EzineArticles

Important links at ezinearticles:

http://Members.EzineArticles.com
When you're ready to submit your next quality original article


http://ezinearticles.com/editorial-guidelines.html
Gain greater understanding of how to create quality, original articles is by reading our comprehensive Editorial Guidelines for article submission.

http://ezinearticles.com/rss



In the next post is the whole ezinearticle training series

Article Marketing 101:

- What is it?
- Why it works?
- What's in it for me?

Article Marketing is about writing quality original articles to promote you, your business, your products and your organization.
It's about exposure and pre-qualified traffic/visitor attraction back to your website.

The (3) Keys to Article Marketing:

1. Create great, original content to position you as an expert in your niche.

2. Create great, original content that does not "sell" or promote in your article body content, but provides useful information for your reader.

3. Submit your best original content frequently to build a steady stream of traffic back to your website.

You may be asking yourself:
"How can I promote myself if I can't make a pitch in the article"?

The key concept is to use your article body to share your unique expertise.
The Resource Box at the bottom of the article submission page is where you provide a link back to your website.

"The Article Body Is Where You Give;
The Resource Box Is Where You Take"

Provide just enough information in the resource box to whet your readers' appetite for more and they will be more inclined to visit your site.
Make sure the information in your article body relates to the information in your resource box.
Once at your site, you have the opportunity to deliver your pitch.

Another reason not to sell in your article body, is that ezine and web publishers don't want to re-publish sales literature.
By keeping your promotional content within the Resource Box, you increase your article and link visibility and your chances of being republished.

Article marketing is about generating traffic and leading qualified prospects to your website.

The next edition of the EzineArticles Training series will give a brief overview of specific article components, helping you maximize the return from each and every article you create.

Article Syndication: Article Components

Each article you submit contains different components and sections.
While some sections carry more weight than others; each section must be crafted with care and foresight.
A truly great article can increase traffic to your website.
An article is divided into the following sections:

* Article Title
* Article Keywords
* Article Summary
* Article Body
* Article Resource Box

Each one of these sections will be examined in upcoming editions of this series, but a few general ideas apply to each one:

1. Proof your Work:
Credibility and expertise in your article's subject matter can be diminished by typos or grammatical errors in any part of your article.
Here's a proof-reading tip: Read your work out loud.
Often times this will help you catch mistakes you missed while reading the article to yourself silently.

2. Keep Your Audience in Mind:
If you are writing an article on a technical topic, it's fine to use technical terms, but be wary of alienating a wider target of readers with information they may not be ready to understand or digest.

3. Keep An Ace Up Your Sleeve:
Always keep a tidbit of important information in reserve to make your readers want more.
Remember, your article can generate traffic, so use the Resource Box to entice your readers to click on your website link.

4. Be Clear and Concise in Your Writing:
A 500 word article will always out-perform a 1000 word article.
You are writing for a medium that embraces instant gratification: the Internet.
Keep your articles clear and concise, so the reader can quickly comprehend the quality content you are sharing.

A great way to gain greater understanding of how to create quality, original articles is by reading our comprehensive Editorial Guidelines for article submission at:
http://ezinearticles.com/editorial-guidelines.html

The next edition of the EzineArticles Training series will take an in-depth look at creating a keyword-rich article title.

Article Title and Keywords

In traditional copywriting, your headline determines as much as 95% of the success of the book or article.
This statistic takes into consideration what makes the book title successful: whether or not a human purchases it.

Article marketing success on the internet must take into consideration how the article is found by readers.

Myth:
Most people will read your articles because they came to a website and started browsing just like they do if they were at a local book store.

Fact:
Most people search the Internet using one of the major search engines.
They will type in between 1 to 5 keywords that are related to the topic of the article or information they are looking to locate.
The search engine will then deliver results that best match the human's interest.

Goal:
Find your articles in the search engine results for the keywords and topics that are most relevant to the content of your article.
Most search engines give heavier weight to the first 3-5 keywords and a lower priority to the rest.

The first 3-5 words of your Article Title determine the success of your article in terms of how much traffic your article will generate back to your website.
Create keyword-rich article titles that match the most commonly searched keywords for your topic.

You can maximize your article marketing strategy by understanding keyword research and creating keyword-rich, intelligent article titles.
You can create massive amounts of traffic to your articles and website thanks to the search engines who love smart, keyword-rich titles.

Here are some Keyword Research sites to help you create your keyword-rich Article Titles:
* Good Keywords: http://www.goodkeywords.com
* Yahoo Search Marketing: http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/
* Google Adwords: https://adwords.google.com/support/bin/ ... topic=1500

The next edition of the EzineArticles Training series will give you the Do's and Don'ts of Article Summary content.

Article Summary: Do's and Don'ts

The purpose of your article summary is to entice a potential reader to read the rest of your article.
Get right to point and playfully tease your audience with the benefits they will receive if they read your article.

Article Summary Do's:

1. Create in Proper Length:
Your article summary should be 2 to 5 sentences long.

2. Give Emotional Benefit:
Speak directly to your reader of the emotional benefits that can be gained by reading the information in your article body.

3. Target your Reader:
Give your ideal reader reasons they should continue reading your article.

4. Include Keywords:
Your article summary should mention at least 3 to 5 keywords relating to your article topic, using keyword research tools.

Article Summary Don'ts:

1. Repeat Your Article Title
2. Repeat Your Author Name
3. Pitch You or Your Business
4. Include your URL or E-Mail Address
5. Blatantly Self-promote
6. Create an Article Summary more than 2 paragraphs or 7 sentences in length.

The next edition of the EzineArticles Training Series:
An Introduction to Article Writing and Marketing will focus on Article Body do's and don'ts.

Article Body: Do's and Don'ts

Article Body Do's:

1. Give: Your article body should impart your expert strategies, tips and knowledge.

2. Be Clear and Concise:
Your article body may benefit from the use of bulleted or numbered lists to break down your article in an easy to read fashion.

3. Use Bold and Italics Occasionally:
Bolded or italicized words can draw the reader's eye to your most important information.
If used excessively in your article body, you will lose this effect.

4. Put Links in your Resource Box:
Your Resource Box is your "take".
Generate traffic to your site by placing active links in your resource box.

5. Entice Your Reader:
Provide enough information in the Article Body to keep the reader engaged.
Entice them for more with your "pitch" and link in your Resource Box.


Article Body Don'ts:

1. Pitch:
Website owners and Ezine publishers will not re-publish material that is just a veiled sales pitch.
Save it for your Resource Box.
Your quality, original article body content will market itself more successfully if written in a "non-sales" manner.

2. HTML:
Creating links or keyword anchor text links in your article body will only hinder your chances of Ezine or website re-publishing.
Save the links for your Resource Box.

Article Resource Box Components

Creating successful Resource Box content.
Your Article Resource Box is an effective tool in generating traffic to your website.

Here are some tips in creating the components of your Article Resource Box that can help you maximize this traffic.

* Your Name:
You'd be amazed at how many people forget to include their name in the Resource Box.
Your name and optional title should be the first thing in your resource box.
Make sure your readers know that they are reading material from an actual person, not a business or company.
This can encourage the reader to find out more about you and the information you are providing.

* Your Website Address:
Make sure your website address is in valid URL form.

* Your Pitch:
Create 1 to 3 sentences that encapsulates the essence of what make you and your offer unique.
This is also known as your USP (Unique Selling Proposition).

* Your Call to Action:
Now it's time to lead your reader to buy from you or visit your website.
This is where you "Ask for the Sale."
Typically, only 1 specific call to action is best.
This can be as simple as "visit my website at the above link (or include the link here)for more information on XYZ".

Your Article Resource Box is now complete and can greatly increase the amount of traffic generated to your website.
Reap the Rewards of the Resource Box!

Article HTML: How-to Tips

"how-to" in creating simple HTML within your article content.
Generally, EzineArticles.com advocates minimal use of HTML in an article; however, sometimes it can be to your benefit.

Here are some HTML tips to get the results you are looking for:

How to Create an Anchor Text Link:
<a href="http://www.Your-Company-Name.com">Your Website Address</a> will make "Your Website Address" a clickable link.

* Use anchor text links sparingly when submitting an article.
Many Ezine publishers have anchor text link limitations.
At EzineArticles.com, you are only allowed one URL in an article to any one site.
Duplicate URLs in an article body could lead to your article being rejected.

How to Make Something Bold:
<b>Make my words bold</b>

How to Make Something Italic:
<i>Make my words italic</i>

How to Make Something Underlined:
<u>Make my words underlined</u>

How to Make a Bullet Point List:
create a list with round bullets:
<ul>
<li>First bullet</li>
<li>Second bullet</li>
<li>Third bullet</li>
</ul>

How to Make a Numbered List:
create a list with descending numbers for each point
<ol>
<li>First point</li>
<li>Second point</li>
<li>Third point</li>
</ol>

WYSIWYG Article Submission Editor Tips

Generally, most people will write their article then copy and paste the article content into the submission interface.
The EzineArticles.com What You See is What You Get (WYSIWYG) Editor can assist you in your article production.

Article Content Creation in MS Word:

* Tip: If you primarily create your article content in MS Word, turn the editor on and click the "Paste from Word" symbol on the tool bar. Please remember to disable MS Word Smart-tags before you copy and paste as they are not compatible with the WYSIWYG editor. Now you can use the tool bar to add font attributes and more.

Article Content Creation in a True Text Editor:
"Paste as Plain Text"

Some authors prefer to use the EzineArticles.com's "Submit an Article" submission interface and type in their article content:

WYSIWYG Editor On:
You can use the tool bar to create font attributes, bulleted or numbered lists, spell-check and more.

WYSIWYG Editor Off:
You will need to use only the allowable HTML tags to type in your content.
You can see how your article will be displayed, by using the "Preview Article" feature near the bottom of the submission interface page.


Here are some tips to help you get your article approved more quickly:
* Do not send in HTML image tags, JavaScript or Tables in the body of your article and please make sure the allowed HTML tags are formatted correctly.

Your word count is displayed and your article submission is auto-saved as a draft every 2 minutes.

Create Your Content and Beat Writers Block: Top 7 Tips

beating writer's block.
Here are some helpful tips to help you source content for new articles:

1. Old Ezine Articles:
This includes your archives for articles that you have sent your ezine from the past 10+ years.
If you've created multiple articles for each email newsletter issue, we recommend that you break your old ezine articles into single article chunks rather than multi-topic articles.
If you have large ezine articles from your email newsletter archive, consider breaking them down into 250-300 word chunks rather than 1,000-3,000 word articles.

2. Old Original Forum Posts:
If you've been on the internet for some time, there is a good chance you belong to a few forums that you might call yourself a "resident expert" on.
All of your old forum posts that are greater than 250 words in length will make great new articles that you can put into distribution to create more traffic and sales for your business, and enhance your credibility.

3. Old Blog Posts:
The whole point of blogging, besides posting frequently, is that you can easily syndicate your blog for others to read via the RSS reader of their choice.
Because of the syndication orientation of blogging, your blog posts that read greater than 250 words make great articles that you can slap on a longer title, add a resource box that pitches your blog website and put a fast 250+ articles into immediate distribution.

4. Out of Date Books:
Are you the author of a book no longer in print?
If you own the copyrights to it, this is an excellent place to create hundreds of quality articles with just a short period of editing.

5. Current e-Books:
Take 10%-20% of your hottest selling ebooks and flip into articles designed to entice your reader into wanting the complete ebook.
You still need to deliver real content value here and not get skimpy or tease them with "what they could learn if they bought your ebook."
Keep the articles short, with bulleted or small numbered lists.

6. Top 10 or Top 7 Articles:
Everyone likes content they can read very fast.
Why not create top 10 lists (or any number of "Top" things) related to your niche area of expertise.
To begin, just create a headline such as "Top 7 Leaders Strategies For Newbie Managers" and then number the list from 1-7.
Come up with a sub-headline for each tip and then do (1) paragraph describing the tip.
You'll find these are easy to produce and crank out 5-10 of them per day.

7. Keyword Research:
Google Suggest (http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en&complete=1) or any keyword research tool can discover topics that people are currently searching for that are related to your expertise.
Use this as a springboard to launch another 25 articles that are 250-450 words, each related to answering or providing short tips on how to solve or get more out of the keywords they searched for.
Example: "Yoga" when entered into Google Suggest tells me that I should write articles about "Yoga Journals or Journaling" and about proper form or different types of "Yoga Poses."

Article Publishers: What Are They Looking For?

"What Are Article Publishers Looking For"?
Here are the top 5 factors ezine publishers look for when deciding which articles to publish:

1. Does the article have zero self-serving links in the article body?

2. Does the article have no more than 2 self-serving links in the resource box?
Your resource box at the bottom of your article should be short and to the point.
It should also be less than 10% of the total word count of your article.
Ezine publishers don't mind giving you name credit and a link for sharing your article with them, but they don't want to look like a fool by being required to reprint a short novel about all of your websites and accomplishments.

3. Is the article within 250-700 words?
Readers want instant gratification from your quality, original content.
No one has the time to really go deep when it comes to reading email newsletters.
It's proven that shorter articles achieve a much higher distribution rate than longer ones.

4. Does the article deliver quality, original content with numbered lists, bullet points or easy to glean information their audience would deem valuable?
Make sure your articles are 100% original content.

5. Is the article's author well recognized or respected within their market niche?
Ezine publishers have an ego just like you.
They want to use articles in their email newsletters that make them look good.
The more you use your articles to help yourself gain credibility for your unique expertise within your niche, the greater the chances you'll find your articles getting picked up by your ezine publishing peers.

Increase Article Production: Writing Article Sets

Tips to increase your article production in less time by writing article sets.

Writing articles is fun, but it can be even more rewarding when you learn how to produce more in less time.

Article Sets Defined:
A "set of articles" is anytime you produce 2 or more articles at a time.

Types of Article Sets:

1. Article sets by topic or sub-topic.

Example:
If you were writing about racquetball as your topic, you could make a plan to write
2 articles on racquetball nutrition,
4 articles that goes into detail about each of the different color of racquet balls on the market and what they mean,
and a 10-pack of articles on forehand or backhand drills.

2. Article sets by style of writing.

Example:
One style might be
all bullet points, another
lists of things, another is
a Q&A approach, another might be c
onversational or discussion of issues.

Note: Each type of writing is best when done in sets of the same style.

3. Accidental article sets.

Example:
Your target is to produce (2) articles that are 400 words each.
While getting started, you get on a roll and accidentally produce a fantastic 800 word article.
Break the article in half, give the other half a new title and you have an instant article set...even if it was created by accident.

4. Article sets based on customer or prospect frequently asked questions.

Example:
Customers or prospects are always asking questions.
Tune into them, group them by topic, and then hammer out some article sets that answer each question.
Using the racquetball topic, you might have 7 questions from your audience on how to prepare for a tournament.
Each of them makes excellent article topics.



The final edition
secrets to managing multiple topics

Article Title Training Series

Article Title Guidelines

To help you get your article approved, here are the current EzineArticles Article Title Guidelines:

(1) Your Title MUST Be In Upper and Lower Case Letters With The First Letter of Each Major Word Capitalized.

(2) The article title must not be in all CAPS.

(3) It is not required that you capitalize common words such as “a” - “the” - “to” - “for” etc, we accept these either way.

(4) We do not accept QUOTES around your entire TITLE.

(5) Do NOT end your TITLE with a period.

(6) Please do not submit Microsoft Word smart quotes in your TITLE.
This includes quotes, apostrophe’s, double dashes, and 3 dots in a row.
Replace smart quotes with standard quotes (“x”), apostrophe’s, double--dashes/or three periods (...) in a row.

(7) Refrain from excessive repetitive punctuation in your TITLE.
One exclamation (!) or question mark (?) is enough to make a point.

(8) We do not allow HTML tags of any kind in your TITLE.

(9) Your TITLE must begin with the first word flush to the LEFT of the TITLE submission box.

(10) We do not allow your AUTHOR NAME or any WEBSITE URL to be in your TITLE.

(11) Your TITLE must not be keyword stuffed (too many redundant keywords used over and over again), but rather should read as a natural language TITLE that any human could easily appreciate.
Do not over-optimize your TITLE please.

(12) We do not allow Prescription Drug names in the title of your article.

(13) We do not accept one (1) word as the article TITLE, a MINIMUM of two unique words is required.

(14) We do not accept articles that use slang terms or profanity in the TITLE.
Think child-safe or “G” rated article titles.


The next edition of the EzineArticles.com Article Writing and Marketing:
Article Title Training Series will explain the Article Title Promise concept

How To Use Your Existing Books/eBooks & Turn Them Into Great Articles You Can Market With!

EzineArticles Expert Authors Can Turn Books Into Excellent ArticlesEzineArticles expert author Marv Lincoln asked:
"I have just written and self-published a novel. How can I use the book and its subject matter as the basis for EzineArticles -- graciously and without blatant self-promotion?"
http://blog.ezinearticles.com/2008/07/f ... ution.html

Excellent question Marv and thanks for giving me permission to share my thoughts about how to get this done.

* I'm going to assume we're talking about using your fictional content in the article body and not about writing articles about character & plot development (even though those would make great article ideas also).

* Mistakes I've seen prior authors do is they will just slice & dice their fictional works, slap up a bad article title, add a resource box linking to their website and then wonder why we rejected their articles.

* You'll have to make peace with the fact that your articles that contain fictionwill be in our general Arts & Entertainment category...until the day comes for us to introduce a "Fiction" category.
Despite what you might think, the category your article in matters very little.
http://ezinearticles.com/?cat=Arts-and-Entertainment

* We do have a BOOK-REVIEWS:FICTION category, but that's solely for book-reviews and not sections of fictional content for the article body. (Read this to refresh yourself on how our book reviews category works in terms of your own book(s).)
http://ezinearticles.com/?cat=Book-Reviews:Fiction
http://blog.ezinearticles.com/2008/04/4 ... erved.html

* Start with thinking about what fans of your book(s) would want to know?
Be sure to include descriptors in the article title that references the volume or series that you'll be sharing in the article body.

* But, each article can not link or refer to the other series of articles you have because article marketing is not *article parts* friendly.
Each must stand alone.
http://blog.ezinearticles.com/2007/05/c ... alone.html

* Include a short introductory paragraph about the story before 'diving in' to orient the reader that they are about to read fiction and follow it up with a short (1) paragraph conclusion.
* Never include your author name in the article title.
* It helps if you can cover a story arc in your article so that it makes sense to a reader who might not be reading your other articles.

A lot of the above tips can also apply to other book authors (including those who write non-fiction)... but at least I hope this gives you some guidelines to get started on repackaging your existing fictional (or non-fictional) book/ebook content to use for article marketing for purposes of attracting new leads, prospects and buyers to your website.

To add your thoughts or comment on today's newsletter article:
http://blog.ezinearticles.com/2008/07/f ... ution.html