jeudi 26 mars 2009

Ezine Directories

Ezine Directories Can Help You Make Money

What is an Ezine? An ezine is an online electronic magazine or newsletter delivered by email to a targeted group of readers interested in the subject of the ezine and who opt in subscribe to it.

Are they popular? Very much so! The estimate is there are over 100,000 ezines published worldwide each and every day.

For example you want to make money online and quit your full time job. You go online, find an affiliate directory and select an affiliate program you like. The program has a good payout commission, 50 to 75% and offers affiliate links, advertising copy, banners and great support.

Now What!

Time to post articles or advertise. But where? Ezines are the answer. Ezines are the most powerful form of email marketing and advertising. Over 10 years of proven effectiveness.

Where do you find good ezines to submit articles or advertise in? Find them in a great ezine directory. With a good ezine directory, you can sell more products and earn more affiliate commissions.

When you search in an ezine directory, select the ezines that match your affiliate business. The subscribers to these ezines are interested in the same business you have. They pay very close attention to the articles and advertising that appear in the ezine. They are called highly targeted subscribers and buyers!

You submit your articles and ads to the publishers of these ezines and reach an audience interested in your offer. What an impact your advertisement has when shown to people who are interested in what you are selling. (a word of advice: always subscribe to the ezine first.Your chances of having an article published ae greater.)

Ezine directories are the fastest way of finding a grouping of ezines for your business. Much easier and faster than entering a search for ezines in Google, Yahoo and MSN.

The best ezine directories will categorize topics of great interest. ie: affiliate marketing, business opportunities, mlm and internet marketing are major categories for your online business.

The good directories include pertinent information you want when making a decision where to advertise. Information such as:

1. Ezine Publication name.
2. Category list.
3. Format - Html, Text, Website, Blog and RSS.
4. Circulation - number of people reached.
5. How often published.
6. Cost of ads - Solo, Sponsor and Classified ads.
7. Articles accepted - These must be original copy.
8. Past issues available.

Using a great Ezine Directory is a must for finding ezines to submit articles to or to place your advertisment in and drive swarms of hungry visitors to your website month after month!

Think about this.

Our parents can not teach us to succeed online...
Universities can not teach us about the Internet...
Experience does not prepare us for being online...

The answer? Go to the Experts. People who can help you succeed. People that mentor internet marketers.

Why learn from the experts? Saves a person time and money! Find the best ezine directories. These directories are run by experts.

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Alan Grundemeier helps people succeed with their online business by guiding them to successful online programs and the experts who run them. Learn more about how to market with Ezines, available at:=> http://classicaffiliatemarketing.com Ezine editors and Site owners:You may reprint this article in your ezine or on your site as long as you do not modify the content and include our resource box as listed. ====================================

Article Directory: Why should you participate?

There are many different reasons why you should submit your articles to an article directory. For example, if you are promoting a website, are a new writer that is looking to their name out there or simply you are advertising your blog. Using an article directory as a means of advertising is honestly one of the smartest things in the world, not only will an article directory get your website or blog's name out there faster, but you can pretty much guarantee that you will see the traffic of your website or blog rise. In this article we will go through the many reasons why submitting your articles to an article directory is beneficial and absolutely needed!

So let's say that you are a new writer. While you may have been used to writing term papers and poems in college, writing website content and also promotion is completely different and you will have to be in a different frame of mind. After you have a few articles written, it is a great idea to submit those articles to an article directory to now only get your name out there but also to see yourself as a published writer.

Submitting articles to an article directory is honestly one of the very best forms of advertising. Not only are a lot of article directories free, but the traffic that your website will receive even if you submit just one article to an article directory is simply incredible! Article directories now-a-day are honestly one of the most popular forms of advertising and if you are looking for a way to up the traffic to your website, an article directory is definitely going to be your very best option.

Now that we have gone through some of the reasons for choosing an article directory, you may be wondering how you can find some of the best article directories to submit too! Well, the answer to that is very simple: do your research. As you would with any other form of advertising, you always want to make sure that you are researching before committing yourself to something.

There you have it! All of the ways that article directories can help you! They are honestly an up-and-coming form of advertising and if you are a new writer, they are a fantastic way to let people get a feel for your writing style! So if you are looking for a way to gain traffic to your website or you simply want to put down that you are a published writer, an article directory can definitely help you!

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Abhinav Srivastava is a owner of a Article Directory named http://www.articleslide.com

Article Marketing: Tips and Tricks!

To be honest, article marketing is simply the best way to promote your website or business in general. Not only is article marketing one of the easiest things to learn, but if you are looking for a quick and easy way to draw attention to your website or company, article marketing is definitely the answer! Now you are probably asking yourself just how you can get a piece of this advertising pie and how you can start article marketing for your company. Well, the first step is easy and in this article we will explore some of tips and tricks to help you market your articles!

One of the greatest things to do when you are first starting out in article marketing is to write up tip articles. This is a great way to draw attention to your company and to get potential customers hooked! Let's say that you are running a dog grooming company and you are looking for ways to expand and advertise, why not write up a few tips and tricks to keep your dog looking their best all the time between grooming sessions? This not only let's the customer know that you care about how their dog looks between grooming sessions but it also gets the customer interested in your company specifically.

The next type of article that you should write up when you are trying your hand at article marketing is a terms article. There are so many different terms in companies that is can be very hard for customers to follow these. If you educate your customers about the terms of your company you will not only perk their interest but they will definitely appreciate the fact that you took time out of your day to educate them about the terms of your company! This is a great article marketing tip!

Finally, give them advice. People love advice, especially when no one is asked and advice articles that are submitted for article marketing purposes are a great way to get your customer hooked to your company and it allows you to share personal experiences. For example, if you work in the hotel business, you can share how to book a room fast instead of going through a reservations department that might be in India!

That is all there is to article marketing! It is not all that hard and it is definitely worth it when you really think about it. Article marketing is the future of advertising and it is better to learn it now versus later!

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Abhinav Srivastava owner of Article Directory. http://www.articleslide.com

Why You Should Use Articles Directory - The Benefits

There are many different reasons why you should submit your articles to an articles directory. Articles directories are the hottest form of advertising, promotion and the best way to promote your website. With so many people logging onto the internet and the freelance writing booming, it is no wonder that articles directory sites are so very much in demand. Not only are articles directory sites simply the best way to drive more traffic to your website, but if you are a brand new writer looking for an outlet, there is no better way to let other people get to know you than by submitting your writing to an articles directory.

There are a few things that you need to know when you are looking for a good articles directory to submit your articles. First, you need to look and see how long the articles directory website has been around. This can be an important aspect when it comes to choosing this directory. If the articles directory website has been around for a long period of time, such as five years, you know that it is a credible website. When you are submitting advertising articles, you are going to get some feedback. If the articles directory website has only been around for six or seven months, you should look for another site. The entire point of submitting articles to an articles directory especially when you are a webmaster is to drive traffic to your website. This is best done with an experienced directory.

Next, you always want to make sure that on the contact information is listed on the article directory website.

This is to insure that if you have any problems with your submission, you can contact the directory representative. Most articles directories are effective, but every once in a while you may run across one that is less than stellar. Be sure to have contact information in case you have questions about your submission so that they can be answered promptly.

Finally, you always want to make sure that you read the articles directory website guidelines. This is a good idea to do even before you start to write your articles so you can comply. Some articles directory websites have a lot of rules and regulations. It is best to know what is expected from your writing before you begin to write articles for certain article directory websites, so that you do not end up wasting time.

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Abhinav Srivastava owner of Articles Directory http://www.articleslide.com

dimanche 15 mars 2009

Articles marketing Tips

Top 15 Article Marketing Tips

Article marketing involves writing free reprint articles and submitting the articles to online publishers. Each time your article gets picked up for publication, the resource box (which is an author bio that includes a backlink to your website) is published with it.

So, each time your article is republished, your website receives another backlink. An increase in backlinks can increase your search engine rankings for your keywords and also drive traffic to your site whenever someone reads your article and clicks the link in your resource box.

An added perk of article marketing is that it's a great way to establish yourself as an expert in your niche, as your articles demonstrate your depth of knowledge on your topic and serve as effective teaching tools for your readers.

As you're just getting started using this tried and true marketing tool, you might feel overwhelmed at the thought of embarking on a new skill. Relax!

Yes, there are many ways to tweak and improve your article marketing results as you get more experience, but at the beginning, if you'll just keep the following 15 tips in mind you'll make a strong start:

1) Consistency is key.

Article marketing is a long term marketing tool, so don't submit one or two articles and then expect to see major results. For best results, you will submit at least 1 article a month for an extended period of time (preferably for the lifetime of your website). It usually takes anywhere from 3-4 months to see a change in search engine ranking, so be patient!

2) Curious about where your article is being re-published?

Do a Google search for your article title (putting quotes around it), and you'll see a list of sites that have picked up your article for publication. Directories can take 2-3 days to publish an article after it's been submitted, so you might want to wait a few days before doing this search.

3) Capitalize The First Letter Of Each Word in your titles (and don't make the title ALL caps!)

4) Write for your target audience, rather than just search engines.

First and foremost, your articles should be effective teaching tools for your human readers, so focus on writing articles that will educate them. Keywords are important, but don't get over focussed on them. If you will simply write on the topic of your website, your keywords should naturally pop up in your articles.

5) Write on the topic of your website.

In order to get targeted traffic to your website you should always write on the topic of your website. If your website is about ballroom dancing, then you will write articles about ballroom dancing.

6) Don't write about your own products, website or business.

Do write articles on the topic of your website, but don't write articles that are specifically about your website or the products you sell there. That would make the article self-serving/promotional, and "promotional article" is the most common reason articles are declined by publishers.The proper place to talk about yourself is in your resource box.

7) Be sure your articles are 100% original.

Publishers want quality content, so don't be tempted to submit PLR articles or articles that are sold to innumerable people with the right to claim 'authorship'. If you write your own articles based on your expertise you can't go wrong.

8) Word counts count.

Aim for a word count of 700-800, as that length of article is most attractive to ezine editors and other publishers.

9) 'HowTo' articles are an article marketer's bread and butter.

10) Space out your submissions -- don't submit bunches of articles at a time.

11) Some publishers will send you a confirmation email when they publish your article, but don't expect that every publisher will.

12) Wondering how many backlinks your website has?

Just type this into the Google search box:

link:www.yourwebsite.com

(Just substitute your own URL for the 'your website' part)

13) Sleep on your article for 24 hours, then go back and re-read it.

When you look at your article with fresh eyes you'll see mistakes you totally missed before.

14) Proofread, proofread, proofread!

Once your article is submitted to a directory publishers will start republishing it on their websites. These are websites over which you have no control, so be sure that your article appears exactly as you'd like it (with no typos!) before submitting it.

15) The resource box is extremely important!

Make sure your resource box has a little bio info, your name, a reason to click through to your site, and your URL. For best results, link to a single website.

These are your basic, need-to-know tips--now you have more than enough knowledge to get started submitting articles and driving targeted traffic back to your website!

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Bonus Tip: Use an article distribution service like SubmitYOURArticle.com to magnify the impact of each article - distribute your articles to hundreds of targeted publishers with the click of a button. For more information go to=> http://www.SubmitYOURArticle.com

5 Steps To Writing A Killer 'How To' Article

Educational articles should be your bread and butter when you're doing article marketing, so why not write a 'how to' article?

'How to' articles provide your readers with information they find valuable, help inspire customer confidence (if you're able to teach them something, obviously you know what you're talking about), and make for reader friendly content.

On top of all those perks, 'how to' articles are some of the easiest articles to write, but to get the most bang for your buck you need to keep a few guidelines in mind.

In order to write a 'how to' article that delivers on all of these perks, just follow these 5 simple steps:

1) What will you instruct readers how to do?

Whether you're a banker, a physical trainer, a landscape designer, or whatever, you have specialized knowledge that readers would like to learn.

When trying to decide what to write, think about questions that your customers routinely ask you--if customers are asking those questions, then it's a good sign that a topic will be useful to your target market.

2) What are the steps involved?

Write your steps down and then explain them.

Every 'how to' can be broken down into a series of steps. Before trying to write your article, it's often helpful to first jot down your steps in order.

I would encourage you, if at all possible, to write 'how to' articles that have 3, 5, 7, 9, or 10 steps. (This is for use later on in your title)

Why?

Well, a 'how to' article is a list article, meaning that the items in the article are numbered. For some reason, list articles that contain certain numbers are more popular than others. For example, a title like "How To Paint Your Kitchen Cabinets in 5 Easy Steps" sounds better than 4 steps.

3) Write a paragraph that introduces your 'how to' and also a paragraph that wraps up your article.

Once you have your steps in place, it may be tempting just to leave the article as it is, but you really need an introductory and concluding paragraph. In fact, some publishers will outright refuse an article that does not have an introductory paragraph. It doesn't have to be long--it could even be just a sentence or two that tells the reader what your topic is and gently leads them into the instructional part of your article.

The concluding paragraph is a wrap-up of the article and can be just a sentence or two as well. The concluding paragraph can also help transition into the resource box--it's nice to leave the reader with a final tho ght rather than just abruptly cutting off and then launching into your resource box (the author bio that sits below your article).

4) Put your steps in sequential order and number them.

To take full advantage of the perks of 'how to' articles, I encourage you to actually number all of your steps, putting 1, 2, 3, etc in front of each step. It is possible to have an instructional article without number each step, but numbering makes for easier reading and helps lead your audience through your article.

Spacing is also important--be sure that you have ample spacing in between your steps and in between paragraphs to make your article as reader friendly as possible. Break big paragraphs into several smaller ones, and your readers will appreciate it!

5) Create a title that reflects what you're teaching (and include the number of steps in the title if you like)

As always, your title should tell the reader what your article is about, and with a 'how to' article you have the opportunity to also capture a reader's eye by revealing in the title how many steps are in your tutorial.

For example, at title like "How to Groom Your Poodle Like a Pro in 7 Easy Steps" will convey to the reader:

*What you're teaching

*How involved the instructions are (7 steps)

*That the process is easy and you shouldn't be daunted ("easy steps")

Your title is the first thing that a reader will see. Your title will appear in search engine results and on article directory summary pages, and your title is what catches a reader's eye and makes them want to read your full article. You've taken a good bit of time to craft your article--take the final step and craft a thoughtful title.

And that's it!

'How to' articles are ideal for article marketing, especially when you optimize them by following the steps above. Now you're ready to start teaching your target market, giving them the valuable educational information that they're looking for.

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After you've written your 'How To' article you need to get your article to as many publishers as possible. Best bet is to use an article submission service - for more information on how to do this go to=> http://www.SubmitYOURArticle.com

mercredi 11 mars 2009

How You Can Market Your Articles!

Article Marketing 101: How You Can Market Your Articles!

When it comes to article marketing, there are a lot of things that you need to know. Firstly, it is not just about writing a high-quality article, you need to make sure that you understand that point before anything. There are millions of articles that are high-quality but the public will never read because they simply can not be found on the internet! This is one of the main reasons that awesome article directories were created and while article directories are becoming increasingly popular with every single passing year, they can only do so much; the rest lays on the writer.

First, before you start trying article marketing, you might want to research article marketing. This is one great way to ensure that you understand everything that needs to be done and the goals that you are trying to set with your articles. After you have done your research, you probably still will not understand fully article marketing but that is what this article is for! Article marketing is simple but complex all at the same time.

If you are trying to promote a website or a company via article directories, it can be very difficult if your articles are not in the right format. Oh yes folks, there is a format that should be followed when you are article marketing and that is to make your article come up through search engines. Now there are many different ways to accomplish this and none of them involve having to spend any money! All you need to do is base your articles on keywords that will come up in search engines.

For example, let's say that you are trying article marketing for a wedding cake company. You have submitted quite a few articles for article marketing via an article directory and the wedding cake website is still not getting many hits. Well, that is probably because your article is not targeted for search engines! Search engines honestly only pick up on a few select words in articles and if your article does not include those words, it will not pop up.

Let's say that 'wedding cake' 'cake' and 'weddings' are all keywords that should be repeated in your article for article marketing. As soon as someone types those words into a search engine, your article should pop up! As you can see, article marketing is not hard but it definitely is a skill and you should do your research before you start!

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Abhinav Srivastava owner of Article Directory. http://www.articleslide.com

Articles Directory - How To Choose One

When it comes to articles directory websites, there are so many from which to choose that it can be difficult to pick one from the others. Naturally, you will want to be sure that the articles directory you choose is best for your needs. This article will discuss how to distinguish the type of articles directory that will work best to promote your website through article marketing. Promoting yourself or your website should be your key focus when it comes to finding the right articles directory.

First, you always want to make sure that that the articles directory that you are choosing has been in operation for quite a while. If you are looking at an articles directory website that has only been in operation for less than a few months, you probably should look elsewhere to insure that you get the best exposure for your company or yourself from the articles submitted to the site.

It is also important that there is a great number of article authors listed on the articles directory site. Take a look at how many writers contribute to the site. If there are more than one thousand writers contributing, then you have an indication that the site is effective and that you will gain a lot of traffic from this articles directory. Submitting articles via an articles directory is one of the best forms of advertising. Not only will your article that promotes your website or blog blog be seen by many different people every day, but you will definitely see the traffic to your site or blog go way up.

Next, you want to insure that the contact information of the owner is in the articles directory site somewhere. This is great information to know not only if you have a problem, but so that you can be sure that the site is one that is legitimate and will respond promptly to customer service questions. One way to ascertain this is to send the owner a test e-mail. This will see how quick their response time is and if the e-mail ends up bouncing back to you, you know that the site is not responsive to customer inquiries.

Now that you have all of the steps on how to pick out the very best articles directory site, you should have no problem finding one that will fit in your online marketing plan. Just keep these tips in mind and remember that article directory sites are one of the best ways to promote both yourself as an author as well as the name of your business.

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Abhinav Srivastava running Articles Directory. http://www.articleslide.com

Market Your Business Via Free Articles Publishing!

When it comes to marketing your company, it can be a very difficult thing, especially now-a-days with budgets being cut and everyone tightening up those purse strings. Want to know a great way to market your business that won't cost your company a dime! Article submission is honestly one of the hottest ways to market and advertise all sorts of businesses, all the way from simple websites to actually stores!

Free articles publishing is a fantastic way to get the word out there that your company exists and one of the best ways to get your free articles published is via an article directory. Now, you might be new at the whole article directory, free articles publishing thing but there is a method to the madness and it is: people are always looking for something. Honestly, do you remember the last time that you looked up and researched a product before you bought it? Well, you were probably reading up on that product via a free articles submission website!

This is one of the main reasons why free articles publishing are great to promote any business or website. Heck, you can even promote your blog via free articles submission websites. One of the coolest things about publishing free articles is not only the fact that they are absolutely free to publish but the traffic that you will generate to your blog or website is incredible!

If you are first getting into the free articles submission website world, there are a few things that you will need to know. Firstly, you need to make sure that you are following the guidelines of the website itself, after all, they are allowing you to publish your content for free and they do have to approve it before it goes on the website, so following the guidelines is very important.

Next, you want to make sure that you find yourself a good writer or if you are a good writer yourself that you make your message clear. So many writers are very cloudy in the way that they portray things and when a reader is educating themselves on your company or website, you want to make sure that you are promoting your website and staying on the topic itself, after all, gaining traffic is the entire reason you are publishing free articles! That's it folks! If you follow all of these steps you should definitely see an increase in the traffic to your company, website or blog!

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Get Free Articles from http://www.articleslide.com

lundi 9 mars 2009

Turn Your Articles Into An E-Book

5 Reasons Why You Should Turn Your Articles Into An E-Book

There's no way to get around it--marketing a website means creating content on a continual basis.

It can be content for articles in article marketing, blog content, a Squidoo lens you're creating, ezine content, or any of the other limitless types of marketing content designed to drive traffic to your website.

The options are endless, but where in the world do you find the time to do all this writing? On top of marketing your website, you have a business to run, right?

The bright side is that if you're clever you can train your marketing content (namely, the articles you create in article marketing) to do double, triple, and quadruple (or more) duty by re-purposing the content to suit different marketing tools.

One of the most effective ways to multi task marketing content is to use your article marketing articles as the basis for an e-book.

Here are 5 reasons why you should create an e-book from your articles:

1) It's easier than you think.

I know what you're thinking-- "Write a book? That sounds a bit over my head."

I hear you, but please be assured that writing an e-book is much easier than writing a novel or a book that's sold in the bookstore.

Really, if you can write an article, you can write an e-book. An e-book is just a collection of articles (or chapters) on a central topic.

You can make your e-book as long or as short as you like--there's no need to go to a cabin in the woods and hunker down as you spend years crafting an epic novel.

The more information you provide, the more valuable your book will be, but even if you provide only a dozen pages of useful information on a topic of interest to your target market, your audience will appreciate it!

2) You can morph your book into an marketing resource for your affiliates.

Imagine that you've created a 40 page book that is chocked full of valuable information. You give it to your customers and potential customers, and they love it, but then your affiliates (if you have an affiliate program) start contacting asking you if they can use the e-book as a marketing tool for your product.

This scenario has actually happened to me before, and I ended up taking that original e-book and creating another book for the use of the affiliates where they could re-brand the content and offer it on their websites.

3) If you offer the e-book in your resource box, it gives the reader a great reason to click through to your site.

This is HUGE--whenever you're writing a resource box, you want to be sure to offer the reader a reason to click through to your site. If the reader has found your article useful, what better gift to them than to offer a book on the same topic that gives much more information.

Your resource box could say something like, "For more tips on this topic, please pick up your free e-book at [your URL]."

And then at your website you could capture their email address and then deliver the book to them.

This actually accomplished two goals--

*Luring the reader back to your website

*Building your list

4) An e-book demonstrating your knowledge can build customer confidence (which makes sales more likely)

Article marketing entails writing articles on your topic of expertise (the topic of your website). People find your articles when they're looking for information about your topic.

Rather than hoping that your readers will somehow find each and every one of your helpful articles, why not collect all that valuable information and put it all in one spot (an e-book)?

5) You get more mileage out of your marketing efforts.

Obviously, right?

This is why morphing your articles into an e-book is so advantageous--you can kill two birds (or more!) with one stone. You can get multiple uses out of one piece of marketing content, which saves you time and increases the exposure and reach of your marketing efforts.

Are you convinced yet?

First, start writing articles for article marketing, then when you have 10 or more articles written on a topic that will appeal to your target readers, start assembling your e-book.

Before you know it you will have an arsenal of marketing resources that will be steadily working to draw targeted traffic to your website.

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It pays to get double duty out of your articles, and then you can save even more time by using an article submitter, getting maximum exposure for minimal effort. For more information on how to do this, go to http://www.SubmitYOURArticle.com

dimanche 8 mars 2009

Article Marketing: Turn Your Articles Into An E-Book In 7 Easy Steps

Writing an e-book is more simple than you might imagine, especially when you're doing article marketing.

Each article that you write can serve more than one purpose--it can be a free reprint article that drives traffic to your website, but it can also be used in the creation of an e-book.

If you're an article marketing veteran, then you probably already have enough content for an e-book. If you're just starting out, then you can follow the steps below and use them as a guideline for creating articles that are suitable to put in an e-book.

Either way, you're just a few steps away from morphing your articles into an e-book:

1) What will your e-book be about?

When you're creating an e-book, you need to have a topic that correlates to your website (just as your articles are always on the topic of your website), but you need to pin down a specific topic.

If you're a financial adviser, perhaps your e-book would be about how to get out of debt.

If you're a dietitian, perhaps your book would be about transitioning to eating a heart healthy diet.

You get the idea--pick a theme that is broad enough that it's worthy of being the topic of a book, but narrow enough that you can cover all your points without writing hundreds of pages (unless that's the type of e-book you'd like to create!).

Sometimes it helps to think in terms of titles--come up with a working title for your book to help you decide what the topic will be.

2) Create an outline.

Before writing a single word, create an outline and use it as your guide.

Professional writers use outlines as a means of organizing their work. An outline is basically a road map you can follow as you're assembling your book, and it can save you major time in the long run.

3) Organize your articles to fill in your outline.

You probably already have articles you can include use in your book, but if you don't that's okay. Just write an article for any topic that you haven't already covered in your article marketing and include it in your book.

(And of course you can get double duty out of that article by submitting it as a free reprint article too.)

You may have to tweak some of your articles and flesh them out for your e-book. You will also need to add some transitional sentences so that each chapter flows into the next one smoothly.

4) Tell readers about your own business.

Now, talking about your business is not something you'd normally do in an article, but you are welcome to do so (and should!) in your own e-book.

I would advise you to make it subtle and remember that the point of the book is to convey educational information to your reader, rather than to make a sale (although sales are a natural by-product of the e-book).

5) Write an introduction.

In your introduction to your book, you will tell the reader what they can expect from the book and what is to be gained. I usually advise the reader to print the book out so that they can read it like a real book (it's easier on the eyes and also makes it so the book is an easily accessible resource later on).

6) Write a conclusion.

In your conclusion you would invite readers to ask you questions, give contact info for yourself, and give a link to your website. If you're selling anything related to the topic of the e-book, then give a link to that product.

7) Then, all you need to do is put the book into PDF form, and decide how you'll use it!

There are many uses for an e-book:

*You can offer it in your resource box as a reason to click through to your website. For example: "Claim your free e-book on this topic at [your URL]"

*Offer it as a free download on your website. That way, you have a gift waiting for any visitors. This is also a great way to build your list--before delivering the e-book you could capture the visitor's email address and send the e-book to their inbox.

*Send the e-book to people already on your list--I'm sure they would appreciate it!

*Possibly sell your e-book (if it's really good, why not?).

It makes sense to get double duty out of your marketing efforts--if you've already taken the time to create the article, why not take it to the next level and create your own e-book?

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It pays to get double duty out of your articles, and then to save even more time, you can automatically submit your articles to suitable publishers, and get maximum exposure for minimal effort. For more information about how to do this, go to http://www.SubmitYOURArticle.com

jeudi 5 mars 2009

Articles marketing

Article Marketing---Software Or Service?

Regularly adding fresh, new content to one's web site is a key search engine optimization function and will eventually result in increased visitor traffic. Such content will come from two primary sources---readily available free content that someone else has written or the site owner's own personal contributions.

While its value has been proven, writing articles---quality articles---takes some time, and submitting them, once they are finished, takes a considerable amount of time.

A number of software programs have been introduced over the years designed to automate certain tasks involved in the writing and submission of articles, but are they worth it?

There are software programs that will take various parts of your article and spin it---rewrite it in numerous variations. I have never used any of these, so I do not know how reliable they are, but it would be wise to make certain that they are not trying to intentionally shorcut the search engines with poor quality makeovers. There are services, however, that will do this on a legitimate level and in a professional manner.

There are other software products that attempt to automate, at least to some extent, the article submission process. Some of these, I have used, and while they do cut out some of the repetition, you're still doing a lot of manual work. Ideally, you want to use the same login and password for all the article directories you submit to simply to expedite the process, but there are directories that throw a wrench in this by wanting to issue their own login and password for you---some software applications will not accommodate multiple logins.

You still have to manually go into each directory separately, select the appropriate category for your article, and make sure your article formatted correctly onto their site. Doing this for hundreds of directories, especially if you are writing one-to-two articles per week as is recommended, can take an enormous amount of time. If you are still working a traditional job while you are getting your online business up and running, you will find yourself pushed to the wall pretty fast.

Article Post Robot is the one exception that I know of, where you enter all of your login information initially and then, when you submit your articles, you just click a Submit button only once---but there is still the time factor even for having to enter all of your login info upon setup.

On the service side, there are a couple of very good ones---Article Marketer and Submit Your Article (which I use). With these, you pay a monthly fee and you have access to their article writing software and they will submit the article for you---to a lot more places than you would ever be able to do manually or with any of the previously mentioned software products.

It had gotten to the point where it was taking me two weeks or more to submit an article after I had written it and I just had to find a better way. I chose the Submit Your Article service and I am very pleased and it is such a time-saver.

I know when you're starting out, you have to go with what you can afford at the time and work your way up---I had to do that, too. Given the importance of article marketing and the benefits you will reap from it, when you get to the place where you can afford the monthly service, by all means go for it because it will give you a lot more time to do all the other things that you need to do.

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Michael W Crank is the owner of Marketing Concepts Plus. If you found this article to be helpful and you would like to learn more about marketing your online business, then subscribe to our free newsletters at http://www.marketingconceptsplus.net

mardi 3 mars 2009

Persuasive Copywriting Tips: How To Write An Attention-Getting Headline, Part 4

Headline Tip #7: Embrace Emotion

The final element of a good headline is emotion. People buy based on emotion. (They also need logical reasons to back up their emotional decision, which are generally provided in the body copy.)

You've got to be careful with emotion, especially in this day and age. If you go overboard, your prospect's "B.S. Detector" will go into full alert. Understand that emotion cannot be manufactured using exclamation marks--much to the disappointment of network marketers, business opportunity promoters, and weight loss product manufacturers everywhere.

It's much more powerful to understate the emotional impact (by leaving out exclamation points) in order for it to hit the prospect with his "B.S." guard down. For example, consider this headline, which is a variation of one I wrote recently...

"13 Year SEO Veteran Reveals In-The-Trenches Insights, Tips, & Techniques On How To Dominate The Search Engines And Unleash A Flood Of FREE Targeted Traffic To Your Website."

To the website owner struggling to get traffic, this headline is quite emotional. It stirs up hope mixed with a little greed. But had I added several exclamation points at the end of it, it would lose its impact and come across as mere hype.

Putting It All Together

In this article series, we've covered what I consider to be the 7 critical elements of a strong, powerful headline. You'll find that every effective headline uses all of these elements to one extent or another.

Let's take a classic headline example, widely considered to be one of the greatest headlines ever written, and evaluate it using the 7 elements discussed in this article series:

"How A 'Fool Stunt' Made Me A Star Salesman"

Does it flag the target audience? Yes. The implication is this is for sales professionals who want to improve their results.

Is it unique? Definitely.

Does it communicate a benefit or implied benefit? Yes. The benefit is implied on two levels: 1, that there is a good story to follow (which is a benefit in itself)... and 2, the implication that you too can become a star salesman.

Does it have a sense of urgency? The urgency comes from the prospect on two levels: 1, the need to hear the full story... and 2, the desperate need to increase sales.

Is it specific? In the sense that it identifies the audience, the benefit, and the "key fact" left out of the equation, yes. (But probably not as much as it would need to be for today's internet audience. Remember, this headline is decades old, and was intended for print advertising—not for an internet sales letter. For a sales letter, I would want to specify what "Star Salesman" meant with some hard numbers.)

Does it pique curiosity? Definitely. The words "Fool Stunt" point to a key fact left out of the equation. It also promises a good story.

Is it emotional? Yes. No exclamation point needed.

Bottom line: this is a great headline that could still work today with a bit more specificity and updated language. ("Fool Stunt" is a bit archaic.)

See how it works? Use this list as a tool for evaluating headlines and improving them. I guarantee you'll see better results and it will have a positive impact on your sales.

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Joshua Aaron Stanley is an online sales copywriter, or "Salesman in Print", who turns words into wealth using the power of persuasive sales copy. For more persuasive copywriting tips, visit http://www.CovertWrittenPersuasion.com

Persuasive Copywriting Tips: How To Write An Attention-Getting Headline, Part 3

Headline Tip #5: Be Specific And Avoid Vague Language

Vague language is the bane of marketing. It will put your prospect to sleep faster than watching C-SPAN after a big lunch. Consider common marketing phrases like "best customer service" or "highest quality products" or "state-of-the-art." They say absolutely nothing because there is no specificity.

If you want your headlines (not to mention your body copy) to be more interesting and have much more impact, then be specific with everything you say.

There are three small but powerful words that will help you avoid all forms of vague language in the future. The way they work is after every statement or claim, ask yourself this 3-word question: "Oh? How So?"

Let's practice. "We offer the best quality products money can buy."

"Oh? How So?"

See how it works?

Then, when you answer that question, ask one more follow up question: "Can you be more specific?"

For example, let's say you're selling a money-making opportunity. You may start out with a dry, boring headline like "Make More Money Now!" Simply apply the two questions, and you'll start digging up some rich fodder for creating a unique compelling headline. Something more along the lines of this:

"How To Make $29,438.26 Within The Next 30 Days Using A Little-Known Google Loophole That Shows You Instantly Where The Money Is Being Made Online."

Headline Tip #6: Pique Curiosity

The need to satisfy curiosity is a powerful motivator, which makes it an essential element for provoking your prospects into reading your message. There are two primary ways to pique your reader's curiosity...

One way is to leave out a key fact (or facts) in your headline the reader needs to know in order to complete the thought. Think of it as a "fill in the blank."

For example, "Do You Make These Mistakes In English?" This headline by Maxwell Sackheim was so effective it ran for some 40 years. Without the curiosity-provoking word "these", it would have been a flat, boring headline. As it is, the reader must continue in order to answer the question.

"How To" headlines arouse curiosity in the same way because the reader must continue on to discover the answer. Any headline can benefit from this technique, and the most powerful ones use it at least to some extent. (Read the previous headline examples in this article series to see how leaving out a key fact builds curiosity.)

The other way to pique curiosity is to promise a good story. Gary Halbert was a master at this. One of his most famous headlines was for a weight-loss product: "Atlanta Housewife Investigated And Almost Arrested For Losing 73 Pounds." Who wouldn't be tempted to read further?

One word of caution, however: confusion is not the same thing as curiosity. In order for curiosity to work, the headline must be specific or set up a specific scenario. If it's vague, and the reader isn't quite sure what you're talking about, he's not going to take the bait.

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Joshua Aaron Stanley is an online sales copywriter, or "Salesman in Print", who turns words into wealth using the power of persuasive sales copy. For more persuasive copywriting tips, visit http://www.CovertWrittenPersuasion.com