Article Marketing: What Is Success?
In response to a “contest” over at EzineArticles.com for the authors’ most successful articles of 2007, I looked over my statistic reports for all of my articles posted with EzineArticles over the past year. One of the first things that struck me was that I could consider a few different articles as being the most successful depending on what my definition of success is.
One article got the most views. A different one was picked up by the most ezine publishers. Still yet another had the most clickthroughs to my site. And still another had the highest clickthrough percentage.
Before deciding if your articles are successful, make sure to define what success is. This is also something you should decide before you start your article marketing. Knowing what you goals are will help guide you on what kinds of articles to write, what your call to action is going to be, where you should submit them and how to measure your success.
The Importance Of Editing
Is this an editing error or honesty in advertising?
While mistakes like this can be a source of entertainment for us, they are probably not as funny to the person making them. I can’t see all that many negative consequences because of a misspelling on a fast food sign, but when they are found in the marketing materials for your business, that is a different story.
Grammar and spelling mistakes or being unclear in your writing can have a number of negative effects for your business.
- Your readers will think you are not real smart or maybe unedumacated.
- They will see you as lazy for not taking the time to cheque your work.
- You will be not able to earn their trustworthiness.
- Without clear and concise sentences, your readers can become confused and irritated, thus abandoning their reading of your literary work, never to return or follow your call to action so that you can benefit in any way and eat some fruit of your labor.
- You might not be as funny as you think you are. Something that you think is hilarious can come off as being insulting when read by others.
Book Review: Writing White Papers by Michael A. Stelzner
In my 3+ years in writing content for the web, I have yet to tackle a white paper. White papers are increasingly getting attention for their ability to educate, inform and influence their readers. They are especially useful for those companies that deal in products and services that are not commonly and easily understood by the general public.
In my day job, I am in the business of selling virtual telecommunications solutions (virtual PBX, Internet fax, toll free number call capture systems for real estate agents, tele-verification solutions to reduce Internet fraud and soon a hosted VoIP PBX) and in my experience we definitely fall in the category of not always being easily understood. We also run into the problem of people not knowing that our kinds of products even exist. So in looking for a solution to this problem, I decided to see if writing a white paper might help us to introduce our products to people as well as educate them on how we can help them with a variety of problems they may face in their businesses. My first step was to learn more about how white papers are used and of course how to write them. This is how I found Michael Stelzner’s book Writing White Papers. (I also subscribe to his blog strangely enough also named Writing White Papers.)
I have 2 pieces of advice for people that are going to be, or currently are, writing white papers.
- Read this book.
- Have a highlighter handy.
Video Marketing with Santa
My wife forwarded me an email the other day. It was one of those emails that had been forwarded 100 times over. She’s pretty good at filtering the stuff she sends, so I opened it. It contained about 20 different images taken over the years by parents who took their children to go see Santa Claus. The expressions captured on the kids faces are truely priceless. Anyway, I saved the email and was going to post a few of the images here on the blog just for a little holiday fun. I asked a friend if they saw the pictures of the kids with Santa and he said no, but would like to, so I said I would forward them to him. As I was forwarding the email, it hit me… my wife was sent these images because someone thought they were funny and wanted to share them with her. She passed them along to me because she thought I would enjoy them and I forwarded them to my friend and wanted to post them on the blog because I wanted to share what I had seen. Since we all think the images are funny and worth the few minutes to view and share them, why not make it available to anyone who wants to see them. Why not take the images, create some sort of slideshow video, add in some relevant holiday music and post it on YouTube! And if I’m going to take the time to do that, why not add a little plug at the end letting people know more about this blog.
So I downloaded all the images from the email, opened Microsoft Movie Maker (which you can download for free from Microsoft), imported the images and began to create my slideshow movie. I did a quick search, found a holiday midi sound file, converted it to Mp3 and inserted that as an audio track while the slideshow was playing. To spruce it up I added some transition effects between images and lastly added some intro text and credits so I could plug this blog.
Are Your Leaving Your Readers Unsatisifed?
Creating a marketing piece without a strong call to action is a waste of time, resources and money. Time and time again I see articles, landing pages, print ads, brochures, etc. that do not have a call to action and I wonder why the company produced them in the first place.
If your marketing piece does its job, by the time the reader is done they will be excited. They will be anxiously anticipating your next move. You will have whetted their appetite for what you have to offer and if you don’t tell them what you want them to do next, the story will end anticlimactically. They will be left with a feeling of, “Hm. Is that it?” and that is truly tragic.
So make sure you are giving the readers of your marketing pieces a strong call to action for them to follow. Here are 3 tips to get you started:
Should You Twitter, Stumble Or Get Linked?
When you decide that you are going to venture into social media, it is vital that you know your audience, your goals, and have a plan so that you can choose the right place to pour your energy into. You don’t want to Twitter when you should StumbleUpon and to get LinkedIN when you should be hangin’ in MySpace would be a monumental waste of your time.
There are a lot of different ways to market with social media. Make sure you are choosing the right avenue for the people you want to talk to, the things you want to say, the goals you want to achieve and the plans you have in place.
This post by Josh Bernoff over at Forrester gives us a great lesson on how to approach social media by first asking ourselves who, why, what and then how.
4 Sure Fire Ways To Breed Mistrust With Your Articles
Earning the trust of your readers should be your number one priority when writing articles. Practically all the benefits that you can reap from article marketing revolve around whether or not your readers trust you.
If you are breeding trust with your readers they will: follow your call to action at the end of your article, send the article to their friends and colleagues with a note about how wonderful you are, do business with you, continue to read future articles that you publish, trade their email address for even more quality information from you, and post your articles on their site with link backs.
If you are breeding mistrust with your readers they will: stop reading before they get to your resource box, send your article to their friends and colleagues with a note about what an ass you are, never do business with you, avoid anything else that you write like the plague, not even give you their initials if you paid them, and post a blog on their site about why people should not trust you.
Here are a 4 sure fire ways to breed mistrust with your articles.
Reading For Writing - Follow Up
Within minutes of posting my blog about the benefits of reading to acheive success, I received an article from Terry Brock as part of his online success and achievement coaching program that I subscribe to. This article was so relevant to what I had just written, I couldn’t believe it. The article is about streamlining your life to allow for the most important things you should be doing, reading included. It had so much good information that I wanted to share it with you all.
Now because I had received this article as part of a subscription only program, I wanted to get Terry’s permission before I gave you the link. So I shot an email off to him explaining the situation and he was kind enough to let me share the article with you. Here it is: Streamline Your Life For Greater Results
Thanks Terry!
Reading For Writing
One of the most important things that I do every day is read. I read magazines, books, articles, newsletters, newspapers, emails, whitepapers, blogs, etc. Granted I may not read every one of those sources every day, but I probably read a couple of hours total throughout my day. Why? Well for one thing, I read to write.
Here is how reading helps me to write:
- Reading helps me to expand my knowledge. In this way I can broaden the topics that I feel confident writing about.
- Reading helps me to become a better writer by learning from other writers that are more proficient or more experienced than I.
- Reading inspires me to write by helping me get motivated, give me ideas, and understand what information people are interested in reading.
- Reading from different sources exposes me to different styles of writing - styles that differ from author to author and medum to medium. This helps me to continue to develop my own writing style.
- Reading books printed on actual paper, not online, gives me the opportunity to step away from the computer screen and get refocused and refreshed.
To be successful you must read at least 15 minutes a day (more if you can and books on tape and podcasts count). It will help you keep up to date with changes in your industry, ensure that you are continuing to learn, help you to stay focused on your goals, help you become a more well rounded person, and help you acheive success faster.
If one of your goals is to become a better writer, take a look at this list of the Top 10 Blogs For Writers for 2007/2008 . I already subscribe to a couple of these blogs and you can be sure that I will be checking out the others ASAP.
Website Magazine, an Interview with Pete Prestipino
I’ve been a subscriber to Website Magazine for a couple of years now and it’s one of the few publications I actually look forward to receiving every month. I think the main reason for this is that I know the articles are going to be relevant to something that currently I’m interested in or want to know more about. Oh, and did I mention that a subscription to Website Magazine is free!
A recent chat with Pete Prestipino, the Editor in Chief of Website Magazine, reveals more on what makes Website Magazine so unique.
Pull Ahead Faster: 7 Simple (And Cheap) Ways To Market Your Small Business Online
Small business owners usually have plenty of drive, ambition, and strong work ethic. What they usually don’t have is plenty of money. By taking advantage of the Web 2.0 environment and online pull marketing techniques, small businesses can get their name, brand and product out there faster than ever before and still stay within their budget.
Here are 7 simple and cheap pull marketing strategies that you can use:
- Blogging. Blogging can allow you to communicate with your customers. And when I say communicate, I should say converse. It allows two-way communication with your customers and potential customers. It allows you to share your expertise. If you’re lucky it can create a viral marketing opportunity for an extremely popular (or unpopular) post. It will allow you to join conversations already occurring about you and your company, and more.
- Article Marketing. The benefits of article marketing include the ability to establish yourself as an expert in your field, link backs to your site, possible viral marketing opportunity for a well received article, the ability to market to a number of niches that may benefit from your product or service, and more. To distribute your articles you can submit them to each directory by hand for free or for a fee you can have services such as ArticleMarketer distribute your articles for you. (I personally use ArticleMarketer.)
- Virtual Worlds. Virtual worlds such as SecondLife offer the opportunity to establish a business and personal presence in a unique way. The people that you interact with you there may need your services in real life. (more…)
Using Customer Reviews And Testimonials
It is not unusual for businesses to fear customer feedback. Reviews that go live right away are especially feared. After all, what if they had something bad to say? Well chances are that someone will have something bad to say about you or your product at some point. It is inevitable. However, the benefits of the positive reviews you will receive will far outweigh the few negative reviews that will eventually show up.
Consumers are putting more and more weight on customer reviews. If this makes you cringe with worry, consider this: according to a recent Bazaarvoice survey conducted by Keller Fay Group, 51% of the people said they left positive reviews. And while the Internet has more recently seemed to be the place to go and vent negative feelings about anything and everything, the survey also showed that nearly 80% of respondents wrote reviews in order to reward a company.
As a consumer myself, I read the reviews and testimonials whenever they are available. I have been known to buy a product even though it had a few bad reviews as long as they were in the minority. Many times I went on to have a wonderful experience with the product in spite of the negative reviews and sometimes the bad experience that previous consumers warned me about happened to me as well. I feel that if there are nothing but good reviews and glowing testimonials, then something is amiss. There is the old saying, “You can’t please all of the people all of the time…”
Going Mobile With Google AdWords
While the mobile advertising market is still in it’s infancy, it is projected to grow to over $600 million in the next four years.
To help you tap into this expanding market Google has mobile AdWords campaigns that allow you run your ads on their mobile ad network. Google mobile ads allow you to:
Now Is The Age Of The Entrepreneur
When you think about it, this really is the age of the entrepreneur. Generally speaking, entrepreneurs have big ideas but small budgets. This means that many entrepreneurs, start-ups, and small and home based businesses have been limited in their ability to compete with their larger competitors when it comes to marketing.
Now, small businesses can take advantage of the opportunities that a Web 2.0 environment presents to get their name and brand out there at little or no cost. Blogging, article marketing, podcasting, link building, and viral marketing all have 2 things in common. One, the only thing that can limit a small business in their marketing with these strategies is fear or ignorance. And two, they require very little or no monetary investment.
Playing the Internet Marketing Game
In yesterday’s post by Brandi, Tips and Trends in Viral Video Marketing, she mentioned a post by Dan Ackerman Greenberg titled The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos on TechCrunch.com. In reading the comments, I was surprised by how some people justify black hat marketing tactics by how many other people are doing it. For example, someone commented “I’m shocked at how many people are upset about this post. This type of thing goes on everywhere.”.
About Tim Paulino
Tim is Co-Founder and CEO of Telecentrex, LLC and brings over 12 years of expertise related to website design, programming, SEO and various other Internet marketing strategies.
Brandi is Co-Founder and CCO of Marketme.com® Topics
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