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After your article is processed and published by the article marketing site, your article will get picked up by hundreds of sites, bringing you more exposure and more business, which equals thousands of potential visitors to your site! Websites, ezines and blogs are constantly looking for new content that they’re not paying for (that’s how they get picked up in the search engines)—so it’s a heavenly match, but you have to work at making it happen!
The first step is figuring out what to write about:
Generating Ideas
- What are some challenges in your genre?
- What conferences you gone to recently and how do the seminars relate to your field
- Do you have any books that you review and that pertain to your expertise?
- Read the newspaper for a boatload of ideas!
- Talk to and/or survey your readers
- Brainstorm with other authors in your genre!
You shouldn’t feel blocked when you write an article—your topics should be close to your heart and to your head. Be sure your article is aligned with your genre and your brand. When visitors click on your article, they’ll find that your website is relevant to your article and they’ll be more likely to sign up for your e-newsletter, follow your blog and buy your book!
Some article topic examples:
- Getting over my inner critic
- When is it too much revision?
- Balancing writing and working for a living
Create a Memorable Title
- Start with a verb, not a “a” or “the”
- Be specific and use details, like “Promote Your Coaching and Speaking Business Through Articles”
- Your title is also one of the most important elements. It has to draw the reader in, encourage him to read further, make your article stand out from the crowd.
- Try to make the reader curious, like with this title, “Stress Can Make Your More Healthy”
- The first lines are keyto hook your reader. It’s OK to ask a few questions that recognize your reader’s problem
- Use “you” to make it seem you are speaking directly to the reader. Be careful with the use of “I”—some sites may reject your article since using “I” seems like you’re selling
- Figure out your angle. Write an article that helps people solve a problem and doesn’t only ask questions or make your reader reflect. Article readers want solutions!
- And be sure to tell your reader the benefits of using your tip to solve the problem and the consequences if the problem isn’t solved
- Show action when readers follow your advice and give clear examples
- Conclude your article with a summary
How-To Articles are the most popular article form. Here are some examples:
- You can list the number of tips, such as “Seven Steps to a Healthier Stomach” (if you’re writing a diet book)
- Or “Seven Tips to Get Your Book Written This Year!”
- Use bullets and pair them with a command verb such as “do this”
- A Myth and Solutions Article
- An Interview: have an expert in your genre (or maybe your mentor) interview you so you can share your expertise and your personal side in the article
Other Tips
- Keep your article around 600-800 words. Less than 600 words is a blog post and you want to develop your topic so it will have richer content.
- Post articles once a week on a certain day of the week for consistency
- Don’t include a link within the body of the article since this might be flagged by the article marketing site
- Don’t include affiliate links in your article
- Watch your spelling/grammar
- Because of HTML formatting issues, write your article in Notepad so they’re won’t be formatting issues
- Be sure the focus on your article is on education, not selling
Your Bio
Prepare a 150-word bio which will become the engine that will make your readers click on your link to visit your website. Here’s what I wrote for my article bio:
Alice Osborn helps authors become business people and business people become authors through her editing and marketing talents. Alice is the author of three poetry books and teaches creative writing all over the country where she uses sensory images and road-tested prompts to stimulate her students’ best work. With Alice as your editor and writing mentor, you will get published and achieve greater professional success. Visit www.AliceOsborn.com for your free report on how you can get published today.
OK, Now You Can Post Your Article To Marketing Sites
You can post your article at these sites for FREE:
Ezine Articles
Associated Content
Go Search
Search Warp
Hub Pages.com
or you can use a paying service such as SubmitYourArticle.com to send your article to hundreds of sites.
And Finally,
Keep an article notebook and index cards in your car so you can capture an idea when it hits. You should also invest in a digital tape recorder and record your ideas before they fly away!
Writing articles will up your rankings on Google and it will also draw readers to you. Spend time on your articles—quality counts—and be consistent! After reading THIS article, you already have jumpstarted your promotion plan!
Originally from Washington, D.C., and born there in the winter after Watergate to a Masterpiece Theater-obsessed mother and Archie Bunker-obsessed father, Alice’s past educational and work experience is unusually varied, and it now feeds her work as a poet, as well as an editor, coach and marketing consultant for writers. After The Steaming Stopsis her most recent collection of poetry; previous collections are Right Lane Ends and Unfinished Projects. She has taught classes and writing workshops to hundreds of aspiring authors of nearly all ages (from 9 to 90), both in person and online.
Alice lives in Raleigh with her husband, two children and three parakeets: Woodbird, Birdstein and Perry. Get published now with Alice’s free writing tips at www.aliceosborn.com.
Website: http://aliceosborn.com
Blog: http://aliceosborn.com/blog
From snakes to movie stars to childhood memories of parents, lesbian neighbors and more, Alice Osborn's book of poetry persistently captures a certain wonder and bewilderment of the existing child inside us all. Some poems end with powerful lines and insight such as regarding her mother's emotional distance and disdain, or give a declaration about her father's beer drinking and unorthodox behavior. This is a book crammed with images, explicit descriptions, characters and emotions. Nothing goes unnoticed. Osborn's eye, and what it falls upon, is her enduring story, leavened with unflinching candor. These poems are wonderfully narrative, and cannily crafted, luring the reader in with their easy inviting gait. In these poignant poems, Alice Osborn hauntingly and painfully updates and expands the use of domestic imagery as an expression of that narrow dream's tyranny, adding to it the expectations and regimentation inherited from a successful military grandfather, and the inevitable insufficiency of everything else.
Buy ‘After the Steaming Stops’ here.
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