A key element of a successful business is being able to offer yourself or your company as an expert in your particular field or niche. If you have an online business and want to increase web traffic to your site, boosting your sales and your credibility within your corner of the marketplace, make article marketing a part of your Internet marketing strategy.

Article marketing online is a new application of a tried and true marketing technique as old as media themselves. For years, businesses wanting to reach customers with information about their products and services have used written articles, distributed free of charge to newspapers. This arrangement benefits all parties involved – the newspaper has additional content in its pages, while the business can promote itself as an authoritative purveyor of its products or services. For example, a law office could market itself by producing articles on the benefits of having an attorney draft your will and offer the article to the local newspaper. Article marketing online works the same way, providing content for publishers and another marketing tool for an advertiser.

To use article marketing as part of your Internet marketing strategy, here are a few tips to consider:

1. Stay on Topic – A common mistake in article marketing is for the writer or writers to go beyond the subjects relevant to the website for which they are writing. Remember, this is a business tool! Producing articles on subjects that are only vaguely related, or even unrelated, to the key subject(s) will water down your credibility as an expert in your niche. Staying on the relevant topics also increases the likelihood of your articles being higher ranked in search engine results.

2. SEO – Knowledge of Search Engine Optimization and use good practices will help rank your content more highly in search engine results. When you begin writing your articles, ask yourself what keywords, phrases, or search terms people are likely to enter on Google, Yahoo, Bing, or another search engine and incorporate those terms into your content. You can, however, have too much of a good thing. Use good search terms and phrases, but their uses should not be forced, as doing so dilutes the quality of your article. Using appropriate search terms is important, but producing a well-written professional article is paramount.

3. Proofread, Edit and Revise – An old saw about writing holds that there is no writing, but only rewriting. Don’t make the mistake of novice article marketers; that is, to sacrifice quality of articles to their volume. There is enough badly written web content out there without adding to it. Quality, professional content means paying attention to details. This means reading, rereading, editing and proofreading. One other thing – do not trust your computer’s spell checker to find all of your mistakes.

4. Be Informative, But Concise – You may have a wealth of knowledge on the niche that your business serves, but articles featuring lengthy blocks of text that require extensive scrolling on screen are all but guaranteed to scare away readers, also known as your potential customers. Articles in the 400- to 800-word range are a useful guideline. Remember to enhance readability by using such graphical techniques as subheadings and bullet lists.

Filed under: Article Marketing

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