Offline Article Marketing Secrets

Posted by Denise Griffitts on Sep 25, 2010 in Internet Mastery | 0 comments

Offline Article Marketing Secrets

“No task is a long one but the task on which one dare not start. It becomes a nightmare.” ~ Charles Baudelaire

While most people associate article marketing strictly with online promotion, you can get even more bang for your article buck by promoting your articles – and your business – offline. Start by thinking local. Yes, the internet has opened up a whole new world of customers to business with websites, but that doesn’t mean you should ignore your local market.

Here’s how you can turn your online articles into offline marketing engines:

Submit articles to local papers and newsletters.
Many local newspapers, neighborhood associations or local organization newsletters will accept contributed articles. By submitting your articles on a hot and timely topic, you can increase your exposure and potentially gain new subscribers or customers.

For instance, I recently rebuilt a flash-animated website that we had built for my dentist a few years ago and moved him over to the WordPress platform. Why? Because his articles on dental proceedures and gum health show up regularly in a couple of local newspapers and it made perfect sense to publish those same articles to his new WordPress website/blog and then to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. His very informative articles are now available both offline and online.

To find local sources for your articles, you can do a simple Google search. Enter “CITY newspaper” or “CITY shopper” (quotes included) with CITY being your location, or nearest major metropolitan city, in the Google search bar. For instance, “Nashville newspaper” or “Seattle shopper”.

You are highly likely to find multiple small publications in your area. Don’t overlook neighborhood associations, as well as schools, day care facilities, gyms, community centers, churches, and clubs and organizations that create newsletters for their members. If their readership matches your target market, getting featured in these is free and can help you to grow your online business.

Make a list of publication names and contact information, and then either email them a link to your articles, or print out a copy and send it to their mailing address.

Share your content with associates and potential clients.
Print one of your favorite articles and mail it to prospective clients, business associates and others who might find the content useful. Include a sticky note that says “Thought you might find this helpful,” and sign your name. Be sure your website address or contact information and a business card are included as well. Then hand-address the envelope, include your name and return address, and drop it in the mail. If you make it a practice to send out a few every week, it can pay off in added readers, website visitors and customers.

Turn an article into a press release.
Newspapers are always looking for interesting news and stories they can use for their broadcast or print media. If your article has a strong news hook related to a recent event or season, you may be able to pitch a story as a press release. First, do some research to find out who your best contact at the newspaper is. For instance, if you’re a landscaping company, identify who covers home and garden, then read several of their past articles to observe what topics they cover. Next, email or call them. Introduce yourself and ask what type of stories and news releases they want to receive and how (via email, fax, phone or mail).

Once you know what the reporters are looking for, you can direct appropriate stories their way. If your article topic fits, format your article as a press release and send it to them as they requested. Keep in mind that reporters and newspapers receive hundreds of releases, many of which were written and sent by people who haven’t taken any time to get to know the reporters or what they are looking for. By doing your homework and developing a relationship with them, you stand a much higher chance of getting your information published.

Click here for a great free online press release tool from Lisa Manyon called the “Write On Creative Press Release Producer”.

Create print booklets of your articles.
Take a few of your favorite articles and compile them into a booklet. Let’s say you bake absolutely gorgeous and delicious cakes in your home and deliver them to customers who have found you by word-of-mouth raving reviews from family and friends. Yes, the happy customer will remember the cake and will undoubtedly take pictures of it, but what if you also include in the delivery your business card, a booklet with photos of some of your most glorious works of art, a recipe or two and a couple of well written and instructional articles about how to work with marzipan or different types of icing? That booklet will more than likely become a permanent part of their cookbook collection. It would in my house! I would also be going to your website to find more pictures, recipes and “how-to” tips.

Here’s how:

1. Lay out the articles in a word processing program (OpenOffice.org is free) or your desktop publishing software.
2. Add an “About Us” page and contact information. Include your email address and website URL.
3. Include a free offer inside the book, if the reader joins your email list.
4. Print one sample booklet to make sure the formatting is correct.
5. Copy the booklets at home or at your local print shop.

Here are a couple of excellent places to create your business card online using your own images.

Vista Print

Overnight Prints

Then, it’s time to distribute the booklets.

• Mail them to prospective clients
• Include them with all physical purchases
• Offer them as a free gift to subscribers
• Bring them to networking events and leave at information tables or booths.

There are many ways to use offline article marketing strategies to enhance your results. Be creative and search for new places to display articles and locate readers and subscribers. By offering them your well-written articles, you can establish yourself as a local expert and go-to person when they need your services or products.

But, before you embark on this program, there may be some housekeeping tasks that you need to address before doing everything you can to drive new customers or prospects to your business.

1. Give your website a good spring cleaning. Are there broken links, broken images, or outdated materials? Be sure that it looks professional, welcoming and offers the visitor all the information that they need to make a decision about whether they want to return to your site, read your blog, or visit your physical business location if you have one. That first impression is probably the only one you will get!
2. Make sure your contact form and your newsletter opt-in form is working.
3. If you have social networking icons on your site, be sure they are pointing to the correct URL.

And finally, believe in yourself. Because if you don’t, nobody else will either.

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What Kind of Articles Work Best?

Posted by Denise Griffitts on Sep 23, 2010 in Internet Mastery | 0 comments

What Kind of Articles Work Best?

“Winners have simply formed the habit of doing things losers don’t like to do.” ~ Albert E.N. Gray

There are limitless topics that you could write about. But to make the biggest positive impact on your business, the articles that work the best are those that match the interests of your niche market.

If your business is selling information products to stay-at-home moms who want to start their own work- from-home virtual assistance practice, then you want to write articles that demonstrate your expertise in that area. When those readers get to your resource box at the end of your article, they’ll click on the link expecting more of the same great content. Writing recipe articles for foodies, for instance, when your target market is aspiring work-from-home Virtual Assistants just doesn’t make sense.

The best explanation I’ve ever heard of this was by Jimmy D. Brown who coined the term “useful but incomplete”. What he meant was that your articles should be “useful” to your target audience, but “incomplete” in that they should lead the reader hungrily to seek more information from you. They’ll turn to your resource box in search of more.

Keep in mind that people will come to your website or blog or read your articles online for one reason and one reason only. How can it help them? What solutions, advice or tips are you offering that will assist your reader in answering questions that they have about your niche or industry? If you consistently offer great, and GOOD content to your readership, they will return and bring friends with them.

Quality Content is Critical

While anyone can throw together a few sentences, combine a few paragraphs, paste on a resource box and call it an article, this slap-dash method is not likely to produce the results you desire. Quite simply, quality content is the key for any kind of success in article marketing.

Online article directories are filled with articles written by non-native language writers who don’t understand grammar or sentence structure, or by those who have simply copied what someone else wrote and plugged it into an article spinner without thought for the value of the finished article. Using such shoddy marketing methods will never help your article marketing efforts, and will likely brand you as unprofessional and harm your reputation as a business owner.

Most editors in search of content would rather find an expert on EzineArticles.com, Self Growth or Evan Carmichael with 10 high-quality articles, than one with 500 junk articles. When editors and readers see junk articles, they assume that everything that person does is junk. Clearly this is not a great way to build a business or a reputation!

When you offer well-written, relevant content that helps your reader answer a question or gain new knowledge and understanding of a subject matter they’re interested in, you’ll establish yourself as an expert and advance your article marketing efforts and, ultimately, your business.

Resources

Free Report: 5 Steps to a Big-Profit, S.M.A.L.L. Report Business by Jimmy D. Brown

Easy PLR is a wonderful resource that will help you find an ongoing supply of fresh content for your blog or article marketing efforts. However, I highly recommend that you edit and re-write these articles in your own voice. Use them as a jumping off point and then take it from there.

Need an Article. When you need well-crafted and well-written content for business, for website, or for personal reasons Need an Article has the solution to your writing needs. Again, the same suggestions about editing and re-writing these articles in your own voice applys.

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What Makes Quality Content?

Posted by Denise Griffitts on Sep 20, 2010 in Entrepreneurism, Internet Mastery | 0 comments

What Makes Quality Content?

“Language is the apparel in which your thoughts parade before the public.
Never clothe them in vulgar or shoddy attire.” ~  George Crane

Whether you write about the virtual assistance industry or scrap booking, there are key ingredients that go into the creation of a good article. Providing quality content involves providing website visitors and readers with information they find useful and informative. While the details will vary, depending on your topic and article structure, there are some common ingredients of quality content:

Answer a question.
People visit your website and your blog for one simple reason. What is in it for them?

• How can you help them find answers to their questions?
• What answers are people in your niche market searching for?
• What are the frequently asked questions in your niche?
• Are there subject areas in your niche for which few articles have been written?

Find out what readers in your niche are looking for and write articles that will answer those questions. Brainstorm a list of questions and topics. Providing the answers that readers (and potential buyers) are searching for will help to establish you as an expert who meets their needs.

Do the research to find out what your readers want answers to.

• Place a poll or survey on your website or blog. Survey Monkey offers a free Basic plan. Google “free online polls” to find other services.
• Send an appeal to your list and ask them what they want to know. People are genuinely disposed to be helpful and you will be surprised how many great answers you receive. Email marketing services like Constant Contact offer online polls as part of their service.
• Go to Facebook, Twitter and Linkedinand do some research on your niche. There is a wealth of information there. Join groups on LinkedIn, Facebook Fan Pages and target people in your industry on Twitter and follow them.

Write clearly and accurately.
Minimizing – or eliminating – grammatical and spelling mistakes is essential to good, high-quality content. Before submitting any article for publication, run spell check and proofread it to catch any spelling and grammar issues. If possible, have another set of eyes look at the article to catch anything that you missed. I always hand off my articles to my assistant to see where I might have missed something. Another tip is to read your work out loud to catch awkward phrasing or repetitions.

Include a compelling title.
If your title isn’t interesting, no one is ever going to get to your beautifully crafted article. Scan a few newsletters and blogs and see what articles and posts grab your attention. When in doubt, consider possible titles that include “5 Ways to…” or “10 Tips for… or “How to…” Such titles always attract readers who expect short tidbits and quick reads for their time. Good titles require some effort, but since the title is the first thing potential readers see, it’s worth your time to craft a strong one!

Be concise.
Online readers prefer short articles, ideally those between 300 – 500 words. There’s a fine line between providing enough content to answer your reader’s quest for information while not providing such a long article that they don’t make it to the end to click on your resource box. If your article is too long, consider breaking it up into a series as I have done with these article marketing tips.

What makes quality content? It’s content that a reader is looking for, that answers questions, offers information a reader wants and promises more of the same if they click on your link. Quality content is what will attract visitors to your website and make your article marketing efforts work.

Resources

Free Report: 5 Steps to a Big-Profit, S.M.A.L.L. Report Business by Jimmy D. Brown

Easy PLRis a wonderful resource that will help you find an ongoing supply of fresh content for your blog or article marketing efforts. However, I highly recommend that you edit and re-write these articles in your own voice. Use them as a jumping off point and then take it from there.

Need an Article. When you need well-crafted and well-written content for business, for website, or for personal reasons Need an Article has the solution to your writing needs. Again, the same suggestions about editing and re-writing these articles in your own voice applys.

Be sure to signup for our newsletter so these articles arrive in your email box when they are published.

5 Steps to Marketing Your First Article

Posted by Denise Griffitts on Sep 19, 2010 in Internet Mastery | 0 comments

5 Steps to Marketing Your First Article

Words are timeless. You should utter them or write them with a knowledge of their timelessness. ~ Khalil Gibran

For many people, the idea of actually sitting down and writing an article stops them cold. You may wonder if you have anything worth saying, or if your writing is “good” enough for publication. If it makes you feel any better, virtually every writer – even the professionals – start out with the same fears. In fact, author Jeffery Deaver is quoted as saying, “I’ve often said that there’s no such thing as writer’s block; the problem is idea block.”

But once you have one article under your belt, the next ones become much easier.

Here’s a five-step plan to have you on your way to your first article:

1. Brainstorm topics.
What questions do you get about your topic area? What are the sticking points for newbies to your field? What equipment or specialized knowledge do people need to get started? Make a list of the most common questions you are asked about your business.

For instance, I recently suggested to my Veterinarian that we add a blog to the website that we built for him last year. He immediately reared back with terrified look in his eyes and did his level best to convince me that he just didn’t have a darn thing to write about.

My response? Nonsense! Apart from treating the animals in his care, his day is spent soothing anxious pet parents and answering a myriad of questions ranging from the best nutrition products to care of a pet in declining health and everything in-between. Once he understood that he did indeed have a wealth of information to share with the community, he then offered up the excuse that he just doesn’t have time to sit down and write. I kindly agreed with him on this one, but noticed that the office manager who has been with the practice for many years was very engaged and interested in the conversation. Long story short, she is now writing a very popular blog and article series for the veterinary hospital. Just by sharing information that comes up during the course of a day, they have found that they actually have more article ideas than they ever thought possible.

Are you an ardent home cook? Do you continually receive praise for your cooking and regular requests for recipes? Perhaps your cooking niche is cooking small meals to be frozen for later use. People would want to know:

• How will cooking and freezing small meals benefit me?
• Is this a cost effective method of cooking and shopping?
• What equipment will I need? Do I need ziplock bags? Air tight containers?
• What type of spices and seasonings freeze well?
• Do I have to season the food less because the seasonings will get stronger with time?
• What are the problems I might encounter?
• Should I label my containers and date them? What are the best tools for this?
• What are some basic recipes?
• What foods last the longest and what foods will be prone to freezer burn?
• How do I avoid freezer burn?

By brainstorming with your family, friends, and even just yourself, in just a few minutes, you can have topics for your first dozen articles.

2. Choose one to begin with.
Pick one of your topics to start with. Forget about choosing the “perfect” topic – there is no such thing. Grab a pen and a piece of paper, a note pad, or sit down in front of your computer, set the timer for 10 minutes and jot down everything you can think of related to that topic. Don’t worry about complete sentences, formatting, or spelling, just get the ideas down. This is your “stream of consciousness” exercise which will then lead to more tangible ideas.

For instance, if my topic is “How cooking and freezing small meals can benefit you,” I might write;

• Save money
• Healthier diet
• Control portions
• Lose weight
• Fun
• Time saving
• Social – can do with family or friends
• Organization – helps me plan my time better if I don’t have to cook every night
• Less stress

Some people like to use mind maps to create these lists. If you’d like more information on that process, I suggest googling “mindmap software.”

3. Organize it and flesh it out.
The next step is to take the outline you created in Step 2 and organize it into common themes. You’re aiming for an article about 400-700 words, so three to five main points is ideal. If you have more than that, never fear! You can turn that information into another article or an article series. This article is actually #2 in a 11 part series.

Then take your outline and build on it. If this is where you start feeling butterflies in your stomach, relax. Imagine you’re writing an email to a friend to explain to him or her the topic of your article. Again, don’t get stuck on grammar, spelling, etc. Just get the info on the page – you can always go back and edit it. Professional writers often create several drafts of their work. Very few people get it right the first time! I do recommend you write in your own voice and your own style. You will be more comfortable and so will the people reading it.

4. Proofread.
Now’s the time when you can go back through the article and edit and polish, making each sentence say what you want it to. Be sure it’s cohesive, that the statements flow together, and that it makes sense. Also be on the lookout for places where you can tighten your writing – where you use three words when just one will do, or where there are redundancies. Ensure that each word, each sentence, each paragraph have purpose.

When you think your article is finished, walk away from it for an hour or even a day. Then go back and read through again. By giving yourself some time away from your article, you will pick up previously missed errors or ones that spell check didn’t catch.

5. Submit!
After you’ve written your article and polished it until it shines, it’s time to submit it. Most article marketers submit to online directories – clearinghouses where experts post articles and editors find content to publish. While there are hundreds of online article directories, there’s no need to submit to more than a few. Each has its own pluses and minuses, so take some time to pick the best for your niche. A quick search on Google for “article directory” will bring up dozens of options. In part 9 of this series, I will give you the top 10 article directories and tips on how to use them.

If you know of large circulation newsletters or ezines in your niche, submit directly to those publishers as well. Make sure you follow the article directories guidelines exactly, as some have minimum and maximum word lengths, as well as other requirements. And if you have your own blog, absolutely publish it there. Break it into smaller pieces if you must, but publish away!

Article marketing is a valuable free marketing strategy, but it must be used consistently— and often — for the best results. So once you’ve finished one article, go back to the beginning and start writing your next. Keep the content flowing, and soon you’ll see the results of your hard work. You can’t buy better promotion than that!

Resources

Free Report: 5 Steps to a Big-Profit, S.M.A.L.L. Report Business by Jimmy D. Brown

Easy PLRis a wonderful resource that will help you find an ongoing supply of fresh content for your blog or article marketing efforts. However, I highly recommend that you edit and re-write these articles in your own voice. Use them as a jumping off point and then take it from there.

Need an Article. When you need well-crafted and well-written content for business, for website, or for personal reasons Need an Article has the solution to your writing needs. Again, the same suggestions about editing and re-writing these articles in your own voice applys.

Be sure to signup for our newsletter so these articles arrive in your email box when they are published.

Tracking Your Article Marketing Results

Posted by Denise Griffitts on Sep 16, 2010 in Internet Mastery | 0 comments

This article will post on Friday, October 8, 2010.

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