Wednesday, May 9, 2007

Writing Articles for Publication - You Have What It Takes

Writing and publishing articles is the hottest method employed today to get targeted traffic to your website. You may not think you can write to get published, but if you have a computer, a passion, basic grammar skills, and time, you have what it takes to start writing and publishing articles today.

If you have done any research on internet marketing, you know that article writing and publishing is the hottest topic today. This marketing method takes little more than a computer, a passion, basic grammar skills, and some of your time, yet it has the potential to bring hundreds or thousands of new people to your site every day.

When you log onto your computer, what are you looking for? Email from family and friends, maybe the latest seasonal item from your favorite catalog, and information, lots and lots of information.

You see, the internet thrives on information, especially new information. Who is able to plan their life around the 6:00 news or take time to read the newspaper when the kids have soccer practice, mom has a business meeting, and dad is cooking dinner?

Fortunately, you can get the latest news and tips delivered to your door with the click of a button - the switch to your computer.

With your computer, your passion, basic grammar skills, and your time, you too can add new and exciting news and tips to the internet by writing and publishing articles.

1) A computer
If you are reading this, you have access to a computer. Any computer will do. One that has Notepad or some other text editor program will work.

Note: You may use programs such as Microsoft Word, but be aware that some characters, double quotation marks and dashes, for example, will not appear properly on some websites. If you choose to use Word, be sure to check that characters are displayed properly when published.

2) A passion
What are you passionate about that others are interested in knowing? If you have a website, you are obviously passionate about that and have done the research to know that you have a niche market that others are passionate about as well. Write about what you are doing in your business, how you got where you are, and what you have learned along the way. Help others learn from what you have already done.

3) Basic grammar skills
No matter how passionate you are about a topic, no one wants to read copy that is littered with typographical errors and mistakes in grammar. If you have lost some of the grammar skills you learned in school, go to the library or book store or search online to find books or articles that can help you get your skills back on track. Until you are confident in your own skills, find a friend or family member who has these skills and ask them to help you. Chances are good that someone you know will be glad to help.

4) Your time
Article writing and submission takes time. It takes time to come up with ideas that you want to write about, and it takes more time to actually write the article. However, if you are writing about something you enjoy, something you are passionate about, you will find out that the time you spend writing articles is time well spent.

Article submission can also take time if you choose to submit articles manually. If this turns out to take too much of your time, there are plenty of services and software available to help automate this task.

If your time is very limited, you may want to consider cutting something else out a few hours a week to give you time to write. The time you spend writing and submitting articles can result in hundreds of new visitors to your website and turn your time into money.

Remember, writing articles and getting them published in online article directories is one of the most profitable methods used today to market your internet business. With a computer, a passion, basic grammar skills, and some of your timePsychology Articles, you can join the ranks of millions of others who are contributing to the latest news and tips available worldwide on the internet.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR


Claudia Pate is a home business entrepreneur and is the owner of The Anniversary Shop, an online store for all your gift-giving needs. Write your own internet marketing success story with Plug-in Profits, a multiple-streams-of-income plan with a complete 30 Day Guide to Success. Learn more at CommonSenseEbiz.com, a guide to internet and home-based business.


5 Unique Ways to get more Free Traffic

Ok so the first way to get traffic is not particularly unique. But the fact is that you will get lots of traffic by writing articles. The traffic won't come immediately but it will come. Articles will also bring link popularity. I wouldn't be doing my job if I wrote about free traffic and neglected to mention articles.

If you write one article a week for the next year at the end of that year you will have an unstoppable flow of traffic and where there is traffic money follows.

So traffic source

#1 - Write articles

#2 - Post ads on other peoples sites. Now you're probably thinking 'tell me something I don't know' but think about this for a moment. If there is a site that has a lot of traffic, gets spidered frequently and has excellent page rank. Do you think pages on that site get good search engine rankings. You betcha!

Here in the UK there is a site called UK Free Ads. It has an Alexa rank of about 20,000 and, you guessed it, you can place ads on it for free. All you have to do is find your equivalent of UK Free Ads then find a keyword phrase without too much competition and write an ad optimised for the keyword phrase. I'm not guaranteeing a top ten listing but a percentage of the ads you write will place well in Google and other search engines. You might even get a number one position.

The best of these sites allow your url to be included in the listing. But better than that some of them allow you to upgrade your listing and have that listing redirect to the url you supply. Top Tip: Wait until the page has been spidered and ranks well then upgrade and have the listing redirect to your web page.

#3 - Get your site mentioned in mailings from complimentary sites in return for you mentioning theirs. You're going to need a list for this. But assuming you have one why not contact other site owners with a list and ask them to mention your site in their next mailing. In return you mention their site in your next mail. This doesn't have to be a heavy sell, just a mention of a friends site.

At worst this strategy will put your site url in front of a lot of people who may not have heard of you. At best you will get a lot of free visitors. This strategy should work out just fine if you partner with a site that isn't in direct competition with you.

#4 - Instead of just trading links why not trade home page links or ads. Next time you visit a site and they have a space for an ad and are inviting you to buy that space, why not contact them and offer to exchange the ad space for a similar position on your site. Or why not barter an ad for a mention to your mailing list. A lot of smaller sites have trouble selling their ad space, but these same sites still have respectable traffic flows.

#5 - The last free traffic tip is probably the hardest to pull off but also the most regarding. The strategy is to offer something of real value for free. If you use Adwords you no doubt know about Mikes Marketing Tools where you will find a 'keyword wrapper'. Or if you are into natural search engine traffic then you probably visit Market Leap to find out how many pages you have ranked. People need these tools and everybody recommends these sites. They offer a valuable resource for free. Once you do that, word spreads quickly . Mikes Tools has an Alexa rank of 5Article Submission,000. Market Leap has a rank of 900. Yes it's in the top 900 websites online. Do you think you could make some money with that sort of traffic?

To pull this off you need a tool that is useful to your target audience. Maybe some sort of calculator or a data manipulator or converter. Although a software tool is an excellent choice it doesn't have to be software. Think what tool do I use that I could make available to others.

If your goal is to build free traffic to your sites then you need to be thinking about this all the time. As you surf keep this need in the back of your mind. Every site you visit think 'how could I get free traffic from this site' or 'what is this site doing to get traffic that I could copy'.

If you want to learn more about free traffic sources & other free resources then visit www.ireviewguru.com/freeresources.html

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Darren Power is your host at www.IReviewGuru.com where you will find the latest marketing product news & reviews

How To Write Best Articles

I’ve been able to distinguish 3 main categories that people fall into, regarding the subject on writing articles. Allow me to share them with you.

Here we go!

Category #1: The absolute hard way of writing articles.

Let me pick a topic for an article: “Brest Cancer.” This subject is a very serious matter and one that will make many people read and even publish.

But I have absolutely no knowledge about it or experience in any shape or form. Actually, the only information that I have is from my friend’s mother who has gone through this horrible experience.

I’m going to take the *lazy-way-approach* and I’m going to write an article about it without doing any research. My article is going to be based on the little bits and pieces of information on this subject available in my brain. But mostly, it would be my thoughts expressed through my opinion.

So I start writing the article.

Shortly after, I stumble across a big problem. I can’t finish it. My brain is working extra hard but I can’t even form a single sentence. I struggle day and night to make it sound intelligent, but what else can I do when there’s a very little information available in my brain.

Finally, I somehow finish the article on Breast Cancer, which consist mostly of my thoughts and my opinion about it with very little or no facts at all.

What would the quality and the acceptance level of my article be?

People, such as myself, who have no knowledge about it will read it and will take it as granted. But what’s going to happen when I offer it to ezine publishers to include it in their newsletters or offer it to webmasters as content for their websites?

The most probable ezines and websites to publish my article would be the ones directly related to the subject. But, what’s going to happen when their publishers read my article?

Since they have an abundance of knowledge on the subject or they can quickly check their resources and compare them to my article, they would immediately recognize my level of knowledge on the subject – or the lack of it.

Conclusion: why struggle writing about something that we know very little or nothing about?

Category #2: The intermediate way of writing articles.

Let me pick a topic for another article: “Internet Law.” A topic that would definitely get the attention of many Internet marketers. But I don’t have much knowledge about it!

So, instead of falling into Category #1 and throwing down my opinion about it, I’ll do an intensive research and I’ll gather as much as useful information as possible supported by facts.

I’ll even contact some sources directly affected by it or involved with it to gather some original information, instead of depending entirely on the reports published by others.

Then, I’ll process all that info in my brain and I’ll start putting the article together. I’ll quote some sources for added integrity and to let people know that I’m not just sharing my opinion.

It’ll take me few days to write it but the process of writing would be less painful since I have already gathered various information about it. It would be just a matter of putting the story together.

What would the quality and the acceptance level of my article be?

The reception will depend on the demand and the interest for the subject of the article. But the quality of the research will pretty much dictate the quality of the article.

Conclusion: the better the homework we do during the research, the better the article we write.

Category #3: The absolute best way of writing articles – this goes for books and reports also.

Let me pick a topic for yet another article: “How To Write Best Articles.” If I would’ve picked this topic two years ago, I would’ve had no clue about it. I would’ve been in Category #1. Or I could’ve done the research and moved to Category #2.

Since I’ve done plenty of reading on this subject (articles, reports, ebooks), and I’ve gone through the experience of writing and submitting articles (bad and good), it took me only 20 minutes to write this article.

That’s because I already had this information in my brain. It was just a matter of typing it up in Word Document.

What would the quality and the acceptance level of my article be?

The first time I wrote an article from my knowledge and experience, it got picked up by websites that I have never even heard of. Amazing. When I submitted it to ezine directories, the only reason it was rejected by the webmasters or their publishers was because I didn’t follow their posting guidelines. A little technical glitch. Ooops! :-)

Once again, the demand and the interest for the subject of the article will dictate the level of acceptance. And what about the quality?

Think about it for a second.

If I ask you to tell me more about the supersonic X-43A scramjet that splashed above the Pacific at Mach 9.8, shattering the existing world aviation speed record of Mach 6.8, how much would you know about it?

But if I ask you to tell me about your latest experience with … you name it … how much would you know about it?

I’d have to schedule a time slot so you can give me all the details. And how about you writing it that down in an article format? Do you think you will have a hard time writing it?

The quality will be enormous since it will contain your unique personal experience. It will be original. People will want to read it (just as you’re still reading this article) because they want to learn from the other people’s experience – bad or good.

Conclusion: it takes the least amount of time to write an article from your personal experience and it enjoys the most amount of reception. NowComputer Technology Articles, tell me about your experience because I want to learn from you.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Steve Dimeck. Publisher and author of The Success Maze - an ebook dedicated to the people who are still looking for ways to succeed online but feel a bit lost in this online Maze -- or should I say Jungle.
FREE Details: > http://www.thesuccessmaze.com