May 24, 2008
1) Articles will quickly position you as an expert in your field.
The written word is incredibly powerful. Writing articles sets you apart from your competition. You never have to say “Listen to me, I’m an expert!” Your articles do that for you, because articles increase your “expert-ability.”
2) Articles can become little 24/7 salespeople.
Once you have an article published, especially on the internet, you now have a 24 hour, 7 day a week, 365 day a year international salesperson working specifically for you and your business.
3) Just one article can be used in many ways.
This is called leverage. Just one article can be used a a free report, a bonus, featured in a newsletter or ezine, become part of an online e-course, become part of a book, and many other ways.
4) Articles spread the word about your business and your services.
One article that I wrote 5 years ago was recently used in one of my internet newsletters. A newspaper reporter that is on my mailing list saw it and interviewed me for a story. When he pitched it to his editor, the editor liked it so much that they turned it into a feature article. They ran it on the front page of the paper, and it has been picked up and run across the country.
5) Marketing articles is simple, easy and inexpensive, especially when compared to other ways of marketing online.
It costs you nothing to write an article. It also costs you nothing to have it listed on article directories such as EzineArticles.com. Imagine what it would cost you to pay for that kind of exposure and publicity.
6) Articles can help you build a mailing list that you can market to over and over again.
Once you have a few articles out there, you will reach a certain critical mass where the prospects begin to flow in. Continue to grow past the critical mass, and you will grow to the point where you could not stop the traffic and prospects flowing in if you wanted to.
7) Articles allow you to stay in touch with customers/clients and sell more products.
We know that it can take from 5 to 8 contacts or more for new prospect to be ready to become a customer. Articles allow you to stay in touch with prospects and provide them with quality information.
Visit The Article Empire Coach for more leading edge tips and tools for writing articles that bring you prospects, publicity and profits. You can also subscirbe to our monthly Article Empire Tips Newsletter. You are also invited to visit my Express-Start Article Writing Program for more information on the next article writing tele-seminar.
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May 24, 2008
Writing articles is by far the most effective online promotion strategy I’ve come across. If you can write good, readable, original content, you can easily put yourself far ahead of the pack in your field of interest.
But article marketers and new article writers are often stumped for topics to write about. Finding topics that appeal to your readers can be time-consuming but well worth the effort.
Here are no less than eight awesome ways to research your market and find newsy topics that attract loads of traffic and the interest of your target audience.
1. Keyword Research Tools
To write an article that will get you a significant amount of traffic, you need to write about topics that people are searching for.
You also want to know which terms your target audience uses while searching, so you can use them in your article title and copy and increase the chance of being found by search engines.
Two excellent keyword research tools you should always use to research article topics are Wordtracker and Overture’s Keyword Inventory Tool.
http://www.wordtracker.com
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
2. Newsletters and Trade Journals
Subscribe to email newsletters, ezines and offline publications related to your topic of interest. Reading what others in your field are writing about will give you lots of ideas for your own article topics.
It’s easy to find newsletters that cover your topic online. If you want to write about internet marketing, for instance, you could search for “internet marketing newsletter” and find the most well-read and respected publications in that field.
3. Google News Alerts
Google News Alerts is like a news aggregator that allows you to receive news based on your keyword of choice.
http://www.google.com/alerts
When you subscribe, you’ll receive the latest stories that carry your keyword. Go through them and you may find some gems of information that you can write up into a topical article based on that story.
4. Press Release Alerts
Press releases are an excellent way to find out more about new discoveries or advances in your field. These can make an excellent topic for an opinion piece about that discovery or development.
Search press release sites for the latest releases in the field of your choice. You’ll find a bunch of them listed here.
http://www.onlineprindia.com/press-release-distribution.htm
5. Online Forums
You can get some of your best article topics from other professionals in your field. Online forums provide an abundance of opinions, queries and ideas that might just make that flashbulb go off in your brain.
Visit forums, lurk and read other’s posts or participate in discussions and benefit from the minds of some of the most interactive people in your field.
6. Blogs
Blogs are a hotbed of discussion and opinion. They often carry some very interesting and topical pieces that can help you ideate.
Blog directories, a long list of which can be found at the link below, are a good place to start looking for blogs written on your topic of interest.
http://www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55/
7. Seminars and Conferences
One of the best ways to keep up with new ideas and developments in your field is to attend seminars or conferences and network with other people.
You can often come away with a bunch of ideas, at these gatherings, and use them to write up articles.
8. Spy On The Competition
Check out your competitor’s business and websites. They may be using ideas or even making mistakes that could give you ideas for articles on what does or doesn’t work.
And finally, always remember to give credit (and a link back) to the news sources that you cite in your article.
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Priya Shah is the CEO of an online marketing firm and writes an online marketing blog. Visit Article Writing Tips for more article marketing tips and tools.
This article may be reprinted as long as the resource box is left intact and all links are hyperlinked.
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