In fact, writing from scratch is something that I try to avoid.

Here’s what I do:

Sometimes when I get an idea for an article, I write down a makeshift title, jot some notes on the topic, and then stash it away for a rainy day when I need to write an article.

This is like an article skeleton–just the bare bones of an idea to be developed later.

This takes an immense amount of pressure off of the writing process–when my writing day arrives, if I’m stumped for something to write about, I look at my folder of “skeletons” hoping to find something that will inspire me.

And then–JOY!

I open a file and find that the article main points are already in there, a head start!

Do you stash writing ideas like this?

Right now I have about 50 article skeletons– Sometimes I will just type in the title and leave the body blank if I don’t really have an idea of how to start. Then I’ll save it and just use the title to jumpstart a new article.

But the real treasure is opening up a draft to find that the article is already started, with either points listed or an intro paragraph.

It’s daunting to start out looking at a white page–it saves so much mental energy to start off with the article skeleton already in place.

Today I got on a roll and created 4 article skeletons in about 20 minutes–very satisfying!

It doesn’t take much time when your mind has got that creative momentum going, and there’s no pressure to come up with anything resembling a finished article.

What do you think– Will you try this “article skeleton” technique?

Photo by perpetualplum

That saves bunches of time–your previous piece of content serves as an outline and source of research for your article, so you don’t have to spend time thinking up a new topic and points to cover.

But how do you re-work a blog post or some other piece of content you have to create a unique article?

I bounce my articles off of my blog posts every month, so I’m happy to give you some pointers:

1) Don’t try to go line by line rephrasing things–that makes it too easy to duplicate the original content of yours.

2) Instead, read back over your blog post and jot down the main points. Don’t copy whole sentences or anything, just a quickly jot down the main points of the article.

3) Then, using the notes you’ve jotted, start fleshing out the article. Do not look back at the original piece–if you do it is too tempting to start copying parts.

4) Remember that you can take a different approach in your article –your blog post may be in essay form, but your article could be a Top 5 List or a Top 15 List.

5) Do not try to re-work a previously submitted article–this re-working process is for content of yours that is in different forms, like blog posts and content on your website. It is perfectly fine to get ideas from previously submitted articles and to write new articles that go deeper or take different approaches to the same topic, but you should not take an article that you’ve submitted and try to create a different variation of the same article. Each article you submit should be unique and fresh and should not re-use content from previously submitted articles.

Here are some examples from my own writing:

Example 1

Original blog post:

How To Get Out Of A Writing Slump

Article that was bounced off of the blog post:

5 Tips for Getting Out Of A Writing Slump

Example 2

Original blog post:

Do I Really Have To Think About Keywords?

Article that was bounced off of the blog post:

I’m A Newbie To Article Marketing: Do I Need To Do Keyword Research?

The idea is to get the most benefit from your previously created blog post without copying it–you want the content on your own site to be unique, but you can still use your blog posts as a starting point in creating new articles.

If you learn how to do this you can get a content creating system going that can save you bunches of time and help you submit articles consistently.

Photo by Kristina B

I’m creating this resource with the intention of helping you newcomers maximize your time and focus on goals.

Here are the elements we’ll be focusing on:

• What can you expect (this is a big deal as you’re getting started)

• Setting priorities (what should you focus on)

• Organizational and writing tips

If you’re a newbie to article marketing (and you’re in good company if you are), then you can read this resource and get direction on what is absolutely necessary to focus on and what can wait until you’ve got more experience.

This will save you bunches of time and mental energy!

Okay, let’s get started…

What can you expect?

This is mandatory reading for everyone who is doing article marketing:

The # 1 Reason Why Article Marketing Fails

What are the major things I should focus on?

As a beginner, there are just a few things to focus on:

1. Submit articles consistently, somewhere between 2 and 8 articles a month per site is sufficient.
2. Take the time to craft a strong resource box–this will impact how many people will click the link in your resource box, so it’s important. Here is a very simple guide for writing a resource box.
3. Write educational articles. Do not write articles that are sales oriented. Write as if you are an expert in your field and you are teaching your target customers valuable information. All sales information should be saved for your resource box.
4. Pay special attention to your titles. Your title should clearly indicate what your article is about. Try to make your titles interesting. Imagine that you are a reader looking through hundreds of article titles–what sort of title would catch your attention?

As a beginner, if you just focus on these 4 things, you will make an extremely strong start.

Tips For Writing Quality Articles Faster

1) Brainstorm a list of article topics. Do this before trying to write–get an article topic list going and keep it by your desk.

2) Create a writing schedule. Pre-decide how many articles you will submit each month, then schedule writing days for yourself. Mark these days on your calendar.

I’m telling you–this writing schedule saves my life and helps keep me on track. If you’re anything like me, when you’re left to your own devices to decide when is a good time to write, you will put it off indefinitely.

On your writing days, select a topic from your pre-made list of topics, and write about it.

3) I find it infinitely helpful to create an informal outline before getting started writing. I get my main points down on paper, then I flesh things out.

4) Use an article template if you’re short on writing ideas.

5) Give yourself a word count goal. You might aim for a 500-800 word article. Putting boundaries on your articles helps you write faster.

6) If you have a blog, you can rework blog posts and submit them as articles.

Keep It Simple

That is it–that is all you need to know to make an excellent start.

Do not feel the need to learn every last thing about article marketing right at the get go–that’s a sure fire way to burn yourself out.

You do not need to get tricky, you do not need to try to understand SEO, you do not need to employ any advanced techniques to get more dramatic results.

Save yourself some time and brainpower. You can explore the more advanced elements of article marketing  after you’ve got these basics down pat.

But as you’re beginning–Just do these simple things and you will make a strong start.

Additional Resources:

Article Marketing Tips For Beginners

Photo by wwarby

You can batch process articles (or donuts!)

Without realizing it, I have been ‘batch processing’ for years, a concept that I learned from David Allen (author of the book “Getting Things Done”).

I’ve been doing this with great success on my email–instead of checking it a gazillion times a day (or letting that “incoming mail” chime drag me away from what I’m trying to concentrate on every time a new message hits the inbox), I designated scheduled email checking times.

I check it in the morning and in the afternoon. Each time I check I deal with all the emails in there. I turned off the “incoming mail” notification thingy to eliminate distractions. I started batch processing emails–doing bunches at one sitting instead of one here and one there.

Email used to take over my life–it just took forever and I felt like as soon as I got the box cleared out more came pouring in. I’m sure you can relate!

But I’m telling you, when I started batch processing emails, everything changed.

What Is Batch Processing?

It’s sort of like putting a task on a conveyor belt–like in the photo above, instead of dipping donuts in the glaze one at a time, it’s much more efficient just to line them up and pour the glaze over a bunch of donuts all at once.

You can do it with email, and you can do it with articles too!

A More Productive Way To Write

It didn’t really occur to me to transfer this productivity method to writing articles until I saw Darren Rowse at Problogger talking about how he batch processes blog posts.

The ‘batch processing’ method is simple:

Batch processing articles involves writing several articles in one day.

Instead of eking out one article here and another there, you have designated days of the week that are “writing days”.

I can write 4+ articles a day now (about 2500 words), and I find that writing successive articles helps me get into a writing groove that enables me to write faster.

How To Batch Process Articles

1. Pick your day(s) to write.

Now, if you’re writing 8 articles a month, then you only need to have these writing days a few days a month–imagine getting all of your writing done for the month in a couple days!

2. Set aside a block of time that is just for writing–try 4 or 5 hours.

3. Write offline–the idea is to give your full concentration to your writing. Writing offline will keep you away from email, Twitter, IMs and the like.

4. Pre-determine your article topics.

Just sit down before your writing session (or at the beginning of the month, or whenever), and start brainstorming article topics. Choose topics from that list for your articles. This saves bunches of time, since one of the hardest things is coming up with ideas of what to write about.

5. I always come up with an informal outline before I really start writing–I think that makes things progress faster.

6. Keep snacks handy.

We are all capable of sitting for 4-5 hours and working on a project, but I know that if I start to get hungry, I need to eat. And if I get up to go to the kitchen to get something to eat, then it may be a while before I get myself back to my desk. The solution for me staying focused on the task at hand is to keep snacks within reach–coffee on the desk, pretzels, anything that I can quickly pick up and eat/drink.

7. Have word count limits/goals.

This helps considerably, as if you don’t have a limit on how long your article will be, you can write and write and write and take up all 5 hours just on one article!

Here are some word count goals for you to try:

400-600 word articles

600-800 word articles

If you like, you can try out that short & snappy article method I told you about recently.

You Can Expect These Benefits

*Writing for an extended period of time gives you the chance to get on a roll–one article may spawn another article idea, or you may realize that one idea is too big to cover in just one article and you can neatly transition into your next article continuing the thoughts of the previous one.

Writing “on a roll” can help give your articles a sense of cohesion–one builds on the next, rather than just being a series of one-offs.

*You will be working more efficiently if you “batch process” things.

You aren’t constantly being pulled away to do other things, so that helps you get whatever activity you’re working on done more quickly. When you hop from activity to activity, it is very hard to complete anything. This batching method is really geared toward completion of tasks.

*It is just plain satisfying to crank out several articles in a day. What a feeling of accomplishment!

*You can relax more. When you know you will be writing 4 or so articles on your designated day, it frees you to relax the rest of the month.

Your Homework

• Experiment with batch processing your articles this month.
• Aim to get 4 articles done in one writing session.

Then, let me know how it goes…

Photo: pochacco20

Is this your perfect writing environment?

There are certain settings that are more conducive to focused and inspired writing than others.

Ask any professional writer, and they will be able to tell you quite specifically their favorite location for writing, their favorite time of day for writing, and how they prefer their work space to look/feel/smell/sound.

Do you have a favorite writing routine?

If you don’t, I’d like to help you develop one.

Let’s look at at an example:

Stephen King

“There are certain things I do if I sit down to write,” he said. “I have a glass of water or a cup of tea. There’s a certain time I sit down, from 8:00 to 8:30, somewhere within that half hour every morning,” he explained. “I have my vitamin pill and my music, sit in the same seat, and the papers are all arranged in the same places. The cumulative purpose of doing these things the same way every day seems to be a way of saying to the mind, you’re going to be dreaming soon.

“It’s not any different than a bedtime routine,” he continued. “Do you go to bed a different way every night? Is there a certain side you sleep on? I mean I brush my teeth, I wash my hands. Why would anybody wash their hands before they go to bed? I don’t know. And the pillows are supposed to be pointed a certain way. The open side of the pillowcase is supposed to be pointed in toward the other side of the bed. I don’t know why.”

Lisa Rogak, Haunted Heart: The Life and Times of Stephen King

Routines help our minds prepare for a specific activity.

I like Stephen King’s parallel between preparing to write and preparing to sleep.

Most everyone has a “getting ready for bed” pattern, so why not develop a “getting ready to write” routine?

If you don’t have a writing routine yet, here are some guidelines for you:

1) Choose a time of day.

• If possible, try first thing in the morning, when your brain is still fresh. On my writing days I do my writing first before any other work activities because writing takes the most brain power.

• You may choose your time of day based on quietness–some like to work early in the morning for the quiet factor, and others (especially those of us with kids!) can look for the pockets of time when the kids are at school, asleep, or otherwise occupied.

• Are you a night owl or early riser? It seems many professional writers prefer writing first thing in the morning, but there are also some who get their best energy at night.

2) Choose a location.

If you’re like Stephen King, you will want to work from the same location every day (same chair, papers on the desk arranged in the same way, etc), but not everyone thrives under predictable conditions.

Experiment with environments/locations. Here are two of the most popular:

Quiet, Neat, Isolated

A quiet, isolated environment is a favorite of many professional writers. Working in a quiet isolated place makes it easier to concentrate.

Now it’s not often possible for us to get away to a little cabin in the woods, but there may be a room in your house, a basement or attic or even a large closet or secluded patio that will serve the purpose.

As I mentioned earlier, when you’re working at home oftentimes the time of day determines the level of quiet.

Some folks get up very early to enjoy the quiet while everyone else in the household is still asleep. Some folks wait till everyone goes to bed, and then they sit down to write. Sometimes the quietest time to write is when the kids are in school.

And as far as “neatness” goes, I am pretty sure I work better with a clean desk, but that doesn’t always happen!

Note to self: Clean off desk!

At The Cafe

Writing At The Cafe

Try taking your laptop to a cafe or coffee shop and writing from there.

I’ve done this before and was surprised at how productive I was. Yes, it is noisy and there are distractions, but for the most part people will leave you alone, especially if they see you working on a computer.

And I didn’t really find the noise a distraction at all–it was very invigorating and I think the change of pace helped stimulate my creativity.

So, working at the cafe is the flip side of working in an isolated place–you are surrounded by people, and yet you can be in your own little world.

For those of us who work from home, it’s a nice change to get out of the house to work. One of my favorite parts of working from the cafe is the feeling of going home after working. If you work from home you may know what I mean–it is a pleasant feeling to drive to a work location, stay there for a few hours, pack everything up, and then drive home.

It’s one of those routines that is calming to the soul–I like returning home after working, probably because I don’t do it that often. Most of the time I work from my office at home.

Morning ritual

3) Develop a little pre-writing ritual. Here are some suggestions:

• Drinking a cup of coffee before heading to your desk.
• Having breakfast (or lunch or dinner) and then starting the writing day.
• Reading the paper before working.
• Putting on some music as you sit down to write.

Basically anything you do to “get ready” to write on a regular basis will signal to your brain to start to get into “writing mode”.

My routine is not complicated–just breakfast, coffee, then put on some quiet classical music or no music at all. Then write.

What about you? Do you have a preferred writing routine?

Photo credits:

Photo 1 by DDFic

Photo 2 by CarbonNYC

Photo 3 by Brendan Wilkinson

My goal here is to offer you enough info to get started, but not so much that you feel overwhelmed.

Still, there’s a lot of info here–Don’t feel like you need to read this all at one sitting.

Skip around to the bits you are most interested in, and you can come back to this page at any time as you need more information.

Submitting Articles To SubmitYOURArticle.com:

The Super-Duper, Ultimate, Explicitly Spelled Out Guide For How To Submit Your First Article – you might want to print this off or bookmark this resource, because it goes over every field in the Enter Your Article page, and when you’re first getting started you might have a few “what is this for” type of questions.

What Is Article Marketing?

3 Big Reasons Why Small Business Owners Use Article Marketing – even if your small business is in the “real world” and not entirely online, you need to accomplish a few objectives internet-wise in order to take advantage of all the marketing opportunities that the web offers. This resource explains the 3 main reasons why small business owners use article marketing.

The Ultimate Guide To Article Marketing – this is our Squidoo lens. It gives an overview of what Article Marketing is and how to do it. Lots of information on this resource.

Getting Started:

The #1 Reason Why Article Marketing Fails – if there is one post on this blog that you need to read, this is it. Article Marketing is not complicated–it is extremely simple and you may be surprised at the most common reason it ‘doesn’t work’.

5 Things To Do Before Your Start Article Marketing – for anyone who has just started doing article marketing, or is on the verge of starting, or who is considering starting, I’ve got 5 tips for you that will make your life easier.

How To Get Your Article Accepted On The First Try! covers 9 of the most frequent reasons for articles being declined by publishers.

Article Writing:

The Fastest, Easiest Way To Write Your First Article…Starting From Square One – a step-by-step guide for writing an article, starting with coming up with a topic and ending and going through writing and submitting your article.

How To Write Articles For A Product Based Website – probably the most popular article on this site. This is a resource that teaches people with product based websites (sales oriented websites) how to choose effective article topics and to write in a non-promotional way.

Article Titles:

How To Give Your Article Curb Appeal – explains why the article title is so important, and outlines 7 ideas for creating titles that will catch a reader’s eye.

Resource Boxes:

How To Write A Resource Box – a great little guide for writing a strong basic resource box. Tells you all the elements you need to include.

3 Secret Tricks For Luring Readers Back To Your Website – a strategy for enticing readers to click the link in your resource box and go back to your website (which is the what you’re after!)

7 Effective Resource Box Lures – a collection of “lures”–enticements you can use in your own resource box to help lure readers to your website.

Avoid Broken Links: 5 Safeguards For Your Resource Box Links – tells you 5 ways to be sure that your resource box links work. You should read this at least once.

Article Topics:

How To Never Run Out Of Topics To Write About – 5 methods for creating new article topic ideas.

Article Writing Formats:

The ‘HowTo’ and the ‘List’ articles are an article writer’s bread and butter. I encourage you to read these resources and start creating your own ‘HowTo’ and ‘List’ articles.

5 Steps To Writing A Killer ‘How To’ Article – explains why ‘How To’ articles are so attractive to readers and outlines 7 steps for creating a ‘How To’ article, starting with your article topic.

How To Write A Great List Article – list articles are some of the easiest articles to write. This post goes step-by-step over how to create a list article, starting with brainstorming article topic ideas that would work well in a list form.

Productivity:

How To Create A Monthly Article Writing Schedule – guide for creating a writing schedule, which makes it much easier to get your momentum going and stay ‘in the groove’. Also covers how I personally brainstorm topics for my articles.

Can I Do An Article Series?

The answer is “yes”, but not in the way that you’re probably thinking. If you are at all tempted to write an article series, please read these resources first (and this is a series, listed in order):

What To Do If You’re Itching To Write An Article Series

What Harry Potter Taught Me About Writing An Article Series

3 Reasons Why Writing An Article Series Can Simplify Your Life

How To Launch An Article Series From One Lonely Article

10 Ways To Sabotage Your Article Marketing Efforts

This is a series I wrote on the top 10 mistakes that people make and how to fix them.

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

Photo by Jon Marshall

If you’ve been submitting articles for any length time you’re bound to go through a period where it’s just plain HARD.

Why do we fall into slumps?

I can think of a few reasons:

• We’ve been writing in the same way for so long that it just becomes mechanical (and boring) to us.

• We’re tired (mental health day anyone?)

• We’ve lost touch with our target market, perhaps working in the ‘back office’ so long that the bond of rapport has deteriorated.

• We’re not challenged. We’ve reached some of our initial goals and are wondering “now what?”

Whatever the reason, it’s just natural to get into a slump sometimes.

This happens with professional writers too, so consider it a merit badge that you’ve been writing long enough to actually fall into a slump!

How Do You Get Out Of A Writing Slump?

The bright side is that you can get out of a slump rather quickly. You may have been sluggish in the writing department for some months, and then with a change in perspective, you can feel your energy return in a matter of hours.

I’ve been in a writing slump more than once, and I’d like to share with you some of my top tips for rekindling the passion for writing.

Change your word count goal.

If you’ve been writing for any length of time, you’ve probably developed a method of writing, certain rules that you follow whether consciously or unconsciously. By intentionally changing your ‘rules’ you can breath fresh air into your writing sessions.

If you’ve had the habit of writing 700-800 word articles, then change your target to something lower.

Give yourself the goal of writing a 400 word article, a 500 word article, and a 600 word article.

By changing your word count restrictions, you will automatically have to adjust the way your mind works as you write.

This is a method that has worked for me, and I found myself playing the game of streamlining my articles. It’s hard to explain, but for some reason this is invigorating.

The end result article will look very different than what you’re used to seeing yourself create, and that in itself can rekindle some excitement for writing.

I have always tended to stay away from the shorter articles, but now I’m seeing that there are some perks to both medium length (which I usually write) and the shorter ones. I think that my shorter articles are more hard hitting (just the facts, ma’am!), whereas my regular length articles are more elaborate and thorough. There are positives to both lengths.

Remember though: The same quality standards apply for a shorter article as for a longer one.

No matter what your article length, it must provide educational information that is helpful to your target market. I’ve seen some short articles that offer barely any information at all, and I had the impression that the author was just trying to gain the backlink and wasn’t really interested in offering valuable content.

With some thoughtful planning, it is possible to write an informative, helpful, high quality short article (and I classify a short article as being 400-600 words).

And likewise, if your habit is writing short articles venture into the land of longer articles. Flesh out your ideas, challenge yourself, offer more meaty information.

Use a different writing formula.

Do you always write ‘How To’ articles?

Do you always write ‘Top Tips’ list articles?

If we ‘always’ do anything it can get boring after a while. It’s simple enough to change things up though.

Here are some different article formats that I encourage you to try:

• The interview article: Interview someone in your field and turn it into an article.

• The case study article: Got a living example of one of your teachings, preferably from your own personal acquaintance? Turn it into an article. For example: Healthy Weight Loss Plan: How Trish Lost 283 lbs

• Use a historical figure or a TV personality as an example of the principles you’d like to teach. A great example of this is The Mark Twain Guide To Better Blogging from Copyblogger.

• Reader (or customer) question articles. You’re the expert in your articles, so why not just take a frequently asked question that you get, and turn it into an article? Here’s an example: When Will My Backlinks Show Up In Google?
  

• The Top Mistakes article: Sometimes the best way to learn is to see what NOT to do. Top mistakes articles also tend to catch readers attention because they run counter to the popular ‘Top Tips’ articles. Sometimes we’re not so hot on learning new things, but we are definitely motivated to avoid disasters. Here is an example: 5 Popular Reasons Why Articles Are Declined

There are many different ‘formats’ for articles that can change the way you think and get your creativity flowing again.

Don’t forget about ‘How To’ articles and ‘Top Tips’ articles–if you don’t usually write those types of articles, then switch things up and write a “Top 10 Tips…” article or a “How To Do Such And Such” article.

Get CRAZY Ambitous

Are you a ‘one article at a time’ type of writer?

For many years I was–I would schedule my writing days and would easily crank off one article for each writing day.

But recently I thought, “Maybe I can do more. Maybe I can do MUCH more.”

When you start to think like that, you start to get excited.

I started developing writing goals for myself that were much more challenging than I’d ever had before. I started ‘batch processing’ articles (a method I learned from Darren Rowse at Problogger).

Batch processing articles involves writing several articles in one day. I can write 4 articles a day now, and I find that writing successive articles helps me get into a writing groove that enables me to write faster.

And it’s a huge lift to get all of my writing for the month done in just 2 days.

So, get ambitious. Set yourself a goal to write several articles in a day.

If you get into a writing groove and end up producing more than 8 articles, then that’s great–you’re AHEAD of the game for next month.

It feels good to be ahead doesn’t it?

Predictability Is The Enemy Of Creativity

Oftentimes all we need is just CHANGE, any type of change. A change in writing location, a change in the time of day when we write, a change in the type of articles we write.

All of us need a change now and then, and I think you’ll find that you’re back in the groove by just making some slight tweaks to your writing approach.

What about you–how do you get out of a writing slump?

Photo by the trial

According to Dictionary.com, an expert is:

Establishing expertise in your field is one of the big non-SEO perks of Article Marketing.

Here are some simple ways to start showing your expertise through your articles:

Start thinking of yourself as an expert.

If you’re just starting your website or your business, it might be harder for you to feel comfortable wearing the expert hat than someone who has been in business for years and years.

Here’s something to think about:

Anyone who has their own business or is running a website on a particular topic should be an expert in that topic or at least be on their way to becoming an expert.

If you’re not to the point of being an expert yet, you need to wing it.

When you’re writing your articles, remember–you are an expert in your topic.

Experts know their stuff.

Having an in depth knowledge on a particular niche creates an endless stream of article topics. This means that you can go wide (a bird’s eye view of your topic) and you can go deep (a close-up on a particular aspect of your topic).

=> Try looking back over your last 5 articles and see if you can go deeper–are there any points you touched on in an article that can be expounded upon?

For example, I went deep on this article:

Link Building: When Will Backlinks Show Up In Google?

=> Look back over your library of articles and see if you can go wider–can you offer a comprehensive view of a particular aspect of your topic.

For example, I went wider in this article:

Top 15 Article Marketing Tips

If you don’t feel like you’re at the expert stage yet, commit to writing articles each month, and set out to fill in any gaps in your learning.

Sometimes writing the article is part of the learning.

Experts TEACH.

In the online world, the mark of an expert is that they have knowledge that they are able to convey to readers. It is not enough to be a genius in your niche, you need to be able to share the things you know with your readers.

• Use language that the average reader can understand.

• Stay away from industry jargon that a newbie might not be familiar with. For example, when I’m submitting articles I try not to use the term “SEO”, or if I do I will tell the reader what that abbreviation stands for.

• Focus on writing articles that teach specific things. Think of yourself as a teacher. It’s hard to go wrong with ‘How To’ articles.

Experts are reliable–they stand the test of time.

Imagine that you are looking for information on a certain topic. You end up finding 5 articles written by one author and 500 articles on all aspects of this topic written by another author.

Which of these authors will you regard as the expert?

Assuming that the articles by both are well-written and helpful, most people would look to the writer of 500 articles as the one who has the most authority.

After all, he has been writing and publishing articles on this topic over a long span of time. He hasn’t started and quit soon afterward. He is still enmeshed in his field, studying, teaching, and expanding on his knowledge. That is the mark of an expert.

When you develop a library of articles for your target market, and you are actively coming up with more and more resources every month, it tends to breed reader confidence and give the impression that you are the real deal.

You have committed to providing educational material for your readers, and you are seeing your commitment through. That makes a huge impression on a reader.

Experts Get Better Over Time

Although there are some things you can do to convey expertise, know that expertise is ever evolving.

All experts at one time were beginners. Even if you think of yourself as an expert now, 3 years from now you may look back on the articles you’ve written and think “Wow, I’ve come a long way!”

The more articles you write and the more time you invest in expanding your knowledge, the more of an expert you’ll be.

It takes time. Be patient with yourself.

Some Advice For Newbies…

Even if you’re just starting out in your field, you know more than someone who is totally unfamiliar with it.

So a trick to sounding like an expert is that if you are a newbie yourself, start out writing for folks who know less than you.

You can be an expert at teaching the basics.

You may even have an edge in writing articles geared towards beginners because you can more clearly remember things that confused you at first, and you are unable to write “over someone’s head”.

If you are just learning a field, be sure to write about what you know and don’t claim to know more than you do. Even if you write just for beginners for a while, you will still have an endless supply of article topics.

And think about this–sometimes teaching someone else is the best way for us to learn.

How do you convey expertise in your articles?

If you’re not going for expert status with your articles, I encourage you to do so. It will make a difference in how you regard the process of writing and your commitment to submitting articles consistently over the long term.

Let’s hear from you: If you already have the “expert” mindset–how do you show that in your articles?

If I could sit across a table from you and give you some advice on just a few main things to keep in mind as you carry out your article marketing campaigns, this is what I would tell you:

1) Vary your keywords.

Yes, knowing what your keywords are and using them appropriately in your article submissions can help you maximize your results and really target the types of readers that you’re reaching.

I just want to caution you though, to vary your keywords in your articles–don’t just target the same words every time. The reason for this is that overusing a keyword in your submissions can make it appear as if  you’re trying to manipulate Google, which Google doesn’t like.

2) Focus on writing quality articles.

It may be tempting to just crank out article after article thinking that the goal is submitting a certain quantity of articles so that you can receive the backlinks, but quality is important as well.

Article marketing is not just about the initial backlinks–the goal is to produce and widely distribute educational, helpful content on a niche topic that will continue to hold its value for readers for years and years to come.

One of the major perks of article marketing is that the backlinks build over the lifetime of the published article.

Why do the backlinks continue to build?

Because when people read the article, they find value in it and decide to re-publish it on their websites.

If the article does not have lasting value, though, there is no incentive for more and more publishers to keep on republishing

Quality articles will build credibility with publishers and your target readers. Focus on only submitting quality articles and you will be rewarded many times over.

When I say “quality article”, I mean one that is well written and thoughtfully put together, offers helpful information, is specific to your niche, and is ideally timeless.

3) Re-purpose your content.

Have you got a blog, an e-book, a PDF, or a website with helpful information?

If you do, you have a ready source of inspiration for your articles.

Or if you have a collection of articles that you’ve written and submitted, why not re-purpose them into an e-book, which you can use as a resource box lure or as a free gift for people who sign up for your email list?

Most of the way we communicate with people online is through the written word, so why not multi-task your content and save yourself some time and energy?

Here are some resources to help you get started:

5 Ways To Get Multiple Marketing Uses Out Of Your Articles

Get More Marketing Mileage Out Of Your Articles–Turn Them Into An E-book!

How To Turn A Blog Post Into A Free Reprint Article

How To Use Your Blog To Generate Articles

4) Build your email list by linking to a squeeze page from your resource box.

If you are trying to build your list, it’s a great idea to link to a squeeze page that has a sign up box for a valuable report, an e-book, a newsletter, or some other gift that you can offer a reader. The reader will then sign up for your email list.

You can also link to your main site (for SEO reasons), but it’s worth it to link to a squeeze page as well.

I do recommend using a single link in a resource box, so if you have two pages to links to (as in this case with the squeeze page and the main site) you can use ArticleLeverage to drive traffic to both sites with one article, while still maintaining a single link in the resource box. For more info on how to do that, please see this post:

How To Build Links To Multiple Sites With Just One Article

5) Be consistent.

You can do all the things I advise above, but if you are not consistent you will not see the results you’re looking for. Consistency is the driving force behind a successful article marketing campaign, and if you’ll just learn to do that one simple thing–be consistent–you will go much farther than you would have otherwise.

I keep this quote from Benjamin Disraeli beside my desk:

“The secret to success is constancy of purpose.”

Something to keep in mind: Doing anything consistently month after month after month will make an impact.

What does “consistency” look like?

Submit articles each month. Do it for the lifetime of your website.

I recommend submitting somewhere between 2 and 8 articles a month–anything more than that is overkill, in my opinion. When you go over 8 articles, the benefits of article submissions go down compared to the extra effort you’re putting into it.

As long as we’re talking about consistency, here is a post I’d like to refer you to:

The #1 Reason Why Article Marketing Fails

If you are serious about driving traffic to your site with article marketing, there is nothing to prevent you from doing so.

Article marketing isn’t complicated, you don’t need to be advanced in your knowledge of SEO, and you don’t need to know anything technical like HTML.

As you’re starting out, focus writing on quality articles, submit them consistently each month, and then you can work on doing these other suggestions I’ve listed here.

What about you–

If you could give one suggestion to a newcomer to Article Marketing, what would it be?

Do you have a particular quote that inspires your life and your work?

Article Marketing & Blogs

I love getting questions from people, and I figure if one person was asking the question, then there are probably several others who are wondering the same thing.

This question concerns how having and blog and doing article marketing can interrelate with each other, and if it’s alright to get double duty out of blog posts and submit them as articles.

Reader Question:

“Is it okay to write an article and use it as a blog post as well as submitting it to an article directory? I know they do a quick search when I submit an article to verify that the work is original, but that won’t find not-yet-published articles at other sites nor will it find an article just published to my blog but not yet indexed by search engine.”

Answer:

Yes–I do this, although there is an order to follow in re-purposing content like that:

First, write the blog post. Then, you can use the blog post as an outline for your article, making the article a unique piece of content that is based on the blog post. You really want to the blog post to remain unique, as it is on your own site.

You had also asked:

I know they do a quick search when I submit an article to verify that the work is original, but that won’t find not-yet-published articles at other sites nor will it find an article just published to my blog but not yet indexed by search engine.

Actually, when a directory searches for already published articles, they are trying to ensure that the content is written by you (that it is not “borrowed” from another author), rather than if the content hasn’t been published anywhere else previously.

So, as long as all the articles you have published on other sites clearly have your name associated with them, you should not run into any trouble. This is a big reason why I advise always including your name in the resource box.

When submitting blog posts as articles, it is for your own benefit that you will re-write the blog post to create a unique article. The reason for this is that Google and the other search engines value unique content on a website more highly than content that can be found in multiple places.

So, when it comes to your own website, you want to be sure that you have as much unique content as possible. It’s okay to write your articles on the same topics as your blog posts (this is what I do), but to make the article unique you would use different wording and such.

I have a post about bouncing articles off of blog content:

How To Use Your Blog To Generate Articles

What about the rest of you–do any of you re-purpose your blog content as articles?

Photo credit: What no one ever tells you about blogging