Article marketing has been around way before the internet was invented. Business owners have been known to promote their products and services through the written word through newspapers and magazines long before they could do it online. Now with the ease of use of the internet, online article marketing has become a convenient means of promotion compared to its predecessors.
Not only is online article marketing free, but it is also non-seasonal (meaning, people can read your articles 24/7/365, without exception as to what season your content is most applicable to), and are available long after physical print like newspapers or magazines hit the trash bin.
Many online business ventures, affiliate marketing among them, have made use of the ease and accessibility that online article marketing offers them. However, this same ease has jeopardized many qualities that old-fashioned articles used to have: fun, quality, and creativity, among others. Many article writers have forgotten that their articles are trying to serve real-life people and not just search engines.
If you are into affiliate marketing and want to use article marketing to promote your offers, you are reading the right article. This post will help you outline the qualities your affiliate marketing articles should have to provide the best profits for you, without sacrificing your potential customers’ trust.
INFORMATIVE ARTICLES
The main focus of online article marketing is to provide prospects with helpful, valuable, and relevant information at the click of a mouse. Most people have a tendency to be impatient, so make your articles concise. Focus your content on the benefits your readers would most likely want to know about.
And never forget that not all articles are created equal—some types of content are more beneficial than others, depending on the type of product you are promoting. Some products require a thorough discussion of the features, whereas a simple discussion of a product’s benefits might be enough for other types of products. You want your articles to be informative but also persuasive. The end goal after all is to entice your reader to make a purchase through your affiliate link. In copywriting it is important to focus on benefits over features. One way to do this is to convert features into benefits. Instead of focusing only on the specifications of a camera lens, you might also point out that the camera will shoot perfect pictures at night.
The prospects should benefit from online article marketing, too, and if you have to, place yourself in your readers’ shoes and try to imagine what information they would like to get from your articles.
QUALITY ARTICLES
Many article writers in this day and age are beginning to forget just how important quality is when it comes to their written work. This isn’t to say that you have to be a journalism major or a Pulitzer Prize winner to be able to write well. Most successful copywriters are actually less experienced in writing the way that academics do.
The internet is bombarded with article-writing tips, a lot of which are focused on online article marketing. If you aren’t confident enough to write yourself, you might want to hire someone else for the job. Always remember that the quality, and not quantity of articles will give the best results for your affiliate marketing ventures.
WRITE FUN ARTICLES
How many crowded parties have you been to your entire life? How many out of these parties did you actually remember the names of every stranger who attended? The people that stuck out to you probably had a great sense of humor or great story-telling skills. Try to leave the same impression with your online article marketing efforts. Make your affiliate marketing prospects remember you. They may not buy anything right away, but if your content is good they will keep coming back. It usually takes 8-12 contacts with your customers before they buy from you. In some cases, it takes much more. The key to success is following up regularly. If you create good content that is helpful to people they will eventually feel that they know, like, and trust you. This ultimately makes you the type of person they want to do business with.
SHOULD YOU POST IN ARTICLE DIRECTORIES?
One of the best ways for you to get your articles read by as many people as possible is to post on highly trafficked websites where more people are likely to see them.
There are article directories like Ezine Articles you can submit to, but that is more of an antiquated strategy at this point.
A better strategy these days is to use guest posts on popular blogs in your niche. Some websites are always looking for content to post, but most want quality so you should put your best foot forward when submitting a guest post. You can also use a popular platform like Medium to get more eyeballs on your stuff. These options will get your content more exposure and you can put backlinks that will lead back to your personal website.
If you do decide to post your articles to as many article directories as you can handle, please have the decency to write articles that deserve the reader’s time and attention.
No one wants or needs a badly written article, much less hundreds of the same thing. Do yourself a favor and don’t spam your affiliate marketing offers by posting hundreds of useless words online to article directories. Focus on quality first.
OPTIMIZE YOUR ARTICLES FOR SEARCH ENGINES
Article marketing is entirely useless if you can’t get people to read your articles. Make your articles easy to find online. Imagine what keywords your prospects are likely to enter when looking for what it is that you offer. Place them in appropriate places within your article. But don’t forget the quality of your articles; write for people first and search engines second
Affiliate marketing is a challenge, but with article marketing aiding your efforts it can be made easier. You can be successful in either one of these ventures (affiliate marketing and article marketing) if you put forth the necessary effort. This can mean doing it yourself or hiring a good writer to do it for you. Following the tips I mentioned here will help you.
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