Want to know an easy, inexpensive, and surefire way to get prospects to your site, make your website rank higher, and at the same time be seen as an expert in your industry?
I am a huge fan of article marketing. Writing an article and submitting to article directories not only brings incoming links to your website and/or blog which, in theory, should increase your search engine ranking, but authoring articles also increases your credibility. Don't you want to be seen as the "go to" expert in your industry? Oh and did I mention that you can do all of this for free?
Writing an article doesn't have to be painful. There are many resources out there to help you get started. Check out Jeff "The Article Marketing Guy" Herring's site, Christopher Knight's Ezine Articles blog, and Yaro Starak's blog. These guys are real-life online marketers and I love reading their sites as I always find helpful tips, templates, and advice.
Create a Killer Resource Box
Before submitting your article, there is one very important element that needs to be completed first, the author resource box. The resource box is the brief paragraph that follows your article and is shorter than a biography but longer than your signature. This resource box SHOULD contain your name, website address, and your call to action. This resource box should NOT contain your phone number, email address (or you'll get spammed to death), your full resume containing every award you've ever received, or a bunch of URLs to your other websites.
The purpose of the resource box is to make the reader want to continue learning more about you and what you have to offer, so take some time to craft an inviting and effective resource box.
Simplify the Process
I also recommend using a worksheet, especially if you are submitting your articles manually or having your virtual assistant submit articles on your behalf. You would be surprised how much time is wasted trying to navigate the different sites - each with their own categories, terms and guidelines, field character limits, rules about number of links – and filling out the worksheet beforehand will speed up the process.
Another time sucker is if your virtual assistant either has to 'wing it' and guess at what you want to include for each article, or worse, going back and forth via email to clarify your annotation, keywords, category selection, and so on.
Lastly, although there are many free article directory sites where you can submit your articles, I recommend submitting to only a handful of the most popular and high-traffic sites such as Ezine Articles, Self Growth, Idea Marketers, and Article Dashboard. I have found that targeting a few quality directories net better results than submitting to dozens of mediocre sites, not to mention leveraging time and money.
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