Top 10 Article Marketing Strategies

Strategic Article Marketing Tip 1 – Create a Captivating Title

Create a captivating title that draws the reader into clicking on your article link, whether it be from search engine result, syndicated location, or directly in the article directory it is published in. The purpose of this article marketing tip is to get the reader to click on your article link.

If you have a boring title, then why should a reader want to read your article? You haven’t even created an interest from the beginning, so the reader will think your article will be no different. You have to create a title that either interests them because it will show them how to do something they want to learn how to do or grabs at their curiousity because it is a contraversial topic they are interested in.

Strategic Article Marketing Tip 2 – Create a Keyword Optimized Title

Create a keyword optimized title that will get the search engine’s itsy bitsy spider’s juices flowing and crawling your content like crazy. It is one thing to get a reader to click on your article, but is another monster altogether to get search engines to spider your content. If you have only a major keyword in the title, then it might get indexed, but you could end up on page 55 of the results since you will be competing with the rest of the websites on the internet.

So it is critically important that you optimize your title to include both a major keyword and some long tail keywords as well. This way the search engine spiders will see that you are not only targeting the major topic or keyword, but you are also targeting a specific topic within that category. In return you will increase your rank on the major keyword and also be able to have a very good rank on the long tail keyword.

Strategic Article Marketing Tip 3 – Create a Keyword Optimized Article Body

Create a keyword optimized article body that is both properly formatted and double checked for both grammar and spelling mistakes. This is just a reiteration of the above article marketing tip. In addition to optimizing the title for both the major keyword and long tail keywords, you need to apply the same strategy to your main content of the article.

This doesn’t mean keyword stuffing should be used. You want to include a good balance of the major keyword with other relevant long tail keywords. Try to optimize it so you mention your target long tail keyword in each paragraph. Then mix it up by adding additional keywords that are both relevant to your main major keyword and your target long tail keywords. You want to make certain the keyword density of your target long tail keyword is the keyword with the highest density.

When you do this, as a result of not trying to stuff keywords in the article, using similar words and phrases related to your topic will create a natural linguistic flow. It won’t sound like you are purposely sticking words in the content. It will sound more like a natural conversation between you and the reader as if you were talking face to face.

Strategic Article Marketing Tip 4 – Create an Effective Author Bio and Resource Box

Create an effective author bio and resource box that doesn’t toot your own horn. You basically want to create them in a way that has the sole intention of getting the reader to click through to your website.

Have you ever seen those author bio’s that were just one big long “look at me… I am so great… buy my product”? Well that is exactly what you don’t want to do. In fact you don’t even want to try to sell the reader on anything in that box. You want get them to continue reading on, maintaining their interest in your content. This will dramatically increase the click through rate on your article.

If you keep their interest level high, then they are going to want to see what else you have to say on your website. The purpose of that box is not to sell something. It has the sole purpose of getting a visitor to come to your website. Always keep that in mind when you are writing your author bio.

Strategic Article Marketing Tip 5 – Do Extensive Keyword Research

This is just an expansion of the tips mentioned above about having keyword optimized content. You need to do extensive keyword research so your article marketing campaign will be effective in both the long and short term time frames. You want your research to insure sustainability in your marketing efforts. You don’t want to waste your time creating an article that will only be effective for a month. You want to create an article that will last for years to come.

This way if you are promoting an affiliate driven website or link then you will continue to see sales from that product on a long term basis. While this is good for long term you also want to keep in mind the benefit of creating a ninja attack on hot trends in the niche you are promoting to capitalize on a temporary increase in traffic.

But while doing that you need to create the article so it will last in the long term. You can always change the product that is being promoted or redirect the link you posted to something else. This strategy will create the most effective use of your time.

Strategic Article Marketing Tip 6 – Do Extensive Niche Research

Do extensive niche research so you are targeting the proper demographic of readers in your niche and so you know that you aren’t focusing your niche too narrow. This goes hand in hand with keyword research. While targeting micro niches can be a useful strategy, it isn’t the best strategy to use in article marketing.

You want to make certain that you are getting best and most effective use of your time. You can do niche research that will insure there is enough potential customers to convert into sales to support your efforts in your article marketing.

Now don’t get me wrong… If you are doing this because you just love to write, then knock yourself out. But if your purpose of article marketing is to make money online and not just to create a fan base for your content, then you need to do your research on the niche. While a few people may want to know about “basket weaving with organic materials” there may not be enough interest to drive traffic and create sales. By the way that is a totally made up niche.

Keep the focus of your article on a niche that will have enough demand to convert traffic into sales on a regular, consistent, and long term basis. Preparation is key in article marketing. If you do your research then you will create streams of income with a lot less work. You can still be successful without the research, but I guarantee that you will be wrting a lot more articles to create the same amount of traffic and sales than someone who has done their research.

Strategic Article Marketing Tip 7 – Do Extensive Product Research

Do extensive product and affiliate program research to make certain you know what is available to be promoted, and also who your competitors are for the product you are promoting. You want to make certain that you choose a product that will have a good balance of high conversions and high commission payouts.

Obviously if you have a product that has high conversions, then you want to make certain your commission is adequate. If you converted 50 percent of visitors into sales for a $2 commission, then you would have to put a lot more work and effort into promoting it than finding a product that had a $20 commission and may only convert at 25 percent. The key is to find a good balance between the two.

Another important aspect of this article marketing tip to keep in mind is that doing product research will protect your reputation. If you promote a product that is total garbage or a big scam, then that is going to be a direct reflection on the type of person you are. You may be a wonderful, honest and caring person.

However, because you didn’t do your research and the product you may be promoting turns out to be terrible the reader is going to remember exactly who recommended it to them. Sure they will know who the product creator was, but they will also know you recommended to them, and because of that will let everyone they know not to trust you. So it is very important that you research the products you promote.

Strategic Article Marketing Tip 8 – Do Not Put All Your Strategic Eggs in One Marketing Basket

Do not put all your strategic eggs into one article marketing basket. Obviously if you focus too much on one specific product or niche, then when that niche or product suffers a setback due to market saturation or consumers loss of interest, then you could see a dramatic drop in your income level.

To protect yourself from experiencing these kinds of fallouts that may be related to things like a major recall on a product or something similar, then try to balance your time between a number of different niches and products within those niches. That way when something like this happens, the effect it will have on you and your income will be minimal.

Strategic Article Marketing Tip 9 – Keep the Content Focused Based Upon the Article’s Purpose

Keep the content of your article focused based upon what the sole purpose of submitting the article was. For instance are you submitting the article to drive traffic to a link? Or are you submitting the article to get tons of backlinks to your site?

Obviously you can’t use the same approach for both purposes, so make certain you keep that in mind when creating your article. Higher quality content is more likely to get your article syndicated which will create backlinks to your website. More focused and to the point content will be more likely to create interest and increase click throughs to your website.

Strategic Article Marketing Tip 10 – Keep Your Content High in Quality and Uniqueness

In order to stand out from the crowd of article marketers, you absolutely must create content that is both high in quality and very unique. If you have 10 people writing about the exact same topic and promoting the exact same product or similar products you need to stand out. To do this you have to make certain that your content is unique and that is both accurate and high quality.

Quality articles provide accurate and useful information. This is the whole reason a user clicks on an article. They want to solve a problem or find out how to do something. If your article is vague or doesn’t provide enough information, what reason does the user have to click through to your site or read any other articles you have written for that matter? They don’t. So that is why it is important to keep your content quality very high.

Now if you have two similar articles that are high quality then it will always just be a toss up on which one the reader chooses. Sometime it will mean they read both, and other times it means that they will choose the first one they read and stop. This is where having accurate information comes into play. If you provide the most accurate information a reader will likely visit your site, and already have a sense of trust in you because of the fact that your article was accurate. This will help in creating conversions since people normally buy from people they can trust.

Now take it a step further and realize something else. If your website content is of equal quality of the article, this will create the best kind of traffic for your site. Not only will the visitor probably bookmark your site, but they will talk or blog about it to their friends. So from one good article you create multiple visitors to your site, which means multiple opportunities to convert a visitor into a sale.