Implementing an effective article marketing strategy is critical to your success in online marketing. The name of the game is leads and prospects for your business, right?

Article marketing is one powerful tool in your arsenal. Spend some time to do it right, and start attracting the “perfect prospects” for your product or opportunity!

It is very important to pay attention to the overall quality of your work. In years past, it was quite easy to use a simple article marketing strategy to get ranked high in the search engines. That strategy was easy. You wrote articles based around a keyword you wanted to rank for. You did some spinning to create different versions and mass-submitted your articles using software.

Using that technique, you could rank for less competitive keywords just by submitting a few “unique” articles to article directories. It isn’t that easy anymore, and you need to pay more attention to detail now.

Whether you are writing articles to help promote your network marketing business, or perhaps technical “how-to” articles to help sell one of your product lines, it is essential to understand the basics of good article marketing.

Your Overall Article Marketing Strategy

Your overall strategy for effective article marketing will consist of several parts:

• choosing the niche you want to target

• doing keyword research to find out what people are looking for

• creating articles with compelling content and titles

• publishing your content

Today, let’s take a closer look at how to create the actual article.

Choosing Keywords for Your Articles

An effective article marketing strategy begins with selecting keywords that people are using when they search Google (and everywhere else as well) looking for what you are offering. While it is quite possible to “get found” by writing a random article with keywords that just come to mind, you’ll do better if you engage in some keyword research first.

There are numerous tools to help you find which keyword phrases are popular. If you have a Google Adwords account, you can use Google’s keyword tool to help uncover search terms that relate to your product or opportunity. You can also get an idea how popular and competitive those search terms are. If you don’t have an Adwords account, open one. It doesn’t cost anything just to open the account and use the keyword tool. LINK

Another excellent option is to use the Market Samurai tool. This is desktop software that is proven, constantly updated, and provides a solid look at what keywords are most competitive and which ones are easiest (potentially) to rank for.

Create Great Article Titles That Grab Attention

Your article title is really the beginning foundation of a solid article marketing strategy. It doesn’t matter where you publish your article, potential readers will be scanning titles and deciding which ones to open based on the appeal of the title.

Your title must paint a quick picture of exactly what your content will do for the reader. How will it help them? Think about what people are looking for. Think about what would entice YOU to read an article on a subject you were searching for.

Which of these two titles is more appealing?

Getting More Leads for Your MLM Business

or

25 Quick Ways to Get More Leads for Your MLM Business

Basics for Building your Article

If you aren’t familiar with how to write good titles, take some time to visit Ezine Articles and review the most popular articles in your niche. Ezine Articles also has some excellent article marketing strategy training – you can sign up for that right here.

Take a look at how good articles are built. You will see that the best and most readable articles have some things in common.

Good articles use short paragraphs and break the content up for more readability – ever seen one of those articles where people write l-o-n-g paragraphs that are hard to read? Avoid that.

Good articles use sub-headings to define what each section of the article is about. I am using sub-headings in this article you are reading right now. These are important because people tend to skip around in articles looking for clues to whatever problem they are seeking to solve or whatever information they are specifically seeking.

Avoid complex, technical jargon unless you are writing a technical article intended for an audience that understands that language. Keep it simple and easily readable for best results. Sound article marketing strategy focuses on communicating well with all potential readers.

Good articles have a “resource box” at the end with a call to action – usually a link to whatever site the author wants the reader to visit.

Use your primary keyword phrase once in the first sentence of the article. Then, insert it a few times in the body of the article, where it makes sense, then once in the last sentence. Don’t overuse your keyword, perhaps 4-5 times in a 500 word piece is good.

Use related keywords where possible in your article body. Go to Google, type in your primary keyword, and notice the other search term options that pop up. Use some of these in your article, if and where they make sense. This will help give your article more relevance in the eyes of the search engines.

Your Author Resource Box

At the bottom of your articles, you will have an author resource box. Since some places you submit your article won’t permit links in the body of the article itself, this part is critical.

In your author resource box, create a 2-3 sentence bio of yourself with a call to action, or just a call to action itself. For example:

“Eldon Beard is an Internet marketing professional who helps people make money online. To learn more about how to <subject of article>, please visit his blog at <target URL>.”

I hope these tips for creating an effective article marketing strategy have been helpful.

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