Market Your Expertise

Article marketing is a great way to promote yourself as an expert online and help forge connections with potential clients. Here's how article marketing works. First, you write a few articles in an area of expertise. For example, you could write about topics in graphic design, copywriting, marketing, art direction or business development. Next, post your articles to article submission and distribution sites, which are looking for writers like you to submit content. These article submission sites cater to Webmasters and Ezine editors, who need fresh content to send out to readers and to sell advertising space around. In a few days after your article is live, track any increases in traffic to your Website, phone calls or any other follow-up as a result of someone having read your article online. Article marketing can increase qualified traffic to your Web site, build credibility, and grow the number of inbound links to your Web site (which will help your Google search ranking). It can also affect lead generation and sales. To get started and try article marketing for your own business, follow these guidelines below:

• Check out these two comprehensive lists of available article marketing Web sites: Article Directory Ranking and 95 Free Article Submission Websites. Look at the articles already posted to get ideas for your own writing.
• Always proofread. Articles with grammar errors will reflect poorly on you and will not be accepted on most sites.
• To brainstorm a good topic think about your clients' greatest challenges, needs or problems and how you can help.
• When writing about a topic, try to keep the content focused on a single thought, question or how-to. Don't worry about giving away expert advice for free -- the more detailed and helpful the article is, the better the results.
• Don't try to sell your services in your articles.
• Write a short, sweet headline for each article. The headline should be clear and let the reader know what they can expect to learn, i.e. "6 Tips for Letterhead Design."
• Shoot for 600 to 800 words per article.
• Write a short four- to five-line biography which includes a way to contact you.
• Also include a link to your site in your bio paragraph and write out the "http://" so that it is counted as an inbound link.
• Urge readers to take action, by offering a link to something for free in your bio such as a report, a consultation or a subscription to your e-mail list or newsletter.
• To avoid poor formatting and line breaks, write all content in plain text, preferably in no-frills programs such as Text Edit or Notepad.