The Article is the Swiss Army Knife of Internet Marketing
by JASON HULOTT
Articles are becoming more and more prevalent in most Internet Marketers strategies for boosting their search engine rankings. The theory is that you write an article, submit it to several major article sites, include a link back to your site in it and then sit back and watch as the article gets picked up and published in other people’s websites, newsletters and sometimes even products.
However just doing this one this is not really enough for your article. Get it out there doing much, much more for you. Here are a few more things you could be doing with your articles.
Blade 1: Article Submissions
Places you can submit your articles to include:
www.contentdesk.com www.ezinearticles.com www.freesticky.com www.goarticles.com www.ideamarketers.com www.findsticky.com
While this works and is a great way to drive links to your website it is not the only thing that article is doing for you. Having articles published on other websites can promote you as an "Expert" in your field or speciality especially if your article gets picked up by a well read and respected source. Having people find you and your product via an article gives you the impression of being an expert which is a great way to be introduced to new customers.
Writing large articles and splitting them into 2 parts is also a great way of driving traffic to your site directly from the article. Submit Part 1 to the Article Directories above and then post a link to your site so they have to visit your site to read part 2.
Including your keywords or write articles around your long tail keywords ( Keyword terms of 3 or more words) are a great way to get ranked for those terms which having to make major changes to your site and for picking up the traffic these searches could generate. Research has shown that while they don't yield huge traffic volumes the ability of these terms to convert to business is proven to be excellent.
So what else can you do with articles.
Blade 2: DIY Syndication
You can use simple scripts to syndicate them yourself. Not only by submitting them to the article directory sites above but build an RSS feed out of your articles and allow others to utilise this Feed.
You can also create a "send to a friend" link on your own web pages with the help of a simple script added to your code.
You can find various code to do this:
www.javascript.com www.scriptsearch.com www.hotscripts.com
This creates another viral element to your articles. Do the work once and then unleash it on the web, and it creates a life of its own. Acting like a little salesman and promoter all in one!
Blade 3: Blog Content
You can cut them up into Blog Posts - pull out a major paragraph and add a bit more to it and you have a simple blog post.
Blade 4: Newsletter Content
You can add them to your newsletters or mail the articles out directly to your lists.
Blade 5: Products, Guide and Reports
You can collect a series of you articles around a theme and produce a guide or a report. You could even use them as the basis of a book or product you could sell.
Blade 6: Multimedia
How about reading your articles and recording them as podcasts or as MP3 files that users can download?
How about building a movie based upon it? With screenshots and links in it to make it more interactive. Nothing too fancy but it then gives you more opportunity and reach as you can submit it to YouTube and other Movie Sites which will bring in more traffic.
Blade 7: Web Content
Oh yes, you can also simply just add it as web content on your site too!
Blade 8: Print Magazines
Send it to Editors of related print magazines, they might run it and it could give you even more exposure as an expert in your field. Or expand a shorter article or combine two articles to create something large enough for print. Print articles would normally be twice or thrice the size of a web article.
Blade 9: Web 2.0
Finally, don't forget to add it to your Web 2.0 sites such as your MySpace Profile, Your Squidoo Lens, Your Ecademy Profile.
As you can see, the article is a fantastic way to work smarter not harder. This Swiss Army Knife tool is a good enough gadget to get you more web traffic, acclaim, site promotion and a huge array of income generating opportunities by recycling them. So make sure you don’t just write an article then forget about it. Make it work as hard for you as possible.
Good Luck!
About the Author
Jason Hulott is Director of Speedie Consultants Limited, an Internet Marketing Consultancy who specialises in Search Engine Optimisation 1 to 1 Coaching, Affiliate Program start up Consultancy and offer a range of Web and Blog Content Plans
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