This allows publishers to sign up to our network, add any number of ‘Publishing Nodes’ (eg. email addresses, article directories), set categories, decide how many articles they want to receive per day, and so on. They can even Pause and later Resume article submissions.

It’s all designed to further grow our distribution network by helping to both attract and retain publishers to our network.

It provides full facilities for our publishers so that they can effectively manage what they receive from us … full details here

If you haven’t already, why not sign up as a publisher yourself and get regular quality content you can publish as and when you wish? Plus it’s all for free – go here now:

https://secure.submityourarticle.com/publishers

More exciting facilities will be added in the coming weeks … let me know what you think.

(Oh, if you’re already on our email publisher list, just enter your email on the Recover Password page, and you’ll get log in details sent to you).

100 articles is your marathon.

I got some great feedback from you guys on the post about aiming for 100 articles, and I’d like to offer a plan for making this grand achievement more doable.

I know that when a huge goal looms ahead of you it can be daunting (especially when you’re just starting out!), but anything is doable when you break it into steps.

Why Aim For 100 Articles?

Do you know where most people go wrong with article marketing?

A lack of CONSISTENCY.

That’s right–the most common reason why an article marketing campaign “fails” is not because of a lack of technical knowledge but rather for something as simple as not submitting enough articles on a regular basis.

I keep this quote from Benjamin Disraeli beside my desk:

“The secret to success is constancy of purpose.”

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.

Having a goal like 100 articles is a great motivator for building consistency into your article marketing routine.

It’s like when you decide to take up jogging, you might set yourself a goal of running in a marathon.

At the time you decide to do the race, you can’t run that far, but the goal is what motivates you to keep on progressing to that distance in a certain time frame.

Think of the 100 articles goal as your marathon.

The Time Frame: Why A Year?

I must say that the idea is not to submit 100 articles in a short period of time–if you submit articles at the rate that I recommend, this will take a year or so to accumulate 100 articles.

Doing things faster is not necessarily a bonus–it’s better SEO wise to gradually build up the links over a year’s time.

Quality and Quantity Count

Remember, we are not just shooting for a particular quantity, but for articles that have quality as well.

Every article you write needs to be a quality article that is useful to your readers, but a HUGE component of article marketing is also consistency.

You can write 100 articles using this plan and this time frame (a year or more) and still write quality articles.

Writing 25 articles or so is a great start, but you will see your best SEO results with an ongoing article marketing campaign that goes on for months and years. Article marketing is all about momentum and compounded results.

Aim for 100 quality articles (and it will take about a year to reach that goal) and you will have a built-in consistency that will payoff.

Simple Strategies

Submit 2 articles a week, or 8 a month

Set a goal for yourself–try 8 articles a month. That’s 2 a week.

Then just plug along consistently and before you know it the year will be over and you will be rapidly closing in on 100 articles.

To accomplish this goal you can take a few approaches:

=> Schedule 2 writing days a week, and write an article on each day.

OR

=> Write several articles at one writing session, and schedule one or two writing sessions a month. You may be able to accomplish all of your writing within a few days if you batch process your article writing.

Write In Bursts

Or here’s another idea–I have a friend who prefers to write in bursts.

She sets the goal for herself to write 5 articles a week for 5 weeks, then she takes a break for a few months.

So, imagine it–if you write 5 articles a week for 5 weeks, you have 25 articles. If you’re submitting 8 articles a month, then that will keep you going for a little over 3 months.

So, you can write 5 articles a week for 5 weeks, and then take 2 months off, then start back up again after your break.

Finding Article Topics

Writing 100 articles in a year does not take a Herculean writing effort–rather, it takes consistency.

Do not imagine that you will need to be spending all of your time writing. You can accomplish this goal by writing 2 articles a week, and that is entirely reasonable.

The hardest thing about submitting articles consistently is coming up with writing topics–I think if we all had someone telling us exactly what to write about for each article, there would be much less procrastination and more enthusiasm for sitting down at the writing desk!

So, let’s talk about finding article topics:

1) Use these article templates to jump start your writing. Each one of these templates can be used over and over again.

2) Multi-task your content creation: Bounce articles off of your blog posts (if you have a blog)

3) Consult this resource I created about how to find great article topics– there you’ll find resources for stimulating new article topics, writing strategies, and organizational methods.

The Impact

I submitted just 8 articles a month last year (submitting through SubmitYOURArticle.com) and saw a dramatic increase in my search engine ranking for some new keyword terms that I was targeting.

One of them jumped from #88 to #1 in the results listings. Now that’s a dramatic difference!

Submitting 100 articles over a year’s time can have a huge impact on the health of your site.

Your Homework

Don’t think you can accomplish this feat? Well, you can, and you can do it without killing yourself. All you need is a plan.

1) Step one is the biggie: Commit to submitting 100 articles in about a year’s time (will likely take a little over a year).

2) Create a plan for yourself:

Are you the sort who wants to get all of your writing completed in one or two days a month?

Or do you like to be slow and steady, writing 2 articles a week on different days?

Are you an all or nothing type of person who would enjoy the challenge of writing 5 articles a week to create a storehouse of articles to submit over a period of 3 months?

Or come up with your own plan!

Will you at least try to run this writing marathon? Let me know in the comments.

Photo by OskarN

Update: SubmitYOURArticle.com allows unlimited article submissions, but we still recommend for an optimum campaign submitting up to 8 articles per month/per site, although there’s no actual restriction.

An article is like a bowl of soup...

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.

The Perks Of Writing A Shorter Article:

• Writing shorter articles can help you get out of a writing slump, if you are used to writing medium or longer articles.

• Shorter articles (when written correctly) can be more hard hitting and straight to the point, which can make it easier for a reader to glean information from them.

• Shorter articles force you to mercilessly edit your content–you will learn to trim any superfluous wording, leaving just the ‘meat’.

• Shorter articles can be written more quickly–it’s a good feeling to be able to write several quality articles at one sitting.

• Let’s be honest–writing a shorter article is better than writing no article at all, isn’t it?

The WRONG Way To Write A Shorter Article

There is definitely a right and wrong way to write a short article.

Do it correctly, and you’ll have a quality article that readers and publishers appreciate.

Do it incorrectly, and the article will look like it was created with the sole intention of gaining a backlink (which is not the way to win the hearts of publishers or readers).

How can a short article go “wrong”?

It’s pretty simple–it doesn’t provide valuable content.

It looks to be a piece of fluff that was just trying to meet a minimum word count requirement.

A shorter article doesn’t have to mean less value though. If you write it with the following guidelines in mind, you can create a very sharp, helpful, informative and educational piece of content.

The RIGHT Way To Write A Shorter Article

1. Use a word count limit.

For a ’short and snappy’ article, think 400-700 words.

2. Laser beam your topic.

There are 2 approaches to a shorter article:

• You can give an overview of a broad topic (for example, I could write an article about “What is Article Marketing?”)

• You can provide more in depth info on a more specific topic (for example, I could write an article called “3 Ways To Make Your Articles Easier To Read)

One thing is for sure–you need to have a plan before you start, or (if you’re anything like me!) you will end up going off on a tangent. Remember, a good short article is extremely focused.

3. Leave them wanting more.

DO offer helpful information in your article.

Do NOT feel the need to tell every last thing on your topic.

If you give a reader a tasting of information that appeals to them, then they will be more likely to seek out more info from you (by clicking the link at your resource box).

Think of your article as an appetizer, and your website is the main course.

4. Use an outline.

Writing from an outline is a great strategy for any length of article, but especially for a shorter article where you really need to stay focused. Here’s what I do:

• I start by writing my basic points
• Then I flesh out my basic points briefly
• Then I add a short intro paragraph and a concluding paragraph

I check my word count at the end, and I might need to do some tweaking, editing to get the article down to a certain length or adding info to make it longer.

5. Edit ruthlessly.

In many ways, it takes more discipline to write a quality shorter article than it does to write a longer one. With a short article, you need to decide what info is absolutely essential to the success of the piece.

With my own shorter articles, I’ve noticed that I’m less conversational and more “just the facts, ma’am”. I trim out any sentences/phrases/words that re-state what I’ve already covered at other points in the article.

I have to watch my word choice–can I get my point across in fewer words?

6. Be sure you have some chunks of meat in your article.

An article is like a bowl of soup–if it’s too watery people won’t eat it no matter how hungry they are.

Short does not mean frivolous. Short means hard hitting and to the point.

Your Homework

• Experiment with writing at least one 400-700 word article this week.

• Get ambitious: See if you can write several shorter articles at one sitting using the guidelines I’ve outlined here.

Let me know how it goes…

Photo credit: Rachel is Coconut&Lime

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

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?

Sneeze pages show off your previously published content.

Have you wondered how you can get the most bang for your buck with the articles you’ve submitted?

Have you ever wished that you could somehow make something extra out of your articles, something that you could offer to the visitors of your website?

Have you ever wished for a way to direct readers to your other articles, knowing that you had much more information that would be valuable to them?

Have you ever thought, “I have written soooo many articles, I can’t even keep track of what topics I’ve covered and which I haven’t!”

Are you new to Article Marketing and just getting in the swing of things, and longing for a way to categorically organize and build your arsenal of online content?

If any of these scenarios applies to you (and my hand is up for pretty much all of them), then a sneeze page might be exactly what you need.

What’s a sneeze page?

I have to thank Darren Rowse at Problogger for enlightening me as to what a sneeze page was.

The idea of a sneeze page is simple–it’s basically a way to show off your previously published content.

A key element of a sneeze page is that it’s organized–each sneeze page is on a specific topic or for a specific readership.

Examples:

Here are some examples of ones I’ve created:

Article Writing: How To Find Great Topics

SEO Resources For Article Marketers

How To Create A Resource Box: The Ultimate Guide

I’ve created these sneeze pages for my blog, but you can do the same thing for your articles.

What Is The Purpose Of This?

• Your online content is easily accessible to readers.

• You get optimum use from your articles–you’re not just submitting them and forgetting about it. After you submit them, your articles then work on your website/blog as a catalog of content for your readers.

• You drive readers further and further into your content.

• You may notice holes in your content–topics that you need to cover but haven’t yet or topics that you need to cover more thoroughly.

• Your sneeze pages can be great resource box lures–if you’re submitting another article on that topic, you can link to the sneeze page where the reader can continue reading your other articles on the same topic.

• Sneeze pages are SEO friendly–linking to your articles can help grow their search engine ranking.

Creating Your Own Sneeze Pages:

Look at your list of articles–you have been (hopefully) writing on the topic of your website, and under that general topic you will notice sub-topics emerging. In the examples above, I have a lot of resources on Resource Boxes and also on how to find great article topics and tons of info on SEO as it relates to article submissions.

Previously, all this information was scattered all over the place and not available anywhere as a cohesive collection neatly organized into topics and sub-topics.

Even within these sub-topics under the larger topic of Article Marketing, I was able to break it down into more defined topics. For example, on the sneeze page called “Article Writing: How To Find Great Topics”, I have these sections:

• Getting started (section for beginngers)
• SEO & Article Topics
• Article Writing Formulas
• Using Blogs, E-Books, and other Online Content To Generate Article Ideas

Under each sub-heading, I included a list of links and a brief description of what the resource covers.

Try this with your own articles–if you’re like me you’ll be amazed at how much content you’ve written on some very niche specific topics. I love the feeling of gathering it all in one place, like a reference page for all of my content. It’s a very satisfying feeling!

Publicizing Your Sneeze Page:

Here are some ideas for how to use your sneeze pages:

Step 1: Publish on your blog or website. If you have a traditional website, you could have a Training Page or a Resources Page or a My Articles page–make it so that this page is readily visible from your menu. If you have a blog, you can publish the sneeze page on your blog, then link to the sneeze pages from one page on your website.

Step 2: If you have a blog, you can add a section in the side bar entitled “The Best Of [Your Blog]“, under which you would link to your sneeze pages. If you have a traditional website, you can have a link from your menu going to the page on your website that houses the links to the sneeze pages.

Step 3: If you’re feeling gung-ho, you can also morph each sneeze page into an individual Squidoo lens. I have one Squidoo lens called The Ultimate Guide To Article Marketing, and have had a lot of success with it. It took a while to put it together with all the photos and stuff, but it was worth it. It’s a great way to bring further attention to your articles.

I have meant to make more Squidoo lenses, but I just hadn’t gotten to it. Then, as I was looking at my sneeze pages, I thought “The sneeze page is basically an outline for a Squidoo lens! It would be so easy to make one after I’ve already taken the time to organize the content.”

As Simple As You Want To Be:

If this appeals to you, then just start out by creating a “sneeze page” on your website or blog, and make it so that the link to the sneeze page is easily visible to readers visiting your website/blog. Then, if you want to go the extra mile, create more and more sneeze pages based on your topics and the unique needs of your different sets of readers.

You can be as simple or complicated as you want to be.

What I like about this approach is that it helps keep me focused–my goal is to blanket a niche topic with my articles, and the sneeze pages help me see what topics I need to cover more thoroughly.

What do you think–will you try this?

Photo by vanherdehaage

If you’ve just started Article Marketing, the concept of a Resource Box may be new to you.

I’ve written many articles on the topic of ‘how to create a great resource box’, and I thought it would be a good idea to compile and organize them in one place so that you will have a ready resources when questions arise.

Here are some of the classic articles on how to make a strong resource box:

Getting Started:

How To Write A Resource Box – explains what a resource box is, includes basic tips for getting started writing a resource box.

5 Safeguards To Be Sure That Your Resource Box Links Work – a guide to help you avoid broken links.

How To Customize Your Resource Box In 3 Easy Steps – It’s great to have a basic resource box, but for best results it’s a good idea to customize your basic resource box to suit each article. This resource shows you how to tailor your resource box so that it flows nicely with your article.

How To Sabotage Your Article Marketing: The Last Minute Resource Box – Here are a 7 Simple Resource Box Guidelines that will take you from “What?” to “Wow!” in no time.

5 Ways to Stop Singing the Resource Box Blues – Here’s a list of 5 definite ‘Do’s’ to keep in mind when crafting your resource box.

Giving A Reason To Click-Through To Your Website:

7 Effective Resource Box Lures – A resource box ‘lure’ is anything that inspires a reader to click the link in your resource box and go back to your website. This resource contains 7 ideas for giving your readers a reason to click-through.

How To Make Your Resource Box Sticky (and Get Those Click Throughs!) -It’s not so much what you say as how you say it–this article gives examples that show you how to tweak your readers’ interest and cultivate curiosity for what you have to offer back at your website.

3 Secret Tricks For Luring Readers Back To Your Website – My 3 best tips for increasing click-throughs from your resource box to your website.

Resource Box Rehab:

A while ago did a “Resource Box Rehab Lab” where people submitted their resource boxes so that I could brainstorm ways how to improve their author bio. We had a great turn out, and from the entries I picked out several resource boxes that were representative of common problems, and then in several posts on this blog I did a “makeover” on those chosen  resource boxes.

It was very fun and a great teaching opportunity. I think we pretty much covered all of the different pitfalls that authors fall into when creating their resource boxes–please look through the list of links below and read those tutorials. By following the instructions in the posts, you will be able to create a great resource box.

Resource Box Rehab: Why Should I Go To Your Site? – guide for providing a reason to click-through to your website.

Resource Box Rehab: Making Your Resource Box Short And Sweet – gives pointers for condensing information in your resource box to fit character limitations.

Resource Box Rehab: How To Turn Your Business Card Into A Resource Box – you can do better than having a resource box that simply reflects the info on your business card. This is a guide for taking things up a few notches from just the bare basic info.

Resource Box Rehab: It’s Not Just About Links – if you’ve ever been tempted to simply leave a link or a URL in your resource box and no other info, then this article is for you!

Resource Box Rehab: Excellent Author Resource Boxes – It helps to have role models, doesn’t it? This is a collection of great resource boxes.

HTML Resource Boxes

What’s An HTML Resource Box? – tells what a HTML resource box is, goes over the benefits of using one, and then covers some of the common mistakes people make and how to fix them.

How To Enter An Advanced HTML Resource Box In 5 Easy Steps – this is a step-by-step tutorial for submitting an HTLM resource box into SubmitYOURArticle.com. This post is for members who would like to learn how to use the Advanced HTML Resource Box field that appears on the Enter Your New Article page.

How To Write An HTML Resource Box…The Easy Way! – I’ve noticed that some authors will have great text resource boxes but their HTML ones are just bare bones! This article teaches how to have a completely fleshed out HTML resource box.

7 HTML Resource Box Slip-Ups – goes over several common mistakes that people make when creating an HTML resource box, and how to fix them.

SubmitYOURArticle.com & Resource Boxes

How To Drive Traffic To Multiple Sites With Just One Article! – Members of SubmitYOURArticle.com are invited to use ArticleLeverage™, which allows you to set up variations for different parts of your article, including the text and HTML resource boxes. This article reveals a secret trick for driving traffic to multiple sites by employing the ArticleLeverage™ tool.

How To Use The Resource Box Manager On Your Account – For members of SubmitYOURArticle.com, this is a tutorial about how to use your Resource Box Manager.

Article Marketing Interview

If you’ve been considering article marketing for a while, but perhaps you’re unsure what it is, or how it can benefit you, listen to this now:

http://www.marketingtipsuk.com/articlemarketing/

Mark Bowden, an internet marketing specialist from the UK, has just interviewed me on various aspects of article marketing for his own clients – but I twisted his arm (just a little!) and he’s agreed to make this available for you too.

There’s good bit of valuable information in the free audio interview, which is almost 40 minutes long.

So if you want to find out how article marketing could make a huge difference to the visibility and success of your website – including the one key factor that will either make or break this as a strategy for YOU to use – take a listen now:

http://www.marketingtipsuk.com/articlemarketing/

Photo Credit: Microphone

We are always trying to improve how the submission process works and add more features, and we have recently done an overhaul to the how the ArticleLeverage™ system fits in with the article submission process to make it easier to use, and also to allow you to see variations of previously published articles.

Let’s go over the major changes…

1) You can now access ArticleLeverage™ from the Preview page for your article.

So, after you enter or edit your article, you can go to the article Preview page and at the bottom of the page you will see a button that will allow you to make your ArticleLeverage™ variations:

Access ArticleLeverage™ on the article Preview page

2) And here’s another way to access ArticleLeverage™– On your home page, you will notice a new icon in the Tools column. The icon will be black if you’ve already entered variations for your article. If you have not yet entered any variations into ArticleLeverage™, then the icon will appear green. You can click the icon to access ArticleLeverage™:

Access ArticleLeverage™ by clicking the icon on your home page

If variations already exist when you go to submit your article for distribution, the ArticleLeverage™ option will be preselected, and clicking the ArticleLeverage™ button will take you directly to a confirmation page, where you can review approve all the existing variations, and edit each section if you wish.

How To See Variations Of Previously Published Articles

If your article has already been distributed, you can see your variations for an article by clicking the ArticleLeverage icon in the toolbar. This is for reviewing purposes only–any changes you make to your ArticleLeverage variations after your article has been distributed will of course not affect your previously distributed article.

We hope you enjoy the new functionality of ArticleLeverage™, and please let us know if you have any questions.

Coming Soon! We are working on a further update to ArticleLeverage™ planned for the near future to allow members to choose whether to provide sentence variations (as at present) or paragraph variations.

Related Resources:

What is ArticleLeverage?

ArticleLeverage: HowTo Build Links To Multiple Websites With Just One Article

If you’re a newcomer to article marketing, I know how intimidating it can feel to be faced with the prospect of writing not just one quality article, but a steady stream of them.

For many people, the last time they wrote a piece of content that needed to be top notch was in high school or college, so it’s no wonder that the thought of starting an article marketing campaign can bring up feelings of nervousness.

I’d like to assure you that it’s okay to be a beginner!

Even the most experienced, proficient, and successful article marketers were at one time novices. And it’s actually a perk that article marketing requires steadily writing articles, because it’s only through experience that any of us see improvement.

I wish that I could just sit down at a table across from you and address each and every one of your fears, and as much as possible that’s what I’d like to do here. I’ve made list of 7 of the top concerns people have, and I’d like to go through them one by one.

1) I’ve never written an article before.

That’s just fine–if you can write a letter to your Aunt Martha, then you can write an article.

As I said before–there was a time when every one of us were beginners, having never written an article before. Just because you haven’t done it before doesn’t mean that you aren’t able to start now.  I assure you, as you write your first, second and third articles, you will notice that each time it gets easier and less intimidating.

If it makes you feel an better, I have a friend who has a degree in English and is used to writing term papers, and even she was nervous about writing her first articles for article marketing. I think it’s normal to feel a little off balance at the beginning–that is a sign that you’re trying something new and expanding your skills.

2) I don’t know the correct formula/format to use.

Having some sort of “format” to guide your writing helps, doesn’t it? While there is no one way of writing an article, there are a few article writing “formulas” that are tried and true and make it easier to write.

I’ll share with you 2 of the formulas I use when I’m writing articles:

• The ‘how-to’ article. The ‘how-to’ article has the purpose of telling a reader detailed steps for doing something having to do with your niche. I think the best how-to articles involve a series of clearly identified steps (it helps to number each step). An example of a ‘how-to’ article would be 5 Steps To Writing A Killer ‘How To’ Article For more detailed instructions on how to write a ‘how-to’ article, please see that article.
• The ‘list’ article. The list article is the easiest type of article of all in my opinion. Think of a topic having to do with your niche–usually for a list this will be a general topic. For example, a recent article of mine was called Top 15 Article Marketing Tips. Incidentally, this post you’re reading right now is also a list and would be an appropriate topic for a list article. Here are some more detailed instructions on how to write a great list article.

Again, these are not the only two types of articles in the world, but if you’re looking for some sort of formula/format to follow to help you get started writing, I highly recommend writing ‘how-to’ and ‘list’ articles.

3) I’m not sure what a “good” article is, so I don’t even know what to shoot for.

Sometimes all we need is to see an example that we can emulate, and then from seeing a few articles that are “good”, you can start to feel more confident that you can do it too.

I’ve shared with you a few articles of my own already, and you’re welcome to look at my entire article list, but it also may help to browse through the entire SubmitYOURArticle.com article directory for examples to follow. These are all articles that have passed editorial approval, but if you have any specific questions please don’t hesitate to ask us.

4) I’m afraid that my article won’t be accepted.

One of the perks of submitting articles through SubmitYOURArticle.com is that your article is pre-screened by an editor to be sure that it meets our editorial guidelines. Our guidelines are set up to make it so that your article has the maximum chance of getting accepted by most publishers. If your article is for some reason not accepted by us on the first try, don’t worry–all you need to do is make the changes that the editor specifies and then resubmit your article. If you don’t understand what changes need to be made, just ask us and we’ll be happy to elaborate.

We do the best we can to help ensure that your articles have the best chance of getting accepted by publishers. If your article happens to be sent back for changes by our own editor, no worries–even I’ve had articles sent back with problems pointed out!

At any rate, getting an article sent back for changes is not necessarily a bad thing–that means that our editor noticed something that might cause your article to be declined by a publisher, and you have the opportunity to fix things before your article is distributed.

If your article passes our editor’s review, then it’s very likely that it will be approved by most publishers.

And here’s another resource of common publisher guidelines: How To Get Your Article Accepted On The First Try!

5) I don’t even know where to start…

That’s okay–I don’t blame you! The first article can be the hardest because you can get that “deer in the headlights” feeling of “oh no, where do I even begin?” Let’s just take it one step at a time–I’ve got a step-by-step tutorial on writing your first article from scratch that I hope you’ll find helpful.

6) I don’t have time to write.

Do you have time to market your business?

Sometimes we can get caught up on the idea of writing a single article, but article marketing is not about one article or a handful of articles–it’s about marketing your business, increasing traffic to your website, gaining more customers, selling more products, and building on the success of your business.

Every business person knows you need to market your business in order to grow. In the online world the way you market your business is to drive traffic to your website.

So, instead of thinking of writing articles as just another thing on your to-do list, think of it as an integral aspect of running your business.

In the same way you wouldn’t say “I don’t have time to meet with clients” or “I don’t have time to ship the products that people have ordered”, you wouldn’t say “I don’t have time to write.”

Writing articles is how you market your business.

7) I don’t know how to tell if it’s working.

If you aren’t sure how to tell if you’re efforts are paying off, it’s hard to keep the motivation and momentum going, isn’t it?

Most people want to submit an article and then count the minutes they wait for results, but you should be looking at a calendar rather than your watch.

I’ll just tell you up front–it will most likely take 3-4 months before seeing results from your article marketing efforts, and it will likely take longer to see results if the website you’re marketing is brand new.

The reason for this has to do with how search engines index new sites and register new backlinks. Search engines usually adjust rankings and calculate new backlinks every 3-4 months, so when you launch an article marketing campaign, the impact is on a time delay.

Why is article marketing such a popular marketing tool if it doesn’t yield immediate results?

Because it can produce dramatic effects on a website’s traffic over the long term.

This doesn’t mean you can’t measure your progress–I keep track of my progress every month to see how things are coming along. Please see this post for the indicators I measure to get an accurate idea of how my article marketing campaign is impacting my website.

We’ve just covered the 7 ‘top fears’–are you feeling more confident and comfortable? I hope so!

Remember, take it one step at a time, and you will grow in your skill and knowledge. No one expects you to do things perfectly from the get go, so just forge ahead bravely, and let me know if I can be of assistance to you.

Photo Credit: Casper the Friendly Ghost Originally uploaded by DianthusMoon