|
|
The
Misunderstood Marketing Method
|
How
do you hide a tree? Put it in a forest.
This is what many authors have effectively done
when they suggest that you should use articles to
promote your website. The technique that these
authors suggest can be summarized as follows:
write something you know about, add your resource
box, submit your article to tens of thousands of
frëe reprint directories and distribution
groups, and wait for publishers to pick up your
article.
But this is entirely the wrong method.
If you were to follow the advice of these authors
you may see some traffïc, receive a few inbound
links, and gain some publicity for your website,
but how does this make writing articles different
from any other basic promotion technique? Rather
than writing an article to bring in this
traffïc, why not just participate in forums,
submit to niche directories, or pay for quality
traffïc? Articles can do so much more.
Why The Current Thought is Bad
Ask yourself this question: what are publishers
looking for? If you said content, you are wrong.
Publishers (or at least publications worth
reading) are not looking for just content –
they are looking for original content.
They do not want an article that is going to show
up on 500 other websites, including frëe reprint
directories. They want an article that people
will link to, that only they offer. It is their
unique content that will allow them to separate
themselves from their competition.
But don't publishers use frëe reprint articles?
Some do, many do not. Those that do tend to be
extremely selective with frëe reprint articles,
often using them more as filler content rather
than featured material which is aimed at getting
high readership.
|
The fact is, most worthwhile publications that
use frëe reprint articles are either moving away
from these articles, or have eliminated them
altogether.
So what does that mean for that article you wrote
and submitted to 50,000 publishers (as promised
by the article submission tool that you used)? It
means that it did just that – it was
submitted to 50,000 publishers. You do not know
who it was submitted to, whether they are a
respected website, whether they actually have any
reasonable amount of traffïc, or even if they
will publish your article without your
permission. You have no control over what happens
to your article.
An Example of What Can Happen
What is so unfortunate about what article
promotion has been reduced to is that many
website owners do not realize just how much
traffïc they could How do you grow your search
engine traffïc without adding a single new link
or making any changes to your existing webpages?
It's simple. Just add content.
Simply having keyword-optimized pages of content
on your site won't rank you high for competitive
search engine keywords - that's a fact of life.
But keyword-optimized content can really bring in
the traffïc for low-competition and unique
keywords. The low-competition and unique keywords
are typically longer multi-word variants of the
keyword. For instance, instead of "search
engine ranking," "ranking for search
engine traffïc niche keywords."
If you have lots of pages of optimized
content–and you optimize well – all the
search engine traffïc from these low-competition
keywords will really add up. Plus, you'll usually
get more repeat visitors and type-in traffïc,
too.
Just picture this realistic example of
traffic-building with content vs.
ranking-building with links. Company A invests
$5,000 for link-building in order to rank for a
competitive keyword. Company B invests the same
amount, only in content. Company A and Company B:
each start out on equal SEO footing: equally old
websites with the same amount and quality of
content, same content management systems, the
same PageRank and quantity, quality, and
relevance of inbound links.
Company A's research reveals that $5000 is just
the amount needed to get on the first page of
Google for a target keyword that should deliver
100 unique visitors per day if the site ends up
in the first position. They dutifully get inbound
links optimized for that keyword, following all
SEO best practices.Three months and $5,000 later,
the site is stuck somewhere toward the bottom of
the second page of Google search results for the
target keyword.
An Example of What Can Happen
What is so unfortunate about what article
promotion has been reduced to is that many
website owners do not realize just how much
traffïc they could receive from just one
article. A single, well-written, well-thought out
article, has the ability to drive literally
hundreds of thousands of visitors within a very
short amount of time.The Surprising Truth About
Ugly Websites, an article recently published on
Site-Reference.com, single-handedly brought in
over 200,000 unique visitors – in less than
24 hours. Initially it was featured on Slashdot,
and subsequently it was featured in hundreds of
blogs and forums, and thousands of new websites
added a link to the article.
Well-written articles that are properly promoted
have the ability to bring fresh traffïc, many
times in astounding numbers.
Writing Articles That Actually Succeed
The idea of submitting an article to as many
publishers as possible is obviously contrary to
what a publisher is looking for. At the same
time, though, it is also contrary to what you
should be looking for. The secrët to writing
successful articles starts with a simple concept:
you want to control who publishes your article,
and you want to help promote that article. If an
editor chooses to publish an article and sees
that it was well-received (and brought in a lot
of new traffïc), they will be more inclined to
publish future articles from you.
So instead of signing up for the latest article
distribution program that promises to blast your
article to a gazillion publishers that you may
not even want publishing your article, choose one
or two initial publications that you would like
to be featured in, then work on developing a
relationship with them.
Starting that relationship can often be the most
difficult part. Often times, though, simply
sending an email to the editor informing them
that you would like to write an article
exclusively for them on "___fill in the
blank___" subject is enough to get their
attention. If you happen to send them an email,
they may give you some guidelines on what they
look for in an article. Or, they may tell you
that they simply would not be interested in an
article on that particular topic (if that were to
happen, you could ask what they would be
interested in).
Spend time writing your article – do not
expect to finish it in one day, and certainly do
not expect to finish it in a few hours. A quality
article takes time to write, takes thought to
organize, and may require research on your part
as well. Remember that publishers are looking for
unique, well-written, well thought out, and
insightful articles. Ultimately, publishers are
looking for the same content that their readers
are looking for – your job is to simply
create that content.
Promote Your Articles
Articles that are published on well-respected
websites tend to be viral in nature. Once you get
your article published (and you may be surprised
at how easy it is to get your article published),
you will find that your article will show up in
various forums, blogs, and other websites. This
is good – in fact, this is very good and is
the very goal that you should be aiming for. You
want to encourage this viral behavior, help it
grow, and even give it a shot in the arm when
necessary.
To find whether your article is being discussed
elsewhere on the web, you can do a search in
Google for your article title in quotes (as shown
at):
http://www.site-reference.com/article_images/search_title.jpg
If you see that your article is being discussed
in forums, join the forum and join the
discussion. Having your input will encourage more
conversation, which will in turn encourage more
people to participate in the conversation. Take
advantage of the buzz and use it to create more
buzz. For example, if you find that a blog owner
read your article, disagreed with it, and took
the time to create a post disagreeing with your
article, send them an email asking if you can
respond through their blog.
Find websites that feature important stories. The
technology field has websites such as Slashdot
and Digg – find out if your industry has any
equivalent websites that feature important or
interesting stories and submit the location of
the published article to them.
Ultimately, you should promote your articles as
if they were your actual website. Not only will
this draw attention to the article (which is a
showcase of your website's credibility), but it
will also demonstrate to the editor that your
articles are worth publishing and make it easier
for you to be published in the future.
Ultimately It Is An Ad
An article is ultimately an advertisement for
your business, even though you may not mention
your business anywhere in your article (actually,
as a general rule you should not). The article
demonstrates your knowledge, draws attention to
your business, and creates valuable exposure to
your website.
A properly written, distributed, and promoted
article can be far more effective than any other
förm of marketing, and far more cost effective.
About The Author
Mark Daoust is the owner of Site Reference. This article was originally
published at:
http://www.site-reference.com/articles/Internet-Marketing
/The-Misunderstood-Marketing-Method.html
Subscribe to
Monthly Online Marketer Newsletter
and Receive a Bonus Gift.
|
© 2006 1st Internet Marketing Solution
|
