Whats the secret of writing articles?

[Pattaya-Addict]

hey guys, a few months ago i tried writing a few articles and submitted them to ezine, i received very little views and less than 10% CTR

i know some guys on here have huge success with article marketing, what would you say is the most important element of writing articles?

also do peole use the same writer all the time or do you constantly change writers?

would love to hear some views on this

thank you

alan

[Steven Wagenheim]

Originally Posted by Pattaya-Addict

hey guys, a few months ago i tried writing a few articles and submitted them to ezine, i received very little views and less than 10% CTR

i know some guys on here have huge success with article marketing, what would you say is the most important element of writing articles?

also do peole use the same writer all the time or do you constantly change writers?

would love to hear some views on this

thank you

alan

I have responded to this question so many times I should probably
bookmark the link to one of the posts.

Getting articles to perform come down to the following things.

1. Properly researched keywords so that the people looking for a solution
to their problem will actually find your article.

2. A killer title to make them want to read the article.

3. A well constructed article (intro, meat of article, summary) that keeps
people engaged.

4. A well constructed resource box to get people to go to your site.

This is extremely condensed as I could write a chapter on each of the
individual bullet points.

My suggestion is to pick up a good book on article marketing (one that
is recognized as good) and read it.

[Pattaya-Addict]

thanks for your reply, i actually bought josh spaulding "article marketing domination" and was extremely disappointed with it

i was thinking of buying dean shianins WSO as it has gotten some fantastic reviews

[JayXtreme]

The secret is....

There is no secret

Go here:

thebummarketingmethod.com

Sign up.. for FREE...

Let that man do the business TO you.. and follow.... expand and scale as you become more aware of how/why you are doing things...

Combine this with a solid business plan and action plans, short, medium and long term goals...

You will make it work.. seriously..

Forget all the hype and hooplah and do this, buy me, buy that...

Follow one single plan and execute until you hit homeruns.... Travis (Bum Marketing Guy) is probably the most trustworthy dude in this industry... he will open the door

Peace

Jay

[Vince Runza Online]

Steven' guidelines are a very good start. Dean's stuff has been killer, in my experience.

There is one element to article writing you cannot buy: talent. All you can do is buy articles from talented writers!

[Steven Wagenheim]

Originally Posted by Pattaya-Addict

thanks for your reply, i actually bought josh spaulding "article marketing domination" and was extremely disappointed with it

i was thinking of buying dean shianins WSO as it has gotten some fantastic reviews

Take this for what it's worth to you.

I make my living from article writing. Of course I've been writing for over 30
years so that helps.

Unfortunately, I can't recommend anything to you because I don't want
this to turn into a self promotional thread.

My suggestion is to read reviews of various books or ask the members
here what they suggest.

I do have Dean's book and I can say I liked it very much, even promoted
it myself a while back. I think there are a few things that could have been
gone into in more depth, but the focus on the book is more on marketing
than on writing. I feel you need to have both because a well marketed
article still won't do beans if it reads like crap.

Just my opinion of course.

Point is no one book, I don't care who wrote it, is going to cover everything
and do it well.

But yeah, Dean's is a good place to start.

[Steven Wagenheim]

To comments on Jay's comment, Travis Sago is a good friend of mine and
I promote his stuff outside of IM. He knows what he's talking about. His
Bum Marketing Method is solid on marketing...but it's not going teach you
how to write killer articles.

We can probably argue about which is more important all day long, how good
the article is or how well you market it.

Truth is, without both, you're dead in the water.

A well written article that isn't seen is, well, just that. A well written article
that isn't seen.

A crappy article that's number 1 at Google might be good for getting you
Adsense clicks simply because people will do anything to click away from
having to read the article. But for selling products, not going to happen.

Plus, if the resource box isn't any good, also part of being a writer, then
nobody is going to get to your site to read your other articles, assuming
you have any there.

Like I said, everybody is going to have different opinions on what's best.

Mine is simple.

Learn how to write well.
Learn how to market well.

Dean and Travis both have the marketing down pretty solid.

[Rachel Zaouche]

I agree with Jay - join Travis and see what he does. And if you want to promote something promote his making up product on clickbank as Travis will send you articles etc so you can see stuff in action.

Travis is a great guy and despite making a fortune still answers emails and remembers what it was like when he started out.

You can't go wrong - it really is an excellent course and when you are joined up for his mailing list he sends out tons of free stuff (as well as the odd promotion).

Quite a few IMers owe their success in no small way to Travis.

Slainte

Rach

ps off home to Dublin on Sat and cant wait.

[Justin Jordan]

Use the Tao of Steve:

1. Be desireless
2. Be excellent
3. Be gone

Be Desireless - Write an article, not a sales pitch.

Be Excellent - Write something that's fun to read and that's useful. Jimmy Brown uses the pagrase 'Useful but Incomplete' which I think sums it up. Don't waste people's time and attention with articles that tell you nothing. Solve a small problem and hint at the way to solve a bigger one.

Be Gone - Keep it as brief as possible. Don't pad an article to get to an arbitary length. but don't cut it down so much that it's useless either. Make your point and get out. Speaking of which...

[TimG]

You can't really fault Josh's ebook because he was providing what works for him. Steven's products provide what he does and Dean's products show how he achieves his results.

Having read something from each of those distinguished article marketers I can tell you that everyone (myself included) has different ways we go about making our article marketing campaigns work. The directories we submit to may be different, our resource boxes may be different, our writing styles different, the tools we use may be different and naturally, our own special techniques are different but they all work.

With that said, here are some of my suggestions:

1 - As Steven already mentioned, a killer title is important. I consider it close to being the most important part of the whole article marketing equation because you need the right keyword phrase in your title for it to generate interest.

2 - Decent content within your article body - should be natural flowing using paragraphs/sub headings, bullets and about 350 - 500 words long. You want to lead your reader from the start of your article to the bottom right into your resource box.

Try to have your keyword phrase in the first sentence, maybe in the middle and definately at the end of your article.

3 - Your resource box needs to be a call to action. I've been doing some experimenting and have determined that the first link to your website needs to be in the first sentence of your resource box for maximum effectiveness aong with a link in the last sentence.

4 - Submit to the directories where the traffic is and where Google is showing some love - You can easily determine that by running a keyword search with Google using your selected keyword phrase.

As Steven mentioned each of these tips could have a complete writeup and even a video showing how to do them properly but I think you can start to see a picture from what everyone has posted.

Regarding outsourced writers - I've used many over the years. Most started out small and got so good they went on to bigger and better things so I've had a revolving source of writers.

Here are 2 I currently use and a third I will be adding (all are Warriors)

Currently Use:
Aritra Basu
Justin Jordan

Intend To Add:
Paul Viner

Hope this helps...

Respectfully,
Tim

[JayXtreme]

Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim

Truth is, without both, you're dead in the water.

A well written article that isn't seen is, well, just that. A well written article
that isn't seen.

A crappy article that's number 1 at Google might be good for getting you
Adsense clicks simply because people will do anything to click away from
having to read the article. But for selling products, not going to happen.

I disagree Stephen...

You're only taking into account 2 types of articles..

Execellent ones.. and crap ones..

There is a middle ground that can be achieved as you learn, and regardless of the right or wrong about populating the internet with content that might not make a magazine... it is possible to create big, targeted traffic with articles that aren't top level..

People don't need to be massively educated on all aspects of IM, content creation, article structure. etc etc... in the right now, if I was trying to make this thing work.... I would much rather learn enough to make me profitable..

People like Travis and Dean, might or might not show you how to write magazine level content... but they WILL show you how to make money in the moment...

And THAT is important to n00bs.. imho

Peace

Jay

p.s. Many people here, and elsewhere have the ability to confuse a market load of n00bs into buying our stuff with long, drawn out explanations of how you need this or that... but when we get them making money... they'll be happy, and that makes me happy.

[roganthoney]

Hey Alan, all the above suggestions are great and you should try to follow those suggestions as closely as possible. I've been doing article marketing for a while now and personally I would recommend that you try to formulate a particular writing style that you are comfortable with and stick to that writing style.

The reason I say that is because one big ingredient of article marketing success is quantity. And while most of the responses so far have focused on quality (which is vital); the quantity of articles that you generate will not only increase the occurrences of your backlinks but it will also increase your reputation.

You could find that you have little success when you start out but as you build your reputation as a writer your results increase exponentially. (This will happen when people start seeing your name more often and become familiar with your writing style.) The more people see a name, the more they trust it. That's part of the reason why companies like to put up lots of billboards.

I hope this helps.

Roger.

[markcarraway]

I agree 100% with what Steven says. I fear crappy articles like I fear the plague, and I wouldn't post one anywhere for any reason. Regardless of whether you are running a blog with adsense or selling a product, if people see your name associated with bad content it only hurts, never helps.

I am not saying that you can't spin an article and make it quality. When I do rehash content, I favor putting it on squidoo lenses or other avenues, as I agree that submitting to most lower tier article directories is just a great way to get no traffic and get your content ripped off.

To answer your other question, I have 3 writers and I use them for everything. Once you find good ones, keep them!

[Pattaya-Addict]

thank you so much to everybody for such great replies, much appreciated

some excellent points and suggestions, im already loving my time spent at the forum, such a nice bunch of people here

im only involved in IM a few months and made a few sales, i have to admit i have been kind of lazy and have been stuck on information paralysis for a while but i really plan to get into article marketing and hopefully it works for me

im no good at writing myself so i need to find a good writer and stick with him/her

thanks again guys

alan

[Magic Mel]

Originally Posted by Pattaya-Addict

hey guys, a few months ago i tried writing a few articles and submitted them to ezine, i received very little views and less than 10% CTR

i know some guys on here have huge success with article marketing, what would you say is the most important element of writing articles?

also do peole use the same writer all the time or do you constantly change writers?

would love to hear some views on this

thank you

alan

There are no secrets. Take a look at the most viewed articles -- and try to copy them (their style/format). The most important element -- is the headline, poor headlines get no attention. Look at the headlines, see which articles get the most views.

Then look at the opening paragraph, does it peak the interest? Do remember that articles need to provide info-- and not hard sell in the body copy. You use the resource box for all your advertisements.

All your answers are right there, just see how others craft their articles.

Cheers,
Magic

[JoshuaCreighton]

Make sure that your articles are easy on the eyes. Trying to read a wall of text is one of the most annoying things in the world, and will turn off a lot of your potential readers.

In general, article writing is a lot like writing for an English class. There are certain rules that apply across the spectrum, from capturing your reader's attention at the start of the article (and as Steven said - the title), and keeping them engaged throughout to proper grammar and punctuation. Some people say that proper grammar and punctuation isn't necessary, but I think it is. If you can't even take the time to go over everything once or twice, then why should I take the time to read your article?

If you're buying your articles, just make sure that they meet some of these basics before submitting them to the article submission services or displaying them on your website.

[ButcherBoy.BG]

The secret lies with the seeker

Seriously - it's good keywords+talant

[Peggy Champlin]

I agree with everyone's comments about submitting decent quality articles, whether written by you or someone else.

I would add that an absolutely key element to successful article marketing is to keep doing it! Posting 5 articles and expecting a lot of business isn't realistic. You need to be posting new articles to the top dozen or so article directories - in the proper categories - every week.

It's helpful to develop a system to help you do it regularly. I usually write a blog post on Monday and re-purpose it on Tuesday to submit to article directories.

If you write decent articles that are of interest to your market, and you do it consistently, you will attract more traffic. And they will be warm prospects since they're already interested enough to click through after reading your article.

Good luck!

[Ian Middleton]

Hi

A lot of article directories actually explain how you should write articles.

As they are the people you need to list your articles, it makes good sense to follow what they are showing you?

Hope this helps - you can do it!
Ian

[nicholasb]

you can increase your click through rate, by not using conclusions,

simply just end your article suddenly, then in the resource box tell them they can get the rest of the article or learn more by clicking your link


the job of the article is to sell the click not the product

[jayden.fellze]

People are attracted to you article when they found an answer they are looking for. Most people on the internet find answers, so giving them the precise answer would be able them to click and read your article. Write an article that is with a great content and not beating around the bush. It is better to be straightforward than giving more flowery words, it does sound annoying at times.

[TimG]

Originally Posted by jayden.fellze

People are attracted to you article when they found an answer they are looking for. Most people on the internet find answers, so giving them the precise answer would be able them to click and read your article. Write an article that is with a great content and not beating around the bush. It is better to be straightforward than giving more flowery words, it does sound annoying at times.

You have to be careful and not provide too good of an answer or complete answer, otherwise there is no reason for them to read further by clicking through the links in your resource box.

Tim

[dndoseller]

When you realize that the key is putting keywords in your title that have very little competition, then you also realize that your content should be on your own domain. Article sites offer no advantage unless you absolutely do not want to, or don't have the skills to, run your own site or blog.

[TimG]

I'm writing this tongue in cheek with all things being equal (meaning correct article marketing methods are used)...

What do you call an article marketer that only writes and submits content to the top article directories with links pointing back to their website - Wealthy

What do you call an article marketer that regularly adds new content to their website while at the same time writing and submitting articles to the top article directories with links pointing back to the new content they previously added to their website - Very Wealthy

Respectfully,
Tim

[helenaja]

Thank you Tim for pointing out the difference between what works and what works very well! I guess on some level I knew this, but never knew it could really work. Is this the secret to your success?

Warmest regards,
Helena

[TimG]

Originally Posted by helenaja

Thank you Tim for pointing out the difference between what works and what works very well! I guess on some level I knew this, but never knew it could really work. Is this the secret to your success?

Warmest regards,
Helena

I think that iit s a big part of the success for a number of well known article marketers in this forum. I've tried to recall if I ever read anywhere in this forum where an established article marketer said not to add content to their websites and honestly I'm not sure if that has happened.

I do think their are some sites you don't build on with more content such as maybe a review site or an opt-in page but than again, I've taken a sales letter for a product and built an entire site around it more then once, in order to have more ways to obtain natural organic search engine traffic pulled back to the actual sales letter.

I think too many times we all forget that article marketing is a traffic generation method and just because we talk about submitting articles to directories, putting them on squidoo lenses, hubpages, as a Yahoo Answer...etc that doesn't mean we aren;'t still feverishly adding content to our own websites. Honestly, that's online business 101

Respectfully,
Tim

[MeTellYou]

I think it's all in your title. It's kinda like a headline to a salesletter. You should really make sure that people read the rest of the article after reading the headline. You can use curiousity or scarcity or a how to headline and it should work ok.

Sebastian

[sree94]

Make your article informative, but not so much that the reader has no reason to click on your link

Write about your niche, then in the bio box, tell the reader about xyz product and link to your page, where they can get more info

[reynald2790]

The secret is that the writer should know what he/she is really doing so that the article would come up a nice quality. And it should be more realistic and more direct to the point with what is the title is all about. It is okay that its shorter unless the article posses the "convincing to the readers".

[Kingpin123]

Quality>quantity If u write a good quality article u can get nice CTR
Before U write it Research about what are u going to write

[Gunter Eibl]

Originally Posted by Pattaya-Addict

hey guys, a few months ago i tried writing a few articles and submitted them to ezine, i received very little views and less than 10% CTR

i know some guys on here have huge success with article marketing, what would you say is the most important element of writing articles?

also do peole use the same writer all the time or do you constantly change writers?

would love to hear some views on this

thank you

alan

You answered your own question. "A few months ago I tried writing a few articles..."

A few articles won't do anything!

You must submit tons of articles, and you must do it right:

1) You must submit articles on an ongoing basis to break through the 'ceiling' one day. There are competitors out there that submit tons of articles in your niche. If you just submit a few yours will get buried.

2) It depends on the niche but on average you must submit an absolute minimum of 30 articles, in many cases 50-100 articles, before you can say anything.

3) You must write an enticing title to draw in visitors

4) You must provide good reasonable content

5) You must write an enticing author resource box that gives the reader a reason to click on the link. Offer something where it is hard to say no, for example the answer to his problem or a freebie.

6) Do long-tail keyword research and use the keyword in the title and as backlink to improve your organic rankings over time

7) It's a fact that most articles just get about 250 readers or less in 14 days. A CTR of 10% is great but most of time you get less. Live with it. Just another reason to submit even more articles.

Gunter

[Justin Jordan]

Originally Posted by Gunter Eibl

7) It's a fact that most articles just get about 250 readers or less in 14 days. A CTR of 10% is great but most of time you get less. Live with it. Just another reason to submit even more articles.

Gunter

No, a clickthrough of ten percent is pretty terrible, not something to aim for. The only people that should expect that are people who use the resource box as an author's bio thing, and people that write articles people don't bother to get to the end of.

The amount of readers you get is affected by somethings you can't control, but the clickthrough is something you can improve through effort.

I've found that my clickthrough is highest when:

1. The article is short enough for the resource box to be visible without scrolling.

2. The resource box is part of the article, and not info about the author that the reader is unlikely to care about.

3. There's a call to action in the link with additional benefits mentioned as a reward for action.

Which gets me an average clickthrough of 30% - excluding one niche which gets a 60% clickthrough regardless of what I do, which would skew the average higher.

[Allen Graves]

Wow, there are a lot of hidden gems in this thread.

A lot of things above will do you some good, but a lot of them won't help you at all...and still some may or may not help.

Like emulating the "most viewed" articles - some of them may be "perfect" articles that are getting the organic, buying traffic, while some may be getting all their hits from Digg and SU, which equals no CT's or sales.

This only goes to show that (I think someone said it above) you need to pick system and stick with it. Once you have it down, start tweaking and testing. It will take some time, but damn is it worth it! I think all of the serious article marketers will agree with that.

And remember, the true guage to rating an article marketing campaign is total gross sales - not article views.

AL

[TimG]

Originally Posted by Allen Graves

And remember, the true guage to rating an article marketing campaign is total gross sales - not article views.

AL

AL,
Great point that I think we all tend to accidently overlook....

Tim

[mogili]

Remember, content is king. Everything else doesn't matter. Follow the rules of the game and you will succeed.

[ProductCreator]

The most important things for me is to get the keyword in the title and to have a good opening paragraph to entice the reader to keep going.

btw where is Dean Shainin lately, haven't seen him on here in a long time?

[Asher]

Originally Posted by ProductCreator

btw where is Dean Shainin lately, haven't seen him on here in a long time?

I contacted him recently and he'll be shuttling in
and out of town for the next 2 months... so I don't
think we'll be seeing/hearing much of him pretty
soon.

Asher

[eric8476]

Write a good article, submit it on ezinearticles.com, that is about 2-3 clickbank sales. No niche or keyword research necessary.

[Sylvia Rolfe]

Well you've gotten tips from a lot of top article marketers...

One thing I want to add is that what works well in one niche won't in another...sometimes you really just have to trial and error and continue on..and remember that the internet and the demographics of the niches evolve and so too will your article marketing efforts..unless of course you want to be left behind.

It's a constant testing process..you can take a bit from every article marketer and still fail...knowing that what works for one may not work for another and that the only thing that will work for you will be something specific to you...as your writing style may not coincide with a certain top tip...or it may not work with your niche..

The most important thing is to just keep trying...writing a few articles and saying this sucks or doesn't work is just you failing to try and you won't succeed in internet marketing if all you do is give a half hearted attempt at each way and then say it doesn't work...once you have truly given a method a real chance and you can't get it to work then you can say...it doesn't work for me...not that it doesn't work.

Just my thoughts,
Sylvia

[Pattaya-Addict]

id just like to than you all for taking the time to reply, some excellent tips given

much appreciated

alan

[new2ebiz]

Here are three strategies that have worked for me.

1. Great title - make it interesting - like using a question as a title.

2. Just enough content to show you can help but makes them want more.

3. Use your resource box to lead to eclass or sign up for a viral giveaway they sign up for. In other words, get their email address. Depending on your niche more than one 'visit' will be necessary to get them to buy your product.

Hope this helps.
PW

[helenaja]

This thread is definitely a keeper!!!

[James12C]

Originally Posted by Justin Jordan

Use the Tao of Steve:

1. Be desireless
2. Be excellent
3. Be gone

..

Apart from all the excellent advice in this thread, Justin's Tao is luminous - follow this and you'll be an Article Star (and Czar)!

[Brad Spencer]

I find that my best articles always have a spin on them. They aren't the same usual content repackaged together. It is hard to always come up with new stuff sometimes but usually it pays off.

Make your resource box interesting and SUPER targeted to the article. Consider writing a unique one every time or adapting your best converting one and testing new ones.

The key with article marketing I've found is that if you aren't submitting at least 2-3 articles a day, then you'll struggle. At least in the main niches (dating, sex, IM, health, etc). You might be getting traffic but it is so small that you won't feel the thrill of a rapidly growing list. If you don't feel that, then you'll get sidetracked. Kind of a self-fulfilling loop.

Lastly, start researching the niche you are writing for. A good way to do this is to check the bottom of every EZA article and see the other ones listed. They are popular and you can get a good amount of info on what people like in that niche.

Short or long articles?

Bullet points or long drawn out paragraphs?

Tone of article?

These and more can all be hashed out by doing market research (seeing what else is out there and building upon it). You don't need to recreate the wheel.

Hope that helps!

Brad Spencer

Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim

I have responded to this question so many times I should probably
bookmark the link to one of the posts.

Getting articles to perform come down to the following things.

1. Properly researched keywords so that the people looking for a solution
to their problem will actually find your article.

2. A killer title to make them want to read the article.

3. A well constructed article (intro, meat of article, summary) that keeps
people engaged.

4. A well constructed resource box to get people to go to your site.

This is extremely condensed as I could write a chapter on each of the
individual bullet points.

My suggestion is to pick up a good book on article marketing (one that
is recognized as good) and read it.

[Pattaya-Addict]

in general would most of you guys outsource your articles ?