Charlie Page here, back with another case study to help your online marketing. These case studies come from consultations I have done with DOE lifetime members.
A woman told me the other day, “I’ve been told to do article marketing. Go. Go quickly. Do article marketing.” She joined a business.
They said, “Get out there and do article marketing.” She was excited about that. She had this question:
How does article marketing work?
That’s a good question. We all know what an article is. We all know what marketing is. But there’s nothing offline that prepares us to understand the concept of article marketing online.
What is article marketing?
It’s a process of writing informative articles and placing them where people will read them and want to learn more.
It’s that simple. It doesn’t need to be made more complicated.
How does it work?
You write informative articles that help readers but don’t tell the entire story. That really is the key.
You don’t want to tell the entire story. You want to create curiosity.
This is the most important point. Your articles should be helpful.
Give them an action step. Say, “Go do this.” Give them three action steps. Say, “Try this for yourself. Try this at home.”
But you don’t want to tell the whole story. If you tell the whole story there’s no reason for them to go to your site. The whole point of article marketing is still to sell.
You can’t do that unless people go to your website. When they want to know more they’ll go to your website, or any site you’re promoting if you’re selling someone else’s product as an affiliate, to get more information.
Why does it work? You’re giving before you expect to receive.
That is always a good thing. You build trust by providing useful information. You become trusted.
You become an expert in their eyes. You’ve written an article or had one written for you about a particular topic that they found helpful.
You create curiosity by providing useful but incomplete information. That phrase “useful but incomplete” is good. I think it came from Jimmy Brown. There you go, Jimmy.
Curiosity is the name of the game. That’s what you’re trying to do. It works because it helps people and it creates curiosity. They want to know more.
They click the link at the bottom of the article. They go to your website.
Information is the currency of the internet.
Searchers want free information before they’ll pay for more. If they said when I walked in the door to Sam’s Club, “Do you want to buy a 10 lb. frozen lasagna?” I would probably say, “No, that’s OK. Thanks.”
When I walk past the aisle with frozen lasagna there’s a nice lady. She has little squares of lasagna. It’s hot. It’s tasty. I’m hungry anyway. It’s very good.
Now I’m ready for that 10 lb. frozen lasagna. It’s how you present information. Searchers want free information before they’ll pay for more. That’s why Google is one of the biggest companies around.
They give a lot of free information. The people who search for that information will pay for more information if you present the information well in your article.
Who can use article marketing?
People who want to sell their own products, like me. I own several different websites. I want to sell those products.
- There are people who want to sell affiliate products. That’s me and you, too.
- There are people who want to build a team of leaders.
- There are people who want to build a list.
- There is hardly any better list-building method than article marketing.
It shows people what you’re offering. It’s the taste of lasagna. Once they’ve read your article and they like it, they’re going to want to read more that you write, or have written for you. They’ll join your list to do that.
You can use article marketing.
That’s the most important point. Whether you buy anything from me or not, use article marketing as often as you can. It will work.
When I joined The Directory of Ezines as a member long ago, I did article marketing like crazy. I did as much as I could. I was sending out articles two, three, four and five times a week. That was what I could afford to do.
It was free. Less than 18 months later I bought The Directory of Ezines. I went from member to owner in no small measure because of the power of article marketing. Learn about this.
Here are a few things you should avoid:
1. Don’t make the article about you.
It’s not about you. It’s about the reader. How do you make the article about the reader when you have no idea who the reader is, where they are or what country they live in?
Talk about universal themes like saving time and money, making money from home, not wanting to work for the other guy but work for yourself and having freedom. These are universal concepts.
You can make them tie into any product that you want to promote. I don’t recommend using private label articles as-is. If you buy one of these packs of 400 articles for $5, modify those articles substantially before you use them. Otherwise you’ll look bad.
If the person selling the articles sells 1,000 copies of those articles they will make $5,000. They’re happy. They’re off to the cantina doing whatever they want with their money.
Now you put your name on the article. The other 999 other people put their names on the article, too. It’s like 1,000 people had the same idea at the same moment.
That doesn’t work. You want to modify these articles.
Don’t use spinner software that people promote. It makes you sound bad. It’s like taking three different stories out of your newsletter, clipping them together and trying to read them.
It doesn’t work. Some of them look good on the sales letter. I’ve tried a lot of them. They haven’t worked for me.
2. Don’t write one article and quit.
This is a long-term foundational strategy. It works very well. You have to stick with it. You have to give it a good try.
What should you do? You should write useful articles. Tell the reader what they can do to make their life better today.
Don’t just say, “Buy my product.” Articles are not sales letters. Articles are not solo ads. They’re articles. They’re educational. They’re informative.
3. Try to keep your articles under 1,000 words.
Five hundred words works really well. Let’s say you’re writing an article. You’re cranking away. You get up to about 1,000 words. Consider making it two parts. That works well.
Do submit your articles to article directories, ezines and blogs. Ezines are the hidden diamond-in-the-rough of internet marketing when it comes to articles. Not that many people use them.
When you put your article in an ezine it stands alone. You go to an article directory. You submit your article. It’s quick and easy. It’s over. Your article is one of 10,000 or 100,000 articles on this one article directory.
When you submit your article to an ezine it’s the only article that runs in that issue of the ezine. That’s a powerful thing. It’s the same with blogs. If you submit your articles and get them approved, for some period of time your articles can be in that number one position.
4. Try to write at least one article a week.
It’s not that hard to write one a week. It’s hard to think to yourself, “I have to write one every day.” That’s too much pressure. Back that off.
Write one a week. You’re going to do great. If you write one a week and you find that you like it then write a couple the next week. Don’t put yourself under such pressure that you can’t get it done.
5. Always spell and grammar-check your articles.
It’s a tiny thing. It only takes a moment but it’s huge when something goes out with your name on it and there’s an error.
What about your situation? How are you doing online?
Think about this – If you stopped working tomorrow would your income stop or would it continue? It really should continue if you’re working online.
The key to succeeding online is automation. Article marketing is part of that. You write the article once. You put it out there.
It works for you day in and day out. I’m getting traffic right now from articles I literally wrote years ago. I track these things so that I know.
I’d like to help you if I can. If you’re a DOE member, log in. Get my email address. Let’s get going.
If you’re not a member, consider becoming a member. Let’s work together to get your marketing going. Whether that’s article marketing, pay-per-click or joint ventures, it doesn’t matter.
I’d like to work with you if I can. I had a great time writing this article, I hope you enjoyed it.
I look forward to being in touch with you again soon.
