Sure, you can write and publish an article online without paying a penny, but to create a quality article requires at-least a modest investment of time for the researching and writing–and isn’t your time worth something? So, for that reason I think it’s misleading and unfair to describe article marketing as “free” traffic.

Perhaps it would be better if everyone started referring to article marketing as an easy source of “premium” or “great” traffic, because that’s where article marketing really shines when you do it right.

With just a few paragraphs of well written and crafted words you can pull in boat-loads of highly targeted, quality traffic.

To demonstrate just how valuable the traffic can be with article marketing, let’s look at an actual example from Content Caboodle. Here is a screenshot from an article published on our site:

Notice that I’ve highlighted the first link from the resource box. The anchor text of that link is “printer cartridges” and this specific link has been clicked hundreds of times by visitors to this article page. I know the actual number of clicks the link has received, but without the actual author’s permission it would be wrong to disclose that here, so we’ll stick with the general and generic “hundreds of clicks” for the sake of this posting.

Now, lets look at the average CPC (cost per click) that Google charges for that particular term:

$6.31 per click. Now, of course that reflects the cost when bidding in Google’s search network more than from content page displays, but even still you can easily estimate that it’s going to cost you over $1 per click for that term even in the content network. You could bid less than $1, but I doubt your ad would ever get displayed if you did.

So, at a minimum of $1 per click in value, and with hundreds of clicks to that link, it’s easy to see just how valuable article marketing can be when done right.

And just by the way, this specific article has a 2nd link in the resource box as well with a different anchor text term, and though it hasn’t received as many clicks as the first link, it has received hundreds of clicks to date too.

The key to this article’s success is that the author spent a little time to create a very good and engaging piece of content that naturally guides readers from the article body to his resource box links.

Article marketing is easy, and it’s a great (but not exactly free) way to grab premium traffic, if you do it right and give quality content then you will get quality returns.

Technorati Tags: Article Marketing, article writing, engagement

I don’t normally post here, I’m more of the “operations” guy behind the scenes with Content Caboodle; but I spend a lot of time reading almost all of the articles that get published on this site (I’m an information junkie) and something I saw this week literally triggered a lightbulb moment for me, you know, when the lightbulb flashes over your head like in cartoons…and I decided immediately that I wanted to share this with the contributing writers here as a way to make what you’re doing better and easier for you.

Article marketing is a tricky craft. The system is simple, write articles and then publish them everywhere you can to get the maximum exposure for your resource box call-to-action link(s).

Being such a simple system, it leads to a lot of people trying it, typically with very mixed results because they haven’t studied the mechanics behind the craft of writing an article that will entice a reader to take action.

I call it a craft because that’s exactly what it is. It isn’t hard to do or learn, but it’s a vital ingredient if you want to have real success with your articles.

It’s easy to write a couple hundred words on any topic, but if you haven’t crafted those words properly to engage and entice your readers than your message isn’t going to be memorable and those words aren’t going to be working for you or your business at all. They may be informative, but informative alone doesn’t translate into memorable or action from readers.

So, how do you take your words and craft them into something more memorable or that will entice action from your readers?

There are a lot of ways to do it, but one I saw this week when my monthly National Geographic arrived was very impressive and can serve as a great starting point for writers looking to improve their article marketing craft.

Right on page #2 of this latest issue of National Geographic (August 2010), opposite the Index page, is what on first glance appears to be a single-page feature on Cuban Iguanas. A well targeted story for Nat-Geo readers, right?

I didn’t want to step on any toes nor break any laws by scanning the actual page, so here’s a design representation of the layout of the single-page piece:

Layout Design

Now, let me break it down for you:

Single-Page Title: “Wildlife As Canon Sees It” (Canon runs similar engaging ads in every issue of Nat-Geo and has older ones online for viewing at http://www.canon.com/environment/report/wildlife.html if you want to see actual examples of what I’m describing)

Purple Block: a single paragraph of encyclopedia-style description of the Cuban Iguana, giving the necessary specifics on the species and letting readers know what the piece is about

Orange Block: a large, stunning picture of a Cuban Iguana

Two Blue Blocks: a couple paragraphs of conversational-style text covering the traits and life of Cuban Iguanas, followed by a short paragraph on how Canon “sees” the importance of making the world a better place, partly by raising awareness of endangered species (with the implication being it’s easier to raise awareness when you can put a face on the problem, even an Iguana’s face). And concluding with a URL to http://www.canon.com/environment

Red Block: The Canon logo

Okay, now this is a print media piece, so there are a few differences from online content that I’ll go over, but for the most part what Canon has done is create a great article that highlights their product line while engaging the reader on a level and topic that’s important to them.

The “tricky” part, or what I call the “craft” in this is that Canon doesn’t ever mention their products. The word camera never appears in the piece at all.

Instead, what they did is create a piece of informative and entertaining content that highlights what their products do in a way that will connect with the target readers of the magazine the content appears in.

To translate that into a process that could be used online for article writers/marketers, you would first zero in on your target reader by using a title and keywords that will grab their attention.

Next, create a piece of content that doesn’t openly sell anything, but rather highlights the features or benefits of what you want to promote while informing and/or entertaining readers.

Finally, provide a call-to-action link in your resource box that doesn’t say “now I’m going to sell you something”, but rather says “go deeper into this topic here”. If you look at the link Canon uses in their piece, it isn’t “Canon.com/ORDER_HERE” but instead it is “Canon.com/environment” because even the link can make a connection to the target reader of Nat-Geo by including the keyword environment in it.

This is a perfectly formatted piece of “engagement marketing”. I like that term better than article marketing, or information marketing or entertainment marketing, because it can be any or all of those things.

This type of content creation works and can be applied to anything, product or service doesn’t matter, whatever you want to promote there’s a way to do it with engagement marketing and article writing.

For instance, if I wanted to promote a software program that lets users create musical beats, I wouldn’t talk about the software at all, I would write a piece about the fun of creating music and probably include a video (with audio) of someone young sitting at the computer and creating their own beats in just a few seconds (to highlight the ‘ease of use’ of the software as well as the musical capabilities) and hopefully looking very happy with their sounds playing back to them.

Since my real focus of the content is on how easy it is to have fun creating your own beats, my call-to-action would be to a special page on my site which was also intended to highlight that “it’s easy” to make music and have fun with my software, maybe including more videos or even user uploaded clips.

The point is, with engagement marketing you don’t have to “sell” the product or service at all. In fact, you want to avoid anything that could be perceived as selling.

Just highlight a feature or benefit your product/service provides, in a way that connects with your target reader on their own level. This builds interest after you’ve grabbed their attention, and once their interest tips over into desire through engagement they will take action to purchase (provided your site has a clear navigation system).

Give it a shot, try writing some engagement based content, include media if appropriate, and see how it works out for you. If you follow the examples above closely (but make them fit what you’re promoting) I bet you’ll be surprised with the results.

Technorati Tags: Article Marketing, article writing, engagement

I have to start by saying if you have an article declined please don’t take it personally. It is not a reflection on you nor any sort of personal judgement about your ideas and opinions.

In almost every instance that a submission is declined it is because the content somehow violated one of our few “Submission Guidelines” in some way and has nothing to do with the theme or idea of the articles.

A few good tips for making sure your articles aren’t declined are:

• Use your best grammar. We know not all of our authors (or readers) claim English as their first language and we do our best to not exclude anyone who submits their best efforts to us. If the idea of your article is understandable we’re not going to decline it because of any minor grammar mistakes, but we do ask that you submit your best efforts in return.
• Don’t write in all caps.
• Don’t use over-sized fonts for your whole article. It’s acceptable to highlight key points in an article with bold or larger text, but don’t do it with the whole article.
• Don’t try to stuff keywords or extra links into your articles and resource box.
• Don’t use automated article writing/rewriting and submission software. Most of the time we can tell right away when something was written/rewritten by software, these programs leave fairly clear ‘footprints’ in the articles or submissions that we can spot, and in the past we’ve been fairly easy going about automated submissions if the article was good quality, however moving forward the decision has been made to decline everything created or submitted by automated software, so don’t use anything that attempts to circumvent our system.

Now, to end this posting on a more positive note, here are a few Do’s that will help ensure your articles get approved and will help to increase the number of people who read them:

• Use images in your articles. We provide an easy to use submission editor that lets you include images with the click of a button and we encourage you to use it often. Over the past 2 years one thing has become very clear to us about articles published here, the articles that get the most views are the ones that are well written, thorough on the topics they cover, and include images. People like pictures and our stats show it.
• Beef-up your author’s profile. You can add an About Me bio blurb, a signature, your website or blog URLs, your Twitter contact info, pictures and more to your profile page, and the authors who use these features get a lot more interest than the authors who don’t. Plus, to get highlighted on our main page Author Showcase you must have a picture on your profile.
• Be interesting in your writings.
• Be entertaining in your writings.

Technorati Tags: Article Marketing, article writing

Why would you care about popularity for your article if you just want the resource links?

Two reasons, first if the article is more popular then that means others link to it on their blogs or in forums, which increases the value of your link(s) in the resource box.

Second, becaus we’ve spoken with authors of our more popular articles and they overwhelmingly told us the same thing, their articles are generating traffic and customers for them.

That makes sense, a well written article is going to prompt more real readers to follow the resource box links to the author’s web site.

So, what’s the best way to write for readers? That’s really subjective and a lot depends on what your readers are expecting based on the topic of your article, but here are a few points that should work in most cases to make your articles better for reader consumption:

1) Use a descriptive and provoking title. Work in your keywords for SEO if you can, but your first focus point should be “will someone seeing this title click it to read the article?” Also make sure your title tells people what your article will be about. If it doesn’t, readers feel duped and will reject your article (and links).

2) Make sure your article is direct and focused. If you jump around from idea to idea in the article you’re going to lose readers. Your title should tell what the article is about, and your article should only be about that one thing.

3) Focus each paragraph, sentence and word on human readers of your article. It’s okay to keep in mind that you’d like to rank for certain terms with search engines, but never stuff keyword terms just so they will find them. It makes your article “clunky” and turns off readers from your message and links.

4) Entertain your readers, even when providing instructional or technical information. A big mistake we see is writers who obviously have a technical writing background submitting fact filled, cold and impersonal articles. Sure, the information is great and specific, but the average reader isn’t going to connect with the “just the facts ‘Mam” presentation and that results in less clicks on your links. But, find a way to present the same information in a slightly more personal or entertaining manner and you will see far better results.

5) Be an editor! Our editors review every article submitted, and we will reject articles with lots of grammatic errors, but we aren’t spell checking your work for you–and neither are most other article directories.

It’s up to you to proof read your own articles prior to submitting them, and you really should. When readers find tons of spelling mistakes in an article they begin to wonder if they can trust the information, and that means less clicks for you.

6) Make sure your resource link is a call to action. Just saying “Click Here” doesn’t cut it. Tell readers why they should follow your link for more information. Give them an implied benefit of following your link.

Technorati Tags: article writing

Actually, there are several reasons that the editing staff have come up with for why a blog was not necessarily needed, but would prove to be a value add to the thousands of users participating on Content Caboodle in the form of authors, content publishers and article readers.

As our site has become more popular with authors, content publishers and readers there has been an equal growth in article submissions. That’s exactly what we want to see, however inevitably as more people participate there are more instances of submissions which don’t quite meet our guidelines.

We will never specifically point out any article or author which fails to meet those guidelines here, that would be in direct violation of our Privacy Policy; not to mention pretty darn rude.

However, we will use this blog as a way to offer helpful tips and advice that will hopefully assist authors in creating better material for themselves, and lead to fewer frustrations for you in the submission process.

We also plan to use this blog as a way to feature and highlight some of the most talented authors using our service. We know their works can be of great value to others still building their writing muscles, and hopefully we would like to not just shine a spotlight on the best articles and authors in our directory; but ultimately we hope to include some interviews with them here as well–which we believe will be of value and interest to many other authors.

I mentioned the content publishers who participate at Content Caboodle earlier, these are vital to the success of a site like ours. Just as we need authors to submit articles, we need publishers to syndicate them in order to increase the value of our directory for the authors. And of course the publishers benefit from gaining additional high quality content. It’s truly a symbiotic model, authors want exposure, publishers want good content, readers want valuable information and our site acts as the facilitator to bring each of these components together.

Understanding the importance of all who participate at Content Caboodle we realize that providing publishers with useful information about our content offerings and how to make the best use of them is vital to our continued growth, so publishers can expect to find lots of helpful postings here along the way.

I want to say again that we value your input on our article directory and the evolution of this blog as a resource, so please feel free to contact us at any time with your comments, ideas and suggestions. That’s how we will know if we’re on the right track with each move we make.

Technorati Tags: article writing, authors, publishers, readers