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That is a fabulous question, and one thing I've noticed is that people who are using article marketing to promote their product based websites encounter certain unique challenges in writing the types of non-promotional articles that quality publishes are looking for.
First off, let's clarify what a "product based website" is.
A product based website is any website that is used primarily to sell particular pieces of merchandise. For example, let's say your website is a sales site devoted to baby clothes. That is a product based website. So is a website that is all product information and sales pages for particular brands of vitamins, or watches, or gourmet chocolates or umbrellas.
You get the idea–if you're using article marketing to try to drive traffic back to a website that is sales oriented and that is comprised of product information and actual sales pages ("Click here to buy such and such!"), then you have yourself a product based website, and you have to be creative when writing articles to use for article marketing.
Why does having a product based website create unique challenges for a writer?
Well, there is something in us that thinks, "Hey, this is a no-brainer. If my website is trying to sell Brand XYZ of chocolate, then naturally I should write articles trying to tell people why they should buy Brand XYZ of chocolate, right?"
Nope. That is not the way it works. Do you know why?
Because when we're doing article marketing, we need to balance:
1) what will bring value to our target readers with
2) what quality publishers want to publish
You see, you can write as many articles about your own products as you like and submit them to as many publishers as you like, but if a publisher has a policy that they only publish educational articles (and this is the way most quality publishers work) and that they will not publish articles that are promotional (i.e. articles that look to be written specifically to promote the author's own products, website, affiliate products or business), then all of your work will be for naught.
Your articles should be informational/educational only, and your resource box (the author bio area underneath the article) only can be used to link to and provide information about your site.
So what are you supposed to do if you can't write about your products in your article body?
How can a writer who has a product based website write articles that will be welcomed by quality publishers, bring value to his target market, and inspire readers to click through to his website?
Sounds like a tall order, but it can be done my friend, with a little creativity.
Let's go back to our fictional website owner whose site is sales pages for Brand XYZ of gourmet chocolate. She knows she can't write about the gourmet chocolate she's selling at her website–that would be a no-no. What should she write about for her article marketing campaign? Hmmm…
Here are some ideas (and I'm putting these ideas in the form of article titles):
- "5 Ways You Can Tell If The Chocolate You're Eating Is High Quality"
- "What is the difference between Dark Chocolate, Milk Chocolate, and Semi-sweet Chocolate?"
- "The Health Benefits Of Eating Chocolate"
- "3 Restaurant Inspired Chocolate Dessert Recipes Made From Chocolate Bars"
- "The History Of Chocolate"
- "Is White Chocolate Really Chocolate?"
I could go on and on brainstorming topics for articles that will be of interest to our chocolate bar sales person's target market, make readers in the mood to buy chocolate, and that will also be seen as educational and valuable from a publisher's perspective.
Now, it goes without saying that as the owner of this gourmet chocolate website is writing the above articles that she cannot mention her own business, website, products or affiliate products within her article. She cannot allude to or make reference to XYZ brand of chocolates in any way, shape, or fashion in her article.
She knows that her well crafted resource box (rather than her article) is the appropriate place to talk about herself, her business, and her website.
Like every website owner that is using article marketing as part of their marketing campaign, she has had to take off her "I'm a sales person for XYZ Chocolates" hat, and replace it with a more subtle "I'm an expert on chocolate" hat.
Do you see the difference between presenting yourself as a sales person for a particular product and presenting yourself as an expert in your niche?
Writing as an expert in your niche (whether it be chocolate, vitamins, umbrellas, or baby clothes) has many benefits, and I'm sure once you contemplate these perks you'll never want to write a promotional, advertisement-type article about your own products again!
Writing as an expert is your niche (rather than about the particular product that you're selling) is much more subtle, much more reader and publisher friendly.
Readers looking at articles are not interested in an article that looks like an advertisement for your product. Immediately, once a reader senses that you're trying to sell them something, they put their guard up and lose interest in your article–and that is not what you're going for!
The object when you're creating your article is to:
- Come across like you know what you're talking about
- Come across as unbiased, like you have nothing to gain from providing the helpful article
- Put the reader at ease and heighten their curiosity about whatever your topic is
Yes, this is much more subtle than writing an article that screams, "Buy my product!", but it's also much more effective at accomplishing your goals.
Let's look back at the main reasons why you started article marketing in the first place and how writing as an expert rather than a sales person helps you reach these goals:
- To build inbound links to your website. The inbound links will improve your search engine ranking, which will then, in turn bring you even more traffic. How do you build inbound links through article marketing? You receive a backlink from every publisher who decides to pick up your article, publish it on his website, and share it with his readers. As we said before, quality publishers want educational articles that are not in any way an advertisement for your products, business or website. When your write as an expert in your niche (rather than as a sales person), you create articles that publishers want to publish, and you increase your inbound links!
- To get the word out about your website, bringing widespread exposure and an increase in long term targeted traffic. When I say "get the word out about your website" I am referring to your well-crafted resource box that sits below your educational, non-promotional article.
- To establish yourself as experts in your niche. When a reader develops a craving for a high quality chocolate bar after reading your helpful article, who do you think he will turn to for more information? He will likely turn to the person who he has confidence in, the person who has established herself as an expert on the topic. Also, let's say someone is actually interested in your particular product, and he does a Google search of your business name (or your website name, or product name) to do a little background research. Well, if you've been doing article marketing, when they search for your name a list of your articles will come up, and they will get a great idea of your expertise in your field. This builds customer confidence and makes it more likely that they will trust you enough to purchase from you.
So, it's not that owners of product based websites have to write articles differently than owners of service based or information based websites, it's just that product based websites seem to tempt us into writing an article that says "Buy my product!"
It's completely normal if you feel that urge, but RESIST!
To drive traffic to your website with article marketing you need to think creatively, think like an expert in your niche rather than a sales person, and think about providing educational articles that potential customers will value and that quality publishers are seeking.
Questions for you–
Are any of you writing articles to market your product based website? Do you have any special tips for writing non-promotional articles that you've picked up along the way?
Also, if your mind is drawing a blank for article topics that are non-promotional for your product based website, chime in in the comments, let us know the topic of your website, and all of us can try to help you brainstorm!
Article Distribution Service (SubmitYOURArticle.com)
Posted: Friday, May 9th, 2008 at 12:00 am
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May 9th, 2008 at 1:12 am
My product is an e-book — Banish the Blahs and Be Happy! 28 ways to beat the blues
Question — how can I possibly write a book on dealing with attitude, down days, etc without appearing to be pushing my book in the resource area?
Also, I have other lenses to build — that are informative about hemi-facial spasm, legal blindness, etc that do not necessarily complement my book, but I would like to add my book to the resource area — is that legit? Or in that case, should the reader see that information only on my bio?
May 9th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Hi Joan
Just to be clear, the post refers to the article body only, rather than the resource box – the resource box is indeed where you have the opportunity for a short promotional blurb about your book. You just ensure you don’t do this in the article body itself.
So, you’d first identify the target market for your niche, and then write an article so that your target market might find it in a search engine.
I’m guessing the target market for the book you mention would be people with depression, so you’d write an article on that topic.
To be honest though, the book itself presents you with a ‘content opportunity’, and likely multiple times over – just rework some of the content from the book and present it in an article (eg. ‘Five Ways To Beat Depression’), and then in the resource box say something like “Article was excerpted from my ebook ‘[your ebook title]‘, by Joan [your last name]. For more powerful ways to overcome your depression, go to [your url]“.
You’d set up an email capture page at the URL you’re linking to, and sell your ebook via follow up email messages.
You could produce several articles using this technique.
Where you mention other areas you’d like to write articles about, you could do this, but it’s value would be more limited. For example, people finding your article about hemi-facial spasm on the search engines would be interested in that topic, rather than depression, and so would be less likely to click-through for more info about your e-book.
Hope this helps,
Steve Shaw
May 10th, 2008 at 1:34 am
Article Marketing for Affiliate Sites…
Creative Article Marketing has a post up about the best way to write your articles (for article marketing) to drive traffic back to your product-based site (which, if you’re like me, means an affiliate site that focuses on tangible, physical…
May 10th, 2008 at 2:05 am
Thanks for the info and help with ideas for writing, I just have one question when I finish an article where do I go then to get it seen.
Thanks Diane Brixey
May 10th, 2008 at 2:31 am
very good tips on drving traffic to your website. I find that if an article is well written and the author seems well informed on the topic at hand, I will then visit the website.
May 10th, 2008 at 7:59 am
what about a product review and recomendation in the article. I think you can write a “about product” article and recomend your products, if the article informative thin it will be published
May 10th, 2008 at 9:02 am
I have found that giving a lot of free advice is the answer. The very first article I wrote has been No 1 for quite a while in the top 15 most widely read articles under the “7 Tips” Category of the Businesses section of Ezine-articles.
I simply picked out a few pieces of information from the book I was promoting and gave it in a helpful list. This has brought quite a few visitors to my website!
May 10th, 2008 at 11:30 am
Great advice Steve. It is the classic case of Give (in the article) then Take (in the resource box).
Deliver value to the reader and the publisher and the rest will take care of itself.
May 10th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
Loved your article. I used to publish ‘news releases’ for my business in the past with great success. I’m sure the process is the same for email releases but how do I go about getting a list of publications geared to travelers or news paper travel editors?
Thanks,
Jeff
May 10th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
We write quality articles for clients. The problem is that the article should have keywords in the headline and the body text to enhance the backlinks to the website. This technique can bring in quality backlinks and possible sales. If an article directory or a content sharing site like squidoo or hubpage allows you to do the anchor text and linking the main article, you should do that.
Just my 2 cents.
Thanks,
Rahail Salamat
May 10th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
I agree, you need to think like an expert first, and then push the reader further along the sales process.
For example, you should end your article with the biggest tip, benefit, critical step… Then your resource box should continue along the same lines, providing more info or the missing link.
For Example: “The Health Benefits Of Eating Chocolate”. After listing the benfits you end on Dark Chocolate Raises Your Metabolism (I’m just making this up, I don’t know anything about chocolate.)
Then in your resource box you promote a free report at your site (on the dark chocolate section) called “The five best chocolate choices to raise your metabolism”. Then inside the report, you can use your own chocolates as examples.
Two things happen, you get people to the part of your site you want (Dark Chocolate), and you give them something free which promots your products and pushes them further along the sales process.
I find free reports work well for this, you just need to be creative and make the report a logical next step after reading the article.
May 10th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
On my blog I write directly about my niche, but on articles I submit to directories, I’ve found writing about topics related to the niche work best. For instance, if you’re trying to sell medical test kits, write an article about parents, kids, and trust issues.
May 11th, 2008 at 8:27 am
Thank You…
May 12th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Your article on article writing is right on. When reading an article that is really a sales pitch to buy – I move on quickly. I know when I see the article topic that I am not interested in “buying chocolate” yet could be interested in just getting more “information” on chocolate. There is a difference.
May 12th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
Hi Diane,
You had asked “I just have one question when I finish an article where do I go then to get it seen.”
Thanks so much for your question. Diane, after you write your article you would submit your article to online publishers. There are 3 distribution channels for articles–Ezine Editors, Announcement Lists, and Article Directories.
You can of course choose to submit your articles manually to the various online publishers (which is quite time consuming) or you can use a service such as SubmitYOURArticle.com (this is our service) which will automatically submit your articles to a large number of quality, targeted online publishers.
It sounds like you’re not a member of our service yet, so you’re welcome to sign up here http://www.submityourarticle.com/
If you choose to submit manually and would like a list of some article directories, announcement lists and ezine editors just let me know and I’ll email links to those lists to you.
Please feel free to ask us any other questions you have.
May 12th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
Hi Carolynsue–
That is so true! I do the same thing. When I’m reading an article I want information, rather than a sales pitch, and I think most people appreciate a well written educational article.
May 12th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
Jossef asked:
Jossef–Thanks so much for your excellent question! You cannot write an article that is a recommendation for your products, as that would be considered promotional. It’s not enough for an article to be “informational”–a sales page for a product is informational, but it’s still not a non-promotional educational article.
If you’re writing about your own product or affiliate product, and then linking to that product in the resource box, then article is basically an advertisement. Rather than writing about the product you should write an article of interest to your target market without mentioning the product itself.
So for a product that’s an ebook on fishing, you’d write about fishing, not the ebook; for a software product, say an accounting software package, you’d write about something of interest to potential users of the product, eg. what to look for when choosing an accounting package.
Does that help? Let me know if you have other questions.
May 12th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
Hi Tracey,
You’ve just given an excellent example of how to use article marketing to promote a book. You do have to think in a different way and make the book content “article friendly”, but when you shift your thinking it’s very doable.
Lists like “Top 7…” or “Top 10…” seem to be very attractive to readers too!
Thanks so much for chiming in
May 12th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
Hi James,
Yes, that’s exactly it–as Tracey said too, free advice is the way to go.
Your article is an exchange of information, and the reader will “give” (click through to your website) as much as he feels like he’s received (from the helpful free advice in your article).
Thanks for reminding us about the give and take relationship with our readers
May 12th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
[...] Steve, from Submit Your Article gives a great example about a fictitious site owner who is selling Brand XYZ gourmet chocolate. She knows she can’t just write: “Buy my chocolates, they are so yummy.” So what could she write about that doesn’t sound like a sales pitch? What is the best way to write articles to drive traffic back to my product website? [...]
May 12th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
Jeff said:
Thanks for your question, Jeff. First off–by “email releases” I’m thinking that you’re referring to submitting your articles to ezine editors who would be publishing via email?
Yes, you’re exactly right–if you’re hoping to get your article published in ezines then most certainly you want to be sure you’re submitting your articles to editors who publish in the same ‘category’ as your article topic. The important part is the readership of the ezine.
If you are submitting your articles *manually* to ezine editors, you will need to (unfortunately!) scour ezine directories for ezines within your genre, check each ezine to see if they accept article submissions, and then double check with each editor to confirm that their details are correct, and that they still accept article submissions.
To get started now, you can find a listing of several dozen ezine directories at:
http://www.submityourarticle.com/course/ezinedirectories.php
Compiling that targeted list of editors yourself will be very tedious, and guess what I’m about to say
…
There is however a much quicker way to achieve this, using our SubmitYOURArticle.com service.
Jeff, our service allows you to submit your articles automatically to our own in-house list of highly-targeted ezine editors and web site publishers who want to receive article submissions, as well as to other publishing channels.
This list has been built up of web sites that request article submissions to be sent to a specific email address, and from publishers who contact us and confirm that they wish to be added to our list.
So, it is targeted and the publishers actually welcome our member’s articles.
If you’re interested in joining our article submission service feel free to sign up here: http://www.submityourarticle.com/
If you have any other questions, please let me know
May 12th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
Rahail said:
Thanks so much for chiming in, Rahail. This is true–yes SEO-wise it does help to have your keywords in your title and in your article, but on the flip side of that one thing to keep in mind is that, although we are article marketing to increase our SEO power (among several other things), first and foremost we’re writing our articles to attract and bring value to our target readers. After all, Google is evaluating your content in terms of how well it thinks your article will satisfy the searcher (the person who is typing search terms into a search box).
So, I’d just say to anyone doing article marketing–don’t stuff your keywords.
By that I mean don’t force them into your title and your article body in an unnatural way (I have seen a few folks try to do that and it’s not a pretty sight
).
If you write naturally about the topic of your website, then your keywords or variations of your keywords will naturally appear in your article and oftentimes in your title too, and Google appreciates naturally occurring keywords.
So, I would write the article on a topic that goes along with your website (showing you’re an expert in your niche), and write an intelligent, eye-catching title that will make readers want to read your article and click through (the best title may or may not include your keywords–it just depends on what your article is about).
If you would like to use anchor text in your resource box, you can do so in your HTML advanced resource box. Here’s a HowTo for that:
Create an Advanced HTML Resource Box in 5 Super Easy Steps
And in case anyone is looking for tips on how to craft a great title, check this out:
How To Give Your Article Curb Appeal
May 12th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
Hi Edward,
Thanks so much for your input–you’ve illustrated an excellent, intelligent way to craft your article and then segway into your resource box so that you have the best chance of a click through to your site.
I need to remember that for next time–save the best tip for last. I also love the “free report” idea–the more reason someone has to click through, the better!
And I really do wish that it was true that chocolate raised one’s metabolism–if someone had a report on that, I’d be rushing to grab it!
May 12th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
Hi Clara,
You bring up an interesting idea–sometimes when your product on your site is so cut and dry (like medical test kits) you need to stretch a little think a little wider, as you’ve said. As much as possible though, I would be sure that your article topic was somehow connected the topic of your website (I’m thinking that the thing that is being tested is somehow related to parents and children and trust).
That’s an excellent point–thanks for chiming in!
May 12th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
Hey Walter,
Yes, that’s it exactly–we have our guard up so much these days because it seems like everyone wants to sell us something. For those of us with product based websites, we will see greater results by being more subtle, and gently luring a reader in and nurturing their interest in the topic. So true!
May 20th, 2008 at 12:48 am
I sell Glass Art on my website (http://www.mastersglassart.com). Anyone have any ideas of topics that I could write about?
Thanks,
Christine
May 20th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
Hey Christine,
It looks like you have a blog, so actually you’ve got a ready-made source of inspiration for articles (which is a plus!)
You can use some of your blog post ideas as springboards for articles. Ones I notice are:
“Experimenting with Different Glass Techniques”
“How To Choose The Best Kiln For Your Glass Art”
“How To Make Glass Stringers with a Candle Flame”
Christine, the topic of your website is perfectly suited to write HowTo articles, and glass sculpting/ glass blowing (not sure if you do that) tips or whatever special techniques you use.
Most blog post are not appropriate to use as articles, but they can be re-worked and fleshed out to make great articles that would catch people’s interest and lead them back to your website.
I hope this helps!
May 22nd, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Hi Steve,
I guess it was inevitable that someone would say this, and I’m glad it could be me – thanks for the article ideas for my chocolate site.
I’ve found, after writing about all sorts of topics as a freelance writer, that you have to really get inside your readers’ heads. What is is they want to know? What is it they need to know?
It’s important to remember that no matter what your niche, you know a lot more about it than most people.
In a chocolate world, there are a lot of misconceptions and unknown facts, so the possibilities are endless.
I’ve had to write about stairs and stairs parts – most people just know they want stairs, maybe want to build them themselves to save money, or need to learn the “language” of stairs parts.
And so on. It’s easy to put myself into the shoes of a potential customer when I am writing for someone else’s site because usually there is a lot that I don’t know about the subject.
That’s the place I try to go to write about my own niches too. It’s harder, but possible.
May 22nd, 2008 at 8:28 pm
Haha–Glad we could be of help to you Kathryn! Now you’ve got quite a bit of writing to do
That is such great advice you’ve given too–we can never go wrong if we put ourselves in the shoes of our customers!
Thanks so much for your valuable input
June 6th, 2008 at 12:23 am
[...] What is the best way to write articles to drive traffic back to my product website? [...]
June 26th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
I just started using submityourarticle.com but I’m outsoursing my articles. After reading this squidoo page, I really want to start writing my own. Thanks so much for all this info.
June 27th, 2008 at 6:24 pm
Hi Steven,
You’re welcome, and that is a great idea! The more you write the easier it gets–after a while you’ll be thinking of topics in your sleep
June 30th, 2008 at 11:56 pm
how do i write an article about a merchindise based store that carrys 3000 items?? It ha tools, elctronics. chess sets, toys collectables from everywhere and every kind. I can;t even imagine How to write an article of interest without sounding like a salesperson. How do i choose what to write about that would be related at all to this site???
July 1st, 2008 at 5:48 pm
Hi Lee,
I looked at your site and I see what you mean! Lee, you have different areas of merchandise at your site, consider writing articles for each area–you have to get creative with this!
If I were in your shoes, I would pick a category at your site, such as “For Pets” and write an article entitled “The Top 10 Gift Ideas For Pet Lovers”.
In the article, you would not write about specific products, but list 10 types of products that you have on your site, such as plush pet beds in designer colors, artistic dog bowls, pet carriers that make humans look stylish, etc…
You would not mention your own site in the article, but could say “I’ve seen dog carriers that look like designer purses–any stylish pet lover that has a small dog or a cat would scream for joy if she received one of these as a gift.”
Then in your resource box you could say, “Looking for the ideal gift for the pet lover in your life? Visit [link here] and receive 10% off your first order.”
That is a way to write an article for a product based site–you could do other articles like that to address different areas of your site–Electronics, games, collectibles, etc–you just have to come up with an idea (and occasion) as to why someone would be buying it, and then craft an article that addresses the occasion, rather than tries to sell the product.
I hope that helps!
July 8th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Can you please tell me the ideal length an article should be – number of words.
Thanks
Regards
Kevin
July 8th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
Hi Kevin,
Yes, that’s a great question–the ideal length for an article is 700-800 words.
Anything overly short or long can have limited appeal to publishers. Generally speaking, ezine editors and other publishers are not looking for articles that are much shorter or longer than this. This length fits into ezines well, and looks about right on web pages too.
I hope this helps!
July 28th, 2008 at 9:52 am
Hi Steve
Got to say this is a brilliant article it really tells you how it should be laid out properly for the article directories.
July 28th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
Hey Gavin,
Thank you!
I’m glad this was helpful.
August 1st, 2008 at 9:14 am
Thanks Steve,
That is a great article and thank you for the sound advice
Rich
August 6th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
[...] What is the best way to write articles to drive traffic back to my product website? [...]
August 20th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
[...] Remember, you are not trying to sell anything or convince folks to visit your website in your article. The way you lure traffic back to your website is by creating a helpful article and writing a great resource box that inspires folks to click! [...]
November 5th, 2008 at 6:08 am
My website carries a number of categories and involves different products, much like the items you would find in a shopping mall. Would it be more beneficial to write an article about one niche or writing an article about a few others? Just a concern I have being that the nature of the website is a affiliate shopping mall and carries a few different product categories.
Just looking for some advice.
Thank you very much for this article. This is very good helpful information and guidelines for writing article about many different subjects.
Thank you,
Jake Salanga
November 6th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
Hi Jake,
Thanks so much for your question, and I’m glad you found this post helpful.
For a site like yours that is sort of like a shopping mall where multiple types of products are sold, I would write articles for each category your have and then have the link in your resource box go back to either your main page or the page that lists the items in that specific category.
For example, I would pick a category at your site, such as “Travel/Vacations” and write an article entitled “The Top 10 Vacation Destinations for Christmas” (or something like that).
In the article, you would not write about specific affiliate products you have at your site, and you also wouldn’t be able to give any affiliate links in your resource box, but you would be able to give a link to your website and from there a reader could click one of your affiliate links.
That is a way to write an article for a product based site–you could do other articles like that to address different areas of your site–Jewelry, Apparel, Bags, Electronics, Automotive, etc–you just have to come up with an idea (and occasion) as to why someone would be buying it, and then craft an article that addresses the occasion, rather than tries to sell the product.
I hope that helps!
December 3rd, 2008 at 2:22 pm
Hi Steve
What about some advice for someone like me, who knows already that article submission is God, but who has just landed a marketing job where she doesn’t know much about the product?
I’ve been used to writing articles on finance. Now I’m with a company that sells photography equipment, but chiefly digital memory. I’m not a photographer and there’s a limit to what you can say about digital memory.
So far I’ve been limited to committing the cardinal sins of pushing products and bigging up the company.
I want to sign up for Submityourarticle, but with so little to write about so far, I’m stuck. Hayulp!
December 29th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
I have a product driven website, so needless to say, this is a very enlightening article and is sure to save me a ton of wasted time in advertising and article submissions! Thanks so much
December 31st, 2008 at 6:16 pm
Hi Steve
Excellent post I must say that after using your services SYA for two months I am still learning the ropes
It is amasing how quickly we forget the basis and get used to bas habits or worse start buying ebooks about article marketing whilst ALL ALONG your blog has the best advice and for FREE
May I suggest you remind all visitors and members of SYA to visit the basics of AM on your blog at the start of 2009
My grateful thanks for your guidance
Charles
January 16th, 2009 at 2:40 am
[...] 19) Make your articles educational rather than sales oriented. This means that your articles should be written to teach readers rather than inspire them to buy a particular product. [...]
January 21st, 2009 at 10:38 pm
Great information, tips and how to bring more readers.
February 10th, 2009 at 9:00 pm
Writing articles involves personality, passion, and purpose. We express personality constantly, whether discussing a business concern at the conference table, or our ski trip at the coffee table.
Our passion erupts from what matters to us. Not everyone cares equally about the same subject. When Passion appears, we search out facts and present our unique explanation of ideas as we view the value of those ideas to readers.
Everything has purpose. Ants look crazy and bewildered as they rush along, yet they are possessed by singular purpose.
The passions of personality driven by purpose seem to educate and entertain. Sometimes our words have the rhythm and tone of spring birds. Other times, we croak. No matter! We write!
April 18th, 2009 at 7:42 am
Thanks for this. I had the wrong idea thinking that you pushed your affiliate products rather than educating your readers. Whew!.
May 3rd, 2009 at 12:36 am
Hi steve,
Im new in writing articles.
Can you give me some ideas about what to write about my niche?? I read somewhere that it is better not to use programs like Word to write the Articles. Can you advice me what program to use??, Thank you
May 4th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
Hi K,
Sure, I’d be happy to help you with some ideas of writing topics.
Here are some resources for you:
5 Ways To Generate Article Topics
The Fastest, Easiest Way To Write Your First Article…Starting From Square One
7 Tips For New Article Writers
How To Create An Article Idea List
How To Find Great Article Topics
How Do You Know What Topics Strike A Nerve With Your Target Market?
That should be more than enough to get you started. I hope that helps!
May 7th, 2009 at 7:36 pm
[...] 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. [...]
May 10th, 2009 at 8:54 pm
I, by definition have “product based” websites, but whether or not I sell the products is secondary.
My major income comes from adsense.
It would seem however, that I still need to promote my products, in order to get traffic and to satisfy Google.
But is there another way of looking at this?
Mike
May 12th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
Hi Michael,
Whether your income comes from Adsense or from direct product sales on your site, when using article marketing to drive traffic the best bet is to write on the general topic of your website rather than on a specific product.
In most situations the Adsense ads you will get are determined by the content on your site. So if you publish content that is associated with the topic of your website that should work–you will get targeted ads, and there’s no need to pitch products in your articles.
For example, the website you’ve listed in your comment is about paying off debts–that would be fine to write all your articles on the topic of paying off debts. There is no specific product there, so it’s fine. The content on your site will also be about that same topic, and as a result, you should receive Google ads that are targeted to that topic.
Always write on the topic of your website, and if your website is about a specific product, then write on the general topic that the website is about (like the example of the chocolate bars in the post here).
I hope that helps!
May 14th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
>I hope that helps
It does, and thanks,
Mike
June 12th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
[...] What is the best way to write articles to drive traffic back to my product website? [...]
December 8th, 2009 at 3:18 am
I operate a number of websites, one of which contains articles created by a writer who has an interesting and suitably entertaining writing style. Those articles have brought daily visitors to the website over a period of several years.
Also, a journalist wrote an article about a website client who operates a tour service in a remote location in Australia, and whenever that article has been published on newspaper websites around the world, visitor numbers to the client’s sites increase substantially (up to 15 times the normal daily average). So I am aware from these experiences that well written articles can have a substantial and ongoing impact on the number of visitors accessing a website.
As a website operator, I am always looking for content and am open to publishing well written articles on a travel related website that is already well indexed by Google and which would benefit from displaying more such articles.
I have previously also published relevant photographs obtained from selected photographers on selected website pages in exchange for a credit to the photographer and a link back to the photographer’s own website. That arrangement has benfited both parties and has also provided visitors with access to relevant photographs of locations. Google have then indexed those photographs and from that indexing send visitors to the websites on a daily basis.
December 8th, 2009 at 5:28 pm
Hi David,
Yes, high quality content can definitely help a website owner attract readers. David, we do offer Travel articles, and if you’d like to join our publisher network, you can do so here:
https://secure.submityourarticle.com/publishers
Just let us know if you have any questions. We’ll be sending you an email to follow up on your question here.
December 21st, 2009 at 8:54 am
Hi, Steve – since you are an expert in article marketing, i would just like to ask – how many articles can a writer write in a day assuming that the case is like what you guys are discussing – submitting articles to article directories or ezine directories for purposes of backlinks?
I would love to hear your inputs on this.
Thanks a lot.
December 21st, 2009 at 8:57 am
Hi Felicity–It depends on the writer and what they are writing about and the length of their articles as to how many articles they can (or want to) write in a day.
But as far as what I recommend–if you are submitting through an automatic article distribution service like SubmitYOURArticle.com, there is no need to exceed 8 articles a month per website.
I hope that helps!
January 29th, 2010 at 1:03 am
Hi Steve
My issue lies with consistancy i understand the concept of using this to built trust and rapport and backlinks, but what i don`t understand is how do you keep the momemtum going..
Surely at some point in the future you will run dry on ways of writing about the same subject , so in essence you can`t write anymore?
Another issue i have along these lines is my website is product based, how to sell skincare products on eBay!
Now at some point i will create another product that i will market via Article Marketing, so does this mean the two articles a week for my first site become a workload of four including the two a week for the new product, then 6 product 3 then 8 product 4, i cannot get my head around these issues?
if you could please help that would be great!
Cheers Steve….Ed.
January 29th, 2010 at 2:55 pm
Hi Ed
Great question. My answer is very simple … outsource. Find decent writers (eg. places like freelance.com) who can write articles within your niche, and in terms of what to write about – keyword research.
Do keyword research within your niche, look for long-tail keyword phrases which get some traffic but which have little competition, and build up a spreadsheet of these keywords, ideally a few dozen. Some long-tail keyword phrases in fact make ideal article titles, eg. ‘How to …’.
And then get your writers to cycle through these keywords, focusing each article on one at at time. Every so often, repeat the keyword research and refresh your list of keywords.
It may take a while and some pain to find writers who can do what you’re looking for, but it’s worth it for the gain.
If the above does not feel financially possible for you (obviously I’ve no idea either way), then at least do the keyword research bit and use that as the basis for your articles, and work towards the outsourcing, maybe just getting someone else to take just one article a month of your hands at first to give you a feel for it.
Doing the above will remove the obstacle it sounds like you see in front of you right now, and allows your business/product line to be expandable.
Steve