Article Marketing Tips That Will Boost Your Website Traffic (And Keep Your Readers Happy Too)

I’m sure you are well aware that article writing is one of the most used ways of driving traffic to your websites. Not only it is free, but most people would consider it fairly easy too. I mean, how hard can it be to write a short article, right?

Well, that depends. Writing articles is not that hard, but writing articles that are worth reading white at the same time get user to perform an action you want him to perform (click a link, sign up etc) – now that’s quite a different article writing.

Most people use articles simply to obtain backlinks. Nothing wrong with it, but your articles should also provide a information the reader seeks. Even if the article is written only for backlinking purposes, it should be written in a way, that the reader would be inclined to actually click those links. Times, when writing purely for SEO are coming to an end, especially with the latest Google update.

So how to write original, interesting articles, that would be loved by search engines and readers alike? The first thing you should know is what topic to write about. This sounds like a no-brainer, yet people often mess this up.

Focus on certain topic around your main keyword. Do not try to write about many different things in one article. Jumping from one topic to another will create an incoherent mess, that people will have hard time reading, and search engines will probably disregard such article as an attempt to keyword-stuff the content.

Make the article relevant to the reader, to the keyword, and to the links you place in it. Seriously, do not write about dog training and then place links to make money online website. Do you really think such tactic would convert the visitor into a customer?

The article itself should be complete on its own, meaning that it must be usable. However, make sure you entice the reader’s curiosity. If you offer a complete solution in one article, the user will have no reason to click your links. The idea is to give a lot of information, but leave some info available only on your website. Or, if the article links to a product such as ebook, make sure the reader understands, that the ebook contains much more valuable information than your article could ever convey.

Of course, no matter how valuable info your article provides, or how well written it is, no one will ever read it, if your headline sucks. To come up with compelling headline is an art form, and unfortunately, many article writers get it wrong. If your title sounds too much like an ad, people will ignore it. The title should have nothing to do with selling, but instead needs to create a sense of mystery and make the reader curious. So instead of a title “Buy product X and succeed”, write something like “Do you really need to buy product x to succeed?”.

The article itself can be written in an informal tone, but do not lose sight of the prize. Being personal is fine, in fact it is the way to go in most cases. But make sure you do not sound condescending, or too jovial. Be friendly, personal and social, but make sure you do not sound…well, weird or even offensive. Becoming an authority through the “rich jerk” routine is very unlikely to work anymore.

One more tip before we wrap this short article writing lesson – if the ultimate goal of your article writing efforts is to make money with it (and since you are reading this, I am sure that’s the case), you need to establish yourself as an authority. Just writing a lot about a topic will not make you an authority, but it will get you noticed by the community, and you are bound to learn a ton about the topic too. It’s just inevitable. So write, then write so more, eat, take a shower, and then write again. It is called article marketing for a reason…

But establishing yourself as an authority can be tricky. Most articles you ever read about article marketing are written by fakers. Fake it till you make it is a common mantra among marketers. Well, can really help you there as I myself have a lot to learn. But I will never just fake it. Not now, not ever. My approach is – honesty. Does it work? Well, you got to read this article this far, didn’t you?

So here you have it. A few article marketing tips, as promised. Did I cover everything there is to writing articles? Of course not. But I’ll keep writing…and learning. So come back soon.

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