Article Marketing In 4 Steps
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Table of Contents
Introduction
What is “Article Marketing in 2010” Anyway?
Step 1
Identify Your Prospects Emotional Hot Buttons, then Poke the Crap Out of Them...
Step 2
Grabbin’ Eyeballs – Making a Headline that Gets Clicked!
Step 3
Size Matters & Keeping the Farm???
Step 4
The 2010 Bio Box, Check Your Ego at the Door
Closing Thoughts - Where to go from here
Appendix - Influences, Tools, and Your Checklist[/box1:2vc50y2f]
An Introduction…of Sorts…
Thank you for purchasing my manual Article Marketing for 2010 “The Money is in the CTR Baby!” as you may have guessed, this product’s sole focus is on one thing, and one thing only…Getting the highest possible Click Through Rate (CTR) for your articles. What does that mean? More visitors to your website, and more sales on the books. Plain and simple.
Now, depending on how new you are to the article marketing game, some of these concepts may crinkle a few noses of the ‘elders’ but you know what? I don’t give a rip.
Because while they are sitting there ‘Pouring their hearts into their articles’ and ‘Providing nothing but top notch content to the reader in some silly article’ you’ll be sitting back, driving traffic at-will and making some sweet bank in the process…and get this, all with a hell of a lot less work than those guys/gals are doing.
While the concept of writing an article to drive traffic is the same, my approach differs greatly!
I am by no means an award winning writer, hell I had to take business level English because the academic crap bored me to death and I couldn’t seem to wrap my head around it. So as the old cliché (I mean saying) goes, “If I can do it, so can you!”
So get ready, this is gonna be fun.
What is Article Marketing for 2010 Anyway?
Article Marketing for 2010 is a 4 step process that will allow you to crank out eyeball grabbin’ articles that literally provoke the reader to click through to your offer, landing page, or whatever other destination you may have in mind.
The theory is similar to deep sea fishing, you want to chum the waters to get their attention, then dangle the real bait in front of them and BAM…get the click!
The following chapters will take you step by step from how to identify your markets hot buttons, to crafting the perfect headline, to writing the body copy, and finally the all important Bio Box…
When you are done you will be armed with a drop dead simple method for cranking out articles that get the clicks, and more importantly lead to sales. Heck, hand this off to your favorite outsourcer and put it on autopilot…Can you say instant business? Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself here…let’s get back on track…
A Little More Background…
Well, the truth is I use to commit the same crimes I am about to speak of and as you may have suspected, I was getting crappy results.
My articles provided all kinds of information, kept the reader engaged, but never led to any traffic worth mentioning. My CTR was always between 5%-12%, which some folks will try and tell you is good, but in reality…It’s Crap! (Especially when I now routinely get between 20% - 50% CTR’s with less work)
FUN FACT #827371923 - Ezine Articles once reported the average CTR across all of ezineartickes.com was between 10-12%.
I would spend all kinds of time trying to become an expert in my niche, and turn around and try and sell what I learned. I was doomed, it was a never ending cycle that always ended the same. I would get frustrated and move on to the next course that hit my in-box…
Sure, I would make a few sales, but it was nothing like these friggin’ sales letters were promising…I was frustrated. So I moved into PPC and did well for a time, then BAM…the dreaded SLAP! I was wiped out overnight. Back to the drawing board. That’s when I jumped back into the world of FREE Traffic and rewired my brain.
I haven’t looked back…
Step 1 - Identify Your Prospects Emotional Hot Buttons, then Poke the Crap Out of Them...
As the title of this chapter suggests, you need to identify the emotional hot buttons of your target market. Successfully doing this will serve to keep the reader engaged long enough to read your Bio Box, where you will seal the deal and get the click.
Remember, people base their decisions on two things…how they can avoid pain, or how they can gain pleasure. Identify these pain points, jab your proverbial finger right into that open wound, and you will be ahead of the game.
So how do you identify these hot buttons? Simple, with a little market research that’s how…
I will show you 3 techniques I personally use to find these emotional hot buttons allowing me to get inside the mind of my prospect. While there are many other ways to dig into your prospects mind, these are the one’s I generally use. Keep It Simple Stupid is the phrase I stick to. Just find what works best for you and run with it…
The First: Yahoo Answers
Thousands of people daily go to Yahoo Answers to find information. Simply go to http://answers.Yahoo.com punch in your parent keyword and browse through the various questions making note of high pain type questions, desperate type questions, and other keywords that work off the pain/pleasure idea.
This approach will be enough for most markets. When I am really trying to pin-point an angle, I incorporate the next two approaches.
The Second: Google Topic + Forum
You’ve probably heard this one a millions times, but you know why? It works. What better way to find out the pulse of a market than jumping right in the middle of it?
I think forums are awesome due to the interaction that can take place across all sorts of market segments and various demographics. People often feel protected behind their keyboards so they jump right into conversations with their guard down unsuspectingly exposing their hot buttons.
So for this technique simply go to Google and type in your main keyword + forum and you’ll be in business. Simply find one or two active forums with active conversations that have a ton of replies. Scour the conversations and pull out gems…Simple!
The Third: The Sales Page Approach
This one is pretty easy too. Simply identify hot products within your market, visit their sales pages and look at the benefits. Any copywriter worth a turd will have identified the hot buttons for you and worked them into the sales copy.
Couple this method with the previous two and you will be golden, heck use this one alone (I do for most of my affiliate promotions) and you will have your finger on that button grabbing click-throughs all day long:
That’s it for this step, now go get surfin’ and find those hot buttons! Write them down and get a good feel for what is making your market tick.
Action Steps:
. 1: Perform Market Research to Identify Emotional Hot Buttons
. 2: Write Down at Least 5 Emotional Angles You Can Use
Estimated Time to Completion: 15 minutes
Step 2 - Grabbin’ Eyeballs… Making a Headline that Gets Clicked
This step is perhaps the most important step in the process. Without a good Headline that literally stops the surfer dead in their tracks and makes them think “I have to click on that title!” then you’re dead in the water.
Have you ever found yourself in line at the grocery store blindly looking at the impulse buys and suddenly a tabloid headline jumps out at you, literally snapping you out of that hypnotic trance you slipped into while waiting for that coupon clipper ahead of you?
While you may not be one of those folks that actually reads this garbage, I’m sure you can appreciate the persuasive copywriting that goes into these headlines.
These publications pay their writers pretty good coin to churn out eye grabbin’ headlines whose sole purpose is to snap people out of whatever trance they may be in at the moment, and get them to at least give a quick peek at their magazine.
You Need to Think Like a Tabloid Copywriter!
Over the years article marketing gurus have recycled, rehased, and released the same old advice “People love the “tips” headlines, like 10 tips to grow a beard….or 5 tips to crack a walnut…” Well here is the problem, when everyone else is doing the same thing, how do you stand out from the noise and grab that surfers attention? Think like a tabloid copywriter!
Here’s what you do…
Remember the research you performed in Step 1? Get ready to put it to use. By now you should have at least 5 emotional hot buttons you can push. Simply grab your favorite keyword, and infuse some eye catchin’ emotion into your headlines, check out the examples below using the keyword Grow a Beard (I am not in this niche, and don’t know anything about, this is simply an exercise):
Boring “Non-Grabby” Headlines:
7 Tips to Grow a Beard
Learn How to Grow a Beardin 3 Steps
Grow a Beard in 5 Easy Steps
Eyeball Grabbin’ Headlines:
Grow a Beard with Lightning Speed, Bigfoot Reveals Top Tips to Grow a Beard Fast & Easy!
Wanna Grow a Beard? Sasquatch Spills the Beans on How to Grow a Beard Fast!
Grow a Beard Now! Abe Linclons Top Secret Technique to Grow a Beard Revealed!
Yeah, I know the examples are silly, but I think you get the picture…Be creative, think outside the box!
The benefits of this approach are many, perhaps the most obvious is how your articles will stand out from the crowd when passing through the “Recently Published Articles” section of your favorite directory.
That’s how you get picked up and read, plain and simple…
**Authors Tip ** Try to place your keyword as close to the front of the headline as possible, and if you can do it, slap it in there twice.
As a side note, to further hone your headline crafting skills, the next time you go to the grocery store, take a peek at those tabloids, take note of what emotional hot buttons they are pushing (and they are pushing them), and think of ways you can adapt them to your own headline creation.
Becoming a decent headline creator does take practice, so do it! I will usually write about 10 different headlines for an article before I choose one.
Sound time consuming?
It’s not, after the first 1 or 2 you’ll crank ‘em out like a pro.
Below you will find a couple resources that may help to get you started. Heck, the above examples should get you moving, you’re a smart cookie!
http://abraham.com/articles/100_Greates ... itten.html
http://citynewsstand.com/TopTen.htm
http://nationalenquirer.com
Now Get Crackin!
Action Steps:
. 1: Using Research from Step 1, Create 5-10 Eyeball Grabbin’ Headlines
. 2: Practice, Practice, Practice…
Estimated Time to Completion: 15-20 minutes
Step 3 - Size Matters & Keeping the Farm???
Alright, I am about to bust a couple article marketing myths in this chapter, so get ready. One of the keys to driving traffic and nailing a high CTR is in the body copy.
What I am about to tell you is where the traditionalists are gonna cough up their Wheaties. The best way to increase your CTR is to keep your articles short & sweet. Keep your articles between 250-300 words and you will see your CTR’s spike.
I couldn’t believe the difference when I stopped listening to these Old School Jive Turkeys spouting how “You should over-deliver in your article, solve the readers problems, and develop trust so they will then think you are a great person and must visit your website for some more long winded ego-strokin’… Oh yeah and hopefully buy what you’re sellin’.
I wish I could get back the time I spent beating that dead horse…
The reason this ‘Short-Form’ technique works is this, the average surfers attention span is getting shorter and shorter by the day. The Internet has seen to that.
People want their information in bite-sized, easily digested pieces, and FAST! Do you really think these folks want to read a 500 word essay where you outline how to re-invent the wheel. Nope, they don’t…Keep em short people!
** Authors Note ** If you plan to leverage the power of ezinearticles ‘Most Viewed’ list your articles must be 450 words minimum. But don’t worry, you can still get the Click-Throughs, you just need to push the buttons a bit longer…stay relevant, stay compelling.
What I usually do is submit a ‘Long-Form’ version of my article to ezinearticles and the short 250-350 word articles to other directories such as Goarticles & Articlebase.
However, if you are lazy like me then keep on cranking out short powerful articles and submit them to ezinearticles too, you will still see a bunch of traffic.
While a short version article may not stick long on ezinearticles, it will still pass through the “Most Recent Articles” section & get ranked in the search engines. The main problem is the lifetime of your article is a bit shorter by not leveraging the ‘Most Viewed’ feature of ezinearticles.
(The ‘Most
