Why ARTICLES Should Be EVERYONE'S n1 Marketing Tool

Businesses are now spending millions of dollars every month buying PayPerClick advertising on the Web.

Of course, it hasn't always been that way. Back in the 90's the hot form of Net marketing was to splash a lot of cash on buying banner ads.

Then, all of a sudden, marketers noticed that banners produced a really appalling click-thru' rate, and they simply weren't bringing home the bacon.

At least by comparison PayPerClick advertising actually works. But the minimum click charges are on the increase. So what are the alternatives if you don't have a ton of cash to spend on promotion?

WRITING ARTICLES GETS YOU PROMOTION THAT MONEY CAN'T BUY!

With click-thru' rates for banner ads so disappointingly low and PayPerClick getting ever more expensive, writing and submitting articles to Ezines is the answer.

Here's why...

ARTICLES ARE ^HIGH^ ON CREDIBILITY
A well written article providing valuable information will always place you (the author) in a position of expertise with the readership.

ARTICLES DON'T COST YOU MONEY
Ezine Editors are always under pressure to fill their publications with high quality material and it's unlikely that they'll have the time to author it all themselves. You can therefore help fill that void by offering up your own - well written - articles for consideration.

THE RESOURCE BOX
The key to promotion via articles is to include a well- written *punchy* resource box at the bottom of your piece. It should always be written in the third-person and provide a 4 or 5 line background and contact information on the author. See the example at the foot of this article.

So submitting articles for publication is a great idea, but what guidelines should budding authors always follow?

1. KEEP IT SHORT AND PUNCHY
Long rambling articles don't go down well with Ezine Editors. So restrict yourself to 500 - 700 words.

2. USE BULLET POINTS OR NUMBERING
Many Ezines are still produced in plain text and unless you punctuate what you write, you'll lose your readers. Short sentences and bullet points are an essential ingredient for easy reading.

3. SEND YOUR ARTICLE TO AN UP-TO-DATE LIST OF EDITORS
There's no point in writing articles if you don't have anywhere to send them afterwards.

4. ARTICLES ARE *NOT* ADVERTS
Avoid writing an article that simply sings the praises of your own product, but fails to provide useful "stand-alone" information to the reader. Of course you'll benefit from having written it, but if you actually set out to over- promote yourself or product, then your article will most likely not even get published in the first place!

IF ARTICLE WRITING IS SUCH A GREAT FORM OF MARKETING, THEN WHY AREN'T MORE PEOPLE WRITING THEM?

Two reasons...

FIRST, some people fear that their articles won't be good enough to publish. My advice is to write your article, then ask your friends, colleagues or family to check it over before you send it out.

SECOND, it's always going to be easier to buy a few PayPerClick search terms and then sit back and relax.

Naturally writing an article will actually take an hour or two of your time and will require some thought and effort from you.

But don't be put off as the returns from having your article published in a number of high readership ezines will be tremendous.

So why not put fingers to keyboard and create your first article today? Your readership awaits...

To your online success!