What Is Article Marketing?

by Don Monk

It’s pretty simple. Article Marketing is just what it sounds like. You are marketing via Articles. It’s a way of promoting your website and product or service for free.

Articles are among the easiest ways to promote your website in order to generate traffic and increase your earnings.

How does this work?
Write articles relating to your website and submit them to “free content” submission sites. Easy to do, takes little time and can increase your website traffic, sales and your income.

How can article writing boost traffic and income?
The article on the free content site contains a link to your own website. Readers, after reading your articles, may choose to click on the link and pay you an unexpected visit. Having them on the free content sites is also making these articles available to other webmasters who may wish to publish that article on their site.

If they do, your article will include a link back to your site. And anyone who reads the article on that site can still click on the link to visit your site.

As the list of your published articles grow larger, and more and more of them are appearing on different websites, the total number of links to your site also increases. Major search engines place lots of significance on incoming links to determine the importance of a site. This will then increase your website’s placement in the search results.

If your site is into promoting a product or service, the links that your articles have achieved will mean more potential customers for you. Even if visitors only browse through, you never know if they might be in need of what you are offering in the future.

There are also those who already have specific things they need on their mind but cannot decide yet between the many choices online. Chances are, they may stumble upon one of your articles, gets interested by the content you wrote, go to your site and became enticed by your promotions.

See how easy that is?

Search engines do not just index the websites, they also index published articles. They also index any article that is written about your own website’s topic. Once someone searches for that same topic, the list of results will have your site or may even show the articles you wrote.

And to think, no effort on your part was used to bring them to your site. Just your published articles and the search engines.

It is no wonder why many webmasters are suddenly reviving their old writing styles and taking time to write more articles about their site than doing other means of promotion
.
Getting your site known is easier if you have articles increasing your links and traffic and making it accessible for visitors searching the Internet. Since many people are now taking their buying needs online, having your site on the search engines through your articles is one way of letting them know about you and your business.

The good thing with articles is that you can write about things that people would want to know about. This can be achieved in the lightest mood but professional manner, with little not-so-obvious sales pitch added.

If you think about it, only a few minutes of your time is spent on writing one article and submitting to free content site. In the shortest span of time also, those are distributed to more sites than you can think of.

Even before you know what is happening, you are getting more visitors than you previously had.

If you think you are wasting your time writing these articles, fast forward to the time when you will see them published and widespread on the Internet — not to mention the sudden attention and interest that people are giving your website and your products or services.

Try writing some articles and you will be assured of the sudden surge in site traffic, link popularity and interest. Before you know it, you will be doubling and even tripling your earnings.

Nothing like getting benefits for something you got for free!




Don Monk of Internet Marketing Planners helps market your business online as part of a complete Internet solution. You’ll find Don’s profile on the Experion website and LinkedIn.

How To Benefit From A Group Blog

by Promod Sharma

When you work for a big company, you have the advantage of a known brand. You gain credence by association. When you're on your own, building a brand is essential but more difficult. You probably can't build awareness through advertising.

If you're part of an established group like Experion, you benefit to the extent the shared brand is known. As a member, you help spread the message. You then get the benefits by association. The other members do too.

The process is simple. Here are the three steps, starting with the easiest.

1. Share links to blog posts
2. Make comments on blog posts
3. Write blog posts (here's how)

1. Share Links To Blog Posts

These days, content circulates by "word of mouth", which means by circulating links.
If you share one link per week with 100 connections, you invite about 5,000 potential visits in a year. If 20 members share, that’s 100,000. If an average network has 200 people, that’s 200,000 potential visits. There’s also traffic from web searches.

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There are two easy ways to share a link.

A. Share Button

When you read an article online, you'll often see sharing buttons on the side, top or bottom of the article (this blog has them at the bottom). Facebook uses "Like", Google+ uses "+1" and Twitter uses "tweet". Click and you share with the network of your choice. Feel free to share with more than one network.

Note: the location and look of the buttons may change over time but the basic functionality remains

B. Actual Link

There is another way. Each web page has a address. By clicking on the address bar, you can copy the link and then paste it using your sharing tool. For instance, let's say you want to share via LinkedIn. Paste the link into a status update, type a brief description and send it out.

This screenshot shows the steps in LinkedIn.



Bonus: You can also post links in LinkedIn Groups or send them out via email or newsletter.

2. Make Comments On Blog Posts

At the bottom of each blog post, you'll see an option to leave a comment. Type in your thoughts and submit them. Commenting anonymously doesn't build your brand. Use your real name.

When you comment, you usually see future comments too. If you wrote the blog post and make a comment, you're notified when others leave messages. It's good form to participate.



Comments here use Disqus, which gives you credit for your comments on Harvard Business Review and other participating blogs. That context lets readers quickly see if you’re credible.



Exercise: As a experiment, leave a comment on this article.

Bonus: wait until your comment goes live before you circulate a link (step 1). Readers can then read what you said too.

3. Write Blog Posts

Sharing content shows that you're good at curating (a parrot). That's good but creating content is even better (a pundit). You then show your current expertise. Isn't that the reason clients hire you?

The process of writing may seem daunting but think of the benefits. Your words remain visible at no cost. Your article gets read and re-read. That’s better than advertising.

As blog traffic grows, you get read by visitors who arrived to read other articles. You're more likely to show up in web searches too. When you help a group blog, everyone benefits.

Momentum

Imagine if 20 members commit to writing one article per month. That’s one post per business day or about 240 in a year. That will bring ongoing traffic and credibility to Experion and you.

Can you spare 10 minutes a week?  That’s enough time to share one link (takes seconds) and make one comment (takes minutes).

Links

• How to start blogging
• Building trust with blogging
• Building trust before meeting in person
• Are you a parrot or a pundit?
• Brand you successful

Promod Sharma is your insurance literacy tutor. Learn about life and health protection online (wiki, blog, Twitter) or at a live event. At Taxevity, get a fee-only insurance review and help updating your coverage. You’ll find more details on the Experion website and LinkedIn.

PS Be sure to subscribe to receive new blog posts by email.

Brand You Successful

by Shannon Smith

You either create a brand that is distinct …
or you become extinct.
— Tom Peters, author of In Search of Excellence.

Humans think visually. The saying “I hear what I see” is true. The visual you has the most impact.

The personal brand (image) you project affects others’ decisions about

• your intelligence, character and ability
• whether they want to do business with you
• how they treat you

The way you dress (and act) has a remarkable impact on the people you meet professionally and socially. Clients who dismissed the importance of personal packaging (their personal brand), tell me they have lost promotions, deals have fallen through, memberships were denied and friends have disappeared.

Is your personal brand (image) professional, congruent, attractive and attracting?

Before you sell anything — your product, company or service — you sell yourself. Shift the balance of power in your favour. When you brand yourself, you are perceived as more desirable and in demand. Brand Status increases the bottom line, both personally and corporately.

Large, successful companies understand the power of branding. They spend a lot of time, money and energy to create a brand for their product that is eye-catching and appealing enough to sell through to their market. They want to ensure that the buyer builds a strong connection with that brand.

Do you think of yourself as a company of one?

How much time, money and energy have you spent in developing a personal brand that is unique enough to sell through to your market? Chances are you haven’t even given it a thought. Perhaps, like many of my clients, you too, dismiss attention to personal branding as frivolous, fluffy and superficial until you, like them, hit a brick wall, lose business, that big contract falls through or you fail to get the next promotion.

An individual with a well-defined personal brand has more status and a tremendous advantage over the competition in the marketplace. When you are well-branded, you are pre-sold. That gives you a huge advantage over others selling themselves.

When you want someone to date you, for example, you don’t just stand in the street naked. Instead, you put on the outfit that reveals just enough and covers up just enough to make people want more. To get someone interested in you, just give away a few pieces of information. You want to tease them, wet their appetite and make them drool for more. In the beginning, it is simply style. Substance comes later.

What are you doing?

In the current economy, competitiveness has increased dramatically. Business is more serious and conservative --- not only in attitude but in business attire, business etiquette and leadership skills as well. Companies are concerned and hiring us to train their employees in acquiring the soft skills that lead straight to success. Of course, intelligence, experience and education count. Today, the whole package counts

The hallmarks of successful individuals in a fast-paced global marketplace are their confidence, ability to communicate effectively, manners and poise. Mediocrity is dead — and it’s about time. It is not acceptable to dress inappropriately or do business with the wrong fork. There is a return to formality, elegance, manners and sophistication.

It’s been my experience that an individual who understands the power of perception will make the changes necessary to ensure that he/she creates a powerful, congruent personal brand. To be competitive, have greater influence on others, attract more business and be more successful, it is critical to pay greater attention to personal branding.

Be a smarter marketer. To attract the best, you need to be the best.

Links

• image courtesy of Alessia

Shannon Smith is a leading image strategist and founder of Premiere Image International, the foremost provider of personal brand training. Since 1983, Shannon and her team of consultants have taken companies and individuals from unnoticed to unforgettable. You’ll find more details on the Experion website and LinkedIn.