I’ve discussed the benefits of article marketing before, and I think most can agree on one thing. That one thing would be that article marketing can benefit your site greatly. Now, regardless of how much article marketing can help your site, you shouldn’t get to far ahead of yourself. Who is going to be writing these articles. Most likely, you, unless you have an imaginary friend to do it for you, for free. Just kidding of course. Since you will usually be writing the articles, it is important to know how to write good articles. I can’t stress this enough. It is not merely enough to know that article marketing is important. You need to take it one step further. You need to know how to write good articles. I’ll say it again – you need to know how to write good articles. The reason I stress it so much is that I never go a day without seeing a poorly written article. Not to say I’m perfect – I’m not, but at least I am making the effort to write good articles.
Newspapers, magazines, and that whole mumbo jumbo, are all mass print media. The majority of articles written in those types of media are long, very detailed, and require a very long attention span from readers. We need to remember that the internet is not all that similar to newspapers and magazines. Why? Well, the internet has thousands and thousands of resources for almost any topic you could imagine. Therefore, if a reader does not find what they were looking for almost immediately, they will likely turn to another article. In short, you need to know how to write good articles, to the point that you are grabbing the reader’s utmost attention.
As a general rule of thumb, keep your articles between 500 and 800 words. If you go a little bit under, or a little bit over, do not panic – it’s fine. With a length somewhere between there, you are sure to not bore the readers. How often do you actually read an article that is 1000 words, or even more? I sure don’t – too boring. I feel like a bit of a hypocrite, because this article is going to be above 900 words, but let’s make an exception this time. Keeping it between the range above assures that you will have a sufficient introduction, body, and conclusion. If you’re article is very long, you are probably giving information that is not necessary. Truth is, most people want the facts, with no strings attached. You’re the teacher, they’re the reader.
Here is a good example. Think of an article that is discussing the advantages of water therapy. In such an article, we would want to note how exactly drinking water assists in getting rid of toxins that were accumulated from unhealthy eating. Furthermore, we could explain studies dealing with natural cures VS commercial medicine. The obvious advantage of natural methods is that there are less chances of side effects, and ultimately, a healthier liver (because the liver gets rid of unwanted toxins, which includes commercial medicine). What you would NOT want to do is go on to talk about your favorite kind of water, or something of that sort. Unnecessary information.
Next step is to be persuasive. Now, it is important to be persuasive in an “undercover” sense. By this, I mean that you should not come off as a salesman. Try to come off with facts, not opinions. If you find yourself have trouble being persuasive, use your best friend – search engines. Look for statistics that can back up what you are saying (thus making you persuasive). To be persuasive, the article must have some credibility. In order to have credibility, you can use quotes from well known figures regarding the specific topic. For example, if there were 2 articles regarding The Department of Defense of the USA; 1 with quotes from the head of the DOD, and one without, which is more persuasive. Obviously the one with the quote from the head of the DOD.
In knowing how to write good articles, it is important to consider your target audience. It is impossible to write an article that every single person will like. Why? Everyone is intrigued by certain topics. Not everyone likes to read about everything. Everyone has their own interests. Think of demographics when writing your articles. Is the article targeting those less than 20 years of age? If so, the use of slang may be a good idea. If the article is targeting those in their 50’s, obviously you should do the opposite – stay away from slang.
Ask questions. Ask who questions? Ask yourself, the writer, questions. Below are some questions you should ask yourself:
- Is the target audience going to read this, and enjoy it?
- Is the information going to be of use to readers?
- Are readers going to read a quarter of the article, then leave?
- Will the readers read the whole article, then want to see more of your articles?
The best way to evaluate your articles is to put yourself in the shoes of a reader. This may be hard, but give it a shot.
To finish of this post, I’m going to stress one thing, which I briefly mentioned above. Do not, not, not come off as a salesmen. Think of it like this; do you hate when salesmen come to your door? The majority of people do, and with such a presentation, have a bad reaction almost instantaneously. It seems to be a part of us, as humans, to hate being pushed into buying things. If you’re trying to promote a product in an article, do so very gently, for a lack of better words.
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Good thoughts.
Thank you Jacob.
I agree wholeheartedly – especially that last paragraph about not being a pushy salesman. I might even be on the verge of wanting to buy something, then when someone gets too pushy and starts using that spammy sales language I mentally slam the door. Great advice all around!
Christie,
I know exactly what you mean! I’ve been there. I was about to buy something, but then they just got too pushy for my liking. Right there, case closed — no sale for them!
I’m with Christie… I hate the salesman approach.
Very good post all around. I really liked your water therapy example. That made it simple to understand.
Hate the salesman approach as well!
Thank you Doug. Glad you liked the post, and the example.
Really good info. Giving me some great idea. Thanks for sharing
Thanks shraqs! Glad this was of use to you.
Too bad a lot of the authors out there have not read this post. Just today I was searching some of the articles online and almost every one of them were below par because they did not follows some of the points in this post.
Thanks Sire! Hopefully those authors will come across this post, or one similar to it.
Sounds funny, but when someone comes to me and they just start to sound like a salesman, I say no thanks and walk away. I don’t even let them finish.
I usually get calls on my cell from people trying to sell me this or that and I tell them that ‘I don’t want to waste your time and I don’t want you to waste my time’ and that normally gets rid of them quickly.
Hahaha, good technique. I’m usually a bit nicer, as I feel bad sort of. I try to break it to them a bit nicer
Most of my friends do the same thing as you though.
Actually Behnam, we may NOT all agree that article marketing is all that beneficial to my site.
I say that because I always wonder just who’s actually reading articles on article sites. I mean, anyone who goes there is usually looking to do one of two things; post an article or grab someone else’s article to use for their own purposes.
Sometimes, I think I could get the same benefit by putting my articles on my own sites and linking to other sites of mine, or just using them for my blogs and newsletters, which I do most of the time. Not to say that I haven’t put any articles on an article site. I did, but I track traffic and it’s pretty much nonexistent coming from an article directory source.
Still, a lot of people are hoping to go that route, so maybe it’ll work better for everyone else than for me.
Hm, you have a good point there mitch. Very good point. I guess it does bring the benefit of backlinks, and can bring some very targeted traffic. If your article ranks high up in search engines, you can get some decent traffic. But you’re right — a lot of people will simply use your article for their own site.
I believe I mentioned this in my post, or a previous post, but article marketing should come second to the content on your blog.
On a side note, you spelt my name right — something not many people online have been able to do
Very interesting, I have been got many ideas ^_^ Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Toan. Glad you pulled some ideas out of this.
very nice information . i used to send my article to ezines , but i am too buzy this month . reading this article make my spirit burning to send more article to them
No worries, we’ve all had times where we are to busy to do one thing or another. Ezine is a great way to drive quality traffic to your blog!
You have made quite a valid points, man! But I think its essential to provide your readers with dos & if you have don’ts then it is important to not leave readers in hang by not telling how to solve it, if they are looking for it. The solution to Salesman problem, is to think like a writer building reputation to suceed. That would help you stay on track of doing good work & not falling for saleman trick.
I agree with you completely Chris. I’ve been left hanging many times when reading an article, and it really is disappointing. It inclines me to not visit that site anymore.
I am happy to note that you agree on that point. It’s certainly my experience about certain articles too. But I am glad to just know that we are learning from our negative experiences rather than just being put off by misleading or incomplete articles.
Exactly. With negative experiences, we learn things. Although I want to keep my negative experiences to a minimal, they don’t hurt once in a while.
having good articles we can get more visitors and get the best pagerank in google
You got it man!