship”.

Ask them “What Articles Do You Need?”… and listen closely to their answers.

By doing so… you will develop a sense of what materials are needed and wanted in your marketplace. Write specifically to those needs and you will develop a strong editorial following that will pay off in huge traffic flow, increased sales and profits, and an enhanced image and reputation. These are pretty hefty benefits for some time spent researching and writing articles!

PAID DISTRIBUTION SERVICES…

Two recent innovations that have burst on the article marketing scene are: (1)custom distribution software (Article Announcer) and (2) web-based article distribution services (Article Marketer). My experience with these systems are that the web-based service is much more cost efficient, easier to use, and has the built-in advantage of having the most current and up-to-date database of publishers seeking your content.

Thom Reece is the CEO of On-Line Marketing Group, a direct response marketing agency with headquarters in Hawaii. He is the creator of the Marketing Article Library(tm) [ http://www.MarketingArticleLibrary.com ] & the major portal for the
online marketing industry- E-ComProfits.com [ http://www.e.comprofits.com ]. Thom can be reached by email at: thom@e-comprofits.com

Comments Off | Publishing Resources | Permalink

Consistent Writing Means Consistent Results

May 28th, 2008

I had an engaging conversation recently with a friend who writes for a living as I do. One question that came up from my friend to me was, “How do you write so often and so well?” Naturally, I appreciated his question and considered it to be a compliment. Goodness knows there have been times after I wrapped up a project that I wasn’t too confident about what I had written. But, that wasn’t his question. He also wanted to know how I write so prolifically. Read on and I will share some secrets with you.

When I write articles, I try to keep in mind that some person some where will likely snag my article and repost it elsewhere. I submit my articles to select submission sites knowing that I stand the best chance of seeing my articles peppered on web sites across the World Wide Web. With that in mind, I write with all of my heart by pouring passion into every single word that I write. I also know that what I write will be critiqued by future paying customers, so no junk is acceptable by me.

Clearly, writing prolifically means sticking with the topics I am most familiar with. Fortunately, as I glide through middle age [yeah, right] I have gained a much broader selection of topics to write about. I have worked in the nonprofit sector, retail, restaurant, and aviation environments. I have worked with men and women from what seems to be every tongue, tribe, and nation on earth. I have lived side by side and attended church with people from varying financial backgrounds. What I have really gained is a rich melting pot experience which has influenced my subject reach.

Once I find something I want to write about, I simply start writing. I don’t even write out an outline as much anymore as I usually have the topic sentence, body, and the conclusion already in my head. It is simply a matter of taking each part of the article and fleshing it out. Quickly and deliberately I usually come away with something that is concise, informative, and persuasive. Typically, I only need to partially rewrite any article once, making slight grammatical corrections and changing words or sentence structure as needed. No dilly dallying…I get right to the point.

Because I am regularly in the mood to write, this means I do my writing on a consistent basis. Because I write on a consistent basis, I gain consistently good results. Like a pianist, if I do not practice, practice, practice I will lose my edge and, thus, my delivery. Better to keep at something all the time then to rest too long and lose my spark. Consistent writing is profitable to me as it is to my clients who benefit the most from all of my hard work.

Matthew Keegan - EzineArticles Expert Author

Comments Off | Publishing Resources | Permalink

Rules for Responsible Article Creation

Article Writing & Promotion – Your Fast Track To Sales & Profits

Consistent Writing Means Consistent Results

Archives

Categories