Sell Your Product or Service While You Sleep: Submit Short Articles to Multiple Web Sites

Sell Your Product or Service While You Sleep: Submit Short
Articles to Multiple Web Sites
Judy Cullins c. 2003 All Rights Reserved.

Have you wasted valuable time and money on promotion that
doesn't work? Have your announcements and releases been
ignored? Have you been too quiet about getting the word out
how your product or service will help solve people's problems?

You have put passion and creativity into your business; now
it's time to put passion and creativity into promoting it!
Since no one really cares as much about your products as you
do, then take time to learn this new, effective way to sell
them. Know that the World Wide Web audience wants and needs
your information--your expertise, how-to's, your experience or
entertainment.

If you are willing to take four-five actions each day to promote
your products, you will have successful sales. Follow these steps
to learn how to promote yourself on line and make big sales:

Step One. Promote yourself through writing. Create several short
"how-to" articles, short stories, poetry or humor, anywhere from
75-800 words. Prepare several lengths of the same article. For
one eMagazine I submitted a seventy-five-word article on how to
write a short article. For a top business Web site, I expanded it
to 800 words.

Step Two. Take responsibility for Online promotion yourself. If
other marketing has been weak and sales were disappointing, you
can still create ongoing, lifetime profits. Online promotion is
great if you are totally bashful or reluctant to "sell." You don't
have to talk to anyone in person. You promote straight from your
home or office. Now, that's convenience! Learn the basics from
teleclasses and seminars, from the Internet, and from professional
networking organizations.

Step Three. Develop Internet savvy. When you don't take this
step, you will hang back, and stay stuck in fear. Action spurs
you on. Take a free community college course, or visit your library
for help. In just three hours, I learned about search engines,
and other basics. If you are like me and are passionate to
succeed, then hire a coach or virtual assistant from a local high
school or tech school. Jump in and get yourself an email address
and try out surfing. You won't need a Web site right away, but if
you want to be a market leader, you eventually should have one.

Step Four. Visit the top Web sites in your field. Without them,
your product won't get much exposure. Many authors report only a
few sales from their own sites. High traffic web sites are always
looking for new material (your articles) to entice their visitors
to come back, again and again. Notice their signals: "New material
added daily." In turn, they will put your "signature" which
includes the product name or service and the Web address where it
can be purchased. It doesn't have to be your Web site.

With just one short article posted in an ezine, one bookcoaching client
received eight emails asking for more information. These responses
give the creator another chance at a sale, and to be known as the
market expert. Many product folks also have a professional service
to offer. So when the person contacts them, they can mention these
other services.

Step Five. Run a search on the top search engines to find the top
ten Web sites in your field. Alta Vista at: www.altavista.com or
Google at www.google.com. Visit the Web sites to see their layout
and whether or not they have a regular ezine that needs tips,
excerpts, or stories. If their site puts up new articles up
regularly, your information has a chance to bring you increased
product sales.

Here's a great shortcut I use: Instead of searching for "product
marketing" or something that is very targeted, use the keyword
"business" without the quotations. Type in "business"
in the blank "search for" box, then search. You will have several
million Web sites that are about business. Now the fun part:
replace the keyword "business" with two words: "submit article"
then click on the box just below the "search for" box and click
where it says: "Search Within these results" Now, do that sub
search and you will be queued up to pages that allow you to submit
business articles. You will hit business people who offer products
and services and get a much bigger piece of the pie.

Step Six. Submit two to three article a week to the top ten Web
sites. Include your article description, its category, your Web site
key words, and an autoresponder link. This one technique will boost
your Web site URL into the top ten listed for all the top search engines.
This is a great way to optimize your search engine placement without
any cost.

Step Seven. Place your articles on as many Web sites as possible.
Now, you can be in control of your promotion, with far less effort,
and get the respect, support and sales you deserve. Delegate some
of this marketing work to your computer assistant.

Step Eight. Organize your research. Start a file called "Web sites
to Link With." If you don't keep track of your promotion contacts,
you will not be able to follow up.

Professional people always follow-up. They develop relationships
with the people they want to do business with. Start a
communication sheet for these people either on your computer or
in a physical file. For instance, for publishing sites, list the contact
person (Web master or content person), their email and web site
URL. Include your note to them. Keep track of what you offer,
what they like, what they take. Date your communications. Not
everyone will respond, but with persistence, many will! At the
end of your note, ask that they include a link back to either your
site or other sites where your products and services are offered.

If you're like me, and not a technical person, hire a person who
can do the research for you. Remember, people who visit top sites
are looking for information and entertainment. They will
appreciate your articles, may even pass them on to friends and
associates. Many will go to your site or other sites to check out
your products—even buy them. Web sites want your information. It
seems like a marriage made in cyber heaven.