Technology Toolkit

Article marketing to build your list can be accomplished successfully over a period of time. Even if you have never written before, you can learn to write articles and submit them to the online article directories so that people will find you.

Begin by writing an introductory paragraph to tell your readers exactly what you will be writing about. If they are interested in your topic they will read through to the end of the article. Then write several more short paragraphs to tell them the important points about your article topic.

I prefer a series of short paragraphs to a bulleted list, because people’s minds are trained to skip over lists of items for the most part. You want readers to feel like they got good information b reading what you write about in your article.

Using your article to market your own products or services or those of others you are an affiliate for can be very rewarding. In the resource box of your article you will include an invitation to visit a website or blog where the reader can find out more. If they are still interested at this point they will be more likely to click on the link.

Keep your articles to about three hundred words. Many people write articles that are twice as long, when they could really turn that longer article into two shorter ones to market their products and services even more.

Once you submit your articles to the directories, they will continue to work for you for quite a long time. If you have used your keywords in the title of your article and throughout the body of your article, you will find that after time it appears in the organic searches for those keywords when people are searching for them on Google or any of the search engines.

The organic, or free, searches will also be more popular than the sponsored ads. This gives you an opportunity to market for years to come without having to pay for it.

Article marketing is not new. In fact, people have been writing articles and using them to market their products and services for many years. It is only during the past two years or so that it has caught on as a way to increase your credibility and visibility on the internet. Set a goal of writing just one article every day and you will have a very different business within a few short months.

You can write an entire eBook simply by writing articles. This is the perfect way to repurpose your content and market your eBook, long before it is completed. There are several ways to do this, but it must all start with choosing a niche and doing your research.

You do not want to write an eBook that no one will be interested in buying. That is why you must take advantage of the free keyword tools that are available to you online. Make sure there are people ready to buy the information you will give them in your eBook. If there are already similar products available for sale on the internet, purchase them and think about how you could improve upon what is out there.

Next, prepare an outline of exactly what information you want to include. You may need to do some research, so allow time for that as well. Divide your material into chapters. About eight to twelve chapters works well. That will make your eBook about eighty to one hundred pages in length, which is perfect for people who will want to print it out, rather than reading it on their computer.

Once you have completed your outline, begin to write articles that will go into a particular chapter. I always start with the first chapter, but then I jump to the chapters that I am most ready to write. As you write and submit each article, people will be able to give you feedback and opt in to your list. By the time you are finished writing, you will already have a list of prospects that may in interested in purchasing your eBook.

Starting a blog with your content is also a good idea. Again you will be repurposing the same information that is going into your eBook and turning into articles. Many people will find you through your blog, rather than from your articles, so it is important to do both. Update your blog regularly so that the search engines will find you easily. Use your keywords in your post titles and give as much valuable information as you possibly can.

Social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, are also important in the eBook writing process. I have created something called tweeting your articles, where you tweet one sentence at a time from your article until it is all on Twitter. You can also let people read your content on Facebook, where articles are always welcomed in groups and on walls. Finally, your eBook will be ready for you to sell to create a passive income stream forever.

Article marketing can be used successfully to promote your own products and services or affiliate products. Think of every article as another valuable asset in your tool chest as you begin to build your online empire.

The majority of my articles are about the work I do online, including teaching others how to write eBooks, blog posts, and special reports, as well as how to use the technology needed to be successful online. Every time I write an article about one of these topics, thousands of potential readers have the opportunity to visit my site and connect with me further.

The other articles I write are used strictly to market someone else’s products or services, so I receive affiliate commission when someone reads my article and then makes a purchase. Article marketing is the best way to make affiliate commission, and I have done extremely well with this method for about two years now.

Marketing your articles needs to become part of your daily routine. I schedule time to write articles about the products and services I want to promote, whether they are mine or someone else’s. The most important aspect of article marketing is continuing to write new articles as often as possible, and then to submit them to the article directories.

I write new articles every day, and submit them to Ezine Articles before I do anything else. This is the largest directory in the world, and people visit this site to find articles by people who are marketing on a particular topic. You will find that people will come to this article directory and look for the latest articles you have written.

Article marketing works, as long as you give people good quality information and tell them as much as you know on the particular topic you are writing about. Do not hold back anything, and this will make your prospects ready to find out even more from you, back on your own website or blog.

Make a schedule of how and when you will write your articles. I may spend several days only writing articles about one or my own products. This gives me time to focus my attention completely on what I am sharing with my prospects.

After writing as many articles as I can, I then submit them to the articles directories that will be most appropriate, starting with Ezine Articles and then looking to more niched directories. Article marketing is still the best and most inexpensive way to find new prospects and clients, and to build your list.

Affiliate marketing has made it possible for me to pay all of my monthly expenses simply by promoting other people’s products and services. Even though I continue to build my own online business, affiliates account for almost half of my income. Many people are doing even better than I am with this, but I will tell you what is working for me.

I started making money from affiliate marketing before I had a website or a list. I was completely new to internet marketing, and just needed to make some money to pay for the expenses of having a shopping cart, hosting a blog, and getting some training.

Article writing and marketing looked like something I could do, so I found a product on training your Yorkshire terrier and decided to promote it. I have a Yorkie and other small dogs, so I knew I could come up with ideas on a regular basis that would be of interest to other small dog owners.

At the end of each article, in what is referred to as the resource box or author’s bio box, I would tell readers how they could find out more, and included my affiliate link. This link had been forwarded from a domain name I had purchased just for this purpose.

After writing and submitting several articles, people began to buy this digital product I was promoting. I was very excited, even though the amount of money I was making was small, because I saw that this method worked. I then decided to set up a blog on small dogs, and began to write posts that included my affiliate links for this product and others than were also for dogs.

After doing this for several months I took a look at what the results were. I saw that I could sell ten times as many products with articles than I could with blogging. This was because my blog was new and had very little traffic, while my articles were being read and distributed around the world 24 hours a day.

Affiliate marketing is a great way to get started on the internet while you are still learning. There is so much to know, it is nice to be able to make some money while you figure out what your niche will be and how your business will fit into your lifestyle. I encourage you to get started right away to begin making money with affiliate marketing.

Blogging regularly will increase your visibility on the internet very quickly. By starting a blog on your niche topic and using your keywords in your domain name, blog title, and blog posts, people will be able to find you quickly and easily when they are using the search engines. Especially if you are just starting out online, you will build your business faster by posting to your blog as often as possible.

Have fun with your blog. Include helpful and useful information on your topic, but also give people an opportunity to comment on your posts and to be a part of an interactive conversation. This will make them more likely to visit again or to subscribe.

Planning your posts at least a week in advance will make your blog more organized. I like to write down what I will be posting about and then make some notes. That way, when I am ready to write my post, it will be completely researched and ready for my readers to take advantage of. Providing solid, well thought out information will help you to get noticed more easily.

Read and subscribe to other blogs in your niche. Leave comments on these blogs when it is appropriate and it will add something to the conversation. Making a connection with the authors of similar blogs will make you all stronger in the long run. See this process as coopetition, rather than competition.

On the internet, you will find that we all compliment each other’s work. Refer your readers to other blogs on your topic and leave trackbacks to let the other blogger know what you are doing. You will both benefit from this practice.

The overwhelming majority of blogs are abandoned within the first three months. Be willing to stick with it and you will build the visibility and credibility that will catapult you to the top of your niche. Think of your blog as your home on the internet, and you will attract the right readers and prospects into your business.

You can also have guest bloggers, use other people’s articles (make sure to give them complete credit and do not edit their writing), and review books or websites. This will make your blog more interesting, while also giving you a break from the daily posting.

Once you get into the routine of looking for things to write about, writing about these things in your blog posts, and connecting with your target audience, you will look forward to posting to your blog and build your visibility and credibility even faster.