Article Marketing Master Plan Unveiled

Effective headline strategies:

Your title must always contain your main keyword phrase, otherwise people will not be able to find it via EzineArticles' internal search or through the search engines. Ideally, you'll want to have more than one keyword appear in your title.

Example of a good title:

"Weight Loss Secrets - 3 Easy Steps to Lose That Weight"

I literally just made that up. In my opinion, it's good because it is keyword rich and contains the magic words "easy" and "secret".

People don't like to do things the hard way.

People don't like learning things.

People DO like taking shortcuts.

People DO like discovering things.

Magic words to spice up your titles:

Easy - Secret/Secrets - Discover - How to - Deadly

A note on "how-to's"... you're going to want to convey a benefit with your how-to's. Your reader should find out exactly what they're getting by reading your title. "How to lose weight" isn't a benefit because it is too general. "How to write a killer article in 10 minutes" is a benefit. Other words you should consider using in your titles: Dos and don'ts - Strategies - The truth about - Revealed - Mistakes - Essential. Again, those lists aren't exhaustive, but I just wanted to give you a general idea of what you should strive for in your titles.

The Body:

A common mistake when doing article marketing is to write a very informative article. There's nothing wrong with providing information and value in an article, but remember, the goal of your article should be to make your reader want to learn more, not to get the whole picture from your article. I'm not saying you should write articles full of fluff, I'm just saying that you don't need to pack your articles with information. If your reader satisfies their curiosity or thirst for knowledge after reading your article, there will not be any motivation to click through to your site.

Article Length:

Your article should be between 300 and 600 words long. Between 300 and 400 would be perfect because readers tend to lose interest or focus rather quickly unless an article is superbly written. 300 word articles are extremely easy to write because they are so short. Think about it: your intro for the article should already take up a good 50 to 100 words. Then you have a conclusion which should be another 50 to 100 words. Easy peasy.

Article Layout:

If your article is on the short side (~300 words), then you have a bit of freedom with how you present your article. You can either have a few paragraphs, or you could have bullet points sandwiched by an intro and a conclusion. Conclusions aren't always necessary, but intros are, for obvious reasons.

If your article is around 500 words, then it wouldn't hurt to make your article easier to read by having bullets or sections which are separated by bolded sub-headlines (like I'm doing in this ebook). If you choose not to use bolded sub-heads or bullets, then make sure you have short paragraphs. Let's say your article is 600 words long. You should have an intro which is about 100 words long and a conclusion (which leads into your bio box) which is also about 100 words long. You have 400 words to play with, so you should have 3-4 paragraphs to ensure easy reading.

Keyword Density:

Keyword density is how often a keyword shows up per 100 words. In your articles, you'll want a 2-4% keyword density so that Google gives your articles a lot of love. Any more than that and you will get penalized.

Article Tone:

It can be tough to write with personality about a subject which you have no interest in, but doing so will make your articles more pleasant to read. Present your info, but do so in a way that doesn't remind your reader of lectures in their college days. Would you rather listen to a prof that drones on and on and on for two hours, or a prof that engages the audience and provokes intelligent thought and discussion?

Cardinal Rules of Article Writing:

1. Thou shalt have perfect spelling.

2. Thou shalt have perfect grammar.

I cannot stress these two rules enough. If your article has "spelling" errors or grammatical errors, it will not only look unprofessional, but It'll also make it tough to read.

If you intend to write all your articles, then make sure you proofread your article before submitting it. EzineArticles (I'm singling out EZA because it is the biggest article directory) has a strict policy about the quality of the articles that authors submit to them. If you do not adhere to their editorial guidelines, then your articles will not be accepted.

The Bio Box (aka The Resource Box):

The bio box, also known as the resource box, is where authors stick a little information about themselves and links to external sites. Even though it is short, what you put in your bio box is almost as important as the article that precedes it. If you do not have an appropriate call to action in your bio box, then your conversion rates will not be as good as they can be.

Example of a boring bio box:

"Joe Shmoe is a full-time Internet marketer from the US who has been online since 1996. He has an MBA from XYZ University. For more information on Internet marketing, click here."

Let's be very clear. When I'm looking for info online, I couldn't care less about who the author is or how many pet cats he/she has. I don't want to know where you're from, I don't want to know your level of education, and I don't want to know what your hobbies or passions are.

It's not that I don't care about you (I really do!), it's just that I don't want to

be hearing about you at the end of your articles.

What I do want to hear about at the end of your articles is what I'll get if I click on your link.

Example of a decent bio box:

"Would you like to get instant access to over 9000+ tools and resources right now? Then check out ABC Product located at mysite.com and start downloading them all immediately!"

The above example communicates a clear benefit: you are letting the reader know that if they click on your link, they will get instant access to over 9000+ tools and resources today. Remember, readers don't want to "find out more about" anything; they want to "get" stuff.

So their you have it! - You can stay a hope article marketer and hope that your articles bring you traffic and sales.

OR...

You can follow these few simple rules above in the Article Marketing Master Plan Unvailed and finally eliminate all the guesswork and stop hoping for sales.

How to Write an Article in 5 Steps

Many bloggers don't know how to write an article for human readers. Instead they are only interested in things like keyword density, spinning and taking advantage of the loopholes in Google's algorithm that will enable them to rank their low quality articles for any keyword they wish.

I've seen a lot of bad practices in article writing and it's really disappointing to see so many people focusing too much in search engine optimization, that they forget that what they really need is human readers.

People who publish low quality content realize after a while that no matter how much traffic they manage to get, nobody actually stays on their website. So if you want to build a real business online you must focus on quality content. There are no shortcuts.

After years of writing I have developed a certain process that helps me keep my articles quality, professional and compelling to read. By following this process I am able to write an article in less that an hour and it can bring a lot of traffic to my website.

here is the 5 step process I use to write an article:

1. Choosing a Topic

The first thing you'll need to do is to find what to write about and the best way to do that is by finding out what you are interested in. It goes without saying that your blog should be in a niche of your interest, otherwise you will always struggle finding topics to write about, and ultimately you will get disappointed and abandon your blog. So, don't over-complicate this step. just figure out what it is that you are passionate about and move on to the next step.

2. Keyword Research

Once you have decided about the topic of your article you should do some keyword research. if for example the topic of your article is "how to write a blog post" go to the Google keyword research tool and search for that keyword. that way you will get a list of a lot of keywords relevant to your topic. Choose one of the suggested keywords as your primary and also choose some more as secondary keywords.

Focus on long tail keywords. These are keywords longer that 3 words which get small traffic but are typically easier to rank for because there is little competition. You can use SEOquake to analyze competition. This is a free Firefox plug-in that displays a lot of SEO information on search results and it can help you determine which keyword is the easiest to rank for.

Once you have found all the relevant keywords for your article you can start using them in your article. Use your primary keyword in your title and in the main body of your article at about 2% keyword density. This will make your article optimized for search engines. Higher keyword density is not recommended because it will make your article look spammy and Google will penalize you.

3. Research your Topic

Before writing your article it's important to do some research. You have already compiled your list of keywords so start searching on Google for each of those keywords and read as much information as you can. Do not underestimate the importance of this step. Research can make your article stand out and will increase the likelihood of having your article syndicated which can bring you a lot of traffic. Only if you are very familiar with the topic you might skip this step.

4. Start Writing

Length
Now have all the information you need to start writing your article. But before you do that you will have first to decide on the length of your article. Most people recommend that you write about 500 words, but unlike what most people I will advice you to write at about 700-1000 words. There reason is that a quality 1000 word article will greatly increase the chances of syndication.

Structure
An article in order to be compelling has to have some structure. You can't just start placing one sentence after another. Every article I write consists of the following components:

Title: It's the most important component because it's the first impression a reader get from your article. If the title is not compelling enough chances are your reader will stop reading your article. Keep in mind that the title is what shows up on Google results and if it's not catchy enough you will not get people's attention. The tile also is an important factor for SEO so you have to include your keyword on your title if this is possible.
Introduction: first impressions matters. In the intro you will introduce your topic, mention all the main point you will discuss in your article, explain why you are writing this post, and provide a little background information if required. The primary aim of the introduction is to bring excitement so that your reader will continue reading. Also don't forget to include your primary keywords phrase once in a way that looks natural.
Body: You must choose a way to structure your information with bullet points or sub-headlines (like in this article). That way you break up your content into small pieces which are easier to read. Another way to make your article more pleasing for the eye, is to add images and a video. A video will also increase the user engagement with your site and enhance the user experience which is a big factor in SEO rankings.
Conclusion: Do not overlook this part because an improper conclusion can destroy the article. Do not mention anything new in the conclusion. Keep it short summarizing what you just said and explaining your reader how to find further information on that subject. The conclusion is also the best place to add a call to action which can be a link to your product or an incentive for your reader to join your newsletter or an invitation to leave a comment. A call to action is a must. I can't stress that enough. You will be amazed on how many people will respond to your invitation. do not overdo it though. Just one call to action on every post is enough.

5. Final Edits

Once you finish writing your post take some time to proof-read it by reading it out loud. This will help you find spelling and grammar mistakes. Also make sure you have included your keyword(s) in the title, the first paragraph and several times in the body of your post while making sure they do not look out of place or turn off human readers. If you target more than one keyword add your secondary keywords in your sub-headlines. Remember that you are writing for humans first and then for the search engines so make sure you are not affection the readability of your article by over-optimizing for the search engines.