Articles: the new marketing tool

You are no-body unless you have a website. Or at least it seems as though everyone has a website or at least a blog. They are being advertised through PPC, social networking sites and bloggin directories. Compared to print advertising, online methods are usually less effort and more cost effective as they can reach the exact niche market that you require. Although article writing is mostly found in magazine journalism it is becoming a must have for blogs. Articles can add frequent, relevant and interesting material to a blog ensuring it sits well with search engine placement, (providing you get the links right, but that’s a different post). There are many different ways to obtain the articles, a few ideas are mentioned here.

You can write articles yourself. Work out the relevant topics and ensure your keywords are well placed to enable good search engine listings. It should be an article that is of interest to your visitors (seems obvious doesn’t it?) and relevant. An antique dealer article on where to find an authentic Ming vase is not well placed on a blog about sharing the latest MP3 tunes. Although keywords need to be seen they shouldn’t take over the writing, leaving it in danger of being false and labelled as spam. Don’t underestimate the site visitor, and they are until they buy something. They want honest writing, not duplicates or fake information that leads them to become bored and lose interest. As well as a relevant article, the title must be catchy and relevant. Otherwise they will not even pass the title page.

The second way is to get someone else to write them such as freelance writers or article writing services. These charge by the post or per 100 words. Custom articles can range from approx .50c to $14 depending on whether it is original content or from an article bank such as EzineArticles, IdeaMarketers and ArticleBiz to name a few.

Articles work because they can be personal and addictive unlike the annoying pop-up ads of yesteryear. They can be used in different formats such as in postings or in newsletters and can be used to inform, sell or promote. Harnessing relevant keywords, businesses can benefit well from free advertising and an opportunity to generate more traffic.