Write Off-Topic Articles: How To Sabotage Your Article Marketing #8

Browncoat Ball: Shall We Dance?
Originally uploaded by ZiggyB

This is Part 8 in the 10 part series How To Sabotage Your Article Marketing…And What To Do About It!

I have seen folks do this before–

They'll write in saying that they are not seeing the results they were hoping for with article marketing, and they'd like some feedback as to where they could be going wrong. 

Then I look at their list of articles and start wondering,

"Hmmm, were all of these articles written to drive traffic back to the same website?"

You see, some of the articles are on the topic of "stereo systems" and others are on the topic of "ballroom dancing" and then others are on the topic of "parenting". 

I check the resource boxes and sure enough–all of the articles are trying to drive traffic back to the same website…a website that sells stereo systems.

What is wrong with this picture?

When you're trying to get a grip on what you should write your articles about and why it's so important to stick to a certain topic, it helps to start with the basics.

First, let's refresh our memories about why we're actually doing article marketing in the first place:

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Slap On A Lackluster Title: How To Sabotage Your Article Marketing #7

failed job interview
Originally uploaded by Which Witch

This is Part 7 in the 10 part series How To Sabotage Your Article Marketing…And What To Do About It!

You are submitting articles consistently. [check!]

You are writing articles that serve your readers and please publishers.[check!]

Your resource box is sticky and lures readers to your site. [check!]

You've created some really superb content in your articles. [check!] 

Yay for you , but what if you're not getting as much traffic from your articles to your website as you would like?  

Whenever someone asks me what one thing they can do to take things up a notch with their articles, I've got just 2 words for them:

Your TITLES!

Imagine you're going to a job interview.

You may be extremely qualified, inventive, creative, a real team player, but if you do not present yourself in such a way that you stick out from the other applicants, you'll just be looked over.

In a way, every article that you write has to pass a job interview–it will be judged from the outside first, and a reader's first impression will determine whether they want to take a closer look. 

With your articles, your title is your first opportunity to stand out from the crowd.

The truth is that you can have an absolutely breathtaking article and an enticing and irresistible resource box, but it your title is totally ho-hum, then you won't see the traffic you're looking for.

Why?

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Phone In Your Content: How To Sabotage Your Article Marketing #6

(294) Phoning it in
Originally uploaded by Sarajea

This is Part 6 in the 10 part series How To Sabotage Your Article Marketing…And What To Do About It!

Article marketing is where art, craft and technology meet.

When we think of SEO and technology, we sometimes think that things are super-complicated, that you need to think like a machine, but actually that couldn't be further from the truth! 

Your ability to write a thoughtful article is much more crucial to your success than understanding the technical stuff surrounding article marketing.

Surprisingly though, sometimes the area where people slip up the most has nothing to do with technology, but involves more the "art" and "craft" part of the equation. Instead of producing well-written educational articles, folks can fall into the habit of phoning in content. 

To determine if you've fallen into this trap, let's look at the 2 areas where "phoning in" of content occurs:

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Give Up Just As You’re Getting Started: How To Sabotage Your Article Marketing #5

This is Part 5 in the 10 part series How To Sabotage Your Article Marketing…And What To Do About It!

We all LOVE immediate gratification, don't we?

This is why we start workout programs, hit the gym hard for a few days in a row, and then look in the mirror expecting to suddenly look like:

a) Arnold Schwarzenegger back in his "Terminator" days OR

b) Linda Hamilton back in her "Terminator 2" days (remember her arms?)

And then when we see that we still look very much the same way we did at the beginning of the week, we get frustrated, think "Ugh, this is taking too long!", and then promptly eat 3 slices of pizza and a hot fudge sundae.  

Yes, most of us (myself included!) do have a tendency to want to see immediate results with anything we do, and this includes article marketing.  

One of the most common reasons why folks don't see the results they were hoping for with article marketing is giving up too soon after expecting results immediately.

I just want to be up front with you about what you can expect with Article Marketing as far as the time frame goes:
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The Last Minute Resource Box: How To Sabotage Your Article Marketing #4

This is Part 4 in the 10 part series How To Sabotage Your Article Marketing…And What To Do About It!

I think it's safe to say that we've all been there–

You've just finished writing your article.

You're excited to get it submitted and out to the publishers.

You login to your account at SubmitYOURArticle.com and start entering your article into the article submission page (or you go to an article directory to manually submit your article there), and lo and behold you're asked to fill in the Resource Box field.  At this point many folks think:

"Doh! I forgot about that part. It's just a little author bio–no biggie. I can just come up with a Resource Box on the spot and get that part out of the way so I can finally submit my article."

Then, as I have done in the past, and as many others have done and are still doing, you throw together a Last Minute Resource Box and proceed on your merry way toward the "submit" button.

HALT!!!!

STOP!

Wait a sec!

Little do you know that you've just sashayed over perhaps THE most important part of your article submission–and it's not even part of your article!
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Bombard Publishers With Your Articles: How To Sabotage Your Article Marketing #3

paperwork
Originally uploaded by tlong

This is Part 3 in the 10 part series How To Sabotage Your Article Marketing…And What To Do About It!

Remember how we said that when you're article marketing the first person you need to please is the publisher?

That's right–lots of times when we're trying to accomplish goals for our business, our focus is on ourselves and what we can get out of a situation. We try to get what we want first, thinking that if we don't then we may be left out in the cold.

Well, article marketing doesn't work like that.

In order to accomplish your ultimate goals with article marketing, you need to first please 2 other groups of folks–

1) The publishers and

2) Your target readers 

Now, let's embark on a very educational daydream. Let's take a journey into the mind of a publisher…

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Act Like a Salesman: How To Sabotage Your Article Marketing #2

Day 15 Death of a Salesman
Originally uploaded by hey_rabbit

This is Part 2 in the 10 part series How To Sabotage Your Article Marketing…And What To Do About It!

Who would have thought that article marketing could teach you how to be less self-absorbed and to put other people's needs before your own?

Sounds like a pretty profound teaching coming from an internet marketing technique, huh? 

But it's true–when you're submitting your articles, you need to remember that there are 3 players involved whose needs must be met:

1) Publishers

2) Your target readers

3) You 

Notice the order of these players–there are two groups of folks that come ahead of you, but don't fret that your needs are going to be left out in the cold. Actually the cool thing is that if you aim to please the first two groups on this list, you will in fact be meeting your own needs in a spectacular way.

You may think that in order to meet your own needs with your articles that you need to shove ahead of everyone else and create articles that are all about you, you, you (or your business, website or products), but that is totally not the case.

Article marketing is actually one area where you can be quite gracious, putting the needs of others first, all while knowing in your heart that to please your publishers and your readers you are actually doing yourself a good turn as well.

But let's go through these players just to be sure you know the reason why you're in the #3 spot:

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SubmitYOURArticle.com Update: Resource Box Manager now integrated with ArticleLeverage™

Following the recent Resource Box Manager feature that we introduced to SubmitYOURArticle.com, we have now integrated it into ArticleLeverage™ so that our users can easily select from previous resource boxes and increase the efficiency and ease-of-use of using ArticleLeverage™.

This update is actually the result of a contest we rean with members, and this winning idea came from James R Kobzeff, of ProAPOD Real Estate Investment Software.

His company produces real estate investment software for rental property analysis, allowing you to create cash flow, rates of return, and marketing presentations for investment properties at your fingertips in minutes.

As the winner of the contest, we also sent him a complimentary bottle of champagne.

Thanks to everyone else who entered, we had some great suggestions coming in that will also feed into future development of the site.

Lack of Submissions: How To Sabotage Your Article Marketing #1

hint, hint
Originally uploaded by whisperawish

This is Part 1 in the 10 part series How To Sabotage Your Article Marketing…And What To Do About It! 

This has happened more than a few times:

Someone writes in to say, "I've been doing article marketing for the last 6 months, and I don't see any difference! What gives?"

Then I look at their submissions to try to help them figure out what the deal may be. Indeed, I see that they did start submitting articles 6 months prior, but guess what?

Over the past 6 months they submitted only 3 articles.

Hmmm, I wonder why their results are less than they hoped ?

The Solution 

There is a delicate balance with article marketing–submit too many articles and publishers won't appreciate it, but submit too few and you won't make enough of an impact on Google to see much of a difference.

The solution is to submit between 1-8 articles every 30 days (this is what we recommend at SubmitYOURArticle.com). 

That is a moderate article submission schedule, and if you stick within that healthy range you'll have the best chance of seeing optimum results.

I often tell folks that article marketing is a "less is more" situation, but don't take that too far and stop submitting entirely! You must submit a steady amount of articles (1-8 a month) to see lasting results.

9 Tips for Developing a Healthy Article Submission Habit  

Of course there are events in life that make it so we don't write as often as we had planned, but if you're finding that you are consistently not submitting articles even though you'd like to, here are 9 tips to help you get back on track: 

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10 Ways to Sabotage Your Article Marketing…and What to Do About It!

Have you ever in your adult years thought that you had a chance at someday competing in the Olympics? 

Well, I have for a while now.

Every time the Olympics comes around I just get a surge of "I could do that!" enthusiasm, and all the sudden my brain jumps from the thought "maybe I should workout more often" to "maybe if I trained really hard I could be a world class athlete!"  

I know I have a wild imagination , but does anyone else all of the sudden feel like starting an intensive workout program when the Olympics comes around?

It's the thought, "Maybe I could really do this!" that gets us all excited and gives us the energy and drive to start something new. 

At the beginning we're all excited, with visions of being totally buff, or perhaps winning a gold medal some day Then we follow a program for a week, maybe 2 weeks, and one day we wake up and realize we're disenchanted with what we're doing, because…

• The results are not coming fast enough.

• We're not even sure if we're doing this "getting in shape" thing right.

• We see other folks getting major results with (what appears to be) minimal effort, and we think there may be something genetically wrong with us that we can't spontaneously morph into a superb specimen of the human form.

Little by little, lots of times without even realizing it, a bit of self-sabotage keeps us from fulfilling our true potential.

We get off the program, we skip doing things that we know we're supposed to do, we have unreal expectations for results, then we shake our fist in the air and think, "Ugh! This isn't working for me!"

I've said it before and I'll say it again, undertaking an article marketing campaign is a lot like starting a workout program…

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