Article Marketing - How to Make It Work For You

By Tinu AbayomiPaul

Information based marketing is one of the oldest and most
effective techniques for bringing targeted prospects to
your site and converting them into buyers. This is part of
the reason that software, and distribution services that
make the process of article promotion easier are so popular
lately.

Though the various tools you can use to make the process of
distributing your articles more easily are invaluable in
getting your content the most exposure, that's only half of
the story.

Getting article marketing to work for your site lies
primarily in two things:

. The article you're submitting, and
. The preparation you do before you a single word of your
content is written.

Since those two determining factors make at least 50% of
the difference in bringing you success, let's take a look
at what the most common mistakes are in that area, and how
to overcome them.

Mistake #1 - Confusing the Reason to Promote with Articles
with the Reason to Write Articles

There are three key benefits to promoting an article -
branding, lead generation, and as a corollary, online
promotion, particularly as part of your optimization
efforts.

Yet there is only one reason to write an article, and that
is to inform your audience. If your article is not geared
towards this as its primary purpose, you will fail to see
the three benefits of promotion - because no one will want
to read your article.

How many links you're able to generate by submitting your
article to hundreds of sites will matter little if you're
unable to get them picked up by publications, or read by
people who search for information.

Sure, if you know what you're doing all those links
pointing back to your site will count for something in your
search engine results - but remember that generating links
to your site is only one part of optimizing your site for
Google, Yahoo or MSN.

To overcome this issue, you'll need to figure out how to
get people to read what is in your article, and then click
through to your site from your resource box. The best start
to a solution is to produce better content.

In the end it's a matter of choice. You can get a little
exposure from increased link backs, on a very basic level,
or enjoy massive exposure from a little extra work.


Mistake #2 - Starting The Article Promotion without a Plan

Not every article can fulfil all three purposes of
promotion. Some will work better for branding, others can
generate leads and increase sales. But if you don't start
out with a plan for what the function of your article
should be, you'll end up unhappy with the results.

To overcome this issue, before you write a single word,
decide what purpose the article is supposed to serve. An
article meant to brand you as an expert should display your
knowledge. One for generating leads may need to be geared
towards solving a very specific problem.

An article that gets published every where and helps to
make you known is not meant to have the same level of
exposure as hyper-targeted content geared towards a narrow
group of people. Learning the difference will help you know
what kinds of articles to write.

Mistake #3- Publishing Content That Doesn't Help Your Reader

Maybe you're thinking: "All I want is links back to my site
- any visitors the article generates is gravy."

Well guess what? Not all article banks and directories are
going to accept your content automatically. You can double
the number of sites you can submit to by writing articles
that the directories want to share with readers. And all it
takes is one publisher with a hundred thousand readers to
increase your potential audience tenfold.

So if you want article marketing to work for you, write
articles that publishers want in their publications.

This also means obeying the standard guidelines, running a
spell check, researching a good topic to write about, or
even hiring a writer to produce articles on your behalf.

Mistake #4 - Failing to Maximize the Promotional
Opportunities of Article Marketing

You already know that articles marketing can help you
generate additional links back to your site. But did you
know that you can get more visitors and better search
engine results from articles in a variety of ways?

You can mention your desired keyword in strategic places,
though you should take care not to overdo this. Some people
will also tell you to make use of anchor text, which can
also is an effective method. However, you should know that
the majority of directories and publications aren't able to
support this.

There are alternatives to this method that are just as
effective, if not more so, but they require more space to
explain.

It's not just about the links back to your site either.
Part of doing well with article marketing is getting picked
up by publishers with large audiences, or gaining the
ability to leverage other brands due to the quality of your
work.

Better search engine results are great.

But by themselves they don't put money in your pocket -
there are a myriad of factors that can turn your article
marketing efforts into an opportunity to increase your
income, not just the number of visitors to your site.

About the Author:

Tinu Abayomi-Paul is a Web Promotion Specialist who runs
the Free Traffic Tips Blog. You can read part two of this
article at http://www.freetraffictip.com/article-marketing
and learn about three more common mistakes even veteran
article marketers make.