How to Drive Traffic & Sales with Article Marketing

Article marketing is one of my favourite ways of establishing my brand, building my subscriber list and driving sales. It is the most efficient low cost, no cost way to promote yourself or your business.

It is the quickest and most cost effective way to drive traffic to your website and blog. More than that, it allows you to have permanent links spread across the internet pointing back to your site.

Here are some of the rules to get the best from your articles:

Keywords – before you write, do some keyword research to optimise your article. There are some great free tools like https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal and http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com

Use your keyword in your headline, first and last paragraphs. The Important thing is that you have an article that has the keywords that are related to your site.

Headlines – use a compelling headline or title that will encourage your readers to take the time to read the article. I use a great tool http://www.headlinecreator.co.uk

Content - Articles must be able to entertain people as well as provide good information and help for their needs. Articles should be written well with correct spelling and good grammar. If you want people to trust you, make your work good and well thought out.

People respond well to figures, facts and statistics. Try to get great information and as many facts as you can. A good and well written article will boost your reputation as an expert in your chosen field or topic as more people believe in you. They will be able to trust you and your products.

Promotional Opportunities – maximise on the promotional opportunities. Part of the benefits of article marketing is getting picked up by publishers with a large number of audiences and gaining the ability of leveraging other brands because of the quality of your work.

I see articles as the perfect sales and promotional tool. By educating your readers, you establish yourself as an expert in your field and the business will follow.

Make it interesting - Use short paragraphs and make use of numbers or bullets as well as stories. The article must be client focussed and they must see value in reading it.

Conclusion – end with a conclusion summarising the article and remember to proofread and correct any mistakes.

Resource box – have a great resource box which includes your contact details and your website link. Take a look at my resource box at the end of this article.

Article life cycle – I follow a system with every article I write:

1 – The first place my article goes onto is my website. I want Google to find my article on my website before anywhere else on the internet

2 – Blog – the second place I put my article is on my blog. I normally make a quick video relating to the article, submit it to YouTube and insert the video in the middle of the blog. I then use http://pingomatic.com to share my blog with all the blog directories (free...)

3 – The third thing I do is to submit my articles to over 100 article directories using a piece of software http://www.articlesubmittingsoftware.com/ which makes the process of submitting quick and easy. I immediately have 100 links back to my website.

Alternatively you can manually submit your article to the directories. The top five are:
www.ezinearticles.com
www.articlebase.com
www.buzzle.com
www.goarticles.com
www.helium.com

4 – The fourth thing I do is submit my articles to the local press. In the past this has resulted in me having my own column in an international publication which was part of the Financial Times and distributed to 40 countries.

5 – The fifth thing I do is to find magazines where my article could be a good fit and submit them to the editor. This has resulted in my articles being published in numerous magazines all over the world. As I have said, the best form of low cost, no cost marketing.

6 – Promotion – my last step is to publicise the article to my subscriber list and through my various social media accounts. One easy website to do all of this quickly is www.ping.fm

Now it’s up to you, start spreading the message and watch the traffic and sales follow.

Frank Furness CSP CFP TOT is a professional speaker and author specialising in sales and technology. He has educated, entertained and inspired audiences in 48 countries. For more information or to sign up for the free ‘Sales Tips & Ideas’ newsletter, email frank@frankfurness.com For resources take a look at
http://www.frankfurness.com
http://www.frankfurnessresources.com
http://www.productivitycentre.com

NOTE: You're welcome to "reprint" this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the "about the author" info at the end), and you send a copy of your reprint to frank@frankfurness.com

Take a look at other articles, free software and e-Books at http://www.frankfurness.com/ Download 39 Power Sales Closing Scripts at http://www.frankfurness.com/closingscripts.cfm

11 Tips to Develop and Promote Effective Newsletters and Ezines Online

Everyone should develop a 10 touch plan to stay in contact with their clients on a regular basis. The easiest way to do this is through an ezine or electronic newsletter.

This is a great way to share information, promote your products, and get feedback from your most important customers. Here are some pointers to creating a successful newsletter.

1. Have a Theme.
The largest pitfall to developing an effective newsletter is the lack of a theme. When creating newsletters on a regular basis, select a unique theme every month that appeals to your audience. Once you have identified a theme, be sure that your newsletter content focuses on that specific theme throughout its content. With my newsletter, I have a number of themes to suit my different audiences; sales, technology, speaking and motivation.

2. Allow for Easy Reading and Archiving
The first few seconds are your most important so make them count. Use big, bold headlines, and article descriptions, providing links to the full article or related content areas. Also, make it easy for subscribers to read back issues and put a link to the archive on your blogs and websites.

3. Use Graphics.
Producing a newsletter that's wall-to-wall text will not be able to keep the interest of even your most savvy reader. Include photographs and videos where possible. This will break up those large blocks of content and increase your newsletter's appeal. Make sure your graphics include links to the articles or products they reference as Internet browsers tend to click on pictures or graphics presented online.

4. Include Product or Service Information.
Internet users are very comfortable with product promotion especially when receiving free information or content. I always try to give a great deal of content as well as many free resources – take a look in the links section. Products or services that are closely aligned with the theme of your newsletter can be ideal. As a rule of thumb, keep the number of products you promote to three or less.

5. Be Viral.
Never assume that the person reading your newsletter signed up for it directly. In fact, you should encourage your readers to forward the newsletter to others who may be interested in the content you're providing. Make it easy for new users to sign up through a link in each edition of your newsletter. When users forward a copy to a friend, they can easily subscribe.

6. Place all your newsletter articles on your blog
This will attract a new audience who will pick up the articles from the internet, subscribe to your newsletter and eventually buy your products or services.

7. Ping your Blog
I use a website http://www.pingomatic.com to ping my blog, this is, in effect getting the message to most of the blog directories that I have new articles on my blog for viewing.

8. Submit your Newsletter to the top directories
This will find subscribers who are interested in your subject and encourage them to sign up. Here are some to consider:

EzineHub.com
http://www.ezinehub.com/

FreeTechMail.org IT Newsletters
http://www.freetechmail.org/

Jisc Mail
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/

List Search, L - Soft
http://www.lsoft.com/lists/LIST_Q.html

ListCity
http://www.list-city.com/

ListTool.com
http://www.listtool.com/

New-List.com
http://new-list.com/


9. Have a second, short newsletter
I noticed that many of my CEO clients were too busy to read my normal long newsletter. I then produced a second newsletter with only five or six links to the newsletter articles now on my blog. This increased readership by 33%.

10. Promote your newsletter everywhere.
Promote your newsletter on your website, blogs, vlogs, articles and videos. I promote my newsletter on some of my YouTube videos and this has resulted in 10,000 new subscribers in the past year.

11. Find the right software for your newsletter.
I have two lists, my ‘A’ list which is people that I know or those who have seen me speak. For them I use Constant Contact and for my ‘B ‘ list which is subscribers from all over the world that I have never met, I use Infacta Groupmail.

Frank Furness CSP CFP TOT is a professional speaker and trainer specialising in technology, sales and customer service. He has educated, entertained and inspired audiences in 48 countries. Frank is the author of bestselling books ‘Walking with Tigers – Success Secrets of the World’s Top Business Leaders’ and ‘How to Find New Clients and Business’

NOTE: You're welcome to "reprint" this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the "about the author" info at the end), and you send a copy of your reprint to frank@frankfurness.com Take a look at other articles, free software and e-Books at http://www.frankfurness.com/

Download 39 Power Sales Closing Scripts at http://www.frankfurness.com/closingscripts.cfm

For more articles, please take a look at my website http://www.frankfurness.com and please download complimentary eBooks and software at http://www.frankfurnessresources.com