Article Marketing – How to Publish Articles & Market Your Website Successfully

I have been using article marketing to promote my websites since 2005. I have written successful articles and not so successful articles. I have made money on articles and I have lost money. In this article I will explain to you some of the ways that I was successful in article marketing by giving the article readers what they want to hear.

When I started writing articles I wanted to get a lot of articles online in a short amount of time. So I did. I wrote thousands of articles in a short amount of time and posted them online. Only 3% to 5% were effective and sending me traffic and promoting my site. They also cost me thousands of dollars. After a year or so I was able to use my analytics software to go back and gauge each article. I sorted the effective articles into a pile so to say. They had a few things in common. Here they are:

1. Each article had effective use of white space. The less effective articles had long and plain shaped paragraphs. An interesting paradox about white space is the more there is of it, the more your eyes will be drawn to the content. The more content there is then the more your eyes will be drawn to the white space. Knowing this will help you structure your articles in a way that will help the reader focus on the content. Less is more in this case.

2. The articles where relatively short. Some article publishing websites have minimum word counts. Don't write too many more words than that. It will waste your time. The readers have only so much capacity for information and are typically looking for one particular piece of information with only a limited amount of time. If the article is too long then they will give up on it and move to a shorter one where they are likely to find the information quickly.

3. The good articles told the reader the main point, then told them again. Readers sometimes need to be reminded and then reminded again. Repeating the point of the article a couple of times helps the reader "get it" and helps them move on. This is what you want them to do when "moving on" means clicking forward to your website and buying something or using your services. Always get your point across and do it a couple of times.

4. Give them a way to get where you want them to go. If your article is about puppies, don't try to get the reader to click to a webpage about dogs. Readers have a specific goal and will follow a path if they feel like it is leading them in the right direction. I always say "You cannot steer a reader. You can only direct them to where they already want to go." This means if they are searching for information on puppies, then a link in your article that says "more about puppies" is a good idea.

5. Use the positive. An old example is the class of students that were told not to think about a red truck. They were timed and told to tally each time they thought of it. They did so and each person was constantly thinking of a red truck and making their tallies. Then the students were told to think of a white polar bear. After the minute was up, the teacher asked how many times they thought of the red truck. None. They had a positive action to do and they did it. Use this in your articles. If you want someone to pursue a certain avenue, then tell them and show them why it works. They will do what makes sense if it is positive and makes sense to them. Use this to your advantage.