Article Marketing Debate: Is Article Marketing All About Link Building
Many internet marketers still preach, you must write articles for links! But is article marketing just about link building?
Read this article and the let me know your opinion on whether article marketing is just about getting more links.
Before Pioneer Marketing Strategist & Founder of Imperatives LLC Scottt Glatstein started submitting articles, the only online exposure he had was his own website. A Google search term for his name only returned 8 hits. Two of the 8 hits were for his cousin. None of these hits linked back to Imperative’s website. And they were all unrelated to his current business.
By the end of the second article submission, a Google search for “Scott Glatstein” yielded over 2,000 hits. A Google search for “imperatives” returned the website in the #6 position on page one.
I’d say this is a huge success to get excited about!
But guess what?
When I told Scott about this success, I didn’t get the emotional response I was expecting.
Why?
Because, he understood this concept…
Article Marketing is Not Just About Gaining Link Popularity
You will automatically get links when writing and submitting articles. The increased search engine optimization is a bonus. But links don’t put money in your pocket. So it should not be your top priority.
Article marketing is about getting the right messages to the right audiences and delivering measurable results that absolutely, positively impacts your bottom line. Scott understood this and that’s why he didn’t get excited about his article marketing results until:
· He saw his articles on top online publications his audience is reading such as CEO Refresher, CEO Online, and Chief Marketer.com
· His website traffic quadrupled
· He started getting targeted leads from all over the globe (including Australia and the Kingdom of Tonga)
That’s when Scott jumped up and down with excitement. You should have heard the excitement in his voice when he called to thank me.
Here’s How You Too Can Get the Right Messages to the Right Audiences That Will Positively Affect Your Bottom Line:
1. Identify your audience in the headline, within the article, and in your bio box. Not only will this help you identify your audience, but it will also help you get published more. For example, if I didn’t change Jill Lublin’s title from: “Networking: Connecting is the Key to Magical Networking” to “Networking for Women Entrepreneurs: Connecting is the Key to Magical Networking”, her article would never have been published by a new women entrepreneur publication. Most likely, they would have skipped right over the article, because they would have never of know that the article was perfect for their audience without taking the time to read the complete article. Something, most publishers don’t have time for.
2. Tell a story within your article that your audience can easily relate to. This will help you identify your audience and connect with them. At a Yanik Silver Underground Online Seminar, legendary copywriter, Ted Nicholas spoke a lot about telling stories within your advertisements, and direct mail copy. It helps you spark an emotional response and manipulate your audience to buy your books, products or services. You must do this with your articles as well.
3. Complete an all encompassed article submission campaign. Here’s how…
· Scour the Web for the best websites and ezines that your targeted audience is reading, and make sure they accept article submissions. You want to find websites that are highly visited and ezines that are the most read. But more importantly, you want to focus on finding websites and ezine publishers within your specific niche that have strong emotional connections to their audience. If you need help, I have created a do-it-yourself article submission kit, complete with a customized article marketing database.
Get it now at:
http://www.articlesubmissionsitedatabase.com
· Submit your articles to niche directories that only accept articles related to your content. These article directory sites have fewer articles posted than the major article directories, but they have more concentrated content. Readers going to these sites are more targeted than the general directory sites. They have a certain problem and they’re looking for solutions that you can provide.
· Submit your articles to article announcement lists and major article directories like Ezinearticles.com, Goarticles.com, Ideamarketers.com and Articledashboard.com. These do not bring as many targeted visitors to your website. But they do receive millions of hits per month from publishers looking to republish your articles on their websites, blogs or ezines.
So What Are Your Next Steps Toward Article Marketing Success?
Start following the above strategies and those mentioned in my complete A to Z Article Marketing System at http://www.BroadcastYourArticles.com where I remove all the guesswork, waste and frustration out of getting easy traffic, free publicity and increased sales on a daily basis. And, you will get the right messages to the right audiences that will absolutely, positively affect your bottom line.






















Eric,
Thanks for the informative, helpful tips for article writing! I particularly liked the one about identifying your audience in the headline, article and bio. I will keep that in mind when trying to create search-engine/publisher-friendly titles for future articles!
As a newer article writer, I am often wondering whether or not to include personal or relevant stories within articles, but your suggestion clearly advocates doing so to help gain an interested emotional response from the audience. I understand how this would help my target audience being excited, enthralled and/or curious about my products or services that they will happily choose to “partake”! I understand that people have to feel confident that your product will successfully fill a need, and be beneficial to them on some level. They have to feel it has value!
Regarding your question at the start of your post, I did originally believe that article marketing was solely about links and clicks. However, I have learned on my own what you have so clearly stated about getting the right messages to the right audiences — you need to build a credible relationship with your target audience. Article marketing is a remarkable tool for this!
I look forward to reading more of your useful tips about article writing!