There are literally hundreds of millions of individual websites that compose cyberspace. Successfully honed article writing and submission techniques can propel your website to new levels of prosperity. While the masses are paying heavily for pay-per-click advertising campaigns, those writing and submitting articles are generating free natural listings on Google, Yahoo and MSN.
Imagine showing up for free on the first page of Google's natural listings for your targeted niche. On the right side of the page, you can witness all of the paid advertisers. Search engine optimization (SEO) takes on many forms. The common goal lies in delivering hot, targeted traffic that's ready to spend cash directly to your website. You want more than visitors; you want their money. Writing articles based on well-researched keyword phrases can deliver that.
So, how does one get these hot-to-spend visitors to check out their sites? It goes something like this:
- You research viable markets and choose one that you would like to promote. These can be products, services, affiliate programs, informational products, auction sites or any other number of possibilities. Your choices should be based on whatever you feel a passion for marketing. Everyone is an expert at something. Bring your expertise to the spotlight. Write articles that grant visitors valid and fresh information.
- You develop long-tailed keywords to zoom in on hot buyers. Long-tailed keywords are topics for your articles. They are designed to focus in on consumers who are hungry for specific information. A general keyword might be "dog training" or "making sausages". These general keywords may draw a lot of visitors, but they are not targeted enough to produce sales. A long-tailed keyword phrase might be "training your dog to stop barking" or "making beer-soaked sausages in Ireland". The latter will bring buyers who have honed in on their desires. They know what they want.
- You write articles that provide specific information that your visitors are seeking. Your long-tailed keyword phrases ensure that. You submit these articles to submission sites like ezinearticles, goarticles, articledashboard and others. You provide links to your websites or your merchant's websites.
- Visitors come to you for information and instruction. You provide that for them in neat packages simultaneously subjecting them to your advertisements. You entice them by teaching them. You share your expertise with them. The result is fewer visitors yielding greater sales.
So, how do you actually write the articles? You're not a writer. You haven't written anything since high school. Wrong! You can write articles. It's really easy if you follow a few simple steps. Try this:
1) Develop your title from the long-term keyword phrase. Include it directly within the title. You could call it "Make Better Beer Sausages in Ireland: Irish Beer Sausage Recipes".
2) Use your keyword phrase in the either the first sentence or the second of the first paragraph. Tell your reader what you are going to tell them in the article.
3) Write paragraphs two, three and maybe four. Don't overuse the keyword phrase. Use it only once per paragraph. Make these paragraphs informative, easy-reading and conversational. Simply act like you are speaking with your readers in person. Imagine what you would say to them and then just write it down. Use these paragraphs to tell them what you told them that you were going to tell them!
4) Write a finalizing paragraph telling them what you just told them. Work the long-tailed keyword phrase in one more time here. In general, for an article of around 400 - 500 words, you shouldn't use your keyword phrase anymore than six or seven times. Doing so can make the search engines label you as a spammer.
5) Always make sure that you use a spell checker. Also, display proper grammar and sentence structure.
6) If it's not against the writer's guidelines for the given submission site, include your information in the "Author's Bio" following your article. Here is where you can include your link to your personal, business or merchant's website.
7) Continue to submit articles that you write and link them all together. Include the link to one on all the others and vice versa. Soon you will develop a following of readers that hunger for your informative prose. When they come to feed, you have their attention for your own marketing campaigns.
The goal here again is to position you in the first pages of natural listings on the major search engines. With a little discipline, you can and will develop the skills necessary to gain these spots for free. It is a great feeling to see your sites beating out all of the paid exposure sites. It may take a little work and time, but it can save you literally thousands of dollars in advertising.
Writing articles can be fun. It also advances you along the road to becoming a true expert in your given niche. Start writing and submitting articles today for the world to learn from. Share your expertise!
Alan M Roberts is a full time freelance writer and web developer. He is always available for consultation through his web site at http://www.10-4Life.com Visit him there often and find reasons to live!
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