Part One - Writing Effective Articles For Article Marketing
By Jessalynn Coolbaugh

When you choose to use article marketing to promote your business, it is important first and foremost to write articles that are both informative, as well as SEO optimised. This can be a difficult combination for some writers, even though it really doesn't have to be.

All too often, I see marketers who believe that their content doesn't need to be of the highest quality, just as long as it is properly optimised so as to bring in the highest amount of traffic.

This is a HUGE mistake!

Quite frankly, those who aren't willing to put a little more effort (and a little more money, if they are outsourcing their articles) into making certain that they have original and informative content, are only setting themselves up for disappointment.

Optimised-only content is fine as long as all you are trying to do is drive traffic to Adsense-loaded sites; but is a terrible option if you are actually trying to keep people reading long enough to want to learn more about the product you are promoting. If you actually want to make sales, then you will need to provide enough informative content to allow your readers to become interested in the product you are trying to sell.

There should be five parts to any article written for article marketing. These are:

• Headline
• Introduction
• Body
• Conclusion
• Resource Box

Headlines -

The headline, of course, is the most important part of the entire article. It must be enticing enough to get your visitors interested in reading, but needs also to contain the keyword you are targeting for your article marketing efforts.

This is easy enough to accomplish. If you will look at the headline of this particular article as an example, you will see just how easy it really is to get both your keyword, and a word about the content of your article into the headline.

Many people overlook the importance of fitting their targeted keyword into their headline. The reason why this is so important, is because the first thing the search engines look at when deciding what relevant content to display on search engine results pages, or SERPs, is the headline of the content.

So, if the articles you are using for article marketing are geared toward the poker niche, for example, and your targeted keyword is something along the lines of "Texas Hold 'Em Poker" - you certainly don't want some sort of artsy headline that reads "The Art Of Poker, Why Winning Isn't Just About The Cards," or some such nonsense.

Article marketing is as much about creating an interested readership as it is about selling. If you provide your readers with a reason to finish your article, you're almost guaranteed they'll come back for more!

Introduction -

The introduction to the articles you use for article marketing should be a paragraph or two relating to the subject of your article. It's important to not actually give any quality information away here, but rather to create a sense of excitement in your readers about the article they are about to read.

Use a paragraph to describe the subject of your article, the problems faced by people suffering from the subject of your article, the history of the subject of your article, etc. The main thing is to give a brief introduction that will basically tell your readers what your article is about.
Articles used for article marketing should have their targeted keyword at least twice in the introduction of the article. Once as close to the beginning of the first sentence as possible, and once toward the end of the last sentence. If your introduction has two paragraphs, be sure to place your targeted keyword within each paragraph twice.

Body -

If you're using your articles for article marketing, then the body of your copy will need to be both optimised and interesting to read. Unfortunately, the two aren't often found together.

Writing an informative article isn't hard to do. Find two or three points about the subject you are writing your articles about that really interest people. Use a keyword search tool to find out what the most searched for "how to" is for your particular niche. The specific problems associated with that "how to" should be the main points of your articles.

The body of your articles should be roughly four or five paragraphs, with at least one subheading or bulleted list to break up the line of the copy. For most article marketing articles, a short paragraph of information, followed by a short bulleted list, and then two more paragraphs solving the points in the bullets should be more than enough.

Optimising your article body works in much the same was as does the introduction. You should try to have your targeted keyword twice per paragraph, once within the first sentence, and once within the last. But you should also try to sprinkle the body with a few variations on the original keyword.

For example, if your article marketing keyword was "dog care", you'd also want to use "caring for dogs", "dog's care", and "care of dogs" somewhere throughout the body of your article. If you have a good grasp on the topic your articles are about, then it should be relatively simple for you to toss these variations in once in a while.

Conclusion -

The conclusion of your article marketing articles needs to be roughly a paragraph long, with your keyword placement the same as before - once at the beginning of the paragraph, and once at the end. Briefly summarize the content of your article, and soft-sell your reader on the value of owning whatever it is you are using the articles to promote.

I say soft-sell, because it is important that the article seem more informative than like a marketing ploy. If your readers get to the end, only to get hit with a hard sales message, they'll most likely turn and click away. But by soft-selling them on the value of owning whatever product you are promoting your chances of getting them to click on the link in your resource box increase exponentially.

An example of a soft sell conclusion would be along the lines of, for the "dog care" example: If you're interested in learning more about the importance of proper dog care, there is a wealth of information available in various e-books on the market, as well as in your local library. Learning all you can from these sources should be one of the top priorities of any dog owner, as proper dog care is essential to giving your dog a long and happy life."

The Resource Box -

The resource box is the bread and butter of your article marketing efforts. It needs to a very short bio, that includes the reason why you are an expert on the subject. Your article keyword needs to show up at least once in the resource box. Using our example of "dog care", a good resource box would look something like this:

"John Doe has been a dog owner and advocate of proper dog care for more than twenty years. His two Himalayan Sheppards are admittedly the most pampered large-breed dogs on the planet. For more information on how you can give your dog the care she deserves, visit John on the web at yoursitegoeshere.com".

In Conclusion...
There you have it. The simple method for creating your own informative articles to use for article marketing. It really is much simpler than many would have you believe to write an informative article. Once you get the hang of it, you'll be able to write three or four an hour, provided you keep them fairly short (500 words, or less); and will be able to easily write ten articles a day to submit to the various directories used in article marketing.

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Jessalynn Coolbaugh is a copywriter and marketing consultant, and has worked with many new internet marketers to help them get their businesses off to a good start. To learn more about article marketing, you can view part two of this article at Easy Article Marketing on Squidoo, or visit Jessalynn on the web at Direct Response Marketing, Copywriting Services, Sales Letters, PR, and More

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Jessalynn Coolbaugh ~ Now Accepting New Clients

I'm just getting started in article marketing and these posts were very helpful!
Thanks so much!

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Work Smart, Not Hard - Get Lazy Income

My pleasure I've actually got several of my coaching students right now that I've been teaching about this. I'm glad I was able to help!

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask


Peace 8)

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Jessalynn Coolbaugh ~ Now Accepting New Clients

Hello there ksframgirl

Here's what you should do next...

Check out ezinearticles.com...there are lots of free aricles there about article marketing, also ezinearticles is probably the #1 directory to submit articles to...they have great stats.......I know I rely on the quality traffic I get from articles I have submitted there and elsewhere

If you have other questions, feel free to send a PM, contact me, or post your inquiry here on the forum

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Hope Your Business is Going Well.

Leo Hanes
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It shows you everything this guy did to build a blog that makes him over $5000 USD per month!

It's a great read, I recommend you check it out.

This will change your mind about just writing articles and not maximizing your earning power from your efforts.

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Harvey Akeson,
Tucson, Arizona
I would be proud to have you
as a member of my optin safelist.
Social Networking Pays as you correspond with friends. Wow! What a TWIST!

The Main Benefit of article marketing is back link and it is used by other people with again link back.

If your article will niche and have attractive content people will like to link it and that will increase your back link.

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Amar
SEO Service California | SEO Service Washington