Creative Blogs

“Article marketing no longer works” is what some say. Of course, if you write garbage and expect people to eat it, this could be true. But it works if you do it right and can be about the most powerful marketing tools you have. Below are three mistakes in article marketing that are commonly made.

1. Confusing the reason for writing articles with the reason for promoting your business with articles.

Even though there are many reasons to use articles to promote your business, writing the articles have only one reason.

First lets talk about reasons for promoting your business with articles. Articles drive traffic to your website. They also position you as an expert in whatever field you are writing about. Now those are great and all but it should not be your focus for writing an article. Then why write articles?

The only reason you should write article is to provide value to your readers. If you have any hidden agendas it will be pretty obvious. And no one likes hidden agendas. If that’s the case you might as well not waste your time.

Your readers will only trust you if you give them good value. You can advise them that you have more information on your site in the resource box.

2. Not maximizing the potential of every article.

Alright you wrote an article so what do you do next. Next you should make sure you have an attractive resource box. If you writing great articles but no one is visiting your website that’s not going to do much for you. Give your readers a reason to visit your site.

Another technique for increasing the effectiveness of your articles is putting your keywords as the hyper-link text in your resource box. That way you will not only get visitors directly from clicking through the link to your website but also indirectly by helping your website rank in the search engines.

Then you submit your article to article to article directories. And then you’re done, right? WRONG.

This is where most people get it wrong. Then you must submit your article to individual web publishers. Most of the people visiting article directories are just people submitting their own articles. Individual web publishers will post your article on their websites or submit it to their lists were actual people will read your article.

3. Writing articles that are of little help to readers

If you write articles that aren’t helpful two things are going to happen. And neither of them are going to help your internet business.

The first is that readers will not trust you if they find your article of no help to them after reading it. Of course, they may not even finish reading it. They will very likely just click away and find something that is of more value.

The second is that no one is going to put your article on their website. By putting your article on their website they are putting their own reputation on the line. If they put up a crappy article no one is going to trust them. So you won’t get many links from the article either. Don’t waste your time.

Article marketing isn’t dead. Far from it. Doing it right takes more time but there are great benefits to be realized from it.

MySpace friend adders will automatically broadcast your profile with friend request to specific people of your choice. Targeted MySpace marketing gives you an astonishing benefit. After the automatic friend request is delivered the amount of prospects that view your profile has no choice but to swell. I recommend using a tool like the Myspace Marketing Tactics Manual so you can mold your profile accordingly. MySpace has firm regulations for promoting a business on there but everybody does it. You just need to know the rules for promoting your business or MySpace will shut down your account. The MySpace marketing tactics manual is a great e-book that helps you avoid those problems.

Social networks have become a great way to get a huge number of targeted leads from Myspace marketing without having to spend a dime to introduce a product or service. In the past the way to market a business in my field required me to schedule meetings, get speaking engagements, make a ton of postcards to mail out and use any strategy out there to get decent customers from the group that showed up to the event. I’m so glad the internet has erased most of the boring work that went into drawing new patrons to my business.

Of course whatever industry you are involved with you are zealous about or else you wouldn’t be doing it. Web 2.0 has changed the way we can Myspace marketing and get business without all the tedious work that took place in the past.

When using social networks it can become time consuming depending on how many you join and how much energy you give to them. So I searched for ways to still accomplish using the social networks and putting my business in front a targeted audience without spending hours and hours to do it.

A MySpace friend adder or, MySpace bot as it’s also known by, will automatically send friend request to predetermined groups of people that you choose as your target market. After you send the request and message your MySpace profile gets observed and promotes your business to thousands of the highly targeted clients you chose. I was so excited when I found this tool because it was just what I needed to broaden the word about my business. There is a free MySpace friend adder bot called Stealth Friend Bomber. That’s right, try it for free!

Stealth Friend Bomber has free instant activation, mass commenting, groups and messaging all in one. There are a ridiculous number of features you get with this product and they also give you a MySpace marketing manual.

The value of this software is so much higher than the cost of this product. Bar none, this is one of the most innovative investment I’ve ever made. I have a well-built network on Myspace now and it started with this free download. They also have great support staff that answered my questions in a timely manner. I bought it after using the free demo and got my money back within a day!

My home based business endeavors took off and I’m now starting to use it for affiliate marketing and the amount of time it would have taken me to expose what I have to over a thousand people the ancient way is now done in less than the amount of time it takes to catch a movie. I think I’ll watch one while the Myspace friend adder is running today!

If you are ready to jump start your online traffic and sales then you should consider launching a marketing virus. Now don’t think of this virus in the same way that you think of malicious virus. This one is all quite good for everyone. A marketing virus is something you set up to boost your branding campaigns, increase traffic, and get loads more leads. Don’t compare it to tell-a-friend. This is totally different.

Interestingly enough, it’s very simple to do. Simply create an ebook, and then allow other people to give it away themselves. You must also allow those who receive it from them to give it away too. In fact, let anyone who ever comes into contact with your ebook begin giving it away to their customers and subscribers. They could also post a download link on their website, in forums, etc.

In a nutshell, that’s how a marketing virus works. You give it away to as many people as possible, and other people do the same. This keeps on going until before you know it, your ebook is on thousands of people’s PC’s that you never came in contact with before! As people read your ebook, and click your website links, your traffic skyrockets.

All you really need to do is include a little ad inside the ebook that tells the reader they have permission to begin giving it away, as long as they don’t don’t use your name or your company’s name in their promotions without asking first. A lot of people also offer the ebook as a bonus for something they sell, or they use it as an incentive to get more subscribers to their ezine, and so on. You get the idea.

It’s always great if your ebook promotes at least one of your products. Then you can let everyone brand your ebook with their personal affiliate link, so they get a piece of the action. This gives them an extra reason for promoting your ebook. This is a big incentive for most, and you can be sure they will spend more time distributing your ebook.

It is extremely beneficial to make your ebook brandable, so I would look into a tool to help you do this. There are several tools on the market that help you create brandable ebooks in a snap. One good example is ViralPDF.com. It’s affordable and simple to use, which makes Viral PDF an easy choice.

To wrap it up, a marketing virus is not only very affordable, but exceptionally powerful. We all need more eyeballs on what we are offering on the Internet, so it would be a smart decision to outline and implement a marketing virus ASAP. Once you turn your marketing virus loose, the only possible result is a positive one!

If you are ready to jump start your online traffic and sales then you should consider launching a marketing virus. Now don’t think of this virus in the same way that you think of malicious virus. This one is all quite good for everyone. A marketing virus is something you set up to boost your branding campaigns, increase traffic, and get loads more leads. Don’t compare it to tell-a-friend. This is totally different.

Plus, it’s super easy to do. It all starts with you creating an ebook related to your website or niche, and then allowing other people to give it away to anyone they like. But, it gets even better. You should also allow everyone who gets a copy of your ebook to give it away too. Before you know it, you will have an avalanche of traffic to your website!

In a nutshell, that’s how a marketing virus works. You give it away to as many people as possible, and other people do the same. This keeps on going until before you know it, your ebook is on thousands of people’s PC’s that you never came in contact with before! As people read your ebook, and click your website links, your traffic skyrockets.

All you need to do is include a note inside the ebook that informs the reader that they have the right to begin giving it away, as long as they don’t alter the ebook or claim ownership. They can also offer it as a bonus for a product they sell, as an incentive to get folks to join their newsletter list, as a method of generating affiliate sales, etc.

It’s always great if your ebook promotes at least one of your products. Then you can let everyone brand your ebook with their personal affiliate link, so they get a piece of the action. This gives them an extra reason for promoting your ebook. This is a big incentive for most, and you can be sure they will spend more time distributing your ebook.

It is extremely beneficial to make your ebook brandable, so I would look into a tool to help you do this. There are several tools on the market that help you create brandable ebooks in a snap. One good example is ViralPDF.com. It’s affordable and simple to use, which makes Viral PDF an easy choice.

As you now know, a marketing virus should definitely be part of your overall marketing plan. If your current results stink, then do something about it! Anyone can succeed online (including YOU), but only if you use tools and techniques that actually work. Good luck!

If you are a business looking to set up your first website, here’s some things you should consider.

Design.

It is imperative that the website has a concise, effective design. Unless you have a clear aptitude for design, you should not attempt to design your site on your own,. Many small businesses try to design and build their own website, but not many achieve it successfully. With a poor design you will lose a large amount of customers. Make sure the design is not overcrowded - various companies try to put as much information about their company as they can which results in overloading the visitor. The main aim of the website is to get them to contact you. Additionally, remember a website is not forever as design tastes change and new functionalities are invented. We normally see customers completely overhauling and redesigning their websites every three years or thereabouts.

What do you want your website to do?

To generate leads? It is more than likely, if you are in a service orientated business, that you may want your website to create leads ie get the visitors interested so they contact you direct which will then put you in a position to turn them into a client. This could be done by offering free downloadable reports in PDF format in return for their details. Then you could follow up with a phone call or letter to them.

Be an information resource for your customers? You may want your website to be a source of information to your existing customers, including all relevant technical data, online catalogues, product reviews etc.

Be an online ordering site? You may want your customers to change to online ordering as this undoubtedly saves in personnel costs and other overheads.

There are many different things that a website can do and you need to think about it thoroughly in the planning stage rather than trying to be all things to all people.

Do you want search engine traffic?

If you want to generate new customers through search engines there are many factors you need to pay attention to. First you need to know which keywords your site will target and to do this you need to do your keyword research using sites such as www.wordtracker.com, www.goodkeywords.com, and Google’s Adwords interface. This will help you build up an idea of what people are searching for in your market and the search volumes, so that you can compile a short list.

On page optimisation: Using the information generated from the keyword research, It will be a requirement to optimise the website for these phrases. A web designer will be able to do this without any problem.

Incoming links: A further critical factor in getting good search engine ranking is the building of incoming links to your website. This should be an ongoing process and time should be made each month (either by, outsourced or delegated) to obtain links to the website.

Website functionality.

Your website should be functional in the following:

Navigation: This must be clear, intuitive and easy to use. Visitors must be able to know how to quickly gain access to the different parts of your website.

Browser compatibility: Your website must work correctly in most browsers, such as Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari.

Clear design and branding: The overall layout design of your site should be a clear, clean design and incorporate your company branding.

Balance: In your website you should include the right balance of text - break text up using pictures, as people dislike reading large blocks of text online.

Communicate clear benefits: Your website must communicate the benefits of using your company - your unique selling proposition. Too many businesses make the mistake of telling the visitor all about themselves when they really need to communicate to the visitor how they can help solve their problems.

Testimonials and client lists: Frequently, I have seen many customers bury their gleaming testimonials and client lists away in a corner of their website. If you have good testimonials and impressive client lists then you should use them throughout your site. Disperse testimonials throughout the main pages as they to tend to create an impression, yet no one particularly goes looking for a websites testimonials section.

Do you have an interesting story to tell? If you have a story of interest to tell about your company - maybe how it was born, or interesting case studies where you have helped a client, then tell the story. People enjoy stories - they delight and captivate and can be used as successful examples as to how your business can help them.

If you consider the above pointers, then you should have a clear plan as to how your website should look and function. You can then hand this information on to your web designer, who will then be more able to produce a finished website that you are pleased with and that does what you want of it. Which is ultimately to increase your business.