Submitting Articles To Article Directories

Article Writing | I like to surf around different internet forums that deal with internet marketing, link building, traffic building, and search engine optimization. Lately, I have seen a lot of questions about using articles as a marketing tool. The question has been this: “How much traffic can I get from submitting articles to article directories?” I would honestly love to tell you that you get loads of traffic. On the other hand, I would love to be able to tell you that you wouldn’t get a lot of traffic. However, I cannot tell you either way because it really just depends. It depends on these things:

• How many articles you submit
• How many directories you submit your articles to
• Where you submitted your article
• Quality of your article
• Usefulness of your article
• Value of your article

So if article writing appears so iffy, why do it? One thing I will say is that article marketing is not something you will usually see results from overnight. Article marketing is a great long-term investment for promoting your website, building links, and generating more traffic. Article marketing is only iffy if you are looking for a short-term or fast, quick way to generate traffic. My best advice is to avoid writing garbage content. Provide useful information in your article. Keep a constant mindset that you are writing for people and not to see the traffic stats go up through the roof.

You are not writing for numbers! You are writing for people. If you are writing for numbers, you may begin to feel discouraged because your traffic will not usually jump overnight. Quite simply, it takes time to realize the positive effects from article writing. I know that I am guilty of taking shortcuts and forgetting about the reader in my articles. Sometimes I am feeling lazy and think, “Well I’m writing this article. My link will be on my article, so, therefore, people will click my link and all will be well.” That is wishful thinking on my part! The truth and reality of that statement are that nobody will care to click to my website if my article is not worth reading. 

They won’t even make it through the article to see my link! That’s a shame. If your article fails to meet the reader, you also miss out on another important aspect. You miss out on the chance that the reader will take the article and distribute it to other people with your link attached to the article. That’s even more possible traffic you are missing out on! Quality is so essential to article marketing. The other factors of article marketing have no match for a quality article. 

You could submit to few article directories and many would read your quality article because it is an article worth reading. To summarize, write quality articles that meet the reader. Give the reader exactly what they want. Do not take shortcuts because there are no shortcuts in article marketing. Article marketing can be a time-consuming process, but if done right, it will really, and I mean really, pay off in the long run.

Seven Tips to Successfully Write Web Articles

Online readers love free information. They scour the internet daily looking for specific information to solve their problems, help them be successful, live longer or get healthy. You should join the information revolution too! Publish your free helpful solution-oriented articles to the web.

But wait! There are a few things to keep in mind when writing for the web. Long paragraphs are usually acceptable for print media; they are not for the web. If you want to write articles that web users will love to read and put to use follow these 7 simple tips:

1. Make your article scan ready. A study by Jakob Nielson publicized as the guru of web page usability by the New York Times published that only 16 percent of his test users actually read the copy they found online; 79 percent of them simply scanned it. Your impatient web readers will want important information to jump out at them.  Some practical ways to make your text scannable are: headings, sub-headings, bulleted list, numbered lists, easy steps and/or typeface variation. For example, compelling headlines are considered an art. Are you drawn to the author’s article as “How to Write Web Articles” or “5 Tips to Write Winning Web Articles?”
2. Keep it short. Get and keep the attention of web readers by delivering short messages. You put effort into gaining your web reader’s attention; now make their click worthwhile with a brief compelling copy in bite sizes.  Start with the conclusion. Your readers may not make it to the end of your piece to get it. Web readers don’t want to get bogged down in long blocks of text. So get to the point early and use the rest of your article to support that main point.
3. Make Your Title Sizzle. Dull titles will not capture your reader's interest. It will make your article fade into the sea of other boring articles listed in article banks these days. You have to create a title that will reach out and grab your reader by the collar. To get your article read, start with a sizzling title. Make it short. Create interest. Include the main benefit or solution in your title.
4. Talk to Your Targeted Audience. Your information is not for everyone. Avoid generalities. Choose a friend or family member that’s interested in your topic. Write your article to them. Writing to a friend will make your copy personable and friendly.  You won’t come across as a fussy hen, do this, do this, don’t do that. You will connect with your readers as a friend giving advice. Your article will do a better job of building creditability for you. Creditability inspires trust and readers only trust their friends.
5. Add substance. Resist fluffing your articles. Include practical valuable information in your copy. Everyone loses when you don’t take the time to impart substance. It increases the reputation of the web being an unreliable source of knowledge. Additionally, lack of substance will block your road to profitable referrals. Do the research and/or draw from your knowledge and experience to illustrate. Your stories and real-life examples will meet your reader’s need for practical information and connect with their emotions. It’s a known fact emotion will move people to action. Whether you desire them to act by signing up or making a purchase, add substance and improve your reader responses.
6. Make it web professional. Create a more web professional look by using short sentences then format your page to approximately 65 characters per line. Long stringed sentences that stream from side to side of the web page look visually unprofessional. Select a layout for your article from several short article formats that include the how-to, tips list, question-answer, problem-solutions, and interview.  Make your introduction and summary short but do add one. Your web readers don’t want just a list of boring facts and information. They want to connect with you by reading your personable introduction and practical tips with a definite ending or summary. Remember excited readers become enthusiastic buyers and enthusiastic buyers will refer your product or service to all their friends.
7. Use your keywords. Thread your keywords throughout your short article as naturally as possible. Otherwise, your copy will sound stiff and dull. To gain visibility on the search engines, your site must be “indexed” by their robotic software. 

In its most basic form, they must be able to compare the code, keywords and other Meta tags with the actual content of the site. From this, they reach a conclusion regarding the context of the site. This and other factors will affect how well your copy or website places in the search engines.

You may use these guidelines for all kinds of web copy. The same elements of using keywords, making your article professional, adding substance, keeping it short and making your copy scannable will improve the quality of your articles. Practice the above simple principles and write winning articles to distribute on the web everywhere.