Articles Posting - A little help please

There is no set standard for the questions you are asking. Every marketer is different and there is no right or wrong way to do article marketing.

Some will tell you that the practice is totally dead - that it no longer works.

My opinion is this:

1. Article writing is a personal thing. Develop your own "voice" and add your personality into your writing.

2. Pick a topic, a subject, a niche to address and stick with it. Don't try to write about everything under the sun. Become the "go to" writer for your niche and work to be seen as the authority on the subject.

3. Post articles as often as it makes sense for the niche. Frequency of your articles will vary depending upon how often your audience needs to hear from you. If there is a lot of news and events in the niche, you may want to post every day. Other niches might only need commenting once a week. Set your own schedule, so that your audience looks forward to hearing from you, then stick to it.

4. Whatever else you do, make sure your writing is original, thoughtful, and of high value to your audience. Quality will make the difference between people in the niche following you - or following somebody else.

5. Keep the links down unless you want to be seen as writing for the sole purpose of selling. Make your links personal "recommendations" like you were trying to help a friend rather than hard selling "you can't live without this once-in-a-lifetime deal."

6. I would recommend starting a blog or portal site for your niche and posting your articles there first. Also look for ways to then distribute your articles to top sites in the niche after your articles have been indexed by Google. Most article directory sites will give you minimal traffic.

7. It takes time to become an authority. Don't expect overnight success. Just stay consistent, focused on your niche, and true to your persona.

8. Make your articles "meaty" and of value in the niche. Try to post articles of 1,000 - 1,500 words. This alone will set you apart from most other blogs in your niche. Most bloggers post 100 to 300 words and whitewash their subject because writing is something they feel they must do to add content to their web site. Try writing on a professional, in-depth level - something that few can or will do these days. It will set you apart. This type of writing can't be done in 300 word articles.

9. Write for your audience, not the search engines. Take a stand, be known for something, be interesting and worth talking about. Yes, include keywords but don't stuff them where they don't naturally belong. If you write like I'm suggesting, Google will give you all the love you need.

10. Promote your writing. Distribute it to important sites in the niche. Market yourself and your business so that you draw traffic to your site. Well written and high quality articles are not the norm on the Internet these days so it will be easy to stand out and carve your own niche in the online world if you truly have something important to say.

Here's to your success,

Steve

Steve gave you the outline to writing in this arena. The body you build on that skeleton? That'll depend on your skills as a writer and an entrepreneur.

In my opinion, work on your own authority site. Post articles daily. Even twice a day if you love to write. Make them useful. Worry about the traffic later.

You can develop articles and put them on your blog or website for your email or blog subscribers to read. Submitting to the article directories these days for direct traffic is ineffective. If you're a great writer, you can leverage your skill on a site like Fiverr - and get paid for what you do well.

One of the keys to achieve success in this field is to be consistent. Post regularly. Also, when it comes to the number of links that should appear on your article, that's something that depends on its length. For this, I usually apply .5% for the density.

In addition, make sure that you are knowledgeable about what you're writing about. If possible, you should add bits of information that are based on your experience. This should trigger the interest of your readers and will compel them to visit your page more often.

For most people, article marketing is a complete waste of time. On the other hand, fortunes have been made by those who grasp some simple concepts and consistently follow best practices in writing and marketing.

The time frame can range from immediately after publication to never, depending on how the articles resonate with reading audiences.

If the publication allows internal links, I have found 3-5 to be about optimal for 800-1200 word articles. To avoid the appearance of self-serving links within the article, I always would use a citation format with links to further information or authoritative sources on my website.

I recommend writing not less than one article each week per niche. However, article marketing to publishers should be an ongoing, daily activity. Marketing articles to publishers is essential in the article marketing business model. Ignoring this step is the leading cause of failure for writers.

Although I have never done much marketing specifically in the IM niche, this method works extremely well in such competitive niches. An online search will turn up literally millions of outlets for your articles. Consider also publishing in relevant offline magazines, newspapers, newsletters, etc.