A poorly written article can not only be ineffective but also potentially harmful to your business. Follow the checklist below to prevent this:
1. Know what you’re writing about
Don’t start writing an article without having a clear title in mind. This will help to keep your article focused and will make it easier to write.
2. Plan a framework
Plan introduction, the various paragraphs in the middle, and the end. Do all the research before starting the writing. Writing the article should be relatively straightforward – simply putting all your research and points together.
3. Avoid careless misspellings
You’d check that your website and promotional material doesn’t have spelling errors so do the same for your articles. Misspellings will reflect badly on your business.
4. Don’t use complicated jargon
All your readers are not going to be highly educated or have knowledge of the technical terms in your industry. Don’t try to impress them by using complicated technical phrases. It’ll just put people off from reading the article.
5. Less words is more
Don’t feel that you article has to be incredibly long and in-depth. Aim for around 500 words although shorter articles can work well.
6. Use a clear layout
Avoid huge blocks of text. No one likes to read 10 lines of solid text on the internet so split your article into paragraphs. Alternatively use bullet points, leaving a line break between each one.
7. Stick to the title
Remember that people are reading your article because the title enticed them in. If you then branch off to talk about something else readers will lose interest in your article and the people that would have been interested in it will never know because of the off-topic title.
8. Never sell
The quickest way to lose credibility is to include links to your website in an article. Leave mentioning your links for the Resource Box.
9. Be professional
Making detrimental comments about other people or rival companies is unprofessional and will reflect badly on your company.
10. Be brave
Don’t be afraid to express you opinion, however controversial. Back up your opinion with facts. It’s far better to engage your readers through expressing a controversial opinion than being afraid of disagreeing with anyone and writing a bland article. The old saying that you can’t please everyone is particularly relevant.
The Resource Box
Article directories always have the Resource Box located on the article submission page where you can write a couple of lines about yourself and the website you are affiliated with.
This Resource Box has excellent ‘search engine optimisation value’ if done properly. Use HTML code where possible to link to your site via keywords.
Want more information? Read UK Marketing Guide.
Monday
Thursday
Promoting your Business through Article Marketing
Articles written and distributed online are often called ezines. Ezines refer to a publication or article which is submitted or posted on a website. They tend to be informative, entertaining or interesting. Webmasters often visit these ‘ezine sites', known as article directories, to look for relevant content for their own sites or blogs.
When an article is submitted to an online article directory there's room in the Resource Box to include some details about yourself and a link back to your site. Therefore well-written articles about issues surrounding your industry can generate a significant number of links to your site because all articles must be published with the Resource Box in place.
Benefits of Article Submission
1. Improve Search Engine Ranking
When you submit articles online there's a Resource Box where you can write a little about yourself and your website. Often up to three keyword links are allowed. These direct links to your website are extremely beneficial for search engine optimisation, with a number of the article directories having a high PageRank.
2. Increase Traffic
People who read articles will often have a look at the Resource Box and click through to the author's website. This results in an increase in traffic. In addition, some articles can generate a huge number of click-throughs if placed on very popular sites such as Digg.com.
3. Receptive Audience
People who read articles online are doing so out of choice. They may be particularly interested in the subject or may be looking for high-quality content for their website or blog. Therefore they are a receptive audience, unlike much advertising where people would prefer if it wasn't there.
4. Build Credibility
High quality articles can also help the author to build credibility within the industry. This is particularly true for those people and companies who provide skilled services that are hard to evaluate initially by customers. Excellent articles can illustrate your expertise and bring in customers.
5. It Costs Nothing But Time
It's free to write and submit articles online, and only takes time. You can decide to pay to distribute your articles to many directories but be careful because many companies simply carry out automated submissions.
Limitations
There are some limitations associated with writing and distributing ezine articles online. The first is that it is extremely time consuming. Writing a knowledgeable and interesting article involves research, then writing up, before finally being submitted to various article directories. This all takes time, especially if quite a few articles are written and distributed, and as a result many website owners simply don't have the time to promote their site in this way.
Secondly it goes without saying that badly written articles, spelling mistakes, or incorrect information can do more harm than good. It's vital to ensure that what is written is correct, often supporting it with statistics.
Articles should be about or related to the website that you are promoting. This means that some businesses are much more suited to this form of promotion, particularly companies offering business services such as marketing. Writing articles to promote an e-commerce store selling t-shirts is likely to be far more challenging.
Also, bear in mind that the days of writing and submitting one article to hundreds of article submissions sites, then watching as your rankings soar as the search engines pick up on all the one-way links have long gone. Search engines are a lot cleverer these days, identifying duplicate content and in some cases penalising websites that have huge numbers of low quality one-way links. Therefore it's far better to pick and choose the websites that you submit your articles to – quality over quantity.
For more information on this subject matter, visit Marketing Minefield
When an article is submitted to an online article directory there's room in the Resource Box to include some details about yourself and a link back to your site. Therefore well-written articles about issues surrounding your industry can generate a significant number of links to your site because all articles must be published with the Resource Box in place.
Benefits of Article Submission
1. Improve Search Engine Ranking
When you submit articles online there's a Resource Box where you can write a little about yourself and your website. Often up to three keyword links are allowed. These direct links to your website are extremely beneficial for search engine optimisation, with a number of the article directories having a high PageRank.
2. Increase Traffic
People who read articles will often have a look at the Resource Box and click through to the author's website. This results in an increase in traffic. In addition, some articles can generate a huge number of click-throughs if placed on very popular sites such as Digg.com.
3. Receptive Audience
People who read articles online are doing so out of choice. They may be particularly interested in the subject or may be looking for high-quality content for their website or blog. Therefore they are a receptive audience, unlike much advertising where people would prefer if it wasn't there.
4. Build Credibility
High quality articles can also help the author to build credibility within the industry. This is particularly true for those people and companies who provide skilled services that are hard to evaluate initially by customers. Excellent articles can illustrate your expertise and bring in customers.
5. It Costs Nothing But Time
It's free to write and submit articles online, and only takes time. You can decide to pay to distribute your articles to many directories but be careful because many companies simply carry out automated submissions.
Limitations
There are some limitations associated with writing and distributing ezine articles online. The first is that it is extremely time consuming. Writing a knowledgeable and interesting article involves research, then writing up, before finally being submitted to various article directories. This all takes time, especially if quite a few articles are written and distributed, and as a result many website owners simply don't have the time to promote their site in this way.
Secondly it goes without saying that badly written articles, spelling mistakes, or incorrect information can do more harm than good. It's vital to ensure that what is written is correct, often supporting it with statistics.
Articles should be about or related to the website that you are promoting. This means that some businesses are much more suited to this form of promotion, particularly companies offering business services such as marketing. Writing articles to promote an e-commerce store selling t-shirts is likely to be far more challenging.
Also, bear in mind that the days of writing and submitting one article to hundreds of article submissions sites, then watching as your rankings soar as the search engines pick up on all the one-way links have long gone. Search engines are a lot cleverer these days, identifying duplicate content and in some cases penalising websites that have huge numbers of low quality one-way links. Therefore it's far better to pick and choose the websites that you submit your articles to – quality over quantity.
For more information on this subject matter, visit Marketing Minefield
Sunday
Opportunity
Opportunity is a blessing and a risk. Smart individuals exploit them for great gain and honor. Foolish individuals squander them to poverty and shame. Smart individuals see a door of opportunity and rush through it with passionate zeal - they are gripped by the potential of extraordinary gain. Foolish individuals miss the door, or presume it will always be there, and head for home with lazy steps - they are dulled by the desire to play or sleep.
Opportunity is not guaranteed. Life is a changing scene of prosperity and difficulty. The agricultural cycle have a great opportunity during summer harvest. Smart individuals gathered all they can with extra effort and time. Foolish individuals dread the extra demands and could not see the reward, so they sought to avoid the hot fields. "There is a time to get, and a time to lose"; the smart individuals know when to get, but the foolish always lose! If you snooze, you lose!
When times are good, gather all you can for leaner times to come. Diligently accumulate much when it is plentiful, and you will have extra to fall back on when it is hard. You must provide for rainy days.
Diligently use opportunities to accumulate assets, because the foolish neglect of opportunities will bring poverty. Even ants know to work hard and save in the summer.
America is the land of opportunity, and it has been for a very long time. Smart individuals have taken advantage of this incredible land of opportunity, but foolish individuals have squandered it foolishly. Many have come to these shores with nothing, but through hard work and frugal savings they built comfortable estates. Others, born on these shores, think that prosperity is easy and squander the many opportunities here to their own poverty and shame.
Every individual, especially in this nation, has many opportunities in education, business, and investments for great gains. They must see the opportunity, be prepared for it, and capitalize on it. "Time and chance happens to them to all. Most opportunities occur in the earlier stages of life; young individuals have greater drive and flexibility than others; and the consequences of their laziness are greater; so this knowledge is primarily for young individuals, nevertheless, with enough drive, senior citizens can use it as well.
Young men and women, are you opening educational doors to gather knowledge, learn valuable skills, or acquire a trade? Are you using your present income with minimal expenses to accumulate the seed capital for lucrative future investments? Are you building relationships with your father's and other contacts for future references? Young man, are you working feverishly in a company known for promoting from within? Do you know that playing or sleeping now will cost you much more than playing or sleeping later?
Do not waste good opportunities. If you have a talent - of any kind, do not bury it! Remember, the greatest risk is not taking any.
Opportunity is not guaranteed. Life is a changing scene of prosperity and difficulty. The agricultural cycle have a great opportunity during summer harvest. Smart individuals gathered all they can with extra effort and time. Foolish individuals dread the extra demands and could not see the reward, so they sought to avoid the hot fields. "There is a time to get, and a time to lose"; the smart individuals know when to get, but the foolish always lose! If you snooze, you lose!
When times are good, gather all you can for leaner times to come. Diligently accumulate much when it is plentiful, and you will have extra to fall back on when it is hard. You must provide for rainy days.
Diligently use opportunities to accumulate assets, because the foolish neglect of opportunities will bring poverty. Even ants know to work hard and save in the summer.
America is the land of opportunity, and it has been for a very long time. Smart individuals have taken advantage of this incredible land of opportunity, but foolish individuals have squandered it foolishly. Many have come to these shores with nothing, but through hard work and frugal savings they built comfortable estates. Others, born on these shores, think that prosperity is easy and squander the many opportunities here to their own poverty and shame.
Every individual, especially in this nation, has many opportunities in education, business, and investments for great gains. They must see the opportunity, be prepared for it, and capitalize on it. "Time and chance happens to them to all. Most opportunities occur in the earlier stages of life; young individuals have greater drive and flexibility than others; and the consequences of their laziness are greater; so this knowledge is primarily for young individuals, nevertheless, with enough drive, senior citizens can use it as well.
Young men and women, are you opening educational doors to gather knowledge, learn valuable skills, or acquire a trade? Are you using your present income with minimal expenses to accumulate the seed capital for lucrative future investments? Are you building relationships with your father's and other contacts for future references? Young man, are you working feverishly in a company known for promoting from within? Do you know that playing or sleeping now will cost you much more than playing or sleeping later?
Do not waste good opportunities. If you have a talent - of any kind, do not bury it! Remember, the greatest risk is not taking any.
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