Generate Traffic To Your Website With Article Marketing
As communication is the lifeblood of any relationship -business or personal- targeted traffic is the lifeblood of your business online.
Every part of your online business must be part of your strategic marketing plan. It therefore means that for article marketing success, you must have a plan and a goal. Your goal is to generate traffic to your website; your blog.
Your Plan
Rather than writing and sending directly to article directories, I recommend writing your article and posting it to your blog first. Even if you need to combine two posts or add an introduction and conclusion to your post to meet the desired length for the article directories, there are advantages to doing it this way:
1) Your loyal readers and subscribers get to read firsthand what you've written. They do this through RSS feeds, Networked blogs, etc.
2)Â Your followers on Twitter know when you have a new post and come over to your blog to read it.
3)Â You will be indexed as the first author of the article by the search engines.
4) Your article is less likely to be rejected by the article directories for duplicate content. Although you never want to use PLR to write articles for submission to the directories, there could be similarities in style or wording to another author.
Your Goal
Since your goal is to generate traffic to your website and they arrive there by the various means mentioned above, why do you still need to follow-up with article marketing?
Because it's one of the marketing strategies that can increase your traffic significantly over an extended period of time. People are always searching for information and since you would have used keyword-rich titles, your articles will be found. Keep in mind also that if your articles are used by others in publications, reports, and websites, they should be kept intact and include your Resource Box.
The Resource Box has been described as your most valuable ‘real estate' online. Used wisely the information in your Resource Box can direct traffic to your website for months, if not years. In fact, one well-known online marketer said that he continues to get traffic to a page from articles he write three years ago.
Instead of using the Resource Box to tell who you are and what you do, direct your readers to a Landing or Squeeze Page with a free report or to a product (yours or an affiliate product). Your other link can direct readers back to your blog. You can choose to put your website address, or you can be more specific and link to a post that's relevant to your current article.
Is Article Marketing a part of your online business strategy. How effective has it been for you? Please share.
I try and divide my resource box information between my blog, and my opt-in offer. I like to send them to my blog because of the backlink opportunity from high ranking Ezine.
If I send them to my opt-box, I know I have someone who is really interested… and my conversion rate opportunity is higher.
1That definitely makes the best use of your Resource Box, Kathy. Thank you, Yvonne
2Hi Yvonne,
I used article marketing a lot for two of my personal sites (one on Herbs and the other on Nutrition) and though I didn’t get a flood of traffic to the sites at any time, the articles have consistently brought traffic through time. Articles from 4 and 5 years ago are still enjoying readership and sending traffic. I believe article marketing is a great long term strategy… one that doesn’t die out.
3Here’s the way I see it, Yvonne …
ANY TOOL you can possibly use to direct folks to the hub of your business is a GOOD tool. The more places people can find us online, the better.
And as Denise Wakeman would say …
When people start remarking, “I see you everywhere”, you got it made in the shade! 🙂
Article marketing is definitely a “visibility” tool.
4Thank you for sharing your experience with Article Marketing, Deb. It gives credence to the fact that Article Marketing is a strategy that extends the life of your articles for the benefit of both you and your readers.
Yvonne
5P.S. Many of us have sub niches and I’d like to get more familiar with the ones you mentioned, especially the one of nutrition. Thanks, Deb.
Melanie, I agree with you that our goal should always be to get visitors to our hub (our blog) and Article Marketing provides one of the lasting methods to do so. I continue to get traffic and sales from my diabetes blog even though I’ve not transferred it to my host and it does not get much TLC, but people read the articles and come over.
We’re thinking alike again! Your comment about “…made in the shade” is part of a phrase I’ve been thinking of for a sub niche on gardening. 🙂
6Go for it, Yvonne! It’s perfect for a gardening niche! And I love that you like to “diversify” your portfolio. 🙂
7Thanks, my friend. That’s a 2011 project though.
8Yvonne:
Such great information! I do write articles but you have shed a whole new light on how to do it the correct way!
Thank you!
9Maureen, I’m putting together a list of some of my favorite bloggers who also write articles and your articles will definitely be included as I also already enjoy reading your posts and look forward to reading some of your articles. Thanks for your Kind comments.
Yvonne
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