According to the experts, publishing articles on the web is a good marketing strategy because it increases your credibility, helps you become known and trusted, and proliferates your contact details. But is there more to be achieved than that? I decided to find out.

On 14 OCT 05 I started a test to determine to what extent the number of people who read an article is a determinant of demand. I asked the question, "Determining Product Demand: Can Articles Help?" In that article I referred to three previously published articles about writing business letters, each of which is a tutorial.

As I write this, a couple of months later (24 DEC 05), here are the statistics for those three "Writing Business Letters" tutorials:

1. Letter Format - 1427 Readers
2. Parts of a Business Letter - 704 Readers
3. Writing a Quality Letter - 484 Readers

Of 35 other articles I have written between 2002 (Updated in 2004) and 2005, the highest number of readers is for "Writing Business Letters: Tutorial 1 - Letter Format (1427 as shown previously). The average number of readers per article is around 340. So, 1427 shoots right off the 'normal' scale, especially given the relatively short time it has been accessible. Even 704 and 484 for the related two topics are solid readership statistics.

Not only do my article statistics give me some idea of interest, they also indicate where the interest is highest ie, Letter Format. For some reason, people are interested to know about letter formatting.

When I launch my "Secrets of Successful Letter Formatting and Writing" ebook in early 2006, I feel confident that there will be at least a warm market response. (Note that the title includes the most popular keywords, "Letter Formatting".)

Although I wouldn't rely only on readers' responses to my articles to gauge demand for a product or service, the additional data available from my articles is helpful in making an overall decision about where to invest my time and effort. In this case, I think I can answer my own question; "Yes, writing articles can help determine product demand, but don't use it as a sole indicator".

Copyright 2005 Robin Henry | First published Dec 05

Robin Henry is a human resources specialist, educator and Internet marketer who has a specific interest in business communication, methods and processes. He operates an online business from his home at Alice Springs in Central Australia that helps people improve performance through smart processes and procedures. At the time of publishing this article is working in the United Arab Emirates.

More information can be found at http://www.dwave.com.au