Article Marketing When English Is NOT Your First Language

[Allen Graves]

No offense to anyone, I am simply passing along information from the perspective of both an active internet consumer and an article directory owner.

If English is not your first language, and you are submitting articles with multiple grammar and spelling errors, then you are quite frankly wasting your time.

It has been proven over and over again that articles written in "poor" English get horrible click through rates and even worse sales conversions. I've seen it, you've seen it, my dog has seen it!

So, what can you do?

First of all, find someone who's first language is English and ask them to proofread your articles for them. Proofing articles is very tedious and boring, so you should probably offer something in return!

Secondly, make sure to monitor your articles and if you find one with a very poor CTR, ask someone to review the article for you. Actually, this should be done no matter what language you speak.

Again, I am not busting any balls here - on the contrary, I am posting this to help those who are trying their hand at article marketing with "less than gramatically correct" articles.

Once your article is proofread and edited, I guarantee you will notice an immediate improvement in CTR and, depending on the quality of your landing site, better sales conversions as well.

Good luck and KEEP WRITING!
Allen Graves

[maverick8]

here here. I completely agree. If i am reading an article that is written poorly it immediately loses credibility. I usually click away. nice post i completely agree with you

[Allen Graves]

Originally Posted by maverick8

here here. I completely agree. If i am reading an article that is written poorly it immediately loses credibility. I usually click away. nice post i completely agree with you

Yea, trust and credibility are severely underrated when it comes to marketing a product or service with articles.

You only have a few sentences to convince someone that YOUR website is the place to go - and when there's no credibility, its a useless case.

Allen

[Ralf Skirr]

Hi Allen,

I agree that there's a problem with that, given that many people (including me) publish their stuff with English being foreign language for them.

Unfortunately it's not so easy to find good proofreading at reasonable prices.

I've seen offers where proofreading 500 words costs as much as getting a 500 word article written fresh from a native US writer.

I'd think that proofreading an article takes only a fraction of the time that researching a and writing a fresh article takes.

What's a reasonable pricing for proof reading in your opinion?

Ralf

[Lori Larson]

Cheers to you on that - Even with translator programs you can be grammatically correct, but have lost something in the translation and therefore - lost your audience.

I just signed up here yesterday, so I'm not sure of all the possibilities on this forum ...

But, with as global as we all are getting, is it possible to set up subgroups here where members can help each other with translations and/or proofreading for purposes of language?

I can't fully translate to or from another language - but I'd be happy to look at someone's translation to English to be sure it's reading well.

Just a thought -

To our success,

Lori Larson
Arion Ventures, Inc.

[Ralf Skirr]

Originally Posted by Lori Larson

But, with as global as we all are getting, is it possible to set up subgroups here where members can help each other with translations and/or proofreading for purposes of language?

I like that idea. We would have to find ways to make it reciprocal though. What would the one who 'receives' proof reading offer in return?

Ralf

[Kevin Williams]

Originally Posted by Ralf Skirr

What's a reasonable pricing for proof reading in your opinion?

Proof reading is still a boring and tedious task. It depends on the person and their normal prices. For example - my normal writing price is $.03 / word. My rewriting price is $.02 / word. My proofreading price is about $.015 / word.

Now I'm not sure if this is reasonable for you. It depends on how high quality you expect the work to be and how fast you need it done. Just like selecting a writer actually.

[Lori Larson]

(Haven't figured out the "quote thing yet but this is to Ralf Skirr's Comment)

How about a complimentary copy of one of their products -

For example, the "helper" could get something free to add another stream of income or aid their business further -
and the "promoter" is receiving good copy that might actually add to their income.

Taken a step further - perhaps if the product is really good - the promoter will also have another testimonial

Trades are what's happening big time in this economy offline - might not be bad to do it online - between members - as well.

To our success,

Lori Larson
Arion Ventures, Inc.

[Allen Graves]

All great ideas!

Backlinks are still valuable. Some would even do it for a simple link in the article or on the writers website. A link in the article could easily turn into dozens or potentially hundreds or thousands if the article takes off.

Of course, you'd have to try and make the link appropriate to the article content.

Allen

[keddy1]

mutual help is not at all a bad idea.we are in a community already,we help each other in many aspects.then why not in translating and proofreading.but what is essential is reward against work..I think all will agree to it