Artilce marketers! Can 10 articles make a difference?

I think 10 high quality articles CAN help sales.

While everybody has had some great points so far about writing more, I'm of an old school belief that 10 AWESOME pieces work better than 100 decent pieces, which work better than 1,000 lame pieces. I would rather play chess with 10 queens than 1,000 pawns.

So how do you make sure your articles are queens (... by that I'm referring to the chess pieces, not the way they dress )?

1. Make sure the content is amazing. And by that I mean helpful. Don't just throw up well-written drivel. Write about a problem, then offer a solution. Give people a reason to say "Wow, he totally fixed this single problem I have, just imagine what he can do with my other related problems!" To do this, imagine yourself as the web surfer. If you found this article, would you feel satisfied, or annoyed and hit the back button?

2. Make it catchy. Starting with the headline, make sure it turns some heads. "How to lose weight easy" is not as catchy as "Incinerate your belly flab without stupid diets: How to lose weight without really trying." Granted that was just an example - so please no comments about how lame it was, it was just off the top of my head - but if you came across both of those titles in the SERPs, which would you click?

Then continue that into your lead paragraph. Hook your readers from the start. A captivated audience is your best friend. Glue them to your words the way a master novelist does.

3. Don't write the minimum word length, instead, write until you've said what you need to say. Maybe that's 500 words, maybe 1,000, maybe even more. My point is, don't make the word counter your "finish line."

I know this is controversial, but I firmly believe that writing longer articles gives you more search engine love. Not only are you more likely to pop up in random long tails, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the search engines wink at longer articles.

... And lastly, and this might really get me into hot water with some of my fellow Warriors...

4. Don't kill yourself with SEO and keyword research. Is it important? Sure. But don't go overboard with it. I've found that my best performing articles were written "off the cuff" with no Keyword Research or on-page SEO techniques.

Here's why I think this way: If you were trying to solve a specific problem, would you type a two, three or even four-word keyword into the search engines? Sure, to begin with you would. But as you kept looking for a better answer, you'd refine your search over and over until you had a very specific keyword - probably one that doesn't even show up in any keyword tool.

Using the "weight loss" idea from above, lets say I want to lose 50 pounds but don't want to get out of my chair. First I'd search for "weight loss", but not like any of the results, because they advocate exercise and diet. So I might adjust my search to "easy weight loss." Again, I'm not happy that my opinions of "easy" do not match that of the fitness freaks who call a 45-minute wind sprint session "easy." So again I refine my search to "Lose weight without getting out the chair."

Now when someone reads an article for THAT, and gets the answers he/she needs, what are the odds they'll click through to your site? The Vegas Line would be through the roof.

Holy cow, I've really rambled on. I guess my point in all this is to identify who you want to read your article (preferably a sub niche of your niche) and provide them with excellent, problem-solving content. And of course use a catchy call-to-action bio line.