Writing Articles - a great promotional
tool.
By Gail Hornback
I hope you paid attention in English class. Because, if you manage
an Ebusiness, one of your best promotional tools is going to be
writing articles for publication in various ezines, and on other
websites.
Getting your articles published can be one of the best tools for
boosting traffic that you will find. There are literally hundreds
and hundreds of ezines out there that are constantly looking for
fresh, informative content for their ezines. Notice the key words
there: "fresh" and "informative".
Before you think about the submission process, you need to understand
what kind of article can bring about the best traffic. From personal
experience, I have found that an article that is pure information,
and very little blatant self-promotion gets the best response.
Of course, you save your promotion for the signature file that
you include at the bottom of the article. This is where you tell
who you are, and what you have to offer.
So, what exactly do you write about? The most well-received articles,
of course, are going to be the ones that give folks information
that they can use. Think about what you do. What kinds of things
are you doing that make your business better? What techniques
are you using that work? The easiest article to write will be
one that tells of your first hand experience, something you believe
in and are excited about.
Also, keep your eye on the email you receive. What kinds of things
are people asking about? What are the prevalent needs of people
that you see most often? Make it a point to notice what people
want, then research the subject, and give them the information.
ABOVE ALL, keep it honest and sincere. A well received article
can bring you a boost to traffic that you will not get from many
other promotional resources. And one of the keys to writing a
well-recieved article is the same as the key to being successful
in any other area. Be yourself, write with the intention of helping
the reader. Show your sincerity in truly wanting to see others
succeed. (This has to be REAL in the first place!!!) Develop that
attitude before you ever start writing at all, and it will make
ALL the difference in the tone of your articles. It will show
through in your writing, and your readers will respond.
Ok. Now that you know what to write, it's time to start getting
your articles published. Submitting it to other publishers can
be a tedious task. But with the right tools, can be made fairly
simple.
First of all, there are various sites, and email lists that allow
article submissions. These lists take the submissions and put
them out in an email collection of articles. Here are a couple
of the ones we use:
aaBusiness - Mailing list. Articles submissions sent to subscribers.
Post Article :
aabusiness@egroups.com
Subscribe :
aabusiness-subscribe@egroups.com
Unsubscribe :
aabusiness-unsubscribe@egroups.com
List owne :
aabusiness-owner@egroups.com
URL : http://www.egroups.com/group/aabusiness
EzineArticles.com - EzineArticles is a free weekly ezine that
provides resources and connects Internet writers and publishers.
It includes both publishers' requests for certain types of articles,
plus allow article submissions for delivery to subsribers. Free
subscriptions are available at http://ezinearticles.com
or via email:
join-ezinearticles@ezinearticles.com
Ezine Ad Swap List - This service gives access to folks who are
desiring to swap ezine ads. But also gives information as to which
publishers accept articles.
http://www.homebasedprofit.com/east
TopEzineAds - This service has a HUGE database of ezines with
information on which ones accept articles. There is a small cost
to this one, but one of the BEST investments I have made. http://www.topezineads.com/cgi-bin/affiliate/b.cgi/862
There are many other resources available, if you start hunting
for them. But these are the basic ones I use.
Using these resources, I have created a mailing list of nearly
700 publishers that accept articles. This is where having your
own list management software comes in VERY handy! ( We use GroupMail,
which is very easy to use, and VERY affordable.
http://webworksathome.com/groupmail.htm)
There is some work involved in collecting the names and addresses
of publishers, but it is well worth it to do. It is an ongoing
process. You must always be on the lookout for publishers that
accept article submissions, and keep adding them to your list.
That's all there is it! (LOL!) Like anything else that will be
beneficial to your Ebusiness, this takes TIME and WORK! But I
assure you, you will find it well worth your effort as an ongoing
resource.
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Gail Hornback is owner of WebWorksAtHome.com http://webworksathome.com
and Co-Owner of CM/YMTC EPublishing Services, distributors of
the Free Easy Guide Series, and many other resources to help you
create and manage your Ebusiness.
http://makemoneyhowto.com/freeebks.htm
- http://coyote-art.com
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