How to Promote your Web Site by Writing Articles
Sharing knowledge on the web can be a very powerful way to
establish your online presence and credibility. First, you write
a
thoughtful and informative article on an topic in your area of
expertise. Then you submit it to e-zines to be read by the
general public and possibly re-published on other web sites.
Appended to the end of your article is a resource box containing
a brief promotional message linking to your web site.
Webmasters who wish to reprint your article on their sites are
required to include your resource box along with any live
links to your site.
For example, an article written by me might have the following
resource box:
Article by winson , the webmaster of
[url=http://www.ppcchina.com]Lucky Search[/url] , a great serch
engine for people
searching more exact results. Please visit his site to try.
The benefit that you get from your article is two-fold. First,
your article will be read by visitors to the e-zine site. If
they find it helpful and interesting, they will likely visit
your web site to see what else you had to offer. Second,
webmasters who find your article useful to their visitors may
re-publish it on their sites, giving your article additional
exposure.
Every time your article is re-published on a web site, you gain
an additional one-way link to your site through the live link
in your resource box. This adds to your link popularity and
ultimately increases your search engine rankings. As you can
see,
the true potential of your article lies in its ability to
propagate virally in cyberspace.
For your article to propagate virally, it should appeal to both
readers and webmasters alike. Keep in mind that your goal is
hold your readers' attention long enough for them to get to the
resource box. If your article is boring and uninformative,
few people will read it beyond the first or second paragraph.
Below are some pointers to consider when writing an article:
1. Give your article a catchy title.
Your title is the first and often the only thing that visitors
see when they skim through a list of articles on an e-zine
page. Put some thought into coming up with a title that grabs
the reader's attention right away. Words like "Secrets",
"Free", and "Successful" tend to attract more attention than
others.
2. Your article should not read like an ad.
Most people read articles to find information they can use, not
to see a pitch about your products or services. If they see
your article as nothing more than a shameless act of self
promotion, they'll get turned off and hit the "Back" button
right
away. Put yourself in the reader's shoes. What benefits do you
want to get out of reading an article? Cater to your reader's
interests rather than your own.
3. Offer lots of free, useful information.
Following on the last tip, keep in mind that your readers are
looking for specific "how-to" instructions to help them achieve
a certain goal. Offer lots of tangible information that is
immediately useful to them. Do not lead them through hoops just
to
get to an order form for a $29.95 "Make $50,000 in 30 Days or
Your Money Back!" e-book.
4) Avoid gimmicks.
While it may be true that a sucker is born every minute, most
internet users are sophisticated enough to tell what's
legitimate and what's not. Write with the intention of offering
something substantial to the reader. Be honest and
forthright. Your article should not cause the reader to think,
"What is this guy trying to sell me?"
5) Be succinct.
Get to the point quickly, preferably in the first or second
paragraph. Avoid lengthy paragraphs. Use lots of white space to
separate your paragraphs to make them easier to read.
6) Your article should not be too short.
Certainly, it's possible to write a good article packed with
useful information using just a few hundred words. If your
article is too short, however, some webmasters may feel hesitant
to reprint it on their sites. They may, instead, borrow your
ideas and write their own article, gaining authorship without
having to give you credit for your ideas.
How long should your article be? I suggest at least 800 words,
preferably longer. Longer articles give webmasters the
impression that you have put some thought and effort into your
work and, thus, are deserving of publicity on their sites.
7) Use live (clickable) links in your resource box.
Many e-zines permit clickable links in resource boxes. Yet, many
authors forgo this privilege by simply spelling out their
URLs. Whenever permitted, you should spell out your URL as well
as make it clickable (e.g. http://www.ppcchina.com). The
advantages of a clickable URL are (1) readers can go to your
site simply by clicking on it, and (2) more importantly, search
engines will be able to record it as a link your web site,
adding to your link popularity and search engine rankings.
Avoid hyping in your resource box.
Your resource box, while promotional in nature, should be brief
and tasteful. The purpose of your resource box is not to sell
your readers something, but to lead them to your website which
does the actual selling. Your resource box should contain your
name, your company name, a brief description of your products or
services, your web site's URL, and a clickable link to your
site.
9) Put some thought and effort into your writing.
E-zines have varying standards for accepting articles, and some
accept and publish all submissions without any human review
at all. However, this does not mean you should write an article
just for sake of having it published somewhere. If your
article comes off as half-baked, readers may make a similar
assumption about you and your business practices.
10) Submit your article to as many e-zines as feasible.
There are dozens of e-zines on the web that welcome submissions
from independent authors. Ideally, you'd want your article to
be exposed on as many of them as you can. But it takes time to
register and submit to each one of them. Therefore, I
recommend that you submit to only a handful of the more popular
ones.
Below is a list of e-zines along with their Google PageRanks
(PR). The higher the PR of an e-zine, the greater its online
visibility.
Amazines - [url=http://www.amazines.com]www.amazines.com[/url]-
PR4 Article Alley - [url=http://www.articlealley.com]
www.articlealley.com[/url]- PR5 Article City -
[url=http://www.articlecity.com ]www.articlecity.com[/url] - PR6
Article Emporium
-[url=http://www.article-emporium.com]www.article-emporium.com[/u
rl]- PR4 Articles Factory -
[url=http://www.articlesfactory.com]www.articlesfactory.com[/url]
- PR5 Article Finders -
[url=http://www.articlefinders.com]www.articlefinders.com[/url]
- PR5 ArticleSubmissions.com -
[url=http://www.articlesubmissions.com]www.articlesubmissions.com
[/url] - PR3 ArticleWarehouse -
[url=http://www.articlewarehouse.com]www.articlewarehouse.com[/ur
l] - PR4 AuthorConnection.com
-[url=http://www.authorconnection.com]www.authorconnection.com[/u
rl]- PR5 Business Know-How -
[url=http://www.businessknowhow.com]www.businessknowhow.com[/url]
- pr6 BusinessToolchest.com -
[url=http://www.businesstoolchest.com]www.businesstoolchest.com[/
url] - pr3 Buzzle.com -
[url=http://www.buzzle.com]www.buzzle.com[/url]- PR6 Common
Connections -
[url=http://www.commonconnections.com]www.commonconnections.com[/
url] - PR3 Connectionteam.com -
[url=http://www.connectionteam.com]www.connectionteam.com[/url]
- PR3 Constant Content -
[url=http://www.constant-content.com]www.constant-content.com[/ur
l] - PR6 Createonlinebusiness.com -
[url=http://www.createonlinebusiness.com]www.createonlinebusiness
.com[/url] - PR3 Digital Women.com -
[url=http://www.digital-women.com/submitarticle.htm]www.digital-w
omen.com/submitarticle.htm[/url]- PR5 Ezine Articles -
[url=http://www.ezinearticles.com]www.ezinearticles.com[/url] -
PR7 Family-Content.com -
[url=http://www.family-content.com/articles]www.family-content.co
m/articles[/url]- PR4 Free Content -
[url=http://www.certificate.net/wwio]www.certificate.net/wwio[/ur
l] - PR5 FreeTrafficTip.com -
[url=http://www.freetraffictip.com]www.freetraffictip.com[/url]-
PR4 FreeZineSite.com -
[url=http://www.freezinesite.com]www.freezinesite.com[/url] -
PR2 Fresh-Articles.com -
[url=http://www.fresh-articles.com]www.fresh-articles.com[/url]
- PR3 GoArticles.com -
[url=http://www.goarticles.com]www.goarticles.com[/url]- PR6
Home-Business-Directory.com -
[url=http://www.home-business-directory.com]www.home-business-dir
ectory.com[/url] - PR3 Home business Tips Newsletter -
[url=http://www.home-business-tips-newsletter.com]www.home-busine
ss-tips-newsletter.com[/url] - PR3
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