July 17, 2008
Writing your first article may seem daunting at first but you would be surprised how quickly you can write once you start. An article should be at least 300 words in length although 400-500 words is ideal. Anything longer than 500 words may be broken up into multiple articles as it is a well known fact that most people simply do not read large portions of text online.
There are several tips to keep in mind when writing your first article, including:
Research First
You should have some idea of what you are writing about before you start. It helps if you do some background research on the topic or keyword so that you’ll be able to write off the top of your head. You may use other articles as reference, but never copy directly.
Don’t Ramble
Fluffing up an article with useless text is a big mistake; make every sentence count in your article so people don’t become bored.
Break It Up
Breaking up your article text into bullet points, lists and sub-headings makes it easier to read. Many people just skim read articles so they are more likely to get to the end of your article if it is broken into sections.
Enticing Title
Your title can make or break your article. If the title is interesting then people will click the search engine result to read it. Article titles such starting with “10 tips” or “Discover how to” are great attention grabbers.
Write For People, Not Search Engines
One very common mistake is to take a set of keywords and write the article with the sole purpose of using those keywords even if they don’t make sense to the reader. In the long run you will have more success if your articles are written for the visitors and not for search engines.
Posted in Article Marketing 
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July 15, 2008
Article marketing is an effective form of website advertising and promotion that involves writing and submitting articles related to your website niche topic. There are many places that you can submit your articles to including forums, other blogs, article directories and ezines. You benefit by having a resource box at the end of the article which contains a description and a link to your website.
What are the benefits of article marketing?
You receive back links to your site when you submit articles. If people publish the articles on their site then you can potentially gain hundreds of back links. You also benefit from increase website traffic as people click through to your site from the resource box. The final yet possibly most important benefit of article marketing is establishing yourself as an expert in your niche.
Article Tips
Writing a good article takes practice but you don’t need to be a professional writer to make article marketing a success for you. To write a good article you need to conduct some sort of research into the topic. It is little use to rehash existing articles; instead you should aim for originality and a new slant upon your topic. If you are aiming to promote a product then do it in a subtle way rather than using hype as many article directories refuse articles which are self-promotional.
Where To Submit Your Articles
There are many great article directory sites including:
Ezinearticles.com
Goarticles.com
Articlecity.com
iSnare.com
Articlesbase.com
By submitting your article to highly trafficked and high ranking article directories you are receiving direct benefits from those established websites.
How Many Articles?
Some authors at the above directories have submitted many thousands of articles whilst others have only submitted a handful. Ideally you should submit as many articles as you can possibly write or afford to outsource. Over time your website will reap the benefits of article marketing and this will remain long into the future.
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June 29, 2008
Successful affiliate marketing campaigns allow you to earn immediate or short term commissions and long term commissions.
Immediate commissions are earned by presenting your affiliate link to a potential customer at the point they decide which product to buy. You will earn a quick commission on any sales made through your affiliate link, but you will not get the chance to earn from additional sales in the future.
Long term commissions are earned when you first form a relationship with the potential customer and over a period of time recommend various products to them. You will earn substantially more because of repeat purchases made by each customer.
You could concentrate on either method and build a thriving affiliate marketing business, but why not use both? Especially since concentrating only on short term commissions severely limits the amount you can earn as an affiliate from any single customer.
To increase your earnings, start by earning immediate commissions to fund the growth of your business, and then set up an email marketing campaign to form relationships with your subscribers. This creates numerous opportunities to earn affiliate commissions on a future sales.
Here are the steps involved:
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Set up a review website which targets “point of sale” keyword phrases. These are the phrases people will type into a search engine when they know what they want to buy, for example model or brand names.
Each review page on your website should focus on a single product, explain the features and contain your affiliate link to the sales page.
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Create an opt-in list and write an autoresponder series based on the general theme of your review site.
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On the top half of each page add an opt-in form to your autoresponder series. It is often easier to get subscribers when you give away a valuable bonus.
The review site allows you to earn immediate commissions on sales made through your affiliate links, and the opt-in form allows you to build a list of subscribers. Building a relationship with your subscribers increases their trust in you and allows you to recommend a number of products over a period of time, thereby increasing your earnings as an affiliate marketer.
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June 25, 2008
Affiliate marketing is not a single process, it is a number of processes which culminate in you earning commissions on sales made through your affiliate links. The “What is Internet Marketing” post from a few days ago explained that every merchant who runs an affiliate program for their product will give you a special link, known as an affiliate link, which you can use to promote their products.
Your job as an affiliate marketer is to send potential customers to the merchant’s sales page by promoting their product, and linking to it with your affiliate link.
One of the best ways to promote a product is to recommend it, and not to try selling it. People are aware of any effort to sell to them and most object to it… Pre-selling is a process where you recommend a product and explain how it can be used to achieve a desired result.
Explaining how a product can be used to achieve a desired result automatically raises interest in the product. Your potential customer will arrive at the sales page already interested and be more inclined to purchase the product.
Affiliate marketing is therefore any process which increases the interest of potential customers in the products you are promoting. These processes include:
- email marketing
- article marketing
- viral marketing
- niche marketing
Effective affiliate marketing involves using all of these processes, so they will be covered in great detail in future posts…
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June 24, 2008
One major benefit of affiliate marketing is you don’t have to go through the hassle of creating, and selling your own products. No content creation headaches and no product delivery nightmares…
All you have to do is pre-sell the products created by other marketers, then get people to click on your affiliate link, and that’s the end of your involvement. The marketer’s sales process will take care of the rest.
What is “pre-selling?”
It’s much the same process as when you tell your friend about a product you have found to be particularly useful. You do exactly the same thing except instead of telling somebody face to face, you use some form of online communication, for example a website, or an email.
Pre-selling is something of a skill because you can’t resort to outright praise (or hype) – you have to explain the benefits of the product. In other words you have to explain how your reader will benefit from owning the product.
It is important when you pre-sell a product to explain how the product will either:
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Save time and/or
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Save money and/or
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Make money
If the product does any of the three easily, you’ll get a commission from the resulting sale…
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