Fueling the Ideal - Marketing with Articles

By Bonnie Jo Davis

It's that time of year again ... pages of backpacks, notebooks
and back-to-school clothing fill every circular that hits your
mailbox. And you're off to the races ... the races being the
mall, plus every other store in between.

You're in the same spot you were last year this time, getting
ready to head off to work while your kids head off to school.
Back to hugging them goodbye in the morning and seeing them just long enough in the evening to say I love you and tuck them in.

Wouldn't it be fantastic if the easier schedule of the summer
lasted all year long? No more spending all your hours away from
your kids just to earn enough money to cover the essentials and
pay daycare?

Take it from someone who knows both sides of the deal here and
believe that there's no time like right now to make the
transition from the regular grind to working from home. As the
proud Mom of a 2005 honors graduate who's heading off to college soon, I know first hand what a major impact working from home has had on his success.

When my son was very young, I worked a full-time job away from
home, plus at least one part-time job on weekends. This meant
that my son was in daycare while I worked. As a single parent
who didn't receive child support (for years) though, I had no
other choice.

A few years later in the 1990's, I decided there had to be a
better way so I started a part-time medical billing service from
my home. This allowed me to give up the outside part-time job
and gave me the practical means of earning the much-needed
income. Best of all, it gave me the priceless opportunity to
take care of my son while I worked. I quickly saw that I was
onto something great here ... what a concept!

I moved from the east coast to California with my son in 1995
where my first full-time job was with a consulting firm co-owned
by a professional speaker. After some negotiations with my boss,
we entered into an agreement by which I would work mornings in
the office, leave to pick up my son from school in the
afternoons and work from home the rest of the day. It worked out incredibly well ... so well in fact, that in 2000, I decided to leave the consulting firm and start my own full-time home based
virtual assistant business.

Starting from scratch, I knew that gaining exposure for my
business was essential if I wanted to be successful in my new
venture. I also knew that traditional forms of marketing are
very expensive and quickly gobble up the profits, particularly
in the early stages. However, I also remembered a technique that
I used successfully for my former employer.

Besides being a consultant and professional speaker, he was also
an author, so his goals included increasing his number of
speaking engagements and selling more copies of his books. He
hoped to accomplish these goals by establishing himself as an
expert in his industry, which meant having his work published by
every major magazine in his field.

Committed to accomplishing his goals, he gave me a list of those
publications, so I drafted a query letter based on one of his
story ideas and e-mailed it to the editor of one of the
magazines. The editor responded in short notice and offered my
employer an article assignment. They published my boss's
article soon afterwards and featured it on the cover of the
magazine, producing an onslaught of calls to the office!

Writing and submitting that one article produced several paid
speaking engagements. This new marketing intrigue fascinated me, so I fine-tuned my article submission process creating logs and checklists, and within a few months, my boss had accomplished his goal of publication in every magazine on his list!

Even online and in-print publications we hadn't contacted began
calling and e-mailing in request of articles. The results of
writing and submitting articles was so successful that we put
other major marketing techniques on hold so my boss could travel
to his paid speaking engagements.

As my interest and experience grew in this area of marketing, I
knew that if it worked for my boss that it would work for other
professionals as well. Soon, I was earning over half my income
handling article submissions for other professionals.

Then I realized that if this technique worked for other
professionals that it would work for me too in building my own
business. And it has worked for me!

This same marketing technique, which I call marketing with
articles, has been the success behind my own business. I've
used it to expand my client base and build my virtual assistance
business into a solid income-generating company, which has
allowed me to work full-time at home for the past five years. As
my son is getting ready to leave for college, my personal goal
now is to help other parents be successful in achieving their
career goals while living the dream of staying home with their
children.

The concept of marketing with articles does not require a
professional writer. Anyone can be successful in building their
business and gaining credibility as an expert in their industry
or area of expertise by writing and submitting free reprint
articles to online and in-print publications. The key to
success is in reaching your target audience with resourceful
information that is valuable to them.

Editors of both online and in-print publications are in constant
demand of quality content for their readers. They have a
continuing need to publish content that appeals directly to
their target audience, which is where you come in. By writing
and submitting free reprint articles to publications that reach
readers in your market, you have the opportunity to establish
yourself as an expert and gain a generous amount of exposure for
your business.

True, you aren't earning money for actually writing the articles,
but you are earning a huge payoff here. Not only do you
establish your credibility as an expert in your industry or area
of expertise, but you earn significant exposure for yourself
and your business. Most editors will include your byline with
your articles, which gives you the opportunity to include your
name and contact information, plus the URL of your web site.
Readers come to recognize your name and relate it with certain
topics. The more articles you write and submit, the more
exposure you gain!

The marketing with articles technique helped turn my dream of
working from home full-time into a precious reality that has
made a positive impact for both my son and me. As he goes off to
college, he'll be leaving with all the benefits of having had a
mom who found a way to support him financially without the high
cost of being away from him all day. Me, I'll have the benefit
of knowing that the bittersweet wind I'm putting beneath his
wings comes from my deepest desires for his complete success!

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(c) 2005, Davis Virtual Assistance. Reprint rights granted to
all venues so long as article and by-line are reproduced intact
with links made live.

Bonnie Jo Davis is a full-time work-from-home mom who built her
business on the concept of marketing with articles. An
accomplished writer and marketing strategist, she offers over
ten years of success in writing and submitting articles for
gaining exposure and growing your business. Visit
http://www.ArticleSubmissionSites.com to learn how her technique offers the means for success in starting and/or growing your own business.

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