Here’s a little known fact about article marketing. Not paying attention could mean tons of wasted hours and no results. Are you ready?

The real key to article marketing is writing a well-constructed author resource box, or author biography. The content of this box is almost more important than the article itself. The author resource box is where you have to be creative, putting just enough information to encourage readers to click through to your website.

I say the author resource box is ALMOST as important as your article because if your article is bad you won’t be able to establish yourself as an authority in the field. If that’s the case no one will want to read any of your other materials. A good article sets your author resource box up for success.

So what should you include in the author resource box?

• Your name. Don’t forget your name. It really is important and it’s often forgotten. No one wants to trust a nameless adviser.
• Add your website address. Use the actual address, not just a linked keyword phrase. Use both, if you can. If not, use the standard URL.
• As you would in your sales copy, write a very brief pitch and wrap it up with a call to action. This section should be no more than 1-3 sentences long. Enough to confirm you really are an authority on the subject you wrote about while encouraging your reader to make a purchase, visit a website, or take some other action.

There are dozens of other things you can include in the author resource box, but those are the most important. You might include additional contact information or links to a free report or ebook.

There are, of course, a few things you should NOT include:

• Don’t list the URLs for every website you are affiliated with. Include only ONE link and make sure it’s related to the article.
• Avoid listing your credentials and accomplishments. The resource box is not a resume. Build a page on your website for that type of information.
• Don’t write a long resource box. If it’s more than 20% of the size of your article it’s way too long!

Article marketing is an incredibly valuable tool, but only if used correctly. Your author resource box is the only place those reading your articles will look for additional contact information. Make sure it’s readily available!

Thanks again,

Sean

Sean McPheat

We’ve already established that article marketing is an incredibly powerful way to market your business and drive traffic to your website, but there are quite a few myths surrounding the negative implications of article marketing that I’d like to address.

Search Engine Violations

I’ve been asked several times about whether or not submitting the same article to multiple article directories will have a negative impact due to duplicate content concerns. The truth of the matter is that most of the article directories you use have pretty high page ranks, so even if the search engines pick up the article more than once they’ll assume it is your original work.

Real problems arise when you try to use PLR (private label) content which has been posted thousands of times all over the internet by multiple people, with no way of knowing who the original author was. Never publish PLR content to an article directory, if you’re using PLR content at all. If you do use it, make sure you completely rewrite it so that the work looks original and doesn’t get flagged as duplicate content.

Spamming

Another common question is whether or not posting multiple articles to multiple articles is considered spamming. The simple answer to this question is NO. You can submit as many articles as you want to as many directories as you want. Using article directories is a great way to build up your website’s popularity.

The only problem is that search engines will be very conscious of websites that go from zero to hundreds of backlinks in a very short period of time. To get started, submit a handful of articles to as many directories as you like. After that, however, slow down to one article per day and stick to a steady, consistent pace.

Republishing Blog Content

Finally, there are a number of concerned bloggers who fear that reposting work from their blogs to article directories will cause duplicate content problems. The truth of the matter is that if your article was posted on your blog or website first, your site won’t ever suffer.

If you want to use your articles on both your website and in an article directory, make sure you publish them on your website first. Wait a few days before using that same article in a directory and there will never be any question as to where your article was published first.

Article marketing is a brilliant strategy that has been proven to work wonders. Consistently market your articles for a few weeks and you’re guaranteed to see an increase in traffic to your website!

Happy Marketing!

Sean

Sean McPheat

The Ins and Outs of Successful Article Marketing

By now you’ve probably heard of article marketing. Your research sources have probably recommended article marketing as an incredibly powerful free method for driving traffic back to your website. But what exactly IS article marketing?

Simply put, article marketing involves writing short but informational articles that will leave a reader dying for more information. You’ll place these articles on various article directory websites where they’ll be viewed by people interested in the subject you’ve written about. At the end of the article there will be a link to your personal website where the reader can find more information regarding the niche you were discussing in the article.

Writing articles for the web not only drives traffic back to your site, but also presents you to the public as an authority in your field of expertise. There are a number of things you should keep in mind as you write your articles in order to optimize your results. Here are a few:

• Choose a popular, heavily-searched keyword and incorporate it (naturally) into your writing. Doing so will increase the odds of your article popping up in search engine results.

• Write a captivating and creative title for your article. Make it eye-catching enough so that someone scanning a list of results will see your title and immediately be drawn to it.

• Offer tips and tricks, use bulleted lists, and write short paragraphs. The Internet is a fast-paced environment and no one wants to spend forever sifting through your article for valuable information.

Make your article easy to read.

• Use proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation. No one is going to take you seriously enough to click through to your website if your article looks like it was thrown together in 10 minutes.

• Offer more free information, a free e-book, or a discount coupon to anyone who visits your website using the link you placed in your article. Free stuff is always an excellent incentive.

Simply put, the success of your article marketing campaign rests solely on the quality of the articles you put out on the web. Quality articles packed with valuable information are more likely to attract attention than short fluff-filled articles that appear to do nothing but waste space. The information you share in your articles is a direct reflection of you and your business attitude.

Your readers will know right away if you are genuinely trying to help them. Show that you care and high-quality traffic will start rolling into your website sooner than you ever imagined.

Happy Article Marketing!

Sean

Sean McPheat – Marketing Consultant & Sales Expert

The True Power of Article Marketing

Article marketing may seem like it is a time consuming method of Internet marketing compared to others, but it is a more powerful method than most. Article marketing is most cost effective (read: FREE) than most other marketing methods while at the same time giving you the opportunity to reach a wide audience.

First of all, we must consider the power of the written word. You have already won the first half of the battle if you are an authority on a given subject and have the ability to articulate your expertise in a manner that allows people to trust you. People will continue to repeatedly visit a source of information that they trust. The higher the quality of your writing, the more trustworthy you will appear, resulting in more targeted web traffic.

Article marketing has opened the Internet up to a variety of entrepreneurs and webmasters. Individuals looking to simply share information use articles to drive traffic to their blogs while those looking to make product sales will drive visitors back to their informational sales pages. Regardless of your purpose, “content is king,” and an article is going to grab an individual’s attention faster than any other form of marketing.

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