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

There’s currently a class-action case that illustrates this, started by user Anthony Michaels against the web site Classmates.com because their email marketing copy told him that former school friends and classmates were trying to reach him, and that he had to upgrade to a premium membership for $15 to make contact.

As a free member of Classmates.com myself I know these emails are impersonal and seemingly triggered by anyone–whether they know you or not–searching for your name (which hundreds around the world may share) or visiting your free profile page on the site.

The assumption being that if someone visited your profile or searched for your name then they must be looking for you.

But that wasn’t the case for Michaels. Nobody was looking for him specifically, and so in essence Classmates.com could be said to have mislead him with their sales copy and end up paying out a lot more than they earned to those who have signed on to the class-action suit.

The lesson here is simple and hopefully obvious, and it applies to every piece of copy or content you create, don’t lie or imply anything that may potentially mislead somebldy who consumes your content.

Consumer fraud laws are broad and aggressive, and while some might laugh at Michaels for launching what they consider a frivolous suit after being duped by a word-play technicality, the fact is the government does tend to act first to protect individual consumers in such cases.

Keep this in mind when writing your articles. Don’t make unfounded claims about products or services, and never imply any benefit that doesn’t truly exist.

The best rule of thumb is to always under promise and over deliver. It keeps you safe of legal actions and makes your customers or end users more enthusiastic with you in the long run.

Technorati Tags: Article Marketing, classmates.com, lie

1. Specify the problem – in most cases your articles are going to revolve around some sort of problem or issue that the reader wants to solve or learn more about, so start your article by pin-pointing that problem.

2. Describe in detail how that problem causes harm – whether it is a minor obstacle or can potentially ruin someone’s life, show how bad it can be to have this problem.

3.  Point out the benefits of not having the problem – make the case for addressing the problem or issue by highlighting the benefits of overcoming or avoiding it.

4. Give your recommended solution(s) for the problem.

While very basic, this outline has been used to motivate people into taking action for years and years.

There’s nothing sleazy or “snake oil” about it. The job of a writer is to connect with his or her readers and provide as much accurate information on the topic as possible.

That’s exactly what this outline promotes. Pin-point the problem, provide supporting evidence of why it’s bad to allow the problem to persist, offer examples of benefits from being rid of the problem and finally provide recommended solutions to the problem.

That’s the force, Luke, use it wisely.

Technorati Tags: blue print, outline, writing articles

You may find detailed information on duplicate content filters and how they’re used from the blog of Google’s Matt Cutts; here we’re going to focus strictly on the use of articles for marketing yourself, your brand or your products.

The whole point to article marketing is exposure. Getting your article seen by as many people as possible. So it only makes sense from that perspective to submit your article to as many publishing platforms as you can.

In most cases, authors submitting articles for marketing won’t have a copy of those same articles on their own web site(s), so there’s no reason to worry about the duplicate content issue at all for them.

For those authors who do also publish their articles on their own sites, if you’re worried about the SEO affects or some penalty over duplicate content from having your articles syndicated widely then be sure that your syndicated articles link back to the originals on your site so that search engines can see where the true source is.

Here’s why it doesn’t make sense to submit your article(s) to just a single platform: your article(s) will be picked up and syndicated off of that platform by others anyway. So, even if you only submit an article to Content Caboodle, or to any one of the other article publishing resources out there, it will ultimately end up being repurposed and published across numerous additional sites anyway.

Given that your article won’t be limited to the single platform, and that the whole point behind article marketing is exposure, it just doesn’t make any sense to limit yourself when submitting articles. Make the most of the exposure opportunity your articles offer by submitting them to as many platforms as you can.

Technorati Tags: article distribution

When it comes to links in articles we believe our policy is very liberal for authors. We allow up to 3 links within the body of an article, and an additional 2 links in the author’s resource box.

We also allow direct affiliate links to be used in the author’s resource box. Our position is that if you, as an author, wish to promote a product or service by developing quality article content that is informative for readers there is no reasonable cause for our policies to penalize you by forcing you to use additional domains or redirecting links in your resource box.

However, the Ying to that Yang is that the article itself must be informative to readers and not purely intended to sell them on any product or service. Articles that appear to be nothing more than a sales letter are declined during review.

Any links included in your article text should be for informational reference and/or add value to the article for readers. Our editors are checking them to verify this during the article review process once you submit an article for publishing.

We understand the desire of article marketers to include sales links in their article text, but we have to meet and serve the interests of readers and publishers as well as authors; and our guidelines have been established to be as fair to all as we can be.

Technorati Tags: affiliate links, Article Marketing, guidelines